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March 2010

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Courts committee critical of Superior Court justice

By Nancy West, New Hampshire Sunday News

03-04-10 -- The committee that disciplines judges has criticized Superior Court Chief Justice Robert Lynn for his courtroom demeanor in a child-custody case, though it dismissed the underlying grievances filed by the mother and her attorney. . . . Erica Tapply of Merrimack and her attorney claimed Judge Lynn was biased against her when she was seeking to maintain limits on visitation with her young son by his father, a convicted rapist. . . . The Judicial Conduct Committee voted to dismiss the grievances alleging bias and discrimination filed by Tapply and her attorney, Katherine Stearns of New London, but cautioned Lynn about his tone on the bench. Lynn disagreed with the committee regarding his courtroom temperament. . . . In letters sent to Lynn and obtained by the New Hampshire Sunday News, the Judicial Conduct Committee said of Lynn’s conduct in the Sept. 29, 2009, hearing: “... the Committee expressed its concern with the rather strident tone taken by the Court in questioning Ms. Tapply and in issuing its final conclusions, as well as entering into a debate with Attorney Stearns after the conclusion of the hearing."

OKLAHOMA  

Top Oklahoma court rejects abortion bill

Julie Bisbee, Capitol Bureau The Oklahoman

03-04-10 -- Legislation that seeks to limit a woman’s access to abortions was declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. . . . In an opinion handed down Tuesday, the court said the legislation, which contains several provisions including requiring ultrasounds for women seeking abortions and limiting a woman’s access to pregnancy-ending drugs, violated the state’s constitution that says legislation is limited to one subject. . . . The state’s high court upheld a decision Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson, who said the bill was unconstitutional because it contained provisions with several different subjects.

February 2010

CALIFORNIA  

Judge who denied restraining order faces challenge

Mike Cruz, San Bernardino Sun Staff Writer

02-21-10 -- A Superior Court judge is facing a challenge in the June election after he denied a Yucca Valley woman's request for a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend days before he reportedly killed their 9-month-old son and then himself. . . . Judge Robert Lemkau, who was appointed in 2007 and was recently transferred to Victorville Superior Court, is facing his first election to the court. Of the 31 judicial seats that were up for re-election this year, Lemkau's is one of two seats facing a challenge. . . . Lemkau did not return calls to his courtroom for comment. . . . Deputy District Attorney James Hosking stepped up to run against Lemkau after he heard about the judge's ruling in a case involving Katie Tagle - a case Hosking says is black and white.

TENNESSEE

Born on streets, infant placed in foster home may have been killed

By Kate Howard, The Tennessean 

02-05-10 -- Cherokeewolf William Diedrich, born into poverty on the side of a dirty street, was supposed to be getting a better chance at life when he was put into foster care. . . . His then-homeless mother did not willingly give up the child, but she agreed she could use some time to get her life together before taking on the duties of motherhood. The foster parents took the newborn and they hoped to adopt him if he didn't go back to his mother. . . . When Cherokeewolf was taken off life support on Tuesday, dead at the age of 12 weeks, both their dreams died with him. . . . Kimberlee Diedrich, now living in an apartment, was left to wonder how life had been better for her son. And police turned their attention to the foster home setting after hospital X-rays indicated the baby may have been shaken - more than once. . . . The medical examiner's office has not released a cause of death, saying more tests need to be completed. No charges have been brought, but police are calling their review of the case a homicide investigation.

January 2010

FLORIDA  

Ruling a third strike against Florida's gay adoption ban

A Miami judge has approved the adoption of a foster child by a lesbian couple, bringing to three the number of adoptions by gay parents since 2008.

By Carol Marbin Miller, MiamiHerald.com

01-27-10 -- With the blessing of her large extended family, Vanessa Alenier took custody of an infant relative who had been seized by child welfare workers. She moved him into a yellow nursery with a blond wood crib, a blue-striped carpet and a mobile. . . . When she asked the state to for permission to adopt him, the application included a simple question. . . . Are you gay? . . . Alenier, 34, said she did not want to begin her journey as a parent with a lie. So she told the truth -- despite Florida's 33-year-old law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting.

Fla. woman fights ruling that kept her in hospital

By Bill Kaczor, Associated Press Writer

01-26-10 -- Samantha Burton wanted to leave the hospital. Her doctor strongly disagreed, enough to go to court to keep her there. . . . She smoked cigarettes during the first six months of her pregnancy and was admitted on a false alarm of premature labor. Her doctor argued she was risking a miscarriage if she didn't quit smoking immediately and stay on bed rest in the hospital, and a judge agreed. . . . Three days after the judge ordered her not to leave the hospital, Burton delivered a stillborn fetus by cesarean section. . . . And six months after the pregnancy ended, the dispute over the legal move to keep her in the hospital continues, raising questions about where a mother's right to decide her own medical treatment ends and where the priority of protecting a fetus begins.

Pregnant Pro Se Mom Argued Treatment Case from
Hospital Bed & Lost; Will Lawyer Win Appeal?

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

01-26-10 -- Already the mother of two daughters, Samantha Burton had obtained prenatal care for her third pregnancy and voluntarily went to the hospital when she experienced symptoms she'd been told to look out for, in the hope of saving her baby, according to her lawyer. . . . When the 29-year-old questioned the medical advice and care she received there, however, and sought to leave, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital got a Florida judge to order her to submit to the treatment its doctors ordered, including bed rest at the facility, reports the Associated Press. Her stillborn baby was delivered by Caesarian section three days later. . . . Now, in a closely watched case that pits Burton's constitutional rights against those of her fetus, a Florida appeals court is mulling whether the state had the right to order her to submit to specific medical treatment, against her wishes and, at least arguably, without considering other viable options. Although a reversal would come too late, of course, to uphold Burton's claimed constitutional rights concerning the forced treatment at Florida Memorial Hospital, it would, she says through her lawyer, David Abrams, help prevent other women from going through a similar "horrible" experience that is still very upsetting to her, the AP reports. . . . The hospital and its doctors declined to comment. However, State Attorney Willie Meggs, who handled the case after the hospital reportedly brought the matter to his office, says the emergency situation--doctors feared a miscarriage--and the threat to the life of Burton's fetus justified the judge's decision, after a telephone hearing, that the best interest of her unborn child trumped Burton's constitutional rights to privacy and to refuse medical treatment. . . . Burton argued her case alone, unrepresented by counsel, from her hospital bed during the telephone conference call court hearing, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. The hospital's legal counsel, E. Murray Moore Jr., argued against her in the Leon County case, having been appointed a special assistant state attorney by Meggs for the purpose. . . . "This is good people trying to do things in a right fashion to save lives, whether some people want them saved or not," Meggs tells the AP, contending that there was no time to seek a second opinion. . . . Burton, represented by Abrams and backed by attorney Diana Kasdan, who is reportedly representing both the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Medical Women’s Association in the case, says the judge's ruling, if allowed to stand, creates a worrisome precedent. Her symptoms weren't all that unusual, she wasn't in labor, and there were a number of treatment options, including bed rest at home, that would have been appropriate for her and allowed her to take better care of her two daughters there, she and the lawyers contend.

TEXAS

Woman beaten by teen son responsible for his legal costs

By Adriana M. Chávez / For the Sun-News

01-25-10 -- Four months ago, Teresa Fuller endured a severe beating at the hands of her 15-year-old son after he refused to do his chores. . . . She said she received multiple concussions and has a scattered memory of the last three months of 2009. . . . Not only does she have to live with the lingering physical affects of the beating, she has to pay her son's legal bills, prompting her to wonder why the state's court system doesn't do enough to help victims of parental abuse. . . . "As a victim, I don't feel like I should have to pay," Fuller said. . . . Fuller said she and her two sons moved to El Paso from Arizona in June 2008, shortly after her husband died. While in Arizona, Fuller's 15-year-old son was arrested more than 20 times, all for physically abusing her, Fuller said. . . . The El Paso Times isn't identifying the boy because of his age. . . . Fuller said his September arrest was his third since moving to Texas. The September incident started after she told him to do his chores and he refused, she said. . . . "He pushed me once and kept pushing me. It got to the point where I ended up calling the police," Fuller said. . . . Fuller said her son struck her in the chest with an open hand and knocked the wind out of her. He kept pushing her onto the floor but she continued to try to get up again. As he was pushing her, Fuller said, she struck her head on the floor and the leg of a nearby table.

ILLINOIS

Win in parental discrimination case raises issues for employers

By Ameet Sachdev, Chicago Tribune reporter

01-24-10 -- Dena Lockwood, 39, has been a working mother since she was 18 but never felt she was treated differently in the workplace because of her family responsibilities. Then she took a sales position in 2004 at Professional Neurological Services Ltd. . . . Her commission rate was lower than that of sales people who were not parents. She was ignored in sales meetings. The company was more lax about time off taken by single people. . . . One day in 2006 when she had to take a day off because her 4-year-old daughter was sick, her manager responded by firing her. . . . Working mothers face discrimination on the job, but Lockwood's story has gained attention because of her rare accomplishment: Instead of going to court, she filed a discrimination claim against her former employer at the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and won. . . . The low-profile administrative agency enforces the city's regulations that prohibit discrimination in housing and employment. Chicago's ordinance also is one of the few local statutes nationwide that expressly prohibits job discrimination against parents.

VERMONT vs. VIRGINIA

Vt. judge sets deadline in women’s custody dispute

By John Curran, AP, The DC

01-22-10 -- A judge refereeing a child-custody dispute between former lesbian partners balked Friday at issuing a contempt citation for one of them and instead gave her 30 days to appear in court with the girl or face arrest. . . . Lisa Miller has disappeared with 7-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins, and Miller’s former partner renewed her call for help finding the girl. . . . “Every day I wonder where she is, and if she’s OK,” said Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven. “Every time the phone rings, I hope it is someone calling to tell me they have found her.” . . . Miller, the girl’s biological mother, was ordered to surrender custody of Isabella on Jan. 1, but she failed to do so. The girl is now considered a missing person. . . . On Friday, Family Court Judge William Cohen — who had ordered the custody change two months ago — rejected Jenkins’ plea for a contempt-of-court citation against Miller but found her in violation of his previous order. He set a Feb. 23 court date, saying if Miller doesn’t appear with the child then, he would issue a warrant for her arrest. . . . He did not rule out referring the matter for a criminal prosecution on custodial interference.

No Supreme Court hearing for mom who asked to read Bible to son's class

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear the appeal of a Pennsylvania mom who sought to read five verses of Psalms from the Bible as part of her son's 'All About Me' classroom assignment.

By Warren Richey The Christian Science Monitor Staff writer

01-19-10 -- A mother blocked from reading Bible passages during “show and tell” in her son’s kindergarten class has lost her bid to have the US Supreme Court examine the public school’s actions. . . . On Tuesday, the high court declined to take up Donna Kay Busch’s lawsuit against the Marple Newtown School District in suburban Philadelphia. The court issued its order dismissing the case without comment. . . . The action ends a four-year legal battle over whether Ms. Busch, an Evangelical Christian, should have been allowed to read five verses from the Book of Psalms to her son’s class. / Part of 'All About Me' week  . . . The reading was to be part of an in-class assignment in which the children were invited to present important aspects of their lives to their classmates. As part of this “All About Me” week-long assignment, Busch’s son, Wesley, made a poster displaying photographs of himself, his hamster, his brothers, his parents, his best friend, and a construction-paper likeness of his church.

