Dear Prudence Upton,
I am angry. A few days ago I wrote a letter to Judge Algeo from the Montgomery County, MD courts reminding him of my son Prince. The child he trusted in the care of a disordered man. Today, I have thought a lot about the woman who represented my ex. Her name is Prudence Upton. During court, it came out that my ex only paid her about 600 dollars for the entire court case. I find it baffling that this woman basically represented him pro bono given the testimony against him. I will not write her a letter and send it to her office, however, maybe she will see this when she searches for her name online someday. Or maybe someone will find this letter when they look online to see if they should hire her as an attorney. I will not make a comment on her skills as an attorney, but I do question her morals after how she was instrumental in what led to the events on October 20th when my son passed away.
Someone told me the other day that the courts take “acceptable risks” when it comes to parents. Even when they know a parent to be disordered, they would rather risk harm to the child than deny access. What the courts did with my son was not “acceptable” and I am going to keep writing until someone takes notice.
Dear Prudence Upton (of Avery and Upton),
My name is Hera McLeod (also known as Cappuccino Queen). I know you must have a lot of cases so maybe you don’t remember me. The last time you saw me was July 12, 2012 when Judge Algeo granted your client unsupervised access to my baby boy. Did you know that my son, Prince, passed away while he was just on his fourth unsupervised visit with his father?
You probably never got a chance to meet my son. (Your client barely knew enough about him to even tell you about him.) Prince was an amazing little boy. He was a little angel. He smiled often, loved to dance and sing, and was a proud new walker. He was the type of child who would run up to hug crying children and was the only toddler I knew who would share his toys without anyone. Even though you never met him, the decisions and choices you made (namely to represent his father) made a significant impact on Prince’s life.
I know you are a mother. I can imagine that you are (or will be) so proud the day you see your child off to school, watch him/her graduate from high school and college, get him/her ready for the school dance, or dance with your son on his wedding day. I will never get to do those things with my son. I am now a mother without a child. Instead of watching him grow, I will be visiting his grave and imagining how his life would have been had he gotten the chance to live it.
I will never forget how you confidently attacked me on the stand as your client smirked. Just today I read a letter you wrote Judge Algeo about how you felt your client should have had extra time during the unsupervised visits so that he could bring Prince back to his house. In case you don’t know, that house was where my son died. He was dead by the time the ambulance arrived.
Did you know that your client lied to you about having a job? Do you even care? Don’t you think that its odd that my son spent less than 24 hours of unsupervised time with this man, yet he ended up having a medical emergency that killed him during one of these visits?
Knowing what you know now, would you still have fought to represent this man? I hope it was worth the 600 dollars he claimed he paid you.
My son’s life was a job to you. You will go on and likely feel justified in your actions. I hope, however, that you will remember my son every time you step foot in the court room. When you are watching your children grow, I will be mourning mine.
We had a small wake for my son before his funeral. I went in to see his body by myself and sat with him for a few minutes before the rest of my family joined me. I read him one of his favorite books, Dr Seuss’ “Oh Baby, Go Baby”. After I read him the book, I put it in his casket with him. I also made him a promise. I said, “My Prince – I will love you forever, I will love you always, as long as I am alive…my baby boy you will be. I promise you that I will continue to fight for you, I will never let people forget you, and I will hold those accountable who have failed you.”
Ms. Upton – you are one of those who failed my son.
Sincerely,
Prince’s Mama
The man this woman represented is a pathological liar. He told so many lies ON THE STAND that he doesn’t even know which ones were true. When the judge said, “OK, he did everything I’ve asked him…took down the porn site and got a job”, he can have unsupervised visits with his son. Even I know a way around that one. It’s called the “Clinton principal”. “Yes you highness, I took down that porn site (I put it up under a different name but I did take that one down). WHAT A JOKE this court system is. As far as a job goes, what person can claim to get a payroll job when THEY’VE NEVER HAD A JOB BEFORE IN THEIR LIVES! Outrageous!
You failed all of us, Ms. Upton. That day you showed you were a more skilled lawyer than the one we had. Bravo. What little respect I had for this joke of a judicial system has been completely blown. It’s all a game where you throw out your objections to fact and make it impossible for the entire story to be told. Well, you won. Your client got unsupervised visits with Prince. But this time the pawn you used in your game was a little 15 month old baby boy. I hope you’ll remember him every waking moment of your life.
BTW, there’s a typo in your client handbook. I’d tell you what it is but I’d have to charge you.
