SARAH'S PETITION

FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF TOMPKINS
______________________________________
In the matter of a proceeding

of Custody and Visitation under

Article Six of the Family Court Act,                       PETITION REQUESTING

                                                                                 JUDICIAL INTERVENTION

SARAH HUGHES,                                                                                         

                                            Petitioner                      Docket No. V-0689-97

              v.

AMY HUGHES

      and

ANDREA MOONEY,

                                            Respondents.

______________________________________

    SARAH HUGHES, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

1.    My name is Sarah Hughes.  My DOB if 4/8/86.  I am 13 years old.  I used to live at 5 Brookside   Drive in Dryden, New York.

2.    My father is David Hughes.  My mother is Amy Hughes.  My sister is Harriett Hughes.  Harriett will be 10 years old on August 18th.

3.    I want the court to say that Harriett and I can come back to New York and be safe.  I also want the court to say that Harriett and I can fire our lawyer.

5.    I starting living with my father in 1995 because bad things happened to me when I lived with my mother.  I was made to suck on a penis.  A penis was put in my butt hole.  My mother pulled my hair so hard that she pulled the hair out of my head.  My head was slammed into walls.  My mother and her boyfriend made me come in the bathroom and watch them do sex stuff in the shower.  My mother's boyfriend walked around nude in front of me.  My mother called me "duckfeet" because I have webbing between my toes.  When I lived with my mother, bad things happened to Harriett too.  Harriett was made to suck on a penis and my mother beat her with a belt buckle.  My mother and her boyfriend made Harriett and me look at magazines with pictures of nude people doing sex stuff.    

6.    I hated my life when I lived with my mother.  I didn't have hardly any real friends.  My mother made Harriett and me wear clothes from rummage sales, the Salvation Army, or the Dollar Store.  My mother made me have my hair so short that I looked like a boy.  My teeth were black because we never brushed them.  Everybody in school teased me.  I didn't do very good in my school work either.

8.    My mother went into a psych center after I started living with my father.  I was happy because I just wanted my mother to stop being mean to Harriett and me.  I thought that the psych center would help my mother stop being mean to us.  My mother didn't stop being mean to Harriett and me.  She started getting meaner to us.

9.    My mother refused to let Harriett and me go to any of our activities in Dryden.  I had to quit Girl Scouts and Campfire with my friends because my mother wouldn't let me go to any of the weekend campouts or activities.  Harriett and I also wanted to go to dance class in Ithaca with our friends but we couldn't because of visitation.  My mother said visitation was her time and we had to go to our activities on my father's time.  My mother would only take us to activities by Elmira that she wanted to go to.

10.    My mother made me work as a waitress at the Dixie restaurant and I got burned.  I still have the scar.

11.    My mother kept driving up and down the street in front of our apartment over and over.  I saw her with my own eyes.

12.    My mother and my Grandma Dolores kept calling us and saying bad things to us.  I know because I answered the phone two times when they did it.  They didn't even let us say hello.  The just started calling us bad names.  Then they hung up.  One time I answered the phone and my Grandma Dolores called me A-S-S-H-O-L-E.  I know it was my Grandma Dolores because I know her voice.  Another time I answered the phone and my mother called me B-I-T-C-H.  I know it was my mother because I know her voice.

13.    My mother told me she was going to blow my father away with a shotgun.  She said it would be awesome and cool if she shot my father.  I know my mother has a shotgun because she showed it to me at my Grandpa Wheeler's house on East hill.  She has a big tall gun case with about five guns at my Grandpa Wheeler's house on East Hill.

14.    Every time Harriett and I were home in Dryden on a weekend, my mother kept coming to Dryden and driving around. I saw her with my own eyes.  I asked my mother why she kept following us and she told me she was watching my father so she could tell the court if he did anything wrong.

15.    One time, Harriett and I got to talk to Judge O'Shea in Chemung County.  My mother told me Harriett would get hurt really bad if I told Judge O'Shea about the mean things my mother did.

16.    My mother made Harriett and me keep saying lies about my father over and over.  Then she made us say the lies into a tape recorder and a VCR camera.  When Harriett and I told my mother we wouldn't keep saying lies, she made us go to bed.  She told us we had to stay in bed until we would say more lies. 

17.    My mother kept calling Social Services on my father and telling them lies.  She called Social Services two times right in front of me.

18.    My mother called Social Services on my daycare provider, Jane.  I know because I was there when the Social Services woman came to Jane's house.  My mother told Social Services that Jane didn't make us good lunches.  That was a big lie because Harriett and I ate lunch in school. 

