Note: In the podcast is a short interview I did with Stephanie Proffitt, an attorney for one of the parties in this case. Enjoy it before, during, or after reading the article.
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Rosie Alanis is facing every mother’s nightmare.
She believes her son has been touched inappropriately- at least- by his father, but that may not even be her biggest challenge.
Her child custody case has gone on for more than a decade and these days the court appears determined to reunite her son with his father. They have appointed a dangerous woman- at least in my opinion- to be the reunification therapist.
That woman’s name is Dr. Jean Guez. Dr. Guez returned a voicemail of mine, but when I called back. she did not respond to a follow up message.
Rosie’s son, now thirteen, is so distrustful of this woman that he secretly recorded sessions she had with him and his father: those sessions took place in April and May of 2022. Some of those are below.
In the two sessions, Dr. Guez says things like, “you don’t get an opinion.”
She quotes the law to the boy and even claims that he may be violating the law by refusing to have a relationship with his father.
When the boy asks in one what will happen if he doesn’t go with Dr. Guez, she replies, “I’ll have to tell the judge…there may be punishment for your mom.”
At other times, Dr. Guez and the boy’s dad tag team the boy: taking turns addressing him, in an attempt to break down his defenses.
Listening to these so-called sessions, I could only think, “isn’t therapy supposed to be therapeutic?”
Rosie’s divorce has been going on since 2011, long ago the court labeled it high conflict. She told me that despite numerous difficulties from 2011-2018, she and her ex-husband largely had a custody arrangement which was followed.
She received physical custody while he received standard visitation- every other weekends, etc.
Then, in 2018, her son disclosed that his father was touching him inappropriately.
Rosie told me there had been previous problems, like multiple failed drug tests.
However, this took things to a whole other level. An investigation with the Harris County, Tx. District Attorney’s Office was started.
The current District Attorney (DA) in Harris County is Kim Ogg. She has previously been criticized by Wayne Dolcefino and others for being soft on crime.
In 2019, Rosie’s ex was charged with crimes related to sexual contact with a minor.
The DA’s office asked for and received a restraining order prohibiting Rosie’s ex from having any contact with his son.
But by 2020, the DA’s office had decided to drop the charges. Rosie was baffled, writing in one email.
I reached out to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office by email but received no response.
With the charges dropped, the family court started to center on a new issue: mom’s alleged parental alienation.
Some court actors were in effect saying that these charges were the result of mom filling her son’s head full of lies and him creating stories as a result.
Namely, this was the allegation made by the amicus attorney- roughly equivalent to a guardian ad litem- whose name is Derek Anderson.
Anderson, in his motion, does what many court actors do. He identifies a problem- in this case possible parental alienation- and then suggests the appointment of another court actor- in this case someone to do a psychological evaluation.
In fact, the motion was submitted to ask the court approve someone to do a psychological evaluation.
I left Anderson a voicemail at his office but received no response.
Anderson is not the only one to allege parental alienation.
Dad’s attorney, Stephanie Proffitt told me repeatedly that the main problem in this case is Rosie’s parental alienation. She blamed the allegations, the broken relationship between father and son, and just about everything else on mom’s parental alienation.
She further told me she’s seen a lot of parental alienation in her career, often perpetrated by vindictive moms. I asked her about the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)- an organization she is familiar with- because her statements sounded like things I had written about in my investigation of AFCC.
By the time the AFCC had begun promoting PAS, the group had dropped the descriptor “syndrome” and merely referred to the problem as parental alienation—a group of behaviors by one parent designed to alienate the child from the other parent—which is far less controversial. Gardner had originally based his research on prior research done by longtime AFCC member Joan Kelly and psychologist Judith Wallerstein, and in 2001, Kelly published, along with AFCC member Janet Johnston, “The alienated child: A reformulation of parental alienation syndrome” in the Family Court Review, the AFCC’s newsletter.
A 2012 conference for New York AFCC on parental alienation described a number of behaviors that the alienating parent exhibits, including, “unfounded abuse allegation.” Actor Alec Baldwin claims to be a victim. In his book, A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce, Baldwin describes the exact same behaviors in discussing PAS. Baldwin argues in the book that he was alienated from his daughter by his ex-wife Kim Basinger.
“The fact that some abusive parents successfully dodge the consequences of their actions by using PAS as a defense does not and cannot negate the existence of parental alienation in custody disputes,” Baldwin wrote.
While Rosie told me that her son’s father has not been given his custody time back since losing it after being indicted, she further said that recently Dr. Jean Guez was appointed to the case.
Rosie said she did agree to the appointment, but that’s only because she was told Dr. Guez would not move forward if sexual abuse was found.
From the sounds of the secret recording, Dr. Guez is not very concerned with any alleged abuse.
She at one point tells the boy that if he continues to resist, the sessions will continue until he stops resisting. She also tells him that her job is to coordinate a reunification between father and son. When the boy brings up any issues with his dad, those are quickly dismissed.
Rosie told me that another aspect of this case is the presence of the non-profit Children 4 Tomorrow. She said that she had a conversation with Anderson, who told her that he attended training by Children 4 Tomorrow, where parental alienation was taught.
Children 4 Tomorrow is a Houston area 501 (C)3 with about $100,000 in assets.
When I reached out to the group, they distanced themselves from parental alienation. In a ten minute interview with Dwilene Lindsey, she detailed how Children 4 Tomorrow provides assessments for courts, training, and other support services.
She told me that her group does not assess parental alienation, but rather psychological abuse. She said there are assessments used, “It’s easy to spot if you know what to look for.”
I was skeptical, particularly of the broad psychological abuse term.
Even though Children 4 Tomorrow may claim simply psychological abuse, it’s clear that both Anderson and Proffitt were talking about parental alienation specifically.
Furthermore, the sort of training that Anderson told Rosie about definitely occurs. Check out the video below from California where a former judge, Deann Salcido, talks about the training she received.
Salcido described how she used that training to give custody to child molester, Henry “Bud” Parsons, at least temporarily until he was busted for possession of child pornography.
Post Script:
Check out the previous articles in this series: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, and Article 4.
Check out the new fundraiser to help investigate more non-profits which don’t receive enough scrutiny.
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