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“Support? System Down” Film Documents Evils of Family Law

January 7th, 2010 3 comments

At the recent California Coalition for Families and Children (CCFC) meeting in Del Mar, film producer Angelo Lobo was in the audience. He discussed his film Support? System Down which documents injustices in the family courts and child support systems in the form of interviews of 38 parents involved in custody and child support disputes. Also interviewed are a number of other parties and relatives, including family law attorneys, family rights activists, and grandparents.
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CCFC Family Court Reform Presentation in Del Mar, California

January 4th, 2010 1 comment

Press Release from California Coalition for Families and Children (CCFC)

December 30, 2009 — San Diego, California

On Monday, January 4, 2010, national family court reform leaders Barbara Asher, M.F.T. and her attorney husband Mr. Charlie Asher, Esq. of West Bend, Indiana will lead a discussion among San Diego family court reform leaders in Del Mar. Mr. and Ms. Asher will share their experiences in instituting important and healthy reforms to traditional family court practices which many in San Diego have accused of harming children and families.

The Ashers, authors of the popular website www.uptoparents.org, will address the many problems with family court practices used in San Diego, including overuse of psychologists, invalid scientific methods, and a failure to implement collaborative practices already in place in many jurisdictions outside of San Diego.

Notable San Diego film producer and director of “Support? System Down” (http://www.supportthemovie.com) Angelo Lobo, President Harry Crouch of the National Coalition for Men and Men’s Legal Center (http://www.ncfm.org), Scripps Mercy Health Vice-Chief of Behavioral Science Dr. Emad Tadros, and President of California Coalition for Children Colbern Stuart, III, Esq. will be in attendance. Channel 10 News will be shooting at the event. The discussion, sponsored by the California Coalition for Families and Children, will be also be recorded and posted on YouTube.

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Pennsylvania “Abduction Hoax Mom” Tied to More Fraud

December 15th, 2009 No comments

Bonnie Sweeten and Julia Rakoczy

Bonnie Sweeten is the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, mother who works as a paralegal for Attorney Debbie Carlitz. She’s the mom who faked her 9 year old daughter Julia Rakoczy’s abduction and took her to Disneyworld as I discussed in my May 2009 article Pennsylvania Mom Abducts Child, Goes to Disney World. Now she’s back in the news for other reasons.

Sweeten stands accused of hiding a legal disciplinary suspension order against her boss, Carlitz, resulting in or enabling Carlitz to continue to practice law on a suspended license and to claim she knew nothing of the suspension. Sweeten allegedly signed service and disciplinary forms for Carlitz and falsely notarized them.
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CCFC Press Release On Stephen Doyne Corruption/Fraud Case

December 13th, 2009 9 comments

The battle against alleged fraudulent child custody evaluator Stephen Doyne is heating up as the California Coalition for Families and Children (CCFC) is expanding its involvement in the Emad Tadros v. Stephen Doyne lawsuit (San Diego Superior Court Case 37-2008-00093885-CU-BT-CTL) involving the alleged fraud and misconduct of Doyne in a psychological evaluation in San Diego in a child custody dispute. CCFC points to Doyne’s attempts to silence its criticisms of his allegedly extortionary practices, perjury, and fraud. CCFC counsel Cole Stuart is concerned that the corruption goes far beyond Doyne himself and may extended to political contributions to the campaigns of San Diego Superior Court judges.
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Gender Polarization Impedes Family Law Reform

December 9th, 2009 5 comments

Today I viewed a disturbing website. It’s called Justice4Mothers. The idea that mothers deserve justice is not disturbing. I believe that everybody deserves justice regardless of gender or sexual orientation. And it’s not that every one of the articles on the site is alarming, either. But one particular article riled me up a bit. The article is reposting of a twisted reposting entitled Attention Judges and Lawmakers: This is the REAL AGENDA of the Father’s Rights Movement.

