My Name Has Been Taken in Vain in Former Custody Master's Lawsuit Against NorCo Judges

For some time, I've been wondering what the hell is going on in a federal lawsuit filed by Northampton County's former custody master, Lisa Tresslar, against the judges. I've previously told you about what she calls her constructive termination by county judges and court administrator Jermaine Greene. They failed to have the case tossed because federal Judge John Gallagher does find merit in her claim that she is the victim of judicial retaliation. The matter is currently in discovery. 

I was unaware that I've actually been the focus of some of the back-and-forth between judges and Tresslar. They're convinced that she has been feeding me confidential information and even asked the court to block her from seeing any discovery they produce that is marked "Attorney's Eyes Only." 

In letters to Judge Gallagher, NorCo's bench has apparently claimed that they can prove she provided privileged information to me. I wish that were true. I'd love to know and share how some of those custody cases have been handled. In her lawsuit, Lisa complains that she had voiced concerns over new procedures in custody cases that would shield judges from hearing evidence of child abuse. Her contention is that the courts did this to insulate themselves from public rancor in the event that a child was abused after a custody order is entered. It was after she voiced her concerns that the courts basically stripped her of most of her duties, reducing her to a glorified clerk instead of a Harvard-educated attorney. 

I know this mostly from what I've seen on Pacer, a website open to the public for viewing federal cases I also know a little based on what some attorneys have told me. But like Tresslar, they've been unwilling to share privileged information. I understand why. They are ethical, and it's highly insulting to suggest anything different. Not to me, but to Northampton County lawyers. I would think the judges would know better. 

After first saying that they could prove that Tresslar had a hotline to me, they now say they "have no way to verify any of [Tresslar’s] allegations on this topic, especially since she does not appear to have produced all communications with this blogger to date, despite Defendants request." In effect, they now accuse her of hiding her communications with me. 

Judges, allow me to share what I know. At no time has Lisa Tresslar ever shared any privileged information with me. She has even refused to provide case names or details that might help me to substantiate or debunk her lawsuit. Believe me, I've tried. I am, after all, a bottom-feeder. 

I've tried to get your side, too. I reached out to Jermaine Greene after the suit was filed, and he told me pretty much the same thing Lisa told me. 

Neither side wants their case tried on this blog. Thus, I can only report what I see on the record. 

Before she filed her federal lawsuit, Tresslar made clear to me that she was actually cutting me off precisely because she had no desire to try her case on the blog. If we see each other in the hallway, we say Hi. I always ask her how on earth a Harvard Law graduate could ever support Donald Trump, and I have often told her that she belongs on the bench herself. I have immense respect for her as a lawyer and as a person. I've felt that way for some time because she, along with then President Judge Steve Baratta, completely changed custody hearings to make them better for the children who are very much impacted by them. 

I do know she named one of her cats after me. I have no idea why because I am more of a parakeet person myself. 

Jermaine Greene has named no cats after me. 

Maybe a rat. 

After considering the competing concerns, Judge Gallagher has spurned the attempt by NorCo's judges to prevent Tresslar from actually seeing the discovery they produce. 

"Upon consideration of the parties’ letters to the Court regarding their dispute as to what confidentiality order to enter in this case and whether certain documents should be designated as “Attorney’s Eyes Only,” the Court will enter the Confidentiality Order proposed by Plaintiff. See ECF No. 59. The Court finds that Plaintiff will be prejudiced in the prosecution of her claims without access to the discovery materials. Moreover, Defendants, at this point, have not made any formal claims of privilege. The potential for prejudice to Plaintiff outweighs Defendants’ speculative concerns regarding breaches of this Order.

"However, the Court cautions that this Confidentiality Order is to be strictly adhered to. Any transgression of this Order may result in sanctions or even referrals to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania."

Ousted Norco Custody Master: Judges Sletvold and Roscioli Place Incumbency Protection Over Safety of Children

In 2018, the decision of a Bucks County jurist led to tragic and fatal consequences for seven-year old Kayden Mancuso. Her father had a history of violence. He once bit off part of a man's ear, threw a beer bottle in a woman's face, abused the family dog and even would hit himself. He harassed Kayden's teachers until the school district ordered him to stay away. Judge Jeffrey Trauger nevertheless granted him unsupervised visitation with his daughter, after which he promptly killed her and then himself. 

