‘Surviving Him was Just the Beginning: How Family Court Took My Children’

Whatever Violence You Endured in Your Life, Family Court will Show You Worse

The worst criminals are not your abusers or violent perpetrators, but “judges” in Family Court. This is because they wield unchecked power from behind the bench, while inflicting greater injury than one may ever encounter in situations of domestic violence, stranger attacks, or even the horrors of war — precisely because it comes from an unexpected source. Few would suspect that a figure cloaked in the authority of a black robe — entrusted with upholding the law and dispensing justice — is actually a child predator or a serial murderer. Yet, tragically in Family Court, the chances are probably more likely than not. Because of “judicial immunity,” unlimited “discretion”, and the latitude to “fix” any record, all manner of sadistic, psychopathic, and homicidal individuals congregate in these so-called “Courts”, to carry out their deranged acts of cruelty and injustice. Many would deserve the electric chair in some states, save for their black robes, but in Family Court they get to lord over vulnerable and helpless families not only with impunity, but for billions of dollars in rewards. Family Court is considered “the sewer” of the judicial system, even by other judges, although it is unclear how aware other members of the judiciary are of the criminal activity and devastating atrocities that are occurring as par for the course in Family Court.

Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca is a case in point, but hardly an extraordinary exception. She exemplifies the grave dangers that result from giving unstable individuals unchecked power. She believes that her judicial position entitles her to send every child who enters her courtroom into a life sentence to hell. Parents who resist or question her authority — especially those who act out of love and concern — are marked for decimation, and will quickly find themselves psychologically shattered, financially ruined, physically threatened, and reputationally destroyed. A lifetime of impunity for committing the most heinous crimes possible against loving parents and their innocent children has made her consider herself “God”, grow apoplectic at the mere suggestion of accountability, and rampage against any who dare to defy her with a ferocity unbecoming of the bench. She is alleged to have played a role in the death of at least one journalist and has used her authority to issue false arrests, fabricated protective orders, and other punitive measures against individuals who would criticize her, including myself. One piece of writing was enough for her to report me as a “terrorist”.

She almost murdered my sister ten times, in collaboration with her violent ex-husband, who would have been incarcerated years ago if not for her “protection”. She has removed criminal charges against her co-conspirators — such as her favorite partner in crime, Evelyn Nissirios — without a trial, extending her impunity. In this manner, she exonerates criminals, intimidates and retaliates against witnesses, tampers with evidence while manufacturing false narratives to support predetermined outcomes. Disturbingly, she leaves a trail of dead bodies behind her — not to mention the “soul murder” of countless children entrusted to her court. Despite this, she remains insulated by the sweeping protections of judicial immunity afforded her, and the threats, intimidation, and violence she can unleash if anything is less than to her liking. In fact, my life is perpetually at risk because of her, and I have let it be widely known that, if anything happens to me, even if an “accident”, the greater probability that she is the culprit (with Nissirios acting as her lackey), more than any other possibility. Such concentrated power, unchecked and unexamined, thus poses a profound threat not only to individual litigants and the integrity of the judicial system, but society as a whole.

Guardians ad litem, ubiquitously utilized in Family Courts, require even less qualification than the unfit judges who appoint them. Therefore, they are positions frequently occupied by child predators, in the same way that the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church have become favorite hiding places for malevolent actors. That is why, Arizona and New York State, or any place that values children and human life enough to bother to look, are horrified when they do. Nissirios, mentioned above, is perhaps the most barbaric and brutal gangster I have met in my lifetime of specializing in treating violent offenders, and yet she is a “guardian ad litem” for children!!

And finally, as a forensic psychiatrist and expert witness for the courts, it grieves me to say, many mental health professionals, lured by the dollar sign, sell their souls to “fix” reports for Family Courts, in order to send children to their torture, battery, rape, sex trafficking, and murder. It is the very betrayal of our sacred duty — and what used to be the domain of the most poorly-trained, uncredentialed “experts” who would write fraudulent reports for hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece — where else could an unlicensed “associate counselor” or “mental health counselor” make that much! — has become a bandwagon more and more psychologists and even psychiatrists are willing to jump onto….

