A Pennsylvania Family Court judge has retaliated against a mother who filed a State Tort and Civil Rights lawsuit against him—by jailing her.
This is yet another example of a judge abusing his power to punish a woman who refuses to comply with unjust orders that empower the father and harm the children.
Thankfully, after all the outrage expressed by her supporters, Sara was released on Thursday after serving just a week and a half of her six month sentence.
Let’s look at how we got here—from the father being a convicted child sex offender to him being given custody via his father—to the mom being jailed.
In 2018, Sara began the battle for custody of her children—their son, R.H., and her daughter, A.P. from a previous relationship. Note that A.P. is not her ex’s biological daughter. That is important for the case.
In 2019, joint custody was awarded to Sara and her ex.
That same year, her ex began continuously raping a 14-year-old girl, which went on for nearly 3 months—until he was caught.
He pled guilty and was sentenced to 4 1/2 – 10 years in prison. He is locked up to this day.
Since the father was in prison, Sara got sole custody. There was a no contact order issued against him.
This is where the story gets crazier.
The father found a way to maintain control from prison—by adding his father to the case! They filed a petition together for custody and visitation.
Judge N. Christopher (Chris) Menges allowed the child rapist and abuser of his ex and children to petition for custody by adding the grandfather to the case whom he endearingly refers to as “Pop Pop”.
So Sara was subjected to yet another custody battle with both the father and grandfather named as Respondents. Incredibly, even Sara’s daughter from a previous marriage was a subject of the custody dispute.
Sara was ordered to communicate with the grandfather and her ex (in jail) via the Family Court Wizard app. She was also ordered to give them both access to the children’s school portal and medical records. A hearing was scheduled for just two months later to see how things were going, i.e. if Sara was complying with his unconstitutional and illegal orders.
So Sara filed an appeal, thinking, like so many mothers, that will help. After all, that is the remedy for bad judges, right?
The Appellate Court responded that they didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case because the order being appealed was not a final one. That is another common ruse judges use—don’t finalize the judgment to keep women from appealing their corrupt orders and to drag out the case longer.
In March of this year, Sara filed a civil rights lawsuit, naming Judge Menges, her ex, the grandfather, and opposing counsel as Respondents.
At the hearing, Menges denied Sara’s request for continuance and once again her request to recuse. He found Sara in contempt for not complying with his demands.
Menges sentenced Sara to six months in jail, the maximum allowed by a Family Court judge, since litigants do not have the right to a jury trial. He put forth a long list of things she had to do to “purge” the contempt before being released—which, of course, included the very things she claims are unconstitutional in her lawsuit.
Since Sara’s lawsuit includes conspiracy to force her to follow unjust orders by use of intimidation and coercion, it is amusing he still used jail as the ultimate coercive means to get her to comply with his orders.
Source: Judge Retaliates by Jailing Mom Who Filed a Lawsuit against Him
Outrageous! Judicial corruption is the ultimate abuse of power. I hope this judge is thrown off the bench.