They were inadequate in 1991 and they are inadequate in 2024.

An abstract of a 1991 article in Family Law Quarterly entitled “Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Custody Disputes: Getting to the Truth of the Matter” appears in the U.S. Department of Justice National Criminal Justice Reference Service. The annotated reference in NCJRS virtual library is a message that is blunt but sadly still ignored some 33 years later.

Annotation

A child who is sexually abused by a parent may be the most vulnerable of all victims, and the legal system’s mechanisms for protecting children from intrafamily sexual abuse are inadequate.

Abstract

When parties litigate a child custody dispute and an allegation of child sexual abuse is raised, the burden of proof is on the accuser. Because intrafamily child sexual abuse is so difficult to prove, many investigations result in unsubstantiated findings. Many separated or divorced mothers cannot be confident that reporting is the best way to protect her child, given the existing legal system. Some mothers hide their children out of desperation and frustration rather than comply with the court order for a transfer of custody or extended, unsupervised visitation. In the context of a custody dispute with unsubstantiated allegations, there is a tendency to suspect that the person who raised the allegations, usually the mother, deliberately made a false accusation in a vengeful attack against her husband. The controversy is compounded by reports of some psychologists and psychiatrists who claim that allegations of child sexual abuse in custody disputes are likely to be false. Family court judges need training to increase their awareness of intrafamily sexual abuse and enhance their ability to elicit and evaluate evidence. In addition, judges should read pertinent current materials, not only from the legal field, but also from the disciplines of psychology and sociology. Judges who inform themselves of the politics of child sexual abuse will be better able to evaluate arguments. Additional recommendations focus on therapy and supervised visitation. 139 footnotes

https://ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/allegations-child-sexual-abuse-custody-disputes-getting-truth

Here’s something else fucked up to think about: Mothers’ claims of abuse, especially child physical or sexual abuse, increase their risk of losing custody, and fathers’ cross-claims of alienation virtually double that risk. https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2712&context=faculty_publications.

Some depressing statistics: In 2020 there were reports of 617,000 children abused nationally, with younger kids being abused the most. Allegations of abuse are present in some 13% of child custody cases. “In a study conducted of 468 custody proceeding cases in which there were credited allegations of abuse, 13% of them gave custody to the alleged abuser.” https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/lack-of-child-protection-in-us-custody-proceedings-involving-allegations-of-abuse

But before we travel the sad road back to family court, consider the case of Sean MacMaster and his stepfather Larry Erlin Orr. MacMaster and the mother of his young daughter divorced. MacMaster left his position as a police officer with Detroit PD (circumstances behind the parting unclear) and took a position as a school resource officer in Duval County, Florida. He would fly to Michigan every other weekend for visitation at his mother and stepfather’s home in Oxford. Because Orr is a registered sex offender for sex crimes committed against a 15-year-old disabled girl (in a wheelchair and unable to speak) he was treating when he was a physical therapy assistant in 2010, the divorce decree specifically provided that the child would never be left alone with Larry Orr or his wife Barbara Orr.

(*Longtime readers of this blog and readers of The Snow Killings by Marney Keenan will recognize the name Orr as an alias used by convicted pedophile Ted Lamborgine, who sometimes went by the name Ted Orr. To my knowledge, no one has ever been able to connect Lamborgine to anyone by the name of Orr or understands why he used this alias.)

The girl, age four, made credible disclosures about possible sexual abuse occurring at the Oxford home and named her father and later Larry Orr as the perpetrators. The girl’s mother contacted Child Protective Services and then (sadly) the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. This sets the stage for things going from bad to worse. Oxford resident and then Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe would take a keen and long-lasting interest in this case. After all, a fellow officer was in hot water on what must surely be false claims of child abuse in a divorce situation.

The OCS investigates, interviews of the child ensue at CARE House, and the Oakland County Prosecutor (then Jessica Cooper) declines to prosecute. The child continues to describe abuse and begins to open up more about what is going on. But Oakland County is done with this file.

Criminal defense attorney Shannon Smith will later describe the child as having been coached by the mother. File documents do not support this assertion.

To be continued. So depressing.

The most difficult thing I am exposed to as a result of this blog are cases of child sexual abuse, the almost inhuman burdens placed on human beings as a result of this crime, as well as the disturbing prevalence of sexual exploitation of children by (mostly) men of all walks of society. The second most difficult are the cases where there is not only the trauma of a crime, but breathtaking and sometimes brazen public corruption. When a civilian comes to realize they will be subjected to the kind of unfair tactics, intimidation and misuse of police/government resources that can rain down and there’s next to nothing you can do about it. Gaslighting taken to the next level.

