Part 2 of 5 · Making the most of their victims’ misfortune

The shadow grandma

The woman who pays for everything, and what she did on March 20.

Everyone knows a family like this, or is one. If you don’t have a shadow mother, you have a shadow grandma, or you know someone who does: the one who pays for everything, smooths everything, and makes sure nothing her son does ever costs him. In this family it is Judith Hyler, who has owned Stan’s Maple Cafe on South State Street in Ukiah since 2022. She wouldn’t open her door to me in late 2024 when he had locked me out of the house with the baby inside. She confirmed by text in March 2025 that he had taken the baby to her house at midnight and declined to return him. Three days later she came into my home and carried him out herself. In August 2026 hers was the address the Florida deputies delivered him to, and she was the one paying his lawyer. She has about twelve other grandchildren. This is the one whose mother she took him from.

J.J. was made sick before he was born by the man who now holds him; I have sworn to how, in the declaration prepared for the May 26, 2026 hearing. He did it, and everyone who could have stopped it let him. His family had been told, from April 2024 on, while I was carrying their grandson, and sat by.

The verified complaint in Heller v. Hyler — the second complaint, submitted to the Mendocino County Superior Court clerk November 8, 2026 (case number posted when the clerk issues it) — names Vincent Michael Hyler for domestic violence and his parents, Judith and Michael Hyler of Redwood Valley, for aiding and abetting it. Every line below is what that court paper alleges, with its paragraph number. Nothing here is from anywhere else.

Judith Hyler

• ¶ 68. When the mother, at Judith Hyler’s own house, moved to call the police on Vincent Hyler, Judith Hyler told her not to, because Child Protective Services would probably take the baby.
• ¶ 66. When the mother told Judith Hyler that Vincent was abusing her, Judith Hyler’s answer, after discussing it with him, was that the mother was not giving him enough “attention.”
• ¶ 71. On March 17, 2025, the mother found the crib empty and the front door open; Judith Hyler confirmed by text that the baby was at her residence and declined to return him. On March 20, 2025, on camera, Judith Hyler came to the mother’s home and removed the baby over her repeated requests. When deputies served the restraining order on Vincent Hyler that day, the baby was with him at Judith Hyler’s house, where the shotgun was kept; the deputies gave the baby back to his mother.
• ¶ 67. The mother sent Judith Hyler and two of Vincent’s sisters the footage of him, severely intoxicated, falling backward over a coffee table with the baby in his arms, and asked for help. They responded as if it were amusing.
• ¶ 70. In late 2024, locked out of the bedroom where the baby was, then out of the house, the mother went to Judith Hyler’s door for help. Judith Hyler did not open it. The mother called the police.
• ¶ 69. Judith Hyler knew Vincent Hyler drove drunk with the baby, again and again, and kept handing the baby over to him.
• ¶ 75. Judith and Michael Hyler knew all of this before the baby was taken from Florida on August 19, 2026, and have kept him in their home with Vincent Hyler since.

Michael Hyler

• ¶¶ 33, 72. Michael Hyler paid Vincent Hyler’s bar tabs, funding the drinking during which the abuse occurred.
• ¶ 16. On information and belief, Michael Hyler told his son, early in the pregnancy, to deny the child and accuse the mother of infidelity.
• ¶ 73. On Christmas Day 2024, asked for help with his son’s drinking, Michael Hyler told the mother she needed to show Vincent Hyler more respect.
• ¶ 76. On July 6, 2026, Vincent Hyler’s lawyer told the Mendocino court that Michael Hyler would be present at all times as a safeguard for the child.

The family, before she had met them

• ¶¶ 60, 62. April 2024, pregnant: pleas by call and text to Judith, Michael, and Vincent’s four sisters. Not one member of the family helped her; each request for help was turned into an accusation against her.
• ¶ 64. February 24, 2025: the mother hid for two hours at a sister’s home while the cameras recorded him, drunk, with the baby, screaming into them and turning them to the wall.

¶ 74 — the pattern the complaint pleads: every answer the mother was given was the opposite of the truth. She treated him with respect on principle and was told to show more respect. She was already submitting to what he demanded and was told she was not giving him enough attention. She was the one raising and protecting the child and was called neglectful.

“A woman with twelve grandchildren took the thirteenth from a mother who wasn’t even from California.” — Carli Heller

“She told me to be used and abused.” — Carli Heller

Sworn answers to the first lawsuit (Mendocino County Superior Court No. 26CV04599, served at Stan’s Maple Cafe on October 26, 2026) are due November 25, 2026.

The documents for this part

• The Declaration for the April 10, 2025 hearing (pp. 6–8)
• Exhibit H — March 20, 2025, Judith Hyler removing J.J., on camera
• The declaration prepared for the May 26, 2026 hearing (the pregnancy paragraphs)
• The October 26, 2026 proof of service, Stan’s Maple Cafe and 9501 Laughlin Way
• The second complaint, as submitted November 8, 2026

Every statement about a court proceeding on this page is drawn from a filed court record, cited by case number; where a recording is quoted, the quotation is verbatim. J.J. is referred to by his initials. No photograph of him appears on this site.