I'm Andrea Dunlop, and this is Nobody Should Believe Me Case Files.Thanks for being with us today.This is the third part of our conversation about the Justina Pelletier case.If you have not listened to parts one and two, please go do so.
Today, I'm back with the second half of my interview with Bo Berman, the reporter who broke this story. We are picking back up with our conversation about mitoaction.org.
This organization bills itself as a support group for parents dealing with mitochondrial disease, but it also appears to have a strong focus on protecting parents from, quote, false accusations of medical child abuse.
This was a really fascinating part of my conversation with Bo. As always, if you'd like to support the show, a great way to do that is by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or on Patreon.
You get ad-free listening plus two bonus episodes a month with me and Dr. Bex.And we also have a free tier on Patreon where we release certain episodes from behind the paywall periodically.
Right now, I am making all of our coverage of the Justina Pelletier case free to listen to.If you would like to get in touch, the best way to do that is to shoot us an email at hello at nobodyshouldbelieveme.com.
And if you or someone you know is a victim or survivor of Munchausen by proxy abuse, you can find help at munchausensupport.com.Links to both can be found in our show notes.And with that, here is the rest of my interview with Beau Berman.
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I have a detective that is an expert on medical child abuse cases who does a lot of reporting with me.
And, you know, he looked at it and he said, part of this, at least in the state of Texas, you would be committing a crime if you followed this advice, because it was, you know, and it just a lot of it was just very striking.
I mean, having covered a lot of these cases, you know, saying things like, be sure to celebrate your child's wins on social media, as well as their rough days, because that will be used against you if you don't appear to be celebrating their health.
And I'm like, you know, you're a parent as well, like, is that something that you would need to be told?
I mean, it just it really rang, again, being very, very deep in this and looking at a lot of these cases, you know, talking about make sure there are other people caring for the child, because if it's only the mom, they'll hold that against you.
And I was like, well, that's good advice in terms of just like having people care for the child.But again, like this doesn't seem like something that It was all very much framed in like, here's how not to get accused of medical child abuse.
And I just sort of think about it, if I found a site that was for fathers in custody battles, and the entire focus of the site was how not to get accused of sexually abusing your children, I would have a pretty strong opinion about who that site was for.
And it didn't include a lot of information about medical stuff about mitochondrial disorder.It's very focused on on the elements of the medical of all the false accusations that are happening with medical child abuse.So it's it's very striking.
And of course, when I saw the people pop up in the documentary, I was you know,
Yeah, I think it's, I mean, it's hard for me to comment on without having looked at it recently or seeing this myself.I think, yeah, I mean, at first blow, it sounds like kind of, it sounds strange.It sounds, you know, a bit suspicious.
I think, you know, throughout this entire thing, I really, really pushed myself to remain open minded as much as possible.
I mean, I've seen other situations, let's put it this way, let's just step aside from mitochondria disease and, and from, you know, parental custody cases, but I've seen other things in life, right?
certain systems are set up in a way that they do sometimes err on one side or give judgments predominantly 80% of the time to mothers or to fathers in legal systems or just the default thinking in society is a certain way.
And so, I mean, I could, like, make the argument that, like, oh, I see what they're doing here.They're realizing that, like, the system is set up this way, that it hasn't caught up to the science or something, and you're trying to help people.
So I guess the question I would ask, like, so just to have the conversation, let me ask you something, even though you're the host here.
Do you think there are any cases where parents are falsely accused of Munchausen by proxy or, you know, medical child abuse?
I think there are, because I think everything happens that could happen, right?
My, of my colleagues, so I'm part of the Munch-Hudson by Proxy Committee on the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and that is like a concentration of, you know, some, most of the best experts in the country, and really in the world.
And one of my colleagues has seen one, that went all the way to the courts, right?Not something where there was suspicion and then it was cleared up, right?That's a different thing.
If there's a suspicion and one of my other colleagues has an example that she worked as a psychiatric nurse for 30 years and has a law degree and is an incredible expert.Actually, B Yorker, she was in the Peacock documentary.
They talked to her briefly. She always talks about this case where the child's ears were bleeding, and it wouldn't clear up, and it wouldn't clear up, and it was suspicious for Munchausen by proxy, right?
They suspected the mom was causing it, and so they did a trial separation, and it continued.And so right away they knew, okay, the mom is not causing this. they determined that this child did have a rare disorder.And in fact, his sibling had died.
