The Charley Project - morbid obsession of mentally ill young woamn

The Charley Project is being used as a personal forum for a mentally ill young woman. It is sad but does not excuse the damage she is doing to abuse victims under the guise of a being a "helpful" missing person organization. Meaghan finally admits to her mental illness:

I turned out I have a mild form of bipolar which had been undiagnosed for years. The result was that every week or two, for a few hours or a few days, I’d plunge into suicidal despair for no apparent reason (sometimes I’d just burst out screaming and crying in public, saying I wanted to die, unable to stop myself; it was very embarrassing), then come out of it just as inexplicably, and then go around talking too fast and being way too enthusiastic about random things and generally creeping people out. http://charleyross.wordpress.com/2012/03/ (March 28,2012)

Do any of my readers have experience buying stuff and “flipping” it on eBay or whatever, selling it for more than you paid for it? Can you make money from this? Is it worth the hassle? I have never used eBay before, buying or selling, but I came across a most delectable item that’s a heck of a deal, if I can resell it (March 25, 2012)

A member of a lottery family whom I’d talked about on my website wrote to me asking what the heck a lottery family was and why was I saying such things about her family. She was disturbed and offended (March 23, 2012)

I think my therapist is taking advantage of me… (March 22, 2012)

Probable and possible suicides... I’m still thinking about the people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and realized I’d never come up with a list of all the probable suicides listed on Charley. I thought I’d attempt it now: (March 21, 2012)

This can’t be right... I was just writing up the casefile for Luis and Mariel Encarnacion. The NCMEC poster says she’s 5’4 and 75 pounds! That’s both unusually tall for a nine-year-old girl and unusually emaciated, and she doesn’t look like a concentration camp inmate in the photograph. I’m going to write down 4’4 instead. (March 18, 2012)

Yeah, kind of a cruddy week... Several days of vomiting and general fatigue caused by, I think, funky milk, capped off by a screaming argument with my mom, (March 16, 2012)

Final leaps... I was in the library today and, as always, stopped to have a look at their display of new books. One caught my eye: The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge by John Bateson. Being a connoisseur of Incredibly Depressing Books, of course I had to check it out. I haven’t started it yet — I’m in the middle of two books right now — but it looks very interesting. (March 11, 2012)


Meeting Elizabeth Smart  http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/elizabeth-smart-speaks-about-empowerment-and-gaining-control-after-horrific-events (March 9, 2012)

What happened today... sometimes that I wanted to kill myself — this happened twice in the month of January, for example. “You shouldn’t say that,” he said. “You will get yourself in trouble. I’m a psychiatrist, you know.” I can talk about suicidal thoughts with him without being automatically thrown in the hospital. (And incidentally, I haven’t had any since I’ve gone into the program.) (February 27, 2012)

Hail the conquering Meaghan... the oldest was “Baby Kate” from June 29 last year. (I’m pretty sure her father killed her.) (February 25, 2012)

Sigh…. A woman whose sister is on Charley wrote to me and asked me to correct an error on the casefile. I did so and then wrote back saying the change had been made, and specifically told her to refresh the page if it looked like nothing had changed. She replied angrily, saying the error was still there, and then asked the law enforcement in the charge of the case to ask me to remove the casefile altogether.  Iam trying to prevent that from happening, and have written to her again explaining that I’ve already done what she asked me to do and she has only to refresh the page to see it, but I wonder if I’m going to get anywhere. (February 11, 2012)

I’m in my PJs and my hair is unbrushed but I still think I look cute in this picture (I'm 26) (January 28, 2012)

Meaghan Good, The Charley Project

The Charley Project http://www.charleyproject.org/
Server IP Address: 64.69.41.217
Server IP Decimal: 1078274521
The Charley Project 15276 Main Street (PO Box 647)
Venedocia Ohio US 45894
Phone: 1-419-667-3131
Email:administrator@charleyproject.org
Email: Good_128@hotmail.com

Mothers Day March on Washington D.C. 2012

Mother's Day March - 2012

Fatherhood Initiative Dangerous for Abused Children

In a recent article in the Huffington Post Anne Stevenon explains how government funding is being misued by Organizatins supporting child abusers:

 

“The top 5 HHS programs endangering women and children are:

1.      Child Support Enforcement (Access and Visitation Programs and Responsible Fatherhood Initiative. A 2011 report the Office of the Inspector General demonstrates that the States are collecting child support, but not disbursing it to the children it is intended to benefit. So where is the money going? Although previous graduates include mass murderer D.C. Sniper John Muhammad the 2012 HHS budget reflects President Obama's $1 billion endorsement of the fraud-riddled fatherhood industry.

Using the virtually unregulated child support system as a vehicle and the father's will to envade prison as collateral, the fathers are told they can risk their liberty and property attempting to pay down arrears, or alternatively, sue the mother for custody using a variety of federally funded "supports." Unlike the welfare programs for women and children which had restrictive income eligibility requirements, HHS Responsible Fatherhood program benefits are not needs based and are available to all fathers-even billionaires. Benefits from Responsible Fatherhood programs to abusers include:

• Child support obligations are suspended
• Free attorney representation in the family courts to fight for custody
• Free housing
• Direct cash incentives
• Free groceries
• Free car maintenance, gas, and other transportation costs
• Free healthcare and dental care

While many upstanding fathers honestly complain about TANF programs and the courts victimizing them, the dirty little secret in the fatherhood industry it that the grant recipients who train court personnel, social services, and child support personnel are often fathers rights groups like the Fathers and Families Coalition, the Children’s Rights Council (Founder David Levy sits on the board of the Supervised Visitation Network and the National Fatherhood Institute.

Clearly, judges understand the danger abusers pose, which is why their courts are guarded with armed deputies and not unarmed social workers. HHS programs are actually a deadly investment given that (a) abusive men win custody of their victims 70% of the time when they ask for it, and (b) regardless of the gender of the victim, it is a public safety issue when DOJ studies show men perpetrate more than 95% of violent assaults against women. A 2011 CDC study also shows that men are raped by other men more than 93% of the time, and women are raped by men more than 98% of the time.”

Top 5 HHS Programs Endangering Women and Children

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-stevenson/top-5-hhs-programs-endang_b_1511613.html
Anne Stevenson,
Policy analyst, adviser and writer

Working on Courageous Kids Network website

 

http://www.courageouskids.net/

Happy Gotcha Day! June 30 2012

In the Wake of Jerry Sandusky by Barry Nolan

In the Wake of Jerry Sandusky To prevent child abuse, something has to change. So why won't it?

By Barry Nolan, 6/25/2012
Boston Magazine

After the verdict came down in the Jerry Sandusky case, Linda Kelly, the Pennsylvania State Attorney General, stood before the assembled press and said something very important. She said: “One of the recurring themes of the witness’ testimony was … ‘Who would believe a kid?’”

Yes indeed, who would take the word of a mere child over that of a beloved coach like Jerry Sandusky about sexual abuse? Even though we know that such terrible crimes are far too common and the numbers are staggering, we can’t believe it. So, from 2005 to 2006 about 135,300 children were sexually abused.

Who would take the word of a child against a respected adult even though we know that in up to 93 percent of the time, the child knows his abuser and as many as 47 percent of the perpetrators are family members.

Who would take the word of a child even though in the vast majority of cases the only witness to child sex abuse is the child?

The ugly truth about child sexual abuse is that we really don’t want to hear about it. And far too much of it happens after an initial complaint about a perpetrator has been made and it’s not investigated thoroughly.

