The Definitive Dossier of Dr. David Finn

This Chicago area psychologist has left a trail of destruction.

Dr. David Finn, from his company’s website

The trail of destruction left by Dr. David Finn spans decades, states, and counties.

All that’s left- at least all I found- of the custody case of Mary Swainston and Thomas Royce is a 2004 Michigan Court of Appeals decision in favor of Royce.

The decision, like most in the case, favored Royce.

I spoke with Royce’s wife, and she told me that the daughter which was the subject of this custody battle is now an adult and thriving.

This nearly did not come to pass, largely due to the actions of Dr. David Finn and his team.

He was brought on, she told me, to be the supervisor for supervised visits for Swainston.

His team quickly started angling for more time for Swainston and suggesting a change of custody.

Their efforts failed, she told me, when one of Finn’s employees was questioned during a hearing. That employee did not know why Ms. Swainston was put on supervised visitation, a failure which meant the team didn’t bother to read any of the court orders before trying to inject themselves into the case.

Mrs. Royce told me that she believed that Swainstrom was engaging in parental alienation, something she believed that Dr. Finn was ignoring in this case.

Dr. Finn’s relationship with this dubious label has been contradictory.

In this 2018 story from WGN, he talked about the dangers of parental alienation.

Dr. Finn shares the lasting effects that parental alienation can have on children, the importance of co-parenting and maintaining a healthy relationship even after a divorce, and much more.

That view has evolved. In this 2004 story, he was far skeptical the term was real.

Detractors note Gardner’s work is not recognized by the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the Bible of the psychiatric profession.

“It has generally been denounced,” said David Finn, a counselor from Rolling Meadows who performs court-ordered child custody evaluations. “It’s never been accepted as a valid syndrome, and the research has not been there to support it.

“The presumption is that the alienation is because of the parent,” Finn said. “While that may be part of the reason in some instances, it is not an evaluation of all the reasons why it might exist.”

This hasn’t stopped him from slapping the label under dubious circumstances.

Eddie Engels has been in ongoing litigation over custody of his daughter with his ex-girlfriend Feliza Castro.

Castro has failed multiple drug tests.

One evaluation noted, “Feliza Castro is poorly compliant with her testing and occasionally has used prohibited substances.”

Finn didn’t care, instead finding Engels guilty- so to speak- of parental alienation.

His evaluation downplayed the drug test failures, and it recommended Castro get custody.

I reached out to Dr. Finn, but he did not respond to my voicemail at his office.

An email to Castro’s attorney, Dean Taradash, was left unreturned.

I also left an email for the guardian ad litem (GAL) in the case, Pam Kuzniar, but she did not respond…to me.

She did send an email to everyone involved in the case.

The email below was the email I sent her earlier that same day.

Hello,

My name is Michael Volpe. I'm an investigative journalist, and I run this site.

I am doing a story on Dr. David Finn and several dubious custody evaluations he has done. You are the GAL on the Feliza Castro V Eddie Engels case. Eddie has been deemed to be a parent alienator by Finn while Feliza has failed several drug tests. How does that work? What are your impressions of Dr. Finn? How was he chosen here?  

Ms. Kuzniar is probably right that my email is not privileged, but I don’t think she is right in stating, “as Guardian ad Litem nothing told me is privileged.”

Ms. Kuzniar is a busy body. Even as she was firing off this email, she sent out a threatening motion to Engels and Castro.

That’s about $30,000 she’s charged both parents, and she’s looking to get a court order to force Eddie to pay for services he was coerced into receiving.

Pamela Kuzniar is a scumbag lawyer

Kuzniar, Finn, and everyone else on this case have done a bang-up job. The case number is 2013 D 8056. That means it was opened in 2013, and it still hasn’t been resolved.

Eddie said that a trial is supposed to start next week and Finn is expected to play a major role.

Eddie’s case is in Cook County; in nearby Lake County, Dr. Finn has found a novel way to protect a child molester.

Dr. Finn was brought on to do a custody evaluation in the case of Sebastian Francis and Sossamma Francis. There were allegations of sexual abuse against Sebastian and Dr. Finn dismissed those due to Munchhausen by Proxy.

Believing you’re being molested is now an illness. In fact, Sebastian did admit to showering naked with his son.

Dr. Finn recommended immediate sole custody with Sossamma having no visits in a hearing in November 2023.

Sossamma’s fifteen-year-old daughter was suicidal, something that Dr. Finn acknowledged. He said this was due to being forced into numerous treatments at hospitals for non-existent issues, but he also stated that if she did not willingly go with her father she should be hospitalized.

