Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast the Impromptu: Episode 76 an Interview with James Sisco
The haphazard rulings from an unhinged judge have destroyed Jim's relationship with his children.
Judge Thomas Mann was the victim of unspeakable tragedy.
In 2015, his college age daughter was brutally murdered.
A 20-year-old University of Mary Washington student was found murdered on Friday in Virginia and her older male roommate has now been arrested and charged with the killing.
Grace Rebecca Mann, 20, was found unconscious by two female roommates in the home they shared in Fredericksburg, near the college campus, about 3pm.
Local reports say Mann was asphyxiated and found with a plastic bag stuffed into her throat, however police have not commented on the cause of death.
…
Mann - the daughter of a juvenile and domestic relations court judge in Fairfax County - was rushed to Mary Washington Hospital, but pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
A major manhunt was subsequently launched for Briel.
A nearby school, James Monroe High School, was placed on lock-down as officers scoured the streets with police dogs.
Just over two hours later, about 5.30pm, some officers saw Briel emerge from the woods near Riverside First Church of God on Fall Hill Avenue.
He was arrested and taken in for questioning.
Judge Mann took a leave of absence, got counseling, before he returned to his judicial duties.
Since then, he has become a sympathetic figure, difficult to criticize.
James Sisco is an unfortunate litigant who faced off with Judge Mann after the tragedy.
In the latest podcast, he told me that this incident is the “eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room.”
Mann, he told me, has developed a reputation for being a wild card.
Before, Jim told me, Mann had a reputation for being fair, but that all changed after this gruesome event.
Unfortunately, Mann’s unbalanced demeanor has affected other innocent victims: particularly Jim’s three children.
Jim told me that his ex-wife Elizabeth filed for divorce out of the blue.
The two wound up agreeing to a pendente lite order. This is a temporary custody order pending a trial.
It was an unusual arrangement where Jim got physical custody of his twin daughters while his ex-wife got physical custody of the third child.
Jim told me he would not make the same agreement now, but on the advice of counsel, he agreed then.
{For more examples of bad legal advice, check out my interview with Jeana Kuczmanski}
As I mentioned on the show, the arrangement is important because by this agreement, both parents are in effect acknowledging to other’s fitness. A parent would not agree to have the other one raise any child primarily if they weren’t fit.
Enter Judge Thomas Mann.
Jim told me that the custody trial was held over two days, and Judge Mann’s bias was evident throughout.
He chastised Jim multiple times for calling his ex-wife by her first name. When Jim asked to have his children- two twins then eleven- testify, Judge Mann called that “the nuclear option.”
Jim attempted to introduce hundreds of pages of text messages, showing a pattern of his ex-wife interfering with his relationship with his children.
Judge Mann blurted out, “Do you expect me to read all this?”
Yes, he did.
I reached out to Elizabeth Sisco and her attorney, Joe Menze, by email, but I received no response.
Judge Mann’s ruling reflected his bias: Jim Sisco was a parent alienator. Here is part of an appeal.
The problem with Judge Mann’s determination, Jim explained, was that parental alienation was not even argued by his ex-wife. Judge Mann made this determination on his own.
Jim told me that his ex-wife put on no experts to argue parental alienation. She had herself, a friend, and her father testify.
None of the testimony made an argument for parental alienation.
The basis largely came down to one incident. After Jim lost his position as his daughters’ rugby coach, he called his ex-wife and during an argument stated, “You win for being the worst mom ever.”
Jim told me he said this “tongue in cheek,” but his daughters heard it.
As I argued with Emma Pietrzak, one such incident could never be considered parental alienation, since rooted in parental alienation is a “campaign” and not one incident.
Judge Mann also referred to text messages and emails Jim sent to his ex-wife, but nasty communication among exes is common. Furthermore, if it is sent to the other parent, it is not parental alienation, as it is not an attempt to manipulate the kids.
Jim argued on the show that he was the one being alienated. This case is another example of how nebulous and broad the term is. If both parents feel they are victimized, something is very wrong.
Parental alienation is defined as, “a mental condition in which a child, whose parents are engaged in a high-conflict divorce, allies strongly with one parent (the preferred parent or alienating parent) and refuses to have a relationship with the other parent (with rejected parent or alienated parent) without a good reason,” according to Bill Bernet, a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Vanderbilt University.
Based on Bernet’s definition, the children would be refusing to have a relationship with both parents, and of course, that’s not what is happening at all.
As a result of Judge Mann’s ruling, Jim has been reduced to having video calls with his kids for a few hours per month. He is not even allowed in person contact.
His children are being raised with no father.
Jim told he has missed the last two Christmas’s, birthdays, father’s days, etc. This is likely to continue.
Judge Mann’s ruling was not only draconian, but it took Jim apart, and it’s something that his ex-wife’s lawyers will use throughout to continue with one sided custody.
More recently, Jim spent several days in jail for unpaid bills.
We supposedly don’t have debtor’s prison in the US, but in fact, we do.
Jim talked about it more with Bill Corbitt.
{Find Corbitt’s website here.}
The jail stint had to do with unpaid bills which the court ordered Jim to pay his ex-wife’s lawyers.
The judge who issued the order is Judge Penny Azcarate. Judge Azcarate presided over the Johnny Depp V Amber Heard trial.
Judge Azcarate gained a reputation following that trial for being fair and jovial, but she was anything but that with Jim.
Requiring payment for someone else’s legal bills is unusual. Using the threat of jail, even more unusual, and the rigid incarceration order she wrote, “If Father fails to make the above $65,500 payment amount in full to Mother, on or before September 15, 2023, he shall be incarcerated,” is extreme.
That is debtor’s prison. That is not supposed to be allowed in America.
Jim described a disagreement over the order. He came to court ready to make the payment.
Judge Azcarate refused to accept payment, sent him to jail, and only let him out after the payment cleared.
