Dr. Bandy Lee Slaps NJ Judge and Guardian Ad Litem with Federal Lawsuit over Gag Order and Free Speech Violations
By Richard Luthmann
A top forensic psychiatrist has filed a bombshell federal lawsuit accusing a New Jersey family court judge and guardian ad litem of violating her constitutional rights to silence criticism of court corruption.
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a former Yale and Harvard professor and renowned violence expert, sued Bergen County Family Court Judge Michael Antoniewicz and guardian ad litem Evelyn Nissirios.
Lee says the duo trampled her free speech rights and weaponized the courts to protect judicial misconduct in her sister’s high-stakes custody battle.
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“Family courts are notorious for discounting claims of domestic violence against women and children,” Lee wrote in her lawsuit. “Transparency plays a pivotal role in deterring judicial abuses.”
According to Lee’s 15-page federal complaint, Nissirios sought a bogus Temporary Protective Order (TPO) against Lee on December 5, 2024. Judge Antoniewicz granted the order, forcing Lee to remove all online posts criticizing Nissirios — posts that included explosive allegations of perjury, child endangerment, and collusion with an abusive father, Alan T. Chan.
“The TPO falsely declared, ‘By consent, Bandy Lee shall remove all posts regarding [Evelyn Nissirios],’” Lee wrote.
But Lee never consented — her attorney allegedly did it without authority, and the judge muzzled Lee when she tried to object in court.
“The Court clerk muted her microphone,” Lee’s complaint states.
Lee said she submitted a sworn declaration disputing the so-called consent. Her attorney, Tricia Lindsay, never refuted Lee’s sworn claim. Instead, Judge Antoniewicz “prohibited Plaintiff from reiterating the twin constitutional defenses” that she never consented and that her posts were fully protected by the First Amendment.
“This is prior restraint — the worst First Amendment violation a court can commit,” said Lee’s attorney Bruce Fein. “The Constitution does not stop at the family court’s door.”
At a January 10, 2025 hearing, Antoniewicz held Lee in contempt and fined her $5,381.25 in attorney’s fees payable to Nissirios. Lee was also ordered to stay silent or face jail.
“Dr. Lee has been chilled against writing new posts about Co-Defendant Nissirios in violation of the First Amendment for fear of another court finding of contempt and possible jail time,” the complaint states.
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Lee became involved after witnessing what she called “heinous abuses” against her sister Patricia Lee in the Bergen County family court. In her censored writings, Lee accused Nissirios and the judge of colluding with Chan, a father with a history of domestic violence.
“GAL has tried multiple times to harm Patricia Lee physically — in addition to raiding her in the most violent fashion possible to rip her crying, screaming, and clinging children away from her,” Lee wrote in a post scrubbed by court order. “GAL is now under criminal charges for her first life-threatening assault.”
Lee blasted the judge’s decisions: “You barred a defendant from choosing her own support for three years — as you systematically isolated, bullied, and tried to break her psychologically.”
She accused the court of ignoring psychiatric evidence that deemed Patricia Lee a fit mother and instead relying on a guardian ad litem who “lied to this Court over three hundred fifty times.”
According to Lee, Chan was initially under a restraining order for seriously injuring the children. But the court handed him full custody anyway, cutting Patricia off from her children for three years.
“Everyone who has seen photos of my sister’s children has commented that they look like they have been interned in a concentration camp,” Lee wrote. “They stopped growing. Both are now the shortest students in their respective classes.”
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Lee’s lawsuit seeks a federal ruling declaring the gag order unconstitutional and wiping out the $5,381.25 fine. She demands nominal damages and attorney’s fees.
Citing New York Times Company v. United States (Pentagon Papers), Lee argues the order is an illegal prior restraint.
She also points to Elrod v. Burns, where the Supreme Court ruled that even temporary free speech suppression causes irreparable harm.
“An unconstitutional court order like an unconstitutional statute cannot serve as the predicate to sanction a violation,” the lawsuit says.
Lee is represented by Fein, a constitutional scholar who served as Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan, and New Jersey attorney Demetrios Stratis.
EXPOSING THE ‘BIGGEST CHILD TRAFFICKING BUSINESS’
In her censored post, Lee unleashed on the court system: “Family Courts are not real courts — and their whole criminal enterprise would crumble if the world only knew the truth of their atrocities.”
She accused family courts of running “the largest child trafficking business in the country,” supplying “pedophilic sex rings and child pornography production.”
“Judges and guardians ad litem ‘fix’ the cases through their own criminal activity, which they conceal under ‘court seals,’” Lee wrote. “The practice has become so lucrative, there are hardly exceptions: almost no victim child goes to the right parent.”
Lee added: “Nearly a thousand children have been murdered through this arrangement, and mothers are dying at alarming rates, just as my sister almost died recently from GAL’s harassment.”
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Lee’s lawsuit highlights a growing national backlash against family court secrecy. The United Nations has documented the global trend of courts dismissing domestic violence and child abuse claims in custody cases.
“The tendency to dismiss the history of domestic violence extends to cases where mothers and/or children themselves have brought forward credible allegations,” the U.N. reported in 2023.
Fein said the case is about more than one family. “This is a battle for the Constitution, for free speech, and against judicial tyranny.”
The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Lee and Fein vowed to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
“I refuse to be intimidated,” Lee said. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant. It’s time to expose these courts for what they really are.”