Take the tragic sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, and just imagine how things could have been different if there had been real listening and forceful action early on. There were 10,667 complaints of sexual abuse against 4,392 priests and deacons between 1950 and 2002 and yet no serious or thorough investigation took place. And so the abuse was allowed to continue. Until the Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning series compelled self-examination and change. That scandal has so far cost the Catholic Church more than $2.3 billion in costs and settlements.

The first child to make a complaint in the Sandusky case came forward 14 years ago. But who was going to believe a kid over Jerry Sandusky? So the complaint was not thoroughly investigated and, tragically, the abuse continued.

And so a jury heard a full weeks worth of gut-wrenching stories about all of the awful things that a seemingly decent man did to so many vulnerable children in all those intervening years.

Reporter Diane Dimond was in the courtroom covering the trial for The Daily Beast. She provided some of the most well-written coverage you will find. I first came to admire Diane’s work way back in 1993 when she broke the story of the sexual molestation charges against Michael Jackson.

Back in 1993, most people simply didn’t want to believe the awful things a kid had to say about what Jackson did behind closed doors. After all, Michael Jackson was a lavishly talented and beloved public figure. But Dimond, and a few others, listened carefully and pursued leads and looked at the evidence. And the awful truth began to come out. The boy in that case would eventually accept a settlement from Jackson that was widely reported to be in the range of $20 million.

I asked her for her thoughts on the bigger picture, the Sandusky case, the scandal in the church, and the Jackson matter. Here is part of what she sent me in an e-mail:

“Pedophiles are really the very person you think they could never be. They are the most charming, personable, charitable, and kid-friendly people you would ever want to meet. They pay their taxes, they go to church, they cloak themselves in acts of charity and they say they just want to help you raise your child by being a positive influence in their lives … Too often detectives believe the perpetrator’s version of events and they are freed to violate again.”

We know that this is true about pedophiles. And yet, nearly every day, in family courts across the country, people who should know better choose not to thoroughly investigate charges of child sexual abuse — because the allegations come from a kid and they are lodged against someone who is “respectable.” The charges aren’t investigated, and the child continues to have contact with someone who is hurting them. Touching them. Raping them. It’s what some experts call the process of “growing your own victims.”

Watch this video and read the account of Damon, a young man who pleaded with a family court judge when he was a child not to force him to go on visits to the father who was sexually abusing him. But the judge wouldn’t listen to him. After all, Damon was just a kid. And so Damon kept going on those visits. And kept getting raped. For years.

Or read the accounts of these courageous kids who have now “aged out” of court supervision and tell similar stories about not being believed by the family court and of being sentenced to a life of abuse.

Courageous victims like the ones in the Sandusky trial deserve our collective thanks and our respect for stepping forward and telling us the truth, even though it’s too late for them. They have the courage to try to stop others from being abused.

If enough of them come forward and enough of us start to listen, maybe one day one day when the question is asked — who would believe a kid? — the answer will be different.

http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/06/25/jerry-sandusky-abuse/

Those Fathers & Families guys are just nasty and dishonest!

WOW! Now Glenn Sacks and Ned Holstein are tag teaming against a battered woman. The problem is that they keep inventing stories and repeating wild accusations trying to distract readers from the real issue. A battered woman lost custody of her children to the man who beat her. The family court service evaluator Susan DeVries, Judge Michael Davis and the Minnesota Appellate Court ALL found that Mark Collins ABUSED Holly Collins!

Ned Holstein claims that Holly Collins has been discredited over and over again. By whom? - HIM? / Glenn Sacks?The biggest problem for Father’s & Families is that children grow up. We are adults now and we are telling the world what happened to us!

My brother and I told our mother that our father was hurting us during visitation. For some reason the guardian ad litem Michael London covered it up. We still don’t know what his motives were but we are trying to figure that out. Thank God our mother believed us and did everything she could to protect us. Holly Collins is a hero!

Why is Fathers & Families so intimidated by this quite, shy battered woman?

Mr. Holstien claims that “Glenn Sacks, then the Executive Director of Fathers and Families, painstakingly collected dozens of court rulings, psychologists' reports, doctors' reports, and other documents in this case”

Really? “Dozens”? That is the problem right there! There are HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS of pages of documents. Fathers & Families handpicked a few to support their own personal agenda.

The Minneapolis City Pages broke this story in 2008. They actually went down to the court house and researched ALL of the court documents.

The producers of the documentary No Way Out But One also had access to ALL of the court documents.

The Dutch Ministries of Justice investigated our case. They all realized the injustice that happened in our case. Two children were being abused and the American Family Court System did not protect them!

We are the first American citizens to receive asylum in another country. This speaks volumes for the severity of our case.

So does the fact that we, Holly Collins’ children are adults now. We can tell you exactly what happened to us. Father’s & Families just do not want to listenShame on them for supporting a Wife Beater & Child Abuser!

Holly Collins speaking out on NPR

experthttp://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/06/06/domestic-violence-out

California Judge Michael Nash this year ruled to open child welfare hearings in Los Angeles County unless there’s proof that doing so will harm the child.

Advocates in favor of more transparency in family courts applauded the decision, because they believe the secrecy can lead to decisions that hurt children.

Gail Helms was behind the push for more transparency in California. In 1995, her 2-year-old grandson was beaten to death by his father, who had been awarded custody despite a history of drug abuse.

Around that same time, Holly Collins of Minnesota was on her way to the Netherlands with her children, 11-year-old Zachary and 9-year-old Jennifer. They had been placed in their father’s custody, and she says she fled to protect them from abuse and a court system that ignored her pleas for help.

Holly became a fugitive, accused of kidnapping her children, and she was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. But her children said she was protecting them.

“As a kid, I thought it was quite ridiculous that they were charging my mom with kidnapping her own children… taking them away from an abusive father. It seemed completely ludicrous to me,” Zachary Collins, now in his 20s, said in the documentary, “No Way Out But One.”

Holly Collins and her children lived in a Dutch refugee camp for three years, before she was granted asylum.

After 17 years in the Netherlands, Holly Collins returned to the United States, and was ultimately cleared of kidnapping charges.

And now her case has become a rallying point for advocates who want to reform the family court system in the United States.

Guests:

• Holly Collins
• Garland Walland, co-producer of “No Way Out But One”
• Lundy Bancroft, domestic violence and family court

No Way Out But One - The Trailer is Awesome!

Here & Now - No Way Out But One

Film about Holly Collins saga screens at BU
Robin Young, of WBUR’s “Here & Now,” hosted a screening at BU this week of “No Way Out But One,” a new documentary about Holly Collins, an American woman who kidnapped her own children to save them from a life of domestic violence. (Pursued by the FBI, Collins eventually fled the country and was granted asylum by the Netherlands.) The film was part of “Women Take the Reel,” a Boston-based film fest focused on movies written and/or directed by women. The film was produced by BU professor-filmmaker Garland Waller and her husband, former TV host-journalist Barry Nolan

ABUSIVE PARENTS BEWARE...

Children Grow Up and We're Gonna' Tell!

For years Glenn Sacks and Father’s and Families swore up and down that my brother’s skull was fractured at an amusement park. They called my mother a liar again and again. They said that if my brothers skull was not fractured in 1986 (when my father claimed) and it was in fact broken in 1987 (as my mother and brother insisted) it would be easy for me (my brother) to obtain all of the medical records and prove it. Okay… so I DID THAT! I proved that there was no way that my father was telling the truth because I posted the medical records from 1986 which clearly stated that x-rays were conducted and there were “NO BROKEN BONES”! I also posted the results from my brothers x-rays from 1987 which confirm his skull was fractured. It should have ended there. I proved my father and Glenn Sacks and Fathers & Families were all liars!

