Black Widow Lawyer Seductress and Destroyer

Protective Mom Helen Garber Threatened With Jail For Posting About Court Corruption in Ulster County

By Dick LaFontaine with Michael Volpe and Richard Luthmann

(KINGSTON, NEW YORK) – Black Widow Lawyer Seduces, Marries, and Plunders

Elizabeth Faulkner isn’t your average divorce attorney – she’s a predator – in the dictionary’s definition of the word – with a law license. In Kingston, New York, they call her the “Black Widow” of Ulster County, infamous for marrying, billing, and bleeding her hapless husbands dry.

Investigative Journalist Richard Luthmann has seen enough to drop the veneer: “She’s been married five times, according to accounts. She’s the Black Widow of Kingston… she runs through [men] and takes ’em for everything they’re worth.”

Faulkner’s personal life reads like a con job; her former clients and spouses often become one and the same. Luthmann and journalist Michael Volpe described a pattern on The Unknown Podcast: Faulkner seduces her own clients, then walks them to the altar – and to the cleaners.

“When you’re a lawyer, you’re not supposed to be having sex with your client,” Luthmann seethed. “She’s apparently done it on at least two occasions… has sex with them, marries them, and then takes everything they have.”

Volpe added that Faulkner targets her divorce clients for this scam, noting the allegation that she “marries [her] divorce clients” and essentially “black widows them.”

Faulkner is “on her fifth husband right now, they say,” Luthmann noted bluntly – a track record that earned her the Black Widow moniker in local lore.

Faulkner’s reputation comes slathered in red flags and ethical breaches. Colleagues say she will do anything for an edge in court, from pillow talk with clients to spinning fraudulent narratives.

“She is… an unsavory character,” Luthmann said, emphasizing that Faulkner weaves lies into legal cases like a spider spins silk.

In fact, Faulkner’s latest target – a nurse practitioner named Helen Garber – claims the attorney concocted an entire case against her through seduction, fabrication, and raw courtroom intimidation.

As Luthmann put it, Faulkner began plotting against Garber years ago, and now “it’s all bullshit… coalescing as something that looks like a criminal case… It’s all bullshit, and we’re starting to unwind it.”

The Black Widow’s web is wide: lawyers, judges, even guardians ad litem caught in her coil. And Helen Garber says she got trapped in it – with her child, freedom, and finances all hanging by a thread.

Vanishing Evidence and a Rigged Custody Nightmare

Helen Garber’s family court ordeal reads like a legal horror story. “My case involves judicial misconduct… including a 200-page transcript that was removed from the record, and three witnesses who testified credibly to witnessing my ex-husband’s behavior,” Garber recounts.

Yet when the judge issued a decision, it falsely stated that only Garber and her ex had testified, erasing the voices of all others.

“Additionally, 48 exhibits… have been removed from the court record,” she says – evidence that mysteriously vanished. Those exhibits have been verified they exist.” Still, Garber alleges a cover-up: her ex-husband’s attorney (Elizabeth Faulkner herself), the court-appointed guardian ad litem Heather Harp, even Garber’s own trial attorney and Judge David Gandin’s clerk “all refuse to turn over these exhibits and are trying to starve my appellate record.”

Notably, the first judge on Garber’s case, Supreme Court Justice Julian Schreibman, abruptly recused himself amid these irregularities. Judge David Gandin then took over – and under his gavel, the case lurched further off the rails.

In other words, crucial proof in Garber’s favor was scrubbed from the case file, leaving her with little to fight back on appeal.

“You hear this a lot from people,” Volpe noted about such vanishing records – somehow, “either the recording device or the court’s stenographer turns off for all the important parts.”

Garber lived it: evidence and testimony didn’t just disappear by accident – it was deleted to seal her defeat.

Faulkner’s tactics in the courtroom were just as dirty. According to Garber, Faulkner planted fake evidence to smear her as an unfit mother and a criminal.

“My case also involved falsified evidence,” Garber says, describing how her ex-husband (with Faulkner’s help) stole her old prescription bottles to set her up. “My old expired prescriptions were stolen by Mr. [Allen] Gillis and Ms. Faulkner and photographed to present me as a drug addict,” she explains.

Garber endured “a day and a half worth of testimony” built on this phony pill-peddling narrative – even though “some of the prescriptions were over 11 years old and unused.”

It was a sham, she insists, but it worked. Faulkner’s coup de grâce came when she sprang a custody bait-and-switch on Garber in court. Faulkner drafted an order regarding Garber’s daughter, which Garber’s own lawyer assured her would preserve joint custody. Instead, Faulkner and GAL Heather Harp turned it into a trap.

