PA - Venue Shopping

A major characteristic of a Parental Alienator is the use of "Venue Shopping". In order to carry out their campaign, an Alienator needs to find sympathetic enforcement parties to help them limit or stop the access of the other parent(s) to the children.

An Alienator will often have a history of filing reports with a variety of police agencies (local police, Sheriff's department, State police, Homeland Security, Border Patrol, etc) as well as with CPS. They will also repeatedly relitigate custody and visitation, utilizing every court possible.

In our case, Ken Shaw used many of the above tactics in order to harass, intimidate, and develop a fraudulent case against our family.

He began with filing a false report with the Kingston Police Department on December 22, 2012. According to Ken Shaw, a friend of mine showed up at the visit with her two sons (aged 7 and 11) solely in an attempt to kidnap my youngest daughter from him. The Kingston Police never bothered to contact either my friend or me for our side of the story - they considered Ken Shaw that unreliable.

When that attempt didn't succeed, Ken Shaw contacted Homeland Security, claiming that my friend had tried to impersonate a Homeland Security agent. The agency investigated, and considered Ken Shaw so unreliable that they dismissed his allegations.

Next Ken Shaw manufactured false allegations about Jon Massey allegedly staying at my house in violation of an order of protection, and contacted the local police department with his trumped up story. He managed to gain some traction with the assistance of CPS, until we secured judicial intervention from the Family Court judge. The judge stated that if he found out that any of the parties in the family court case were involved in the original complaints or ongoing action he would take punitive action against them, and then lifted the order of protection keeping Jon from the house.

Behind the scenes Ken Shaw continued to file false reports with the Kingston Police Department, usually revolving around incidents in which he had behaved inappropriately (a gross understatement) at visitation. It speaks volumes towards his (lack of) credibility with them that not only did they not bother to contact me at all - which would have been standard procedure if they took a claim seriously - but they eventually told me that I should secure a restraining order against him through the Canadian courts.

When Ken Shaw had no success with filing reports with law enforcement, he turned to CPS both in Canada and the United States. The Canadian agency closed both reports he filed without ever contacting me, indicating that they did not take his reports seriously.

The only agency that took any action was the United States CPS. Yet despite Ken Shaw filing a report that alleged abuse of all of my children, after interviews all of them denied any abuse, except the one child who had been consistently under his control and influence, my youngest daughter.

Coincidentally, the Kingston Police reported to the US agency that they believed that the child had been coached by the father and step-mother and that she wasn't credible or reliable.

Even the initial Family Court judge did not believe the allegations brought forward, and expressed that clearly in court Then he ordered a new psychologist to evaluate the situation with my youngest daughter.

The DSS attorney ended up being sanctioned $1000 because he deliberately ignored the judges orders to have the psychologist evaluate the situation BEFORE any other evaluations and interviews. Rather than comply with the judge, CPS subjected my youngest daughter to multiple additional interviews as well as a psychological exam (by the local psychologist who receives over $185K a year under his contract with CPS) prior to allowing the judge's expert to evaluate her.

The CPS caseworker even acknowledged that she had to order Ken Shaw to stop questioning my youngest daughter, because he admitted that he was constantly questioning her about his abuse allegations.

What is ultimately indicative of Ken Shaw's lack of respect for the court process is the fact that while there was an ongoing action in the United States court, he filed for custody through the Canadian court system, a clear violation of the Hague Convention which dictates jurisdiction in child custody matters.

And of course, while under oath, when questioned about this clandestine filing, Ken Shaw lied and claimed that he "didn't know" that he had signed not one but at least two separate petitions for custody through the Canadian court, all of them alleging abuse by me - something that had never been investigated by the Canadian agency, and that had not yet been adjudicated by the US courts.

It took the US Family Court judge contacting the Canadian court directly to stop Ken Shaw's action.

This venue shopping for a "sympathetic" court is reminiscent of Susan Carrington's case - she was awarded full custody of her children,  but then her ex-husband applied to a different court and seized custody in violation of the UCCJEA (Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act) which is designed to try to prevent just this type of behavior.

As a futher "accessory" the Alienator will shop for a therapist or mental health professional that will provide them with the reports necessary to advance their expedition.

In our case, Ken and Mary Shaw first took my youngest daughter, in the fall of 2012, to a therapist who stated that there was nothing wrong with her other than needing to adjust to the abrupt change in her circumstances.

So then after the December 22 incident, they found a new professional, and on the intake interview they LIED about why they had custody, claiming that my youngest daughter had been taken from me due to physical abuse, rather than as a temporary placement while the Jon Massey case was being resolved.

The notes from the therapist even document that at every session, Ken Shaw would first give a report to the counselor of everything that I had allegedly done at the prior visit(s), then she would ask my youngest daughter about the report.

Ultimately, the final order stated that I would be allowed to send cards, gifts, and letters to my daughter through this counselor. So what did Ken Shaw do next? He removed her from counselling.

