PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

According to the New York Times, "Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's...City officials insisted that Mr. Kerik received no special treatment. 'He was arrested and booked,' said Rose Gill Hearn, the city's investigations commissioner. 'He was fingerprinted and photographed like every other perp who gets arrested and processed.'...One of Mr. Kerek's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, disputed this account. He said Mr. Kerek was not arrested or processed, but allowed to surrender to the district attorney's office. He was fingerprinted in the executive wing, Mr. Tacopina said, but not photographed."

We do not know whos is telling the truth, but it seems to us that whatever treatment Mr. Kerik received should be standard for everyone.

TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS IN SOUTH CAROLINA

In South Carolina Department of Social Services, Respondent, v. Angelica Seegars, John Doe, and L.J. Parker, Defendants,* the Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld the termination of the parental rights of the mother on the basis that she willfully failed to support the children for a period in excess of six months and on the further basis that she had a diagnosable condition that is unlikely to change within a reasonable time and made it unlikely that she could provide minimally acceptable care for the children.

We do not understand how the Court could find that the mother's failure to provide for her children was willful when the psychiatrist who examined her testified that her (untreatable) mental condition rendered her "unable to take care of herself never mind her children." This seems to be an internallly inconsistent ruling and calls for a serious re-examination and re-evaluation of the concept of "willful." Before the Courts either jail people for contempt or take away their children forever based on willful misconduct, extra precaution should be exercised to make sure the misconduct was in fact purposeful.

*http://www.sccourts.org/opinions/displayOpinionPF.cfm?caseNo=26119

WOUNDED JUDGE WAS DESPISED BY SOME PARENTS

The following is excerpted from an AP article appearing on the Web. The highlights are ours. We have no way of knowing whether the judge "slammed" people regarding their child support payments or whether he was abusive and unfair. But, it seems to us that if he deviated from the Child Support Guidelines without justification and he was abusive that it was incumbent on the attorneys who appeared before him to call these practices to the attention of the appropriate authorities. Conversely, if the judge was properly applying the law, it was the responibility of the attorneys to explain to their clients that the judge was not acting in an arbitray fashion. After all, it is the sworn duty of the Bar to advance the cause of justice.
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LAS VEGAS - As a family court judge in Reno, Chuck Weller decides who gets the children, who pays child support and who gets visitation rights. Because of that, a lot of people have it in for him.

Police think one of them, Darren Roy Mack, was so mad that he shot Weller in the chest as the judge stood near a third-floor courthouse window Monday.

Mack, a pawn shop owner who was awaiting a custody hearing in Weller’s courtroom in September, is accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death and is also a suspect in the sniper attack. Weller, 53, remained hospitalized in good condition, and a nationwide manhunt for Mack was under way Wednesday.

To some, the shooting was no surprise in the highly volatile world of family law.

“They’re always going to be unpopular with somebody anytime you’ve got two parents disputing who should have custody of their children and one parent wins and one parent loses,” said Multnomah County, Ore., Circuit Court Judge Dale Koch, president-elect of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Some cases, he said, are “just tragedies waiting to happen.”

Some called him Hitler

Before the shooting, Weller was vilified on several Web sites critical of family court judges. He was called Hitler, a bully, abusive. Numerous postings complained that he makes decisions before he hears cases, is unsympathetic and rules like a tyrant. Fathers, in particular, were harsh, with one labeling him the worst judge in America.

One person wrote: “I am not sure monster describes him accurately. Judge Chuck Weller in my belief suffers from ‘God complex’ and possibly other things as well.”

Ken McKenna, a fellow lawyer who has known Weller for more than 20 years, described Weller as an efficient, no-nonsense judge, and said some people mistake those qualities for brusqueness or harshness.

McKenna suggested that the resentment comes with the job. He called family law the most volatile, emotional area of law.

“People’s lives are being affected to the core of their beings,” he said. “Mothers are being taken away from the children. Children are being taken away from their fathers. People tend to lose their reasonableness and they act irrational. It is a very scary situation.”

No clearinghouse for information
No group keeps national statistics on the number of threats and attacks against judges. After the husband and mother of a federal judge were shot to death in Chicago in 2005 and a judge in Atlanta was killed the next month, the center, along with the National Sheriff’s Association, suggested a national database on threats be set up. (Neither murder case involved matters of family law.)

