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Twins' Mom Loses Again

Bridget Marks

Bridget Marks, the mom who lost her 4-year-old twins to their casino executive father, begged a judge yesterday to stop making her pay thousands of dollars to visit her daughters.

But Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg said no.

"It's not time yet," the judge said, ruling that paid social workers, at $25 an hour around the clock, must continue.

"We are looking out for the best interests of the children," Goldberg said.

The social workers are there to assure Marks never bad-mouths John Aylsworth, president and chief operating officer of President Casinos Inc., based in St. Louis.

Aylsworth fathered the identical twin girls, Amber and Scarlet, while he was having an affair with Marks.

Goldberg awarded Aylsworth custody in May, ruling that because Marks was alienating the twins against their father, they would be better off living with him.

Since then, Marks has spent $9,000 for phone calls and three visits totaling 12 days with her daughters, whom she reared alone from birth at her upper East Side apartment.

"She doesn't have the resources to pay for ongoing supervision," Michael Joseph, her attorney, protested. The children are in therapy and "we believe it is not necessary," he said.

Aylsworth, who appeared in court with his wife yesterday, objected. His attorney, Patricia Grant, said that if money is a problem, Marks could visit her girls free at one of the city welfare agencies set up to supervise visitation.

Molly Murphy of Lawyers for Children, the public-interest law firm appointed to represent the 4-year-olds, also objected. "Now is not the time," Murphy said. "It's very early."

Lawyers for Children has argued that supervision is in the best interests of Amber and Scarlet.

Marks "has been very cooperative," said Richard Spitzer, the director of Comprehensive Family Services, the firm supplying live-in social workers to accompany the twins. "There is room for improvement," he added.

Spitzer disclosed that the twins have a problem with "hysterical screaming" during "transitions" - when the time comes to return to their father.

In fact, the twins are repeatedly refusing to leave their mom. Scarlet, for example, once forced Spitzer physically to carry her, crying and screaming down Third Ave., away from the building that was once home.

The twins also have refused to answer questions from a new psychiatrist appointed by the court to help them.

"I am saying exactly what the psychiatrist told me to say," Marks said yesterday. "I say I love you and I'll miss you and tell them when I'll see them again."

"The kids," she said outside court, "just plain don't want to go back there."

 

Their Sunday Best
Mom & Twins Reunite for Mass, Joined by a Big-bucks Chaperon

By Nicole Bode New York Daily News July 19, 2004

Bridget Marks is flanked by her twin 4-year-old daughters, Scarlet (l.) and Amber, after they all attended Sunday Mass. Any Sunday she can take her twin daughters to Mass is precious to Bridget Marks. The embattled Manhattan mom who has been fighting for custody of 4-year-old Scarlet and Amber got a now-rare opportunity to foster her daughters' faith yesterday morning at St. John the Martyr on the upper East Side. Marks paid little mind to the press throng, there to cover the ouster of her longtime priest - and personal favorite - Msgr. John Woolsey. Instead, she focused on the joy of having her preschoolers snuggled close on either side of her in the pew, reading with her from the hymnbook and beaming as she caressed their hair. "I am very happy to be with them, no matter what the circumstances," Marks, 38, later told the Daily News, her voice choked with emotion. "[But] It's very, very important for any people in crisis to have their faith." Marks said she's terrified the girls have been blocked from their faith since she lost custody of them to their casino tycoon dad, John Aylsworth, on June 1. The one-time Playboy model also lives under constant fear the courts could strip away her tenuous visitation rights - which could be cut off if she lets slip a single nasty word about Aylsworth, or discloses the girls' whereabouts to the media. So it was with trepidation that Marks told The News she still has no idea how often her daughters will be able to accompany her to Mass in the future. She said she could not disclose what the rest of the girls' summer will hold - whether they will go to California with their father or stay with her. But after spending the hour-long Mass doting on her daughters, who clambered onto her lap and showered her with hugs and kisses as a court-mandated $1,000-per-day social worker looked on, Marks said she could not bear the thought of being without them. "They don't even like me to leave the apartment," Marks wept. "It's just a sad thing." Marks had reared the twins - the result of an affair with the married Aylsworth - since birth. But the 54-year-old millionaire was awarded custody after a judge found Marks had bad-mouthed him to the girls. For now, Marks is hoping the judge will allow her more time with her daughters, so that she can bring them to church for First Communion classes. Marks and the girls lit a trio of red prayer candles at Mass' end. "Just to bring us back together permanently, it's their greatest wish," Marks said. (Msgr. John Woolsey, is under investigation for $1million in missing church funds, of St. John the Martyr. Woolsey, stepped down last week after an audit by the Archdiocese of New York found about $1 million in church funds went missing during his eight years at St. John's. Rev. Joseph Baker was conducting the services.)

Twins' Trip Hinges On Shrink Rap

By Barbara Ross and Owne Moritz
New York Daily News
July 10, 2004

It's going to be a long, lonely summer for Bridget Marks, whose twin daughters will go back to California with their father next week, under a Family Court judge's ruling yesterday.

Marks' attorneys argued the 4-year-old girls should remain in Manhattan, to permit frequent visits with their mother, who raised them from birth.

