Divorce Matters

Welcome to the Divorce Matters Podcast, where we give unfiltered, unadulterated guidance for how to survive family courts. We will give you no-nonsense, straight forward strategies for beating the system. We guarantee you won’t hear this advice anywhere else. A reminder that we are not attorneys and this is not legal advice. However, we’ll help you more than any attorney ever will.

The $21.3 Million Verdict That Rocked the Family Court System 02/28/2024

The $21.3 Million Verdict That Rocked the Family Court System Welcome to Divorce Matters, a podcast where we delve into the intricate and often misunderstood world of divorce, custody battles, and the legal system that navigates these turbulent waters. Today, we're unpacking a case that has captured national attention and sparked a significant conversation about the integrity of the family court system, the impact of false allegations in custody disputes, and the profound emotional toll these battles take on families. Our focus is on a landmark $21.3 million jury verdict awarded in a disputed Colorado custody case, a verdict that calls into question the actions of an ex-husband, the decisions of family court evaluators, and the rulings of a judge that led to a mother being barred from any contact with her children based on allegations now deemed to be falsely manipulated. -------------------------------------------- SPONSORED BY WE'D LOVE YOUR DONATION ------------------------------------------ This case, stemming from Routt County, Colorado, involves Cynthia Hayek, a mother who lost all contact with her children due to her ex-husband Steven Herron's allegations that her new fiancé sexually abused one of their children. These allegations, which were later found to be part of a "false narrative" cultivated by Herron, led to a series of legal and child protective actions that isolated Hayek from her children and ultimately resulted in a jury finding Herron liable for defamation, conspiracy, outrageous conduct, abuse of process, and malicious prosecution. As we dive into the details of this case, we'll explore the implications of the jury's verdict, the systemic issues it highlights within the family court system, and the path forward for those seeking justice and reform in similar disputes. Join us as we navigate the complex, heart-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful journey of Cynthia Hayek and the broader lessons this case teaches us about the power of perseverance, the importance of truth, and the need for systemic change in our family courts. Details Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant: Cynthia Hayek, an individual V. Defendants/Counterclaimant/Third Party Plaintiff: Steven Herron, an individual; and Christine Herron, an individual, V. Third Party Defendant: Kenneth Wayne Hamp, an individual. This case revolves around a deeply contentious and complex legal battle stemming from the divorce and subsequent disputes between Cynthia Hayek and Steven Herron, involving allegations of child abuse, manipulation, and emotional distress. After their divorce, Herron and Hayek became embroiled in a series of legal confrontations, with Herron accusing Hayek and her boyfriend, Kenneth Wayne Hamp, of various forms of abuse towards their children, leading to a series of investigations and legal claims. These allegations, which Hayek contends are entirely fabricated and part of a "False Narrative" created by Herron to gain an advantage in custody and parenting disputes, have led to a multifaceted legal battle involving claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The case highlights the severe personal and legal ramifications of such disputes, touching on the emotional toll on all parties involved, the impact on the children at the center of the allegations, and the broader implications for the legal and community systems navigating such deeply personal and contentious issues. In light of the resolution of this contentious custody case, where a jury awarded $21.3 million in damages after finding that the ex-husband corruptly manipulated proceedings to gain full custody by falsely alleging abuse, here are revised questions reflecting the allegations and the jury award: Legal and Ethical Implications: "With a $21.3 million verdict against Steven Herron for defamation, conspiracy, outrageous conduct, abuse of process, and malicious prosecution, what message does this send about the use of false allegations in custody disputes?" /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/30143648

