About Joaquin Rams; Maybe The Doctor Will Think Twice Next Time

Hera Mcleod, the mother of Prince Mcleod Rams, the toddler who died during his first unsupervised visit to his father, is now suing Dr. Margaret Wang, of Virginia, for twenty million dollars. This does not surprise me, and I think it is good that "Dr." Wang is being called to account for her part in this little boy's death. The Maryland judge in this case, while rude, unprofessional, and completely disinterested in Prince's best interest, did order Joaquin Rams, Prince's father, to present the court with the opinion of a professional mental health expert prior to his custody order. And Rams proceeded to the office of Margaret Wang, Phd., and paid for her services on his own. This is probably where one of the misunderstandings about Rams's mental fitness for unsupervised visitation began; Rams hired Wang and paid her fee; she was therefore biased in Rams's favor. It is a shame that Rams had not simply been sent to a generic court psychologist (Montgomery County Maryland DOES have them) who would not have been inclined toward a bias, but Rams was given the opportunity to pay someone to write a recommendation for him, and Wang did exactly that. She was unconcerned about Rams's history of domestic violence, not worried about the multiple insurance policies he bought on his son, (not FOR his son, ON his son) and obviously determined not to let such trivial matters as two murder investigations deter her creative muse.

No one in court was the slightest bit supportive of Hera Mcleod when she tried to protect her son. Judge Michael Algeo told Ms. Mcleod she was in the wrong to try to protect her son, and refused to look at Mr. Rams's criminal record and the murder investigations. Mcleod presented the facts....it is all in the transcripts. Dr. Wang minimized the problems of domestic violence and sexual violence. She helped to convince Judge Algeo that the concerns of Prince's mother were baseless. Was she expecting some sort of payout from one of the insurance policies? Only the shadow knows.......the idea that a psychologist is willing to recommend a man who wielded a handgun at someone during a domestic violence incident should be unthinkable. But she did it. And shortly thereafter, Prince was pronounced dead because of an excess of water in his lungs. The person Margaret Wang recommended for unsupervised visitation is now in jail with no bond. I think it is very, very good that Hera Mcleod is suing her, even if the whole matter moves very slowly through court for years to come, as these things often do; just to draw public attention to the dangerous practices of this psychologist before another life is needlessly lost.

What should Hera Mcleod have done? I know what I would have done. I went through similar experiences in divorce court. I got divorced in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The judge there had a grudge against any woman who separated from her husband because of domestic violence, and when she heard that I had testified against my husband in court, and that he had been found guilty of domestic violence, she reduced my child support to fifty dollars a month, for three children. She also ordered me to drive my children from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to Frederick, Maryland during a blizzard. This was in February of 2003. Later on, during a court hearing, my husband's lawyer told the judge he had no idea why I had not taken the children to Frederick, as ordered. When I told the judge that the governors of Maryland and West Virginia had both declared a state of emergency because of the storm, and that police in both states were giving one thousand dollar traffic tickets to anyone who drove in that storm, (do you think my fifty dollars a month in child support would have covered such a fine?) she pretended that she did not know about the blizzard and threatened to hold me in contempt of court. When I told her about the fifty-eight people who had died of carbon monoxide poisoning (see above link) as a result of sitting in their cars in traffic during that storm, she told me that carbon monoxide is not dangerous. At that point, I realized that reasoning with this judge was a waste of time, and I waited for the hearing to end. It ended with the judge reminding me not to go to the police in West Virginia or anywhere should I incur further violence through my husband, and also not to report any maltreatment of the children. Such complaints would be interpreted as custodial interference and treated accordingly. My spouse finally became my former spouse, and also finally ceased any attempts to contact the children or yours truly. Except once: I moved away from the area when I married again, and my former spouse took me to court to contest this move. I was forced to reschedule a blood transfusion for the hearing! Subsequent hearings came and went with no attendance from my former spouse, and he went on to cause three more head-on collisions in Maryland and Virginia traffic and garner at least two more DWI's before his death in 2010. Oh; the judge also told me that my former spouse did NOT have a problem with alcohol. Did not. Worrying about my childrens' safety while riding as passengers as he drove was completely unreasonable of me......where's the eye-rolley when I need it? But Hera Mcleod was young, and had not lost her faith in the judicial system. No mother should be faced with the choice of becoming a "criminal" by defying court orders and getting jailed for contempt of court because she loves her children. Judge Algeo did not leave her any other choice.

This is a picture taken in Frederick, Maryland, in 2003, during the blizzard in which I was ordered by a family law court judge to drive with my children.