Bridget Marks Ruling: It's OK to Coach Little Girls Into Saying
They'd Been Molested

Bridget Marks, who was found both by a trial court and most recently by an Appellate court to have coached her then four year-old twin girls to make false allegations of sexual molestation against their father, got her kids back Tuesday, having been awarded sole custody. It is one of the clearest examples of anti-father family court bias in recent memory.

While Marks has garnered widespread media sympathy through her constant theatrics and the mainstream media's anti-male bias, the girls' father, John Aylsworth and his attorney Patricia Grant,  have declined to speak publicly. That changed Sunday night, when Grant appeared on His Side with Glenn Sacks. Tuesday both the New York Post and the New York Daily News quoted from my  interview with Grant. To listen or read a transcript, click here.

The newspaper articles are Victorious mom's twins home to stay (New York Daily News, 4/6/05) and MOMMY CHEERIEST (New York Post, 4/6/05). Both are very slanted against the father, as has almost all of the reporting so far. To write to the Post or the Times about the issue, click here and here.

I also discussed the Marks ruling on the Charles Goyette Show on Air America KXXT AM 1010 in Phoenix, Arizona yesterday morning. To listen to the interview, click here.

Observant readers will note that the handover was done quietly and out of sight of the media, as opposed to the hysterical street scene Marks staged for the media when she handed custody of the girls over to Aylsworth on June 1, 2004. After getting her girls as worked up as possible for the cameras, Marks "hollered 'EVIL' at casino owner and former beau John Aylsworth, as he and his wife Karen picked up the girls in front of Marks' East 72nd Street home... Marks' mother, Molly Bennett screamed, 'He's running like a rat!' When the vehicle pulled away, Marks chased after it briefly wailing, 'I love you! I love you!' And her little girls waved back" (New York Post, 6/2/04). 

Marks' Legal Team, Family Taunt Me Over Recent Decision

I've received letters from members of Marks' legal team and a prominent member of her family, gently taunting me over their court "victory" last week. I responded as follows:

Bridget herself is apparently not a fan either, telling an interviewer in January that I "really bother" her.
 

See Bridget Marks' Christian Family Values in Action

Aylsworth has lost custody and lost in the media in part because Marks has successfully portrayed him as immoral. During this case Marks has emphasized her professed Christian family values. When Aylsworth allegedly declined to take the girls to church on Sundays, Marks told the New York Daily News "John even wants to take Jesus away from them" (6/28/04). She has also repeatedly branded Aylsworth "an adulterer." As I mentioned on the show Sunday, it is certainly true that Aylsworth put both the girls and his wife Karen in a difficult position by having an adulterous affair with Marks after three decades of marriage. I also noted on Sunday's show that "I do get a little weary of some of these guys who get themselves into trouble because they can't keep the pistol in the holster."

However, even if we leave aside Marks' despicable false molestation allegation, she's still nobody to preach. Marks carried on the affair knowing Aylsworth was married and, according to the Appellate court, during the affair with Aylsworth "it is undisputed that she had been carrying on a simultaneous sexual relationship with another man, to whom she was engaged at the time of the hearing." Further evidence of Marks' Christian values and moral superiority can be seen by clicking here.  Marks is on the left. Jesus is not pictured.  

As I've also noted, the court found that Aylsworth is a capable and loving father. His four adult children and his wife all gave the court glowing reports of him as a father, and, according to Judge Goldberg, "all persons who have seen him interact with the twins testified that he is a very good parent and that the twins love him and are happy with him." By contrast, according to Grant, Marks was found to be an unfit mother--see the quotes from my interview Sunday below:

Patricia Grant: Bridget's team repeatedly said to the members of the media that she was found to be a fit mother. In fact it was quite the contrary. She was specifically found to be unfit. But that never surfaced.

Glenn Sacks: Because of what? Because of the allegations?

Patricia Grant: Well, there were the false allegations, there were intrusive physical examinations that she took the children for and indeed the...

Glenn Sacks: Wait, wait, wait. Somehow I have never heard of this. You mean to tell me this is one of the... Because I remember I had a guy I talked to before on the show who CPS came, they investigated, what I guess was his step daughter and I remember him describing this horrendously invasive examinations they do on the little girl, supposedly to tell if they have been molested. I mean, just listening to this I thought if somebody ever tried to do this to my girl I'd blow his head off. Are you talking about this?

Patricia Grant: They were taken to the emergency room by Bridget Marks and indeed her testimony was that one of them had been molested, but she took both of them for intrusive vaginal examinations and when asked why she took both she said, and I quote, "for comparison purposes."

Glenn Sacks: So, in order to set up this whole con game against Aylsworth she was willing to drag her little girls, who must have been three or four at the time. To take them to the emergency room so some stranger could... I'm not even going to describe it. And that's a fit mother?

Patricia Grant: That's a fit mother. Well she wasn't found to be a fit mother. The forensic evaluators thought she was not fit and the court found her to be unfit. But somehow that was transformed by Bridget Marks into she was a fit mother. The basis of that was the testimony that she was a "good enough" mother and that was explained rather clearly by Dr. Billick. And what he meant when he said that was that she saw to it that the children were fed and that the children were clothed and that they went to school and she was a "good enough" mother.

Glenn Sacks: That makes you a good enough parent?

Patricia Grant: It's a psychological term.

Glenn Sacks: That's a pretty low standard.

Patricia Grant: Well, he said "good enough" in those respects but she was unfit as a custodial parent. In addition to the intrusive physical examinations, Ms. Marks was found by Dr. Billick to have abused them emotionally and physically in that she would agitate them around periods of visitation with their father so that to induce asthma attacks and then she would give them very, very strong medication which he believed was potentially very harmful to them.

Glenn Sacks: So, so it's not just a matter that she would get them agitated, because you know, you know what she did on that street. Everything she can to get them agitated so that everybody could say what a tragedy this is, and what a victim she is. But the girls, what, they had asthma?

Patricia Grant: They developed asthma, yes.

Glenn Sacks: And then they would have to take medication because of the way she was riling them up?

Patricia Grant: That's right. That was one of the things Dr. Billick thought was potentially physically abusive in her conduct. He also testified, as did other witnesses, that she was incapable of caring for the girls herself. She had nannies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
 

Hear Bridget Give Her Side of the Story

Bridget Marks has received enormous media attention for her side, a thousand times what John Aylsworth has received. However, for those of you who would like to hear Marks interviewed at length, I suggest you listen to the two interviews she did with forensic consultant Dean Tong, who is part of her legal team. The interviews can be heard on Nothing but the Truth with Dean Tong by clicking here and here.