It’s a little like “I know it when I see it,” but the public corruption/dirty dealings-type infections present when what first looks like typical cop/prosecutor actions that are seemingly “on the spectrum,” first make no sense and then start to stink. The good people are somehow turned into the bad people. Victims start being treated like suspects and suspects get the kid glove treatment. The narrative gets abbreviated and/or manipulated and then repeated or escalated in the media. He passed a polygraph! There was only one set of footprints going out to the water and none coming back! The child killer left no evidence! Mothers routinely lie about sexual abuse in custody proceedings!

There are a few longtime reporters/news broadcasters in Southeastern Michigan who are amazing water-carriers for the cops and sometimes prosecutors. It is a parasitic relationship that can incidentally ruin someone’s life. They don’t care. Readers/viewers trust these people implicitly for some reason, and they should not.

I have not lived in Michigan for over 40 years. Since 1977 I have viewed it as a place of great pain, very little support and now of very prevalent corruption. I have lived in four other states since then and I have to say, I have never seen the kind of shit that turns up routinely in Michigan. I was telling someone about I case I recently learned of from Michigan and the person stopped me and said, “Wait a minute, WHERE did this happen?” I said Michigan and the person replied, wow–I thought you were going to say Louisiana or some place down south.

If you have never been a victim of a crime, lucky you. If you have never been targeted or manipulated by someone with a badge, even more lucky for you.

My next post is going to be about a news story that might be familiar to my Michigan readers. I had never heard it before. The reason I know about it is that a tentacle of the story was active in federal court this past week. I wanted to know how in the hell two men charged with sexually abusing a child–where Attorney General Dana Nessel said there was probable cause for the arrests, and where the judge in the case denied bail based on the strong evidence, could sue government actors and the child’s mother in federal court for malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy? How could these cases even make it to federal court and how have some of the claims survived summary judgment?! One man is an ex-cop. The other is a registered sex offender.

I will tell you, I was initially so pissed because last spring I tried to get five Michigan law firms to file a civil action for violation of my brother Tim’s civil rights in the child killer case. I presented the case and argued the statute of limitations was tolled by the cover up that has been in place since 1977. They all blew me off. Hard. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

And this case made it to and is still in federal court?! Then I learned one of the complaints was drafted by Attorney to the Pedophile Stars and Jennifer Crumbley, Shannon Smith. Ok, so let’s see what you’ve got.

How this case wound up in federal court is but one of the revolting layers in a case that made me sick to my stomach and lose sleep. It winds up in Florida family court, as well, where a judge seems set to soon award custody to the father in a classic, predictable and pathetic show of male family court judge ego bullshit.

I’m going to do my best to piece this together from what I’ve read. It should be reported by the Washington Post or the New York Times. I’m not kidding. Somebody please pick this story up. The federal cases are proceeding and the family court case will be heard in mid-January. The story is unbelievable. You could not make it up.

The loser, it seems, will be the child. And many Michiganders played a part in this. A pox on all of them.

The Denver Post reported today on an open records request they filed in the wake of an internal affairs investigation into former Denver police officer James Gurley, who resigned in July.

Gurley, who had been with Denver PD for two years, had applied for a job with the Scottsdale, Arizona PD. Scottsdale PD notified Denver PD that applicant Gurley had a little trouble with his preemployment polygraph. When pressed, Gurley admitted he had been looking at sexually explicit photos of children when he was between the ages of 13 and 20 at which time he claims he lost his secret folder of at least 100 such images (of kids as young as 5) when he upgraded his phone. We are to believe that this never happened again in the six years between age 20 and his attempt at employment in Scottsdale.

Scottsdale PD notified Denver PD on July 2, 2024 and Gurley resigned (resigned?!) on July 12. Why the public records inquiry, you might ask? It seems Gurley passed the preemployment polygraph for Denver PD with flying colors.

Internal affairs records show that on Gurley’s hiring questionnaire for Denver PD he responded “No” to a questions about whether he had ever viewed pictures of children for sexual gratification. When questioned by the Denver Post, a representative of Denver’s Civil Service Commission stated there were “no red flags” when Gurley was hired. She acknowledge that–shocker–the polygraph is not foolproof and that they also rely on a questionnaire, psychological assessment, background check and interview.

And also polygraphers working for Scottsdale PD.

https://www.denverpost.com/2024/12/20/denver-police-child-porn-hiring-standards-polygraph/?trk_msg=J5L0TMAUHFVKT9AQK7NH8KM90S&trk_contact=7RSPA4MNTS486HG4AUUCBNBNF4&trk_module=new&trk_sid=GTH7C7QB2OUPGI2DMCJTHQ58FG&trk_link=21LQN5R7E0D4D4GBFEBET7O0GG&utm_email=E4635491B564242814C575A2C7&lctg=E4635491B564242814C575A2C7&active=no&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=https://www.denverpost.com/2024/12/20/denver-police-child-porn-hiring-standards-polygraph/&utm_campaign=denv-denver_post-afternoon_update&utm_content=automated