Therapist or The Rapist?

While I have never met the father, it was related to me that…

- Therapist Laurie Brooks Jefferson, MFT, in a sworn declaration

[Pictured is a very young Laurie Brooks Jefferson, circa 1974, in her acting days as a nurse in the low budget thriller "The Bat People]

Welcome to Family Court ! Meet Your First Character Assassin

I filed for divorce from Clair Marlo in June 2014. Basically nothing happened in court for the first year. I was thinking we could still parent our two kids, and still work together, while creating a fair division of our assets. Silly me, little did I know.

The very first actual hearing in my divorce case was Clair’s motion for sole physical and legal custody of our then 12-year-old daughter, and for sole possession of the family home. This family home was our 3,000 sq. ft. house in the hills of Sherman Oaks, and which had our recording studio, i.e. the source of our livelihood.

The motion papers filed with the Court contained a sworn declaration by a marriage and family therapist named Laurie Brooks Jefferson. Laurie Jefferson offered her declaration in support of Clair’s request for sole custody of our kid.

However, the actual declaration had been stealthily removed from the copy of the papers served on me. Clair’s attorney at the time was this thoroughly evil bitch named Jacqueline Blade. “Blade.” Great name for a divorce lawyer, right? Jackie “Razor” Blade! Jackie the Ripper! Make up your own joke.

[Pictured is attorney Jacqueline Y. Blade]

Only later would I discover that in her sworn Therapist Declaration, Laurie Jefferson (1) admitted that she had never even met me, but said it “had been related to her” that (2) I was a drug addict, that (3) I was a child abuser, that (4) I was an unsafe driver, and that (5) the my kid was afraid of me. [1] All of this was completely false, and was the beginning of what would eventually become brutal, court-sanctioned Parental Alienation Syndrome (“PAS”). But I hadn’t figured any of this out yet.

My Very First Hearing - Thirty Seconds to Lose My House and My Kid

So I show up to my first-ever hearing in Family Court on July 15, 2015, in front of Judge Virginia Keeny. I complained to Judge Keeny that there was no declaration in my copy, and that I did not know what it said. Judge Keeny said she did not believe me, because after all, there was on file a “proof of service.”

Judge Keeny said these were “very disturbing” allegations against me, and that I had “30 seconds” to argue my case, because she had another, obviously more important hearing to conduct. Judge Keeny wasn’t kidding. 30 seconds is what I got.

[Pictured is Judge Keeny, accepting some stupid award]

If you want to get your head around what I mean by “railroading,” imagine a judge granting sole custody and sole possession of the house to your ex after a 30-second hearing where you had no idea what the allegations even were against you let alone a chance to confront your accuser. I spent the next entire week inconsolably despondent. Wouldn’t you?

In fairness, the July 2015 grant of sole custody and exclusive use of the house was on a “temporary” basis, typical in Family Court. “Temporary” Orders are just the government’s way of getting you keep fighting and spending, spending and fighting for as long as possible.

Paraphrasing what Alec Baldwin said regarding his brutal custody battle with Kim Basinger, the Judge knows that you would “chew through a brick wall” to get your kid back. Anyone who doesn’t get that Family Court is an extortion racket just doesn’t know.

Not only did I lose custody, but Judge Keeny ordered “supervised” visitation, and Clair was allowed to be my supervisor! And, we were ordered into “co-parenting” sessions. Ultimately I attended about 5 or 6 such sessions in August – September 2015.

And just who do you suppose was the therapist at these “co-parenting” sessions? Why, it was none other than Laurie Brooks Jefferson, MFT, the very “professional” who had authored the false declaration that assassinated my character.

Mind you, at the time I was going to “co-parenting”, trying to earn back my right to see my own kid, I still did not know that Laurie Jefferson was the Assassin Therapist ™ who had filed the declaration. In October 2015, I finally got a copy from the filing clerk in the records department.

Want to Destroy Your Ex? Here’s a Good Start

I was absolutely stunned to read Laurie Jefferson’s fucking hit piece. All of the therapist's statements were not only completely false, but they violated two parts of the Code of Ethics of her own licensing board, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (“CAMFT”).

The Code of Ethics supposedly prohibits a therapist performing “dual roles” of therapist and custody evaluator, which is exactly what Laurie Jefferson did in my case. Laurie Jefferson admitted that she “in support of Respondent's request for sole legal custody,” and admitted that “the minor child … is my patient. I have had the opportunity to see her, take a history, examine her and treat her.” [2]

Obviously, Laurie Jefferson was performing Dual Roles of both custody evaluator and treating therapist, exactly what the Code supposedly prohibits.

