|
HELP KEEP
VICTIMS-OF-LAW
ON THE WEB
SHOP OUR ADVERTISERS
OR CONTRIBUTE NOW
|
|
DIRECTORY
MEDIA LINKS
PETITIONS
PEOPLE WHO HAVE
GONE PUBLIC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
His Side with Glenn Sacks
is a nationally-syndicated men’s and fathers’ issues radio talk show hosted
by columnist and commentator
Glenn Sacks on
Sunday evenings.
Click
for more info
|
|
|
|
|
Click Headline for Full Story
|
December
2006
Justice Is Coming...
Fathers-4-Justice -- Boston video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTLRD3AtjnM&eurl=
Please go to YouTube and watch the video, add it to your favorites,
leave a comment.
Fathers-4-Justice Rocks Boston
Media Contact: Judi Smith-Phelps, (614) 448-3276 --
judi.smithphelps@oh.f4j.us
Boston Custo-Tea
Party Photos
 Hundreds
gathered at Faneuil Hall Square in Boston on December 10 as
Fathers-4-Justice™ U.S. (F4J) protested the Massachusetts family
court system which routinely strips fit mothers and fathers of their
fundamental right to parent their children. . . . According to F4J
Massachusetts Coordinator George Mason, "In 2004, Massachusetts
voters responded in overwhelming favor to a non-binding ballot
question of whether or not state legislators should enact a law for
shared parenting." Mason adds, "In 2006, millions of parents and
children continue to suffer at the hands of judges who abuse their
discretion thereby destroying families." . . . Sunday's
demonstration included a massive march through the streets of Boston
where the protestors made stops at multiple historic landmarks to
listen to a variety of speakers whose lives have been devastated by
unjust family court rulings. Several moms and dads took to the
megaphone to offer their own chilling personal . . . accounts to the
crowd and passers-by. F4J national board member Judi Smith-Phelps,
aka Superwoman, describes America's family courts as "hell on Earth"
and says that F4J and others are fighting back to demand parental
quality, which she says is in the best interest of every child. . .
. F4J is a 501(c)(3) non-profit volunteer army of mothers, fathers,
grandparents, and others dedicated to fighting for truth, justice
and equality in family law.
Additional Information: George Mason, F4J Massachusetts Coordinator,
(508) 735-6615
george.mason@ma.f4j.us / Website:
www.f4j.us
Domestic Violence Against Fathers, Children Ignored With Rights Violated
and Denied All Too Often
12-11-06 --
Children's rights,
father's rights and domestic violence against fathers is all too often
ignored by the Judicial Branch of our constitutional Democracy and the
need for judicial accountability is now greater than ever. Bill
Stoneking's efforts in releasing his first book, "The Diary of a Patient
Man, A Father's Struggle" is one man's efforts to address and bring
solutions to this problem father's face every day. . . . Chicago, IL (PRWeb)
December 10, 2006 -- Having gone from being a legislative adviser in
Lombard, IL (DuPage County) to a victim of Domestic Violence and Court
Corruption in Clay County Missouri, father turned author Bil Stoneking
pens his traumatic story of condoned and court supported domestic
violence against himself and his daughter. With his and his daughter's
rights violated to no end, Bill Stoneking brings you this compelling
true story "The Diary of a Patient Man, A Father's Struggle" (Oct. 26,
2006, ISBN: 978-1-4303-0198-1) in a effort to raise public awareness to
the obvious conduct of abusers in family court and how Judges who ignore
and facilitate this unacceptable behavior need to be held accountable. .
. . With trial court evidence, witness testimony and the judge's
statements from court transcripts presented throughout his book, you see
the horror played out very publicly in an obvious Kangaroo Court. From
perjury to fabricated evidence, Bill Stoneking details for you the
obvious bias and prejudice tyrannically suffered on fathers and their
children and how a father was slapped down by the court for saying "No"
to domestic violence.
November
2006
UNITED KINGDOM
Fathers rights rooftop protestor accuses judge of aiming gun
|
 |
|
Jolly Stanesby, dressed
as Santa, on the roof |
11-28-06 --
A judge could face police questioning after claims he aimed a gun at a
member of Fathers 4 Justice who was staging a protest on his roof. . . .
Judge David Tyzack was accused of brandishing the weapon at a campaigner
who climbed on top of his country residence dressed as Father Christmas.
. . . The campaigner, Jolly Stanesby, claims he was threatened by the
judge as he unsuccessfully ordered him off the £1million property. . . .
But although Judge Tyzack admits holding the gun, he insists it was
because he believed an "injured bird" had landed on his roof. . . . And
he says that when he realised it was a man, he put his gun away and
called the police.
IOWA
Teen defies deadbeat stereotype
By The
Associated Press
11-14-06 -- Nate Watson was 16,
and he was scared. . . . Watson had just learned his girlfriend was
pregnant. Nearing the end of his sophomore year at North High School, he didn’t know what
to do. He thought about dropping out of school and getting a full-time
job. He cried on his mother’s shoulder. He went on long, soul-searching
walks by himself. . . . The next nine months went by quickly, Watson
said. He moved in with his girlfriend, Jessica Fattig, and waited on her
every need. He cooked and cleaned and brought her buckets when she had
to throw up. He endured her mood swings. He ran to the store to pick up
foods she was craving. . . . Watson felt too young to be a father. But
he saw plenty of young men around his neighborhood and in school who had
children but didn’t care for them. Being that sort of “deadbeat dad” — a
term that spews from Watson’s mouth with disdain — was the last thing he
wanted to be. . . . Two days after Christmas 2004, Jessica started
feeling contractions. They rushed to Broadlawns Medical Center. Watson
held Jessica’s hand as doctors performed a Caesarian section. . . . A
baby girl, Jalia Lynnae Watson, arrived.
TEXAS
911 response too late in foster dad's murder?
Rebecca
Lopez / WFAA-TV
11-14-06 --
After a foster father was allegedly
strangled by the biological mother of one his foster children, questions
have been raised if he may have been able to be saved by a quicker
emergency response. . . . Police said they believe Angela Johnson killed
Danny Stearns after he accused her 16-year-old son of stealing money. .
. . But as the confrontation occurred, the man who called 911 that day,
David Lyles, said it took three calls before officers came to the scene.
He said at that point, it was too late. . . . Lyles said he knew
something was wrong when he saw a 4-year-old boy dart across six lanes
of traffic. . . . "A little boy ran across the street in front of my
car," he said. . . . After he saw the frantic boy, Lyles said the boy's
words confirmed his fears. . . . "He said, 'There is a man trying to
kill my mother, and my mother has a knife," he said. . . . At
11:38 a.m., he made the first 911
call and told operators a child was claiming someone was being killed.
When officers didn't arrive six minutes later, he called again.
Rejecting our fathers, hating our
country
11-02-06 --
"He
was a bully and a coward," Tom Cruise recently told Parade Magazine,
talking about his own father. "He was the kind of person where, if
something goes wrong, they kick. It was a great lesson in my life – how
he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang!" . . . "For me it
was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy,'" said the famous
actor, then drawing the "life lesson" most children with father problems
draw: "Don't trust him." . . . I sympathize with Tom Cruise more than I
can say, although my distrust problem was not rooted in an abusive
father but in my parents' divorce. I spent three difficult years in a
boarding school for "emotionally troubled youngsters," although who
knows,
Pleasantville Cottage School may
have actually saved my life, giving me the stability my mother hoped for
until she remarried (she left my father when I was 5). Yet, being
separated from my parents was unbearable, and I remember running away
from school regularly, trying to get back to
New York
City where
they both lived. I was 8 years old. . . . It is hard for many adults to
remember the agony of their childhoods, but for those of us who do
remember, it digs deep – "distrust" is a mild word. I'm sure I haven't
yet fully recovered from those feelings. Let's face it: The anger that
we inherit from suffering the sins of our parents does not go away
easily. . . . And yet, there is something about an abusive or uncaring
father that digs particularly deep when you hear about it. I think it's
because ultimately we need our fathers to be our protectors. When they
are not, and especially when they themselves are abusive, we can easily
grow to hate them. . . . From that moment, life gets very painful, and
very complicated – because the problem doesn't stop with our fathers.
