MY FATHER’S ABUSE AND THE EMOTIONAL TOLL IT TOOK

IT’S TIME TO HEAR FROM ME, MY MOTHER AND MY MOTHER- IN-LAW ABOUT THE REAL MIKE RINDER

As you know my campaign is Justice4Mom. That’s because my mom was abused by my father, Mike Rinder, the man behind Leah Remini’s A&E show. There’s never, ever a reason to make it okay to hurt a woman.

Harassing my brother

After my brother got diagnosed with melanoma he was given a few years to live. My Mom and I were devastated. Your world goes upside down. So, my mom went to go see my dad, Mike Rinder. They had been married for over 30 years and though he had deserted the family, she felt it important to tell him about his son. She didn’t ever get to tell him. He found out otherwise. He never answered her communications.

By this time, Benjamin had already gone through his numerous surgeries and intensive radiation treatment. Sick as dog, though, but on the mend. So, then we hear that Mike is there harassing my brother. He took a bunch of people he knows my brother doesn’t like and that he despises. He goes there to make it look like he loves his son, with a video camera, to make it look like he cared. Any father that would care would have checked on him.

No, he marches in with a video camera and thugs. He had to be thrown out by the police. He’s crossed the line. Mike pulls this stunt for a photo op when my brother is almost dead. This jerk who’s supposed to be his father is doing this.

We called up Andrew (my uncle) and we said we’re going to see Mike as a family. We need to go see him and tell him to stop that. Just knock it off. We don’t want anything from him. We were happy. You can have your life. But when you come and harass my brother—it pissed me off. He’s already deserted us. He’s already treated her like crap her whole life.

“Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing me!”

We were going down Gulf to Bay. We didn’t know where he lived. I was like: “Oh, my God! There he is! He’s standing in the parking lot!”.

So, my mom goes straight up to him. The next thing you know, I mean literally within split seconds, he’s got her hands in a vice grip. Her skinny arms. He’s got her hand and he is obviously grabbing because she’s yelling “Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

And he’s holding tight. He’s a big guy. And she’s saying like, “Stop it! You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!” And then he pinned her, so she couldn’t move and then pulled her arms down. She started hearing her bones cracking and I’m freaking out. And she started screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing me!”

And this was right in front of me. I was in shock. He’s an animal. He’s not a person. I then and there decided I don’t need this guy. I don’t need him in my life. I don’t need him beating up my Mom. And I don’t need him harassing my brother.

She is permanently damaged

Mom is still in pain, every day. She is damaged permanently. She ended up getting an orthopedic surgeon who helped her. She literally couldn’t even move the joints. It took months just to get the visible damage healed. In the end what happened is the bone that broke up was sticking into her arm bone. That is why she couldn’t move. Because it was actually broken off and jabbing into her. She was a mess from the amount of pressure and the amount of force that was put on her body.

I tied her shoes for her, made her bed for her, cut her food for her. I didn’t mind. Not at all. That’s not the point of this. It’s the extent of the damage, the harm and the physical trauma.

She had shirts made that had slits down the side because she couldn’t move her arm. We had to fold it on top and zip it down so she could wear a shirt. This is not exaggerated. This is literally what her life has been. She is permanently damaged. Her arm is limp and cannot be raised. She can’t lift anything. She is in pain all the time, like right now. There is a huge problem with circulation. So every single day she must do ice and hot and ice to force circulation.

She works out how to function minimally. The people she works with do things for her that she can’t do. She has had to have her whole place set up so it’s lower. She is right handed and now must operate left handed. She had to change her whole computer. Her whole life now is left hand. But she’s right handed. So, if she must write something she has clipboards she bought that she can hold low and use to write. Otherwise, she can’t hold up a pen. And that’s how it is to this day.

Domestic violence is never okay

He doesn’t care. Never even an “are you ok?” let alone an apology. And yet he still gets paid to go on TV. I don’t understand it. If you agree to pay Mike Rinder, then you agree with men beating women and you agree with men abusing women.

