SURVIVOR STORIES, Declarations and testimony
PROGRAM: High Road Reunification: Dorcy Pruter
“I put Daniel behind me to protect him and I didn’t like Dorcy pushing him back down on the couch with force. I told them to not get closer to us because I was not going to let them spread us apart. Dorcy told us that we can either do it the hard way or the easy way, she mentioned about a place called wilderness camp. If we didn’t move apart from each other or comply with her demands we would be forced to go there and not see our father until after 18 years of age. ”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Richard Warshak, Randy Rand & Deidre Rand
“Judge Issenman shockingly issued the order for me, my sister, and my mom to attend Family Bridges and granted sole custody to my mother. We were escorted to the airport by two people who made it very clear to us that we would be getting on the plane to San Francisco, willingly or unwillingly. They intimated to us that they had the legal right to physically restrain us and carry us on the plane if we did not cooperate.This shook me to my core yet it was only the beginning of my nightmare. Once we arrived atFamily Bridges, Richard Warshak, Randy Rand, and Deirdre Rand continuously fed us misleading videos, fake demonstrations, and other materials in an attempt to brain wash us that our father was the one who caused my relationship with my mother to deteriorate. We met their lies and misinformation with undeniable facts about our relationship with our mother and how and why it got to where it was at the time. After a few days of resistance, we were informed that unless we“cooperated” and essentially succumbed to their lies, we would not be allowed to leave. ”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Richard Warshak, Randy Rand & Deidre Rand
“While this experience has clearly had its negative effects on my childhood and upbringing, I was one of the few that was able to find a silver-lining in all of this mess. The corruption I experienced firsthand after having gone through the family court systems has inspired me to pursue a career in family law, specifically with the hopes of representing children in cases similar to mine. No child should ever experience the abuse, mental torture and pain that I felt as a result of these false ‘reunification programs’ endorsed by the crooked courts, and so I strive to be a voice for all the innocent children that are dragged into their parents’ divorce and even worse, into the family courts all across America. Therefore, I hope my statement now will provide another lens with which everyone can look through to recognize the apparent injustices of the family courts and the change that needs to occur within the judicial system of our nation.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Randy Rand, Jane Schatz & Julie Verner
“They introduce themselves as Randy Rand, administrator, Jane Schatz, psychologist, and Julie Verner, psychologist. I am crying and upset. I explain to them about the abuse. Schatz explains to me that everything before I got there is to be forgotten, and if I bring up anything negative or that happened before I got there, there will be consequences. We watch a slideshow filled with optical illusions, about ‘Perception vs. Perspective’. We analyze each one and talk about it as a group. We watch the short film ‘The Butterfly Circus’ and talk about themes as a group.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Randy Rand & Ed Oakland
“We were told because of the court order and the restrictions of our programs we were not allowed to contact our mother for ninety days, it would be a year until we were allowed to talk to her again. Once in the Family Bridges program my siblings and I were made to watch propaganda videos in which blame of intentional parental alienation was obviously intended to be pinned on our mother. At various times throughout the programs, we were told repeatedly that any attempt to contact our mother or noncompliance with the program would result in the imprisonment of our mother and/or the separation of us four siblings and placing us in the foster care system. The Family Bridges program uses terrified children and involuntary compliance to extort money from unfortunate families caught in a corrupt legal system.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges
“On that night, after everyone had left, escort agents entered the house and told us we’d be separated. It would be myself and my two brothers with some agents’ then my sister would be alone with other agents. We were not told where we were going, what we were going to be doing, or what the purpose was. All we knew was that this would be the second time we would be losing a family member in less than a month. We were put in a van and taken to hotels where we spent the night with these unknown transport agents. The next day we boarded airplanes and were flown to an unknown destination. To our relief, we were united with our sister after our flights to San Francisco, California. We started the family restoration program, “Family Bridges” there. While there, we were put in a conference room, shown clips of mothers planting corrupt ideas into children’s minds, forced to speak only in agreement with them, and once again were treated as secondhand citizens. The workshops were all day from around 9A.M. to 4P.M. The last day of imprisonment we were told we had two choices: either sign a document stating we would obey our father and operate as a family that we had never been due to his selfish and abusive ways, or be split up and put into foster care.”
PROGRAM: Rachel Foundation: Pam Hoch
“At night I snuck out and got us goldfish crackers and lemonade. We were told that we had to do everything our dad told us to do, or we would not be fed. There was no counseling, no therapy, and no “reintegration.” Pam bragged that we were 20 miles from the nearest found and 5 miles from the nearest neighbor. Pam told us that if we did not do everything our dad told us, we would never see our mom again. She also told us that we needed to follow exactly our dad’s parenting rules or we might never get out of Texas and home to New Jersey.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges
“I don’t know how to say justice in American. In the family court system, I was silenced and sentenced—an innocent criminal charged with possession of childhood. This government conveniently praises the resilience of childhood when it is presenting flowers to dignitaries, but blinds itself to the resilient children whose spirits break as The Blind Justice is further choked by a robe-clad man incapable of empathy. “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice.” (Declaration of Independence). The government regards anyone under the age of 18 as property, tossed across courtroom on a whim and an unseen handshake. I flew to California with two foreign humans as my jailers. I received “treatment” from a disgraced and disbarred former mental health professional. I lived with an abusive man for over a year. Justice is not for all Americans.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Richard Warshak, Randy Rand & Dr. Sol Goldstein
“I was taken from my home by the Kitchener Police and was taken to Calgary, where I spent a week before flying to San Francisco to meet my mother who was in the car after I got brought down from the judges chambers when he told me that I was not allowed to see my dad and had to live with my mom, and participate in the Family Bridges workshop. The workshop was performed by Dr. Richard Warshak and Randy Rand. I think we did sessions for a period of 1 to 2 weeks. When my mother and I returned from San Francisco, I lived with her for 16 months without any contact with my father. I did run away in October to see my dad for a night and was taken to Dr. Goldstein’s house/office by the police where I spent the night on his couch until he could see me the next morning. Each week I met with Dr. Sol Goldstein and his wife as part of the after care. I spent 16 months without any meaningful contact with my father.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Randy Rand, Deirdre Rand & Kellie (Montana Attorney)
“Randy read papers of things about how we have no contact with anybody and all of the many, many restrictions that we had, making us like prisoners, and I asked again about my friends and Justin and he said I cannot talk to anybody at all, at least until that portion of the program was over. In the hotel, he showed us the conference room where the four days of program would be held. He said that the 90 days of no contact with my mother could start count the day we land back in Michigan and everybody is following the order, then, if it’s broken, the days are reset. I cried again, as this was just all just too much to take and everybody there made me feel like a joke. They sighed, rolled their eyes, made mean comments. I was devastated though, isolating anybody and taking away their whole world and everything they love, wouldn’t be easy or good, but much less a teenager, and then also been already in my situation and fearful of Kurt (father) to begin with.”
PROGRAM: Family Bridges: Randy Rand and Connie & Elizabeth (“Aspire Too’ in Canada)
“While at the program both my brother and I were threatened that if we did not cooperate our father would be arrested and we would never see him again. The whole experience was a complete and utter waste of time. We watched days worth of videos about “parental alienation” and how to spot it. All three people there (Randy Connie and Elizabeth) then forced us to take in what was taught in the videos, to love our mom and hate our dad, and apply it to our lives. We didn’t end up seeing our father at all for almost 4 months and then very little after that, for over a year after the program, as it was part of the “anti-brainwashing” program we attended.”