MARYLAND
Court Says Consensual Sex Can't Become Rape
By Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post Staff
Writer
While deliberating
on a rape case in December 2004, a Montgomery County jury asked the
judge the following question: If a woman agrees to have sex, but while
having intercourse changes her mind and withdraws consent, is she being
raped if the man doesn't stop? . . . Circuit Court Judge Louise G.
Scrivener told jurors they would need to determine that themselves,
relying on the instructions they had been given. The jury returned a
guilty verdict. . . . The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland this week
overturned the conviction -- kicking the case back to Circuit Court --
and delved into the thorny legal issue of revocation of consent in rape
cases. In a 51-page opinion, it faulted Scrivener for not telling jurors
that under Maryland law the scenario described does not constitute rape.
. . . The appeals court decision could lead to a new trial, or possibly
a dismissal of charges, for Maouloud Baby, who was 16 at the time of the
incident and is now 19. He is serving a five-year sentence. . . . "He's
lost these formative years of his life," said his attorney, James F.
Shalleck. "You don't get your time back from the court."
October 21, 2006
America's Father Hungry
Mike
McCormick and Glenn Sacks, NewsWithViews.com
Are fathers irrelevant? Are they really
the useless buffoons we see on TV? The irresponsible deadbeats the local
DAs say they are? The controlling abusers we see in domestic violence
PSAs? . . . That's not the way Tim Russert's readers see them. . . .
Russert’s new book Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from
Daughters and Sons is a surprise runaway hit, reaching #1 on both the
New York Times bestseller list and on Book Standard’s Overall
Bestsellers Chart. In 2004, Russert published Big Russ and Me about his
father, and says he received an “avalanche” of letters from men and
women who wanted to tell him about their own dads. Wisdom is largely a
sampling of those 60,000 letters. *** The fathers in Wisdom are largely
men of modest means who sacrificed greatly to provide for their
families. Wisdom begs the question why, in one generation, have so many
fathers apparently thrown off all their responsibilities and abandoned
their children? . . . The answer is simple--most of them haven’t. ****
According to a study of 46,000 divorce cases published in the American
Law and Economics Review, two-thirds of all divorces involving couples
with children are initiated by mothers, not fathers, and in only 6% of
cases did the women claim to be divorcing cruel or abusive husbands.
Divorcing women instead cite emotional reasons, such as a perceived lack
of closeness or of not feeling loved and appreciated. Most of these men
didn’t fail as fathers--they only failed at the often difficult task of
keeping their marriages together. . . . Once a marriage falls apart,
fathers often struggle to maintain a regular presence in their
children’s lives. While shared parenting protects children's loving
bonds with both parents, many family courts instead allow men only a few
days a month with their children. Moreover, many divorced mothers resist
co-parenting because they are unable to put aside or see beyond their
anger and disappointment. According to research conducted by Joan Berlin
Kelly, author of Surviving the Break-up, 50 percent of mothers claim to
"see no value in the father's continued contact with his children after
a divorce." Does this stunning finding only reflect poorly on fathers
and not also on mothers? ****The typical Wisdom family is supported by a
hard-working dad whose sacrifices are understood and appreciated by his
children. Though his work obligations sometimes cut him off from his
kids’ everyday lives, his place in the family is honored and respected,
and he still manages to make a huge impact on his children. . . . Today
that Wisdom dad has often been exchanged for a dad who’s not in the
home, and who works to support kids from whose lives he is largely
barred. For our children, it’s been a lousy trade.
|
"Exposing the Corruption in the Massachusetts Family Courts"
--
Written by Kevin Thompson
"Debtor's prisons" were
outlawed; now we have "contempt of court" prisons
No trial or due process is necessary -- a judge simply
declares you "in
contempt of court"
|
October 18, 2006
The Relationship of Biology to Legal Fatherhood:
Two
New Cases Show Courts Struggling to Find a Coherent Approach, As
Non-Biological Fathers Fight for Their Rights to Children
By
Joanna Grossman
Science has made it easy to determine
genetic fatherhood with a high degree of accuracy. But should those
results always dictate which man has legal rights and obligations with
respect to a child? . . . The importance of biology to so-called "legal"
fatherhood has clearly evolved as genetic testing has become more
accurate and accessible. Yet, the law has so far stopped short of
equating biology and legal fatherhood for all purposes. . . . It is
still the case that other factors - ranging from a man's behavior
towards a child, to his legal relationship with the child's mother, to
the timing and forcefulness of his attempts to prove paternity, and her
efforts to conceal it -- can all be used to determine whether a man with
no genetic tie to a child might nonetheless be the child's "legal"
father. . . . Courts continue to struggle with evaluating biological and
social claims to fatherhood - as is illustrated by two recent decisions,
one from Tennessee and one from Kentucky. The decisions are especially
instructive when considered in combination, for they reach opposite
conclusions about the legal status of a man who is or was married to a
woman but not the biological father of a child born during their
marriage. . . . In addition, these two cases show men acting contrary to
stereotype: Rather than eschewing the status of father to "another
man's" biological child, these men are fighting for the right to be
fathers to the non-biological children they have raised. These fathers
are welcome exceptions to the stereotypes of men shirking the
obligations of paternity, or allowing sexual jealousy to destroy their
relationships with "another man's" child.
October 14, 2006
10 Tips for Dads after Divorce
By Grant
Griffiths, Kansas Family & Divorce Lawer
Dealing with special occasions after
divorce can be especially tricky. . . . When you’re sharing custody
after a divorce, birthdays and holidays can be tough, especially in
the early days. But take heart. As each year passes, you and your
family will become more comfortable with the new family structure
and will create new rituals and ways to enjoy special times
together. . . . Here are some other tips for making birthdays and
holidays pleasant for everyone concerned.
(Click to read it in full).
1. Be Flexible
2. Be Proactive and Plan Ahead
3. Be Kind and Generous
4. Keep your word
5. Include the kids in your planning
6. Create two holidays or birthdays
7. Avoid the indulgence trap
8. Take care of yourself if you're alone
9. Build new family traditions
10. Nurture your blended family at
holidays
When it comes to parenting time,
co-operation is better than conflict but if for any reason you need the
court to resolve any conflict over holiday parenting time then don't
leave it until the week before Christmas to call the court and hope a
judge will see you at the last minute, as chances are you will be
disappointed. Grant's suggestion to plan ahead is a good one.
The war on fathers
By David
Kupelian, World Net Daily
"Father knows best." .
. .
How do those three words make you
feel? Turn them over in your mind a couple of times and be aware of
the subtlest of feelings. Be honest. . . . Do they make you feel
slightly squeamish? A little discomfort in your solar plexus? Is
something deep down inside you repelled by those words? . . . If so,
you're not alone. Contempt for male authority – as if to say, "Give
me a break, father sure didn't know best in my life" – is everywhere
around us. We're swimming in it. You see, men, boys and masculinity
itself have been under withering national assault for decades. . . .
"Father Knows Best," of course, was a popular TV show during the
'50s, when I was a little boy. Set in the wholesome Midwestern town
of "Springfield," insurance agent Jim Anderson (played by Robert
Young) would come home from work each evening, trade his sport
jacket for a nice, comfortable sweater, and then deal with the
everyday growing-up problems of his family. Both Jim and wife
Margaret (played by Jane Wyatt) were cast as thoughtful and mature
grown-ups. Jim could always be counted on to resolve that week's
crisis with a combination of kindness, fatherly strength and good
old common sense.
Today, more often than not, television
portrays husbands as bumbling losers or contemptible, self-absorbed
egomaniacs. Whether in dramas, comedies or commercials, the patriarchy
is dead, at least on TV where men are fools – unless of course they're
gay. On "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the "fab five" are supremely
knowledgeable on all things hip, their life's highest purpose being to
help those less fortunate than themselves – that is, straight men – to
become cool.