The case is Busch v. Marple Newtown School District.

CALIFORNIA

Help for San Jose mom whose car was repossessed as son slept in back seat

By Lisa Fernandez, mercurynews.com

01-14-10 -- Strangers from around the country are stepping forward to help a San Jose woman whose car was repossessed this week as her toddler slept in the back seat. . . . More than two dozen people, including someone from Michigan, e-mailed or called the Mercury News on Thursday in response to a story about Isabel Luevano, and pledged to try to help the 26-year-old single mother of three get her 2000 green Honda Accord back. . . . "The story just touched my heart," said Patrick Amador, 48, a small San Jose businessman who has five children and planned to walk into Luevano's office Thursday and hand her $50. "My kids struggle. I got a little extra money, and my priest tells us when we see someone who needs help, we should help."

Repo man takes San Jose mom's car with 2-year-old in back seat

GEORGIA

Army Charges Mom Who Refused Deployment

The Associated Press, Newsmax 

01-13-10 -- The Army said Wednesday it has filed criminal charges against a single-mom soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan last year, arguing she had no family able to care for her infant son. . . .  Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, could face a prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge if she is convicted by a court-martial. But first, an officer will be appointed to decide if there's enough evidence to try a case against her. . . . Hutchinson's attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said she still hopes the case can be settled without a military trial. She said the Army should consider Hutchinson's reason for not deploying overseas — that she was afraid of what would happen to her baby. . . . "There are other routes if they really want to punish her," Hutchinson's attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said Wednesday. "I don't think the situation was serious enough to warrant a criminal matter." . . . Hutchinson of Oakland, Calif., was scheduled to deploy from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah on Nov. 5. She skipped her unit's flight, saying the only relative she had to take care of her 10-month-old son — her mother — was overwhelmed by the task and backed out a few days before Hutchinson's departure date.

CALIFORNIA

Appeals court rules in favor of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman

Los Angeles Times

01-08-10 -- A state appeals court has ruled in favor of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman, saying a child actor's call for the appointment of an independent guardian to monitor the octuplet's finances was an "unprecedented, meritless effort by a stranger." . . .  In an opinion filed today, 4th District Court of Appeal justices directed an Orange County probate court to vacate its order for an investigation into the family's finances. . . . Paul Petersen, a child actor who is now an advocate for children in the entertainment industry, had taken Suleman to court, arguing that her children were vulnerable to exploitation and that an independent guardian should be appointed to look after their financial interests.

VERMONT

Hearing on custody case set

By Brent Curtis, Rutland Herald Staff Writer

01-08-10 -- A Rutland Family Court judge wants to hear all arguments before deciding on a motion that seeks a warrant for the arrest of a Virginia woman who failed to turn over her 7-year-old daughter to her former lesbian partner. . . . Six days after Lisa Miller and her daughter Isabella Miller failed to appear for a court-ordered custody transfer in Virginia, Judge William Cohen scheduled a Jan. 22 hearing date. . . . Asked about the time it would take to argue for what was filed as an emergency motion in the case, Jennifer Levi, an attorney representing Miller's former partner, Janet Jenkins, said she wouldn't question the judge's decision but said the sooner the motion was considered the better.

NEW York  

Billionaire’s Ex-Wife Hires New Lawyer

New York Times (blog) 

01-05-10 -- Patricia Cohen, the ex-wife of a hedge fund billionaire, Steven A. Cohen, has a new lawyer representing her in the civil racketeering lawsuit she filed against Mr. Cohen, Jenny Anderson writes in The New York Times. . . . Gaytri Kachroo has taken over the case from Paul Batista, a New York lawyer. In various federal inquiries and hearings, Ms. Kachroo represented Harry Markopolos, the whistle-blower who spent a decade trying to warn authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, that Bernard L. Madoff was running an extensive Ponzi scheme. . . . Ms. Cohen approached Ms. Kachroo soon after her case was filed in mid-December in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. “She felt her case wasn’t getting the attention it required,” said Ms. Kachroo, who is not a litigator but is a corporate lawyer with her own practice. . . . After reviewing the documents and learning of new facts that were not included in the original lawsuit, Ms. Kachroo said she decided to accept the case. “I think we have a very strong case, especially in light of the facts that we’ve uncovered,” she said. She declined to elaborate on those facts, but said they would be included in a new or amended complaint.

VERMONT vs. VIRGINIA    

Legal battle ratchets up in lesbian custody fight

By John Curran The Associated Press, Times Argus

01-05-10 -- A Vermont woman locked in a child custody battle with a former partner who has since renounced homosexuality asked a judge Monday to hold her ex in contempt and help find her and their 7-year-old daughter. . . . A lawyer for Janet Jenkins filed an emergency motion for contempt for not surrendering the couple's daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, on Friday. . . . The motion seeks court sanctions and the assistance of law enforcement in locating Lisa Miller, whose last known address was Forest, Va., but whose whereabouts are now unknown. . . . "I am so worried about Isabella," Jenkins said in a written statement issued by her lawyer, Sarah Star. "I do not know where she is or whether she is okay." . . . Miller's lawyer, Mathew Staver, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

December 2009

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. judge rules surrogate legal mother of twins despite not being genetically related

By The Associated Press, NJ.com   

12-31-09 -- A woman who bore twins for her brother and his partner is the legal mother, despite not being genetically related to the children, a New Jersey judge has ruled. . . . The babies Angelia Robinson gave birth to were conceived in a lab using eggs from an anonymous donor and sperm from Sean Hollingsworth, the husband of Robinson's brother, Donald Robinson Hollingsworth. . . . Lawyers involved say that it's not the first case of its kind, but that it does offer a glimpse into the complications that can arise from an emerging kind of surrogate parenthood increasingly used by gay male couples. . . . Superior Court Judge Francis Schultz's ruling, made Dec. 23 in Jersey City and shared with the parties this week, relied heavily on the New Jersey State Supreme Court's 2-decade-old ruling in the nation's best-known court case over surrogate rights, the Baby M case.

VERMONT vs. VIRGINIA

Vt. judge: Birth mom must give child to ex-partner

By Wilson Ring, Associated Press Writer, Sacromento Bee

12-29-09 -- The birth mother of a 7-year-old Virginia girl must transfer custody of the child to the woman's former lesbian partner, a Vermont judge ruled, adding that it seems the woman has "disappeared" with her daughter. . . . Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen ordered Lisa Miller of Winchester, Va., to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven at 1 p.m. Friday at the Virginia home of Jenkins' parents. . . . But in the Dec. 22 order denying Miller's request to delay the transfer of Isabella, Cohen wrote: "It appears that Ms. Miller has ceased contact with her attorneys and disappeared with the minor child." . . . Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.

ILLINOIS

Disabled mom fighting to keep her son

Can a quadriplegic woman be a good parent? Her ex-boyfriend filed a custody suit that says no.

By Sara Olkon, Chicago Tribune reporter

12-20-09 -- Kaney O'Neill knows she has limits as a mother. . . . The 31-year-old Des Plaines woman cannot walk, move her fingers independently or feel anything from the chest down. A decade ago, O'Neill was a Navy airman apprentice when she was knocked from a balcony during Hurricane Floyd, leaving her a quadriplegic. . . . When she discovered she was pregnant last December, she felt fear and joy, a journey the Tribune chronicled in August. She quickly embraced the opportunity to raise a child, feeling she had the money and family support to make up for her paralysis. . . . David Trais, her ex-boyfriend and the 49-year-old father of their now 5-month-old son, disagreed that she was up to the challenge. . . . In September, Trais sued O'Neill for full custody, charging that his former girlfriend is "not a fit and proper person" to care for their son, Aidan James O'Neill. . . . In court documents, Trais said O'Neill's disability "greatly limits her ability to care for the minor, or even wake up if the minor is distressed." . . . O'Neill counters that she always has another able-bodied adult on hand for Aidan -- be it her full-time caretaker, live-in brother or her mother. Even before she gave birth to Aidan, O'Neill said, she never went more than a few hours by herself.

TEXAS  

Texas Attorney Elizabeth Fontaine Feared Losing Daughters, So She Killed Them, Police Believe

Posted by Carlin DeGuerin Miller, CBS/AP CBS News (blog)

12-16-09 -- Orange County Sheriff’s believe that Texas attorney Elizabeth Fontaine may have been so distraught over a custody dispute that she killed her two young daughters, her mother and herself on Monday, but they are not willing to say for sure who pulled the trigger until a ballistics report returns. . . . After Fontaine didn’t return to a Southern California family court Monday afternoon, authorities were sent to the San Clemente area home where she was staying while dealing with a reported custody dispute with her ex-husband Jason Fontaine. . . . What cops found was an incredibly bloody scene: Fontaine, 38, her daughters, 4-year-old Catherine and 2-year-old Julia, and Fontaine’s mother, 67-year-old Bonnie Hoult, shot dead in the hallway, lying in close proximity, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino told CBS affiliate KFMB.

RHODE ISLAND  

Judge hears mom’s plea, orders DCYF to return newborn,
reunite Woonsocket family

By W. Zachary Malinowski, Providence Journal Staff Writer

12-11-09 -- On Monday, Netvilai Vixaisak of Woonsocket made her way to the Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence to hand deliver a note to Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. . . . “Right now, I have so much pain in my heart and it is hurting a lot due to what [the state] is doing to me. I want to be with all of my kids all in the same place,” she wrote. . . . After reading the note, Jeremiah emerged from his chambers to speak with the young mother, who broke down and cried in his fifth-floor courtroom. . . . “Don’t worry,” he told her. “I’m on your side. I’m fighting for you.” . . . The judge was deeply moved to learn that Vixaisak, 28, gave birth to a daughter, Isis Diamond, on Dec. 2, at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence. Two days later, as she prepared to return home and breast-feed the baby, she learned that the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, which already had custody of her three other children, had placed a “hold” on the newborn. She said she “cried and cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.”

VIRGINIA

Appeals court asked to keep mom, daughter together

Fighting out-of-state order to give 7-year-old to lesbian

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

12-11-09 -- The Virginia Court of Appeals has been asked to keep a mother and daughter together by affirming a state law that voids orders stemming from out-of-state civil unions. . . .Mathew Staver founded Liberty Counsel, which yesterday argued before the court on behalf of Lisa Miller, who has been ordered by a Vermont judge to turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to Miller's lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day. . . . WND has reported the case in which a Vermont judge ruled Jenkins, who has not been involved in Isabella's life for years, first should have visitation with Miller's biological daughter, then full custody. . . . The ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense Fund have been demanding that Miller give up her daughter to Jenkins, who maintains a lesbian lifestyle in Vermont. Miller left the lesbian lifestyle shortly after Isabella was born, and Jenkins neither has a blood relationship nor an adoptive relationship with the child. . . . The order is being appealed in Vermont. But the question pending before the Virginia Court of Appeals was whether Virginia must enforce custody and visitation orders arising from a Vermont same-sex civil union.

