Well I was busy going through some old articles and ran across an article with the heading Record set in child support arrests from www.thedailyjournal.com which was published on December 12, 2007 and written by staff writer James P. Quaranta and just had to make a few common-sense comments.
The article has a few unqualified statements or very vague statements:
BRIDGETON -- The Sheriff's Department set another record last week when they arrested 34 people on child support warrants totaling $657,688.
In a previous sweep of deadbeat mothers and fathers in September, police rounded up 26 people who owed a total of $500,000.
Barruzza said it appears more people are failing to make child support payments.
"I have no idea why," the sheriff said. "They're ignoring their responsibilities but we won't ignore ours."
For one thing, the article doesn't say what the actual income levels are of the people that were arrested, how many were fathers, and how many were mothers. These simple questions are critically in need of being answered because I am willing to bet that the super-majority of the people arrested are indigent or very low-income fathers that still want to be involved in their children's lives but are instead involved in ongoing battles over finances instead.
I also am very interested to know what the current custody arrangements for those individuals that were arrested are, how many of these arrested parents missed Christmas with their children, and how many were arrested at Custody exchanges in front of their own children. It is likely that the progam is just being used by vindictive ex-partners as a weapon to oust one parent from their children's lives. The program hardly focuses on the best-interests of children but rather on bureaucratic financial incentives, especially when children see their own parents arrested by law enforcement around the holidays.
I was particularly in shock that the highest county law enforcement officer that is elected in his County says "I have no idea why" regarding the increase of why parets are unable to meet the often-times steep child support obligations forced on them even though the parents are continuously involved with their children. The common-sense answer would be likely attributable to increase unemployment, illegal immigration, increased participation in food assistance programs, increased poverty, etc. Someone should consider recalling Sheriff Barruzza for participating in such a scam of the taxpayers and being so ignorant.
The child support enforcement program is plagued with fraud, faulty accounting, and continues to burden parents that are actually involved with their children. The program was originally intended as a way to recuperate money lost through welfare expenditures, now it is a tool for middle and upper-class families to continue feuding over finances once they have dissolved their personal relationships with one another. Parents fall into the bureaucratic trap of fighting while government enjoys increased expansion and employment numbers.
The overwhelming number of the participants in the programs are middle and upper-class families that have been enabled to fight on the taxpayer dime. We need to shrink these programs back to their originally intended size and purpose to protect the taxpayer, parents, and children so it cannot be used to oust fit, willing, and competent parents from their children's lives or used to force financial hardship over equally fit parents.
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The child support program is a federally funded grant program under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. The Title IV-D program actually rewards states for encouraging and creating"single-parent families." The program is plagued with unnecessary expenses, fraud, errors, and theft.
The Title IV-D program compensates the states based on expenditures, so the more the state claims it spends the more money the federal government kicks in.
The Title IV-D program is watered down with over participation because the majority of the participants are 200% or greater above the poverty line.
The Title IV-D program does not reward the state for keeping families intact or for encouraging that parents equally participate in their children's physical upbringing.
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Lary Holland, Nationwide Blueprint, Nationwide Blueprint for Title IV-D Reform, Title IV-D, Social Security, Fixed Incomes, Property Tax, Tax Fraud
UPDATE: GET OFF THE BENCH EPISODE 76:Family Court Is a Deadly Business
The Family Court System has its' fair share of problems, but one of those problems that has not had a very thorough review is that it is an ever-increasing "Deadly Business." In fact, I didn't even start thinking about the effects of our country's public policies regarding single-parent custody awards and "unilateral divorce" until my recent involvement and trip in Frederick, Maryland. For the most part, I only looked at the effects inside the courtroom specifically, not outside.
There should be substantial concern over the instant murder-suicides, premeditated murders, attempted murders, murders-for-hire, and drastic number of suicides that are occurring in families that are involved with domestic relation suits or family courts around the nation.
In Frederick Maryland, several families over a six month period of time were reported as having ongoing child custody disputes that resulted in death. There are other reports of attempts at murder-for-hire and attempted murders as well. The most recent eye-opener which drew my attention regarding the Thanksgiving Holiday "massacre" that occurred in Frederick County, Maryland is what prompted me to start searching out other occurrences. Information was indeed easy to find and too numerous to list all of the occurrences.