And that was one of the things that was a red flag, right?If you see that another there's been a sibling death in the family, that's also a possible red flag for much as my proxy.So to me, that's not a false accusation, right?
That's doctors acting on a good face, dismission, and then clearing it up.There's only one case that I've heard about from my entire committee colleagues where it actually went to court and there was a separation.
And that's Dr. Mark Feldman, who's a very well-known expert, and he feels strongly that that was not a case of Munchausen by proxy.
I can't remember all the specifics of it, but I mean, to say it's vanishingly rare, I mean, and on the other side, the number of cases that all of my colleagues have worked on and that I know about that are cases where the parents were guilty and the evidence was extremely compelling,
where they got their children back or didn't face any consequences or both are too numerous to count.And it's a problem of underdiagnosis, not overdiagnosis.
And unfortunately, the media, the reigning media narrative right now is one of overdiagnosis.And in fact, that spilled out into other things like broken bones and abusive head trauma with the Take Care of Maya movie.
In that case, there was a whole bunch of parents that came in and I
I did some digging on some of the other parents that were in the movies and read their police reports and they found there's another well-known expert, I can't remember his name, Dr. Schaefer, who is in the 5% of the medical establishment who does not believe that abusive head trauma exists.
And he testifies in court that it doesn't exist. So basically any parent that can afford him can, and this Viviana Graham, who was one of the parents featured in Take Care of Maya, that was the doctor on her case.
And so he's had his testimony excluded many times using what's called the Doe-Bear Motion, which is where they basically decide someone is not a credible expert, so they're gonna throw their testimony out because he's just in such the minority of the medical community.
Obviously most people accept that.It used to be called Shaken Baby Syndrome.It's now referred to as abusive head trauma, but it's, It's the most common form of death for children under two.It's very sad.It's very common.
And there's a huge pushback on that right now.And you see, you know, all of this sort of, when I look at this case, you know, I really see the precursor to what's happening now with this really conspiracy theory of medical kidnapping.
I'll tell you, Beau, sometimes people really think I'm sort of defending these systems.I'm not.These systems are a mess.DCF, the way the police handles these cases, even within hospitals, I think there are a lot of problems.
There are a lot of families that are removed from their children unfairly, and I think that those have more to do with sort of neglect cases.I interviewed an expert on this last season, and we were talking about 70% of child removals
don't happen because of abuse allegations, they happen because of neglect.And so that's families that don't have resources or they're getting removed because of medical neglect when really that family just doesn't have access to good medical care.
And those cases are really sad and deserve attention.Those are not the cases that people are talking about when they're talking about medical kidnap.
That is really the conspiracy theory that in like a case like the Pelletiers or the Kowalski case where it's not just a hospital, it's like multiple hospitals conspired against us because of course the Pelletiers were reported by another hospital.
That's also incredibly common where you see when you actually peel it back, it's like, it's not just one doctor that has it out for you.It's not one hospital that has a problem.
It's like, okay, so all of these hospitals are coordinating with each other to get a DCF order to shelter your child, for what aim?Like, what does the hospital gain from that?And that's not to say hospitals are perfect, or they never make mistakes.
But like, I think there is this really strong narrative of like, the people were difficult, and so they snatched their child. And Lou Pelletier, to be honest, he sounds like kind of a nightmare.
I mean, he was yelling at people and berating people and calling.I mean, he called the police, right?I mean, that's what happened when the shelter order happened was because he called the police and said, they're trying to kidnap my child.
I mean, he sounds like a difficult guy and certainly is a capital C character, as you said.
You know, when I talk to like, especially like pediatric emergency room physicians, if they called DCF every time a parent was being difficult or acting wild, they would be doing it all day long because lots of parents act not themselves when their child is in distress or if they don't feel like the doctors are listening to them or what have you.
I mean, that's just a very regular occurrence.And these are professionals who deal with that every day.They're not going to put themselves through keeping a kid under shelter without strong evidence of abuse, really.
Yeah, yeah, all that makes sense.Yeah.
Yeah.So I wanted to ask you about the Martin Gottsfeld, the hacker kind of angle of this whole case.I thought this was a very curious element of the whole thing, and was just sort of interested in in your impression of
him and what his motivations might have been.I mean, I read the Rolling Stone article about him.I think, to be frank, I think maybe they overplayed him in a little bit of a heroic way, but I believe he recently was released from prison.
I mean, that was just kind of a wild element to that story.What are your thoughts on him?