October 5, 2006
Modern-Day 'Poll Tax' Costs GOP Votes
by Barry
Weinstein
--
Mr. Weinstein is an activist who was once the innocent target of New
Jersey prosecutor Nicholas Bissel. The indictment against him was
dismissed with prejudice.
The Democratic Party’s instituted
policies and pandering to the radical woman’s movement are
responsible for at least 1 million non-felons—divorced American men
commonly known as fathers—who are today being denied the right to
vote. How is that possible? It is done by the imposition of a
new-fangled “poll tax” by activist judges. . . . Here is the short
of it. Right now, there is estimated to be 1 million individuals in
county jails on any given day. Curiously, no statistics regarding
non-felons in prisons are kept by the Justice Department. . . . The
issue is now playing out all across America’s 3,141 counties and
parishes. These individuals who have not committed any crime are the
target of activist judicial discrimination based upon their sex.
They have not been accused of a crime. They have not had a trial by
jury of their peers. In fact, they have not been convicted of any
crime. They are in jail until they—even if they cannot comply—pay a
judge’s arbitrarily established sum in order to be released from
jail. This is a clear violation of the 13th Amendment and federal
statues against peonage, slavery as well as involuntary and
indentured servitude, respectively. This mirrors ransom as well, as
I see it. This is not a joke! . . . Unless the money is paid, the
person will remain in prison for an alleged debt, unconstitutionally
I say, deprived of his liberty. According to press reports, there is
one individual in a Pennsylvania county prison for more than 11
years. He has not had a trial by jury or been accused of a crime;
the judge wants money he does not have.
Kim Basinger Arraigned
by TMZ
Staff, Filed under: Celebrity Justice
Kim Basinger has been arraigned on
contempt charges. Former Hubby Alec Baldwin triggered the case by
alleging that Kim is guilty of a laundry list of violations in their
ongoing custody dispute. Among Baldwin's allegations -- that
Basinger blocked his visitation rights, blocked his rights to speak
with his daughter on the telephone and failed to notify him when the
child suffered an injury.
Click here
to view the court documents.
October 4, 2006
VAWA: America's Most Anti-Family States
David R.
Usher, NewsWithViews.com
The latest report by
RADAR
(Respecting Accuracy In Abuse
Reporting), titled “An Epidemic of Civil Rights Abuses:
Ranking of States’ Domestic Violence Laws”
provides us with a new perspective on VAWA: we treat the average
terrorist better than we treat the average husband facing a false
allegation of spousal abuse. . . .It is now well-known (but often
ignored by beltway candy-men) that VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act)
is used more commonly as a tactical divorce weapon than for its intended
purpose. We also know that physical family altercations are initiated
slightly more often by women than men, but almost zero federal funds are
used to help men facing a violent spouse. . . . Some states have lowered
the bar of law so low that anything is considered “domestic violence”,
such as a simple statement of fear with no supporting narrative or even
one whit of evidence. A 1995 study in Massachusetts found that less than
half of all issued restraining orders contained even an allegation of
violence. . . . This convenient weapon of mass destruction powers the
feminist divorce industry. It has lead to massive violations of the
fundamental civil right for good men to be in the family and to parent
their own children, and placed cities-full of innocent children at risk
for serious child abuse (about 66% of which is committed by natural
mothers who have serious chemical abuse or mental disorders). . . .
RADAR estimates that approximately two to three million persons are
outrageously evicted from their families every year, without so much as
a reasonable evidence-based trial. Half of these do not even include an
allegation of violence. . . . The latest RADAR report makes an
astonishing finding: there are no states where domestic violence laws
have a “low risk” of being abused. . . . Seven states have laws placing
them at “extremely high risk” of abuse: Alaska,
California, Missouri,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and
Virginia.
September
29, 2006
Michigan's Equal
Parents Rally Photos
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/09/29/michigans-equal-parents-rally-photos/
WASHINGTON
Taxi driver pays full fare to state
Editorial – The Seattle Times
THE Washington
Supreme Court issued a ruling last week that has a feel about it of
debtor's prison. It is not prison really, but debtor's firing. . . . The case,
Greg Amunrud vs. DSHS, was about a taxi driver who fell behind
in child-support payments for his son. He was supposed to pay $350 a
month. He started at $150 and, over time, paid less. The question
before the court is whether state government could punish him by
taking away his license to drive a cab. Justice Barbara Madsen said
it could. Madsen, joined by justices Gerry Alexander, Susan Owens,
Bobbe Bridge and Mary Fairhurst, said
the government had good reason to want divorced or unmarried fathers
to pay child support. One way to get them to pay was to threaten to
take away their right to work. The program was effective, and the
state should be allowed to keep it. . . . Justice Richard
Sanders, joined by justices Jim Johnson and Tom Chambers, argued
that if the state wanted this man to pay his bills, it made no sense
to take away his right to earn money at his trade, which he had been
practicing for 20 years. . . . Further, said
Sanders, "We do not license drivers to assure they are current in
child support payments; we license them to promote highway safety."
The suspension of Amunrud's license had nothing to do with the
purpose for which he was licensed. . . . It makes good
sense to enforce the law against parents who persistently fail in
their full obligation to make support payments. But this should be
done without taking away a person's job, and without giving the
state an extra hammer over all licensed professions relative to
unlicensed ones.
Decision from
FindLaw:
Sep. 21, 2006
Greg Amunrud v. Board of Appeals and the Dept. of Social & Health
Services
76590-1
Sep. 21, 2006 Greg Amunrud v. Board of Appeals and the Dept. of
Social & Health Services (Dissent)
76590-1
September
20, 2006
PENNSYLVANIA
Bizarre divorce saga: A man, a woman and missing
millions
Erin McClam, Associated
Press
| |
 |
| |
Photo Courtesy of
Bobbie Applegate
H. Beatty Chadwick and his wife, Bobbie,
pose in a cathedral in Brasilia, Brazil,
during a 1984 business trip. |
Slight, scholarly and
enigmatic, H. Beatty Chadwick is doing this day what he
has done for the past 4,093: He is sitting in a county
jail outside Philadelphia. . . . It is a place meant for
run-of-the-mill crooks just passing through on their way
to comparatively luxurious state prisons. Certainly not
for anyone to stay 11 years - not for the central figure
in one of the most bizarre divorce battles in American
history.
It hinges on a charge of
civil contempt designed to force Chadwick to turn over
$2.5 million the courts say he hid overseas all those
years ago. Except he won't. Or can't, depending on whom
you believe. . . . So Chadwick sits. . . . "He's an
anomaly," says his lawyer, Michael Malloy. "They don't
know what to do with him." . . . The case has produced
an Everest of court papers - a dozen pleas to the
Delaware County courts, nine to state appeals courts,
nine to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 12 to federal
courts, two of those to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . .
But before all that, there was a marriage: Chadwick, a
39-year-old successful corporate lawyer, to Barbara Jean
Crowther, just 22, in 1977. Not surprisingly, they
disagree about the very nature of their union. . . . H.
Beatty Chadwick insists the marriage was placid, happy -
at least until she became depressed in their later years
together. He says he loved her very much. He smiled on
her newfound hobby of painting. . . . But in past
interviews, she has described a home life controlled
intensely by her husband, with rationed toilet paper
(six sheets per bathroom visit) and sex (7:30 a.m.,
Tuesdays and Thursdays). . . . She told Philadelphia
magazine in 1994 that he once kicked her and caused her
to fall down a flight of stairs and lose a child she had
been carrying for 18 weeks. . . . H. Beatty Chadwick
says it is all fiction, much of it dreamed up by his
ex-wife's high-powered divorce lawyer, Albert Momjian.
August 29,
2006
Videos – A Way
to Connect with Alienated Children
Dad, K. Pat Brady, Rochester, NY, has come up with a unique
idea for ‘abandoned’ dads and moms. He’s praying that it’ll catch on and
children will start looking on the Internet to hear from their alienated
parent. . . . Check out the video he did for his
daughter and make sure you give it a great rating.
"Whitney Muh Dear" --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsx0JCBpMbc
Please pass this
message on.
PENNSYLVANIA
Judge to Decide on Father's Reunion with Daughter
6ABC
A father will try to convince a
Montgomery County judge Tuesday morning that his daughter should be
returned to his custody. . . . 7-year-old Rachel Librett had lived
with her mother for the last three years. Claudia Librett ran off
with her to Canada, when Michael Marran was awarded joint custody.
Librett told Rachel that her father had died in prison. . . . The
judge delayed a reunion between Rachel and her father last Tuesday
because he wanted to make sure that Rachel is ready to see her dad.
. . . "The system is frustration," said Michael Marran after the
hearing in Montgomery County Court on Tuesday. "There's not much you
can do."
August 25,
2006
New American Bar Association Article Points to Crisis in False
Paternity Judgments
By Mike McCormick and Glenn Sacks
Child support
enforcement programs are supported by all sides of the political
spectrum, from women’s advocates on the left to traditionalists on
the right. While this popularity is sometimes understandable, it has
also allowed glaring and inexcusable abuses to fester and grow. Of
these, none is more egregious than when men are forced to pay 18
years of child support for children who are not theirs, and who in
many cases they’ve never even met. . . . In “The Innocent Third
Party: Victims of Paternity Fraud,” a new article in the American
Bar Association's Family Law Quarterly, Washington DC attorney
Ronald K. Henry details how this problem developed, and proposes
some common sense solutions. The problem is relatively new, and
stems in large part from the federal Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which restructured the welfare system.
. . . The Act mandates that a mother seeking welfare benefits for
her child must provide the name of the child’s father so the state
can recoup its costs by securing a child support order.
August 22,
2006
TEXAS
Three men, a baby and the state
By Scott
E. Williams, The Daily News
Thousands of child-support evaders,
often called “deadbeat moms and dads,” are on the loose in Texas. .
. . Despite a DNA test stating the contrary, the attorney general’s office counts Aaron
Grace among them. . . . In July 2001, Grace was 21 and thought he
was a father. His longtime girlfriend, a
Texas City resident, had given
birth to a girl. He signed an acknowledgement of paternity at the
Galveston hospital where the child was born. . . . Two days later,
the child’s mother told Grace he might not be the father. . . .
Grace, a Katy resident, said the revelation that the woman had been
involved with two other men who could be the child’s father began a
five-year ordeal that continued Friday. . . . That was the day he
appeared in County Court No. 3 before visiting Judge Frank Carmona
to dispute an associate judge’s temporary order that he pay child
support. . . . Unable to afford an attorney, Grace represented
himself. Sitting behind Grace was Ricardo Sanchez, a Harris County man who wanted the
responsibility state officials were trying to keep on Grace’s
shoulders — Sanchez wanted to be declared the child’s father. . . .
Sanchez, one of the other two men the woman reportedly had been
involved with, had a piece of paper with him to support his claim.
The paper contained a genetic test result from a Michigan lab, which
found a 99.94 percent chance that Sanchez was the child’s biological
father. . . . The third man was unknown to Grace, except for a
nickname. . . . Sanchez came to Friday’s hearing armed with evidence
showing he had health insurance for the child and had the child
listed on his tax statements. He said he wanted the responsibility
of being the child’s father. . . . Still, the state pursued its case
against Grace, asserting that he waited too long to contest his
paternity. Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Janece Rolfe said
she could not comment specifically on the case, but said enforcing
state law was the office’s function.
August 12,
2006
Father Files $3 Billion Suit Against State Of Oregon
Alex S.
Gabor
What may become a severe blow to the
welfare state of Oregon, the father of two minor
children who live in Eugene has filed a civil rights lawsuit against
the State of Oregon, naming over a dozen of its employees, including
Governor Kulongoski, and the three major credit bureaus for civil
damages amounting to $3 billion. . . . The civil case pending in
California Central District Court, Western Division alleges
violations of the father's civil rights, slander, and intentional
infliction of emotional distress. . . . The plaintiff is asking for
$3 billion in various compensatory, punitive and aggravated damages.
. . . It all stems from the Plaintiffs ex wife who filed fraudelent
bankruptcies twice in ten years, went on welfare, and embezzled
hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Plaintiffs business
corporations, caused his businesses to collapse, ruined his public
image and business reputation, then lied to the State of Oregon to
again collect welfare almost a decade later, according to the suit
filed on July 10th, 2006. . . . The suit names the three major
credit bureaus, Experian, Transunion, and Equifax alleging that a
fraudelent child support claim filed by one of the Defendants ruined
the Plaintiffs chances of buying real estate during the hottest
market in history.
Respect a Man's Choice, Too
By
Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks
In Kai Ma’s recent AlterNet column “The
Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet” (7/26/06) she
applauds a U.S. District Court judge’s quick, contemptuous dismissal
of Matt Dubay’s “Roe v. Wade for Men” lawsuit. Dubay sought
to wipe out the child support payments he is obligated to make to an
ex-girlfriend who, he says, used a fallacious claim of infertility
to deceive him into getting her pregnant. . . . In opposing “Choice
for Men,” Ma asserts that a “woman’s decision to terminate a
pregnancy is not the equivalent of a man’s choice to financially opt
out of fatherhood.” She cites the pain and discomfort of pregnancy,
and the way motherhood “may limit our mobility or careers.” These
problems are very real; however, so are the problems created when
men are saddled with child support obligations. . . . According to
Men’s Health magazine, 100,000 men each year are jailed for alleged
nonpayment of child support. Federal Office of Child Support
Enforcement data reveal that 70% of those behind on payments earn
poverty level wages. The “Most Wanted Deadbeat Dad” lists put out by
most states are used both for police actions and to hunt and shame
“deadbeats” through newspaper ads and publicity campaigns. These
lists are largely comprised of uneducated African-American and
Latino men with occupation descriptions like “laborer,” “maintenance
man” and “roofer.”
August 8,
2006
The Health of Fatherhood
by
Gordon Finley
As we look forward to the quantity
and quality of our lives in the 21st century we face an
unprecedented challenge. As a nation, it is critical for all men,
women, and children to cease denying the silent epidemic of the
demise of fathers from the lives of our children and acknowledge the
consequences for both children and fathers. Here are the horns of
the dilemma we are facing. . . . On the one hand, we have a vast
empirical research literature showing that both children and fathers
benefit on almost all conceivable outcome indices when they are
involved in each others lives as the children are growing up and
being guided by their fathers into adulthood and beyond. . . .On the
other hand, we have the following widely accepted contemporary
demographics: one third of children are born to women who are not
married at the time of delivery (and presumably do not
have a father involved in the child’s life on a continual basis);
50% of first marriages end in divorce and another 17% end in
permanent separation yielding an effective two thirds marital
dissolution rate for first marriages; the divorce rate for second
and subsequent marriages is about 10% higher; and the cookie-cutter
formula used by most states grants physical custody to mothers about
85% of the time with the father being awarded infrequent visitation
along with child support and alimony obligations.
August 4,
2006
The Kiss-And-Accuse Capers
By Carey
Roberts, NewsWithViews.com
Former New England Patriots
linebacker Ted Johnson was one of the lucky ones. . . . On July 16
the three-time Super Bowl player was arrested in Weston, Mass. for
assaulting his wife. But last Monday Jackie Johnson came clean: “My
husband, I adore him, and, it was my fault. . . . It breaks my heart
to think I would be responsible with one emotional, irresponsible
call in destroying this beautiful man’s reputation.” . . . Judge
Rucker Smith of Sumter County, Georgia can also thank his lucky
stars. . . . When he announced his decision to break off a romantic
relationship, his girlfriend bit him fiercely on the leg. Then the
woman called the police to allege that he had attacked her. On May
5, the jury acquitted the judge of all charges against him. . . .
And let’s not forget TV talk show host David Letterman. . . . Last
December Colleen Nestler of
Santa Fe, NM claimed that Mr.
Letterman was using mental telepathy, facial gestures, and televised
code words to induce her to move to New York. Judge Daniel Sanchez
granted an order directing Mr. Letterman to cease the harassment.
The laughable injunction was eventually dropped. . . . But few men
have the financial where-with-all of a former NFL player, sitting
judge, or media personality. So when they are accused of domestic
violence, men often find themselves dragged into a legal machinery
that eventually leaves them penniless, disillusioned, and broken. .
. . Often the false claims are made during an acrimonious divorce or
child custody case.
|
July 13, 2006
MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts Family Court Judge Banned Book Critical of Her
By
Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Fair Notice: The Author is a
Candidate for the Massachusetts Governor’s Council
The rules regarding being a judge
in Massachusetts are very short. The second cannon of the
Massachusetts Code of Judicial Conduct states that a Judge
should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in
all his activities. It also states that a judge should conduct
himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence
in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. The third
cannon states that “A judge should disqualify himself in a
proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be
questioned, including but not limited to instances where: (a) he
has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal
knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the
proceeding.” . . . This said, I was fortunate enough to be
e-mailed a book by Mr. Kevin Thompson in PDF format, “Exposing
the Corruption in Massachusetts Family Courts.” Mr. Kevin
Thompson is a father’s rights activist who wrote about his
tribulation in the Essex County Family Court. It would be an
understatement to say that Mr. Thompson was not very kind to
Judge Manzi. He stated, “She made it clear to me at my initial
hearing on May 28, 2003, that in her courtroom fathers are all
criminals to be punished and removed from the lives of their
children while mothers are all selfless, innocent victims to be
pitied and excused from accountability for their actions.”
July 11, 2006
NEW YORK
N.Y. High Court Says Mistaken Avowal of Fatherhood Imposes an 'Equitable
Paternity'
John Caher,
New York Law Journal
He who acts like a father, is a father -- if not biologically than at
least legally -- the Court of Appeals said Thursday in imposing
"equitable paternity" on a man who wrongly assumed he had fathered a
girl and acted accordingly. . . . The court in
Matter of Shondel J. v. Mark D.,
40, upheld the trial court and the Appellate Division, 2nd Department,
in ordering a man to pay child support on behalf of a child he did not
father. In doing so, it recognized the legislatively endorsed concept of
"equity paternity," or paternity by estoppel (see Family Court Act §§ 18
[a] and 532 [a]). . . . Shondel J. centers on a Guyana native who, while
living in New York, met a woman in Guyana while visiting family in 1995.
After the man, Mark D., returned to New York, the woman, Shondel J.,
informed him that she was pregnant and carrying his child. . . . Mark
did not dispute his paternity. Instead, he helped pay for Shondel's
pregnancy, visited the girl he thought was his and made her a
beneficiary of his life insurance. He also signed a letter affirming his
fatherhood so the child could obtain immigration papers. In 1999, he
married another woman, and they have children.
July 10, 2006
Cal. Spousal Rape Bill Will Harm Innocent Men
by Jeffrey Leving and Glenn Sacks,
NewsWithViews.com
False accusations of violence or abuse
are endemic in family law cases. The California Senate and the Assembly
Committee on Public Safety recently approved a misguided bill which will
make the problem worse by easing the way for spurious spousal rape
allegations to be used against fathers. . . . Victims of spousal rape
deserve protection, and current
California law provides it. In
order for the state to prosecute a spousal rape charge, the accuser need
only to have mentioned the violation within a year of its occurrence to
any of a wide variety of medical, law enforcement, clerical, legal or
psychological personnel, or there must be corroborating, independent,
court admissible evidence. . . . SB 1402, sponsored by Senator Sheila
Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), eliminates the distinction between spousal rape
and other rapes, thus allowing for spousal rape prosecutions six years
later, even if there was no mention or independent evidence of the crime
in previous years. Under SB 1402, when aggravated spousal rape is
alleged, there would be no statute of limitations. . . . In family law
proceedings there are a multitude of important and emotionally-charged
issues which are often contested and re-contested over many years. These
include: legal and physical custody; child support; alimony; division of
marital assets; liability for legal, health care and child care
expenses; requests for relocation; and others. False accusations often
allow accusers to gain leverage in these proceedings.
MICHIGAN
State attorney: Men cannot decline fatherhood
A state attorney is
asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a men's rights group on
behalf of a man who is declining fatherhood. . . . Assistant Attorney
General Joel McGormley says the 25-year-old Matt Dubay has a financial
obligation to support his daughter. . . . U-S District Judge David
Lawson says he will take the case under advisement and issue a ruling
later. . . . The National Center for Men filed the lawsuit in March on
behalf Dubay, who was ordered to pay five hundred dollars in monthly
child support for his ex-girlfriend's daughter.
June 28, 2006
MASSACHUSETTS
Court releases 'deadbeat dad'
By Dan Ring
One of the state's most wanted deadbeat
fathers was found innocent yesterday of felony charges for failing to
pay child support. . . . William J. Christian, 57, a former Springfield
man who was No. 9 on the state Department of Revenue's top 10 "deadbeat
dads" poster, walked free yesterday after being held for four months at
the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow following his arrest in
February in South Carolina. . . . Springfield District Court Judge James
B. McElroy found Christian innocent of willfully failing to pay child
support and leaving the state without making arrangements to pay child
support.
NEW YORK
Message proves unsettling
One of the Capitol's best-known father's
rights advocates found himself under investigation after he circulated a
news story about the shooting of a judge. . . . Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver's office said it couldn't discuss matters under investigation.
State Police could not immediately provide details this weekend. . . .
Randy Dickinson, vice president of the Coalition of Fathers and Families
New York, said he sent an e-mail out to legislators earlier this month.
It contained an Associated Press story about the June 12 shooting by a
sniper of a Nevada family court judge. . . . According to published
reports, Darren Mack, 45, allegedly stabbed and killed his estranged
wife and shot Washoe County Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, who had
been handling their divorce case. Mack surrendered to authorities
Thursday in Mexico. . . . Dickinson also attached a quote from John F.
Kennedy: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make
violent revolution inevitable." . . . According to Dickinson, someone
apparently took the missive as a threat and Silver's counsel, Dan
Conviser, contacted State Police.
June 21, 2006
KENTUCKY
Kentucky Supreme Court Upholds Paternity Fraud Verdict
Case Law Development
-- Family Law Prof Blog
The Supreme Court of
Kentucky split on whether to uphold a trial court’s judgment against a
mother for fraudulent misrepresentation of her husband’s paternity of
their 13-year-old daughter. Wife had been having an affair when
daughter was conceived, but convinced Husband that she had been
faithful. When daughter was 13, Wife disclosed to Husband that the
child was the product of an extramarital affair with a former boyfriend,
which she had confirmed when her former boyfriend underwent a DNA
paternity test. Husband then obtained a termination of child support
obligations from the circuit court and sued Wife for fraudulent
misrepresentation of the paternity of the child to him. The jury found
Wife guilty of fraud and awarded Husband $ 54,720.26 in damages
(representing the prior five years of child support). The Court of
Appeals reversed the jury verdict. The Supreme Court upheld the jury
verdict, finding that this was “nothing more than ordinary fraud.” The
court distinguished cases involving excess child support payments made
by judicial error in which courts had determined that restitution of the
excess payments is inappropriate unless there exists an accumulation of
benefits not consumed for support. The court opined that “Such
considerations are appropriate in those cases because the spouses are
the parents of the child receiving support. However, in the case of
fraud and misrepresentation of expenses to the spouse, the court has
ordered restitution, albeit with considerations to limit the rate of
payment in order to prevent detriment to the child(ren) supported.”
