In the letter, Tonia raises the same objections to Dr. Reedy’s psychological evaluation as she did at the hearing and asked that I sign a release to speak with Dr. Reedy directly. I never did this.
Q. Isn’t it true that we posed initially that he have each child one night a week and then on alternate weekends that he have all three children and take them to his father’s house in Everett where there was more space and more things to do?
A. I do believe that was before everything started to happen in January.
It would have made no sense for me to agree to that before January because I would have been seeing the kids at the house. There would have been no need to have them one at a time or take them to my dad’s house in Everett.
Q. That’s your recollection?
A. I can’t remember the exact dates and what we discussed and when, however this is something we proposed, and this is — he agreed to it and didn’t even ask for anything else. That was it. Actually, you guys didn’t even contact my attorney. She didn’t even know that he agreed to this until I said, well, he’s been texting me. We’ve been working on, this plan, and he asked me when can we start, and we went from there.
Q. Wouldn’t you agree that after a person has seen their children in a supervised limited situation for two months that he would be fairly desperate to see them any time he could see them?
A. Certainly. So why didn’t he take them for more time, is my question? He had — where’s that schedule? Do we have that schedule?
Q. Well, you did show the text message where he said, how am I going to entertain these children for four hours.
A. So the first day that I offered that he would have them on a Thursday from 4:00 to 8:00, he took them — I believe that says 6:00 to 7:30. Then he had them Sunday. When he could have them 11:00 to 7:00, he had them 5:00 to 7:00.
Text messages show that it was a constant back and forth with Rita about when to pick up the kids and when she wanted them back. While she’d suggested a schedule, it was not ordered by the court and we really did not seem to be following it. The combination of requiring my dad to be present, them all to be there, and having a 10′ x 15′ windowless apartment–see image gallery–meant it was just not practical to have them for eight hours.
Q. But in fact, isn’t it true you also said, Ms. Mockensturm requests that the paternal grandfather assist Mr. Mockensturm with the custodial exchanges on Thursdays and Sundays, as well as be there with him to assist in managing all three children.
A. That would be my request, yes, because I think he would be better off having some help. Three kids, somebody who is not used to taking care of three kids could use the extra help.
Q. So that was your willingness, was to let him have them for those periods of time?
A. I thought it was a good stepping stone from where we were having supervised visits to gradually getting into a custody agreement that we could both agree upon.
Q. Now, when he got out of jail, you limited his telephone contact with the children, did you not?
A. No.
Q. He offered to buy cell phones so the children would be able to talk with him, and you were concerned about what the children would tell him on the phone?
A. That is not the reason. I told him I did not want to have a phone in the house that I could not trust, in terms of it being tracked, monitored or anything else. I’ve had incidents with my own phone and things happening to me. I was not going to have those things happen to them, as well.
I don’t understand how she thought I couldn’t take care of the kids, but she had no problem leaving them with me for long weekends away. Besides Amanda being distraught that Rita had left her, nothing bad happened on those weekends. I wanted Rose to make a point of this, but she had already pointed out that Rita’s original custody schedule provided me with substantial time with the kids.
I wish Rose would have pushed Rita about what had happened to her or her phone. It certainly wasn’t anything I had done. However, I suspect Rose probably wasn’t sure if I had or had not. This kind of exchange is one of the problems when you have an attorney representing you, and the opposing parties are making accusations on the fly. If I had known Rita was going to accuse me of this, I would have prepared Rose, at least by telling her that I had done nothing to Rita’s phones. This was the first of a long line of arguments that I was doing all kinds of terrible things to Rita but was too smart to get caught. Not until I was arrested for stalking two years later would I learn some of the accusations.
Q. You’re concerned about Amanda’s medical care; is that right?
A. I’m always concerned about all of my kids, but her medical care is priority.
Q. Okay. So Amanda’s medical care is priority. Amanda has been cared for by Dr. De[c]ter in Hershey for at least seven years?
A. Her whole life.
Q. Her whole life she has been cared for there?
A. That’s true.
Q. They understand her condition?
A. He has a big patient — but he does know her pretty well.
Q. It’s a complex condition. You never in your testimony indicated what your arrangements are going to be for medical care in Michigan.
A. I wasn’t asked, but I certainly can tell you.
Q. Apparently, it wasn’t important enough. Do you know that Penn State insurance will cover the care in Michigan?
A. It will. There is just a higher deductible for her to see doctors there.
Q. And Caleb’s care, you indicated you only went to the one IEP.
A. I went to his most recent IEP; that’s correct.
Q. And that’s because Mr. Mockensturm apparently wasn’t notified of it?
A. I think at that time it was the PFA, and he might have even been in jail at that time. I’m not exactly sure.
Q. Let’s talk about the school districts. You like the Dundee school district, right?|
A. I wouldn’t say I necessarily like it. It’s a good school. I like the environment of it. It suits their needs quite nicely. Like I said, there is School Choice there. I have looked at other schools as well, and for Caleb, I certainly see where it would be a great environment for him to have less stimulant stuff around him, a calmer, quieter, less busier schedule. He doesn’t do well with a lot of commotion.
Q. So with School of Choice, your children get bused to one school. School Choice allows you to take the children to other schools.