Yeah, I mean, I think he kind of comes into the situation out of left field.He was not directly involved whatsoever. had no familial friendship, any connection to the family, to the hospital even.I've never met him.
I have spoken extensively with his partner over the phone and through emails, and he wrote me a letter from prison with his situation or his side of the story, whatever.
I mean, again, so a lot of my knowledge is probably similar to yours in terms of the the Rolling Stone article.
And then I sort of suspect that the documentary kind of blossomed out of that Rolling Stone article, as opposed to blossoming out of Justina's actual story.And you know, the whole Martin Gotsfeld thing is like a tangent sort of to the story.
I mean, it's not the main thrust of it definitely makes it more like sexy, so to speak, you know, for a documentary or even a news report.
It happened quite a while, or at least the Rolling Stone article came out quite a while after I had already stopped reporting actively on this case, the Pelletier story.
Based on what I know from the Rolling Stone article, this is an individual who felt maligned by the system overall and by adults and by authorities.There were some allegations of abuse, that he was abused when he was younger.
And he, as an outsider, seeing national media coverage of this situation with Justina, you know, without being on the inside of it, felt that she was being wronged in some way by being held at the hospital, you know, ostensibly against her will, or at least against the parents will, for sure.
We don't know if it was against her will, it may or may not have been.And, you know, he took dramatic action, and he just happened to have these bizarrely advanced skills for hacking.
And so as you learn in the documentary, he hacked the Boston Children's Hospital computer system and prevented them from receiving donations for quite a while.
And they allege that it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they lost and disrupted the entire hospital, could have endangered other children, maybe did endanger other children.
And I would probably agree with you that he's cast in a light of a little too heroically both in the Rolling Stone article and in the documentary with the amount of kind of attention he gets and sympathy.
You know, I think he was someone who didn't have all the information.And granted, like most people didn't have all the information. Um, you know, I think the thing is, like, you know, most people in society, we're not experts, right?
Whether it's a local news reporter, or, you know, a mom or a dad watching the TV stories are not experts in Munchausen, they're not experts in mitochondrial disorder, they so you're going a lot as you do in life on, you know, signaling mechanisms, do the parents seem crazy?
Does the hospital seem legitimate in their actions?Do you know, and you're not necessarily No one can really draw except for you, maybe who's like dedicated, you know, part of their life to this, but like most people can't.
And to some extent me back then, but most people can't drop everything and pull up police reports and doctor's notes and this and that and fully weigh it.
So again, so that all of that is just to say that this guy became convinced that this 14 year old girl was being wronged, possibly abused by the hospital.The irony is she might have been being abused by her parents.
and that's why she was in the hospital, you know, like that's why the hospital was holding her, is because they alleged that she was being abused by doctors and by her parents' volition.
And he took this extreme action, which, you know, ended up becoming very, maybe salacious is the wrong word, but it was just very like, very odd.The whole story of Martin Gottsfeld was like unbelievable.
It was like something that if it was in a Hollywood movie, you would be like, well, this is corny, this is stupid, this doesn't even make sense.
There's not even a plot, like not even a thread line connecting this, like that this random computer hacker who like went to high school with Mark Zuckerberg, you know, finds out about this and decides to hack the hospital.
I mean, what an extreme measure and really like ruined his life, essentially.I mean, from like an outside perspective, it certainly seems that way, given that he spent several years in like a federal prison.
I have also heard that he's been released at this point.So again, this goes back to purely selfishly as a news reporter, it was kind of great for anyone covering the story because it gave it this very bizarre twist and turn.
If I had a child in that hospital, I would be very upset at this person, obviously.Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else to say about it.I mean, the fact that they fled the FBI, went to Florida,
purchased a speedboat on Craigslist, ended up in Cuba, you know, interviewed by government officials and then dismissed and sent back into a storm, got picked up by a Disney cruise ship, were given Mickey Mouse t-shirts, I believe, you know, to stay warm, and then were apprehended by the FBI in the, you know, the port of Miami or whatnot.
It reads like a horrible, you know, B grade movie.And it's all true.I mean, the story of what he did and his girlfriend, his wife did, you know, in terms of with him.So, yeah, I don't know what to make of it.
I mean, I think I do think it made for a compelling Rolling Stone article.It definitely made the documentary more interesting.
They devoted basically an entire episode of the series to it, which is a little misleading just because this really was like a tangent to the whole story.
But, you know, it was one of the more like enthralling episodes of the of the documentary and of the story itself, because the story really is just about a teenage girl and her family in a hospital.So, yeah, anyway, it was it was quite interesting.
