Dog handler, McLennan Deputy Jos. Ballew, (L), with Lt. Chris Eubank
The parent is the primary case for the delusional belief system, and pathogenic parenting practices are the origin of the child’s delusional belief. This induced delusional belief in the child, created by the highly distorted pathogenic parenting practices of a narcissist/(borderline) parent, is resulting in the child’s expressed desire to terminate a relationship with a normal-range and affectionally available parent who could otherwise act as a protective psychological buffer to the pathogenic psychopathology of the narcissistic/(borderline) parent. – Childress, Dr. C.A., “An Attachment-Based Model of Parental Alienation: Foundations,” Oaksong Press, Claremont, Ca., 2015.
Waco – Some disputes are exceptionally ugly.
When it comes to arguing a motion to modify parental custody of the children in a hotly disputed divorce, ugly beats all the pretty off the facts of young lives. In this case, the attorneys handling the matter for the mother whose children have been taken from her are alleging psychopathology induced by ill parental behavior.
Not to worry. There are professionals who actually sort these things out for a living.
And so, the parties to Ballew V. Ballew gathered in 414th Civil District Court on Wednesday afternoon, July 11 – 7-11 day – to hear the facts of the matter of just where the elementary school-age kids of Jos. and Brittany Ballew Raley will live.
When this dispute is settled by a judge’s order, it will be because of a discretionary ruling either to allow or disallow evidence and testimony regarding polygraph examination of the ex-wife of Deputy Jos. Ballew, Brittany Ballew Raley, and her husband, Andrew Raley, of Mt. Calm.
Their counsel, Dennis Fuller of Dallas, has ordered extensive polygraph testing of the couple; the test results the testimony of the experts who gave the tests will be able to show what is what with the allegations of complaint raised by the Waco law man.
Polygraph examination is a perfected art useful in determining if there are signs of deception present when a questioner asks detailed questions about a particular set of circumstances. The trick is to create a clearly anomalous pattern of bodily reactions through the repetition of neutrally worded, innocuous questions in sequence with those in which a question of substance regarding the primary inquiry might produce a reaction – blood pressure, respiration, galvanic skin response – at extreme variance with the established norm.
Question: What do you do when a trusted investigator is possibly telling one lie after another? Just how often is such a person – an intelligence operative, or a law enforcement officer, let’s say, examined as to signs of their veracity?
As a rule, you take that person to Court, especially when all this has an impact on the lives of people – little people, children.
That’s why it’s so exceptional to find polygraph examination under discussion in a court of law. Though officers of the Court make numerous decisions such as whether to present cases to Grand Juries, the probability of a witness being proven wrong, or just common sense plans to make the Court aware of any such factors based on polygraph results, those results are inadmissible as evidence.
T’is an anomaly within an anomaly, as it were. Direct testimony about matters in which the witness has personal knowledge is quite different, and there sat McLennan Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jos. Ballew at the respondent’s table, which made what was about to occur a matter of record – not hearsay, but direct evidence.
Extraordinary.
What makes it more unusual is that in the dystopian world of law enforcement where everyone is under suspicion most of the time and supervisors rely on polygraph tests to see who’s lying, the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office is famous for not using the polygraph in its internal investigations.
Any number of experienced officers who have worked there will tell you. They just don’t use the box to pin their hands down on matters.
The truth is, one of the man’s daughters just does not want to live with him, and her younger sister has been hard-pressed to give forensic testimony to Child Protective Services examiners who placed the two girls under protection.
So Ballew’s ex-wife and her husband came to Court to fight back, armed with the facts, ready to present witnesses.
According to Detective Michael Miller of the Sheriff’s Office, the younger daughter made an outcry on September 17, 2017 alleging emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and physical abuse of both herself and her mother by her step father, Andrew Raley.
Det. Miller said she presented at the Child Advocacy Center that the girl was “very scared,” that she refused to come in the room out of fear, and that when she finally calmed down, she told a story about being shoved violently into a bed frame, an injury that left marks on her back. She also told of seeing her step father push her mother down some steps, something that left her in a cast on her foot and her hand due to broken bones.
She made an outcry regarding sexual abuse in privacy matters regarding bathing. He made a video of her remarks, he testified.
When Miller turned the investigation over to CPS Investigator James Hastings, he learned that the allegations made in mid-September were voiced again on Sept. 26 regarding ongoing violence and severe alcohol abuse by the couple. On November 30, said Hastings, the child renewed her complaint, alleging unprovoked attacks against her by Raley.
When Dennis Fuller cross-examined the witness, he pointed to earlier allegations of complaint made by the child.
He showed the witness and judge documents from 2011, 2012 and 2014.
“There is a pattern of Mr. Ballew filing complaints each time earlier allegations are determined to be unfounded,” Fuller argued.
Hastings said he is “totally unaware” of those reports, and has no personal knowledge of them. The judge ruled he cannot testify about that which is unknown to him.
Fuller said that he is able to correlate the outcry reports from the time when the couple’s divorce was in progress and later in 2017 with the release of findings of unfounded allegations.
During a break in the hearing, the judge and the plaintiffs’ lawyer suddenly realized they are old acquaintances who know one another socially through their older brothers. Once they determined that, Judge Vicki Menard had no other choice but to recuse herself halfway through the hearing when Betty Denton, Mr. Ballew’s counsel insisted.
She simultaneously released 14 sworn witnesses who are ready to testify on behalf of the beleaguered couple. Among their number are investigators, police officers, and polygraph and drug testing experts.
One of the district judges in the McLennan County jurisdiction will have to rule on the case, in which the relief of a temporary restraining order is sought to return Ballew’s daughters to their mother’s home.
It’s not an unusual situation.
It’s a problem so common as to result in a standing order agreed to by all the district judges in the jurisdiction of Six Shooter Junction. One may see by reading the document that it’s a situation governed by precise and exacting legal principles.
Ballew’s career has been checkered by allegations of cruelty to drug detection dogs he handles on the job, as well as hunting dogs he uses to apprehend wild hogs in primitive hunting rituals.
One incident involved a Belgian Malinois named Ace whom both Ballew and Lt. Chris Eubanks allegedly taunted with a cap pistol to the extent that he attacked his handlers out of rage.
The same dog later attacked another handler’s son when left alone with the child.
Officials released an official report holding that Ballew did in fact abuse the dog.
In another incident, Ballew allegedly swung a hog hunting dog over his head and slammed it on the ground, injuring the animal in the presence of DPS agents. Both incidents resulted in extensive investigations, but no significant disciplinary action against the deputy.
Watch these columns for further developments in the custody dispute between Deputy Ballew and his ex-wife, Brittany.