Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
HAL RICHARDSON )
PETITIONER, )
VS. ) Case No. : 96-D-217
)
CLAUDINE DOMBROWSKI )
RESPONDENT. )
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
2008.
APPEARANCES:
96-D-217.
MS. DYKES: May it please the Court, the minor child appears
biological mother.
provided those to the Court from Ms. Haney. She wasn't sure who
the Court would want to distribute those to, but I do have a copy of
them.
Motion for Orders of Justice. I think the basis is that she wishes, you
.(\.
to go?
your ear?
THE COURT: Sir, would you come on up. Can you give
(THEREUPON,
DAVID RODEHEFFER.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
that, they based it on your - the whole merit of the ex parle order is
have, they don't coincide with the dates. You didn't see her until the
same week after. So I'm just a bit curious as to what it is, what
records you have the reports that I don't have, obviously, and why
you think I'm a danger and we are now five years later.
please.
best. Please-
own attorney. You are held to the same standard. What I've told you ....
today.
Q. (by Ms. Dombroski) Dr. Rodeheffer, let me make it. Okay, we got
to make it. Let's see, real small minded. Why five years ago, what
Q. What did-- my-- what information do you have other than the
fact what we have in the court documents that state nothing about
you can provide to the court, that shows that I'm a threat to my
daughter?
A. I don't know.
Q. '" don't know." Well, okay. Well, you know what? I want to
I don't know what I can release or can't release, and I don't know what
released.
THE COURT: Then go ahead with your question.
messed up, and I'm going to lay this down. This is what we call
doctor-
asking that the parenting time be enlarged. So the issue is, what
material change has taken place that would authorize the Court to do
that? That's the issue in this case. So that's what your questions
Q. (By Ms. Dombroski) Dr. Rodeheffer, when was the last time
of 'OT
Q. How long had it been before then that you had seen my
daughter?
A. Oh, I would have to count them up. Let's see, looks like
12.
time, and then the rest were after that. Can you explain the
difference? Okay.
point
lives.
which I'm not-- see, this is really hard for me, because everybody in
relitigate prior orders in this case. You filed a motion that you want to
enlarge your parenting time, so the question is, the issue is what
material change has taken place. We're not going to relitigate what's
- - - - ....... _ - - - _ ......... _
case simple, Right now. Really simple right now.
question?
really don't. At this point, it's past the point of no return and it really
doesn't matter. I had a friend that just died from doing shoveling. So
I'm going to say to everybody that ifs fine to everybody that came in
here.
And you know what? I'm not going to stop. And every time we come
in here, you know, you don't want to relitigate, she wants to send stuff
in, then you're asking me questions, he hasn't seen her, nobody has
MS. DYKES: There are orders previously that she not put
object to that and ask the Court to order her not to do that.
are not authorized and you can not place online, on the internet, on
your website, on your face page, face page, whatever you have, on
process-
r, you.
THE COURT: That is an order of the Court.
abuse-
examination?
Rodeheffer.
appearing today.
MS. DOMBROSKI: Yes, I would like to ask Jill Dykes what her
(THEREUPON,
DR. ALBOTT,
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
Q. Hi.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Dr. Albott, it's been a few years or more and we've seen
- - - - - - - - .... -.~~- .....- -....- -...- - ......- - - .-~- ......- - -..... ~--- ..... ~
just ask you for the record again. I'm sorry. Do you see me as a
threat to my daughter?
other than the interactions I saw between you and the biological
in the same room with the same person who perpetrated extreme
~--~
A. Not necessarily. One could show fear, one could show
again a wide range of behaviors, and there's not one specific that I
and I, that's it, that's all there is, that's the only reason why I can't see
and I?
that's what it was. I had owed $112 to the case manager and daddy
said that-
question.
can't testify.
MS. DOMBROSKI: I'm just asking from the heart. I'm not a
question?
to the court, because I've never had anybody ever give me the
case. You know how to file motions. You're acting as your own
attorney. All I have asked you to do is ask your question. You cannot
profile for a batterer versus the profile on a victim. Did you know that
the literature.
small, and/or how do you think throughout their life span, especially
when, with this conflict, that is going on between her father and I,
because her father and her mother have conflict? Is it in the best
A. I think that-
mean, it's obvious that he has had no contact with this case since
2004. And the issue presently before the Court has to be the things
Dr. Albott hasn't been involved in this case since 2004. It's now 200S.
happened in the past, but we're here today to determine what's in the
best interest of your child, as you noted, and whether you should
have expanded parenting time with your child. So if Dr. Albott has
seen you or your child in the very recent past, then you can pose a
going to go back to the original motion, since that's the way you're
wanting to go.
hearing the evidence right now. If you've finished putting on all your
evidence, then you need to rest, but if you haven't then you need to
MS. DOMBROSKI: With the evidence for the record that I wish
to present for the case is the case of the Inner American Commission
Other than that, I have really not passed, but I'm going to go ahead
and go here with this. I can't call the Guardian ad Litem} who is
cross her on that, so kind of stops that. So we'll come right back
down to it, maybe we can save all these people time. I was
reaction together in the last few months.
witness.
