GAL, DCFS cover-up child abuse in Lake County, Illinois
When Sebastin Francis filed an emergency motion approximately three weeks ago, it was not the first time he used this dubious legal strategy.
That motion asked the court to seal the case and sanction his ex-wife, Sossamma Sebastin, for an article I wrote.
He had his motion for contempt denied while he subsequently voluntarily dismissed two other motions he filed, all on an emergency basis.
An emergency motion asks the court to by-pass most rules and fast track an issue because it is supposed to be an emergency. Francis quickly withdrew some of the motions while others were held over for a hearing in late April.
That shows none of them were in fact an emergency, but this is not the first time he has filed an emergency motion of dubious necessity.
Francis has used a strategy of filing frivolous emergency motions buoyed by a feckless Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) investigation into his alleged child abuse to cover-up credible evidence of his molestation.
Now, his daughter- who has accused him of molesting her when she was younger- is in danger because he has been granted temporary sole custody.
On September 20,2022, a hotline call was made by a hospital alleging sexual abuse by Sebastin.
Though Sossamma did not make this call, Sebastin and several court appointees argued that she was behind the disclosure.
Dr. David Finn, the custody evaluator, claimed it was part of her Munchhausen by proxy.
DCFS ultimately concluded that the allegations were unfounded, but this conclusion was made despite numerous disclosures to them, therapists, and even the police about a variety of abuse by Sebastin.
“Reporter was made aware of numerous incidents in regard to George {Sebastin}, the father, and his two children.” One note in the report states. “Reporter states they were made aware of George hitting, slapping, and throwing garbage at the {older daughter}.”
Another note from the DCFS report states, “In summary, the thirteen-year-old reported to therapist that father threw a bag of garbage at her, has been verbally abusive to family.”
Another note states, “Reporter states that George has also fed {the younger child} food he’s allergic to multiple times, despite being the one to take him to the hospital before.”
Regarding the alleged child molestation, the report notes, “Per reporter, {the older daughter} states that George has raped her in the past. {The older daughter} has vague memory of George raping her and touching her back inappropriately.”
All of it determined unfounded by DCFS.
Regarding the garbage throwing allegation, the DCFS report stated, “thirteen-year-old reports meeting with a therapist for the first time {emphasis mine} recently. Thirteen-year-old made no disclosure of physical abuse toward her or her four-year-old sibling.”
In DCFS world, if you don’t disclose to a therapist you don’t know, it must not be true.
The investigation may have been tainted by the intrusion of the guardian ad litem, Caryn Barone.
I emailed Barone, but she did not respond.
“I spoke with Annabelle {at the hospital which called the hotline},” Barone said in an email on September 21, 2022. “as well as the current DCFS caseworker.”
She continued, “I was informed by Annabelle of the allegation and spoke to James Jones of DCFS of the same…. At this time, based on the very vague of a possible memory and no other evidence of anything and the current state {the older daughter} is in, it is my impression that DCFS does not have any concerns that this happened.”
The same day DCFS got the report they’d already concluded it was not credible.
The report states further.
Barone was appointed the GAL in January 2022. She had been the GAL less than a year, not several years as the report claimed.
How many times did she speak with Sossamma’s daughter? Once: for forty-five minutes, according to a report Sossamma made.
Despite that, Barone spoke multiple times with DCFS investigators, and she made it clear that she did not believe these allegations.
How would she know? Barone is a partner in the law firm Soffietti, Johnson, Teegen, Argueta, Bawcum & Barone.
The firm does a wide variety of legal work: “personal injury, workers’ compensation, family law and divorce, criminal defense, DUI and traffic offenses, estate planning, business law, bankruptcy, collections, real estate and development, construction litigation and commercial litigation,” according to its site.
None of this makes her an expert in determining whether sexual abuse disclosures are legitimate.
Furthermore, even Dr. Finn acknowledged that the girl was suicidal.
“Well, again {the older daughter} has become suicidal. Her psychological condition has deteriorated. She's been on a number of different psychiatric medications, received a number of different psychiatric diagnoses. She's been treated as an inpatient, as an intensive outpatient, you know.” Dr. Finn stated in testimony from November 17, 2023.
Dr. Finn’s testimony was largely the trigger for the current temporary order granting Sebastin sole custody.
The conclusions of DCFS also ignored that Sossamma’s daughter disclosed again in a forensic interview conducted by the Child Advocacy Center. (CAC).
The CAC was, “where children are brought for forensic interviews when there has been an allegation of abuse,” according to its website, and it was created by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
Her daughter stated, “Mostly to talk about my dad and how he abuses me,” to the forensic interviewer.
“My dad raped me since I was four or five until I was like thirteen,” she said further in the interview.
She was fourteen when the interview occurred.
“Since I was young- like really young- he would like sexually assault me,” she stated further in the interview.
Even as DCFS was conducting a shoddy investigation, Sebastin was filing several frivolous emergency motions.
Here is part of an emergency motion filed on May 12, 2023.
Buoyed by the unfounded determination of DCFS, Sebastin got a court order stating that Sossamma’s medical decision making was harming the child, and the judge- at that point- gave him sole medical decision making.
In this May motion, Sebastin wanted an emergency change of custody because she took their child to the doctor without his permission.
Here is part of an emergency motion filed on September 11, 2023.
The reason this was an emergency is because Sossamma used PTSD in therapy sessions.