Denzik v. Candy
Denzik,
2004-SC-1131-DG, 2006 Ky. LEXIS 166 (June 15, 2006 )
Opinion on the web
NORTH CAROLINA
Court rules father should lose rights despite mother's lies
After two separated, she
told him baby had died
The Associated Press
A biological father
should lose his parental rights because he did not establish himself as
a caregiver, even though the mother deceived the man by claiming that
she had a miscarriage, the state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. . . .
Pernell Ingram argued that he had provided sufficient care to the mother
to qualify as the legal father of a child born out of wedlock. Ingram,
of Newton Grove, said he had provided "consistent care" by frequently
caring for the mother's other two children while she was pregnant and by
joining her at prenatal medical appointments. While he did not provide
financial support, Ingram pursued a new job and bought a bigger car to
prepare for a child. . . . Ingram also testified that he and the mother
planned to marry and even discussed names for their prospective child.
But after deciding against marriage, the two separated, although Ingram
kept in contact and insisted that he would like to care for the baby.
June 12, 2006
|
Why Dads Became Stigmatized
By Betty Freauf, NewsWithViews.com
Father’s day is just around the
corner and time to reflect on what used to be compared to what is
today. . . . Someone wrote to Ann Landers in June 1987 reprinting
a nostalgic gem that appeared in the Danbury (Conn.) News-Times about how
fathers evolve. It went like this:
At 4 years my Daddy can do
anything.
At 7 years my Dad knows a lot, a
whole lot.
At 8 years my Father doesn’t
know quite everything.
At 12 years, oh well, naturally
Father doesn’t know that either.
At 14 years, Father? Hopelessly
old-fashioned.
At 21 years, Oh, that man is out
of date. What did you expect?
At 25 years, He knows a little
bit about it, but not much.
At 30 years, Maybe we ought to
find out what Dad thinks.
At 35 years, A little patience,
Let’s get Dad’s assessment before we do anything.
At 50 years, I wonder what Dad
would have thought about that. He was pretty smart.
At 60 years, my Dad knew
absolutely everything!
At 65 Years,
I’d give anything if Dad were here so I could talk this over with
him. I really miss that man.
And then there was this jewel in
Annie’s Mailbox from our 5/21/2006 newspaper from a retired naval
officer who said two weeks ago his 16-year-old daughter had a date
with a young man he’d never met. His wife, a teacher at the
school, said he was a good kid. . . . When the young man showed up
to get his daughter, he sat in the car and honked the horn.
(Strike 1 against him). The father went out and told the boy she
was not ready and that he should come in the house. He did, and
then proceeded to call his wife by her first name (Strike 2) When
he tried the same with old dad, the young man was sternly told to
call him “Sir.” And finally when the daughter appeared, the young
boy blurted out, “It’s about time” (Strike 3) and old dad blew his
stack. His daughter cried and his wife has not spoken to him and
now he wants Annie to tell him if he was wrong.
WEST VIRGINIA
Supreme Court backs help for 'pro se' plaintiffs
By
Steve Korris - Statehouse Bureau
Douglas Cottrill could have
overturned a $9,504.25 child support order with no help from an
attorney, if he had known about the statute of limitations. . . .
Now the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has cancelled
Cottrill's debt, ruling that Harrison County Circuit Judge Thomas
Bedell should have accommodated his lack of legal expertise. . . .
Under the state Constitution, "the right of self representation in
civil proceedings is a fundamental right ..." . . . Still, those
who appear "pro se" -- for self -- run a risk of missing legal
points on which they might have prevailed. . . . Twenty years ago
the Supreme Court of Appeals held that a trial court must "strive
to insure that no person's cause or defense is defeated solely by
reason of their unfamiliarity with procedural or evidentiary
rules." . . . Cottrill turned into a perfect example.
|
|
Article of the week from South Carolina Lawyers Weekly:
Unwed Dad Loses Adoption Dispute Over Meager Support
A biological father's consent to
adoption was not required where he avoided his pregnant girlfriend
and offered "insubstantial" support of $50, cigarettes, sodas and
a few fast food meals, the Appeals Court has ruled.
The father's de minimus
contributions and his limited contacts with the unwed mother,
especially in the last half of her pregnancy, fell short of the
support required by statute to protect his parental rights.
The statutory requirements can be
excused if the father shows good faith efforts to assume his
parental responsibility, only to be thwarted by the mother. That
was not the case, the court said.
Evidence showed the father cut off
most contacts with his girlfriend before the birth of their child,
even as she tried to reach him. One witness testified the father
told her he was "trying to hide out."
The June 5 opinion is Doe v. Roe
(South Carolina Lawyers Weekly No. 011-113-06, 24 pages). Judge
Ralph King Anderson Jr. wrote the opinion for a unanimous court.
The ruling upholds Spartanburg
County Family Court Judge James F. Fraley Jr., who found the
father had abdicated his responsibility, making his consent to
adoption unnecessary.
The appeals panel also affirmed the
trial court's termination of the father's parental rights.
"The significant issue in this case
was the court's finding of a de minimus amount when in fact there
were some tangible efforts made by the father, at least for part
of the pregnancy," said Spartanburg attorney James Fletcher
Thompson, who represented the adopting parents.
"What was considered de minimus in
this case has in the practice of adoption law given pause to other
judges and perhaps to other adoptive families," he told Lawyers
Weekly. "If a father simply did a small amount, it sometimes froze
the willingness to move forward with an adoption plan."
The court also focused on the
father's contributions early on in the pregnancy — and his lack of
support towards the end, Thompson said.
"There was a window of time when
there was no efforts," he said. "The court specifically stated for
the first time that the support needed to be substantial and
consistent. So consistency counts."
The ruling also clarifies that the
court will look only at the father's pre-birth conduct, Thompson
said.
"The father shopped for baby items
at Target after the birth, but that was given little to no value
in the court's analysis," he said.
Facts
Roe, who has been married since
April 2000, separated from his wife and moved in with his
girlfriend Melanie in March 2004. Melanie soon became pregnant and
told Roe. A few weeks after moving in with Melanie, Roe returned
to his wife.
Melanie entered drug rehab in June
2004 and stayed there through September. The parties dispute how
often Roe visited her during that time. Testimony indicated it was
as few as six times and as many as 13.
Roe gave her about $50 in cash,
brought her cigarettes and sodas, and took her out to eat twice at
Subway and once at KFC.
Melanie said the visits stopped
about a month before she left rehab. According to the opinion, she
attempted unsuccessfully to contact Roe by phone on several
occasions.
"The evidence does suggest that Roe
hid from Melanie," according to the opinion. Except for one or two
chance encounters, and one 15-minute visit, the two had no
contact.
Melanie gave birth to a boy on Jan.
19, 2005 and executed a consent for adoption form on Jan. 20,
2005. The adoptive parents, Jane and John Doe, filed for adoption
of the boy on Jan. 24, 2005.
On Feb. 12, 2005, after learning of
the Does' adoption suit, Roe went to Target and bought blankets, a
diaper bag and pacifiers.
However, Judge Fraley approved the
adoption, ruling Roe had abdicated his responsibility to Melanie
and his unborn child, meaning his consent to the adoption was not
required. Judge Fraley also terminated Roe's parental rights.
Roe appealed.
Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court has
recognized an unwed father's relationship with his child may be
entitled to constitutional protection. However, that is not
automatic. The father must first "demonstrate a full commitment to
the responsibilities of parenthood by coming forward to
participate in the rearing of his child."
S.C. Code Ann. Sect. 20-7-1690
reflects those constitutional considerations. It states the unwed
father's consent to adoption is required "if the child was placed
with the prospective adoptive parents six months or less after the
child's birth." One condition under the statute: the father must
have "paid a fair and reasonable sum, based on the father's
financial ability, for the support of the child or for expenses
incurred in connection with the mother's pregnancy or with the
birth of the child…."
A 1993 Supreme Court case,
Abernathy v. Baby Boy, 313 S.C. 27, 437 S.E.2d 25, held even
when the statutory requirements are not strictly met, the father
"may nonetheless be afforded constitutional protection when he
undertakes sufficient prompt and good faith efforts to assume
parental responsibility and to comply with the statute."