Now it is happening again… Mike D. Glenn Sacks, Fathers & Families claim that MANY different mental health professionals testified that our mother had/has MSbP. That is a lie! This time the proof is on you!

Only one person, ONE! Susan DeVries the family court custody evaluator said that she read 6 articles about MSbP and said that our case could fit some of the symptoms. She testified under oath that she was NOT familiar with MSbP, that she did NOT have the qualification for making such a diagnosis and that her only information came from rading 6 (SIX) articles. Are you kidding me? Judge Davis even retracted his findings the following week after he reversed custody and clarified that he never intended to diagnose my mother with any mental illness, especially MSbP.

My father, Susan DeVries, Glenn Sacks and now Mike D (who cowardly refuses to come forward with his true identity) continue with further lies suggesting that my mother was a doctor shopper but the evidence already proves them wrong!

We had ONE pediatrician in Minnesota. Dr. Estrin. I adored him! He referred us to ONE pediatric allergist Dr. Blum. Dr. Blum determined that we were “some of the most allergic children he has ever seen”. Where is the doctor shopping? (Again… to make things crystal clear… Our pediatrician told my mother to take us to this specific pediatric allergist. She did what she was told!)

When we moved to Massachusetts we had ONE pediatrician Dr. Louden. He referred us to a local allergist who was a grouchy old man. We saw him ONCE for ONE consultation and my mom was uncomfortable around him and told Dr. Louden. So Dr. Louden referred us to a pediatric allergist Dr. Polmar at the Boston Children’s Hospital. My father convinced Dr. Polmar that my mother was over reacting to our allergies and asked for some sort of other explanation. Dr. Polmar suggested that we could have dermographism, highly sensitive skin.

What should this young mother do? She had TWO doctors who she trusted saying that her children were severely allergic and a new doctor saying that maybe her kids had some other medical disorder.

She decided to get an independent evaluation at Tufts University who determined that our Doctors in Minnesota were correct!

So what did my mom do next? She went back to Dr. Polmar at the Boston Children’s Hospital and she even agreed to have us evaluated there by their psychologists. (By the way…The Boston Children’s Hospital Child Abuse Trauma Team, headed by Dr. Eli Newberger confirmed that my brother and I were telling the truth about the abuse!)

My pediatrician Dr. Vrouwenvelder and allergist Dr De Groot in The Netherlands have also confirmed our allergies. Dr. Vrouwenvelder personally witnessed me in anaphylactic shock.

It is most remarkable that our mother tried everything to get us back and safe. She voluntarily submitted to several psychiatric evaluations to determine if she suffered from MSbP or any other mental illness. They all concluded that she did NOT!

Thank God our mother was determined to protect us from all of my father’s abuse and sacrificed everything to protect us!

It is bizarre how these angry men are claiming that they know what really happened to me and my brother because they read articles from Glenn Sacks who got his information from an abuser. They keep forgetting that my father was found to be an abuser! They are all supporting a known wife beater. That says a lot about their character!

No Way Out But One - Sparking interest at Law Schools around the US

Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society
By Documentary Film Program on March 29, 2012 at 12:00 am

In 1994 Holly Collins became an international fugitive, hunted by the FBI after she grabbed her three children and went on the run. Holly felt she had no choice after a family court had dismissed her as crazy, ignored her children’s pleas, Holly’s broken nose, her son’s fractured skull, her daughter’s graphic pictures and mounds of medical evidence and gave full custody of Zackary and Jennifer to their abusive father. Holly came to believe she and the children had No Way Out But One.

She fled the United States and made it to Amsterdam where she blurted out a plea for asylum, based on the fact that she was fleeing domestic violence and would not be protected if she were returned to the US.

At first, she and her children were placed in a refugee center with other poor souls fleeing violence torn hell-holes from around the world. Living shoulder to shoulder with people learning to use indoor plumbing for the first time in their lives, Holly and her kids made the best of it. At least they were safe. Holly eventually became the first U. S. Citizen to be granted asylum by the government of Netherlands.

She lived a quiet, low profile life for the next 14 years, until the FBI agents came calling. Hoping to return Holly to the United States to face kidnapping charges, they interviewed her now grown children. They told the agents that far from being their kidnapper, their mother was their savior and their hero.

Eventually, all charges against Holly were dropped, save one: contempt of court. Holly readily acknowledged that after all she and the children had been through, she did indeed have “contempt of court.”

The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the study of the law and policy around the Internet and other emerging technologies.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2012/03/no-way-out-one

American Refugees in The Netherlands - Meet the Collins Family!

Boston University Magazine
http://buquad.com/2012/03/29/no-way-out-but-one-a-reflection/refugees-in-nl-all-4-1/

Boston University - No Way Out But One

‘No Way Out But One’ Screened Again: A Follow-Up
The Quad, Boston University's Independent Online Magazine
By Lauren Michael Mar 29th, 2012

On March 28, I saw No Way Out But One for the second time. This time the screening was sponsored in part by the CAS Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program as a part of Women Take the Reel, a film festival celebrating Women’s History Month through screenings of films written, directed, and/or produced by women.

The 6 p.m. screening included a Q&A featuring Professor Waller; Barry Nolan; Lundy Bancroft, an author and consultant on domestic abuse and child maltreatment; Dr. Eli Newberger, the Collins children’s former pediatrician at Children’s Hospital in Boston; and Holly Ann Collins herself. Robin Young of WBUR’s Here and Now moderated.

Since last December, the documentary has been screened at the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT) Conference. It has also won several awards including an Award of Excellence for Feature Documentary from the Accolade Film Awards. At the end of the evening, it was announced that copies of No Way Out But One would soon be distributed to every member of Congress.

Throughout the Q&A, the panelists stressed that while Holly Collins’ story is unique, the situation from which she and her children escaped is not. A few of the panelists cited corruption in the family court system as a key problem; others pointed to lingering traces of misogyny in court practices. They all agreed, however, that we need to first raise awareness of the injustice in the family courts if we want to find a practical solution to the problem.

And Holly Collins? She wants to do more to help others who have been hurt by the family court system, but for now she’s enjoying the wonderful life she’s always wanted.

Holly Collins - No More Playing by the Rules

NO WAY OUT BUT ONE
Wednesday - March 28, 2012
6-10PM
Boston University, COM Auditorium, Room 101, 640 Commonwealth Avenue

The Courts Called Her Crazy.
The FBI Called Her a Kidnapper.
Her Kids Called Her Their Hero.


Suppose a family court judge gave custody of your children to a man you knew was beating them. What would you do? Until 1994, Holly Collins had played by the rules. That changed when a judge gave custody of her children to their father, the man who had fractured her son's skull. No Way Out But One explores a shocking national scandal that is also a national secret - that men who beat their wives and children usually get custody when they go after it in family courts. Holly Collins was able to do what few women have been able to do. She successfully kidnapped her children and went underground. Ultimately she became the first American to be granted asylum by the Dutch government on grounds of domestic violence. BU's Professor Garland Waller is the producer.

Holly Collins' Children Will Be Heard!

Reel women

Robin Young of WBUR’s “Here and Now’’ will moderate a panel after the screening of “No Way Out But One,’’ a documentary by filmmaker and Boston University professor Garland Waller. The free screening and panel take place Wednesday at 6 p.m. at BU’s College of Communication auditorium at 640 Commonwealth Ave. “No Way Out But One’’ is about Holly Collins, an American woman who flees a life of abuse and goes on the run with her children. She becomes an international fugitive, wanted by the FBI, and the first American to be granted asylum by the Dutch government. Panelists include codirectors Waller and Barry Nolan, Holly Collins, and Eli Newberger of Harvard University and Children’s Hospital.