Justice Denied: The Shocking Truth Behind Family Courts in San Diego 03/13/2023

Justice Denied: The Shocking Truth Behind Family Courts in San Diego Join us as we delve into the harrowing story of a 61-year-old woman who fell victim to the corrupt family courts in San Diego, California. With two judges admitting to the falsification of a court judgment by her ex-husband, a CPA and forensic accountant who specializes in fraud, the courts have yet to take action and fix their error. Our podcast seeks to uncover the truth behind the injustice faced by countless families in the San Diego family court system and shed light on the need for change. About Karie Mcewen I am a 61-year-old woman who is the victim of the family courts in San Diego CA. Two judges, one being the Presiding Judge Michal T. Smyth have admitted that the court took a fake judgment that my ex-husband who is a CPA, a Forensic accountant specializing in fraud had submitted to the court and got a clerk to stamp it to make it appear real with the court's stamp on it. This Judgment did not show in the register of action. The Judge whose name is on the fake Judgment and the two attorneys whose names are on the fake Judgement have all said it never happened . My ex-husband has walked away with all my retirement and has left me and my autistic son penniless. My question to the court is when the courts make a mistake who fixes it? The court media person Emily Cox said Judge Michael T. Smyth sent this to the D.A.’s Office to be investigated in August 10, 2022 three days later the D.A.’s office said they did not have enough to prove my ex-husband who has worked with the DA's office on many cases and has been exonerated. The DA's office also ignored Judge Ratekin in 2019 who also sent this fake document and a fake wage assignment to have the D.A. to only be ignored. The courts have enough evidence to prove it did not happen. Two judges now have been sent the judgment and fake wage assignment to the D.A. 's office. To date 5 years have passed and the court still has not fixed the error. There is no dispute of the validity that the Judgment was a fake and was never heard in front of a Judge and was never a court ruling. The courts have admitted in open court that the Judgment was fake, and the court clerk should not have stamped it. I have the tape recording of the Judge saying it in court in 2019. I have spent thousands of dollars to have the court fix their error. Who fixes a court error in Family court in San Diego? I still have not had one judge fix the court error and to date still am being held to this fake Judgment. The courts have delayed this case until October of 2024. Due process is not a real thing in family court in San Diego. /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/26219457

Law Enforcement Officer Discusses Parental Alienation and Custody Battles 03/06/2023

7 Ways to Prepare for a Divorce 03/04/2023

Stolen Innocence: The Shocking Story of a San Diego Family Torn Apart by CPS 02/25/2023