"On Thanksgiving night, police found five dead bodies in the town of Laytonsville, Maryland at 1.5 acre Unity Park. It is believed to have been a murder-suicide with a domestic related motive. Laytonsville, Maryland is a small town that is located about twenty-five miles away from Washington." (Thanksgiving Murder-Suicide in Laytonsville, Maryland; Associated Content, November 24, 2007)
"A man shot and killed his ex-wife, their three children and himself in a small-town park where they had met for the woman to hand over the youngsters for a visit, investigators said Friday." (Police: 5 Dead in Murder-Suicide in Md; Associated Press, November 23, 2007)
The above is not the first of these type of murder-suicides in the Frederick County, Maryland area. The above Associated Press article also reported in the same article that:
"In April, a father hanged his two young children before committing suicide in rural Boyds, in Montgomery County. In March, the remains of four young children were found in a town house in neighboring Frederick. The father's body was found hanging from a bannister, and the mother remains missing. "
"There is a trend that demonstrates that custody and family court litigation has dire consequences when allowed to continue as adversarial proceedings. One party often finds themselves at the tail-end of a powerstruggle that results in a level of hopelessness. When someone feels that they have nothing else to lose, they can become unpredictable," states Lary Holland, Host of Get Your Justice Live and author of this document.
Looking through the various newspapers there are demonstratively a large number of articles that support that ongoing adversarial child custody disputes are resulting in disastrous conseqences. Pro Wresler, Chris Benoit, is one of those cases that resulted in a murder-suicide, along with the high-profile case of Darren Mack who was involved in the shooting of a family court judge and the slaying of his ex-wife.
Annie Gowen of the Washington Post on February 20, 2002 in her article, Custody Battle Probed in Double Slaying:
In the cold pre-dawn hours Friday, Alan G. Bates left his Frederick town house to fly to Birmingham for a deposition in a bitter child custody battle with his ex-wife.
Later, in Birmingham, Bates and his ex-wife, Jessica McCord, faced off over a conference table in a downtown law office.
Bates had planned to pick up his two daughters for the weekend that night. Instead, his body and the body of a woman [were discovered].
Nelson Hernandez also of the Washington Post on September 28, 1005 in his article, 2nd Trial of Lawyer Accused in Plot to Kill Husband Opens; Prosecutors Cite Lost Custody Battle states:
The Bethesda lawyer accused of conspiring with her best friend to kill her estranged husband as a way of resolving a bitter child custody battle went on trial in Frederick County yesterday, nine months after Maryland's highest court threw out her conviction by a Montgomery County jury.
The Wichita Eagle on April 4, 2003 reported in the article Child Custody At Heart of Murder-Suicide that:
When Eric Leckenby confronted his girlfriend's ex-husband with a gun Wednesday, he had already decided neither man would leave alive.
The Miami Herald reported on December 5, 2007 in an article entitled Tragic Couple Went to BSO Before Dying, "A Weston man and his wife visited the Broward Sheriff's Office the day before they perished in a murder-suicide" and further stated that:
"Her husband, Frank, was with her and, according to the BSO report, they were there to discuss ''a child custody'' dispute.
The BSO log, obtained by The Miami Herald, indicates the couple, who were in the midst of a bitter divorce, arrived about 5:30 p.m. and stayed in the lobby of BSO's Weston office for 45 minutes."
The Fresno Bee reported on December 4, 2007 in an article carrying the title Dead Couple Fought Over Custody, "Pair in Tulare murder-suicide sought court orderes" and further stated that:
"TULARE -- A bitter dispute over custody of a 17-month-old daughter may have factored into a late-night murder-suicide in a dark cemetery."
Some of the most recent deaths also have occured in Michigan, where two families in as many weeks have had custody disputes surrounding plots to murder other family members. "The issue of post custody hearing slayings goes beyond the simple issue of domestic violence and is indicative of a larger problem with the system itself," states Holland.
"PULLMAN -- Investigators believe the death of a 19-year-old woman Tuesday at a house in Allegan County's Casco Township may have been linked to an ongoing child-custody issue, police said."
Other papers covering the aforementioned story in Alleghan county slated the story as being the second tragic incident in the past week, which should raise significant pressures on the local family court to explain what some of the possible factors are in the most recent tragedies. One of the tragedies involved an ex-wife allegedly using her current husband to kill her ex-husband which was widely reported in Western Michigan.
Similar plots and outcomes were involved in at least four known cases of domestic dispute slayings in the past year around Michigan involving Pro Wrestler Chris Benoit, a mutilation story, and now the two Alleghan incidents.
Given that the divorce rate is certainly not on the decline and no expectation of a decline over couples fighting over money, power, and children in the future, there should be a reasonable prediction that there are more tragedies to come. "A serious review of the family courts nationwide should be placed as a high priority when selecting candidates for the upcoming election because the current social institution has definitely failed the families listed in this article," states Holland.