These behaviors are very similar to those of Dina Mackney in the Chris Mackney case. She found mental health professionals that would back her up, even though they failed to follow acceptable practices.

CPS engages in the same behaviors - they set up a stable of psychologists, therapists, counselors, and other professionals who provide their mandated service plan requirements. Often this is the sole or primary source of income for these individuals, so they become just another tool to give the documentation that CPS needs.

When an Alienator starts shopping, the only person getting bargains and deals is the Alienator. The other parent(s) and the children lose!

PA - Connect the Dots

At the time of the false allegations against Jon Massey, my youngest daughter was on visitation with her father in Canada (he is a Canadian citizen, we only live 30 minutes from a border crossing).

My daughter was born here in the US, had lived with me her entire life (she was almost eight), and I had been granted full custody by NYS Family Court, a United States court. This was reaffirmed when she was three years old due to some issues that had arisen.

Ken Shaw had only asked for visitation every third weekend, two weeks during the summer, and half of her Christmas vacation (beginning on Boxing Day - December 26th), and recently he had dropped off even some of his summer visitation time on weekends - despite the fact that he repeatedly claimed that he wanted her more and that I was keeping him from having her more. We have the court transcripts to confirm the true version, not the line of revisionist history that Ken Shaw was giving to CPS, Family Court, and his family members.

Additionally, at the time of the false allegations, Ken Shaw was 17 months in arrears in child support - he had failed to make any payments since March of 2011. The amount owed was over $3000, more on that later.

At the onset, Ken Shaw repeatedly stated to: my neighbors, myself, Jon Massey, my attorney, Jon's attorney, the CPS caseworker, and even my youngest daughter's AFC that he did NOT believe the allegations against Jon, that Ruby was a "liar and a troublemaker" and had been even when he knew her while we were dating, and that she had "told lies about his sons".

He and his wife were reasonably cooperative, allowing my middle child and I to spend extended amounts of time with my youngest daughter, unsupervised at my house while he and his wife went shopping or ran errands. This continued for almost two weeks. And then his attorney, who had been on vacation, came back into town.

I have since gotten multiple reports from local attorneys, as well as several attorneys from other surrounding locales, that they have all had personal experiences in court, similar to what appears next, when they have opposed this particular attorney in a divorce/custody battle. Some of this attorney's former clients have even come forward to document similar behaviors.

My middle daughter was due to graduate from high school, a full year early with a college level math course already under her belt, and Ken Shaw agreed to bring my youngest daughter down to go to dinner and then the graduation, as he already had an appointment with his attorney. But on the day they were due to arrive, Ken informed us that they wouldn't arrive in time for us to go to dinner, and then eventually they arrived barely in time to accompany us to graduation. Afterwards they whisked my youngest daughter away immediately.

Additionally, Ken had taken the time that day to file for custody of my daughter, simply on the grounds that there was an order of protection against me.

Things went downhill from there.  We were going to court at least once a month at this point, and so there was opportunity to address issues fairly frequently. (And I have the transcripts of these proceedings to document what I am reporting here.)

At the next court date Ken and his attorney insisted that all visitations now needed to occur in Canada. They claimed that it was "too far to drive" and "unfair". So visitation now occurred in Canada.

Understandably, my middle daughter and I wanted to see my little girl as much as possible since she had lived continuously with us since birth, but Ken expressed that he didn't want to let us see her every weekend. And the next time we were in court, Ken and his attorney claimed that we were "stalking" him and my youngest daughter using her iPod touch that I had bought for her and let her take to his house - with his permission. (For those of you not familiar with the iPod touch, it can only connect to the internet using wi-fi, and there is no GPS chip in an iPod.) Now I was pleasantly surprised that even my youngest daughter's AFC realized that his claim was a little bit bizarre, to say the least.

So the judge ordered him to return the iPod to me - but for some reason he refused to do so, despite email requests and reminders at visitation, for another four months. When we got it back, there was documentation that someone in his household, other than my daughter, had been using it for a variety of things.

Additionally, at this point, the judge clarified that I was to get visitation with my youngest daughter every other weekend, since Ken had been less than cooperative in allowing us to see her. Other than that there was to be "a supervisor" (not necessarily Ken) specified in the paperwork, there were no other restrictions.

At this point in time, a matter of serious concern came to our attention - my youngest daughter reported that "they" were putting "stuff" on her thumbs to keep her from sucking her thumbs, and both Ken and his wife bragged that they would go into her bedroom at night and "pull her thumb out of her mouth" while she was sleeping. The conversation took place on two consecutive visits, and my middle daughter and I witnessed that my youngest daughter's thumbs were red and raw. My youngest daughter actually named the "stuff" as "Stop and Go", and we researched thumb sucking substances on the internet to get an idea of what was being used. (Sidebar: although we couldn't find "stop and go", we did learn that thumb sucking liquids contained either propylene glycol - antifreeze; acetone - nail polish remover; or capsaicin - extract from hot chili peppers...none of which should be used on a child.) Ignoring the issue that my daughter was obviously under stress from what had been done to her by CPS, use of force or chemicals is not appropriate on a child. So my daughter and I reported this to the CPS caseworker.