But Judge Arlene Goldberg said the girls could go back to the West Coast with their father, wealthy casino tycoon John Aylsworth.

Goldberg gave a little something to both sides in the custody battle, however, stipulating the twins could not stay away from Manhattan and their mother as "long as Mr. Aylsworth wants."

And Goldberg hinted that the restrictions on Marks' visits with her kids - now supervised 24 hours a day by social workers - could end during the next six months.

Marks has to pay the social workers $5,000 a week.

The continuing custody battle pits Marks, 38, a former Playboy magazine model, against Aylsworth, 54, a married grandfather with whom she had an affair.

Goldberg awarded custody of the girls, Amber and Scarlet, to Aylsworth on June 1. Goldberg and several court-appointed experts said Marks had alienated the girls against Aylsworth and falsely accused him of sexually molesting them.

Marks plans to appeal Goldberg's custody decision in the Appellate Division of Manhattan Supreme Court.

She lost a round in that battle yesterday. Appellate Justice John Burke denied her request for an emergency stay of Goldberg's custody ruling pending the appeal.
 

Lawyers for John Aylsworth and his twin love children asked a judge to throw the press out of court yesterday, saying the media attention to his custody battle was frightening the 4-year-olds.

Then, Aylsworth, connected by phone to a court loudspeaker, began to cry.

He recalled the scene June 1 when news cameras surrounded the girls on a Manhattan streetcorner as he took them from their sobbing mother, his ex-mistress.

"The girls bring up all the time that they were scared," the riverboat casino exec said, his voice cracking. "They were nervous. Why were all these people in their face?"

"It's just very sad to see all the pain they have from that experience," he said, crying.

Both Aylsworth's attorney and Lawyers for Children Inc., a taxpayer-financed agency appointed to represent the twins, urged Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg to eject reporters from the courtroom.

It would be "in the best interests of the children," they said.

Goldberg declined, but invited the lawyers to file written requests to be argued later with news media attorneys.

Yesterday's hearing then degenerated into an argument over supervised visitation for the twins' mom, Bridget Marks, 38, the upper East Side socialite who gave birth to the girls during an affair with the married Aylsworth.

In May, Goldberg awarded custody of the girls to Aylsworth, 54, and his wife on the grounds that Marks had harmed the children's relationship with their father and made false accusations that he sexually abused them.

The identical twins, Amber and Scarlet, are with their father in California on a four-week vacation. They return for a one-week visit with mom in early July.

Both Aylsworth's lawyer and Lawyers for Children said Marks should have 24-hour supervision if the judge allows the girls to sleep at their mom's home, where Marks reared them alone from birth.
 

A federal judge rejected her request for the girls to be temporarily returned to her, pending her appeal of a Family Court decision giving their father full custody.

So the 4-year-old twins, Amber and Scarlet, will stay with their father, John Aylsworth, who lives in an estate in Malibu, Calif. Marks lives on the upper East Side.

"This court is not a Family Court," said Manhattan Federal Court Judge George Daniels, after hearing extensive arguments from both sides.

Marks was grim but composed, as Daniels told her to fight it out in the appellate division of state court. "That is the appropriate place," he said.

But he added that Marks is entitled to more explanation of the Family Court ruling and he invited her to come back to federal court if "there is an unreasonable delay" in getting that information. Marks had no comment when she left the courtroom to face a phalanx of reporters.

Her attorney, Thomas Shanahan, said, "This is not going away, not by a long shot." Appeals will continue, Shanahan promised, with the next stop, at the state's appeals court.

Aylsworth, a 54-year-old casino president, fathered the twins during an extramarital affair with Marks, 38, a former Playboy model and actress.

(To read the complaint in the federal case go to
http://www.shanahanlaw.com/marks/Marks.VerifiedComplaint.pdf  

Diane Sawyer interview with Bridget Marks and attorney Thomas Shanahan
http://www.shanahanlaw.com/marks/shanahan.mov )

Court Blow to 'Molest' Accuser

By Heidi Singer
New York Post
June 8, 2004

A federal judge yesterday refused to step into the bitter custody battle between a former Playboy model and the casino mogul ex-lover she wrongly tried to paint as a child molester.

Lawyers for Bridget Marks, the mother of the 4-year-old twin girls, argued she lost custody of the girls for no good reason last month because the judge relied on court-appointed experts —— and the current system of court-appointed experts is corrupt, with assignments handed out to the politically connected, not the most qualified.

But federal Judge George Daniels refused to accept the case, saying the appeals court now handling it is capable of addressing her concerns, as long as the process is handled in a timely manner.

Last week, the children were taken from their mother by court order. Judge Arlene Goldberg gave custody to casino mogul John Aylsworth, 54, and longtime wife Karen, because she found Marks was poisoning the girls' relationship with their father by coaching them to say he had molested them.

Marks can't appeal the Family Court decision until July 5.

A disappointed Marks left federal court yesterday stone-faced and silent.

An aching heart and a photo of her twins are constant companions of Bridget Marks.

Bridget Marks last saw her daughters five days ago, when their wealthy father, Marks' ex-lover, took custody under a Manhattan Family Court parental alienation order.

