Does Mikale Bendian Have a Crush on Me?

I listened in on a wild and explosive hearing earlier today that should be released as a recording, but alas.

Screenshots of a Facebook Messenger conversation between me and Mikale’s girlfriend, Amber Noland

Earlier today, the drama in a case I have been following exploded and I was at the center of it.

Since June, I have been tracking a case: Kara Mikale Bendian Vs Kristin Haynes.

It involves a transgender man- a biological woman- and his custody battle with an ex-girlfriend, Kristin Haynes.

They share custody of a daughter, now thirteen. Until March of this year, she lived primarily with her mother until Mikale refused to bring her back and filed an affidavit which stated in part.

“Since {their daughter} was 7 years old, Kristin has been the alienating parent and now that {their daughter} is older, she is no longer letting the alienation affect her like when she was a young child and is not easily manipulated. {Their daughter} is estranged from Kristin due to Kristin involving {their daughter} for six years in severe parental alienation.” Bendian said in an affidavit dated June 2, 2022.

Though this assertion is based entirely on his word, Bendian has been able to effectively sidestep a court order and besides a few supervised visits, their daughter has lived almost entirely with him since.

The court quickly brought on a reunification therapist, Amy Goldman, to solve the problem. This is standard, as I previously noted.

In that way, Kristin’s story is quite similar to many stories I’ve done: particularly the inclusion of a false allegation of parental alienation.

The court sees a problem and the solution is to appoint someone.

Since I have been reporting on it, Mikale has, in my opinion, developed an unhealthy obsession with my work.

At today’s hearing, that obsession became absurd.

Nearly everything he said at this hearing went back to my articles and how they are destroying his daughter.

The whole thing reminded of another case I tracked last year: Rachel Alintoff Vs Bryan Alintoff.

In both cases, court hearings fixated on me. The one from the Alintoff case is below.

In both cases, the fathers complained that my articles were causing distress to their children, and for this reason, the child refused to spend any time with their mother. Alintoff, like Bendian, used this as a reason for violating court orders and refusing to bring the child, they had a son, back to his mother for scheduled custody time.

There is one notable difference between the two cases. In the Alintoff case, the judge, Judge Angela Dalton, was even more obsessed with me than Bryan. She became so obsessed that I started calling her “Angie” and suggested she had a crush on me. Video below starts at about forty-two minutes in.

In this case, the judge, Daniel Chan, appears to not give two figs about me, and I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little hurt. I usually have more of an effect on judges.

Judge Roger Chan

Mikale, on the other hand, brought me up at almost all moments.

“Because Kristin continues to give documents to Mr. Michael Volpe, who is a right-wing journalist of sorts, and he keeps publishing them, amongst other you know distressing things, online and he’s done several podcasts with the documents visible. The child custody evaluation was quoted verbatim in one of the attachments I gave you.” Mikale stated to begin his presentation of the hearing.

He continued shortly thereafter, “He just emailed me, I guess the day before yesterday, telling me he’s writing me another article with the documents Kristin given him, discussing some sexual issues that {their daughter} has brought to our attention.”

“I’m just concerned that these- Kristin gonna continues to give documents to this man, and {their daughter} reads them on-line. I don’t know how, going forward, to stop this from happening.” He stated later.

The first amendment can be a pain.

If anyone has a crush in this case, it’s Mikale.

Mikale did not respond directly to my query, but I did send him an email asking questions which included references to a declaration he had recently filed. This declaration is not sealed.

I am probably going to be doing an article on your latest filing. First, how exactly have my articles and media appearances been harassing to you? Are you saying that an appearance with a radio host in West Virginia harasses you in California? Second, in your filing, you say this, "Child O has opened up about an inappropriate experience that happened to her. When she told Kristin about it, Kristin told her that, “sex abuse happens to everyone and just get over it”.

That's hearsay on top of hearsay. Kristin supposedly told this to {their daughter} who told it to you. How is such a blatantly hearsay statement appropriate? it's not the only one, "Child O shared that Kristin took her to character witnesses houses before the trial to 'get their stories straight' even though {their daughter} said she doesn’t even really know any of them except for one and because of that, she missed Christmas with us and her siblings which she had never missed before and was really sad."

