In the headlines again: two restitution settlements, $2.25 million each. Dead children, guardianships, and family members who repeatedly complained and warned the family court legal service systems to prevent death and harm.
In just four days, five stories of child abuse and preventable death appeared in New Hampshire news headlines—each one tied to the state’s systems and institutions created and funded with taxpayer money to protect children and parents. From Harmony Montgomery to Elijah Lewis, from Danielle Vaughan’s unnamed grandson to Jaevion Mohammad, and a fifth case involving a mother whose children were seized by U.S. Marshals in California after the family court gave guardianship to the children’s aunt in February.
Currently, hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution for decades of abuse and death are being funded by state taxpayers.
The continuity of patterns left behind is unmistakable: The New Hampshire family court system, together with agencies like DCYF and their contractors, is operating a collaborative system that prioritizes personal and state profits, not the well-being of children and parents.
Take the case of Harmony Montgomery. In 2019, DCYF assigned Demetrios Tsaros to investigate reports that five-year-old Harmony had been beaten by her father, Adam Montgomery. Tsaros delayed acting for weeks. He never spoke to Harmony. He didn’t interview Adam. He ignored visible signs of bruising and failed to contact police. After three months, he closed the case as “unfounded.” Harmony was murdered six weeks later.
“Unfounded” is an overtly overused finding in most complaints related to agencies in the child and family justice ecosystem. This finding is very convenient for the agency employees and contractors to kick accountability to the side of the road—out of sight, out of mind.
The details of Tsaros’ background should make every citizen outraged. He had a domestic violence conviction, later annulled. He was previously fired from the Sununu Youth Detention Center for sexual harassment. And most disturbingly, he had a prior personal relationship with Adam Montgomery—he had been Adam’s youth counselor at YDC. That fact alone should have disqualified him from handling the case. Instead, he remained in a position of authority, and his inaction helped seal Harmony’s fate.
Even now, no one from within the state family legal systems has been held accountable. The state of New Hampshire has paid Harmony’s mother a $2.25 million settlement and made the same payment to the non-abusive father of another murdered child, Elijah Lewis. Yet, in both cases, the settlement agreement between DCYF and the state of New Hampshire did not admit any wrongdoing. The state and the system won’t admit their failures, nor are they making any attempt at meaningful reform. The devastating reality is hidden behind employee-client privilege to shield negligent workers and quietly transfer them across agencies under DHHS, where they continue to oversee the care and placement of children against their best interest.
This is not just about DCYF. It’s about the entire ecosystem that sustains the family court. In Danielle Vaughan’s case, her grandson died after DCYF ignored months of clear warning signs. In the case of Jaevion Mohammad, a father who had never requested custody was awarded it anyway, and his son was soon killed. In another troubling case, a mother in California says her children were taken from her based on an “unknown” warrant, apparently fabricated through rubber-stamped orders designed to keep jurisdiction (and funding) within the state.
What connects all these cases is a judicial and bureaucratic structure that weaponizes the court system and social service agencies for the purpose of generating grant revenue, incentive money, and unlimited billing for ordered services instead of following their mandated purpose to protect children. The children become the bargaining chip, a financial commodity for the system. The parent, grandparent, or guardian who loves that child will do anything to protect them. That desperation and love, combined with the ‘you must comply’ coaching by the family legal service providers, is the fuel that keeps the system churning—motions, hearings, court orders, psychological evaluations, supervised visits —all creating a cash flow for DCYF, the court, and their contractors.
The priority is not children—it is money. There are no evidentiary standards in family court to prevent narrative manipulation. Arbitrary and capricious is the name of the game. Witnesses are often not sworn in. Evidence can be excluded at the discretion of non-judicial “referees” who are not constitutionally appointed judges. Their orders are called “recommendations,” but they control lives—and they are rubber-stamped by judges who admit they don’t have time to review the cases. There is no meaningful oversight. No transparency. No true appeals. No justice.
The legislature knows this. The House Children and Family Law Committee (CFL) has received years of testimony detailing these abuses and deaths. And still, the majority of legislators either do nothing or actively block reform. Some are known to profit from the continuation of the family court scheme.
The good news is that there is a way forward. The first major step in reform is to pass House Bill 652-FN, thereby abolishing the administrative family court, restoring due process, ending the gravy train that runs on the backs of children and families, and establishing a new Office of Family Mediation that is transparent, accountable, voluntary, and free from the profiteering incentives that plague the current system. This bill would realign New Hampshire’s approach to families with constitutional law, common sense, and decency.
The question is not whether a problem exists. It is whether we will continue to look away while children like Harmony, Elijah, and Jaevion suffer or die under state-sanctioned negligence.
It is time to stop treating these tragedies as isolated incidents. Please join New Hampshire Family Justice at the State House on June 7 at noon to rally for justice for these and so many other children harmed by the State of New Hampshire.
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