NEW YORK  

Outrage over convicted divorce judge

By Thomas Tracy, YourNabe.com

12-10-09 -- The fact that disgraced judge Gerald Garson will be home for the holidays is “reprehensible” and a “mockery of justice,” a group of divorced mothers and domestic violence survivors claimed Monday as they protested the convicted septuagenarian’s early release from prison. . . . “Money talks and Garson walks,” screamed Karlene Gordon as she and a handful of protestors from the Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW) stood across the street of Brooklyn Family Court on Jay Street Monday afternoon. “Gerald Garson and his partner in crime Paul Siminovsky deceived, corrupted and destroyed lives with judicial immunity and protection. Sentenced to a county club, resort-like prison, then allowed to escape his judicial slap on the wrist, Garson’s early release from jail is a slap in the faces of those lives he irreparably destroyed,” she added. “He will complete his sentence, yet the families he injured, on so many different levels, are still serving the sentence this felon imposed on them. His victims continue to suffer in silence without justice or recourse.” . . . Gordon said she knows about suffering in silence all too well.

WASHINGTON

$10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces

Rachel Porcaro knows she's hardly rich. When you're a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don't need government experts to tell you how broke you are.

Danny Westneat, Seattle Times staff columnist

12-06-09 -- Rachel Porcaro knows she's hardly rich. When you're a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don't need government experts to tell you how broke you are. . . . But that's what happened. The government not only told Porcaro she was poor. They said she was too poor to make it in Seattle. . . . It all started a year ago, when Porcaro, a 32-year-old mom with two boys, was summoned to the Seattle office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She had been flagged for an audit. . . . She couldn't believe it. She made $18,992 the previous year cutting hair at Supercuts. A few hundred of that she spent to have her taxes prepared by H&R Block. . . . "I asked the IRS lady straight upfront — 'I don't have anything, why are you auditing me?' " Porcaro recalled. "I said, 'Why me, when I don't own a home, a business, a car?' " . . . The answer stunned both Porcaro and the private tax specialist her dad had gotten to help her. . . . "They showed us a spreadsheet of incomes in the Seattle area," says Dante Driver, an accountant at Seattle's G.A. Michael and Co. "The auditor said, 'You made eighteen thousand, and our data show a family of three needs at least thirty-six thousand to get by in Seattle." . . . "They thought she must have unreported income. That she was hiding something. Basically they were auditing her for not making enough money."

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.

Choice Moms Announces Survey That Puts a Face on Women Who Choose to be Single Mothers

PR-USA.net (press release)

11-26-09 -- An article in the December issue of The Human Fertility Journal reports on a first-ever large-scale survey of women choosing to be single moms. These women — typically called choice moms or single mothers by choice — actively set out to give birth to or adopt a child without a partner, and differ from single mothers who find themselves alone following divorce or separation. The survey participants tended to be European-American, upper middle class, in their mid-to-late thirties, well educated, and financially secure. . . . The survey, which was conducted by researchers from The Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, collected data on the motivations and experiences of 291 choice moms using online questionnaires. Most of the participants were based in the United States, with the remainder living in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and several other primarily European countries. The article is titled “Mom by choice, single by life’s circumstance’: Findings from a large scale survey of the experiences of single mothers by choice.” . . . The majority of women (76%) in the survey had been in long-term relationships, but rather than have a child with the “wrong” partner chose to have a child alone. All of the women were happy with their decision to have a child alone, although more than half stated that they would have preferred to have a child within a relationship, and most felt it was important that their child have regular contact with a male role model.

OREGON  

Coos County woman feared for her life

Concerned Divorce Lawyer Followed Client, Witnessed Shooting Aftermath

By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian

11-19-09 -- Details emerged on Thursday indicating that a Coos County woman who was critically wounded by her husband was worried about her safety. . . . Ashley Kendall, 22, was shot by her husband Tuesday evening after she met with her lawyer to discuss an upcoming child custody hearing and divorce proceedings, according to R. Paul Frasier, Coos County district attorney. . . . While Kendall was meeting with her attorney, her 26-year-old husband, Travis Roy Kendall, got out of a borrowed car he had driven to the scene and slipped into the dark green Jeep Wagoneer that his wife had driven. . . . When Kendall finished her appointment, the lawyer walked her to the Jeep. . . . “I think it’s safe to say the lawyer had concerns about what was going on,” Frasier said. . . . The courts had just granted Ashley Kendall a restraining order against her husband. . . . She had no idea that he was hiding in the Jeep and the lawyer did not know either: Its rear passenger and cargo area windows are tinted. . . . The lawyer, Sharon Mitchell, watched her client drive away and even hopped in her own car and followed close behind to ensure that she was safe, Frasier said. . . . During the drive, Ashley Kendall called her sister, and at one point in the conversation screamed that “he” was in the Jeep.

Soldier mom nixes deployment to care for baby

Army cook may face criminal charges after refusing to go to Afghanistan

Associated Press, MSNBC 

11-16-09 -- An Army cook and single mom may face criminal charges after she skipped her deployment flight to Afghanistan because, she said, no one was available to care for her infant son while she was overseas. . . . Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, claims she had no choice but to refuse deployment orders because the only family she had to care for her 10-month-old son — her mother — was overwhelmed by the task, already caring for three other relatives with health problems. . . . Her civilian attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said Monday that one of Hutchinson's superiors told her she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care. . . . "For her it was like, 'I couldn't abandon my child,'" Sussman said. "She was really afraid of what would happen, that if she showed up they would send her to Afghanistan anyway and put her son with child protective services."

CALIFORNIA

Midlife Mom Launches Web Site On Motherhood

By Jory John, Santa Cruz Sentinel

11-15-09 -- In 2001, Angel La Liberte and her husband had a serious discussion. Both had been married before, but neither had any children. The pair decided, if possible, that they would like to conceive. La Liberte was 40 years old at the time. . . . "Basically, the attitude toward us was that it would be nothing short of a miracle," she says. . . . Against the odds, La Liberte's son was born in 2003. Three years after that, she had a daughter. Both were natural conceptions, occurring without the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies. And both babies were healthy. . . . When La Liberte turns 50 next year, her son will be 8 and her daughter will be 5. La Liberte realizes that she is on the forefront of mothers having children when they're older than 40. And because she wanted to form a community around the issue, La Liberte recently launched www.flowerpowermom.com, "the truth about motherhood after 40."

KENTUCKY

Protective order didn't stop man from shooting girlfriend, mother

By Andrew Wolfson • courier-journal.com

11-15-09 -- Accused of punching his girlfriend, threatening to kill her and ripping her phones out of the wall, unemployed handyman Terry Stoess stood in a Jefferson County courtroom and admitted only that he and Laura Eagle had argued over money. . . . “As far as harming her in any way,” Stoess, 49, insisted, “I never would.” . . . . . Family Court Judge Donna Delahanty issued a domestic-violence order anyway, directing Stoess to leave the home they shared in Hikes Point, surrender his guns and to stay away Eagle, whom he had dated for six years and lived with for a year. . . . . . Three days later, on June 1, 2007, Stoess shot both Eagle and her mother in the head before turning the gun on himself.

NEW MEXICO

Mom's dream come true: family reunited after 50 years

By: Kayla Anderson, Eyewitness News 4; Matthew Kappus, KOB.com

11-15-09 -- A New Mexico woman who spent more than a half-century searching for her two daughters was finally reunited with them. . . . Nellie Wick's girls were taken by her husband back in 1958. She never heard from them again--until a tearful reunion in Albuquerque. . . . "I never thought I would see you again," the 85-year-old woman told her daughter as they saw each other for the first time in 50 years. . . . But it wasn't just her daughters 85-year-old Nellie Wick was meeting—she also saw her granddaughter for the first time as well. . . . At 9 years old, Marque Cravens and her 7-year-old sister, Denina, were taken by their dad. Nellie Wick hired a private investigator to find them—but with no luck. Nellie says it was hard to deal with the loneliness. . . . "I didn't know when I'd see them or not," she said. . . . The girls grew up and parted ways. About 15 years ago, they reunited when their dad died. But yet again, they lost track of each other. . . . "I thought I'd never see anybody again," Marque Cravens said.

VIDEO http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/13637

MINNESOTA

Watchdog Group Asks Judge to Resign

FOX 9 News  

11-12-09 -- A courtroom watchdog group is asking for Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich’s resignation due to several inappropriate comments he has made in the courtroom. . . . Three weeks ago in family court, reviewing a domestic violence order for protection, a transcript shows Judge Aldrich telling the husband and wife, "I’ve been married 45 years. We've never considered divorce, a few times murder, maybe." . . . A court watchdog group, called Watch, is calling for Judge Aldrich’s resignation. The joke lands flat, when you consider 21 women in Minnesota were killed last year in domestic violence. Many like Pam Taschuk, who was murdered last month, and had restraining orders against their partners. . . . And it's not the judge's first attempt at judicial levity. He made a comment to a man who'd been stabbed by his wife that he should do the barbecuing from now on.

WYOMING   

Group seeks to increase legal access

More people represent themselves in court

By Joshua Wolfson - Star-Tribune staff writer

11-11-09 -- The state provides an abusive husband with an attorney for his criminal trial. But when his battered wife needs a restraining order, there's no lawyer to assist her. . . . As an attorney and director of Poverty Resistance, Mary Ann Budenske has witnessed the scenario unfold numerous times. Wyoming is one of only two states that doesn't have a statewide legal assistance program for people who can't afford to hire their own lawyer. . . . The absence of such a program, experts say, leads to a public increasingly disenfranchised by the legal system. . . . "One of the things that has always bothered me is that if you are an ax murderer, you are going to get better legal representation than if you are the victim of the ax murderer," Budenske said. "Somehow that doesn't quite feel like it is fair to me. But with the resources we have, that is what happens."

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October 2009

ILLINOIS

Tenant reported abuse -- then suffered eviction

She sues owner of apartment complex: 'I was punished for protecting myself'

By Sara Olkon Tribune reporter

10-13-09 -- Kathy Cleaves-Milan called police to report that she was the victim of domestic violence. She got help -- but she also got evicted. . . . A day after she told a judge that her live-in boyfriend had brandished a gun and promised to end both of their lives, the managers of her Elmhurst apartment complex served her with eviction papers for violating the terms of the lease, citing the criminal activity she had reported to police. . . . "I was punished for protecting myself and my daughter," Cleaves-Milan, 36, said. . . . Attorneys for Cleaves-Milan have filed a lawsuit against Aimco, the company that owns and operates Elm Creek Apartments. In the Oct. 1 filing, attorneys with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and the law firm of Reed Smith argue Cleaves-Milan's 2007 eviction was a form of sex discrimination, based on Cleaves-Milan's sex and her status as a victim of domestic violence. . . . A representative of the company said the eviction wasn't solely about the domestic violence but also involved her ability to pay the rent if her boyfriend moved out -- an assertion Cleaves-Milan strongly rejects.

