A grand jury has handed down 15-count indictments against Shannon McShane, a former child welfare evaluator who surrendered her license to practice psychology last year as dozens of custody cases in Colorado descended into chaos. She was accused of falsifying the credentials she needed to accept court dates.
An arrest warrant was issued against McShane on August 29 on eight counts of attempted interference with a public official, five counts of forgery, one count of perjury and one count of retaliation against a victim or witness.
This resume of Shannon McShane was presented to those involved in a child custody dispute in Arapahoe County. McShane surrendered her license to practice psychology in Colorado last year after allegations that she did not have a doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire in England. State court officials excluded her from the eligibility lists to make child custody recommendations in court cases in March of last year.
The charges are the result of a nearly six-month investigation by the Colorado Attorney General's Office that began following a Denver Gazette investigative report on McShane.
Chad Kullhem hangs some of his children's artwork on the refrigerator in his Denver home in 2022.
The grand jury indictment remains under seal for now, and prosecutors in the state attorney general's office have not immediately released details. The charges of attempting to influence a public official appear to be related to allegations that McShane falsely claimed she had earned a doctorate in psychology. State regulators determined last year that McShane never had such a doctorate and therefore should never have been licensed to practice psychology in Colorado.
In addition to using her state license as a psychologist to qualify for court appearances in child custody matters, McShane obtained employment as a psychologist candidate with the Colorado Department of Corrections from January 2018 to February 2021, where she received a final annual salary of $84,468. She also worked as a psychologist at the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Pueblo from January 2018 to June 2023, where she received a final annual salary of $97,224.
Documents filed in her court case indicate that prosecutors expect at least 10 Colorado judges, including Colorado State Supreme Court Justice Brian Boatright. Parents and their attorneys involved in custody disputes for which McShane was asked by the court to make recommendations are also listed as possible witnesses, along with correctional officials, state regulators and court administrators.
The attorney general's investigation centered on allegations that McShane falsely claimed she had a doctorate in psychology from the University of Hertfordshire in England to obtain her state license as a psychologist in 2020, and then lied and submitted false documents to cover up her deception, according to an affidavit an investigator previously filed in Denver District Court.
One parent involved in a custody dispute in which McShane was appointed by the court as a parental evaluator told investigators that after he reported McShane to the regulators, she was harshly critical of him, causing him to fear that his parenting time was in jeopardy. This parent also said that McShane posed as a state regulator and then used communications to try to dissuade him from having his concerns investigated by the regulators.
McShane, 57, who moved to Texas last year, could not immediately be reached for comment. The warrant called for bail of $50,000. In the past, she has claimed she was treated unfairly by disgruntled parents upset about her custody recommendations, which she believes are valid.
The Colorado attorney general's investigation followed a series of investigative reports on Colorado's parenting evaluator industry published by the Denver Gazette. Evaluators and their custody recommendations, which often cost parents involved in custody disputes tens of thousands of dollars, can hold enormous sway with judges overseeing trials.
The Gazette found that state and court agencies have been slow to take action against evaluators, including McShane, whose court-ordered custody recommendations had led to complaints of bias and allegations that children were put at risk by inaccurate reports recommending that custody be given to abusive parents.
According to court records, Judge Matthew Bradley, who presided over six northeast Colorado districts, requested a criminal investigation into McShane. The investigation was forwarded to the Colorado Attorney General's Office. The same day, the Denver Gazette published an investigative report on McShane.
In November 2022, Bradley banned McShane from conducting custody evaluations in his jurisdiction because he deemed her custody evaluations in one case so biased and deficient that he deemed her unsuitable for such work.
Among the problems the judge detailed, McShane was obsessed with believing that his father's nickname, “Sleepy Melo,” meant he was a dangerous gang member. The judge noted that the mother was the one who actually lived with a violent felon in California who was involved in a kidnapping that suggested “a high probability of gang involvement.”
Still, the father, Steven Ramirez, had to spend $20,000 in legal fees to fight for the return of his children, a situation the judge said was due to McShane's initial false and erroneous statements to another judge.
Although Bradley warned state court administrators in November 2022 that he found McShane unsuitable for judicial appointments, McShane would continue to conduct court-ordered parenting evaluations and custody recommendations in other judicial districts throughout Colorado.
The State Court Administrator's Office did not prohibit McShane from accepting court appointments after the judge raised his concerns, and did so for more than four months. On March 28, 2023, state court officials finally removed McShane from the state's list of parental evaluators eligible for court appointments.
Meanwhile, dozens of parents complained that McShane had turned their custody cases upside down with biased and sloppy court opinions.
McShane surrendered her state licenses required to work as a psychologist and addiction counselor on July 20, 2023, after the licensing boards for those professions suspended her licenses on June 9, 2023.
Last year, she moved to Texas, returning to a state where she has had problems with state regulators in the past over other matters. Records show that Texas authorities revoked McShane's real estate license in 2018 and fined her $42,000 for pocketing rental income from properties instead of passing it on to owners.
In Colorado, one parent, Chad Kullhem, a father of then-4 and 7-year-olds in Aurora, said he sought to have McShane's divorce proceedings in Arapahoe County District Court dismissed even after reporting that he had discovered McShane had falsified documents showing she had received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Hertfordshire in England.
Chad Kullhem sits in front of some of his children's art.
Records show that McShane claimed in emails and statements that Kullhem was an unfit father and worse than a murderer, whom she allegedly treated and who put his enemies through a wood chipper.
Only when Kullhem McShane's lawyers filed a joint motion in his custody battle alleging fraud and falsification of their testimony did he succeed in having McShane excluded from his case.
“It really feels like nobody wanted to believe it or nobody cared,” Kullhem previously told the Denver Gazette about the ordeal he went through to get authorities to listen to his concerns about McShane.
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