They “presented this order as 50/50 custody and forced me to sign a stipulation… with no open court,” Garber recalls. The judge piled on, threatening Garber “with further custodial loss if I did not sign.”

Under duress, Garber signed – not realizing Faulkner had effectively swindled her out of her child.

“I did not realize that I had lost… primary custody… until a week after the trial,” Garber admits, still in disbelief.

The “agreement” she was bullied into gave her abusive ex-husband primary control of their daughter behind closed doors.

The aftermath was financially and emotionally catastrophic – and court-sanctioned. Garber’s ex, coached by Faulkner, had falsified his finances to appear destitute while secretly backed by over $100,000 from family and friends.

Judge Gandin fell for it or willfully ignored the truth. He imputed to Garber an inflated income and ordered her to pay exorbitant sums.

“I have been forced to support my abuser,” Garber says bitterly. The court is garnishing “up to 65%” of her paycheck to funnel money to the man who tormented her – “to pay him alimony, legal fees, and child support” based on a grossly exaggerated income figure.

Judge Gandin “used… $203,000” as her income – far above her actual earnings – “going over the cap for no reason,” Garber notes. The result? She had to take on two jobs to survive the litigation, only to end up indebted to her ex.

“This is not justice. In no way, shape, or form is this the appearance of justice,” Luthmann remarked on the case. “It’s financial destruction by court order, punishment seemingly for daring to fight back. It’s authoritarian and smacks of the criminal.”

Faulkner’s assault didn’t stop at the verdict. Garber says her ex-husband, empowered by Faulkner’s scorched-earth strategies, launched new attacks to finish the job. He filed a false assault charge and a family offense petition to paint Garber as violent. Even more chilling, he withheld their daughter’s medical care for a year, agreeing only to visits with hand-picked doctors from Faulkner’s clique.

“He refused to allow my daughter to see 14 other neutral pediatricians” and only let her see doctors “chosen by attorney Elizabeth Faulkner,” Garber says.

Those very doctors have been used by Faulkner “in multiple other cases,” always ready to produce diagnoses or testimony favoring Faulkner’s client. Now Faulkner and company are twisting those doctor reports to claim Garber’s child has “psychiatric issues” due to Garber’s parenting – a pretext to strip Garber of any remaining custody.

“They are attempting now to… file an emergency order for full custody, stating I am a danger to my daughter,” Garber warns.

It’s the oldest dirty trick in divorce court.

“This is a silver bullet technique Ms. Faulkner has used in many cases to remove custody from the other parent and extort further legal fees,” Garber says.

In other words, Faulkner weaponizes false allegations of abuse or mental illness to break parents and milk them for money – an allegation echoed by multiple victims. Even the supposedly neutral guardian ad litem wasn’t immune to Faulkner’s influence. Heather Harp, the GAL, had not served in that capacity for 10 years and wasn’t on the county’s approved roster. Yet “despite three complaints… and two protests,” Harp was suddenly reappointed to Garber’s case.

How?

Garber says Faulkner pulled strings behind the scenes: “Ms. Faulkner, in ex parte communications, maneuvered to have [Harp] reappointed” as GAL. A guardian who would side with Faulkner was installed off the books – the final insurance that Helen Garber’s fate was sealed.

From missing records and silenced witnesses to crooked experts and secret deals, Garber’s story lays out a blueprint of systemic fraud. And according to court-watchers, it only gets worse.

Gag Orders, Outrage, and Calls for Justice

Helen Garber’s fight didn’t end with losing custody – it shifted to the court of public opinion, and the Ulster County courts responded with brute force. In the past few months, as Garber and supporters started speaking out, her own attorney delivered a jaw-dropping message: shut up or else.

In an email to Garber, the lawyer admitted that a judge had contacted the law office directly (an improper ex parte chat) about Garber’s social media posts. “The Judge spoke to my office about a major concern in that you posted some info about the case on social media,” the attorney wrote. The court was “incredibly displeased” – furious that Garber had dared to air her story.

“These are the folks who decide this case… and we are already on their bad side,” the lawyer warned, conveying the judge’s ire.

Then came the ultimatum: delete everything.

“The court has instructed you [to] take down all social media postings… regarding the case… by Friday or we are going to have serious problems,” the email said bluntly. “That information is not for the public and strong penalties to your case will be added if you fail to comply.”

