Father Refuses visitation . . .

LORRAINE TIPTON CASE

Father refuses to see daughter so that mother will remain in jail!

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Elizabeth McVey

Children’s Rights

Albany, New York

November 14, 2009

518-505-9200

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lorraine Tipton was jailed on Thursday for not being able to force her daughter to visit her alcoholic and abusive father, Craig Hensberger. Tipton’s daughter cracked under the pressure and decided it was too much to know her mother was sitting in jail because of her. Over the weekend 11year old Michaela called her father numerous times to let him know that she would visit him and asked if him to pick her up. Hensberger repeatedly told his daughter that he was not going to pick her up and that “her mother needed to sit in jail for at least 20 days because that was what he had to do.” In June 2005 Hensberger was convicted was convicted of a second DUI in less than a year. At the time his daughter was a passenger in the car. Hensberger spent 20 days in jail as a result.

Not only did Hensberger tell his daughter that Tipton needed to sit in jail, but he made a joke, asking Michaela if “she wanted to give her mother a banana, because she was a monkey behind bars.” It seems that keeping his daughter’s mother in jail and his daughter miserable has become “sport” to Hensberger. This might make some wonder just how much danger Michaela would be putting herself in to save her mother. If Hensberger is so bent on seeing Tipton suffer, what happens if she is let out of jail because his daughter agrees to visitation? What lengths would Hensberger go to make sure Tipton continues to suffer? One sure line of recourse would be to further abuse Michaela.

No matter how horrific the abuse Hensberger should subject his daughter to, how likely would it be for Judge Miron to listen to further allegations from the girl’s mother? Or perhaps Hensberger might try to withhold his daughter from her mother. After all, wouldn’t Judge Miron forgive Mr. Hensberger for keeping his daughter as, according to him, Tipton willingly refused to send Michaela for visitation with her father? Isn’t it interesting how many avenues there are to torture the mother of your child when you have the judicial system behind you?

After deciding she simply couldn’t live with the fact that her mother was still in jail, today Michaela arranged it with her step-father, Chad Tipton, to be dropped off to Mr. Hensberger. At approximately 7:00 pm Michaela was brought by her step-father and another relative to Hensberger’s mother’s house. Upon seeing his daughter, Hensberger became enraged and adamantly refused to let his daughter in the house. He told Mr. Tipton that he did not want her, and that he wanted to see to it that her mother remained in jail. Michaela’s grandmother repeatedly instructed Michaela to pick up her things and put them back in her step-father’s car.

After continued and numerous refusals by Hensberger, Mr. Tipton called the Sheriff’s department for assistance. Upon arriving on the scene, the deputys found Hensberger to be argumentative and disagreeable. Hensberger continued to say that he did not want his daughter to visit, and that he wanted to see that Tipton sat in jail. Deputy Lt. Mason told Hensberger “he wasn’t to use his daughter as a pawn to punish her mother.” He said “You are the father. You need to make sure she has a place to sleep tonight and that she gets to school tomorrow.”When Hensberger continued to insist that he did not want Michaela there the Deputy asked, “Mr. Hensberger, are you refusing to take your daughter?” He went on to say, “If you don’t take her we will have no choice, but to put her in foster care.” It was then that Hensberger agreed to take Michaela.

Wouldn’t it seem that a father who fought so tirelessly in court to ensure visitation with his daughter would welcome her with open arms? It would appear that Mr. Hensberger has been more concerned all along with making Michaela’s mother suffer than with Michaela herself. Isn’t it interesting that Judge Miron seemed sufficiently convinced that this poor father was so distraught over not seeing his daughter that he went to such severe lengths to make this reunion possible? What would Judge Miron think if he heard that Hensberger refused to take his daughter to the tune of 13 times? Would he apologize for the harsh sentence he cast based on what appears to be a clear error in judgement?

And how does a judge apologize in a situation like this? You would think he’d begin by making sure that Ms. Tipton was released from jail first thing tomorrow morning. Next, you would hope that he would be able to admit that he was wrong, and given the fact that he was wrong, one would hope that he might rethink the probable danger in which he has just placed this young child.

It will be interesting to see what Judge Miron does tomorrow morning and how fast he acts upon learning of this evening’s events. It is highly doubtful that Judge Miron will ever admit to anything less than perfect judgment on his part. In fact if Michaela is abused so severely that she feels, once again, she will not be able to visit her father, would it be far-fetched to believe that Tipton will be back in jail possibly before she is even let out?