A bizarre story out of Colorado reveals that Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins, a mother of several children, has been jailed by a local district judge for refusing to abide by some strange court-ordered forced reunification between her two sons and their father, who is charged with raping three of their daughters and abusing one of their sons.
Larimer County District Court Judge Daniel McDonald, a family judge, has ordered Pickrel-Hawkins to report to jail for seven straight weekends because she opposes the ‘reunification’.
Here’s more from the Washington Post:
From the steps of the Colorado Supreme Court building, Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins projected into a microphone, hoping the judges statewide would hear her plea.
“These women here — and countless women across our state and our country, worldwide — have been reaching out. We have a problem,” Pickrel-Hawkins said during a Thursday rally. “This is an epidemic in abuse and injustice that must be stopped.”
Across the state, children like hers were in danger because of forced family reunification therapy, she said. The process, meant to rebuild a parent-child relationship strained by separation or divorce, can be mandated by a family judge even when the child has accused a parent of abuse.
That was the case for Pickrel-Hawkins, who on Thursday was joined by dozens of people — mostly mothers — urging Colorado courts to reevaluate how they handle child custody rulings, particularly family reunification therapy.
Christopher Estoll, an attorney for 55-year-old Michael Hawkins, did not immediately respond to request for comment but has previously denied the accusations on his client’s behalf. In an Aug. 1 court filing, Estoll said the accusations were “not supported by evidence” and characterized Pickrel-Hawkins as a “not credible” witness who manipulated the couple’s children.
During Thursday’s rally outside the state Supreme Court, Pickrel-Hawkins said parents like her who are mired in custody battles following relationships marked by alleged domestic violence are silenced — “by gag orders, by going to jail, silenced to say anything else or they’ll get less time with their children.”
“What is wrong with our country?” Pickrel-Hawkins asked the crowd. “What is wrong with our state?”
I knew Colorado was a messed up state run by Democrats, but this is a California level of bizarre. It’s bad enough that they have this ‘forced reunification’, but did anyone think that this should only be done with the parent is in ‘good standing’ with the state? The whole thing is one screwed up story and it reminds us just how horrible a state Colorado is for allowing something like this in the first place.
