FOLLOWING TODDLER’S DROWNING DEATH, JUDGE SAYS “FLOATIES ARE FOR BABIES”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 24, 2018) — On July 15, The Post & Email published an initial article concerning the custody of two young boys whose younger brother drowned in a hot tub while under the supervision of their mother nearly three years ago.
Although the parents are now divorced, the proceedings regarding the boys’ custody will at long last be resurrected with an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Friday in the Eighth Judicial District Family Courthouse in Las Vegas.
As has been the case since the boys’ father, Burke Hall, sought a divorce in 2016, Judge Sandra Pomrenze will be presiding. The hearing is to determine permanent custody of the boys after Pomrenze awarded interim custody to their mother despite her having admitted to child abuse and neglect in connection with two-year-old Israel’s death.
An evidentiary hearing was scheduled more than two years ago, Hall told us, but canceled when Pomrenze appointed a guardian ad litem for the two boys that same day.
During a hearing in April 2016, Hall told Pomrenze that he had remained in the home with Loftis as long as he did in order to protect his remaining two children. At that point, Loftis’s five children from her previous marriage had already been placed in the custody of their father out of state.
Hall, who is black, told us that from the outset, Pomrenze demonstrated partiality toward his estranged wife, Vanessa Loftis, who is white. That lack of neutrality continued, he said, despite his son’s drowning on August 3, 2015, while he was at work.
In March and June 2016, respectively, Loftis entered guilty pleas to charges filed by Clark County Child Protective Services (CPS) and the Clark County district attorney. She was given a suspended prison sentence, up to five years’ probation, and was required to pay fees associated with her prosecution. Nevertheless, Pomrenze granted temporary legal and physical custody of the two boys to her, a situation which Hall has said has put them in great danger.
Police and medical reports show several incidents of domestic violence reported by Hall against Loftis dating back to August 21, 2009, one of which caused him to pass blood in his urine. Hall also provided photos showing bruising on various parts of his body.
Hall said that in March, he was denied all contact with his sons as a result of his being unwilling to divulge his address to Loftis. “After my son died, I disclosed my address to the court and to the guardian ad litem, but I refused to disclose it to Vanessa, and here’s why: she kept slashing my tires. I have over 17 different tires that are slashed,” he told us.
Another factor in his sons’ placement with Loftis, Hall contends, is corruption within CPS and Hall’s knowledge that his sons were abused while in foster care following the drowning of their younger brother.
When we asked him if he could prove that Loftis was the perpetrator of the slashed tires, he said, “No, I cannot, but it’s her or one of her friends who is doing it. The reason I know it’s under her direction is that literally, within three days of my disclosing my address in open court, my tires are slashed. I was forced by Judge Pomrenze to give my address or face incarceration.”
During a hearing on December 20, 2016, Pomrenze began by stating that a significant amount of “evidence” Hall submitted would be stricken from the record based on its inclusion of “confidential” CPS records and “dependency case information.”
At 1:58 in the video, Pomrenze acknowledged Israel’s drowning death when she stated, “My concern is something tragic happened with the parties’ youngest child; we all know that. I mean, it’s probably the height of bonehead things you can do. What I’m not entirely persuaded is that the two older children are at risk of harm with their mother. The reason I am not is because your client is apparently not as concerned as he would have me believe because he has, when it works for him, left the children in their mother’s care. Can’t have it both ways.”
Hall’s attorney then stood up and said that the elder son “had already talked about having been taken to the pool and being allowed to swim without floaties…” at which point Pomrenze cut in and said, “He’s seven…You have to persuade me that this child cannot swim.” She then called floaties “baby stuff.” “Floaties are for babies,” she said.
Pomrenze’s solution to the dispute over whether or not the boys should be in the pool with or without floaties was resolved, in her mind, at the 8:05 mark with “Swim lessons — absolutely mandated. They are to be commenced within the next two weeks.”
Hall vehemently disagrees with Pomrenze’s decisions on various fronts. “My other sons have almost died in literally six separate instances — and those are what we know about — two of them were almost identical to Israel’s situation,” he said.
When we asked if CPS had been notified, he responded, “Yes. CPS is mad at me because I humiliated them in open court. They put on their report that I’m an unfit father because I’m very religious and describe myself as a ‘Tea Party conservative.’ I humiliated them so badly in front of Judge Sullivan that Judge Sullivan not only threw out the case; he did it with prejudice, and that was in front of the chief deputy district attorney.”
He continued:
Mom took the kids for three and a half weeks after committing domestic violence against me. When we got the kids back, with one of them, the front of his shirt was soaked with saliva because he had been chewing on it, he was so nervous.