And, the Code prohibits offering any opinion about a person who has not been evaluated. Nevertheless, Laurie Brooks Jefferson proceeded to rip me whole new one. Here are some choice excerpts:

The patient had a previous diagnosis by a psychiatrist and was prescribed medication which she is currently taking for anxiety, depression and ADHD. I concur with the diagnosis of the psychiatrist and I also maintain that there is an adjustment disorder with anxiety.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

False. Our daughter never had a diagnosis by a psychiatrist. She had a diagnosis by a Psy.D named Ken A. Williams (no relation to my expert Martin Williams). Although I didn’t know it at the time, discovery of emails eventually proved that Clair was dating this Ken Williams character at the time. And, the primary reason to get our daughter diagnosed and medicated was so that she could gain entry to a private school called Park Century, which only accepts medicated students.

As to an “adjustment disorder,” what that means is that our daughter was upset about “adjusting” to life without her kind and loving father. OK? What kind of a mental health professional actively alienates a child from her father, then “diagnoses” her resulting upset as “adjustment disorder?”

I observed that the patient was very clingy to her mother. She was extremely fragile and is just now starting to open up and talk about her anxiety. She does not want to be alone with her father.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

Of course our kid was “fragile” and had “anxiety.” She was confused and terrified. Her kind and loving father was being portrayed as a terrible and abusive person, and removed from her life. She didn’t believe any of these lies about me, but what is a kid supposed to do? She doesn’t dare cross her mother. Clair is a narcissistic rage-a-holic. Yes, parental alienation is a brutal form of child abuse and grownup abuse too.

She related to me that the father says mean things to her about the mother, he confides in the child and tells her his problems, becomes emotional and cries, and then seeks attention afterward by trying to show affection and hugging her.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

The “mean things” I said about Clair all relate to the November 2013 incident where Ryan Shay and I straightened up the kitchen. You see, Clair is a hoarder. At all times during our 20 year marriage, we had 2-3 times as much stuff as could possibly fit in the house. There were piles and piles of everything all over the floor in every room, and more stuff arriving all the time.

In the kitchen, we owned twice as many plates and pots and pans as could possibly fit in the cabinets. In November 2013, Clair went to Croatia by herself for a week. Shay and I straightened up the kitchen, and it was totally neat for the first time ever.

Shay responded amazingly to having this orderly environment. The whole rest of the week, she brought her homework down to the kitchen table at the same time every afternoon, and we worked on it together. This, from a kid who before would refuse to do homework. Ryan Shay was positively thriving in the new orderly environment.

When Clair returned back from Croatia to find the neat kitchen, and heard my report that Shay was thriving, Clair went absolutely ballistic. If you have never dealt with a hoarder, it might be a little hard to understand. But Clair is super defensive about her hoarding. She loves and needs piles of clutter, while being literally afraid and repulsed by neatness and order. So yeah, I said to both of our children that “mom is a hoarder and needs help.” And that was me “saying mean things” about mom. How about all the mean stuff about me that Clair “related to” our kid and to Laurie Jefferson about me? Ah, that doesn’t count.

As to my “confinding” in my daughter, telling her my “problems”, and crying and becoming emotional – here’s what that is about. In spring of 2015, after Clair had locked and alarmed me out of our house, and forced me to leave, I packed a few things in my Jeep, and prepared to leave. This, after 17 years of being a loving and very involved father with our two daughters.

So, I told Ryan Shay that I loved her, that I would miss her, that I didn’t want to leave, but had no choice. And yes, I shed a single tear, and I hugged her. So this is what the-rapist Laurie Brooks Jefferson says is emotional child abuse. If you loved your kid, and were being forced to leave, and your kid was being told that fathers are unnecessary, wouldn’t that make you sad? Wouldn’t it be strange for me not to be sad? Should I not have hugged my girl and said I would miss her?

According to Laurie Jefferson:

This type of emotional abuse [telling your daughter you love her, that you don’t want to leave, and that you will miss her] is very distressing to the child and makes her very uncomfortable; she does not know what to do or how to handle the situation. This inappropriate behavior by the father does not happen when the mother is present, only when they are alone.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

Of course the child does not know how to handle this. Duh. Why should either of our kids be forced to pretend that dad was a monster, when they know in their hearts that I was a good dad? Why should she have had to “handle” anything? Sane divorcing parents acutally allow the kids to have a relationship with both parents. I’ve seen it work just fine in the real world. The kids mirror the attitude displayed by the grownups.

