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Dr. Phil Show
September 15, 2004
Bridget Marks became
pregnant with twin daughters as a result of an affair with a
married man. When he found out she was pregnant, she says he
wanted her to get an abortion, and once the
children
were born, he refused to
sign an acknowledge-ment
of paternity, therefore relinquishing any legal
responsibility. She continued her relation-ship with the man
after the birth of the girls, knowing he was married.
Bridget says she tried many times to end their relationship,
but he always threatened her with taking away the girls.
"Over a period of time I discovered that he was reckless and
inappropriate with the children and every time I sought to
break the relationship off, he would threaten me with taking
the children away," she tells Dr. Phil. She finally broke up
with him, and he was allowed visitation with the girls.
After sexual abuse allegations by Bridget, the father filed
for custody of the girls, and the drawn-out custody battle
ensued. The court determined that Bridget lied about the
molestation, and therefore they gave custody of the children
to the father. On June 1, 2004, Bridget was devastated to
hand over her 4-year-old daughters to their father.
Bridget defends her molestation accusations. "I did not lie.
I was a fit mother. I am a fit mother whose children came
home with stories," Bridget tells Dr. Phil. "I took them to
professionals to investigate whether or not what they said
was
true. I was given an affidavit by an M.D., a child
psychiatrist from Columbia University saying that my
daughters had been inappropriately touched, or that she
thought that there was about a 60-70 percent chance that
they had been touched. She gave me an affidavit to go to the
court and to tell the court that the father should only have
the strictest access to the children under court
supervision."
Dr. Phil notes that a court appointed psychiatrist did an
evaluation and determined that she had coached the children.
"He did not examine the children after the second
allegation, so he basically, without even examining the
children or asking them any questions, determined that it
was false," Bridget explains to Dr. Phil.
Dr. Phil explains that when Bridget visits with her girls
now, it costs at least $700 a day, because the court says
that they have to be fully supervised visits. There have to
be monitors in the room so she doesn't coach her children to
say something.
Dr. Phil makes clear that the show tried to contact the
father of the girls, and there has been no response from
him.
Bridget says
that she will never stop fighting for her daughters.
"I will fight until my last breath," she tells Dr.
Phil.
Dr.
Phil introduces Dean Tong and Kathie Mathis, two
individuals who are helping Bridget fight her
custody battle. Dean is an author and a consultant
on contested custody abuse cases, and has been
working for 20 years on these types of cases. He
says that he has seen a lot of errors in this case.
"We believe that this is a case of bad science
producing bad law."
Dr.
Kathie Mathis is a psychologist who works with
mothers who are in a similar position to Bridget and
their children. She has helped Bridget write an
affidavit stating the impact of what's taken place.
Dr. Phil mentions that Bridget has written a
romantic thriller exploring love, loss, deception
and redemption called September. "I wrote
it as an outlet for all of my pain and stress and
frustration," she explains. "I will fight anywhere I
have to go to get my girls back." |
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Playboy Mom's 9/11 Cash
Cow
By Richard Johnson
Sep 13, 2004
Bridget Marks, the former Playboy
model who lost custody of her twin daughters earlier this year in a
bitter court case, has written a post-9/11 potboiler called
"September" so she can pay her lawyers.
"I wrote the book for the girls,
during the trial, and it incorporates many of the things I went
through. These were my darkest moments," Marks told PAGE SIX. "My
poor children. I just feel so sorry for them."
The twins, Amber and Scarlett,
celebrated their fifth birthday on Wednesday with their mother, who
was allowed unsupervised visitation for the first time since their
father, gambling tycoon John Aylsworth, got custody in June.
The court found that Marks had
coached the twins to lie that Aylsworth had molested them and that
she was poisoning the youngsters' relationship with their father.
He's a better custodian for our
kids?" Marks fumed. "Judge Arlene D. Goldberg should be tarred and
feathered. She's not fit to sit in traffic court."
Marks will appear Wednesday on the
"Dr. Phil" TV show to talk about both the novel and her personal
ordeal.
"It's a romantic thriller about a
beautiful New York socialite who loses her son on 9/11," she said.
"She risks everything and travels the world to find out if the
greatest love of her life was one of the masterminds behind the
attack. It's a love story that spans 30 years and three continents."
Newscaster Linda Ellerbee liked the
book so much she gave it a blurb: " 'September' is more than a
novel. It's a first-rate lesson in the survival of love. No small
thing, that."
Marks is showing the same grit as
her protagonist in pursuing her case in the Appellate Division. She
also plans to sue several court-appointed "experts" ——
psychiatrists, social workers and guardians —— over their testimony.
