Charges Against Holly Collins Dismissed
Sep 25th, 2008 by admin
Some good news about Holly Collins and her children:
Yesterday, Holly Collins returned to Minneapolis to answer the charges against her for fleeing the country 14 years ago to keep her children safe.
The District Attorney dismissed the felony charge of custodial interference. Instead, Holly pled guilty to contempt of court. As Holly said later in an interview, she admits to having contempt for a court that failed to protect her children.
Holly has asked me to send her deepest thanks to you, the Stop Family Violence Activists who sent messages urging that the charges against her be dropped. Her attorney and I are certain that the 8000+ messages you sent made a huge difference in the outcome of her case.
Here are some links to current media coverage of Holly’s groundbreaking case. We’re hopeful that a major news magazine will pick up the story - I’ll keep you posted.
AP coverage of Holly/Jennifer story
Minnesota Star Tribune story
Everyone who followed the comments thread of my earlier post knows, if she or he didn’t before, the harm that was caused to Collins and her children in the Court system. One of the visitation supervisors appointed by the Court continued her attacks on Collins in the comments thread 14 years after Collins fled the country, accusing Collins of all manner of things. The District Attorney in Minneapolis said she would forbid Collins seeing her adult children in the United States should she return to the country, and that if she did return to the country, she would have to stand trial on charges of custodial interference! It is a system that sided with a man who at one point fractured his son’s skull, which abused a mother and her children, and forced them to flee the U.S. and seek asylum in Europe. It is an appallling story and sadly, one that is told over and over again in U.S. “family courts.”
But for today, this is wonderful, wonderful news.
Heart
It is. Thanks for bringing this story to us. Who would believe it? Honestly people think something like this doesn’t happen. Oh, maybe in the 50s or 60s. But NOT today.
How wonderful this is to hear! Really, it put a smile on my face..
But people need to understand that even getting a way, there is a lasting scar…and that many women never do get away.
Yes given the never-ending war men and their supporters are waging against women this is indeed most welcome news. Even more so since such positive news are becoming increasingly less and less. Here in the UK women who attempt to protect their children from abusive male ex-partners are frequently told they will be held in contempt of court. Or else they are ordered by the courts to allow their violent ex-partner have unsupervised access to their children. Reasons being given are that fathers’s rights supercede the rights of the children to be protected and safeguarded. This is irrespective of evidence proving a child has been sexually/physically abused by their violent father.