Tasha Rose Marsh v. Robert Christopher Marsh

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CAUSE NO: 0917-00184-CV

IN THE
NINTH COURT OF APPEALS
AT BEAUMONT

TASHA ROSE MARSH

Plaintiff-Appellant

v.
tC ! | 2317
ROBERT CHRISTOPHER MARSH 5**!:>}!"»*•«^ley
...nt-- ',0|:I''-°IJ^
Defendant-Appellee

ON APPEAL FROM THE 258TH DISTRICT COURT
THE HONORABLE JUDGE ERNEST MCCLENDON, PRESIDING

APPELLANT'S REPLY BRIEF

PRO SE LITIGANT
Tasha Rose Marsh
151 Country Wood Drive
Shepherd, TX 77371
Telephone: (281) 419-7100

Oral Argument Requested

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IDENTITY OF PARTIES AND COUNSEL

Pursuant to Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 38.1(a), Appellant presents
the following list of all parties and names and addresses of its counsel:

NO. DV13,774

Appellant/Plaintiff: Counsel:
Tasha Rose Marsh Tasha Rose Marsh
151 Country Wood Drive
Shepherd, Texas 77371
Telephone: (281) 419-7100

Respondent:
The Honorable Judge Ernest McClendon
258th Judicial District Court
San Jacinto Court Building
1 State Hwy 150
Coldspring, Texas 77331

Appellee/Defendant: Counsel:
Robert Christopher Marsh Seth Evans
507 N. Washington Ave.
Livingston, TX 77351
Telephone: (936) 327-0232

AND IN THE INTEREST OF:

A.M.M., S.J.M., S.W.M., A.R.M., H.S.M.,
J.S.A.M., AND E.L.B.M., CHILDREN

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INDEX OF AUTHORITIES

Statutes

Tex. Fam. Code §6.305(a)(l)(2) 5,8

Tex. Fam. Code §153.001(a)(l)(2)(3) 12,13,14,15,18

Tex. Fam. Code §153.002 12,13,15

Tex. Fam. Code §153.134(b)(1)(A) 14

Tex. Fam. Code §153.192(A) 14

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

IDENTITY OF PARTIES AND COUNSEL 2

INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

STATEMENT OF THE CASE 5

STATEMENT REGARDING ORAL ARGUMENT 6
INTRODUCTION 7

LEGAL ARGUMENT 12
I. INDISCRETION 12

II. FALSE ALLEGATIONS 18

III. DE NOVO REVIEW 19

CONCLUSION 22

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE 24

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 24

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STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Utilizing Texas' Long-Arm Jurisdiction (Tex. Fam. Code §6.305(a)(1), (2)), Appellant Tasha
Rose Marsh brought a civil divorce action against Appellee, Robert Christopher Marsh, after
he fled the state of Texas with the couple's seven children for his parents' home in Florida.
Robert Christopher Marsh counter-sued after a mediation process in which couple attempted
to reconcile the marriage. Robert Christopher Marsh was awarded right to determine
residency of children and returned with them to his parents' home in Florida.

Respondent: The Honorable Judge Ernest McClendon, 258th
Judicial District Court,

San Jacinto County, Texas.

Respondent's Action: April 26, 2017, the trial court entered final
judgment allowing appellee, Robert
Christopher Marsh primary managing
conservatorship with joint custody, but with
the right to determine residency without
geographic restriction.

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STATEMENT REGARDING ORAL ARGUMENT

Pursuant to TRAP RULE 38.1(e) Appellant included a request for Oral Argument and in her
initial Brief and in compliance with TRAP RULE 39.7 that request was made on the front
cover of her Brief.

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INTRODUCTION

The continued purpose of this Appeal is to demonstrate how rulings by the Honorable
Judge Ernest McClendon at the 258th Judicial District Court with regard to conservatorship
and visitation of Appellant Tasha Rose Marsh's seven children were made without respect to
law and factual evidence and therefore constitutes and warrants a de novo review and

reversal.

