Justice4Mom started as a way for me to speak out against Mike Rinder’s abuse by warning others to watch out for him. At the same time, it was my chance to help raise awareness on the issue of domestic violence. I honestly never figured that I would still be doing this today—but here I am.

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A little about me: I am a daughter to Cathy, sister to Benjamin, wife to Thomas and cousin and niece to many. I have a large extended family, most of whom are in Australia or New York. My family is of the utmost importance to me and we are very close. The Rinder side of the family are all Scientologists, and our religion is a big part of our lives. I’m a Gen Xer whose first and foremost drive in life is helping others—I will go out of my way to give others aid. I follow fashion as a hobby, love a good In-N-Out burger and am generally up for anything creative. I work hard and love what I do. I do visual effects work for my Church, where I get to create graphics in up to 50 languages. All in all, I live a happy, fulfilled life.

So what went wrong for my family?

 

Let me give you a little bit of the backstory: My father walked out on us and the entire family in 2007. And yes, there is a lot more I could say about this, and have, which you can find on this site. But more on point to this story, several months after Mike left, my 24-year-old brother, Benjamin, was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer and given a few years to live. Needless to say, the news was devastating to all of us. The focus of our family became helping him beat the cancer and saving his life. Benjamin fought a tough two-year battle, and in the end he pulled through. I am happy and proud to say that today he is still cancer free.

 

But in 2010—when Benjamin was still on the mend—Mike Rinder, who hadn’t spoken to Ben in years, decided to go to Ben’s place of work and harass him. He brought a video camera and some “friends” to get video “evidence” for the media (his words, not mine) that he “really did care” about his son. This was a malevolent thing to do to my brother and was heartbreaking and outrageous to see.

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My mom, my uncle and I, and several family friends, arranged an intervention to get Mike to lay off Benjamin and to just leave us alone and get on with his life. It was at that intervention in Florida that my father attacked my mom. He crossed her arms, dug his fingers into her flesh and pushed and pulled her arms with all his weight—which is considerable in comparison to my 5' 3" and approximately 110-pound mother. He is almost 6' and weighs about 200 pounds, if not more. He held her in what she describes as a “vise-like grip,” while yelling profanities in her face. She was left bleeding and in shock and within days was unable to move her arm. The nerve damage, shoulder damage and tissue damage has kept her in pain for years.

 

But, as I mentioned, Mike Rinder denied all responsibility for crippling her dominant arm despite eyewitnesses and the official medical documents and testaments. He has instead victim shamed my mom.

 

This is where I come in. I couldn’t stand by and watch him continue the harassment and lies, so I decided to act. I came up with Justice4Mom, which is self-explanatory—Mike Rinder needs to be held accountable for his attack, the pain he caused and the victim shaming he has continued.

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And, as you’ll see on this site, I have been busy getting the word out. I know that sometimes people support men who abuse women, like Mike Rinder, without realizing who they are dealing with. So one thing particular to my advocacy work is taking the truth of the abuse to supporters so they can make informed and ethical choices.

 

Since I have been active on this crusade, the attacks on me and my mother, by my father and the haters that support him, don’t stop. Does that mean I stop? No, it simply means I stand taller, speak truth louder and help even more.

 

So, that’s my story. Thanks for reading and happy to have you on board. Check out my various videos. I am expanding my reach and am interested if you think I can help you in some way.

 

Taryn, Justice4Mom