She's talked with them on the phone, but only by paying a $75-per-hour court-appointed social worker to monitor her every word. If Marks cries or says anything to trigger her children's emotions over losing her, the call will be cut off, by order of Manhattan Judge Arlene Goldberg.

The Daily News invited Marks, 38, to write an open letter to her 4-year-old twin girls, Amber and Scarlet - and she did. "Thank you, thank you so much," she said, as she began to cry. "Thank God for the First Amendment."

"Remember," she writes to her daughters, "don't go to the swimming pool alone," which suggests they may be at the Malibu, Calif., estate of their father, casino executive John Aylsworth, 54, and his wife of 34 years, Karen, 53. Marks won't say, in fact, where they are.

"They're frightened and they miss me," Marks lamented Friday, after her second phone call to Amber and Scarlet. "I can hear it in their voices."

The letter

Dear Amberinna and Scarlettina,

Mommy loves you so much and misses you. You are my heartbeats you know. I am like half a pair of scissors since they cut me out of your lives.

You are my warrior princesses and you must be strong and know that God is watching over you while we are apart. Remember to say your prayers and don't be afraid because when I can't be with you, God is there to protect you.

Mommy is making sure Kiki and Gem are getting fed the little treats you always gave them. Fay Fay is keeping Mommy company and allyour friends, especially Sophia, say "hi" and hope you'll be back soon.

Grandma says you'll be back in time to pick the tomatoes you planted last weekend in her garden.

Remember, don't go to the swimming pool alone and always wear water wings and eat your vegetables.

Hoping to hold you both in my arms again soonest!