This secret gag order – never put in a written court order, never argued in any hearing – forced Garber to wipe her Facebook and online pleas for help under threat of judicial retribution. It was a command straight out of a totalitarian playbook, and a clear violation of the First Amendment.

A family court judge was effectively telling a mother: Speak about your case and we’ll punish you. To Helen Garber, it confirmed her worst fear – that the system was retaliating to cover its tracks.

“The court… is hiding,” she wrote, noting that the email “admits to ex parte communication” and blatant bias.

Legal advocates and court watchdogs say such a directive is flatly unconstitutional and amounts to an illegal prior restraint on speech.

“You think you’re in Russia?” exclaimed Dave Weigel, a family court activist who has championed Garber’s case.

“How is that legal?” he shouted, af

ter a judge in open court announced that no one was allowed to share documents or information about Garber’s proceedings.

Weigel, the leader of the Family Court Fraud Warrior Project and a Wall Street Guru, was kicked out of the courtroom for objecting to these gag tactics – but not before he gave the judge a piece of his mind.

In a fiery video statement outside Ulster County Courthouse, Weigel compared the scene to a dictatorship: “This is how they do it, people… You think you’re in Russia?” As officers escorted him out, Weigel turned back and declared, “I am on you!” – vowing to shine a light on the court’s conduct.

Observers even reported that the judge snapped, “There is no First Amendment in this courthouse. This is a closed court,” as she had Weigel removed.

The spectacle shocked onlookers: An American judge openly trampling free speech rights to squelch scrutiny of a dubious case.

Outside, Weigel’s outrage boiled over on camera.

“How do these words come out of this fat pig’s mouth?” he railed, blasting the jurist who tried to silence criticism.

“She actually thinks she could get paid by the public and… have complete confidentiality about her crimes!” The activist pulled no punches, later calling the judge “just a fat pig in a robe… committing treason against this country” by flouting the Constitution.

His anger reflects a growing fury among parents and advocates who say family courts like Ulster’s have become fiefdoms of unchecked power.

“These people think they’re entitled to do whatever they want to us,” Weigel said of the court cabal. “They’re entitled to our kids… [to] just make us a criminal if they decide.”

In Garber’s case, that prediction feels chillingly accurate. Indeed, in an ominous twist, the Ulster County machine is now coming after Garber not just in family court but criminally: she faces a dubious criminal contempt charge—a move her supporters see as retaliation and intimidation for speaking out.

As journalist Luthmann noted, the powers-that-be “bring Helen… up on criminal charges” to bury her, but “how can criminal charges be sustained… if the entire proceedings are dirty in and of themselves?”

Helen Garber and her advocates are not backing down. Each gag order and strong-arm tactic has only galvanized more public attention to what they call “Ulster County’s court corruption cartel.”

The Family Court Fraud Warrior Project has rallied around Garber, determined to expose what they see as a sex-fueled, money-motivated racket preying on parents. Garber herself, though beaten down, refuses to be quiet.

“My name is Helen Rebecca Garber… I am a victim of court abuse by the Ulster County Family and Superior Court,” she declared in a public statement.

She described how countless other parents have “gone through tremendous trauma, lost their children unjustly… have been financially destroyed and… traumatized to the point where some of them have actually died” due to the actions of “court officers such as Ms. Faulkner and Ms. Harp.”

Garber is demanding that officials finally pay attention.

“I demand an investigation,” she implored – not just for her, but “for myself and all the other parents in Ulster County” who have suffered from this alleged sex-for-service legal mafia.

The call to action is growing louder: Where are New York’s watchdogs? How many families must be destroyed before the Attorney General, the Office of Court Administration, judicial oversight commissions, or lawmakers step in? Unless someone intervenes, Elizabeth Faulkner’s network will continue weaponizing the courts against parents, critics warn.

What’s happening in Ulster County Family Court “is not what people think about when they think about the American justice system,” Luthmann insists – it’s something far darker.

The Helen Garber scandal has pulled back the curtain on an outrageous abuse of power. Gag orders to hide misconduct, missing transcripts, manufactured evidence, crony guardian appointments, judges who punish whistleblowers – it reads like a judicial thriller, but it’s real and still unfolding.

The question now is whether New York authorities will finally confront the “Court of Injustice” in their midst. If not, parents like Helen Garber will continue to be chewed up and spit out by a court system that seems more than willing to help a Black Widow lawyer and her cronies feast on the lives of families, in brazen defiance of the law and basic decency.

It’s time for an investigation – and accountability – before any more children are caught in this web.