It's such a strange element of the story.
And like, I don't know if the same is true for you, but like reading, you know, David Kushner's article in Rolling Stone and like then watching, you know, the documentary coverage of it and just doing like a little more digging on Martin, like I really vacillated between feeling
some sympathy for him, and then just being like, dude, like, make one right decision in this whole string of like terrible, terrible decisions, right?
He just kind of appreciated this, because I always think about, you know, what motivates people to do something that is an extreme action, especially when, as you said, he had nothing to do with the case.
And they gave some context that he came from an abusive house.And then also, I believe his grandfather was abused in an orphanage in, I think, Bangladesh, where they were from.
And so I was like, maybe he has some ideas about institutional abuse that's this really plugged into.And I appreciate they gave that context.And I believe he thinks he was doing the right thing.
And then from there, it's like he just sort of got more and more grandiose, right, of like, I have to do this.
And then when it gets to sort of the trial for him, and I'm like, I don't really think he deserved to be in prison for 10 years, which is what I believe he served in the end.
But then he's completely unrepentant in court, and he's saying he's going to do it again.So I was like, well, that's just not the move, buddy.Like, they're not going to, you know.
And I think he really got a bit high on the idea of being the savior of Justina Pelletier in a way that like, I'm like, you know, this behavior is actually sort of concerning because you seem like you don't have any concept of maybe why you shouldn't have done this.
So yeah, he's a curious character.
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Have you kept in touch with the Pelletiers at all?Do you hear from them at all?
I do not, you know, make any effort to actively keep in touch with anybody who I've ever covered, you know, as a subject of a news story.Well, active or passive efforts, I would say.
That being said, I have received, yeah, some like outreach from the family over the years.And mostly it's been essentially like attempts to alert me of, you know, something that's to something that's going on in their situation or with Justina.
and basically seek like either counsel or help drumming up more media coverage.And I've just, you know, tried to politely let them know that I'm no longer like a practicing, you know, news reporter.
I mean, not really a practicing journalist either at this point, although I, you know, do have ambitions of releasing a book on this topic or like their case, you know, specifically.
But yeah, so they've reached out a couple of times, not any time recently.The last time was probably three or four years ago. which, even that being said, was a long time after they had known me to be in their life, so to speak, as a journalist.
And that's much closer to when their court case was happening, so that makes sense.
Yeah, it was closer to when the court case was happening, that's correct.Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, one thing I'll say is that they had a lot of conviction to the very end that they would be exonerated in their civil trial, which they were not, or not exonerated, but like, you know, because they were never really charged with a crime, but that they would win.
Yeah, like metaphorically be exonerated, we'll put it that way, in their civil trial, which they were not.
They, you know, I think Martin Gottsfeld was almost the definition of conviction, you know, someone could be convicted towards something in a good way or a bad, you know, whether it's a good
ideal or moral or bad one and you know the people can make up their own minds about like you said about you know whether he's a sympathetic character or an evil character in all of this.
If one thing he did not lack conviction and that you know to the point where he clearly deeply inside well it's it seems believes in what he did and stands by it and you know like you said says he would do it again and
That's someone who believes deeply in what, you know, what they believe in for better or worse.Right.But yeah, so I haven't really heard from the family any time recently, a few years ago.
And to me, it just spoke to the fact that they still did not have any sense of like boundaries or like sort of the way things usually work with. you know, journalists and things like that.
One of the stranger things about this whole situation, which I haven't really talked to anybody about, including, I'm trying to think if I told the documentary crew this or not, I don't think it ever came up, was that towards the very end of my coverage of the case and right before Justina came home in June of 2014, the last couple of months, the Pelletiers
out of nowhere had this advisor who came into the picture.And I'm actually blanking on his name right now.I have it in my notes, but, and he was just sort of this like quiet behind the scenes advisor is probably the best word to call him or counsel.
He was not an attorney.And I don't remember how they found him, how he came into the picture, why they trusted him so much, but he would be around like during interviews, he would be at their house sometimes.
he would call me and like start telling me things.And he basically felt like a, like a spokesperson, you know, like a PR person, public relations.
And he was pretty like charming, you know, pretty like seemed relatively savvy and somewhat like charming, so to speak.And that's probably the mark of a good PR person.But one of the strangest things is
As it was all wrapping up and I was basically done covering it, I think I had told them at one point, like, OK, you can stop calling me.I'm no longer reporting on this.So you're kind of doing it for no reason at this point.