During the Lower Court proceedings, Mrs. Marsh—a loving mother who sacrificed her

career, energy, college, and eighteen years of her life to bear, raise, and homeschool seven

children and serve as a dutifui housewife—was railroaded by a sustained, multifaceted

campaign of character destruction not just by her husband but by his family as well. In
capsule:

• She was railroaded by false allegations of child abuse by Appellee, a vindictive
husband working in concert with the couple's two rebellious teenagers, A.M.M. and
S.W.M., to marginalize and belittle Mrs. Marsh and create an environment of open
disobedience that reached critical mass when Appellant's two teenagers physically
attacked her. Appellee orchestrated this event by encouraging the two teens to freely
defy their mother and he utilized it as the lynchpin in influencing the Lower Court's
ruiing. Appellee told police officers his wife was "attacking the children" when in

reality she merely disciplined them for striking her, twisting her arm, and stealing
her cell phone and threatening to drop it in a toilet. After two officers arrived, they
assessed the situation and spoke with the couple and their two teenagers and found
no wrongdoing. Appellee was told specifically to stop undermining his wife's authority
and let her discipline her children. This was not Appellee's anticipated outcome and

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therefore he called a third police officer to the residence the following morning.

Appellee was clearly not seeking justice, he was seeking a result in his favor.

• She was railroaded economically when Appellee unexpectedly stole away with the

couple's seven children to his parents' home 1000 miles away leaving her penniless,
under a mountain of mortgage debt, and having to ask for money from her church

family and father to retain legal counsel and use Texas' "long arm statute" (Tex.
Fam. Code §6.305(a)(1), (2)) to force him to return her children to Texas.

• She was railroaded by Appellee's family who played an active, hostile role in the
divorce proceedings, in particular Appellee's father, who testified against Mrs.
Marsh's character in court even though the in-laws lived across the country and had
less than peripheral involvement or knowledge about Appellee/Appellant's
relationship other than what Appellee told him. Appellee's aunt played a similar role,
acting as his legal counsel and encouraging separate false allegations made against
Mrs. Marsh —allegations rejected in Florida court. Appellee's family were making a
flagrant, undisguised play for her children. Mrs. Marsh was not involved in a divorce

with Appellee, but effectively his entire family, who put their resources and witness
testimony at the service of co-opting her children.

As this Appeal will demonstrate, all of the above combined to create a perfect legal
storm whereby Mrs. Marsh lost all seven of her children through the indiscretions of a Lower
Court Judge who, although ostensibly well-meaning, executed his duties in what must be
the very definition of arbitrary and unreasonable with respect to the statues and traditions
of Texas Law. Judge McClendon allowed two rebellious teenagers, one of which he found
"very, very angry" (R.R. p. 167) and "definitely" thought "needs counseling"-which he in
fact ordered for the two teenagers (R.R. p. 167)-to effectively run the legal show in what
cost Appellant all of her children resulting in their removal by Appellee to a distance

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equivalent to that of London to Rome. Furthermore, Judge McClendon ruled that Mrs. Marsh

should have less-than-standard visitation, as if it were an example of impartial and

reasonable adjudication, much less realistic, for a mother of seven to drive 2000 miles

round-trip to get her children once monthly for weekend visitation, standard or not.

In his rebuttal, Appellee sustains this campaign of character destruction, a mixed

bag of open and covert methods including raising false accusations, planting rumors, and

manipulating information. At one point, Appellee plays judge and jury by pronouncing Mrs.

Marsh guilty as charged for "felony injury to a child" (p. 3), a false allegation made by

Appellee and later no-billed by a Grand Jury. Appellee banishes the presumption of

innocence by stating Mrs. Marsh "was arrested for felony injury to a child on October 25,

2016." Not alleged felony injury to a child... 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a

fair and speedy trial be damned. That the record for this serious charge—the lynchpin of

Appellee's case and the Lower Court's ruling—is set straight later in his rebuttal (p.14) is a

moot point as the table has been set. Opening his rebuttal by insinuating Mrs. Marsh is a

felon guilty as charged of child abuse should serve to cast a stark light on the methods of

character assassination utilized against Appellant in the Lower Court proceedings and
continue to be tactically employed as the case finds itself before the Court of Appeals. Even

as Appellee suddenly discovers the word "allegations" (p. 14), one page later Mrs. Marsh is

back at the mercy of frontier justice as he states "even if the evidence of Appellant's abuse
was not supposed to be taken into consideration" (p. 15). What abuse? The so-cailed

"abuse" Appellee found at the end of the magic rainbow long before Mrs. Marsh had her day
in court and was found innocent of the alleged abuse manufactured and foisted upon her by
the Appellee? If this disingenuous half-truth and wordplay cannot pass freshman journalistic
standards, what place has it in a court of law other than to undermine the truth?

