This report is part 16 of an investigative series looking into reported corruption in the Missouri Judiciary and family courts. For the rest of the investigation visit the catalog here.
Following the bombshell lawsuit filed by attorney Evita Tolu against guardian ad litem (GAL) Elaine Pudlowski that led to the recusal of the entire 21st Judicial Circuit Court in St. Louis, Missouri, three more actions have been filed alleging fraud and misconduct against the GAL and others. Kenneth Rosa, media spokesperson for The Father’s Rights Movement filed a lawsuit against Pudlowski, therapist Mindy Skaggs and The Right Solutions Counseling Services (TRSCS) for “injurious services” among other allegations.
Joining Rosa are Devon Arseneau and Plaintiff X, who does not want to be named publicly, who also named Pudlowski in their individual lawsuits alleging similar claims relating to what they say is family court corruption. Among the shocking claims in Rosa’s lawsuit is the allegation that he did not receive due process in court and was coerced into giving up his rights.
Plaintiff requested 4 witnesses at his trial and was denied his right to due process by Defendant Pudlowski and Defendant Skaggs. In ex-parte communications with HOnorable Judge Mary Bruntrager Schroeder, Defendant Pudlowski and Skaggs both refused to testify or allow the minor Child K or Child K to testify. Plaintiff was informed if he wished to exercise his right to have witnesses he would be assigned all legal fees for all parties involved. Plaintiff under duress entered into agreement of the parties.
During the custody dispute, Rosa says Child K came to him and alerted him to the fact that Minor A, unrelated to Rosa, had taken a nude photograph of her and distributed it online while she was in her mother’s care. A DFS report was made and Rosa attempted to protect Child K from Minor A who had taken the photo. The St. Louis court refused to do so based on Pudlowski’s recommendation.
Child K told plaintiff on several occasions how terrified she was to be around someone who had sexually exploited her…Defendant Pudlowski made recommendations that the sexual abuse was only on record one time and that Minor A was leaving for college and no ex-parte was granted to plaintiff for Child K. Honorable Judge Hoven is on transcript as stating that the abuse only happened once.
This is not the first time that Pudlowski is on record downplaying and ignoring child sexual abuse. PJ Media published a string of her emails showing that she suppressed evidence of substantiated sexual abuse reports and recommended unsupervised overnight visits with the child’s alleged abuser in another case against the advice of three court-appointed therapists.
Plaintiff X alleges in her lawsuit that psychotherapist Dr. James Reid, also a defendant in Tolu’s lawsuit, conspired to bill the plaintiff for large sums of money while falsifying test results and harming her by “baselessly diagnosing Plaintiff with mental disorders contrary to the MMPI and Plaintiff’s therapists and past diagnosis without consultation.” Similar to Tolu’s lawsuit, Plaintiff X also alleges that Reid tampered with recordings, cutting out sessions where he berated and yelled at her and her children. Tolu also has evidence that Reid’s recordings don’t match the billed sessions in her case. Plaintiff K’s lawsuit alleges:
Reid billed for twenty-six (26) minutes more than the length of time of his interview with [Plaintiff X]…On Child J’s June 28, 2016 Interview, Reid billed for twenty-seven (27) more minutes than the length of time of his audio recording. On Child A’s June 29th Interview, Reid billed for twelve (12) more minutes than the length of time of his audio recording. A comparison of Reid’s billing entries to the audio recordings of [Plaintif X], Child J, Child A, and parents’ witnesses revealed more than ten (10) differences between the length of time of the audio recordings, and five (5) date discrepancies.
Plaintiff X also alleges that Pudlowski ignored multiple doctor’s reports that her children were exposed to toxic chemicals because of their father’s illicit drug business in his home. Despite more than seven doctors’ reports that confirmed the toxic poisoning, the lawsuit says Pudlowski worked to take custody away from Plaintiff X showing obvious bias toward the father. As a result, Plaintiff X lost all legal custody of her children.
On September 6, 2016 [redacted] and [redacted] forced Pudlowski to attend a 2 hour teleconference with Dr. Farone. This was the first time Pudlowski had spoken to Plaintiff’s experts, and almost a year into the case, despite being requested to do so on several occassions. Pudlowski then made her first home visit to [father’s] house September 27, 2016, almost one year after visiting Plaintiff’s.
Pudlowski was inexplicably allowed to dismiss the lawsuit against her by Plaintiff X, filing the dismissal with her name on the record on February 11, 2021. How does a defendant in a case dismiss a lawsuit against herself? Plaintiff X believes her own attorney conspired with Pudlowski to write the dismissal that Pudlowski filed without her permission. In order to continue, Plaintiff X needs to refile the lawsuit and plans to do so soon.