Navigating an Abusive Court System with an Abusive Spouse 02/18/2023

Navigating an Abusive Court System with an Abusive Spouse Join legal experts Lisa Johnson and Chris Barry in this episode as they discuss the abusive nature of family court systems. With firsthand experience dealing with clients across the world, they share their perspectives on the corruption and cronyism within the industry that leads to extreme cases of high-conflict divorce. Tune in to learn about the challenges faced by good parents and the problems with the current court system that prioritizes money over the well-being of children. So let's jump right in now, though. Lisa, you were in Connecticut. Is that correct? Is that the court system that you're in? And then Chris, where were you? New York only? Okay, so you guys have got a northeast perspective, which isn't too far off from California. I think they share a lot of things. Whereas other parts of the country can be quite different actually. Yeah, but I would. I would agree that the family court system is quite abusive, I actually think they encourage it. And I'm not talking everybody everyone knows I have an asterisk next to most things I say, because I've met some good judges. But they're the exception, not the rule. But I feel like most courts are have been developed. A family courts have been developed to encourage this type of behavior because their friends get richer off of it. And again, not every judge but I feel like most of the stuff could be shut down very quickly. And most of these things can be resolved in a room or in two or three days. But they're not but because of all the money involved. So either one of you chime in where am i right? Or am I wrong? Okay, well, we have this weekly legal abuse support group, we meet on Sundays for about an hour and a half over zoom with clients from all over the world, different laws, same issues, everywhere that we know of that speaks English, where we have clients. And we say that divorce is a tremendous money making industry. And that it's not just you and your difficult ex, but they're actively participating in keeping these things going these high conflict cases and everybody benefits, except you and your children. And so, Chris, why do you think that is? Do you think these people are truly evil? Do you think like, they're just trying to attract money? Or the pirates? What are they? So I think, I think maybe calling them evil is a little bit of a stretch, maybe? Certainly, there are some evil ones out there. But I think so there's a couple of different contributing factors. One is, there's ignorance, right, because most people enter the court system in a divorce, they're angry, there's a reason they never got married, thinking we're when we get divorced, this is how it will be they don't intend to get divorced. So something happened and it got bad enough that they ended the relationship. And sometimes, you know, if their kids involved, they really really didn't want to end it. But it got so bad that they had to so people start off angry. But usually, you know, after a year or nine months, year, year and a half, most rational people calm down. So when what the case is, at least I deal with, there's something going on with our clients, former former partner, where you know, it's a like a mental health issue, whether it's narcissism or borderline, you know, we're not psychologists, we're not qualified to, to diagnose anyone, we look at the behaviors. And it's amazing how consistent the behaviors are, you know, we don't need a label, we look at the behaviors. So that's, that's the biggest factor in the ones that we deal with, we deal with the 5% were that people never the other spouse never comes down. Their anger never subsides, they act irrationally, they spend way more, you know, at least we'll talk about her case, but they spend way more on attorneys fees than if they just reached a reasonable settlement to begin with. So that's that's one. That's the biggest one for us. That the courts don't understand that stuff. It doesn't always take two to tango. Let me challenge you on something. What do you mean, the courts don't understand that you don't think they understand what's going on? They don't they look at these high conflict, generally speaking, okay. You know, not in every case. But generally speaking, they look at when two people are fighting, they can't settle. That it's both their fault. They're both the you know, the term is mutual combat. Yeah. You know, or takes two to tango is another thing that people say all the time. They're not sophistic judges, you're so overloaded with it with cases, they just want you out of their your business transaction to them. Right, so why won't you settle and they get angry at both parties, without having the time or the expertise to like dig deep into what's going on. Also, you know, the toxic personalities, which I know this isn't about toxic personalities. But those people there, they're really, really persuasive. They're manipulative, they've been practicing it for really their entire adult lives. So they go in there and they spin these fantastic lies, and distractions, all kinds of stuff. The other issue though, is because I know I'm going on with this response. A big part of it also, is this sort of this cronyism system that's grown up around divorce. So whether it be parenting, you know, custody evaluators, parenting coordinators, guardian ad litem, or as we call them in, in New York attorneys for the children. Michael's YouTube Videos Contact Michael at www.judicialrevolution.us Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/25970922

Robert Emert Update and Are there Good San Diego Judges? 02/16/2023

Robert Emert Update and Are there Good San Diego Judges? Where are we with the Robert Emert case? A lot of you have been emailing and calling and all that. So he's still in jail. Unfortunately, if you don't recall, we had a, a podcast about this thing a few episodes ago. And because he's still in jail, literally for ridiculous reasons. Things that I believe were either made up by the DEA or exaggerated. In order to teach Ron the lesson, he filed a federal lawsuit. This is a title 42 USC 9083, which is essentially a federal lawsuit used against people that are violating his civil rights under color of law. And he named nine defendants because you can't sue the state, typically, unless they violate your ADEA, which are Americans with disabilities. And they did. So in part, he sued a state actor, I don't believe he sued a state. But he didn't sue nine people in total that were violating his civil rights, including the DEA investigator, Luis Pena, here in San Diego, who I believe was the one that was behind this with another woman that's in the DHS office, just basically a travesty. And these are the things that the people have to rise up and demand change. Because if you can throw a dad in jail, who was for all intents and purposes, one of the best dads of the year, he just got angry with the courts who were trying to take his son away from them and put them put him in the home. So now, we're in a situation where he's got a federal lawsuit, which they've got 21 days to respond. I think that was from February 7. So we'll get back on at the end of the month and talk to you about what happened there. We just witnessed a preliminary hearing, I believe it was yesterday where they presented their evidence. And I can tell you, I was looking at the DA was looking at Louis Pena, these people are nervous. Her hand was shaking, and she was reading from it because they know this is a fraud. It's BS, what they're trying to do. And if they win, and they set precedents here, then if you miss, or if you have an infraction of any sort, and they deem you, as someone that they don't like, then hey, you could be arrested without bail. It's insane. And they know it. Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Contact Michael at www.judicialrevolution.us Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to www.KidsMatter.charity Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to KidsMatter.charity https://kidsmatter.charity/campaigns/kids-matter-donate/donate/ /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/25954641