And at the next court date, Ken and his attorney claimed that we were trying to avoid his supervision and were "whispering" to my youngest daughter and telling her "inappropriate things". (Apparently in their eyes it was inappropriate to tell her that we loved her and missed her and that her best friends that she had known for three or more years had been asking about her.) We explained that Ken and his wife had been less than cooperative in scheduling visitations, and that they would sometimes cut the visits short because they "had shopping" or "had to visit Mary's mother".

The judge then specified that visitations were to occur for four hours every other weekend. So at least we got a little more specificity that we could hold them to. Meanwhile, during visits Ken and his wife would walk away, and do their own shopping - or on one occasion even got into an argument in a public location. Ken would repeatedly tell my youngest daughter that she was a "spoiled little girl" if we bought her things - books, dolls, puzzles, toys - somthing that we would do every other weekend when she lived with us. My youngest daughter reported that Ken and Mary had started telling her that she was NOT allowed to have us buy her anything. I had to explain that during visitation time it was her time to spend with me and that she was allowed to pick out items and I would tell her whether or not she could have them based on appropriateness or cost. (Yes, there were several times that I told her no based on those criteria.)

Additionally during this time period one of our attorney's approached my daughter's AFC to inform her about the thumb-sucking issue and to request Thanksgiving visitation.

So at the next court date was ANOTHER set of false allegations from Ken and his attorney - once again claims that we were trying to violate the supervised visitation guidelines. And again we presented to the judge that this wasn't the case and that we were getting the runaround on visitation being scheduled, and that we had attempted to schedule time at Thanksgiving and had been blocked by Ken and my youngest daughter's AFC (who had expressed Ken's opinion without ever speaking to my daughter).

The judge ordered that visitation be four hours every other weekend on Saturday, and at this point was really disgusted and kept stating that he wanted the parents to COOPERATE and jointly plan visitation with input from my youngest daughter. Additionally the judge addressed the issue of Christmas visitation and ordered that I be allowed six hours either on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or the day after Christmas in ADDITION TO the every other Saturday four hours, and for the attorneys to work it out.

Meanwhile, my attorney submitted a petition for custody of my youngest daughter that included details of Ken's behavior over the past years, including the issue of back child support and screenshots from his Facebook page that documented some serious concerns about his mental stability.

About now is also when the nasty emails from Ken began. Every time I attempted to work with him, he would send me an email that stated "I am in charge", "I am in control", "the judge put me in charge", and all sorts of abusive language.

And at the next court date, Ken and his attorney still had not responded to repeated requests from my attorney to schedule the Christmas visitation, so the judge ordered that I not only have visitation on December 22, but also for five hours on December 26. And AGAIN the judge ordered cooperation.

At a home visit with the CPS caseworker on December 21, we informed her that the placement of my youngest daughter outside of the US was a Hague Convention violation and that we would be taking action accordingly. In order to place outside the country, there had to be proof of "imminent danger" and mere 'neglect' did NOT qualify.

Then we had visitation on December 22, which turned into a mess at the instigation of Ken and Mary Shaw. Click here to read the specific details.

So after these inappropriate and physically aggressive incidents that were demonstrated by Ken and Mary Shaw, with accompanying false allegations, we were facing Christmas vacation on December 26th.

At the time, it appeared that that visit went reasonably well, even though Ken and Mary Shaw apparently had a different agenda and later made more false allegations. Click here to read specific details.

Things didn't get any better - on or around February 5, Ken and his attorney filed a response to my custody petition that claimed, among other things, that Ken had overpaid me over $3000 in child support. (This is laughable because I have the reports from BOTH NYS support collections and Canadian support collections that demonstrate his debt and lack of payment.) He also made a number of other false allegations, but NONE of them were about me physically or sexually abusing my youngest daughter.

Since every court date and visit with the CPS caseworker resulted in new claims that my middle daughter and I were being inappropriate at visitation, I started carrying a digital audio recorder that would record the entire length of the visit.

At the beginning of February there was a nasty incident in a movie theater at visitation. We went to a kid's movie on its opening weekend, and the theater was very crowded. We finally found five seats in a row, and I went in first followed by my youngest daughter. Ken and Mary pushed past my other daughter, and I asked if they could move down a seat so that she could sit on the other side of me (which would have still meant that Ken was sitting on one side of my youngest daughter). Ken immediately, in the middle of a theater full of parents and other children, began screaming about the judge's orders and how he "had to sit by Amelia". I once again calmly told him that I just wanted him to move down one seat so that my middle daughter could sit on the other side of me, and I gestured to give him a visual at the same time. Finally, after continuing to yell and make derogatory statements, he moved down.

