Judge in controversial Illinois custody case pushes for trial, despite girl's plea

Judge Randie Bruno is determined to have a May 13 custody trial, ignoring the pleas of a teenager.

Judge Randie Bruno of the Illinois’ 18th Circuit Court

The teenager in the controversial Illinois child custody case has spoken, but the judge has all but ignored her pleas.

I first brought you the child custody case: Sebastin Francis and Sossamma Sebastin- from Lake County, Illinois in February 2024. I have since had two follow ups, including one where Sebastin wanted to seal the case because of my first article.

This case follows a familiar script. A lot of compelling evidence has been brought to the court that Sebastin has been molesting his daughter, and that evidence has been ignored. His teenage daughter has told a forensic interviewer.

“Mostly to talk about my dad and how he abuses me,” the teenage girl told the forensic interviewer. “My dad raped me since I was four or five until I was like thirteen.”

This evidence has been ignored in favor of pseudoscience like the opinion of Dr. David Finn, who claimed that there is no abuse, but instead, Sossamma is suffering from Munchhausen by proxy.

If this diagnosis is accurate, this girl should be all better, since she’s been forced to live with her father since last November. Except, in an email I have acquired exclusively, she says that she continues to be abused.

on November 17, 2023 when the GAL showed up at my school, I was really scared. I had a really bad panic attack after they told me I can’t see my mom and I have to live with my dad. I was really upset that I couldn’t see my mom and I kept asking them why. they kept saying that they don’t think it’s good for me to know right now considering my state of mind. I kept telling them keeping me in the dark would make me feel worse. They told me that it would not be good for me to be with my mom right now and basically implied that she was being mentally abusive to me. I kept telling them and crying and begging them and saying that she was not mentally abusive and that, I love her and she does not do any of that stuff to me. they also presented me with the evidence that as soon as I moved into my mom‘s house by myself, that I started going to hospitals and having mental health issues. I told them that that had nothing to do with her and had everything to do with my personal mental health and school, and even flashbacks I had of my dad and trauma. I kept asking them if my mom was OK and they said yes physically she is. Then I asked if she was emotionally. OK they said I don’t know. We’re not your mom. I got really. I got really angry and kept asking that why. They wouldn’t give me a straightforward answer, and I was really panicking. I was really really scared and didn’t wanna go. I kept asking if I could just go home and trying to prove to them that she is a good mother but they said I had no other choice. They said I had to go home with my dad right now. I can go to the ER and get evaluated.

since I didn’t wanna go with my dad, I chose to go to the ER. I wasn’t feeling suicidal or the need to harm myself in anyway, but I just didn’t want to go with my dad was, I was scared. After going to the ER, I frantically explained what happened at school to one of the ER doctors and begged her to not let my dad see me. She agreed and advised that the best thing for me to do would be to go to the psych ward because I would be safe and have a place to process all the big things that happened. I wasn’t too excited because I didn’t wanna go home with my dad and was really scared. When I was in the psych ward, I kept pushing to try and go to foster care because I didn’t want to go home with my dad. what caused me to finally agree to go home with my dad was the fact that I knew if I went I wouldn’t be able to bring my brother or be with him. I didn’t like the idea of my brother being alone with my dad because I didn’t trust my dad. And I knew that the foster care system wasn’t great and people kept warning me about the system. All my mental health workers there were told the GAL side of the story, about how I was brainwashed into thinking the abuse that happened happened and that it didn’t really happen. They were told that it didn’t happen since there was apparently no evidence and I had been brainwashed by my mom, which was not true at all. I told my mom that’s the only way she found out I told a mental health worker at a hospital when I was 13 before I told anyone else. I agreed to go back home with my dad along that he gave me space, never touched me, and that there would be cameras in the house. They decided that I needed more time to process these big changes in my life and sent me to residential. I wanted to go to a residential in Florida since it would be further from my dad, but my dad canceled my opening in Florida and wanted to send me to Connecticut since it’s close to New York and he would be able to visit. I didn’t like that and was upset that he canceled the opening, but it was too late to get the opening back so I ended up going to Connecticut. My aunt ended up coming with us on the flight since I wasn’t comfortable being alone with my dad. I was told I couldn’t have my phone. at Connecticut I worked on stuff mostly communication with my dad and ended up “getting comfortable with him”. I didn’t really feel comfortable with him. I just created an alternative version of my dad and my mind to protect me from having flashbacks and being scared all the time. I don’t think I did this consciously, but more subconsciously as a defense mechanism. The court and everyone who talked bad about my mom including my dad corrupted my happy memories with her and i will never forgive them for that. I don’t want her to be sad and really miss her.