(THEREUPON,
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
Ricki and I since 1995, I believe is when we were first ordered into
then in 2000, when dad got custody, I was ordered into supervised
visits.
daughter. From the years that you've witnessed and known us, do
mean, I don't have that magical answer. What I would say is that we
did suspend service in March of '08 after having served you for
March of '08, because at that time, as stated in the report, you know,
felt that there was just not enough reason to carry on with things in
Ricki didn't have any idea really what was going on and that we
A. That was more so -- her opinion was that she didn't feel
having unsupervised contact with you at that time, and had never
basically?
as far as, you know, I'm not an evaluator of those folks. I can't say
how they feel and their emotional state, but I know that her verbal
Q. Okay. But clarify, because you said she didn't want -- she
no longer wanted to -
you.
see me at all, period. Clarify this for me. Or that she doesn't want to
A. What she said to us, what she said to me specifically was
talk to about friends and school and go places with without a fear of
she be embarrassed?
Q. Such as?
with her mother and talk about friends and be that normal kind of
A. What sne said to us was that she wished she could have
a normal relationship like other kids do, but that she didn't feel she
(~
was able to.
A. No, because of your behaviors and your communications.
supervised visits because the parent that is visiting them has mental
they're homeless and they don't have a safe environment to see their
child in. Some people see their children supervised because they
just recently found out through paternal testing that they were the
unsupervised.
have records for prior to 2004, but from my memory is one of the
issues was that you had left the community and -- with your daughter
at one time, against Court order. And then, but there were several
situations that, from 2004, to the current time, you know, that were
to your attention?
(\ For example, when you arrived at the school when you weren't
and you were videotaping her on a camera-
2004?
against somebody to have custody of a child and then put the non
violence?
didn't-
That is not within the personal opinion or the basis for which this
witness makes decisions. She takes the clients on safe visits under
Q. (By Ms. Dombroski) Typically, how long is the length of
approximately? Out of all the cases that have gone through this
years?
reasons. So it's hard for me to really say that that's highly unusual.
becomes 18?
Q. I mean, have they, have they?
Q. Really. Wow, that's sad. Okay, well, I don't really have any
constitutes (INAUDIBLE)
please call your next witness. You have Mr. Swartz here. Is he a
witness?
why I'm under supervised visits with Dr. Rodeheffer and the fact that
Litem-
(THEREUPON,
LLOYD SWARTZ,
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
A. Fine.
bring up the past as to why we're here in the present which is how it
became kind of a mix up, but what is the job of the case manager?
I'm not sure if it's changed from the time that I was a case manager,
but as I understand it, the role of the case manager back in those
days was to serve as the final solution for courts that could not come
concluded that they had been in court, I think it was more than three
times in the last six months to twelve months, that the Court
concluded that it was not successful to come to court. That the court
And that the case manager was to serve, basically, as a person who
court.
court?
and the parties would have ten days in which they could object. And
filed--Iet me--I've never met the judge that signed this order, Judge
Let me ask you, about how many times-- about how many
Swartz this, but it sounds like from his testimony that he was the
correct?
Mr. Swartz, do you recall when you were case manager in this
case?
looked at the Court docket sheets and it ended for me July of 2005.
point in time-
and what has happened in the recent past. So I'm wondering what
Mr. Swartz is doing here if he hasn't been the case manager since
2005.
locked in this position for the last five years. This case has not
gossipy circle without -- this is the first time in five years I've ever
keep saying come back to the present, which I'm trying to do. Okay.
And you're saying significantly happened in the last, what, five years.
this witness that he could answer within the recent past, and that's
I ), not five years ago, that's not five years ago, that's within the last
expanded.
witness.
THE COURT: Can you spell your first name for me?
(THEREUPON
KARAHANEY,
voice up for us, I think there's also some Kleenex's there if you need
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
Q. Hi, Kara.
A. Hello.
flustered with every thing that's going on. I'm extremely disorganized.