This case caught the attention of  NorCo Judges Jennifer Sletvold and Paula Roscioli. But instead of being concerned about the lives of children that were in their hands, they focused on insulating themselves from information that could raise red flags, giving themselves plausible deniability in the even a child was abused.

Such is the contention of NorCo's former custody master, in a beefed-up federal complaint filed yesterday. She now specifically names Sletvold and Roscioli as Defendants and adds President Judge Craig Dally and Court Administrator Jermaine Greene to her rogues' gallery as well.  

According to Tresslar's complaint, she advised the Court "that they had a valuable tool to help them search out evidence of danger to children, specifically, her practice of referring custody litigants to family counselors who could then testify in court about psychological evaluations and statements made by parties and their children during the counseling." This would enable judges to craft custody orders that actually kept children out of harm's way. But Judges Sletvold and Roscioli were mor interested in protecting themselves. 

Tresslar asserts "After the Kayden Mancuso case, instead of searching out stronger and more extensive evidence about danger to children, Defendants Sletvold and Roscioli did the opposite, i.e., they (1) tried to discourage, and sometimes prevent, parties and attorneys from presenting evidence about danger to children; (2) unreasonably pressured custody litigants to settle so that the judges would not hear evidence or make decisions about danger to children; (3) unreasonably pressured custody litigants to agree that statements made to family counselors would be forever excluded from evidence before them or any other judge in any type of case, which would include not only custody cases but juvenile dependency cases, protection-from-abuse cases, and criminal cases."

As bad as this is, things got worse. Judges Sletvold and Roscioli, using Court Administrator Jermaine Greene as their patsy, presented changes in custody procedures that ostensibly came from the bar association that would insulate them from any situation like what happened to Kayden Mancuso. But when then Judge Steve Baratta questioned the bar association, lawyers vehemently denied having anything to do with these changes, noting they had come "from the court." Greene was forced to apologize.

Tresslar continued to advocate for children but paid a price. Harassment by Judges Roscioli and Sletvold started in 2018 and continued until her constructive termination in 2023. As their power grew, Tresslar's role in custody was diminished until she was reduced to little more than a clerk. 

You can read her amended complaint below. It is important to remember that we are hearing only one side of the story. Neither Tresslar nor the court will speak outside the pages of the pleadings. 

Tresslar Amended Complaint by BernieOHare on Scribd

Grandparents Victimized by Judge Sletvold's Wrath Speak Out

The Bowies

Blogger's Note: On Tuesday, I told you that NorCo Judge Jennifer Sletvold has been reported to the Judicial Conduct Board by Attorney Alyssa Lopiano-Reilly over Sletvold's handling of a custody case involving the grandparents of a special needs boy. Judge Sletvold issued a 53-page response to a recusal motion even though the matter was settled and the motion itself was withdrawn.  In it, she attacked both the grandparents and their lawyer in a blatant attempt to poison any judge who might see this case down the road. Fortunately, the Superior Court concluded that Sletvold's verbose invective would contaminate further proceedings and ordered the matter sealed. 

Since that time, I've heard from the grandparents themselves, They've given me permission to share their story. 

Mr. O’Hare,

I live in North Carolina but was a resident of Northampton County, PA for years and a friend sent me a copy of your blog post entitled “Judge Jennifer Sletvold Reported to Judicial Conduct Board for Unfair Treatment of Custody Litigants and Their Lawyer.”  I am one of those custody litigants. My name is Kelly Bowie and I am one of the grandparents that are listed in the case that you blogged about. I write to thank you for shining light on all of this.  

 

The way we were treated by Judge Jennifer Sletvold was appalling, disgusting and unjust. What happened to us as a result of Judge Slevold’s arrogance, above the law attitude and blatant disregard for her duty as a sitting judge is hard to imagine or explain.  We spent 3 years fighting over something that should have been simple had Judge Sletvold merely done her job.

