POLITICS
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Judge
Puts Infant in Harm's Way
Read also: Emergency Motion for Custody We hear a lot about child abuse, but if Atty. Johnson is correct, this is a case of extreme cruelty to a baby at the hands of the Massachusetts court system. By Atty. Barbara Johnson
A year ago, mom absconded to Florida with the 2-month-old child from Massachusetts although custody was in the father, according to the ruling of a Massachusetts court. Two weeks ago, during visitation, dad took the child from Florida back to Massachusetts. The parents were in court last week for a hearing on emergency motions by both sides. Mom wanted to suspend dad's visitation. Dad wanted custody of his14-month-old daughter who cannot crawl, walk or hold a spoon. He wants her to be properly diagnosed and treated. Judge Mary McCauley Manzi refused to even hear the father’s Motion, which effectively returned the abused baby to the mother who is alleged to be on drugs. Dad says that mom is a prescription-drug abuser and he can prove it. Mom's health insurer has evidence that mom purchased approximately 70 prescriptions worth of drugs before, during, and after her pregnancy. Mom's drugs of choice are hydrocodone with acetaminophen (APAP), oxycodone with acetaminophen, which are Schedule III drugs, and Endocet, a Schedule II drug. One prescription alone was for 360 addictive Ultram pills to take during her pregnancy. While the days' old infant was breast-feeding, the mom was picking up a few more oxycodone/APAP prescriptions. To get those drugs she went to many doctors and many pharmacies. Pharmacists call it the polymedica, polypharmica syndrome, a scheme drug abusers use to escape detection. Mom claims there is another person in the same town with her name who got the drugs. But to get those drugs, the pharmacies require a birth date and a social security number and the name of the health insurer so that they can get paid. When the child was 8 days old, one nurse noted in the medical record that mom came to the office in crisis and almost dropped the baby. That was one of the days when mom picked up some oxycodone with acetaminophen. By the time the child was 10 months old, she could not sit up on her own, couldn't crawl, couldn't hold a bottle or a spoon. An Early Intervention program wrote that the child needed two sessions weekly for physical therapy (to be able to sit up and to crawl) and two sessions weekly for occupational therapy (to be able to hold a bottle and a spoon). By the time the child was 14 months old, mom had taken the child for therapy only two weeks and had cancelled all other sessions. Worried that the child's muscles would atrophy and that her already seriously delayed psycho-motor skills would remain impaired, making it impossible for the child to ever walk, dad sought help from the Probate & Family Court, which had decided Massachusetts had jurisdiction over mom, dad, and the child. (The Probate & Family Court has never explicitly given either parent custody, although a local District Court did give dad temporary custody and a restraining order against mom around the time mom first left for Florida.) But despite repeated attempts, the Probate Court would not help. Judges refused to hear dad's ex parte petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which would allow him to get the child back to the Commonwealth. He had brought the petition secretly because he feared that mom would move to still another state if she learned he was seeking permission to bring the child north for diagnosis by Boston's finest medical professionals. Last week, the court spoke when Judge Manzi refused to read dad's emergency motion for custody and learn about the child's condition. Judge Manzi threatened to report dad's attorney, the author of this article, to the Bar for being unprofessional--ostensibly for repeatedly asking the court to hear dad's emergency motion. Judge Mary McCauley Manzi ordered dad to deliver the seriously neglected and deprived child back to mom before the court hears his motion. In a nutshell, placing procedure over substance, the judge is jeopardizing the health, safety, and welfare of the child by ordering dad to put his beloved daughter back in harm's way. For shame.
Now comes Plaintiff Brian Meuse ["Meuse"] and moves that the child Marissa Lyne Meuse be allowed to stay in the confines of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in his custody in order that the physical examinations and treatment (begun in the Commonwealth this week) of the child continue. Grounds for this motion are the health, safety, and welfare of the child
Marissa. The mother, Susan Pane, has not only seriously neglected and abused
the child, she has not been providing the child with the physical and occupational
therapy deemed necessary in June of this year by
In support of this motion, Meuse states that he has received medical records (as allowed by an order of this court in June 2000) which prove that Susan Pane failed to bring the child for the requisite physical and occupational therapy except for two weeks shortly after the June Early Intervention examination. [Exhibit A.] As a result, the child's psycho-motor condition has not improved since June. Concerned about the serious deprivation being suffered by his child, Meuse began implementing a plan for diagnosis and treatment for the child. The doctors who examined Marissa this week and the progress made are the following: 1. On Monday morning, October 2, 2000, Meuse brought Marissa to the Children's Hospital Emergency Room, where she was examined by Drs. Jonathan Sun and Bailey. They sent Marissa with her father to the hospital's Early Intervention program. 2. At the Children's Hospital Early Intervention program, Marissa was seen by Wendy Gordon. Meuse was given a nine-page form to fill out and return to Gordon. He awaits the results. 3. Dr. Gordon also gave Meuse contact information for West Newbury Pentucket Early Intervention, closer to his home. 4. On Tuesday, October 3, 2000, Pediatrician Sara Andrews, associated with Wilmington Pediatrics, recommended Dr. Norman Tanguay as primary-care doctor for Marissa and Dr. Mark Leibenson, associated with both Wilmington Pediatrics and Floating Hospital for Children, as the pediatric neurologist to examine Marissa. Dr. Andrew said that Dr. Leibenson is "superb." 5. On Wednesday, October 4, 2000, some staff members, Jenny Wackerle and Diane Waldron, of the West Newbury Pentucket Early Intervention arrived at his home to examine Marissa. 6. Wackerle and Waldron arranged for three Pentucket Early Intervention therapists, Sheila Muller, Michael Brown, and Katy Flurry,to visit with Marissa on Tuesday, October 10, 2000. 7. On Thursday, October 5, 2000, Meuse took Marissa to visit Dr. Tanguay at Wilmington Pediatrics. After examination, Dr. Tanguay said that Marissa appeared to be suffering from the Russian-adopted-baby syndrome: where psycho-motor delays or motor dysfunction syndrome are caused by the children having been left in cribs or playpens and ignored, not being given anything for stimulus, not being touched, spoken to, or held. 8.. Stating that he believed Marissa's problem arose from her environment and not from anything neurological, Tanguay nevertheless told Meuse the next step was to set up an appointment with Dr. Mark Leibenson, the pediatric neurologist. Meuse is waiting for a call-back from Dr. Leibenson's office. 9. The Floating Children's Hospital has an International Adoption Clinic, which addresses the kinds of problems Marissa has been facing. 10.. Dr. Tanguay also wants to see the baby for her 15-month checkup and a full and complete physical. That would be around November 4th. 11.. Meuse was also concerned about the diet Marissa was on in her mother's
care. [Exhibit B, menu supplied by Susan Pane to Meuse.] Dr. Tanguay, too,
was concerned and he declared it as
Given also that mother is using polymedica, polypharmica to gain access to controlled drugs, that she has impaired her own judgment by the drug usage, that she has jeopardized the child's safety, that the grandmother has cancer, that the medical services group is acting in the best interests of the child, that the mother unlawfully kidnapped the child in the first place while a Haverhill District Court restraining order was in place, and that Judge Manzi adjudicated Massachusetts is the home state and would exercise jurisdiction over the case, Brian Meuse is entitled to have immediate custody forthwith for the health, safety, and welfare of the child. WHEREFORE, Brian Meuse prays this motion be allowed.
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