• a father from southeast claiming his ex-wife is abusing the child - the girl has asthma but the mom spokes around her, and the girl comes home with burns from “soup” and chipped teeth and bruises from “falling down.” the father lost a kidney after being shot in 2009, but he still works; the mother is strongly implied to be a drug addict; a wife from the same anacostia neighborhood filing for divorce and alimony claiming her husband treats her “like a slave” and is abusive to her. the husband counterclaims that the wife pretended to be a muslim so he would marry her, but plantiff’s counsel rightfully argues the man knew for a year she was no muslim
• my heart breaking reading the request for alimony from a petworth woman with four children under the age of ten, who was barely making enough on welfare to cover rent and food and clothes. I had utmost sympathy for her, until I read the domestic violence report - she had accused her husband of cheating last fall, smashed plates over his head, hit him with a chair, and attacked him with a bible. two weeks ago, the husband had arrived with flowers at her house to reconcile, but when the wife refused, he pinned her town and said he would kill the children so no one could have them. I can’t wrap my mind around cases like these.
• the absolute worst case of all - the situation of a father complaining that his children told him that their mother was beating them severely with coat hangers, yanking them out of bed and hitting their heads and splitting their gums, force-feeding them prozac as punishment until they overdosed, force-feeding them undercooked meat as punishment, not feeding them, threatening to cut their hands off if they tried to call their father, saying she doesn’t care if CPS takes them away. the custody proceedings went on as normal - the father lived in suburban alexandria and the mother in the immensely poor ghetto of marshall heights, and the daughter was upset she had to live with her mother and switch schools. three days ago the mother and grandmother said they were going to cut the girls to pieces and put them in the freezer, and the father filed an emergency custody motion - denied by the judge. so much hatred and spite in some people it’s hard to fathom.
• the rare happy story of an aunt who wants to take her nephew out of the barry farms projects to live with her in gaithersburg, and the father consents; an ex-couple from georgetown fighting out their differences peacefully with mutual concern for the child

it’s also interesting to note the neighborhoods these cases take place in - the places where actual families are in DC, instead of businesses and lobbyists and commuters. anacostia, marshall heights, petworth, brightwood, mayfair, shepherd park - and the white neighborhoods, wesley heights, tenleytown, georgetown, glover park, chevy chase, and a whole hell of a lot of plaintiffs and defendants from in PG county