Update 🤍9/20/26

Hi all, we've reached 68 signatures on this petition, thank you. I’m learning exposure does help.

When I last updated this petition, the State Bar was reviewing my complaint regarding Minor’s Counsel, Stefanie Bennett.

At that time, I believed our July hearing had finally created some boundaries around an issue that had followed my son throughout this case: the use of therapy as a mechanism to facilitate and enforce visitation.

Unfortunately, the hearing did not end the issue.

In the weeks that followed, I began hearing from Minor’s Counsel again, not directly, but through my son’s therapists.

The July order was unusually clear: “NOT TO EXCEED 2 TOTAL VISITS OF THERAPY / MONTH.” Yet communications subsequently emerged indicating that Minor’s Counsel was directing that my son’s existing weekly psychotherapy continue in addition to conjoint/reunification therapy.

This was particularly concerning because the July hearing had specifically addressed the amount of therapeutic pressure being placed on my son. The court had acknowledged that there had been too much pressure and then placed an express limitation on the total number of therapy visits.

The issue later extended to the newly selected reunification therapist. After consent and jntake were completed, the Therapist reached out to myself and the father and requested added consent, because Minors Counsel reached out to her. This was after father requested she do that. Again I get confused. I thought minors counsel did not work for father but wa supposed to be there for the child. (Sarcasm)

The new therapist stated to her that she did not have a blanket freedom to speak with her and that the therapist required either dual parental consent or an added court order. Instead I sent it to the state bar demonstrating my exact point and asking if this was normal MC conduct for this case.

Frankly, This proved the point I’ve been making all along. Ms Bennett does not have immunity to run around my son’s life Willy Nilly. ESP given that I have raised concerns about her involvement in therapy usage.

I appreciate that we finally have a therapist (not chosen by the father or the MC) who values the consent process, as much as Nurse Practitioner mom does. I chose someone who has previously proven to me, that she can be firm with ALL parties and maintain advocacy in standing with her minor patient, no one else. And she has now already demonstrated to me 2x this exact behavior. 🤓and I’m thrilled about it.

Ms Bennett did this after her review hearing and while the State Bar was already reviewing Minor’s Counsel’s conduct.

I provided those subsequent communications to the State Bar.

The State Bar is amidst a formal investigation into Ms. Bennett. That is not a finding of misconduct, and I will not represent it as one. It does mean that the conduct I reported is being formally investigated. And I hope it yields the warranted outcome.

When I created this petition, I was asking a broader question: What training, oversight, and accountability exist when Minor’s Counsel is given extraordinary influence over a child’s therapy, relationships, and voice in Family Court? In our situation, Ms Bennett was purposefully left out of therapist implementation, yet shes reinserted herself.

Months later, I am asking the same question, but I now have considerably more documentation behind it. What is the oversight of minors counsels in family court? Who is really responsible for these individuals?

My son is doing well. My priority remains protecting the stability. Including from systems not considering his actual stability.

Thank you to everyone who has continued following this petition. My son has seen his father more, sobriety has been maintained by his father (during visits) and this is what im learning through my work with California Family Law Naked Truth: that when you move aside malicious court characters, they are less likely to incite conflict and a family is provided space to heal.

I’ve joined CFLNT as a committee member.

Because the system failed my family in many ways, not just Minors Counsel, and I am seeing good forward movement with the work I’m doing with CFLNT. take a look at what’s going on in Orange County Family court systems.

The way they handled us was not unique. It’s happening across the board.

The presence of CFLNT there has made a tremendous difference for families. In our case, Judge Bird behaved very differently towards me, before and after they were brought in.

In our case, the system and Ms Bennett have been paid a tremendous amount of money, not just by the father and myself, but also via a public funding, all of it has resulted in trauma that my sons and i must heal from, safety has not even been a resultant outcome under her/their implementations. They don’t listen to protective parents, and they punish us.

That is the point I’m making to the judge and to the state bar. Let me repeat that. She is publicly funded. And her presence in my family resulted in tremendous harm to myself and my children.

And finally, I am having a chance to expose what occurred. I am only on the precipice of that. 🙏