This is going on in my backyard. Sexism, white male privilege, immigrant discrimination/racism, domestic violence, and a child stuck in the middle.
This article infuriated me. I wish it was an example of the exception of the way things are done. In my experence, it is too often the rule. And, it sucks when the process to protect a child gets circumvented over and over and over.
I dont know what the truth is. I dont know who is responsible for what. But, I know that child should be coming first and he isnt.
This is just the beginning of the article. Reading the entire thing might infuriate you. It is also somewhat detailed and might be disturbing to some.
By Patrick Cassidy
pcassidy@capecodonline.com
January 29, 2012
BARNSTABLE — She thought she finally had the sordid proof in hand; her young son's pajamas stained with what she suspected was his father's semen.
But after years of fighting a language barrier, her own fears and a Barnstable probate judge who did not believe that her ex-husband had molested the boy, she froze.
If she called police, she feared Barnstable Probate Judge Robert Scandurra would take the boy away from her as he had threatened if she made further allegations of sexual abuse against her ex-husband that could not be proven. If she stayed silent, she firmly believed her then 6-year-old son's safety was at risk.
"I was frustrated," she said in a recent interview, adding that she no longer believed that police, state child welfare officials or even advocates for child sexual abuse victims could help.
Haunted by her son's cries for help and her inability to protect him, the Cape Cod mother pressed on anyway. In June 2010, she gave the pajamas to a Sandwich police detective.
Last November, the results of a comparative analysis revealed DNA from the semen stain matched DNA collected from the boy's father, according to court documents.
On Jan. 19, Scandurra scheduled an April probate court hearing to determine custody of the boy in light of the DNA evidence and a report from investigators who interviewed the boy after the semen was matched to his father. No criminal charges have been filed against the father based on the latest evidence.
The woman is hopeful the new evidence will be enough to convince authorities — and Scandurra — that she has been telling the truth all along, and that finally her son will be protected. But she is cautious, having harbored similar hopes before, only to be disappointed.
A Cape Cod Times review of legal, medical and child welfare documents that span more than five years and interviews with more than a dozen people, reveal that despite serious concerns about possible sexual abuse expressed by the boy's doctor, his therapist, a teacher, a school counselor, child welfare officials and a court-appointed investigator, Scandurra continued to allow both supervised and unsupervised visits between the boy and his father.
Scandurra's decisions left the mother no option but to fight the court system — often without a lawyer — in a race to save her son.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pb...cid=sitesearch