There is breaking news in a child custody case I covered earlier this month from San Diego County, California.
A motion has been filed to be heard tomorrow and if it’s granted two kids will live with grandparents they barely know.
Based on this motion, a hearing is set for tomorrow, August 21, 2026, at which San Diego County, California Judge Renee Stackhouse may do the unthinkable.
She will change custody from the children’s mother- who has been their sole provider their entire lives- to the children’s paternal grandparents.
Earlier this month, I wrote about the child custody case of Bryan Mineo vs Courtney Clifford.
For about two months, Judge Stackhouse has flirted with putting the two kids- ages five and six- through a Josef Mengele type experiment.
Courtney has been the sole provider most of their lives.
Bryan, who I previously exposed for taking an exorbitant salary at a non-profit, has galivanted around the world, spending time in the Cayman Islands.
When he wasn’t neglecting his children, he was abusing them, recklessly breaking his daughter’s leg and forcing her to eat dirt.
For the last year, he was back in court- despite a settlement on custody- arguing that Courtney was emotionally abusing them and causing his children to be afraid of him.
In June, the parties held a hearing at which Judge Stackhouse signaled a change in custody. On July 20, 2026, they held another hearing at which she nearly changed custody. She postponed it only because a new minor’s counsel, Erica Bloom, was appointed and she was convinced to wait for the report.
Ms. Bloom did not return a message left at her office.
Bryan did not return a voicemail at his cell phone. His attorney, Catie Young, did not return a voicemail nor an email.
Ms. Bloom’s verdict recently came in.
The children’s school wasn’t giving her documents quickly enough and the kids were sad on phone calls with their dad.
This was all Ms. Young needed to speed up the process. There was already a hearing scheduled for August 31, 2026.
Ms. Young, filed an ex-parte motion and was granted a hearing for tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM PT.
There’s one last twist in this case. Even Judge Mengele knows she can’t give custody to the abusive father, so she came up with a novel idea.
She would give custody to his parents- who haven’t seen the kids in years- and that would act as a transition to custody with Bryan.
“The Court has taken into account the children's best interest to protect their health, safety, and wellbeing and finds that right now with the information that it has moving forward as just explained, in the best interest of the children transitioning them through grandparents back to father (emphasis mine)” Judge Stackhouse stated in the July 20, 2026, hearing.
Bryan’s parents are Greg and Dru Mineo, neither responded to emails and voicemails for comment.
That plan comes with another twist. Bryan’s parents live in Maine. They have apparently agreed to move cross country to execute this hair brained scheme, except it’s not clear if they can make this happen with this expedited timeline.
Bryan lives in California. So will they apparently, while Courtney and the kids live in Arizona.
Judge Stackhouse’s scheme likely violates a landmark law sponsored by Democratic State Senator Susan Rubio. Piqui’s Law was signed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on October 13, 2023, and enacted on January 1, 2024.
I reached out to State Senator Rubio’s office but received no response.
Part of Piqui’s Law bans reunification camps and the language sounds very similar to what she wants to do here. A pertinent part of the law is below.
(1) Increase the priority given to child safety in any state court divorce, separation, visitation, paternity, child support, civil protection order, or family custody court proceeding affecting the custody and care of children.
(2) To prohibit family courts from ordering reunification treatments, programs, or services, including, but not limited to, camps, therapeutic vacations, workshops, and parenting programs, that cut off the relationship with a parent or sequester the child from extended family, friends, and community under acutely distressing circumstances, such as utilizing professional transport agents that force a child into a threat-based, coercive environment to address, repair, or remediate the relationship with the other parent whom the child is rejecting or resisting.
Another pertinent portion is below here.
While Judge Stackhouse is not ordering reunification camps, she’s substituting Bryan’s parents for the camp. Besides that, Judge Stackhouse is doing almost everything else the law forbids.
The children would move out of state, despite the laws ban on “overnight, out of state, or multi day stay.”
The children would be coerced into going, sequestered from their friends and family “under acutely distressing circumstances.”
Courtney’s attorney is Art LaCiento who did not respond to an email for comment.
It’s not clear if he’ll raise this law tomorrow, but he has not done it yet.
UPDATE:
The hearing has been cancelled. Check out the follow up story here. The children are safe for now.
Really? Out of state? Our corrupt trans-Nazi judge Bigelow refused to move our daughter from California.
The place for American family court judges is federal jail. All of them are guilty of crimes against humanity.
Piqui’s Law was written for this exact species of judicial madness: coercive reunification schemes that sever children from safe attachments under acutely distressing circumstances. Stackhouse may not be calling it a camp, but Volpe’s reporting describes the same machinery in different packaging — removal, isolation, pressure, transition, and forced repair of a rejected parental relationship. Grandparents from Maine do not become a lawful trauma bridge because the court dislikes the mother. California said child safety comes first. Tomorrow’s question is whether Judge Stackhouse follows that law or turns two children into an experiment.