 

When we entered Judge Sletvold’s courtroom in October 2020 to ask for permission to relocate with the grandchild in our care to North Carolina, because I had lost my job during Covid, what we anticipated to be a simple hearing (where we would explain the need for the move and how it would benefit our grandson) became an absolute and ongoing nightmare. Judge Sletvold never held any hearing or heard any evidence.  She had no details about us or our grandchild or our case.  She had no details about the reason our grandchild had been with us, about the amount of time he had been with us (at that point, for 4 years and he was only 6 years old) or about what we had done to try to make sure he was safe and deal with his special needs. She had no details about why the child’s Mother had been out of his life for so very long.  She had an expert report from a therapist that explained his concerns about Mother and our grandchild but she immediately discounted that without hearing testimony.  Up until that point, the child only had supervised visits with his Mother.

 

In October, 2020, Judge Sletvold, all off the record, immediately started advocating for Mother sayingthings like “Mother needs overnights and holidays” and “this child needs reunification with the mother - there needs to be reunification immediately.” Then, after bullying the lawyers off the record about what she expected and wanted to see, Judge Sletvold went on the record and made it sound like she just met us and that she was so pleased that the lawyers had worked together to come up with an agreed-upon Order without her assistance.  In fact, the opposite was true.  She was very involved in the “negotiations” but it was all off the record.  The clear underlying threat and theme from her to us, was this: do what I say (without evidence or a hearing) or you won’t like my decision after I hold a hearing (i.e. we wouldn’t be able to move with our grandchild to North Carolina for my new job during Covid).  Of course, we had no choice.  We were so scared.  

 

The trajectory of our case, at that point, was very clear to us.  Judge Slevold made her decision about us without any context, information or data, and was, very simply, totally biased.  Worse, it appeared to us that she intended, long term, that our grandchild would be transferred to Mother’s custody, eventually, no matter what was in his best interests. Judge Sletvold was keeping the case even after we moved to North Carolina with the grandchild and despite the fact that no one lived in Northampton County, PA (Mother moved from Alabama to Schuylkill County, PA and never lived in Northampton County).  Despite this, Judge Sletvold kept having status conferences about the case and she had a clear mission in favor of Mother and against us.  Our lawyer at the time actually told us to fire her and hire another lawyer who might have a better chance of helping us and our grandchild.  That was when we found Alyssa Lopiano-Reilly.  

 

We lovingly call Attorney Lopiano-Reilly the “Italian bulldog” for her fearless pursuit of justice, and her unwillingness to allow us to be railroaded buy an unfair Judge with blatant disregard for doing the job she was elected to do. Alyssa filed a Motion for Judge Sletvold to Recuse herself only after Judge Sletvold said, on the record, in August, 2021, that she agreed with Mother’s custody position against us.  Remember, she said this after NEVER having taken one shred of evidence in the case (we were present, via Zoom, and saw how angry she was, we heard her say it, and we have a transcript to prove it).  Attorney Lopiano-Reilly was respectful and amazingly calm in the face of the unfairness of it all but she was not going to back down.

 

I saw that your readers asked why this is all coming out now.  It is coming out now because it was only this past summer, 2023 that we were finally safe.  We had to wait that long for a fair judge to finally say that the case did not belong in PA but belonged in North Carolina where our grandchild had lived and gone to school since November, 2020!

 

I want to explain that Judge Sletvold never recused herself as she should have immediately done. Rather, in November, 2021, we worked hard and in good faith to settle our underlying custody case before Judge Murray with an Order laying out a clear schedule for Mother to see the child in a way that was safe for him.  As part of that settlement, we agreed to withdrawal the Motion to Recuse that we filed in the case against Jennifer Sletvold.  That settlement was the opportunity that Judge Sletvold had clearly been waiting for to harm us.  She didn’t write 53 pages of false claims in such a short time.  She was calculating.  She didn’t want to be reviewed on appeal so she waited to protect herself and entered that ridiculous and false 53 pages into the record to harm us and to teach our lawyer a lesson that she shouldn’t dare to challenge her by claiming that she is biased.  We couldn’t believe that Judge Sletvold was raising cases that didn’t involve us or our grandchild in a way to harm Attorney Lopiano-Reilly and us by proxy. But her actions did one thing: satisfied us that we were right all along. She was clearly biased and angry and out to harm us without any concern for our grandson. Judge Sletvold had held a grudge that we had nothing to do with.  Her grudge was personal and was against our lawyer for standing up to her in the past.  It was crazy.  But that wasn’t enough for Judge Sletvold.  The turning point was when Judge Sletvold was given a SECOND chance to do that right thing when she was asked by Attorney Lopiano-Reilly to remove her 53 page defamatory statement from the record so we could at least have a fair and unbiased position in the underlying custody case before a Schuylkill County judge.  Judge Sletvold refused to do that.  It was astonishing that she refused to reconsider her illegal actions and that she then went on and on to try to claim they were not illegal in her statement filed with the higher court.  She forced us to take the appeal to the Superior Court and she lost, thankfully.  As you said, in your blog, we eventually found a reasonable and unbiased judge in Schuylkill County, who released jurisdiction to North Carolina (after we were out of the Commonwealth 33 months).

