AVA Board Member, David Corwin, MD, met Leah Moses in December of 2023 following Law Professor Joan Meier’s presentation to Utah family court judges and commissioners. Joan Meier, JD founded and directs the National Family Violence Law Center (NFVLC) at George Washington University Law School. Leah described to Dr. Corwin her work with other domestic violence (DV) victim advocates lobbying for changes to Utah’s laws governing its family courts. Leah and the others started their efforts following the enactment of a new federal model law called “Kayden’s Law” that was included in the 2022 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA). Joan and her colleague Danielle Pollack, the policy manager at NFVLC, were the primary authors of Kayden’s Law. Kayden was a 7-year-old girl in Pennsylvania who was murdered by her father during a court ordered unsupervised visit. Kayden’s mother had obtained a protective order due to the father’s previous violence toward her and his history of violent criminal assaults on others. The mother shared that history with the family court, but the father’s history of violence toward Kayden’s mother and others was minimized, and Kayden was murdered during an unsupervised visit with her father, who then committed suicide. Kayden’s mother had been advised by her attorney not to raise her concerns about Kayden’s safety while with Kayden’s father because of the lawyer’s fear, based upon experience, that the mother may be found to be an “alienator.” That legal advice is often given to mothers in these cases, which demonstrates how “parental alienation” claims have distorted family court actions, often placing children at increased risk of harm.
When Om was still alive, Leah and her colleagues’ efforts during the fall of 2022 to find Utah legislators willing to carry their proposed legislation modeled after Kayden’s Law were unsuccessful. After Om’s murder 9 months later in May of 2023, Leah and the DV advocates tried again. This time, they found members of the legislature who were willing to co-sponsor the proposed new family court legislation that sought to promote children’s safety and improve judicial decisions in disputed child custody cases involving allegations of DV and/or child maltreatment. Working in consultation with NFVLC, Utah lawmakers and advocates passed HB 272, and it was signed into Utah law as Om’s Law. Dr. Corwin then submitted several professional conference proposals, most of which were accepted, including to the 2024 International Society on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania. All included Leah describing Om’s tragic death and her experience with Om’s father (a psychologist) that included rape, domestic violence, coercive control, and child maltreatment. The presentations also included other professionals, including Danielle Pollack, Steven Berkowitz, Jean Mercer, Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, and Kathryn Spearman, describing the problems of “parental alienation” (PA) claims being used to counter allegations of DV and/or child maltreatment, expert witnesses who lack any significant professional experience working with domestic violence and/or child maltreatment, and recommended questionable “re-unification” therapies for PA, both office based and multi-day out of home programs that cost thousands of dollars and often require out of state travel with professional escorts. The re-unification therapies do not have sufficient research to prove their effectiveness and safety, but are frequently recommended to judges by mental health professionals who believe in PA. The PA concept also lacks research on its validity, usefulness, and safety. PA was rejected as a diagnostic disorder by the American Psychiatric Association for its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fifth Edition (DSM-5) in 2009 and all PA terminology was excluded from the 11th Edition of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2020 with the explanation that PA is not a health condition but a legal construct.
Several presentations addressing filicides in the context of family court actions where PA claims were raised to counter allegations of domestic violence and/or child maltreatment, including Leah’s description of Om’s life and death, were included in the November 2025 AVA Global Health Summit (GHS) in Salt Lake City. Those presentations are now available on the AVA website (avahealth.org) for free on-demand viewing. After the 2025 GHS, the AVA Board of Directors agreed to support the production of a high quality documentary of Leah’s experience that would be posted on the AVA website and used for educating professionals who work in the family courts around the world with the goals of preventing child murders, promoting children’s safety as the highest priority in these legal proceedings, assuring the safety of protective parents, and improving justice in family courts. The documentary, “for Om” was recently completed and is now posted on the AVA website with a caution statement regarding its emotional intensity, potential for rekindling traumatic experiences, and the need for viewers to protect their own emotional well-being when viewing it. AVA is grateful to Leah for her willingness to make this documentary and allowing its unrestricted educational use. Click here to watch "for Om".