It is difficult to separate Appellee's legal arguments from the ad hominem attacks

woven into his rebuttal. Appellee states that after 18 years of marriage, seven children and

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five miscarriages, 17 years of childrearing, homeschooling and being a housewife, Mrs.

Marsh suddenly has "a pattern and history of bad behavior and poor parenting" (p.6). She

has suddenly become "violent towards Appellee and the parties' children" and then "been

arrested" (p.2). In addition to being "abusive" to all in the household, Appellee states "she

was difficult to live with" and "the children wanted nothing to do with her" (p. 12), In fact,

she flat out puts "the children in emotional and physical danger" (p. 20) and their house,

which Appellee had occupied for half-a-decade and only recently left, is now "infested with

fleas" and has "water leaks." Appellee does everything but invoke the Spanish Inquisition
and designate their family home of half a decade the Amityville Horror. Comically, Appellee

drafted his "J'accuse...!" rebuttal the very moment Mrs. Marsh—heretofore the child-beating

felon jailbird according to Appellee—had possession of their four youngest children for the

recent 2017 Thanksgiving holiday at the behest of the Appellee and at the very house he

smears as a flea-bitten, water leaking house of abuse and horror! It should also be noted

that this past summer Appellee let the same youngest four children spend two months of

summertime vacation with their mother at the same house "infested with fleas" and "water

leaks" and with this very same mother whom Appellee condemns as an "emotional and

physical danger" to the children.

If being characterized as an "emotional and physical danger" to her children (who
Appellee happily turns over for months) is not enough, Mrs. Marsh is furthermore vilified as

inept. Although she has homeschooled their seven children for seventeen years, Appellee is
now worried because, as he puts it, she has "no specific degrees or experience other than

what she had done with the children in the past" (p. 11). In fact, she plainly just does "not
do a good job of being a hands on parent" and "the children often had to fend for

themselves when in her care" (p.12). Mea culpa! Somehow ail of Mrs. Marsh's children

learned to read while in "in her care" and were never held behind for the better part of
twenty years during Mrs. Marsh's homeschooling of them. In fact, they excelled under her

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tutelage. Yet the portrait Appellee paints for the Court is one of Les Miserables street

urchins at the mercy of passers-by; guttersnipes eating green onions growing In the yard

while their mother tells them to eat cake and has her nails done. What Appellee fails to

mention Is that he is a work-from-home house-husband, so the children were never simply

"in her care" nor "had to fend for themselves," they were in fact in his care as well, 24x7,

year after year.

Finally, Appellee plays the last character assassinating card in his brief: Mrs. Marsh,

the "violent" "abusive" "difficult to live with" cheating guilty-until-proven-innocent felon with

"a pattern and history of bad behavior and poor parenting" who puts "the children in

emotional and physical danger" in her flea-infested water-leaking house.... Mrs. Marsh

plainly just does not care about getting her children because "Appellant did not file her

Petition for Divorce seeking custody of the parties' children until February 9, 2016

approximately three months after the parties separated and Appellee moved with the

children to Florida" (p. 2). The reason for this is because Appellee, the parties' sole

breadwinner for 18 years, abandoned her and left her penniless with their $125D/month

mortgaged property, utility and credit card bills, and a broken down car. Mrs. Marsh, who

had only spent her entire adult life raising and schooling their children, possessing no other

skill set than those of "mother" and "housewife," had to go out and look for work, lean on

the goodwill of her church to help keep the lights on, and it took those months to financially

obtain the funds to secure legal counsel to file for Divorce. Appellee's rebuttal is a virtual

North Korea loaded with Weapons of Mass Distraction.

The matter at hand is to reexamine the court ruling for indiscretion with respect to

the Lower Court, not to sling mud nor plumb the symptoms of a marriage in a downward

spiral, actions Appellant believes obscure and detract from the facts and law needed to

resolve the Appeal at hand. It is less the concern of Mrs. Marsh that Appellee intentionally

inserted these emotionally sensational, denigrating characterizations and half-truths for this

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purpose, more her belief that the issues in the Appeal are better served by putting on a

business face and not war paint. To wit: Did the Honorable Judge Ernest McCiendon

reversibiy err in seizing all seven of her children and giving full residential custodial powers

to Appellee without regard to geographic restriction? Did Judge McCiendon make a snap

decision based on emotion and/or insufficient evidence that qualifies as arbitrary and

unreasonable with respect to Texas' statues, legal traditions, and the opinion of the Ninth

Circuit Court of Appeals?