"There is an epidemic in Family
Court of good mothers losing custody of their children," Marks told
us. "The court system is embarrassed.
"I'm thinking of running for the
City Council on the Upper East Side," she added. "If there's any way
I can help other women and children, I will do it."
Playboy Mom's 9/11 Cash
Cow
By Richard Johnson
Sep 13, 2004
Bridget Marks, the former Playboy
model who lost custody of her twin daughters earlier this year in a
bitter court case, has written a post-9/11 potboiler called
"September" so she can pay her lawyers.
"I wrote the book for the girls,
during the trial, and it incorporates many of the things I went
through. These were my darkest moments," Marks told PAGE SIX. "My
poor children. I just feel so sorry for them."
The twins, Amber and Scarlett,
celebrated their fifth birthday on Wednesday with their mother, who
was allowed unsupervised visitation for the first time since their
father, gambling tycoon John Aylsworth, got custody in June.
The court found that Marks had
coached the twins to lie that Aylsworth had molested them and that
she was poisoning the youngsters' relationship with their father.
He's a better custodian for our
kids?" Marks fumed. "Judge Arlene D. Goldberg should be tarred and
feathered. She's not fit to sit in traffic court."
Marks will appear Wednesday on the
"Dr. Phil" TV show to talk about both the novel and her personal
ordeal.
"It's a romantic thriller about a
beautiful New York socialite who loses her son on 9/11," she said.
"She risks everything and travels the world to find out if the
greatest love of her life was one of the masterminds behind the
attack. It's a love story that spans 30 years and three continents."
Newscaster Linda Ellerbee liked the
book so much she gave it a blurb: " 'September' is more than a
novel. It's a first-rate lesson in the survival of love. No small
thing, that."
Marks is showing the same grit as
her protagonist in pursuing her case in the Appellate Division. She
also plans to sue several court-appointed "experts" ——
psychiatrists, social workers and guardians —— over their testimony.
"There is an epidemic in Family
Court of good mothers losing custody of their children," Marks told
us. "The court system is embarrassed.
"I'm thinking of running for the
City Council on the Upper East Side," she added. "If there's any way
I can help other women and children, I will do it."
Without Minders
By Bob Port
New York Daily News
August 27th, 2004
The wealthy father of love twins Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth waved a
flag of truce yesterday, agreeing to drop demands that his
ex-mistress be supervised while visiting their daughters.
Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg agreed.
That clears the way for Bridget Marks to spend time alone with
the 4-year-old girls for the first time in months.
Marks raised the twins from birth but lost custody when Goldberg
ruled the former Playboy model had falsely accused the father, John
Aylsworth, 54, of sexually abusing the girls.
"Today was a victory," said Marks, 38, who has lost round after
round in the bitter custody fight. She paid $17,000 this summer to
social workers to monitor some 500 hours of visits and numerous
phone calls to the kids.
"I won't give up until I have my girls back," she added.
A psychiatrist seeing the twins has advised that "supervision is
harmful for the children and disruptive," according to their
court-appointed lawyer.
On June 1, Marks handed over the identical twins to Aylsworth,
head of President Casinos Inc., in a heart-wrenching spectacle recorded by news cameras.
Goldberg ruled that Marks' "unbridled anger" toward the married
tycoon was alienating the children from their dad. The judge made
Aylsworth and his wife move to New York.
Since then, Marks, who has tried acting and writing romance
novels, has appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" and ABC's "Primetime
Live" to air unrelenting criticism of New York's child custody
system.
Now, TV's Dr. Phil McGraw is on the case. Marks taped a segment
with the CBS pop psychologist that is tentatively set to air Sept.
15. In court, various parties said McGraw has been telephoning them.
"There's definitely going to be some followup," a show spokesman
said yesterday. "One of the things that Dr. Phil prides himself on
is extensive aftercare for folks who are on the show."
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Twins' Mom Loses Again
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By Bob Port
Daily News
July 28, 2004
|
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| Bridget Marks |
|
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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."
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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.)
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Twins' Trip Hinges On Shrink
Rap
By Barbara Ross and Owne Moritz
New York Daily News
July 10, 2004
A court-appointed
psychiatrist had her first meeting yesterday with the twin
daughters of Bridget Marks while a judge decides whether to
permit the 4-year-olds to vacation with their father in
California.
Marks said after a
court hearing in Manhattan that the unidentified psychiatrist
told the court "it is not a good idea" for the twins to leave
New York.
Lawyers for Marks, 38,
a former Playboy model and the twins' father, casino millionaire
John Aylsworth, 54, clashed in court over several issues.
