Inside the California Custody Cartel
How a Silicon Valley mother lost her son in a private courtroom designed to profit from her pain.
By Michael Phillips | Father & Co.
California’s family courts are selling justice to the highest bidder — one custody evaluation at a time.
The California Custody Cartel
An Investigative Series by Father & Co.
Across California, family courts are quietly turning mental health and disability into mechanisms of control.
Behind the language of “therapy,” “reunification,” and “high-conflict parenting,” a network of private judges, court-appointed evaluators, and AFCC-affiliated therapists has built a profit system that thrives on family conflict and ignores federal ADA protections.
Parents who disclose ADHD, PTSD, or trauma are labeled “unstable,” stripped of custody, and forced into endless psychological evaluations that enrich the very professionals who recommend them.
The result is a privatized justice market — one that sells access, punishes neurodivergence, and hides its abuses behind confidentiality orders and private judging platforms like JAMS.
This series begins with Brenna Gano, a Bay Area mother whose ADHD diagnosis was weaponized to justify removing her son. Her case — involving AFCC consultants such as Dr. Matthew Sullivan and a retired private judge at JAMS — reveals how California’s family-court industry profits from disability discrimination and coerced therapy. The pattern echoes cases across the nation, from San Diego to New York, all the way to the family of Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee.
Follow the Full Investigation
👉 Inside the California Custody Cartel (Part I)
👉 The Psychiatric Weapon: How Mental Health Was Turned into a Weapon of Control
👉 News & Reports
👉 Public Records & Case Files
Brenna’s January hearing in San Mateo could determine whether California’s private-judge system finally faces public accountability — or whether the business model remains intact.
If you’ve faced similar tactics — psychological evaluations, reunification therapy, or private judging in California — Father & Co. is documenting these cases.
📧 Email us confidentially at tips@fatherand.co.