New Mass. family court judge once led program criticized by domestic violence survivors
The former director of a program criticized for placing domestic violence survivors in classes alongside their abusers was appointed as a judge to the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court on Wednesday.
On March 4, Gov. Maura Healey nominated Mary Ferriter, originally from Holyoke, to serve as an Associate Justice of the Probate and Family Court, citing her "deep experience, sound judgment and a strong sense of fairness."
The Probate and Family Court Department is responsible for family-related and probate matters such as divorce, paternity, child support, custody, adoption, wills, estates and guardianships.
Ferriter's work as Director of the High Conflict Parent Education Program at William James College in its Child and Family Evaluation Services division was also noted in Healey's press release announcing the nomination.
The Massachusetts Governor's Council interviews each candidate and then votes.
Ferriter went in front of the Massachusetts Governor's Council on March 18. Councilor Tara Jacobs said that after the meeting, her inbox was "flooded" with concerns.
"I'm sure I'm not alone in having my inbox flooded with opposition," she said during Wednesday's meeting . The concerns centered around Ferriter's program and "very specific" situations involving her, she said.
Four women — all survivors of domestic violence — sat to the side of the Council in soft gray chairs, their hands clutched in their laps and eyes darting between members as they listened to Jacobs speak.
The council then voted to appoint Ferriter to the position. Four council members voted to appoint Ferriter, including Terrence Kennedy, Joseph Ferreira, Mara Dolan and Christopher Iannella, while three — Jacobs, Paul DePalo and Eunice Ziegler — voted no. Tamisha Civil was not in attendance.
After the vote, one of the domestic violence survivors began to cry.
"Our voices don't matter. Our struggles don't matter. Physical abuse does not matter. Sexual abuse does not matter. That anything can be done against you — even when there's evidence," one of the women said, describing how she felt after the vote.
MassLive does not name victims of domestic violence.
High‑conflict Parent Education
In recent years, Massachusetts judges required parents going through a divorce to attend William James College in Newton for a $950 "High‑conflict Parent Education" course. The program ceased in 2024, and a similar program is now offered through SD Family Services.
The William James website states the college screened out participants involved in active domestic violence situations. However, MassLive spoke with a woman — and reviewed court documents — who was required to take the class with her abuser.
Six months after the Massachusetts mother had been assaulted by her partner, she was asked to meet him for coffee and call him every week as part of the William James College court-ordered class.
"They asked me to explain to him in writing the ways in which I contributed to his anger," she said.
She refused.
"And I failed the class," she said.
Ferriter did not respond to MassLive's request for comment.
A 2024 GBH article also examined the high-conflict parenting class, quoting a woman identified as Melissa. She told the news outlet she expected protection through the court system, but felt the class was forcing her back into a relationship with him.
The class involved nine weeks of 3-hour classes that included homework assignments where parents were asked to find "positive traits" about each other, consider ways not to irritate one another and phone calls to discuss common goals, the news outlet reported.
The woman MassLive spoke with said she had asked to do the homework through a court‑ordered communication app to help provide documentation as she was forced to communicate with her abuser. She was denied.
Other women GBH spoke with described the class as "shaming," "cult-like" and "creepy."
Claire Donohue, an assistant clinical professor at Boston College Law School, said the program created a rigid definition of what it means to be a good parent and created an unsafe environment for anyone from an abusive relationship, according to The Heights.
"It just seemed rather authoritarian to be like, 'This is what good parenting looks like, and this is what is definitely good for kids, so you just have to do it'," Donohue said. "And it becomes really problematic when you layer on that you might actually be asking this level of interpersonal intimacy … from people who are actually in a regime of abuse."
Donohue said she spoke with one woman who had an active restraining order and an open investigation by the Department of Children and Families against her ex. Still, she was ordered into the program.
"So that, to me, was shocking," she said.
According to a 2024 paper by Boston College examining the program, one of the homework assignments presented to attendees was to "come to the next class ready to say 'yes' to something you know your [co-parent] wants or has asked of you."
The Boston College paper also raised concerns about what is "high conflict" and a lack of consideration that might be part of the abuse, "because litigation is a well-studied strategy of batterers to control and harass their victims."
"If a court reacts to litigiousness by ordering both parties into parenting classes, particularly synchronous parenting classes, the court may unwittingly be playing into a batterer's conscious or subconscious strategy to prolong engagement with and control over the target of their abuse," the paper reads.
William James College stopped offering court-ordered High Conflict Parent Education classes in 2024. The website, however, states that the step-by-step course guide and DVD are still being sold.
William James College confirmed the course is no longer offered, stating that its "course curriculum and programs are constantly evolving." They also said they've only had one request for the step-by-step guide in three years.
SD Family Services said it introduced a course similar to the one at William James College after the program's closure in 2024. The course, the program said, "includes several key enhancements to both the curriculum and the intake process."
"While our class was informed by the William James curriculum, the changes we implemented are significant enough that we consider it a distinct offering rather than a continuation of the previous program," the program said in a statement.
Participation in the program is now entirely voluntary and conducted virtually "to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for all participants."