Family Court Judge
Arlene 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 is appealing.
Aylsworth, who is under
court order to move to New York, has agreed to enroll the girls
in a Manhattan preschool in September. But he has asked the
court for vacation time in California, where he and his wife
live.
Marks lawyer Michael
Joseph challenged Goldberg's order that the mother's contacts
with the children be supervised by social workers at a cost of
up to $5,000 a week.
But Goldberg rejected
the suggestion that the father should pay for the supervision.
"How is it his responsibility to pay when it's her wrongdoing
that requires it," Goldberg snapped.
Aylsworth attorney
Patricia Grant said Marks had assets of $266,790 and has a
fiance picking up her rent and legal fees.
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OK Twins' California Summer
By
William Sherman
New York Daily News
July 7, 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.
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Interview
With Bridget Marks on Larry King
Aired
on CNN
July 5, 2004 - 21:00 ET
To read transcript of interview
click here.
See Twins
- for 5g!
By Bob Port
New York Daily News
July 1, 2004
It looks like Manhattan mom
Bridget Marks finally will get to see her little girls - but it's
gonna cost her, big-time.
The feisty mom, who lost
custody of her 4-year-old twins to casino tycoon John Aylsworth, can
have home visits, a judge said yesterday, but only if she shells out
$5,000 a week for court-appointed social workers to watch her every
move.
Based on the number of
planned visits, that could mean as much as $50,000 a year.
Manhattan Family Court
Judge Arlene Goldberg also told Marks that if she says anything bad
about her daughters' father - an ex-lover she despises - the social
worker has the authority to terminate the visit on the spot.
"It's obviously punitive,"
said Marks, whose custody battle will be the subject of a report on
ABC's "PrimeTime Thursday" program tonight.
Goldberg approved the
visitation rules, ending weeks of uncertainty for Marks, who lost
her children on June 1 after the judge granted custody to Aylsworth.
Yesterday, Goldberg also
ordered Marks not to allow the news media access to her twins for
the next year or reveal their "precise whereabouts."
The judge said the children
will be harmed by reporters interviewing them or photographers
taking their picture. "I can't have that," she declared.
"My job is to protect these
children," Goldberg said. "That's what I intend to do."
Goldberg awarded Aylsworth
custody, ruling that the trauma of taking the girls from their
life-long home with Marks was better than letting Marks further
alienate the girls from their father.
Marks, a former Playboy
model, went public, lambasting the court, its overpriced forensic
psychiatrist and what she views as gross injustice in the state's
custody system.
Yesterday, she was stunned
again at the price tag of visitation. She said Comprehensive Family
Services, the firm appointed to supervise her, has warned her to
expect costs of $4,500 to $5,000 per week.
"It's like a poll tax and
it basically is like terminating my parental rights," Marks said.
"As long as I've agreed not to let the children be interviewed, I
don't see why I need supervised visitation."
The social workers must
accompany her and the girls everywhere - even the bathroom - and are
preparing a script for things she should say, Marks said. "It's just
bizarre," she said, "and completely insane."
Judge
Balks Bridget's Twin Hopes
When Will She See Her Girls?
New York Daily News
June 28, 2004
Bridget Marks has no idea
when she will see her 4-year-old
twin daughters
again.
A month after transferring
custody of little Amber and Scarlet to their millionaire dad and his
wife, Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg stunned Marks
this week by indicating she might let the twins stay at their dad's
Malibu, Calif., estate all summer.
Then again, she might not.
The judge might allow the
children to stay overnight at their mother's home for a visit.
Bridget Marks
hugs
her twins, 4-year-old
Then again, she
might not.
twins Amber (r.)
and
Scarlet, shortly
And, despite repeated pleas from Marks, Goldberg has yet
before they left her
to
to settle how many thousands of dollars the mom must pay
go live with their
court-appointed supervisors when she does visit her kids.
father.
The judge also is not
responding to new questions about whether the girls will be allowed
to attend Catholic church services or Sunday school.
"I miss them so much,"
Marks said Friday, as she began to cry. "I miss them more than I
ever imagined I could."
All month, Marks has been
required to pay court-appointed social workers to monitor daily
phone calls with her kids.
"They keep asking me,
'Mommy, when are we coming home?' - and I'm not allowed to say
anything," she said. "It's just not fair."
In May, Goldberg ordered
the twins given to their father, John Aylsworth, president of
President Casinos Inc., on the condition he move within 40 miles of
Marks' upper East Side home. But when he will make the move remains
unclear.
Marks, a former Playboy
model, began an affair with Aylsworth in 1998. She became pregnant,
resisted pressure from Aylsworth and his wife to have an abortion,
then reared the twins alone.