A. That’s correct.
Q. So you would have the children bused to one school, you would take your children to other schools, and you would work someplace; is that right?
A. That’s correct.
Q. As a matter of fact, you indicated that the job hunting, you’re looking at all kinds of school districts. You’re looking at daycare. You used to run daycare here, didn’t you, in your home?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Have you considered doing that again?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. But you haven’t done it, have you?
A. I chose to do a different path because knowing I’m going through a divorce I didn’t want to have other children in my care with Eric living at home and didn’t want to put other people’s kids at risk.
She stopped doing daycare when she went to Michigan for six weeks in the summer of 2012. It was not about putting other people’s kids at risk. Again, I wish Rose had been aware of this, but I had no way of knowing she would accuse me of putting other kids at risk. I rarely even saw the kids that she watched because it was always on weekdays when I was at work. I knew the mother–another faculty member–of one of the children and the father–a graduate student that had taken courses with me–of another one from working at Penn State.
Q. Well, Eric is not at home anymore.
A. It is hard to start a daycare in the middle of the school year. It is better to start in the fall when people are looking. So I started this job, and I made a commitment to this job until the end of the school year.
Q. So you could do daycare this coming year in your home?
A. Possibly, but I don’t plan to be living in that home this fall. It’s too much home for me to maintain and care for.
Q. You indicated that you might be willing to be a nanny in Michigan?
A. That’s correct.
Q. Could you be a nanny here?
A. Yes.
Q. What will you do with your children when you’re a nanny?
A. The same thing that I would do anytime I have done it before. They would be home with me. I can do care at home. However, they’re all entering school. They will all be in school every day.
Q. Well, I believe you testified that you often, or maybe a couple of times at least, you’ve had to go to school to deal with Amanda?
A. That’s true.
Q. Are you going to do that when you’re a nanny for somebody else’s children?
A. I have done it in the past. Most of the clients I have, they know my daughter. They know her care. I don’t hide anything from them. They understand that her care comes first, and I have taken kids with me. I’ve had backup sitters when needed to watch the kids when I’m there.
Q. Isn’t it a fact that Amanda is at an age when, I believe you testified yourself, most children are starting to be able to understand how to take care of themselves?
A. Her circumstances are a little different than the average child. She has quite a bit to take care of. It’s not just your daily washing your hair and taking a shower.
Q. You were talking about a YouTube —
A. Yes. I have been showing her things on YouTube, on the internet, trying to get her to see that maybe in the future she could take care of herself more.
Q. Let’s talk about this Dundee Community High School. Are you aware it has a 2 out of 5 star rating?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you aware that the average test scores on math have gone down since 2010?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you aware they’ve gone down from a high of 48 percentile in 2010 to a 20 percentile in 2012?
A. Yes.
Q. But your son has problems with math, doesn’t he?
A. Yes, he does.
Q. And you’re aware that the other test scores are also considerably lower than the test scores in State College?
A. Yes. It’s a rural community. It’s a lot smaller school.
Q. Are you aware that the student/teacher ratio in Dundee, and it’s been going up, but in fact it’s one teacher for every 23 children?
A. That’s about average in most places.
Q. Are you aware that the student/teacher ratio in State College has gone — has been going gradually down, and it is now one teacher for every 12 students?
A. I was not aware.
Q. Are you aware that State College Area High School has a 5 star rating?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you aware that State College Area High School has over 90 percentile test scores in both math and reading?
A. That’s correct.
Dundee schools have always been terrible. As I investigated them for this hearing, I learned that they had not gotten any better. I think less than 5% of Rita’s graduating class went to college.
Q. You also referenced the Milan school system, that you were considering?
A. Milan.
Q. Milan. Are you aware that one is also down, the average test scores in math are also down from 2010?
A. I didn’t look at their statistics. That wasn’t a school I would necessarily pick for choice. That was an option. I went there for employment.
Q. So your school then would be Dundee?
A. That is the school that would be the easiest only for the point of being close to home, transportation, but like I said, I’m willing to look at any school in the area that they can attend.
Q. I know there was a lot of discussion about failure to complete homework, but I noticed when I looked at Amanda’s reporting period for the December to March reporting period that she had a comment of not completing assignments on time?
A. That’s true.
Q. In addition to Caleb, who of course has special needs.
A. I even talked to her teacher, Ms. Hooper, about trying to get Amanda on task on getting some of her larger projects done. Some of them are reading projects, which are hard for her to get done. She is tired often from her medical care and from her being up throughout the night taking care of herself. So those reading assignments have gotten to be kind of troublesome for her, but she has gotten her projects done. Ms. Hooper and I have been working very closely on making sure she has gotten her stuff done.
If Rita had just let Amanda leave the catheter in at night, things would have been so much different.
Q. And that wasn’t the case last fall, was it?
A. They didn’t have quite as many big projects as they do this time of year.
Q. When you worked here previously — you’ve worked at a number of different jobs, haven’t you?
A. I’ve done daycare. I’ve run a shoe store. I have babysat. I did a part-time job at a bed and breakfast here in Bellefonte.
Q. You worked at the Waffle Shop?
A. I worked at the Waffle Shop until I knew I was going to get the school district job.
MS. KAUFFMAN: I don’t have any other questions, Your Honor.
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