The screening is part of Women Take the Reel, a festival of films by women presented by Boston University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and the Graduate Consortium of Women’s Studies.

See www.bu.edu/wgs.


---------

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

No Way Out But One Screening


NPR's Robin Young hosts the screening of "No Way Out But One", a controversial new documentary that tells the story of Holly Collins, an American woman who kidnapped her own children to save them from a life of abuse. Pursued by the FBI, Holly fled the country and became the first American woman to ever be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands, due to domestic violence. The film is being presented as part of Women Take the Reel, a Boston-based film festival focused on movies that are all written and/or directed by women. Immediately after the film, Robin will moderate a discussion with the filmmaker Garland Waller; Dr. Eli Newberger of Harvard and Children’s Hospital; and Holly Collins. This event is free and open to the public.


Start Time: 6:00 pm

Ends Time: 10:00 pm

Location: COM 101

No Way Out But One - A Story of Love & Justice

A TRUE STORY OF FIERCE LOVE AND BLIND JUSTICE

A Documentary project in Boston, MA by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan

No Way Out But One is a documentary that tells the story of Holly Collins, an American woman who was driven by fear, love and desperation to kidnap her own children and go on the run in order to protect them from a life of abuse. Wanted by the FBI, Holly left behind everything she owned and everyone she knew in an effort to keep her children safe. She became an international fugitive, eventually making it to Amsterdam. After spending 2 years in a refugee camp out in the middle of nowhere, living shoulder to shoulder with other desperate souls fleeing violence torn hell holes around the world, Holly became the first American woman to ever be granted asylum by the Government of the Netherlands, due to domestic violence. Though it focuses on the desperate measures that one woman felt she had to take to protect her children, it also exposes the problems that protective parents and vulnerable children are facing nearly every day in courtrooms across the country.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2038674816/no-way-out-but-one-a-story-of-love-and-justice

New Documentary - No Way Out But One

New Documentary by BU Professor Tackles Flawed Family Court System
By Lauren Michael Dec 5th, 2011

In 1992, Holly Collins went to a Minnesota family court intending to secure full custody of her two children, Zackary and Jennifer. She had believed that if she told the truth–that her ex-husband had repeatedly abused her and their children–everything would be okay. But her evidence of abuse, including several medical records and the children’s statements that they always feared visiting their dad, were repeatedly rejected by the court. Her husband claimed she was lying and trying to alienate their children from him. Then, like thousands of battered women each year, Holly lost full custody of her children to their abusive father.

After two years with limited supervised visitation, in which the children weren’t permitted to discuss the ongoing abuse, Holly decided to do something. One day, she asked her kids to meet her at a video store near their dad’s house. They got into a car and started driving. They tried going to Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. Knowing the FBI was searching for them because Holly had in fact kidnapped her kids, she decided to try escaping to Australia or New Zealand. They managed to sneak through airport security without passports and got onto a flight to Amsterdam. There, they were detained and sent to a refugee camp. Years later upon finding a lawyer willing to take her case, Holly became the first U.S. citizen to be granted asylum by the Netherlands on the grounds of domestic violence.

For COM Professor Garland Waller, Holly Collins’ story was the perfect outlet for her to make a documentary on the shortcomings of the American family court system. “My first documentary was about three women who all lost custody of their kids to men who had battered them and sexually abused them,” she said to me when I interviewed her last Thursday. The documentary was never aired for the public, however, because people considered it way too controversial.

“I thought, I know this is an issue that is going on in the family courts, every single day,” Professor Waller explicated. “How can we do a story on this issue of domestic violence and child abuse that people will want to see; that will have a story that has a beginning, middle, and end; that has a hero; and that doesn’t make them feel suicidal at the end?” That’s why she decided to center her film around Holly’s story. ”Holly is one of the few women who has been able to save her children from years of being abused,” she affirmed.

On December 2 at 7pm in COM 101, Professor Waller and her production team screened the film No Way Out But One for a packed lecture hall of students and faculty. The hour-and-a-half long documentary, which was followed by a Q&A session, follows Holly’s story and also outlines the grievous problems 0f the American family court system. Made for under $40,000, the not-for-profit film was a way for Professor Waller and her husband Barry Nolan (who also produced and narrated the film) to make a difference.

“This is what I do to give back,” she explained. “Some people work for charity, some people give to the United Way, but this is what I do.”

As the documentary cites, each year 58,000 children are placed in contact with an abuse parent after divorce, and batterers win custody in 70% of family court cases where abuse is involved.


Holly Collins with her children outside the refugee camp in the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of Garland Waller and Barry Nolan

Professor Waller also cited the lingering gender bias in the family courts. “Courts do not have to consider domestic violence in their rulings, ” she said. “Now that is anti-woman, because it’s usually the women who get beaten up.” Money, she says, is also involved. “The men who want custody are the ones who can afford to have the kids, and you have to be able to pay the court costs,” she explained. “This is something that doesn’t happen in poor families…it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay all these people.” If the father is paying for the court evaluator, she says, often they’ll skew the evidence in his favor.

But even in ugly divorces, she says, usually the parents still want to do what’s best for their children. “When there are cases that involve domestic violence and child abuse, that is not the case,” she explained. “Women often get custody when there’s not domestic violence. But oddly, a batterer is more likely to go after custody than a non-batterer. So its a very complicated issue.”

Since the release of No Way Out But One, Professor Waller and her husband deal with angry father’s rights groups every day. These groups, like Fathers and Families, make an impassioned–if not entirely factual–argument for why they believe the Holly Collins case is a hoax. “After a nice review in a Boston Magazine blog, many pro-father’s rights men were highly critical,” she explained, but “none of them had seen the film and none of them had access to all the thousands of pages of legal documents and medical records and correspondence from experts and FBI documents that we had.” Many of these documents are shown and quoted in the film.

In their writings against Holly Collins, father’s rights groups cite Parental Alienation Syndrome, which means that a mother is trying to alienate her children from their father. Though it is not accepted as a legitimate diagnosis by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association (the psychologist who first wrote about PAS had conducted no actual studies), in family court it is often used to legitimize giving custody to an abusive parent.


L to R: Jennifer Collins, Barry Nolan, Professer Waller, and Holly Collins. Photo courtesy of Jessie Beers Altman

As Nolan puts it, “these are people who do not and will not respond to evidence, or facts, or medical records, or court transcripts, or expert testimony if it does not fit their preconceived notions.” The groups say that Holly fabricated the evidence of her husband’s abuse, but in reality false allegations of abuse are very rare.

“Holly may not be perfect, but she was clearly a battered woman who only wanted to protect her children from abuse,” Professor Waller affirmed.

Still, this is an issue that has mainly been ignored by the mainstream media. “The mainstream media is terrified of getting sued, and this is a subject where everybody sues everyone all the time,” she explained. “It’s all he said/she said…so the mainstream media says, this is a mess and we’re not going to get into it. Just as the mainstream media did not cover pedophile priests abusing children, just as for years they did not cover the things that were going on at Penn State, it is the same thing only worse by thousands in terms of the children who are being abused.”

Many years after their mother kidnapped them, the Collins kids, now adults, are healthy and grateful for everything their mother has done for them. Jennifer Collins, Holly’s oldest daughter, is the executive director of Courageous Kids, an organization for young adults who suffered from court injustice as children to speak out and share their stories.