Love, kisses and hugs,

Meema
 

John Aylsworth John Aylsworth, the fat-cat father who took his love twins from their mother this week, was the architect of an inflated land deal that funneled $40.5 million to the chairman of his casino business, according to a new federal court report. The big losers were stockholders and bondholders with a stake in Aylsworth's publicly traded company, St. Louis-based President Casinos Inc. The big winner was Aylsworth's boss, the casino company's chairman and its biggest stockholder, John Connelly. Connelly is known in New York City for operating a fleet of dinner-cruise ships during the 1980s. He later became an investor in the parent company of the Circle Line. In 2002, President Casinos, which runs a riverboat gambling vessel in St. Louis, filed for protection from creditors in federal bankruptcy court in Missouri. The judge in the case appointed an examiner to investigate Connelly and Aylsworth. "There is evidence to support claims ... for breach of fiduciary duty against John Connelly, John Aylsworth" and others, the examiner, David Sosne, said in his report. That evidence comes from a 1997 real estate deal arranged by Aylsworth, the chief operating officer of President. At the time, Connelly personally needed cash, the examiner found. Aylsworth, paid more than $680,000 a year as Connelly's employee, arranged at his boss' request for President Casinos to buy Connelly's aging, money-losing Broadwater Resort in Biloxi, Miss. Connelly got $40.5 million for the real estate - $30.5 million in cash and a $10 million stake in an entity set up to run it. Aylsworth, Connelly's grandson, and a past Circle Line associate - all appointed company directors by Connelly - voted to okay the deal. Aylsworth arranged bond financing for the purchase from Lehman Brothers with what amounted to annual interest costs of 17%. Sosne labeled Aylsworth's actions a "breach of the duty of care." He called Connelly's actions "self-dealing" and suggested further investigation would likely prove the deal was worth far less than $40.5 million. Legal time limits on lawsuits probably make it impossible for creditors to sue Aylsworth or Connelly for damages, the examiner said. But a 1998 stockholder lawsuit against Aylsworth and Connelly in Delaware could proceed when the Missouri bankruptcy case finishes. "We're pleased that the examiner has finished his work," President Casino spokesman Jon Sloane said in a statement this week. "Based on the report and all the circumstances surrounding it, we believe that no further action will be taken." On Tuesday, Aylsworth took custody of 4-year-old girls he fathered in an extramarital affair. A Manhattan Family Court judge ruled the girls would be better off with Aylsworth and his wife than with their mom, Bridget Marks, an actress, novelist and former Playboy model.   Bogus Sex Rap Turned Tug-of-love into Twins Nightmare By Brad Hamilton New York Post June 6, 2004 It's the custody battle from hell - and it all began with a shocking allegation of sex abuse on Easter Sunday last year. The epic battle pitting ex-Playboy model Bridget Marks against her former flame, philandering casino mogul John Aylsworth, has left their 4-year-old twins deeply scarred, a Post review of more than 1,000 pages of court documents shows. "They are very anxious about their parent's conflict and need therapy ... ASAP," urged the kids' former psychiatrist, Celia Blumenthal, in one court document. Marks, 38, lost custody surrendered the kids in a public hand-off this past week. The allegation at the heart of the fight started after blond twins Amber and Scarlett spent Easter last year with their father in New York. They'd gone with him to a small luxury apartment on West 73rd Street he'd bought for his grown daughter Colleen, one of four adult children Aylsworth and his wife Karen had during their 34 years of marriage. But when the girls returned to their home on East 72nd Street, Amber told their longtime babysitter, Pam Soleiman, that her Daddy had "touched her pee-pee" when he took the tot to the bathroom, according to court records Marks filed. Marks relayed the charge to city's Administration for Children's Services, and Ehrenfreund was removed as supervisor. Over the next several months, the charge would be investigated by cops, ACS and several experts, including a lead shrink appointed by the court whose methods and ethics have been questioned in this and other cases. The psychiatrist, Stephen Billick and three others would testify that Marks, 38, had coached the kids, prompting Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg to award custody last month to Aylsworth, 54. The decision baffled court observers and infuriated Marks. Case documents raise troubling questions about the behavior of Marks, whose allegations at first appeared credible, but also cast doubt about how well the courts handle such charges. It's a concern echoed last week by the state's top judge, Judith Kaye, who announced the creation of a commission to study the role of experts in custody fights following years of criticism that some experts were biased or incompetent. The twins' situation is a case in point. At the very time that the criminal case was still being investigated by veteran special-victims Detective Julia Collins, a second allegation suddenly cropped up. The new charge followed another supervised visit Aylsworth had with the kids, this time in Central Park last July 12, just three months after the Easter incident. Marks, worried that new supervisor Jule Roberts might not keep proper tabs on the girls, had secretly hired a retired city cop, Luther Barnes, to follow and watch. Her worst fears were realized when Barnes reported back, showing video of Roberts sitting on a rock making cell phone calls while Aylsworth, his wife and the twins disappeared for an hour. Worse, the babysitter again claimed Amber complained that she'd been touched by Aylsworth when he led her to a bathroom in the park. A few days later, Marks took Amber to Cornell Medical Center, where the girl was diagnosed as having vaginitis, an irritation of the genitals. Blumenthal urged that Goldberg allow only the most restricted contact between the girls and their father, who had sent each toddler an odd gift: a dozen roses for Valentine's Day. It seemed the allegations were plausible. But the case began to unravel, partly because of what one key investigator called Marks' "arrogant" behavior toward those looking into the charges. "She's alienated herself against everybody in ACS," said the investigator, who spent weeks interviewing the parents, family, friends and shrinks, along with the twins themselves - and asked not to be named in this story. The investigator said the way the kids told how they were allegedly abused - quickly and urgently in the first moments of an interview - indicated they'd been coached. "You walk into the room and they blurt it out," she said. "These kids are really smart, and they know why they're there. They just want to get it over with." In another incident, the twins appeared to enjoy a pleasant day with Aylsworth, only to scream, "You're horrible, Daddy!" as he drove up to return them home, she said. "It seemed like they were saying, 'Oh, s--, We're going back to Mommy," she said. Vaginitis, she added, "just means it itches. It can happen if a little soap gets left on." A report by the court-appointed law guardian, Molly Murphy, cites numerous interviews with the kids in which Marks or Soleiman apparently put words into their mouths. And it slams Marks for making "evasive, inconsistent" statements. Even so, the investigator couldn't prove the kids were coached. And the system continued to fail. Records show that the cop in the case, Det. Collins, asked that the twins be evaluated by a Columbia University shrink she hailed as the best abuse expert in the city, to determine once and for all what happened. But the child's court-appointed law guardian, Molly Murphy, refused. Meanwhile, Billick's methods were maddening Marks. Billick, gay and childless, has a history of favoring fathers, her attorney, Thomas Shanahan alleges. In this case, records show, the shrink expanded his role from evaluating visitation to looking at custody - without the judge telling him to do so, as is required Billick never interviewed the kids' teachers, nannies or parents of kids they played with, and lost tapes of key interviews he conducted. Marks claims he was biased due to a shocking murder-suicide: His brother, William Billick, lawyer for the Motion Pictures Association of America, killed himself and his 18-month-old twins at his Beverly Hills home in 1997 after his wife threatened to leave and take the kids. "He never should have been on this case," said Shanahan. Billick has run afoul of other litigants, including one Manhattan mother, Devorah Shabtai, who lost custody of her 4-year-old daughter last year based on Billick's testimony that she was paranoid and allowed the girl to chase a rat in the park. The investigator in the Marks case claims Billick "formed an opinion right away" about the sex charges, before doing any evaluations. Billick didn't return calls seeking comment. He wasn't the only one with biases, Marks alleges. Two social workers who later claimed the kids were never abused flew to California last year, staying with Aylsworth and his family at his beachside mansion in Malibu. Aylsworth had a networth of more than $6 million , as of 1999, and owns three homes, including one in St. Louis, where his riverboat gambling operation filed for bankruptcy.

Bridget Marks sits in her daughters' empty bedroom.

Bridget Marks can hardly stop crying in the aching loneliness of her upper East Side apartment.

Her 4-year-old twin daughters, Amber and Scarlett, are gone with their toys and clothes.

Their beds were empty again yesterday, the second night they were gone. Marks stared at their photos and cried again when she looked at the videotape of their recent kindergarten graduation.

But she cannot cry when she gets to talk on the phone with them during conference calls supervised and monitored by a social worker who will be paid $150 an hour to listen in.

"If I do, they'll terminate the call," said Marks, referring to Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg's instructions on how she must behave during any supervised contact with her children.