For more information about Lary Holland, visit his website at http://www.laryholland.com.
You can contact him at 800-883-9619 x2 for further comment.
UPDATED (2-11-2008) Stories Continue to come in and will be updated under this topic line.
The authorities say he killed her - perhaps by choking her -- to end an acrimonious divorce and child custody battle. (Last Prosecution Witness to Take Stand in Hans Reiser Murder Trial; Defense to Get Case, February 11, 2008, Wired Blog Network)
UPDATED (2-12-2008) Closing Arguments in Ex-Officer's Trial: More Family Court Death
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A former police officer intentionally killed his pregnant lover to get out of child support payments, a prosecutor told jurors during his closing argument Tuesday. (Closing Arguments in Ex-Officer's Trial; Associated Press, February 12, 2008)
UPDATED (3-18-2008) Geary man accused of attempted murder-for-hire.
CALUMET, Okla. (AP) - A Geary man is behind bars after authorities say he tried to hire someone to kill his wife and her parents.
David Phillips was arrested outside a Calumet restaurant Sunday after the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation monitored a conversation between him and a private investigator he hired during a child custody battle with his wife. (Geary man accused of attempted murder-for-hire; Associated Press; March 18, 2008 Orig.)
UPDATED (3-11-2008) Wife Stabs Husband in Phoenix during talk about divorce
A Phoenix woman stabbed her husband with a knife then pepper sprayed him on Monday during an argument about divorce proceedings. (Wife stabs husband in Phoneix during talk about divorce; March 11, 2008 Orig)
UPDATED (3-19-2008) Father and son, 10, dead in apparent murder-suicide
FORT STEVENS STATE PARK, Ore. - Clatsop County officials are investigating an apparent murder-suicide involving a Portland man and his 10-year-old son.
Investigators say the father, 49-year-old Rockland Stephens, ran a hose from the tail pipe into the cab of the vehicle. They said the man and boy both likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The deaths reportedly come shortly after events connected to a child custody battle. (Father and son, 10, dead in apparent murder-suicide; Katu.Com; March 19, 2008 Orig)
UPDATED (3-29-2008) Clark County man sentence Friday to more than 53 years in prison
A Clark County man was sentenced Friday to more than 53 years in prison for offering to pay four men to beat or kill his estranged wife last year during contentious divorce and child custody proceedings.
(Reported in the Oregonian. March 29, 2008. Link not available.)
UPDATED (6-29-2008) Shooter kills 2, self in Cambria Township
EBENSBURG — A child-custody dispute led to an exchange of gunfire between a divorced couple and ended in a double murder and suicide.
Cambria Township police were dispatched just before 3 a.m. Sunday to the 1200 block of Allie Buck Road in Cambria Township after reports of a break-in.
Instead, they found themselves in a standoff with David Gerlach, 42, of Ebensburg.
Gerlach allegedly became agitated late Saturday or early Sunday with his ex-wife, Debra Gerlach, 41, who was living in the Cambria Township residence, which was in the process of being sold.
According to Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski, David Gerlach went to the residence with his handgun.
"There were two guns in the residence,” Kwiatkowski said. “One was Debra’s and one was the shooter’s. They exchanged gunfire at some point.” (Shooter Kills 2, self in Cambria Township; The Tribune-Democrat; June 29, 2008 Orig.)
UPDATED: (7-07-2008) Convicted Husband leads Calif. Police to a body (ReiserFS inventor convicted of killing as a result of adversarial child custody proceedings.)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A prominent software programmer who had denied having anything to do with his estranged wife's disappearance even after he was convicted of her murder led police Monday to what is believed to be her body, defense attorneys said.
The two were involved in a bitter custody dispute, traces of her blood were found in his home and car and witnesses testified she would never have left her children. (Convicted Husband leads Calif. Police to a body; Associated Press; July 7, 2008; Orig)
UPDATED: (7-07-2008) Police hunt man accused of shooting estranged wife
PORTOLA HILLS - The couple had hostile encounters when exchanging custody of their 9-year-old son in the past, and on Wednesday eveningauthorities said, 46-year-old Lonnie Ramos grabbed a 9mm and shot his estranged wife in the face.
After she filed for divorce in May 2003, Gynnae Ramos sought to reduce the amount of time that Lonnie Ramos had custody of their son, stating she had been threatened by Ramos and she was afraid he would take out his anger on their child. (Police hunt man accused of shooting estranged wife; OC Register; July 3, 2008 Orig.)