Hence, when heartrending stories such as the one below reach me, I seek to assure the reader that there was no escape for this mother. It was not exceptional circumstances that brought her here: the usual domestic violence offender transmogrifies to grotesque proportions in Family Court because of impunity; no lawyer, no power position, and not millions of dollars in the bank would have changed the predetermined ruling, which almost always delivers maximal destruction; and no personal decision could have been made differently, so as to change the course. The only variable, perhaps, might be if one were less exemplary — less superb as a parent; less successful, healthy, and thriving; or less radiant with love and compassion — then the outcome might have been better, for these are precisely the qualities the miscreants and misfits of Family Court set out to annihilate. Indeed, they possess an uncanny ability to identify the criminal in the courtroom, so that they can entice them, draw them into their orbit, and co-conspire with them in their orgy of carnage. This is the direction that the abuse industry — where intoxication with power, moral decay, and the lust for genocide dominate — leads. I therefore can confirm everything that this loving, mental health professional mother says:

Surviving Him Was Just the Beginning: How Family Court Took My Children

I am a mother who was violently assaulted — beaten, raped, and strangled — and who then lost custody of her children, not because I was unfit, but because I tried to protect them. My story is not a tragic anomaly. It is the consequence of a family court system that enables abusers, punishes survivors, and silences truth. My story is not a high-conflict custody dispute. My story is about state-sanctioned coercive control.

My ex-husband was controlling throughout our marriage, but when I left him in 2019, he escalated his abuse into something far more insidious: a campaign to destroy me through the courts. He became the calm, “reasonable” parent in the courtroom — while behind the scenes, he emotionally tormented our daughters and manipulated every institutional tool available to isolate them from me. I followed every court order. He broke them repeatedly. Still, the courts rewarded him.

In 2022, I was brutally attacked by a man I was dating. It was a violent, documented crime — I was hospitalized, a restraining order was issued, and the case proceeded through criminal court. While I was still recovering in the hospital, my ex exploited my trauma to strip me of custody. Prior to this, we had no formal custody agreement, despite my pleas to the court to issue one for the children’s sanity. My ex claimed I had “provoked” my own rape, and family court attorneys echoed the sentiment. I was made to cover my bruises because they might “upset” the judge — and then labeled a criminal, despite having no charges, no convictions, and no history of being deemed unfit. The court ordered supervised visits. My children and I have not lived together since.

I never lost custody through a ruling. In fact, an extensive custody evaluation recommended that we share custody. Still, my ex threatened to drag out the trial for years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I finally gave up litigation after a year because I couldn’t bear to force my daughters to go through the battling anymore. I was representing myself, exhausted, grieving, and suffering from PTSD. I thought I was acting out of love by shielding my children. But love wasn’t enough.

Since then, my daughters have been systematically cut off from any meaningful relationship with me. Phone calls were silenced. Visits canceled. My attempts to reconnect led to further restrictions. He punished the girls for missing me, reinforcing the lie that I was unstable. He manipulated them into silence. The court gagged me from speaking to my children’s schools, doctors, or therapists. All while he withdrew them from schools, traveled with them out of state, and attempted to institutionalize one of our daughters, all without my knowledge or consent.

When I brought these violations to court, I was ignored — or further punished.

The man assigned as minor’s counsel, William Spiller Jr., is emblematic of the system’s failures. He lies under oath, does little to nothing for his minor clients, and is under investigation for falsely claiming military honors. He carries a loaded gun in court, openly boasts about “gifts” from clients, and delays cases to increase billing. He refuses to speak to my daughters or their teachers. He told me — before ever meeting them — that they would be sent to a wilderness boot camp, part of the abusive Troubled Teen Industry. Today, my daughters are 14 and 16. One has not attended school in three years.

Mr. Spiller has no issue with this. They are being groomed for confinement and erasure.

Spiller is not alone. He is protected by a system that rewards silence, enables predators, and vilifies protective mothers. There are countless stories like mine — women whose trauma is used against them, whose truth is rebranded as instability, who are punished for trying to protect their children.

My youngest daughter once dreamed of being a scientist. She now faces involuntary commitment — not because she is a danger, but because it would be convenient for her father. Her father said before I left: “If you leave me, I’ll take the kids and make you homeless.” And that’s exactly what the court is helping him do.

This past Mother’s Day, I asked for a few hours with my children. No restraining order prevents it. Our custody agreement allows it. The children have expressed wanting to see me. But their father refused, and the court did nothing. No explanation. No legal justification. Just silence.

I am a mental health professional. I have no criminal record. And yet, I have been erased from my children’s lives — not because I failed them, but because I tried to protect them from a man who is still using my rape as a weapon.

I am not alone. Thousands of mothers are living this reality. We are told to be silent. We are told it’s hopeless. But we will not be erased.

Emily Weaver, MA, AMFT

Mother. Survivor. Advocate.

Not silenced. Not broken. Not done.