Goldberg made that decision yesterday, according to Marks, who added, "If I show any emotion, a supervisor will hang up; if I do anything that a supervisor thinks will upset the children, that's it; if the girls ask if they can come home, I'm not allowed to speak about it."

Marks did not get to talk to them yesterday.

"I don't know where they are, if they're scared, if they're hungry, if they're lonely," said Marks. No schedule for phone calls or visitation has been arranged or set by the judge.

"It's hard for me to be in the apartment without their laughter, without their chatter," she said. "I didn't sleep at all Tuesday night."

Marks, 38, a former Playboy model and actress, lost custody of her daughters to her one-time lover, John Aylsworth, a wealthy 54-year-old casino president. He has four children with Karen Aylsworth, his wife of 34 years, and grandchildren as well.

The twins were born out of Aylsworth's extramarital affair with Marks.

But Goldberg awarded Aylsworth and his wife custody on the grounds that Marks alienated the girls against their natural father and made false accusations that he sexually abused them. Aylsworth's wife testified in court that she will gladly rear her husband's love children.

Goldberg declined comment on the case yesterday.

But one top legal expert familiar with the case said the judge felt she had little choice.

"It was difficult, but the mother was not fostering a healthy relationship with [Aylsworth]," said the expert who declined to be named.

David Bookstaver, spokesman for the Office of Court Administration said, "Judges are bound by appellate court rulings and the appellate courts have made it very clear, in this state, that if there's a finding of parental alienation, the remedy is removal of the children."

Marks has vowed to fight on.

On Monday, she will ask a federal court judge to stay Goldberg's decision pending a hearing on various constitutional and civil rights issues.

"Because Judge Goldberg's decision is not final, we can't appeal it," said Mark's attorney Tom Shanahan.

"It violates due process to say I'm taking your children away but you can't appeal it," he said.

In order to keep custody, Aylsworth, who lives in Malibu, Calif., and works in St. Louis, must live in New York with his family. As far as Marks knows, he has not bought a home here.

"I wish I knew where Amber and Scarlett are," Marks said last night. "I hope they're all right."

                 Jurist Singularly Unsensational till Now

By Barbara Ross and William Sherman
New York Daily News
June 3, 2004

Until recently, Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg had a reputation for being a diligent jurist who plays it strictly by the book, carefully following the rule of law.

But that was before she stripped Bridget Marks of custody of her twins, a controversial ruling that has triggered outrage and national debate.

"It wasn't easy for the judge to make this decision, but believe me, she agonized over it," said an associate, who declined to be identified. "She looked at all the evidence and previous rulings and appellate court decisions."

Colleagues say that's typical of Goldberg, mostly known in legal circles for having a sharp legal mind and for being careful.

In her 13 years on the bench, the first 111/2 years in Criminal Court before being switched to Family Court, there is no record of her rulings being reversed on appeal.

The 54-year-old judge, who is single and lives on the upper East Side, worked her way up through the legal system after graduating from Hunter College and the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

From 1976 to 1986, she worked as a Legal Aid Society defense lawyer, and then clerked for Acting Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman.

In 1991, then-Mayor David Dinkins appointed the fellow Democrat to the bench at Manhattan Criminal Court. There she handled bail applications, pretrial defense and prosecution motions and was known as a workaholic, able to move cases along swiftly, pressing lawyers to meet deadlines.

Except for a stint in a special narcotics part, she did not preside over trials.

But many big names appeared before her. She set bail for Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski; issued a warrant for the arrest of Christopher Culkin, Macaulay Culkin's father, and dismissed a claim by three teenagers that former Nets basketball star Derrick Coleman assaulted them at a bar.

Monitors for Fund for Modern Courts, which reviews judges' conduct, praised her as patient, fair, thorough and firm.

In a mostly positive review, some monitors did note that her courtroom was "not very orderly."

In December 2002, she was transferred to Family Court to help handle that court's increasing caseload.
 

Double Dispair
Heartbroken Mom Screams 'I Love You' and Runs After
Car as Fat-cat Father Takes Custody of 4-Year-Old Twins

By: Bob Port
New York Daily News
June 2, 2004

Bridget Marks girds for parting from Amber and Scarlet.

One of the twins screams for her mom as she’s put into dad’s car.

President Casino honcho John Aylsworth is the twins' biological father.

Marks spews at her former lover, then follows car carrying girls away.

Little twin girls in their Sunday best, clutching their mother's hands as tears filled their eyes, were handed over into the custody of their father yesterday in a scene marked by anger and shouting.

It was gut-wrenching for anyone who watched.

Their mother, Bridget Marks, crying, chased after the father's car as it slowly pulled into traffic. "I love you, I love you," she called to her daughters, who watched helplessly from the car.

"There's the coward," Marks' mother shouted as casino bigwig John Aylsworth tried to go unnoticed. "You evil man," she screamed at the twins' father.

"You are evil!" she yelled. "How could you do this?"

A social worker pulled and twisted one child's arm. Then, when Aylsworth neglected to buckle up the girls after the child safety seats in his car were too small, Marks screamed at him, "I'll sue you!"

