The Death of Ethan Cook: The Damning Miriam Galindo Deposition

This deposition took place about two and a half years before Ethan Cook died by hanging: put in that context it does not make Miriam Galindo's involvement look good.

Screenshot of Miriam Galindo from YouTube

Miriam Galindo sat for done about two and half years before Ethan Cook died, and this deposition paints an even more disturbing timeline of the events leading to his death.

Galindo was the the 730 evaluator- a term in California which means a custody evaluator- and in fact, she had been tasked to do two evaluations.

The deposition took place on May 10, 2021- when Ethan was sixteen- and he would die in November 2014: check out my interview with attorney Pat Berry for more on this case.

As Pat said in her interview, Galindo was very biased toward Ethan’s mom, Kirsten; this led directly to dad having sole custody.

All of this set the stage for Ethan’s death, even though a federal judge would eventually throw out a lawsuit for wrongful death.

Of interest, Galindo was testifying following the completion of second evaluation, where the results had shifted.

This is noteworthy because this is not the first time I have caught Galindo doing this.

In Julie Holburn’s case, something similar happened.

Here’s part of what Julie told me about Galindo in the podcast, “At first, I didn’t know what to make of it. I never had a 730…”She put out some good recommendations and then she got back involved a year later.”

Julie told me that Galindo’s demeanor changed entirely the second time she was on the case.

“Then, they brought Miriam back in to do another evaluation, and this time she was very different, very spiteful toward me: very unprofessional, ignored the judge’s orders. She didn’t do what she was ordered to do; she was ordered to speak with the kid’s therapist, which she didn’t do.” Julie told me on the podcast. “She was given documents, affidavits, signed by police officers servicing the warrants taking physical custody- of the condition they found the kids in. She never contacted him {referring to the police officer serving the warrant}.”

Kirsten had filed a complaint before the evaluation but Galindo claimed this would not bias her at all.

Yet, the entire report reeked of bias; that bias led to Mr. Cook getting custody and this led directly to Ethan’s suicide.

Money may have been one reason why she refused to come on; Galindo was paid $2,000 just to do the deposition, according to her testimony.

Galindo was doing a follow up evaluation because between the first and second Kirsten had moved to Hong Kong seeking work.

As it was explained in the deposition, she could not find employment in California- having applied to dozens of companies.

Galindo was ostensibly brought in to provide guidance on how this move would benefit the children.

What is clear from the deposition is that despite constantly using impressive sounding terms Galindo’s work is entirely subjective.

Galindo uses terms like triangulation, disorder, and others and this may make it create the aura of being an expert, however her conclusions are- to borrow from Seinfeld- capricious and arbitrary.

For instance, approximately ten months before this deposition Kirsten had left a nasty message on her daughter’s voicemail.

This caused Kirsten to have supervised visits and calls; Galindo recommended a battery of things Kirsten needed to do- what she called a step up plan- before she would have normal custody reinstated.

Meanwhile, Galindo recommended that Ethan go to a residential treatment center; mom was on board while dad resisted and Galindo simply referred to that as “overprotective.”

Galindo also suggested that one factor weighing in dad’s favor was the he was more likely to foster a healthy relationship with mom, but then when Kirsten’s attorney noted that he was interfering with phone calls, Galindo claimed she was unaware of this.

Pat told me in her interview that in dad’s custody Ethan had begun to devolve and get arrested repeatedly. This was also broached but received little attention.

Remember, Galindo recommended that Ethan go to a residential treatment center: mom agreed, and dad was resistant. Then, Ethan gets arrested, but this was of little consequence in her report.

Finally, Galindo attempted to smear Kirsten by suggesting-without actually diagnosing- that she suffered from several very bad disorders.

All of this contributed to creating a bias in the court; that influenced the decisions and all this led directly to Ethan’s death.

Finally, the court changed custody terms markedly from mom having primary custody to mom losing most custody rights.

This happened when kids were teenagers and accustomed to their living arrangement. Something like this happened in the Rucki case. On September 7, 2012, the court ordered mom out of the house and moved in the kids paternal aunt to take care of them. Until then, their mom had been the children’s primary caretaker.

This set off a chain of events and on April 13, 2013, the two oldest daughters ran- refusing to live with their abusive dad and were effectively hidden for approximately two and a half years.

Something like that happened here; custody was switched around 2011 and by 2014 Ethan was dead.

Of course, in both cases, no one involved with the court was held to account: indeed, the court doesn’t think that any of its actions in either case had any role in the disastrous outcome.

Post Script:

Check out the previous articles in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, and Part 21.

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