answered, it would. I then asked, if every doctor following that diagnosis would also be guilty of child abuse? He answered, it would be, but why would a doctor do something like that on purpose. I told him there could be many reasons. I asked Mr. Medina if he was aware that Stephanie was kidnapped by her mother at knife point the night of the marriage separation. He answered, he was not, but if this had occurred Stephanie could be suffering with Post Trauma Stress Syndrome.

During Ms. Mears redirect examination, she had asked Mr. Medina if Stephanie's emotional symptoms could be indicative of a mother suffering from Munchausen by Proxy? Mr. Medina said, he didn't think they were.

Again I crossed examined Mr. Medina and asked if he new what Munchausen by Proxy was? He said, he had professional expertise on Munchausen and Munchausen by Proxy. He asked me to define it. After a verbal exchange, I defined what Munchausen by Proxy was. Given that, I asked Mr. Medina if he could tell a Munchausen by Proxy mother by observing or talking with them? He answered, no.

Judge Carpenter then followed up with a question. He asked Mr. Medina if Stephanie had from the beginning of this huge record wanted to live with her daddy and was being denied, be a stressor in her life? Mr. Medina answered, it would be a significant stressor. I then followed up on Judge Carpenter's question. I asked if Stephanie's alleged suicide gestures or whatever be a result of being forced to live with the mother that she hates, and believes the only way out of her situation is to die? He answered, yes, it could be.

In summary, Ms. Frederick's testimony basically took issue with her beliefs that she was abused during our ten year marriage. She claimed that Stephanie was a very abnormal, immature girl who displayed symptoms of mental illness since birth. She tried to establish that Stephanie was unsociable, intellectually deficient, suffered ADD and as a result could not learn academically since entering the pre-school. Ms. Frederick further informed the court that I had suggested at the January 26th conciliation conference, that the transcripts of the hearings have been altered.

On May 16th, we had our fifth hearing which was to conclude the custody proceedings. The final two witnesses to testify were Ms. Frederick and Stephanie.

During cross examination, I destroyed Ms. Frederick's conjured up mental illness of Stephanie through testimony, and numerous exhibits, such as report cards and achievement awards from school and church activities.

I asked Ms. Frederick to examine the knife point drawing Stephanie made for Dr. Baker. I caught myself and told Mr. Carpenter that I would like to enter the drawing into the record as exhibit. Judge Carpenter said, Mr. Kearns, I believe that drawing has already been entered into the record by Attorney Speice last year. I told Judge Carpenter, no, it wasn't. You gave that back to Attorney Speice last year after the February hearings. Judge Carpenter said, OK, you can have the drawing marked as exhibit and if we find it has already been entered into the record we will deal with that later. I then questioned Ms. Frederick if that drawing accurately depicted the events on the night of the separation? Ms. Frederick answered no, the people were not standing as Stephanie drew them and Jandora (Steph's half-sister) was not holding the knife outward, she was holding it downward.

As the testimony concluded Judge Carpenter suggested that we enter any exhibits that we may have concerning Stephanie. Compliantly, Ms. Mears conducted the exchange of numerous documents that was piled upon the table for the plaintiff and defendant.

Finalizing the hearing, Judge Carpenter interviewed Stephanie with Ms. Mears present in his chambers. After the interview, Ms. Mears called me and Ms. Frederick back into the courtroom. She told us that Judge Carpenter wanted the observers to remain in the hall.

Judge Carpenter asked if either of us wanted to make a closing statement. Ms. Frederick asked that Judge Carpenter consider Stephanie's condition 10 years down the road. I told Judge Carpenter that anything I would say would only capsulate what was presented during the testimony. Judge Carpenter then made a statement that the parties failed to present much of a case, but managed to get a lot of things off their chests that happened over the last three years. I can understand that and that was all right, he said. He went on further to say, that he will have to cut one of the parents from Stephanie's life. Mr. Kearns, you blame your wife for causing your daughter emotional problems and she blames you. I doubt if we would ever know who caused her the problems. Mr. Kearns, you believed that all the doctors involved with Stephanie were in collusion with Ms. Frederick. But yet, several witnesses from Conemaugh who did not know you or Ms. Frederick had no ax to grind with you, saw your daughter as having severe emotional problems. I will have an order out in three weeks with my decision. Consequently, Judge Carpenter declared the record closed.

To show the uncanny alignment and persuasiveness Ms. Frederick had over the court and professionals involved with this custody case, Ms. Frederick wrote a letter to Shannon Kelly on May 12, 2000, and forwarded it to Ms. Mears on the12th. Ms. Mears conveniently held this letter from me until the closing of the May 16th hearing when the court record was already declared closed and nothing new could be entered into the record.

It wasn't until weeks later, when I was organizing my paperwork from the hearing, that I discovered a hearing statement from the court reporter indicating that as part of Ms. Frederick's case Ms. Kelly was supposed to have entered a confidential envelope into the record on April 20th. What had struck me as odd, Ms. Frederick nor Ms. Kelly entered anything into the record that day as the statement implied. Putting my thoughts together, I realized the confidential envelope was purported to contain the casework sheets that CYS was supposed to have delivered to Judge Carpenter on April 6th. What was more bizarre, the confidential envelope was made to appear as being entered as defendant's exhibit on April 20th, which contained a letter from Dr. Hanlon. When I found the alleged letter, it was Stephanie's medical report from Dr. Hanlon detailing the conclusions of her physical examination of Stephanie on April 10th,.

On May 17th, I went to the court reporters office and requested that Christa Miloro and Sally Zeek produce the transcripts of the hearings. It was my intention to take the transcripts to the Attorney General's Office and the news media. Ms. Miloro and Ms. Zeek advised me that they were too busy typing the transcripts from a homicide case to make my transcripts. They said I would be notified at a later date when they would start them.

On June 8th, I again went to Christa Miloro and asked if she had started any of the hearing transcripts. She said no, I am still working on the homicide trial transcripts. I asked her if she could give me a rough guess when they will be started. She said, I don't know when I can get to them.

On June 20th, I had a hearing before Judge Carpenter that resulted from the school district's desire to place Stephanie in a Partial Hospital Program for the summer. Ms. Mears believed that Stephanie would highly benefit from this program. My argument was Stephanie receives more benefits by being home with her family and cousins that she was raised with. The witnesses to testify that day were subpoenaed as common witnesses and listed as Laura Chandler PHP administrator, Ms Reimer, and Altoona Area School District psychologist Carol Hewit.

Before any testimony was taken, Judge Carpenter advised the parties that this was a narrow issue and custody matters will not be raised since the custody record is closed. In summary, Ms. Mears went right to work using Ms. Chandler to sell the court this rainbow picture how well the PHP works and how well Stephanie was responding to it. Ms. Mears then went on the attack to cite differences in the way Stephanie performed in the program with the respective parents' custody schedule. Of course, it was pointed out that Stephanie sleeps more when with her father. Ms. Chandler then gave a highly exaggerated recollection of my first meeting with her as me being demanding.

Ms. Chandler described how Stephanie enjoyed the PHP program and looked forward to getting on and off the van each day, she was also becoming more sociable and was interacting with other kids. She described how the children in the program are gently punished when misbehaving by taking their scholar dollar rewards from them. Ms. Chandler took credit that Stephanie had quit pulling her hair out since entering the program. Ms. Chandler portrayed

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