Three years ago, state Rep. Tina Davis introduced a bill to make protecting children the first priority in custody cases where there are allegations of sexual abuse or violence, long before anyone heard of the name Kayden Mancuso.
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| Jeffrey Mancuso (L) and Kayden |
On Monday, the Bristol Township Democrat, who represents the 141st district, will host a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing in Middletown to examine how child custody cases are addressed in the state and how courts can better address the needs of families. Davis plans to use hearing and expert testimony to update her 2015 bill, which remains in the House Judiciary Committee.
Her proposed legislation would require a professional who provides advice, recommendations or evaluations to the court in custody proceedings to have expertise in domestic violence-related issues and, where appropriate, child sexual abuse. It also would require judges and attorneys be trained to appropriately respond to allegations of domestic violence in custody cases.
The Davis bill also would mandate an evidentiary hearing to “thoroughly vet” allegations of abuse and domestic violence as part of custody proceedings, and it would require only supervised visitation for parents found to have committed abuse until the person can prove they are no longer a risk to the child.
Also expected to be discussed at the hearing is another bill before the House Judiciary Committee that would suspend visitation rights for an abusive parent in domestic violence cases or allow only professionally supervised visitation. The bill, introduced by Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat, also would encourage the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts to develop and implement standards to improve the ability of the court to recognize and respond to the impact of abuse and domestic violence on children.
The hearing comes roughly one month after the high-profile murder of 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, who was killed Aug. 6 during a scheduled overnight visit with her father, Jeffrey Mancuso, 42, of Philadelphia, who then killed himself. The murder-suicide came three months after a Bucks County judge awarded Mancuso unsupervised visits, despite a history of violent and erratic behavior, including alleged assaults on Kayden’s mother, Kathryn Sherlock, and Mancuso’s mother.
Following her murder, Kayden’s family has campaigned on social and traditional media to remove Judge Jeffrey Trauger from the bench for failing to follow a court-ordered evaluation that recommended Mancuso have unsupervised visits with Kayden “contingent” on him entering mental health treatment. In his May custody order, Trauger strongly urged Mancuso to get that treatment, but did not mandate it.
Kathryn Sherlock is among the panelists scheduled to testify Monday. She met earlier this month with Gov. Tom Wolf and his senior staff to discuss family court reforms the family is pushing to enact as part of what they have proposed as “Kayden’s Law.” Among the proposed ideas are mandatory court-appointed advocates for children in custody proceedings and requiring judges incorporate recommendations from expert testimony and court evaluations into final orders.
Pennsylvania most recently underwent dramatic changes in its child custody laws in 2010, with new rules designed to hold Common Pleas Court judges more accountable for the reasoning behind custody awards and assuring the best interests of the child are in the forefront. Changes included requiring the court to address 16 custody factors and explain decisions in orders creating a case history for a future judge. At least five of those 16 factors address violence and potential harm to a child.
But Davis said that what she hears are parent complaints that courts do not take their allegations seriously, even when they are shown proof, or when supported by expert testimony.
“I hear that sometimes the judges don’t listen to what the advocates say,” Davis said.
National research shows that state family courts have struggled to evaluate reports of child abuse and domestic violence, including the appropriate burdens of proof, but admissibility standards often dip below those required in the criminal and civil court systems, according to CHILD USA, a Philadelphia-based child welfare organization.
Pennsylvania judges can tie visitation to undergoing mandatory psychological evaluations and behavioral or mental health treatment as part of custody orders, but without evidence that a child has been abused or threatened, a parent’s past violent or criminal behavior doesn’t automatically prevent contact with children, according to family law attorneys.
Similar patterns are found in other family courts. U.S. Department of Justice statistics suggest that 75 percent of the time, family courts award alleged domestic violence abusers unsupervised access to children. Frequently, the most highly contested custody cases involve domestic violence allegations, according to domestic violence experts.
A 2004 Harvard University School of Public Health study in the American Journal, Public Health found that men who abuse female partners are also “highly likely” to abuse the children of these women “however, family courts are reported to often ignore risks posed by abusive men in awarding child custody and visitation.”
“Children’s continued exposure to abusive parents may place them at increased risk for a range of serious health concerns. Children of women who have been abused by a male partner are at very high risk of being abused by these same men with approximately half of all children of battered women abused by their mothers’ abusers,” according to the Harvard study.
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