Buried by Design: What Is Maryland Family Court Hiding in the Reichert Case?

I didn’t expect to be here.

When I wrote my first piece on the Reichert v. Hornbeck custody case, I was just trying to understand how a father could go years without seeing his child. What I found felt like a “holy f***ing s***” moment. But now, after digging deeper, I’m convinced of something far worse and sinister:

This isn’t just a broken system. It’s a buried one.

There are decisions being made that defy logic, judicial discretion that looks more like judicial sabotage, and a trail of sealed rulings, unanswered questions, and constitutional violations that suggest someone — or multiple someones — don’t want Jeff Reichert to ever see his son again.

Where Is Grant Reichert?

Let’s start with the most basic and terrifying question: Where is Grant Reichert?

Grant is 15 years old. This case started when he was 8.5 months old. He has had no stability in his life.

Jeff Reichert hasn’t seen his son in over 3.5 years. The courts won’t let him call, write, or even know what school his son attends without significant interference.

In the past, Grant has been removed from the state illegally, on several occasions, all in clear attempts to alienate him from his father and to be outside the reach of the jurisdiction of the Maryland courts. He has lived in Maine and New York, often kept out of cell phone range.

Grant is currently back in Maryland again, but still can’t see his father. On court records, his address is listed at the home of a man who isn’t his father, isn’t a legal guardian, and isn’t even a step-parent. The man now at the heart of this custody battle is John Michel.

Records show that John Michel’s wife died mysteriously in an accident and was buried on July 28, 2020. Grant’s mother, Sarah Hornbeck, is known to have been living in Michel’s home a week after his wife’s death, and still lists his address as her own in court documents. They never let the dirt settle. Was it really an accidental death?

Worse: this man allegedly pursued Sarah Hornbeck in 2000–2003 while he was married and attending law school with Sarah, and she was in a relationship with Jeff Reichert. If this is true, it adds an even darker layer to this saga. How likely is it that there was an affair? How likely is it that Michel’s wife’s death was not an accident? Given what I have learned about Sarah’s history, which I will continue investigating, you can easily expect the unexpected.

Why Are Protective Orders Being Used to Erase a Father?

Protective orders were designed to protect people from imminent danger. But in this case, they appear to be used as weapons of alienation, defamation, public humiliation, and to create a criminal record that still doesn’t exist. The court has entered multiple protective orders, some based on emails and texts — not from any threats, not from actual abuse, but from communication, and all permitted per the custody orders in place.

Even worse, these orders have been used to block Jeff Reichert from accessing school and medical records, which directly violates his rights under FERPA and the U.S. Constitution.

The First and Fourteenth Amendments exist to protect a parent’s right to speak, to parent, to be informed. And yet, Maryland courts have stripped those rights away from Grant’s father. No trial. No findings of abuse. Just silence.

Why Anne Arundel County?

This case began in Baltimore City. Jeff has lived in Virginia for the last five years. Sarah has never lived in Anne Arundel County. This case resided in Baltimore City for its first 10 years. Yet everything — including the critical custody reversal — happened in Anne Arundel County. Why? Neither party lived there when the case was transferred in 2020. Sarah Hornbeck has never lived there.

The Anne Arundel County Court has ruled against Reichert at every turn. Every motion? Denied. Every request for reconsideration? Rejected. Appeals? There have been four — and every single one was decided against him in unpublished opinions.

Let me repeat that: four appeals. Zero published rulings. No legal precedent. No transparency.

Why?

What Is Sarah Hornbeck Allowed to Get Away With?

Let’s look at the woman the court seems to protect at all costs.

• Sarah has a history of alcohol and illegal drug use.

• Sarah was arrested in 2018 for DUI, assault, resisting arrest, and destruction of property.

• Sarah slipped out of handcuffs. Broke police equipment. Tried to flee custody.

• Sarah attempted to kill Jeff on their honeymoon.

• She beat him on several occasions throughout their relationship.

• In 2011, Sarah and her father were arrested for physically attacking Jeff at a custody exchange.

• She has documented and known affairs.

• She has filed for bankruptcy twice.

• Sarah has a documented mental illness.

• She has another child custody case with another man who has experienced similar issues as Jeff.

• Sarah has previously kidnapped Grant from Jeff during his custody time.

• Her own child has labeled her as a “devil in human skin.”

• Sarah has committed multiple felonies that have gone unprosecuted over the history of this case and her relationship with Jeff Reichert, which includes assault, battery, tax evasion, felony theft, false imprisonment, child neglect, child abuse, eavesdroppingcan — maybe you get the point because I can keep going.

And yet… no consequence.

Instead, she gets sole custody. She gets the court to bar Jeff from seeing his son. She gets her lawyer to send cease-and-desist letters labeling Jeff a “noted child abuser” without any facts, witnesses, or evidence — and copies the judge on it. She collects thousands in child support and all her attorney fees, ordered to be paid for by Jeff — worth over $200k.

How is this not misconduct? How is this not fraud? How is this not negligence?

What Has This Cost?

This case is more than 15 years old. The same age as their child. The cost in legal fees alone is astronomical. The cost to Jeff Reichert’s emotional and physical health is devastating.

But the greatest cost is borne by one person:

Grant Reichert.

A boy who has yearned for a relationship with his father. A boy who has repeatedly asked to be with his father. A boy whose voice has repeatedly been silenced by the Maryland courts that would rather defer to an angry custody evaluator than to simply ask a 13-year-old what he wants and where he wants to live.

Now, at nearly 16, he’s been erased from his father’s life by court order.

So What the Hell Is Going On?

There are so many unanswered questions in this case. More than I could ever imagine when I first came across this case.

• Why are four appellate decisions unpublished?

• Why does jurisdiction continue to be shifted to Anne Arundel County with every court filing?

• Why are protective orders being used like censorship tools?

• Why are Jeff Reichert’s constitutional rights treated like optional suggestions?

• Why was the Final Consent Order that took 10 years of litigation and guaranteed they would never return to court, and was 100% in Grant’s best interest, completely shredded and ignored only seven months after it was signed?

• Who is this man, John Michel, with whom Grant has been living, and what is his legal status to him?

• What is wrong with Sarah Hornbeck?

• Who is backing Sarah Hornbeck to allow so much damage to be caused to their child?

• What did Jeff Reichert do to deserve to be alienated from his son?

• Are there influential and powerful people in Maryland with personal vendettas against Jeff from his past careers that are using his child as a tool of intimidation and threats?

• Why does no one seem to care about a child’s wishes — the one who repeatedly asks for his father, and is continually denied?

This case is not just a miscarriage of justice. It is a deliberate concealment of it. It is child abuse.

If Maryland courts have nothing to hide, they should open the record. Publish the opinions. Hear the child. Let the father speak.

Until then, the stench of corruption lingers.

Those involved, these enablers of injustice, must be held accountable. So who are they? Wouldn’t you like to know? Well, don’t worry. We will eventually get to those details.

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