My name is Melissa Strawn and I am a devoted mother to five incredible boys, ranging in age from 8 to young adulthood. The next leg of our journey involves raising the following:
1) $1,300 for the other half due on our certified transcripts for the Court of Appeals. This keeps our appeal going.
2) $390 for our past-due electric bill that we owe to Pacific Power
3) $100 for gas
4) $90 for car insurance to AAA
5) $125 for cell phones to T-Mobile
6) $55 for our trash bill to Yreka Transfer
7) $360 due for our past-due water bill
8) $5,000 due to our appellate attorney
9) $105 due for internet to Cal-Ore Communications
Many people know me as the Founder and CEO of MyPeopleNow, a gig-economy startup in Seattle meant to connect those who need something done, with someone ready to do it! I had to put my startup dreams on hold in 2020 as I sadly experienced multiple health problems and had 2 near-fatal emergency surgeries in the last 3 years alone.
I was since diagnosed with a severe blood sugar condition called nesidioblastosis (it’s a form of reactive hypoglycemia that makes my blood sugar crash way down when I eat).
In addition to battling health issues, I survived years of domestic violence in silence and finally made the difficult but necessary decision to leave for safety. My kids and I found refuge in Weed, California, and we are surrounded by love and support from extended family.
Though I left with the full knowledge and cooperation of my ex, agreeing to a trial separation, it quickly became clear that he never intended on following through with our agreement.
We bought a home with his help, but he violated court orders to pay the mortgage and our home remains in foreclosure. My ex won’t sign the loan modification forms that would allow me to take on regular monthly payments and he just got orders in my absence that require me to sell my sole and separate home. This serves no purpose other than to make me homeless, as a forced sake won’t result in a penny to either party.
But this story isn’t about blame or anger - it’s about love and safety for 3 wonderful children. Since leaving, I’ve worked hard to rebuild a stable, nurturing life for the kids. My boys are thriving—on the honor roll, playing football and baseball, and thriving despite the difficulties we endured. The kids and I have been legally protected from my ex for over 2 1/2 years under a domestic violence protection order, and I’ve been able to represent myself pro se in court. While my ex has paid over $100k in attorneys fees to 6 different attorneys, he’s used financial abuse to keep us destitute.
All of what we built is now at risk. While I was hospitalized with pneumonia—on top of a recent infectious mononucleosis diagnosis—a King County Superior Court Judge proceeded with our divorce and custody trial in my absence, where my abusive ex was the only person to provide testimony or exhibits. My ex convinced the judge to proceed without me with the false claim that I was trying to prolong receipt of spousal support. But there never was *any* spousal support ordered or paid and he hadn’t paid child support or housing costs in a year. Despite me not being at trial, the orders his attorney drafted say that I was (something known as “fraud upon the court”). It’s been very shocking and frustrating to watch his post-separation abuse be tolerated in family court, especially because I prevailed for 2 1/2 years with the truth and evidence clearly supporting my testimony.
I submitted multiple motions to postpone the divorce trial due to severe illness, fever, and voice loss, and my motions were accompanied by 64 pages of documented medical proof and provider letters.
Despite this, the judge allowed the trial to proceed without me—without my testimony, without my exhibits, and without my witnesses.
The result? Sole custody of the children was granted to my ex—the same man the court found to be a danger and to have used a firearm in the commission of a felony against me. I have filed a Motion to Vacate the final orders that my ex’s attorney wrote to flip the narrative, and I have also been diligently following the appeal process. Though the court was going to rule on my Motion to Vacate/Stay on Sept 19, after reviewing my motion and exhibits, the court now said they won’t rule on it until Oct 10. This means my only hope at protecting my kids, home, and everything I have, is to ask the court of appeals to step in and “Stay” the orders while my appeal carries on.
The important thing is that my children are still safe and sound in their longtime home in Weed, CA. There’s still hope. There’s still time.
A Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) barred my ex from physical contact with the kids for over two years. He has a long history of court-documented violence and has taken zero steps to remedy any of the issues that led to this outcome. Yet in a matter of hours, and with no input from me, the Judge granted him nearly everything—without hearing both sides.
I thankfully still have a domestic violence protection order, but this order no longer fully protects the most vulnerable parties listed — the children.
My wealthy ex was able to do what many wealthy abusers do — manipulate the court process to convince the judge to rule their way while their unrepresented counterparts are left with a dizzying legal process to learn on the fly.
This is not just about me. This is about child safety, judicial accountability, and due process. When one judge is allowed to single-handedly undermine years of evidence-backed rulings and grant sole custody to an adjudicated abuser—without even basic procedural fairness or “best interest of the children” standard being met—something is profoundly broken in our legal system.