Within days, he went to the Kingston Police Department and filed another false report. (Note: Kingston Police have been very cooperative in providing dates of reports filed with them. They have stated that they don't believe Ken and feel that my youngest daughter has been coached and coerced.)

The nasty, controlling emails continued as well as snarky comments at visitation. Meanwhile, the automated phone line for Canadian support collections was indicating an escalating level of actions that were being taken against Ken for his lack of payment of child support. The automated system also indicated that notices had been mailed to Ken about the actions that they were taking/going to take.

On March 2 Ken and Mary were late to visitation with no reason, and we learned later that they left Canada and entered the US (Homeland Security was very helpful at that point). Despite the fact that there were no restrictions on phone contact with my youngest daughter at that point, all our attempts to contact her by phone were unsuccessful for a period of two weeks.

On March 9 the Canadian support system phone line listed that Ken Shaw was being served with a Writ of Seizure and Sale for non-payment of his child support arrears.

My daughter and I were denied our court ordered visitation on March 16 because Ken and Mary Shaw wouldn't even respond to phone calls. Later, Ken made the false allegation via email that I had been making harassing phone calls to his parents during that time period. All of our phone records document that the only calls made to any Canadian number were to his and Mary's home and cell phones.

On March 20 Ken made a report to the therapist who was seeing my youngest daughter, and on March 21 Ken made another false report to Kingston Police claiming that I had sexually molested my youngest daughter. These reports were basically dismissed by both Kingston Police and Canadian CPS, we have documentation of this in a letter from Canadian CPS.

On April 2 Ken, after realizing that he was getting nowhere with Canadian authorities, filed a false report of sexual abuse with NYS CPS - and also included that I had sexually and physically abused Ruby and my middle daughter.

We were in court on April 4, and even the judge expressed disbelief, and didn't suspend my visitation. However he also didn't appoint a different supervisor for my protection. I hired a Canadian private investigator to monitor the visitation, and the only thing that she witnessed was inappropriate physical aggression and behaviors from Mary towards my youngest daughter.

We were back in court in May, and the fact that I'd had a PI there came up. The judge blew his top but then understood that in light of the false allegations it had been for my protection. At that time he ordered that I be allowed an adult in addition to my middle daughter to accompany me on visitation. Ken and Mary Shaw and his attorney sat right there, listened to it and acknowledeged the judge's orders. The judge also ordered that there were to be NO MORE electronic recordings, NO MORE private investigators, and there was to be cooperation.

At the very next visitation, I brought an adult neighbor who had known my youngest daughter since she was born. We were already at Denny's when Ken and Mary Shaw walked in. When they saw that I had someone with me in addtion to my daughter, they grabbed my youngest daughter by the wrist and dragged her out of the restaurant without saying a word. The neighbor and I followed them out and I reminded them that the judge had ordered that I could bring another person, and they began screaming that I was I liar and that another adult was not allowed, and they left.

They also sent a fax to CPS inquiring as to when the judge had ordered that I be allowed a second person, and demanding that they have complete control over who I was allowed to bring.

At the following visit, we brought a different adult, with even worse outcome. Not only did Ken start the visitation by placing a recording device in the middle of the table at the restaurant (in direct violation of the judge's orders), his behavior went far beyond what is acceptable or right. You can read specifics of it here.

The judge ordered that an independent psychologist be brought in to evaluate the situation with my youngest daughter, and the DSS attorney ignored the judge's orders to the point that the judge sanctioned him with a $1000 fine. Yes, we have the paperwork on that too.

The outside psychologist interviewed Ken and Mary Shaw, myself, did a psychological evaluation on my middle daughter (he had been given orders to do so by the CPS caseworker - without her attorney's knowledge or consent, and the caseworker later denied it), and my youngest daughter. He then tried to arrange to be at a visitation so that he could get an accurate picture of what was going on.

He called the CPS caseworker and got permission to have Ken and Mary Shaw leave while he supervised. (The court order only specifies a "supervisor", not Ken or any other individual.)On Thursday before a visitation he attempted to call Ken - and a man answered the phone, told him "wrong number", then hung up. A few minutes later Ken called back from the same number and admitted that it had been him. The psychologist made the arrangements that Ken and Mary would leave the visitation on Saturday (with the permission and prearrangement of the CPS caseworker), and Ken agreed to it.

On Saturday I showed up at Denny's and that is when the psychologist let me know that he would be observing the visitation. He explained the arrangements he had made above - it was fine by me since someone else would finally witness the interactions and dynamics going on, someone hired by the court.

