Two teenagers are currently homeless after special master Jennifer Joseph ordered them away from their mom’s house and told them to live with the dad they fear.
Seventeen-year-old Ethan* and 13-year-old Mason* have told each family court professional they’ve seen for the past 13 years that they don’t want to see their dad. But the professionals they’re seeing are working towards one goal: reuniting them with their dad. They question this goal set despite their wishes – and despite the cost to their education, social lives, activities, and relationship with their mom.
A court-ordered special master, who charges hourly for services that a county judge farms out, has ordered Ethan and Mason to see a family therapist. After their family therapist Cara Coro blocked them into a room with their dad and then called the police on them in February 2025, they wouldn’t see her again.
Because they wouldn’t go, their mom, Lexi*, was found in contempt of court orders by Ramsey County Judge Jessica Bierwerth last fall, and ordered to serve 60 days in jail. The order was stayed for 30 days if the boys go back to family therapy, leaving it on teenagers whether their mom goes to jail.
In various court documents and correspondence, their mom has been labeled as refusing to participate in therapy and an alienator, and the teenagers say they’ve been told they need to stop viewing their dad negatively.
Despite couch-surfing since the special master ordered that their mom lose all her parenting time on Oct. 28, 2025, both teenagers continue to attend school and sports activities. They both lettered in sports this year at ceremonies their mom missed. Ethan has gotten into multiple colleges for next year, and is trying to navigate planning for his future without his mom’s help.
Lexi has sole physical and legal custody of the teenagers, and a Safe At Home address based on the domestic abuse she suffered while married to Derek*. According to Minnesota state statute, endangerment must be found in order to flip custody and hearings must be held allowing both sides to present evidence – but Joseph and Bierwerth sidestepped those rules by doing a de facto custody switch via an order that took away all of Lexi’s parenting time.
This is consistent with recent research about how women and children are treated in family court.
A national Institute of Justice study completed by George Washington University Law School found that court-ordered experts, such as custody evaluators and therapists, exacerbate gender bias in the courts. Part of this gender bias is fathers alleging that mothers have alienated their children from them. The study of court documents discovered that 73 percent of mothers lose custody when the courts believe that the mother is an alienator – sometimes even when courts acknowledge that the father has abused the mother and/or children. “Alienation trumps abuse,” say researchers.
Child protection has been involved multiple times regarding incidents at Derek’s house, which included physical abuse and neglect. There have been no allegations of physical abuse at their mom’s, and the teenagers have told school and Ramsey County crisis staff that they wish they could return to their mom’s house but don’t because they don’t want her to go to jail.
Since 2023, Joseph has issued eight court orders to assist with the therapeutic process and enforcing dad’s parenting time. In an order on Oct. 28, Joseph wrote that she finds that mom's failure to make the children available for relationship repair therapy “places their mental and emotional health at risk.”
It was Joseph who recommended that the mom be held in contempt and put in jail for not following her orders.
Joseph also communicates regularly with dad and has not required that all communication be shared equally with both parties, although that is considered a best practice.
This is what Samantha Colai required when she worked as the family therapist from 2022-2024, before pausing things to wait for the parents to do the work she had recommended. Mom did, completing EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy with a trauma-informed provider within a year.
Dad didn’t follow the recommendations to go through Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and undergo a comprehensive psychological evaluation for three years (and as yet there is nothing in the record showing the results of that psych evaluation).
Instead, dad asked that a new family therapist be brought on, falsely claiming that Colai was no longer working with them, and a new judge ordered it. Coro, whose son works at the same law firm as dad’s attorney, Victoria Brenner, was hired to oversee hour-long every-other-week dinners. After their dad stated that dinners weren’t working, she switched to therapy sessions instead.
Later she began pulling the teens out of school for one to three-hour long meetings with their dad, and not concluding a session until she deemed that they had successfully completed an assignment. Brenner is also closely connected to special master Joseph, as the two serve on committees together, including the three-day “Divorce Camp” 2025 planning committee through the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers at Madden’s Gull Lake.
A new family therapist was appointed by Joseph to work alongside Caro. Therapist Darcy Samek of Reunify Therapy scheduled 12 in-person appointments within 13 days for the two boys. Samek is the eighth to work with the family.
Samek declined to be interviewed about her reunification work or provide evidence-based research supporting her treatment methods. Reunification work like this has been called out by the United Nations as pseudo-concepts without scientific basis. The UN called on states to prohibit the use of parental alienation, reunification programs, and related pseudo-concepts in family law cases; and to ensure that the views of the child are sufficiently and independently represented in family law procedures.
Knowing that their mother would go to jail if they didn’t attend therapy sessions in December, both Mason and Ethan went. Ethan informed Samek that he did not want therapy and would not be going anymore. Ethan is 17 and a half, and according to Minnesota state law, at 16 teenagers gets to decide whether or not they are treated by a mental health therapist. He followed up in writing with Samek that he did not give her permission to treat him.
Despite that, she provided recommendations to the special master about treatment for him, which include an out-of-home treatment facility, a remedy typically reserved for delinquent juveniles, and blocking him from speaking or seeing his mom for 90 days afterwards.
Mason left his intake appointment with Samek after she brought in his dad. The next time that he returned to therapy, Mason reiterated what he had said before: that he is not interested in therapy with the set goal of reunifying him with his dad.
A growing number of states in the U.S. are recognizing the harm done by “reunification” programs and are taking legislative action to ban or restrict court-ordered reunification programs in custody cases involving domestic violence or child abuse. Laws have been passed in Colorado (HB24-1350), Arizona (SB 1372), California (SB 331, Piqui’s Law), Tennessee (HB940 / SB 722), Utah (HB 272, Om’s Law), New Hampshire (HB 306), and Texas (HB 3783).
These reforms prohibit courts from ordering reunification treatments that are unregulated, coercive, or lacking in scientific support – particularly those that sever children from safe, bonded parents or ignore the behavior of abusive parents. Together, these laws represent a national shift toward protecting families from pseudo-scientific practices and prioritizing safety, accountability, and evidence-based standards in family court.
Project Justice USA surveyed over 2,000 families regarding their experiences in family court. The Breaking the Silence study released in September 2025 found that 44% of cases involved multiple child protection reports filed after court decisions, 40% of cases involved new child abuse disclosures after custody arrangements were established, and 52% of children experienced medical neglect or health issues post-determination.
This is having a negative impact on children:
• 22% of children experienced suicidal ideation, threats, or attempts following a custody determination.
• 96% of children experienced negative impacts from family court proceedings
• 92% suffered emotional/psychological distress
• 85% were exposed to unsafe or abusive conditions
Only 12% of children’s voices were heard or considered by courts.
Ethan and Mason question why they don’t get to have a say in their own lives.
The family therapists tell them their mom is controlling and lying to them, according to Ethan and Mason, and then threaten them with dire consequences such as out-of-home placement and their mom in jail if they don’t comply with treatment that involves seeing their dad.
“Why are they saying they want to send me to a residential treatment facility during my senior year?” asked Ethan. “The focus on my relationship with my dad is affecting my future.”
During a hearing with Judge Bierwerth on Dec. 10, 2025, Lexi’s attorney stressed that the court should be focused on the best interest of the children, versus dad’s rights or mom’s rights.
Meanwhile, the teenagers don’t know when they’ll be able to safely return to the home where they want to be.
*Editor’s note: In writing the articles in this series, I have reviewed dozens of court documents, and reports by professionals. In recognition of the sensitive nature of these articles, we have opted to refer to people by their first names or aliases, and have not used details that can be used to identify the family
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