By Susan Bassi and Fred Johnson
Valerie Houghton was facing criminal prosecution for securities fraud related to a real estate scheme she allegedly operated with her husband, Terry Houghton, when Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge McCracken appointed her to represent a child whose parents were involved in a divorce case. The mother at the center of the case objected to paying Houghton and having an attorney represent her daughter as Houghton was charged with serious crimes involving deceit and fraud.
Houghton reportedly informed the court that she had discussed her criminal prosecution with her young client, and the child was “okay with it.” Houghton was allowed to remain in the case where the children were reportedly being forced into reunification therapy with the controversial therapist Dr. Rebecca Bailey.
Criminal charges against the Houghtons were ultimately dismissed by Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen in 2021. However, parents remain outraged that judges allow attorneys charged with serious crimes to represent children during their parents’ divorce or custody case.
As previously reported, attorneys whom judges appoint to represent children in connection with a family law case are commonly known as
minors counsel.
Once appointed, a judge determines if the attorney will be paid by county taxpayers, or by the parents involved in the case. The legal services these attorneys provide remain unclear and to be paid, minors counsel must submit an application to the court, or hold a separate retainer agreement with the parents of the children they represent.
Judges Allow Attorneys to Cash in as Minors Counsel
Santa Clara County family court judges are known to appoint a high number of attorneys as minors counsel, which has brought greater scrutiny to the judges making these appointments in divorce or custody cases.
In 2023 alone the county’s judges have appointed attorneys to represent 373 children in 265 cases. Fees these lawyers are able to charge as minors counsel was best seen in the high profile Kassenoff case. In that New York divorce case, Carol Most reportedly charged $270,000 to represent three children before she was disqualified from the case. Most was reportedly replaced by three minors counsel.
In order to be appointed as minors counsel, licensed attorneys must take 8 hours of education, and certify with the court they are qualified to represent children. Once these steps are taken, a court may create a panel of qualified attorneys for judges to consider when appointing attorneys to represent children whose parents are involved in a divorce or custody case.
Santa Clara County Superior Court publishes a list of qualified attorneys ready to represent children. However, for the past decade, judges appear to be ignoring the list, and opting instead to appoint attorneys with whom they have social, personal or professional relationships.
Picking Favorites to Profit from Children
For the past decade, Heather Allan and her law partner Eva Martelle have been the most frequently appointed minors’ counsel in the county, according to public records. This year alone they have accepted a combined total of 48 appointments. These appointments are in addition to the hundred plus appointments they claim to have received by the end of 2022.
If all these appointments Allan and Martelle received are privately paid, their firm stands to earn $1.5 million more in fees than they were earning from previous appointments that are ongoing.
Allan has been known to remain in cases for years, charging $20,000 to $50,000 per year to the parents whose children she represents. In addition to representing minor children, Martelle and Allan maintain a robust list of private clients they represent in divorce and custody matters.
In addition to her cases in Santa Clara County, Allan brings in money other counties. Allan was recently appointed as minors counsel for Maya Laing, the young Santa Cruz girl at the center of a family court scandal that arose after a video of her and her little brother, Sebastian, being taken by private transportation agents went viral.
The agents were working for a reunification camp operated by Dr. Lynn Steinberg, a controversial family court reunification therapist known for operating controversial camps used in family court cases.
Records in the Laing divorce were sealed by Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Rebecca Connolly after the videos of Maya and Sebastian went viral.
In sealing the court records, Judge Connolly has kept Allan’s representation, and her application for payment, out of public view.
According to public records obtained by The Vanguard, Allan and Martelle regularly submit applications to the court to be to be paid for representing children. Court files and attorney fee bills show each court appointment can result in private payments between $20,000 and $50,000 per year.
While Santa Clara County maintains a panel of attorneys available for these assignments, only a core group of attorneys are regularly appointed to these lucrative positions.
Once appointed in a case that a judge orders privately paid, attorneys can bill at their open rate for tasks that often include reading emails, drafting court pleadings, and attending hearings related to their child clients’ parents’ legal disputes.
Judges Pick Favorites
Public records previously obtained from the court show that by 2022, Jessica Huey had been appointed as minors counsel in 240 cases over the last decade. The highest in the county.
In the first ten months of the year, Huey and her law partner, Audrey Gamble, garnered a combined total of 28 minors’ counsel appointments. If all of this year’s appointments are privately paid at the lowest average rate of $20,000 per case per year, Huey and Gamble could earn over $500,000 in profits from this year’s appointments alone.