Attorney Shawn McMillan on How to Sue CPS 01/17/2023

Marshals Arrest Father and Son For Parental Abduction and Give No Bail 01/08/2023

Use this Case Law If Your Spouse is Hiding Assets 11/20/2022

If Your Kids Were Taken by CPS, You Must Use This Case Law 11/17/2022

If Your Kids Were Taken by CPS, You Must Use This Case Law Guest Mark Esquibel and I break down the Child Protective Case Wallis v. Spencer, 202 F.3d 1126, 1130 (9th Cir. 1999) and how it applies to a case in Los Angeles. If CPS has taken your kids, this is a must-listen podcast. Cases Cited Right to Lie case Case Law - Wallis versus Spencer Dr. Charles Sophy – Starting at minute 24 Sean McMIllian is the Attorney on the LA Case Wallis v. Spencer, 202 F.3d 1126, 1130 (9th Cir. 1999) (“Because the swing of every pendulum brings with it potential adverse consequences, it is important to emphasize that in the area of child abuse, as with the investigation and prosecution of all crimes, the state is constrained by the substantive and procedural guarantees of the Constitution. The fact that the suspected crime may be heinous — whether it involves children or adults — does not provide cause for the state to ignore the rights of the accused or any other parties.”) Wallis v. Spencer, 202 F.3d 1126, 1131 (9th Cir. 1999) (“ Escondido police officers, evidently acting on the basis of a non-existent court order, seized the children, aged two and five, placed them in a county-run institution, and several days later, without obtaining judicial authorization and without notifying their parents, took them to a hospital for the performance of highly intrusive anal and vaginal physical examinations. The children were not returned to their parents for approximately two and one-half months. All of this occurred after a mental patient who had a long history of delusional disorders and was confined to a mental institution told her therapist a fantastic tale of Satanic witchcraft within her family and an impending child sacrifice. T”) The district court initially granted the City's motion for summary judgment on the erroneous theory that the action was collaterally estopped by a preliminary ruling of the juvenile court referee, and we reversed. Subsequently, the district court again granted the City summary judgment, this time on the merits. Again, we reverse. /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/25053894

