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It’s difficult to imagine today that a woman in the United States of America, in a No-Fault Divorce state, could be locked into a marriage against her will by a court-documented abusive husband. Yet, this was Michelle ReBecca’s experience in 2017 in the 18th District Court of Montana under the notorious Standing Master Bowen in Gallatin County. (DR17-345B). It took Michelle 3.5 years to obtain the Decree of Dissolution. However, the fight for her Constitutionally protected civil rights as a parent continued for more than 7 years with great emotional, financial, and psychological cost to her and her minor children.
Bozeman and Big Sky grace the cover of magazines touting the most desirable mountain west outdoor adventures, bougie restaurants, and home to a growing population of the rich and famous. Yet, many local residents are all too familiar with the dark underbelly of the local family court system, which has made national headlines over the last few years. https://pjmedia.com/megan-fox/2022/12/12/montana-family-court-corruption-runs-deep-in-gallatin-county-n1652524
In 2022, Bozeman was declared a “sanctuary city” for domestic violence abusers. This declaration was confirmed by the Montana State Representative for the National Safe Parents Organization, Elizabeth Peterson, in a separate interview she provided to the local House of Representatives.
Shortly after Bozeman was identified as a sanctuary city for domestic abusers, a legislative report was commissioned by the Montana Family Court Awareness Project and endorsed by the Montana Citizens Council on Judicial Accountability. This report assisted Governor Gianforte in declaring November as Family Court Awareness Month for the last two years.
This report investigated the reasons why Bozeman earned such an undesirable reputation. It revealed how the duplicitous Standing Master, Magdalena Bowen, created a safe haven for domestic abusers and exposed how the pseudoscience of Parental Alienation Syndrome infected the local Family Court before bleeding out into the rest of the state of Montana. The report concluded that it was SM Bowen’s allegiance to the discredited parental alienation theory that took children from their safe parent and placed children in the unsupervised care of documented abusers. These facts, spanning over ten years, resulted in Bozeman’s identification as a sanctuary city for domestic abusers.
“Parental Alienation is so universally discredited by every scientific and medical organization in the world, that it takes a particularly sick individual to embrace the pedophilia-friendly ideology and then leverage it as a new form of abuse in a court of law,” stated Ms. Peterson.
This legislative report, coupled with dozens of parents from the Bozeman area testifying before the House and Senate judiciary in 2023, resulted in a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives for HB 322, the Standing Master Reform bill…nicknamed “The Bowen Bill” by the Representatives.
Michelle ReBecca was one of the parents who testified in support of HB 322. Michelle survived years of Psychological Abuse and Coercive Control by her ex-husband, Peter Young, before finding the courage to seek a divorce. “I expected the Family Court to protect me and my children after we provided significant evidence of the years of mental and emotional torture we endured.” Despite the concrete evidence of abuse presented to Bowen, the Standing Master abdicated her responsibility of protecting Michelle or her children by ordering the children into the exclusive custody of their father, Peter Young. Michelle was limited to monthly supervised visits. This was the result of Mr. Young deploying the most popular legal strategy of domestic abusers… cross-claims of parental alienation against the mother.
Mr. Young’s attorney, Evonne Wells, escalated the abuse by utilizing a loophole under MCA 40-4-107, which states that the party filing the petition for dissolution of marriage must prove the marriage is irretrievably broken if the other party contests their petition. In other words, the party wanting to escape the marriage is penalized for trying to leave, often using the very reasons they are leaving as accusations against them. Yet, Montana claims to be a No-Fault divorce state.
While most people view this law as an archaic excuse to hold a woman hostage in an abusive marriage, Peter Young found this to be an effective tool in SM Bowen’s court. Based on court records, it helped him evade his responsibility to pay child support for a significant period. This stall tactic then allowed Mr. Young’s attorney to concoct the parental alienation strategy as an effective defense tactic against Michelle and the children’s claims of abuse.
Further review of Michelle’s court records reveals that SM Bowen continued to violate the law in this case. Michelle and her three minor children had been Idaho residents for nine months. Yet, SM Bowen unlawfully allowed attorney Evonne Wells to switch Peter Young to the Petitioner filing for divorce instead of staying consistent with Michelle’s original filings because the Petitioner must lawfully be a Montana resident. Eventually, 3.5 years later, SM Bowen signed off on the Decree of Dissolution.
