High Conflict: Is Connecticut’s family court ignoring abuse?
These women and other groups like them were brought together following the murder of Jennifer Doulos by her husband Fotus during a bitter battle in Connecticut's family court system, which saw more than 500 court filings in just two years. The Dulos case, which garnered national attention when Jennifer went missing four years ago, was seen by those women as emblematic of the dangers that women face when going through a divorce, particularly when their husbands have been abusive
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:51
And that's what the tipping point is for a lot of these issues that become of national interest. And I'm just hopeful that the work you're doing and doing swell casting about it, getting voices involved, having people understand how this could happen is really, really important so that it doesn't. I'm sure this exists in many, many states, especially in the south, where the patriarchy rules, where there's no emotional intelligence around what happens in these divorce cases and the power struggle
We have a newsroom of folks who are dedicated wholeheartedly and full time to the pursuit of truth and good journalism, which is just the heart and soul of everything. Journalism is, at its heart, a human focused endeavor, and that means telling human stories like we've done here, if you are interested, and I think there are two things that I'll say is, I guess, a call to action. The first is whether you are in Connecticut or not
Adrinne Larry
@Juixy · 5:00
And I'm not a wealthy person. I have a meager income, and I'm fighting for custody of my daughter. And I filed for a divorce in 2018, and it's 2023, and we still haven't got to a resolution. It is abusive. I did file for a restraining order, and it was denied because they said it's a nuisance that he sits in front of my house and records people that comes to my house
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:03
It's all very unsettling, and I'm really saddened for you, and I'm grateful that you are here with us talking about it. And maybe we can get more conversations about this and perhaps even, I don't know, get a critical amount of voices to help change things, because that's how it starts. It starts with one voice at a time. So I just really appreciate you here, and hopefully there'll be more conversation to enlighten us and see where this can go
Adrinne Larry
@Juixy · 0:33
You. Thank you. I still will communicate and share in this topic. It is very near and dear to my heart and something that I'm going through. So I do appreciate your response and thank you for providing the email so I can ask more questions in the investigation group to see if there's other are other things that I can do to help in my situation. But thank you so much
And instead of these children being taken seriously, they are instead forced to reunify with the abusing parent. And in many cases, obviously, the abuse continues to continue. Not just physical abuse, but sexual abuse. And so how does this happen? Well, I'm a therapist myself. I'm a lawyer and I'm a marriage and family therapist. Right now I'm writing a book that has a chapter that will be on this very subject. And so I've researched a lot about it
And so no one knew that he was manipulative. They didn't know how to pick up on the signs of manipulation and what to look for. And so they granted this father not only custody of the children that he was the child he was abusing but the child who was forced to go through this reunification program with the Narcissist and only to finally, years later come out that they were further abusing the child by forcing the child into these family bridges programs for reunification. And this is not uncommon