A Pro Se University that Shows Results 11/04/2022

The Judge in this Washington State Divorce Case is Out of Control 10/28/2022

The Judge in this Washington State Divorce Case is Out of Control Today I discuss a case in Washington where a judge will not recuse himself despite mountains of evidence against him. Predrag has tried everything but to no avail. Learn what I would do in his situation. About our Guest Predrag Tosic "My name is very South-Slavic. Both my first and last names are unique to the former Yugoslavia. I was born and raised in Belgrade. What was Yugoslavia at the time, and is today the capital of Serbia. And you know I've been in this country [the US] for about 30 years now, ever since my undergraduate college. I lived in about eight different states, moving around a lot especially between 2006 when I got my PhD and 2015. I also used to live and work in your state of California, in Silicon Valley. I also lived in Maryland, Illinois, Texas, Idaho and different parts of Washington state. My graduate school was where I spent the longest, almost 10 years; I have three degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And then since about 2015, I've been living in the Pacific Northwest, mostly in Washington State and also briefly Idaho. And this is where I got married. A blunder as it turned out if you are heterosexual male, given the massive gender-bias in Washington state when it comes to divorce/custody, but especially when it comes to DV (domestic violence). My daughter Mira was born in Pullman, Washington in the early 2017. Her mother, my ex-wife, is a greater Seattle native. When Mira was a baby, her mother she literally took off with the kid and moved some 300 miles across the state, against my will. It was a book-example of parental abduction, however I made a mistake not treating it as such from the get-go, naively fooling myself it was “just post partum” rather than a premeditated action. Then-wife played games about coming back or not coming back to where the child was born and where I still lived. Then, prior to even establishing a proper residence there, later in 2017 she files for divorce in Seattle, King County, which is the worst for fathers in divorce and child custody, together with Pierce County (just south of King; where the city of Tacoma is located). The entire state of Washington is very bad for fathers, but these two counties (in the uber-woke, de facto one- party ruled western Washington state) are the worst. King County should have never been the proper venue for either divorce or child custody litigation. The gender based discrimination in western Washington is rampant. Family court corruption is rampant. These people are just looking to line up their pockets and pockets of their buddies among greedy lawyers, various “evaluators” and fake experts, and the like. The Constitution and one’s protected rights are blatantly and knowingly violated, whereas the well-being, let alone actual best interest, of the children involved in this quagmire are but a buzzword used by the abusive, corrupt family court judges, but in reality aren’t even an afterthought to those same judges and various “children’s advocates” who are destroying families and (usually) making children fatherless or nearly-fatherless for profits. It’s beyond corrupt and is indeed truly sick; I believe, based on my experience and what I know of other fathers’ experiences in the state of Washington, that these so-called “family courts” are so bad, corrupt and lawless, they are already beyond redemption or being “reformable”; they should be abolished altogether, as the amount of harm they cause is truly astounding! Divorce Matters Actual podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/divorce-matters/id1545876069 Divorce Matters Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Contact Michael at www.judicialrevolution.us Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to www.KidsMatter.charity Keywords Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to KidsMatter.charity https://kidsmatter.charity/campaigns/kids-matter-donate/donate/ /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/24826977

How to Legally Complain and Remove a Judge 09/13/2022

How to Legally Complain and Remove a Judge Today we will show you how to legally complain and remove a judge. The system has made it difficult, but Angel breaks down how to do it properly. Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Want to help us fight judicial injustice? Donate to KidsMatter.charity Transcript: We have a returning guest Angel law. That's a pseudonym because she's so mixed up in so many cases. But she's here to explain something that I have a lot of interest in. And I'm sure a lot of you will, and that is how to properly complain and get your judges or attorneys in trouble for violating your rights or the law, or the million other things that they do so with that. Angel, let's talk about what it is that you've done and what you've figured out and what a lot of people don't know just an overview. Right. So what has recently happened was, I was a unique case, where I was able to remove a judge from my own matter by filing a motion to disqualify the judge based upon the judges. very terrible conduct. And this is the most difficult way to remove a judge. And it's fraught with obstacles, and it's something you wouldn't want to do. But in the course of figuring that out. Prior to asking the judge to remove himself because of his misconduct, I can first started off with making a complaint to the presiding judge of my courthouse. And this is really important because you can usually obtain a form by contacting the clerk of your court. And there's an official form that you can even fill out in handwriting. It's about two pages long so special complaint to the presiding judge and you send it in. The presiding judge has 30 days to respond, and they must respond within 30 days. Notice it's something I was looking for be a wonderful tool for all of us if we flood the court. And we drive the presiding judges into having an answer for the accordance conduct of their subordinate judges. We could maybe let them know hey, we know that you guys aren't supposed to be doing this. And Mr. Presiding or Mrs. Presiding Judge. You have an administrative and supervision advisory duty to do something about that. And maybe at least it's you know, just because they're they don't want to do the work. They might say to their subordinate judges. Hey, knock this off. I've got too many complaints to respond to so step number one, when you got to an awful judge is preparing to remove them with either a one or a coordinated effort where you're going to complain to the presiding and then you're going to complain to the BJP. But you don't want to complain. You thought though, I would just interject that doing it. This way to remove the judges is a lot harder than just go into 171 one 70.11 7.3 Or one 70.6 If you haven't recused anyone yet, right? And I, you know, in my experience, when I read the California Code of Civil Procedure, and this is not legal advice, this is my personal experience. I had a conversation with an appellate attorney, and a one 70.6 is a peremptory challenge. That means within 10 days of being appointed, a new judge, like your case is assigned to a new judicial officer. You're supposed to have 10 days and you left to complete your motion to challenge that judge and have an offense. Basically, /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/24365256