UPDATED: (7-17-2008) Holland martial-arts instructor tried to hire undercover cop as hit man
Police arrested Ung, 42, of Holland, at his school Wednesday night, apparently while students were in the building. Court documents show he tried to hire a man to kill Linda Siripanya, a woman with whom he has battled in court since 2003 over custody of their daughter.
Holland Police would not divulge a motive, but Ottawa Count Circuit Court documents reveal a contentious court struggle between Ung and his former girlfriend, with each firing accusations against the other. Each had tried more than once to get judges to issue personal protection orders against the other, and both claimed threats by the other. (Holland martial-arts instructor tried to hire undercover cop as hit man; Grand Rapids Press; July 17, 2008 Orig.)
It was pleasing to see that the child support agencies are beginning to cannabalize their own government officials. In a recent article published (see below) by the Houston Chronicle, Representative Dutton was ordered to pay back child support despite many of the children involved not even living at home. It does always please me when a bureaucracy becomes so large that it begins eating its own. It is definitely time to reign in these various bureaucracies so they only focus on the nation's most needy instead of focusing on middle and upper income feuding families. The proof is in the report below as well as http://www.nationwideblueprint.com.
I would obviously encourage those advocates that believe in the same downsizing of our supersized government to write the dear Rep. Dutton and spread some of the information from these sites.
Dece 12, 2007 Rep. Dutton ordered to pay back child support. (Copyright Houston Chronicle 2007)
A Harris County family court has awarded the ex-wife of state Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. nearly $16,000, finding the state legislator was in arrears on court-ordered child support payments.
But the court declined to hold the Houston Democrat in contempt for those late payments, rejecting his ex-wife's attempts to have him thrown into jail.
Dutton, an attorney, also was ordered to pay an additional $8,000 in legal fees to his former wife's lawyer in the ruling issued Friday by Associate Judge Conrad Moren.
Dutton has long been embroiled in a bitter legal fight with Phyllis Faykus-Dutton, the mother of four of his sons. Their divorce was finalized in 1995, but they have butted heads in court repeatedly since then.
In court papers, she has accused her ex-husband of trying to shirk his child support obligations. But Dutton said he fell behind on the payments because the original court order was "ambiguous" and failed to stipulate how his payments would change when his sons turned 18 or if they moved in with him.
Three of their sons are now living away from home, attending various universities.
A conflict of interest?
"The reason I didn't pay (child support) is because I wanted the court to tell me how much to pay — because I didn't want her to have one nickel she wasn't entitled to," the state legislator said from his Houston law office on Tuesday.
Dutton is chairman of the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues, which occasionally oversees child support issues and other civil law matters relating to families.
In court documents earlier this year, Faykus-Dutton accused her ex-husband of introducing several legislative amendments that would personally benefit him in matters before the family court deciding his case.
Last month, Faykus-Dutton asked that the state legislator be jailed and fined for each failure to comply with the child support order. She also asked that he be placed on probation for 10 years after his release.
She accused her ex-husband of failing to make some child support payments dating back to 1999. In recent months, when he was expected to pay $1,500 a month, Harold Dutton had paid only $400 or sometimes not at all, she alleged in court papers.
"Certainly, he, as an attorney and a legislator who sets policy, needs to comply with a court order," said Myrna Davila Gregory, the attorney representing Dutton's ex-wife. "He needs to follow a court order, just like every mother or father who pays child support is required to do."
Dutton suggested that he would not have fallen behind on the payments if a ruling had been issued promptly when he questioned the ambiguity of the original court order.
Custody issue raised
He also countered that his ex-wife became angry when he recently sought custody of their youngest son, who will turn 14 later this month.
"She is trying to muddy the water because she wants to figure out everything she can do to damage me," Dutton said.
Dutton said he sought custody of the youngest boy and filed a complaint with Harris County Child Protective Services after learning the teen had allegedly been "violently whipped" with a leather belt by his mother's live-in boyfriend.
The judge Friday declined to grant Dutton temporary custody of the boy, but Dutton said he expects the issue will be revisited at a Jan. 8 hearing. For now, the teen remains with his mother.
The court battle between the former spouses has sometimes taken surprising turns.
For instance, Dutton claimed in court papers last month that his gross earnings total $600 a month and his monthly net income after deductions is $250.
Dutton, who has seven children by various women, testified last week that he is planning to adopt another child. The 3-year-old girl he wants to adopt belongs to a woman he used to date, who asked Dutton to be the child's father, he said.
Dutton also testified he is engaged to be married to another woman — not the mother of the 3-year-old girl.
"I guess my question to him was, you're adopting another child and you can't pay child support for the kids you already have?" Gregory said on Tuesday.
