NH Family Justice
Monday, February 3 – House Judiciary Committee Room 206-208, Legislative Office Building, 33 N State Street, Concord, NH ⚠️9:30AM – CACR 7 – relating to the presumption of innocence. Providing that in all cases and suits of the state against one of the people, the defendant shall be innocent unless proven guilty. ✅ Support ✅This constitutional amendment concurrent resolution would amend the New Hampshire constitution to require that in all cases and suits of the state against a person the defendant shall be innocent unless proven guilty. Tuesday, February 4 – House Children and Family Law CommitteeRoom 206-208, Legislative Office Building, 33 N State Street, Concord, NH⚠️1:00PM – HB350-FN – an act requiring that all family division hearings be video and audio recorded and broadcast live.✅ Support ✅ This bill requires that the family division audio and video record all proceedings and broadcast live proceedings upon request of named parties or representatives. Friday, February 7 – House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Room 202-204, Legislative Office Building, 33 N State Street, Concord, NH ⚠️2:00PM – HB 767-FN – expanding requirements for reports to law enforcement by the department of health and human services.✅ Support ✅ This bill requires the department of health and human services to immediately verbally report a complaint of crime, abuse, or neglect of a child directly to an on duty law enforcement officer and create a written report within 24 hours of the complaint. The bill also refines requirements for entry into public places by law enforcement and trained case workers. Tuesday, February 11 – House Children and Family Law Committee Room 206-208, Legislative Office Building, 33 N State Street, Concord, NH⚠️1:30PM – HB 652-FN – abolishing the family division, creating the office of family mediation, and reassigning the jurisdiction of the family division. ✅ Support ✅ This bill abolishes the family division of the circuit court, creates the office of family mediation, and reassigns the jurisdiction of the family division to probate and superior court. A full bill analysis will be in next week’s email. This is our priority legislation for this year. Please click the bill title link above and read the bill in full. We are hoping to have a huge turnout for this hearing. Please attend. Wednesday, February 12 – House Judiciary CommitteeRoom 206-208, Legislative Office Building, 33 N State Street, Concord, NH⚠️1:00PM – HB 587-FN – allowing admission of one-party audio and video recordings in certain circumstances. ✅ Support ✅ This bill allows a person to record or possess a recording of what he or she reasonably believes to be a crime and to provide it to law enforcement for use in court.Committee testimony has the most impact on the outcome of a bill. You can also submit your opposition and written testimony online here. Additionally, you find committee member contact info here, and may call them individually and/or send them an email. |
A Tale of Two Chairs
House Finance Committee Chair Mocks YDC Victims
House Children and Family Law Chair Says Committee Not Concerned With Constitutional Considerations on Bill
In case you missed it, in a callous act of ignorance and disregard for crimes against children at the hands of state employees of the Sununu Youth Detention Center (YDC), State Representative Ken Weyler (R-Kingston) said during a legislative hearing:
“Here’s someone who didn’t obey the rules, still doesn’t obey the rules and they come to court and they expect millions when they perhaps spent a misspent life. I just don’t see the ridiculousness.”
Rep. Weyler suggests that children in juvenile detention deserved their abuse and don’t deserve justice, and that they’re all currently breaking the law. It may be news to him that many children housed at YDC are not and were not juvenile offenders. Many were children awaiting placement in foster care and residential homes who did not commit any offenses. Children as young as six years old were housed at YDC.
Watch a clip of Chairman Weyler’s shocking statements here.
This reprehensible comment by Chairman Weyler comes just days after another House Committee Chair, Mark Pearson (R-Hampstead) asserted that the Children and Family Law Committee is not responsible for considering the constitutionality of HB553-FN, which expands broad judicial discretion in family court in contradiction of due process guaranteed by the constitution. In response to members of the public testifying that the bill increases the ability of the courts to deprive rights without due process, Pearson told them that the committee would assume the bill is constitutional and that if it isn’t that is for the courts to decide. In essence, the legislature need not concern itself with your rights, and if you want them you need to go sue for them.
Watch a clip of Chairman Pearson’s statements here.
A Closer Look At Mechanisms Enabling Child and Family Harm by the State
For Immediate Release
New Hampshire Family Justice, a concerned group of citizens, condemns the mocking comments made by State Representative Ken Weyler regarding victims of abuse at YDC.
“It is very disappointing and unprofessional for anyone in a position of power to make fun of the victims of abuse,” said NH Family Justice’s Leah Cushman.