This Man's Horrible Case is a Case Study in Family Court Corruption 09/11/2022

How to Disqualify a Judge 08/02/2022

How to Disqualify a Judge A reminder that we are not attorneys. And this is not legal advice. However, we will help you more than any attorney ever will. And now here's your hosts, Michael Alexander and Mark Fidelman. Hello, everyone, welcome to divorce matters. Oh my god, you know who's back? Michael Alexander. I can't believe it. He's finally decided to come out of this retirement and do another show. And his name is on the freakin headline. So I'm glad to have you back. Michael. We have a very special show today. A lot of you are going to want to hear this. It is about recusing a judge we have found another tactic. Again, I want to say only recuse bad judges, you can't be using this to recuse somebody that's ruling fairly that you don't like because you're the problem has to be a bad judge that does bad things. So with that said, Michael, welcome back to the show. Thank you. Pleasure to not see you again. And we also have a special guest. We're gonna call her Angel law today because we don't want her to be inundated with requests for her to help you. She's not an attorney, she is in an attorney's firm, same one that I'm associated with, but neither one of us are attorney. So this isn't legal advice. We're just going to talk about her case. And, well, Angel, why don't you introduce yourself real quick. Thank you so much for the very warm introduction. I am a litigant, a survivor of victim and now warrior of the family court system. So I am no different than every person listening to my voice right now. I am in your shoes, I was in your shoes, you might be somewhere different on the journey. I am a proud mother of three wonderful children. And we have endured nine years of a an amoral court system. I've seen the worst of the worst in my case and in many others. And I feel joyful and privileged to be here today to give some good news. I guess I could describe myself as the court Houdini, but I am still inside of there nine years later without ever having had a trial. All that being said, I have successfully removed a 730 custody evaluator for my case, I have successfully removed a therapist, I have successfully removed a parenting plan coordinator and all the other cottage industry charlatans. Perhaps my golden star came when a corrupt bag of puke minors counsel was appointed to my case over my objection. And the miners Council refused to take the case because of my name being involved. And all of this culminated to the final removal of a very, very, very bad judge. So without further ado, that's kind of my resume. My experience of the Family Court. All right, so let me summarize. Summarize it real quick. You haven't had a trial, it's been nine years, you've had a lot of bad actors, which we all know, are part of the system to extract as much money out of you as possible. It's not going to be in everyone's case. But I think the majority of cases I've seen, this is what's going on, you figure out how to remove all of them. You had one thorn in your side, which was a bad judge, how long was that bad judge part of your case? Well, Mark, it's really good and important question. My matter had been in front of one very corrupt judge for eight years, I did not know how to get rid of him. And the one 170.1 motion that I'm about to describe that I used with the new judge would not have worked once I had a judge on for many years, but we'll touch upon alternate Sponsored by Kids Matter www.kidsmatter.charity donate to give kids a voice in divorce Michael's YouTube Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/MrPropriaPersona1 Contact Michael at www.judicialrevolution.u /episode/index/show/divorcematters/id/23939166

How to Disqualify a Judge 08/02/2022

This Father Lost His Son Because of a Transgender Legal Issue 06/30/2022

Is Family Court Corrupt? 05/19/2022

This Group Helps Alienated Parents Get Their Kids Back for Free 05/14/2022

Does Civil Disobedience in Family Court Work? 04/25/2022

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