Dependency and Neglect - Gracie Rhodes Solomon
1. Grant Rhodes Huffines Solomon Obituary 2. Gracie has not had any contact with her Father outside of counseling, with court appointed counselor by Magistrate Jacques Cabell, Mrs. Emily Anderson, since August 17, 2018. On that night, after the Preliminary Hearing, he forced her to sleep in the same bed with him at a hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, where he forced himself upon and into her. DCS was called to investigate, but it was determined to be outside of their jurisdiction, so they let it go. 3. Grant had not had any contact with his Father outside of counseling, with court appointed counselor by Magistrate Jacques Cabell, Mrs. Emily Anderson, other than his sporting events after on or about September 18, 2018, where Grant reported to CASA that he was fearful his father would harm him. He escaped from the house in the middle of the night and never returned. This was also reported to DCS and was screened out. 4. The last time Aaron tried to force Gracie to follow the visitation plan of the Court, she refused (8/29/2018 and 8/31/2018). He threatened that she could be taken to jail, her Mother or he could be taken to jail. Since then, Grant stepped in when Aaron tried to push her to visit with him. Now that Grant has passed away, Aaron sent an email 9 weeks after Grant’s passing stating that he is “getting Gracie and she better be ready”. 5. With Mrs. Emily Anderson the court appointed Counselor in August 2018, by Magistrate Cabell, the children, with Emily‘s help, and seeing the necessity for, set boundaries for their father, Aaron Solomon and the children. Gracie’s boundaries were that Aaron could come to nothing. He was not allowed at anything that she was participating in at school or sports wise and also nothing that she might be participating in or attending such as plays or other sporting events. Grant’s boundaries were the same, except that Aaron could come to his sporting events (basketball or baseball games) if Grant texted and told him that he could attend. Aaron followed and lived by these boundaries. 6. Gracie knew that Grant was her protector and held her Father to the agreed upon boundaries. She has stated recently that when Grant died, Dad knew that he was gone and could do whatever he wanted to her again. 7. Aaron has repeatedly been told in court, in the sheriff's report, in counseling not to touch her and to especially not touch her hair. On July 20, 2020, the day Grant passed, he came to Gracie’s home and was touching her hair. Gracie was so uncomfortable, she had to ask her Mom to get him to stop. 8. Through counseling, Aaron makes promises to Gracie and then ignores them. Going to the school, going to school functions, not putting her on social media, not videoing her or photographing her, not touching her, not talking to her after Grant’s functions, not texting her. Gracie says “Dad does as he pleases. Grant would always tell him to stop.” Gracie’s boundaries were that Aaron was not to come to school,and Aaron abided by that until Grant passed, and now, even though Gracie is unable to be at school because of the severe physical and emotional impairment Aaron has caused Gracie and her pre-existing fear that Aaron will come to school, Aaron is there regularly during school hours and after.
9. Gracie excels as a cross country and track athlete; these are her passions. Gracie no longer wants to run, be an athlete, because her boundaries were that her Dad not come to any of her athletic events and he had been living by that and since Grant has passed, he has told her in a counseling session that he will be coming to her athletic events as well and she needs to get used to it, yet another loss for her. 10. Insists on knowing all whereabouts of Gracie, but does not give Gracie or Mom information about events honoring Grant and then posts selfies after the event on social media as the only family member of Grant in attendance. 11. Discusses personal “family dynamics” with the school and others, creating misinformation and a hostile and embarrassing atmosphere for Gracie. 12. 9 weeks after Grant’s death, sends an email that he’s getting Gracie on Sunday at 4:00 and she should be prepared or else. (attach email to petition) 13. Refuses to cooperate with school and doctor to allow Gracie ability to grieve properly. 14. Refuses to comply with previously agreed upon boundaries, set in counseling, in place for over a year. This has created severe impairment, more unrest, increased anxiety and deeper depression for Gracie during this horrific time of grieving and dealing with her brother’s passing. So, she no longer feels safe in her home or her school. Then, this week, he’s demanding that she be in school “or else”, which is against her doctor’s orders. He has physically taken her from school before, so she does not feel safe there. She is getting so upset over his unpredictable behavior and threats to get her if she and her Mother do not follow his plan that her doctor has put her on medication to protect her brain while she is under this stress. The “or else” has been, as recently as March 2020, sending her Mother back to jail again for lack of child support payments during this time the children have been living exclusively with her, dropping the threat once he for what he wanted which was not related to child support or money. 