What do you do when 11 judges and referees, 20 therapists, 12 mediators, two parenting consultants (with 37 directives), one custody evaluator, and one guardian ad litem haven’t been able to …
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By Tesha M. Christensen
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4/17/24
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Violence Free Minnesota issued the following statement on Tuesday, Feb. 20 to call attention to the full circumstances around Shannon Cortez Gooden's murder of two police officers and an EMT in …
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2/20/24
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For 25 years, the warm glow of hundreds of luminaries have lit Dupont/King’s Highway on Christmas Eve. The annual event not only brings neighbors together, but it has raised over $50,000 for …
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By Tesha M. Christensen
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12/14/23
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During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a Minnesota judge ordered a victim to jail for not forcing her daughter to see her father.
Dani* was ordered to serve 30 days in jail on Oct. 2, 2023 or …
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By Tesha M. Christensen
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10/19/23
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Thi Synavone came to the U.S. in 1979 as a Laotian refugee. After living in many states, her family settled in Minnesota in 1988. Synavone said that growing up, domestic and sexual violence was never …
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By Talia Mcwright
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9/28/23
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She lived in Minnesota for only five months and her daughter was born in Iowa, but Dani* has been dragged into family court in Minnesota nearly every one of the past 11 years by her ex-boyfriend. …
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By Tesha M. Christensen
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6/6/23
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A bill signed into law this week in Colorado prohibits family courts from ordering children to participate in reunification programs that isolate them from a trusted caregiver. Many of these programs …
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by Hannah Dreyfus
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6/3/23
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One Thursday afternoon in December, a father and two of his estranged children boarded a flight from Salt Lake City to Texas, beginning an effort to repair their fractured relationship.
A family …
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by Hannah Dreyfus
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6/3/23
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After two months barricaded in a bedroom to defy a court order directing them to be returned to the custody of their father, who they say abused them, Utah siblings Ty and Brynlee Larson emerged …
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by Hannah Dreyfus
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6/3/23
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The Colorado courts have suspended a well-known custody evaluator and launched a review of the entire state-approved roster, following a ProPublica investigation that found some evaluators had …
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by Hannah Dreyfus
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6/3/23
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Elina Asensio had a restraining order in place against her father when she met with a court-appointed psychologist assigned to determine whether he should be part of her life.
She expected Mark …
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by Hannah Dreyfus
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6/3/23
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Who’s right? Who’s wrong? And how does it affect the kids?Figuring out family dynamics in custody cases can be tricky, but the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP) in St. Paul …
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By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
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9/29/22
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Helpless and hopeless.That’s how Kelsey Kruse felt for years as she tried to co-parent with her ex and his wife, Brett and Sarah Hallow.And then one day, she got the call she was scared …
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At 25, Sarah* doesn’t speak to her dad. And she points the finger squarely at him and how he treated her before and after her parents’ divorce.She knows that people often blame mom when a …
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By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
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1/25/22
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Like many issues, domestic abuse situations have only been heightened by COVID-19. Jerrod Brown, a professor at Concordia University and program director for the Master of Arts degree in human …
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By Jan Willms
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11/30/21
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When Starr Jones* tells her story, people can’t believe this is happening in Minnesota. They can’t believe that the dad was investigated by child protection when their first daughter was …
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Broke.
Homeless.
And in danger of losing custody of her children.
That’s where Bonnie Roy found herself while trying to get a divorce in Minnesota 10 years ago.
Because of her own …
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By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
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10/2/20
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Editor's note: Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, this column by a local resident is being run anonymously.
Like most people who have experienced intimate partner violence, I was not …
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10/2/20
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Local and national staff, along with Carmen Yulín Cruz (mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico), and Teresa Rodriguez, from Univision, who served as the emcee of Casa de Esperanza’s 35th Anniversary …
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By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
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7/29/20
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DIVING DEEPER
Now in its 30th edition, the Femicide Report has a new name: the Intimate Partner Homicide Report coinciding with the renaming of the Minnesota Battered Women's Coalition to Violence …
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2/11/20
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