"We also offer an individual coaching option for those who prefer not to engage in sessions with their co-parent while still fulfilling court recommendations for co-parenting support," the program said.
Ferriter's nomination
Those who testified during Ferriter's nomination described her as generous, kind-hearted and someone who has seen it all.
During the Massachusetts Governor's Council's meeting on March 18, a council member asked if there was anyone in opposition. Many in the room laughed.
Ferriter said she hoped to bring empathy to the bench as a judge.
"You never truly know the burdens that another person may be carrying. Every individual who walks through the doors of a courthouse brings their own story. One often that is invisible at first glance," she said.
One council member asked about Ferriter's time at William James College and how she handles domestic abuse.
"The cases went through a screening process," she said. "There were a few cases where there were restraining orders that were in place, and we asked the parties to go back and to amend their restraining orders to permit them to participate in the class. If they weren't willing to do that, then they couldn't participate in the class."
She recalled a time when she offered to talk to the family court judge on behalf of one woman whom she didn't feel comfortable having in the class due to domestic violence.
"She begged me not to do that because she wouldn't be able to see her children if it didn't happen," Ferriter testified.
She said it was during COVID, and the class was being held over Zoom, which meant they weren't physically together. Still, Ferriter stated during the meeting that the instructors saw the man being disruptive and tried to intervene, but that as a result the woman "found her voice."
"It was remarkable to see how she came out of her shell and found her voice and started to speak during the classes and started to have an ability to voice what was going on," she said. "Where before she could barely utter her name."
But other times, there were people in the classroom who had restraining orders.
"We would always let the person who had the restraining order leave the premises first," Ferriter said, adding that the person who the restraining order was against would be held in the classroom.
That, Jacobs said in an interview on Wednesday, was very concerning to her.
Massachusetts Governor's Council
The final decision to appoint Ferriter remained with eight members of an often low-profile elected Governor's Council.
The council tends to draw attention only sporadically — such as when Healey nominated a state Superior Court judge who worked for the governor's partner, Joanna Lydgate . Another time, one of the council members who arrived late to a hearing announced that she had become sick and vomited. Otherwise, the body attracts little notice, even as all eight members of the Massachusetts Governor's Council face reelection this year.
Some of the members have been reelected multiple times.
Iannella was first elected to the council in 1993. He has been reelected every two years. And Ferreira was first elected in November 2014. He was reelected in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024.
Together, the Governor's Council can deny nominations. But it's an option the council has rarely used.
From 2016 to 2022, only two out of 33 nominations — one judge and one parole board member — were denied a confirmation after being nominated by Governor Charlie Baker , according to an outgoing Governor's Council member in 2022. Those nominations include appointments to judgeships, clerk positions and the state's parole board.
Over the course of Baker's eight years in office, he nominated all of the members of the Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts' highest court .
Since becoming governor, Healey has nominated two Supreme Judicial Court judges and 20 judges to the Probate and Family Court.
In Massachusetts, judges are required to retire at age 70.
The reason the council doesn't reject many nominations is because the vetting process is rigorous, former District 8 Governor's Councilor member Mary Hurley told MassLive in 2022. She said that by the time a candidate has appeared in front of the Governor's Council, they've undergone close scrutiny.
"Every stone has been turned and looked under by the time they get to us," Hurley said in an interview. "There is not much that hasn't been looked at."
The path for lawyers applying for judgeships involves completing a 40-page form with the Judicial Nomination Commission, which narrows the pool to around 10 candidates who are interviewed by the commission. From there, roughly five get what's known as "due diligence," in which the Judicial Nominating Commission makes inquiries to lawyers, court clerks and judges to learn more about the applicant's character, according to Hurley.
"What is this person like? Are they someone who is respectful, well prepared, and knows the law? Or are they someone that is disrespectful to people, that isn't prepared, that is always trying to continue cases, that doesn't know how to try a good case?" Hurley cited examples of the types of questions the Judicial Nominating Commission asks candidates.
The final steps involve interviews with the governor and the lieutenant governor, a background check by state police, and approval from the state's Joint Bar Committee.
During Wednesday's meeting, Jacobs said she wished there was more time between the public interview with the Governor's Council and their vote. She said many people did not know about Ferriter's nomination until the public meeting and were unable to voice their concerns there.
After the meeting, she said the issues she often hears are larger systemic issues. But that wasn't the case in this situation.
"In this case, it was very specific to this person ... and experiences people had and a lack of compassion, a lack of support," she said.
In a recent interview, Retired Chief Justice John Casey said he was thrilled to see that Ferriter had applied for nomination.
He said she was always prepared, respectful and never lost her temper. He also knows she's spent enough time within the family court system to truly understand the job she's about to have.
Alex Jones, a family law attorney who has known Ferriter for years, said Ferriter has worked hard to stay on top of research and understanding around domestic violence. But she also brings many other aspects to the table.
He has long known her as hardworking, calm and good at making quick decisions — even continuing to work while she was in the emergency room. She can also understand the financial parts of the divorce world better than most, he said.
"Most people don't practice at her level and go to the bench," Jones said.
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