Legislation pending in Congress would provide funding for bulletproof windows, something the Reno courthouse did not have, more security personnel and other improvements at courthouses around the country.

Koch said judges in his court sometimes ask for escorts to and from their vehicles.

“I still to this day remember a case where I decided against a person who never made any direct threats toward me, but the level of hate mail I was receiving, I still think about that person every time I go out and get in my car,” Koch said.

To one father, ‘he’s a monster’

Garret Idle went before Weller in 2005 seeking to increase his visitation time with his two children. Instead, he said, the judge slammed him for more child support and did not listen to any of his concerns about his son and daughter.

“Weller is very abusive. He’s a monster,” Idle, 48, said. “He’s destroyed everything I’ve worked for.”

Idle said that he met Mack at a support group for noncustodial parents and that the two would talk about how unfair they thought the judge was. Mack was upset at having to pay a lot of child support, Idle said.

“He’s been going to court for a year and he got the extreme royal shaft” from Weller, Idle said. “He said he had to file Chapter 7 because he was getting nailed.”

Police believe that Mack, a 45-year-old father of three and owner of a jewelry store and pawn shop a few blocks from the courthouse, fired with a rifle from a parking across the Truckee River two blocks away — the distance of at least three football fields.

‘Karma finally came back to bite him

’Weller, a married father of two daughters, graduated from Georgetown University’s law school in 1978 and moved to Reno in 1982. He entered private practice and mostly handled divorce and custody cases. He hosted a legal advice program for a few years on the radio and wrote a legal column for the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Weller was elected as one of four family court judges in Reno in 2004, saying he was a good communicator who could help move families through the legal system.

The state Commission on Judicial Discipline accepts complaints on judges but does not publicly acknowledge them unless it acts upon them. The commission has not acted against Weller.

But Idle has had enough of Weller and said he isn’t sympathetic.

“I think karma finally came back to bite him,” Idle said. “Hopefully Weller will have a change of heart in the way he deals with human beings.”

LAWYERS CANNOT AGREE SO JUDGE ORDERS ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS

Two lawyers who were allegedly grown could not reach agreement on the location for taking a deposition. So a Federal Court Judge in Tampa ordered to "convene at a neutral site" and "engage in one (1) game of 'rock, paper, scissors' " to settle the matter.

At first blush, this seem like a sensible solution. But, upon closer examination, it becomes obvious that the judge failed to consider the rights of the litigants in reaching his decision. While this case may be a joke to the two lawyers and the judge, we feel certain that it is no joking matter to the defendant and the plaintiff. And too often the rights of the litigants are ignored by judges. Therefore, judges should practice their stand up comedy routines on their own time. This goes double in Federal Court where the judges receive life time appointments. And it goes triple in Family Court, where the rights of the litigants are often either ignored or marginalized.

Isn't the issue in this case where Ms. Mullen resided at the time she sought the Judgeship, not where she is registered to vote? Shouldn't judicial candidates be held to a higher standard of veracity than lawyers? And shouldn't lawyers be held to a higher standard of veracity than John Q. Public in those instances where they are making representations under oath?

ALL THAT ENDS WELL DOES NOT END WELL IN CUSTODY CASE

After years of legal proceedings and after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees, Kurtis and Gayle Kendle finally have custody of their son. And even a cursory review of the South Carolina Supreme Court Opinion* deciding the issue makes it clear that the decision was the correct one, both on the law and the facts of the case. Unfortunately, the decision of the Court of Appeals was so flawed that it makes one wonder how the Appellate Court Justices could reach the conclusion they reached, i.e., whether they have law clerks and legal research resources available. More important, this case illustrates the need for development of a system that allows for expedited hearings on cases that involve questions of custody. After all, just because the correct result was obtained in this case does not mean that no harm was done.

*http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/opinions/displayOpinion.cfm?caseNo=26152

Previous speculation was that Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend may have faked his death in order to avoid payment of child support. But now come reports that Patrick McDermott has been seen alive in Mexico. For everyone's sake, we hope both that Mr. McDermott is safe and sound and that Olivia has some money to lend him.