15. Refuses to change the parenting plan- pretends that he will eventually and has been for five years. Even just as late as last week, he refused again, but then when both Gracie and Grant begged Aaron for six weeks in 2019 to change the parenting plan with him saying he was “thinking about it” until the counselor told them they had to let it go; because he was using it (and their suffering) as a means of control. Then, as recently as last week, he used the 2013 parenting plan to force Gracie and Angie to do what he wants with her and if they did that, then Mom would get some time, but if they refused, then he would invoke the 2013 parenting plan, which gives Mom no time. He even stated that he had to use that to threaten, force and control all three of them (Angie, Grant and Gracie), to get them to do what he wants. 16. Gracie says Aaron has scared her counselor, Mrs. Emily Anderson, so much so that she has allowed him to change the boundaries they previously had in place. She changed her boundaries instead of Gracie being in charge, Aaron is and he threatens to get her if things don’t go his way and he is the ultimate judge of that. 17. Aaron has played mental mind games for weeks after Grant’s passing, but started the week of service, in fact the day of Grant’s passing. He wanted the family back together (meaning Angie, Aaro, and Gracie back together), when that didn’t happen, because of the family history and because Gracie and Angie were in deep grief, he wanted dinner 4-5 times a week. When that didn’t work, he used an abuse of power and threats and
force, as he called it, to get what he wanted, to “come get Gracie.” “If these things do not happen, I will get her” and he made a list for Gracie and Angie to live by or he would “get her”. 18. The longer Gracie is away from Aaron, the more she is opening up about what happened in her life with him. One example that Gracie recently wrote about is how bad her thighs hurt and how red they were when she was in Gatlinburg. The only explanation she could give was Dad said it was my swimsuit, but Gracie writes that she does not believe that and she wonders how it feels to be drugged, because she could not feel her body that night. In other instances, she hides her underwear, as a routine, instead of putting it in the dirty laundry, because her father would smell them when he would do her laundry. She also still asks to use the restroom every time she has to go, because he made her and Grant ask. Sometimes he would let them and sometimes he wouldn’t. She is the same about getting something to eat or water to drink and Grant was the same right up until he passed. 19. Angie asked Aaron for financial help prior to filing in Williamson County for child support because she is disabled from Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, both acquired during their marriage from domestic violence. He refused. Angie filed for food stamps and Families First and was awarded those grants and then received a call from the State of Tennessee wanting to know what amount of child support he paid. When she said zero. The State then took over the child support case. We have yet to set the child support, instead he has chosen to pay attorneys to change courts and push the date back. It is currently set for December 2020. 20. During these two years, Gracie, Grant and Angie have been homeless, living out of their car at times with their dog. The only help Aaron offered was that Grant and Gracie could stay with him at his house. They preferred the car. We have opened our home and provided necessities for them for years now with Aaron never offering any compensation. 21. Grant and Gracie were left without support and only on rare occasion, he would involve the minor, Grant, in parental issues, by giving him a Kroger gift card if he would come and mow the lawn for him or do what Aaron wanted. This gift card was never more than $100 and was given with parameters. As late as July, 12, 2020, the last Kroger gift card Aaron gave Grant was to be used only for “produce”, and he would expect Grant to relay that message. He did the same for any gas money that was to be given to Grant. He had demands that had to be met. Because of this, Grant had started working as he was also trying to get his D1 scholarship to prevent being controlled by his dad for money. He hated asking his father for any money in addition for gas and was scared to do so, always apologizing. 22. Further, Aaron tried to have Grant’s Memorial Fund be set up for him to control for the “family”. Instead, it was set up with his permission for Gracie, to help support her, where Aaron would not support her. This fund should have been able to be established for a legacy scholarship for Grant or the like. Although, Grant would have wanted to make sure his sister was taken care of, this is not how it should have been. 23. Aaron coercion and threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, minimizes and blames other or her when he interacts with Gracie in counseling or when ignoring her boundaries.