'I want my son back!'

US Gov't took her baby and locked her away in a psychiatric hospital

By Ingrid Brown Observer senior reporter, jamaicaobserver.com

10-12-09 -- Sandra Allen has not cuddled her eight-year-old son in her arms in the last four years. Neither has she been able to capture Kodak moments, push him in the backyard swing or cook his favourite meal. . . . Instead, for one hour each Thursday she sits across from him in a room and makes small talk, under the watchful eyes of a social worker. . . . Allen is one of several Jamaicans in the United States whose children have been placed in foster care by the Administration for Children's Services (ACS). . . . And not even the intervention of the Jamaican Consulate or the Diaspora movement in New York has been able to help Allen get her son back after an eight-year-long battle in the courts. . . . "We only get one hour with him and he always asks why he can't come home and we have been told that when we leave he cries," an emotional Allen said to the Observer in hushed tones in the Hofstra University library in Long Island, New York, where she is a student. . . . She is confident her son will be returned one day, although that looks even dimmer with recent news that the court has ruled he be put up for adoption. . . . "By God's grace we know he is coming home... they could break him up into pieces but we know he is coming home," she said, with the first hint of a smile.

ILLINOIS  

La Salle lawyer's license suspended

Steve Stout, MyWebTimes.com

10-7-09 -- The Illinois Supreme Court has suspended a La Salle attorney's law license for 60 days following the recommendation of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. . . . According to the ARDC, Louis L. Bertrand was suspended for neglecting a female client's child support case against her former husband, making a misrepresentation to her and mismanaging the funds she had given him for filing fees. . . . The suspension takes effect Tuesday, Oct. 13. . . . The ARDC said Bertrand, who was first licensed in 1984, violated Illinois rules of professional conduct when he failed to tell his client the local court ordered counsel and the parties to appear at a status hearing Feb. 24, 2006, and also when the attorney told his client her appearance at the hearing was not necessary.

TENNESSEE

Tennessee Mother Regains Custody Of Snatched Newborn, Cleared Of Baby-Selling Claims

Fox News

10-6-09 -- The Tennessee mother of a kidnapped baby was reunited with her four kids and is cleared of involvement in an alleged baby-selling plan, a lawyer for the children said Tuesday. . . . Attorney Thomas Miller said a Tuesday custody hearing was canceled amid an investigation into the claims that the family of mom Maria Gurrolla tried to sell the baby boy after he was abducted by a fake immigration agent. . . . Gurrolla was reunited with 1-week-old Yair Anthony Carillo Tuesday after losing him twice in recent days, first to the alleged kidnapper and then to state foster care. . . . The baby was recovered last week after he was abducted during a Sept. 29 knife attack at Gurrolla's home. A suspect is in custody.

TENNESSEE

Tenn. mom left to wonder when she'll see 4 kids

By Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press Writer, Palm Beach Post  

10-4-09 -- A week ago, Maria Gurrolla was celebrating the birth of her fourth child. A blue yard sign announced: "IT'S A BOY!" She visited a local welfare office that helps low-income mothers. . . . Then an attacker posing as an immigration worker arrived at her home south of Nashville, stabbed the 30-year-old mother and snatched away her 4-day-old son. The newborn was found safe, but after a brief reunion, state officials took the baby away from Gurrolla again, along with her other three children. . . . Now Gurrolla is left to wonder when she might see any of them again. A judge will review the case this week to determine when Yair Anthony Carillo and his siblings - ages 3, 9, 11 - can come home. . . . State officials say the children were taken into custody Saturday for safety reasons but have not offered details. A spokesman said a hearing must occur within three days of when the children were taken into state custody.

WASHINGTON

Mother Arrested After 12 Years on the Run

Chehalis Woman Accused of Fleeing With Son to Africa, Thailand

By Andy Campbell, Centralia Chronicle     

10-1-09 --A former Chehalis woman accused of kidnapping her son and running from authorities for 12 years was arrested Wednesday at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when she arrived on a flight from Thailand, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. . . . Karen Kristine Sudderth, 52, has had a warrant out for her arrest since Jan. 22, 1997, for an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, according to the release. In July 1999, she was indicted by a federal court for international parental kidnapping. . . . The case began in 1996 when Sudderth failed to bring her son, who was 5 years old, to a scheduled visitation with his father, David Calhoun. She fled, moving from Senegal and West Africa to Thailand over the 12 years, according to the release.

September 2009

ILLINOIS

Chicago teen kills mother's boyfriend in fight

16-year-old is not charged after stabbing is ruled self-defense

By William Lee Chicago Tribune reporter

9-29-09 -- A South Side teenager fatally stabbed his mother's boyfriend Sunday night when he was attacked while trying to stop the man from beating his mother, Chicago police said Monday. . . . Cook County prosecutors later declined to file criminal charges against the 16-year-old boy, saying he acted in self-defense. . . . Police said the boyfriend, Christopher Nettles, was quarreling with the teen's mother over the couple's living arrangements in their home in the 6000 block of South Michigan Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood. . . . When Nettles began beating the woman, the son tried to intervene and stop the attack, police spokesman Michael Fitzpatrick said. . . . Nettles punched the teenager in the face, pulled a pocket knife and tried to stab the boy, Fitzpatrick said.

MICHIGAN

State to MI mom: Stop baby-sitting neighbors' kids

Associated Press, Chicago Tribune

9-29-09 -- A southwest Michigan woman has been told that she's breaking the law because she watches her neighbors' children each morning before they get on the school bus. . . . Lisa Snyder of Middleville says it's "ridiculous" that she faces fines and possible jail for being a good neighbor and watching two children for less than hour without getting paid. . . . State Department of Human Services officials told her last week that she was operating an illegal day care.

NEW YORK

Mom reclaims life, rebuilds relationship with child

Ex-Islander turns her circumstances around after dragging herself down with drugs

By Elise McIntosh, Staten Island Advance

9-29-09 -- Kellie Phelan is in a good place now. Currently, the 35-year-old serves as the volunteer program coordinator at Hour Children, a nonprofit organization in Queens that, as one of its many services, cares for children whose mothers are incarcerated for non-violent offenses. . . . The former Bulls Head resident is delighted for the opportunity to give back to a program that has helped transform her life. . . . A few years ago, she was in prison herself. She wound up at Rikers Island for violating her probation for previous drug-related arrests. During her 60-day sentence, she was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl, Savannah. . . . The father, a drug dealer, was no longer a part of Ms. Phelan's life, so staff at Hour Children acted as the newborn's guardians while the mother served the rest of her sentence. Two weeks later, she was discharged and arrived at Hour Children, eager to reunite with her infant and start anew. . . . Her top goal after getting settled was to rebuild a very important relationship she had neglected for years: the one with her older daughter, Brittanie, whom she had when she was 17 years old. . . . Brittanie's father was a drug addict, in and out of prison and in and out of her life. . . . Whenever he showed, "I was left to pick up the pieces," Ms. Phelan said about Brittanie's dad, her first love.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Mother regains custody, claims agency sought revenge over gang-rape case

Court gives woman guardianship of handicapped child; she says state tried to punish her for gang-rape lawsuit

By Ben Szobody • Greenville News Staff Writer

9-29-09 -- The mother fighting a 12-year legal battle with the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs over her daughter's alleged gang rape again became the woman's guardian nearly two months after accusing the agency of exacting revenge by pushing for her removal. . . . Probate Judge Edward Sauvain reversed his earlier decision. His new order says all sides now agree the daughter has a “deep emotional commitment” to her mother, the move will protect dwindling funds for her care and the mother is the most likely person to aggressively pursue rape litigation against DDSN. . . . The mother, Brenda Bryant, said Monday that she's “very pleased” to regain the rights to her daughter, but she remains concerned that a parent can lose guardianship without a review by an outside investigator. . . . Bryant had accused DDSN of retaliation for her long-running lawsuits by successfully arguing for her removal as guardian while her daughter stayed in one of the agency's Greenville facilities. . . . DDSN officials have declined to comment on the case. They had previously denied other claims of retaliation made by consumers, legislators and an advocacy group in the wake of a critical audit last year.

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?”

OHIO  

Ohio Supreme Court affirms firing of worker for taking lactation breaks

by Emily L., Gather.com

9-2-09 -- Ohio doesn't seem to be in the running for most "family-friendly" state in the Union -- at least, not if you look to the state's Supreme Court. . . . Last week, Ohio's top court ruled in favor of an employer's right to fire a worker who took unauthorized breaks to pump breast milk. That's right. Totes/Isotoner fired new mother LaNisa Allen for taking breaks to pump during work, and the court took their side. According to the ruling, the state's law that protects pregnant women doesn't extend to new moms -- even when the connection is impossible to miss. . . . According to the Columbus Dispatch, the company's attorney "said the case was never about pregnancy or motherhood." Really? No matter how you approach this case, and whatever legal perspective you take, that statement's really hard to take seriously. Totes/Isotoner took the position that Allen shouldn't have been allowed to take unauthorized breaks, even ones resulting from her pregnancy.

NEW JERSEY  

Family Court Gives Soldier Visitation in Custody Case

By David Kocieniewski, New York Times

9-1-09 -- After 10 months in Iraq and three months fighting with her former companion over access to their daughter, a National Guard specialist was granted daily visitation and weekly sleepovers with the 2-year-old girl by a judge in family court here on Tuesday. . . . The specialist, Leydi Mendoza, 22, said after the hearing that she was delighted by the judge’s temporary order and already knew how she would spend the time with her daughter, Elizabeth. “I’m going to eat with her,” Specialist Mendoza said, laughing, “and finally potty-train her.” . . . Elizabeth’s father, Daniel Llares, who had prevented Specialist Mendoza from spending more than a few hours with their child for fear of disrupting her routine, said through his lawyer that he was satisfied with the ruling. After several hours of negotiations among the parents, their lawyers and a mediator failed to resolve the standoff, a Passaic County Family Court judge, George F. Rohde Jr., approved a temporary agreement that would allow Mr. Llares to retain residential custody of Elizabeth but grant Specialist Mendoza the right to see the girl every day and take her home on weekends.

August 2009

CONNECTICUT  

Hotel's Rape Defense Met With Serious Reservations

Blame-the-victim strategy still used, but attorneys say it can backfire

Christian Nolan, The Connecticut Law Tribune

8-31-09 -- The story made national news headlines, was the talk of bloggers and irked every rape victim advocacy group imaginable. How it affects Marriott International Inc.'s business remains to be seen. . . . But clearly the hotel giant suffered a public relations nightmare this month related to a lawsuit filed by a woman who said she had been raped in the parking garage of the Marriot Hotel & Spa in Stamford, Conn. . . . Lawyers for Marriot's insurance company, in briefs filed in Connecticut Superior Court, suggested that the woman was partially responsible for the attack because she was careless and negligent for being in the garage. After the initial backlash, Marriott backpedaled, saying that it would not pursue the defense. . . . But was the initial legal strategy so outrageous? For a negligence case? No. For a negligence case involving the rape of a woman in front of her two children? Probably.

