Thi Preysner may be detained soon

Note: in the podcast above, I discussed this case and others in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, with an activist familiar with that area. An order for arrest has been drafted for Thi Preysner and only needs Judge Paige McThenia’s signature to go into effect. I reached out to Eric Trosch, John Preysner’s attorney, by email, but he did not respond. An activist I spoke with was not surprised. She said Mecklenburg County judges, where Thi’s custody case is held, have a habit of putting mothers in jail. That is a very common occurrence in this county. Every court will say contempt proceedings are a normal part of the court to enforce orders. They’re either to force compliance with a court order or to punish for not filing court order. And these are usually the jailings, but what we see here in Mecklenburg is quite above the usual law. We’ve seen moms being jailed for refusing to give their child into custody of someone who they have proof for abuse or someone whom they’ve literally testified that the father, you know, came drunk, and they smelled the weed and they smelled the alcohol and he was driving and the mother refused to get the child and got jail over 30 days for that. Right. She bailed out, but she got jailed. So, these sentences are harsher. A lot of times it’s protective mothers, which- that’s what’s really alarming. We’re seeing in situations of abuse. We’re seeing failure of protecting the kids and protecting the mother. The activist noted that an analysis done by her group found that Mecklenburg County- which includes Charlotte- leads other counties in reversals of contempt orders. Her group analyzed appeals orders and found that in Mecklenburg County contempt orders are reversed approximately 80% of the time while the rest of the state is at about 50%. In Thi’s case, her dramatic journey began on April 30, 2026. On that day, Judge Paige McThenia ordered that John Preysner get temporary sole custody. Furthermore, she ordered that Thi produce the children as soon as possible, even ordering Thi not to leave the courthouse until the children were returned. This was a difficult task since the children were living in California. Check out the audio from that hearing below. The order was complicated not only because it was not written down but because Judge McThenia ignored a California domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) which temporarily granted Thi custody. Thi returned to California and did not return the children until the end of May 2026, when that DVRO was no longer active. As a result, John Preysner filed for criminal contempt. The activist noted that based on North Carolina Supreme Court precedent in Re Foster. In Judge Foster’s case, she detained a party without a written order. Similarly, Judge McThenia verbally ordered Thi to stay in Mecklenburg County. She turned that into a written order later in the day, but Thi had already left by then. Furthermore, Judge McThenia restricted Thi’s movements without a contempt hearing, similarly to what Judge Foster did which was cited by the North Carolina Supreme Court. The activist said that the contempt argument is more complicated than this because that same written order, issued on April 30, 2026, granted John Preysner sole physical custody. The children weren’t returned until late May. It’s even more complicated because the order for arrest is not for criminal contempt but because Thi failed to appear for the hearing on August 26, 2026. At this hearing, the criminal contempt was to be heard. It wasn’t because Thi did not appear. The audio from that hearing is below. Thi asked to appear remotely but was denied. The activist said that given Thi’s failure to appear it is likely she will be taken into custody and made to appear in front of Judge McThenia. Once a contempt is scheduled and there is an order of show cause issued for the litigant when the judge issues the show cause order, which should have been issued in this case, the litigant is absolutely obligated to come in, right? And if the litigant doesn’t show up. The statutes in North Carolina do allow the judge to summon that presence and to issue a warrant for a sheriff to go get that person and bring that person in. So, it’s not an automatic jailing because this person didn’t show up. It’s capturing that person to bring that person into a hearing. So, that person can explain why they didn’t show up. Because once again, if you got hit by a car and you were in a hospital, you couldn’t have possibly shown up, right? So, no matter the type of order, in which case you can’t be held in contempt if you were not able to appear in front of the judge. The activist told me that she is not confident things will go fairly given Mecklenburg County’s history with protective mothers. Thi alleged, including providing audio recordings, that John was abusing their children. That’s why she said she did not return from a trip to California. An email to Judge McThenia’s chambers was left unreturned. Thi did not provide a comment. There’s a DVRO hearing in California brought by Thi against John. The children are not part of this DVRO. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelvolpe.substack.com/subscribe