LEGAL ARGUMENT

I. THE DISTRICT COURT EXHIBITED ARBITRARY AND IRRATIONAL INDISCRETION BY

GRANTING APPELLEE RESIDENTIAL CUSTODY WITHOUT GEOGRAPHIC RESTRICTION AND

ALLOWING CHILDREN TO BE REMOVED TO FLORIDA

On the issue of the children being removed from their mother 1000 miles away to

Florida, a ruling completely at odds with any sober interpretation of co-parenting with

respect to Tex. Fam. Code §153.001(a)(l)(2) and best interest of the child under Tex. Fam.

Code §153.002, Appellee concedes he gave the Trial Court "conflicting evidence" (p. 11)

and on this point Appellant agrees. Appellee admitted to the Trial Court he works from

home over the Internet (R.R. p, 67) and can do so from anywhere with an Internet

connection. Ergo, Appellee's desire to remove the children from their mother across the

country was in no way influenced by better job opportunity, pay, or the advancement of his

career. For years Appellee stayed at home to work rather than commuting into the nearby

fourth-largest city in the United States, Houston, and thriving in a department or business

unit as part of a team or management. Appellee had aspirations to be a comic book artist

and this stay-at-home, telecommuting house-husband arrangement was conducive to this

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pursuit. Appellee could move to Canada, Florida, Zimbabwe or choose to stay in Texas, in

no way would his work situation change or be impacted. In fact, Appellee TWICE admitted

to the Trial Court that the children's homeschooling regime in Florida was "identical" (R.R.

p.89) to the programs that the children were previously doing in Texas with their mother.

So what underlying motive would Appellee have to remove the seven children a thousand

miles away from their home and mother—the distance from London to Rome—which of his

own admission in no way advanced his career or financial standing nor the children's

education, which he twice admitted was "identical" to that provided by Mrs. Marsh? A: It

was less a run to Florida, more a run into the arms of his enabling mother and father, which

Appellee admits was the driving reason (R.R. p. 69) for his desire to abandon his home and

property and wife in Texas where he had set down roots for years with his Mrs. Marsh and

their seven children. It should also be noted that just prior to the divorce proceedings

Appellee declared bankruptcy (Case Number 15-32593, Southern District of Houston

Division, Judge Karen Brown presiding) after years of mismanaging his finances and

spending beyond his means. One may logically construe this as a bankrupt middle-aged

father of seven fleeing his wife and mortgaged property to live in his parents' basement

under the pinions of their wings. However, Appellee's bankruptcy only facilitates his ability

to keep the children in their home state, not hinder it. By abandoning his creditors and

financial obligations, Appellee had no pressing need for his parents' financial and residential

resources, a key point to consider in the Lower Court's conservatorship decision with regard

to Tex. Fam. Code §153.001(a) 1-3 and §153.002. When Appellee admits he wants the

Court to give him "the authority to move the children to Florida" so that he could "have

help" from his parents (R.R. p. 69), what "help" does he specifically mean? Appellee wiped

his debt slate clean! Homeschooling the children? He believes that is "identical" to what Mrs.

Marsh provided the children. Work? He can theoretically do his job from a Starbuck's with

Wi-Fi in Katmandu.

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More telling than Appellee's strange call for help a thousand miles away however, is

Appellee's view on co-parenting. When pressed on this matter with a hypothetical situation

where either Appellant or Appellee could move the children across the country (R.R. p.71),

he hedges with contradictory albeit self-serving responses:

"COUNSEL: But either way, if you live in Florida, either she has to move. If she moved to

Wisconsin, you would have to move; is that correct?

APPELLEE: Yes.

COUNSEL: So the only way that y'all could effectively actually be co-parents is for the Court

to require y'all to be in one location?