I was told that me and my brother couldn’t see my mom because she was unwell and needed therapy. After getting out of residential, I found out that my mother had been diagnosed with a mental health illness that I had never heard of before. After researching, I thought that she did not have it and that was absolutely absurd and crazy. I was very upset and tried telling people that she didn’t have that and she was an amazing mother. I tried explaining that she never exaggerated my symptoms, but sometimes I was too scared to tell people on my own, so I had her speak for me. Asher was told that Mom is sick and that’s why he can’t see him. He’s too young to know. I was told Mom would go to jail if I tried contacting her two times. Th GAL told me that first then my dad reinforced it.

I wasn’t told much about the court process and was mostly kept in the dark. When I asked my dad for certain privileges, he said he was asking the court, but after a while, I found out that he was lying about some of that. I found out that some of the rules he had for me wasn’t because of the court and was because of him. I knew that the court process was still going on and at first they told me that if my mom did everything she was supposed to that i would see her in five months. then that changed to “i don’t know”. I was occasionally told that mom isn’t doing any of the stuff she’s supposed to do in therapy. I was also told that my mom isn’t allowed to send me letters about charlie because she’s using that to emotionally blackmail me or make me miss them more. That is totally insane and bullshit. Why or how much i miss my dog isn’t going to be easily effected by a letter. I am a strong person. If anything, it made me smile hearing about the cute things charlie would do. I was never told by anyone from the court or my dad that my mom went to the hospital. I was very upset and worried when i found out. it’s so unfair that she had her kids taken for her because of some whack jobs that said “yup i 100% know this mother better than her own daughter who’s been with her for 15 YEARS”. I may not be a professional, but i know a good amount from the mental health facilities i’ve gone to and my own research i used to do for fun. I also have something called a GUT FEELING and fucking INTUITION. I never had any of these bad feelings about my mom EVER. I started dissociating a lot after coming home with my dad. I was constantly numb and couldn’t feel or cry even when i wanted to. I instead got upset over small things bc i couldn’t let my sadness or anger out. People think i’m doing much better when really i would love nothing more than to just sleep for the rest of eternity. i literally feel dead inside, like nothing is real i’m i’m already dead somehow. Asher doesn’t know how to process his feelings and ends up throwing a lot of tantrums. He cries a lot more when he’s hurt because he misses mom. He gets very upset when people get mad at him or push him away. He’s more shy and quiet now. He’s also pretty uptight and hates any type of change. He clings to me a lot more now. I really just wanna go home. Home to mom’s house with my brother. I wanna go home and go back to how things were and be a family with mom again. I love my mom so much and really miss everything and my dog and my real home. I was told i can’t contact mom and she can’t contact me. The only contact i was told i could have were sending her gifts for her birthday and mother’s day and letters necks and forth. I was told she can send a letter once a week. I begged them to let me at least have a phone call with my mom for Christmas but they said no. I didn’t even get a letter from her for Christmas. I had no contact with her during Christmas. It was very depressing. I’ve basically been coping with living with my dad by separating his abusive past from him now to almost create a fabtasy like world. To protect my brain from trauma and flashbacks. I didn’t do it on purpose but more so it just happened as a defense for myself. I see him as a completely different person as him abused him to help myself. I still know what happened and how he abused me no matter what anyone said. I remembered things all on my own and nobody told me anything about memories i had or “made” me remember things. It was all me.

I still feel uneasy when he touches me and sleep most of the time with my door locked. I am tired and drained a lot now and it’s really hard. I just wanna live with my mom again please. 