 

In the end, we were the ones harmed.  I lost count of the amount of conferences/preliminary objections/objections/hearings/documentation over the 28 months that we worked with Attorney Lopiano-Reilly: first in Northampton County, then before the Superior Court and then in Schuylkill County. The expense and time (particularly of the appeal) was unbelievable. We spent over $167, 000 in fees and court costs to fight this case for 3 years, mostly due to Judge Sletvold.  We could have put our grandson through medical school at that rate and frankly, it will mean that I will have to work many additional years, instead of retiring, to cover the tremendous expense. 

 

We are just incredibly grateful for Attorney Lopiano-Reilly and that we had the resources to fight and what saddens us is to think how many other people have lost their children because they did not have the resources to fight Judge Jennifer Slevold. The emotional toll is heavy. 

 

Thank you for doing this. Thank you for shining a light on this travesty of injustice. Jennifer Slevold should never wear a black robe again.

 

Thanks

Kelly Bowie

Lisa Tresslar's Value as a Custody Master

I've told you that Lisa Tresslar, Northampton County's full-time Custody Master, has been forced out of her job by a trio consisting of Judges Jennifer Sletvold, Paula Roscioli and Court Administrator Jermaine Greene. So what, some of you might say. Some of you have suggested that she was just there to force parties to settle custody disputes so that judges could play 18 rounds of golf instead of 9. So I thought I'd explain the difference she made as a custody master.

Supervised Visitation. - When then-President Judge Baratta appointed Tresslar to be the court's first full-time custody master in 2014, the court desperately needed an organization with trained staff and professional security that could supervise visits in cases where there were concerns about danger posed by a parent. Parties had had to make their own arrangements for supervised visits, and it had been extremely difficult. No agency provided these services on a regular, consistent, and reliable basis. It was vital that the court not only be able to refer parties to a reliable agency for supervised visits but that the court receive written reports from the supervising agency about how the party had behaved with the Child during the visits, in order to assist the court in making custody determinations.

Tresslar reached out to The Children's Home of Easton and developed a process that served both the court's and The Children's Home's interests. Since that time, the court has enjoyed a strong and reliable relationship with The Children's Home of Easton. The agency's written reports and testimony have proven to be invaluable in the court's management and disposition of custody cases where there are safety concerns about one or both of the parents.

Recruiting Affordable and Reliable Family Counselors. - Tresslar's most significant contribution was recruiting and cultivating relationships with outside professionals to assist parties in settling cases and, if necessary, preparing their cases for trial and educating trial judges about their family dynamics. Tresslar persuaded parties that taking time to engage in such counseling before proceeding to trial offered many advantages.

Instead of asking a judge to spend one or more days presiding over stressful and expensive trial and then make a decision based largely on he-said, she-said court testimony, the family could spend several weeks together with a professional who had training and experience in working with adults and children in high-conflict situations and, particularly, custody litigation.

The counselor could help the parties understand how their behaviors were affecting their children and how a judge might react to their respective contentions. He or she could help the parties learn to communicate better, work out their differences, and perhaps settle their case. If the case could not be settled, the counselor could help the parties narrow the areas in genuine dispute and clarify their respective positions for the court.