CappiQ,
Ok, In Colorado a mothers children were killed while the father had them. She had an order of protection against the father and she called for help. Nobody came. In fact they minimized her concerns when she called the police about the violation of the order. Nobody in Colorado would help her after the fact but Internationally she got attention. I believe the findings were just this past year. The UN had found against the state of CO and USA stating a failure to protect mothers and children and a violation of human rights. I want to bring it up as it made a ripple in the system in mothers and childrens favor. (the story is horrible as you can imagine)
I want to know if this Prudence Upton attorney at law at Avery and Upton is a “fathers rights attorney”? Also, does Prudence Upton have any involvement in any non-profits that are touting fathers right or any family type of name as there is government funding going to these organizations? There are a lot federal funds going to these non-profits to help fathers gain custody of children and putting the children at risk while removing custody from a protective parent. This would explain to me why Attorney Upton might accept such a small amount to represent a rehensible person. The other new ugly in the family courts is if Ms. Uptons firm has contributed to the campaign of the judge on your case. This is happening very often when bad decisions are made in favor of a parent in question who’s attorney has helped fund the judges position. To see more about this, the singer Usher, is being investigated for receiving 100% custody away from a loving mother and his attorney raised campaign funds for the judge who decided on the case. At the very least it’s a conflict of interest.
Just some info from my research. I cannot do anything to change the outcome but I can give you information from crazy amount of research I have done in an attempt to protect my child.
Sincerely,
Eralyn (((((((hugs))))))))
We need to make noise on the attorney’s blog. http://www.rockvilledivorceattorneysblog.com/
Thanks so much for sharing this! I support starting some talk here….
In this woman’s closing statement she said something about Hera agreeing to support Luc financially.( Which was not the truth) She had caught him in many lies (i.e the one where he claimed Hera’s family attacked him in the parking lot. Both lawyers pulled the tape and it showed Luc to be a liar.)
I remember thinking that this woman was either stupid or unethical since she ignored all she had learned about Luc during the deposition and trial. But in the end I think Luc found another like himself who was willing to lie, cheat or ignore facts to win.
I think its about moral corruption. There are some lawyers out there who give all lawyers a bad name. I believe Prudence is one of those. She wanted to win and didn’t care if it was at the expense of my son. She knew what kind of man her client was. She didn’t care. All she cared about was winning. Well congratulations Prudence….you won. Your client’s goal was to get unsupervised access to Prince so that he could kill him and financially profit off of a damn life insurance policy. What a great lawyer you are – you got him exactly what he wanted. Did he offer to pay you once he was awarded the proceeds of the life insurance policy? Did he tell you that he was about to do some huge concert and get 500k? Well, newsflash – it wasn’t a concert…it was a murder. I hope you have to live with what you did for the rest of your life. And I hope that the truth about your actions in this case become very public.
I have only read a few portions of this blog. First i want to say Im so sorry for your loss and had a system that failed you can’t believe what i am seeing! Ihave a protective order against my abuser his attorney is prudence upon just last week she defended this man when he made false allegation about me to the court they did nothing but tell as many lies as they could to put my babies back in the hands of my abusre. The abuse is continuing and there is nothing i can do to protect them! I just found out about your story today . Please if you could give me any info that helped or didn’t help please let me know or contact me Im in fear for my children! Just to let everyone know she has no regard for this situation she is still putting wound innocent children at risk everyday as she did to me just last week
I am so, so, so, sorry to hear about your son. I am in tears. The court system would be fine if and only people like this unethical, rude, ill mannered, uncaring, inhumane, and dishonest animal would not be in it. There are many Excellent and Ethical lawyers and I can definitely name a few. There are some not so good lawyers who are honest, won’t rob you, but many not get you good results. And yes, there is Prudence UPTON, and maybe a handful like her around who only care about money, winning, coach their clients to lie, harass the other side, and have never read a word of the “Professional Rules of Conduct for Attorney’s” in the Maryland Court Rules. She is the worst though. Some of the lawyers who get good, get greedy. They get your trust, get you going, and begin filing the pleadings/motions. Then discovery starts. Oh boy. Interragetories, production of documents, admissions, depositions and ching ching they are making money as the type and they don’t care. Their only focus is how to create more fear in you and make everything seem so scary, how to make the paper work done where the court is OK with it, and they are making the maximum amount of money, and then after discovery, they put the fear of God in their clients and get everyone to settle. If you don’t settle, they will coach their client to Lie. This ass hole in my case represented my ex who took my children to NY and made my children and my life a living hell with visitation. When I had my Ex on the stand, my Ex would look at Prudence UPTON ass hole to tell her what to say and Prudence Upton would tell her what to say. She is a disgrace as a human being. I suggest you file a complaint to the Grievance Commission of the Appellate Court of Maryland according to the rules for attorneys. Sue her personally and her firm for mal practice and fraud. Subpoena all her records and client/case information once you sue her and ask for production and call every single client and find out who else had their child lose their life, or lost to an unfit alienating parent. This lady is an animal! Lawyers in family court who have no regard for parents and child and only focused on a job with a pay have no business being in the business of Justice. $200 To $300 an hour for a job a 15 year old can do after 40 hours of showing them how to type a motion, where the rules of the court are, how to research cases, how to go on line and view your case, and so forth. Its a joke. She is a bad joke. Lawyers are suppose to be defenders of Justice, and scholars. How this lady is allowed to use the bathroom in a court house is beyond belief. I am sorry about your son! Don’t quit. It is Prudence Upton’s fault. She should have done her due diligence on her client and focused on the best interest of the child, asked for comfortable supervised visitation at a nice setting for the ex, and that would had been the end of it. She is a miserable person.