19.    My mother talked to me all the time about custody.  She kept giving me court petitions and telling me to read them.  The petitions said lies like I was failing school.  I was never failing school.  They said that Harriett couldn't read, but Harriet could read.  They said that Harriett and I didn't have shoes when we really had about 30 pairs of shoes.  It really upset me that my mother kept lying to the court.  My mother also kept telling Harriett and me that she would be nice to us and buy things for us if we told the court we wanted to live with her.

20.    When I tried to tell my mother that I was upset about her lying to the court, she laughed about it. She told me she was going to take Harriett and me away from my father no matter what she had to do.  She told me she would make us be in a foster home before she would let my father have us.

21.    My mother also talked to me about child support all the time.  She told me my father should pay for everything for me because I live with him.  She told me she would never pay child support to my father.  My mother even had nice clothes she called custody court clothes and beat-up clothes she called child support court clothes.  She also told me she was trying to make my father lose his job by making him go to court and miss work all the time.

22.    My mother filed another custody petition in 1998.  I know because my mother made me read the petition.  I was really angry with my mother.  I told her I want to live with my father.  I asked her to stop with her court garbage.  I told my mother that I think she needs mental help and she got mad at me.  She told me I could say bad things about my father, but she would punish me if I said bad things about her.

23.    In July, my father told me I had a new law guardian and I was going to meet her.  He told me her name was Andrea Mooney.

24.    I told Andrea Mooney about the mean things my mother did to Harriett and me.  I told her I want to live with my father and I want to choose if I have visitation with my mother because I want to attend my own activities and I don't want to see my mother when she's acting crazy and mean.

25.    A couple of weeks after I met Andrea Mooney, my mother told me the court was giving her more visitation.  I was really upset.  I don't think Andrea Mooney ever told the court how Harriett and I feel and what we want.

26.    After this, my mother started acting even crazier and meaner.  I was really scared.

27.    My mother made me stand in front of her without any clothes on.  She just kept staring at my private parts.  When I tried to hide and cover up, she grabbed me by my arm and made me keep standing in front of her without any clothes on.

28.    One time, Harriett yelled at my mother that she was crazy.  My mother locked Harriett in the bathroom and wouldn't let her out.

29.    Another time, my mother got mad and started throwing things across the living room.

30.    Two different times, my mother wouldn't let Harriett and me go home after visitation.  My Grandpa Wheeler, my Grandma Dolores, and my mother locked Harriett and me in a room upstairs over the Dixie restaurant.  Then they turned off all the lights and hid the cars so nobody could tell we were there.  My Grandma Dolores and my mother told me they were going to keep moving us to different houses so my father couldn't find us.  They told me they were taking us to another house in Sullivanville the next day.  Harriett and I were really scared.  They were acting crazy.  Finally the police came and got us.

31.    My mother told me her and her friends had big plans to make my father lose custody of Harriett and me.

32.    My mother showed me pictures of our passports.  She told me a friend and her broke into my father's car and stole our passports.

33.   I told my mother she was going to get in trouble for all the crazy things she was doing.  She laughed about it.  She told me she had a new lawyer named Mr. Shaw.  She told me she could get away with anything she wants because Mr. Shaw will help her.  She told me Judge Barrett always believes Mr. Shaw.  She also told me Andrea Mooney will do anything Mr. Shaw says.  I saw my mother sending E-mail to Andrea Mooney too.

34.    Andrea Mooney came to my school to talk to me.  I was angry that she came to my school and took me out of class because she embarrassed me.  She could have called my father and told him she wanted to pick me up after school to talk to me.  I really wanted to talk to her about my mother being mean to Harriett and me and acting crazy, but I think Andrea Mooney was inappropriate to come to school and take me out of class and embarrass me.

35.    When Andrea Mooney talked to me, she told me her other cases were more important than my case.  She said that's why she only ever met with me one time before.  She also told me she was telling the court that I want to live with my mother.  I told Andrea Mooney that isn't true.  I want to live with my father.  Andrea Mooney told me she thinks girls should live with their mother.  Andrea Mooney also told me my clothes are dirty living with my father.  That isn't true either.  We did laundry two times every week.  My clothes are always clean.  I just spilled a little milk on myself at lunch.

36.    My mother really hurt my feelings at Christmas in 1998.  She only got me one real toy and some little stuff from the Dollar Store for Christmas.  She told me that I only got one real toy because I wouldn't tell the court I wanted to live with her.

