To Get Mom Out Of Jail Daughter Returns To Abuser

2009-11-17T16:12:00.000-08:00

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Elizabeth McVey
Children Have Rights Too
Albany, New York
November 17, 2009
528-505-9200
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Does it seem right that a child should be put in the position of either watching her mother sit in jail or putting herself at risk by visiting an angry and abusive alcoholic father who has said that he doesn’t want her anyway?

On Thursday, November 12, Lorraine Tipton of Oconto, Wisconsin was taken into custody following a hearing held at the Marinette county circuit court. Judge David Miron sentenced Tipton to consecutive and continuous 30 day jail time as long as her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela refused to visit her, previously established, sexually and otherwise abusive, negligent, and dangerous father.

Over the weekend, when Michaela found that she could no longer stand to see her mother sit in jail she asked her father, on numerous occasions, to pick her up for visitation. Michaela’s father, Craig Hensberger, apparently getting a lot of pleasure out of his ex-girlfriend, as well as his daughter’s pain, told 11-year-old Michaela that he wasn’t going to pick her up because he wanted to see her mother sit in jail.

It seems the family court system has come up with many angles when it comes to protecting fathers, even to the point of accusing their ex-wives of “poisoning” the children against their father, of coaching them, or even of being crazy themselves. But what “angles” do they have in place to protect mothers? Wouldn’t you think that when something so incomprehensible happens, such as a father refusing visitation after having the mother of his child put in jail for, allegedly, withholding it from him, there should be some course of action that would be taken?

On Sunday November 15, Michaela asked her step-father, Chad Tipton, to drive her to where her father was. When Hensberger became argumentative and refused to take Michaela, insisting that her mother needed to stay in jail, the sheriff’s department interceded. After being told that if he didn’t take her they would have to put her in foster care, Hensberger reluctantly allowed his 11-year-old daughter into the house.

At approximately 1pm on Monday November 16, Lorraine Tipton was released from jail. While getting out of jail was met with a great deal of relief, that feeling was quickly diffused as Tipton now fears for the safety of her daughter. If Hensberger can no longer hurt Tipton by keeping her behind bars one can only surmise that his next course of action will be to go back to hurting his ex-girlfriend through abusing and endangering Michaela.

Here is a man whose clear motivation is to hurt his ex-girlfriend, to make her pay somehow for some horrific crime she has committed against him (Normally that crime amounts to deciding to no longer be afraid of him, leaving him, and finding someone who will treat her in a way that she has always deserved). Whatever the reasoning on Craig Hensberger’s part, it is clear that his number one priority is not making his daughter happy. It is making his ex-girlfriend miserable.

What should we make of the fact that there are witnesses such as the deputy who spoke with Mr. Hensberger who are willing to come forward yet are not permitted to by the court? (e.g. a member of the police department who wanted to confirm what Ms. Tipton and Michaela were saying was true was not allowed to testify on their behalf.) It seems that many times family court judges are hell-bent on finding any far-fetched reason they can to protect the interests of the father, no matter how ludicrous that reason may be.

If Michaela comes back from her father’s and complains of being abused, endangered, or otherwise, it will be interesting to see if Judge Miron can find yet another twisted way in which to label Mr. Hensberger the poor, helpless victim and Ms. Tipton the insane,
vindictive abuser.

With the way things stand now, there really isn’t any reason to believe that for Mr. Hensberger will treat Michaela well. First of all, he is enraged that he was forced to take Michaela, thereby freeing her mother from jail. Secondly, Judge Miron has already set a precedent as to what he will believe and what he won’t, which person will be punished and which won’t, and just how harsh that punishment might be. You might say Mr. Hensberger has been granted “freedom to abuse” by the family court system.

Meanwhile a young girl who is innocently putting her faith in this judge (a male role model) is being asked, by him, to place herself in danger simply so that this judge can chalk up another “win” for fathers. Furthermore, if Judge Miron is more concerned with focusing on a war between men and women rather than looking out for the best interests of the children perhaps he is in the wrong court, or perhaps he should step out of the courtroom altogether.

To Get Mom Out Of Jail Daughter returns to Abuser

To Get Mom Out Of Jail Daughter Returns To Abuser