The spectacle, at midday on the upper East Side, brought grimaces of shock and sadness to the faces of passersby.

Marks, 38, sobbed uncontrollably as it ended. She raced into her apartment building on Third Ave. as a phalanx of news crews pursued.

So went the transfer of custody of two 4-year-old twin girls from Marks, a former B-movie actress and now a romance novelist, to Aylsworth, 54, the chief operating officer of President Casino Inc.

Aylsworth stood stoically, ignoring all questions. His wife, Karen, also refused to speak.

For the twins, Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth, it was nightmarish day. They begged and pleaded to stay with their mother.

Marks, outraged by New York's system of custody law, has gone public in her battle with Aylsworth. "This is outrageous," she said yesterday. "I can't believe this is happening."

Last month, Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg ordered Marks to hand over her daughters to Aylsworth. The judge, relying on New York's history of parental alienation case law, ruled that Marks despises Aylsworth so much she cannot be trusted to foster a father-daughter relationship.

New York law requires the twins, despite the temporary trauma they will endure, to be placed with their father, the judge ruled.

The twins were born to Marks after she began an affair with the married Aylsworth in 1998. When Marks became pregnant, Aylsworth and his wife pressured her to have an abortion. She refused, rearing the girls on her own.

Marks ended the relationship in late 2002 and Aylsworth filed for visitation rights. When she accused him of sexually molesting their daughters, he upped his claim to custody and won when the judge concluded that Marks had coached the kids to implicate their father.

The case has tapped a well of dissatisfaction with divorce and custody courts that runs deep in New York City.

The Daily News reported on Marks' case in late March. It has since gained national attention; Marks appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and Court TV yesterday.

Lawyers for Marks were unsuccessful in getting an emergency restraining order. Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood, on duty to hear emergency requests, scheduled a hearing for Monday before Federal Judge George Daniels.

Tom Shanahan, Marks' attorney, said Wood ruled that immediate action was not necessary. "A one-week vacation for the girls cannot constitute irreparable harm," he said.

"The upside is there will be a hearing in a week," Shanahan said. "My client will be here, her supporters will be here. The child psychiatrist will be here. We can make our argument then."

Marks is suing Aylsworth, the State of New York, its court system and Judge Goldberg in federal court. She also sued Lawyers for Children Inc., a child advocacy law firm appointed to represent her twins, and Dr. Stephen Billick, a court-appointed psychiatrist who recommended she lose custody.

The suit claims violations of civil rights, due process and equal protection. It seeks the appointment of a special master to investigate the conduct of the judge and the other defendants.

A sworn statement from Celia Blumental, a therapist for the two girls for four months in 2003, contends that irreparable harm will occur to the twins if Goldberg's order is not stopped.

"I don't understand the mentality of people that would do something like this to children," Marks said last night.

"I don't even know where the kids are," she said. "This is a mother's worst nightmare."

With Robert Gearty

3 Broken Hearts
Cruel Court Ruling Rips Twins From Mom Today

Bridget Marks holds her teary twins, Amber (l.) and Scarlet, who spent yesterday with their mom before going to live with biological dad today, as ordered by N.Y. Family Court.

Bridget Marks will lose her 4-year-old twin daughters today - and it's going to cost her more than $1,000 a day to visit them and as much as $150 an hour to talk to them on the phone.

A state judge has ordered supervised visitation for the 38-year-old Manhattan mom. The children's wealthy father, Marks said, is insisting she pay for court-appointed social workers, who charge between $100 and $150 per hour.

"That's more than $1,000 a day," Marks said yesterday, as she packed her children's luggage and struggled to fight back tears. "I don't have the money to pay for that."

At noon today, Marks, a former Playboy model and actress about to publish her first romance novel, will experience heartbreak as few mothers do.

She will have to say goodbye to identical twins she reared alone from birth, all because of a judge's order.

In one of New York's most unusual child custody battles ever, Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg awarded custody of the twins to their father, 54-year-old casino executive John Aylsworth.

Goldberg decreed that although Marks is a fit mother, it is in the best interests of her children that they live with their father because of Marks' "unbridled anger" toward him.

Aylsworth, chief operating officer of President Casino Inc., a riverboat gambling business based in St. Louis, fathered the twins during an extramarital affair with Marks.

Under the judge's order, Aylsworth and his wife of 34 years, Karen, 53, will move to New York.

Yesterday, Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth played their favorite board game, Candyland, sang songs and watched a video of their preschool graduation as their mother sobbed.

"Kiki," a lame pet Chihuahua the twins nursed back to health, got a wet goodbye kiss. Their father refuses to take their dog, Marks said.

"No!" Amber shouted, when asked if she wanted to live with her daddy, who apparently has told Amber she can now call his wife Karen her mommy.

Scarlet started to explain how she wants to stay with her real mother, but her lip quivered and she broke down into tears.

Amber frowned as she watched her sister. Then, they hugged their mother as all three wept in one another's arms.

In her ruling, Goldberg cited cases where New York appeals judges have declared children better off leaving a parent who badmouths the other parent.