CALIFORNIA

You be the judge: A prayer for relief from court sanctioned child abuse

LA Family Courts ExaminerLaura Lynn

This is the last in a series of the text of a Petition for Writ of Mandate to change venue of a family law case and other relief. You may want to read parts one, two and three first.

VII. PRAYER
8-30-09 -- The Petitioner has no expectation that justice will be done here. She asked for justice May 27, 2008 from this court, and this court denied her request summarily. The Court is acting criminally and is making a concerted effort to ruin the Petitioner emotionally, physically and economically. . . . The Petitioner is not trained in the law, yet she is held to a standard that is far higher than the standard of the Court itself. . . . I pray that the Court will reconsider its ruling of May 29, 2008 and see that Commissioner Alan Friedenthal should have been disqualified from presiding over this case from the start. . . . Criminal charges should be filed against the parties who altered, falsified, and destroyed court documents. Criminal charges should be filed against the officers of the Court who held these corruptions in their hand and did nothing to further the cause of justice. Criminal charges should be filed in Federal Court against the Officers of the Court who perverted justice.

VIRGINIA

ACLU fails in demand to jail child's mother
Mom refused to deliver 6-year-old for unsupervised visit with lesbian

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

8-25-09 --  effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to have a judge jail the mother of a 6-year-old child for not delivering her daughter to another state for unsupervised visitation with a lesbian has been foiled. . . . Lawyers with the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel today appeared in court in Winchester, Va., to defend Lisa Miller from a complaint from the ACLU on behalf of Janet Jenkins. . . . The ACLU had wanted Miller jailed after she refused to deliver her daughter, Isabella, to Vermont for an unsupervised visit with Jenkins, a lesbian who has stated she believes it is not good for a child to be raised in a Christian atmosphere. . . . The ACLU also asked for a court order for Miller to pay for its attorneys.

IDAHO  

Supreme Court overturns ruling barring mom's move

Associated Press - KPVI-TV

8-23-09 -- The Idaho Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision barring an Idaho mother from moving to another state after her divorce. . . . The justices concluded Friday that that 6th District Magistrate Judge Gaylen Box had no authority to prevent Aneka Allbright from moving to Michigan with her new husband. . . . The ruling stems from a Bannock County divorce and child custody case involving Allbright and her former husband, Gregory Allbright. The couple divorced in 2005, have one daughter and the initial divorce settlement split child custody nearly even.

July 2009

NORTH DAKOTA  

New abortion law to go into effect; judge still reviewing case material

A new North Dakota law regarding what a Fargo abortion clinic is required to offer a woman before obtaining the procedure will go into effect Saturday despite the clinic’s attempt to temporarily stop it.

By: Brittany Lawonn, INFORUM

7-31-09 -- A new North Dakota law regarding what a Fargo abortion clinic is required to offer a woman before obtaining the procedure will go into effect Saturday despite the clinic’s attempt to temporarily stop it. . . . A judge said he could not rule from the bench, but said he would act quickly and take a prosecutor at his word that he would not rush to prosecute violations of the law. . . . The Red River Women’s Clinic has filed a lawsuit in Cass County District Court arguing that a provision in the new law is confusing. The suit also asks for clarification and a temporary injunction. . . . The new law requires the clinic to offer a woman the opportunity to view an ultrasound 24 hours before getting an abortion. It includes a provision regarding giving a woman the opportunity to hear the fetus heartbeat. The clinic is unsure what they must do to comply with that provision, including whether they must provide that opportunity, which would mean purchasing new equipment.

NORTH CAROLINA  

NC court: Twins' mother not liable for lawyer fees

The Associated Press, MiamiHerald.com

7-21-09 -- A North Carolina appeals court said Tuesday that a woman convicted of kidnapping her biological twins from their adoptive parents can't be ordered to pay the parents' attorney fees after she sued them. . . . The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court judge shouldn't have ordered Allison Quets to pay $7,480 to the couple who adopted her twins. Quets had sued to regain custody and lost last year. . . . While reversing the lower court's attorney fee ruling, the appeals court agreed that Quets had given up her parental rights and couldn't claim the children were adopted fraudulently. . . . In March 2008, Wake County District Court Judge Anne Salisbury told Quets, 50, who conceived with donor eggs and sperm in 2004, to pay legal fees for the adoptive parents, Kevin and Denise Needham of Apex.

After decades apart, woman finds mom -- homeless in Orlando

Happy reunion: Jessica Wisnoski and Lani Burgos are reunited after Wisnoski spent $20,000 and decades searching for the mother she hadn't seen since she was a toddler.

Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writer

7-20-09 -- For nearly four decades, all Jessica Wisnoski had to remember her mother was a tattered photo of 2-year-old Wisnoski sitting in her mom's lap. . . . The yearning to know her mother never left Wisnoski, 38, who lives near Houston. She and her husband, Bryan, spent $20,000 and 17 years searching for Lani Burgos, 58, who left her only child with Burgos' father and stepmother while she tried to kick a drug habit. . . . On Saturday night, Wisnoski finally found her mom — homeless and living in Orlando. . . . After years of dashed hopes and false leads, the Wisnoskis, with the help of a private investigator, tracked Burgos to a Salvation Army shelter in Ocala and, from there, to Central Florida. . . . During the weekend, they drove to Orlando, where they planned to hand out fliers offering a reward for helping them find Burgos. On the way to the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, they stumbled on police Officer Jonathan Adkins. He offered to drive them. . . . No luck at the shelter. So, Adkins took the couple to other hangouts for the homeless, including Lake Lucerne, where transients said they had seen Burgos at free meals downtown, Adkins said.

UTAH

Court favors mother's rights over former lesbian partner

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 7/19/2009 4:10:00 AM

7-19-09 -- A Utah woman involved in a lesbian relationship left her partner and took her child with her, a move that led to a courtroom battle. . . . Jana Dickson left the relationship with lesbian partner Gena-Louise Edvalson because she believed it was not a good environment to raise her two-year-old son, among other reasons. Salt Lake City Alliance Defense Fund attorney Frank Mylar represented Dickson. . . . "This other party was living with my client and it was in a lesbian relationship -- and my client and the other party separated and cut off their relationship," he recalls.

NORTH CAROLINA

Search continues for mother of abandoned baby

By Nancy McCleary, FayObserver.com  Staff writer

7-11-09 -- A plea was issued Friday to the woman who abandoned a newborn on the steps of a Fort Bragg home. . . . "For the welfare of the child, please step forward," said Tom McCollum, Fort Bragg's public information officer. . . . The infant boy - now being called Baby Doe - is at Womack Army Medical Center and is in good condition, McCollum said. . . . The baby will be turned over to the Cumberland County Department of Social Services when he is discharged from the hospital, McCollum said. . . . The baby was left on the doorstep of a home in the St. Mere-Eglise neighborhood between Sicily Drive and Longstreet Road on Thursday, McCollum said. He would not give the address of the home. . . . Witnesses reported seeing a woman in her early 20s with shoulder-length blond hair in the area about 4 p.m., McCollum said. . . . The baby was found when the resident and a neighbor heard him crying, McCollum said. / Umbilical cord . . . The child was wrapped in a blanket, according to reports. Doctors believe the boy is between 3 and 6 days old, McCollum said. The umbilical cord was still attached, indicating the mother did not have a medical delivery, McCollum said. . . . "The child appears healthy, but we need assistance in finding the mother," he said. . . . Locating the woman is especially important to determine the baby's medical history, McCollum said.

NEW JERSEY

Lawsuit fans flames of N.J. debate on adoption privacy

By Jason Nark, Philadelphia Daily News   Posted on Tue, Jul. 7, 2009

7-7-09 -- IN NEW JERSEY adoption circles, the right to privacy versus the need for an identity isn't just an explosive issue of the moment: It's been a painful, simmering fire for both sides for almost 30 years. . . . Legislation to provide adoptees with greater access to birth records and their medical histories has been kicking around in the Garden State since 1980, adoptee-rights groups claim. . . . "The primary issue is a right to our own identity at birth. This should not be a state secret," said Pam Hasegawa, an adoptee and spokeswoman for the New Jersey Coalition for Adoption Reform. "It's really outrageous that this bill is stalemated." . . . The issue has drawn celebrity adoptees such as Darryl McDaniels of the hip-hop group Run-DMC to the state to lobby for reform. But powerful opponents, including the NJ-ACLU, the New Jersey Bar Association and the New Jersey Catholic Conference, hold influence, said state Sen. Diane Allen, a prime sponsor of the most recent bill to open records. . . . "There is a large group of people who are pushing it, but there are just as many groups pushing back," said Allen, a Burlington County Republican.

CALIFORNIA  

Federal Judge Plans to Acquit Mom Convicted in Landmark Cyberbullying Case

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

7-2-09 -- A federal judge in Los Angeles reportedly has said he intends to acquit a Missouri mother accused of helping to drive a neighboring teen to suicide by participating in a hoax on the MySpace social networking site. . . . Lori Drew was cleared of more serious charges but convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles last year of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. However, interpreting the federal law under which she was found guilty in this manner, says U.S. District Judge George Wu, would mean that anyone who has ever violated a website's terms of service could be found guilty of a crime, reports the Associated Press.

June 2009

Navy censors Christian moms

Tells chat group for relatives of U.S. sailors to change name

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

6-26-09 -- The U.S. Navy has ordered a chat group gathered on a special website the military set up for families of service members to drop the word "Christian" from its title. . . . It also has changed the website's rules to ban all "religious discussions" because such speech "contradicts our purpose by creating unnecessary divisions among site members." . . . The issue was exposed by officials with Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm that has written to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus demanding that the censorship on the NavyforMoms.com website be reversed. . . . "The prohibition of religious groups and religious speech on Navy for Moms by the United States Navy is unconstitutional," said the letter dispatched also to the private company engaged by the Navy to operate the site. . . . "The government simply may not create a forum and then proclaim religious views are not welcome as that is blatant viewpoint discrimination, absolutely prohibited by the First Amendment. Even if the restrictions were evaluated as content restrictions, the United Sates Navy could not withstand the strict scrutiny required by the Supreme Court for analyzing the restrictions," the letter, signed by attorney David Corry on behalf of Liberty Counsel, said.

NEW JERSEY

Distraught woman sues, alleging N.J. helped child of rape find her

By Jason Nark, Philadelphia Daily News

6-23-09 -- Reunions of adopted children and their birth parents are usually heartwarming moments in which tears flow and broken bonds are made whole in mere seconds. . . . At least that's how it usually plays out on "Oprah." . . . But that wasn't the case last Dec. 13, when an Atlantic City woman came face to face with the daughter she placed for adoption 30 years ago after being raped. . . . This short reunion on the woman's doorstep left her feeling "violated, in shock, and short of breath," according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, in Camden, and she believes that a division of New Jersey's Department of Children and Families helped set up the traumatic event. . . . "Everyone would like to believe that these reunions are so wonderful," said attorney Matthew Weisberg. "This one wasn't. They didn't have coffee together. My client went pale. She is devastated and continues to be devastated because her biological child continues to attempt contact with her." . . . According to the complaint, the woman - whose name is being withheld by the Daily News - received a letter from the Division of Youth and Family Services in August 2008 saying that an adopted adult was seeking information about her birth parents. DYFS asked her to confirm her identity and whether she wanted to pursue the matter. . . . That letter alone was painful, rehashing a "violent, disturbing" incident, the complaint claims, but she believed that her lack of response would suffice as an answer. . . . "She does not want any relationship with this woman," Weisberg said.

