The parental alienation racket in Maricopa County
The parental alienation racket in Maricopa County
Rachel Cardona's kids are in danger: put there by a system which uses quackery to hand children to abusers.
Rachel Cardona’s three children are in a psych ward, put there because an Arizona court has determined they must live exclusively with their father, despite his history of abuse.
In 2019, she was living in Cleveland when she finally got a divorce from her ex-husband Ballard Ivory.
He allowed her to primarily take care of the kids as long as he didn’t pay any child support; he even let her move from Cleveland to Arizona.
Soon after, she got to Arizona, Rachel told me, Ballard began challenging the court order. When he challenged it in Cleveland, his protestations were denied, so soon, he filed challenges in Maricopa County, Arizona.
One of his arguments is a familiar one: parental alienation.
Ballard made these claims despite a variety of evidence that he has abused her and his children.
In 2021, Rachel got an order for protection after a witness heard Ballard threatening to kill her over the phone. Below is part of a police report alleging child abuse.
Here is part of another report, “{Their son} stated that when they lived in Ohio with father, there was always yelling. He stated that Father would hurt Mother all the time. {Their son} stated that he started defending Mother by throwing stuff at Father. {Their son} stated Father punched his big brother, {their son}. {Their son} stated that the brother fell down the stairs and dad laughed.”
Despite that, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Greg Como ordered 50/50 custody of the two parents; Ballard had moved to Arizona by this point.
Judge Como reversed his decision after a Department of Child Services investigation, and he ordered Ballard to have supervised visits in April 2022.
Along with ordering supervised visits, Judge Como ordered Kristyn Alcott to be the supervisor.
This does not seem to be by accident. Alcott is a notorious figure inside the court system. She seems to find her way onto cases where parental alenation is alleged and then sides with the parent accusing alienation.
Michelle Fox has had her. She told me her son disclosed sexual abuse about four years ago, and the end result of that disclosure is that she is on supervised visits….with Alcott.
Alcott is not merely watching her as she interacts with her son; Alcott writes reports.
Alcott has done something similar in Rachel’s case, suggesting the children refuse to go with their father because their mother is egging them on. seat). The children were all secured by a seatbelt. Initially, the supervisor engaged the children in a pleasant manner as she asked about summer and the activities the children had previously shown an interest in. The supervisor then asked the children to exit the vehicle so they could enter the venue as planned to celebrate {their son’s} birthday. The children, in unison, all refused to go. These attempts included the supervisor informing the children that there was a court order in place whereby the children were to spend time with their Father. This entire conversation was conducted with Stepfather standing outside of the vehicle next to the Supervisor. From approximately 6:03p until 6:58p, the supervisor made significant attempts to have the children exit the vehicle. During this time, the children stated that “Ballard” was not their father as their father was standing next to the supervisor outside of the vehicle. The children then called Father “Ballard the Abuser” and stated that when he would be left alone with them, he was going to kill them. The supervisor reassured the children that she would be there to ensure they would be safe. The children later recalled an incident whereby “Ballard showed up at our school and chased our mom with a gun.” The children were argumentative and uncooperative as they refused to exit, stated that the “Judge” has “dumb rules” and that the children’s rules are what is most important as they control their own bodies (and no one else can). The children then continued the question why the “Judge never interviewed” them and questioned how the judge knew what they wanted. These comments were not previously raised in supervised visitation to This Writer’s recollection. As an hour approached of unsuccessful efforts, despite reassurance and directive to exit the vehicle, the children continued to remain obstinate in their position. During the entire process, Stepfather remained silent, did not encourage the children to go nor did he engage the supervisor in any capacity that would be helpful to compliance of the Court Orders being fulfilled.
In this recording Michelle made with Alcott’s former employee, the former employee claims in the last five minutes that Alcott has on occasion written reports for families she did not personally supervise.
In the recording, Michelle said Alcott charged her $4,000 per month to see her own son; that’s a far cry from the $40 per hour per visit which Alcott advertises.
I reached out to Ms. Alcott at her work email, but she did not provide a response.
The court order granting Ballard supervised visits was soon reversed after DCS did not substantiate the report.
Rachel told me she was told the report was not substantiated because there was a lack of physical evidence.
Judge Como would then claim that Rachel was making false allegations.
Below is another photo: decide for yourselves if this looks like an abused child.
Judge Como does not seem to appear on Rachel’s case by accident. Rachel told me that Judge Como was followed by Judge Daniel Martin, and Judge Melissa Zabor.
Two other women, Maggie Martinez and Angie Nielsen, both had all three judges in the same order.
Both of their kids made sexual abuse disclosures, and they were both accused of parental alienation.
Angie Nielson told me she had more than ten people appointed to her case. Michelle Fox remembers at least seven court appointments.
In May 2023, Judge Martin ordered 50/50 custody for Rachel and Ballard, but that did not go over well.
At two visits, the children refused to go with their dad. Here is the police report from one visit.
Ms. Alcott described another exchange above, though Rachel told me that Alcott twisted what happened.
Rachel said that Ballard did not show up to a third visit.
Despite that, Ballard asked for and received an ex-parte emergency order granting him sole custody while Rachel is now on supervised visits.
In his motion, Ballard claimed that Rachel’s failure to turn over the kids for visitation was the main reason necessitating the emergency order.
Courts are extremely inconsistent on this. When I interviewed Scott Segal- whose case is in Miami, Florida- he told me that not only did his ex-wife move to California, but she was blocking all visits. Still, he could not get the court to schedlue an emergency hearing, because, Scott told me, courts did not view this as an emergency.
In New Jersey, Bryan Alintoff refused to turn over his son for his scheduled custody time with his mom in 2021 {cliaming the child refused to go to his mother’s}, and the judge, Angela Dalton, stated that if the child refused, she would not make him.
Judge Dalton ruled that despite the court order if the boy refuses to see his mother she will not force the boy; that's in stark contrast to many other rulings from other judges who will force kids into dangerous circumstances because of court orders.
In this case, there is no danger, besides what Bryan Alintoff claims; furthermore, their son had never been afraid of his mother prior to the boy purportedly discovering this article.
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Lori Thaner was threatened with jail when her kids refused to return to their father.
In this case, not only was there a court order, but the judge, Melissa Zabor, even ordered Maricopa County Sheriff’s to execute the order.
Rachel told me that when Sheriff’s Deputies arrived her kids refused to go to their father’s, so they were transferred to a psych ward instead.
In Angela Freiner’s case, after Angela’s daughter told the judge her father was molesting her, the judge, Nicole Zellweger, still ordered her to live with her father. Angela’s daughter was sent to a psych ward before going to her father’s.
Angela was accused of… you guessed it parental alienation.
There is a hearing tomorrow, June 30, 2023, to decide if this order that Judge Zabor signed will become permanent.
I reached out to Ballard Ivory’s attorney, Regina Pangeri, but I received no response.
I reached out to the media department at the Arizona courts, and I was given this statement, “The Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts forwarded your inquiry to me regarding a pending Family Court case. Please be advised that the court, including its employees and contractors, will not discuss cases outside of a formal proceeding.”