But even a strong supporter of that principle in custody law, psychologist Richard Warshak of Dallas, said less severe remedies - like counseling for the accusatory parent and liberal visitation for the estranged parent - may make more sense for young children in a stable home.

"The idea that there should be an automatic transfer of custody is wrong," said Warshak, often labeled a father's-rights advocate and author of "Divorce Poison: Protecting the Parent-Child Bond from a Vindictive Ex."

Aylsworth and his wife have refused to speak to the press.

But the case has turned Marks into an outspoken critic of New York's Family Court. "This is a disgusting example of how people drunk with their own power ruin lives and destroy children," she said. "It is savage."

 

Judge Says Mom Lied, So She'll Lose Custody

Bridget Marks and daughters Amber (l.) and Scarlet share laughs on Monday.

Why would a judge take two thriving, giggly 4-year-old twin girls away from their loving, doting mother and the happy Manhattan home they have known since birth?

Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg decided to do it because she believes the mother falsely accused the father of sexually fondling their children to prevent him from gaining custody. The father, the judge believes, is innocent.

Now, mom so hates dad, Goldberg decided, that the twins are better off with their father, a busy, traveling casino executive who years ago slept with their mother while he cheated, as he frequently has, on his loyal wife.

That, in a nutshell, is the case of John Aylsworth vs. Bridget Marks. It's a bitter custody fight involving a millionaire CEO and a former Playboy model that is about to test the changing boundaries of state family law.

Marks carried her twins through pregnancy despite pressure from Aylsworth and his wife to get an abortion, according to court testimony. "He didn't take me to court," Marks said, "until I refused to have sex with him anymore."

The Daily News first reported the story in late March.

On Tuesday, lawyers for Marks plan to go to federal court for a restraining order and to challenge the constitutionality of New York's custody process. Marks will bare her outrage on Court TV's Catherine Crier talk show that night.

Reports are being prepared by "Dateline NBC" and ABC's "2-0/20." Dozens of people phoned The News Friday enraged by Goldberg's ruling, wanting to protest, write letters and raise hell.

"This is one tough decision," said Hal Mayerson, co-chairman of the state bar association's custody law committee. "This is such a rare decision, but this judge had to make a decision."

For more than a decade, New York's higher courts have been embracing as gospel a concept psychologists still debate - that when one parent wrongly bad-mouths the other by alleging sexual abuse, children are better served if custody goes to the accused.

The accused, the reasoning goes, can then counteract an accuser's damaging behavior.

First termed "parental alienation" in 1985 by the late Columbia University psychiatrist Richard Gardner, who tried to define the behavior as a mental illness, the theory quickly became standard offense or defense in custody cases.

Many New York judges bought it. Meanwhile, some researchers dismissed Gardner's theories as junk science while others moderated his ideas and refined them.

Today, parental alienation has new names and more subtle definitions. Some states treat it as "generally accepted" science while some judges reject it as quackery.

But in New York, many parents are stunned to learn parental alienation, as Gardner conceived it, is the law. The official remedy in one New York appeals ruling after another: Hand over the kids to the parent wrongly accused of perversion.

Goldberg cited this line of cases in ruling against Marks.

Abuse accusations are, as Mayerson puts it, "the atom bomb in custody cases."

But Marks sees her punishment as a hydrogen bomb for her children and says the judge has overreacted. Goldberg found that Marks had coached her children "to say their father had 'touched their peepee,'" but Marks vehemently denies this. Her concerns, she said, are rooted in a pattern of her former lover's crude language and overbearing physical touching.

Aylsworth refuses to speak to the press.

A review of records and videotapes from the case backs up Marks. The judge had no hard evidence to support her finding - only opinions from a court-appointed psychiatrist, two social workers and a children's lawyer.

The judge ignored three contradictory opinions from experts hired by Marks and testimony about how Aylsworth "made inappropriate comments about the beauty of the children's genitalia."

Carol Bruch, professor of family law at the University of California at Davis, is a frequent critic of alienation becoming a ruling principal in custody. "Parental alienation is a crock," she said. "It's snake oil."
 

