Note: the video podcast is a 2013 broadcast on the Rucki case, while my interview with Richard Luthmann is a YouTube video above.
The Rucki case from Minnesota remains the most notorious child custody case in American history.
Most of the media picked up the story about two years after the two oldest girls- Samantha and Gianna- ran on April 19, 2013.
However, the turmoil which forced this family into the spotlight started on September 5, 2012, and culminated on April 19, 2013.
On April 19, the two oldest girls- Samantha and Gianna- ran, rather than be forced to live with their father.
In the process, a therapist, Dr. Jim Gilbertson, was appointed, and his therapist’s notes detailed how the system forced actions onto the family which caused the results.
The Rucki family had gone through about a year of divorce when on September 5, 2012, the judge presiding, David Knutson, held a telephonic conference.
Judge Knutson was unhappy because the five Rucki kids refused to see their father. This happened because Knutson willfully ignored the abuse that the father, David Rucki, inflicted on the family.
From that conference, Knutson produced a draconian order, in which neither parent was allowed contact with their children.
Instead, Knutson ordered David’s sister, Tami Love, to move into the home and temporarily care for the kids. He ordered this despite Tami having child protective services (CPS) issues with her kids and having little contact with her nieces and nephews prior to the arrangement.
This draconian order was based on the recommendation of another court appointed psychologist, Paul Reitman, who made his recommendation after one appointment.
The kids, upon coming home and finding their mother gone, ran to the police station and were allowed, despite the court order, to temporarily live with their maternal aunt, Nancy Olson.
Along with the no contact order, Judge Knutson ordered Dr. Gilbertson to conduct therapy, with the hope of reuniting the kids with their father.
Dr. Gilbertson began his notes on September 5, 2012, when he was contacted by Julie Friedrich, the guardian ad litem (GAL).
Dr. Gilbertson routinely misspelled Friedrich’s name on the notes. He made an important notation which set the tone for his therapy.
“She (Friedrich) reports it to be a rather complex case with some allegations of parental alienation,’ his notes from September 5, 2012, stated.
The system determined that there was no abuse, but rather the mother alienating the father from the kids.
Dr. Gilbertson proceeded with that thought in mind, dismissing any allegations of abuse.
Below is Samantha describing her father’s abuse from an audio made shortly after she ran.
“Before the whole divorce, he’d come home drunk or beat my mom to no end. He went after her with an organ leg. He legit ripped an organ leg and tried to beat her with it.” Samantha said in the audio.
Dr. Gilbertson’s next notation occurred on October 29, 2012, when he described a meeting with Sam. He was surprised that Sam was not chatty with him.
It wasn’t until November 25, 2012, before Dr. Gilbertson finally met with three of the five children for the first time.
He then met with Nico and David on December 5, 2012. Nico was coopted by his father, so Dr. Gilbertson thought he was swell.
On January 17, 2013, he finally met with Samantha, as part of another meeting with three of the Rucki kids. More than four months later, he finally met with each of the kids.
During this session, Gilbertson displayed the delusional bullheadedness which defined the court’s approach to the family. The kids would have a relationship with their father, by hook or by crook.
During the session, the youngest girl had to excuse herself. It wasn’t the last time a child was traumatized by Dr. Gilbertson’s therapy.
At a session on January 29, 2013, Samantha revealed that Nico suddenly was being bribed by his father.
Dr. Gilbertson was unmoved by the revelation.
In February 26, 2013, Dr. Gilbertson forced the kids to watch court for a full day. His notes included the gem below.
On March 28, 2013, Dr. Gilbertson supervised one of two visits allowed for Sam, a visit to the Mall of America. During the visit, Sam complained that Nico was being alienated from her, but unlike with the other children, he downplayed this alienationallegation.
At the next visit on April 2, 2013, one of the kids threw up.
Each time a child threw up, Dr. Gilbertson described the event in a matter-of-fact manner, and he didn’t seem to be bothered by the stress his sessions were causing.
On April 4, 2013, Samantha and Gianna told him that they believed his goal was to force them to live with their father and be kept away from their mother. He denied this.
That’s what would happen though.
Starting on April 9, 2013, everyone except Sam schemed about what to do when the court order on April 19, 2013, came down.
This includes Sam’s sister Nancy, who sold her out. Furthermore, this means that there was ex-parte communication about the yet unreleased court order. One notation included an interesting revelation from Nancy.
“I immediately received a call from Ms. Olson stating that she wanted the transfer to occur as soon as possible because of the fear the children will learn of this through some unknown means and will run. (emphasis mine)”
Ten days later, the girls ran.
Here are some more notes.
On April 19, 2013, the two oldest girls were tricked by Nancy into coming to the Lakeville, Minnesota police station; Lakeville is where their home was located.
Dr. Gilbertson was listening on a phone while the girls were in an interrogation room. Then, he blurted out that they would go live with their aunt Tami until their father got custody.
“This was the plan all along,” he said.
Below are his notes.
The girls were driven by police to their home. Approximately thirty minutes after police left, Gianna and Samantha ran.
They eventually called Dale Nathan, a friend of their mothers. He was with Sam.
“We’re running with or without you,” she previously told me they told her.
She picked them up and drove them to her friend, Dede Evavold’s, house.
Dede recommended they stay with her friend, Gina Dahlen and Gina’s husband, Doug.
The Dahlen’s ran a horse farm for abused kids.
They stayed at this home willingly until they were found in November 2015.
In the meantime, no one was concerned they were missing until media attention overwhelmed the case starting in April 2015. Dr. Gilbertson’s expressed no concern in his notes on April 19, 2013, after they went missing.
Dr. Gilbertson continued with the plan, moving the younger kids on April 24, 2013,
He didn’t tell the younger siblings that Samantha and Gianna were missing for five days.
Dr. Gilbertson testified at the custody trial which occurred in September 2013, while the girls remained missing. At this trial, he agreed with the assessment that Sam should only have supervised visits. His claims of wanting the kids to have a relationship with both parents were BS.
After the girls were found in 2015, everyone involved in hiding them- Sam, Dede, and the Dahlen’s- were charged and convicted, or pled guilty.
That happened only because the trial judge, Karen Asphaug, refused to allow any evidence of abuse into each trial.
None of the people who orchestrated this chaos- David Rucki, Tami Love, Nancy Olsen, Dr. Jim Gilbertson, Dr. Paul Reitman, and Judge David Knutson- faced any legal or professional consequences.
