When Heidi Moreland spoke in front of the Idaho Child Custody and Domestic Relations Task Force on Monday July 7, 2025, she was treated like a victim.
“I endured seventeen years in an abusive, and this time my children and I face even more abuse from the family court system,” she told the task force.
Inside the courtroom Magistrate Tera Harden, she was treated like the perpetrator of vicious psychological abuse.
Magistrate Harden concluded that Heidi’s two children with her ex-husband, Bill Moreland, hated their dad for no good reason, and Heidi was responsible.
Heidi was accused of parental alienation.
Not satisfied with the label itself, Magistrate Harden said, “this is one of the most extreme cases of parental alienation I have ever seen.”
Though Heidi’s children- currently 15 and 16- have lived with her their entire lives, Magistrate Harden has temporarily suspended all contact, issuing an eight week “blackout period.”
Magistrate Harden threw the kitchen sink at Heidi in this June 2025 hearing.
At one point, she blamed Heidi for a post which Tina Swithin at One Mom’s Battle put online in November 2024.
Though her case isn’t mentioned in the post, Heidi told me she was blamed by Magistrate Harden for its publication. Tina Swithin provided me this statement about the situation.
The post you referenced was not about any specific family or case. One Mom’s Battle regularly highlights judges, commissioners, magistrates, and chancellors whose names come to our attention for relying on the unscientific concept of “parental alienation” or for ordering children into highly controversial reunification treatments or programs.
This particular judge came to my attention when I was contacted by a mental health professional in Idaho who asked to remain anonymous. They shared that it was widely known in the area that this judge supports “alienation” claims, a legal strategy often used by abusive parents. This professional was seeking guidance on how to navigate the situation given the small-town dynamics and concerns for child safety.
My post was intended to address broader systemic issues in family court practices, rather than commenting on any single family’s circumstances. If this post was used against a mother in a child custody case, it should be considered a gross injustice.
While Magistrate Harden was condemning Tina’s post, she was also relying heavily on quacks to make her determination.
Magistrate Harden said she relied heavily on Robert Evans’ report in making her determination, calling him, “a very well respected, very well-known expert, as it relates to parental alienation.”
Except, Evans is a notorious quack who was exposed in a 2021 cross-examination by Richard Ducote.
Chills ran up the spine of witnesses as Evans purported parental alienation to be a ‘phenomenon’ and potentially more harmful than a father intentionally breaking the arms and the legs of, or poisoning, his child. Evans appeared oblivious to the absurdity of his words as he then testified that parental alienation was potentially more harmful to a four-year-old child than a father’s rape of that child.
He goes on to describe an alienating parent’s behaviour.
“It could just be using the word him.” Evans testifies.
“It’s ‘him’ on the phone or ‘he’s’ here.”
“Another one is communicating directly to the child that the other parent is abusive or dangerous through your actions. In other words, getting law enforcement involved, doing well-care visits, filing abuse allegations, with child protection organisations, that’s very common”.
Evans describes a typical scenario involving an alienating parent – a mother reports child abuse to a paediatrician. She tells them the other parent is abusive and neglectful, and the paediatrician pays particular attention. In the warped world of parental alienation, reporting the abusive behaviour is more harmful to the child than the actual abuse.
Magistrate Harden also plans on using the services of Randy Rand, Heidi said. Magistrate Harden may use his reunification camp torture, Family Bridges, in the future, Heidi told me.
Reunification camps have been banned in multiple states like Arizona, Utah, and California. Rand has an expired license, and many of his so-called patients said his treatment is tantamount to torture. I previously interviewed Tori Nielsen about Rand.
When she wasn’t heaping praise on Drs. Rand and Evans, Magistrate Harden was violating Heidi’s religious liberty.
“It appears that there are some interesting religious beliefs in which Mr. Moreland was called evil and requested to repent. What I did not see was Mr. Moreland being given any grace or any forgiveness- which was incredibly troubling.” She said.
Heidi told me she is the same religious denomination as Magistrate Harden, and that this characterization came from selectively released text messages, void of all context.
Magistrate Harden claimed she saw no evidence of abuse despite both children sending letters describing incidents of fat shaming, driving recklessly purposefully, bouts of rage, and more.
There was even a volleyball game incident where Heidi’s daughter suffered a panic attack because her father arrived unexpectedly.
Heidi told me she was keeping score and was unable to interject until late.
Heidi said her daughter asked her father not to attend sporting events, but in this case, he showed up anyway.
After Heidi’s son politely asked him to leave, Heidi said that Bill Moreland began acting belligerently.
That scene led to Heidi’s daughter’s panic attack.
Magistrate Harden saw it differently, “There’s not a safer, more neutral environment that a sporting event, but the kids were more worried that their mother would be upset with them than being happy their father was there.”
I reached out to Bill’s attorney, Jeremi Ossman, and the guardian ad litem, Kacey Wall.
Neither responded to me, but Heidi told me that she was informed that Ossman had filed my email to him in the court record. That email is below.
my name is Michael Volpe. I'm an investigative journalist, and I run this site.
I am finishing a story about this custody case and I believe your firm represents Mr. Moreland.
First, I noticed that Randy Rand and Robert Evans were involved. Mr. Rand is unlciensed (sic) and his reunification therapy has been banned in several states, including in Arizona where I interviewed Tori Nielsen, a victim.
Robert Evans is a notorious character in that world as well.
This brings me to a larger point. This case was decided on parental alienation, a bogus psychological determination which is not recognized by anyone but family courts.
The judge said that there was no abuse, but Ms. Moreland insists there is. Also, these kids are teenagers. Is it really believable that teenagers could be swayed if your client was a perfectly fit dad?
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