“I guess for me, the most important thing is that I would like people to realize that this is a national issue that is not going away until people begin to understand that in a family court, if you beat your wife and abuse your child, and go after custody, most of the time you will get it,” Professor Waller concluded. “I want to live in an America that protects the children.”

For more information about the film, go to http://www.nowayoutbutone.com/index.html.

Professor Garland Waller on her Documentary No Way Out But One

Professor tells the story behind her documentary

http://www.bu.edu/com/2011/11/22/prof-garland-waller-tells-story-behind-her-documentary/

When Prof. Garland Waller first conceptualized her documentary, No Way Out But One, she did not imagine a project of such enormous magnitude. Originally created as a 15-minute short film, Waller’s award-winning movie about love, courage and perseverance grew into a feature-length documentary.

The film tells the compelling story of divorced mother, Holly Collins, and her fight to free her children from the custody of her former husband, their abusive father. Accused of kidnapping her own children by the FBI, Collins went on the run, ultimately fleeing with her children to the Netherlands where she become the first American woman to win asylum by the Government of the Netherlands, on the basis of domestic violence.

While Collins and her family are a unique case, Waller, who produced and directed the documentary, strives to shed light on the larger issue at hand: domestic violence and child abuse. An estimated 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States.

“My commitment”, said Waller, “is to broaden awareness of the fact that if you beat your wife and abuse your children in America you are more likely to get custody than not, and I believe this is such a shocking fact, not a make believe opinion that most people have no idea about.”

While Waller’s passion was a driving force behind this documentary, she was not alone in its making. Her husband, Barry Nolan, a television writer and reporter, co-wrote and co-produced the documentary. Waller also said that the movie is truly a reflection of COM, with six students and alumni involved with the production and promotion process. Waller was quick to thank the following: Erika Street, editor; Olivia Neir, web designer and creator; Celia Hubbard, production assistant; Rebecca Wilkinson, production assistant; Jessie Beers Altman, production assistant and second camera in Amsterdam; and Gonzalo Accame, Washington, D.C. videographer.

No Way Out But One debuts at Boston University Dec. 2, 2011 at 7 p.m. in COM 101.

Holly Collins' children are no longer silenced thanks to the documentary No Way Out But One

When I was little I used to ask my mom "Why won't the judge meet with us?" and "Why won't he listen to us?" Our young mother, desperate to protect us promised that someday a judge would listen to us. She kept her promise years later in a foreign country when a judicial tribunal in Holland insisted on hearing what my brother and I had to say.

Now again my mother has made good on her promise to have our voices heard with the recent release of an amazing documentary by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan No Way Out But One.

I just want to thank Garland and Barry and most of all I want to thank our Mom!

No Way Out But One - Screening on October 27 2011

SCREENINGS

October 27th, 7pm at MIT
http://www.wifvne.org/

When I was ripped out of the safety of my mother's arms and given to my abusive father my mother made us a carbon copy of her hand. When I was sad I used to hide under my bed at my father's house and place my hand on my mothers hand and long for the day we would be reunited.

Holly Collins Documentary to Premiere in Boston!

First Festival Screening of No Way Out But One to be at MIT

The Courts Called Her Crazy.

The FBI Called Her a Kidnapper.

Her Kids Called Her a Hero!

Screening of Award-Winning Documentary

Boston, MA – Production has just been completed on No Way Out But One, an independent documentary by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan. The film tells the incredible story of Holly Collins, a kidnapper to some and a hero to many. The film also examines the larger issue of the tragic failure of the family court system to achieve its most important mandate, to protect children.

In 1994, Holly Collins was a desperate mother determined to protect her children from abuse at the hands of their father. Believing that she had no other choice, Holly kidnapped her own kids, left everything behind, and went on the run. She became an international fugitive, wanted by the FBI. She became the first American to ever be granted asylum by the Dutch government as a result of domestic violence.

To capture the full story, the happily married team of veteran producers, Garland Waller and Barry Nolan, traveled to the Netherlands, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Minnesota, and Albany, NY. They used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain never before seen FBI files. They gathered extensive medical evidence, court records, and sworn affidavits. They drew on published research and interviewed witnesses, legal experts and doctors.

Rita Smith, the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence said of the film: "No Way Out But One is a compelling account of exactly why the family court system in the United States needs to be completely overhauled.“

Eileen King of Justice for Children said: “The quiet flame that lights No Way Out But One is Holly Collin's courage and fierce determination to protect her children from the violent abuse they were suffering in their father's home.”

For her work on the film, Executive Producer Garland Waller has already won the 2011 Distinguished Service Award for Excellence in Film and Media from the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma. No Way Out But One has been chosen to kick off this year’s Chicks Make Flicks Screening Series for Women in Film and Video / New England sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s and Gender Studies on the MIT campus on October 27th at 7PM, Room 6-120 of Building 6. The screening is free and open to the public.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2038674816/no-way-out-but-one-a-story-of-love-and-justice/posts

No Way Out But One - The Reviews

Boston, MA – Production has just been completed on No Way Out But One, an independent documentary by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan. The film tells the incredible story of Holly Collins, a kidnapper to some and a hero to many. The film also examines the larger issue of the tragic failure of the family court system to achieve its most important mandate, to protect children.

In 1994, Holly Collins was a desperate mother determined to protect her children from abuse at the hands of their father. Believing that she had no other choice, Holly kidnapped her own kids, left everything behind, and went on the run. She became an international fugitive, wanted by the FBI. She became the first American to ever be granted asylum by the Dutch government as a result of domestic violence.

To capture the full story, the happily married team of veteran producers, Garland Waller and Barry Nolan, traveled to the Netherlands, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Minnesota, and Albany, NY. They used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain never before seen FBI files. They gathered extensive medical evidence, court records, and sworn affidavits. They drew on published research and interviewed witnesses, legal experts and doctors.

Rita Smith, the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence said of the film: " is a compelling account of exactly why the family court system in the United States needs to be completely overhauled.“

Eileen King of Justice for Children said: “The quiet flame that lights No Way Out But One is Holly Collin’s courage and fierce determination to protect her children from the violent abuse they were suffering in their father’s home.”

For her work on the film, Executive Producer Garland Waller has already won the 2011 Distinguished Service Award for Excellence in Film and Media from the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma. No Way Out But One has been chosen to kick off this year’s Chicks Make Flicks Screening Series for Women in Film and Video / New England sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s and Gender Studies on the MIT campus on October 27th at 7PM, Room 6-120 of Building 6. The screening is free and open to the public.

Holly Collins "Kidnapped Children" Return to the United States of America

We're Happy! We're Safe! And... We're Home!

Thanks Mom

Holly Collins Returns to the United States after 17 Years in Exile!

A Final Shoot - A Remarkable Ending

"Last night - taking a break from the nearly non-stop editing - Garland Waller supervised the final shoot for No Way Out But One. And she had the chance to share a truly remarkable moment with Holly Collins, the subject of her film.

Just over 17 years after Holly Collins grabbed her children and fled the country to save them from a life of abuse - Holly came home to America.

Holly and her four young Dutch children arrived at Boston Logan Airport just before sunset. Her older children - the ones she saved from a life of abuse - will join her shortly. They will settle in a small little house that is all their own and write new chapters in what has already been an inspiring story.

The film will have its premier at the 16th annual International Conference on Violence Abuse and Trauma in San Diego on September 11th. To all those whose generosity, support, and kindness have helped make this film possible - you are our heroes. And we just can't thank you enough."

