Power & Abuse: A Closer Look at the Indictment and Alleged Conduct of Courthouse Family Custody Mediator Joseph Hale

Joseph Hale

Former Humboldt County Superior Court Family Mediator Joseph Hale, (also a former Child Welfare Services Employee until 2012 when he was terminated by the county) will be arraigned in Humboldt County Superior Court on April 28 on the four counts of misdemeanor invasion of privacy he has been charged with, nearly eight months after his arrest in June of 2022.

According to the Disorderly Conduct misdemeanor criminal complaint against him, filed on March 22, the misdemeanor charges stem from incidents where Hale allegedly secretly videotaped or photographed “the body or undergarments” of four separate female victims on four separate dates – “on or about” Wednesday, January 5, Sunday, April 17, Sunday, June 5 and Wednesday, June 29 of 2022.

Please note: it is not yet known if the criminal accusations noted above are related to work-place violations, or if they occurred elsewhere. Notably, the four dates that Hale is charged with having violated the privacy of four separate Jane Doe victims are noted as two Wednesdays, and two Sundays. 

Without a doubt, the arrest of Humboldt County’s family court Child Custody Recommending Counselor is the ugliest scandal to impact the county courthouse since then Family Court judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis was accused of defamation, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, discrimination and civil rights violations in 2020 following an incident at Lake Shasta, while surrounded by local litigators. 

Beyond what Hale is being charged with criminally, nearly 20 parents and community members we have interviewed accused Hale of other problematic behavior, including exhibiting inappropriate anger to mediation clients, berating them, showing favoritism based on misogyny, and even showing racism. 

Humboldt County’s local judges – Lawrence Killoran (currently the family court judge), Steven Steward, Timothy Canning, Joyce Hinrichs, Gregory Kreis (currently the courthouse Presiding Judge), Kaleb Cockrum, and Kelly Neel – have now recused themselves citing conflict of interest. Accordingly, a traveling judge from out of the area is expected to hear the matter.

Causes for Concern

Hale’s employment history shows at least one troubling indication of possible future problems. In 2012, Hale was let go from his Humboldt County job at Child Welfare Services (CWS). According to a staff member with the county’s Human Resources office, he was “terminated” for reasons they were not at liberty to divulge. The staff member did confirm that Hale was previously employed as a social worker at CWS, but that he does not currently work for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services which oversees CWS. To be clear, the county courthouse is a separate entity from Child Welfare Services, where Hale was employed until 2012. Hale’s employment with the courthouse can be confirmed from 2013 until 2022, but the full scope of his employment with the County is yet to be determined. 

These peeping-Tom-style criminal charges brought against Joseph Hale illustrate the degree to which power can be abused behind closed doors, where a right to privacy is expected. Hale’s arrest exposed an ugly background littered with years of workplace complaints – both informal and formal – to supervisors at the courthouse. And indeed, some mediation experiences with Joseph Hale were explicitly characterized as abusive or negligent by parents we spoke with. Such reports are especially troubling given the position of power and influence that a Child Custody Recommending Counselor (CCRC) wields in the family law (FL) court system.

Some of those involved are still too frightened of the potential ramifications of speaking out to come forward, even with the promise of anonymity in print.

Note, many of their stories quoted from here have been independently verified, while others are affirmed only by the person involved. None of these accounts were provided anonymously, but due to the confidential nature of many of their cases, are presented here without names to protect their privacy.  

The Mediator’s Job: Splitting the Baby

Because of the sensitive nature of their cases and the fact that they may still be involved in the court litigation process, in order to pull back the veil on the little-known details of Hale’s mediation meetings, we relay some of the most compelling feedback from community members here, anonymously.  

In light of the criminal charges against Hale, many local parents are now concerned about the scope and reach that Hale’s allegedly criminal behavior and/or negligent court-ordered recommendations may have had on vulnerable families – inside or outside of the court system. 