APPELLEE: I would say no. "

This disingenuous and seemingly-confused response by Appellee is exemplary of the

"conflicting evidence" he concedes in his rebuttal he gave the Trial Court. Appellee must

twist himself to pay lip service to Texas' co-parenting Public Policy in Tex. Fam. Code

§153.001(a)(l)(3), but catch and correct himself in a Tour de France of backpedaling when
that policy conflicts with his aims to move the children four states away. Appellee believes
the winning residential custodian should have the power to move cross-country and the
loser should move accordingly—in the best interest of co-parenting of course!—but any
ruling geographically restricting him and the seven children to their home state of Texas,
and concomitantly their mother, is somehow not conducive to co-parenting! Texas courts

routinely geographically restrict parents (Tex. Fam. Code §153.134(b)(1)(A)) and even
parents appointed possessory conservator may be geographically restricted (Tex. Fam,

Code §153.192(A) "Unless limited by court order..."), Appellee clearly has no interest in co-

parenting in the slightest. His goal is trading in the children's mother for his parents and
preempting her altogether. In effect, he is saying: Yes I will move to Wisconsin in the

interest of co-parenting if she wins, no I don't think I should be restricted to the state they

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were raised in for the past seventeen years so they can be near their mother if I win. It is

the cross-examination equivalent of "Do as I say not as I do."

Contrary to Appellee's accusation that "there was sufficient evidence in the record to

support the position that Appellant was not a parent that had shown the ability to act in the

best interests of the children" (p. 13), no one individual has shown more personal sacrifice

than Mrs. Marsh in devoting her entire life as a mother to "act in the best interest of the

child" (Tex. Fam. Code §153.002)—seven children to be exact—for the past seventeen

years! She bore them, breast fed all seven, taught them to read, and has shown the utmost

selfless care toward training their faith in God, nutritional health, emotional health,

education, and well-being. The Lower Court did not just arbitrarily show indiscretion in its

application of Tex. Fam. Code §153.001(a)(l)(3), its legal public policy obligation to "assure

that children will have frequent and continuing contact with parents" and "encourage

parents to share in the rights and duties of raising their child after the parents have

separated or dissolved their marriage." By allowing Appellee the sole power to relocate the

couple's seven children 1000 miles away from their mother simply to be close to now-doting

grandparents whose role for the last seventeen years regarding the children has been

tangential at best, the Lower Court obliterated Tex. Fam. Code §153.001(a)(l)(3). It should

be noted that Judge McCiendon did not just reversibly err with respect to Texas statutes and

guiding principles in an unreasonable and arbitrary manner, Judge McCiendon did so while

throwing impartiality to the wind. While making a snap decision on residential custody
during his interview of the teenagers he went on to characterize as emotionally unbalanced
(R.R. p. 167) and "angry, very angry," Judge McCiendon regrettably apprises Mrs. Marsh's
teenagers of this information in a decidedly unprofessional manner (R.R. p. 147):

"THE COURT: And, of course, y'all both indicated y'all love Florida, too. So I just want to
know if y'all have a spare bedroom where I can come down there during the summer."

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What place this whimsical, personal statement has in a Trial Court proceeding by a

Magistrate removing seven children from their mother of seventeen years based upon the

statements of two rebellious teenagers is confounding. After Judge McCiendon is told by one

daughter, SJ.M., "It's nice. You should" he closes with "I wish I could. Well, look, I'm going

to rule for your dad to have custody of y'all." (R.R. p. 147). Does Judge McCiendon also long

to see Disney World during his imaginary summer stay in his "spare bedroom" in Florida

with Mrs. Marsh's children? Unfortunately however, this is the SECOND TIME in the Court

Record that Judge McCiendon has expressed his wishes for this. The first occurs in the

earlier interview with Mrs. Marsh's son, S.W.M. (R.R. p. 144):

"THE COURT: Do you like living down there in Florida?

S.W.M.: Yes, sir.

THE COURT: Is the weather down there real nice?

S.W.M.: Yeah, usually.

THE COURT: Do you have a spare room, then? I might come down there."

One can fathom Judge McCiendon, a septuagenarian, being partial to Florida—a

Mecca for elderly retirees, 'God's Waiting Room' so to speak. One can comprehend Judge

McCiendon being biased to the children's grandparents, who are in fact elderly retirees, to

their mother of seventeen years' expense. In his brief interview with the teenagers the only

substantive detail given about either grandparent is that the grandmother "makes the best

spaghetti" (R.R. p. 137). Should Mrs. Marsh and her former mother-in-law have a cook-off

to see whose spaghetti wins residential custody? In all seriousness, did the Lower Court

consider how many of the seven children's dirty diapers Appellant has changed versus her

mother-in-law? One can understand the partiality, but one cannot define a Lower Court

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judge, or any judge, pining for a "spare bedroom" in Florida with two rebellious teenagers

craving to run away from their legitimately disciplining mother as reasoning, impartial, and

exemplifying judicial discretion. These capricious statements belie Appellee's assertions

that the Lower Court did not act arbitrarily. What could be more arbitrary?