Once again, hearsay on top of hearsay, and how old is this incident? Wasn't the trial months ago? Now, you are putting this out there. 

I think you are grasping at straws to try and remove a mother from her daughter's life. Isn't that what is happening here? You are barely her father; you aren't her biological father; you aren't even biologically a man, but you have taken total control of this girl and you run to the court when I expose it and play the victims. {sic} is that a fair representation of your actions? 

The hearing itself seemed mundane on the surface; there were motions heard to try and seal the case and to order a reunification therapist to finish a report.

Buried beneath that were serious issues. Mikale claims that their daughter no longer wants anything to do with her mom; he claims that his daughter has told him her mom acts inappropriately during these current supervised visits ordered under the reunification therapy.

He even suggested that she is threatening suicide rather than continue.

“She refuses to be in a room with her mother,” Mikale stated.

This seems absurd. Until March, she was primarily raised by her mom; no one suggested that their daughter hated her mom until March; now, in less than six months, this teenager has purportedly gone through such a metamorphosis that she is willing to kill herself rather than continue with therapy to see her mom.

I have often said that parental alienation is pure quackery, but accepting the research they put out, no one describes the dynamic this way.

Alienated children form an unhealthy bond with the alienating parent, that’s Kristin. They are too attached to them.

Now, Mikale is suggesting that in less than six months she’s gone from that to threatening suicide rather than seeing her mother, that defies all research. It’s far more likely that in his total control she is either being coerced into this position or this is the only way she knows how to deal with the sudden change in her disposition.

Kristin, for her part, denies all these claims and said that the sessions she has had have gone well.

This may even be more sinister than I have let on so far. It seems that the plan for Mikale is to have Kristin be replaced as their daughter’s mother by his girlfriend, Amber Noland.

Besides the screenshot at the top of the article, she followed up by sending more.

It seems that Amber and Mikale see themselves as his daughter’s family. That would be mean they want to remove her biological mom, Kristin, from this girl’s life.

Amber has tracked me all over the internet since I have started writing about this. She has reached out to Rumble, Podbean and other platforms where I have appeared for podcasts, and she has been successful in removing some. Here are two which have been removed.

She’s even gone on Twitter and Facebook to bad mouth me.

The judge ruled against Mikale on most counts. He again denied Mikale’s motion to seal the case, saying it was too broad. He also granted Kristin’s motion to have the reunification therapist, Amy Goldman, produce a report in twenty days.

“Therapy between Ms. Haynes and Child O really needs to be a priority right now,” Judge stated.

At the end of the hearing, Mikale again talked about me. He informed the judge that I was listening in- it’s a public hearing- and that I have a YouTube account which often releases court hearings. Both are true. Here’s a recent court hearing I released.

The judge told him that he ordered at the beginning of the hearing that no one was to record the hearing. Normally, I ignore such an order as well. In fact, last year, Megan Fox and I played a recording of a judge ordering everyone not to record a hearing while laughing at him: Judge James Sullivan. (Approximately five minutes and thirty second in)

I think the issue of court transparency is vital. These hearings should be recorded and released because the public has a right to know how our courts conduct their business. That’s especially critical in this case. This hearing was full of innuendo, hearsay evidence, and accusations with evidence or facts behind them.

Furthermore, the minor’s counsel, Julie Ten Eyck, has parrotted Mikale’s accusations. She filed a motion in support of Mikale’s original request to seal the case.

She agreed with him today and she parroted his position that his daughter was in great distress when going to therapy sessions and should have them suspended.

Those who may have her as a minor’s counsel in the future should know how she has behaved and a recording of her appearance in court is the best way for the public to know.

The public would be shocked to learn that this is how courts are conducted and that’s probably why judges routinely warn people not to record.

In this case, there will be no recording released by me. Given the explicit instructions of the judge in the beginning, it’s likely it would be removed anyway. Furthermore, the judge has thus far not entertained efforts by Mikale to have the case sealed. Any illicit recording being released would likely change his mind.

Postscript:

For more articles like this on corruption in California family courts check out the fundraiser.