Note: in the podcast is the audio from the August 25, 2026, hearing.
A California woman faces an arrest warrant and thousands of dollars in sanctions, after a dramatic hearing in which her husband detailed his month-long plight to execute a North Carolina court order giving him sole custody.
At this hearing, the judge who presided, Judge Paige McThenia, made a revealing outburst suggesting she has something to hide.
On August 25, 2026, Judge McThenia presided over a contempt hearing in the John Preysner Vs. Thi Preysner child custody case.
I covered this case in July, when I focused on an April 30, 2026, hearing at which Judge McThenia bullied Thi.
On April 30, 2026, Judge McThenia granted John Preysner sole custody and ordered Thi to remain in the courthouse until her children were returned to him.
They lived with her in California and were with her parents at the time of the hearing.
Thi, according to John’s testimony at the August hearing, ignored the court order and returned to California.
He flew there the next day, where he was served with a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO).
Though Judge McThenia and John’s legal team made this a cut and dry issue on August 25, the issue was gray due to Judge McThenia’s reckless decisions on April 30, 2026.
Thi filed a a DVRO in Mecklenburg County, which was later dismissed.
In February 2026, John opened a divorce and child custody case in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Mecklenburg County includes Charlotte.
Thi later filed a DVRO in Orange County, California on April 27, 2026.
Thi had made a trip to California in early 2026 and stayed.
Thi told me that she initially went to California temporarily but stayed after her daughter developed a serious skin condition which needed treatment.
Judge McThenia, during the hearing, dismissed the concern referring to it as a minor skin condition.
Thi told me that after spending time in California she realized she was an abuse victim.
She pursued a protective order after that.
Thi’s legal strategy was suspect, and consistent with the silver bullet technique. There was already a custody case started in North Carolina, and she first went to North Carolina to get a DVRO before getting one in Orange County, California.
Despite that, Thi got a DVRO on April 27, 2026, and that DVRO included the children.
Temporarily, she had a court order which granted her custody. In fact, at the time of the hearing on April 30, 2026, John had not been served with the DVRO. He was informed at the hearing.
On recording at the hearing on April 30, 2026, Judge McThenia ordered, verbally, for Thi to stay in the courthouse until the children were on a plane back to North Carolina.
Thi ignored that verbal order and flew back to California.
According to his August 25 testimony, John followed her and arrived in California the next day.
“Out of an abundance of caution, I stayed at the McDonald’s,” John said, while his parents attempted to take the children.
Only, there was an active DVRO from Orange County, California barring John from doing this.
He stated that he was served with this DVRO while in California.
He made subsequent trips back trying to execute the North Carolina order.
He claimed to have involved the Orange County District Attorney’s Office; they didn’t respond to an email for comment.
John couldn’t take the kids because the Orange County DVRO preceded his and was still active.
The cat and mouse game continued, per his August 25 testimony, until May 26, when Thi dropped her DVRO.
She then contacted social services, John testified, and attempted to place the children into foster care. Thi declined to comment on her motivation here.
John did not respond to a voicemail for comment, and his attorney, Andrew Rheingrover, did not return an email for comment.
Social services refused to take the children and they were returned to him shortly after midnight on May 27, 2026.
The case is further complicated because John is on tape abusing his children, evidence Judge McThenia has ignored.
Judge McThenia has a history of ignoring abuse and neglect, as exhibited by her role in Jacquie Kent’s case.
Thi filed a motion to appear remotely, and that motion was denied. She did not appear at the August 25, 2026, hearing.
Judge McThenia ordered that Thi pay approximately $128,000 in attorney’s fees to be paid at $10,000 per month until the balance was paid off.
There was a criminal contempt motion which wasn’t heard because Thi didn’t show, but Judge McThenia issued a warrant for her detainment.
Approximately one hour and thirty minutes in, Judge McThenia made a curious revelation which suggest she has something to hide.
John Preysner was asking for a protective order over his medical records and while his attorney was making an argument, she blurted out, “On that same note, I received last week from the Office of the General Counsel of North Carolina Judicial Branch notice that a public records request had been made by someone. Emails containing any of the file of my emails: Preysner, California lie, liar, misrepresented, Thi, Substack news, Judicial Standards Commission, fraud, and California court official’s emails.”
I have since made the same open records request. Her outburst was not relevant to the argument made, and Mr. Rheingrover ignored it and continued with his argument.
It was made after he revealed that I wrote an article about the case without mentioning me by name or referring to Substack. Judge McThenia stated that “Substack” is a key word in the open records request, though she shouldn’t have known that; Mr. Rheingrover never specified that.
Update: I have updated the story. I originally stated that Thi got a North Carolina DVRO after John filed for custody. She got that order prior to him filing for custody.