In capsule: after filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Appellee stole away with the couple's

children in the night to his parents' home requiring Mrs. Marsh to file for divorce and force

him back. During the Lower Court proceedings, what were Appellee's good faith reasons for

wanting to move the children 1000 miles away? Work opportunity? No. Better pay? No.

Children's education? He twice admitted that their homeschooling was "identical" to what

their mother provided for them. Texas statutes and the guiding rules and decisions function

to encourage the parties to live close to one another to best facilitate the opportunity for the

parents to "co-parent" with one another and to lessen the transportation burden on both

parties. Appellee had discarded his debt and ditched his creditors via Title 11 of the United

States Bankruptcy Code. As part of the Divorce Settlement he signed over the couple's
house and property to Mrs. Marsh, making her responsible for the $114,000 mortgage and
property taxes, effectively papering over the last of his financial obligations. Appellee, debt

free and still working the same online job workable from anywhere with an Internet

connection, had absolutely no compelling, substantive reason for requesting the Lower

Court to grant him full residential custody of the children without regard to geographic
restriction. For its part, the Lower Court based its decision on a brief exchange with the two

teenagers who had attacked Mrs. Marsh for disciplining them, two teenagers for whom the

move to Florida was merely a Golden Ticket to run away from their mother. During their
interview the Lower Court absurdly hears grandmother's spaghetti and nice weather as

among its reasons to strip Mrs. Marsh of her seven children. The fractious teenagers, Judge
McCiendon tells Mrs. Marsh afterwards, "like the weather" (R.R. p. 158), they "like living
with their grandfather and their grandmother" and that "I don't have any problem, you

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know, finding that the father should be the managing conservator and that you should have

the minimum amount of visitation." If this is not arbitrariness, if this is not an unreasonable

example of indiscretion in the eyes of Texas jurisprudence, then Appellant begs to know:

what is?

Geographic restrictions are a common occurrence in Texas divorce proceedings. Does

"beautiful weather" and grandma's "great spaghetti" and an elderly judge's waking

daydreams of a "spare bedroom" next to minors in Florida abrogate the rights of Texas

mothers and fathers with regard to the Parent-Child Relationship in Texas Family Code

Section 153.001(a)(l)(2)? Appellant beseeches the Higher Court: Reverse and remand.

II. THE DISTRICT COURT ERRED BY CONSIDERING UNFOUNDED, UNPROVEN, AND

ULTIMATELY FABRICATED ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AGAINST APPELLANT

In his rebuttal Appellee states that the Appellate Court "may reverse the trial court's

decision only if it is arbitrary and unreasonable" and "may set aside a verdict only if the
evidence supporting it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be

clearly wrong or manifestly unjust" (p. 8). Appellant completely agrees. In the case of the

false child abuse allegations leveled against Mrs. Marsh, which hung over the Trial Court like

an ominous black cloud, it was not the nature of the evidence but rather the seriousness of

the charge that prejudiced the Lower Court against Mrs. Marsh and unjustly impacted the
proceedings.

Contrary to assertions made by Appellee, there was no "significant evidence" that

Mrs. Marsh "had been abusive to the children (p. 12)." Mrs. Marsh was NOT and is NOT an

abusive mother. Exactly which children, what abuse, and the nature of any evidence
Appellee never bothers to mention in his rebuttal, he merely parenthetically tacks on some
page references to the divorce transcripts to the effect of Mrs. Marsh was "abusive to the

children," go see for yourself. What we are led to is testimony from the Appellee himself

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during their bitterly contested custody dispute that the couples' 17-year old daughter, at

that point ensconced in Florida with her siblings, was "physically violent," "throwing up,"

and "spending the evenings crying" having "nightmares" at the thought of seeing their

mother for Christmas (R.R. p. 84). Their 14-year old son, Appellee states, was also "crying

a lot." In fact, according to Appellee, all seven children were exhibiting "similar symptoms

before the visit" (R.R. p.85). We are asked to believe that over a half-dozen children aged

toddler to teenager—up until that point raised and homeschooled all their lives by their

mother—were "exhibiting" "physically violent" Exorcist-like symptoms before a visit with her

for the Christmas holidays. Ironically, or some might say comically, in spite of ail of

