Walk organizer, judge in tiff over rally

A walk along the Trail of Tears in support of mothers who are fighting child custody battles got off on the wrong foot Monday morning when Judge Peter Statler stopped the rally that was to have preceded the beginning of the walk to Georgia.

Statler was scheduled to be the speaker at the rally, but when walk organizer Wendy Titelman of New Orleans started to set up for it at the Commons Pleas Courthouse gazebo, Titelman said Statler ordered her and her supporters off the property.

Statler said he does not have the authority to remove anyone from the grounds. He said he ordered her to leave his office but that after she left he had no idea where she went.

She founded Kourts for Kids, a nonprofit advocacy group, after she lost custody of her two daughters to their father in Atlanta, where she used to live. She maintains that family courts often are guilty of granting custody of children to the parent who has abused them.

Statler said he was misled into participating in the rally, that Titelman told him her rally was about child abuse.

"I specifically told her I did not want to be part of anything that was going to be badmouthing or knocking social services," Statler said.

Titelman said she had talked with Statler twice last week, had spoken with his staff and had confirmed with him that he would read the proclamation Gov. Bob Holden signed designating July 4 to 19 as Family Court Awareness Weeks. A spokesman for the governor's office confirmed that Holden did sign such a proclamation.

'Trashing the court system'

When Statler read in Saturday's newspaper the announcement of the walk and the comments Titelman made regarding her belief that the family court system abuses children, he became angry.

"That's basically trashing the court system," Statler said. "You could substitute anywhere the words 'court system' with 'Peter Statler.' That's the way I took it."

When Statler confronted Titelman at the courthouse gazebo before the rally Monday morning, he said, "Things got a little heated."

Titelman said the judge "acted like a lunatic."

Titelman said the remarks she made concerning family courts were not her own words but those of the American Judges Association.

"Now I am concerned," she said. "He doesn't care what the Judges Association said, he doesn't care that the governor made a proclamation. He just wanted us off the property, threatened us with jail and told us to take our signs down. He called me a liar."

Statler, who has been a family court judge for 10 years, admits he did call Titelman a liar.

"She seems to think all judges and all courts are bad," he said. "I took exception to that. I felt like I had been taken advantage of, lied to, whatever you want to call it."

Drug Court administrator Steve Narrow was in Statler's office during one phone call the judge had with Titelman. He said he heard only the judge's end of the conversation but that Statler could not have been more clear.

"He said, 'If you're looking for someone to bash the courts and social service, you're looking at the wrong guy. I don't think the system in Missouri is broken,'" Narrow recalled. "He was so clear and direct with her. I think she has a different idea in her mind as to what he said."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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