It seems that every day brings new explosive tales of corruption in family courts. The latest miscarriage of justice comes from Kentucky, where Family Court Judge Dawn Gentry has been charged by the Judicial Conduct Commission with nine counts of misconduct. The Cincinnati Enquirer broke the story.
While serving as Family Court Judge for Kenton County—in particular, since being elected to that position in November 2018—you have engaged in a pattern of conduct that constitutes misconduct in office and violates the Code of Judicial Conduct. Any of the Counts described below, on their own, constitute sufficient grounds for disciplinary action. But examined as a whole, the allegations in this Notice demonstrate a pattern of misconduct in office. As a result, the Commission has determined formal proceedings and charges are warranted.
Among the charges is coercion of guardians ad litem (GAL) to contribute to her campaign, retaliating against those who did not contribute to her campaign, falsifying time cards, not showing up for work, drinking on the job and storing alcohol in the court, allowing her boyfriend to play his guitar in the courthouse, initiating unwanted sexual advances toward a female attorney of the court, engaging in sexual Snapchats with members of the court, and most disturbing, hiring her guitarist boyfriend and having a threesome with him and her secretary in the courthouse. She is pictured below playing the bass guitar in her boyfriend’s band.
Hoe down anyone? 👇👇😆
BUSTED: Kentucky Judge Held Threesomes in Her Chambers and Served Alcohol | David Harris Jr https://t.co/fFXmysaZJu— 𝕮𝖑𝖊𝖙𝖆~ (TextTrump88022) (@Arkiegirl01) December 8, 2019
Family court judges are some of the most powerful judges in America, with the ultimate authority over where children will end up amid custody disputes or in neglect and abuse cases. The judges in these courts have been described by Judge Judy Sheindlin as “morons and political hacks.” She should have added sexual degenerates to the list.
In one of the very disturbing charges, Gentry was accused of holding secret hearings without inviting lawyers for the parties in the cases. This is something parents have reported happening all over the country, not just in this judge’s chambers.
“You have on multiple occasions held pretrial conferences in dependency, neglect, and abuse cases with the members of your GAL panel to which private attorneys representing parties in those cases are not invited. Substantive decisions are made during these conferences, which are not held on the record.” If you think this is unusual, you haven’t spoken to the victims of family courts.
This exact thing happened to Cynthia Abcug in Colorado when a family court judge held multiple secret hearings where her attorney was not invited and decisions were made to keep Abcug’s son from her, including taking him across state lines, with no chance for her attorney to argue against it or present evidence contrary to the state. Her case file was also withheld from her and her attorney. The court claimed it was “lost.”
The cozy relationship the judge has with the GALs (guardians ad litem) is also extremely troubling. GALs are appointed by the court to represent the children in cases of abuse, neglect, or disputed custody. They are supposed to be impartial and on the side of the child. Having GALs sucking up to the judge and in close quarters, raising money for campaigns and socializing with the arbiter of their clients’ cases, is completely unethical. But this is business as usual in family court.
While judicial review boards exist, most of the time the members of them are in close relationships with the judges on the bench and do not go after them. A study of nationwide judicial discipline showed that over 80% of the cases referred to the review boards are dismissed. Only a handful of judges are sanctioned officially every year.
Most complaints filed with judicial conduct commissions — generally more than 80% — are dismissed, many because they claim that the judge made an incorrect finding of fact, misapplied the law, or abused his or her discretion, which is usually a matter not for discipline but for appellate remedy. Many other complaints are resolved each year through informal or private remedies. Each year, however, approximately 100 judges are publicly sanctioned in state judicial discipline proceedings.
The study also showed that removal of judges for sexual harassment and having sex in their chambers is less infrequent than one would like to imagine. Here’s my problem with this: sexual misconduct in the office is distasteful and the types of people doing it have low standards of personal decency and should be removed, but the true crime is what has been done to children who have been separated from their parents because of the overbearing power of state actors who lie, falsify documents, and conspire in secret hearings to keep what appears to be a cash-for-kids scheme going.
All anyone wants to talk about is this woman’s libido while ignoring what she did to families in Kentucky. That’s the real crime, and one that no one seems to ever get caught doing.
The Adoption and the Safe Families Act, set in motion by President Bill Clinton, offered cash “bonuses” to the states for every child they adopted out of foster care. In order to receive the “adoption incentive bonuses” local child protective services need more children. They must have merchandise (children) that sell and [they] must have plenty of them so the buyer can choose. Some counties are known to give a $4,000 bonus for each child adopted and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child. Employees work to keep the federal dollars flowing;
Judge Gentry will always be remembered for the salacious nature of her misconduct, but she should be remembered for ripping families apart without giving the interested parties the chance to present evidence or even be at the hearings where she played God. If any families in Kentucky have been separated wrongfully by Judge Gentry, please contact PJ Media with your stories.
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo.” Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter.
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