Tragedy in the OC

In San Clemente on Monday, either 38-year-old Elizabeth Fontaine or her mother, 67-year-old Bonnie Hoult, or both, took a gun and killed Elizabeth's two daughters, aged 4 and 2.

My God. My dear God.

What happened was a high conflict custody case. Elizabeth, an experienced patent attorney, had separated from her husband Jason Fontaine, and moved herself and her daughters to her mothre's home. Ms. Hoult is a retired psychologist.

Elizabeth claimed Jason was sexually molesting the oldest girl. The Court ordered an investigation. Please note that I was involved in a case where opposing side - Mom - accused my client of molestation and the Court took it very. very seriously. Ultimately, in my case, my client was exonerated and awarded sole legal and physical custody when the child - then 5 - admitted that his mother "told him to say those things" and that they never happened. That was not the only evidence but these things happened.

In the Fontaine case, the Court's expert found no molestation had occurred. And so the Court lifted supervised visitation for Dad, but granted primary custody to Mom and let her relocate with the girls to Houston, TX (her mother also relocated). But the Court also had a hearing back in August as to whether Elizabeth made her accusations in good faith and admonished her that she should not reopen the case in Texas.

That's what she did, however. She immediately brought the eldest to a series of psychologists and got a Texas court to order that Jason was to have no contact with his children.

The Orange County judge ordered her back. And by Monday lunchtime, indicated he was ready to award temporary custody to Jason's sister until he could determine who was lying. He ordered Elizabeth to return to court at 1:30 p.m.

She never did. Instead she drove to the home of friends where she was staying with her mother and the girls, and now all four are dead. The latest reports indicate that there was gun shot residue on the hands of both adult women.

WTF?

As a family law attorney, this is hard for me to get my head around. I am sure that Commissioner Thomas Schulte - whom I know to be a man of integrity - and John York, Jason's attorney, are sick at heart. And Jason Fontaine - now he must bury his children.

I am second-guessing, of course, but I think Commissioner Schulte felt that given the tender years of the children, he had to err on the side of caution, and so rather than place them with Dad right away, said, "Okay, on a temporary basis, I'll find a 3rd party, and yes, both parents will have the opportunity to see the children."

I am skeptical about the molestation charges, and I have actually represented a woman fearful of the same thing happening with her daughter and the daughter's father and paternal grandfather, where I believed her, so I don't think I am biased because I had another case where I represented the person being accused. But all too often, this card is played - and as I said, the Court takes it extremely seriously and if it is found that a parent lied about this, usually lowers the hammer on that parent.

So grandma was a psychologist. The gun was registered to her. Why did she travel from Houston to the OC with a gun? The children were not being given back to their father. Was Elizabeth afraid her story would fall apart? 4-year-olds are unreliable witnesses and absent physical evidence of actual penetration, they would not be able to know what is "inappropriate touching."

Who lost here? Little Catherine and Julia Fontaine.

Pray for everyone involved. It is simply too senseless.