Mother of children drowned in bathtub to speaks at House hearings for protective orders.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/montgomery/mother-of-children-drowned-in.html

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Amy Castillo, the Montgomery County pediatrician whose ex-husband drowned their three children in a hotel room bathtub in 2008, is scheduled to testify in Annapolis today to support a bill that would make it easier to receive court-approved protective orders.

Here is her prepared testimony.

Before her husband killed their children, Castillo tried to get a protective order to keep him away. A judge denied her request. Maryland law requires "clear and convincing evidence" to grant protective orders. The billwould lower the bar to "preponderance of the evidence."

Efforts to apply that standard to protective orders have failed in the past in the Maryland legislature. The group Justice For Children also will argue for lowering the burden of proof.

Here is a video of Amy Castillo discussing her husband's guilty plea in October.

The legal issues involving child custody disputes and protective orders can be complicated, and difficult for judges to sort through, as was the case with the Castillo's.

-- Dan Morse

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