Mom termed 'parental alienator' wins
rare vindication in courts
BY TROY ANDERSON, Staff Writer
Former San Fernando resident Irene Jensen battled the family court and child
protective systems for 13 years to save her daughter from an allegedly abusive
father.
But the system turned the tables on her: Jensen found herself accused of
making up the allegations and in the glare of the national spotlight when she
was labeled a "parental alienator."
Her daughter, Tiffany-Ann Carver, now 17, spent years in the custody of her
father, a
Tiffany eventually ran away and sought the assistance of the
Children's Rights, which helped place her in a foster home. Late last year, a
show.
Experts said Jensen is believed to be the only mother accused of "parental
alienation syndrome" who has regained custody of her child before age 18.
"It took half my life away from me," said Jensen, now 51. "I
felt like a
prisoner of war. I've never had anyone terrorize my daughter, an innocent child,
myself and my family the way (my ex-husband) and
Now, Tiffany and her mother said they feel free to tell their story.
"What I've gone through was hell," Tiffany said in a recent
interview. "I went
there and back again."
Rachel Allen, spokeswoman for the California National Organization for Women,
said Tiffany's case illustrates flaws in
"We have hundreds of similar cases
reported to us, with the majority of them
going on for years and years, costing mothers hundreds of thousands of dollars
... and robbing them of their relationship with their children and their ability
to protect their children," Allen said.
But
Jr., 43, denies ever abusing his daughter.
"I know Irene claims she was the victim, but there were two psychological
evaluations done and both of them concluded the child should be with the father
and that the mother was a parental alienator," Crowell said.
The controversial parental alienation syndrome, which arose in the family
court system in the early 1990s, holds that a parent brainwashes children into
believing that the other parent has abused them and makes false allegations to
authorities in custody cases.
"All of the processes we went through concluded he did not abuse
her," Crowell
said. "There were allegations of abuse raised in
rubber-stamped what the mom said and didn't check with anyone (in
Crowell said Tiffany was happy for years with her father - a softball coach -
and ran away because her father wouldn't let her stay out late and go to
parties.
"It was a typical father-teenager battle," Crowell said. "(She)
did not want
to live under the discipline of her father."
Carver declined to be interviewed.
But Tiffany said she wasn't happy in her father's home.
"My father would blame the bruises and cuts on me on the sports,"
Tiffany
said, adding that he threatened that if she told anyone about the abuse, he
would prevent her from seeing her mother or sister.
"I knew I was going to continue to live my life in misery. I packed up my
things one day when I was supposed to go to summer school and fled," she
said.
"I ran for eight months. I was safe with numerous different people in safe
houses. I had to cope with a lot, but I was better off on my own."
Court records show incidents began to occur in June 1993, when Carver was
arrested on suspicion of spousal battery. The charges were later dismissed.
The couple filed for divorce and Jensen was granted primary custody of
Tiffany. The father was given monitored visitation.
A few months later, after a visit with her father, court records show Tiffany
told her mother that her father had physically abused her. Jensen reported the
incident to sheriff's officials, who found a "lack of sufficient evidence
to
prove a crime," according to records.
In March 1994, Jensen took her daughter to
according to hospital records. At the doctor's office, Tiffany reported that
her father had sexually abused her, according to court records.
The medical examination report did not rule out sexual abuse and recommended
further investigation.
Three months later, Crowell wrote in court documents that Jensen was
alienating her daughter from her father by telling her daughter that he had
abused her and by making repeated reports of abuse to child protection and law
enforcement officials.
Nearly a year later, Crowell asked the court to give physical custody to
Carver, noting that two psychological court evaluators had found Jensen was a
parental alienator and would continue to make unfounded allegations against
Carver.
Tiffany wrote to the judge, saying that she wanted to live with her mother,
and doctors filed reports of suspected child abuse, but a court commissioner
granted Carver physical custody of the girl in 1995.
While child protection workers in Utah substantiated Tiffany's allegations of
physical and sexual abuse in 1996, during a visit by Tiffany to her mother's
home in that state, Los Angeles County child protective and law enforcement
officials ruled that more than 100 reports of abuse were unfounded.
Despite efforts by judges and the
use of parental alienation syndrome in custody cases, it's still cited in
family
courts. Now, however, it's simply described as alienating behavior, experts
say.
"Basically, it recast the abuser as the victim," said Syrus Devers, an
attorney and former consultant to Sen. Sheila Kuehl,
D-Los Angeles, who
sponsored legislation to address problems created by use of the legal tactic.
"To everyone's shock, it was extraordinarily successful in
litigation," Devers
said. "It all begins with the original finding that the person raising
these
allegations is for some reason not credible. As it works its way through the
system over the years, it becomes an invincible opinion that is never
reversed."
Many legal experts say the syndrome is merely a theory by psychiatrist Richard
A. Gardner, who wrote a book about it before he committed suicide in 2003. The
American Psychiatric Association does not recognize it as a mental disorder,
according to court records.
In 1999, Los Angeles Superior Court Supervising Judge Paul Gutman wrote that
the syndrome is "largely considered by authorities as scientifically
unsupportable."
David L. Levy, chief executive officer of the Children's Rights Council, an
international father's rights organization in Hyattsville, Md., disagreed that
the syndrome is not real and said he "tends to believe" Tiffany's
story.
"Parental alienation is as bogus as child abuse," Levy said.
"They both exist,
whether you want to call it a syndrome or not."
Now that she's living with her mother, 9-year-old sister and stepfather in
"(She) seems to be doing really well now," said Natasha Frost, a
staff
attorney at the
happy and excelling in school."
Tiffany recently graduated from high school and said she plans to go to
college this fall.
"I'm going to be studying criminal justice in college so I can help shape
the
future. I want to teach other girls and women what I went through and what they
can do in situations like mine. I see the day coming when no child is in fear
to
speak the truth."
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