If anyone else had done even close to what he did to my mother, it would be major news. That guy would be out. But because we are Scientologists, he gets away with abusing us? It’s not right. Domestic violence is never okay. It is never okay to abuse a woman.

We need to take action. We need to be fighting domestic violence and making sure that it gets stomped out, that it doesn’t happen anymore and that he gets justice for this.

Justice 4 mom

My Unanswered Email to A+E CEO Paul Buccieri

I sent this email to A&E Network CEO Paul Buccieri. I never heard back. I think this is too important to be buried and unanswered. It deserves to see the light of day. Therefore, I decided to share this because it is not OK for Buccieri and A&E to continue to support the man who damaged my mother for life.

Dear Mr. Buccieri,

I am writing this hoping that you will hear me out. I believe you will be glad that you listened.

My father, Mike Rinder, a man who you employ and support by putting on the air on a family TV network, brutally assaulted my mother in front of my eyes in 2010. He cracked her shoulder, tore her skin and mauled her arms.

If you or any other man in a network job, or the host of any network program, brutally assaulted a woman during an altercation – let alone an assault witnessed by one of their children – they would justifiably be fired because it would be the right thing to do.

I have personally witnessed the pain my mother endured for years. I have comforted her through surgery, physical therapy and the realization that she will never fully recover the use of her right arm. I watched as Mike Rinder committed this horrible act on my mother, yet you pay him to produce a TV show. You can’t deny the fact she suffered injuries during the encounter, but instead of showing zero tolerance for such behavior, you support him and arrange for him to be paid large sums of money to go on TV.

I now have over 240,000 people who support my efforts to get justice for my mother.

Take a look at my campaign: www.justice4mom.org. My Instagram page is @tarynteutsch2. My Twitter account is @TarynTeutsch. You will see that I have a lot of contacts. I have been speaking to many women. I have made myself known across Los Angeles and networked beyond to reach out to women’s groups, domestic violence victim groups, and many other community workshops.

There is no excuse for violence against a woman. Mike Rinder assaulted my mother. He can make all the excuses he wants, try to minimize the damage he inflicted on her and spin the story whatever way he dreams up. But violence is violence, and it is never justified when inflicted by a man against the mother of his children.

I will never stop speaking out until I achieve justice for my mother and my father is called to task for what he did to her. Mike Rinder deserves no support from A & E and no televised platform to continue to pretend he is something that he is not. He abused my mother. That is who he is, and I will continue to make sure the world knows it.

Taryn Rinder Teutsch

There is NO excuse for Domestic Violence! DISNEY/A&E Fire Mike Rinder!

Why is my father so afraid of his own daughter that he and his clique viciously attack me?

As those who have been following me know, in March I decided I could no longer stand by as women were coming out about abuse in the TV industry.

I was inspired by their courage. At the same time, I was outraged that A&E and its parent company Disney continued to financially support my father, Mike Rinder, and allowed him to be on the air when I personally witnessed my father violently abuse my mother and damage her for life. I could not and still cannot take the hypocrisy.

That’s when I decided to launch Justice4Mom. The goal is simple. It’s about achieving not only justice for my mother, but bringing our issue to the attention of women who are committed to ending domestic violence and working with them in their larger efforts to make sure men are held accountable for their actions.

Now, my father, Mike Rinder, and his flunkies are attacking me for speaking out in the most vicious ways imaginable! He doesn’t have the guts to stand up for himself, so he must hide behind others. That’s always who he has been. Naturally, the attack dogs my father uses on his own daughter are men.

No matter how he avoids it, denies it, tries to deflect it—typical of abusers—the truth is in the constant pain my mother suffers because of his vicious attack. It’s a fact she suffered injuries, and that there should be zero tolerance for abuse of any kind by anyone working for The Walt Disney Co. or A&E.

I thank the many women at every event I attend who are proud of me for refusing to back down until justice is done and my many thousands of supporters who stand by me.

I will not stop until I get through to Disney and A&E to #FireMikeRinder and gain #Justice4Mom.