In October 2019, Jeff Reichert had an ironclad agreement- referred to as a consent order- granting him physical custody and making sure any further disputes were settled in mediation not in court.
This consent order was filed in Baltimore City, Maryland. By February 2022, a new order was filed in Anne Arundel, Maryland granting Jeff’s ex-wife sole custody.
How did this happen? It’s a study in breathtaking corruption.
Though the consent order required mediation in case of a dispute, Sarah Hornbeck, Jeff’s ex-wife, filed for a modification of custody in Anne Arundel County in July 2020.
With a modification of custody, the one asking for the modification must show a {substantial} change in circumstances.
That’s because there’s already a custody order in place. To replace it, that party has to show something substantial has changed.
Losing a job, a home, or an incident of physical abuse are examples of substantial change in circumstances.
In this case, Sarah claimed that Jeff told her that she would never see her son again; that’s not a change in circumstances. Furthermore, if the custody agreement is violated, there are other remedies for that.
Sarah’s modification of custody motion- which was an emergency motion- was frivolous.
To top it off, Sarah- through her attorney Brennan McCarthy- argued that Anne Arundel County was appropriate because the consent order cited anywhere in Maryland as having jurisdiction.
This is thin, so Sarah got to work beefing her case.
McCarthy filed this frivolous motion July 9, 2020.
Within twenty-four hours, Sarah took out two protective orders and filed a missing person’s report about her son also with Anne Arundel County.
The first protective order was filed with the reason given that Jeff put a gun to her head when she was pregnant. Except, she was pregnant in 2010; this was 2020.
The cops showed up to Jeff’s house after midnight on the first one and left after they figured out the situation.
Jeff told me that Sarah waited until the next shift went on, and this time she brought her attorney with her. The two of them filed a second one a few hours later.
I reached out to Sarah and Mr. McCarthy but received no response.
The second one included a flurry of allegations, but this too should have raised alarms.
Less than a day earlier, Sarah had filed a protective order only claiming one incident ten years prior.
Why was the second one so different?
Despite this obvious inconsistency, the protective order was granted. Jeff told me that the judge when granting the order after a hearing he participated in weeks later told him that it protected him as much as his ex-wife.
He told me that he recalled telling the judge that Sarah would use the protective order to have him falsely arrested.
Violating a protective order can lead to arrest.
The whole thing sounded very familiar. Neil Shelton from North Carolina has a similar story. His ex-wife got a protective order despite acknowledging that Neil was never violent with her.
She claimed that due to the divorce she was afraid he would become more violent. That was enough, and after that bogus order, she called in complaints to police that he drove by her house, approached her, or some other made-up violation. Here is Neil at the 2018 Whistleblower Summit.
She never had to have any evidence. She didn’t need it. With every made-up violation, Neil was hauled into jail.
Neil’s ex-wife could get away with it because her divorce lawyer was Sarah Stevens, one of the most powerful politicians in the State of North Carolina.
Neil’s ex-wife then used the frequent violations of the protective order as leverage in their child custody matter.
{Check out my interview with Neil from 2023}
Sarah Hornbeck followed the same strategy. Jeff told me that with the protective order in place she called in violations repeatedly. She would claim, Jeff told me, that he called her, emailed, or had another contact which was not allowed.
She never provided any evidence besides her statement, but it was enough to trigger an arrest.
The charges would eventually be dropped, but not before Jeff spent a lot of time in jail. He told me he was arrested in front of his son.
The protective order was then used to help switch child custody a la Neil Shelton.
Though the motion to modify violated an existing order, it was good enough for the corrupt judiciary in Anne Arundel County.
On October 13, 2020, Judge Allison Asti ordered a custody evaluation for this modification of custody. The evaluator was Helen Laird.
An evaluation at this stage is non-sensical, but Judge Asti is a corrupt judge.
A modification of custody examines a change in circumstances; it doesn’t require an evaluation of custody. That’s supposed to be done before a trial and Jeff and Sarah had a consent order.
Ms. Laird then used a trick. Since this was a modification of custody, she would only evaluate what happened since the modification was filed.
This was convenient. Sarah had many run ins with the law immediately prior to the consent order; it’s why she agreed to terms favorable to Jeff.
One of the incidents was when Sarah passed out drink in a hotel while caring for their son.
None of that was relevant to this evaluation; instead, Ms. Laird focused on the protective order and a litany of purported violations.
Jeff told me that Sarah even dreamed up contempt of court citations.
Ms. Laird had all she needed to claim that Jeff was the unfit parent. She recommended sole custody to Sarah. The judge went along with the recommendations and custody was switched in 2022.
Check out my original interview with Jeff below.
Michael Volpe Investigates follow up: an Interview with Jeff Reichert