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Bjorn's Story

Corruption in the child protection system and the tragedy of a false allegation of sexual abuse.

Every year in America over 3 million people call hotlines to report suspected child abuse. We live in an environment of child abuse hysteria. Self appointed experts claim there is an out-of-control epidemic of abuse. They release vague lists of "symptoms" which could have a hundred other causes. Over half of the calls made are determined to be "unsubstantiated". That means that millions of Americans have been wrongly reported for child abuse. It can happen to anyone. Some of the calls that come in are honest mistakes but others are deliberate and malicious, an easy and anonymous was to hurt someone. A false allegation of sexual abuse in a custody battle is especially devistating to the accused parent and to the children, betrayed and manipulated by the people they should most be able to trust. Our corrupt and dysfuntional child protection system feeds off of the pain of these children.

No child should be hurt the way that Johnny and Connor have been hurt. The boys are the sons of Bjorn and Amy. Their parent's marriage didn't last long and, around the time of the divorce, Amy discovered the power of the false accusation in a woman's state like Minnesota. To get Bjorn out of the picture she fabricated an accusation that he had raped her. He was arrested and spent 139 days in jail before the charges were dropped when it was discovered that Amy's "evidence", a recorded phone call, had been fabricated. It was really cut and pasted pieces of different calls.

With this history of false allegations one would think that any further claims by Amy would be eyed with suspicion. Not so. In March of 2007, when the boys were four and six, Amy falsely claimed that Bjorn had sexually molested his children. It came as no surprise, for weeks a friend of Amy's had been calling Bjorn saying they were going to take away his kids by making this claim. The friend described in detail how she wanted Bjorn to be imprisoned and raped by other men. There was nothing Bjorn could do. Our child protection system is not set up to stop abuse before it happens, only respond to it after the child has suffered.

In April, Bjorn found himself in court facing that horrible charge of sexually molesting Johnny and Connor. Amy's mother, Bonnie Callahan, testified on her daughter's behalf. She described how Amy was a good mother and had been sober for over a year. It would be almost a year before Bjorn found out what had really happened. He knew Amy had been drinking but he didn't know that Amy had abandoned Johnny and Connor for serveral days to go visit her boyfriend, Thomas, in prison in Montana. Thomas is serving time for beating a toddler to death. It would also be revealled that Amy was on heroin and would bring the boys with her to buy the drug and inject with them in the car. Child Protection would make a finding of neglect against Amy. Bonnie had, in fact, taken the boys away from Amy at the time she testified but neglected to mention any of this in court.

When Bjorn walked into the courtroom he and his attorney had no idea that Johnny and Connor had been interviewed at Midwest Children's Resource Center (MCRC). He had no right to free discovery and no right to cross exam the interviewer. There had been no warning so Bjorn could hire an expert on child interviewing. By law, these interviews are videotaped but that tape wasn't shown in court. The guardian ad litem, Jackie Cardinal, read a written summary into the record. It would later be proven that what was read in court that day had been altered to implicate Bjorn. There were statements added that the children never said. MCRC sends these summaries to the courts and child protection to use in determining whether a child has been abused. They have told me on tape that they know these summaries are inaccurate.

Midwest Children's Resource Center is a child advocacy center contracted by the police and child protection to evaluate allegations of abuse. If there is any doubt that MCRC had predetermined guilt before Johnny and Connor even walked through the door one only has to look at their record and their financing. The director, Dr. Carolyn Levitt, has run a successful business as an expert witness. While testifying in the case of Daniel Jourdain she was forced to admit that she has only testified for the prosecution for 20 years. Dr. Levitt also described her controversial technique of inserting her fingers into the vaginas and anuses of children and saying "Have you felt this before?". She calls this "eliciting responses" and it is far from accepted by the professional community. Dr. Levitt was also forced to admit that MCRC only gets paid if they determine abuse. In the interview with Johnny and Connor everything that could be done wrong was done wrong by the interviewer Sara Wirkkala. She used coercive and manipulative methods that have been described as child abuse in themselves. Ms.Wirkkala used pornographic imagery to describe incestuous, homosexual sex to a four and six year old, ignoring it when they said "no". In response to the children's denials Ms. Wirkkala woudl tell them that mommy said daddy did this.

Bjorn had to sue MCRC to get a copy of the DVD of the interview with his own children, the only "evidence" against him. Finally, in April of 2008 Bjorn got in front of a judge and showed her the DVD. She overturned the finding of abuse and determined that Amy had fabricated the accusations. No other judge or court official has bothered to see the interview DVD.

