My story and a message to my daughter, Rachel

I love my daughter, Rachel, with all of my heart and soul. My hope and prayer is that my precious daughter will always know how very much I will always love her and how desperately I miss her. Because of the fact that I have been denied due process in the family law court of Orange County, Rachel and I have not seen each other for over 6.5 years. Rachel has also been separated from her extended family - her grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, pets, her friends and her home - everything she has ever known and loves. Both my mother and I were jailed in 2003 for trying to protect Rachel from abuse by her identified abuser, her father, Jerry Morgan, an Orange County attorney, who is accused by qualified medical doctors of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. The first doctor, an M.D., testified before the Superior Court in Orange County on August 30, 2002 about the sexual abuse at an ex-parte hearing and his entire testimony was dismissed and discredited by the family law court. Minor's counsel, Harold LaFlamme, was appointed that same day and shortly after, a 730 evaluation was court ordered to be conducted by Jeffrey Bussey. The entire contents of the 730 evaluation reports (approx. 14-16), only 3 of which I was just made aware of in late 2008, are untruthful and contradictory and it was recommended to the court, by the evaluator, that I have no contact with Rachel. The second doctor, also an M.D. who specializes in children, and who is court appointed to be Rachel's treating physician, has been denied the right to give testimony before the court 4-5 times under court subpoena, by suppression from minor's counsel. Minor's counsel will not allow testimony, or the child abuse reports submitted by this doctor, or any other reports by doctors to be admitted into court. Due to these reports of abuse (at least 6 reports were filed to my knowledge), Social Services became involved in the case. Despite these abuse reports, Social Services did not intervene to protect Rachel. Instead, the family law courts and CPS turned me into the "accused perpretrator" stating that I made false allegations of abuse against Rachel's father which is untrue. CPS unjustly and illegally placed my name on the Child Abuse Central Index, absent any hearing/trial and NO conviction of child abuse. I challenged this unjust and wrongful placement and won my appeal with the 9th Circuit Court, granting me a grievance review hearing with DCFS. I won my hearing and the Department of Justice removed my name from the CACI, finally after being labeled as a "liar and child abuser" for six years by CPS. Since the court, CPS, the police, CPS repeatedly failed to protect Rachel, I left with her and my mother was involved. We were both caught, arrested and jailed. My mother served 90 days house arrest at the age of 73, being charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive and I served 80 days in Orange County Womens Jail, being charged with felony kidnapping, although I had not yet left Orange County. My mother and I were both placed on 3 years of formal probation. I never accused Rachel's father, nor did I make any abuse allegations or reports at any time. I was first informed by the first doctor that Rachel had reported to him that her father was sexually abusing her and Rachel continued to talk more and more about the abuse that she had been subjected to by her father- continually expressing fear of having to visit him, repeatedly terrified by death threats that her father would kill me, herself, her grandmother and her beloved dog, if she dared to tell about the abuse ("bad secrets"), especially to Social Services. Rachel exhibited all the signs/behaviors consistent with a child being abused. Rachel also reported the same information about the abuse to all doctors and witnesses. A report was also filed with the Anaheim police department at the instruction of a Captain from the Garden Grove Police Department who interviewed Rachel, also disclosing abuse to him, and a detective was assigned to the case. However, the police, nor the detective (Whitlock) never did conduct any investigation about the abuse. Instead they only listened to the lies told by CPS. The CPS workers never interviewed me, especially Susan Pinkham, the one who placed my name on the CACI, nor did they ever conduct a proper and complete investigation into the allegations. In April of 2003, my ex filed contempt charges against me for denying visitation to him. However, at the request of Rachel's father, the contempt charges were dismissed in order to prevent the court allowing me to have a hearing on whether I was in contempt of court. My ex dismissed the charges in order to prevent the evidence from surfacing. I was denied a hearing at that time as well. Despite the abuse reports and the contempt charges being dismissed, Rachel was still removed from my custody on June 4, 2003, and temporary custody was given to her father by Judge Firmat, which was to be for 60 days only- 60 days turned into over 6 years and still no trial. Since the contempt charges were dismissed, custody never should have been changed- the court had/has no evidence against me to have removed Rachel from my custody. Therefore, I have been in "temporary" orders for over 6.5 years, nor have my parental rights ever been terminated. In addition to losing custody, I was placed on unnecessary monitored visitation the same day, without being proven that I was an unfit mother for 6 months at the cost of $6000.00 For 5.5 years, Rachel was not allowed to receive photos, cards, letters or gifts from me or any family member, even on her birthday or at Christmas. My family and I have missed 6 of Rachel's birthdays, 7 Christmases/ every holiday, special occasions/vacations. I am denied the right to know her residence and until 2008 I was not allowed to have any information on her schooling, progress in school, or the right to talk with or meet her teachers or attend any events at school. I am still being denied the right to all of Rachel's medical, dental and all other health records. My entire family and I have been completely cut out of Rachel's life. Due to a court order, I am allowed only two hours a month of telephone contact with Rachel, which is both monitored and recorded by her father, which allows him to terminate the phone call at any time, which he often does. I have been fighting to regain custody and for justice for Rachel that she so rightfully deserves since August of 2002. I have fought through the entire court system, filing an appeal, a civil action, at the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. My case was held there for 16 months, with 4 federal judges recusing themselves due to their "personal friendships" with my defendants before the court dismissed my case. During an interview with Rachel's attorney, Harold LaFlamme, Rachel told him that her father was hurting her and that she did not want to visit him. Mr. LaFlamme's response was "I don't believe you, and do you want your dad to be arrested and go to jail?" Mr. LaFlamme was appointed to advocate and protect her but instead he coerced, manipulated and threatened her. The issue of the violation of our Constitutional rights were never addressed or even "mentioned" by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. I will continue to fight for our rights and for sole legal custody, protection and justice for Rachel. I will never surrender.

A MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTER:
To my beautiful daughter, Rachel Renae- the best part of every day-

I want you to know that I will always love you no matter what and that I will continue to fight for you to bring you back home. You are my greatest joy and blessing from God and I feel very blessed to be your mother. May you know that you have filled my life and my heart with more love, joy, laughter and happiness than I have ever known. Always remember how special and unique God has made you, the image designed only for you by Him, touching my world and all of those who love you with your own special magic, .... I love you so very much my sweet girl and I am forever proud to call you my daughter. I am here for you whatever this life brings, and I want you to always believe in yourself, your abilities and talents, as I believe in you, and will always support you.

Each time I hear you in my mind, I thank God for your sweet voice to comfort me, and with each vision of you walking towards me in my mind, I thank God for the precious gift of your life.....longing for the day when you will run into my arms again...be strong, my angel, for I am here for you and always will be. I love you and miss you more than you will ever know. Love ~ MOM

FROM MOTHER TO DAUGHTER:

In your life, if I could give you a very special gift, it would be this: When you look in the mirror, may you smile a hundred times at what you see. Smile because you know that a loving, capable, smart, brave, strong and a very precious person is reflected there. And when you look at me, may you remember how very much I love you and how much I will always care. Our love and bond is everlasting. You are the best and bravest person I have ever known and I am so very proud of you! Love~ MOM

Written by Kristin Hanson - A mother's painful and tedious journey through a broken court system to fight for justice for her daughter.