I was like, I am going to write a book about this.I hope to.But other than that, there's no real reason to be calling me so much.And I remember him saying, well, do you want me to act as your literary agent?
And I was like, holy inappropriate, given that you're completely biased in this.Number two, are you a literary agent?And he was like, no, but I own a publishing company or something to that effect in Boston.He's like, I know what they do.
I can basically do it. And it was just very strange to me.So that was the whole thing.You know, some other red flags about the whole situation were some of the people, you know, the family got involved with who to me just didn't seem like very
intelligent politicians, I'll put it that way, whether it was the Mike Huckabees of the world or the Michelle Bachmann's, they just didn't strike me as the most logical or intelligent politicians, but they definitely glommed onto the case and made the family feel special and heard, which, and that was one of the things is they, so often to me, honestly, being on like, to some extent, the inside of like, well, just being inside their house and getting to know them,
to some extent, was that they just didn't strike me as nefarious.As much as I wanted to find that smoking gun of like, oh my God, they're doing this on purpose.They're terrible people.
Maybe if Munchausen is a psychological condition, then maybe there would never be that smoking gun, or maybe it wouldn't manifest as being done on purpose.
they mostly just seemed inept, like kind of like they had no one to talk to, and no one would listen to them.And they were just kind of clueless about a lot of things.And that that's my hunch.
My assumption was like, just based on like, who I saw that they sought for counsel and accepted as their sort of leaders throughout this whole saga.It seemed like somebody who was just desperate for like, attention.
And that probably fits in with, you know, a symptom of, you know, a marker of Munchausen.
you know, desperate for attention, but then also like, just looking for guidance, you know, like, and not sure who to go with and just accepting whoever showed up at their door for help.
Yeah, and just sort of chaotic sounds like.
Yeah.I mean, do you know anything about how Justina is doing today after all of this?
You know, so I think at some point, like years ago, after I was done covering the case, like maybe one of Justina's sisters added me as like a Facebook friend.
And I think I accepted the friend request thinking like this is probably harmless because I'm no longer involved in this case.And if I'm going to write a book about it, it probably helps me to, you know, keep some contact with them, I guess.
I've seen like a few photos of her over the past few years, but I do not know how she's doing specifically.And I haven't had like,
any communication with them for a few years, you know, outside of like a phone call a few years ago where they called me and talked for a while, but I don't even remember, you know, the nature of it really.So no, I don't know.
I mean, I know that she, my understanding is she's alive and that she is living with the family, I believe.I don't know that for sure.I vaguely remember seeing some like photos of her on horses again.Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, I I gather she had a stroke a couple of years ago that then led to some more debilitating stuff.And I believe I believe it was since the trial that she had her colon removed.So she's had some pretty serious health.
stuff since she's been back with her family.
And I mean, I certainly think, you know, one of the things that struck me that came out during the trial, when Lou was describing this situation to the media, and one of the things that took off, and I think one of the things that sort of snagged Marty Gottsfeld, was this idea that, like, she was being tortured there, or she was debilitating, you know, she was really, like, backsliding while she was at Boston.
Children's and you know what we figured out when they were able to testify was that actually that was one of the longest periods in her life that she had not been extremely heavily medicated and didn't undergo any invasive procedures and That to me is very striking because that's a true separation test, which is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence you can have in these cases and I
And also, I think there were just a couple of details when they were talking about doing her like occupational therapy while she was there, because that's, you know, if you suspect someone has somatoform disorder or conversion disorder, I think they're pretty similar, if not the same thing, where, yeah, it's a physical manifestations of a psychological, you know, condition, is they were describing that she couldn't brush her teeth.
They were having to reteach her to brush her teeth. And I just thought, like, that's very striking for a 15-year-old.Like, again, how do you have a 15-year-old that is ice skating at one point, can't brush their teeth?
They didn't really talk that much about sort of her arms or anything.And so I just, those details just really, really stuck with me.I worry about, I worry about her. I guess is my last sort of.
Yeah, yeah.I mean, just on the point of the teeth brushing and stuff like that, I mean, you know, one thing I noticed from the get go was how like infantilized she was in her demeanor.I mean, I'd never met her until the day she came home.
But just through photographs and stories and things they said, she was very like, I think that's a word infantilized, you know, like like an infant, you know, like very treated like a baby and like acted like a child, you know, like someone who was not 14.