Only later would I learn that Clair was alienating to distract from her decade of financial fraud. That’s how parental alienation works – the alienating parent must portray the target parent as a monster, otherwise there is no reason to take the child away. The-rapist continues:

While I have never met the father, it was related to me that has a history of drug addiction. If the child were to get in a car with him it would be dangerous. Drug addiction would render the father incapable of attending to his parental responsibilities.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

“It was related to me…”!?!? For fucks sake, isn’t that hearsay? In fact, it is double-hearsay. Any written declaration is hearsay, because it is comprised of statements made out of court. It is double-hearsay, because Laurie Jefferson is attributing a bunch of horrible allegations to some other, unnamed person.

For the record, I am not a drug addict, I have never gotten a DUI, I have no at-fault collisions in my entire life of driving, and there is no reason whatsoever to say that I am an unsafe driver. According to the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, I had a right to confront my accuser, and that is the purpose of the hearsay rule in the first place.

A fair trial does not simply accept what somebody wrote down on a piece of paper as the truth. The accuser must appear as a witness, and must be subjected to cross-examination. I was never allowed to cross-examine Laurie Jefferson, she was never even made to come to court. If you want to begin to understand “stonewalling,” just pretend that some Constitution somewhere says you have the right to confront your accuser, then come to Family Court and try for a few years. Wouldn’t you want to ask questions of a the-rapist who said:

Further, his behavior is so inappropriate that his daughter is afraid to be alone with him. It is my professional opinion and recommendation that the visits remain monitored until the father obtains drug treatment and undergoes his own therapy. He does not have appropriate boundaries With the child and should not tell his child the problems he has in life.

It is not the child's role or responsibility to listen her father's cry for help and guidance because it is traumatic and it creates a cruel and heavy burden for her to carry.

-Laurie Brooks Jefferson, 6-22-2015 Declaration

If you want to know what “gaslighting” is about, try this: You shed a tear as you are forced to leave and say goodbye to your daughter, who you love with all your heart - that’s “inappropriate.” But, a supposed licensed mental health professional violating multiple ethical rules and bringing a pack of lies to court, then refuses to testify, all successfully calculated to destroy the relationship between a father and daughter characterizing the resulting upset in the child as “admustment disorder,” all while admitting that she never even met you. And that’s OK?

No, the work of Assassin Therapist Laurie Jefferson, evil Family Law lawyer Jackie “Razor” Blade and parental alienator Clair Marlo was was the first round of railroading, stonewalling and gaslighting. So what could I do about it?

At the time, I was still laboring under the misconception that law exists and that I rights. Even for a voluntaryist like me, the brainwashing we have all been subjected to is insidious. I so wanted to believe. So, I searched out and found a mental health ethics expert named Martin H. Williams, Ph.D.

Dr. Williams was not just a mental health ethics expert, he was a co-author of the very code of ethics that Laurie Jefferson violated. Dr. Williams provided me with his own sworn Declaration, stating Laurie Jefferson’s conduct was “grossly negligent,” and “an extreme departure from the standard of care.”

[Pictured is Dr. Martin H. Williams, Ph.D]

I tried to file a Motion in Family Court to modify child custody. It took over a year to get on calendar, and when Judge Keeny finally took it up, it still was nothing resembling a hearing on the merits. First, Laurie Jefferson was never made to come to court, despite my subpoenas. Remember, a sworn declaration promises that the declarant is willing to testify if called. That turned out to be a lie, just like Laurie Jefferson’s entire declaration was a pack of lies.

Worse, Judge Keeny would not consider Dr. Williams, who was ready, willing and able to come to court and testify that Laurie Jefferson’s conduct was grossly negligent and violated ethics. But Judge Keeny would not consider it, and didn’t bother to explain why. Judge Keeny denied my request to regain joint custody. After all, since I was not allowed to confront my accuser, and my own star witness was excluded, well, there just isn’t any evidence in my favor, now is there?

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the right to “family unity,” i.e. the right to parent your child, is a fundamental constitutional right. [3] “Fundamental” supposedly means that no Court can infringe on that right without due process, and the highest level of judicial scrutiny. But that’s complete bullshit. Temporary custody orders are not even appealable.

And, even if temporary orders were appealable, the burden of proof is supposed to be the other way around. A prosecutor should be required to prove you are an unfit parent before taking your child from you. Taking a child away from a parent is a criminal punishment. According to the constitution, in any criminal proceeding, you’re supposed to have a right to an attorney, the right to a jury trial etc. etc. etc. [4]

None of this is true. The supposed “protections” in the “Bill of Rights” is complete bullshit. My kid (and my house) was taken from me in one 30 second hearing, where I had no idea what was even going on.

