A whistleblowing mom and two crusading journalists rip the lid off a “cash-for-kids” scandal in family court – and demand an end to the abuse.
By Richard Luthmann with Michael Volpe and Maryann Petri
Destroyed by Family Court, Mom Strikes Back
There’s an earthquake in family court. Fed-up parents are fighting back.
On a new The Unknown Podcast Special Report, Richard Luthmann and fellow journalist Michael Volpe introduced the woman helping lead that charge. Her name is Maryann Petri – and she’s had enough.
Petri is a former nurse and mother who lost everything at the hands of a corrupt court.
“They totally crippled me economically, and I still am,” she said.
False CPS allegations destroyed her 23-year career, and the stress even gave her a heart attack.
But she refused to stay a victim. Petri fought back by writing Dismantling Family Court Corruption: Why Taking the Kids Was Not Enough and launching the Slam the Gavel podcast to expose this system’s horrors. For three years, her show has shone a light on parents jailed over child support, Title IV-D funding tricks, and judges weaponizing “parental alienation” to sever families.
“I just want to inform the public of how their money’s being spent and what parents are going through,” Petri said.
She warns that the American judiciary is “destroying the family unit from the inside out”. Her story proves it: the system tried to break her, but now she’s a force igniting a national movement.
Family Court Fury: Cash for Kids and the Title IV-D Gravy Train
At the heart of Petri’s crusade is a federal funding scheme most people have never heard of. It’s called Title IV-D, and it’s created a perverse cash-for-kids bounty in family court. This program, born of 1990s welfare reform, was meant to help states collect child support from deadbeat parents.
But as Petri and Volpe explained, it had a sinister side effect. Under Title IV-D, state courts get federal money for every child support dollar they collect – roughly 66 cents on the dollar.
In other words, the more they make parents pay, the more bonus cash the courts rake in. Petri says courts now profit from support orders, and even judges’ budgets benefit. Judges routinely impute incomes that parents never earned – effectively inventing higher salaries to inflate support amounts.
Petri herself lived this nightmare: “The judge put me at a figure… I never reached,” she recalled.
When parents can’t pay these fictitious sums, they get slammed with arrears and even jailed for “non-support.”
Luthmann calls Title IV-D dollars the “corrupt lifeblood” of a broken system. He says it’s a giant trough that “feeds the beast,” incentivizing courts to tear families apart for profit.
Petri described a case where a mother was forced to pay support for a son she can’t even see. It’s a horrific picture – children reduced to dollar signs while bureaucrats cash in. Petri and her allies are hell-bent on slaying this monster once and for all.
Family Court Fury: 50/50 Custody Showdown
The podcast tackled a hot-button question: should the law automatically give parents equal time with their kids? In Florida, it already does – 50/50 custody is the default unless a child would be in danger.
Petri argued that shared parenting should be the norm when both parents are fit.
“Don’t involve the kids,” she urged. “They just want a childhood… to see both parents.” And she noted this debate “strings back to Title IV-D – the money.”
Her point: if both parents share custody, it’s harder to use kids as pawns for profit.
Luthmann agreed, insisting a clear 50/50 baseline would reduce litigation and conflict. It treats mothers and fathers as equals and forces them to cooperate.
“Stability and predictability” in custody fights would improve, he said, if courts respected modern parenting realities.
Volpe wasn’t sold. He countered with a cautionary tale from overseas. In 2021, Australian MP Graham Perrett blasted his country’s experiment with mandated 50/50 custody as dangerous for kids. He noted that even when abuse was alleged, courts still imposed equal custody 75% of the time.
Australia kept its one-size-fits-all law for nearly two decades – until repealing it in 2023 amid public outcry over horror stories.
Volpe also cautioned that some fathers push 50/50 to dodge child support. Not every family fits a perfect split, he warned, and a rigid presumption could backfire.
Despite the clash, all agreed on one thing: the child’s well-being must come first – not the court’s bottom line.
Family Court Fury: Court-Appointed “Parasites” Bleeding Families
Petri and her co-hosts zeroed in on another layer of rot: the cottage industry of court-appointed experts feeding off high-conflict cases. Guardians ad litem, custody evaluators, therapists, “parenting coordinators” – Petri pulled no punches about these characters. She branded them “third-party parasites… bottom feeders” who latch onto cases to siphon Title IV-D money.
Many of them are cronies playing “in the same sandbox” with judges.
The result?
Everyone gets paid, except the devastated parents.
Volpe believes the fix is simple: ban them all. He suggested states pass a law: “the court shall not appoint a guardian ad litem, parenting coordinator or any other third party” in custody and divorce disputes. Instead, a judge should only hear from the two parents, their attorneys, and real evidence.
Petri agreed: “I would favor something like that for sure,” she said.
Right now, judges often outsource their judgment to these so-called experts – and then rubber-stamp whatever opinion they give. Volpe noted that by eliminating paid experts, judges would be forced to examine the evidence themselves. It would cut off a convenient crutch that lazy or biased judges hide behind.
The podcast also exposed how court insiders can even hide or suppress evidence. Petri revealed that court clerks have been known to “hide evidence” from judges or juries. From top to bottom, the system is rigged to generate billable hours and kickbacks.
The hosts’ message: stop letting these leeches drain families dry. End the court-ordered gravy train for therapists and GALs. Put the focus back on facts, fairness, and the parents’ own voices in court.
No More Frauds: The Real Path to Reform
Luthmann closed the show with a blunt reality check: in this cause, “with the advocates come the good, the bad, and the ugly.”Not everyone claiming to help is on your side. Some self-proclaimed saviors turn out to be frauds.
Luthmann named two “advocate-fraudsters” – Jason Samaritano, a con man with a mile-long rap sheet, and Francesca Amato, who pushed a sham 94-page reform bill while pocketing donations.
These phonies exploited desperate parents and even slung mud at critics (at one point Amato hurled a vile slur at Luthmann rather than explain herself).
“Be wary… know who you’re dealing with, and educate yourself,” Luthmann warned parents.
For every charlatan, there’s a true crusader. Petri and Luthmann salute genuine reformers like Bailey Templeton, the young mom and Illinois State House candidate whose relentless FOIA digging blew open DCFS’s missing foster children scandal.
Luthmann also praised other warriors – Wall Street guru and watchdog Dave Weigel, veteran whistleblower Jill Jones-Soderman, and journalist Julie Holburn – who put themselves on the line to expose the truth. Crucially, those real warriors are turning pain into progress.
Legislators have also joined the fold. In Arizona and Idaho, special ad hoc committees heard hundreds of parents testify and are now drafting sweeping new family court laws.
Petri wants more states to follow that model of shining light and taking action. The show’s final rallying cry: clean house in America’s family courts. Shut off the perverse money incentives. Hold judges and cronies accountable. Demand lawmakers deliver real oversight and change.
Family Court must be reformed – our children’s futures depend on it.