The problem that we have is that in Culbertson v. Culbertson, it clearly states that the primary responsibility of the court is the safety and well-being of the minor children involved in the divorce. This is so blatant that it’s crazy. Judge Pomrenze assigned, right on the day of the hearing, a guardian ad litem who she knows well, and literally, the guardian ad litem was told about the near-death experiences my sons have had, all six of them. They were interviewed for several hours. I went to get a certified copy of the criminal conviction at the county courthouse and the guardian ad litem walked right up behind me and said, “Hey, Mr. Hall, how are you doing?” I turned and said, “I have a quick question for you. I know my sons told you — because they told me they told you — did they tell you about the near-death experiences they’ve had?” and he said, “Yeah,” and he smiled. He was smiling when I said this. “Yeah, yeah, I know all about that.” “And you’re still not fighting for them in court?” I said. He gave me a big, wide smile, and he was gone.
I turned around and went to a trusted individual about it, and you know what he said? “That’s what they do. They give the children to the unfit parent so that the fit parent will spend everything they have to try to keep their kids safe.”
The reason I’m driving Uber is that I needed a 100% flexible schedule so I could take the kids to their therapy appointments. Now Judge Pomrenze orders swimming lessons, and Mom is doing the same thing: watching somebody else’s kids while my kids are freaking out. I have video of the swim lessons that the judge ordered…the problem with Pomrenze is that she has said, “How dare you put floaties on them?” It’s insane.
She’s basically saying, “The kids will be safer if they know how to swim.” That’s what she said in the April 2016 video: “You know what, Mr. Hall? If she’s alone with the kids, then you really have a problem. The only way for you to keep your kids safe is for you to stay married.”
That’s why I believe there’s an improper thing going on inside the court because that was Mom’s #1 desire: to stay married to me. She knows that I have demonstrated that I am a fantastic and amazing husband because I believe in God and doing the right thing no matter what. I’m working myself literally to death to make sure the family gets what they need. But it’s never going to happen that I go back to her, because I would be rewarding her behavior.
She’s a convicted felon.
There was domestic violence, which I’ve proven. Judge Pomrenze is fully aware of all this and is doing everything she possibly can to see that I don’t get custody. She assigned the guardian ad litem on the very day we were supposed to have the evidentiary hearing. I had literally 16 witnesses outside waiting to testify. Judge Pomrenze said, “The only person who has a problem with the plaintiff is the defendant: Mr. Hall.” And I said, “That’s crazy; look at the police reports.”
I am not even asking to take the kids away from Mom, just to make sure she has them on a supervised basis. Pomrenze assigned the guardian ad litem and for the last two years straight has denied the evidentiary hearing…and the last thing I have from CPS is that Mom hit my older son over the head with a toaster.
Just watch the still-available court videos (now on YouTube) and judge for yourself this father’s ability to raise his kids. I think you might come to a different conclusion.
The Post & Email does not reach conclusions; it simply reports the evidence it gathers and allows the readers to make up their own minds.
I watched all the hearings and cried for you. I sat and raged at the screen a few times. The fake tears, the whispers, and the fake
‘Your honor, thank you sooo much for your indulgence, your honor” still makes me cringe. The theatrics were crazy!
I just found the undercover school video where he is lying about a suicide attempt and it left me so worried for you and started digging to see if I could figure out what happened to you since then. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to see your comment. Im so sorry you have had to endure this all. Did he ever get the kids turned against you in the end? It didn’t look like he would accept defeat. I found him taking against a new family court bill and says he has no access to the boys but we know he never tells the truth (remembering the 3 months with no visits…) I just hope he is leaving you guys alone. Praying for you and your family
You are only hearing one side. This man have refused to follow any court orders needed to be able to see his children. He hasn’t seen them since March and even after this last hearing, he still hasn’t tried to see the children. He refuses to show up to any school event including the Back to Nights we just had yesterday and today in which he was informed about. He files fraudulent police and CPS reports, manipulates the children, and will go against anything that I have tried to do in order to help the children.
ABUSE? I can go on and on about the psychological and emotional abuse he has done to me as well as the children. From leaving me 8 months pregnant at the VA hospital ER overnight, telling me to “grow up and be a woman” instead of driving me to the doctors appointment at 9 months… I took 3 trains and 4 buses from Fort Worth to Plano to see my doctor. Mental health? Yes, I went on medication to help me cope with our son who had a tragic accident. That is what responsible people do when they know they need help.
Our son slipped in a Jacuzzi while I was also taking care of our 2 other children. Don’t be judging until you know the whole story. I was an ACCIDENT and only an accident. I love all of my children and would go through fire for them. I have to live with this, as well as our family, for the rest of our lives.