Goldberg ruled that because
Marks, 38, was denigrating Aylsworth, the children would be better
off living with their 54-year-old father.
Aylsworth, the judge's May
order declared, could take the girls anywhere on vacation for a
"consecutive four-week period" beginning June 1. "The children shall
then have supervised visitation time with the mother for a one-week
period," she ruled.
But for weeks, Goldberg,
who is the subject of an abuse-of-judicial-authority complaint by
Marks to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, has failed to
give her lawyers guidelines for how the distraught mom can visit her
daughters.
"It's becoming surreal,"
said Tom Shanahan, Marks' attorney. "It's out of control."
Shanahan said he expects
Goldberg to issue a more detailed order today. Aylsworth's attorney
did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Although courtrooms in
Family Court are supposed to be open to the public, and despite
public interest in the case, Goldberg has begun holding hearings by
telephone with lawyers - making it impossible for the public to hear
what she says or observe what the elected judge does.
Before leaving their
mother, Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth had attended Mass at a Catholic
church most Sundays with Marks.
Aylsworth, Marks contends,
is refusing to allow them to continue going to church. Marks had
hoped to have her daughters attend Sunday school to prepare them for
their First Communion in two years.
"Now, John even wants to
take Jesus away from them," Marks said.
Courts
See Moms as Guilty till Proven Innocent
By Amy Neustein and Michael
Lesher
New York Daily News
June 20, 2004
Bridget Marks' tearful
farewell to her 4-year-old twins after a Manhattan Family Court
judge ordered them into the custody of a father they accused of
touching their private parts is a scene reenacted in custody trials
across the country, in which mothers bring good-faith allegations of
sexual abuse.
All too often, young
children are taken from the only home they have ever known, not
because their mother has been found unfit, but because she was
concerned about improper sexual contact between her children and
their father.
Judges in New York and
other states have adopted a bizarre rule that a mother alleging sex
abuse in a custody dispute is guilty until proved innocent: If her
abuse charge is not supported by overwhelming evidence, she will
lose custody for making an accusation that "poisons" the
relationship between father and child.
In fact, as we are seeing
in the Marks case, she can end up being doubly penalized: After she
loses custody, the accused abuser can actually hit her up for child
support.
Marks' suspicions were not
without support. A baby-sitter reported that the children told her
their father had "touched their peepee." A police investigator was
concerned enough about the charges to recommend that a prominent
forensic psychologist interview the children (an interview that was
never allowed to take place). Another psychologist recommended
strict supervision for the father's visits with the girls.
Judge Arlene Goldberg held
the mother to a Kafkaesque standard: While rejecting evidence that
explained the mother's suspicions, the judge required Marks to prove
she would foster a "loving" relationship between the man accused of
abuse and the children she was desperately trying to protect.
Adding insult to injury for
Marks, supervisors appointed by the court actually left the father
alone with the children on several critical occasions, court papers
show.
What happened to Marks has
happened to mothers across the country. We have studied two decades'
worth of custody litigation, and we have found that mothers who
raise allegations of sexual abuse against the children's fathers are
likely to be punished with the loss of custody even when there is no
proof that the abuse charges were fabricated or that they did
anything to harm their children's welfare.
Courts focus instead on the
supposed evil of making a charge that, by its very nature, is
extremely difficult to prove. Then, with the fathers presumed
innocent, the mothers bear the burden of proving that their
intentions were good.
If they fail, they end up
like Marks, who cannot even speak to her children without
professional supervision but who now may have to pay child support
to their rich father.
Neustein and Lesher are
authors of "From Madness to Mutiny: Why Are Mothers Running from the
Family Court?" due out in spring 2005.
Give Press Boot - Twins' Daddy
By Bob Port
New York Daily News
June 18, 2004
|
|
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.
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Twins'
Daddy Twists Knife
By Bob Port
New York Daily News
June 17, 2004
He got her kids, and now he
wants her money, too.
The big-bucks corporate
exec who stunned New Yorkers by taking 4-year-old twins away from
his ex-mistress sued her yesterday for child support.
John Aylsworth makes
$521,000 a year as president of riverboat casinos in Missouri and
Mississippi.
Bridget Marks, 38, the
former Playboy model who lost legal custody of her daughters to
Aylsworth last month and does not have a job, was nearly speechless.
"I just don't understand," she said. "It's just too ridiculous."
"It's like pulling the
wings off a fly," said Raoul Felder, the city's dean of divorce law,
who is not involved in the case. "This shows a kind of arrogance, to
even attempt something like that."