As a child custody recommending counselor employed by the courthouse, the mediator is tasked with the critical duty of assessing the needs and abilities of each parent traversing the family law system looking for custody, visitation, or co-parenting resolutions – with the ‘best interest of the child’ as the underlying goal – and then providing a written recommendation to the judge. These interviews between the mediator (formerly Joseph Hale) and each parent are sometimes scheduled alongside private interviews with children who may be caught in the midst of parental disputes. These mediation interviews could be over the phone as was the routine during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, or in person, which is the most common and preferred way of conducting a mediation. 

One parent whose child was interviewed, had serious reservations about the way Hale conducted the interview with their child, and was furious about not being informed when it occurred. Thinking back on how the situation occurred, she said, “Joseph emailed me and told me that my son would be interviewed via Zoom… However, with no communication to me whatsoever, Joseph Hale instead conducted the interview at my son’s school.” Shocked that a courthouse mediator would visit a minor child’s school, she said, “I wasn’t even made aware that this had happened until Mr. Hale had submitted his report to the court. I thought this court mediator had no right to show up to my son’s school to interview him privately, in person, without any other adult present. It made me uncomfortable, and I worry that my son was made to be put in a sensitive situation with a person that the court did not do their due diligence on.”

Considering the nature of the charges against Joseph Hale, she worried, “if Mr. Hale was hiding cameras (as his charges state),[I’m concerned] about his unfettered access to the school, its bathrooms and other areas… .” 

With the dread of not knowing where Hale’s allegedly illegal recordings were captured, many parents expressed outrage at the notion that their families were impacted by a man whose morality is being questioned in such a disturbing way. In one mother’s words, “I am angry that Humboldt County Court *forced* this man into the lives of my children, during an already tumultuous time in their lives, when they are most vulnerable.”

“Abusive”

The way mandated family law court mediation unfolds, each parent has a one-on-one interview with the mediator, and then there is a group conversation (unless prohibited by a restraining order that would restrict communication between the parties) with the two parents and the mediator together, to try to come to resolution on as many sticking points as possible. This process is required by California family law code, and can be very helpful in reducing impact on the court system, and saving everyone not only time and money, but hopefully it mitigates the amount of turmoil that can come along with a family law custody case.  

However, the parents we interviewed often felt that Hale made the situation worse.  A child custody mediation is contentious by nature, and many do go forward without resulting in a formal complaint – however, more often than not among the people we interviewed, they felt Hale’s CCRC meetings went off the rails.

Among nearly 20 testimonials provided from different community members who came forward detailing experiences with Hale, about three quarters were women, and of those, each of them reported unprofessional conduct and negligence in his role as a court counselor, while about half of them also conveyed instances of more troubling, sometimes violent behavior – such as violently slamming a chair, a case file, or his open hand or fist onto the desk during counseling. 

With so much power resting in the opinion of a single man, able to divide or mend families with the swipe of his pen, many parents reviewing their litigation in retrospect are angry, and many are still entangled in the court system without a functional family agreement. 

One father explained that he felt the mediator had failed their family. “It’s disgusting what he’s doing in his position of power,” he said. “It’s abusive, and I don’t want any other families to have to go through that.” 

Nearly every person interviewed described Hale using the “f-bomb” aggressively, being combative in his communication at some point, and many reported Hale threatening to cease mediation if things were not going well, which would cause the parties to go back to court for a contested hearing and potentially on to a trial. 

Five women reported that Hale specifically slammed his fist or open hand on the desk in sudden frustration, while eight parents recalled Hale slamming their case file on the desk in front of them. Three people recalled Hale slamming his chair at a point in the mediation where no agreement was reached. One person told us, “He stood up so fast and aggressively that his chair flew back and hit that wall… and he was red in the face. He said that if we didn’t agree to his suggestion on holidays scheduling he would tell the judge that we couldn’t agree, and said that the judge might give all the holidays to one or the other of us, and that it could be ‘really be bad’ for us.” 

Similar complaints of Hale’s support for some parents who had documented verbal, physical or even reported allegations of sexual abuse against them was a common theme among the various parents who came forward with grievances.

One woman alleged, “There was child abuse occurring with other parent, as well as diagnosed alcohol and drug dependency disorder and mental health issues…” She alleged that Hale’s recommendation to the court overlooked substance abuse problems, including a Child Welfare Services recommendation to withhold custody pending the outcome of an investigation, in favor of increased time with the other parent. She said, “Other parent was ordered to seek treatment for these issues in order to regain some custody, but I don’t believe [he] did, before getting some [visitation] back thanks to Hale.”

