“Ah, yes, divorce … From the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.” -Robin Williams
An acrimonious divorce where children are involved nearly always devolves into a test of wills between the litigants, who were once husband and wife. Statistically, the woman in such cases prevail a majority of time. And of those times where the court battle is disposed of in family court, the acrimony has often risen to a level where it simply isn’t sufficient for one party to prevail over the other. There must be some form of scorched earth brought to bear.
In many cases, a prevailing parent, will seek child support orders and awards that financially disadvantage the losing spouse. Allegations will often follow questioning the suitability or fitness of a parent. Invariably, it isn’t enough to simply prevail on the point of law. One must simply crush the other, financially and emotionally, alienating the children by building a wall between the non-custodial parent and the minor children. An extreme environment of discomfort and stress is built around visitation exercises, many simply give up, emotionally exhausted over their children’s animosity toward them. The custodial spouse later charges inattentiveness for lack of consistency in the visitation schedule. This is probably one of the most ugliest facets of life anybody could be forced to endure. The family courts, charged with mediating these issues, often makes them far worse.
Today, the Union Leader‘s Nancy West treats us to the sordid tale of Cheryl Ann Maher, a mother seeking to regain custody of her minor children. The father, Dr. Eric Lee Knight presently has physical custody. Following a visit with the minor children, Ms. Maher was to return the children no later than 5:00 PM on March 13, in keeping with the parenting plan. She did not. She spirited them off, instead to a hotel in Salem, telling the UL her, “Ex-husband withheld medicine from one of the twin daughters for cold-like symptoms and fails to provide adequate services for the twins’ autism.”
How does Cheryl Ann Maher convince the courts she is being wrongfully persecuted? She brought down a congressional candidate with a naked hot tub dip at age 15; He pays her 150K in 2002 (for her silence?) She publicly accuses Utah State Rep. Kevin Garn of emotionally and sexually abusing her; She admits to addictions of alcohol and drugs; She drives drunk at age 16, killing an occupant in her car; It has been asserted that she has made serial false allegations to the DCYF against her ex-husband; She has made charges and allegations against her ex-husband in court and the media that could potentially have a negative impact on his career; Eric Lee Knight, a physician, denies those allegations. She tells the UL she has been sober since 2005, so obviously there were substance abuse issues and challenges when the two were together. Finally, the courts, typically more predisposed to mothers as the custodial parent, awarded custody to the father.
When she failed to return the children to their father, she violated the parenting plan which essentially is a court order. In context she was, “protecting the children,” Ms. Maher informs that she intended to make yet another allegation to the DCYF. But here is the question to ask: “Would Ms. Maher’s allegation rise to the threshold to trigger the DCYF to forthwith remove the children from the custodial parent? Probably not.
Now that she has prevailed in a Supreme Court appeal ruling that Judge Moore erred in issuing a restraining order, she has undertaken a new tact right out of the “Kristin Ruggiero” family destruction manual and is seeking to have the judge removed. She may likely succeed in having Judge Moore recuse himself, but she still has the obstacle of her own bad behavior and personal issues to overcome.
The personal mudslinging and attacks on her ex-husband in such a public manner these days, are viewed skeptically and often with a jaundiced eye. The public can only evaluate the situation based on what she and her ex-husband says and does, given the veil of secrecy shrouding family court proceedings.
Quite frankly, this woman comes off as a hateful, bitter nut job…a “Kristin Ruggiero Light, if you will.
