Dolcefino Takes on Family Injustice in Maryland

A Maryland dad has not been allowed to see his son for months and the reason should infuriate everyone.

Wayne Dolcefino

Wayne Dolcefino, of Dolcefino Consulting, is out with his latest investigation into family injustice.

In this piece, Dolcefino features Jeff Reichert, a Maryland dad who hasn’t seen his son since January 2022.

Jeff’s ex-wife had well publicized episodes of drinking and driving, with her son in the car.

She lost custody, but none of that mattered.

Jeff and his ex-wife, Sarah Hornbeck, were divorced in Baltimore City.

That’s where Jeff received physical custody of their son.

Unhappy with that decision, Sarah walked into a court in Anne Arundel County Maryland.

She received a protective order, opened up their child custody, and quickly she received sole custody.

This is what is called forum shopping, and it’s another problem in the courts. In 2015 and 2016, I covered a story about Susan Carrington.

She faced something similar. She received physical custody of her two daughters in Maryland, and her ex-husband, John McNelis, then walked into a Rockland County, New York, Court.

He also asked for a restraining order, and this allowed him to open up their child custody matter in Rockland.

Susan Carrington’s custody case took another troubling turn when she alleged in a New York Appeal’s Court that the judge who originally handled her case provided ex-parte advice to her ex-husband, John McNelis, in a hearing in 2010.

According to a February 3, 2016, appeal filed with New York’s Supreme Court, on May 7, 2010, John McNelis along with his attorney, Scott Ugell, entered the Rockland County Family Court Room of then Judge William Warren and began discussing issues related to custody with his ex-wife, Susan Carrington. The three began having a conversation without Carrington’s presence who was in Washington D.C. at the time.

McNelis was appearing in Rockland County though a Maryland Court had already issued a full ruling on their divorce and granted the couple joint custody. At the hearing McNelis told Warren that he had reason to believe Carrington was a danger to her children, the same accusations that had been dismissed in Maryland court with prejudice only a few months earlier and for which McNelis had actually been fined by the court for making frivolous allegations.

She was then not allowed to see her daughters for years.

The two stories- this one by Dolcefino and about Susan- are shockingly similar.

Wayne found that the Maryland courts also misused the parental alienation attack.

The court claimed that Jeff was coaching his son to make allegations against his mom.

The court then barred Jeff from seeing him for a minimum of ninety days.

This seems like a standard technique in court.

It’s exactly what happened in David Segui’s case; he was barred from seeing his two boys for a minimum of ninety days after also being accused of parental alienation.

Karen Riordan, from Connecticut, was also similarly barred from seeing her children for a minimum of ninety days. She too was accused of parental alienation.

Wayne also did a news story on Karen’s case.

This so-called treatment is the brainchild of Randy Rand from Family Bridges.

In fact, it’s almost never ninety days.

In all three cases- Jeff’s, David Segui’s, and Karen’s- the actual time the court orders apart is much longer.

In David and Karen’s case, it has been

Randy, in one case, said this in an email, “and their mom will have to meet conditions to be able to have a monitored contact, which won't happen, but we let them know we try.”

It’s a set-up. That’s what I called Jeff’s case when Wayne interviewed me for his story.

Wayne found out that a custody evaluator was brought in, but this custody evaluator was ordered to only examine the time period after his ex-wife had her troubles with the law.

As such, their son appears to fear his mom, but the evaluation won’t explain why.

No wonder it found parental alienation.