Because co-parenting/family counseling involved the entire family and was not confidential as among the family members, there was no legal privilege shielding statements made during co-parenting/family counseling from disclosure to the court. Thus, if the case proceeded to trial, the parties could support their respective positions by citing statements made, and behaviors observed, during the counseling. If the parties agreed in advance to waive hearsay objections, the counselor's written report would come into evidence and could be an invaluable, and affordable, aid to the trial judge in gaining an understanding of the case, deciding what areas should be explored further during the trial, and formulating specific questions that the judge wished to pose to trial witnesses.

Most counselors did not accept insurance for court-ordered co-parenting/family counseling, which can be very expensive, Tresslar worked hard to find counselors who were willing to accept insurance.

Obtaining a written report from the counselor helped to reduce the "trial by ambush" quality of custody litigation. After the parties had spent several weeks with a counselor who had submitted a written report to the court, it was more difficult for either party to assert surprise allegations at trial that had never been raised during the counseling. Thus, even when a case could not be settled and went forward to trial, the counseling not only simplified and clarified the trial but usually reduced the stress and expense.  Written reports by outside professionals could be lengthy and might require significant time to review and analyze. In some cases, there might be several professionals submitting reports, and some professionals might submit multiple reports over the lifetime of one case. In the case summaries that Tresslar prepared for judges, she attached all written reports, summarized them, and highlighted significant information contained in the reports. Pursuant to local rules, which permit a master to make recommendations to judges, Tresslar often suggested specific areas the judge might wish to explore at trial or specific questions the judge might wish to pose to trial witnesses.

Most trial judges found that after they had read the custody master's case summary and the counselor's written report, they were usually able to settle the case without a trial. 

Her work helped judges, to be sure. But more importantly, she helped families with custody disputes. 

The Importance of Custody Court

Over the past few days, I've posted about Lisa Tresslar's unfortunate constructive termination as Northampton County Custody Master and have explained who she is.  Some of you might think this is a petty matter, but anyone familiar with the Judgment of Solomon should know that  custody decisions are among the most important ones made by a judge. Let me explain why. 

In 2018, a Bucks County girl named Kayden Mancuso was bludgeoned to death by her biological father. She was seven years old. After killing his own daughter, Jeffrey Mancuso wrote out a suicide note claiming that his ex, with whom he was involved in a bitter custody dispute, got what she deserved.  A  Bucks County judge had granted him unsupervised visitation despite red flags from custody evaluators and testimony from the mother about the father's violent episodes. She was corroborated by a teacher and principal at Kayden's school. A psychological evaluation revealed that the father, a man who had once bitten another man's ear off, suffered from depression. Finally, Kayden herself had told the judge she was afraid of her father. 

According to a 2022 op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer,

"Mancuso’s case is not an anomaly. Since 2008, 856 children nationwide have been murdered by a parent going through a separation, divorce, or custody case — oftentimes, like in Kayden’s case, because family court judges gave an abuser unsupervised visitation. An estimated 58,000 children have court-ordered unsupervised contact with an abuser each year. The Center for Judicial Excellence, a nonprofit organization that advocates for judicial accountability, has identified hundreds of cases, including several in Pennsylvania, where the courts failed to prioritize children’s safety."

The system set up by Custody Master Lisa Tresslar was designed to to prevent any Northampton County child from suffering the fate visited upon  Kayden Mancuso. Parental counseling and evaluations are just two of the tools she used.

Unfortunately, Judge Jennifer Sletvold wanted to ignore these tools and refuse to accept them as evidence, Her preference was to push for settlements with as little knowledge as possible to give herself plausible deniability in the event that things go haywire. She could claim the parties agreed and she had no idea anything was wrong. 

This is judicial abdication. I'll have more to say about plausible deniability once my research is complete.   

Who is LisaTresslar?

Yesterday, I told you that NorCo custody master Lisa Tresslar's has been constructively terminated  termination as custody master in Northampton County. It certainly appears that her ouster was engineered by Judges Jennifer Sletvold and Paula Roscioli, with Court Administrator Jermaine Greene doing their dirty work. You've heard her side of the story, but have only heard anonymously from those who think Tresslar needed to go. I've reached out to the President Judge and Court Administrator, but doubt I'll hear anything. In fairness to them, I should note that it's risky to speak out on personnel matters. But don't worry. You'll hear their side of the story after Tresslar almost certainly sues them. Unlike most lawyers and county employees, who cower with fear at the black robes, Tresslar is more than willing to stand up for herself. They messed with the wrong person.      