Why Women Are Unhappy

by Phyllis Schlafly

6-19-09 -- The National Bureau of Economic Research released a study to be published soon in the American Economic Journal that shows women's happiness has measurably declined since 1970. It's no surprise that this has stimulated much comment. . . . This study covers the same time period as the rise of the so-called women's liberation or feminist movement. The correlation demands an explanation. . . . One theory advanced by the authors, University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, is that the women's liberation movement "raised women's expectations" (sold them a bill of goods), making them feel inadequate when they fail to have it all. A second theory is that the demands on women who are both mothers and jobholders in the labor force are overwhelming. . . . I'm neither an economist nor a psychologist, but I'll join the conversation with my own armchair analysis. Another theory could be that the feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy in which their true worth will never be recognized and any success is beyond their reach. . . . Feminist organizations such as the National Organization for Women held consciousness-raising sessions where they exchanged tales of how badly some man had treated them. Grievances are like flowers; if you water them, they will grow, and self-imposed victimhood is not a recipe for happiness. . . . Another theory could be the increase in easy divorce and illegitimacy (now 40 percent of American births are to single moms), which means that millions of women are raising kids without a husband and therefore expect Big Brother government to substitute as provider. The 2008 election returns showed that 70 percent of unmarried women voted for Barack Obama, perhaps hoping to be beneficiaries of his "spread the wealth" policies. / {MORE}

Reunited after 12 long years apart

Matt Bradley, The National Foreign Correspondent

6-17-09 -- After 12 years of court battles, failed negotiations and deferred hopes, Janet Greer has finally met her daughter, Sarah al Gohary, for the first time since her father kidnapped her and brought her to Egypt in 1997. . . . In the intervening years, the three-year-old American girl Ms Greer remembered has blossomed into a 15-year-old Egyptian teenager. But while Ms al Gohary now shares little more than blood with Ms Greer, a flash of recognition was enough to fill the gaps left by differences in language and culture and years of separation. . . . “She looked at me and my hair … it’s long and blonde,” said Ms Greer, who has since returned to her home in North Carolina, in the United States. “The reason I keep my hair that way is so that she will remember me. She looked at me and she said, ‘yes mum, this is how I remember you’. What can I say, that’s what I needed to hear.” . . . Only days before, such a visit had seemed impossible. On June 1, an administrative court in Cairo had decided against allowing visitation rights for Ms Greer – a decision that marked the culmination of more than a decade of battles in Egyptian courts for custody and eventually, merely for visitation rights.

NEW YORK

Moms sue maker of Baby Gender Mentor kit for inaccurate results

Examiner.com

6-16-09 -- Six moms in New York state are suing the maker of Baby Gender Mentor kits for inaccurate results. The test, which promises that expectant mothers will learn the gender of their unborn child as early as five weeks into the pregnancy, has a 99.9% accuracy rate, according to their website. It also has a money-back guarantee if the results are wrong, which is a nice touch given that the price itself is fairly pricey. Problem is, for these New York moms, the tests were not only wrong but now they can't get their money back. . . . The Baby Gender Mentor kit costs $25 and comes with two pregnancy tests, a blood specimen collection kit, and a prepaid FedEx envelope. It's fairly simple, you prick your finger to collect the blood, put it in a vial, and then send it off to Acu-Gen, the manufacturer of the test. Oh, don't forget your $250 lab fee! You'll be notified when the sample is received and then within a few days you'll receive an email letting you know you can receive your results online with instructions on how to do so. Finally, you can find out whether or not you're having a boy or girl. . . . Just don't get your hopes up too much. The New York moms were told they were expecting one gender, and placed so much faith in the results (and why not, since they were guaranteed and 99.9% accurate?) that they decorated nurseries, named their unborn child, and began to bond with it as the gender they were sure it was. Imagine the shock of learning later that no, Jane is actually a John, or vice versa.

SMW Single Moms' Parenting Tips & Resources
12 Tools Every Single Mom Should Own

By Allison O'Connor, Single Minded Women

6-7-09 -- When I bought my first home as a single woman, the very first housewarming gift I received was a Craftsman’s steel tool box complete with a set of tools from my father. I tried my best to muster an appreciative smile and “thank you” but all the while I was thinking, why the heck do I need this?! Well, to my surprise, that tool box still gets used a couple times a month more than 10 years later. And, I’ve even added a few tools to my collection since then. . . . Whether you own your own home or rent, having a few tools on hand for a quick fix can save you time and money you would otherwise have to spend hiring a handyman. And as any single mom knows, whether you’re putting together a crib for the first time or trying to take the batteries out of a toy, you will always need a screw driver. Click to see what else you should also have in your tool kit.

ILLINOIS

Slain mother's fate could teach victims a lesson

In 2001, she wrote: 'If I come back he'll shoot me again'

By Mary Mitchell, Sun-Times Columnist

6-7-09 -- Under the circumstances, it wouldn't be a rush to judgment to suspect that Irma Rodriguez was a victim of domestic violence. . . . On Monday, the 45-year-old mother of three was found dead in the trunk of her car, which was parked on a street in Midlothian. . . . She and her husband of 13 years, Norberto Rodriguez, were going through a divorce. The couple were due in court the day before Irma was killed. . . . Now, Norberto Rodriguez has dropped out of sight. . . . According to a report in the SouthtownStar, "Norberto Rodriguez has not been seen around the neighborhood in Oak Forest, nor could he be reached at several phone numbers listed to his name." . . . That's strange behavior for a man whose son graduated from elementary school last week. . . . Norberto Rodriguez was fired as a Chicago Police officer in 1997 for shooting his wife in the hand during a tussle and was arrested and sent to prison five years later in a botched heroin deal. . . . I'm confident the police will catch up to him. . . . I'm less confident that abused women who can still save themselves will learn from this tragedy.

ENGLAND

Catholic mother's fury after mental breakdown
sees son fostered by gay couple

By Simon Mcgee, Daily Mail

6-7-09 -- A ten-year-old Catholic boy is being placed in the care of homosexual foster parents against the wishes of his religious mother. . . . The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to arrive tomorrow at his permanent new foster home, a hotel in Brighton run by a middle-aged male couple. . . . In the latest row over gay adoption and fostering, social workers at Brighton and Hove Council, which has full custody of the child, decided his long-term placement last month. . . . A Catholic legal charity is representing the mother in an attempt to change the placement. . . . A devout Catholic, she has told friends she is worried about the environment in which her son will be placed and wants him fostered by a heterosexual couple, in line with her Church’s belief in the traditional family. . . . The boy was first placed in care a year ago when his mother suffered a mental breakdown, the result of an abusive marriage which has left her unable to look after him. . . . Described as ‘bright and lively’, he attends a faith school and is due to take his First Communion soon. He loves tennis and singing, and texts his mother some nights to let her know he has brushed his teeth and said his prayers. . . . The Thomas More Legal Centre, a Catholic legal charity, was instructed last week to represent the mother. Neil Addison, director of the centre, said: ‘We are advising her on her legal options and seeking to resolve the matter with the council by agreement.’ . . . Her parish priest and her son’s headteacher are said to be deeply concerned.

May 2009

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Court Rules Old Maternity Leave Doesn't Count Toward Pension

Associated Press, Wall Street Journal

5-18-09 -- Women who took maternity leave before it became illegal to discriminate against pregnant women can't sue to get their leave time to count for their pensions, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. . . . The high court overturned a lower-court decision that said decades-old maternity leaves should count in determining pensions. . . . Four AT&T Corp. employees who took maternity leave between 1968 and 1976 sued the company to get their leave time credited toward their pensions. Their pregnancies occurred before the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which barred companies from treating pregnancy leaves differently from other disability leaves. . . . AT&T lawyers said their pension plan was legal when the women took pregnancy leave, so they shouldn't have to recalculate their retirement benefits now. Congress didn't make the Pregnancy Discrimination Act retroactive, they said, so the women shouldn't get any extra money. . . . A majority of the justices agreed. . . . "A seniority system does not necessarily violate the statute when it gives current effect to such rules that operated before the PDA," wrote Justice David Souter, who will retire next month.

ILLINOIS  

Amy Leichtenberg turning pain of sons' slayings into purpose

Mom becoming an advocate, working to draw attention to her case

By Stacy St. Clair | Tribune reporter

5-17-09 -- Amy Leichtenberg clings to the memory of that final morning with her sons -- when the two boys were hers, healthy and alive. . . . She replays it in her mind, looking for things she could have done differently or words she could have used to convince authorities that the boys were in danger. . . . She watches herself call the LeRoy Police Department about 9 a.m. March 7 to tell the on-duty officer that she won't allow her sons to spend a court-ordered weekend with their father because of his increasingly erratic behavior. She hears the officer threaten to arrest her, and she winces as she caves to his authority. . . . Leichtenberg hurriedly packs two backpacks for the boys, kisses them goodbye, tells them that their mama loves them to the heavens and back. She sees them climb into a car with her ex-husband, an unemployed pharmaceutical salesman who has vowed to cut her open, frequently threatens to kill himself and allegedly violated her orders of protection 56 times. . . . She shudders in hindsight, knowing her sons were walking toward their deaths. . . . Duncan and Jack Connolly, ages 9 and 7, never returned from that visit. Their bodies were found in a remote area of Putnam County three weeks later. Their father, Michael Connolly, hanged himself from a nearby tree. . . . "Nobody took me seriously," Leichtenberg said in her first extensive interviews. "I'll spend the rest of my life wondering why no one would listen to me." . . . Troubling picture. . . . Law-enforcement records, court transcripts and other public documents obtained by the Tribune paint a troubling picture of a system that often ignored Leichtenberg's cries for help and instead aided her ex-husband as he worked toward supposed redemption. Despite his odd behavior and criminal record, Connolly received the benefit of the doubt from police, prosecutors and a family court judge in McLean County in central Illinois. . . . Leichtenberg, 39, has filed an official complaint against Judge James E. Souk, who granted Connolly unsupervised visits. She also wants more information about disciplinary action against LeRoy Police Chief Gordon Beck, who was suspended for a week without pay shortly after the Tribune reported that his department had thwarted an Amber Alert request for the boys. No reason was given for the punishment.