Aylsworth's attorney was
unavailable for comment. A hearing in the bizarre custody drama is
scheduled in Manhattan Family Court today.
Aylsworth, 54, a married
man for 34 years, began an affair with Marks in 1998 that ended
bitterly in 2002. He had paid Marks $6,000 a month after Amber and
Scarlet were born in September 1999. He stopped the payments in late
2002, but in early 2003 a court ordered him to fork over $4,200 a
month.
On May 21, Manhattan Judge
Arlene Goldberg awarded custody to Aylsworth and his wife on the
grounds that Marks alienated the girls against their father and made
false accusations that he sexually abused them.
Under New York law,
Aylsworth may win child support from Marks, but probably not much.
Using a legal formula, a judge would start with $80,000 or more as
an annual child-rearing cost, then divide that amount in proportion
to each parent's income. Marks then would owe a fraction of that
amount.
With no job and legal bills
of nearly $800,000, Marks relies on her mother, fiancéé and others
for help. She got a $25,000 book advance this year for a romance
novel but owes an editor one-third of that and an agent 10% to 15%.
Still, the law would let a
judge "impute" an income figure for Marks based on odd sources of
cash. The judge could also calculate extra costs for the custodial
parent, such as private school and medical care - and even
baby-sitters to help Aylsworth's wife, who cares for her cheating
husband's love twins.
Hal Mayerson, co-chairman
of the state Bar Association's custody law committee, called the
child-support suit "nothing more than harassment."
"This is the dumbest thing
this guy could do, because he's now opened his finances to Bridget
Marks," Mayerson said. "I don't understand why this was done other
than to to just drive her crazy."
Fed Judge Turns
Twins' Ma Away
By Bob Port and William
Sherman
New York Daily News
June 8, 2004 |
| Bridget
Marks lost another round yesterday in her custody fight for her
twin daughters and now probably will not get to see them until
the end of the month.
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.
|
Mom's
Pain
Spelled Out
New York Daily News
June 6, 2004
 |
| 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
|
Love-Twin Dad Tied to Iffy
Land Deal
|
By Bob Port
New York Daily News
June 6, 2004
|
| |
 |
| 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.
|
|
|
|
Love on
the Clock
Mom Gets Only 5 Mins. On Phone with Her Torn-away Twin Girls
By William Sherman & Bob
Port
New York Daily News
June 4, 2004
 |
| Bridget Marks, with photo of
twins in their empty room, talked to girls yesterday for
first time since handover to their father.
|
|
|
Amber and Scarlet
Aylsworth, the 4-year-old twins turned over to their
millionaire dad, spoke to their mom yesterday for the first
time since they were torn from her Tuesday - until dad hung
up after five minutes.
"Scarlet said that
she missed me and she wanted to sleep near me," said
heartbroken Manhattan mom Bridget Marks, 38. "Amber said she
missed me and loved me."
The call was
arranged with a $75-per-hour social worker monitoring. Under
a court order, the twins are on a four-week trip with their
54-year-old father, John Aylsworth, chief operating officer
of President Casino Inc.
"I didn't really
get to say goodbye to Scarlet," Marks said. "John hung up
the phone before I could even say goodbye to Amber."
Marks finally
learned her kids' whereabouts yesterday, two days after
their emotionally charged transfer to Aylsworth.
"I can't really say
where the children are, but wherever the children are, I ask
the American public to keep an eye on them and to smile at
them and be kind to them," the former Playboy model said.
So went another
teary day for Marks, who lost custody of her daughters in
one of the city's most high-profile Family Court battles in
years.
On May 21,
Manhattan Judge Arlene Goldberg awarded custody to Aylsworth
and his wife on the grounds that Marks alienated the girls
against their father and made false accusations that he
sexually abused them.
Aylsworth fathered
the twins during an extramarital affair with Marks, who
reared their girls alone from birth. When Marks dumped
Aylsworth, he sought visitation. When Marks began to
bad-mouth Aylsworth, he sought full custody.
Until this week,
the twins had only visited their dad for two weeks and five
weekends.
Court officials
said New York case law forces a judge to shift custody of
children when a psychiatrist finds a custodial parent
alienating the kids from the other parent. But some experts
say those legal precedents were limited to extreme cases.
"There's a whole
panoply of things the judge could have done," said veteran
divorce lawyer Raoul Felder. "She could have said, 'Let's
revisit it in six months' or she could have given him lots
of visitation."
|
|
If Mommy Cries, It's Goodbye
Judge Orders Stiff Upper Lip During Phone Calls with Twins
By Bob Port and William Sherman
New York Daily News
June 3, 2004
|
 |
| 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
| |