And now she's, what, in her early 20s.And I don't know about her life right now.
I think it is extremely striking and suspicious that she's had this stroke and the colon removed, if that's the case, or another major medical intervention, whatever it is, since coming home from the hospital.
I think that was, first of all, sad for her, number one.But number two, doesn't bode well in terms of
the parents making a case that, you know, this was all on the hospital and this was all Boston Children's fault and bad doctors and some secret plan to research her or whatever they accused them of.It doesn't look good, right?
Like you said, the fact that she had at least some semblance of stability in her health while she was there in the hospital. comes home and then has these major things that she's undergone.
And so I think it's like worth discussing, you know, she came back home.So number one, why did they ever let her go back home?
This is just me playing like devil's advocate, like just thinking this through, not again, like I literally have no stake in this, but I'm just wondering, like, why did they let her go home?You know,
Could have been partially my fault, you know, media pressure, I guess.
But, you know, we've been covering this for a long time and would present, you know, many sides of it, even people who said, you know, even evidence indicating that maybe she should be in the hospital.
So I'm just wondering, why was she let go to begin with, to go back home?And then furthermore, this is public.Like, you know that she's had this stroke and it was in the docuseries.
I've heard some of this stuff, which I hadn't recalled until you said it, but now it reminds me of that. So if that's the case, if she had her colon removed, what doctor is doing that?
willing to do that, number one, without like asking a lot of questions.And number two, why haven't officials stepped in?Because it's not that big of a secret.If we all know about it, it was in a docuseries to possibly take custody.
I mean, now she's an adult.So I guess that's part of the issue.But there's still such a thing as like abusing somebody, right?
Whether they're a child or an adult, or someone like being held captive, you know, whatever you want to call it, maybe it's a lot harder.Maybe that's the answer to my own question.Once the person's an adult, you know, maybe the last opportunity to
intervene would have been when she was a teenager before she turned 18 and maybe now it's too late.Anyway, these are all just questions I have, you know, now that I'm not directly involved in this.
And yeah, it's very sad and or, you know, and simultaneously kind of fascinating of what's going on now at this juncture.And is anybody looking out for her?
You know, if if assuming the parents aren't, which maybe they are, but like if they're not doing the right things for her, then Is anybody out there able to advocate for her?
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's certainly complicated.And I have have many of those same questions.
And, you know, I think, from my perspective, from again, and this is just from watching, you know, watching and reading about the case, you know, it does seem like public pressure certainly played into the decision for DCF to get her transferred elsewhere and eventually sent home, right?
I mean, you wish that agencies and officials would always do the right thing that's best for the child regardless of the political climate and the pressure from whomever.But of course, that's not true.
These are human beings with their own interests making decisions.I think that's just the reality.
I'm very curious about why there was never a police investigation because certainly something that meets this level and where you have a child who's sheltered for that long, there certainly should have been a police investigation.
And to my knowledge, there wasn't.So that is that's like a whole other question, right?Because custody is one thing, but like, there's all kinds of things that you can find out in a police investigation that you you can't in DCF and vice versa.
So there always should be both working together.
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That's something I've always wondered too, you know, be it back in 2012 or 13 or 14 or 15, any of those years, um, or even now ish, you know, is it, I don't know if that's possible, but yeah, I've just wondered why, if there's people out there who, you know, I mean, there's certainly enough evidence that strikes me as something that, you know, potentially there could be cause to look into it.
It's, it's a tricky thing.I mean, it's not like a situation where, uh, you know, she comes into the ER with like a broken facial bone and it's like, Oh, this is abuse.
You know, this whole medical child abuse, uh, allegations are, are different in that people aren't used to spotting them.They are a gray area, you know, appear that way.
And so, I mean, you know more about it than I do, but, um, complicated to investigate.And like you said, a lot of these fall back on agencies who, you know, evaluate things somewhat politically?Do we want to get involved?
Is she at immediate risk of death or immediate harm?Yeah, it's a big question, though, is like, if these parents were being accused of medical child abuse, and that's a really big question that goes back to 2013.
Why were they not investigated criminally?And I say that as someone who, you know, maybe they would have been exonerated, right?Like, maybe it never would have amounted to any charges or
Maybe there would have been charges and they would have been found not guilty.
Or maybe a police investigation could have unearthed some speculation here, but something in their home that indicated, oh, wait a minute, this definitively a note to themselves or a diary entry, whatever, something that would have indicated more clear cut one way or the other, either innocence or guilt.