I am not sure what Prudence’s motivation was in representing Lucifer. I don’t believe she was getting paid and I am sure if she was she wasn’t charging her full rate (considering that Lucifer had no job to speak of). I am willing to bet that she has no remorse for her part in my son’s death. That said, I am also certain that karma will take care of her in the future. Eventually she will have to answer to a higher power for all the terrible things she has done. I am sorry that you were also negatively impacted by this woman’s lack of ethics and moral compass.
You are too kind to have empathy for my experience; considering yours. There has to be a legal way to get her be accountable. I want to find out how and get us all together to address this situation so other families and children are not victimized by this horrible person.
God I have similar story.
I am surprised I stumbled on this blog. Your story is sad, but you cannot blame Prudence. Any lawyer (paid or unpaid) is bound by their duty to defend their client. it is called the American justice system. Prudence happened to be my lawyer in 2012 when she helped me get my 3 young girls away from a physically/mentally/emotionally abusive mother. She was amazing. After the case was over, I was served with strange papers (a new case) claiming I assaulted my ex-wife’s new husband. Prudence helped guide me through the court system (for free) to clear my name. Again, she was amazing. It was not her “lies” that caused me to win, she just let the facts speak for themselves. She also handed the other lawyer his @ss on a platter.
Basically you are upset because Prudence Upton did her job and your lawyer did not. Your post really is sad, as well as some of the comments, but none of you have worked with her. I have.
I am happy for you that you had a good experience in your situation. I never blame an attorney for doing their job. I do, however, have a right to my opinion. I think there is a huge difference between someone doing their job, and someone who joins in to emotionally abuse the other parent. Prudence knows what she did, and she is the one who has to live with her behavior and her part in this. If she thinks she doesn’t have blood on her hands, then she is trying to just make herself feel better.
Just because it is your job, you can choose your own morals,integrity and honor. So I totally agree with you CQ.
I noticed your username and thought it would be interesting to point you in the direction of this article:
http://facesofnarcissism.com/2016/03/14/there-may-be-two-or-more-sides-to-a-story-but-not-every-side-is-true/
There are always two sides to every story – but both sides are not always the truth. 😉
If lying to the court and ignoring her client’s obvious psychosis is doing her job as a lawyer , then certainly she did her job well. This lawyer was handed the task of getting this psychopath a psychological exam when even the judge noticed he had psychological problems. She allowed her client to get an exam by a person who wasn’t qualified or licensed to give an exam and presented her to the court as someone qualified. I would say that makes her culpable.
I have had good and bad experiences with Rockville attorneys. You have to remember that it is not a lawyer’s role to get to the truth. The role is to win for the client’s sake. Basically all these stories tell me that Prudence is absolutely an attorney I would WANT but I would not want to be AGAINST. If the exam was done by someone not licensed or qualified, why didn’t opposing council raise that concern? Why didn’t the judge notice? Who was the judge? Just curious.
The Judge was Judge Algeo. He has since resigned. While I would agree that an attorney’s role is to “win” for the client, I think that lawyers in family court should also bear some responsibility in the protection of children. This is not just a fight to be won by the parent who has a better attorney. I know many attorneys who would not have represented this man pro bono just so that they could “win” a case that should have been clearly stacked against them. If Prudence is able to pat herself on the back for a job well done given what happened to Prince, that is just sick. And personally, I don’t think I would want to be represented by an attorney who didn’t care about the best interest of a child and was only concerned with how she could “win” in court. Her supposed win cost a toddler his life. That is no win in my book.