The Three DIFFERENT Court Orders

On Friday, March 6th, Judge Ned Mangum issued his ruling for a Temporary Order in the divorce case of Venessa Mills and her husband. On March 17th, after some of his comments were made public and provoked outrage, he signed an actual Temporary Order which had been completely transformed in all aspects of its basis and findings of fact.

Here's a summary …

March 6th: The original ruling

• Judge Mangum makes no mention of Sound Doctrine Church whatsoever.
  
• He does make several ignorant and insensitive remarks about homeschool education, revealing a clear prejudice and wider threat to homeschool rights.
  
• No particular weight is given to either side's affidavits and, on the mental health issue, the judge states clearly that he doesn't know and has come to no firm conclusion on the matter.
  
• Despite many opportunities, no mention is made of any specific "concerns" arising from Venessa Mills religious beliefs, practices, or those of her church.
  
• He makes several statements complimenting Venessa Mills on her educational accomplishments and how her children have benefitted from homeschool - yet then orders that they be placed in public school.
  

March 13th (approx): The order drafted by Mr. Mills' attorney, based on the verbal ruling

• Sound Doctrine Church is mentioned in only two brief "findings of fact."
  
• The wording is largely factual, and no specific negative statements are made about Venessa Mills' religious beliefs or practices, or those of her church. 
  
• The "findings of fact" refer to Venessa Mills being a "good" and "nurturing" mother who has done a "good job" of homeschooling the children. 
  
• No expansion is provided to further explain the order of a mental health evaluation for Venessa Mills.
  
• Minimal censure of Mr. Mills' adultery is left intact, along with the important admission that he had spent time with his mistress "when he could have been spending times with the children."
  
• On the homeschool issue, the order still states that the children should go to public school purely for the "broader focus and socialization available to them." No other concerns are mentioned.
  

March 17th: The final written Temporary Order by Judge Mangum

• The "findings of fact" have been drastically expanded by the addition of four pages of carefully selected quotations and negative statements directly intended to demonize Sound Doctrine Church.
  
• While affidavits supporting Mr. Mills are quoted extensively, no rebuttal affidavits from Venessa Mills are quoted at all.
  
• Suddenly, vast weight is placed on the testimony of Venessa Mills so-called friends and family, and other individuals who have never even met her or her children, but absolutely no weight at all is given to opposing affidavits. 
  
• Judge Mangum's indiscreet remarks about homeschooling have been either completely removed, directly denied, or attributed to Mr. Mills.
  
• Specific censure from the Court regarding Mr. Mills' adultery has been removed and the entire affair softened so as to suggest blame being attributed to Venessa Mills. Any mention of Mr. Mills spending time with his mistress instead of the children is removed.
  
• Specific attention is drawn to Venessa Mills' supposedly "unreasonable" demands, with no reference to the huge emotional distress she was enduring and the lack of sufficient time and peace to negotiate any agreement or mount an adequate defense.
  

The order drafted by Mr. Mills' attorney is important because it is based on her understanding of Judge Mangum's verbal ruling. Coming from the opposing attorney, if there had been anything in Judge Mangum's comments to suggest a stronger indictment of Venessa Mills, it would not have been ignored. Indeed, she took the opportunity to insert an outrageous clause asking that Mr. Mills be allowed to use Venessa Mills' child support to pay the home mortgage if she failed to make the payment herself.

But, after massive public outcry over the homeschool issues, Judge Mangum pulled the deadline onto a Sunday and then obviously drafted his own Order.

And now what is everyone talking about? The homeschool issues? No - although we're still trying. But many people have now been completely taken in by the sensationalized and slanderous gossip about Venessa Mills' church allegedly being a "cult." The homeschool issues have been dropped, in favor of spreading the "choice morsels" of gossip - which most people are all too eager to consume with no discernment or discrimination.

The vicious comments that have been submitted to this blog - which I make no apology for rejecting - have been appalling to see.

We have to hand it to Judge Mangum, he's done an excellent job - of diverting attention away from himself and the massive injustice that is being done to Venessa Mills and her children. In doing so, he has perpetrated a brutal hatchet job on the character of a good homeschool mother, her three children, and a small conservative church on the other side of the country.

Various other news sources have already published Judge Mangum's final Order. Far from being disappointed or dismayed, we are glad that the case files are publicly available - and, in fact, we sent the PDF to several of those sources ourselves.

We are now making all three versions of Judge Mangum's Order available to download together. Listen to Judge Mangum's original judgment, then read the Order drafted from that by Mr. Mills' attorney, and then read his final written Order - compare them yourself.

It is very clear what is going on here - and it's not justice in any sense of the word.

Click here to download all three versions of Judge Mangum's Order.