Tomorrow morning, two six-year old brothers will leave the sole custody of the mother they have lived with for the past five years to live in the sole custody of their father, an Air Force colonel alleged to have physically and sexually abused the boys for years.
The Air Force had deemed the abuse allegations against Colonel Eric Holt as lacking evidence, but as this reporter previously covered, an extraordinary amount of evidence from photographs, video, medical records and witnesses supports the allegations. This evidence includes five disclosures by the boys themselves to non-parental caregivers, medical authorities and child welfare authorities.
Yet in an August 15 Maryland Montgomery County family court decision, Judge Joan Ryon awarded sole custody of the boys to Col. Holt and ordered the boys’ mother, a Harvard-trained anesthesiologist, only to supervised visitation once every two weeks. Ryon did not require Col. Holt to pay any of the more than $100,000 he owed in back child support—despite a previous court order that he do so—but she ordered the boys’ mother, Dr. Holt*, to pay $5700 a month in child support to their father going forward...
...“How does a family court judge make a decision like this? Pulling the boys away from their mother and giving them to a man with a hair trigger temper who wouldn't even pay child support?” Arrant said. “Eric has admitted he cannot control his anger and sexual impulses. It’s sad he is like this because of the IED explosion, but that won't help the boys if he physically or sexually abuses them.”..
...Col. Holt himself has acknowledged those same impulse, anger and sexual problems in previous court proceedings, but he has not responded to multiple requests for comment for this and the previous story.
Montgomery County is the same court system that gave unsupervised visitation to the father of Prince McLeod Rams, whose father killed him on the fourth unsupervised visit the boy’s mother had fought to prevent. It was also in Montgomery County that Anthony, Austin and Athena Castillo (ages 6, 4 and 2) were drowned by their father after he was awarded unsupervised visitation despite multiple warnings from their mother, a pediatrician, that he would kill them.
“Congressman Kennedy is disappointed by this decision and troubled by this process,” said Dan Black, a spokesperson for the office of US Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass.). “He is extremely concerned for the safety and well being of the children, who are now at risk of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. He will continue to call on the various jurisdictions involved in this case to meet their obligation to protect these children.”..
...“One of the standards in Maryland law is how friendly the parent will be in providing access to the children,” said Laurie Duker, co-founder and executive director of Court Watch Montgomery. But she believes the laws governing divorce and custody cases need an overhaul because judges do not receive training on the impact of trauma.
“They’re punishing women for withholding access to the kids when she’s doing the right thing in protecting them,” Duker said, adding that judges do not receive training on the impact of trauma. “When a woman doesn’t cry, a lot of judges interpret that as not being afraid.”
Eileen King, executive director and program director of Child Justice Inc., and Paul Griffin, legal director of Child Justice Inc., said this judge appeared to disregard Dr. Holt’s concerns about her boys.
“When the mother was accused of alienation, and when the abuse she had been subjected to and the abuse we believe the children were subjected to were minimized, we saw the judge had no deep understanding of the plight of the children or of the mother trying to protect the children,” King said. “The fact that she is upset and distressed is being held against her,” King said. “When Dr. Holt testified that a number of times he [Col. Holt] threatened to shoot her in the face, that’s very serious. The fact that the judge didn’t seem to take that into consideration is very problematic.”
Griffin believes the Air Force’s handling of Col. Holt’s case played a role in Judge Ryon’s decision.
“I’m also disappointed the judge didn’t recuse herself after engaging in ex parte communication and refused to disclose the communications when asked,” Griffin said. Before the trial, Judge Ryon had received an email from the office of Maj. Gen. Jacobson, stating his decision to close the case. The email contained additional information about that decision that the judge refused to share with the mother’s counsel.
“Because the judge did not disperse the report to the parties, this left Dr. Holt with no ability to challenge the report’s findings,” Drew said. “The family court's reliance on the military to assess whether the father abused the children is unusual and questionable since in doing so the court deferred to Air Force generals who are colleagues of the accused.”..
Judge Joan Ryon: