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August 2010

GEORGIA  

Attorney charged with forging judge's signature

By Christian Boone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

08-10-10 -- Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents on Tuesday arrested a Stockbridge attorney alleged to have forged a Fulton County judge's signature on several court orders. . . . Lynn Swank was arrested at her office and charged with four counts of forgery, two counts of perjury and one count of theft by deception. Swank also stands accused of lying under oath after telling the judge her former husband forged the signatures. . . . Fulton Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan requested the GBI investigation in January after discovering her faked signature on four orders terminating parental claims. The orders, required before a child can be placed for adoption, were presented by Swank on behalf of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

MINNESOTA    

Freed Toyota Driver: My Children Don't Know Me

Attorney Credits ABC News Report for Helping Koua Fong Lee Win Release from Prison

By Angela M. Hill, ABC News    

08-06-10 -- In his first interview since winning freedom yesterday, Koua Fong Lee, the Minnesota man jailed after his 1996 Toyota Camry sped out of control and killed three people, said his two youngest children don't know their father because he's been imprisoned on vehicular homicide for the past three years. . . . "The first thing I'm going to do is talk to them, to get to know them, to play with them," Lee told ABC News. "I want them to know I am their daddy. I will teach them what the word daddy means." . . . After a judge ordered Lee freed from prison Thursday pending a new trial, prosecutors announced they would not try Lee again.

NEW YORK  

N.Y. Appeals Court Affirms Lesbian's Duty to Pay Child Support

Proskauer Rose partner calls Thursday's decision 'groundbreaking'

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal

08-06-10 -- Hewing to the bedrock family law principle that the financial support of a child must be premised on the youngster's best interests, a New York state appellate court has upheld a woman's obligation to pay support for a child borne by her former lesbian partner. . . . Although the respondent, identified only as E.T., has neither biological nor adoptive ties to the child, the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, noted in H.M. v. E.T., 06313, that the mother H.M., in conceiving the child through artificial insemination, had relied on E.T.'s assurances that she would help support the child. . . . "This Court has previously employed the 'implied promise-equitable estoppel approach' ... to preclude a man with no biological or adoptive connection to a child from disavowing a relied-upon, implied promise to support the child, thus preventing the man from leaving the child without the support of two parents, as originally contemplated," the 2nd Department observed in an unsigned, unanimous ruling.

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. children with Nazi-inspired names taken from parents

By Joe Tyrrell, Newjerseynewsroom.com

08-05-10 -- The state Division of Youth and Family Services was right to take three small children with Nazi-inspired names away from their parents. . . . A three-judge panel ruled DYFS "proved the need for protective services" for Adolf Hitler Campbell, 4, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 3, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, 2. . . . The judges overturned a Family Court ruling that there was insufficient evidence that the parents had abused or neglected the children. That ruling was stayed to allow the children's legal guardian and DYFS to appeal. . . . In reversing, the appellate judges said the Family Court decision relied on "an overly narrow view of domestic violence in the context of abuse or neglect of children." . . . DYFS removed the children in January 2009 from the custody of their unemployed parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell of Holland Township.

July 2010

GEORGIA  

Atlanta Lawyer Takes on Botched Circumcision Claims Nationwide

David J. Llewellyn wins $10.7 million default judgment, continues his fight against malpractice

Katheryn Hayes Tucker, Fulton County Daily Report

07-29-10 -- Although the $10.7 million default judgment David J. Llewellyn of Johnson & Ward just scored may be tough to collect, the case is a dramatic statement about the Atlanta attorney's development of an unusual national practice: suing over botched circumcisions. . . . In the latest case, Llewellyn brought a suit on behalf of a boy and his parents against Mogen Circumcision Instruments, claiming one of its devices severed the head of the boy's penis during a bris, a Jewish ceremony for a male infant. The company failed to answer the suit, and Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York ruled the company owed the eight-figured sum. . . . "He's the expert in this field," said Llewellyn's New York co-counsel on the Mogen case, John L. Juliano, a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney in East Northport, NY. "I don't know many other people who handle these cases."

NEW YORK  

Adolescents' Facebook Posts Found to Be 'Puerile' but Not Actionable

Judge also dismissed a negligent-supervision claim against parents, saying a computer does not constitute, as required by N.Y. case law, a 'dangerous instrument'

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

07-26-10 -- A Long Island, N.Y., judge has thrown out a $6 million defamation action filed by an Oceanside teenager against four former classmates who set up a Facebook page on which they joked that the teen used heroin and contracted AIDS by having sex with animals in Africa. . . . Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Randy Sue Marber ruled that no reasonable person could believe that the allegedly defamatory statements were facts. . . . "A reasonable reader, given the overall context of the posts, simply would not believe that the Plaintiff contracted AIDS by having sex with a horse or a baboon or that she contracted AIDS from a male prostitute who also gave her crabs and syphilis, or that having contracted sexually transmitted diseases in such manner she morphed into the devil," Justice Marber held in Finkel v. Dauber, 012414/09.

NEW YORK  

Injustice for Children

New York Times  Editorial 

07-16-10 -- If New York abides by the settlement it reached this week with the Justice Department, mentally ill children in four of the state’s infamous youth prisons will finally get decent psychiatric care and will no longer be subject to brutal disciplinary practices. As important as it is, however, the settlement cannot be a substitute for the overhaul of the state juvenile justice system proposed by Gov. David Paterson’s juvenile justice task force. . . . The Justice Department focused on New York because of people like Darryl Thompson, an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old who died after being pinned face down on the floor at the infamous Tryon Residential Center. A federal investigation found that children in the system were often brutally punished for minor offenses like laughing too loud or sneaking an extra cookie.

CALIFORNIA

Kidnapped girl, 7, found in Phoenix

Colin Lecher - The Arizona Republic

07-15-10 -- A kidnapped 7-year-old California girl who had been missing nearly her entire life was found by authorities in Phoenix on Wednesday. . . . Los Angeles detectives, FBI agents and Phoenix officers took part in her recovery. . . . Police said her identity had been concealed and that officers were able to confirm who she was after serving a court order for identifying traits. Photographs and DNA swabs were taken and her footprint was matched to the one on her birth certificate. . . . Phoenix police said she was recovered about 1 p.m. near 16th Street and Thomas Road from a family to whom she isn't related. . . . Police reported an adult woman at the residence tried to hide the girl in a bathroom shower under a pile of clothes and towels.

CALIFORNIA  

Jaycee Dugard to get $20 million in settlement

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau, San Francisco Chronicle

07-02-10 -- Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard and the two children authorities say she had with her alleged abductor - a paroled sex offender - will receive a $20 million payout from the state under a settlement lawmakers approved Thursday. . . . Dugard, now 30, was kidnapped in 1991 from South Lake Tahoe when she was 11 years old and discovered in Phillip Garrido's backyard Antioch compound in August. . . . In a claim filed against the California Department of Corrections in February, Dugard and her family accused the agency of "various lapses," and said she and her family suffered "psychological, physical and emotional injury" while she was held as a virtual sex slave for nearly two decades. Her children are now 12 and 15 years old.

NEW JERSEY  

Firm to Go on Trial for Aiding in Parental Abduction

By Mary Pat Gallagher | New Jersey Law Journal | New York Lawyer

07-02-10 -- Questions over the role of a New Jersey matrimonial firm in an international child abduction are at the heart of an unusual suit set to go to trial in Bergen County this summer. . . . Madeline Marzano-Lesnevich and her firm, Lesnevich & Marzano-Lesnevich of Hackensack, are accused of helping former client Maria Jose Carrascosa take her daughter to Carrascosa's native Spain, in violation of a parenting agreement with the child's father, Peter Innes. . . . Innes alleges the firm aided the abduction or negligently ignored its obligation to abide by the agreement, which prohibited removing Victoria Innes from the United States and required Carrascosa's lawyer to hold Victoria's U.S. passport to prevent that from happening. . . . At the time of the Oct. 8, 2004, agreement, Carrascosa was represented by West Caldwell solo Mitchell Liebowitz, who sent the passport and file to the Lesnevich firm when it took over the case soon after.

OREGON  

Judge: Couple must surrender child for treatment

AP, myCentralOregon.com

07-01-10 -- An Oregon judge has ordered a couple who belong to a faith healing church to surrender their child, finding they have failed to provide medical care. . . . On Thursday, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Douglas Van Dyk gave the state of Oregon temporary custody of the child. The judge has also ordered medical treatment as directed by doctors at Oregon Health&Science University. . . . The Oregonian reported that the age and medical condition of the child have not been disclosed. . . . The parents, Timothy J. Wyland, 44, and Rebecca J. Wyland, 23, of Beavercreek, appeared in court without a lawyer. They are members of the Followers of Christ church, which avoids most secular medical care, relying on faith-healing rituals to treat illness.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Police: Pa. district judge apologized to girl, 12

(AP), Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

07-01-10 -- Authorities say a district judge in suburban Philadelphia accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl apologized to the alleged victim in a recorded telephone call. . . . Sixty-nine-year-old Gerald C. Liberace is a district judge in Havertown. . . . Liberace is out on $5,000 bail after being arrested Wednesday on charges of indecent assault and related counts.

June 2010

CONNECTICUT  

College Grad Sues Father to Recoup Tuition Costs

Breach of contract action focuses on written contract requiring divorced father to cover daughter's school costs until age 25

Christian Nolan, The Connecticut Law Tribune

06-29-10 -- It's not news that some children, especially as they hit their teenage and college years, don't get along with their parents. But even experienced attorneys say it's rare when the disagreements grow to a point where litigation is required. . . . So consider the odd case of Dana Soderberg, who went to court to force her father to live up to a deal to pay her tuition at Southern Connecticut State University. Hamden family lawyer Renee C. Berman handled the lawsuit for Soderberg. . . . "Nothing that I've researched has shown any cases like this and hopefully there won't be anymore because it's a sad situation," said Berman. . . . Dana came from what is perhaps an all-too-typical family situation. Her parents, Howard and Deborah Soderberg, of Stratford divorced in 2004. Upon splitting, they agreed that Howard, a property developer, would be responsible for the education costs for their three children, Dana, Amanda and Erik. . . . Dana's experience had evidently taught her that her father had a tendency not to follow through with paying for things. So she persuaded him the following year to enter into a written contract obligating him to pay her college tuition until she was 25, along with other school expenses such as textbooks, and her car insurance.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Fathers 4 Justice are on song

Daily Echo  

06-17-10 -- PARENTS from across Hampshire have lent their voices to a new song being released by campaign group Fathers 4 Justice. . . . The Anthem For Justice song is being launched by the Hampshire-based campaign organisation for Father’s Day this Sunday as an Internet download track. . . . Mothers and fathers from across the county travelled to London to record the song this week and film a video for the single, which is promoting equal rights for parents.

Start a Revolution on Father's Day

by Rebecca Hagelin, Townhall.com           

06-16-10 -- What we need when Father’s Day arrives on Sunday is nothing short of a family revolution, led by America’s fathers. . . . Ours is a broken culture — of fathers and mothers with broken vows, families with broken bonds, and children with broken hearts. . . . For every 100 babies born in America, 60 are born to a broken family. That is, they are either born out of wedlock, or to a family that will soon suffer divorce. Our teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the Western world. Our little girls are looking and behaving like sex kittens at younger and younger ages. Boys are afraid of marriage, addicted to pornography and have few or no manners. There are about 1.2 million abortions in America every year. . . . Mothers feel overwhelmed as they seek to "do it all" — earn a paycheck, nurture the children, manage the finances and keep the family together. Much of that is the fault of a radical feminist movement that perverted the battle for equal treatment into a battle for total independence from men. Many men just sat out what became a destructive force, and now all of us — men, women and children — are suffering the painful results as we realize that we really do need each other after all. . . . Imagine how our culture would be transformed if fathers refused to be bullied by angry feminists and took more of a loving role of responsibility in their own homes. What if husbands started pouring out unconditional and constant love on their wives in the same manner in which Christ pours love out for his people.

PENNSYLVANIA   

For parents, justice not served

Paperwork goes unfiled, appeals are dismissed.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker, Law & Order Reporter,  Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

06-16-10 -- Mary Tullis was devastated last August when a Luzerne County judge terminated her rights to her son and daughter. . . . She and the children’s father, Jeff Harris, had been working to resolve the problems that led Luzerne County Children and Youth to place the children in foster care. She was confident the state Superior Court would overturn the decision on appeal. . . . She never got the chance to argue the merits of her case, however, because the assistant public defender assigned to represent her failed to file the required court papers, resulting in her appeal being dismissed outright. . . . A Times Leader investigation revealed she is not alone. . . . Since 2005, 15 of the 53 parents who challenged the termination of their parental rights or the involuntary adoption of their children have seen their appeals dismissed because the Public Defender’s Office or other court-appointed attorneys failed to follow proper court procedure, according to a review of cases filed with the state Superior Court. . . . The revelation prompted newly appointed county Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. to launch an investigation. He is reviewing records, including those identified by The Times Leader, to determine if anything can or should be done to seek to restore the appeals. . . . The newspaper’s review showed that in nine of the 15 cases at issue, the appeals were filed, but later dismissed because the attorneys failed to file the required legal briefs that detail the errors the trial judge allegedly committed. . . . In another six cases, the appeals were “quashed” – a legal term that refers to the dismissal of an appeal for failure to comply with some other aspect of appellate court procedure, such as filing the appeal late. . . . The lack of action by the attorneys means the parents were deprived of their right to have the Superior Court review the lower court ruling to determine if it was properly entered – a result an advocate for parental rights described as “appalling.”

FLORIDA  

Assets Sought on Behalf of Abraham Shakespeare's Sons

Abraham Shakespeare Case

By Merissa Green, The Ledger

06-14-10 -- The slaying of Abraham Shakespeare left behind a penniless estate that a Lakeland lawyer has worked for months to try to straighten out on behalf of the lottery winner's two small children. . . . So far, the returns are still to come. . . . For instance, lawyer Stephen Martin is trying to get a Corvette and a Silverado pickup being held by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating Shakespeare's death. Sheriff's officials haven't said when or whether the vehicles will be turned over to the estate. The Silverado belonged to a woman charged in Shakespeare's death, and the Corvette was bought by her and was driven by her former boyfriend. . . . Martin said he plans to claim the two vehicles and to sell them to use the proceeds to pay for the operation of the estate and to set up trust accounts for Shakespeare's two young sons, Moses Shakespeare, 9, and Jeremiyah Butler, 18 months, both of Lakeland. . . . Another target for Martin is the home at 9340 Redhawk Bend Drive in North Lakeland that Shakespeare bought in 2007 for about $1 million after he won a $17 million lump-sum payment from the Florida Lottery in November 2006. And Martin said there are other houses Shakespeare owned to which the estate is entitled. . . . Shakespeare, 43, was found shot to death in January. . . . "There's a lot to do," said Martin. "Once we get these cars and get rid of the (Redhawk Bend Drive home), we will have cash. I owe it to them (the two boys) to do the best job I can."

NEW YORK  

Real Justice for Juveniles

New York Times Editorial  

06-10-10 -- Gov. David Paterson of New York has sent the Legislature a juvenile justice bill that would achieve two urgently important goals. It would improve the quality of the leadership and care in the state’s often dangerous and inhumane juvenile facilities. And it would ensure that only children who need to be institutionalized — because they present a risk to the public — end up in the facilities. . . . Albany’s lawmakers must finally stand up to unions that are more interested in preserving jobs than in doing what is best for children. . . . The argument for closing down the worst facilities and treating low-risk children in their home communities is irrefutable. In a report last year, the Justice Department found that young people in state detention facilities were frequently hit and abused; emotionally disturbed children rarely got the help they needed. Governor Paterson’s juvenile justice task force found that more than half the children sent to these facilities were guilty of minor, nonviolent infractions.

FEDERAL COURTS

3rd Circuit Mulls Student Suspensions for MySpace Postings

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

06-04-10 -- Fourteen federal appellate judges spent more than two hours talking about high school pranks on Thursday as the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sat en banc to consider a pair of cutting-edge First Amendment cases brought by students who were suspended for ridiculing their principals on MySpace. . . . The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is representing both students and argues that school officials have no power to impose discipline for such off-campus speech. . . . ACLU attorney Witold Walczak said the U.S. Supreme Court has limited the free speech rights of students while in school -- allowing for discipline if the speech creates a real disruption or is lewd -- but has never authorized punishment for off-campus speech.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Report Urges Sweeping Changes for Pa. Juvenile Courts, Judicial Conduct Board

Leo Strupczewski, The Legal Intelligencer

06-01-10 -- A commission charged with reviewing the Luzerne County, Pa., judicial corruption scandal released a 66-page final report Thursday, recommending scores of new procedures to protect juveniles who appear in the state's delinquency courts and to increase judicial accountability. . . . Some 43 recommendations were made to review and revise the state's juvenile delinquency process, the roles of judges, masters and prosecutors in those cases and the state's judicial disciplinary system. Most notable, however, may be a recommendation that was not made. . . . The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, formed last year after charges were filed against Luzerne County Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. for allegedly sending minors to a private detention center in exchange for $2.8 million, chose not to back the often recited and highly publicized recommendation of making juvenile delinquency proceedings open to the public. . . . Instead, the commission chose to adopt dozens of recommendations that appear to be aimed at increasing transparency in a more limited manner.

May 2010

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

SG Revises Data on Federal Juvenile Sentences in Letter to High Court

Tony Mauro, The National Law Journal

05-28-10 -- In an unusual filing with the Supreme Court this week, Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said some of the information that the Court used in its recent Graham v. Florida decision, supplied to the Court by a federal official without the SG's knowledge, was inaccurate. The letter casts a new light on the federal government's non-involvement in the case, which has been the subject of some controversy. . . . In the landmark decision May 17, the high court ruled that the Eighth Amendment bars the sentencing of juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole for non-homicide crimes. . . . The May 24 letter to Court Clerk William Suter, obtained by the Blog of Legal Times, clarifies the information that led Justice Anthony Kennedy to write in his majority opinion that "there are six convicts in the federal prison system serving life without parole sentences for [juvenile] non-homicide crimes." In the ruling, Kennedy had indicated that because Florida did not provide data about the number of juveniles sentenced to life without parole in the state and federal systems, the Court set out on its own to find out accurate information. Kennedy cited letters sent by officials in Nevada, Utah, Virginia, and the federal Bureau of Prisons to the Court library filling the information gap.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Judge: Juvenile law changes attainable

Added protections for young defendants have interest of Rendell, lawmakers, he noted.

By Mark Guydish Education Reporter, Times News Leader

05-28-10 -- Shortly before convening the last meeting of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, Chairman Judge John Cleland said he believes all the recommendations in the report the commission was about to approve are attainable, and what gets done depends on how determined the governor and state legislators are. . . . “These are fiscally difficult times, the environment of politics is tough,” Cleland conceded, but that should not be a reason for inaction. “There are no pie-in-the-sky recommendations in this.” . . . During a press conference Thursday after the report was officially released, Cleland acknowledged the commission has no way of making sure the recommendations are acted on, but said its members will remain available to help if needed. He noted the governor and multiple lawmakers have asked about the report and expressed interest in moving forward on the recommendations.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA  

From rats to heaters, doctor-lawyer team fights barriers to family health care

By Lena H. Sun, Washington Post Staff Writer

05-26-10 -- Thirteen-year-old Haji Conteh had all the irritating symptoms of seasonal allergies when her father took her to see a pediatrician at a D.C. clinic last summer. . . . But when the doctor questioned Haji and her father, she began to suspect there might be a cause other than pollen for the girl's sneezing and itchy eyes: the rats and mold in the family's Northwest Washington apartment. . . . The pediatrician didn't have the time or expertise to probe more deeply. But she did refer the family to a specialist-- not another doctor, but a lawyer. . . . The family is among 1,400 referred by doctors and others at Children's National Medical Center to the Children's Law Center. As part of a medical-legal partnership that began in 2002, lawyers work alongside doctors at four District clinics run by the hospital. Their shared goal is to overcome legal and social challenges that threaten the care of their patients -- low-income children, predominantly African American, and virtually all covered by Medicaid.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Student's Privacy Rights Violated in Pa. 'Sexting' Case, ACLU Suit Says

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

05-21-10 -- The hot-button issue of "sexting" is coming back to court and this time the ACLU is setting out to establish that high school students have a right to privacy that includes the contents of their cell phones. . . . A team of lawyers from Cozen O'Connor has partnered with the ACLU of Pennsylvania to sue on behalf of a student who claims her constitutional rights were violated when the principal confiscated her cell phone, found nude images she had taken of herself and turned it over to prosecutors. . . . ACLU legal director Witold Walczak said the issue is an important one because many school officials incorrectly believe they have the right to search through cell phones whenever a student is misusing one. . . . "We try to explain to them that they have the right to confiscate it, but they don't have the right to look through it," Walczak said in an interview.

FEDERAL COURTS

Suits Claim Pampers Dry Max Diapers Cause Rashes, Burns; P&G Disputes Claim

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

05-14-10 -- Two lawsuits filed in federal court in Ohio claim Pampers diapers made with Dry Max technology are causing rashes and even chemical burns in babies, a claim Procter & Gamble says is “completely false.” . . . The suits, filed by Seattle law firm Keller Rohrback, seek class action status, KOMOnews.com reports. More suits are planned, the firm’s managing partner, Lynn Sarko, told KOMOnews. . . . Cincinnati-based P&G says clinical testing shows its product is safe, the Wall Street Journal reports. "While we have great empathy for any parent dealing with diaper rash—a common and sometimes severe condition —the claims made in this lawsuit are completely false," P&G said in a statement.

ALASKA  

State high court justice steps away from abortion lawsuit

Court: Organization suggested possible conflict of interest.

By Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News 

05-12-10 -- Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen is stepping down from hearing a lawsuit against a ballot initiative that would make doctors tell a teenage girl's parents before she could get an abortion. . . . The lawsuit against the initiative was filed by Planned Parenthood, and Christen was a board member of Planned Parenthood during the mid-1990s. The Alaska Family Council had sent out e-mail alerts Tuesday and Wednesday, urging its members to contact the state judicial conduct commission and complain that Christen had a conflict of interest and shouldn't be participating in the case. . . . Christen sent out a notice Wednesday afternoon that she was removing herself from the case. She didn't offer an explanation. The case will go forward, with the other four Supreme Court justices scheduled to hear arguments May 20.

NEW YORK  

Former foster kid overcame odds, with help from many friends, to earn law degree

By Donna St. George, Washington Post Staff Writer

05-07-10 -- When Jelani Freeman came home after school one day, his mother was gone. Eight years old, he waited, realizing as the hours passed that she would not be back. She was mentally ill and in need of treatment. His father was in prison. . . . "I just knew that was it," he recalled. . . . By the next afternoon, social workers were involved. So began a way of life that he came to know as foster care, a world of in-betweens and stopgaps that brought six moves and inevitable questions about how to get beyond hurt and want and poverty. . . . On Saturday, against the odds, Freeman will graduate from Howard University Law School, where he has told few of his professors how far he came just to take a seat. Still, his journey has been a source of inspiration to advocates, friends and mentors, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who cited him in the 2006 edition of her book "It Takes A Village." Many of those supporters will cheer him on as he crosses the stage at the Washington Convention Center to receive his diploma, one man's humble demonstration of what is possible when grit and determination are melded with offers of help from others. Freeman is not the first child of foster care to earn a law degree, but experts say many youths who "age out" of the system struggle to finish high school. . . . For Freeman, what's made the difference has been a kind of makeshift family of those who have cared along the way. Some cooked him dinner. Some steered him toward opportunities. One couple paid for a year and a half of his law school tuition. Many gave him the kind of advice a parent might bestow.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Federal Judge Bars 'Sexting' Prosecution of Pa. Girls

The Associated Press, Law.com

05-05-10 --A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction barring northeastern Pennsylvania prosecutors from filing charges against several teenage girls in connection with racy cell phone photos. . . . U.S. District Judge James Munley issued the order Friday after Wyoming County District Attorney Jeff Mitchell said he had no plans to file charges against three girls who filed a federal lawsuit last year over the matter. The ruling follows a decision in March by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals barring prosecutors from pursuing felony charges in the case. . . . "It was a decision by agreement," said attorney Michael Donohue, who represents the Wyoming County district attorney's office in the case. "Mr. Mitchell has said he would not proceed with prosecution, so the case is moot."

TEXAS

Questions arise in La Joya schools ‘sexting' case

Jared Taylor, The Monitor

05-05-10 -- It seemingly began as high-tech flirting between two high school teenagers. . . . Jorge Suchil exchanged text messages with a 16-year-old girl the evening of March 28. The cell phone message exchange eventually turned sexual, with the 17-year-old Suchil asking the girl to send him a photo of her topless, police said. . . . The girl eventually agreed. She took a photo of herself topless and sent it to Suchil. . . . The girl later told police that Suchil demanded she send him a completely nude photo. If she didn’t, police said, Suchil told her he would pass the topless shot on to his friends’ cell phones. . . . The girl — whose name was withheld by police — went to Palmview High School administrators the next day, said Raul Gonzalez, the La Joya school district police chief. . . . Suchil was called to the assistant principal’s office, where the topless photo of the girl was found on his cell phone, police said. He gave police a written confession that he had the nude photo on his phone, according to the criminal complaint in the case. . . . La Joya school district police arrested Suchil on Monday on child pornography charges, as requested by one of the girl’s parents. Gonzalez said besides the photo of the girl, police found at least five other nude photos of other minors on his cell phone.

April 2010

Gates will review deployment, custody issues

By Karen Jowers - NavyTimes.com Staff writer
04-30-10 -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would “take a fresh look” at service members’ concerns in child custody disputes, according to two members of Congress who met with him Thursday. . . . Reps. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said they appreciated Gates’ acknowledgment of the problem of deployments being used by judges as a criterion in deciding child custody cases. . . . In a statement issued by Turner’s office, he and Herseth Sandlin noted the need for “a national, baseline standard that protects service members and allays their unrest about future deployment being used as a criterion in deciding child custody cases.”

Column: Tips help children deal with divorce issues

Sandy Stetzer • For the Wausau Daily Herlad

04-30-10 -- The most harmful part of separation or divorce is when children are caught in the middle of loyalty conflicts, where no matter what they do or say, they will anger, hurt or stress-out one of their parents. . . . Almost all parents create such conflicts for their children unknowingly, but they can learn to reduce them when they become aware of them. The Center for Divorce Education describes the four most common situations when parents put their kids in the middle of their conflict with the other parent. . . . Parents sometimes don't like to talk directly to one another because they are angry or upset. So they make their children carry messages back and forth. "Tell your mom I'll pick you up early this week." "Tell your dad he can't see you this weekend." Children find this very stressful. What can you do? First, tell your children to let you know when they are uncomfortable relaying messages. Second, take the responsibility yourself to communicate directly to the other parent, especially if the topic is one in which your children are likely to feel caught between competing loyalties and desires. E-mail and notes help avoid confrontations. . . . Kids don't like having to deal with disputes about money. "Ask your father where the support check is!" "Tell your mother to pay for it; that's what child support is for!" These are adult issues and should be discussed directly by the parents.

NEW YORK  

Judge: Boy Abandoned At St. Patrick's Should Return To Florida

By: NY1 News

04-28-10 -- A tug of war is brewing over who should get custody of a three-year-old boy abandoned at St. Patrick's Cathedral last week. . . . A New York judge recommended the case be moved to Florida, where Nathaniel Fons lives. . . . The toddler's paternal grandparents are hoping to get custody, and traveled here in hopes of bringing him home.

VIRGINIA  

Attorney for parents of special needs kids accused of practicing without license

By Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer

04-23-10 -- Life for parents of special-needs children can be challenging on its best days and crushing on its worst, some parents like to say. The parents of kids with autism, learning disabilities and other problems band together to share stories of frustration and success, and to swap the names of the best schools, the best psychologists -- and the best lawyers. . . . Into this close-knit world entered Howard D. Deiner, 53. He worked his way into the inner circle by listing himself as a lawyer on a number of Web sites that cater to special education parents, operating in the legal niche for families wanting to challenge the way public schools educate -- or fail to educate -- their children. . . . But Deiner wasn't licensed as a lawyer for much of the time he took those cases, according to court records, and to bypass that issue he allegedly once signed another lawyer's name on important documents. He lost several cases at a point in the special education process that is the bleakest and the most critical for parents. . . . "I felt betrayed," said Mark Griffin of Arlington County, who hired Deiner to recoup the cost of his son's expensive private education.

PENNSYLVANIA

School District Snapped 56,000 Images on Student Webcams

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

04-20-10 -- An upscale suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly snapping photos of high school students at home via webcams on their district-issued laptop computers has completed an investigation. . . . And it apparently supports at least some of the claims made in a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of one sophomore. The district says school officials remotely activated the webcams 146 times, snapping a total of nearly 56,000 images, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. . . . While many of the records could not be recovered, images found included photos of students, at least some photos inside their homes and screen shots showing programs or files, investigators state. Most of the time, technicians turned on the webcam when a laptop was reported lost or stolen and then turned it off when the machine was found. In some cases, however, the webcam wasn't turned off and simply kept snapping a new image every 15 minutes, accounting for some 13,000 of the total tally, according to the newspaper.

ARKANSAS  

Arkansas judge strikes down gay adoption ban

Bhargav Katikaneni, JURIST

04-17-10 -- An Arkansas judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that a state law prohibiting all unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children violates the Arkansas Constitution [text, PDF]. Critics claimed that the Arkansas Adoption and Foster Care Act of 2008 [ACLU backgrounder], or Initiated Act I, was discriminatory because it prohibited all gay couples from adopting or fostering children as Arkansas does not recognize gay marriage. Judge Christopher Piazza of the Pulaski County Circuit Court [official website] agreed and said that while the the law, passed via ballot initiative, was valid under the federal Constitution, it violates the Arkansas state constitution: / Initiated Act 1 prohibits cohabiting same-sex couples and heterosexual couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents. It does not prohibit them from becoming foster or adoptive parents if they do not cohabitate. However, the act significantly burdens non-marital relationships and acts of sexual intimacy between adults and forces them to choose between becoming a parent and having any type of meaningful intimate relationship outside of the marriage. This infringes upon the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed to all citizens of Arkansas.

ARKANSAS  

Arkansas Teen Accuses Mom of Facebook Harassment

Tom Parsons, The Associated Press, Law.com

04-08-10 -- The mother of a 16-year-old boy said she shut him out of his Facebook account after reading he had driven home at 95 mph one night because he was mad at a girl. His response: a harassment complaint at the local courthouse. . . . "If I'm found guilty on this it is going to be open season" on parents, Denise New, the mother, said Wednesday. . . . The Arkadelphia, Ark., woman said many of her son's postings didn't reflect well on him, so after he failed to log off the social networking site one day last month, she posted her own items on his account and changed his password to keep him from using it again. . . . "The things he was posting in Facebook would make any decent parent's eyes pop out and his jaw drop," Denise New said. "He had been warned before about things he had been posting." . . . Lane New, who lives with his grandmother, filed a complaint with prosecutors who approved a harassment charge March 26. His mother said she was doing what any good parent would do. . . .  "Just because I don't have custody doesn't mean I don't care about him," Denise New said.

CALIFORNIA  

Santa Clara County considers barring the practice of jailing very young children

By Karen de Sá,  mercurynews.com:

04-08-10 -- The presiding judge of Santa Clara County's Superior Court has hailed a recommendation to stop detaining children ages 12 and younger in the juvenile hall, calling a recent report condemning the practice "very sound." . . . "We have a problem," Judge Jamie Jacobs-May told the county's public safety and justice committee Thursday. "It's not large, but it's very important. I think we all want the same thing, and that is to keep kids this young out of the hall." . . . The Board of Supervisors, social services leaders and the county's top law enforcement officials are now weighing a recommendation by the Juvenile Justice Commission, which examined the cases of 30 very young children held in custody between 2007 and 2009. . . . The court-appointed citizens commission found that in almost all of the cases, the children had diagnosed mental illnesses and parents who were dead or gone. Most had been kicked out of school, spent time in foster care and suffered from drug and alcohol addictions. One boy had been sexually abused by his father at age 23 months.

Pediatricians warn educators not to promote being 'gay'

'It is not the school's role to 'affirm' perceived personal sexual orientation'

By Bob Unruh, © 2010 WorldNetDaily

04-08-10 -- A professional organization for pediatricians has dispatched letters to thousands of school superintendents across the United States with a warning that promoting – or "affirming" – the homosexual lifestyle to young children can damage them. . . . The letter was sent just days ago by the American College of Pediatricians, a nonprofit organization funded by members and donors, to school superintendents that tells them plainly, "It is not the school's role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student's medical condition, and certainly not a school's role to 'affirm' a student's perceived personal sexual orientation." . . . Further, schools can create a "life of unnecessary pain and suffering" for a child when they reinforce a behavior chosen out of a child's "confusion." . . . "Even when motivated by noble intentions, schools can ironically play a detrimental role if they reinforce this disorder," said the letter, signed by Dr. Tom Benton, the organization's president. . . . The group also has created a website called Facts About Youth as a resource for school officials to obtain the facts from a "non-political, non-religious channel." . . . Officials with the College of Pediatricians told WND today that the effort is to counter information delivered to the same schools in 2008 in a brochure called "Just the Facts About Youth and Sexual Orientation" that was sponsored in part by the American Psychological Association. . . . The brochure, the College of Pediatricians said, "omits critical facts and makes recommendations that are refuted by decades of scientific research and extensive clinical experience."

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. Justices to Weigh Prejudicial Effect of Child Sexual Abuse Expert Testimony

Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

04-07-10 -- The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to settle a vexing issue in child sexual assault cases: whether expert testimony that minors seldom lie about such abuse is too prejudicial to admit into evidence. . . . In State v. W.B., 14-2-6303A, the defendant argues that the trial court erred by permitting the state's expert on Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome to offer testimony that "amounted to an expert opinion that [the] initial allegations against defendant were nearly certainly true," although later withdrawn. . . . Defendant W.B. was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated criminal sexual conduct and is serving a 10-year sentence. . . . The case, certified for review on March 18, invites the court to revisit its seminal ruling in State v. J.Q., 130 N.J. 554 (1993), which limited CSAAS testimony to explaining why "the victim's reactions as demonstrated by the evidence are not inconsistent with having been molested."

NEW YORK  

Court Denies Mother's Bid for Religious Exemption to Vaccinations

Vesselin Mitev, New York Law Journal

04-07-10 -- A woman who claimed she saw "God in everything" and feared immunizing her daughter because it would inject "disease" into her "perfect" and "divine" human form failed to establish religious grounds sufficient for an exemption from New York state's mandatory vaccination rules, a federal judge has ruled. . . . Martina Caviezel, a self-proclaimed pantheist, sought a preliminary injunction allowing her to enroll her 4-year-old daughter in a Great Neck, N.Y., pre-kindergarten without getting the shots the state says the child needs. Caviezel relied on Public Health Law §2164(9), which exempts children from the requirement whose parents or guardians "hold genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary" to vaccination. . . . On Monday, in Caviezel v. Great Neck Public Schools, 10-civ-052, Eastern District Judge Arthur D. Spatt denied the injunction, ruling that Caviezel had not established that she held "genuine and sincere religious beliefs which prohibit vaccinations."

PENNSYLVANIA  

State panel hears how corrupt judges affected youths

By Mario F. Cattabiani, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer 

04-02-10 -- Three days after Christmas 2004, a 13-year-old boy appeared before Luzerne County Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. on a charge of simple assault. He was accused of throwing a piece of meat at his mother's boyfriend. . . . The boy was all of 4 feet, 3 inches tall, and he weighed 82 pounds. . . . Ciavarella sent him to a juvenile detention center for 48 days. . . . "I really couldn't believe that being accused of something like throwing a steak was all that was needed to be put away," the thin, soft-spoken young man, now in his late teens, testified Thursday to the state panel examining the "kids-for-cash" scandal in Luzerne County's courts. "I was suddenly so lonely, I felt sick. No one was able to help me or stop this." . . . As a result of the experience, he said, his grades have plummeted and he suffers from depression. He stumbled over the syllables in Ciavarella's name.

March 2010

MASSACHUSETTS   

District attorney faces unique challenges in prosecuting teens

By Maria Cramer, Boston Globe Staff

03-31-10 -- The district attorney investigating the suicide of a South Hadley student took a bold and highly unusual stand on Monday when she announced that the actions of the nine classmates who allegedly bullied Phoebe Prince were so cruel they were criminal, legal specialists said. . . . But, they said, when Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel takes the case to court, she will face a unique challenge: With no statute criminalizing school bullying, she must rely on a series of laws rarely used in such cases — including those against stalking, civil rights violations, and statutory rape — and convince a jury that a series of those crimes led to Prince’s death. . . . “Are these the sorts of charges that would have been filed had there not been a death?’’ said Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a Harvard law professor. “Is the prosecutor using existing criminal laws in ways that have not been used before in order to vindicate what is, yes, a very horrible tragedy, but a tragedy that may not be recognized by the criminal law?’’ . . . Because of the barrage of charges, Scheibel may face an additional challenge before a jury of appearing a just prosecutor who is meeting her obligations to prosecute crimes, rather than a zealot using any means to avenge the death of a teenage girl, Sullivan and others said.

MONTANA  

$3,000 in Restitution Ordered in Child Porn Case

The Associated Press, Law.com

03-30-10 -- A 35-year-old Billings, Mont., man who was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison for receiving child pornography has been ordered to pay a girl who was depicted in three movies $3,000 in restitution. . . . U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull decided the amount Thursday after sentencing Keith Edward Baroun to 13 years and nine months in prison earlier in the week. . . . Baroun pleaded guilty to receiving child porn on his computer, and Cebull held him responsible for about 2,700 images, including 36 videos. Three of the videos were of a victim identified by the pseudonym "Vicky."

MARYLAND   

Child support payments could go up significantly

Proposed legislation rewrites guidelines for courts to use; covers wealthy for first time

By Julie Bykowicz | Baltimore Sun

03-22-10 -- Some child support payments in Maryland could soon go up - a change that state Human Resources Secretary Brenda Donald called "long overdue." . . . For the first time in two decades, lawmakers are poised to revise the guidelines that courts use to set child support when divorcing or unmarried parents cannot agree on an amount. Those guidelines are based on household expense data from the 1970s, and although they accommodate rising incomes, advocates say they don't account for the escalating costs of raising a child. . . . Human Resources officials estimate there are about 500,000 child support orders in Maryland - a mix of private agreements and court cases. . . . "We think the changes are reasonable and fair and about time," said Donald, who led a work group over the past year to revise the guidelines. Her agency administers about half the state's child support cases.

NEW YORK  

Children's 'Exhausting' Schedule Leads to Loss of Father's Custody Rights

Vesselin Mitev, New York Law Journal

03-17-10 -- The father of two Long Island junior tennis prospects has been stripped of custody by a New York state judge who found their rigorous training schedule to be "overly burdensome, exhausting and completely unacceptable." . . . The Cavallero brothers -- Giancarlo, 10, and Jordy, 5 -- were required to leave school early to spend six hours a day at tennis practice and play tournaments on the weekends. Giancarlo, with five junior tournament wins before turning 10, was likened to a young Andre Agassi in a 2007 Daily News article. ******** The case is Cavallaro v. Pena (pdf), V-00390-09.

Putting Private Info on Government Database

by Phyllis Schlafly, Townhall.com 

03-09-10 -- Far more personal information on students than is necessary is being collected by public schools, according to the Fordham Law School Center on Law and Information Policy, which investigated education records in all 50 states. States are failing to safeguard students' privacy and protect them from data misuse. . . . Some states collect a lot of data that has nothing to do with student test scores, including Social Security numbers, disciplinary records, family wealth indicators, student pregnancies, student mental health, illness and jail sentences. A couple of states record the date of a student's last medical exam and a student's weight. . . . The Fordham study reported that this collection of information is often not compliant with a 35-year-old law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The only punishment for a FERPA violation is for the Department of Education to withhold federal education funding, but the department has never done that. . . . The building of databases that track students from pre-school through entry into the workforce began with the emphasis in the 1990s on testing and standards, and was expanded under "No Child Left Behind" mandates. This data collection has been proceeding at what observers call a "breakneck pace" under the Obama administration because of the offer of federal grants awarded through the Race to the Top competition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $250 million in stimulus funds.

February 2010

CALIFORNIA  

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Woman Forced to Share Daughter with Lesbian Ex-Partner

By Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com 

02-25-10 -- US Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Texas mother challenging her former lesbian partner’s claim to be the second parent of her daughter, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.  . . . Kristina S. had conceived her now six-year-old daughter Amalia through artificial insemination during her domestic partnership with lesbian Charisma R. However, Kristina left the partnership three months after her daughter’s birth. . . . The former partner initiated a legal challenge to gain visitation rights, but her case was not considered by state judges until the California Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that homosexual partners involved in the process of conceiving and raising their partner’s child had legal rights as “co-parents.” . . . Charisma had not seen the little girl for five years when an Alameda County judge in California ordered that visits commence based on the state high court’s ruling. . . . Since the US Supreme Court refused to review the case, the decision of California’s First District Court of Appeal will stand that Christina is the legal “co-parent” and has visitation rights.

PENNSYLVANIA  

School District Accused of Spying on Students via Home Webcams

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

02-19-10 -- It may sound like a Hollywood pitch for a summer movie aimed at teens, but it's taken directly from the pages of a federal lawsuit filed in Philadelphia that spins a tale of high school teachers secretly installing cameras in hundreds of students' homes to spy on them. . . . The class action suit, Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, alleges that 1,800 students were provided with laptop computers equipped with webcams which -- unbeknown to the students or their parents -- could be activated at any time by teachers and school administrators to spy on the students and their families in their homes. . . . Attorney Mark Haltzman with Lamm Rubenstone of Trevose, Pa., filed the suit alleging claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act, as well as violations of the Fourth Amendment, federal civil rights laws and Pennsylvania's wiretap statute. Haltzman could not be reached immediately for a comment on the case.

MASSACHUSETTS   

SJC says lewd IMs to minors not illegal

Patrick, legislators aim to close loophole

By Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement, Boston Globe Staff

02-08-10 -- A Beverly man who sent a series of sexually explicit instant messages to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl had his convictions overturned yesterday by the state’s highest court, which declared that state law does not bar people from sending lewd computer messages to minors. . . . Although state law bans the dissemination of “any matter harmful to minors’’ - including photographs, magazines, movies, and “handwritten or printed material’’ - it does not mention instant messaging or other text sent online. . . . “The online conversations in this case, as they were not written with pen or pencil, cannot be considered `handwritten’ materials,’’ Justice Francis X. Spina wrote on behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court, in a ruling that illustrates how evolving technology outpaces changes in legal language. . . . “If the Legislature wishes to include instant messaging or other electronically transmitted text in the definition,’’ the court added in the unanimous decision, “it is for the Legislature, not the court, to do so.’’

Child Pornography, and an Issue of Restitution

By John Schwartz, New York Times

02-02-10 -- When Amy was a little girl, her uncle made her famous in the worst way: as a star in the netherworld of child pornography. Photographs and videos known as “the Misty series” depicting her abuse have circulated on the Internet for more than 10 years, and often turn up in the collections of those arrested for possession of illegal images. . . . Now, with the help of an inventive lawyer, the young woman known as Amy — her real name has been withheld in court to prevent harassment — is fighting back. . . . She is demanding that everyone convicted of possessing even a single Misty image pay her damages until her total claim of $3.4 million has been met. . . . Some experts argue that forcing payment from people who do not produce such images but only possess them goes too far. . . . In February, when the first judge arranged payment to Amy in a case in Connecticut, Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, called the decision “highly questionable” on his blog and said it “stretches personal accountability to the breaking point.” . . . The judge in the case acknowledged, “We’re dealing with a frontier here.”

PENNSYLVANIA  

'Original victims' cheated in Luzerne scandal?

By Amy Worden, Philadelphia Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

02-02-10 -- The state's victim advocate yesterday urged a special panel not to forget the thousands of "original victims" allegedly harmed by juveniles whose cases were heard by judges at the center of the Luzerne County criminal-justice scandal. . . . Carol L. Lavery, who heads Pennsylvania's Office of the Victim Advocate, says she has received letters from numerous victims - and parents of victims - of juvenile offenders whose cases were vacated as a result of the "cash for kids" corruption investigation. . . . Former Luzerne County Court Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan are accused of collecting $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending thousands of children to detention at private facilities. . . . The two pleaded guilty last year to fraud charges, but a federal judge threw out their plea agreements, saying the men had not accepted responsibility. They are awaiting trial.

January 2010

OHIO

Mom Makes Federal Case Out of Latest Student Hairstyle Rights Fight

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

01-28-10 -- Headlines about school district battles over student hairstyles are now focusing on Ohio, where a mother of an 11-year-old boy says he was publicly humiliated by a teacher and a classroom aide and has filed a federal lawsuit over their alleged "gender-based harassment" of the boy. . . . When the unidentified boy was younger, some children teased him about his professionally styled, apparently shoulder-length hair. At that point, his mother, Amanda Anoai, says she told her son to toughen up or cut his hair, reports the Associated Press. . . . But when her son told her that the teacher and the aide had made him stand at the front of his sixth-grade classroom, put his hair in ponytails, and then introduced him to students there as new female student—before the aide walked him to other classrooms and performed similar introductions there—this was "a totally different story," Anoai says.

NEW YORK  

Don't chain kids to court unless it is needed, judge rules

By Jose Martinez , Daily News Staff Writer  

01-27-10 -- A judge on Tuesday slapped the agency in charge of the state's juvenile prison system for shackling kids being taken to court appearances in the city. . . . Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling ruled the Office of Children and Family Services violated a policy that says shackles should be used only in extreme cases in which the child is found to be uncontrollable and a danger to himself or others.

FLORIDA

Young Lawyers bring Santa back for an encore

by Joe Wilhelm Jr., Jacksonville Daily Record  Staff Writer

01-25-10 -- Outside was gray and dim due to a morning rain storm, but inside the office of Family Support Services of Northeast Florida the smiles of foster kids were wide and bright. . . . The Young Lawyers Section of the Jacksonville Bar Association and Northeast Florida Paralegal Association volunteers co-hosted the event Jan. 16 to provide a “Holiday in January” for foster kids who may not have received presents without the party. . . . “It is geared toward children who were relocated during the holiday season due to an unsafe, neglectful or even abusive homes,” said Fraz Ahmed, chair of the project. “The purpose is to give these children a holiday they did not otherwise get to enjoy.” . . . The event served 25 children from the Jacksonville area, providing 20 bikes and toys for kids.

FEDERAL COURTS

3rd Circuit Panel Mulls if Teen 'Sexting' Is Child Pornography

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

01-19-10 -- As the nation's first case involving criminal prosecutions of teenagers for "sexting" made its way to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, all three judges seemed skeptical of the prosecutor's claim that child pornography laws are violated when a teen transmits a nude image of herself. . . . The three 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges also appeared poised to declare that former Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. violated the First Amendment rights of three girls with his threat of a criminal prosecution if they refused to take a class he had designed to educate youths about the dangers of sexting. . . . "I don't know of anything that says a district attorney's office is allowed to, in effect, play the role of teacher," Judge Thomas L. Ambro said.

NEW JERSEY

Federal monitors give largely positive marks for N.J. child welfare

By Statehouse Bureau Staff, The Star-Ledger - NJ.com 

01-07-10 -- Children in New Jersey's child welfare system are safer and many are kept with their brothers and sisters when they enter foster care, according to a federal report issued today. . . . But too many children under state supervision remain in the system for too long without a plan for their futures and are kept from their parents once separated. . . . In the first look at whether the more than $1 billion overhaul of the state system is actually helping the 48,000 kids it oversees, a federal monitor said New Jersey "exceeded expectations" in several areas directly connected to children's well-being and continued to strengthen the structure of the once-broken system. . . . Federal Monitor Judith Meltzer added, however, that much work remains and said Gov.-elect Chris Christie and lawmakers must maintain the financial investment made over the last four years in order to continue improving children's lives.

RHODE ISLAND  

Federal appeals court judges question dismissal of R.I. child advocate’s lawsuit

By Katie Mulvaney, Providence Journal Staff Writer

01-06-10 -- A federal appeals court panel that includes retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter appeared perplexed Tuesday by the dismissal of a lawsuit that accuses the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families of widespread abuse and neglect of children in state foster care. . . . Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston and the New York-based advocacy group Children’s Rights asked the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux’s dismissal of the lawsuit alleging the system was underfunded, understaffed and mismanaged, and that children were being molested, beaten and shuffled from home to home while in state foster care. They argued that Lagueux had used a law intended to guarantee children access to the federal courts instead to bar them from seeking justice. . . . The DCYF countered that Lagueux was correct in finding that the children’s interests were already being served in state Family Court, where guardians had been appointed to handle each child’s case.

Federal judge asks prosecutors to put a price on child porn

A federal judge pushes prosecutors to demand restitution from those caught with explicit photos.

By James Walsh, Minneapolis Star Tribune

01-05-10 -- She goes by the name of "Amy," and the photos her uncle took of her a decade ago -- when she was 8 or 9 years old -- are among the most widely circulated series of child pornography images in the United States. . . . Now her fight for damages from those who possess or distribute those photos is emerging as a big issue in federal courtrooms across the country. Including here. . . . The question is: How much can one offender possessing any of the millions of images circulating on the Internet be expected to pay to any of the thousands of victims worldwide? Amy is seeking a total of more than $3.3 million. . . . On Monday, Judge Patrick Schiltz in U.S. District Court in St. Paul issued an order demanding to know why restitution was not even requested by the U.S. attorney's office in the case of a Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

NEW YORK

Juvenile Injustice

New York Times Editorial

01-05-10 -- Gladys Carrión, New York’s reform-minded commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services, has been calling on the state to close many of its remote, prison-style juvenile facilities and shift resources and children to therapeutic programs located in their communities. Her efforts have met fierce and predictably self-interested resistance from the unions representing workers in juvenile prisons and their allies in Albany. . . . A recent series of damning reports have underscored the flaws in New York’s juvenile justice system and the urgent need to shut down these facilities. The governor and the State Legislature need to pay attention. . . . A report by a task force appointed by Gov. David Paterson describes a failing system that damages young people, fails to curb recidivism and eats up millions of tax dollars. Children should be confined only when they present a clear threat to public safety. But the most recent statistics show that 53 percent of the youths admitted to New York’s institutional facilities were placed there for minor nonviolent infractions. . . . The report also says that judges often send children to these facilities because local communities are unable to help them with mental problems or family issues. But once they are locked up, these young people rarely get the psychiatric care or special education they need because the institutions lack trained staff. . . . A report from the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the state, documents the use of excessive and injury-causing force against children in juvenile facilities, often for minor offenses such as laughing too loudly or refusing to get dressed. And last week, the Legal Aid Society of New York City filed a class-action suit on behalf of youths in confinement, arguing that conditions in the system violate their constitutional rights.

CALIFORNIA  

Major Legal Changes Ahead for California Minors

Cheryl Miller, The Recorder

01-04-10 -- They haven't grabbed any headlines, and they're not particularly easy to explain. . . . But a new set of court rules that go into effect in the New Year offer some of the most significant changes in the field of minors' personal injury claims in years, lawyers on both sides of the issue say. . . . The rules, the product of two years of negotiation among the plaintiffs bar, defense counsel and judges, address the complex and confusing area of law known as minor's compromise. . . . Broadly stated, the phrase refers to the practice of a court approving any settlement of a child's personal injury claim or the claims of certain disabled adults. California Family and Probate codes also give courts authority to approve or actually set the amount of contingency fees paid to the child's attorney.

What The Divorce Revolution Has Meant For Kids

by Sasha Aslanian

01-03-10 -- The 1970s saw changes great and small in American society. More women began to move into the workforce and began to define themselves as more than wives, mothers or girlfriends. . . . While men grew their hair and wore flowered shirts, children were listening to Marlo Thomas singing "Free to Be... You and Me." . . . Gender roles were changing. It was OK for Mom to be a doctor and Dad to be a nurse. It was also increasingly OK to leave behind the confines of marriage. The divorce rate, which had begun to climb in the 1960s, soared in the 1970s, as states began to adopt no-fault divorce laws. . . . But what did the 1970s divorce boom mean for the kids? . . . Producer Sasha Aslanian spent five years working on a documentary about the children of divorce. Here's some of what she found:

Kramer vs. Kramer was the quintessential divorce movie of the 1970s. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1979. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep starred as the estranged couple, locked in a custody battle over their young son.

But the child they were fighting over doesn't have much of a voice in the movie. It's more a drama about his parents.

Avery Corman wrote the novel the movie was based on.

"I know when I saw a screening of it in a movie house for the first time, when I got up, there were kids all around kind of slumped all in their seats," Corman says. "And I knew exactly who they were."

December 2009

MICHIGAN  

Law firm offers free legal services to families of Ferndale students

Help aimed at those who can't afford it

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, Free Press Education Writer

12-29-09 -- Families of more than half the students at Ferndale High School fall below the federal poverty rate, so if they ever are in a legal bind, they likely wouldn't be able to afford an attorney. . . . That's one reason a law firm chose Ferndale schools for a new pro bono project. . . . Lawyers from Dykema, a national law firm with local offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor, began offering a free legal clinic in September and plan to do so once a month, indefinitely. . . . The firm specifically wanted to offer its services free to a community where a large proportion of the people were unlikely to be able to afford a lawyer, said Heidi Naasko, Dykema pro-bono counsel. . . . Right now, any Ferndale Public Schools parent, guardian or student qualifies for free legal advice. And several families have taken advantage of the offer.

NEW JERSEY  

Middlesex County aims to put juvenile offenders on right track, not behind bars

By Gene Racz • New Brunswick Home News Tribune Staff Writer

12-29-09 -- Juveniles who break the law in Middlesex County but pose no real public safety or flight risk may soon be spending more time in a new support program than at a youth detention center. . . . Middlesex County has applied to participate in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. The primary goal of the program is making sure that secure detention is used only for serious and chronic youthful offenders. . . . Launched in 1992 by the private charitable organization Annie Casey Foundation, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is in place in 10 of the state's 17 counties operating juvenile detention centers: Atlantic, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Monmouth, Bergen, Burlington, Mercer, Ocean and Union. . . . The application is under review by the state's Juvenile Justice Commission.

DELAWARE

Delaware Pediatrician Is Accused of Raping Patients

By Ian Urbina, New York Times

12-23-09 -- For more than a decade, Dr. Earl B. Bradley was a trusted fixture of the small coastal town of Lewes, Del., seeing thousands of children at a private practice he called BayBees Pediatrics. . . . On Wednesday, an official from the state attorney general’s office said that Dr. Bradley might have raped or molested as many as 100 children over the last 11 years, and the police scrambled to identify victims seen on videos that they say the doctor made of the assaults. They also began contacting law enforcement agencies in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where they believe the doctor may have also seen patients. . . . Last week, Dr. Bradley, 56, was charged with molesting or raping at least seven patients, including some infants. A court hearing in the case was canceled Wednesday because Dr. Bradley had been placed on suicide watch. . . . “We are acting as quickly as possible,” the attorney general, Joseph R. Biden III, said Wednesday at a news conference.

Cut the Power of the Family Courts

by Phyllis Schlafly

12-22-09 -- Do you think judges should have the power to decide what religion your children must belong to and which churches they may be prohibited from attending? We have long suspected that family courts are the most dictatorial and biased of all U.S. courts, routinely depriving divorced fathers of due process rights and authority over their own children, but this December a Chicago judge went beyond the pale. . . . Cook County Circuit Judge Edward Jordan issued a restraining order to prohibit Joseph Reyes from taking his 3-year-old daughter to any non-Jewish religious activities because the ex-wife argued that would contribute to "the emotional detriment of the child." Mrs. Rebecca Reyes wants to raise her daughter in the Jewish religion, and the judge sided with the mother. . . . As Joseph Reyes' divorce attorney, Joel Brodsky, said when he saw the judge's restraining order: "I almost fell off my chair. I thought maybe we were in Afghanistan and this was the Taliban." The lawyer is appealing. . . .  Doesn't the First Amendment extend to fathers? Apparently not, if they are divorced. This case sounds extreme, but it is a good illustration of how family courts, the lowest in the judicial hierarchy, have become the most dictatorial of all courts because of the tremendous number of families and amounts of private money they control and the lack of accountability for their decisions. . . . In another divorce case this year, a family court in New Hampshire (where the state motto is "Live Free or Die") ordered 10-year-old Amanda Kurowski to quit being homeschooled by her mother and instead to attend fifth grade in the local public school. Judge Lucinda V. Sadler approved the court-appointed expert's view that Amanda "appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith" and that Amanda "would be best served by exposure to multiple points of view."

FLORIDA  

Fla. Supreme Court Bans Shackles for Juveniles in Courtroom

Jordana Mishory, Daily Business Review, Law.com

12-21-09 -- The Florida Supreme Court has banned the widespread practice of shackling juvenile defendants in courtrooms, calling it "repugnant, degrading, humiliating and contrary to the state's primary purposes of the juvenile justice system." . . . In an unsigned 6-1 opinion, the court amended the rules of judicial procedure to state a juvenile defendant cannot be placed in handcuffs, chains, irons or straitjackets unless the court finds it necessary in specific instances. . . . In courtrooms around the state, children were being shackled by the wrists and ankles with belly chains, chained to furniture or chained to each other, the justices noted. The court suggested shackling may violate the children's due process rights.

NEW YORK

Monroe County judge rules that DHS must pay foster care money for kinship care

Daniel Weaver, Albany CPS and Family Court Examiner

12-18-09 -- In a decision of November 25, 2009 but just released three days ago, Monroe County Family Court Judge, Patricia E. Gallagher, ruled that the Monroe County Department of Human Services must pay foster care money to Loretta K., the friend of the family of a neglected child, who took the child in. According to the ruling, the Department of Human Services must treat Ms. K. in a equal manner to the way it treats a foster mother who is a stranger to the child. . . . New York State's definition of kinship care not only includes people related by blood who care for a neglected or foster child, but also includes people who have a significant or close relationship with the child, even if they are not related by blood. . . . While foster care support is automatically provided to strangers who foster children, it is not automatically provided if for kinship care. A relative has to request foster care money.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Man accused of raping 2d child while free on bail

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Boston Globe Staff

12-14-09 -- A man accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl in Kingston this weekend had been charged this summer with raping another child. But Joseph Gardner, 26, had been released on $10,000 cash bail and was free when he allegedly attacked the second victim on Friday, according to police and court records. . . . Prosecutors had asked that Gardner be held on bail of $150,000 to $200,000 after his arrest on Aug. 22 on charges of daytime breaking and entering and the rape of a 5-year-old girl, according to Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for the Plymouth District Attorney's office. . . . But Judge Joseph M. Walker III ordered bail set at $10,000, which Gardner posted on Oct. 8, court records show. On Friday night, Gardner is accused of raping a 3-year-old child with force and intimidating a witness.

NEW YORK  

Paterson Admin. to Judges: Stop Sending Kids to State Facilities

NBCNewYork.com obtains advance copy of state report

By Melissa Russo, NBC New York 

12-14-09 -- After repeated fits of rage at home a 16-year-old is about to head upstate to what's been described as one of the most brutal juvenile detention facilities in New York. . . . "I am a single mom. My son's father is deceased so it's been hard for me. I depend on the state to help me out and I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere," his mother told NBCNewYork.com. . . . She says her attempts to get her son counseling close to home failed. . . . "My son is an adolescent he's going through puberty he's overall a good kid. He might be a little misguided at this moment. I don't feel like sending him to a secure locked facility is the type of situation that that's gonna be helpful to any child." . . . What's remarkable is that the officials running the state juvenile detention system agree children should not be sent there because the system is failing and children are regularly subjected to excessive physical force.

Lesbian awarded custody of Christian's only child

Decision sets up showdown over claim from ex-partner

Posted: December 05, 2009

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

12-5-09 -- A Vermont court ordered a Christian child taken away from her mother and given to a lesbian ex-partner, setting up, according to a lawyer for the Christian family, a dispute that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will have to resolve. . . . Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, told WND the recent order from the Vermont judge that Lisa Miller turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to the lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day is being appealed. . . . In the interim, a separate court hearing on the dispute is scheduled to be heard in a Virginia court during this coming week. . . . "We're arguing that the state of Virginia cannot enforce an out of state, Vermont, civil union because it's contrary to Virginia law," Staver said. . . . Ultimately, he said, the issue probably will have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, because the case is being moved along parallel tracks in both Vermont, where Jenkins lives, and Virginia, where the Millers live.

MAINE   

Task force outlines plan for transforming juvenile justice

By Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News Staff

12-4-09 -- Increasing the state’s high school graduation rate will decrease the number of Maine’s children in the criminal justice system, and offering more alternatives to incarceration will give juveniles in that system a better chance of staying out of prison and succeeding as adults, Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley said Thursday. . . . “Maine cannot afford to lose one more of its young people to prison and jails, to homelessness, to hopelessness,” Saufley said at a press conference in her office in Portland. “Maine’s response to juveniles in our communities is in urgent need of improvement.” . . . Saufley, along with Peter Pitegoff, dean of the University of Maine School of Law in Portland, announced the recommendations of a 70-member task force that has spent the past eight months strategizing on improving the options for at-risk youth. The results will be discussed in detail today at a forum called “Maine Rising: An Innovative Approach to Transforming Juvenile Justice” at the Augusta Civic Center.

MINNESOTA   

Judge: State can take, keep newborns' data

'Blood samples are biological, not genetic, information'

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

12-4-09 -- A judge in Minnesota has ruled the state can routinely collect, analyze, store and retrieve biological samples that include DNA from all newborns even though a state law specifically requires prior written authorization. . . . The decision from Hennepin County District Judge Marilyn Rosenbaum dismissed a case brought by members of nine families who alleged the state was going beyond what it was authorized to do. . . . Although not part of the lawsuit, Twila Brase, president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care, has been monitoring the dispute since its beginning, battling the state Department of Health, which reportedly has been taking and warehousing newborns' genetic makeup for years but not following "written consent requirements." . . . The group has cited a number of cases in which the state's genetic privacy act law apparently was ignored, or there was an attempt to ignore it.

November 2009

ILLINOIS  

Babysitter's Custody Win May Be Short-Lived

Tresa Baldas, The National Law Journal

11-30-09 -- Family law attorneys call it a first: a babysitter winning custody of a child. Now the mother's lawyer has won a rehearing -- just in time for the holidays. . . . In an emergency hearing in a Chicago courtroom on Nov. 24, the same judge who last month gave a babysitter custody of a two-year-old boy vacated the guardianship order at the request of the child's parents. The toddler will stay with the babysitter pending a Jan. 20 status hearing, although he will spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with his parents and grandmother, who will also get weekly visits. . . . "I've been practicing law for 30 years, and I've never seen anything like this," said Jeffrey Leving of the Law Offices of Jeffrey M. Leving in Chicago, who represents the mother.

ALASKA  

New fight develops over rights of fetuses

Abortion Issue: Lawsuit filed to keep initiative off the ballot.

By Sean Cockerham, The Anchorage Daily News

11-28-09 -- A ballot initiative that sponsors hope will outlaw abortion in Alaska by declaring fetuses to be "legal persons" appears headed for a court fight. . . . It's questionable whether the initiative could actually lead to abortion being illegal -- the state attorney general issued an opinion that it wouldn't. But opponents argue the measure is so broad it could have huge consequences regardless of whether it halts any abortions, ranging from women potentially sued following miscarriages to a legal argument that fetuses should be receiving Permanent Fund dividend checks. . . . "It is just insane," said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the Alaska Civil Liberties Union.

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Hearing for homeschooler forced into gov't system

Judge: 'Lost opportunity' if child's Christian views not challenged in public setting

By Chelsea Schilling, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

11-24-09 -- The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a 10-year-old homeschool girl who has been ordered into a government-run school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith. . . . As WND reported, a girl identified in court documents as "Amanda" had been described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level." . . . Nevertheless, a New Hampshire court official determined that she would be better off in public school rather than continuing her homeschool education. . . . The August decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that Amanda's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." . . . The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court. . . . The ADF filed motions with the court on Aug. 24 seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H. On Sept. 17, a lower-court judge refused to reconsider or stay the order. . . . The denial of the motions, signed by Judge Sadler of the Family Division of the Judicial Court for Belknap County in Laconia, states, "Amanda is at an age when it can be expected that she would benefit from the social interaction and problem solving she will find in public school, and granting a stay would result in a lost opportunity for her."

PENNSYLVANIA  

Ex-Pa. Judges in 'Kids for Cash' Scandal Win Partial Civil Immunity

Leo Strupczewski, The Legal Intelligencer

11-23-09 -- Two former Luzerne County, Pa., judges who are facing federal criminal charges have been granted partial immunity in a civil suit brought by a class of juveniles who claim their rights were violated in the wake of the Luzerne County judicial scandal. . . . Writing that judicial immunity does not operate on a "sliding scale," U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo has ruled, in Wallace, et al. v. Powell, et al., that Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. are protected by immunity from facing legal action for their courtroom acts. . . . "The degree of corrupt behavior is not the touchstone of the immunity doctrine's application," Caputo wrote. "The doctrine holds that judges with bad intentions, as well as those with good intentions, are immune from suit." The ruling is a blow to the juveniles.

FLORIDA  

Gov. Charlie Crist orders probe of juvenile justice chief

Florida launched an investigation into the extensive taxpayer-funded travel of the state's juvenile justice chief, Frank Peterman.

By Steve Bousquet and Lee Logan, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

11-20-09 --  Gov. Charlie Crist ordered an internal investigation and a citizen lodged an ethics complaint Wednesday over the extensive taxpayer-funded travel of Juvenile Justice Secretary Frank Peterman between the state capital and Tampa, near his family home. . . . Crist ordered his inspector general, Melinda Miguel, to review Peterman's travel after seeing a Times/Herald report that Peterman has spent $44,000 in tax dollars on travel in less than two years. Miguel's mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse in state government, Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said.

America's dead children and Child Protective Services

Lisa Nixon, Surry County CPS Examiner

11-11-09 -- The list is long and heartbreaking, the children on it have been beaten, broken, drowned, burned, strangled, starved or neglected, and all of them are dead.   Headlines have drawn attention to the cases of some of them, Danieal Kelly, Erin Maxwell, Kayla Allen, and Christopher Thomas,  but there are many more, Phoenix Jordan Cody-Parrish, Brandon Williams, Elizabeth Goodwin, Logan Marr and Alexis (Lexie)Agyepong-Grover, just to name a few. . . . . The children on this list died in very different settings; some died in their own homes, some in foster care, while others were killed by their adoptive parents.  Yet, all of these dead, abused, children had one thing in common, Child Protective Services. . . . . Statistics / Bill Bowen in his short documentary film, Innocents Destroyed, states that, "Over 1,000 children die of neglect or are tortured and murdered each year, in the care of an entity where children are up to 600% more likely to die a horrific death, CPS." . . . .  According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, "The National Child abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,760 child fatalities in 2007."  All of these deaths are attributed to child abuse or neglect. 

VIRGINIA  

State Supreme Court censures Va. Beach judge

By Kathy Adams, The Virginian-Pilot 

11-6-09 -- The state Supreme Court reprimanded a Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge Thursday for violating ethical conduct standards in a 2007 case. . . . The court censured Judge Ramona D. Taylor after finding that she intentionally blocked a 15-year-old boy from appealing her decision to detain him. Her actions constituted "conduct prejudicial to the proper administration of justice," Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. wrote in the 53-page opinion. . . . Taylor declined to comment, but her attorney, Kevin Martingayle, said they plan to petition for a re hearing within 30 days. If that doesn't go in Taylor's favor, she can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . "We're obviously disappointed with the majority decision," Martin-gayle said. "We believe that it contains some mistakes of law and fact."

MASSACHUSETTS   

SJC rebukes state agency and judge for emergency removal of newborn

By John R. Ellement, Boston Globe Staff

11-4-09 -- In a sharply worded rebuke, the state’s high court today said that a judge and the Department of Children and Families moved too fast to remove a newborn from a Western Massachusetts mother – who had already lost custody of two older children because they were not being properly cared for. . . . In a unanimous ruling written by Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, the Supreme Judicial Court said that judges handling emergency custody cases must wipe from their minds any information gleaned from other cases involving the same mother or family. The girl was identified only as Zita. . . . “It may be impossible to erase a judge's memory of the prior case,’’ Marshall wrote. “But each party is entitled to an impartial magistrate and a decision based on the evidence presented in her case… Zita's removal by the Commonwealth from her custodial parent implicates constitutional rights of the highest order.’’

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October 2009

Most States Fail to Adequately Protect the Legal Rights of Abused Children, New Study Finds

Second Edition State-By-State Report Card Shows Improving Grades in Some States; Most Leave Children's Voices Muted in Legal Proceedings That Decide Their Fate

PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ --

Stronger State/Federal Laws Needed

10-15-09 -- Most U.S. states do not adequately protect the rights of abused and neglected children, leaving our most vulnerable citizens exposed to the vagaries of the juvenile court system without adequate legal representation, according to a state-by-state study conducted by two national child advocacy organizations. . . . The peer-reviewed study -- A Child's Right to Counsel: A National Report Card on Legal Representation for Abused and Neglected Children -- was released today on Capitol Hill by First Star and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law (CAI). To view the full report, visit www.firststar.org, or www.caichildlaw.org. . . . "The federal government reported that nearly 800,000 children were abused or neglected in 2007," said Amy Harfeld, Executive Director of First Star. "In the current economic recession, these children are suffering more than ever - reports of child abuse have skyrocketed while resources to help them have been placed in jeopardy. Most of these children will go through court proceedings that will determine their lives and futures. Yet while the state and the allegedly abusive or neglectful parent stand in court with attorneys by their sides, the children often stand alone and silent. They are herded through the system without a strong voice to advocate on their behalf. This is a troubling double-standard."

CAI and First Star Release (Oct. 15, 2009)
2nd Edition of Child's Right to Counsel National Report Card

FLORIDA  

Runaway Teen Must Return To Ohio

By Stephanie Coueignoux, Central Florida News 13

10-14-09 -- The case of Ohio runaway Rifqa Bary returned to court Tuesday.  A judge has ruled that the teen needs to return to her home state. . . . Rifqa Bary said she ran from her parents out of fear they would kill her because she converted from Islam to Christianity. . . . It's a claim her parents and their lawyer have repeatedly denied. . . . Rifqa is currently in the custody of the Department Of Children and Families. . . . Rifqa Bary will stay in Florida for at least another week and a half.  That's because the judge says he needs to have a couple of documents in his hands before he will let Bary go back to Ohio. . . . The main document deals with the family's immigration records and the question of whether the family is here in the United States legally. 

NEW YORK  

Juvenile justice expert says judge children as children

By James T. Mulder / The Post-Standard

10-6-09 -- Treating children as adults in the court system is a bad policy that is ruining youngsters’ lives and exacting a heavy economic toll on society, according to juvenile justice expert Michael A. Corriero. . . . Corriero, who served as a state Supreme Court judge for 28 years and now runs Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, was in Syracuse today to speak at the Salvation Army’s annual civic celebration luncheon in the Oncenter. More than 500 people attended the event. . . . “You can’t try kids as adults because they are not,” Corriero said in an interview before the luncheon. “Locking kids up, which may appear to be expedient, is not the answer.” . . . Corriero is a harsh critic of Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, which allows children as young as 13 to be tried in adult court for crimes such as murder and receive the same penalties as adults.

MISSOURI  

Missouri ‘Judge’ Lets Admitted Child Molester off with Probation

By Bob Ellis, Dakota Voice 

Judge John M. Torrence

10-1-09 -- From Fox News comes a story on another worthless judge.  Granted, not all judges are this kind of despicable scum, but far too many are, and they are the reason the word “justice” is becoming a mockery of the actual concept in America. . . . Jarred Elwood in Missouri plead guilty to molesting a girl for 8 years beginning when she was only 6 years old. Elwood plead guilty to charges of first-degree statutory sodomy, child molestation, and enticement of a child. . . . “Judge” John Torrence (I put quotes around the word “judge” because the title deserves more respect than this man’s name can bring to it) let the molester off with probation only. . . . Notice in the attempted interview below, this creep won’t even bother to try and explain his reprehensible actions. . . . This is the kind of trash we have passing itself of as a “judge” in this country these days.

September 2009

ARKANSAS

If you have been unfairly treated by Arkansas Judge Joe Griffin, CPS Watch needs your story

Daniel Weaver Albany CPS and Family Court Examiner

9-25-09 -- If you have been or are being treated unfairly by Judge Joe Griffin of Miller County Circuit Court, Juvenile Division in Texarkana, Arkansas, CPS Legal Watch would like to hear from you. . . . CPS Legal Watch is currently involved in defending the parents of children taken by the state simply because they had an association with Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, not because they have committed any crimes. . . . You can contact CPS Legal Watch at (772)341-4068 or (417) 294-9955. You can also email them at tcpr@gate.net or cheryltbarnes@yahoo.com.

ARIZONA

Bath Time Photos Prompt Child Porn Allegations

Arizona Couple Suing Wal-Mart for Calling Cops Over Bath Time Photos

By Dan Przygoda, Sarah Netter & Lee Ferran, ABC News

9-21-09 -- For A.J. and Lisa Demaree, the photos they snapped of their young daughters were innocent and sweet. . . . But after a photo developer at Wal-Mart thought otherwise, the Demarees found themselves in a yearlong battle to prove they were not child pornographers. . . . "I don't' understand it at all," A.J. Demaree told "Good Morning America" Monday. "Ninety-nine percent of the families in America have these exact same photos." . . . The eight photos in question were among a batch of 144 family photos the Demarees had taken to their local Wal-Mart. The developer alerted the police and the investigation into child pornography began in earnest, even though the parents maintained they were innocent bath time photos. . . . The Peoria, Ariz., couple had their home searched by police and worse, their children -- then ages 18 months, 4 and 5 -- were taken away from them for more than month. Their names were placed on a sex offender registry for a time and Lisa Demaree was suspended from her school job for a year. The couple said they have spent $75,000 on legal bills.

Chinese babies stolen by officials for foreign adoption

In some rural areas, instead of levying fines for violations of China's child policies, greedy officials took babies, which would each fetch $3,000 in adoption fees.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

9-20-09 -- Reporting from Tianxi, China - The man from family planning liked to prowl around the mountaintop village, looking for diapers on clotheslines and listening for the cry of a hungry newborn. One day in the spring of 2004, he presented himself at Yang Shuiying's doorstep and commanded: "Bring out the baby." . . . Yang wept and argued, but, alone with her 4-month-old daughter, she was in no position to resist the man every parent in Tianxi feared. . . . "I'm going to sell the baby for foreign adoption. I can get a lot of money for her," he told the sobbing mother as he drove her with the baby to an orphanage in Zhenyuan, a nearby city in the southern province of Guizhou. In return, he promised that the family wouldn't have to pay fines for violating China's one-child policy. . . . Then he warned her: "Don't tell anyone about it." . . . For five years, she kept the terrible secret. "I didn't understand that they didn't have the right to take our babies," she said. . . . Since the early 1990s, more than 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted abroad, the majority to the United States. . . . The conventional wisdom is that the babies, mostly girls, were abandoned by their parents because of the traditional preference for boys and China's restrictions on family size. No doubt, that was the case for tens of thousands of the girls.

OREGON

The child welfare system: What we need isn't another study

by Timothy Travis, guest opinion

9-11-09 -- The state's proposed outside review of Oregon's foster care system will not be helpful. Reviews, including mandatory federal reviews, have been done. They all told us that we have the same problems every other state has. There is nothing new here to know. . . . The first step to improving foster care outcomes is the realization that the "child welfare system" is much larger than the state child welfare agency -- the Department of Human Services. . . . The department does not and cannot control all the agencies and entities whose mission is to address and ameliorate child abuse and neglect, or those entities that do not directly identify as part of the child welfare system but whose actions -- or inactions -- contribute as much to forging outcomes as the efforts of those who do. . . . This is why, when there is some spectacular failure of the child welfare system, it's not fair that the bright light of TV news should shine on only one part of that system: the Department of Human Services. The agency takes the blame for the inadequacies of the system as a whole. No measures the department can take, on its own, will bring about satisfactory improvement of outcomes.

TEXAS  

Insult lands man in jail

Judge's sentencing in out-of-court incident is questioned.

By Chuck Lindell, American-Statesman Staff

9-8-09 -- This summer, incensed by a ruling in a child-custody case involving his granddaughter, 69-year-old Don Bandelman followed the judge into a public courthouse restroom and berated him as "a fool," court records show. . . . District Judge Jack Robison, Bandelman said, angrily told him to leave. . . . Then Robison did something more problematic, raising questions about whether he abused his power as a judge. Robison directed bailiffs to arrest Bandelman and then sentenced the man to 30 days in jail for contempt of court. . . . There was no hearing, no notice of charges and no lawyer present for Bandelman, who was handcuffed and taken to the Caldwell County Jail to serve his term in a cell with 12 bunk beds and 23 far younger inmates. After the first two nights of near-constant noise and never-extinguished lights, the grandfather said, he was physically wrecked and doubted he could survive another 28 days in captivity.

Controlling Children's Minds

by Ken Klukowski, Townhall.com

9-5-09 -- Most people have now heard that President Obama is going to address America’s school children on September 8. He’ll be speaking to them directly, without their parents there to serve as a filter. . . . Taken with an outrageous situation unfolding in New Hampshire, where a home-schooling mother has been ordered to put her daughter in public school because the daughter is too outspoken in her Christian beliefs, a terrifying truth emerges: If you can force a child into government schools, you can control that child’s mind. . . . On Tuesday, around the nation, millions of children will be in a setting where they’re expected to accept what adults tell them, and where they are required to obey. . . . Many teachers will carry out White House instructions (now officially modified) to give writing topics to their students. The original theme: How can I help President Obama? Children are also encouraged to read books about Obama, and even kindergarteners will be asked, “Why is it important that we listen to the president?”

MINNESOTA   

Who pays for the lawyer? The county does

Appeals Court rules that in child protection cases, counties must pay for poor parents' attorneys.

By Joy Powell, Star Tribune

9-1-09 -- Counties must pay for attorneys for poor parents in child protection cases, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday. . . . The decision grew out of a Rice County case in which County Judge Thomas Neuville appointed a private lawyer to represent a woman whose newborn baby was taken away by the county. Neuville ordered the county to pay the lawyer, but Rice County commissioners refused and challenged the judge's order in the Court of Appeals. . . . Tuesday's ruling was a victory for attorney Grant Sanders, who said he is still owed money by the county for representing the impoverished 19-year-old woman, who he helped regain custody of her baby.

August 2009

FLORIDA

Mom's Suit Claims Son Voted out of Kindergarten

Travis Reed, The Associated Press, Law.com

8-28-09 -- A woman who claims her 5-year-old was kicked out of his kindergarten class after the teacher held a "'Survivor'-style vote" among fellow students about his disruptive behavior on Thursday sued the teacher, school officials and others. . . . Melissa Barton said that on May 21, 2008, her son Alex was "forced to stand in front of his peers and be told why 'they hated him,' with such comments as (Alex) is 'disgusting' and 'annoying,' 'He eats crayons,' 'Lies on the floor,' 'He eats paper' and 'He eats his boogers.'"  . . . The boy didn't return to the class and finished the year in homeschooling. . . . The complaint in federal court in Florida's Southern District targets the St. Lucie County School Board, teacher Wendy Portillo, the principal and vice principal at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Superintendent Michael Lannon, the local head of education for special needs and St. Lucie County Classroom Teachers Association and Classified Unit. . . . Alex Barton was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome after the incident, in which classmates voted 14-2 against him. The lawsuit alleges the school caused emotional distress and neglected Alex's equal protection and Americans with Disabilities Act rights.

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Court orders Christian child into government education

10-year-old's 'vigorous' defense of her faith condemned by judge

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

8-28-09 -- A 10-year-old homeschool girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith. . . . The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." . . . The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court. . . . The ADF confirmed today it has filed motions with the court seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H.

FLORIDA  

In Fla. Adoption Case, State Argues Gays Prone to Mental Illness, Breakups

Jordana Mishory, Daily Business Review

8-27-09 -- Frank Martin Gill took in two young boys on a temporary basis five years ago. Now, the North Miami, Fla., foster father said he would be "absolutely devastated" if the state removed his two foster children. . . . "Children need permanency, and I feel strongly they need permanency with our family," Gill told a horde of reporters, lawyers and spectators Wednesday after his attorneys challenged the constitutionality of a 1977 state law banning adoptions by gay parents at a hearing before the 3rd District Court of Appeal. . . . Gill, who is openly gay, attended the hourlong appellate argument about the future of his foster sons. He applied to adopt them in 2006. Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman ruled for Gill last November when she found the law irrational. Whoever loses the appeal before the 3rd DCA is expected to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

OKLAHOMA  

Law Requiring Ultrasounds for Abortions Is Struck Down

Oklahoma Judge Says Measure Violates State Constitution

By Kari Lydersen, Washington Post Staff Writer

8-19-09 -- An Oklahoma judge decided Tuesday that doctors do not need to perform ultrasounds and offer women detailed information about the tests before performing abortions, striking down the strictest such law in the country. . . . Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki L. Robertson ruled that the 2008 law, which included other abortion-related provisions, violated a state constitutional provision that requires laws to address only one subject. . . . Thirteen states regulate the provision of ultrasounds by abortion providers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health think tank. The provisions have been pushed by abortion opponents as a means of deterring women from having the procedures.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Lawyers for D.C. special-needs kids bringing city back to court

By: Bill Myers, Washington Examiner Staff Writer

8-12-09 --Lawyers for thousands of special-needs children in the District of Columbia are taking the city back to court, alleging the Fenty administration is routinely violating their federal rights to a quality education. . . . In a letter to D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, the lawyers say they're going to ask U.S. Judge Paul Friedman to sanction the city for routinely violating federal deadlines on testing, treating and caring for children in the $300 million special education system. . . . Mayor Adrian Fenty has said publicly that he would risk "everything" to fix the city's $1 billion school system. He has laid his bet on schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her pledge to bring accountability to the schools.

A Victims-of-Law Advertiser

MARYLAND   

Judge says he intends to approve foster care agreement

But will wait to weigh effect of Supreme Court case

By Julie Bykowicz | baltsun.com

8-6-09 -- A federal judge said Wednesday that he intends to approve a carefully constructed settlement agreement in L.J. v. Massinga, a decades-old case over the treatment of Baltimore foster children, but he delayed his decision to consider the state's new argument that the long-standing court oversight should end altogether. . . . U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz called the exit strategy, crafted over eight months by Department of Human Resources officials, state attorneys and lawyers representing the city's more than 5,000 foster children, "not only fair but commendable." . . . Under the agreement, to come out of federal oversight, the state would have to document improvements to the city's child welfare system for 18 months, something the children's attorneys say provides a vital check on a long-dysfunctional department. . . . But a U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued June 25 indicates that a federal court might not have jurisdiction to approve the new exit strategy - or enforce the 1988 consent decree, according to lawyers for the Maryland Attorney General's Office.

MARYLAND   

Judge says he intends to approve foster care agreement

But will wait to weigh effect of Supreme Court case

By Julie Bykowicz | baltsun.com

August 6, 2009

8-6-09 -- A federal judge said Wednesday that he intends to approve a carefully constructed settlement agreement in L.J. v. Massinga, a decades-old case over the treatment of Baltimore foster children, but he delayed his decision to consider the state's new argument that the long-standing court oversight should end altogether. . . . U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz called the exit strategy, crafted over eight months by Department of Human Resources officials, state attorneys and lawyers representing the city's more than 5,000 foster children, "not only fair but commendable." . . . Under the agreement, to come out of federal oversight, the state would have to document improvements to the city's child welfare system for 18 months, something the children's attorneys say provides a vital check on a long-dysfunctional department. . . . But a U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued June 25 indicates that a federal court might not have jurisdiction to approve the new exit strategy - or enforce the 1988 consent decree, according to lawyers for the Maryland Attorney General's Office.

FEDERAL COURTS

3rd Circuit Upholds 10-Year Internet Ban in Child Porn Case

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

8-4-09 -- A man who was indicted as the leader of a child pornography ring in Delaware has lost an appeal that challenged both his 20-year prison term and a ban on using the Internet for another decade after he is released. . . . Paul Thielemann, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography and claimed in the appeal that his punishment was premised on conduct for which he was never formally charged -- encouraging others to commit acts of child molestation. . . . The appellate panel flatly rejected Thielemann's challenge to the length of his prison term, concluding that it was within the range suggested by the sentencing guidelines and not out of line with the sentences imposed on other leading members of the ring. . . . But the decision in United States v. Thielemann is legally significant because it helps define a still emerging area of the law that trial judges have found perplexing: how far judges can go in crafting the "conditions of release" that restrict a criminal defendant's behavior in the period just after a prison term.

July 2009

NEW YORK  

NY Lawyer Shirked Obligations to 11-Year-Old Client

By Joel Stashenko | New York Law Journal | New York Lawyer

7-31-09 -- A state appeals court yesterday ordered that an attorney be removed as assigned appellate counsel to an 11-year-old in a paternity and visitation case because of the lawyer's unfamiliarity with the youth's wishes. . . . Contrary to state law, court administrative rules and legal canons pertaining to attorneys for the child, J. Mark McQuerrey professed he did not know his client's position in the Broome County Family Court case when it was argued on appeal in April before the Appellate Division, Third Department, in Albany, a panel ruled yesterday in Matter of Mark T. v. Joyanna U., 504630. . . . The child "was, at the least, entitled to consult with and be counseled by his assigned attorney, to have the appellate process explained, to have his questions answered, to have the opportunity to articulate a position which, with the passage of time, may have changed, and to explore whether to seek an extension of time within which to bring his own appeal of Family Court's order," Justice Bernard J. Malone Jr. wrote for the 5-0 panel. "Likewise the child was entitled to be appraised of the progress of the proceedings throughout. It appears that none of these services was provided to the child."

NEW JERSEY

Justices clarify requirements for juveniles' representation

Mary Fuchs, Star-Ledger Staff

7-30-09 -- The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that those charged as juveniles must have an attorney present at "every critical stage" of their criminal proceedings -- including when they are asked to waive their Miranda rights. . . . The 5-2 ruling clarifies when a minor is required by law to have a lawyer present to protect their interests. . . . "Under the Juvenile Justice Code, a juvenile is entitled to have counsel at every critical stage of the proceeding, which in the opinion of the court may result in the institutional commitment of the juvenile," Justice John Wallace Jr. wrote for the court. . . . Laura Cohen, a clinical law professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, said some counties with smaller public defender offices and juvenile courts frequently allowed juveniles to appear for their first hearing without a lawyer present.

SOUTH CAROLINA

S.C. case looks on child obesity as child abuse. But is it?

By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY

7-23-09 -- Jerri Gray was doing all she could to help her son lose weight, her attorney says. But something had gone terribly wrong for the boy to hit the 555-pound mark by age 14. . . . Authorities in South Carolina say that what went wrong was Gray's care and feeding of her son, Alexander Draper. Gray, 49, of Travelers Rest, S.C., was arrested in June and charged with criminal neglect. Alexander is now in foster care. . . . The case has attracted national attention. With childhood obesity on the rise across the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gray's attorney says it could open the door to more criminal action against parents whose children have become dangerously overweight. . . . "If she's found guilty on those criminal charges, you have set a precedent that opens Pandora's box," Grant Varner says. "Where do you go next?" . . . State courts in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Mexico, Indiana and California have grappled with the question in recent years, according to a 2008 report published by the Child Welfare League of America.

June 2009

ARIZONA 

Police: Child Porn Linked To Attorney

Flash Drive Found In Busy Parking Lot

Omadelle Nelson, Reporter, KPHO.com

6-27-09 -- A Valley attorney was booked on suspicion of having child pornography on his computer. . . . David William Curtis Jr., 63, faces 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, the maximum amount of charges a person can face for crime, said a Tempe police spokesman. . . . Police said an employee of Tempe Marketplace found a computer flash drive in a parking lot south of Harkins Theater at Tempe Marketplace. . . . Police said after the employee found the device, he took it home and put it in his computer and found several files with "images that depict the sexual exploitation of a minor." . . . “I’m Mr. Curtis,” replied Curtis Jr.'s father when he answered to the door to their Phoenix home. “I have nothing to say to you. Goodbye.”

ARIZONA  

The People Speak: Dismiss judge in child rape case from bench

Sharon Tidwell, Council Hill / published in Muskogee Daily Phoenix

6-27-09 -- I couldn’t disagree more with the opinion stated in the June 21 article of “Editorially speaking” regarding the Pittsburg County child rape case. The punishment Judge Bartheld imposed on David Earls is shameful. It is high time that people (yes, even judges) are held accountable for their actions. . . . Regardless of who initiates the action of removing Bartheld, public opinion is clear and stands firmly on the side of right. I applaud the resolution Reps. Mike Ritze and Mike Reynolds have submitted. These gentlemen are elected officials who are speaking for and acting on my behalf. Since I don’t have the resources to voice my concerns to the Council on Judicial Complaints, I am thankful they are making an effort to correct what is wrong with our society and judicial system. . . . Why not let of the people, for the people, and by the people work for a change?

TEXAS

Sweet Victory:
Texas Governor Vetos “Take Away Your Child Act”

By Sarah Foster, © 2009 NewsWithViews.com

6-24-09 -- In a move that has parents and children’s rights advocates cheering, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday vetoed Senate Bill 1440, a contentious measure designed to make it easier for the state Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to remove children forcibly from their homes for interrogation and examination during investigations of alleged child abuse or neglect. . . . In his veto statement the governor said the bill “overreaches and may not give due consideration to the Fourth Amendment rights of a parent or guardian.” . . . The governor’s action was the result of an intense veto campaign spearheaded by the Parent Guidance Center, an Austin-based grassroots organization that helps low- and middle-income families caught in the snares of the state’s child welfare and protection systems. . . . Launched by PGC co-founders Johana Scot and her sister Judy Powell as soon as the bill was passed on May 30, the three-week campaign mobilized an opposition that cut across political lines, generating 17,373 letters and phone calls to the governor’s office from concerned Texans and their sympathizers across the country, according to spokeswoman Allison Castle.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court Sides With Student's Family in Special Ed Funding Case

Zach Lowe, The American Lawyer

6-23-09 -- Experts are already debating the impact of Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case pitting the family of a special needs high school student (and his legal team at Bingham McCutchen) against the school district that had been ordered to pay the student's hefty private school tuition (and the district's lawyers at Sidley Austin). . . . Educators and public school officials everywhere were watching the case, and they had claimed that millions -- maybe hundreds of millions -- of public money was at stake. If that's so, public officials might be cringing today, because the Court sided, 6-3, with the student's family and Bingham. . . . The ruling upholds a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals mandating that the school district pay $65,000 for the boy's private school tuition.

MICHIGAN  

Michigan Class Action Settlement on Autism Treatment Hailed as Landmark Case

Tresa Baldas, The National Law Journal

6-23-09 -- In what plaintiffs lawyers are calling a landmark autism case, a Michigan insurance company has agreed to reimburse at least 100 families for costs involving treatments for their autistic children. . . . The $1 million class action settlement from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan comes amid a legislative wave in which a growing number of a states are passing laws that require insurance companies to pay for autism treatments and screenings. To date, 13 states have such laws, the most recent being Connecticut, Colorado and Nevada. New Jersey is currently considering an autism bill, and Pennsylvania's law goes into effect July 1. . . . The June 17 Michigan settlement, meanwhile, has autism advocates hopeful that insurance companies will stop claiming that behavioral therapy for autistic children is experimental, and start paying for it.

OKLAHOMA  

Our Opinion: Despicable human being

Judge's short sentence for child rapist causes furor

Times Record News Editorial

6-21-09 -- David Harold Earls is a sick individual. . . . That much is indisputable fact. . . . He’ll even tell you so, in so many words. . . . Instead of pleading innocent to rape, charges that lacked substantial testimony and forensic evidence, Earls pleaded no contest. By giving up the fight, he painted himself as a menace. . . . The 64-year-old McAlester, Okla., man pleaded no contest in May to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy of a 4-year-old, a no-doubt traumatized little girl, now 5, who at one point became so upset on the witness stand that she fled the room and ran down the hallway, away from this harsh reality. . . . Can you blame her? . . . But because her testimony, as described by prosecutors, included “contradictory statements” during pretrial hearings, a plea bargain was made. Prosecutors thought Earls could get five years to life for such a despicable act against a child. . . . He faced decades behind bars, but in an outrageous turn of events, Earls struck a deal that whittled down his 20-year sentence to simply one year in prison. . . . Charges that he raped the little girl’s older brother, 5 years old at the time, were dropped because the youngster changed his story and said he couldn’t recall the incident. . . . Forensic evidence, according to several wire reports, revealed the girl had been assaulted, but none pointed to Earls’ involvement. . . . One year in jail — all because a little girl was too scared to talk about what had happened to her. . . . Again, can you blame her?

OKLAHOMA  

Daughter Says Oklahoma Rapist Deserves Life Sentence

By Jennifer Loren, The News On 6

6-20-09 -- The daughter of a convicted rapist speaks out, saying he deserves more than one year behind bars.  She says her father deserves a life sentence.  David Earls' rape conviction made national headlines this month after a Pittsburg County judge sentenced him to only one year in prison. . . . His own daughter says Earls is a monster and needs to be put away forever. . . . David Harold Earls is a convicted rapist.  Earlier this month, he pleaded no contest to charges he raped and sodomized a 5-year-old girl.  Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld accepted a plea deal of 20 years in prison, 19 of them suspended, meaning Earls will only spend one year in prison. . . . The story infuriated cable news audiences across the country and led some state legislators to call for the judge to be kicked off the bench. . . . "In Oklahoma, when somebody commits this crime on a 5 or 6 year old and only give them a year, it really needs to be looked into. What are we doing in our court system?" said Representative Mike Ritze of Broken Arrow. . . . Now, Earls own daughter, Denise, is calling for action. . . . "My father is a monster and he needs to stay, he needs to stay in prison," said Denise Earls. . . . Denise Earls says when she was young Earls raped her.  She hoped he was finally going to get the punishment he deserved.

GEORGIA  

Court throws out ban on exposing children to gays

By Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6-15-09 -- The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge’s order that prohibited children in a divorce case from having any contact with their father’s gay and lesbian friends. . . . The ruling was hailed by gay rights groups who said the decision focuses on the needs of children instead of perpetuating a stigma on the basis of sexual orientation. . . . The state high court’s decision overturned Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards’ blanket prohibition against exposing the children to their father’s gay partners and friends. . . . “Such an arbitrary classification based on sexual orientation flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children,” Justice Robert Benham wrote. / Decision in Mongerson v. Mongerson

CALIFORNIA

As L.A. County spun its wheels, children died

Innocents Betrayed

By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times

6-14-09 -- Sarah Chavez was returned to the home of her great-aunt and great-uncle in Alhambra despite having shown signs of abuse. She later died, primarily from a severed lower intestine, caused by a blow to her abdomen, the coroner found. She had just turned 2. The uncle was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse. The aunt pleaded no contest to being an accessory. . . . Agencies have long failed to share information that could save lives. Repeatedly, ghastly cases shock officials, who call for action, which eventually fizzles. An effective database remains elusive. . . . By the time he was rescued last year, the 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy was so malnourished his kidneys were failing. His hands were so badly burned he could barely open them. . . . Child welfare officials traced his history, trying to make sense of what had happened. According to documents obtained by The Times, they learned that eight separate agencies in Los Angeles County had pieces of information on the household: . . . One had evidence that the mother and her girlfriend were abused and neglected as children. Others knew both had committed violent crimes. Still others were aware that both women had been ordered into mental health treatment and that the sickly boy had missed appointments with county doctors. . . . Over the years, these agencies had come into contact with the boy or his caregivers 108 times -- yet no one had pieced together how much danger the child was in. Indeed, county social workers had closed a 2005 child abuse investigation because the evidence was "inconclusive." They might never have stepped in but for a concerned stranger who delivered the child into their hands.

WISCONSIN

Child-care providers with criminal past getting licenses, state funds

Cashing in on Kids | A Journal Sentinel Watchdog Report

By Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel

6-13-09 -- A couple of days before Thanksgiving in 1996, Lisa Johnson took her 12-year-old foster daughter to the basement, pulled out an extension cord and whipped her with it, repeatedly. . . . Johnson turned on some music and cranked up the volume to drown out the girl's cries. Still, other foster children in the house later told Milwaukee police that they could hear the girl beg for mercy. . . . "I swear to God, Mama, I will be good," the children reported hearing. . . . Good - meaning she would never chew gum in school again. . . . Johnson, now 42, was charged with felony child abuse and in 1997 pleaded guilty to battery and domestic abuse. Her foster license was revoked. . . . Yet three years later, she opened a certified day care center in Milwaukee County called Planting Seeds. . . . And as of April 2009, she had taken in more than $430,000 from the taxpayer-supported Wisconsin Shares child-care program, while running a center with numerous violations and recurring problems. . . . Johnson's story isn't that unusual. The Journal Sentinel found that child abusers and people who have committed other serious crimes are becoming licensed child-care providers and are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Wisconsin Shares system. Nearly 500 child-care providers in Wisconsin with criminal records have received funding from the state in the first half of 2009 alone, according to a computer analysis by the Journal Sentinel. . . . The $350 million-a-year program subsidizes child-care costs for roughly 35,000 low-income working families. But the system has been easily scammed by parents and providers. . . . In addition to posing a potential safety risk to the state's neediest children, some criminals appear to be conning the child-care system, doctoring attendance records, the Journal Sentinel found.

MASSACHUSETTS

Kids attend prom from 'sexual hell'

You won't believe how children as young as 12 years old partied

By Chelsea Schilling, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

Note: This story contains material that readers might consider graphic and offensive.

6-12-09 -- Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes. . . . Children from middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts on May 9 attended a Youth Pride Day event ending with a prom inside of Boston City Hall sponsored by the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth, or BAGLY, a group seated on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. . . . Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a proclamation welcoming homosexual and transgender youth to the celebration. A man in drag introduced a homosexual activist from Menino's office to read the letter. A video of that proclamation is below. . . . MassResistance, an organization that describes itself as a pro-family action center, sent a 20-year-old college student named Max to the prom to take pictures and learn more about what Massachusetts children were doing there. . . . Brian Camenker of MassResistance said Max was astonished by the number of children who appeared to be between 12 and 14 years old. . . . "They look pretty darn young," Camenker told WND. "He said there were a lot of middle school kids there. It really bothered him." . . . The day's events began with a transgender Elvis and a parade. Attendees were given condoms and pro-homosexual material such as a bookmark for kids on how to get involved with several homosexual groups and "Transgender Rights Now" stickers. Then many children attended the prom that evening at City Hall.

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. justices uphold law in child sex abuse cases

Emotional effects key to timing of lawsuits

By Mary Fuchs, Statehouse Bureau

6-12-09 -- The state's highest court yesterday upheld a statute of limitations law that determines when victims of childhood sexual abuse can bring charges against their alleged abusers. . . . Advocates for sex abuse victims lauded the decision, saying the state Supreme Court was lending its authority to a law they say was loosely interpreted by lower court judges. . . . "It's a game-changer," said Stephen Rubino, a Margate lawyer who has represented victims in clergy sex scandals. . . . The Child Sexual Abuse Act, enacted in 1992, gives victims two years to sue the accused offender once they have realized the emotional and psychological effects of the abuse. But Rubino said courts often misinterpreted the law and threw out valid cases of sexual abuse. . . . "Trial courts routinely misunderstood the law. The test for most courts was, 'Do you remember the abuse,'" said Rubino. Remembering the abuse is not enough to show a victim completely understands the extent of the injuries caused by it, Rubino said.

GEORGIA  

Ga. Lawyers Pursue Family Values Vision With Abortion Case

State parental notification law at issue in case of minor who had abortion

Andy Peters, Fulton County Daily Report

6-8-09 -- Attorneys S. Fenn Little Jr. and Jonathan D. Crumly earn most of their money from construction law and criminal defense cases. But their passion is pressing litigation to protect religious freedom and their view of family values. . . . The two are pursuing litigation against an Atlanta-area abortion clinic that has gained nationwide attention among groups opposed to legal abortion. The attorneys also have been promised funding help from a conservative legal action organization. The case allows the courts an opportunity to clarify how diligent health care providers must be in complying with a state law that requires parental notification -- but not permission -- when a minor requests an abortion.

FEDERAL COURTS

3rd Circuit: Parent Can't Read Bible to Son's Public School Class

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

6-2-09 -- In the court battles over prayer in school, the cutting-edge cases are increasingly coming from the kindergarten classrooms. . . . The latest such case, Busch v. Marple Newtown School District, attracted six friend-of-the-court briefs when it went before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and resulted in a 48-page decision with all three judges on the panel weighing in. . . . Voting 2-1, the court rejected the claims of the mother of a kindergarten student who said public school officials violated her First Amendment rights when they prohibited her from reading verses from the Bible -- which she said was her son Wesley's favorite book -- during a program called "All About Me" week. . . . Writing for the court, 3rd Circuit Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica said "parents of public school kindergarten students may reasonably expect their children will not become captive audiences to an adult's reading of religious texts."

May 2009

NEW MEXICO  

Former Santa Fe judge jailed over child support

Associated Press NewsWest9.com

5-9-09 -- Former Santa Fe Municipal Judge Tom Fiorina is in jail for not paying child support of $13,500. . . . State District Judge Stephen Pfeffer ordered the 70-year-old Fiorina to be jailed for up to three months. No bail is set on the civil contempt order. . . . Fiorina was not available for comment. . . . As Santa Fe's municipal judge for 13 years, Fiorina was known for dismissing parking tickets for those who donated turkeys and other foods for distribution to the needy at Thanksgiving.

NEW YORK  

Kaye Scholer Partner Says She Was Wrong to Leave Kids on Curb

Jim Fitzgerald, The Associated Press, Law.com

5-8-09 -- The New York suburban mother who ordered her bickering daughters out of her car and drove off without them said Thursday that she made a mistake. A charge against her is likely to be dismissed. . . . Madlyn Primoff, 45, a partner in Manhattan law firm Kaye Scholer, had touched off a national debate, with many people calling her irresponsible but admitting they've been tempted to do the same. . . . She discussed her actions for the first time after a judge said he would dismiss the child-endangerment charge against her in six months if she stayed out of trouble. . . . "Clearly, I made a mistake," Primoff said outside court, her husband Richard standing beside her. "But I truly love our children and I know that I am a good parent."

PENNSYLVANIA  

PA Child Care's Lawyers Say Payoffs to Former Judges Were for Case Fixing

Leo Strupczewski and Hank Grezlak, The Legal Intelligencer

5-5-09 -- In a potentially explosive document filed Monday, the attorneys for PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care claim that money paid to two former Luzerne County, Pa., judges was not a "kids for cash" arrangement, but was part of a corrupt courthouse system that included fixing civil cases. . . . The attorneys, who also represent Gregory Zappala and the juvenile detention facilities, allege that former Luzerne County President Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan Jr. were paid more than $2.6 million for "favorable panels or results in automobile arbitration cases or other civil cases, and not for adjudication and commitment of the delinquents." . . . The child-care provider defendants in the case deny all knowledge of any alleged kickback scheme. . . . They claimed the "information relevant to this belief … is in the control of" the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They also claimed that they could not conduct thorough discovery while the investigation is ongoing and that "if the outcome of the investigations is as provider defendants expects, all discovery will be unnecessary." . . . The allegations represent a clear departure from those made by federal authorities in criminal cases. . . . PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, though, claim their allegations can be backed by Luzerne County Common Pleas Court judges and attorneys who have received target letters from federal investigators. . . . The attorneys for the juvenile detention centers, Bernard M. Schneider of Brucker Schneider & Porter in Pittsburgh and Jonathan Vipond III of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in Harrisburg, Pa., did not provide the names of attorneys under investigation or specific judges. . . . The new allegations are found in a 32-page case management plan filed by plaintiffs in a series of civil cases against Ciavarella, Conahan, former PA Child Care co-owner Robert Powell, builder Robert K. Mericle, Zappala and several others. . . . Schneider did not return a reporter's phone call. Conahan's attorney, Philip Gelso, said he had no comment. Ciavarella, who is representing himself in the civil case, did not return a reporter's phone call. . . . When asked about the assertions, Martin C. Carlson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said, "I wouldn't comment on speculative claims in civil litigation." . . . Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center, which represents some of the plaintiffs, called the defense "ludicrous." . . . "I was surprised they put that in a public document," Levick said. "I wonder what the U.S. attorney will do with that." . . . She said that none of the assertions in the case management document, including that the payments were allegedly for fixing arbitration cases, "diminish our claims in any way."

Child Protective Services & the Business of 'Legalized Kidnapping'

by adeeba folami, www.opednews.com

5-1-09 -- The suffering endured by Africans who were kidnapped from their native land and brought to America as slaves is sometimes referred to as the Black holocaust, which some say ended years ago but, that is not the case according to parents who have had their children taken from them by the Denver Department of Human Service (DDHS) or the Adams County Social Service Department (ACSSD). Jo Nash-Conner’s son Quentin, 10, currently resides at Mount St. Vincents Children’s Home (MSVCH), a facility which proclaims to provide programs and services to “help children with a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems.” . . . Nash-Conner, however, has not found the center to be helpful and instead has been disallowed from visiting her son and has not seen him since February. The mother’s horror story began just over a year ago and is outlined in a typed statement entitled “A Declaration and A Desperate Mother’s Cry for Justice.” . . . “My 10-year-old son was kidnapped by the Child Protective Services (CPS) Department of DDHS on March 20, 2008,” she said. “My then 9-year-old son had walked away from our home on March 19, 2008 and was returned that evening by the Denver Police. I was informed that we would need to report to CPS for questioning the next day.” . . . So began the long journey which saw Quentin placed into two foster homes, the mental ward of Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC), back to a foster home, then to the Tennyson Home for Children (THC), the Ft. Logan Mental Hospital (FLMH), MSVCH, Children’s Hospital, back to Ft. Logan and then once again to MSVCH, where he is now. “All of this happened or is happening without my consent,” reads Nash-Conner’s statement. In an interview from her home, she explained she was originally charged with child abuse based on a CPS worker’s claim that marks were found on Quentin’s back and also that police said the boy accused his mother of hitting him. . . . Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:

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April 2009

ALABAMA  

Judge criticizes zero-tolerance bully policies

By Megan Matteucci, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

4-21-09 -- Students used to handle bullies on their own: with a good beatdown on the playground. . . . Now bullies and their victims are both punished for fighting. . . . Most schools across the metro area — and across the nation — have a “zero-tolerance” policy against fights, which means both the bully and the victim are disciplined, said Steven Teske, president of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges of Georgia. . . . “Zero tolerance is zero intelligence,” said Teske, a juvenile court judge in Clayton County. “It’s merely a political response, a knee-jerk reaction and often not put much thought is put into it.” . . . Last week, 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide after relentless bullying at Dunaire Elementary School in DeKalb County, his family said.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Amid layoffs, child support pacts fraying

Stressed-out parents ask family court for help, relief

By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff

4-13-09 -- A Massachusetts family court system that is strained during the best of times and taxed with implementing new child-support guidelines faces another challenge: divorced parents seeking relief from - or enforcement of - support arrangements as their financial and employment situations deteriorate. . . . Although the probate court system, which has jurisdiction over child-support cases, does not keep statistics on modification petitions, judges and lawyers within the system say such filings have increased noticeably in recent months as the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed have swollen. Layoffs, cutbacks, and battered investment portfolios have affected custodial and noncustodial parents on all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, along with tens of thousands of Massachusetts children. . . . Nationally, the picture is just as grim, according to a survey released last month by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. The 1,600-member group reports a 39 percent increase in the number of divorced spouses seeking changes to child-support arrangements in a tight job market and deepening recession.

NEW YORK  

Same-Sex Partner Who Is Child's Genetic Mother Granted Adoption

Mark Fass,New York Law Journal

4-13-09 -- A Manhattan surrogate judge has granted an adoption petition filed on behalf of a woman whose donated egg was fertilized and then implanted in her same-sex partner. . . . Although the couple's Dutch marriage is recognized by New York and the donor's genetic relationship to the 15-month-old boy is "unquestioned," the donor filed for adoption in order to safeguard her parental rights under federal law and in the states that do not recognize the same-sex marriage. . . . The issue, Surrogate Kristin Booth Glen wrote in Matter of Sebastian (pdf), 38-08, is whether adoption is appropriate and permissible when the petitioner was not only legally married to the child's mother at conception and birth, but in fact is the child's genetic mother.

GENERAL

Associates provide pro bono help to untangle family kidnapping cases

Tasha Norman / Staff reporter

4-10-09 -- Three years ago, Sullivan & Worcester partner Barry Pollack launched the S&W International ChildFind Program, which provides pro bono legal assistance to parents of limited financial means whose children have been kidnapped by family members and taken overseas. The program also represents parents who feel compelled to take their children out of dangerous situations. . . . According to seventh-year associate Kevin M. Colmey and fourth-year associate Lindsay Barna, who both work on ChildFind cases, the program provides a unique training experience for associates who want to get involved in the cause and obtain courtroom experience. Colmey, a 2002 graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, is a member of the litigation department in the Boston office. Barna, a 2005 graduate of American University Washington College of Law, is a member of the environmental and natural resources department in the Washington office.

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Chief judge launches internal review

Panel will investigate release of child rapists

By Annmarie Timmins Monitor staff

4-10-09 -- The chief justice of the state's superior courts has launched an investigation into why the Hillsborough County Superior Court missed deadlines that set free two child rapists deemed sexually violent predators. . . . The release of Raymond Fournier, 40, and Richard Hilton Jr., 49, on technicalities has outraged the public and prompted the state Senate on Wednesday to tighten the new state law governing violent sexual offenders. Fournier has settled in Mont Vernon with relatives; Hilton has moved to Manchester. . . . Wayne Sawyer, 45, a third sex offender also considered dangerous and likely to re-offend, could be released soon on the same technicality. At issue is a 10-day window in which the judges had to find probable cause to hold the men for further proceedings. The judge missed the deadline in each case by several days, according to court records.

FLORIDA  

Parents of hurt child say embattled attorney Clark Cone mishandled lawsuit

By Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

4-8-09 -- The fallout from the downfall of a once respected West Palm Beach attorney continues. . . . A West Palm Beach couple that claims their son suffered hearing loss and possible neurological damage when he was misdiagnosed at St. Mary's and Palm Beach Gardens medical centers discovered their lawsuit was dismissed because their attorney A. Clark Cone mishandled the case. . . . At a hearing today, attorney David Kelley tried to persuade Palm Beach County Circuit Judge David French to let him salvage the lawsuit. . . . "It's a very sad story, and an unfortunate one," Kelley said. . . . Cone, whose ability to practice law was suspended by the Florida Supreme Court last month for using at least $600,000 meant for injured clients as his own, gave Shawn and Samantha Bennett no clue that he wasn't pursuing their lawsuit against the hospitals. When Cone didn't return their phone calls, they looked up the court records and discovered the suit had been dismissed, Kelley said. . . . Kelley said he has heard from at least one of Cone's other clients who is in a similar situation.

NEW JERSEY  

Top court blasts DYFS in custody case

The agency is criticized for placing two children without a hearing

By Mary Fuchs, Statehouse Bureau

4-8-09 -- The state Supreme Court yesterday criticized the state Division of Youth and Family Services for ending an investigation of a woman who had "abused and neglected" her two children, saying a full hearing process is needed before determining where children should live. . . . In a unanimous decision, the justices said DYFS and the trial judge should have decided in court where the children could live, free from harm, instead of awarding custody to the woman's ex-husband. . . . "Rather than relying on the wishes of the children, the division should have focused on whether the children could be safely returned to the custody of the mother," Justice John Wallace Jr. wrote. . . . Public defender Yvonne Smith Segars said the precedent-setting decision establishes rules all Family Court judges must now follow.

Sole custody harms kids: Report

Children "robbed of love" in divorce cases

Susan Pigg, Torstar News Service

4-3-09 -- Family court judges are misguidedly harming children by granting sole custody to one parent – usually the mother – in bitter divorce battles, says a comprehensive new report. . . . Too many children are being "robbed of the love of one parent" by a legal system that is out of touch with the needs of children and treats them like property to be won or lost, says Edward Kruk, an expert on child custody issues. . . . "The system is set up to polarize parents, to make them enemies, to set up fights over custody and exacerbate conflict rather than reduce it," says Kruk, an associate professor of social work at the University of British Columbia, whose three-year study is now in the hands of Canada's justice minister. . . . He calls what's happening in Canada's divorce courts "a national shame" that leaves families bankrupt from legal fees and pushing parents, especially fathers, to suicide. . . . Especially devastating are the long-term effects of court orders that essentially cut one parent out of children's lives – usually the dad – in a misguided effort to foster peace between warring parents, the report says.

FEDERAL COURTS

3rd Circuit: Kids Hurt by Vaccines Can't Pursue Design Defect Claims

Ruling could prompt U.S. Supreme Court to take up significant pre-emption case involving drug product liability

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

4-2-09 -- Pre-emption is the buzz word at the U.S. Supreme Court this year, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may just have done its part to pump up the volume of that buzz. . . . In a ruling that could prompt the justices to take up yet another significant pre-emption case in the area of drug products liability, the 3rd Circuit ruled that children allegedly injured by vaccines are barred from pursuing any design defect claims because Congress expressly prohibited such suits in an effort to guarantee immunity to manufacturers. . . . By rejecting the analysis of a recent ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court, the 3rd Circuit's Friday ruling in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth Inc. creates a direct split between the federal courts and a state's highest court on the question of how broadly courts should read the pre-emption clause in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. . . . In its October 2008 decision in American Home Products Corp. v. Ferrari, the Georgia justices held that alleged victims of vaccine side effects have a right to court review of whether those side effects were truly "unavoidable."

FEDERAL COURT

Federal Judge Blocks Child Porn Charges Against Teens in 'Sexting' Case

Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press, Law.com

4-1-09 -- A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers who appeared in racy photos that turned up on classmates' cell phones. . . . U.S. District Judge James Munley ruled against Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr., who has threatened to pursue felony charges against the girls unless they agree to participate in a five-week after-school program. . . . One picture showed two of the girls in their bras. The second photo showed another girl just out of the shower and topless, with a towel wrapped around her waist.

March 2009

GEORGIA  

Jury Awards $2.3 Million for Botched Circumcision

Katheryn Hayes Tucker, Fulton County Daily Report, Law.com

3-31-09 --A Fulton County, Ga., State Court jury on Friday awarded a 4-year-old boy and his mother $2.3 million in damages from an injury the boy suffered during a circumcision when he was an infant. . . . The jury awarded $1.8 million to the boy and $500,000 to the mother, whose name the Fulton County Daily Report is not reporting to protect her son's privacy. . . . The jury did not find the hospital, Tenet South Fulton Medical Center, negligent. It laid the blame on two doctors, Haiba Sonyika, the obstetrician who performed the circumcision, and Cheryl J. Kendall, the pediatrician who treated the child later. . . . Represented by David J. Llewellyn of Johnson & Ward and Craig T. Jones of Edmond Jones Lindsay, the plaintiffs convinced the jury that Sonyika cut off a portion of the boy's penis in the circumcision -- a part that could have been re-attached if the pediatrician, Kendall, had acted quickly enough to come to the boy's aid. . . . Kendall's attorneys, Roger E. Harris and Shannon C. Shipley of Owen, Gleaton, Egan, Jones & Sweeney, are "evaluating appeal options," according to Harris. "We believe the verdict against Dr. Kendall was unjustified and not supported by the evidence against her," Harris said. "We believe there were errors in the case."

PENNSYLVANIA  

Juvenile Records to Be Expunged in Response to Judicial Kickback Case

Leo Strupczewski, The Legal Intelligencer

3-30-09 -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted a senior judge from Berks County the authority to expunge the records of a "substantial number" of juveniles who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. between 2003 and 2008. . . . The decision comes two weeks after Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim recommended that the justices allow him to expunge the records of juveniles who had been charged with summary offenses and certain low-level misdemeanors and who were not represented by an attorney when they appeared before Ciavarella. . . . "The basis for my recommendation below that certain categories of cases should have the consent decrees and/or adjudications therein vacated and the records expunged, rather than having new proceedings is this," Grim wrote. "Had the juveniles in these cases been represented by competent counsel, had they appeared before an impartial tribunal, and had their other constitutional rights been protected, the vast majority of cases would have resulted in consent decrees, or some lesser sanction. Had these cases resulted in consent decrees or lesser sanctions, all the juveniles would be entitled to have their juvenile delinquency case records expunged by now pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. § 9123."

A debate swirls over teens' lurid pictures

Should self-portraits draw harsh penalties?

By Jennifer Golson And Joe Ryan, Star-Ledger Staff

3-29-09 -- In Pennsylvania, authorities are threatening to prosecute three teenage girls after finding risqué images of them on a cell phone. . . . In Indiana, a middle-school boy faces obscenity charges for transmitting naked photos of himself to female classmates. . . . And last week in Passaic County, authorities accused a 14-year-old Clifton girl of distributing child pornography, saying she posted nude portraits of herself on MySpace. . . . In a growing number of states, law enforcement agencies are cracking down on teens who use cell phones and social networking sites to share lurid photographs. Prosecutors say they are trying to stamp out a dangerous trend. But their use of stringent child-pornography and sex-offender laws has ignited a debate. . . . "Do we really want to tag this 14-year-old girl as a sex offender for the next 30 years?" asked Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "Communities nationwide are scratching their heads about what role, if any, law enforcement should play in these cases."

NEW JERSEY

Girl Faces Child Porn Charges for Posting Nude Photos of Herself on MySpace

Beth DeFalco, The Associated Press, Law.com

3-27-09 -- A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com -- charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted. . . . The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site. . . . MySpace would not comment on the New Jersey investigation, but the company has a team that reviews its network for inappropriate images. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off a state task force, which alerted the Passaic County Sheriff's Office. . . . The office investigated and discovered the Clifton resident had posted the "very explicit" photos of herself, sheriff's spokesman Bill Maer said Thursday.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Clean Slates for Youths Sentenced Fraudulently

By John Schwartz, New York Times

3-26-09 -- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Thursday ordered the slate cleaned for hundreds of youths who had been sentenced by a corrupt judge. . . . The young people had been sent to privately run detention centers from 2003 to 2008 as part of a judicial kickback scheme that shocked Pennsylvania and the nation. The judge in the cases, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of Luzerne County, is one of two who pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud and conspiracy for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks. . . . The exact number of records to be expunged was not stated in the court’s order; a special master is investigating the cases. . . . Judge Ciavarella and the other judge, Michael T. Conahan, admitted that they had agreed to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers that paid them for the business. Under their agreements, the judges will serve 87 months in federal prison and will resign from the bench and from the bar.

ACLU Sues DA Over Threat to Prosecute 'Sexting' Teens

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

3-26-09 -- In one of the first civil rights suits to focus on the growing practice of "sexting," lawyers for the ACLU of Pennsylvania will be asking a federal judge Thursday to protect three teenage girls from the threat of criminal charges for using their cell phones to take and send semi-nude photographs of themselves. . . . The suit accuses Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. of violating the three girls' First Amendment rights and seeks a court declaration that the photos "are not child pornography or any other crime." . . . "Kids should be taught that sharing digitized images of themselves in embarrassing or compromised positions can have bad consequences, but prosecutors should not be using heavy artillery like child-pornography charges to teach them that lesson," said Witold Walczak, the legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "These are just kids being irresponsible and careless; they are not criminals."

TEXAS

Funding a child custody case: Attorney’s fees are only part of it.

James Roark, Houston Family Law Examiner

3-19-09 – A hotly contested child custody case in Harris County is likely to rack up some hefty attorney’s fees.  No surprise there.  Not everyone has the ready funds to match an attorney’s retainer demands in such cases. . . . Often, waiting to save up for a retainer is not an option.  Either you have been served a petition and have a short time to respond, or you learn of a situation that requires fast legal action to assure the well-being of the child. You manage to pull it together from a variety of sources, at least enough to get things started. At least now you have some breathing room, right?  Maybe. . . . The first order of business is the hearing for temporary orders.  That is, giving the court a preliminary presentation of the facts so it can set some ground rules for the parties to abide by during the pendency of the case.  Witnesses testify, documents, pictures, and other exhibits are presented.  What follows is hypothetical, but not beyond the realm of possibilities. . . . The judge can’t decide and needs more facts.  An amicus attorney is appointed to represent the child.  Ideally, this attorney will interview you, the child, the other party, and visit the homes to compare living environments, and participate in all other aspects of the case.  
Cost: $1500 per side to start, and if it goes to trial, could be more than what you pay your own attorney.

Sexting, Seduction and Spring Breaks

by Chuck Norris, Townhall.com

3-18-09 -- Sending nude photos and sexual videos via cell phone (called "sexting") is a fast-growing and dangerous trend among youths. And with spring breaks upon us, YouTube won't be the only one streaming videos during these juvenile siestas. . . . Sexting is not new, but it is on the rise. Cases are bubbling up all over the country. Just this past week in Virginia, at least two Spotsylvania County students were facing child pornography charges in a sexting case. The naked images of three girls (including an elementary-school student) were discovered on seven phones and traced back to the two accused students. . . . Last month, high-school girls in Greensburg, Pa., also were charged with child pornography after they sent semi-nude photos of themselves to male classmates. . . . Other similar incidents have resulted in charges in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida. Law enforcement has been called out recently to investigate sexting-related crimes by dozens of teens in many states across the nation. . . . And sexting is not just a male-dominant problem. A new national survey says that at least one-fifth of all youths have sent nude or explicit photos or videos of themselves via cell phone or have posted such images online.

MINNESOTA

Parents sue state over babies' DNA

Minnesota accused of depriving newborns 'of lawful privacy rights'

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

3-12-09 -- Nine families have filed a lawsuit against Minnesota's health department over its practice of collecting DNA from newborns and then keeping and using the private information. . . . The announcement was made by the Citizens' Council on Health Care, which said the department has been violating the state's 2006 genetic privacy law by collecting, storing, using and disseminating blood samples and DNA information. . . . Agency spokesman John Stine said the lawsuit was being reviewed, but he confirmed the department takes the blood samples from about 70,000 infants annually, and unless the parents specifically choose to opt out of the program, their children's DNA is saved. . . . He said the agency relies on "clinicians" to let parents know of the requirement that they choose to opt out of the program and only provides that information to parents through a website and if they call and ask.

ARKANSAS   

ACLU Asks Judge To Keep Adoptions Suit Alive

by Andrew Demillo, Associated Press

3-2-09 -- An Arkansas law banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children does not help promote marriage because the state does not allow gay or lesbian couples to wed, opponents of the act told a state judge Friday. . . . The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union asked Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Chris Piazza to deny the state’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit over the new law, which went into effect Jan. 1 after voters approved the ban in November. . . . Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked Piazza in January to dismiss the group’s challenge of the initiated act. . . . In a brief filed Friday, the ACLU rejected the state’s argument the initiated act promotes a legitimate state interest in marriage.

