Watching “Convicted: A Mother’s Story” on NBC,...

Watching “Convicted: A Mother’s Story” on NBC, I was disgusted, insulted and embarrassed. The script was so incredibly inaccurate and unrealistic I felt sick. I am a legal secretary and for years have handled family law matters. Also, my mother is a judge, and I spend a significant amount of time in her chambers, watching what goes on.

The child protection services do everything in their power to keep a child with its natural mother. The only time the court takes a child away from its natural mother is if she is neglecting or abusing the child--behavior any caring person would find atrocious. No way would a court take a child away from her mother for one year. There is no such law!

This movie made the family law court and judges out to be insensitive, cruel ogres. This is absolutely not the case. The way “Convicted” portrayed the family law sector of our judicial system was an outright lie.

This kind of deceitful, cheap prostitution of “drama” lies to the public and gives undeserving institutions and professions bad names just so a few people can make a lot of money.

Janet M. Stegman, Mar Vista