Debra Govan - Parental Responsibility Evaluator in Colorado
Debra Govan was the evaluator in my case last year. My experience was that she mostly just regurgitated my wife's stories and called it a report. No effort to be accurate, honest, or objective. She cherry-picked like crazy. The report reads like a case study in confirmation bias. For example, she seriously distorted the MMPI test results, leaving out everything that didn't fit "the narrative", and adding some strange commentary of her own devising. She should have presented the test results in unaltered form, but that would have spoiled the story (as I later found out when I had them doublechecked by another psychologist).
She didn't seem to be familiar with the concept of "high conflict personality", and it did not seem to occur to her that my wife could be lying or distorting. (By the way, you should immediately google "high conflict personality" and get very well acquainted with this idea if you haven't already. If your situation is anything like mine, you will be absolutely shocked by what your ex says and does.) If you have at least one borderline or narcissistic personality disorder in your case (and you do, or you wouldn't be having a PRE), Govan will miss that entirely. She even asked me to explain what I meant when I mentioned "cluster B issues".
Most high conflict cases involve a personality disorder or two. It could be you, your spouse, or even one of your lawyers. These people are deeply impaired, but in a way that is often hard to see on the surface. The illness manifests on a deeper level, in intimate relationships, and is hidden deep in the personality. They are always the victim. Everything is always someone else's fault. Everything is us vs them, black vs white, all or nothing. This is what "splitting" is all about. They devalue, deny, project, accuse. What they absolutely will not do is acknowledge their own misbehavior. It's probably that they actually cannot. And there will be a grain of truth in what they say, because you are not perfect. You will have made many mistakes. And they will persuade Govan without much effort. (google "persuasive blamer" if you haven't already)
There is much more to say, but I'll try to keep it somewhat brief. The report itself was full of spelling errors, grammatical errors, shameless distortions of fact, and outright bias. There were a number of claims that she made that she didn't bother to offer an ounce of support for. I expected professionality, but was ultimately astonished that this sort of thing passes muster in family court.
I'll also add another very important fact. I found out in our hearing that Ms Govan was involved in a domestic violence case that ended in a murder. That would have been nice for her to have disclosed, as my case also involved some DV (of the Depp/Heard variety, whatever you make of that). I have a feeling that Govan has some unresolved trauma from that event, which I can certainly understand and empathize with. But what does that imply? I think it implies that she may have real trouble getting to the truth when one of the parties is making intensely emotional false allegations (as borderlines and narcissists regularly do).
Lastly, if you were actually a male victim of DV in your home, Govan will dismiss you out of hand. If your wife's ex-husband also says the same thing, Govan will dismiss him out of hand, as well. This is probably just good old fashioned gender bias. It's wrong. And it's a dereliction of her duty as a PRE and a violation of the trust the court places in her.
She settles on the story first, and then she selects the "facts" to match. In my case, she received $30k to produce this useless report. She enabled rather than helped my ex and severely damaged my relationships with my kids.
My ex has mental health issues and so I don't feel like I can really blame her for much. On the other hand, Debra Govan should have been competent to handle this complex situation, but she wasn't. She could have resigned from the case when she realized it was above her pay grade, but she didn't. I think she is a disastrously inept PRE and I'm sick when I think of all the families she has harmed in the state of Colorado.
She didn't seem to be familiar with the concept of "high conflict personality", and it did not seem to occur to her that my wife could be lying or distorting. (By the way, you should immediately google "high conflict personality" and get very well acquainted with this idea if you haven't already. If your situation is anything like mine, you will be absolutely shocked by what your ex says and does.) If you have at least one borderline or narcissistic personality disorder in your case (and you do, or you wouldn't be having a PRE), Govan will miss that entirely. She even asked me to explain what I meant when I mentioned "cluster B issues".
Most high conflict cases involve a personality disorder or two. It could be you, your spouse, or even one of your lawyers. These people are deeply impaired, but in a way that is often hard to see on the surface. The illness manifests on a deeper level, in intimate relationships, and is hidden deep in the personality. They are always the victim. Everything is always someone else's fault. Everything is us vs them, black vs white, all or nothing. This is what "splitting" is all about. They devalue, deny, project, accuse. What they absolutely will not do is acknowledge their own misbehavior. It's probably that they actually cannot. And there will be a grain of truth in what they say, because you are not perfect. You will have made many mistakes. And they will persuade Govan without much effort. (google "persuasive blamer" if you haven't already)
There is much more to say, but I'll try to keep it somewhat brief. The report itself was full of spelling errors, grammatical errors, shameless distortions of fact, and outright bias. There were a number of claims that she made that she didn't bother to offer an ounce of support for. I expected professionality, but was ultimately astonished that this sort of thing passes muster in family court.
I'll also add another very important fact. I found out in our hearing that Ms Govan was involved in a domestic violence case that ended in a murder. That would have been nice for her to have disclosed, as my case also involved some DV (of the Depp/Heard variety, whatever you make of that). I have a feeling that Govan has some unresolved trauma from that event, which I can certainly understand and empathize with. But what does that imply? I think it implies that she may have real trouble getting to the truth when one of the parties is making intensely emotional false allegations (as borderlines and narcissists regularly do).
Lastly, if you were actually a male victim of DV in your home, Govan will dismiss you out of hand. If your wife's ex-husband also says the same thing, Govan will dismiss him out of hand, as well. This is probably just good old fashioned gender bias. It's wrong. And it's a dereliction of her duty as a PRE and a violation of the trust the court places in her.
She settles on the story first, and then she selects the "facts" to match. In my case, she received $30k to produce this useless report. She enabled rather than helped my ex and severely damaged my relationships with my kids.
My ex has mental health issues and so I don't feel like I can really blame her for much. On the other hand, Debra Govan should have been competent to handle this complex situation, but she wasn't. She could have resigned from the case when she realized it was above her pay grade, but she didn't. I think she is a disastrously inept PRE and I'm sick when I think of all the families she has harmed in the state of Colorado.