Hello Everyone,
First off thank you!! We're 3k/10k signatures currently with 9 DAYS left until the hearing for Keith Robert Watson's set-aside conviction hearing in Traverse City, Michigan with Judge Thomas Power of the 13th Circuit Court. Thank you to everyone for the kind and supportive messages. Thank you to all of the brave survivors for sharing their own stories with me. I see and hear you. Thank you for seeing and hearing me too.
Recently I've gotten a lot of people reaching out to know about my pregnancy from 2014, wanting to know what became of the baby in the situation. Here is a little update on her:
The Baby is fine. Actually, the Baby is more than fine <3 She is wonderful. Absolutely beautiful, artistic and funny. She’s 7 years old now and is one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met.
She was a very tough & resilient little bean. I made sure she was closely monitored, and we received support from OB/GYN specialists that I frequently traveled to see monthly during my pregnancy.
She was born in 2014 (after Keith was already released from prison).
I filed an Order of Protection, with my little one attached to it. We were protected for several years, but unfortunately the Order lapsed when I was far-along in a pregnancy with her sister (I was having to go back and refile it every couple of years). I had lost track of the time and not refiled the OP.
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Immediately, Keith was messaging me on Facebook. He baited me into talking to him, under the guise of this message:
"Hello. As you know the OP is expired. I just wanted to ask if you would allow me to send birthday/ christmas cards to our daughter. Or if you would rather I have no contact with her. I prefer the former. Please get back to me If able. Thanks"
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I sent back this reply (edited to remove my child's name/sensitive medical info):
"First, let me start by saying that the psychological health and well-being of ___ is of the upmost importance to me. This little girl has made strides and bounds in the past year and has had to deal with and overcome multiple health issues. From having surgery on her ears earlier this year, so she could finally hear, to just last week getting an ultrasound done in the hospital to address structural heart concerns with a pediatric cardiologist… she has been through a lot. This beautiful little girl is being ____. I don’t want to put any additional stress on her or uproot the life she has known since she was born in any way. I hope you can understand this and respect that she is the most important thing in my life, and I’ve sacrificed a lot in my life to make sure she has never known anything but happiness, fun and love. Children should never be used as pawns and nothing should ever matter but what is best for them. I’m not sure what your motives are behind wanting to send her cards, but I would hope they would only be with good intentions. Please respect that she already has a strong male role model and father figure in her life that she calls Daddy and she is at a very young and emotionally important stage of development in her life. You’ve hurt me a great deal in the past, and for this reason, ______does not know who you are. There is no shortage of love given to this little girl. You can live your life, and we will live ours. It can’t happen right now, but would you be interested in terminating your parental rights? If yes, I’ll explain the timeline and process."
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So Keith initially agrees with me, making it known my new phone number is “no secret”. Then an hour later, he send another message recommending I run my messages by my partner... then four hours later (while I am sleeping) he sends this message:
“Ive been doing some thinking, and I am uncomfortable with having no contact with our daughter. My only question now is are you willing to make possible and make happen contact between Ainsley and myself? Please get back to me within one week. I do not want to have to go through the courts to have my rights respected. However if you deny me the ability to have contact with our daughter, I will then file with the courts to create a visitation plan.”
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My response:
“All I asked was that you respect what is best for that little girl... do you think ripping her away from us is healthy? Threatening me with court before I even had a chance to respond to your previous message? She has no ties to anyone up north. I don’t want a court battle, and I don’t want ___ in the middle of a tug of war battle. She is happy, well taken care of and well loved. She isn’t some item you can suddenly claim rights on. Her school, her friends, her family is here. Her life is here. I lived the life of visitation, and you know that. How could you want that for her?”
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Keith responds by attacking my partner and myself. He goes on and on about how my partner is “unwilling” to commit to me, despite me informing him that it was my choice to hold off on getting married (my partners each have had multiple divorces, and I wasn’t one who wanted to jump into a marriage before I felt ready).
Every time I’d respond, he’d threaten me with “Okay. See you in court” - knowing I am 8 months pregnant at the time.
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He continues to throw around lines like:
“I have rights. You clearly arent respecting them”
“Get married already. Stop being a scumbag.”
“As per my parntal rights”
“You give no useful information”
“See you in court”
“I won’t get railroaded”
“ANSWER ME. Or I will cease contact except in court”
“She hasn’t [talking about my child meeting Keith] cause you made it as hard as possible”
“I'm sick of being used as a bank account.” - [Keith had just started paying child support]
“I have parental rights. You can allow me to exercise them. Or we can discuss thwm in a legal venue”
**Keith continues to call “Strawman” every time I respond, tells me over and over to go get married to a man and keeps insinuating that nobody will commit to me or I am scum/garbage**
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I try to stress that I will be having a baby soon and that I can’t be drug through court right now – I told him that I will let him send cards to a PO box, but that I can’t get dragged through court with everything I’ve got going on with my child’s health issues and appointments on top of it all.
He agrees to just sending cards to the PO box.
Then he starts making demands about the cards... controlling more and more.
“You are willing to comply with clear unambiguous video proof she read them and or you read the to her and she was looking at the card while it occurred?”