Looking back at the years of domestic violence that her children endured behind closed doors following an unfortunate custody recommendation by Hale (which led to court orders that have since been modified to prevent the children from being in the custody of an abusive father), she explained, “Now the children only have to see their father if they want to but it took over almost two years of trauma to get here. They are in therapy and we are doing what we can to heal. As we all know, childhood trauma can derail a life entirely. I feel like their pain and suffering could have been prevented, rather than caused by Mr. Hale’s negligence.”

While thinking back and discussing how badly the mediation had been back in 2016, one mother summarized, “[H]e was too busy cussing us out and shouting obscenities, and pounding on his desk to offer anything constructive… [W]e worked out a temporary schedule, and I just kind of acquiesced to the most basic thing to get us out of there.” 

This last mother was the only parent who verified that a complaint they submitted was responded to, and she was granted a different mediator. This option, however, has not been available for several years, as the courthouse has not employed more than one mediator regularly, leaving Joe Hale as the only mediator in the county, until his recent departure. 

Misogyny 

While verbal abuse, cursing, and thinly veiled threats at a “worse outcome” at trial were some of the most commonly reported dynamics, many we interviewed reported that Hale seemed prejudiced against women seeking mediation, and even most of the dads we spoke with concurred. Those interviewed alleged that Hale at times attempted to find common ground with men who felt maligned by their exes. 

Nearly every woman we interviewed was prepared to talk about adverse experiences they had in mediation, reporting verbal abuse, bullying, and even physical intimidation. Many of these mothers described Hale’s prejudgments as being steeped in misogyny. 

Some interviewees said Hale at times directly compared a mother going through a divorce and custody dispute to his ex wife, with unabashed negative connotations. Admitting that this seemed to be playing into their favor for the most part, some dads who came forward said they thought they were benefiting from Hale’s sexism. 

One dad said that although he didn’t feel upset about the outcome of his mediation since the court’s decision ultimately met his approval, he was dismayed at the “unprofessional conduct” of Hale while discussing his case, and specifically noted that Hale seemed to favor him. The man explained that Hale seemed to strike a sort of informal bro-tone with him, and he said Hale went as far as to draw a very negative comparison to the mom on the other side of the mediation with his own ex wife, whom he had described in very unflattering terms, according to this father. 

One man explained that since Hale’s arrest last year, he has questioned the outcome of his divorce and custody court proceedings, writing in an email to us explaining, “Now that [Hale’s] integrity is called into question I am thinking about relitigating the entire divorce, since so much of it hinged on a single meeting with a person whose self proclaimed job is “to decide whom is the better parent”… And to clarify, this father added, “Yes, [Hale] actually said that out loud.” 

Yet another father who went through mediation three times with Mr. Hale determined that there was a formula he used, and explained, “He enters every conversation with the premise that because you are fighting, that makes you bad parents, and you should be ashamed for putting your children through the argument you’re having.” He added, “On all three occasions, there was no cognition that I was the same guy coming back, so it was just the same formula, playing out again, and again.”  

This dad left mediation frustrated each time, feeling that the process was left to the interpretation of one man, who had not operated with integrity in his position of power over very basic and private family functions. He lamented, “And so you really hope that some listening will occur, but that is not part of his formula. The minute you start to explain, Hale just shuts you down and is absolutely not interested in the facts. I realized, and I had to let my ex-wife fall into that trap if I wanted to achieve anything, because I just wasn’t allowed to explain anything.”

This father, a well-known local public figure explained, “He didn’t care… I was really surprised to be treated like a criminal in family law court.  And he likes to threaten also that if you go back to court without an agreement, there will be something even less agreeable ordered [by the judge].” 

Another parent who felt sidelined by Hale’s  mediation demeanor echoed several mothers who described verbal outbursts directed at them or at their estranged partner in the course of negotiations. They explained Hale “pressured me and told me that I needed to agree to a terrible schedule for the kids that conflicted with my work schedule, because I didn’t think I had a choice because Hale told me ‘if you don’t do this, then the judge will decide after I write a report because you are uncooperative’ …and so that’s why I agreed to the mediation report, and now I can’t work full time since he gave my ex exactly what he wanted on the schedule.” 

This particular case resulted in this parent deciding to cease working full time, losing income as a result, because the court-ordered schedule conflicted with their existing work schedule which was not able to be adjusted enough to keep the job following the recommendation by Hale.

As another disappointed mother put it after having waded through the family court system for years having on and off again through litigation with the father of her children, in her opinion, “Joe Hale failed to address the best interest of the children in our case and went on to make recommendations based on more easily handling fathers’ irrational and aggressive frivolous behaviors.” 

According to one source who is familiar with Hale from outside of the courthouse, “I am convinced that Joseph Hale uses his job to punish women in a never ending vendetta against his ex wife. Misogyny is like an unquenchable thirst, so he acts out the drama of his supremacy over and over again on an endless line of miserable women who have the misfortune of living within his jurisdiction. He even carries this behavior beyond the job site.”  

One woman provided a detailed account of their family’s mediation with Hale which illustrated a contentious, and one-sided scenario wherein Hale aligned with the father, despite being tasked with staying attuned to the needs of the children, per the law. She recalled with some discomfort, “The two of them proceeded to talk like I wasn’t there discussing all the things he wanted. I refused to agree, and presented restraining orders, a letter of recommendation from our family therapist recommending the kids not to have much visitation with their father due to past abuse. Mr. Hale shook his hand in my face and said ‘none of that matters’. He then proceeded to tell me ‘all mothers do is get boyfriends that beat their kids’”. 

One woman summarized her experience with Hale by saying, “[W]hen I left I felt like ground meat. It was like being assaulted. I am a strong, stubborn woman who will never just allow someone to take my children, but I can see where many women would eventually just do whatever this man said to get out of that office.”  

Several mothers echoed this sentiment, saying that they felt pressured into an agreement that was not what they would have agreed to if it were not for Hale’s accusatory tone, and unrelenting pressure to kowtow to his life-changing suggested co-parenting agreement. 

Racism

Besides accusations of misogyny, one woman who was white alleged that Hale was racist. She recalled that during a session, “Joe started cussing at both of us. Slammed our legal file down on his desk. It was shocking. He ripped my ex a new one… he ripped me a new one – he was very inappropriate.” 

After a short pause and a deep breath, she explained that Hale spoke to her ex referencing racist tropes of stereotyped uninvolved black fathers, as she and her ex were in the midst of sorting out co-parenting and communication hurdles. She said, “My ex is black, and Hale was actually throwing out racist statements, too. It was so uncomfortable and so bad that I actually had to go [right away] to the family self-help center, and was advised to file a complaint – not just for the way that he treated me, which was awful, but for the way that he treated my ex, and I really hate my ex.”  

Inappropriate

Apart from mediation, she explained that at a social function at local holy space, Hale behaved as though he did not recognize her from the prior court-ordered mediation, and she described how he made unwanted sexual advances toward her. “It was really uncomfortable being around him because he started hitting on me when he noticed I was single…I’m like ‘what is wrong with you? Are you fucking kidding me?’ So I actually had to leave early from that event because it was so uncomfortable.” 

One woman who reached out immediately after Hale’s arrest last year and was still in the midst of litigation could hardly contain the frustration she felt with the lack of responsible mediation services, saying, “They’ve taken things from my family that are sacred and cannot be returned in any way that I have ever been able to think of. They took time, and our safety and peace, and then finally they took my baby.”

A Pile of Courthouse Complaints

After speaking directly with multiple disgruntled parents, it became clear that men and women alike were unhappy with the results received from Hale’s mediation recommendations to the family court judge. Many explained that they were so put off or so concerned about his behavior that they filed formal complaints to Hale’s supervisor. One person told us, “There was a group of moms who banded together years ago…They wanted to file complaints, but they were told there was nothing the supervisor could do at that time.”  

Many parents who had lodged complaints against the mediator directly with the courthouse said they heard nothing in response, and saw no intervention. These written complaints reflected their various concerns about a mediator that was often described as inappropriate, unprofessional and at times toxic or even violent, but, after filing complaints, the parents were still in a position to have to trudge forward through the family law system carrying the mediation report forward to the judge, regardless of their experience with Hale. 

A screenshot of a complaint form offered by the county explains the process once a complaint is received. Only one person we spoke with was able to confirm that a complaint they submitted via this process was followed up on by administration.

Personnel files are not open to public viewing, and so the complaints lodged against Hale remain in a confidential file, hidden from public scrutiny. 

One written complaint that was provided for our review was a letter sent to the courthouse CEO, Kim Bartleson, from a community member who had witnessed Hale’s demeanor around a mediation several years ago. In an excerpt from the letter, the writer’s perspective gives a fly-on-the-wall take on a post-mediation exchange that she observed inside the courthouse between an ex-husband involved in mediation, and the mediator, Joseph Hale. 

“What Joseph Hale did was to create the most threatening environment possible and to communicate contempt, hostility, disrespect, and a tyrannical, power drunk malice that bordered on criminal. He threatened a mother he had barely even met with the worst thing he could do to her, take her children from her, if she didn’t obey him. He silenced her.

Meanwhile the gleeful ex was tap dancing like he and Joseph Hale were long suffering comrades on the same side of a war. The ex was saying, “You know how it is, I have to have the time to make money if she wants child support.”

Joe responded like a bartender or a friend in a locker room, “I hear ya man,” he said laughing and shaking his head.

They ganged up on her with no pretense of neutrality, professionalism, or justice. Joseph Hale clearly enjoyed having his ass kissed by the guy and was incandescent with rage when he looked at her.” 

The complaint writer went on to implore Bartleson as a supervisor over Hale, to address what she and others believed was unprofessional and potentially abusive conduct by the courthouse mediator.  She wrote to Bartleson, “He has very good social skills when he perceives that someone in the room has power over him, but if he knows there are people covering for him, he abuses with impunity. That kind of social intelligence makes him more dangerous. He has honed the art of office politics. You may be the only hope for women and kids in this county.”  

The letter written by this concerned individual and delivered to COE Bartleson years ago ended with a hopeful suggestion: “After getting rid of Joseph Hale, please make sure that there is accountability for all future mediators, and functioning checks and balances to their power.”

What’s Happening Now

Currently, it is unclear what ‘checks and balances’ are in place, even after this latest upheaval in the family law department. 

Requests for information as to the hire of an additional new mediator sent via email to Humboldt County Court CEO Kim Bartleson had gone unanswered last year, apart from one reply reading, “No comment on Joe Hale.” As of yet, all attempts to gain clarity regarding the mediation department’s oversight have been met with email replies stating that no comment will be made regarding Mr. Hale, no reply at all, or simply indicating that a recipient is out of the office. 

One staff member at the courthouse Human Resources office confirmed last week that that Hale has not been employed by the court for several months, although was not specific as to the terms of his dismissal, saying they were not at liberty to discuss whether Hale was fired, or for what length of time he had been out on paid leave. We can also confirm that Hale has not conducted a single mediation session as the Child Custody Recommending Counselor with Humboldt Superior Court since his arrest last year.  

After June 29, 2022, the mediation department was left with over 50 family law mediations to reschedule in the wake of Hale’s arrest, and struggles to keep cases on track. 

Any new mediator taking on the position will undoubtedly have their hands and ears full – not only due to the difficult nature of the job, which can involve several family law mediations in a single week – but, because of the mess left behind in the wake of the former mediator’s arrest, and the impressive stack of family law case files that have been piling up in absence of functional mediation services over the course of the past many months.  

In the interest of transparency, this reporter also works as a Legal Assistant in Humboldt County, primarily in family law. Please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] if you have a related story you want us to know about.

Earlier:

• Joseph Hale, Humboldt’s Only Family Law Mediator on Leave After Arrest by DA’s Office (Redheaded Blackbelt provided a comprehensive look at the potential ramifications of Hale’s arrest to family court at the time of Hale’s arrest in 2022.)
• Former Court Employee Charged with Four Counts of Secretly Recording Under a Person’s Clothing Without Consent