Who is Lisa Tresslar?

She grew up in a town of 5,000 people in the Ozark Mountains, the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher dad and gospel singing mom. She liked bass fishing and rodeo. She attended Little Rock Central High School, the very same school where President Eisenhower had sent federal troops to force the governor to admit nine black students.

Tresslar graduated first in her class of 600 and was offered a full scholarship to Harvard University. where she graduated degree magna cum laude.  She went on to attend Harvard Law School, where was appointed Executive Editor of Harvard Law Review. Her criminal law professor was none other than Alan Dershowitz. One of her fellow editors on law review, Elena Kagan, now sits on the United States Supreme Court. 

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Tresslar clerked for a year under Judge Amalya L. Kearse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A Jimmy Carter appointee, Judge Kearse is the first woman ever admitted to the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers and the first black woman to become a partner at a major Wall Street law firm. 

After finishing her judicial clerkship with Judge Kearse, Lisa spent nine years working in the litigation departments of two Wall Street law firms in NYC. She eventually was offered a full equity partnership  at the Philadelphia law firm of Duane Morris, LLP. 

She acquired comprehensive commercial litigation practice, including securities, antitrust, white collar criminal defense, professional malpractice, corporate governance, and complex class action litigation. She represented a wide variety of sophisticated corporate clients in the United States, England, Switzerland, and Japan, in both civil and criminal matters. She appeared in depositions, grand jury investigations, and court proceedings in major cities throughout the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Detroit, Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City.

After becoming a mother, Lisa took a step back from the law to spend more time with her family. Once her sons were in school, she decided to return to full-time employment. But she wanted to practice locally instead of resuming her previous national litigation practice, which had involved long working hours, a lengthy commute to Philadelphia, and continuous out-of-state travel. 

Northampton County Judge Michael J. Koury, Jr., who himself was a Wall Street lawyer, hired Tresslar. She clerked for him for two years, and then she was tapped by President Judge Steve Baratta as a custody master. 

Why a custody master? The courts needed someone badly, as the courts were swamped. And Tresslar developed an unusual affinity for custody law as a result of her own custody case, where she experienced first hand what it's like to be a litigant. 

Tresslar served as custody master for nine years before being constructively fired. 

What is the real beef that Judges Sletvold and Roscioli have with Tresslar?

It all comes down to plausible deniability. I'll explain what I mean tomorrow.

A Sign of the Times

I noticed this sign while parking yesterday in Nazareth. It is located right by the police department and is under constant video surveillance. It is apparently a safe spot for child custody exchanges as well as Internet sales.

From what I see at the courthouse, where PFAs are quite common, I certainly think something like this can save lives.  I am nevertheless amazed that people who have children can be so cruel to one another. It’s sad something like this is needed.

I am a child of the 50s. Although domestic violence existed then, I believe married couples had a little more respect for each other than couples do today. I suspect one reason for this is that economic pressures mean that people in relationships see less of each other. 

Whatever the reason, it’s a sad commentary on what we’ve become. 

The Christmas Rush

This is the time of year when Christmas carols are playing nonstop and everyone goes broke buying presents they can't afford for friends and family. There are bonuses and parties, and even I get invited to some of them. But there's a sad side. This is also the time of year when people fight over children. "The Christmas rush" is what one domestic relations lawyer calls it. This is when I feel bad for custody masters and judges. I feel bad for a parent who will spend Christmas alone. I feel even worse for the children.

Custody Court Reorganization Proposal Unanimously Approved

Yesterday, I told you that President Judge Stephen Baratta has proposed a sweeping reorganization of custody court that will reduce the time it takes to resolve matters, as well as save $45,000 a year. His plan is to inject more court participation in order to finish these matters in four to six months. Though Council fought abut everything else, Judge Baratta's proposal received their unanimous support.

I also have to apologize to Court Administrator Jill Cicero for referring to her by her previous name yesterday. I've got early onset dementia, Jill.