Starts obsessing over wanting to send mail to my address and not a PO Box. Then he goes on and on about knowing my address... “it’s public information”. So naturally, I start to feel more and more unsettled, triggered and anxious knowing he can so easily find me. Then he starts in on trying to insult my partner, worried about what my child calls them and start hammering that I am scum who needs to get married again. Then he starts saying “well legally I’m the father” a thousand times (number slightly exaggerated here).
“He’s SOOOOOOOOOOO important and you still aren’t marrying him”
He then starts calling and insinuating that I’m not a good mother, which according to him is all because I am unmarried and I haven’t told my child about my psychotic and abusive ex... when she was just coming out of being nonverbal and was what, barely 4 years old at the time?? Ugh.
“That doesnt really tell me why I need to send it to a p.o box nstead of my daughters home.”
“treat me to what I am entitled to” [Talking about my child]
“you disrespect my rights, it’s as simple as that”
“I demand you answer why your boytoy has more rights than me”
“I demand you answer why you won’t allow me to be MY child’s father”
“Use his [my partner’s] credit card to pay for a lawyer”
“if I were him, and you were having my kid, I’d be PISSED that you won’t marry me”
“He even wants to marry you?”
**An insane amount of more threats of court, bullying and manipulation on his part**
“Also it's really insulting to call me "biological" father. I really don't appreciate that. I work hard to make sure child support is paid.” - [He has barely paid any child support, saying this]
“Really sucks now its going to be a "truth" she has to hear rather than growing up accustomed to her situation.”
“Ah ok. works for me. Just to be sure, the reason you want to use a P.O. box isn't because ----- doesn't know about the card right? I mean obviously I have your address so beyond that I can't think of a reason. Just hoping that isn't it. Seems like he should know.”
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Then Keith says this:
“A year ago or so I tried to check if I was or wasn't using the online process. It seemed as if I was not. You dont have to share if you dont want.” - [A year ago... he had an OP on him.]
I realize that he’s been trying to look into and gather information on us... despite being unallowed to interact with us, whatsoever. I felt more and more uncomfortable and blocked him.
We ended up in court, and after I saw he brought a lawyer to our Emergency Order of Protection hearing – I called for time to provide council for my own self. With the help of some friends, family members and a loan... we were able to secure a lawyer to fight Keith. Keith’s lawyer, from our current town, said that Keith “should not be held accountable for one wrong act”.... but it was not one act... it was 6 years of many horrendous acts against me.
We requested Keith permanently relinquish parental rights. Keith finally (after multiple court dates late into my pregnancy) told his lawyer to respond to our request to terminate any and all parental rights with a conditional “yes”. I had to terminate all child support and drop the Order of Protection. Obviously, this was a difficult decision to make regarding the Order of Protection, but we eventually reasoned that my daughter is safer without ever having to meet that abusive monster, and so we dropped the OP and agreed to end Child Support with termination of parental rights.
In this state I’m currently residing in, in order to terminate rights – they had additional conditions. In order to remove parental rights, I had to be married and someone had to be willing to take his place. This was a no-brainer once we were faced with these stipulations. My partner and I got married and prepared for an adoption. I was married quickly in a courthouse, freshly postpartum with a newborn in my arms and we were given a court date to terminate the rights and make the adoption official the next month in April 2019.
The adoption (we call it her “gotcha day”) was a beautiful moment... and yet felt so ordinary. My spouse and I remarked how we thought we’d feel something “special” after it was done, and yet – the event felt like any other day. We had made it legal, but in our hearts, she was already claimed as J’s daughter many years prior. The wonderful person who was there to help me heal and show me what security is finally could legally take on that role. The person who had watched her grow for many years already could finally officially call her daughter.
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So, there is no child support and we no longer have an Order of Protection...
But, we do have the peace of knowing he can never get to her. He can never hurt her. He can never use her to hurt me. He has no “rights” to her. I won’t need to ever worry that the courts might make the terrible decision of granting him any sort of custody or visitational rights – I know my daughter is loved, safe and our family can have peace in this sense.
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Thank you all for caring about all of this. Thank you for sharing our story. Thank you for standing up for us and others in our statement to the Michigan Court System.
Keith Robert Watson should have NEVER been granted a hearing for expungement. To even consider it, is insulting to not only me as a victim/survivor, but also to the public. Thank you for joining me in assuring that my voice and story is heard and not silenced. Thank you for sharing your own stories with me and trusting me with your own traumas. My heart hurts that we ever have to go through such lengths to ensure ourselves a small sense of justice and safety.
SAY NO TO EXPUNGEMENTS FOR VIOLENT AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS.
SAY NO TO SETTING ASIDE THE CONVICTIONS OF THESE OFFENDERS.
SAY NO TO EVEN ENTERTAINING THESE HEARINGS.
SO NO TO FURTHER TRAUMATIZING THE VICTIMS OF THESE CRIMES.
*Judge Thomas Power of Grand Traverse County Michigan.
*Governor Whitmer of Michigan.
DO BETTER FOR US.
Signed,
ONE OF TOO MANY.