Mom REALLY hates daughter's husband; conspires with cops!

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, a story that will hopefully make us all feel a bit better about whatever more mild form of family dysfunction we have by comparison :)

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It’s not a very pleasant reality to contemplate, what with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays on the horizon. Take the case of Jade Green and her fractious relationship with her parents, Jack and Angela Howser. "... to say they had a falling out would be an understatement," writes federal appeals court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Because one dispute led to another and then to another.

Eventually, they all ended up in court, where the Howsers were ordered to pay nearly $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages to their daughter. On top of the $1 million judgment, which was affirmed Nov. 7 by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, the state’s attorney and sheriff of Lawrence County, which is located on the Indiana border near Vincennes, settled out of court for $75,000 with Green. She had named them along with her parents in a lawsuit that alleged they all had conspired to violate her civil rights.

Green and her parents, who lived in Lawrenceville, were fighting over who would have custody of Green’s then-4-year-old daughter. Here’s what happened, as related by Barrett in her lengthy decision. The Howsers, who publish a newspaper called The Disclosure, did not believe Green was providing a "suitable home" for their granddaughter. "... over protests, the sheriff let carry her daughter away," Barrett wrote.

That, of course, was all illegal because the authorities ignored Green’s statutory right to "consent" to giving custody of E.W. to the Howsers. After Green tried to regain custody, she was arrested again, this time on a phony theft charge contrived by her parents. Eventually, the parents obtained guardianship of E.W. and orders of protection keeping their daughter away from her daughter. "These orders were the opening salvo in a custody battle that extended for months," Barrett wrote.

Green eventually regained custody of her daughter. That’s when she hired Mattoon lawyer Kent Heller to file a civil rights lawsuit against her parents and the authorities. The Howsers wanted to explain to the jury that heard their case why they felt compelled to take E.W from Green. But the judge didn’t allow any testimony on that because Green’s "bad behavior is not a defense to violating her rights".

But the jury heard plenty of evidence about what the Howsers did to pressure their daughter on the custody question. The Howsers’ conduct, the court said, was "reprehensible". "Their conspiracy with law enforcement officers to forcibly take E.W. was intentional, manipulative and deceitful," Barrett wrote. When it comes to child custody disputes, people do crazy things.

Love, after all, is blind.