Previous posts have exposed Dr. David Finn’s quackery and the misdeeds of the guardian ad litem, Caryn Barone. Neither responded to emails for comment.

Everyone acknowledges that this teenager has been suicidal for several years, so if it is because she is being forced to live with her molester. Besides Finn and Barone, the real culprit is the judge, Randie Bruno.

Until now, her role has flown under the radar.

It was Bruno who on November 17, 2023, decided in a snap to switch custody. Until then, this teenage girl lived with her mom. Since, she has been allowed no contact with her mom.

Shockingly, Judge Bruno has acknowledged that Dr. David Finn’s testimony and report were the main reason.

As I exposed in the first article, Dr. Finn is a quack, with a long history of evaluations not grounded in any kind of sound psychology.

Dr. Finn only finished his report on November 14, 2023.

Part of a recent motion from Sossamma’s current attorney

As you can see from the motion above, Sossamma had not even seen the report when Judge Bruno decided to hold an emergency hearing on November 17, 2023.

To top things off, Judge Bruno wants to be certain this report never reaches the public, so she put a protective order on it.

Now, we’ll never know how Dr. Finn reached his conclusions.

In March 2024, Sossamma’s then attorney, Ronald Bell, asked off the case. He was granted his withdrawal, but Judge Bruno kept the previously scheduled May 13, 2024, court date. Judge Bruno even invited Sossamma to proceed pro se.

Sossamma did retain new counsel, Asuaf Farooqi, and he provided me this statement.

I have been advised by my client to not have any contact with you or any other third parties regarding this legal matter. 

Your previous online postings have detailed the names of the children and parties in this action.  I understand that you believe the work that you are doing is important, but my client is concerned that the use of the parties’ names and the names of the children can negatively impact the parties’ and children’s present and future expectations of privacy, their respective social lives, and possibly their professional lives.  My client requests that you please remove the names of all members of her family from your articles.  I don’t believe their identities are necessary or crucial to the broader information you are investigating and disseminating, and the impact of your articles can remain the same without those specific personal details. 

My client would greatly appreciate your consideration of her requests.  As your articles have alluded to, this family has experienced enough in the legal system that a kind gesture on your part would go a long way.   

I have not released the girl’s name, so I have nothing to apologize for. Mr. Farooqi has attempted a continuance to postpone the trial, since he is new to the case, but Judge Bruno is desperate to have it go on May 13.

Furthermore, Mr. Farooqi will be hamstrung further. He discovered that Mr. Bell failed to submit motions to have three witnesses testify to counter Dr. Finn’s conclusions.

I reached out to Mr. Bell, and he defended his behavior.

“The witnesses you mentioned did not provide reports to disclose,” he told me. “Without a report there was nothing to disclose. They can perhaps be called as rebuttal witnesses.”

I am no attorney, but perhaps they can still be rebuttal witnesses. I asked him about that.

“That is not true rebuttal witnesses can be called. Again, without a written report there is nothing to disclose: you do not know what these witnesses will say,” he countered.

He insisted he did nothing wrong.

One thing that Judge Bruno will allow is to cross-examine Dr. Finn with another evaluation. Dr. Finn is a quack, so this should show his pattern of quackery. Here’s what an Illinois Appellate Court found about him.

Still, Judge Bruno’s bias is palpable. Here is part of her another order.

“Her attempts to subject them to yet more intrusive interviews indicate a complete lack of interest in their welfare.” Judge Bruno stated.

Judge Bruno has already determined that there is no way this girl is being molested, despite the girl’s repeated testimony.

“I still feel uneasy when he touches me and sleep most of the time with my door locked. I am tired and drained a lot now and it’s really hard. I just wanna live with my mom again please.” The girl said in an email from April 2024.

Judge Bruno doesn’t care. If she continues to be molested for a couple years, Judge Bruno won’t lose a second of sleep.

I reached out to Sebastin’s attorneys, Michone Riewer and Lauren Wu, but they are shy.

I also reached out to the Illinois courts media department, but they did not respond to an email for comment.