When Ken and Mary Shaw arrived, they weren't surprised to see him, but when he asked them to leave, both Ken and Mary became belligerent. Ken refused to leave claiming that he was the only supervisor allowed. When he asked Mary to leave, she insisted that she would NOT leave unless the adult I had with me left also (exceedingly inappropriate as we had ridden together about an hour and a half and crossed an international boundary and he had no transportation of his own).

The psychologist continued to observe the visitation, and Ken and Mary Shaw showed their true colors throughout the whole time. When he appeared at a hearing to testify in February, the DSS attorney refused to admit the psychologist's report, even at the judge's order. My attorney finally admitted the report, over the objections of the DSS attorney, Ken Shaw's attorney, and the AFCs on the case.

Meanwhile, I had an expungement hearing scheduled in January, and the DSS attorney called Ken Shaw to testify. At that hearing Ken admitted that he had lied to the police about at least one incident, and he also claimed that not only did he witness the alleged incidents where I "sexually molested" my daughter and he did nothing, that my youngest daughter had also told him the night of December 26 that I had molested her that day (yet not a word was said to her AFC, to CPS, to DSS attorney, to her therapist, to Kingston Police, to her therapist, or to the court).

Within a few days of the expungement hearing I received a packet in the mail from a Canadian attorney. The packet contained a petition that Ken Shaw had filed in Ontario for custody of my youngest daughter. Filing for an action in a different court while it is already an open matter in a court is known as venue shopping, and illegal in both countries as signatories to the Hague Convention. Yet despite having the signed and notarized petition with us at the Family Court hearing in February, Ken Shaw lied and said that he never filed paperwork in Canada, then changed his story and claimed that he had only filed for child support.

By the time that the trial rolled around in July, the DSS attorney not only did not call Ken Shaw as a witness (despite the fact that he was reportedly an eyewitness to me abusing my youngest daughter and the primary source for her therapist and the CPS worker regarding the abuse), he and the judge effectively blocked the ability of my attorney to call him as a witness.

Par for the course. Connect the dots on this story for yourself. We have the paperwork documentation to support all of this.

PA - December 22

A confidante of mine, who was also a mentor to my middle daughter, decided to meet us at the movie theater in Kingston with her two sons - 7 and 11. (She and her mother had also gone to the same church as us - the one in which my youngest daughter was baptized, and her sons went to school with my youngest daughter and had played with her on the playground). She owned property in Canada and had to meet with one of her contractors later in the day about projects on her property. The plan that we had worked out with Ken was to go see Elf, then have lunch at Denny's and then go Christmas shopping at the stores around the theater and restaurant. She and her sons had never seen Elf, and she also thought that my daughter and I might be exaggerating how bad the situation was with Ken.

She showed up a few minutes late, and texted Maura - who went out and led them back to where we were sitting. When the movie ended, I tried to take Amelia's hand to walk her out of the theater, and Ken grabbed her and pushed me away and said "the visit is over". I asked him what the problem was, and he said "the judge never said you could bring anyone". I told him that the judge didn't say I couldn't, and at that point my friend stepped in and said that she would talk to him.

Mary grabbed my youngest daughter and dragged her by the wrist to the other end of the lobby, and my middle daughter took my friend's two sons into the same vicinity. However, whenever my middle daughter tried to talk to and reassure her sister, Mary would grab her by the wrist and pull her away.

I tried to talk to my youngest daughter to reassure her, and Mary pulled her away from me. At that point I told Mary that she was NOT my daughter's mother and that she would NOT keep me from my daughter and I pulled my daughter forward and reassured her and gave her a hug and told her that her sister and I loved her very much. My friend's younger son came over and told her, "Don't worry, it's going to be okay," and gave her a hug also.

Mary then grabbed my youngest daughter and dragged her over to where my friend and Ken were talking and demanded to see ID. My friend showed them her driver's license at which point Mary said "Let's get out of here!" and they dragged my youngest daughter out. We followed trying to get Ken to calm down and continue the visitation but he put my youngest daughter in the car and left.

We tried to file a police report regarding the incident, but they wouldn't take one. Later we found out that Ken and Mary had gone to the police station and claimed that we had stated that we were going to kidnap my youngest daughter, and that my friend had claimed to be with Homeland Security. (Based on a false report Ken filed with Homeland Security, she even had a Homeland Security officer and a Coast Guard officer travel over three hours to interview her, and they found no credibility to Ken's claims at all.)

PA - Not Just for Parents Anymore!

Parental Alienation is not just limited to the parent(s) who are targeted.

When an Alienator engages in a campaign, they need to destroy all relationships that the child has with not only the target parent, but also the family of the target parent. If they don't, the child being manipulated will still be able to see and hear news of the target parent, and continue to form their own opinions.

Ken Shaw is a master of alienation manipulation with my youngest daughter. Setting aside what he did in regards to me, he also targeted my other children (her older siblings), and my other family members.

My youngest daughter has four siblings from my household.