LOUISIANA   

Comments in alleged abuse case land judge in hot seat, again

By The Associated Press, Tri Parish Times

5-14-09 -- A Houma judge disciplined for racial insensitivity has been brought back before the Louisiana Supreme Court to answer allegations that he belittled a woman who wanted a restraining order against her husband. . . . Justice Greg Guidry asked why 32nd District Judge Timothy Ellender was back before the Supreme Court only five years after his six-month suspension and orders to take a sociology course about racial diversity for wearing blackface at a Halloween party. . . . "That sanction was severe, but it didn't prevent this from happening," Guidry told the Timothy Ellender Jr., who represented his father at last Wednesday's hearing. . . . "It's a completely different incident," the younger Ellender said. "That was about racial insensitivity." . . . Guidry replied: "And this is insensitivity to women. That's the big distinction you're making? I see lots of similarities between the two cases: disrespectful, insensitive and insightful behavior." . . . Judge Ellender admitted the facts of the case, which was on audiotape. The Supreme Court must decide a penalty.

OREGON  

Mom gets probation for fleeing with baby

Texas trek - The Portland lawyer was afraid the state would take custody of her son

Aimee Green, The Oregonian Staff

5-13-09 -- A Portland attorney who fled to Texas with her 2-month-old son and the boy's father pleaded guilty to custodial interference and was sentenced Tuesday to three years' probation. . . . Amanda Lynn Stanley, 31, sparked a nationwide search in February when she drove off with her baby out of fear that state child-welfare workers would win permanent custody of the boy. . . . Stanley, a tax and business attorney, received the recommended sentence under Oregon's sentencing guidelines. A charge that she stole more than $3,000 from client trust accounts in order to finance her trip was dismissed, but Stanley will have to pay the money back.

ARKANSAS  

Lawyer sued over car wreck injury to mom's unborn child

By Scott F. Davis, Northwest Arkansas Times

5-10-09 -- A Springdale attorney is accused in a lawsuit of injuring an unborn child during an automobile accident in 2007. . . . Kelly Kettle of Fayetteville filed a complaint on Thursday on behalf of her daughter, Peyton, against H. Todd Whatley involving an automobile accident on Oct. 19, 2007. . . . Her husband, Derek, was driving their 2002 Chevrolet pickup and traveling north on Crossover Road when Whatley attempted to make a left turn through the northbound lane, causing an accident with the Kettles' vehicle, according to the complaint. . . . Kelly Kettle, who was 35 weeks pregnant, was wearing her seat belt, but she was injured and transported from the accident scene to Washington Regional Medical Center, according to the complaint.

Birth Mother's Day eases adoption grief

By Leanne Italie, / Boston Globe

5-3-09 -- Mother's Day, Eileen McQuade used to watch forlornly as flowers were handed out to beaming women surrounded by their loving children. Though she was raising two daughters, her special day was filled with grief and shame. . . . In 1966, when she was an 18-year-old college freshman, she gave up her firstborn for adoption. . . . "I didn't feel like I should take the flower because I didn't feel I deserved it," said McQuade, who splits her time between Delray Beach, Fla., and South Windsor, Conn. . . . Like McQuade, many birth mothers can't shake their anguish and guilt when Mother's Day rolls around each May, so they've taken on the Saturday before the holiday as their own - Birth Mother's Day. The day was established by a group of Seattle birth mothers in 1990, and has grown over the years to include candle lightings, poetry readings, and other events around the country. . . . "The old myth about adoption was that birth mothers would go and have their children and forget it ever happened and the adoptees wouldn't care where they came from," said the 62-year-old McQuade, who was reunited with her daughter 12 years ago. "We know that it doesn't really happen that way. We have a much better sense of it now. Birth Mother's Day is a healing for many."

TENNESSEE

Millions Potentially At Stake In Illegal Immigrant's Child Custody Case

Associated Press, FOXNews 

5-2-09 -- At 4 years old, Alessandra Villalobos spends nearly all of her time confined to a bed. She is severely brain-damaged, can neither walk nor talk and is at the center of a medical malpractice lawsuit and a custody fight waged in two Nashville courts. . . . The child-custody case is complex because of the girl's extraordinary health conditions. Alessandra requires round-the-clock nursing care — the result, lawyers say, of a medical mishap when she was 3 that forever altered her life. If the lawsuit is successful, it could provide millions of dollars to cover the cost of her care. . . . But the battle over the child is complicated even more because her mother, Ingrid Diaz, is in the country illegally and facing deportation while her daughter was born in the U.S. and is an American citizen. . . . Diaz, who moved from Mexico to Nashville five years ago, says she wants to keep her child but is willing to relinquish custody if it's in her daughter's best interests. . . . "All I want is what's best for her, and if other people think that she should be with someone else, I'm willing to accept that, as long as it's best for Alessandra," the mother said last week, speaking through an interpreter.

April 2009

NORTH CAROLINA

12 years later, Waynesville mom hopes to see daughter

Susan Reinhardt • CITIZEN-TIMES.com

4-30-09 -- Six years ago I wrote a three-part series on Janet Greer, a Waynesville woman whose 3-year-old daughter was abducted in 1997 by the child's father and taken to his homeland in Egypt. . . . The little girl, Sarah “Dowsha” Elgohary, was kidnapped while living in Hawaii with her mother. During a visitation, her noncustodial father smuggled the toddler into Egypt. . . . Greer hasn't seen Sarah since and has fought for 12 years to get her daughter back, having lived in Egypt on three occasions and winning custody twice in Egyptian courts, only to have it overturned. Two governments, including her own, have failed her. . . . Organizations like PARENT International — Parents Advocating for Recovery through Education by Networking Together — have supported her, along with countless others. . . . Still nothing. . . . But now everything may change. . . . An Egyptian-American journalist and child rescuer has come to her aid and published a stinging piece about her situation in Egyptian newspapers. The publicity and outcry have enlightened the government and enraged the people, said writer Zagloul Ayad, of Boston, who also runs a nonprofit to help others. . . . “I believe she's close to being reunited,” he said. “It's not 100 percent, but 95 percent — within the next month or so. The article is putting pressure on the government and making the public aware. Everyone in Egypt is siding with Janet. The people there have hearts.” . . . While Greer has come close several times, once as far as driving to her daughter's apartment building but not being allowed to get out of the car, she's hopeful this might be her best shot at a reunion with her long-lost daughter.

NEW YORK  

Lawyer Says Kaye Scholer Partner Wasn't Abandoning Her Kids

Jim Fitzgerald, The Associated Press

4-27-09 -- The woman who allegedly ordered her squabbling young daughters out of her car and drove off without them quickly returned to the scene expecting to pick them up, her lawyer said Friday. . . . Madlyn Primoff, 45, simply drove around the block in downtown White Plains, N.Y., but the 10- and 12-year-old girls were gone when she returned, defense attorney Vincent Bricetti said. . . . "She wasn't abandoning her children," he said. "She expected to find her children." . . . Briccetti said the older girl had begun walking home -- 3 miles away -- and the younger girl was apparently taken in hand by a passer-by who called police on Sunday evening.

NEW YORK  

Lawyer Madlyn Primoff in trouble with the law after passing point where parents snap

James Bone in New York Times Online

4-24-09 -- Many a parent has contemplated ordering their fighting children out of the car. Some even pull over to the side of the road to underline the threat. Seldom does a mother go as far as Madlyn Primoff, a New York lawyer, allegedly did. . . . Ms Primoff, a partner at the Park Avenue law firm Kaye Scholer, is said to have ordered her bickering daughters, 10 and 12, out of the car three miles from their home in the New York suburb of Scarsdale on Sunday. They were left on a street in White Plains. . . . She is now facing a criminal charge of child endangerment. . . . Ms Primoff, who is married to another Ivy League-educated lawyer, let the 12-year-old back in when she caught up with the car. The ten-year-old was allegedly abandoned on the pavement, where a “Good Samaritan” found her in tears, bought her an ice cream and flagged down a police car.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA  

After Mom's Wistful Remark, A Maternity Ward Inquisition

By Marc Fisher

4-23-09 -- Woozy from pain medication after a Caesarean section, swinging from joy over her newborn boy to exhaustion from the strain of delivering him, Karen Piper mentioned to her doctor that she'd been hoping for a girl. She would come to regret those words. . . . There she was at Washington Hospital Center on an early spring afternoon, three days after giving birth. She'd be taking Luke home to the room she had lovingly prepared, to a time she'd dreamed about for years, just the two of them getting to know each other, reveling in the miracle of new life. . . . When nurses finally told Piper she was free to leave, no discharge papers for her son were brought out. Instead, she faced a parade of inquisitive official visitors, including uniformed police, a social worker, a psychiatrist, and assorted doctors and nurses. Her baby had been placed on medical hold while government investigators considered whether Piper was fit to take Luke home to Prince George's County, the authorities said. She had failed to bond with her baby, a nurse told Piper.

NEW YORK  

Police: Mom ordered daughters out, drove off

Partner in Manhattan law firm reportedly upset by kids' bickering

The Associated Press, MSNBC

4-22-09 -- Usually, it's an empty threat: "If you kids don't stop fighting, I'm going to stop this car right now and leave you here!" But a mother from an upper-crust New York suburb went through with it, ordering her battling 10- and 12-year-old daughters out of her car in White Plains' business district and driving off, police said Tuesday. . . . A judge on Wednesday modified a temporary order of protection against 45-year-old Madlyn Primoff and her two daughters. Her lawyer, Vincent Briccetti, said Primoff is no longer barred from living or talking with her children. . . . Primoff, a partner in a Manhattan law firm, pleaded not guilty to a charge of endangering a child on Monday.

Mental health screening targets moms-to-be

Questionnaire will be used to determine 'depression' in patients

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

4-2-09 -- A bill that would subject pregnant women to mental health screenings – and possibly medications that would follow any diagnosis of "depression" – has returned and already is more than halfway through Congress, a concerned family group is warning. . . . WND reported a year ago when the plan was proposed to allow the government to order tests on mothers for baby blues. The proposal later died. . . . However, officials with United Nonprofits and Individuals for Truth and Ethics say the bill is back, and it already has been approved by the U.S. House and assigned to a Senate committee under the designation S.324. . . . It's named the "Melanie Blocker Stokes Mother's Act" after a pharmaceutical sales manager who killed herself by jumping out of a window after receiving four cocktails of antidepressants, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic drugs and electroshock therapy following the birth of her child.

OKLAHOMA

Bill Lets Moms-To-Be Kill To Save Baby

Measure Would Authorize Deadly Force If Unborn Child's Life At Risk

4-2-09 -- A bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would allow pregnant women to use deadly force in order to save the lives of their babies. . . . The bill stems from a Michigan case where a woman who was carrying quadruplets stabbed and killed her boyfriend after he hit her in the stomach. The woman lost the babies and was convicted of manslaughter. . . . Oklahoma lawmakers said they want to make sure that a woman can legally protect her unborn child. . . . "Unfortunately, we feel we need legislation like this," said Rep. Mike Thompson. "What we want to make sure is that a woman feels safe and secure defending herself and her unborn child against any attacker."