Board Complaint to the CAMFT

In the spring of 2016 I filed a complaint with CAMFT, attaching a copy of Dr. Williams’ declaration. After a month or so, they sent me back a lovely letter saying that the standard of proof to trigger some sort of disciplinary action against Laurie Jefferson would be “clear and convincing evidence.” And, They said, there just was not “clear and convincing evidence” that this therapist violated her ethical standards.

The CAMFT said precisely nothing about the fact that their own expert, Dr. Martin H. Williams, had reviewed Jefferson’s conduct in my case and found it to be “grossly negligent” and an “extreme departure from the standard of care.” So the CAMFT did nothing.

I came away believing that licensing boards like the CAMFT are not here to protect us from unethical professionals. Rather, They exist to protect the professionals by acting as a sort of “lightening rod,” diverting the static safely to the ground.

Trying to Sue Laurie Brooks Jefferson for Gross Negligence

In the spring of 2016 I filed a lawsuit against Laurie Brooks Jefferson, alleging professional negligence, i.e malpractice. She wrote a declaration full of lies that cost me my house and custody of my daughter. She violated 2 major parts of her Code of Ethics by performing dual roles, and by giving opinions about me without evaluating me. Then she formed a treatment relationship with me, without disclosing that she had filed any declaration, let alone a blatantly unethical one. I didn’t find out that Laurie Jefferson was the one who assassinated my character in court until after.

In the sessions of my “co-parenting” therapy with Laurie Jefferson, she told me that what was best for my then 12-year-old daughter was that she become “strong and independent.” That didn’t sound so bad, until it became clear that Laurie Jefferson is a radical feminist who believes that fathers are unnecessary in a child’s life. Never mind that studies prove that a fatherless childhood is the #1 predictor of all sorts of negative outcomes, including criminality, drug use, teen pregnancy, suicide, and welfare dependency.

After about 5 or 6 of these hideous “therapy” sessions with Laurie Brooks Jefferson, I formed the opinion that she hated men, and found men to be unnecessary on this planet. She seriously teaches that fathers are a negative influence on children, and that basically all children would be better off without them. The entire focus was trying to help me “adjust” to this new and enlightened way of thinking, and helping our daughter to “adjust” to a fatherless life, hence her treatment for “adjustment disorder.”

There was no question in my mind that Laurie Jefferson had committed malpractice, in her treatment of me, and of my daughter too. So I drafted and filed a lawsuit. At first I brought the case on behalf of my daughter as well as myself. I did not realize that Judge Keeny had ordered sole “legal custody” to Clair. “Legal custody” refers to the decision making authority over such matters as medical treatment, education and yes, lawsuits.

The reason I did not know that Clair had obtained legal custody is because I was never served an order that says that. But, after I filed the first version of the Jefferson lawsuit, attorney Blade was happy to send me a copy of the transcript where Judge Keeny said sole legal custody – on a temporary basis - to mother. So, I filed an amended complaint, captioning just myself as plaintiff.

To cut to the chase, my lawsuit against Laurie Jefferson was dismissed on demurrer by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dalila C. Lyons. [5] The dismissal was upheld on appeal.

The basis for dismissing my case was two-fold. One, it was found that I failed to allege an actual treatment relationship with Jefferson. Two, it was held that Ms. Jefferson’s statements in her declaration were “absolutely privileged” under the doctrine known as the “litigation privilege.”

As to the first, it’s just a lie. I absolutely had a treatment relationship with Jefferson, the “co-parenting” sessions, and she absolutely injured me and my daughter in the process. And, it was all in the complaint. So, They just lied about that. Really, it’s that crude.

As to the “litigation privilege,” it’s a bullshit law. Sure, They made a law [6] saying that you can lie in court and nobody can sue you over it, not even if you can prove you were severely injured. Is it any wonder that that entire Civil, Family, Child Welfare and Probate systems are corrupted by relentless dishonesty?

OK? Think about it. They make a rule that says it’s OK to lie in court. They will even sanction you if you try to sue somebody for lying in court. But then, they swear witnesses in by making them “solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” If it’s not gaslighting, what the fuck is it?

[1] See Laurie Brooks Jefferson Declaration at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rlV6nEz4TK9YJqlMRtqdU8Dc5fe6_4A/view?usp=sharing [2] See https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19kB2bcV-Q4SDfYco_rEsUMrFjrBfREMg [3] Among other cases, see Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), finding a constitutional right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. [4] See U.S. Const., Amend VI [5] In California, they give the funny name “demurrer” to a motion to dismiss. [6] In California, the “litigation privilege” is encoded at Cal. Civ. Code § 47 (b).