Our Criticism Of FX’s Faye Yager Children of the Underground Docuseries

We have followed Faye Yager’s Children of the Underground Cases for several decades. This has included following the cases of Searching Parents & their Families; the Recovery and Arrest of the Underground Moms; Reunification Stories and related High-Conflict Child Custody Divorce and Parental Alienation Cases.

Here are our thoughts about this film:

1. Activist Docuseries — In a Film Documentary, according to a Film Critic the producers should pursue the truth with honor and integrity. Unfortunately, these producers let Faye Yager tell her story through her daughter Michelle Jones French (who was never charged or arrested) and April Curtis (who lost custody in Family Law Court and was never arrested or jailed as a third party conspirator in these parental kidnappings). In this current #MeToo era with the recent Amber Heard Trial starting to change society’s views on courtroom liars, they let the cast of Faye Yager and her Protective Parent Movement Supporters tell their story with little criticism or judgement. As we saw with the recent Allen V. Farrow Film, Activist Documentarians were able to tell the story with their own systemic bias. Although Allen V. Farrow was nominated, it did not win any Emmys. Perhaps the Television Film Academy needs a new category of Activist Documentaries before this Docuseries is considered for any awards.
2. Failure of the Criminal Justice System — The failure was not of the Family Law Courts but of the Criminal Justice System that did not convict Faye Yager, April Curtis or Michelle Jones French (Yager’s daughter). The premise that the Family Law Courts failed in these Underground Mom cases is not necessarily true if you look at the details of these child custody cases. These narcissists mothers not interested in co-parenting or joint custody had been found to be liars in Family Court so they fled rather than stay to fight for the legal custody for their child. The real failure was the Criminal Court System was with District Attorney’s not having the experience to prosecute these cases. Parental Kidnapping Cases that were prosecuted in Federal Court, or for those parental kidnappers also charged with U.S. Passport Fraud were easily convicted in very short trials.
3. April Curtis Custody Case — If the producers had done their job, they would have investigated the details in the April Curtis’ Custody Case. April never had evidence in the Family Law Case and the evidence she always provided is from her mother’s doctor in a rural Oregon town was not found to be credible by the Family Court Judge. The Jury in the Criminal Court and in the very rural San Bernardino County tragically failed like the one that found Casey Anthony innocent. April Curtis should have never appeared in this Documentary and in the end had four children from 3 or 4 different fathers. Those with insider knowledge of this case know the truth about April Curtis (April Brewster, April Meyer, April Yates).
4. Reward Money — When we followed the Philadelphia Parental Kidnapping Case, we wanted to know who collected the Reward Money, if anyone. There were rumors it was Faye Yager and/or Lydia Rayner, but none of us knew for sure. We recollect Faye Yager had a confidential settlement in the $100M court case and that possibly there was a television clause in that agreement.
5. Protective Parent Movement — The start of the Protective Parent Movement in the ’90s and the Violence Against Women Act Funds that gave thousands of dollars to Domestic Violence Shelters that were part of the network to shelter Underground Moms was left out of the film. In addition, the network of discredited Attorneys and Expert Witnesses of the now deceased H. Joan Pennington of the National Center for Protective Parents in Trenton, New Jersey. Pennington was accused of both helping mother go Underground and then representing them when arrested. The Producers did interview the key members of this disgraced movement which included: Alan D. Rosenfeld (disbarred), Amy Neustein (Author/lost custody of her daughter), Lydia Rayner and April Curtis (the Family Law Courts never gave her custody).
6. The Protective Parent Playbook — The Protective Parent Playbook was originally authored by H. Joan Pennington and Laurie Woods by the National Center for Women and Family Law: Legal issues and legal options in civil child sexual abuse cases: representing the protective parent. It was the start of grooming and gaslighting Divorcing Mothers that were as Faye Yager would say “runners”. It encouraged mothers to use as many forums as possible to get evidence of child abuse. It had a questionable list of signs for these mothers to look for to determine if their child was being abused. The Film Producers did not get into any of these details rather than calling of an era of false allegations. The original attorneys in this book for the Protective Parent Movement was the firm of Garnett Harrison (Disbarred in the Karen Newsome/Dorie Singley/ Lydia Rayner Case) and no doubt Alan Rosenfeld (Disbarred) of Montpellier, Vermont.
7. The Media — MacKenzie Carpenter and Allan Detrich (Disgraced and lost credibility as a Photo Journalist) were journalists that did this story. Detrich had many months of previous knowledge that these crimes were to be committed. There was suspected involvement of his wife. It was alleged that April Curtis’ daughter Amanda or Mandy Monet was sent to Europe as the babysitter for the Underground Moms in the story. It’s not believed that her mother April did not have knowledge of this disappearance but it is more credible that the teenager did not like the job as babysitter for these underground moms. As a Journalist, MacKenzie and Allan were most likely expecting a Pulitzer for this story, but in our opinion, it was irresponsible journalism for them to do this story. Geraldo Rivera and Sally Jesse Raphael should publicly apologize to the victims in these cases for promoting Faye Yager. Again, without the TV Talk Shows, these crimes may have never been committed.
8. Child Protective Services Reports — The producers did not appear to investigate Child Protective Services’ role in these Underground Mom Cases. Despite Child Protective Services being formed in the ’70s and being accused of at times being overzealous in wrongfully accusing fathers in these cases, these Underground Moms accused their former spouses in Child Protective Services Reports. With Domestic Violence Advocates, School Employees and Psychologists with limited training during this ear as mandatory reporters, the proclaimed evidence used by these mom was not credible by CPS or the Family Law Courts.
9. Expert Opinions — The Producers rightfully interviewed Kenneth V. Lanning of the FBI. Lanning was the FBI’s expert on crimes against children. As in Criminal Trials, attorneys can always find an Expert Witness to testify about anything but the two clips of controversial Prof Ross E. Cheit of Brown University talking about children abused in the McMartin Preschool Case and the Statistic of False Allegations in Child Custody Cases does not appear to be a situation of Film Makers pursuing the truth with honor and integrity.
10. Parental Kidnapping — This crime is known at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as one of the cruelest forms of child maltreatment. The Producers appeared to ignore the harmful physical and psychological effects this crime has on its victims. They seem to let Faye Yager and Alan Rosenfeld wrongfully sensationalize the lives of Underground Moms like April Curtis who went from a small town in rural Oregon, to TV Talk Shows to a Docuseries and to letting her daughter go abroad as a Teenager babysitter/runaway. They seem to have left out the hundreds of thousands of dollars wrongfully spent by law enforcement and our criminal justice system on these handful of Underground Moms cases.