Children who have spoken to the Vanguard about their minors’ counsel regularly report never meeting with the lawyers who claim to work in their “best interest”. These children report not understanding the purpose of having an attorney during their parents’ divorce, or what legal services they provide. Such reports only raise more questions about the value and purpose of minors counsel.
Judges often claim that minors’ counsel is necessary because a case is “high conflict”. However, more often than not, the conflict in a modern divorce or custody case is directly linked to the attorneys involved in the case. Attorneys known for dragging out cases, and depleting family wealth and resources.
Lack of transparency in minors’ counsel appointments additionally lead parents to suspect bias, unfairness, or corruption, as judges appoint lawyers they favor, then fail to manage and supervise any legal services these attorney purport to provide.
Public Records Reveal Judge Appointment Patterns
Public records recently obtained from the court, reveal that in the first ten months of the year, Judge Kirwin appointed attorneys in 41 divorce and custody cases, with Heather Allan and Audrey Gamble topping Judge Kirwin’s appointment list. Other qualified attorneys on the minors’ counsel panel were repeatedly passed over when Judge Kirwin made appointment selections.
Of the 40 appointments Judge Vanessa Zecher made this year, her top picks most frequently included Kathleen Dong, Malorie Street, Andrew Cook, Eva Martelle, Kevin Hutcheson, Audrey Gamble, Jessica Huey, Nicole Ford, Heather Allan and Rebekah Frye.
Shortly after appointing Frye as minors counsel in a divorce case involving domestic violence allegations, Ms. Magazine ran an article featuring Frye and Judge Zecher. The article seemingly painted Judge Zecher in a favorable light and made a pitch for Frye’s private law practice.
Local attorneys and parents, who wish to remain off record due to concerns over retaliation, felt the article served to boost Zecher’s political career with women voters, and bolster Frye’s private family law practice, rather than provide meaningful information about domestic violence and how it is handled in family court.
Judge Garcia-Sen seemingly favored Heather Allan in her minors counsel appointments, but rounded out her picks by including Malorie Street, Mary Feldman, Nedda Ledgerwood, Elise Mitchell, and Morris Bisted.
Judge Jessica Delgado spread her most lucrative appointments around to Kathleen Dong, Constance Carpenter, Malorie Street, Andrew Cook, Mary Feldman, Eva Martel, Jessica Huey, and Heather Allan. Constance Carpenter, who now works for the controversial Hoover Krepelka law firm.
Carpenter does not appear on the court-published minors’ counsel panel list, yet was appointed by Delgado, nonetheless.
Arthur Lin, who was active as minors’ counsel in controversial cases before Delgado this year, also does not formally appear on the court’s published minors counsel list.
Judge Andrea Flint, who acts as the court liaison for the minors’ counsel panel in the county, made 25 appointments so far this year. Her top picks for appointment included Sue Saigan, Mary Feldman, Eva Martelle, Audrey Gambell, Jessica Huey, and Heather Allan.
Additionally, public records reveal that Judge Flint was responsible for raising the hourly rate for lawyers representing children from the county’s low-income families from $75 per hour to $100 .
Before retiring in 2023, Judge Towery held the record for minors’ counsel appointments. Public records reveal that over the course of his judicial career, Judge Towery appointed minors counsel in 303 cases as he chaired the Bench, Bar, Media, Police Committee, BBMP, that reportedly shuttered after being exposed by the Vanguard in the Tainted Trials, Tarnished Headlines, Stolen Justice series.
Towery added three more appointments before retiring earlier this year. His parting appointments included Jessica Huey, who received the most appointments from Judge Towery over the course of his judicial career sitting in Santa Clara County’s family court.
Secret Club Culture
All the judges who appointed minors’ counsel in Santa Clara County had been active in the secret judge club, which was exposed in the Davis Vanguard’s Tainted Trials, Tarnished Headlines, Stolen Justice series earlier this year.
The club held five meetings a year and saw judges inviting favored attorneys, including divorce attorneys. Secret meetings included police officers who often testified in criminal and family law matters about domestic violence and child abuse.
Judge Towery, who chaired the committee from 2014 until it was formally shuttered in 2022, also exclusively invited reporters from the San Jose Mercury and NBC News. News outlets that rarely reported on the county’s family court cases.
While the secret judge club may have formally closed in 2022, the culture of cronyism it created arguably remains in the culture of minors counsel appointments in the county.
The Davis Vanguard is committed to expanding reporting on the state’s family courts. Please donate and subscribe to support this important work. If you have an issue related to family court you believe should be investigated, please send us a brief outline. Due to time and resource constraints, reporters are unable to return phone inquiries.
