Bethene Anne Lindstedt-Simmons

Ms. Lindstedt was the court appointed attorney for my four children because my abusive ex husband was asking for overnight visits and more time with my children and I was asking for supervised only visits. My attorney at the time, filed a motion with Columbia County Family Court based on domestic vio...lence as well as for stalking us. I gave my attorney an 8 page affidavit stating 12 years of details and dates of the abuse as well documentation of past history of sexual abuse allegations against a minor. My attorney got an order of protection in our behalf. Ms. Lindstedt was given all copies of this information by my attorney. I waited to hear from Ms. Lindstedt as I was told by my attorney that she would be calling me for a time to interview the kids. I was told she may talk to the children at the school and I thought that would be fine especially since the guidance counselor at the school my children attended knew of their fathers abuse. Ms. Lindstedt was given the contact information of the counselor. She never contacted him. Our court appearance was set for January 28th 2016. January 26th I sent my attorney an email telling him that I still haven’t heard from Ms. Lindstedt. January 27th, the day before our court appearance Ms. Lindstedt called me asking if she could schedule a time to meet with my children. We set a time to meet at the Columbia County Courthouse at 3:30 pm, the day before our court appearance. The interview she had with my children lasted about 20 minutes. She never attempted to speak to me, in fact she gave me many glares. Based on her 20 minute interview, Ms. Lindstedt recommended to the court that my children get even more and regular overnight visits with their father because he seemed like a “wonderful father”. The judge ordered four visits over the course of a month. We were to meet back before the judge a month later on February 25th. Judge Kehn told Ms. Lindstedt she was to interview the children again after the four visits, Ms. Lindstedt agreed to the judge she would do this. I fired my attorney and hired someone else that day. In a nutshell, these four visits were horrific. My new attorney reached out to Ms. Lindstedt many times trying to appeal to Ms. Lindstedt to do some further investigating and to please set up an interview with my children before we go back to court. My attorney attempted to contact Ms Linstedt via many emails and phone messages.Ms Lindstedt ignored them all. Not once did she attempt to contact me to interview my kids again. My attorney was only able to speak to Ms. Lindstedt at the courthouse a few minutes before our time with the judge. Ms. Linstedt told my attorney she didn’t feel the need to have interviewed the kids again. She didn’t see anything wrong with my kids going with their father and she felt they didn’t need supervised visits. She said she felt that I made up all of the allegations of abuse and that my ex husband seemed nice. ( later I learned from my ex that she met him at his apartment and they spoke) February 25th, 2016, Ms. Lindstedt walked into the courtroom and gave Judge Kehn the impression she DID INDEED interview the kids a second time and even went as far as telling the judge that my eldest son “was the one that was the most adamant about seeing his father.” Not only did she not even talk with my kids a second time, but NO WAY would my eldest son say this as he is the most terrified of his father. This is clear and utter neglect on the part of Ms.Linstedt. She is paid by tax dollars to be an advocate for children and out of prejudice against me, she refused to do her job. Fortunately the judge left everything status quo. Why am I writing this review five years later? Well, the man the Ms.Linstedt so fiercely and passionately protected and even committed perjury for in his behalf, is now behind bars for several counts of first degree rape of a child between 7-12 as well as forcible touching of another child.