All of the uproar about this case seems very one-sided to me. In the forums within our community (men's rights), I have noticed that no one has cited any independent corroboration of any facts related to this case. It's all just information proceeding from the OathKeepers, from Jonathan Irish, and also from the libertarian community including WorldNetDaily. But in fact, local media have covered the story. Only after I started scrutinizing the situation from the professional news outlets did I start to realize that the child protection agency may in fact have made a defensible decision -- both legally and morally -- in taking custody of the couple's newborn baby.
It turns out that the parents of the newborn are not married to each other (they purport to be engaged). However, the mother -- Stephanie Taylor --
IS STILL MARRIED TO ANOTHER MAN. Her husband, and the father of her two other children, has refused (according to her) to sign any divorce papers. Therefore, Stephanie Taylor has been seeing another man -- Jonathan Irish -- while apparently having retained sole custody of her two kids from her current (and as yet unnamed) husband. She is also living together with Jonathan Irish; in other words, she's a married (not single) mom living together with her boyfriend. It is that boyfriend -- Jonathan Irish -- who has been named as an abuser in the affidavit filed by the local child protection agency. How did they substantiate that Jonathan Irish is an abuser? Well it turns out that in the last two years, she has repeatedly summoned police to the house to report on violence that was perpetrated by her live-in boyfriend, Jonathan Irish. Her (not their) two kids were for a time even removed from her care because of the boyfriend's alleged violence.
Neither Taylor or Irish are gainfully employed. Both cite an inability to work as the reason for their non-employment. And yet somehow, they have found the money to live together in a home despite neither earning a salary. I suspect that child support is being collected from the father by the married mom, who is living with her unemployed boyfriend. The boyfriend, Jonathan Irish, has recently purchased a Taser gun and two other firearms which he keeps in the house with his married girlfriend.
Time and again when we learn of child abuse, the vast majority of the time it is inflicted on the kids either by the mother's boyfriend or the mother herself. By comparison, only a minority of child abuse is perpetrated by the biological father. And so it is highly plausible that Jonathan Irish -- the unemployed live-in boyfriend in this case -- is legitimately a threat to the safety of the kids that aren't biologically his.
Why would I assume that there was conflict within the household of Stephanie Taylor and Jonathan Irish? Because in the news article, Jonathan indicated that despite the fact that neither of them were employed, he was expected to be a caretaker for his disabled girlfriend. That creates a caustic power dynamic, with an imbalance of responsibilities disproportionately borne by the boyfriend, and with neither the mother nor her boyfriend bringing home a salary. It is easy to believe that domestic violence occurred in that household, possibly perpetrated by both partners against each other (and yet -- in law enforcement's eyes -- with the boyfriend bearing primary blame for all of the conflict).
Read the following articles with a careful eye, and see if you draw the same conclusions as I have above:
1. Concord Monitor
October 9, 2010
"Couple: State took our baby"
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/219670/couple-state-took-our-babyBut according to an affidavit provided to Irish by the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, state officials took the child because of Irish's long record of violence and abuse. According to the affidavit, a judge determined that Irish abused Taylor's two other children. She is still married to the father of those children, though Taylor said yesterday that her husband has refused to accept her divorce petition for the past two years.
The affidavit also says that the police in Rochester report a "lengthy history of domestic violence" between Taylor and Irish, and that she accused him of choking and hitting her on more than one occasion. According to the document, Irish failed to complete a domestic violence course as ordered by the state, and that a hearing was held last month to terminate Taylor's parental rights over her two older children.
Irish, 24, said in an interview yesterday that he had never abused his fiancee or her other children. He said he was unemployed and collected disability becuse he is blind in his left eye from a childhood accident. He said that Taylor [his married girlfriend] suffers from "stress-induced seizure disorder" and that complications during her pregnancy required him to tend to her almost constantly.
2. Concord Monitor
October 10, 2010
FBI responds to hospital threat
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/219798/fbi-responds-to-hospital-threat3. WMUR-9 News, Manchester
October 8, 2010
"Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Check Hospital During Protest"
http://www.wmur.com/r/25332217/detail.html4. Boston Globe
October 9, 2010
"Couple say NH took baby, paperwork cites father"
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/10/09/couple_say_nh_took_baby_paperwork_cites_father/