Michael Volpe Investigates
Michael Volpe Investigates
Donna McCracken Speaks About Her Orange County Nightmare
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Donna McCracken Speaks About Her Orange County Nightmare

She has many of the same players from previous cases.

Another victim of Orange County courts is speaking out.

Donna McCracken has a story which will sound familiar to those who have followed my work.

Her daughter disclosed abuse; her daughter feared her father and wouldn’t go with him on visits.

McCracken’s ex did what many accused of abuse did; he played the parental alienation card.

McCracken also came upon several players I have featured before.

She had the private judge David Weinberg; Weinberg has previously been featured as forcing a litigant into his court even though private judging is supposed to be voluntary. Find that story here.

In this case, Weinberg forced McCracken to bring her daughter to court and hand her over to her ex under the threat of an arrest; Donna described this incident to me in the beginning of the podcast.

She was also involved with Family Bridges, the notorious reunification camp run by Randy Rand. I previously wrote about Family Bridges with former baseball player David Segui. Segui’s sons, who were forced into Family Bridges, said this,

They Didn’t listen to a single thing I said Dr. Rand said that I’m a liar and none of the abuse happened and got pissed off any time I brought it up. I went outside and was talking with the Therapeutic Interventionist and I told her how are you going to send me and my brother back to her when she abused us and she told me that I need both parents in my life and I said no she physically and sexually abused me and I’ve been doing perfectly fine with my dad staying out of trouble unlike when I was living with her. She also tells me that my brother needs to have both parents and saying it’s harder for him since he stopped living with her when he was only 8 and maybe he misses her. She blatantly ignores the fact that me and {my brother} were abused by her and want nothing to do with her. Once we walked back in and said were not going through with the Program they had my mom contact multiple wilderness camps for kids with behavioral issues and they were three months long and me and my brother were going to be split up.

Donna also had the husband of Miriam Galindo. Galindo popped up on the case of Christie Black; Black’s ex-husband once ratted out Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who a long rap sheet himself, and a history of violence, but Black’s ex-husband, with Galindo’s help, was able to also use parental alienation to temporarily take their children. Find that story here. My short interview with Galindo is here.

McCracken also worked with Keith Dolnick, who represented Black’s ex. She said that Dolnick took nearly $300,000 and did nothing and even threatened her with being arrested.

Donna was also featured in this 2019 article from The Daily Caller.

{Diane} Knudsen and McCracken have similar stories.

They were each the long-term primary caretaker for the children in their marriage and initially for years in a divorce.

Both their ex-husbands had only seen their children sporadically before court orders forced a switch in custody.

Both were accused of parental alienation.

Both provided video of the exchange in which their children were taken to a reunification camp.

While little can be seen in McCracken’s video, she said there was police presence, including, she believed, SWAT on the bus.

A man in blue can be seen in McCracken’s video. That man is a transporter, whose job is to make sure kids get on buses and get transported to these camps, which are often mandatory.

Find the previous articles in the series on Orange County here. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.

Find the Orange County fundraiser here.

Michael Volpe Investigates
Michael Volpe Investigates
I give voice to the voiceless with true original reporting on topics the rest of the media is too afraid or lazy to cover.