Appellee's portrayal of children vomiting, crying, dreading, and suffering nightmares about

seeing Mrs. Marsh, five of Appellee's seven children loaded up and spent that Christmas

with their mother in Texas. The focus now will be on the two teenagers who chose not to

participate—Mrs. Marsh's eldest daughter, A.M.M., and her eldest son, S.W.M.—and how

they were instructed by Appellee to openly disobey their mother, which they did to the

extent of physically assaulting her, requiring Mrs. Marsh to discipline them, an event

orchestrated by Appellee and used as manufactured, phony "evidence" of child abuse, This

incident became the central gear turning all the other gears in Mrs. Marsh's divorce

proceedings.

III. APPELLANT HAS STANDING FOR A DE NOVO REVIEW OF TRIAL COURT'S DECISION

WITH REGARD TO MANAGING CONSERVATORSHIP

Appellee's brief is overloaded with cut-and-paste boilerplate essentially treating

standards of review as meaningless save for buttressing his position that the Appellate

Court is little more than a rubber stamp for the Trial Court (p. 8, 9, 10). However, it is the

job of Appellate Courts to review Lower Court opinions and standards of review guide the

Appellate Court in determining the level of error the Trial Court committed and whether that

error should form the basis for reversal. Appellant believes that since the Trial Court

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reached a legal conclusion based on uncontested flimsy and indeed confected "evidence"

[READ: spurious allegations] of child abuse, the Appellate Court should review the Trial

Court's decision de novo.

Due to the fast pace of the Trial Court proceedings, the amount of useful information

the trial judge received was limited. Appellant's divorce trial focused on logistics, witness

preparation, cross-examination of adverse witnesses, and numerous unanticipated

questions of law and, of course, the interview of Mrs. Marsh's teenagers, Consequently, the

Trial Court Judge ruled on those issues with neither extended reflection or extensive

information. In contrast to the hurried schedule of the Trial Court Judge, Appellate Judges

who review the Lower Court's factual findings de novo can focus more of their time to taking

a "hard look" at those factual determinations. On the issue of conservatorship of

Appellant's seven children, it is glaringly evident (R.R. p. 157-158) the Trial Court gave the

overwhelmingly weight of its decision to statements made by the teenagers whom Appellant

loves deeply, but concedes were alienated from her by Appellee:

"THE COURT: Okay. The Court has had a visit with all three children individually and then I

brought them in as a group. And in view of that, I think it's imperative that the father

would be the managing conservator. And the older children have indicated they would like

to have not much visitation. They don't feel like they need much visitation. And I don't

think -- ma'am, I don't think they would even welcome any visitation. Now, the younger

children, of course, I haven't talked to them, but I believe they are different. The older

children have too many past memories of bad times. And for whatever reason, Mrs. Marsh,

they do attribute those bad times to you and not to their father. So I don't have any

problem, you know, finding that the father should be the managing conservator and that

you should have the minimum amount of visitation, even so much so that maybe you

should have visitation supervised."

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As exhaustively detailed in Appellant's original brief, two of these teenagers were

involved in a physical altercation with their mother engineered by Appellee who openly told

them to disobey their mother and ignore her authority. Appellee pounced upon this

altercation to make claims of child abuse, accusations of which two responding police

officers deemed false after having inspected and interviewed all parties and the children.

Operating on advice from Florida, Appellee called police again the following day and the

responding officer was more receptive and he arrested Mrs. Marsh. These charges were

ultimately No Billed by a Grand Jury of San Jacinto County on May 19, 2017 and rejected by

a unanimous jury on October 19th, 2017 after mere minutes of deliberation and after

hearing a full day of testimony from the two teenagers and Appellee, who unraveled under

cross-examination into a mess of conflicting testimony and—in the case of Appellee—did his

cause no service with an embittered, imperious and condescending demeanor. The

proverbial stake in Appellee's heart came when he defiantly told the Court he did not

intervene when his children became physical with his wife after she seized their computers

and in fact had earlier instructed them to do so. Appellee, who at the time of the altercation

was staring at the very real possibility of Child Support orders for seven children and

Maintenance to Appellant, also referred to the day Mrs. Marsh was arrested as "a very
important day,"