Devon Arseneau filed a 74.06 motion that acts like a lawsuit but because of filing technicalities is called a “motion.” It alleges many of the same complaints against Pudlowski.
Pudlowski acted outside the scope of her licensure, expertise, and terms of her court appointment by misrepresenting her qualifications for this case to the Court in that she has no training in the following: mental health issues; alcohol or drug addiction; medicine; trauma, domestic violence; sexual abuse of children; or childhood and adolescent development yet determined and represented to the court that the child was not at risk.
Pudlowski misrepresented to the Court the findings and conclusions set forth in a Full Child Order of Protection for [redacted] issued by the St. Charles County Circuit Court in December 2015. This Court is required to take judicial notice of the Full Order of Protection as issued by the St. Charles County Circuit Court
Dr. James Reid is also named in the motion as part of an allegedly fraudulent scheme that placed children in danger.
Dr. Reid diagnosed Respondent with Borderline Personality Disorder without factual basis, and then recanted his position in testimony to the Court. Dr. Reid knew that his diagnosis of Respondent was false and was designed to fraudulently rally the Court against her, without committing to it during testimony. Dr. Reid admitted to falsifying elements of his false diagnosis of Respondent, which continue to be present in his reports handed out to certain professionals per the court order. Dr. Reid made no attempt to correct or amend his report to rectify his mistake.
The official complaints against the St. Louis court system are piling up and still, the local media remains silent. PJ Media is the only news outlet covering these developing stories. The victims have attempted to go to Attorney General Eric Schmidt, a Republican, and were rebuffed. They have filed complaints with the OCDC (Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel) which were ignored. Worse, Shevon Harris sits on the OCDC and was caught advising GALs on the now-infamous leaked Zoom call on the proper way to raise money to investigate and dox journalists and whistleblowers. Many of the families have traveled to Jefferson City and met with representatives who seem confused as to what they can do about any of it. No matter where they turn, there is no help.
Rosa told PJ Media, “There has been no justice available through any outlet the system has in place to provide accountability. There’s just us as we attempt to hold the corruption of family courts accountable as they leave a horrific epidemic of poor, broken, abused, and dead children and parents in its wake.”
The only remedy families have left is to file lawsuits in the same courts they say abused them. Litigants expect these lawsuits to be dismissed on the basis of “quasi-judicial immunity” that they don’t believe Pudlowski or Reid or anyone else involved should get.
“Claims of quasi-judicial immunity by these court-appointed actors cease to exist for them when you willingly, knowingly, and through illegal actions of bias and the deprivation of human rights continue to protect the impenetrable money-making scheme of removing children from fit willing and able parents to line your own pockets,” said Rosa.
PJ Media reached out to Elaine Pudlowski and received a strange reply from her attorney, A.J. Bronsky, denying that Pudlowski has been served any lawsuits other than Evita Tolu’s.
To be clear, my client has only been served with a summons in the Tolu case in which the Court is currently considering the merits of Ms. Pudlowski’s Motion to Dismiss. My client has not been served with a lawsuit filed by Ken Rosa and is unaware of any pending lawsuit against her by Devon Arsenau or [Plaintiff X].
PJ Media verified with the St. Louis County process server that Pudlowsi was indeed served on February 10, 2021 with Plaintiff X’s lawsuit (the same suit Pudlowski filed a dismissal for the next day) and on May 5th, 2021 with Rosa’s lawsuit. It is unclear whether or not service was required for the Arseneau motion and PJM forwarded a copy of it to Bronsky for his client’s comment. If she did not know before, she does now. Pudlowski refused to respond.
PJM also asked Bronsky to comment on his involvement in the plot to hire a private investigator to uncover the identity of whistleblowers and media leaking inside information to the press that shows court actors behaving very badly. On the leaked Zoom call, GAL Sarah Pleban said, “For those of us who would want to contribute to [hiring a private investigator to uncover the identity of journalists and whistleblowers] we do not send a check to Elaine, according to her lawyers. We need to send it to one lawyer and then they will send it to her law firm.” [Emphasis mine.]
It is unclear why the group of conspirators needed to act so secretively to help a friend with her defense. It doesn’t appear to be illegal to donate to a friend to help them pay for a legal defense, though officers of the court raising money to silence whistleblowers and chill the first amendment through the doxing of journalists seems less legitimate. PJM asked Bronsky why he advised such financial gymnastics. He refused to respond.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of family court corruption in the St. Louis, Missouri area, please contact Megan Fox at [email protected]
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