Her oldest sister at the time of the false allegations was living and working over an hour away. But she made time to get home and spend time with her siblings at least once a month, so the little one had fairly frequent contact with her.

Her brother lived a few blocks away and was over at our house several times a week, eating dinner at least once a week and hanging out to watch movies or to go places other times.

My middle child and Ruby lived at home with the little one and me.

I am no saint, and neither are my children, although they all are very bright.

Ken Shaw deliberately targeted all of them to keep them separated from their youngest sister.

Now keep in mind, at the onset of the false allegations against Jon Massey, Ken Shaw repeatedly told the CPS workers, the AFC, my attorney, Jon's attorney, my neighbors and friends, that Ruby "was a liar" that she "told lies about his sons" and that he "didn't believe her". Not only are most of those witnesses willing to testify to Ken's statements, we even have the CPS notes that document his report to them.

But once his attorney arrived on the scene, suddenly his attitude and behavior changed. He began limiting/denying my access to my youngest daughter. He and his attorney began making false statements in court. Most importantly, he began denying my oldest two children the opportunity to see their youngest sister.

CPS made it very easy for him - they insisted that my youngest child, a US citizen who had lived in this country her entire life, be placed in Canada. Mind you, this is a Hague Convention violation which has very specific guidelines for placing children in another country. The judge and her AFC and CPS violated her rights as a US citizen. (A CPS caseworker has even come forward and stated that she should never have been placed outside the US, and worst case scenario should have been placed in a foster care.)

My oldest two children have made some mistakes in their lives, and crossing an international border isn't always easy. Canada can be very strict, and my two oldest were either ineligible, or would have to pay a $500+ bond to be allowed into the country to see their sister. That doesn't sound like much, but to a young adult with student loans and car payments it is overwhelming.

Additionally, Ken Shaw began making the false allegation that my son had told my youngest daughter that he was going to "kidnap" her and bring her home. He specifically cited a phone conversation that had occurred at a family event, in front of THREE ATTORNEYS AND A JUDGE'S WIFE, all of whom were listening and waiting to talk to my youngest daughter.

What Ken has done to my middle child goes beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

In May of 2013 the family court judge (who expressed that he felt that the allegations that Ken made against me were false) permitted me to bring an adult in addition to my middle child on visitation. On one of the occasions we brought a friend of my middle daughter who was over 18 and who had spent time with the youngest one watching Disney movies.

At some point, after a confrontation in which Ken Shaw took something that one of the girls left on the table, Ken stood up in the middle of a public library, in front of the youngest child and the middle child, and began yelling at the top of his lungs at my middle child: "Your mother has molested your sister, and she molested you too! You just don't know about it yet!" He even admitted to doing so in court, but the judge's response wasn't to terminate Ken's supervision, it was to SUSPEND my middle daughter's visitation with her younger sister.

Finally, in September of 2014 we had a dispositional hearing. As part of the process, there were negotiations with Ken Shaw and his attorney regarding visitation for my middle daughter with her youngest sister. Although they had reached an agreement with my daughter and her attorney, in the hearing a matter arose over an outstanding violation petition that I had filed against Ken Shaw (for his actions revolving around and during court ordered visitation). Immediately Ken and Mary Shaw and his attorney began screaming at my daughter "If you testify in this matter, we will revoke the agreement," screaming at my daughter's attorney, "If you allow your client to testify on the violation petition, we will revoke the agreement and fight you for visitation in court," and screaming and yelling at me, "If you go ahead with this petition, we will revoke your daughter's visitation with her sister." This occurred both in front of the judge, and then continued when he went in chambers. This occurred in front of the DSS attorney, two AFCs, and the court officers. It was so egregious that on a subsequent court date when I had to be in a room with Ken Shaw's attorney, the court officer came in with me and stood by me to protect me from Ken Shaw's attorney.

Yes, I withdrew the petition UNDER DURESS. This is called witness intimidation and is a criminal offense. Yet the Family Court Judge sat there and DID NOTHING!

You would hope that it is an end to the story - but it isn't. My middle child, after all the paperwork got finalized (which took a few months because Ken Shaw decided to be less than cooperative) went to her first visitation. My middle daughter has no offenses that would cause border crossing to be an issue, and we thought it should have been a simple trip - about an hour to get there. Instead, she got pulled into Canadian Customs and her vehicle, all her belongings, and her cell phone were searched - that included searching through all her emails, Facebook posts and messages, and text messages. The Canadians claimed that it was routine, but meanwhile she was late for the scheduled visitation appointment and almost wasn't allowed to see her sister.