Staying consistent with her unethical practices during this time, SM Bowen allowed one of her “favorite guardian ad litems, Jennifer Bjelland, to act as a “neutral third party” and represent the children's best interest. Unbeknownst to Michelle, but obviously known by Peter Young and the Standing Master, Jennifer Bjelland also worked as a “Team Leader” for a private big money company in California called Family Bridges. Family Bridges claims to “cure” children suffering from the fictitious diagnosis of Parental Alienation Syndrome. With full confidence, after examining court records, the logical conclusion is that Bjelland was anything but“neutral.”
Dozens of court cases in the 18th district show Bjelland funneling children into Family Bridges “reunification camps” and similarly crafted hyper-restrictive parenting plans, where children are cut off from their safe parent under the guise of parental alienation.
Michelle had no way of knowing she and her children had been sucked into the greasy machinery of the Alienation Industry thriving in Bozeman, Montana.
https://www.alienationindustry.com
Eventually, after Michelle and dozens of other parents stepped forward to expose this corruption, Bjelland was effectively run out of town with her head hung in shame in 2022 after the above-mentioned legislative report revealed she was listed among other unscrupulous mental health professionals in Montana conspiring and profiteering at the expense of children. Court records reveal the local Standing Master had full knowledge of Bjelland’s conflict of interest on cases she was court assigned but chose to allow her to make parenting plan suggestions that put children in imminent danger with court-documented abusive parents.
Bjelland and SM Bowen worked together to funnel children into the Family Bridges camps. Michelle and her children are among a long list of victims who have suffered in the 18th District Family Court. These two bad actors also recommended similar extreme parenting plans, like Michelle ReBecca experienced, that deliberately endangered the physical and psychological well-being of children in their care. Essentially, the Gallatin family court intensified the abuse Michelle and her children had suffered for 19 years before Michelle left the marriage.
After successfully passing HB 322 (the Bowen bill), Michelle’s custody case was rescinded from SM Bowen and placed back with the 18th District Court Judge, Rienne McElyea. Unfortunately for Michelle, and every parent who testified in support of HB 322, the 18th District Court judges have continued to retaliate against parents who exposed the fraudulent parental alienation-based scams being run through SM Bowen’s court. Court records and transcripts show Judge McElyea mocking Michelle as she struggled to defend herself and navigate the dark waters of legal protocol without an attorney. The judge refused to address three of Michelle’s points in her Appeal Hearing because Michelle did not know how to use the words “Objection” or “I object” in connection with each of the three points.
Post Separation Abuse
What Michelle and so many other safe parents in similar situations are experiencing is something called Post Separation Abuse. This occurs after the relationship has ended and a domestic abuser can no longer physically access their victim. Abusers often turn their unhealthy attention to the children as a means of abusing their previous partner by proxy and weaponizing the legal system against them.
Tina Swithin, creator of the world’s largest platform exposing Post Separation Abuse strategies, explains:
“Abusers strategically manipulate family, friends, or community into conflict with the safe parent in order to remain in control and gain advantage. This is often referred to as triangulation. The abuser will often impose a false narrative upon their community in order to cause people to doubt their perception and memory of the safe parent. This strategy effectively cuts off support to the safe parent, and simultaneously enables the abuser to continue their abuse of the children in plain sight of the community.”
Ms. Peterson recently testified in front of the Law and Justice Interim Committee, where she described these types of abusers as people who “…spread lies and rumors to friends, family, community, teachers, and church leaders to discredit the safe parent and destroy their reputation and support system.”
Some of the more desperate manipulators, who fear their cover will be exposed due to evidence of their child abuse, will go more public with tactics like creating a YouTube channel to defend their position and demonizing the safe or bonded parent. In Michelle‘s case, her ex-husband, Peter Young, self-published a book and promoted it to local churches, claiming Michelle and her family were part of a demonic cult to further secure his support in the quaint, Christian community of Churchill, Montana.
The specifically targeted manipulation directed towards the audience of the local churches and Manhattan Christian School allowed Michelle’s three children to be ignored by the very community that would have otherwise been able to help protect them.
In 2021, the oldest child in Peter Young’s exclusive custody, Lauren, was hospitalized for 27 days for two life-threatening conditions that medical records show were a direct result of her father’s neglect. The local community was so engrossed in Peter Young’s narrative of him as the victim of Michelle’s “devious influence” that little intervention by the school appears to have occurred. This is despite the school having access to counseling records showing all three children suffered from “depression.” Despite the medically documented abuse, the court still refused to remove the children from Peter Young’s care or even allow Michelle to have unsupervised parenting time with her children for the past 6.5 years.
Michelle is a certified elementary school teacher in the state of Idaho who is trusted by the State, the district, her administration, parents, and the community to teach, supervise, and mentor 28 students every day of the school year. The state of Idaho trusts Michelle to be a positive daily influence on her students, yet the Gallatin family court does not even recognize Michelle’s Constitutional civil rights to parent her own children.