37.    I got the Chicken Pox at the beginning of February in 1999 and I couldn't go to school.  My father stayed home with me and took care of me.  We had to go to the store to get some medicine so I didn't itch.  My father stopped to get a cup of coffee like he always does.  Then my father and I both saw my mother.  She started driving around us in a big circle through a parking lot.  Every time she got close to us, I saw her hold up a gun in her hand and laugh.  I know my mother was holding up her shotgun because I've seen her shotgun before.  I was so scared I wet my pants.  I thought my mother was going to shoot us.

38.    I told Harriett about my mother driving around us with a gun.  Harriett told me she was really scared too.

39.    I couldn't go to sleep because I was really scared.  I told my father that I really wanted to leave because I couldn't take my mother's abuse anymore.  Harriett told my father she wanted to leave too.

40.    The next day, I still had Chicken Pox.  I saw my mother again when my father and I went to the post office to get the mail.  She was driving in her car and she was laughing and she held up her shotgun at us again.  I told my father I was scared and I really wanted to leave.

41.    My father and I went home and packed clothes and stuff in the car.

42.    We went to pick up Harriett from Daycare and I told her about seeing mom with the gun again.  Harriett said our mother is crazy.  She said she was really scared and wanted to leave too.  After that we left.

43.    I heard somebody say that my mother and Andrea Mooney are telling the court my father kidnapped Harriett and me.  That's a big lie.  Harriett and I told my father we wanted to leave because we were really scared our mother was going to shoot us.  My father isn't making us stay away either.  He told Harriett and me that he will take us back to New York anytime we want.  Harriett and I don't want to go back to New York until we can be safe from our mother's abuse in New York.

44.   I also heard somebody say that the court is trying to arrest my father and put him in jail.  That makes me angry.  Harriett and I don't really have a mother who acts like a mother.  Now the court wants to take our father away from us too.  The court is trying to make it so Harriett and me don't really have any parents at all.

45.    Harriett and I want the court to help us and let us come back to New York and be safe.  We are doing good but we miss our Grandma Bonnie and Aunt Sarah.  We want the court to make it so we can be safe in New York and start school in New York in September.  Harriett and I won't come back until the court let's us be safe from our mother's abuse in New York.

46.    We want the court to make our mother stop filing court petitions about custody and visitation.  Harriett and me are not a pair of shoes that people get to fight over who has us.  We are human beings.  Nobody owns us.  The court has run my life since I was 5 years old.  I want the court to fix this situation for good and then leave us alone.

47.    We want the court to let Harriett and me keep living with our father.  That's where we want to live. 

48.    We want the court to make our mother get mental help so she stops abusing Harriett and me and stops lying.  We want a normal mother.

49.    We want to choose if we have visitation so we can go to our own activities and so we don't have to see our mother when she is acting crazy and being mean.

50.    We want the court to make our mother stop following us around and stop driving back and forth in front of our house.

51.    We want the court to make our mother get rid of her guns.

52.    We want the court to make our mother stop calling Social Services.  It's embarrassing to have a Social Services woman come to school and home all the time.

53.    We want the court to stop trying to arrest our father and put him in jail.  All he did was protect Harriett and me from getting hurt.  That's what a parent is supposed to do.

54.    We want the court to let Harriett and me fire Andrea Mooney as our lawyer.  She doesn't stand up for our feelings and what we want.  She only ever even talked to us two times.  Adults can fire their lawyer when they don't talk to them and don't stand up for them so we think we should be able to fire our lawyer.

55.    We want to pick a new therapist who listens to us instead of our mother and lawyers.

56.    I want the court to let my Grandma Bonnie stand up for me in court for this petition.  She will stand up for Harriett and me and tell the truth.  Our Grandma Bonnie's name is Sylvia Tomlinson.  Her address is 250 Schuyler Avenue, Elmira, NY 14904.  I am scared to come back and tell the court myself because I don't trust my mother and Andrea Mooney.  They will try to lie to make Harriett and me live with our mother.  Then my mother will hurt Harriett and me if she gets in trouble because we told the truth to the court.  I know because my mother has hurt us before when we told the truth and she got in trouble. 

57.    We want the court to fix our situation as soon as it can so we can be safe in New York and start school in New York in September.

I'm sorry this is so long but I want the court to know everything about what's happened to me and how I feel.  Thank you for listening to me and helping us.

I'm sending copies of this to Andrea Mooney, my mother and my Grandma Bonnie.

DATED:  August 9, 1999         

VERIFICATION

STATE OF NEW YORK   )

                                            (SS.

COUNTY OF TOMPKINS)

                    Sarah Hughes, being duly sworn, deposes and says that I am the petitioner in the within action, that I have read the foregoing Petition Requesting Judicial Intervention and know its contents: that the contents are true to the best of my knowledge except to those matters, if any, state to be upon information and belief, and as to those matters, I believe them to be true.