As far as my other 5 children, we have joint custody and they live in California for school purposes. If you actually read the documents, they ended up in California because of allegations of sexual abuse by Burke. It was unfounded, but just like every other case where there are allegations, the children usually to the other parent. Burke would not let me have the children with our 3 boys. I didn’t have my own car while we were married, and had no way to get to California. I have the documents, where he is throwing darts at the wall to see what sticks.
Domestic Violence with those pictures he posted? First of all, look at the date. Our 9 year old son was 2 months old then. If I was so abusive, why would he have 2 more children and marry me afterwards? Here is the complete story. I drove to California and back bringing the other children home. He didn’t want them to see our baby in which I disagreed. I went into the house to hold our son, since I was currently nursing. He snatched the baby out of my arms and began to shove me out the door. Like anyother mother would do in that position, I threw myself to the floor in order to stay in the home while he was shoving me out the door. I wasn’t going to leave without our son. This man was 48 years old at the time while I was 28. Wouldn’t he have his life on track to stay away from abusive woman? Who really has the problem.
He talks about CPS. Did he fail to mention he was charged with “failure to protect”? According to all these so called domestic violence, he would say I was unfit to be around the children. Yet, he traveled all over the country, coming home 2 days to leave again. Now why would a father chose that profession to leave the children with an abusive mother. Could it be that our sons drowning was a tragic accident? He won his CPS case because CPS couldn’t say I was always ABUSIVE or NEGLECTFUL and Burke knew it. But just his allegations alone proves to be false. He made these same comments the night of the drowning including he was going to kill me with a 50 cent bullet in which he pulled out of his pocket in front of police and social workers.
Not only that, he went on News 13 and stated how much of a wonderful, loving mother I was right after the accident. So what is it?
I just had a CPS worker at my house in which she visited the boys at school prior, stating there were allegations of me throwing a toaster at our sons head. When the worker visited our boys, Our youngest who supposedly witnessed it, couldn’t answer any of her questions except for the coached “my mommie threw a toaster at my brothers head”. When she asked how, what, when, etc… he couldn’t answer and went on to say, “my daddie said mommie threw a toaster at brothers head”. This is NOT okay. This is Psychological ABUSE that no child should have to endure.
Burke mentions, I slashed his tires 17 times. Well interesting enough, I don’t even know where he lives. Second, he started to say I slashed his tires 10 times, now its 17 and in court documents he states my friends might have done it. REALLY? Which is it? Is there proof, because why the heck would I want to slash his tires. The only transporation our children have while in dads care.
Yes Judge Pomeranze striked all the documents Burke filed in the records. He neglected to tell you that she striked all the documents because it is against HIPAA to have personal mental health records in a public court case. She stated, if he wanted file it, he would have to drop it off in the judges chambers. Not only that he filed over 300 pages without any table of contents or dividers. What person wants to indiviually go through that many pages.
Yes our older son does swim without floaties. He has swam on his own in the deep end for 3 years prior and has had lessons. Why would I put floaies on him. Our 5 year old at the time did wear floaties and even today wears a life vest when we go to water parks because he doesn’t know how to swim. Not only that, Burke fought and fought for lessons, I put them in. We then went back to court and he argued that he didn’t feel comfortable with me taking them and asked the court to allow him to take them to lessons? Has he taken hem once? Nope, of course not.
How would a 5 and 7 year old know to fire their attorney without the help of their father. They wouldn’t. He coaches them on everything including the “so called” abuse in foster care. He also mentions that our son’s shirt was filed with saliva. Not exactly the case. Just like children who suck on hair, thumbs, chews finger nails, our son sucked on his shirt. Wouldn’t you going through this crazy traumatized life of his?
I can go on and on about the situation. I’m not here to crucify my ex husband. I am here to tell you the other side of the situation. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. Nobody is perfect, but Burke believes he is.
These boys don’t need to know about our court battle and conflict between their father and I. They should be able to see both parents in a happy and healthy envioronment. It is not fair to them, to be put in the middle of adults. These boys are now going therapy to learn fact vs fiction and how to tell dad, “daddy, I love you, but I don’t want to talk about that”. They should NEVER have to think that daddy or mommie is lying to them. They shouldn’t have to go against one parent or the other, as their father is chosing to do. They should be children.
Mrs. Rondeau, feel free to contact me to get my side of the story. I will gladly share.
If the story I just read has in fact been the truth…. then there are more then enough red flags here… I feel sorry for the Children involved and the one who’s life that was lost. Sure seems more these days… that if court is on the calendar then Judges are getting paid and cases being drawn out, at the expense of Children’s well being and somebody’s wallet.
Yeah something had to be done about the decisions that these judges are making. I have a very similar story that ended badly.