We thought that the second time would be easier, but she asked me to go along just in case. We had a repeat performance of the prior time, except this time they held both of us for over an hour and a half. I have been crossing the border since I was 18, and have never had these types of issues, so I began checking around. I contacted Homeland Security who referred me to Canadian Customs. We also had a friend do some casual checking on a "US customs officer" to "CA customs officer" basis and got an interesting report. Although through official channels, there was no reason either of us should be subjected to that type of behavior, the unofficial word was quite different. What we learned is that someone had given Canadian Border Patrol a document that made it appear that there was an order of protection against both me and my middle child to limit or prevent contact with my youngest daughter. There has never been such a document against my middle child, so someone apparently decided to play fast and loose with creating a false document or altering an existing one. This is no surprise - par for the course with Ken Shaw.

At any rate, after my official inquiries, the border behavior suddenly ceased. But that still doesn't mean that my daughters get to see each other as they should and were accustomed.

But there are far greater implications: An AMERICAN court and an AMERICAN government agency worked in concert to revoke and or deny the rights of not one but five AMERICAN citizens in concert with a citizen of a different country. Kinda makes you think, doesn't it?

PA - The Details

For more information on how Ken Shaw was able to get his foot in the door to get started on his destructive campaign of Parental Alienation, please refer to the Jon Massey Case.

A helpful resource to refer to if you are not familiar with PA is the Canadian Article on Parental Alienation.

It is somewhat ironic that this is one of the easiest articles to understand, as Ken Shaw is a Canadian citizen who has engaged repeatedly in false allegations and attacks on US citizens, and has been supported and endorsed by a United States Family Court and CPS branch, as well as a New York State based police department.

The attacks by Ken Shaw are definitively bullying, and almost a form of terrorism. Ken Shaw is pursuing the ideological goal of punishing myself and my family, and securing monetary benefit to himself. He has not restricted his actions to myself and my children, he has also involved multiple other US citizens, and engaged law enforcement and the courts in Canada to further his goals.

If you read the article cited above, all four factors of PA are present in our case.

Ken Shaw repeatedly used Contact Denial and Access Blocking to limit my ability to spend time with my youngest child, often despite court orders to the contrary. That included coaching her to hang up during court ordered phone conversations and walking out of court-ordered visitations either at the onset or before time was complete. We have witnesses and documentation regarding all of this, that CPS and the Family Court refused to hear. On visitation, Ken Shaw would continuously interrupt my conversations and activities with my youngest daughter and attempt to impose his will on her - telling her what moves to make in board/card games, what books to pick out to read at the library, etc.

The second factor, Unfounded Abuse Allegations, was also present. Ken Shaw began making allegations that I was abusing my youngest daughter within a few months of being given custody by Family Court. The irony is that he was "supervising" each and every one of the visitations where this allegedly occurred. The agency he initially reported to, the Kingston Police Department, not only took no action - they told the CPS investigator in Jefferson County and the Watertown Police Department that they believed that the child had been coached! Yet because these reports came in almost a year after CPS had commenced a case against us (see the Jon Massey Case), CPS proceeded against me full speed ahead. What is most telling is that Ken Shaw claims that he "witnessed" some of the alleged abuse and that he did nothing at the time. To be more specific, he claims that he witnessed an episode (or more) of abuse in the beginning of February, yet he never tried to report it to CPS until April. When Ken Shaw called his report in to CPS, he claimed that I had abused not only my youngest child, but also her two older sisters (who both denied all of it). Even the original Family Court judge stated that he "was very skeptical", that he "saw this happen in contested custody cases far too often", and at that point he wanted an outside psychologist to do an evaluation. Ken Shaw even went so far as to tell two other people that I had molested all my children, one of my friends, several of my students, and that my father had molested me. Additionally, Ken Shaw's testimony at hearings in January and February of the following year was so unbelievable and included his admissions that he lied to the police about at least one incident, as well as an episode in which he repeatedly lied at the hearing to a judge about another matter, CPS REFUSED to call him as a witness at the actual trial. On the other hand, I had people accompany me to each and every visitation, and I had also carried an audio recorder around during visitation - until CPS objected and the judge ordered recording stopped, and the witnesses and recordings can verify that I did not abuse or otherwise violate any court orders regarding my daughter. I find it rather coincidental that the abuse allegations did not even begin until after the CPS worker was informed that placement of my daughter in Canada was a Hague Convention violation as there was no allegations against me that constituted an imminent threat of danger to her.

Addition - April 2, 2015:
In reviewing all the documentation that we have, I just located some very important pieces of paperwork regarding Ken Shaw's false allegations. 

The first is a report from the Canadian version of CPS that he made on December 28, 2012. He claimed that I was being emotionally abusive to my youngest daughter during the visitations. The Canadian CPS report clearly states that they weren't going to act on his claims, and closed the case. This is critical, because later on, when he opens a case with the US CPS division and when he testified at two hearings, one in January 2014 and a second in February 2014, he claims that my youngest daughter told him (or his wife - depending on the version he remembers at the time) on the night of December 26, 2012 that I had sexually molested her in a hot tub (while he was present and watching us, as well as there being three lifeguards, my middle daughter, a family friend, and several other families, one of whom shared the hot tub with us.) Yet in the report of December 28, there is no mention of anything about sexual abuse.

