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By Dr. Leon Koziol

Director, Parenting Rights Institute

Former Civil Rights Trial Attorney

Among my popular publications are those that shed light on this human rights tragedy known as parental alienation. It is the centerpiece of a nationwide epidemic promoted by greed, lawyer profits and billions of dollars in federal funds under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. It is a gold mine for service providers, prescription drug companies and conflict predators of astounding variety, an underworld of corruption made possible by a rarely tested declaration that our domestic relations courts are acting in the so-called “best interests” of our children.

This epidemic is escalating by the day because government is failing us in its duty to safeguard our most cherished right of parenting, one that the Supreme Court has repeatedly declared to be the “oldest liberty interest protected by the Constitution,” Troxel v Granville, 530 US 57 (2000). It is failing us most horrifically by refusing to correct parental alienation which has become so silently widespread across America. Instead, more regard is given to illegals, criminals and child traffickers at our borders.

Consequently we must take a closer look at these domestic tribunals. They all seem legitimate with the decorum, perfunctory overtures, and lawyers cloaked in black robes pressing us to believe that our precious offspring are in good hands. As an alienation victim, I tested that blind trust resulting in one of my custody judges being permanently banned from the bench for sexual abuse of his handicapped, five year old niece, In re Bryan Hedges, 20 NY3d 677 (2013). Only last year another of my custody judges resigned for sexual harassment of his female clerks (Michael Hanuszczak).

Indeed, over a twelve year period of retaliation for the conscientious stand I took against my profession, more than 40 trial level jurists were removed or disqualified from my family litigation, a national record by most accounts. I did not ask for this record or so many parenting substitutes since an uncontested divorce was upended by court predators. Since 2004, they orchestrated a blood bath reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum.

After all, have you ever wondered why loving parents are forced to joust over a “custody” award or “visitation” schedule? Are not these terms more appropriate for prisons and funerals? And haven’t such archaic terms “outlived their usefulness” as a veteran judge long ago declared in the case of Webster v Ryan, 729 NYS2d 315 (Fam. Ct. Albany 2001) at fn. 1?

I did not ask for the years of daily persecution that ultimately led to my hospitalization four months ago. I did not ask for this simply to spend more time with my daughters. I did not ask for the alarming information disclosed to me anonymously and otherwise concerning my ex-wife bent on replacing me time and again with her preferred dads.

This hideous alienator, Kelly Hawse-Koziol, brings a face to this epidemic. Indeed she could become its poster parent, exemplifying the absurdity of taking a support and custody battle to an illogical extreme. After all, what did she gain by destroying the career of her children’s dad? She got the attention she craved, pleased the ones anxious to even the score for a lost case, but how did any of it benefit the girls who could have been so much better off today.

In my case, I was never given an out, constantly forced on the defensive to prove myself as the fit parent I always was. For example, through a series of family offense petitions, all thrown out for lack of evidence, and a malicious campaign for failing to give up my parenting rights, Hawse-Koziol (soon to be Hawse-Usherwood) brainwashed my girls into hating their biological father who made their existence possible.

I raised them without incident for the first ten years of their lives, sacrificed immensely to stay with them, provided over a quarter million dollars for their support, and showed them a wonderful time which would be the envy of most children. Yet today they seem content to reward me with silence, avoiding contact even while I was hospitalized during the Christmas holidays. I cannot imagine doing this to my own parents or to my ex if the shoe was on the other foot. It is a modern day evil which our courts are manufacturing daily.

Such is the face of severe parent alienation, and it warrants a federal investigation of human rights violations in addition to the rampant abuses of federal funds. It also warrants criminal prosecutions and jail time for contempt to balance the consequences that have long been applied to child support debtors. I mean, isn’t a parent-child relationship far more deserving of legal protection than money transfers that are so often abused for non-child related activity? Parental alienation also warrants a new form of lawsuit that compensates victims.

Those who join with the alienator should also be held accountable. Again, I did not ask for the reports from concerned observers that my ex-wife was at it again by soliciting a guy named Lou Usherwood to act as the father of my children. Indeed during a high school football game in 2019, her illicit agenda was confirmed when, accompanied by this latest substitute, she threatened me by text for talking to my cheerleader daughter without a proper court order.

This is “insanity on steroids” and it is becoming commonplace. But in my case it is laced with retaliation for the exercise of speech outside the courtroom and constitutional right of parenting free from excessive interference. I have never even been charged with child abuse or found guilty of unfit parenting. Yet convicted felons in prison get better “visitation” orders.

After exchanges with the ex designed to move on from this disaster last year, I took down all negative posts involving her. However, the alienator showed true colors again by continuing with her sick agenda. She is doing this despite all the precious time and advice lost between “daddy and his little girls” that can never be restored. It is an evil I have never seen before, even among some of the worst criminal defendants I have come across. Yet I continue to have no legal recourse against those who made her agenda possible due to judicial immunity.

In my 2017 book, Satan’s Docket, I document how a corrupt family court made all this possible. It is not only uniquely educational but it reveals an epic ordeal deserving of a long overdue documentary. To order a copy or respond personally to this post, feel free to contact me at our office at (315) 380-3420 or electronically at leonkoziol@gmail.com. Kindly help us overcome the censorship of this epidemic by making our vital message and this blog site viral.