~Barry Nolan

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2038674816/no-way-out-but-one-a-story-of-love-and-justice/posts

Help Holly Collins and her children return home to the USA

American family in exile desires to return home.

Holly Collins fled from the United States with her 3 young children to protect them from abuse and the injustice of the American family court system.

Holly and her children are the first known Americans citizens to receive asylum in another country. They lived in secrecy for 14 years until they were discovered by the FBI in 2007. In 2008 all criminal kidnapping charges against Holly were dismissed. Holly pled guilty to one count of contempt of court to which she replied “I admit to having contempt for the court which failed to protect my children.”

In March 2011 Holly Collins youngest American born child will be turning 18 years old! When he graduates from high school in June 2011 Holly and her children will return home to Marblehead Massachusetts.

Donations can be made out to CPPA with "Collins Fund" in the subject line. Checks can be sent to CPPA, POB 15284, Sacramento, CA 95851.

Donation can also be submitted through PayPal hollycollinshomecomingfund@hotmail.com

No Way Out But One goes to Minnesota

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2038674816/no-way-out-but-one-a-story-of-love-and-justice/posts
"Garland and I are on a flight to St. Paul, MN - to do some of the last interviews - including a number of people who were involved in the case 17 years ago - people who were interviewed by the FBI - and people who helped Holly and Jennifer get all the charges dismissed - save one. Contempt of Court."

"Like a trip through Lewis Caroll’s Looking Glass, the Family Court System of Hennepin County Minnesota is a very strange world all unto itself. That is one of the things we discovered again and again on our final round of interviews for NO WAY OUT BUT ONE conducted in Minnesota last week.

Garland and I have just returned from an intense round of interviews where we spoke to a wide variety of people, from protective mom’s to trial witnesses. We tried to speak to the Judge, the Court appointed social worker, the father, the guardian ad litem and others in the Holly Collins case, but they all refused. Overlooking the shores of a peaceful lake, we interviewed attorney Connie Hope about what it was like for protective moms down in the trenches of the family court wars. She told us something that sadly we had heard before. She often advises her clients in the midst of a custody battle, not to raise the issue of domestic violence, even if there is credible supporting medical evidence. In the strange world of family courts, being a victim of domestic violence can somehow work against a mother’s chances of gaining custody of her children. As it did for Holly Collins. What we heard in Minnesota sadly comports what with we have found in the peer reviewed research about problems in the family court system. You can read a good sampling of that research on the NO WAY OUT BUT ONE web site under the “Issue” button.

Connie also told us that the FBI investigation of the Holly Collins case was extraordinarily intense and cast a chill over the community of those who are concerned about the issues of domestic violence and child abuse.

This trip and the long process of writing and editing the feature length version of NO WAY OUT BUT ONE has been made possible by the generous support of the donors you can see here on the Kickstarter site. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts."

~Barry Nolan

The FBI files on Holly Collins

We finally obtained the FBI files through our Freedom of Information Act request!

Even more evidence proving that my mother is a hero!

I love you mom!

The Documentary About Holly Collins - No Way Out But One

NO WAY OUT BUT ONE
A TRUE STORY OF FIERCE LOVE AND BLIND JUSTICE

No Way Out But One is a documentary that tells the story of Holly Collins, an American woman who was driven by fear, love and desperation to kidnap her own children and go on the run in order to protect them from a life of abuse. Wanted by the FBI, Holly left behind everything she owned and everyone she knew in an effort to keep her children safe. She became an international fugitive, eventually making it to Amsterdam. After spending 2 years in a refugee camp out in the middle of nowhere, living shoulder to shoulder with other desperate souls fleeing violence torn hell holes around the world, Holly became the first American woman to ever be granted asylum by the Government of the Netherlands, due to domestic violence. Though it focuses on the desperate measures that one woman felt she had to take to protect her children, it also exposes the problems that protective parents and vulnerable children are facing nearly every day in courtrooms across the country.

Garland Waller

Holly Collins had No Way Out But One

by Garland Waller
http://www.nowayoutbutone.com/hollyjen.html

Holly Collins didn’t want to run away. In fact, she put it off until she could not live with herself unless she protected her children. She KNEW these children she so loved were being abused while in the custody of their father. They told her. They told the court supervisors. They told the guardian ad litem. But the Minnesota family court gave the father custody anyway.
“I just thought if you told the truth, you know, you would be believed. I always just told the kids, just tell the truth, so when the court didn’t believe us, I started going through all of our records.
Holly has stacks of records – legal documents, medical reports, as well as pictures the children drew which clearly showed abuse.

No Way Out But One expores how Holly, a battered woman, lost custody of her children is explored in detail. But it’s easy to see how, after a judge gave her ex-husband full custody, Holly would have been desperate.

It is important to acknowledge that kidnapping is crime. And the legal consequences for those convicted of kidnapping charges can be grave indeed. Holly will also be the first to tell you that their life on the run was hard on everyone. And she is aware that in a post-9/11 world of increased airport security, she and her children would never have made it out of the country. But to this day, Holly says her biggest regret was waiting as long as she did to take her children and run. She has other regrets of course. But then, just ask her to tell you about her children – all of them - and her face lights up.

Womens Forum - The Holly Collins Story

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 02:12 Jodi Beck ..

Dear Friends,

My dear friend and colleague, Garland Waller, is an Emmy-winning producer, professor, and best of all--all around great gal.

Over the years, Garland has shared with me the incredible story of an incredible mother, Holly Collins, who became a fugitive of this country in order to keep her children safe (read Garland's blog below for the amazing details). This story has now become No Way Out But One, a Telly Award-winning short form documentary. Telly Awards “honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web."

I could not be more excited for Garland, who's relentless commitment to bringing Holly's story to light has been nothing short of Olympian, and for Holly, whose story is now being developed as a full-length documentary.

And with that, dear friends, I offer you the words of my friend, Garland Waller:

Let me ask you this…..What would you do if someone hurt one of your children? What would you do if it were an ex-husband? I mean really, what would you do? Go to court? Well, not so fast…..

There is a little known and dark secret that a lot of women don’t learn about until it’s too late….until they are fighting over custody in an American family court. And it’s a real shocker. Family Court judges often give custody to fathers who have committed acts of domestic violence and have harmed the children. In fact, it is estimated that 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce. I know. It makes no sense.

“No way,” you say.

Well, as my daughter says, “Way.”

The fact that this happens with such alarming frequency is why I am producing No Way Out But One, an independent documentary. The film focuses on the remarkable story of Holly Collins, who, in 1994, kidnapped her three children to protect them from a life of abuse. Now we all know kidnapping is wrong...usually. But ask yourself what you would do if you were Holly. There was clear medical evidence that her ex-husband had fractured her son’s skull and had broken Holly’s nose, and despite that, the family court in Minnesota gave full time custody to the ex-husband. When Holly was allowed to see the children, in supervised visitation, they would beg her to take them away, to get them out of there. Really, you have to remember that Holly was a young mom and a battered woman who had done nothing but try to protect her children. In desperation, Holly took them and fled.

Hunted by the FBI, Holly went on the run and fled the country. She eventually made it to Amsterdam. There, she became the first American to ever be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands on the grounds of domestic violence.

She lived a quiet, low profile life for the next 14 years, until the FBI agents came calling. Their plan was to return Holly to the United States to face kidnapping charges. That changed after they interviewed her now grown children. Jennifer and Zackary told the agents that far from being their kidnapper, their mother was their savior and their hero. In fact, for the details, you can check out Jennifer’s blog.

Eventually, all charges against Holly were dropped, except one: contempt of court. Holly readily acknowledged that after all she and the children had been through, she did indeed harbor “contempt of court.”

