Investigative editor Chris Osher published a story last weekend that elicited more outrage than I have ever seen a story evoke in the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazettes.

Osher wrote about a retired Aurora police sergeant who faces criminal charges for sexually assaulting his three daughters, but remains free from custody while his ex-wife went to jail last weekend for objecting to court-ordered reunification therapy meant to repair his relationship with two of their sons.

Our staff members documented the moment when Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins turned herself into Larimer County jail on Saturday with tears in her eyes and fury in her heart.

More than 5 million people reacted to the story on the social media platform X, and a Gofundme campaign raised $70,000 for her in three days.

Some of the reaction from our readers captures a small sense of the outrage:

Former Aurora cop charged with raping daughter remains free as mom is sent to jail

“This judge should be disbarred and is the one who needs to go to jail, along with the father, for child abuse.”

“Didn’t I just read a week ago that this reunification crap was thoroughly debunked and discredited? Does this judge still believe leeches are a valid medical treatment?”

“We don’t allow kids to have basic human rights.”

So why is this happening? The judge in this case ordered reunification therapy before criminal rape charges were filed against the father, but the judge cast doubt on and then simply ignored an earlier finding by child-protective staff that they had confirmed sexual abuse by the father on his daughter and injury of his oldest son.

“This happens every week,” said Gina Byrd, a Colorado attorney and former guardian ad litem who has represented scores of children in abuse and neglect cases. “Because Colorado law really stresses parental rights over the best interests of the children.

“And that’s because parents vote and lobby and have more power,” Byrd said. “I’m so tired of bad parents.”

A year ago, there was some hope. Colorado became the first state in the country to put new restrictions on the use of reunification therapy. The new law barred courts from restricting the custody of a parent who is competent, protective and not abusive solely to improve a relationship with the other parent. It prohibits reunification treatment that would cut off the relationship between a child and a protective parent the child has a bond with.

The new law also requires experts who advise the court on custody cases to have much better training in working with victims of domestic violence and child abuse.

State lawmakers acted after Osher and Julia Cardi published extensive investigations into Colorado’s troubled family court system, which has been plagued by accusations of bias, usually from mothers who say they are punished and can have their parenting time restricted during divorces when they seek to protect their children from abusive fathers. Osher and Cardi documented four deaths of children caused by dysfunction in the system and went on to win a prestigious national journalism award for shining a light on the problem.

The legislation makes Colorado the first state to pass a law based on the federal Keeping Children Safe From Family Violence Act, also known as Kayden’s Law. The federal law, enacted in 2022, is named after a 7-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was murdered by her father during court-ordered custody time.

Yet the new law has not helped in Hawkins’ case.

“A series of laws have been enacted in Colorado to address this crisis, but judges are not following the law,” state Rep. Meg Froelich, prime sponsor of the new law, told me.

“We have done everything in federal Kayden’s Law, except we (constitutionally) can’t tell the judicial branch what to do through legislation,” she added, “and so they continue to use their ‘discretion’ to make terrible rulings!

“This judge and many other judges and magistrates have illustrated profound ignorance of the realities of domestic violence, child abuse and child sex abuse.”

A companion bill created a task force to study training requirements for judges on domestic violence and sexual assault, among other forms of abuse. But it’s high time to move past studying the problem and make those training requirements a hard and fast reality before more children die.

So what else can be done to protect children in the family court system?

“I think we need more. I think the law needs to change,” Byrd said. “We need to have more stress on the best interests of the children, and it needs to apply to every single situation and it needs to be of paramount concern.

“I think that in Colorado, we try to do the right thing and we give these parents chances, but in some cases it’s time to give up on them.”

Byrd stopped working as a guardian ad litem for kids because she was so frustrated with how the courts hamstrung her.

“I quit. I just quit. I mean it was just heartbreaking, especially when kids are like 10 to 12 years old and they know what’s going on. And you have to say, ‘Sorry, you don’t matter. What matters is your dad who raped your sister wants to see you now. So you have to go.’”

She puts the onus on the legislature to make better laws. She believes judges are doing their best to follow the law, but they are manacled by what the legislature hands down.

“I just think the legislature needs to figure this out, and fix it.”

Froelich sees responsibility for the courts, too, and she and other state lawmakers are petitioning new Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Marquez to “usher in an era of family court reform that stops the daily tragedies that continue to unfold.”

The legislators are urging the chief justice to take immediate action through a Supreme Court directive, judicial disciplinary action or an emergency task force.

Meanwhile, like clockwork Saturday morning, Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins turned herself into jail for her second weekend away from her kids, with a fresh round of tears in her eyes and fury in her heart.