Family Court Service Office

This is my experience with the Family Court Service Office. The most notable interaction I’ve had with them is regarding supervised visitation. In my case, there was no domestic violance, drugs, or alcohol. However, the mother of my daughter did everything in her power to keep me away from my daughter, which I won’t talk about now. As my now ex-wife was able to successfully keep me away from my daughter for months, the judge ordered supervised visitation as a kind of “re-unification.” This was totally unnecessary, oppressive, and neither I or my daughter wanted to do it. However, the judge and lawyers defaulted to this idea. So, I was forced to go through with months of supervised visitation.

Providers of Supervised Visitation

When Judge Stow ordered supervised visitation, I was required to contact Jan at the Family Court Service Office. These were my only options:

1. Jill Guindon, (208)755-7643, [email protected]
2. Lindsey Mcphee, (208)659-2400
3. Michelle Thompson, Aka The Neutral Agency, (208)755-1343 or (208)889-0062, PO Box 1185, Rathdrum, [email protected]
4. Bailey Andrews, (208)514-6169, Rathdrum, [email protected]
5. Colene Kelley-Center for Family Mediation, (208)610-3438, 13403 N. Govt. Way, Suite 103, Hayden

So, I called all of them to see who was available. I ended up first using Michelle Thompson, and later switched to Colene.

Michelle Thompson

Hands down, Michelle Thompson is one of the most miserable and nasty human beings I have ever met. She has no business whatsoever in working with families and children. I shouldn’t be surprised that the last person who should be doing this job, actually set this up. On top of it, she would play this awful nursury school Christian music during the visits.

But more about Michelle. She had a non-stop scowl on her face. I don’t know how this is possible with someone, month after month, especially when you’re just sitting with people. She must really hate her life or seeing children with their parents, I don’t know.

With this next story, mind you, we were in a tiny room together the whole time. She was never more than 10 ft away. At some point, my 3-year old daughter ran up to me and whispered gibberish in my ear. Literally gibberish. It’s a game she’d always played. Michelle demanded to know what she was saying. This made my daughter afraid of her. Nobody has ever yelled at my daughter as far as I’m aware, except for Michelle. Again, just a nasty and miserable human being. My daughter begged me to take her to someone else after this incident, so I did.

I know this is something wrong with Michelle. I don’t have this kind of interaction with anyone else in my life. I can’t think of any negative interactions I have with people when it’s not dealing with these providers. I just can’t believe kids and parents are being subjected to this woman year after year. I reported Michelle to the Family Court Service Office, but of course they never responded.

Michelle also had totally arbitrary rules. While there, she said I was limited to 5 toys for my daughter. She told me that more than 5 toys was overwhelming for my daughter. This is totally absurd. At school she has piles of toys. At home she has piles of toys. Even Michelle had piles of toys in her office. She just didn’t want me to bring anything. There’s literally no logic to this, other than Michelle wanted to be oppressive. She would of course follow up anything she did with, “in my professional experience” as if that means anything whatsoever.

Colene Kelley

Colene was definitely an improvement over Michelle. Thought that’s not saying much. I found Colene to still have a rigid and mean personality. I was having to fly in to see my daughter. For one of the visits, my flight was delayed. I had immediately notified Colene that I might be late. I turned out to be 30 minutes behind the appointment time. When I called Colene, she immediately said, “the visit is cancelled!” and was incredibly rigid. I was immediately throw back, like this woman was just looking for a fight. I had to beg and plead with her.

Another issue I had, Colene had this rule that I could only see my daughter for 1 hour at a time, until Colene felt compfortable with in. This was nonsense, as my daughter and I both wanted to see each other more. It’s literally just an oppressive rule. And on top of that, Colene said she had a 2 hour minimum. So she would charge me for 2 hours, and only let me see my daughter 1 hour. And who is she accountable to? Nobody!

Focus on Children Class

As part of a contested divorce with children, they require everyone pay for and attend this class. I cannot think of anything I’ve done in my life that is more worthless and was more painful to go through than this class. There is absolutely zero accountability.

Conclusion

In summary, the Family Court Service Office is not only worthless, but is actively working to make lives worse for families and children. There’s absolutely no accountability within the system, and it should be totally dismantled immediately.

Nothing they did in my case served any benefit whatsoever. I was forced to have visits with nasty supervisors that neither me or my daughter liked. It was nothing short of intrusive and oppressive. It does however line the pockets of the supervisors, judges can pat themselves on the back, and lawmakers can turn a blind eye. And in my case, my ex wife was surely thrilled to put me through such a humiliating and worthless process, knowing that I’m a far more capable and concerned parent than she is. When I described the level of child abuse my ex-wife engaged in, the supervisor asked why it was me rather than her that was in there. That’s a very good question.

You can reach the Family Court Service Office:
Janet Meserve
1st Judicial District Family Court Service Manager
1st District Family Court Services
Family Court Services
[email protected]
[email protected]