NEW YORK

Woman’s Sting Operation to Free Her Son Incurs Judge’s Wrath

By Kareem Fahim, New York Times

4-1-09 -- A Brooklyn judge issued a stinging rebuke on Wednesday of a mother’s attempt to exonerate her son of murder charges, saying her attempts to elicit incriminating statements from a juror in her son’s trial amounted to “vigilante” behavior. . . . The judge, Alan D. Marrus, denied a motion by the son, John Giuca, to vacate the verdict or at least hold a hearing on allegations of juror misconduct. “The defendant,” Judge Marrus wrote,” is entitled to no relief from his judgment of conviction.” . . . Judge Marrus said that the mother, Doreen Giuliano, “contacted the juror two years after the trial without information that juror had done anything improper, lied to him about who she was and why she was speaking to him, engaged in a long-term, quasi-romantic relationship with the juror during which she repeatedly manipulated their conversations to get him to speak about this case, and surreptitiously recorded some of their conversations.

March 2009

FEDERAL COURTS

N.Y. Federal Judge Overturns FDA Regulation on Sales of Plan B Contraceptive

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

3-24-09 – A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow the manufacturers of Plan B to make the emergency contraceptive available to 17-year-olds without a prescription. . . . Eastern District of New York Judge Edward R. Korman also ordered the FDA to reconsider whether adolescents younger than 17 should be able to purchase the drug over the counter, as adult women have been able to do since 2006. . . . The FDA's decisions limiting access to the drug were tainted by improper political influence and departures from the agency's own policies, Korman wrote. . . . "Plaintiffs have presented unrebutted evidence of the FDA's lack of good faith," he said in his 52-page decision, Tummino v. Torti, 05-CV-366.

NORTH CAROLINA  

Mom will fight judge's order against homeschooling

'I couldn't believe how he overlooked all the facts to legislate from the bench'

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

3-15-09 -- A North Carolina homeschooling mother, ordered to stop teaching her children at home and send them to public school, said she will appeal the judge's ruling. . . . "I couldn't believe how he overlooked all the facts to legislate from the bench," said Venessa Mills of Wake County District Court Judge Ned Mangum's ruling that it would be in the "best interests" of her three children, ages 12, 11 and 10, to be placed in public school, even though two are learning at two grades above grade level while the third is at grade level. . . . As WND reported, the judge's action came in the divorce proceeding between Mills and her husband, Thomas. . . . At a court hearing last week, Mangum conceded the children are "thriving" under Mills' instruction but said they need to be exposed to the "real world." . . . "It will do them a great benefit to be in the public schools, and they will challenge some of the ideas that you've taught them, and they could learn from that and make them stronger," the judge said. . . . Mangum, when contacted by WND, explained his goal in ordering the children to register and attend a public school was to make sure they have a "more well-rounded education." . . . "I thought Ms. Mills had done a good job [in homeschooling]," he said. "It was great for them to have that access, and [I had] no problems with homeschooling. I said public schooling would be a good complement."

Wake divorce case illustrates what is wrong with the current judicial system
The domestic relations system in this state is broken and needs to be fixed

Delma Blinson News, analysis and commentary

3-15-09 -- We posted an article from the Raleigh News and Observer on our State News page about a domestic relations dispute in Wake County. An oversimplified review of the case is that a District Court Judge, Ned Mangum, has ordered a divorced mom to stop homeschooling her three children and to send them to the public schools. According to reports the judge came to this conclusion without hearing any evidence to support a decision that the homeschooling was harming the children. . . . We think the case is a good illustration of the corruption we see all too often in domestic cases in this state. The problem, it seems to us, is that the current law in North Carolina is all too lax in what it requires of a judge in handing down such decisions. Because of the inadequacies of the law judges operate pretty much as omnipotent arbiters of what is going to happen with children in a divorce case. The law needs to be changed, as this case illustrates.

NEW YORK

Prosecutors: Woman had ex-husband killed to keep daughter

The Associated Press

3-9-09 -- Prosecutors say a Queens woman hired a relative to kill her ex-husband because she feared the court would hand her daughter over to him. . . . In closing arguments Monday in state Supreme Court, prosecutors said defendants Mazoltuv Borukhova and Mikhail Mallayev acted in concert. Both face murder charges in the death of orthodontist Daniel Malakov. . . . The 34-year-old Malakov was delivering the girl for a supervised visit with her mother when he was shot dead in October 2007.

GEORGIA

'Octomom' Bill Referred for More Study

Shannon McCaffrey, The Associated Press
March 6, 2009 

3-6-09 -- A Georgia measure that would place first-in-the-nation restrictions on the number of embryos fertility doctors may implant likely won't pass this year after it was shipped to a subcommittee on Thursday for more study. . . . "The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act" was inspired by California's "octomom." It would restrict the number of fertilized embryos a woman could create and implant through in-vitro treatments. . . . The issue is expected to resurface next year. Several key state lawmakers said they supported the thinking behind the legislation but that it needed more study to avoid legal challenges. Parliamentary rules say any bill would have to reported out of committee on Monday to be considered this session, meaning the measure is effectively dead. . . . State Sen. Ralph Hudgens said he sponsored the bill to avoid Georgia spawning its own Nadya Suleman. Suleman gave birth to octuplets in Bellflower, Calif., on Jan. 26. She has six other children, lives in her mother's three-bedroom home and has relied on food stamps and disability income to provide for her family.

VIRGINIA

Bethany House Of Virginia, An Abuse Shelter Out Of Control
by Carey Roberts, Post Chronicle Editorial

3-3-09 -- Bethany House of Northern Virginia is an abuse shelter that provides "warmth and shelter" to persons suffering from domestic violence -- at least that's what the group claims. But now a former shelter worker, client, husband, and a sitting judge have all come forward to reveal a sordid tale of unethical and illegal conduct. . . . The first bombshell hit in 2004 when a former shelter volunteer filed a three-page letter of complaint. Alleging the staff was "enraged with a bottomless pit of anger at men," she charged the shelter admitted women who had never suffered physical abuse, indoctrinated them into feminist ideology, and then bribed them to commit perjury against their husbands. . . . "I have spoken with several wives at BHNV who have deeply regretted having contacted BHNV," the shelter worker concludes. The women "deeply regret destroying their marriage, family, husband, and their children's future." Her full complaint can be seen here.

February 2009

CALIFORNIA

Suleman says hospital wants proof she can care for octuplets

By Jessica Garrison and Kimi Yoshino 

2-25-09 -- Nadya Suleman told TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw on Tuesday that she fears Kaiser Permanente Medical Center may not release her octuplets to her until she proves she can care for them. . . . In an interview with The Times, McGraw said Suleman called him Tuesday afternoon, distressed after talking to Kaiser officials. Suleman has taped two episodes of McGraw's show, the first of which is scheduled to run today. . . . "What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her," McGraw said. . . . Suleman, a single mother who already had six children before giving birth to octuplets Jan. 26, lives in Whittier with her mother in a three-bedroom house that is in pre-foreclosure. Suleman has no job and relies on government assistance, including food stamps and disability income for three of her six older children.

NEW JERSEY

A helping hand for women in need

Posted by Bob Braun/The Star-Ledger

2-18-09 -- There can be money in it -- if the clients are rich enough -- but many lawyers don't like to touch family law issues. That's one of the reasons state courts set aside one judge just to hear so-called "unrepresented" cases -- there are so many of them. . . . So it's no surprise that one of New Jersey's premier voluntary efforts to help women deal with domestic violence and other family law matters is housed in a Montclair office building that is, to be generous, dismal. No glass tower, this--no conference room with leather chairs and an endless polished table. . . . "We sometimes have to say 'No,'" says Jane Hanson, executive director of Partners for Women and Justice, a public interest law firm dedicated to the legal problems of women. . . . "We just don't have the capacity." . . . If the importance of an issue were judged by standards of life and death, then problems related to family law would attract more attention. On average, of some 450 to 500 homicides a year in New Jersey, about one in five is related to domestic violence--usually a man killing a woman. Sometimes, he kills the kids, too, and then himself.

CALIFORNIA  

Panel Affirms Ex-Lawyer’s Life Sentence for Torturing Wife

By Sherri M. Okamoto, Staff Writer

2-10-09 -- The Third District Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the torture conviction of former criminal defense attorney Richard William Hamlin of El Dorado Hills. . . . Although sufficient evidence that Hamlin’s course of conduct physically abusing his wife supported the torture conviction, the panel ruled that El Dorado Superior Court Judge Eddie T. Keller erred in imposing upper terms on Hamlin’s convictions for making a criminal threat and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse based on facts not found to exist by the jury, admitted by defendant, or justified based on defendant’s record of prior convictions. . . . Hamlin’s wife, identified in the opinion only as S., testified that Hamlin physically abused her every day, sometimes multiple times each day, and in front of the couple’s four children, between June 2003 and February 2004. . . . The prosecution contended that Hamlin had committed the crime of torture against S. by his conduct. . . . A jury found Hamlin guilty of torture, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, on count of making a criminal threat, and three counts of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse.

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Octuplet Mom: Blame the Lawyers

Forbes, NY

2-2-09 -- The story of Nadya Suleman, the woman who delivered octuplets in Los Angeles last week, is troubling to many medical ethicists and frankly, normal observers. Why was a woman who already had six children get so many embryos implanted during an in vitro fertilization procedure? Adding to the concern is that one of her other children might have special needs--and that she is a single mother whose own mother, with whom she lives, reportedly disapproved of her decision to ahead with so many births. . . . Some of the blame has been directed at Suleman's fertility doctor. That doctor has not yet been identified in the press. But it seems like others in the field have a non-judgmental approach. In one dispatch, a fertility specialist says: "Who am I to say that six is the limit? There are people who like to have big families." Another says that he cannot be a "policeman for reproduction."  In other words, doctors don't consider it their role to steer patients away from making bad decisions. . . . But legally-speaking, can they refuse to aid and abet if they so desire? The answer is no, at least according to a recent high-profile court case in Suleman’s state of California. In that case a lesbian couple in San Diego went to a fertility specialist so that one of the women, Guadalupe Benitez, could get pregnant. The doctor, Christine Brody, refused to treat Benitez, explaining that she objected to unmarried women having children. Brody offered to refer the couple to another doctor. Benitez and her partner sued Brody and her medical practice, claiming civil rights violations.

January 2009

Court: Christian mom's child must visit lesbian

State threatens to take daughter by force, if necessary

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

1-19-09 -- A Christian mother has been told by a Virginia court that her 6-year-old daughter must now visit the mother's former lesbian partner in Vermont, and if she refuses, the law will remove the girl by force, if necessary. . . . As WND has reported, Lisa Miller left the homosexual lifestyle and became a Christian when her daughter, Isabella, was 17 months old. But Janet Jenkins, Lisa's same-sex partner when Lisa gave birth to Isabella, is seeking full custody of the girl, claiming she was a parent even though she is not biologically related to Isabella and never sought to adopt her. . . . The case has been further tangled by the courts, as Jenkins and Miller were joined in civil union in Vermont, but Miller and her daughter now live in Virginia, where the laws forbid recognition of civil unions. . . . Earlier this month, however, Judge William Sharp of the Shenandoah County Domestic Relations District Court in Virginia, ordered Miller to allow Jenkins a three-day unsupervised visit with Isabella. . . . Miller told LifeSiteNews that Sharp also ruled that Vermont's civil union laws must be upheld in Virginia.