And that never happened.And I do wonder why.
The reality is there are many places that don't understand that it's a crime.They see it as, you know, as you said, like there's a huge misconception about this being primarily a mental illness question.
And while there is an underlying diagnosis in the DSM, I don't think it's particularly helpful.I think we need to focus on the fact that it is a crime and it's not.
You know, as this kind of came up before when you were talking about Linda and Lou, and I mean, Lou is very fascinating to me because I'm always interested to know how fathers, 96% of Manchester by proxy perpetrators are mothers.
And I'm always interested to know how fathers react.And this is a case where a father like really doubled down, tripled down, really made it also his business to sort of defend the family for whatever reasons he had for doing that.And
It's not a situation where someone's confused about what they're doing.They are aware of their behavior.It's characterized by intentional deception.
So it's very, very separate from like a parent who is anxious and who gets a hold of a doctor that gives them advice that they take sort of in good faith.
Or someone that is suffering from postpartum psychosis and is having actual delusions about something happening to their children. Those things happen also.
They're just very, very distinct from this form of abuse, which is why I think it's so important to focus on the fact that it is abuse.
Yeah, that's interesting.I didn't know that actually.I'll admit that.
So one thing I'll say regarding Lou Pelletier, Justina's father, based on my experience around him and being around the family, is that he did really seem, out of the entire family, the most to enjoy the attention.
that came from the media coverage and he would, you know, kind of chuckle about like, oh, you know, Megyn Kelly.I mean, this is the bright lights.This is Broadway.
This is New York City, you know, type of thing, you know, in one breath and the next breath, you know, be talking about, you know, how angry he was about what was happening to his daughter.
I mean, it seemed somewhat plausible that someone could reasonably act that way.But it was a little bit weird to me that in one breath, he was really sad and angry.In the next breath, he was excited about the bright lights and Megyn Kelly.
I mean, I got the sense that he was a big possible Fox News viewer.And so that's why he was so excited.But another time, I remember being in an elevator at my TV station coming up to do a follow-up interview.
And he was like, you see this phone number right here?And I said, oh, who is that?And he was showing me like his phone contact list.And he was like, that's Alan Dershowitz, big attorney.You ever heard of him?And I was like, I have.
He was like, that's right here in my Rolodex.I just had a call with him earlier today.
So, there was something about him that, you know, liked the cause celebrite, you know, of the ordeal, which was like a little strange, because like if you were, you know, truly concerned about your child, I think you either would, number one, not care about any of that, or two, you would secretly, like internally care, but kind of hide it.
Like, you know, you'd be like, oh, this is cool, but like, I don't want to show that because I'll look like a crazy person if I'm excited about the attention I'm getting. So that really struck me.
Now, Linda didn't really seem to care that much about the attention.She was always like sobbing or like she seemed really shaken and like distressed and just emotional.Sometimes she would say something like, oh, that's a really big deal.
You know, we're going to be on Dr. Phil.Can you believe it?But she was much less so concerned about celebrity about attention, but Lou, very concerned about it, very like excited about it.
But I didn't know what to make of it, because sometimes it just seemed like kind of chummy as if I was like, I don't even know how to put it, like a neighbor or a friend or something who he would brag to about, like it just, yeah, I don't know.
It seemed more like oblivious to like how this made him look than like, again, nefarious or like, I didn't know, it was another very odd wrinkle to the whole situation.
Yeah, I mean, and I think we can leave room for the fact that parents that are in a situation like this, you know, and I also am in the position of talking to, you know, most of the people I talk to, I'm talking to them about the very worst thing that ever happened to them in their lives.
And I'm immensely like admiring of people that are vulnerable enough to share their story publicly.I think that can help other people.I think that that can really help educate, I think all kinds of good things that can come from that.
And I think it can feel very validating to have someone listen to you.
And certainly if you're a Fox News lover, having Megyn Kelly validate and listen to your story could certainly like, I think anyone can understand that even if it's bad circumstances, that could feel good.And you're right, it's a little odd.
And I think to the degree that you're like, Lou did come across as pretty ready for his moment in the spotlight.And that was a little off-putting.It was a little off-putting.
You hit the nail on the head there.And that's really what I chalked it up to, was that this was extreme validation for them after months.
Because sometimes people I don't share about the back story or they don't know is that this happened initially in February of 2013.I didn't walk into their lives as a news reporter until August of 2013.
Six months had gone by of no validation, essentially.And I was one of the first people who just wouldn't even listen to them and take notes on what they were saying at a bare minimum.