Attorneys are scheduled to return to court on Friday, when the judge's rulings will be officially spelled out in a court order.
Dutton, 62, was first elected to his post in 1985 and is one of the longest-serving members of the Texas House.
Does the Open Meetings Act Apply to the Child Support Leadership Council (CSLC) and the Friend of the Court Bureau Advisory Committee?
The Child Support Leadership Council (CSLC) and the Friend of the Court Bureau Advisory Committee (FOCBAC) do not follow the provisions of the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Unlike the Open Records from which the judiciary is excluded, the Open Meetings Act contemplates the inclusion of the judicial branch as a public body. We know for a fact from the minutes of the FOCBAC that the CASPER meetings were held in private before the quarterly FOCBAC meetings; that proposed minutes and approved minutes of FOCBAC meetings are not made available in compliance with the OMA; that some of our members have been excluded from CSLC deliberations that should have been public; and that there is a hostile and uncooperative attitude towards input from members of the public.
Lets put it to the task...
Here is the citation from the Open Meetings Act that ostensibly includes the judicial branch as a public body:
MCL 15.264 Public notice of meetings generally; contents; places of posting. The following provisions shall apply with respect to public notice of meetings: ... (c) If a public body is a part of a state department, part of the legislative orjudicial branch of state government,
part of an institution of higher education, or part of a political
subdivision or school district, a public notice shall also be posted in
the respective principal office of the state department, the
institution of higher education, clerk of the house of representatives,
secretary of the state senate, clerk of the supreme court, or political
subdivision or school district.
I and others made requests for the CASPER report which would have been included under the Open Records and Freedom of Information Act request before it was finally published on the SCAO website. The report was first indicated in the June 22, 2006 "Approved Minutes" of FOCBAC.
Child Support Program Review Committee (CASPER)
Mr. Capps informed the Advisory Committee about CASPER, which is an ad hoc committee that examines the system to determine if there are ways of finding increases in revenues or streamlining the system to the whole child support program to make recommendations to the Program Leadership Group (PLG). The Committee has nine people, (two from SCAO, two from OCS, one from DIT, and two from PAAM) and meets every two weeks at the Hall of Justice.
As many people can see the Child Support Program attempts to operate in the dark with little public input because they know there are significant numbers of people that are now against the operation of the program as a free for all welfare program that is plagued with overparticipation (over half of which are middle and upper class feuding families) in an effort to drive up collection numbers and participation numbers to drown out the failures it has with the needy population. Successful collections mostly come from income witholding orders as opposed to shifting income to means tested welfare recipients.
At some point we will have to ask the question, why lift up one population at taxpayer expense when it just creates the same problem in the contributing class? The only difference is that there is now a bunch of bureacratic parasites that benefit, not society.
When stealing from the nation's children is not enough the often unsupervised and unaudited government employees resort to stealing directly from the coffers that are designed to help our nation's elderly and most needy.
The WFTV.COM Website covering Channel 9 in Florida reported on December 7, 2007 that 3 Women Charged With Stealing Public Assistance Money From DCF. Most importantly, the occurrences of fraud going on in both the welfare system and the child support enforcement system are not isolated issues but widespread problems of government waste and lack of accountability. "There has been a failure to proect the taxpayer from abuse, fraud, and embezzelement with most of the programs in our welfare system" states Lary Holland, author of this blog.
"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A state Department of Children and Families employee and two other women have been charged with stealing more than $1.5 million in state assistance money."
Just a couple of weeks ago another State worker was accused of taking child support money on this same blog. Notwithstanding the outstanding amounts of fraud occurring in just the welfare system, there have been a continual number of issues mounting with the child support enforcement program.
More headlines continue pouring in on the negatives associated with the nation's child support enforcement program.
Innocent Man Sent To Jail For Missed Child Support
BOSTON -- Systemic problems allowed an innocent Massachusetts man to be labeled a deadbeat dad and sent to jail.
Team 5 Investigates' Rhondella Richardson reported that it happened to John Caliri.
"I wake up in the morning and I go to bed at night, knowing that I've been in jail because of something I did not do, and I don't deserve it," said Caliri.
Original Source: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14763949/detail.html
The BostonChannel.Com, WCVB Channel 5, news site carried the story of another man that was affected by the child support enforcement program. This story brings up an interesting final point about the system essentially not listening to the evidence and just rushing to a judgment in an effort to compete for federal incentive money. "Anytime that you have government setting standards on negative outcomes you have a a serious risk of abuse, naturally you are going to see more broken homes and people jailed, because that is what the system is rewarded for," states Lary Holland.
