I am writing to you to bring to your attention the willful refusal at Ionia County (Michigan) Friend of the Court (FOC) to view and properly weigh evidence of domestic violence, and the illegal religious bias which guides Jessica K. Wierckzs (Friend of the Court & Circuit Court Referee), and her staffs, decisions.
There is a pattern of domestic violence not being weighted correctly, or even being recognized as legitimately existing. This is heart breaking and terrifying for me personally, but this injustice is harming the children of our entire community.
I am not the only woman to experience this unfair bias. I spent April in a domestic violence shelter (RAVE) where three women I met also lost custody of their children to their abusers. We all left the marital home, and this was factored against us, tilting the scales of justice to award full custody of the children to whoever stayed in the home. I remember listening while one young mother spent hours crying, before making the wrenching decision to return to her abuser.
She was forced back home because FOC Referee was going to award full custody of her 6 month old baby to the
man who controlled her life with violence. The same referee, Jessica K. Wierckz, Friend of the Court & Circuit Court Referee, made the decisions in all these cases.
On November 2, I fled the life I had built - because I was afraid of further abuse from my husband. I left my home because I was afraid to stay.
My husband got to court first. I think he had been trying to drive me out to gain the advantage of staying in the marital home.in an ex parte hearing, where I was not present, my husband made false allegations about me, which have since been
conclusively disproved. The FOC believed him, removed my children from me and gave full custody of my little children
(Ilsa was 3 when I left, and Soren was 6) to my husband. I was a stay at home Mom and should have been granted physical custody of the minor children in accordance with precident.
This decision has been upheld every step of the way, despite testimony during which my husband told palpable lies,
and testified that I am an atheist. I am not an atheist, and the fact that he would lie about God gives one an idea as
to how low he will stoop. The court believed his a testimony about my religious belief, over my own - and he was credited with the Moral Fitness factor for his religious upbringing of the children. He was credited over me. My husband has an
OUI conviction (with 2 felony counts of fleeing and eluding and resisting arrest that he got lawyered down to misdemeanors), a substantiated DHS report of strangling my son, testimony was given by a Board Member of my husband's former employer about my husband's misconduct with his employees which lead to his being fired from his job, and the childrens
therapist testified Dad seems easily irritated and frustrated to me like he could snap but he stays under control.
I thought I would go to court and get justice. I am shocked and appalled to find that one full year later, my husband still has full custody of our children.
It appears that the FOC is unwilling to contemplate the possibility that I am telling the truth if what I told the court is true, then the FOC has put my children in harms way by removing them from my custody, and handing them over to my abusive husband.
I lived with my husband for 8 years. I know the man. He is enjoying this he likes strategy games. Hearing testimony shows my husband to be a man so driven to control others that he is willing to back it up with physical violence, as well as the much less detectable controls that can be used on emotions and possessions.
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