I just want to ask you what you have observed between Rick; and her
observed times when your daughter tries to talk to you about things
and you talk right over her head as if she hasn't even spoken. I have
Absolutely.
Is that-
Absolutely.
case and the history of the case, would you call these normal
therapy? Okay. Let me retract all that. take all that back. When were
visits in July, and then I took the case in August and have been
THE COURT: Why don't you start it and we'll see, okay?
it was to say that Ricki stated that she wanted to have contact, more
normal contact, which has been in court on the record with her
mother, and that therefore they thought they would try the Odyssey
question about?
that manner. But right now, you need to ask questions of the witness.
Okay?
(~ before.
been really wonderful, I want to say thank you. Let's see.
Other than that, I mean. Are these issues that you think that
that in my experience speaking with Ricki and asking her what her
visitation and things like that, she has expressed, and it is my priority
to look out for Ricki's best interest, she has expressed a desire to
/..r-.....\
keep things status quo. She has expressed a desire to keep the visits
every other week. She has expressed a desire that she wants them
to stay supervised.
more than one occasion, but especially recently, that you know that
rne that when and if she's ready to pursue a different relationship with
you-
decision, not your decision, not mine, she wants it to be her decision.
I think that that is very important to her, and she has stated to me that
to make these, I mean, after all these years of not talking or seeing
her mother, and then all these other external pressures along with
her normal growing up and 13- and 14-year-old stuff, and you know.
her with you at this point is more of a pressure than anything. Right
now, I think, that she is doing well to thrive in school and have normal
teenage relationships, and to do the things that she does, and I think
talked to her last week and I talked to her after the visit and before
the visit, and she expressed to me that there are several things that
she wishes for in her relationship with you and she does not have
those things. And she doesn't think that she can get them currently.
She doesn't feel like you take her seriously. She said she just wants
have, it's kind of hard to hear it all, and so do you think that
we've got people, that a mother and a daughter that don't know each
other. We haven't been around each other, and it's uncomfortable for
both of us. I mean, it's probably the most shutful (sic) thing for me to
~------------------------ .....~
Don't you try and like give them time to get to know each other again,
basically?
think that we have a 14-year-old who has been very clear and
that would happen, that you and your daughter would need to have a
weekly therapeutic interaction to work on that process.
Q. Okay, good.
with the way things are and that is what I need to express to the
Court.
CROSS EXAMINATION
(\ BY MS. DYKES:
about 10 to 13 times; is that correct?
A. Approximately.
A. Not at all.
A. Yes.
Q. And do you see any harm to Ricki if things stay just the
now.
CROSS EXAMINATION
BY MR. HOFFMAN:
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And does she go into detail with you about them or
do you actually see them yourself and understand what she's talking
about?
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
I need to stand -- sit, and I'm going to sit down and ask the question,
been denied-
Q. (By Ms. Dombroski) Kara, we've run into boys and we blush
A. Yep.
two weeks. We were getting -- when visits first, started we were going
every Saturday for two hours with the goal to increase and expand
visitation. Ricki, when she said that she wanted to stop and go every
other week, there was -- she didn't feel real comfortable really even
saying that she just didn't know what to say. Do you think a kid wants
to please both parents and is going to do the very best that she can
divorce, even amicable ones. I want to share that, you know, Ricki,
Q. Oh, I know.
- .. - ..... ~--
going to voice those. She doesn't want to hurt your feelings, she
Q. (By Ms. Dombroski) I just, what is the goal from here with
based on the best interest of the child, we should try to pursue small
who is bright and knows what she wants and is expressing it, and I
f would feel that that was not in her best interest. So as Ricki
stated, she would like to leave things the way that they are.
that, all she needs to do is say so and that that can happen.
she has been separated from her mom. For five years, she's heard
what she's been only what she's been forced to live the past five
(THEREUPON,
HAL RICHARDSON,
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. DOMBROSKI:
f'\
Q. Do you love your daughter?
A. Very much.
A. I do.
now.
Q. And in the past five years, she's been denied almost all
contact with her mother, so she really doesn't know her mother so
what does she want is only based on the past 'five years of time that
A. Right.
parent?
you're around her every day and every night, every day, and every
night. So-
Q. Okay.
Q. Uh-huh.
to kind of sit back and watch things happen. She don't need some of
A. You said earlier that you see boys and you both giggle
and laugh, you know that's kind of freaky, but that's where you kind of
Q. But how can I step back and let her be a kid if I'm not
with her, to show that you can do that. And she would be a changed
girl in no time.