The Abernathy court found the
father made good faith efforts to support his child, giving his
child's mother use of a car and bank account, only to have the
mother rebuff his advances and reject his offer of marriage.
That was distinguishable from the
facts in Roe, Judge Anderson wrote.
"Roe's contributions to Melanie
were too insubstantial to be of consequence," he said. "During the
last half of Melanie's pregnancy Roe saw her for only 15 minutes
and contributed nothing to her except a pillow. Melanie never
rebuffed his advances or otherwise demonstrated a disinterest in
having Roe involved and supportive during the pregnancy.
"Whereas the father in Abernathy
'timely demonstrated a willingness to develop a full custodial
relationship with his child,' Roe failed to evince a commitment to
the child deserving of protection," Judge Anderson wrote.
"Roe simply failed to meet the
'general minimum standards by which an unwed father timely may
demonstrate his commitment to the child, and his desire to grasp
the opportunity to assume full responsibility for his child," the
court said. |
June 7, 2006
Procedurally Defeated: Law Without Laws
By Terri Lynn
Tersak
Everyday brings a new ream of tragic stories of fathers being wrongfully
torn from their children’s lives. This is usually attributed to the
agenda of groups supporting radical ideologies. But I felt there had to
be more to the story than just that since it is happening to mothers
too, although not as often as to fathers. The answer is, follow the
money.. . . Recently our organization had both the pleasure and
misfortune of getting some
national exposure on
some of the surveys and interviews that we have been conducting. The
surveys and interviews were dealing with various abuses of our legal
system, most notably false allegations of domestic violence.. . .
Through our in person surveys of plaintiffs in domestic violence cases
we have discovered a significant level of premeditated false claims of
domestic violence. Subsequently, current Family Court Judges have
corroborated our survey findings. They acknowledge pervasive levels of
false claims not only exist, but law firms, including
Legal Services Corporation
(LSC) grant recipients, are knowing participants that are scripting
statements for their clients in these cases. They also expressed concern
over the reluctance of their county’s District Attorney’s Office to
prosecute these false claims. . . . Within hours of the article’s
release victims of legal system abuses requesting assistance and to have
their cases included in our research inundated our offices with
contacts. In the following two weeks, we received the details of over
four-thousand cases of blatant gender based discrimination against men
and other civil rights violations against both men and women.
Legal
Services Corporation latest Annual Report
The Modern Day Debtor’s Prison for Dads
By Denise Noe
Think “debtor’s prison” and the mind
automatically reels back to the 19th Century and the horrors depicted so
powerfully by Charles Dickens. Indeed, even the idea of debtor’s prison
is apt to strike modern minds as primitive at its base since how is
someone in prison supposed to get the funds to pay off a debt? Debtor’s
prison seems barbaric since it can criminalize poverty. It is easy for
we moderns to congratulate ourselves on coming out of the confused and
confusing worldview that led to something as brutal and
counterproductive as debtor’s prison. . . . Except that debtor’s prison
is in fact alive and sick and politically popular in contemporary
America. It is known as a crackdown on “deadbeat dads.” Indeed, the
common alliterative term “deadbeat dads’ is used because much of our
child support system is built upon a single model of a non-custodial
parent in arrears, that of the feckless, irresponsible father. That
stereotype was not woven out of whole cloth as there are indeed men who
father children, could easily support them, and simply choose to avoid
their obligations.
May 24, 2006
MONTANA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
Interesting comments to the following story . . . click headline
to read entire article and then go further down the page to read
the comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge orders prison time for not paying child support
By The Associated
Press
A federal judge here has sentenced am
Alabama man to six months in prison for failing to pay child support for
nearly a decade, chastising the father for spending money that should
have gone to support his son. . . . The attorney for Roman Glenn, 35,
had requested his client receive only a probationary sentence so he
could continue to work and pay his child support. In court Tuesday,
Glenn noted that he has now paid $16,900 and was ready to pay the
remaining $944. . . . U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell, however, was
not moved, saying Glenn had moved and changed jobs to avoid paying the
$304 monthly child-support for nearly a decade. . . . "You seem to have
a great deal of ability. You seem to be very intelligent. You have had
some very responsible jobs. You also have a history of leaving any job
that you have after a fairly short time," Lovell told Glenn. "And now
you come in, finally, at the time for sentence and you tell me you have
paid this child support, which goes back for a period of almost 10
years.
May 16, 2006
Domestic violence law abuses rights of men
By Phyllis
Schlafly
In January, President George W. Bush signed the reauthorization of the
Violence Against Women Act without public debate, even though evidence
has surfaced that Congress should have examined it before the law was
extended. . . . The act, which costs nearly $1 billion per year, is one
of the major ways former President Bill Clinton bought the support of
radical feminists. . . . Why Republicans passed this bill is a mystery.
It's unlikely that the feminists who will spend all that money will ever
vote Republican. . . . Passage of the Violence Against Women Act was a
major priority of the American Bar Association for whose members it is a
cash cow. More than 300 courts have implemented specialized docket
processes to address the cases stemming from the act, more than 1
million women have obtained protection orders from the courts, and more
than 660 new state laws pertaining to domestic violence have been
passed, all of which produce profitable work for lawyers. . . . A
recently issued ABA document called “Tool for Attorneys” provides
lawyers with a list of suggestive questions to encourage their clients
to make domestic-violence charges. Knowing that a woman can get a
restraining order against the father of her children in an ex parte
proceeding without any evidence, and that she will never be punished for
lying, domestic-violence accusations have become a major tactic for
securing sole child custody.
NEW YORK
Proof of Viagra Use Rebuts Wife's Claim of Abandonment
Mark Fass, New York Law Journal
In New York, a state
that requires aspiring divorcees to prove grounds -- and that also
provides ample economic incentive for their spouses to contest those
grounds -- defendants in divorce proceedings can find themselves needing
to establish that they have not constructively abandoned their partners
by denying them sex for over a year. . . . But how? . . . For one
Westchester, N.Y., man, the proof was in the pill box: G.W. elicited as
evidence of his and his wife C.W.'s lovemaking his physician's testimony
that he had taken Viagra and, purportedly, that it had worked. . . . Mr.
W. also offered up as proof his 10-pill prescription for the
erectile-dysfunction medication, which had only eight pills remaining. .
. . "While the parties' conflicting testimony creates a credibility
issue to be resolved by this Court, there is other evidence to which the
Court may turn," Westchester Supreme Court Justice William J. Giacomo
ruled in C.W. v. G.W., 01112/05.
May 12, 2006
Suffering Patriarchy
An Analytical
Exploration into the Promise of the Forbidden Planet
By Robert
Lindsay; Cheney Jr. Author
Fathers Rights
/ Political Science
/ Sociology / Misandry
[FIRST DRAFT] This book is a Free Public Domain publication, placed here
to help Fathers and those scholars seeking to understand the present
Aparthied being inflicted against American Males and especially, the
Institution of Fatherhood. Please freely disseminate and publicize this
work that will remain in the public domain. Fathers, who need to fight
this system, will be armed with the facts and figures which are
applicable to this war against them. Those so armed, will be able to
enforce their rights as Fathers, to their own children, and defeat those
working against Fatherhood. Author's information has been catalogued
after many years of study of this Domestic Enemy which invents
Fatherhood into a crime, and inflicts a needless war against them in
which to obtain money, power, and the ability to usurp and overthrow the
foundation of our free society: The American Home and Family.
A man's right to choose
This is Joe's sperm. It contains his genetic material. When joined with
an egg, it can produce offspring--as well as certain legal
responsibilities. Does Joe have any say in all this? . . . EARLIER THIS
MONTH, a 25-year-old Michigan computer programmer named Matthew Dubay
sued in federal court to avoid paying child support for his 7-month-old
daughter. The girl's mother, he alleges, had claimed to be both
infertile and on birth control, and he had made it clear all along that
he didn't want children. The resulting pregnancy, as he saw it, was
simply not his fault, and the child not in any way his responsibility. .