The day Lauren graduated high school, she fled the state of Montana and moved to Idaho to live with Michelle. “I did not want to leave my younger brother and sister still stuck with our father, but I had to get us some help,” cried Lauren as she testified before the Law and Justice Interim Committee at the Capitol in May of 2024. “All he (Peter Young) cares about is his image and making sure he looks like a good father to the teachers and at church. But he was horrible to us at home, where no one else could see! He was so focused on writing his book that he would often not work, and we would not even meet our basic needs. My mom was all the way in Idaho, but she did more than anyone to help us get by. All my father talked about was making sure everyone hated my mom. Him wanting custody of us had nothing to do with loving us. It was about doing everything in his power to hurt my mom for leaving him.”
Unfortunately, Michelle’s situation is not unique. Women who dare leave a psychologically abusive partner are often penalized in family court for having the audacity to seek a life free of abuse for themselves and their children. Some local Legislators who supported HB 322 (the Bowen bill) have reported that Peter Young “harassed” them as he attempted to “shove his book down our throats” and “worked tirelessly to make sure people distrusted his ex-wife.” Despite Mr. Young’s efforts to distract and deceive the local church and school leaders, the facts remain concrete evidence and speak the truth loudly.
Michelle Rebecca’s custody fight for her children’s safety is one of Montana's most heavily vetted custody cases. It has attracted the attention of top legal scholars across the Nation, been reviewed extensively by domestic abuse experts who consulted with State legislators as they prepared their reports for bill drafters, and been rigorously examined by revered psychologists specializing in Behavioral Personality Disorders. All have drawn similar conclusions: Michelle was first victimized by her husband, who demonstrates “excessive narcissistic personality traits.” This abuse escalated when she sought help from the family court system. Montana court professionals lack education in all forms of domestic abuse (emotional, financial, psychological, and physical). Once the unbonded parent’s false narrative was adopted by the family’s community, church, and school, it became detrimental to the children’s safety.
Judge McElyea refused to prioritize the health and safety of the children and continued to retaliate against Michelle after she testified in 2023 in support of the “Bowen bill.” Michelle’s request for professional help resulted in Judge McElyea causing unnecessary delays. Instead of scheduling a new hearing, she forced Michelle to pay outrageous fees for a parenting plan evaluation. McElyea ordered a psychologist, Dr. Smelko, to evaluate the family. Smelko is another mental health professional identified in the above-mentioned legislative report as one of the “professionals” who financially profit off the pseudo-diagnosis of parental alienation and has a lengthy history of protecting domestic abusers.
Due to Judge McElyea’s dereliction of duty in Michelle’s case, one of Lauren’s younger siblings was recently hospitalized for a life-threatening condition after the child made a specific written request to the judge for the opportunity to live with Michelle.
During recovery, Michelle was allowed to sit with her child while Lauren’s younger brother was hospitalized. However, Peter Young’s insidious need for power and control continued under these desperate circumstances. He insisted that a professional supervise Michelle’s visits. The hospital allowed Michelle to procure a Certified Behavioral Health Specialist to monitor Michelle’s visits with her son. Ironically, Peter Young’s compulsion to keep Michelle in an inferior position of power resulted in another positive, neutral, and independent evaluation of Michelle’s interactions with her children. The official reports issued from these hospital visits show Michelle’s interactions with her child as “healthy,” “nurturing,” and “supportive” and demonstrated Michelle to be the only truly safe parent for these children.
When her child was hospitalized, Michelle immediately filed an emergency Exparté motion with Judge McElyea to address the life-threatening situation. Continuing with her retaliation efforts, McElyea claimed she had no room on her calendar to hear this case until 2025 and disregarded the emergency Motion.
There truly does not appear to be an ethical boundary or a violation of the Judicial Canon of Ethics that the 18th District Court judges are not willing to cross. A recent Daily Montanan article showcased another perfect example of Gallatin County Judges conspiring to retaliate and manipulate the legal system to punish anyone willing to expose their corruption. https://dailymontanan.com/2024/09/27/bail-bonding-company-tells-of-retaliation-across-the-state-while-injunction-hearing-stalls/
Eventually, Judge McElyea found room in her schedule on October 25, 2024, for a hearing to address Michelle’s June 2023 Motion to Amend the Parenting Plan and the August 2, 2024 Exparté Motion for Emergency Change of Custody. The Gallatin County Court Watchers have been put on alert regarding this pending hearing. It’s safe to say that all eyes will be on Judge McElyea.