~\ love to say, but I don't. All I can think of is I just want to make the
- - - - ...... - .. ~--
don't know anything about her. So it's not like I can just be a mother
other than the fact that and we can't do that by keeping more time
putting more distance between that. We're not going to get to know
each other and be able to assume those natural roles. You're going
to keep -- are you going to just, let me see here. Do you think that
she can do that by seeing me less? I can do that by seeing her less,
A. You-
limited two-hour period times over what extends over how many
A. I think you can get to know her quite a bit in two hours'
time talking with her and letting her be a kid and you be mom. And I
think if you done that a few times you would probably see some
things change.
having a movie, sitting on the couch, and just hangin' out, right?
know that I just- if you guys are set on this, everybody's set on it, I
guess I don't really have anymore to say other than I just wish that
A. No.
A. I see her hurt, I see her confused, I see her sad because
she has little girlfriends, especially back when she was in grade
Q. Uh-huh.
/\ anything for her on Mother's Day, things like that. That's what I don't
Q. So how can we fix that by separating it further?
A. Yes.
you know it, and I'm not gong to sit and argue about it, is not truth,
Q. Uh-huh.
Q. Uh-huh.
A. It's embarrassed her all along the way. She hears about it
at school.
Q. Uh-huh.
Q. You-
Q. Okay.
around, that it's the judiciary that should be embarrassed, it's the
people that let her down that should be embarrassed not the fact that
because, yeah, it's a very embarrassing thing. But it's -- not what if
it's -- it's somebody -- you want me to take all the blame for
she's just like me, just the few times that I've seen her.
question.
right and anybody can do that, that's all I'm saying, and you know
no?
has been for the past five years, nine years, actually ten years, we!re
going to put it that way, past ten years is going to make it better?
separation.
that you may testify. If you wish to testify before you close and rest
take the stand and offer testimony under oath? You'll have a chance
to summarize-- .
the Court at the time of closing arguments. This is just part of your
arguments?
brought to the court today to hear. If you want to also add evidence,
court. They're already under oath when they enter the courtroom.
MS. DOMBROSKI: No, the only evidence that I'm wanting to·
I'm just not getting this out very well. No, your Honor, I don't. But I
case at this time or do you have additional evidence that you want to
put on?
guess what I'm trying to say is what I've already said, though, is that
THE COURT: At the time that both parties rest, they will
that has been presented in the courtroom today. Now, you're at the
going to rest your case, at which time I will turn to Mr. Hoffman and
witness. You give your closing statement from the table you're at. If
you want to testify as a witness, you go under oath and you come up
here.
this, no. Yes, I'm resting, because I do not understand how to do this.
because the whole thing about evidence, and you know, you're
this hearing.
evidence?
evidence?
MS. DOMBROSKI: It's been ten years since I've had a normal
relationship with my daughter. It's been ten years since I have been
able to, ever even had the opportunity, to present evidence or even
an evidentiary hearing. Ten years have gone by and my little girl grew
up, and we can't change that, we can't fix that. That's lost forever.
I really don't know what to say other than the fact that
died. And then I had the mis -- I was -- I was under the fortitude that I
had the right to be safe and I'm not supposed to be hurt and I had
if she witnessed the violence, and I left. If I had known what I know
now, I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have left. What I do now I
to her. I want her to know that there is no justice in courts when you
walk into those doors and you say you don't have the right. You don't
have the right. And Ricki knows that and a lot of people know that.
We've lost ten years. The only thing r can do is keep being a
that we've been through. I would just love to -- I will meet her again, I
know. I know that's not going to happen in the next four years.
the nation. You talk about doctors and psychiatrist Lundy Bancroft,
Silverman, Jaffe. r can't take that off the web. I don't own the internet.
was my daughter. And you guys are saying they're saying that's not
being a mom? I don't see my child. I can't sit back and watch the
games, I can't sit back and watch a movie with her. But I could see
my daughter in that little girl, and in every child that walks around r
do is as a mom. "m trying to proted her the best I can. Ten years has
gone by. I'm not going to get that back, and I'm not going to change
this yet, but for my daughter, I will. Because she deserves it and her
,/-----
......
;
I '
generation deserves it. Our children deserve the right to not be
I had a job, I had a whole life. I mean, I was crushed down. You
guys have crushed me down. The system has torn me apart and
thing called the internet and she found out about her mom, and back
in April she said, "I want to see my mom," when she thought a
you can't just sit there in two hours and see it. You have to get to
child in the only way that I'm allowed to. The system failed us. So I'm
going to I keep plugging and keep getting it out there. I won't let it
happen to her children. And the ex parte and the -- everything that
has happened in the past five years, right up to this day, I have never
had the opportunity, ever, to talk like I'm doing now which has totally
heart attack from doing his windows today and I didn't think I was
going to make it in. I'm going to just stick with the heart and I'm going
to stick with humanity and "m going to be the change that I want the
it to be safe. I want the world to be safe. I want her to know that she
has a lot of rights, and it's not just one sided, and it's going to take
everybody to do this so. That's the only way I know how to be a mom,
being made here, it would seem that the request is that somehow an
interest, and other than the self-serving statements that have been
made here, I don't think that there is any evidence to support that. In
fact, the evidence that has been adduced here would suggest
otherwise.
in this case since 1996 together, a fair amount of deference has been
shown to Ms. Dombroski throug hout these proceedings, but they are
would suggest that they are meritless and there is no support for
for Mr. Richardson's counsel, but for some of these people that are
ad Litem has had to sit here throughout this and each and every time
she has been called upon to do that. My guess is that she has a
and I think others, and I think that this motion is patently without
merit.
~,
I \
MS. DYKES: I just-
MS. DYKES: Thank you, Your Honor. Your Honor, I was
every time we've come into court, I've been a little nervous because
I've assured her that I would allow her voice to be heard through me.
And it's been difficult at times. There was one time that I brought
little more than what actually occurred that day. And I tried to
reassure her that I will go into court and I will fight for you and I will
try to get what you want to have happen in court. Well, last Friday
she turned 14, and in the court's eyes in some way, shape or form,
that is kind of a magic number, and courts tend to give a little more
And I would just ask the court today to please listen to what
Ricki is saying. She has spoken through the most current provider
time. She's had more contact with Ricki than any of the other
that Ricki does not want anything to change, that Ricki would let
does not believe that there is any harm in continuing along in this
fashion.
testify, stated that there are certain things that Ricki just wishes would
happen, and they are not complicated things at all. Ricki has
reiterated that same thing to me a dozen or more times. That she just
wants a mom. She doesn't want a best friend, she doesn't want
somebody hanging out with, she just wants someone there that can
be that can fill that role. And it doesn't happen. And no matter what
Ricki says, she talks and talks and talks, but somebody's got to listen
in order to hear what she is saying, and we just ask that you listen to
Ricki today and to deny the motion that is before the cou rt.
There's no way that Ricki is going to have a voice with the same stuff
that keeps being told over and over again. And we are to the point
---- - -
next four years in supervised visits with her because I can't make
because she doesn't have time to get to know her mom. So let's let
Ricki get to know her mom by separating her even further. That's not
~ 1--I can't even say, you can say however you want, but that's the
bottom line. Ricki wants a mom, but it's mom's fault, so lets separate
it, even if she would just do in the two hours every now and then here
and there, you know, zoooop, that two hours goes by so fast. And
that was the most wonderful two hours we've had in five years.
know, it's all in the record. I'm not going to repeat it. The truth is in
the record. It's just, you know, I'm down to $500 a month, so we'll just
keep on going like that and that's really going to make it better for
Ricki and her mom. You know, and really it's just going to make it
better for them to try to make me go away and keep Ricki separated
from her mom, and she does need mom. More than ever she needs
and that, whether they live with that parent or not, that's what I have
-_ _ -
.. .. ---~-~ ......... --~---- ..
filed in this case. There was simply no evidence that backed up your
the Social Security benefits. And quite frankly, all the witnesses in
this case testified that the best interests of the child in this case was
to leave the child where she is under the parenting time as it is now.
Now, Mr. Hoffman, I'm going to ask you to draw up the journal
Kansas Statutes, that contrary to the law, contrary to the law. Here
we are listening to the gossip section, skip the law part, and then
I~
STATE OF KANSAS )
) ss:
COUNTY OF SHAWNEE )
I, Misty M. Phillips, Transcriptionist of the Third
JUdicial District of the State of Kansas, do hereby certify that
the foregoing transcript contains all of the proceedings
requested to be transcribed: That said transcript, consisting
of 70 type written pages, is a correct and complete
transcript-- ( as correct and complete as a digital recording
will allow) -- from the digital recording made at the time of
the proceeding.
I further certify that the said transcript was made from a
digital recording and the recording was, at times, hard to
hear, to understand, people spoke at the same time at pOints
during the proceeding, and the transcription was done to the
best of my ability, having not been present at the time of
recording.
SIGNED, OFFICIALLY SEALED, and FILED, with
the Clerk of the District Court, Shawnee County, Kansas,
This 5th day of February 2009.
Misty M. Phillips
Transcriptionist