COLORADO, USA — Armed with a survey of parents who lambasted family court judges and magistrates for regularly ignoring signs of child abuse during custody disputes, legislators and court reform advocates are pressing for new domestic violence training mandates and other measures for judges and magistrates.
“This document brings to light the voices of Colorado citizens who have experienced firsthand the devastating impact of a broken system,” according to an executive summary of the survey State Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Greenwood Village, shared last month with Monica Márquez, the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
“Through citizen survey data, it reveals how children’s disclosures of abuse are often ignored, protective parents are silenced by legal and financial intimidation and judicial professionals dismiss credible evidence to force contact with abusive parents,” the executive summary further stated.
The impetus for the survey stemmed from disclosures in The Denver Gazette over the jailing of Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins for objecting to court-ordered reunification therapy between her two youngest sons, aged 10 and 13, and her ex, who was accused of sexually abusing his three daughters and who had admitted to almost drowning an older son in a pool.
