The jailing of a mother for opposing reunification therapy between her two youngest sons and her ex-husband, who is facing charges of sexually abusing his daughters, prompted state lawmakers to press Colorado Supreme Court Justice Monica Márquez to address what the lawmakers termed “a crisis” in the state’s family court system.

An article in The Denver Gazette detailing the jailing of Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins also generated intense national interest, attracting more than 5 million views on X, as donors contributed $70,000 to defray the mother’s legal costs.

“Everyone who has donated, thank you so much,” said Pickrel-Hawkins, 48, in a video she posted on her Facebook late Sunday after her release from jail. “I cannot thank you enough for standing with me to fight for the children. Together we do this. Justice for the children now.”

“There is power in numbers, and we have started a movement,” said Erin

Siegel, an advocate who set up the GoFundMe fundraiser for Pickrel-Hawkins. Siegel on her website said she and Hawkins are hoping to sue for “coercion and obstruction of justice in our cases” and are seeking lawyers to represent them.

Siegel maintains her case involved collusion between a parental evaluator, Terri Finney, and her ex-husband’s lawyer, Edward Dale Parrish. Siegel lost custody of her now-15-year-old daughter. Parrish denied any impropriety in his legal representation and said Siegel had her parenting time restricted for valid reasons. Finney did not return messages seeking comment.

The article on Pickrel-Hawkins’ jailing prompted lawmakers to gather signatures for a petition they planned to send to Márquez, who was sworn in as chief justice in July. They also organized a rally for 11 a.m. Thursday in front of the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center, home of the state Supreme Court.

“Too many judges and magistrates continue to place children in the custody of abusers, order forced reunification therapy, ignore credible evidence of abuse, void protection orders and, in some cases, send protective parents to jail while abusers are unaccountable,” states the letter signed by five legislators.

Larimer County District Court Judge Daniel McDonald on July 9 ordered Pickrel-Hawkins to spend seven weekends in the Larimer County jail, enforcing a magistrate’s earlier contempt ruling against her for balking at the court-ordered reunification therapy.

The magistrate had found the mother interfered with the therapy, which costs $1,500 a month, for her two youngest sons, ages 10 and 13, and their father. McDonald found she interfered with that therapy once again June 25, and the judge restored a jail sentence the magistrate had imposed but then suspended.

Pickrel-Hawkins had balked at taking the children to the therapy sessions and had told Christine Bassett of Fort Collins-based Christian Lighthouse Counseling she didn’t think she was the proper reunification therapist, because no assessment was done to determine whether reunification therapy was appropriate. She added that the children’s personal therapist stressed that the reunification efforts were harming the children, who were expressing

thoughts of self-harm.

In December 2022, the Larimer County Department of Human Services confirmed that the father had sexually abused a daughter and had been engaged in neglect and injurious environment of his oldest son in 2018 for holding the boy, then 12, underwater in a pool in Costa Rica until the son feared he was going to drown.

Despite the child-protective service findings, McDonald still ordered reunification therapy to continue for the two younger sons in an effort to repair the father’s relationship with them. Later in July, after McDonald’s ruling, the father, retired Aurora Police Sgt. Michael Hawkins, 55, was criminally charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and one count of physical abuse of a child.

In court documents, Hawkins has denied any sexual abuse of his three daughters, including two of whom he adopted. His lawyer Christopher Estoll in court documents has said the mother of the children lacks credibility and “is highly manipulative.”

For now, Pickrel-Hawkins has primary custody of the couple’s three minor children. The father is seeking full custody of the couple’s two youngest sons and has drawn support from the reunification therapist.

Bassett, who declined comment, has said she does not believe the allegations of child sexual abuse, while the personal therapist for the minor children has said she does believe the claims from the children.

Last week, McDonald suspended the reunification therapy and scheduled a hearing for Sept. 10 to determine whether it remains appropriate. Still, McDonald upheld Pickrel-Hawkins’ jail sentence, ruling she had not convinced him that she had not engaged in contemptuous behavior by interfering with therapy sessions.

The dispute comes at a time when such therapy is coming under new scrutiny.

The treatment is used by family courts to settle custody fights. Reunification therapists use confrontation and exercises to reverse a child’s rejection of a parent. In extreme cases, children have been sent across state lines to reunification camps with parents they reject, while they are barred from having contact with another parent.

Last year, Colorado lawmakers placed new restrictions on the use of reunification therapy, barring courts from using such therapy to restrict the parenting time of a competent, protective parent who has not engaged in child abuse. Legislators took that action following a series of investigative reports by The Gazette into Colorado’s family court system, which has been beset by accusations of bias, usually from mothers who say they are punished and can have their parenting time restricted during custody disputes when they seek to protect their children from abusive former partners.

State Rep. Meg Froehlich, D-Denver, who persuaded lawmakers to pass the restrictions on reunification therapy, has successfully pushed other family court reform legislation and was leading the petition effort and organizing the rally.

Froelich said she remains frustrated that the state judicial branch has resisted efforts to bolster domestic violence training for family court judges in Colorado. She said she unsuccessfully pushed for new mandates on such training and was rebuffed by the judiciary, which she said claimed the legislature could not issue mandates because of a separation of powers.

In a compromise, the judicial branch, at the behest of the legislature last year agreed to convene a task force on the issue, but Froehlich on Tuesday said that task force still hadn’t alleviated her fears that judges aren’t well-versed in how to respond to allegations of domestic violence.

She said she continues to hear of instances of court-ordered reunification therapy between children and parents accused of child and sexual abuse even in instances when protection orders have been issued barring contact between a parent and a child.

Froelich told The Denver Gazette the judicial branch won’t give legislators the names of judges who have undergone domestic violence training.

“That’s just a bridge too far for them,” she said.

“We just keep having these cases that demonstrate a complete lack of comprehension of the realities of domestic violence, child abuse and child sex abuse,” Froelich said.

Also signing the petition letter were House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge; Rep. Eliza Hamrick, D- Centennial; Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango; and Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D- Commerce City.

“We call upon you to issue a response with all due speed in honor of the lives lost, the continuing trauma and the injustices perpetrated every day in family court,” the letter states.

It calls on Márquez to consider issuing a Supreme Court directive, a judicial disciplinary action or an emergency reconvening of a task force that reviewed whether judges in the state were sufficiently trained to understand domestic violence. The letter states that despite recent legislation meant to protect parents credibly alleging child abuse and to restrict the use of reunification therapy, too many judges are not following the new laws.

“We are calling upon you to take immediate action to address the crisis in family court. This is a public health and safety crisis that affects every judicial district in Colorado.”