* for number 23, reference hereby made, every aspect of the Power and Control Wheel for Domestic Violence, National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence is used 24. Neglect- Does not supply basic needs- neglects the assurance of food, medication, counseling, clothing, shelter, school uniforms, he offered to buy, but he would have to come see her try them on, school necessities for studies or extracurricular activities, cell phone, computer, personal hygiene necessities, haircuts, etc. even though he has a multi million dollar trust fund with Grant and Gracie as beneficiaries and lives in a near $1 million dollar home with pool in an upscale neighborhood. 25. Corruption- exposing Gracie to sex trafficking, drugs. 26. Corrupting and Intruding- Gracie’s view of her Mother and herself. He says what has happened to Gracie is “in her own head” and she has been “brainwashed” by her mother who is “mentally ill” (which has never been true and been proven false time and time again since these allegations were made court in 2013, by several accomplished Doctors and Psychiatrists, and yet still he claims this as late as September 2020 and spread in public to harm Gracie and Angie’s ability to thrive in their own environment). 27. Emotional Cruelty- makes Gracie feel bad for feeling uncomfortable around him. Tries to gas light Gracie saying her brain is “telling her wrong”. Makes Gracie feel bad about her mother and is critical of Gracie for her own opinions and the way she wants to live and the people she wants to talk to. 28. Emotional Cruelty as well is making home feel like an unsafe place. He has told Gracie he will not get her at school, but he will not say he won’t get her at home. So, Gracie and her Mother have left their home, so they could get some rest and reprieve for Gracie, who is already suffering. 29. Physically abusing and/or abusing others- Gracie has witnessed her Father threaten violence, kick, punch and hit her loved ones, her Mother and her Brother. He also has threatened her Mother with jail if she does not do what he wants her to do. It has nothing to do with the money that the Petition is built around. He has used this Petition three times now to threaten to incarcerate her Mother. He had her put in jail for three days in 2015. Gracie, likewise, witnessed him constantly threatening to take Grant’s truck away from him if Grant did not do what Aaron wanted him to do, including being Valedictorian or to go to Harvard and he did remove his truck for weeks at a time. Gracie watched her mom and Grant work to figure out a way to return the truck to him for good so he could no longer use it as control. 30. Sexually abusing- see number one- Asheville, North Carolina, see number sixteenGatlinburg, TN and twenty three- sex trafficking. There is a prior history as well. 31. Ignores child’s needs- the thing that Gracie fears most is being removed from her Mother by her Father, because he has ignored her developmental needs and done that so many times in the past (Mother’s Day May 2013, Memorial Day May 2013, they got to see their Mother for the first time in November, after being told she was dead, and he removed them the next week through the holidays and into March of 2014 and this pattern would continue, off and on at his command, until August 2018. He began using the police to come get Gracie and Grant which scared them very much or pretend they were going for
donuts for Mom and never return home to mom.) Gracie will get physical symptoms, rashes, diarrhea, loss of sleep, inability to focus, inability to eat, night sweats, and Aaron still threatens to come and get her. He says “her health might go backward at first, but that’s ok”. 32. Absence- even though it was her choice, he has been absent for two and a half years and not fought that. Aaron has never listened to Gracie to be able to have reasonable knowledge of her. He insists she is depressed when she is not and that she is making these events up in her head, when she has not. As for significant events in Gracie’s life, when Gracie started to speak her truth, it angered Aaron and when Grant and Gracie did not want to come back to live with him, it angered Aaron. So, last year they did not receive Christmas gifts or birthday presents until March and Grant had to deliver. Gracie would always receive less than Grant, because she was the one speaking about her abuse and trying to get help. Grant always said Gracie was stronger than him when it came to using her voice, and he wished he could be like her, and she was trying to teach him. *For numbers 24-32, reference hereby made to the Power and Control Wheel, Not Valuing Children, National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence. 33. No contact for 2 years 34. Denied medical treatment for her broken back. Gracie had been complaining of terrible back pain for three years after having a terrible fall at school onto a culvert. When Angie got her in 2018, she immediately took her to the doctor and to a specialist, who determined that she had broken her very lower back years ago. Gracie would never fully recover the doctor stated, but with treatment, will hopefully improve. She was in physical therapy for a year and a half and this affected her running and then she switched to strength training for her back, which she still participates in three times a week. Her back still hurts on occasion, but not to the point of making her throw up like it did before. 35. Abuses police by making them come get her 36. Demands child and mother be a family after son’s passing or he’ll take child 37. Forced her to flee from her home because threatens to get her- can’t grieve properly because of threats/ unpredictableness 38. Aaron wouldn’t and won’t change the parenting plan because he likes to have it to use it as a threat to keep the “3 of them in line”. 39. Aaron disregards 2 years of family therapy, with the counselor appointed by Magistrate Cabell, Mrs. Emily Anderson. As late as last week, September 25, 2020, Aaron told Gracie, Emily and Angie that he did not believe 2 years of therapy had benefited him or done any good “for him”. It ONLY helped the children, and that wasn’t fair, and he had been patient enough to which he angrily presented his demands. 40. Emily Anderson has repeatedly said, as late as and especially on September 25, 2020, with Gracie, Angie, and Aaron in session, that Gracie needs to know she is with her Mom and that is not going to change. Anything else is detrimental and unhealthy for Gracie.
41. As late as September 25, 2020, Aaron told Gracie, Emily, and Angie that he has to use force and threats in order to get the three of them, meaning Grant, Gracie and Angie to do what he wants. 42. She has seen her father hit Grant. 43. Her protector, Grant, mysteriously dies. 44. Aaron prefers to see suffering, the suffering and pain of Gracie and Grant; Grant; and Gracie and their Mom. 45. Gracie lives in fear of her father and his erratic and unpredictable behavior and terrible anger issues and outbursts. Also her fear of him sexually abusing her again or doing what he has ultimately done to Grant. 46. Gracie believes her father killed her brother. It was the first thing she thought when she heard the news that Grant had an accident. 47. Gracie believes her father will kill her and/or her mother next.
We request Aaron Solomon to have a mental health evaluation. We request that Gracie be found dependent and neglected by her father, Aaron Solomon and that he no longer be allowed to have full custody of her.