Keith R. Raines

Switched from criminal to family court, notified my attorney at initial hearing he had no idea how to proceed with family law as he replaced Judge Colburn straight from criminal court. Loud and emotional. I withdrew my case of 2 1/2 years shortly after as opposed to starting completely over with a new judge. We were screwed by Washington County - $60k in legal fees for NOTHING.

It has been almost five years since the worst day of my life due to Judge Keith Raines. I was attending a hearing to evaluate if my ex husband was to be awarded more parenting time due to yet another domestic violence incident involving myself and our three young children. I had an active restraining order, one of three abuse restraining orders I have sought against my former spouse. (2 granted in Oregon, and 1 granted in Washington State) I walked into the court expecting a review of parenting time, but was in complete shock when Judge Raines did a complete reversal of custody from me to my abusive ex husband (whom our children never lived with after divorce, and whom our youngest didn’t even know) I nearly fell to the floor. I was given no explanation of the sudden switch in custody other than his belief that I was simply fabricating years of abuse. As an abuse survivor, this may have hurt more than the actual abuse- to not be believed, even with mountains of evidence. He refused to listen to testimony from school teachers, or my children’s psychologist who were all ready to speak up for the safety of my children. He cancelled my restraining order, and then he erased my ex husband’s back child support of untold thousands- in full. All with the swipe of his pen. I will never forget the look on my children’s face when I had to force essentially force them to go back with their abusive father. We have suffered immensely with PTSD and still do to this day. We are in danger because of Judge Keith Raines. This judge has made inappropriate comments about his own divorce. He is clearly misogynistic. I believe he has a real hatred of women. Staff in the courthouse agreed with me when speaking about Raines. Children’s safety should be first and foremost. A woman should not be awarded custody simply by being a woman, and a man should not be awarded custody simply by being a man. It muddies the water and we lose sight of the children. My condolences to anyone who has suffered

I’m here after about 20yrs, going through a healing process and Keith Raines popped into my head. Decided to see if he’s still on the circuit court. I remember clearly how appalled I was at his poor judgment and demeanor. Clearly a woman hater. I was fighting for my childrens back child support of over $45,000. and he had it erased. My kids father, (raging narc) claimed to be disabled, and couldn’t pay. When in fact, he had a felony and other assault charges that hindered him from getting a job. He faked like he couldn’t remember his younger childrens names, and won. I asked Judge Raines to help me understand…. This man (my ex) had just took his younger kids to Disneyland 2weeks prior, and was going to do an Ironman in 2 weeks from then. Why is it he can’t work or pay his back child support. He assisted my ex, by asking if after his accident (that did NOT disable him) if he got a large sum of money. He answered yes. Then Raines asked if he used that money to go on the trip. He hesitantly said yes. He then looked at me, and said that’s a bummer for you! And proceeded to close my case. My ex has gone on working our broken system by collecting disability (we have a child with disabilities that I’ve raised alone, and works and has grown to be very independent and successful) He paints houses under the table. Pays cash for everything and puts big ticket items under other peoples names, so they can’t repossess them. This is thanks to Judge Keith Raines. And we wonder why our system is incredibly broken, supporting the criminals.

Raines is biased, bitter, and obviously despises women. I am am dismayed that he is still sitting a bench. I testified several times in his court against a domestic abuser, alcoholic, drug user that lived in a shed and he was still awarded full custody of a 6 year old. This custody thankfully ended 3 years later, but with lasting psychological trauma.

Raines presided over my divorce/child support hearing where I am the father. All assets were split 50/50, but all debt was awarded to me. My child support was based on overtime even though it was only occasional. I tried to explain that I would be occasionally laid off for up to months at a time and I requested that child support be based on my rate of pay. Raines said I was lying even though I had proof of my previous layoff periods and he said he didn’t need to see my paperwork. Whether he said this because I’m a minority I cannot verify, but I definitrly felt racist condescention. I was even charged for child support for a child that was with me, which made no sense. Even my caseworker at the DCSS thought it was odd because they heard Raines is usually biased in favor of the father. I can only imagine how others are treated in his courtroom because it is a place without justice