A divorced mom moved the St. Louis County Circuit Court last week for the recusal of St. Louis family court Judge Robert Heggie.
Caroline Less filed the pleadings after Judge Heggie issued an injunction, which prevents Less from receiving therapy notes about her 11-year old daughter’s treatment and prohibits her from filing complaints against therapists.
“It violates the current court-ordered parenting plan, which a motion to modify is needed in order to make a change of that magnitude,” she said.
Less also filed a motion to disqualify guardian ad litem (GAL) Robert Hamilton.
“The child has disclosed sexual abuse over 12 times in the past five and a half years to therapists, teachers, friends, pediatricians, and trusted adults who have continued to fail in protecting her,” Less alleged in her Aug. 30 pleading.
Less, who resides in Richmond Heights, shares physical custody of her daughter with her ex-husband, Melchior Van Den Bergh, every Monday, Tuesday, and alternate weekends, however Van Den Bergh has sole legal custody. Their divorce was finalized in 2016.
Hamilton declined to comment while Van Den Bergh’s attorneys, Susan Hias and Elliot Goldberger, did not respond to requests for comment.
The injunction, signed by Judge Heggie on May 20, states that restrictions are needed because Less had interfered with treatment and repeatedly violated the parenting plan.
“Father has clearly shown the mother will, absent entry of a permanent injunction, continue to file complaints against the child's counselor,” Heggie wrote. “There is a limited supply of qualified counselors in the St. Louis area and these complaints filed by Mother have and will continue to cause counselors to decline to treat the child. If the child is unable to see a counselor, irreparable harm to the child will occur, and Father has no adequate legal remedy at law to prevent mother's actions.”
Less said her goal at an upcoming Oct. 6 hearing is to free her daughter from alleged ongoing abuse.
“Mine and my daughter’s dream is to have her heal in therapy with Evangeline Bauer as she is aware of the past five years of trauma and abuse, we have been forced to endure,” she told the St. Louis Record. Bauer is a mental health professional in St. Louis who had previously treated Less and Van Den Bergh's preteen.
Less also filed a motion to disqualify the embattled GAL Elaine Pudlowski from her case in 2018.
“The GAL has failed to act in the best interests of the minor child and has not exercised independent judgment on behalf of the child in all matters...and above all has failed to recommend to the Court that all contact for the minor child with Respondent cease immediately in ignorance of the evidence of sexual abuse and in direct conflict with the recommendations of three separate individual therapists of the child,” attorney Patria Susia wrote on behalf of Less in 2018.
Hamilton was appointed GAL in December 2020 after Pudlowski stepped down.
As reported in the St. Louis Record, Pudlowski became one of three nominees to replace retiring Judge James Sullivan in the 22nd Circuit Judicial District, which prompted complaints from divorced parents who had lost custody of their children and sued Pudlowski.
Attorney Craig Higgins was appointed to the bench, not Pudlowski, a partner at Frankel, Rubin, Klein, Payne & Pudlowski.