And then the fact that I worked at a Fox affiliate, I think, was something they were really excited about just from a personal standpoint.So yeah, I think you're exactly right.It was extreme validation.
And simultaneously, it was still a little weird of just how excited he was.But that's really how I felt about a lot of this whole situation, was that
And again, I don't want to like dumb it down to like, you know, do like both sides ism necessarily, because I'm aware that can be problematic.
But I will say that, like, I'm a firm believer that like, two things can be true at once, if not three, if not four.And I think society a lot of times loses sight of that.
This was one of those examples where it was simultaneously understandable that they felt validated.And he felt excited because his like, favorite, you know, news network was covering his story, his situation.But it was also really weird.
Yeah, and I always worry specifically where this plays in with Munchausen by proxy cases in particular, because attention is such a huge part of the motivation for doing these things.
And so and I again, I think you did responsible reporting on this case and kept it balanced.And as you said, like I once believed to that very strongly that most journalists were, you know, like, it's staying neutral and had their ethics in place.
And I've seen some very, what I consider really unethical reporting on this topic, not the Pelletiers specifically.I think actually most of the reporting, I mean, Boston Globe did a series on this that was very well balanced as well.
But more recent cases like Mike Hicks and Boggs' Do No Harm series, where they are really, to my mind, playing into the perpetrator's narrative.
And again, I say perpetrator because I've looked into a bunch of these cases, you know, way too strongly, right?And the risk that you can take is that you are actually becoming part of the abuse.
If you are too strongly coming down on the side of the perpetrator when the evidence saying something else, then you're becoming part of the exploitation of those children.
And especially, you know, you see some of these news articles with a whole bunch of pictures of the kids in the hospital.And like, I think there's some really horrifying media coverage on this topic.
That's all just to say, I really appreciated your coverage on this topic.And thank you so much for coming in to talk to me about it.Is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn't or just anything else you want to say about the case?
Well, I guess a final thought is that just in response to what you had just said was that can be problematic if especially if like a lot of local news reporters and stations are not given the time to delve into something appropriately.
And so if they do a one off story about. a local girl tonight, a local girl is in the hospital accused, you know, and her family says it might not, you know, it's it's the hospital's fault.And then they never follow up on it.Right.
And, you know, that can be super problematic.You know, looking back on it, I think that, you know, the coverage that I did was fair and reasonable, you know, given the information that we were able to obtain.
And, you know, we went pretty far to try to flush it out as much as possible.But I can certainly envision instances where, you know, a one off or even like just two stories are done.I mean, we did like over 30 or 40 in a row.
For example, with the Pelletier case, the first conversation I had with them, and I started Googling their situation, this must have been covered already, and saw that they were doing a fundraiser for Justina and had little Livestrong style bracelets for her with butterflies on them.
it struck me as like very strange, like if she was kidnapped, so to speak, why would you be just be doing like this little fundraiser that felt kind of very lighthearted and fun, so to speak.
And so I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a TV station or newspaper covered that without doing enough research, it could be misleading, and you know, potentially damaging.I agree with that.
And so yeah, I think I do think that journalistic coverage of these types of cases does deserve as much research as possible and an open mind, but also the willingness to not engage in false equivalency.
And again, I don't think that my coverage did that.And I think perhaps if I covered it 10 years later with the availability of more social media and other things, it might look a little different.
But again, I think part of the issue on this too, and the issue with many news stories, is that people are not necessarily inherent experts in the matter they're covering.
So as a reporter, you're kind of becoming a mini expert on something very quickly, as best as you can, and trying to present as much fact or just information as you can that's vetted and true on a micro level.But you might not be getting into like,
to the macro issues of the situation as much as you possibly could.
So yeah, it was nice to see the documentary done on this case and I do think it was something that was quite an important case and it remains to be seen what's going to end up happening with Justina's life.
Well, thank you so much for being with us, Beau, and do keep me posted on your book.
I don't know if you know this, but my whole background is in book publishing, and I'm an author myself, so I'd be happy to talk to you about that, and would just love to hear, and if that's coming out, then we'll have you back on the show.
That would certainly be interesting to our audience.
Yeah, thanks a lot for your time and having me on the podcast.
Nobody Should Believe Me Case Files is produced and hosted by me, Andrea Dunlop.Our editor is Greta Stromquist, and our senior producer is Mariah Gossett.Administrative support from Nola Carmouche.
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