On Monday, a Boston judge ruled to place 15-year-old Justina Pelletier in a Massachusetts foster care facility - Shared Living Collaborative in Merrimac. This is the latest development in a nearly 13-month ordeal that has seen the Pelletier family lose custody of the child to the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families.
Glenn and TheBlaze have been methodically covering the case for a number of months, and other national media sources are beginning to pick up the story as well. The problems began last February when physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital concluded that Justina has somataform disorder, a physiological condition, not mitochondrial disease. Justina’s parents, Lou and Linda, objected to the new diagnosis – citing Justina’s extensive treatment for mitochondrial disease by doctors at Tufts Medical Center. It was this objection that led to the Massachusetts DCF gaining custody of the child.
After hearing about the case through Glenn’s coverage, Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, has offered the Pelletier’s legal counsel. Mat was not allowed to be in the courtroom on Monday when the judge ruled to put Justina in foster care because he had to motion to be allowed in as an attorney for the family. The judge didn’t immediately grant this motion and is allowing DCF 48 hours to contest it.
After appearing alongside Lou Pelletier on last night’s Glenn Beck Program, Mat joined Glenn on radio this morning and explained that in his 27 years of practicing law, he has “never seen anything like this.”
Mat admitted that he was initially skeptical that something this egregious could be happening in the United States. But, as it turns out, situations like this are nothing new.
“We looked at it. We talked to the parents. We talked to others. We did an investigation. And we realized: Yeah, there is something wrong, but it's not with the parents – it's with the Department of Children and Families, the CCN of Massachusetts, and Boston Children's Hospital,” Mat explained. “This is not the first time this has happened to parents when they have taken their children for treatment at Boston Hospital. DCF all of a sudden is called, and they come in and the children are taken away because now, oh, it's not a physical problem. It's got to be a mental problem. It's all in your head, therefore, it's got to be the parents making these things up… When you dig into this other issue, you realize this is a pattern of DCF and Boston Children's Hospital.”
Mat believes that the state is trying to keep this case “quiet” and “kick the can down the road.” But the increased media attention is making it more and more difficult. One of the most bizarre aspects of the case is that Justina’s family is barely able to interact with the child.
Justina’s sisters and grandparents have not seen her in over a year. And when her mother Linda arrived on Friday for her monitored, hour-long weekly visit, she wasn’t even allowed to bring her cell phone in “to photograph her own daughter’s condition.”
“Matt, I can't thank you enough – you and the people that are coming in are going to be responsible for saving this girl's life. And I think, honestly, waking America up to a horrible situation. It's not just in Massachusetts,” Glenn concluded. “We pray for your health and the health of your organization and that God watches over everything that you do. Thank you, Mat… This thing is going to come undone in a spectacular way.”
Watch the entire interview below: