Bad Judgement
Linn County Judge Rachel Kittson-MaQatish has got to go
While the three criminal perjury charges move forward against Oregon attorney Kyla Mazhary-Clark — for lies she has admitted telling in her own “family law” case — we need to take a closer look at the Linn County Circuit Court judge who waived service, jurisdiction, and common sense, in order to grant Mazhary-Clark sole custody of someone else’s kids… through a default, and without even so much as a hearing.
That would be Willamette Law alum Judge Rachel Kittson-MaQatish, who was elected to the bench in 2018, and who has presided over a whole bunch of family law cases in the five years since.
We only know of Kittson-MaQatish’s bad judgment in this unlawful custody-smash-and-grab because the children’s mom managed to get law enforcement to investigate the mess, albeit several years too late. But who knows how many other families that Kittson-MaQatish has wrecked by her lack of oversight, and her disregard for the law and the truth.
A good place to start looking is Kittson-MaQatish’s own family law matter, from long ago, before she was even an attorney.
In that file, there’s a transcript of a deposition in which she admitted that an assault she had reported to the Salem Police was actually a false allegation. Her dishonest police report was made against her daughter’s grandfather, who had won some visitation a few years earlier. Kittson-MaQatish had vigorously opposed any contact by him, claiming that he was a “documented child abuser.”
Additionally, during the time she should have been facilitating that visitation he had been granted by the judge, Kittson-MaQatish was instead “frustrating” or outright denying the visits by moving her daughter to “undisclosed locations” in four separate states, failing to provide up-to-date contact information, and forbidding the grandfather’s communication with other members of her own family.
And while she did stipulate to continued visitation, Kittson-MaQatish most certainly would have been displeased with the results she got from the court.
Back in late 2018, when Kittson-MaQatish was running for election, she stated that her “early experience of being a litigant,” though personally painful, had equipped her “with greater understanding, empathy, and wisdom.”
In reality, it appears to have instilled her with the sense that the court’s “job” is to punish “abuse victims” by awarding their abusers visitation or even shared custody. Maybe Kittson-MaQatish even has a hard time believing abuse claims, period, because of her personal history.
That theory seems to be credible, according to one litigant who has appeared in front of Kittson-MaQatish, but who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
In their contentious family matter — in which there is documented child abuse — Kittson-MaQatish told them that “even if a child is sexually abused, it’s in the child’s best interest to still spend time with their abuser.” Kittson-MaQatish apparently concluded that “it’s the only way to repair the relationship.”
That litigant also stated that Kittson-MaQatish demanded that the case be “resolved behind closed doors” because making the child abuse report public during a trial would potentially impact the abuser’s career, thereby threatening child support. They further detailed that the judge’s demeanor was intimidating and controlling. “She got in my face and leaned over me, and said ‘we are going to settle this without going into court today, correct?’ It makes me shake just to type that.”
Kittson-MaQatish was not what one would expect of or hope for in a judge. “She’s not fit to sit on the bench, in my opinion. My family has not recovered,” the litigant said.
Coming back to Kittson-MaQatish’s performance in Mazhary-Clark’s entirely fabricated case — that was built upon lies made to cure jurisdictional defects — one has to wonder about her judgment…
It was poor judgment for Kittson-MaQatish to be so eager to allow Mazhary-Clark service by posting — of an opponent whose whereabouts were known. It was poor judgment for her to not be suspicious of Mazhary-Clark’s abuse and mental health allegations that were made at the 11th hour. It was poor judgment not to hold a hearing on the matter. And it was poor judgment to allow Mazhary-Clark a default win, for custody of someone else’s kids.
Call me crazy, but if you have the word “judge” on your letterhead, then you should at least be decent at judging things.