No Way Out But One weaves other stories of women who, in trying to protect their children from abuse, landed in jail, were fined, or were barred from seeing their children. So even though the film focuses on Holly’s story, it will also expose a national scandal – that loving mothers can and do lose custody of their kids every day in America’s Family Courts.

My husband, Barry Nolan, and I are producing this independent documentary on a wing and a prayer. We are now using Kickstarter to raise completion funds.

Personally, I hate to scare people. But what is happening in the family courts is alarming and the system needs to change. Until the system changes though, women who love their children and who might end up in family court, need to be aware of some of the pitfalls.


Garland Waller
Garland Waller Productions

July 30 2011 - Happy Gotcha Day Holly Collins!

Today is our anniversary. 17 years ago my mother rescued us from our abusive father. We celebrated our freedom in a refugee center in Europe. I recently found the letter my mother wrote commemorating our first anniversary. It is a nice tribute to this hero who saved my life. Thank you mom!

June 30 1995,
Dear Loved Ones,

Merry Christmas! Seasons Greetings. Happy Birthday and warm wishes for all the other holidays we missed throughout this past year. It is our one year anniversary of freedom – how terrific! Life is truly wonderful! Aside from missing all of you, our lives are full of happiness and healing. We want to share our celebration with you. We hope you find comfort in our yearly update…

Personally I am learning to confront, accept and then let go of the past. I am emerging strong and remarkably sane. Again it has been confirmed that my children are not lying about the abuse and I am really not crazy. I guess I am still dependent on professionals to help me define reality. I always knew my children were telling the truth, but now I actually believe in my own sanity as well. I am beginning to enjoy life and I absolutely adore being a whole and complete mother again. I find great comfort in observing my children’s recovery. Their resilience is amazing. Zachary and Jennifer are transforming from scared, insecure, abused children into happy, self confident “normal” kids. Christopher is thriving being spoiled by his doting older siblings. As a family we are picking up the pieces of our shattered lives and therapeutically putting them back together one small step at a time.

I have to admit that this year has had its difficulties. When I was reunited with my children Zachary exclaimed in utter terror “If my Dad catches us he will beat us!” From that moment on any reservations that I had about my decision to flee were replaced by my obligation to protect my children. Jennifer and Zachary have repeatedly asked me why it took me so long to save them. The horror stories they have told me about the continued abuse fill me with terror and rage. I struggle with Zachary’s anger, Jennifer’s vulnerability and my own guilt for having left hem in danger based on my belief to uphold the law. I am embarrassed to think of how ignorant and naïve I was to have such a blind faith that justice, under those circumstances would prevail.

I can not go into details about how and where we are residing, but I can say that we have been given legal protection. We have a wonderful lawyer who found a legal way for us to live a safe, relatively “normal” new life. This situation is only temporary until my children’s safety can be guaranteed or until the Minnesota Court catches up to us and challenges this order. With all the trouble the Hennepin County family court system is having, it looks like we we’ll be safe for a while. Judge Porter’s publicized conflicts have only strengthened my case. As a family, we have decided that our priority is living as happily and as long as possible without getting caught. We are proud that we have made it this far. We managed to buy time. The children are getting older now. They can not be ignored any longer. Their voices have finally been heard. Please be reassured that I know now more than ever that I made the correct decision. Regardless of the consequences that I face in Minnesota, it is worth this past year along. For again, I have given my children life.

As I recollect over this past year I can not help being pulled back into the past. The terror of being battered still haunts me. The memories I once fought and refused to acknowledge are now bitter reality. I am still tormented by the actions of the court officers which nearly destroyed me and offered my children up for sacrifice. Someday they shall be held accountable. It is difficult to let go when I know that they are still destroying the lives of battered women and abused children. The legal justice system has to change. Women should not be further persecuted for being victims of abuse. Children should not be used as pawns in attempts to continue the cycle of domestic violence. Everyone, especially children have the right to live free from violence and fear.

I hope you understand why we cannot send pictures or have any other contact with you. We miss you all and we love you very much!

With Love, Holly Ann, Zachary, Jennifer and Christopher

Holly Collins is My Hero!

The FBI called her a "Kidnapper" But her kids called her a Hero
http://nowayoutbutone.com/?page_id=19

Holly Collins and her children fled abuse and became the first American Family to be granted Asylum by the Government of the Netherlands.

The feature, No Way Out But One is currently in post-production. It tells the story of Holly Collins and her children, who fled a life of domestic violence and abuse to become the first American Family ever to be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands.

In 1994, Holly Collins became an international fugitive wanted by the FBI for kidnapping her own children. Holly had been ordered by a Family Court to turn her two children over to live – full time – with the father who had been abusing them all. Even though medical records showed a history of broken bones. Even though the father had previously been under a restraining order because of domestic abuse. This just didn’t matter to the court.

Like other moms before her, Holly simply could not bear the thought that her children were being sentenced to a life of abuse. So, Holly made a choice. She became a kidnapper. She grabbed her children and left behind everything they owned and everyone they knew. Just so they could be safe.
Holly and her kids eventually made it to Amsterdam where they became the first Americans to ever be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands. Their lawyer, the renowned Dutch lawyer, Els Lucas, called Holly "a lioness" when it came to protecting her children.

Sixteen years have now passed in exile. Holly’s daughter Jennifer is now 24 and has "aged out" of court jurisdiction and so can travel and speak for herself. In 2008, she returned to the US to plead her mother’s case. She was quite effective. Holly’s pro-bono lawyer, Alan Rosenfeld, persuaded the Minnesota courts to finally listen to the victims. The children. All the serious charges against Holly were dropped – kidnapping, flight to avoid prosecution, interference with parental custody – all of it – except for one charge of contempt of court.

Holly pleaded guilty. She does indeed have a well-founded contempt for a system that does not listen to the children it is charged with protecting.

It is one of the greatest shames of the American Justice System that the Family Court system can refuse to consider medical evidence, it does not have a rational system for vetting expert testimony and it allows ex-parte hearings that can warp the entire process in an instant. The system in a word, is broken. It hurts children. And it’s time to fix it.

No Way Out But One is the first documentary to explore in depth a case of international kidnapping, however wrong it may be legally, how should such an act ultimately be judged when it is done to save children from abuse.

This is a film that will make some people angry simply because it attempts to tell the truth. With luck, it may even make people angry enough to change the system.

And consider this a spoiler alert. Ultimately, the Holly Collins story has a happy ending. Today Holly’s children thrive. They are healthy, successful, poised, and gracious. They look forward to returning to the United States with their mother, the woman they call their hero.

Holly Collins journal entry on the eve before she Rescued her children!

June 29 1994
My Dearest Zachary, Jennifer & Christopher
I pray to God that tomorrow I shall have you in my arms again. This is the last painful night without each other. I promise to protect you with my life! I have so many regrets and apologies but you have heard them so many times. Tomorrow is a new start. No longer a victim. I am strong. I am going to succeed. We are going to be happy. We are going to be safe. We are going to be together. I love you!
Love Mommy

No Way Out But One - Receives Award

GARLAND WALLER PRODUCTIONS

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 10, 2011
(Boston, MA)

The producers of No Way Out But One are proud to announce that it has received a 2011 Telly Award. Telly Awards “honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web."

No Way Out But One tells the story of Holly Collins, the first American to ever be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands as a result of domestic violence. In a desperate attempt to keep her children safe from an abusive father, Ms. Collins kidnapped her own children and went on the run. Hunted by the FBI, she used a loosely organized “protective moms” underground to escape and eventually made it to Amsterdam, where she first lived as a refugee, and was later granted asylum. Ultimately, she was vindicated and all charges against her were dropped.