I don’t consider myself a father’s rights activist, so the reason the reposted articles bother me is not that they put down father’s rights groups and I’m somehow personally offended by this. I’m an advocate for the rights of parents and children of both genders. There’s no question in my mind that sometimes its the mothers who are shafted by the courts, sometimes it is the fathers, and usually it is both. And usually, the children are victimized right along with one or both of their parents.

The main two reasons I’m alarmed by this article are:
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Unjust Delays in San Diego Family Law Courts

December 5th, 2009 1 comment

In yet another symptom of the diseased San Diego Family Law courts and State of California, an illness on the bench is causing months of delays in trials and hearings. Judge Lorna Alksne is filling in for an ill judge in El Cajon (East County) court from Tuesday to Thursday, leaving only Monday and Friday for her to hear her own cases. The result is that hearings and trials are being pushed back, sometimes for months. In today’s broken courts, it’s not unusual for San Diego divorces to take more than two years of legal warfare. It’s a far cry from anybody’s concept of a “fair and speedy trial”. Sometimes, it is more like government-assisted child abuse.
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Flyer Protest in San Diego Family Law Courts

November 20th, 2009 16 comments

In late October 2009, one or more people distributed a large quantity of flyers inside the San Diego family law courts. Reportedly they were stuffed in books, free magazines, and other literature in the courthouses. The flyers protest the use of expensive professionals in child custody cases, in particular section 730 psychological evaluators. Criticisms are also directed at minor’s counsel attorneys, exchange and visitation monitors, and consulting psychologists.
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San Diego Courts Cover Up Missing Forms and Psych Evals

November 19th, 2009 2 comments

I’ve been getting feedback on my recent article Stephen Doyne and San Diego Family Law Courts Under Fire from quite a few people. I’ll be sharing some of these comments and stories with readers. While verifying the accuracy of all of these comments is probably impossible given the amount of lying in courts and confidentiality rules and judicial gag orders, they sound at least plausible. Some have included details that lend added credibility to the reports. Please keep the reports coming. You can email them to [email protected] or leave them as comments on any of my articles and note whether you’re OK publishing the comment as-is or would like it to be anonymously contributed to the ongoing coverage of corrupt family law courts.

Judge Lorna Alksne Orders Court Staff to Obtain Missing FL326/327 Forms

There have been many reports of missing or never filed FL326 and FL327 forms for psychological evaluations in San Diego County. It’s been common practice to ignore the requirements for these forms. Now it appears that the court staff may be attempting to remedy or cover up (the appropriate phrase depends upon your viewpoint) this missing information by going through files and asking the evaluators to send the forms for psychological evaluations that may have been filed months or even years previously.
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California Men’s Centers – San Diego

November 19th, 2009 No comments

Are you a guy whose wife or girlfriend is abusing your children and you? Have you been falsely accused of child abuse by you ex as a tactic to keep you from seeing your children? Have you had a falsely obtained restraining order used on you to kick you out of your home, ban you from seeing your children, defame you as a violent person, and to emotionally and financially rape you? Is your boyfriend or husband being attacked by his ex-wife using such aggressive manipulations of the legal system?

Californians who can answer yes to any of these questions can find more help at the web site of California Men’s Centers.

Based upon the group’s support of shared parenting and stance against the use of false accusations, women who are partners of an abused man or who themselves are in a such an unfair situation could also find advice and help from them.
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California Elkins Family Law Task Force Seeking Comments

November 19th, 2009 No comments

The following is an email recently sent to parties who have expressed an interest in the work of the Elkins Task Force. They have recently posted their “draft final recommendations” document for public review. They are asking for comments to be turned in by December 4, 2009, at 5pm. Skimming through the document, there are some good ideas and some really bad ones, too. If you’ve been affected by the corrupt disaster that is the family law courts in California, it would truly behoove you to take a look at what may be coming down the pike and submit comments to encourage them to pursue the good ideas and revise or abandon the bad ones. I’ll be posting more thoughts on it as I get a chance to read it in more detail.
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