The kids and I are now facing a terrifying and potentially irreversible outcome. I am halfway to raising $15,000 to pay for emergency costs to get us through this situation safely. Right now, our biggest needs are paying the other half of the certified transcripts, paying basic bills (many of which, are past-due), and to continue to retain an experienced appellate attorney who can urgently intervene and file for a stay of these orders, pending appeal).
I filed for emergency protection from my local California judge — the same judge who first granted us temporary protection over 2 1/2 years ago. We were granted an evidentiary hearing in July despite my ex’s 6th attorney trying to get the case dismissed, but the local commissioner said that Washington State retains jurisdiction of the kids despite us all living in CA for over 3 years.
If someone can afford 6 attorneys, but refuses to provide basic sustenance to their children, I think it’s pretty clear to see where their motivation lies. This custody grab is about power, control, and revenge for rebuffing his efforts to reconcile, and for finally seeking safety and protection from domestic abuse.
My ex told the court in Dec 2024 that he wanted to reconcile with me, but when I made it clear I am not interested, he pursued scorched earth orders that rip everything away from the kids and I - our housing, vehicle, his past-due support arrears, and most sadly, the children. I’ve never wanted to keep the kids from safe contact with him, and I voluntarily extended his Zoom visits several times. But he often missed visits or attended intoxicated and then turned around and claimed I had alienated them. No one is alienated. The kids love him, but it is my job as their mother to ensure any contact with him remains safe until he stops trying to cause us further harm.
Without immediate action, my children could be forced into the custody of someone the courts previously deemed unsafe—and I am unable to take this appeal on without legal help. I’ve been able to represent myself thus far, but the appeal process is way out of my league and far more complex. I have an appellate attorney, but I still have to pay for transcript and records fees totaling approximately $3,000, and I still need to contribute toward his retainer fee.
This is a life-threatening emergency situation with a LOT at stake. If you’ve ever doubted that family courts sometimes get it dangerously wrong, please hear me now: they do. But through an appeal and post-trial motions, I can and will keep fighting for the safety and wellbeing of the kids.
In Washington State alone, we’ve already lost too many children because judges failed to take warning signs seriously when domestic violence is involved. And in this case, the judge didn’t even get to hear the other side. These post-trial actions ensure that a review happens swiftly so that the children’s safety can remain at the forefront of any orders that impact them. All I need is a chance to get the evidence properly before the court.
I am not asking for special treatment, I’m asking for basic justice:
• For a mother to be heard before losing physical custody of her children.
• For illness to be respected as a legitimate reason to delay trial, especially when it is something like pneumonia that can be treated and is short-term.
• For the law to work for families, not against them.
• And for child safety to be the first concern—not the last, as WA law requires.
What I’m Asking For:
Immediate Relief:
• Help us raise $1,300 for the 2nd half of our certified transcripts (so they can be sent to the WA Court of Appeals).
- Help us raise funds for basic bills so that we can stay afloat until I am able to secure my own regular funds in November.
- Help us raise the $5k due to Corey Parker, the appellate attorney whose firm will be properly presenting the reversible errors to the Court of Appeals.
- Help us raise $10,000 for appellate attorney help to submit an emergency “Motion to Stay Pending Appeal” to the Court of Appeals (this is perhaps the MOST urgent, as it likely will halt enforcement of all of these dangerous unjust orders while I await a ruling on my appeal).
This is about much more than one family. This is about fixing a system that too often silences protective parents and puts children at risk. I cannot do this alone.
With your support, I can fight back and pave the way for others to do the same. With your donation, we can file a strong appeal and protect my children from being sent into a dangerous situation, and we can begin to build up a dataset that can help address these same deficits in the legal system going forward.
It’s not a matter of *if* the children will experience harm (their medical/school letters already suggest emotional harm would be immediate), it’s a matter of how much and for how long. No one wants to sit on the sidelines while they wait to see if their children will make it out of an emergency alive. And no child should have to be removed from their long-time safe and loving parent, home, and community.
Please, if you can, donate today. Every contribution—large or small—brings us one step closer to safety, justice, and family court reform.
And if you can’t donate, please share this campaign directly with a few close friends and family. A personal note along with this link, is the quickest way to help us reach our goal.
The more people who see this, the more chance we have that the right miracles will come through to help us get through this tough time.
Together, we can stop this injustice. Together, we can fight for the safety and wellbeing of 3 innocent children.
With deep gratitude,
Melissa Strawn
Mother. Survivor. Advocate. Change-Maker. ❤️
Organizer and beneficiary
Melissa Strawn
Organizer
Weed, CA
Joseph Aguirre
Beneficiary