Ellen Gay Niermann

We employed the services of Ms. Niermann a few months ago in a case involving a contentious divorce where an abusive husband with a history of domestic abuse was purposefully alienating the children from their mother and I. After taking more than three months to complete her report (and charging us m...ore fees in the process for an "extended investigation"), Gay clearly did not manage to make a concerted look into the domestic violence history of the husband—a serious matter, considering Colorado's Best Interests of Child statutes which have very specific concerns regarding any present or past history of abuse in a parent. She said she'd be in contact with the marriage counselor who could verify the abusiveness of the husband, but never managed to make this contact. Detailed letters and accounts of other family members were submitted, but it did not seem she paid much attention to them. As a result, the husband was able to achieve some custody over the children and continues, to this day, to create a hostile environment for us. I rated Gay two stars on trustworthiness because she did uphold fairly unbiased conduct in the investigation (or so I believe). Our case was unique in that it concerned elements of BDSM and the accusation by the father that we were exposing the children to our lifestyle (which was an outright and knowing lie by him). She *did* see through the "inaccuracies" of the husband on that count and told me specifically that our sex life was none of her concern during our talks. Kudos to Gay for that. She looses points on trust, however, considering that she overcharged us and did not competently look into the domestic violence aspects of the husband, as she promised. That was a monumentally tragic mistake. I rated Gay one star on responsiveness because this investigation took far too long, and she didn't return calls or emails on a timely basis. Some messages and attempted calls were outright ignored. A folder that we put painstakingly together detailing all facts, including a copy of a DSS report supporting our position, seemed to have been shelved early on. She had to be reminded she even had the report to begin with. I rated Gay four stars on knowledgeable because I do think she knows the system very well. How well that knowledge of the system benefits her clients, however, seems a little up for grabs. She did manage to parse the lies of the alienating parent, so that was a plus. Her inability to compel the marriage counselor to corroborate the abusive history of the husband was a big ball drop on her part, so either her effort or knowledgability takes a hit there. I, personally, wonder why she did not order the counselor be subpoenaed by the court. I rated Gay two stars on keeping us informed. Between the long pockets of time in which we heard nothing, the waiting for calls back or recognition of our emails, and then suddenly charging us extra for extending the investigation (the reasons for which we are still unclear) this entire process felt very "black box." I understand that for reasons of preventing bias, some degree of distance in the investigator is necessary, but I didn't feel she communicated very well with us, or heard out our accurate and honest accounts. Bottom line? Gay kept our sex life out of court. That was good, and she should be applauded for that. But she failed in protecting the children from a manipulative and abusive father by not subpoenaing the marriage counselor or taking the words of others about him into more serious account. The result, now, is that the alienation of the children continues and the ex feels emboldened to continue on with his subversive agendas.

Gay claimed to be an expert in parental alienation syndrome. This could not be further from the truth. She not only was ineffective, but when new PAS literature and research was published, she refused to read it claiming " she already knew everything about PAS". She failed to enforce my parenting ...time with my children. She continued to decrease my parenting time until it was entirely eliminated, despite being a loving, supportive and fully capable parent. The result is alarming. I have not spent time with my son for 7.5 years. I have spent only 10 hours with my daughter in the last five years. Who knows if and when we will ever be reunited as a family.

We tried to go into the family investigation process with an open mind and thought of it as a fair way to resolve the dispute we were having over shared parenting time. Gay took a shocking six months to complete her report, which was completely biased in the mother's favor and full of discrepencies. ...We asked for more time with more stability for the children. Her recommendation was for a much more irregular schedule completely in the mother's favor. There is nothing going on in our home to suggest that there should be less time given and after what had seemed to be a positive visit, we were surprised to read her report which had a completely negative slant. It honestly seemed that since it had taken her so long to visit the mother and then write the report that she had forgotten who we even were and what we had to offer the kids and just wrote the same biased recommendation she gives everyone. On top of this she was unprofessional by being repeatedly late, did not return phone calls, and just generally disorganized. If you are a father, find a different investigator who will actually consider that you might have something positive to offer your children.

Gay provided a completely biased report in my case. After minimal interaction with both parties (1 hr. per side and some 10 min phone calls) she came to very inaccurate conclusions and made unfounded recommendations to the court. It the position she is in when children are involved I believe the impo...rtance of ethics and doing due diligence is paramount. The communication was none existent and emails sent were not taken into account or even viewed. The report itself seemed very rushed with many misspellings and grammatical errors which to me say she didn’t even review it before submitting it to the court. Talking with witnesses whose testimony was cited in the report said the conversations they had with Gay were not portrayed accurately. Selective statements were used in the report to support an opinion she obviously had prior to submitting to the court. She is not qualified to make these kind of judgments.

Although, she recommended my children stay with me, she was bias in court. She made statements that were inappropriate and I quote, "I would have sided with you but there were circumstances." That does not indicate that she was neutral and represented the children. I gave here information that she ne...glected to address, and she did not include in the report that were detrimental to my kids well being. She would not respond to emails but she does respond immediately when it came to money. She always made excuses about her ear infection and cold so she couldn't hear very well or understand very well. I don't know if that's a ploy, but I've had viral colds but it didn't last for 4 months. She lied on the stand about not seeing documents or that she was talked to about documents that were presented by other parties. I would not recommend her.