"Breaking the Silence: Journeys of Hope," the compelling PBS documentary underwritten by the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation and Mary Kay Inc., first aired fall of 2001 nationwide. Still airing in many markets, this sensitively crafted program raises awareness about domestic violence - focusing on women of strength and their journeys from victim to survivor. And now, you can order video copies through the American Bar Association, along with facilitator guides, for just $10.00, plus applicable tax and $3.95 handling.
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Tatge/Lasseur Productions and its principals Catherine Tatge and Dominique Lasseur (the husband and wife team)
Taking away battered women's kids
By Sara Catania
July 1, 2005
snip
While there are a growing number of courts responsive to the specific needs of domestic violence victims (see Order in the Court), most family violence cases bounce women from court to court in a judicial system that takes no account of their unique circumstance. The scenario Tatge and Lasseur encountered time and again goes like this: A woman separates from her abuser and files for divorce. The father, who has shown little prior interest in the children, decides he wants joint or sole custody. The judge, seeing no link between spousal battering and child abuse, grants the request. "The abuser files motion after motion to slowly gain more custody of the kids," says Lasseur, who first became aware of the issue while working on a documentary about victims of domestic violence five years ago. "In some cases he gains full legal and physical custody of the kids."
The problem, Lasseur says, is that studies have shown that in cases where the father chooses to seek some form of custody over the motherís objections, there is a high probability that he has either battered the mother, abused the children or both. However, if the mother accuses the father of child abuse in court, the judge could suspect she is motivated by revenge and to reject the accusation as false.
Lasseur attributes this pervasive misperception to what he calls "an anti-woman bias in court" and to a theory called parental alienation. First introduced by Connecticut psychologist Richard Gardner in the mid-1980's, the theory states that women will concoct stories of physical and sexual child abuse out of vindictiveness toward their former partners. Though the theory has been denounced as junk science, it has caught on among batterer's defense attorneys and father's rights groups, as well as in the courts. "When they get to court, what does the judge see? The abuser usually has the better job, owns the house, has more money, and like all abusers, has a great talent to be together and likeable," Lasseur says. "The woman is upset, emotional, she comes undone. Itís like, wow, a crazy woman."
The anti-battered-woman phenomenon in child custody battles was first explored in Small Justice, a 2002 documentary by Garland Waller. Since then it has become a major battleground for the battered women's movement. "What's happening is threatening to undo the past 20 years of progress," Lasseur says. "Now you have police officers who explicitly tell women, if you are in a custody battle and you donít want to lose your kids, donít mention sexual abuse or domestic violence."
http://tinyurl.com/9los3
Lasseur is just plain lying. I have first-hand knowledge of DOZENS of divorce cases and in every case where I have known a woman to make a domestic violence claim the police were very supportive.
They are NOT generally supportive if a man makes one.
Lasseur is a big phony. When the complaints about the film were first made, he made a press release that said that he had no preconceived notions.
What a shameless liar that guy is.