STRIP-SEARCHING KIDS

A bad prescription

Vivian Berger / Special to The National Law Journal

3-2-09 -- With ever younger children abusing an increasing smorgasbord of substances, schools have become the front line of defense against this troubling trend. On the one hand, educators cannot responsibly ignore tips that students may be ingesting or distributing dangerous drugs — information that may require verification by bodily searches. On the other hand, public employees are constrained by the Constitution: The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that students do not abandon their rights at the schoolhouse door and are entitled to obtain redress if these are infringed on. Yet school personnel are not law enforcement officers, trained in the subtleties of changing search and seizure doctrine. Thus, administrators confront the Hobson's choice of doing too much and doing too little, when either option threatens to invite community outrage and civil suits. But sympathy for these officials' plight should not eclipse concern for students who endure extreme intrusions — often because of dubious, if good- faith, judgment calls. . . . On Jan. 16, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Reddick v. Safford Unified School District. This case reviews whether the en banc 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals erred in holding unconstitutional the strip search of a 13-year old eighth-grade girl believed to possess prescription-strength ibuprofen, and in rejecting qualified immunity for Kerry Wilson, the assistant principal who ordered the search. Although the war on drugs has yielded countless casualties over the years, rarely have its victims been as young, and imposed upon, as Savana Redding.

FLORIDA  

Florida judge criticized for castigating runaway foster child

By Carol Marbin Miller, The Miami Herald

3-1-09 -- A child-welfare judge drew the ire of his chief and local children's advocates when he told a 15-year-old runaway foster child she would end up a "toothless, dead crack whore" if she didn't mend her ways. . . . Exasperated that the girl was refusing to return to a home where she said her caregiver hit and cursed at her, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig lectured the sobbing teen about making bad choices during a hearing Tuesday. . . . "You're throwing your life away," Eig told the girl. "You could end up on the street toothless. You've seen these toothless hags on the street? You know how they get there? They blow their opportunities in life when they're 15. They run away ... people turn them into whores." . . . He added, "Toothless, dead crack whore; dead at age 19? Is that the destiny you're looking for?"

February 2009

OHIO

Judge tells Whitehall parents tying boy to bed, chair too extreme

By Bruce Cadwallader, The Columbus Dispatch

2-25-09 -- A Whitehall couple were placed on probation yesterday after a judge sternly reminded them that tying their hyperactive son to a bed and chair was a crime. . . . Kimberly A. Bogardus, 33, and Dennis O. Desenberg, 49, were each charged with two felony counts of child endangering after Bogardus' 12-year-old son told a clinical counselor about the abuse in April 2007. . . . The counselor contacted Whitehall police, who found a rope tied to a bed in the home at 4689 Harbinger Circle W. . . . The couple said they tied the boy to the bed to control his night wanderings and tied him to a chair because he violated house rules. . . . An investigation showed that the restraints left marks on his wrists and ankles and that he was not permitted out of bed to use the bathroom.

Court Battle Over a Child Strains Ties in 2 Nations

By Kirk Semple

2-24-09 -- When David Goldman’s wife, Bruna, and their 4-year-old son, Sean, boarded a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport in June 2004, Mr. Goldman was planning to join them a week later in Rio de Janeiro. Several days later, Ms. Goldman called and said she wanted a divorce. She was staying in Brazil, her native country, and so was the boy, she announced. . . . With that call, the Goldman family was sent into a high-profile international abduction and custody case that continues in American and Brazilian courts and has now reached the highest levels of the Obama administration. . . . Mr. Goldman has seen his son, now 8, only once since the boy boarded that flight: a fleeting reunion in Rio this month. And he never saw his wife again. She died of complications from the birth of a daughter with her second husband, a lawyer who represented her against Mr. Goldman. . . . The case has become a sore point in the relationship between the United States and Brazil and may be on the agenda when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister, meet on Wednesday afternoon in advance of a scheduled meeting next month between President Obama and the Brazilian president, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, former and current State Department officials said.

FEDERAL COURTS

Vaccine Ruling Could Spur Appeals, Suits in State Court

Jordan Weissmann, Legal Times

2-13-09 -- By finding that vaccines do not play a role in causing autism, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims handed a significant defeat Thursday to thousands of parents who blame the injections for their childrens' disorders. . . . But while the rulings may prove to be a major hurdle for their cause, lawyers for many of the plaintiffs say their legal efforts may only just be starting. They are already contemplating possible appeals, and talking about suing the pharmaceutical companies directly. . . . The decisions were handed down Thursday in a trio of test cases meant to help guide future decisions by the claims court. More than 5,500 families have filed autism-related claims in the Federal Vaccine Compensation Program, many of which have been pending for more than a decade.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Pa. Judges Plead Guilty in Cash-for-Kids Corruption Scandal

Leo Strupczewski, The Legal Intelligencer

2-13-09 -- In a proceeding devoid of drama, two Luzerne County, Pa., judges told a federal court judge Thursday they were guilty of accepting more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from the owner and builder of two juvenile detention centers. . . . Former President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and retired Judge Michael T. Conahan sat quietly for about 75 minutes, speaking only when U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik spoke to them. They answered in short sentences and alternated between folding their hands and resting their chins on their hands. . . . They pleaded guilty to both counts -- honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States -- in the criminal information filed against them.

Suit Names 2 Judges Accused in a Kickback Case

By Ian Urbina

2-13-09 -- Several hundred families filed a class-action suit Friday against two Pennsylvania judges who pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending juveniles to private detention facilities. . . . “At the hands of two grossly corrupt judges and several conspirators, hundreds of Pennsylvania children, their families and loved ones, were victimized and their civil rights were violated,” said Michael J. Cefalo, one of the lawyers representing the families. “It’s our intent to make sure that the system rights this terrible injustice and holds those responsible accountable.” . . . Pennsylvania lawmakers called on Friday for hearings into the state’s juvenile justice system. And the Juvenile Justice Law Center in Philadelphia, which blew the whistle on the judges, said it had sworn affidavits from families who said they had sought court-appointed counsel but were told that their children would have to wait weeks, sometimes months, for a lawyer. During that time, the children would have to remain in detention, the families said.

Judge picked to review Ciavarella juvenile cases

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, Law & Order Reporter

2-13-09 -- The state Supreme Court has appointed a senior Berks County judge to review potentially thousands of cases that were handled by Luzerne County juvenile court judge Mark Ciavarella dating back to 2003. . . . In appointing Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, the high court said it wanted to ensure a thorough review is conducted of all cases to determine whether a “travesty of juvenile justice” occurred under Ciavarella’s tenure, and, if so, to take whatever action is necessary to provide relief to the affected juveniles. . . . That relief could include holding new hearings, filing petitions to expunge their records or to vacate their adjudications entirely, the court said. . . . The court was prompted to act following the filing of criminal charges on Jan. 26 against Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan that alleged, in part, the judges profited from Ciavarella’s sentencing of juveniles to detention centers once owned by Butler Township attorney Robert Powell.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Mass. court voids DYS custody based on 'dangerousness'

Justices' ruling to free 12 held

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

2-11-09 -- The highest court in Massachusetts struck down a law yesterday that allows the state to keep juvenile offenders who are slated to be released at 18 in custody for three more years if they are believed to be dangerous. . . . The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling that the law is unconstitutional will result in the release of a dozen juvenile offenders whom state officials had kept incarcerated after their 18th birthday. . . . One of those was among a group of young offenders who had challenged the law. The high court wrote that the law fails to define dangerousness, gives "unbridled discretion" to the Department of Youth Services, and violates the due-process rights of offenders. . . . "The language contains no indication of the nature and degree of dangerousness that would justify continued commitment and offers the department no guidance on how to make such a determination," wrote Justice Judith Cowin.

FEDERAL COURTS

Judge in autism case injects insult to Sarah Palin

By Thomas Zambito, Daily News Staff Writer

2-6-09 --A federal judge got political Wednesday, taking a swipe at Sarah Palin while powwowing with lawyers in the case of an autistic boy whose parents are fighting a ban on big dogs at their luxury upper East Side building. . . . Manhattan Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald blasted the Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate for bringing her Down syndrome child on stage after a debate. . . . "That kid was used as a prop," Buchwald told lawyers during a hearing on Wednesday. "And that to me as a parent blew my mind." . . . Buchwald, a 62-year-old Democrat appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said Palin should have put her child to bed. Such conferences are often held behind closed doors, but Buchwald held yesterday's session in open court. "Tell me who told the reporter," Buchwald demanded after realizing her words were on the record.

DELAWARE

Court says lesbian can't seek child custody

By Randall Chase, Associated Press Writer

2-6-09 -- A lower court judge was wrong to grant a lesbian joint custody of her former partner's adopted daughter, the Delaware Supreme Court has ruled. . . . . In a unanimous decision handed down this week, the justices said the woman had no standing to petition for custody in Family Court because she was not the child's legal parent. The court affirmed that under Delaware law, a person who is considered a "de facto" parent of a child does not have the same rights as a legal parent and is not entitled to custody. . . . . Citing existing law, Justice Randy Holland wrote that a person who does not qualify as a legal parent has no standing to petition for custody of a child unless the child is dependent or neglected and a judge determines that he or she should not be placed in the custody of the legal parent.

CONNECTICUT  

Judges concerned about how custody battles affect mental health of children

Video offers advice to divorcing parents

By Amanda Norris, Hour Staff Writer

2-1-09 -- A new video created by the state's Judicial Branch is urging divorcing parents to set aside their own concerns and settle their disputes out of court for the benefit of their children. . . . Two Superior Court judges got tired of wielding Solomon's sword after learning about the specific impact of custody battles on children's mental health. . . . Psychological research conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital has had a shocking impact on the legal community, according to family court Judge Elaine Gordon, who is featured in the 20-minute long video. . . . Researchers found that children who are subjected to high-conflict custody disputes, that is those that take a judge's ruling or court orders to resolve, have the same psychological profile as children whose parents have had their custodial rights severed due to neglect or abuse. . . . Called "Putting Children First: Minimizing Conflict in Custody Disputes," the video's production was spearheaded by Gordon and Judge Linda Munro, who both have decades of experience as lawyers and judges. The video has become the latest tool for divorce lawyers and therapists, who seem to agree with the judges that everyone benefits when conflicts are minimized and resolved quickly. . . . In the video, Gordon emphasizes that the stereotype of divorce as being ugly and contentious of necessity is not true. The statistics Gordon quotes from the Massachusetts General study only apply to the 10 percent of cases, those considered "high conflict."

January 2009

Attorney: Lesbian custody case now an 'agenda' item

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

1-27-09 -- A lesbian child custody case goes back to court this week. . . . Lisa Miller had a child named Isabella while in a lesbian relationship with Janet Jenkins in Vermont, but Miller left the relationship after converting to Christianity and moved to Virginia. Now, a Virginia judge is honoring Vermont's civil union law by ordering that Jenkins have visitation rights. (Previous article) . . . Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel says that ruling was handed down in court with all three present. He notes Isabella has been negatively affected by the forced visitations. . . . "Just for a little while visiting with Janet, Isabella has already had a reaction," he notes. "And in fact little Isabella, six-and-a-half years old who otherwise is just an absolutely adorable little girl, came away from that visitation and said she wished she were dead."

OREGON  

Judge criticized for allowing child-rape suspect care for son

The Associated Press, Seattle PI

1-24-09 -- The Oregon attorney general's office has accused a Clackamas County judge of gross abuse of discretion for ordering bail for a child-rape suspect to help decide custody for his 13-year-old son. . . . Judge Deanne Darling had ordered state child welfare officials to help release Russell Paul Hamblen of Wilsonville, who had been charged in April with rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of underage teenage girls. . . . The judge said Hamblen should have a chance to care for his son while the case was pending because his wife, Christine, suffers from drug and alcohol abuse and has her own legal problems. . . . The boy, meanwhile, remains in foster care. . . . The attorney general's office called the bail order unprecedented and inappropriate, and appealed it to the Oregon Court of Appeals. . . . The appeals court stayed Darling's bail order last month but declined to release a copy of its decision or related documents. . . . The paperwork was released Thursday in response to a motion filed by The Oregonian.

HAWAII   

Judge stumbled on child-abuse ruling

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Opinion

1-23-09 -- An outwardly indignant state judge finally succumbed to the law in ordering a woman convicted of child abuse to wait behind bars during an appeal based on her assertion that she is untouchable by Hawaii law. The appeal lacks an ounce of merit, as the judge should have recognized from the outset before mistakenly allowing the defendant to be free during the appeal. . . . The error might have escaped public notice if the crime had not been so heinous. Rita Makekau was accused of mistreating her sister's five sons and daughter, now ages 10 to 18, in her custody. She did not deny accusations that she hit their heads with knifes and cans of dog food, their fingers with metal and wooden spoons and their mouths with a hammer. . . . Instead, Makekau, who calls herself royal minister of foreign affairs for the separatist "Hawaiian Kingdom Government," claims to be immune from state and U.S. laws. Like other state laws, Hawaii's law allows defendants to remain free while awaiting the process of a meritorious appeal. By allowing Makekau to remain free last month, Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall essentially found that her claim of immunity had merit. The judge claims the deputy prosecutor assigned to the case did not object during plea negotiations to granting bail to Makekau, who pleaded no contest. Crandall said the deputy left the issue of bail up to the judge, which would have been either complacent or overconfident. . . . City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle was outraged by the judge's misstep, and Crandall accused him of having been "very disrespectful of this court and the judicial process." Responded Carlisle: "The key here is a wrong has been righted, and this lady is in jail where she belongs." . . . An outwardly indignant state judge finally succumbed to the law in ordering a woman convicted of child abuse to wait behind bars during an appeal based on her assertion that she is untouchable by Hawaii law. The appeal lacks an ounce of merit, as the judge should have recognized from the outset before mistakenly allowing the defendant to be free during the appeal. . . . The error might have escaped public notice if the crime had not been so heinous. Rita Makekau was accused of mistreating her sister's five sons and daughter, now ages 10 to 18, in her custody. She did not deny accusations that she hit their heads with knifes and cans of dog food, their fingers with metal and wooden spoons and their mouths with a hammer. . . . Instead, Makekau, who calls herself royal minister of foreign affairs for the separatist "Hawaiian Kingdom Government," claims to be immune from state and U.S. laws. Like other state laws, Hawaii's law allows defendants to remain free while awaiting the process of a meritorious appeal.

WISCONSIN

Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine

By Dirk Johnson

1-20-09 -- Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor. . . . After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival. . . . The county coroner ruled that she had died from diabetic ketoacidosis resulting from undiagnosed and untreated juvenile diabetes. The condition occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, which leads to severe dehydration and impairment of muscle, lung and heart function. . . . “Basically everything stops,” said Dr. Louis Philipson, who directs the diabetes center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, explaining what occurs in patients who do not know or “are in denial that they have diabetes.”

TEXAS  

‘Too Old’ Grandparents (59 and 52) Hope for Custody Under New Judge

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

1-15-09 -- A judge in a controversial child custody case in Texas has angrily stepped down after apparently being persuaded that a related judicial conduct investigation required him to do so. . . . After Juvenile Court Judge John Phillips decided last year that Yolanda and Arnold Del Bosque were too old to raise the young grandchildren they had been caring for since infancy and had the two boys removed to a foster home, the couple—who were 59 and 52, respectively, at the time of the ruling—made an age bias complaint against him. Armed with a letter from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct stating that it is investigating the Del Bosques' complaint, their lawyer, law professor Barbara Stalder of the University of Houston, asked Phillips to recuse himself from the custody case, according to an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle. . . . Although Phillips, according to Stalder, had no choice but to do so while awaiting an administrative judge's ruling on her recusal motion, "high drama ensued" at a Jan. 8 pretrial hearing, when Stalder objected to Phillips' continuing on the case, the newspaper writes. Raising his voice, an increasingly angry Phillips accused Stalder of arguing with him and ordered a bailiff to escort her from the courtroom, the Chronicle recounts. . . . “Honest to God, I really thought he was going to have the bailiff taking me directly to a holding cell,” Stalder, who works for a University of Houston legal aid clinic, tells the newspaper.

TEXAS

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Child Support Enforcement Operation Does the Right Thing

Glenn Sacks, Mens News Daily

1-11-09 -- I've been very critical of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (pictured) and his child support enforcement operation in the past, and they've deserved every word of it. To learn more, see my co-authored column When Beating up on 'Deadbeat Dads' is Unfair (Houston Chronicle, 1/7/07) or click here. . . . However, I do like to commend opponents when they do the right thing, and here's an example. Jim, a Texas reader, told me this story the other day and I asked him to write it up for a blog post. . . . Jim writes: . . . In 2004, the Texas Attorney General had anti-father propaganda on their website such as this definition:

Good Cause

A legal reason for which a Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipient is excused from cooperating with the child support enforcement process, such as past physical harm by the child's father. It also includes situations where rape or incest resulted in the conception of the child and situations where the mother is considering placing the child for adoption.

MINNESOTA   

Child custody law up for review

by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio

1-5-09 -- Within the next two weeks, a state court official must report a study group's findings to the Legislature on whether Minnesota should change its child custody laws. At issue is whether judges should automatically presume that children split their time living with each of their divorced parents. . . . St. Paul, Minn. — When a couple with a child divorces, a judge is supposed to start with a clean slate before deciding whether the child will live solely with mom, dad, or split living with each of them. . . . But under a legislative proposal, judges would presume the child would live with both parents unless there's a good reason not to -- such as child abuse. . . . While adding the word "presumption" to a statute may seem trivial, it would level the legal playing field that fathers' rights groups say is currently tilted against them.