No Way Out But One won in the short form documentary category. Work is now underway to expand it into a full-length documentary. Hundreds of pages of never before seen FBI files are now being carefully reviewed, and efforts are underway to recruit a cast of enormously talented, high profile vocal talents to help tell the story. Wendie Malick, currently starring in Hot in Cleveland, was the first to volunteer. More announcements will follow.

Garland Waller and Barry Nolan are the producers. Sid Levin of First Frame is the photographer. Erika Street is the editor.

Contact:garland@garlandwallerproductions.com

Congratulations Garland & Barry!

No Way Out But One Web Site

THE PROJECT: No Way Out But One is a feature length documentary currently in post-production. It tells the story of an American woman accused of kidnapping her own children, a woman who fled the country and became the first American to be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands on grounds of domestic violence. The 13-minute version presented here serves as a trailer for the feature and a documentary short. Read more here

THE STORY: In 1994 Holly Collins became an international fugitive when she took her three children and fled the United States to protect them from abuse. The family courts had ignored medical evidence of domestic violence and gave full custody of Holly's children to the man they named as their abuser – her ex-husband and the children's father. Wanted by the FBI, Holly became the first U.S. Citizen to receive asylum from the Netherlands. Read more here.

THE LARGER PICTURE: In No Way Out But One, Holly Collins shares a story that in many respects is like thousands of others. It is estimated that 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States. Read more here.

IN THE END: Unlike so many of the other tragic stories happening around the country, Holly was able to protect her children and keep them safe. Despite all the harrowing trials, her story ultimately has a happy ending. Even though she and the kids had No Way Out But One.

Why Do Abused Women Stay? The Holly Collins Case

http://alterwords.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/why-do-abused-women-stay/
Posted on July 7, 2008 by hysperia

Because this kinda thing happens to them when they leave:

After living quietly for 10 years in the Netherlands as an American granted asylum, Holly Ann Collins is suddenly making headlines in Dutch newspapers and a criminal case growing out of a bitter custody battle refuses to go away.

Collins became a focus of Dutch media attention as a U.S. “refugee” from domestic violence after a neighbor informed the FBI that she was living in Leiden, a town 12 miles from Amsterdam. That tipped off her location to authorities in Minnesota, where parental kidnapping charges against her are still pending from 1994, when she grabbed her three children and fled.

She may be the first American to receive amnesty in the Netherlands; no other case has been documented, according to Dutch newspapers. She was granted asylum in 1997 after she lived for three years in four different camps with Bosnian and Somali war refugees.

Her plight has captivated the international domestic violence community, with advocates, court observers and lawyers sharing the story in long chains of e-mail forwards and word of mouth.

Speaking softly into the phone from her home, Collins said the Dutch judge let her and her children stay in the Netherlands for humanitarian reasons after deciding their safety couldn’t be guaranteed if she returned to the United States.

“Then we were placed in a house, the kids were allowed to go to school and a normal life began,” she told Women’s eNews.

After avoiding the spotlight for more than a decade, she now faces a Minnesota prosecutor pressing ahead with the case against her, even though the Dutch amnesty protects her from deportation and arrest.

If she returns to the United States for trial, as a condition of bail Collins must agree to end all communication with her children, including her oldest who are now in their 20s. She fears that her youngest, Christopher, 13, could be placed into his father’s custody. The older ones would like to return to Massachusetts, a place they consider home.

Collins’ attorney, Alan Rosenfeld, who practices in Louisville, Colo., and has decades of experience defending battered women, picked up the case in March. The family was informed in May that federal kidnapping charges were dropped–although she still faces a federal charge of flight to avoid prosecution–but the state charges still stand.

Rosenfeld says although Collins’ asylum status makes her case unique, he doubts it will set a precedent for other domestic violence victims. Other than her status, it is tragically similar to the hundreds of abuse cases he has seen.

“We as Americans I think are good people and want to believe that our family courts do a good job of protecting children,” Rosenfeld said, “and so we close our eyes real tight in order to keep on believing that.”

Married at 17, Collins says her husband sent her to the hospital three times, bruised and bloody, within the first month of their wedding.

When she was five months pregnant with each child, she says her husband, who told her he didn’t like fat women, beat her more severely. A third pregnancy ended after another blow.

“That was just the way life was,” said Collins, who saw no use in leaving. She says the violence was well documented in court by doctors that treated her and her children.

By the time her next child, Christopher, was born, her husband had filed for divorce, and launched a custody battle. At first she received custody and he was granted visitation rights. Collins returned to him several times thinking the children were safer if she were around. “I really believed that I shouldn’t have left,” she said.

When state child protection officials threatened to charge her with failure to protect her children if she stayed with her abusive husband, she left permanently, received full custody but began to refuse to send the kids on visits to their father after they returned home with bruises.

She was then accused of parental alienation syndrome, a consistently discredited psychological theory where one parent is charged with trying to demonize the other parent. Although the judge acknowledged that Collins and the children were abused, he ruled that her husband’s physical abuse was easier to monitor than Collins’ emotional damage, she said.

“I’m not a likeable person,” Collins said quietly. “I’m whiny and I cry easily, and he’s smiley and happy and pats everyone on the back, and he’s everyone’s friend when you meet him.”

In the end, she lost custody of the two older children, who lived with their father for a year and a half. She was allowed supervised visits, and the children wrote her notes, leaving them in books, the bathroom and the refrigerator. “Help me,” they said, informing her when they would be home alone.

Eventually, she called from a pay phone and told them to meet her at a video store. They drove for an entire day. Collins cut their hair, died it black and slathered them with bronzing skin lotion.

They drove for weeks around the country. They got on a flight to New Zealand. Collins had read about the 1980s case of Elizabeth Morgan, a woman who accused her husband of sexually abusing their daughter and allowed her parents to take her to New Zealand, where they were allowed to stay.

They didn’t make it there and were apprehended during a layover in the Netherlands. While in jail with her children she appealed for asylum. “I just started rattling off everything I’ve seen in movies,” she said, and showed authorities a bag filled with court and medical records.

Following the amnesty, she met and established a new family with a Dutch man. Until six months ago, Collins thought she was the only woman to experience abuse and lose her children. Women started writing to her with their stories, she says, and “then I started feeling a little bit more empowered.”

After Collins permitted her daughter Jennifer to read the court documents, Jennifer became “disgusted,” as she wrote in one of more than 700 e-mails she has sent since November to politicians, advocates and anyone who might help her family.

“I just wanted someone to listen,” she said. “I wanted something to happen.”

But the Minnesota charges remain a concern. Hennepin County prosecuting attorney Elizabeth Cutter said an active warrant is out for Collins’ arrest and plans to prosecute if she steps on U.S. soil.

Rosenfeld, Collins’ lawyer, said talks with the prosecutor stalled after she made a condition of bail that Collins have no contact with her children when she returns to face trial.Cutter said this is a standard condition of bail, because she considers the children to be the crime’s victims.

He is not trying to persuade the authorities to drop charges, however.

“Let’s have all the evidence come out before fair people in Minneapolis,” he said. “If they find her guilty then they punish her. If they find her not guilty, then leave her alone.”

Marna Anderson, executive director of Watch, a program in Minneapolis whose members have observed court hearings for 15 years, said in Hennepin County courts said many of the problems relating to abuse cases persist.

“From what I’ve heard, it’s gotten worse,” she added.