. . It's a common enough situation, but the National Center for Men, a
New York-based advocacy group that is coordinating and paying for the
lawsuit, claims to have waited years for a plaintiff as compelling as
Dubay. The Center has labeled (and, incidentally, trademarked) the case
''Roe v. Wade for Men." . . . Around the same time, the European Court
of Human Rights unanimously ruled that a woman could not implant embryos
created in a course of in vitro fertilization if the man involved did
not want her to. The painful particulars of the case have made it
front-page news in England, where
the couple is from. The plaintiff, a young woman named Natallie Evans,
had undergone IVF with her fiance before being rendered infertile by
treatment for ovarian cancer, and if she isn't able to reverse the
court's decision by October, the embryos will expire and she will lose
her last chance to have biological children.
Unwed Fathers Fight for Babies Placed
for Adoption by Mothers
By Tamar
Lewin
Jeremiah Clayton Jones discovered that his former fiancée was pregnant
just three weeks before the baby was due, when an adoption-agency lawyer
called and asked if he would consent to have his baby adopted. . . .
 |
|
|
Jeff Topping
for The New York Times |
|
Jeremiah Clayton Jones, who failed to file with a state registry for
unwed fathers, is appealing the termination of his parental rights. . .
. "I said absolutely not," said Mr. Jones, a 23-year-old
Arizona man who met his ex-fiancée at Pensacola Christian College in
Florida. "It was an awkward moment, hearing for the first time that I
would be a father, and then right away being told, 'We want to take your
kid away.' But I knew that if I was having a baby, I wanted that baby."
. . . Mr. Jones has never seen his son, now 18 months old. Instead, he
lost his parental rights because of his failure to file with a state
registry for unwed fathers — something he learned of only after it was
too late. . . . Under Florida law, and that of other states, an
unmarried father has no right to withhold consent for adoption unless he
has registered with the state putative father registry before an
adoption petition is filed. Mr. Jones missed the deadline. . . .
Although one in every three American babies has unwed parents, birth
fathers' rights remain an unsettled area, a delicate balancing act
between the importance of biological ties and the undisrupted placement
of babies whose mothers relinquish them for adoption. . . . While women
have the right to get an
abortion,
or to have and raise a child, without informing the father, courts have
increasingly found that when birth mothers choose adoption, fathers who
have shown a desire for involvement have rights, too.
ARKANSAS
Supreme Court upholds adoption
Natural Father has no rights in Arkansas.
By Rob
Moritz, Arkansas News Bureau
A
woman who has had no contact with the father of her baby since the night
the child was conceived does not have to notify the father or receive
his consent before putting the baby up for adoption, the Arkansas
Supreme Court said Thursday. . . . The 6-1 ruling affirmed a decision by
Washington County Circuit Judge Michael H. Mashburn. . . . According to
Thursday's high court decision, Rusty Wayne Escobedo and Misty Ford had
a brief romantic relationship in March 2004. Escobedo and Ford did not
talk after that encounter, and he was not aware that she became
pregnant. . . . On Dec. 3, 2004, Ford gave birth to
a baby girl, relinquished her paternal rights and consented to the
child's adoption by Mark and Jennifer Nickita. Two weeks earlier, the
couple had filed a petition for adoption. The petition said the father
was unknown. . . . On Dec. 14, 2004, Escobedo was served a summons and
petition for adoption. Two days later he appeared at an adoption hearing
and a DNA test was administered.
|
Federal Incentives Make Children Fatherless
by Phyllis Schlafly
Why has Congress
appropriated taxpayers' money to give perverse incentives that break up
families and deprive children of their fathers? The built-in financial
incentives in the current child-support system have expanded the tragedy
of fatherless children from the welfare class to millions of non-welfare
divorced couples.
Americans have
finally realized that providing generous welfare through Aid to Families
with Dependent Children (AFDC) was counterproductive because the father
had to disappear in order for the mother to receive taxpayer-paid
benefits. Fathers left the home, illegitimacy rose in alarming numbers,
and children were worse off.
AFDC provided a
taxpayer-paid financial incentive to reward girls with their own monthly
check, food stamps, health care and housing if they have an illegitimate
baby. "She doesn't need me, she's got welfare" became the mantra.
Congress tried to
reform the out-of-control welfare system by a series of child-support
laws passed in 1975, 1984, 1988, 1996 (the famous Republican Welfare
Reform), and 1999. Unfortunately, these laws morphed the welfare system
into a massive middle-class child-support system that deprives millions
of children of fathers who never abandoned them.
As Ronald Reagan
often said, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm
from the government and I'm here to help you."
People think that
child-support enforcement benefits children, but it doesn't. When
welfare agencies collect child support, the money actually goes to the
government to reimburse for welfare payments already given to mothers,
supposedly to reduce the federal budget (which, of course, is never
reduced).
In 1984, Congress
passed the Child Support Enforcement Amendment which required the states
to adopt voluntary guidelines for child-support payments. In 1988,
Congress passed the Family Support Act, which made the guidelines
mandatory, along with criminal enforcement, and gave the states less
than a year to comply.
The majority of
states quickly adopted the model guidelines conveniently already written
by an HHS consultant who was president of what was shortly to become one of the
nation's largest private collection companies making its profits on the
onerous guidelines that create arrearages.
The 1988 law
extended the guidelines to
ALL
child-support orders, even though the big majority of those families
never had to interact with government in order to pay or receive child
support. This massive expansion of federal control over private lives
uses a Federal Case Registry to exercise surveillance over 19 million
citizens whether or not they are behind in child-support payments.
The states collect
the child-support money and deposit it in a state fund, but the federal
government pays most of the administrative costs and, therefore,
dictates the way the system operates through mandates and financial
incentives. The federal government pays 66 percent of the states'
administrative overhead costs, 80 percent of computer and
technology-enhancement costs, and 90 percent of DNA testing for
paternity.
In addition, the
states share in a nearly-half-billion-dollar incentive reward pool based
on whatever the state collects. The states can get a waiver to spend
this bonus money anyway they choose.
However, most of the
child support owed by welfare-class fathers is uncollectible. Most are
either unemployed or earn less than $10,000 per year.
So, in order to cash
in on federal bonus money, build their bureaucracies and brag about
successful child-support enforcement, the states began bringing into the
government system middle-class fathers with jobs who were never (and
probably would never be) on welfare. These non-welfare families have
grown to 83 percent of child-support cases and 92 percent of the money
collected, creating a windfall of federal money flowing to the states.
The federal
incentives drive the system. The more divorces, and the higher the
child-support guidelines are set and enforced (no matter how
unreasonable), the more money the state bureaucracy collects from the
feds.
Follow the money.
The less time that non-custodial parents (usually fathers) are permitted
to be with their children, the more child support they must pay into the
state fund, and the higher the federal bonus to the states for
collecting the money.
The states have
powerful incentives to separate fathers from their children, to give
near-total custody to mothers, to maintain the fathers' high-level
support obligations even if their income is drastically reduced, and to
hang onto the father's payments as long as possible before paying them
out to the mothers. The General Accounting Office reported that in 2002
states were holding $657 million in UDC (Undistributed Child Support).
Fatherless boys are
63 percent more likely to run away and 37 percent more likely to abuse
drugs, and fatherless girls are twice as likely to get pregnant and 53
percent more likely to commit suicide. Fatherless boys and girls are
twice as likely to drop out of high school twice as likely to end up in
jail.
We can no longer
ignore how taxpayers' money is incentivizing divorce and creating
fatherless children. Nor can we ignore the government's complicity in
the predictable social costs that result from more than 17 million
children growing up without their fathers.
Phyllis Schlafly's column on
Eagle Forum, Org.
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/may05/05-05-11.html
Schlafly's articles on
Victims-of-Law
|
|
SEND EMAIL
|
|
|
FATHERHOOD BOOKS
AT AMAZON |
|
|
 |
|