She Lost Teary Mom in Custody Fight Slams  'Heartless' Legal System   By Bob Port New York Daily News May 28, 2004   Bridget Marks looks adoringly at daughters she'll have to hand over to their rich dad. A Manhattan mom will have to bid a heartrending goodbye to her little twin daughters in four days after an appeals judge paved the way yesterday for the children to be turned over to their wealthy father. Former Playboy model Bridget Marks vowed to battle to the end to keep President Casino Inc. executive John Aylsworth from getting custody of the 4-year-old girls. "I will fight this," Marks said. "I will fight this wherever I have to go." While Marks' plea for an emergency order halting the transfer of the girls went unheeded yesterday, she was given a glimmer of hope. In an unusual move, an appeals judge invited Marks to return for a hearing in five weeks - unless a lower court judge issues a more detailed explanation of her custody ruling. It marked the latest twist in the tug of war over twins born to Marks, a 38-year-old former actress and model-turned-romance novelist. Their 54-year-old married father sued Marks last year after their affair turned sour. Last week, Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg stunned Marks by ordering the girls transferred to Aylsworth, and restricting her to supervised visits. "I am horrified," Marks said yesterday. "I am appalled at the insensitivity of the legal system to the needs of my small children." "This is draconian, heartless and cold-blooded," she said. "If anything is going to emotionally damage my children, it's this process, not me," she said, pledging to continue her legal battle. Aylsworth's attorney, Patricia Grant, noted, "a stay is rarely granted in this kind of case," and said she believes Marks' appeal will fail. Grant said Goldberg has promised to supply a more detailed court order soon. The case promises to test the boundaries of a growing claim in New York custody law that is loosely called "parental alienation." In an unusually brief six-page order issued last Friday, Goldberg declared Marks' anger toward her ex-lover is so likely to poison the twins' relationship with their father that they are better off living with him. While the change "will be stressful and traumatic," the judge wrote, "to leave the children in her custody would expose them to further emotional damage and likely make a healthy and wholesome father-daughter relationship impossible." In a concession to Marks, the judge said Aylsworth must move to New York from his Malibu, Calif., home. Aylsworth intends to move here, probably to Manhattan, with his wife, Karen, who would become a caretaker to the children. The ruling prompted Marks to seek an emergency stay yesterday. She wants more explanation of why she cannot see her daughters without supervision, where they will go to school and precisely what kind of home their father will provide. Without an appellate judge willing to intervene - for now - the ruling means Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth will be tearfully handed over to their father at noon Tuesday. Dad will keep them for a one-month vacation. Phone calls with mom will be monitored. When the girls return to New York, mom will get a one-week supervised visit. The girls spent the week at play near their upper East Side home. They visited a private kindergarten they may - or may not - attend this fall. "I got their uniforms for school," Marks said. "But I don't know," she said, beginning to cry, "whether they'll use them or not."

Tug-of-War Girls Home - for Now
Twins Visited Calif. Dad

By William Sherman and Bob Port
New York Daily News
March 29, 2004

The twin daughters of a former Playboy pinup were home in New York yesterday from a court-mandated visit to the California dad who is fighting for custody of them.

"The girls are back home," said a person close to Bridget Marks, 37, the socialite model and romance novelist embroiled in a bitter court dispute with John Aylsworth, 54, president of President Casinos Inc.

Although Marks has reared 4-year-old twins Amber and Scarlet in her upper East Side home since their birth, both a psychiatrist and a law guardian have recommended that Aylsworth be given full custody of them.

Aylsworth, a married grandfather who lives in Malibu, fathered the girls during an affair with Marks, who is single and now engaged.

Manhattan Family Court Justice Arlene Goldberg is expected to issue a custody ruling on April 21.

Meanwhile, the twins finished a week-long visit with Aylsworth on Saturday.

Marks said yesterday her lawyers have told her not to comment while a judge considers a gag order against her sought by Aylsworth, who could not be reached for comment.

Family law experts say Aylsworth's sweeping requests to remove children from an extramarital affair to another coast - and do it with judicially sanctioned secrecy - are rare in New York courts.

"I haven't seen it,"   said Manhattan divorce lawyer Marty Johnson, former chairman of the family law committee of the state Bar Association. "It's a pretty drastic measure absent some real countervailing reasons."

A Pinup, a Mogul and Their Custody Battle

She was a Playboy model. He's a married multi-millionaire. Now, the twin daughters born of their affair could be ripped from their mom and sent to live with the man they hardly know and his wife.
 

She's Queen Fee, of Courts
 

For years, Jo Ann Douglas has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from parents in a little-known side business of divorce court child-custody battles.

She's appointed by judges to represent the interests of the children, her title is law guardian, and the warring parents pay the bills.

At 52, she is the queen of the small club that gets most of the business, with more than 35 appointments from judges in recent years.

Under court rules her $300-an-hour bills become, legally, a court order, and she has been paid more than $600,000 over the years for one case alone.

She has had many of the big ones: Rudy Giuliani, Woody Allen, John McEnroe.

And she has very low overhead.

She meets children at an East Village apartment adjacent to another apartment where she lives with 17 noisy dogs and three cats, according to one frightened mother ordered to pay a recent visit. She has also met clients at a nearby Starbucks.

Douglas' home is registered as a nonprofit dog shelter called K9 Kastle Corp. Former Mayor Giuliani, who was ordered to pay Douglas to represent his teenagers during his divorce, calls her "the dog lady."

At the same time, she enjoys good relationships with the judges who appoint her.

While some parents and lawyers called her "star-struck" or biased, and questioned her bills and recordkeeping, other lawyers praised the quality of her work and her dedication to the children who are her clients.

All agreed on her tenacity as bill collector.

Fail to pay Douglas or withhold payment in protest and liens will be filed - like the court-enforced $20,000 debt attached to publisher Judith Regan's co-op apartment.

"I didn't discover it until I went to sell," said Regan, who called law guardians "parasites and bloodsuckers who take a look at your income and then figure out how much they can make."

Douglas declined to be interviewed, but her spokesman, Bob Liff, said her fees are reasonable, she's entitled to be paid what she's owed and that she is in compliance with court regulations.

"I do not represent or work for the parent, or owe them any disclosure that would undercut my commitment to those children," Douglas said in a statement.