Then there is a second letter from the same agency indicating that they once again became involved with Ken Shaw's "family" on February 19, 2013. This was a few days after a visitation in which Ken Shaw screamed and swore at my middle daughter and I in the middle of a crowded movie theater. Once again, in the letter dated April 22, 2013, the agency states that the Kingston Police are not making any charges based on their interviews with my youngest daughter. As a point of interest, the police never even bothered to contact me for my version - which indicates how strongly they felt the reports were false. The Canadian CPS agency once again closed the case, also without ever contacting me.

Factor three is Deterioration in Relationship Since Separation, and it follows that since Ken Shaw had done everything that he could to interfere with and damage our relationship, this occurred. From birth until the false allegations of Ruby, my youngest daughter had lived with me in the same house, going eventually to the same schools, and had regular contact with her siblings - every day with my middle child and Ruby, at least once a week with her older brother, and at least once a month with her oldest sister. But due to the actions of CPS and the judge, she was no longer allowed ANY contact with her oldest two siblings, and her contact with my middle child was limited to when I was allowed to see her. She was ripped away from her friends (who live in houses on either side of ours, her school that she had attended for three years, and her pets) by the actions of the judge and CPS. The judge decided (as a result of Ken Shaw's deliberate vicious attack on my middle child at a visitation in 2013) that my middle daughter would no longer be allowed any contact. And as a result of Jon's wrongful conviction and subsequent suicide, the judge terminated all my visitation.

Finally is the Intense Fear Reaction which has been repeatedly witnessed by those who were accompanying me to visitation. However, my youngest daughter was not responding to me with fear, but rather to Ken Shaw. This was huge - my youngest daughter has always been eager to please and very compliant - which got her in trouble a few times at school for "following the crowd". What was witnessed repeatedly by the multiple individuals who accompanied me to visitation (including a psychologist who was hired by the court) was that my youngest daughter repeatedly looked to her father and/or step-mother for permission to answer questions or to engage in activities in a way that indicated worry and/or fear. When Ken and/or Mary Shaw moved suddenly or began to speak, she would flinch or get a startled and scared look on her face. But CPS did everything they could to discredit all my witnesses at trial, even the psychologist that had been hired by the court and was considered an expert in these matters in much of Central New York.

Additionally, Ken and Mary Shaw made it clear that they were stalking the social media profiles of everyone who came with me on visitation - often continuing with this behavior long after the visitation.

I'm sorry that I can't give more specific details at this time, however we are heading into appeal and have found that after every hearing and trial, the testimony of the prosecuting witnesses changes to reflect what they have learned from the previous court action.

If you had never heard of PA (Parental Alienation) before - the link at the beginning of the article is a good starting point, as well as the link given in "PA - The Most Recent Chapter".

PA - The Most Recent Chapter

For a view on how we got to this point, visit the Jon Massey Case.

As a result of the direct actions of CPS, the DSS attorney, Ken Shaw's attorney, and Ken Shaw, the judge's disposition specified that the only contact that I was allowed with my youngest daughter was to send letters, cards, and gifts to her through her counselor.

Given Ken Shaw's track record for ignoring the orders of the judges in this case, even when they are written orders, I had to wait until I had a copy in writing to start sending anything to my daughter.

I sent out the first package for her November birthday, and received no response or acknowledgement from the counselor (supposedly a "professional") that it had been received.

So before Christmas I made a phone call to the counselor to check on the status of the first package, and whether or not the counselor still saw my daughter - and received no return call. A few days later I made a second call, thinking that the first had been overlooked.

At that point, apparently the counselor called the DSS attorney, and he contacted my attorney. The DSS attorney informed my attorney that the counselor was no longer employed by the agency in question and that I was to send packages directly to the agency where my daughter allegedly was receiving counselling. I have a letter from the DSS attorney to document.

This whole process took several weeks, so I put together a Valentine's day package and sent it off in plenty of time for her to receive it before Valentine's day.

Imagine my surprise to have the package returned by the agency with a letter explaining that they "were not in a position to accept or forward the item".

The DSS attorney states in his letter that I can send items to the agency, the court order specifies that I am allowed to send "letters, cards, and gifts", and the agency claims that I am not allowed to do so.

So apparently Ken Shaw has either taken my daughter out of counselling to prevent me from contacting her at all, or he has presented the agency with "documentation" that I am not entitled to send her anything.

This is known as Parental Alienation, and Ken Shaw is a master at it. In forthcoming chapters of PA I will describe how he has used this with his other children in the past. He is also a master of deception in other areas and the blog will document how this is a pervasive behavior pattern with him and not just isolated to this case.

Stay tuned, this isn't over yet.