My name is Megan Mason. I'm a mother of two boys, living in the suburbs of Chicago. Six months ago a judge, whom I had reported to federal law enforcement agencies for multiple acts of corruption, took my boys away. There was no basis or evidence of parental unfitness.This judge, Robert Johnson, has even gone so far as to issue a restraining order preventing me from so much as sending my children a post card. I have been my children's primary caregiver from the time of their birth. There has never been a DCFS, doctor, therapist or police report of abuse or neglect against me. I've never abused my children and I never would.
It's outlandish to suggest that multiple court appointees have engaged in acts of corruption at the behest of my ex husband, a known financial criminal. It's outlandish but it's true. Please watch and share the below videos which describe and provide documentation showing really obvious, brazen acts of corruption in The Domestic Relations Division of The Circuit Court of Cook County.
It's outlandish to suggest that multiple court appointees have engaged in acts of corruption at the behest of my ex husband, a known financial criminal. It's outlandish but it's true. Please watch and share the below videos which describe and provide documentation showing really obvious, brazen acts of corruption in The Domestic Relations Division of The Circuit Court of Cook County.
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Court Appointee John Palen solicited a bribe in an email
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A lawyer named Brad Trowbridge threw my case in order to become a judge
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Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez allowed my identity to be stolen
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I love my boys and I'm a good mom. I don't deserve this. They don't deserve this. If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone, please read and share my story and stand up for mothers and children in Chicago.
You probably assume I'm hiding something. I'm not. But I don't blame you for assuming I'm hiding something because I would have assumed the same thing before I first went to court. Before I entered the Domestic Relations Division of The Circuit Court of Cook County in 2016, I thought judges were generally good people. I thought they were fair. And I thought, in the rare circumstances there is a bad judge, they would be reigned in by other judges. In other words I believed in the system. Even in Chicago.
I now realize that this blind faith in the system is part of what empowers corruption and abuse in family court. The judge who did this, Robert W. Johnson, did it because he assumes people like you will assume that people like me must have done something to deserve this. I didn't. My boys certainly didn't do anything to deserve losing the mother they love dearly. And I've come to learn that what's happening to me isn't new and isn't even the worst of what's happening to vulnerable Chicago mothers and children in this court. I'm a white woman with strong social ties, a stable career, and a masters degree in education. I've taught child development at the graduate level, worked as a teacher for almost a decade and have published articles on child development in national publications. I have no history of incarceration, mental illness, addiction or violence. I had been divorced for five years, with a court approved parenting plan that gave me 50% custody when my children were taken away. If this can happen to me, it can literally happen to anyone.
The term "systemic abuse" is thrown around quit often these days, sometimes just to describe a vague sense of unease about an organization without any clear issues. But when it comes to systemic corruption in The Domestic Relations Division in Chicago, there is a very real, coordinated mechanism of patronage and state funded abuse - The Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program. Illinois law technically describes a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) as a person appointed by the court to write a report about parents during any proceeding before the court. But in practice, a GAL is one of the choicest court appointments in The Circuit Court of Cook County, coming with handsome financial rewards and tremendous political power. When a GAL is appointed in Chicago, he or she decides all issues before the court, acting as sort of an outsourced judge.
The selection of who gets to be a GAL or other court appointee is, like everything in Chicago courts, highly political. Attorneys and judges alike pay fealty to the GALs in hopes of receiving future lucrative appointments or nominations of their own. This is particularly true for associate judges, like Judge Robert W. Johnson in my case, who do not have the benefit of the permanent jobs and lucrative pensions given to circuit court judges. Associate judges serve at the discretion of other judges for defined periods, reapplying when their time is up. The GAL can determine if Judge Johnson is reappointed as an associate judge, nominated to be a Circuit Court Judge, or later approved as a GAL. Judge Johnson, by his own statements, always does what the GAL tells him to do.
My children lost their mother solely based on the recommendation of a GAL named Michael Bender. Michael Bender is a former judge and the son of a former powerful judge. He was appointed in my case three years ago without basis - I was already divorced at the time of his appointment and had entered into a parenting plan - and he has indicated that he is never leaving my "case". Like Robert Johnson, I know Michael Bender has been a target of ongoing federal investigations into documented, extensive corruption for at least a year, but I have no way of knowing when or if they will ever be indicted. Before I got to know Chicago courts, I would have thought that it was enough that I have presented voluminous evidence demonstrating crime to Chief Judge Timothy Evans to have my judge and GAL removed. I now understand that unless a judge or appointee in Chicago is literally taken out in handcuffs, he is not going anywhere.
This was certainly true for Bender's predecessor, mentor and former law partner, David Pasulka, who was a GAL and also headed the powerful committee that selects other GALs for decades. Pasulka endorsed and selected my GAL, Michael Bender. For decades Pasulka used his power as a GAL to rape women by threatening to take their children away if they refused him. In 2017 a brave mother said no. She reported him to the police. He took her children away. But the important part of the Pasulka story is not that a bad man did a bad thing. That happens all the time. What matters to all parents and children in Chicago is that the weapon Pasulka used to rape women was his power to unilaterally destroy parental rights. The Illinois Bar and then Presiding Judge of The Domestic Relations Division, Grace Dickler, knew about this brave mother's allegations of abuse at least as early as 2017 but it wasn't until three years later, after Pasulka was arrested, that he finally lost his job as a GAL.
Pasulka should not have sexually assaulted women and he'll go to jail for that. But he also shouldn't have been able to use the court as a weapon in his crimes. No man or woman should be able to set aside the laws of this nation and this state to single-handedly decide that a child must be separated from a parent for his own selfish interests, whether it is for sex, money or simply because of hubris. But that corrupt power still exists and it was used to take my children away in direct retaliation for my testimony as a federal witness against the GAL Michael Bender and Judge Robert Johnson. I am certain that mothers with less resources, with limited English, with histories of addiction or mental illness (who may nevertheless be excellent parents) are and will suffer even worse than I have unless this corrupt system is stopped.