It is important to understand how systemic abuse of children and families is enabled by deprivation of due process in family court, which has jurisdiction to place children in state care in conjunction with DCYF. The amount of life-altering harm which has occurred to thousands of NH families and children is an egregious direct result of financially motivated stakeholder choices to operate the family court system and child welfare system without guaranteed accountability and due process.
Any state that has been operating properly should have nothing to fear. When Representative Weyler stated, “YDC— I’ll just say, ‘they abused me and I’ll become a millionaire,’” it reveals more about those who created and operate a broken system that enabled the state to create victims for exploitation than it does about the plaintiffs.
Any system operated by independent contractors without proper oversight and accountability in law is a system to be heavily exploited. The family court is such a system. Just refer to SEC v. Jarkesy, which ruled that Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) cannot adjudicate cases concerning private rights. Even the Supreme Court of NH opined in 2007 that Marital Masters (aka Magistrates aka Referees aka ALJs) can only make recommendations and their orders are judicially unenforceable.
The entire family court system is anchored in outsourced operations dependent upon those who have a financial interest in participating. Family courts across the United States, through associations like the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and State Bar Associations, gather data which on the surface they use to improve their service. However, a look below the surface reveals a lack of foresight in execution as states continually fail to protect children or ensure due process, while ensuring private contractors have immunity as a benefit of participation in the system. Fast forward 20 years, there are now endless billing opportunities for contractors, and an endless supply of children and families to provide an opportunity for collaboration, which (to use Rep. Weyler’s phrasing) creates a “feeding frenzy” for independent contractors. The family court system provides a never-ending inventory of victims for exploitation.
Regarding YDC abuse settlements, a court of law with a jury of peers carried out the duties of due process and awarded a victim $38 million dollars. This is in stark contrast to the family court’s adjudication process – where contractors and outsourced agencies do not administer due process. In family court, often referred to as “actor’s court,” families and children are forced into the venue without fully understanding the court’s purpose or authority, leaving them completely vulnerable to the whims of all the family court stakeholders such as lawyers, Guardian Ad Litems, independent therapists, and administrative judges.
These judges can waive rules of evidence at any time and for any reason, and enjoy broad discretion, allowing arbitrary decision-making. Sometimes the result of that is rapid removal of a child from parents not proven to have harmed them. Other times it means a child is left in harm’s way. Cases may be protracted for years, generating more federal program funding for the state, and more court motions, orders, hearings, and fees that generate money for contractors. As Representative Weyler stated, “When I looked at this, it seemed like a feeding frenzy…” Concerning the family court, we couldn’t agree more.
”When a system is created that deprives due process and enables financially motivated stakeholders to profit and create victims, it is a self-fulfilling prophesy,” Cushman said.
Taxpayers should be very interested in how their money is being used to keep this system afloat and why their money is also being used to fund restitution when the outsourced independent contractors are the ones inflicting harm and profiteering. Perhaps having knowledge about how the state has become embroiled in this explains why some are advocating for laws that cap the liability for the state. Interestingly, the people don’t have the same luxury and power of the state behind them to have laws written to limit responsibility if they are found guilty. At the same time, caps on YDC settlements guarantee 30% of the settlement to attorneys, without preventing them of exploiting victims further by claiming a percentage of their part of the settlement too. Feeding frenzy indeed.
NH Family Justice on Granite State Live
If you missed it, here is the link to the podcast episode on DCYF, family court, YDC, and child welfare in New Hampshire, featuring NH Family Justice’s Leah Cushman.
Watch the Replay here.
Sign Our Petition To the New Hampshire House of Representatives; We the People, understand that there are systemic and personnel problems in the State of New Hampshire’s judicial system, particularly the Family Division of the Circuit Court (Family Court), and the Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), We the People, understand that the reasons for failures in due process and the ability of the state to protect children are multifaceted and complex, We the People, understand that it is the House of Representatives that is the grand inquest of the state, We the People, understand that prior attempts to investigate these matters by the House have not been thorough nor utilized the full authority and tools of the House granted by the People to redress grievances, Now, therefore, we the undersigned hereby petition the New Hampshire House of Representatives to form a Special Investigative Committee, with full subpoena power, to thoroughly investigate Family Court, DCYF, and all entities related, and to use all the power vested in the House of Representative to redress the grievances resulting therefrom, up to and including legislative solutions to prevent future harm, and impeachment of employees and officers of the state, if necessary. |
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