If all these abuse allegations are merely figments of Sossamma’s imagination, then why would her daughter continue to be suicidal in her father’s care?

Generally, quacks like Dr. Finn use parental alienation as the defense against sexual abuse claims, like in Woody Allen’s case.

Using Munchhausen as a counter to abuse allegations is a throwback. Consider this 1990s case from Minnesota.

The Holly Collins custody/parental abduction case is perhaps the most prominent custody case in the media at this moment. Holly Collins and her supporters among domestic violence and feminist advocates assert that the case demonstrates that family courts are biased against battered women and favor abusive men. Below I take a look at the evidence in the case.

Holly Collins and Mark Collins had two children, Zachary (born April, 1983) and Jennifer (born May, 1985), before getting divorced in 1990.  After the divorce, there was a highly contentious custody battle, during which Holly Collins repeatedly alleged that Mark Collins had abused both her and the children. Holly Collins moved the children to Massachusetts in 1991 but the court found that she was denying Mark Collins contact with the children and ordered that they return to Minneapolis in June, 1992.

Mark Collins claimed that Holly was interfering and obstructing his relationship with his children, and attempting to alienate the children from him. Holly Collins drew support from the Minneapolis domestic violence community, and the case drew considerable media attention.  During this period, the case’s custody evaluators noted “in response to routine questions about custodial plans, Holly stated ‘I’ll make the biggest media circus out of this if I have to.  I’ll do whatever it takes if Mark gets custody.'”

Hennepin County Family Court services found that Holly Collins suffers from multiple disorders, including Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP), where a parent invents, induces or exaggerates medical symptoms in a child. Hennepin County Family Court Services and the Guardian ad Litem in the case recommended that Mark Collins be granted legal and physical custody of the children and that Holly Collins have supervised visitation.

As a result of Dr. Finn’s evaluation and recommendations, Sossamma has not seen her children since November 2023.

I reached out to Sebastian’s attorney, Michone Riewer, but she did not respond.

Dr. Finn also has several awful reviews on Yelp. Here are a couple.

After reading every other review I almost did not want to waste my time doing another one but nah!.. This office is an absolute joke. David Finn was appointed to my reunification case at the beginning of the Summer. David promised to put me back with my son but after spending the next few months doing evaluations, he passed the case onto his partner with no warning. The only thing he told me was that his schedule was not very busy and felt it would be better to pass it off to his partner Mark Hagler. This "professional" never formally introduced himself or his purpose. His first words were "whats up?" After giving Mr. Hagler my honesty he got very aggressive and loud. He then told me that he was not my enemy... When I responded with "sir you are not my friend" he asked me to leave his office. I would not recommend this office to anyone. Time to close the door boys!

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It really is a shame Finn doesn't have any self awareness to follow up on if his professional pontifications about parental alienation (pinned to the wrong parent) and alcohol abuse in remission (is that a professional diagnosis).

FOIAs are free .... just a thought, pull a few on some previous clients names and see how they are doing before you strain your arm patting yourself on the back ensuring the safety and mental well being of children all over the Chicagoland area.

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Also see the reviews this quack has on Google. Known doctor for hire who has NEVER ruled against the lawyer/client that hired him--he's admitted it under oath in court.

There are so many things he did incorrectly. Biased. Did not perform same tests on both parents. Never saw me with the children. Never showed up on time to appointment.

He has no clinical practice, rather focuses on the more profitable court evaluations. He's not interested in helping people only himself. True story, my 2nd wife hired Dr. Finn. My first spouse told him what I was accused of was truly impossible (we were married 14 years). Dr. Finn did not seem to think that was as important as the lies levied against me without proof.

If you have had a terrible experience with him, let me know and I will help you learn how to file a complaint with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (I had ADRC in previous review--that's for complaints against lawyers and another story altogether) as well as the American Psychological Association. It will guarantee a minimum that he will spend a day downtown paying a lawyer to answer for what he has done. They probably won't do anything, but if they keep seeing him over and over they might get the picture. I have been contacted by someone on Yelp with 16 other people that have had similar experiences.

I spoke with one person who left a Yelp review. Steven L, who left the last review above.

He said his case was reverse of Sossamma’s because in his case Dr. Finn did not do a proper investigation while accepting allegations against him which could easily be proven false. He said Finn contributed to the total breakdown of his relationship with his children.

Finally, appeals courts have also slapped down Dr. Finn. One Appeal’s Court decision found that Dr. Finn found no threat of physical violence despite one party being convicted of physical violence toward the other party. That portion of the appeal is below.

Dr. Finn continues to be a popular choice when it comes to a custody evaluation in Illinois.