I created this site to raise awareness of the abuse and corruption in Chicago family court and to gather voices to speak up to Chief Judge Timothy Evans and The Executive Committee of The Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Specifically I'm asking The Circuit Court of Cook County to hire a third party investigator to look into the history of abuse in The Guardian Ad Litem Program and to demand that all currently serving GALs reapply for their positions with a neutral third party evaluator. Please sign my petition at Change.org and share my story. Please stand up for vulnerable mothers and children in Chicago.
You probably assume I'm hiding something. I'm not. But I don't blame you for assuming I'm hiding something because I would have assumed the same thing before I first went to court. Before I entered the Domestic Relations Division of The Circuit Court of Cook County in 2016, I thought judges were generally good people. I thought they were fair. And I thought, in the rare circumstances there is a bad judge, they would be reigned in by other judges. In other words I believed in the system. Even in Chicago.
I now realize that this blind faith in the system is part of what empowers corruption and abuse in family court. The judge who did this, Robert W. Johnson, did it because he assumes people like you will assume that people like me must have done something to deserve this. I didn't. My boys certainly didn't do anything to deserve losing the mother they love dearly. And I've come to learn that what's happening to me isn't new and isn't even the worst of what's happening to vulnerable Chicago mothers and children in this court. I'm a white woman with strong social ties, a stable career, and a masters degree in education. I've taught child development at the graduate level, worked as a teacher for almost a decade and have published articles on child development in national publications. I have no history of incarceration, mental illness, addiction or violence. I had been divorced for five years, with a court approved parenting plan that gave me 50% custody when my children were taken away. If this can happen to me, it can literally happen to anyone.
The term "systemic abuse" is thrown around quit often these days, sometimes just to describe a vague sense of unease about an organization without any clear issues. But when it comes to systemic corruption in The Domestic Relations Division in Chicago, there is a very real, coordinated mechanism of patronage and state funded abuse - The Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program. Illinois law technically describes a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) as a person appointed by the court to write a report about parents during any proceeding before the court. But in practice, a GAL is one of the choicest court appointments in The Circuit Court of Cook County, coming with handsome financial rewards and tremendous political power. When a GAL is appointed in Chicago, he or she decides all issues before the court, acting as sort of an outsourced judge.
The selection of who gets to be a GAL or other court appointee is, like everything in Chicago courts, highly political. Attorneys and judges alike pay fealty to the GALs in hopes of receiving future lucrative appointments or nominations of their own. This is particularly true for associate judges, like Judge Robert W. Johnson in my case, who do not have the benefit of the permanent jobs and lucrative pensions given to circuit court judges. Associate judges serve at the discretion of other judges for defined periods, reapplying when their time is up. The GAL can determine if Judge Johnson is reappointed as an associate judge, nominated to be a Circuit Court Judge, or later approved as a GAL. Judge Johnson, by his own statements, always does what the GAL tells him to do.
My children lost their mother solely based on the recommendation of a GAL named Michael Bender. Michael Bender is a former judge and the son of a former powerful judge. He was appointed in my case three years ago without basis - I was already divorced at the time of his appointment and had entered into a parenting plan - and he has indicated that he is never leaving my "case". Like Robert Johnson, I know Michael Bender has been a target of ongoing federal investigations into documented, extensive corruption for at least a year, but I have no way of knowing when or if they will ever be indicted. Before I got to know Chicago courts, I would have thought that it was enough that I have presented voluminous evidence demonstrating crime to Chief Judge Timothy Evans to have my judge and GAL removed. I now understand that unless a judge or appointee in Chicago is literally taken out in handcuffs, he is not going anywhere.
This was certainly true for Bender's predecessor, mentor and former law partner, David Pasulka, who was a GAL and also headed the powerful committee that selects other GALs for decades. Pasulka endorsed and selected my GAL, Michael Bender. For decades Pasulka used his power as a GAL to rape women by threatening to take their children away if they refused him. In 2017 a brave mother said no. She reported him to the police. He took her children away. But the important part of the Pasulka story is not that a bad man did a bad thing. That happens all the time. What matters to all parents and children in Chicago is that the weapon Pasulka used to rape women was his power to unilaterally destroy parental rights. The Illinois Bar and then Presiding Judge of The Domestic Relations Division, Grace Dickler, knew about this brave mother's allegations of abuse at least as early as 2017 but it wasn't until three years later, after Pasulka was arrested, that he finally lost his job as a GAL.
Pasulka should not have sexually assaulted women and he'll go to jail for that. But he also shouldn't have been able to use the court as a weapon in his crimes. No man or woman should be able to set aside the laws of this nation and this state to single-handedly decide that a child must be separated from a parent for his own selfish interests, whether it is for sex, money or simply because of hubris. But that corrupt power still exists and it was used to take my children away in direct retaliation for my testimony as a federal witness against the GAL Michael Bender and Judge Robert Johnson. I am certain that mothers with less resources, with limited English, with histories of addiction or mental illness (who may nevertheless be excellent parents) are and will suffer even worse than I have unless this corrupt system is stopped.
I created this site to raise awareness of the abuse and corruption in Chicago family court and to gather voices to speak up to Chief Judge Timothy Evans and The Executive Committee of The Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Specifically I'm asking The Circuit Court of Cook County to hire a third party investigator to look into the history of abuse in The Guardian Ad Litem Program and to demand that all currently serving GALs reapply for their positions with a neutral third party evaluator. Please sign my petition at Change.org and share my story. Please stand up for vulnerable mothers and children in Chicago.