Even though Bjorn has been found innocent of molesting his children nothing has changed. There are plenty of professionals in the system willing to ignore this finding of innocence for their own personal gain. Professionals like therapist Peter Grunnet, who had never met Bjorn but diagnosed him as a psychopath obsessed with sex. Grunnet also ignored statements made by the children that the abuse never happened and that they didn't see daddy because of lies that were told about the abuse. Peter Grunnet continued to make money with weekly sessions treating the boys for abuse that never happened. He called it "blocked memories". If a physician treats a patient for a disease they don't have it is called malpractice. In our child protection and family court system these people are instead treated as "experts".

Bjorn's story is typical of those facing false accusations of sexual or physical abuse. There are thousands like him, fighting the endless nightmare. The openness with which people in this system flaunt their power and break the law simply demonstrates that there is no real oversight or accountability. Over two years Bjorn would get four court orders for weekly visitation. He couldn't get one second of that. The guardian ad litem, Jackie Cardinal, was assigned by the court to arrange supervised visitation. For seven months Bjorn called her once or twice a week and she never returned a single call. When Bjorn went to see Jennifer Rojer in Family Services an employee told him to "shut up" and literally slammed the door in his face. Jeffery Postuma did an intake with Bjorn at an organization called Perspectives. Jeffery acted as if the visitation was finally going to happen. He was lying. In early 2009 a case note turned up which had been written a few weeks after Amy had made her accusation in 2007. This note describes contact between Jackie Cardinal, Jennifer Rojer and Jeffery Postuma in which they decided, against the will of the court, to refuse to provide visitation. Directly because of this act of contempt of court, Bjorn has only seen his children for three hours over two and a half years.

Periodically there are attempts to pass legislation that would require individuals in these powerful positions to pass a psychiatric exam. There is no mechanism in place to protect you from their agendas, issues or personal problems. Maybe they don't like your race, or religion. Maybe they are former victims of abuse who see every man who walks into their office as their abuser in need of punishment. One social worker described some of her colleagues as "burnt out old ladies who didn't give a shit about the kids." Bjorn would run afoul of a social worker, Janie Nelson, who told me (Bjorn's girlfriend) that men should be in treatment just for being men. She started each session by saying "I know the judge personally and I will testify for which ever side hires me." Such people are known as court whores. Janie was hired by Bonnie Callahan to testify against Bjorn in a custody trial. Also testifying at that trial, custody evaluator Rachel Lipkin. Bjorn had presented her with a 30 page document supporting his bid for custody. She threw it away. There was no sign of it in her records.

This has been Bjorn's story but what about Johnny and Connor? Who is telling their story? What has stood out since the first day is that not one person in family court or child protection has asked the simple question: what is this doing to the children? Everything is about Bjorn and the need to punish him. To prove that they are right and he is wrong in his claims of innocence. It gives them such a feeling of power, of self-righteousness. No one thinks about when Johnny and Connor are grown. How will they feel about this? How will it change them? Will they look back and be happy that they grew up without a father? Will they form healthy relationships after being manipulated by their mother and grandmother for the purpose of hurting their daddy? Will they be better parents to their own children after being raised in a toxic environment? Amy is documented as frequently beating the boys. The boys have lived in Bonnie's house where they have witnesses the dysfunctional and violent relationship between Bonnie and Amy. Bonnie has admitted to filing a false police report claiming that Amy assaulted her just to get Amy our of the house. Why do these women still have the kids?

Johnny and Connor are growing up in this Hell. With the help of the disturbing relationship between family court and these self-appointed "experts" the boys are spending their childhood never knowing the safety, stability and unconditional love that should be their right as children. Never knowing what it's like to be treated with care and respect by a parent who puts their needs first. Never knowing the kind and caring man who is their father.

Bjorn's case is typical of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). This is a condition in which one parent tries to turn the children against the other parent by lying to the child about how bad the other parent is. I found the following quote by Dr. Janelle Burrill-O'Donald especially disturbing because it not only described Amy and Bonnie's behavior but also the behavior of individuals, like Peter Grunnet and Rachel Lipkin, who hold powerful positions in our court and child protection systems, which raises the question of what dark secrets and desires these people are projecting onto their clients.

The alienating parent sees the other parent as having many of the noxious qualities which actually exist within themselves. These alienating parents project these unacceptable qualities onto the other parent so they consider themselves innocent victims. Alienating parents in severe PAS cases do not repond to logic, confrontations with reality or appeals to reason. They truely believe their preposterous scenarios...Frequently, there is no evidence for the alienating parent's accusations.This includes even a court decision that the alienated parent is not guilty of the allegations made by the alienating parent. For, example, an alienating parent's own suppressed and repressed sexual fantasies are projected onto the child and the other parent. There may be accusations of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and/or domestic violence without evidence.