It took a Court and Jury in Coldspring an entire day of hearing testimony from the

teenagers and Appellee to decide on a misdemeanor, it took Judge Ernest McCiendon mere

minutes with the same two teenagers to justify conservatorship of all of Appellant's children

with full knowledge they would be taken 1000 miles away and effectively terminate the

parent-child relationship with Mrs. Marsh and her children, including the four youngest who

had absolutely nothing to do with the altercation involving her and her eldest son and

daughter. Two rebellious teenagers' view of their mother fail to justify such a tragic
outcome. When compared to the gravity of ending a parent-child relationship, reasons such

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as grandma's spaghetti and the "beautiful weather" in Florida are trivial. Far, far more

insidious is the fact that Appellee, on his own admission, had alienated the teenagers from

Mrs. Marsh, instructing them to openly disregard her authority. This miscarriage of justice

should not be papered over and explained away with arcane references to obscure cases

such as those littered throughout Appellee's brief like so much glitter among the chicken

feed; over a dozen citations including that classic of conservatorship determination, Butnaru

v. Ford Motor Co. Every case before the Appellate is unique and it has been Appellant's

stance in the spirit of this Appeal that this case requires no minute sifting through

complicated facts or everything-and-the-kitchen-sink esoteric references to far-flung cases

and decisions of a myriad of courts. The Appellate Court is not the sum of a handful of court

cases, it is a living, working reality.

CONCLUSION

The Lower Court was not familiar with the law or criminal proceedings. It lacked the

experience and skill that can see the evidence behind the evidence. It was drowning in

prejudice and acted according to what it admittedly saw as the credible desires of two

"angry, very angry" fractious teenagers. Impressed, full of respect for these teenagers, it

accorded too much importance to fragile allegations that were leveled against the accused

for the purpose of removing all seven of her children 1000 miles away. For surely it might

have been predicted with certainty that, if the Grand Jury's No Bill and the misdemeanor

trial had taken place before the divorce proceedings, Mrs. Marsh would now be in possession

of her children.

Whereas in the final analysis of the accusations against Mrs. Marsh nothing remains

standing and setting aside the judgment of the Lower Court leaves nothing that can be

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considered to be a crime or misdemeanor; therefore by applying the standard of review

applicable to de novo, no reference to another court should be pronounced.

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Trial Court should be reversed and

the case remanded for de novo review of the Lower Court's decision. Appellant specifically

and respectfully requests that Appellee, Robert Christopher Marsh, be immediately ordered

to return with their seven children to Texas and be geographically restricted to the State

and that Appellant Tasha Rose Marsh be named Managing Conservator of the four youngest

children, A.R.M., H.S.M., J.S.A.M., and E.L.B.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

BY: /s/ Tasha Rose Marsh

151 Country Wood Drive
Shepherd, TX 77371
(281) 419-7100
tasharosemarsh@gmail.com

Tasha Rose Marsh

Pro Se Appellant
December 11, 2017

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CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE

Pursuant to TRAP 9.4(i)(2)(C) the number or words in this computer generated Reply
Brief does not exceed 7,500 words.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

As required by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 6.3 and 9.5(b), (d), (e), I, Tasha Rose
Marsh, certify that I have served this APPELLANT'S REPLY BRIEF on all other parties which
are listed below on December 11th, 2017 as follows:

Appellee; Robert Christopher Marsh
1226 South East Palm Beach Road
Port St. Lucie, FL 34952
Telephone(936)217-5967

Seth Evans
Evans Law Firm
507 N. Washington Ave.
Livingston, TX 77351
Telephone: (936) 327-0232
FAX: (936) 327-0233

/s/Tasha Rose Marsh [Signature of pro se party]

12/11/2017 [Date]

NOTES: Pursuant to Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 6.3, a party=s lead counsel must be
seized. Service on other attorneys for that party is optional, but must be listed above if
they are served. Pursuant to Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 52.7(c), the record must be
served on each party in an original proceeding.

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Recipient Information: FAX COVER SHEET
To: Carol Anne Harley
Fax#: 14098358497
Subject:

Sender Information:
From: Tasha Rose Marsh (Pro Se Appellant)
Pages: 25
Date: Dec 11, 2017

Comments:

Please find herein my Reply Brief for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, CAUSE NO: 0917-00184-CV.
TASHA ROSE MARSH

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