Jeff's Story

April 4, 2004
    My name is Jeff Hoverson. I live in Amador County, CA. I've been in the court system for ten years. Seven is how old I was when it started. I used to live with my mom and brothers and sisters. It was great. I had pets, a nice room, lots of toys, even a favorite sippy cup. And I got to see my grandparents all the time.

When my sisters said my dad was molesting them, a lawyer and evaluator were immediately appointed for my sisters and me. I never actually saw my father molest my sisters, but I knew he would go into their room and get in bed with them and stay there for a long time, so hearing my sisters say that made sense. My mom told me that the court had made an order for him not to do that, but he kept doing it anyway and I told that to the evaluator and to the sheriff. Even though the sheriff listened to what I said, it seemed like nothing was being done. I told Matt Zanze at CPS about my dad emotionally abusing me, but he didn't do anything to protect me.

I told my court appointed lawyer that I wanted to live with my mom, but Larry Dixon "Attorney at Law," refused to reveal the evidence that showed my dad was a horrible person to be with. And the evaluator, Larry Leatham, wrote a totally bogus report making my dad seem wonderful, and saying my mom was trying to alienate my sisters and me from our dad, which was totally bogus. At that time I wrote a letter to Judge Bradford to complain about Larry Dixon not helping me, but again, nothing was done. I was overcome with a feeling of helplessness.

Then one day when I was 10, a sheriff picked me up and brought us to our dad's custody. It seemed so much like I had been kidnapped and taken away from everything I loved, then plopped down in a whole different life where I didn't want to be and where I felt miserable. I didn't know that I would never return to my mom. For an extremely long time I had no contact whatsoever with my mom. Just like that I was taken away. After that we had a court appointed therapist, Marsha Nohl, who tried to brainwash us to hate our mom and like living with our dad. Being ten years old, I felt very confused. My first reaction was to tell everyone that I wanted to be with my mom. Normally a ten year old daydreams about the newest Power Wheels or the best football player. I didn't. I cried every night and spent every day daydreaming of ways to get home to my mom, or ways to find out where she was.

I felt so incredibly helpless, so hurt, and so un-important. All of a sudden I was living in a verbally abusive home with no way out, no sleep, and no childhood. I wasn't allowed to see my mom, my brothers, my grandparents, even my best friends, and I didn't understand why. Being taken away from all these people made me feel so lonely. My dad and Larry Dixon and Marsha Nohl kept telling me and my sisters that my mom was crazy and a liar, and tried to make us afraid of her. Finally we got to see our mom for one hour a week, but we were told by Marsha Nohl that we couldn't hug or kiss her, or talk to her about our life with our dad. All my efforts to get back to my mom were shot down by "my" therapist, Marsha Nohl and "my" attorney, Larry Dixon.

After visits with my mom, Marsha Nohl would interrogate us and try to make us say negative things about our mom. She would have my dad and Larry Dixon come in her office and all 3 of them would tell my sisters and me that we should not want to associate with our mother, and how it would be "in our best interest" not to see her at all. When my sister told Marsha Nohl that her friends couldn't come over to our dad's house because of what our dad did to her, Marsha Nohl told my sister that if she wrote a letter to her friends saying my dad didn't do anything bad to her, her friends would be able to come over to play. Obviously my sister felt lonely too. Then Marsha handed my sister paper and stood over her and told her to write "my dad didn't hurt me" to each of her friends who she had told about my dad molesting her. Because my sister was only 8 years old, she just did what Marsha Nohl told her to, because she was afraid not to, and because she wanted to be able to play with her friends again. Then Marsha Nohl mailed the letters to my sister's friends and tried to claim that my sister had taken back what she said about my dad molesting her.

After 4 years, only because my mom kept fighting for us, we got to see my mom every other weekend. However, my dad always tried to interfere and made us tell her lies about wanting to do something else instead of going to see her, which made me feel guilty and ashamed. Over the years I got used to feeling very depressed, and it showed. So my mom tried to get a court order for me to have counseling but because my dad had legal custody of me, he fought against it, and I wasn't able to get counseling, and to this day my dad still prevents me from getting any counseling. I got worse and worse until I didn't want to live anymore. Finally, in April last year, I told Larry Dixon how abusive my father is, and how depressed I was, and that I hadn't really been able to sleep for 7 years. I asked Larry Dixon to do a motion for me to be put back in my mom's custody, but he refused. He made excuse after excuse just the same way an elementary school student would after forgetting his homework. So I just packed up my stuff and left my dad's house and came back to live with my mom, because I realized that it was up to me to get free of my abusive father. Since then, I've told CPS about all the years of abuse to try to get some help for my sisters, but they still won't do anything to protect them.

These days, my father is retaliating against me for coming to live with my mom. I have had a lot of pain in my wisdom teeth, so my mom made an appointment for me to get them pulled. When my dad found out, he called the oral surgeon and said he still has legal custody of me and he doesn't want his insurance to pay for me to get my wisdom teeth pulled and will not sign for it to be done. This is the kind of person he is. He will get revenge on anyone who tries to escape his control and abuse.

Apart from my teeth constantly hurting, my life is great now. All except for the fact that my sisters are still trapped with my father, with no escape to get back to my mom. Their words were not heard, just as mine weren't, and they have to pretend everything is OK because they don't know what my dad would do to them if they told the truth. I know they feel just like I did for so many years, hopeless, because no one will do anything to help them. In fact, everyone who is supposed to help children in abusive situations only helps their abuser. So what myself and my sisters have learned is that the people in the courts who are suppose to protect you can't be trusted.

I will be scarred forever from the years of pain of being taken away from my mom and brothers and having to live with my abusive father. My childhood was virtually stolen from me. I will be 18 soon, so I won't have to worry about ever having to go back to my father. Now, I am only in the battle to try to help my sisters get free. I'm looking for people who can be trusted and although it seems to be a challenge, I'm trying to protect my sisters. I am praying that the new judge on our case will finally listen to evidence of our father's abuse. That's what I'm doing for now, but in the future I would like to be a Senator so I could pass more strict laws to prevent people like my father from getting custody, and stop people in the court system from helping abusers get custody. Stop people from stealing another kid's childhood.

--- Jeff Hoverson,
written at age 17

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