Safia Khan is a therapist they previously used for their kids but were no longer using.
That motion seems awfully familiary, and that’s because it has nearly the exact same language as the one he filed after my article.
Anything Sossamma did was considered, “a substantial risk to the children’s safety.”
I reached out to Sebastin Francis’ attorneys, Michone Riewer and Lauren Wu, but they did not respond to my email for comment.
On March 19, 2024, the most recent hearing was held in this case. Among the items on the agenda was the withdrawal of Sossamma’s attorney, Ronald Bell.
His motion to withdraw was granted. Sossamma is currently without an attorney.
Mr. Bell insisted prior to the hearing that he was not leaving his client in a lurch.
The rule to show cause is up for presentment on the 19th, not a hearing. I represented and won the rule to show cause about your posts the last court date in that the judge did not hold her in contempt. I did not withdraw and defended my client. I had a motion to withdraw pending and have not been paid by client on invoice. I did not cut and run even and especially since my client did not appear in court. I represented her and avoided contempt. My motion to withdraw has been pending and is set for the 19 th of March.
My client owed a substantial bill which was not the whole bill as I was trying to work with her. She promised to pay me by a certain date and failed to make that payment she had agreed to make. She did not contest the bill.
The withdraw motion was continued to March 19. She has not appeared at the last two court hearings and did not pay yet I still represented her. It’s difficult to represent a client that does’nt show up and is not paying you.
The reason that Sossamma wasn’t paying him might have something to do with the bill, which exceeds $25,000 for about six month’s worth of work.
While ordering her lawyer off the case, the judge kept the trial date the same: May 12, 2024.
This sets Sossamma up for failure. Even if she can find a lawyer in six weeks, that lawyer would need to be ready for trial.
Any lawyer willing to take up such a task would charge- rightfully so- an enormous amount.
The Judge is Randie Bruno.
In Sebastin’s most recent motion, he asked the judge to take Sossamma’s dog.
Abusers always obtain orders without notice or opportunity to be heard, because they want to lie, gain an unfair advantage, deprive the other party of their rights under color of law and get away with it. When one parent constantly claims in ex parte proceedings that the other parent is dangerous, and the children are in harms way, and then give some completely bullshit story, you have to wonder why they are so hell bent on depriving that parent of Due Process. Ex parte proceedings = red flag.
I firmly believe that family court does not have the jurisdiction to hear criminal matters. Far too often, litigants make false allegations, or completely truthful allegations of crimes committed by the other party. Family court is no place for sorting this out. Law enforcement and trained professionals need to get involved to determine if a crime has occurred, and they must conduct a very thorough and serious investigation and file criminal charges when necessary.
There must also be serious penalties for perjury and false statements, forgery, fraud and criminal harassment. There is the crime/fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.
If the family court would actually stop acting in complete absence of authority, and refer criminal cases to law enforcement, abusers would be much less likely to play games in family court and abuse the justice system with impunity. We wouldn't have cases where custody battles cost a fortune because attorneys profit from the disclosure of crimes committed by abusers.
This case is text book, and everything that is happening is orchestrated by all the attorneys and therapists and judges involved who are profiting off of the misery of children and the parent that tries to protect their children from legitimate harm and suffering.
Thank you for writing about this case and showing the nonsense and games abusers play using bogus "emergency" orders they always obtain by fraud.
In my case, my abuser obtained "emergency orders" without notice in California that he actually FORGED!!!!! He then used this forged ex parte temporary emergency order in Canada claiming it was a final judgment, and during another unnoticed exparte hearing, his Canadian attorney obtained another unnoticed protective order claiming that the Canadian court must recognize and enforce the ex parte - (forged!!!) order, from California, without providing me with any notice or opportunity to object, and with no future hearing scheduled!!!! This Canadian attorney then obtained yet another UNNOTICED EXPARTE protection order claiming I was in violation of the two previous ex parte orders that I obviously knew nothing about, and claimed that he presumed I was in possession of my son, and therefore in contempt of the exparte order, based on the exparte order based on the exparte order from another country that was in fact a complete forgery, and since I was in violation of this initial forged EX PARTE order from California, this matter was now criminal and I should be charged with the crime of Abduction. This attorney proceeded to tell the Vancouver Police that I was guilty of INTERNATIONAL child abduction, which then lead to a nationwide warrant for my arrest, despite the fact my abuser recanted, and retracted his allegations and admitted, and confessed to the fact he was lying about everything because he didn't like being told how to live, the very same day, before police obtained a warrant for my arrest anyway.
Ex parte emergency orders should never be issued, because they are based on a declaration by one party, signed "under penalty of perjury", who is NOT PRESENT to answer questions from a judge. And in situations when only an attorney is present, they end up testifying for their client and becoming a witness, as opposed to an attorney. When no one is present, and there is no actual "hearing" the judge makes a decision based on a "declaration" from a party under penalty of perjury, that their attorney vouches for on paper, without being able to ask a single question. This is completely insane.
If it's an emergency, the person claiming there is an emergency better be there in court to back up their story, and if they lie, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Attorneys who assist abusers and knowingly deprive the other party of their rights under color of law to commit further crimes, should be held accountable and criminally responsible for using the court system as a weapon to commit crimes against their client's adversaries. The Family court system is completely lawless. Ex parte proceedings for the purpose of obtaining orders that deprive the other person of their rights, without due process, based on false allegations and procured by fraud, are unconstitutional and should be outlawed.