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Archive for the ‘Divorce’ Category

Lying is America’s Favorite Pastime

February 27th, 2009 2 comments

Fink vs. Charney

The recent web site and web advertising campaigns citing Los Angeles lawyer Keith Fink for various alleged misconducts, improprieties, and court sanctions appears to be part of an ongoing battle between Fink and American Apparel and its CEO Dov Charney. Fink has represented client Mary Nelson in a law suit against American Apparel alleging sexually harassing conduct by American Apparel and Dov Charney. The alleged harassment includes weird claims about how Charney conducted business meetings in the nude.
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Custody Dispute Involves Child in Alleged Murder Attempt on Father’s Family By Mother Toni Valentin, Boyfriend Dante Quezada

February 22nd, 2009 8 comments

Toni Valentin, mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was unhappy with the child custody arrangement she had with her ex-husband. On February 17, 2009, she and her boyfriend Dante Quezada allegedly took the daughter to her father’s brother’s home in the 300 block of West 47th Street in Los Angeles, where she believed the father was located at the time, in a minivan allegedly driven by their friend Felipe Carias. Quezada then allegedly proceeded to shoot out the windows of the home with a semi-automatic pistol, in the process shooting the daughter’s 7-year-old cousin in the chest and arm as she was doing her homework. Apparently they were hoping to kill the 5-year-old’s father while she watched. Fortunately, her cousin is expected to fully recover.
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Holding Family Law Judges Accountable

February 20th, 2009 73 comments

Guess what group is among top of those showing contempt of court?

Family Law Judges!

Family law courts in the United States are a disgusting and abusive mess. While we can’t blame it all on the judges as many problems are caused by lying litigants, the judges are ultimately responsible for most of the problems. They should be upholding the law, ensuring that people’s rights are not violated, and requiring reasonable proof of allegations before they are acted upon. But in the United States today, that’s not the function of family law judges.
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Australian Mother Commits International Child Abduction

February 19th, 2009 No comments
Update: Andrew Thompson was found on September 9, 2010. Please see Parental Abductor Melinda Thompson Arrested in Amsterdam for more information.

Melinda Stratton of Sydney, Australia, has abducted her 4 year old son Andrew Thompson and fled Australia to go into hiding. She was unhappy her son was seeing his father at all even in supervised visitation because she claimed he was an unfit parent. She made allegations against him that were investigated and dismissed, making this look like yet another case of a parental alienator bent on using any means to prevent a child from having contact with the other parent.

Stratton fled to Germany with Andrew in April 2008. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

On January 15, 2009, she recently wrote a letter stating that she claims “the appalling failure of the Family Law Court and Child Protection Services” is why she’s run away with the child. She claims that he’s an unfit father because of depression and anxiety. He denies that he suffers from these mental illnesses. Even if he did, depression and anxiety are very common especially during divorce and hardly justify a parent being judged as unfit unless they are unusually severe.

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Swearing Means You’re a Bad Parent?

February 18th, 2009 No comments

If so, you’re in quite a bit of company. 86% of parents swear in front of children according to a recent poll of 3,000 kids aged 11 years. And they do it on average 6 times per week.

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California Family Law: Elkins Task Force

February 16th, 2009 1 comment

The “Elkins Task Force” has been set up to help correct problems in the family law courts in California.

The next Elkins Family Law Task Force meeting is on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This meeting will be at the following location:

Department of Water & Power
111 N. Hope Street, Lower Level
Los Angeles, California 90012

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False Sexual Abuse Allegations in Child Custody Disputes

February 15th, 2009 25 comments

Biological parents are not likely to sexually abuse their own children. But in recent decades, there has been an epidemic of false sexual abuse claims against biological parents. This epidemic started in earnest along with changes in laws and policies to allow fathers to have partial or full custody of children after a divorce.

The false claims of sexual abuse may be made by either parent. However, they are more common coming from mothers trying any method they can to prevent the children’s fathers from having contact, custody, and/or visitation with the children. This is a despicable strategy related to parental alienation. It is also particularly effective because of societal taboos and the difficulty of proving innocence of a crime which according to the false accuser was seen by nobody but the alleged perpetrator and a small child (who may not even be able to talk!) and of which there is frequently no physical evidence because the false reports are made about false incidents which supposedly occurred weeks or months earlier.

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San Diego County Grand Jury Letter Regarding CPS Abuses

February 14th, 2009 9 comments

The San Diego County Grand Jury conducted years of investigations into misconduct of San Diego County DSS and CPS and their social workers. Despite overwhelming evidence of a routine pattern of misconduct and government abuse of power, the problems have not stopped even years later. This letter from the San Diego County Grand Jury in 1992 explains the problems well. Sadly, nothing much has changed other than the name of the agency, now called Child Welfare Services. The children and families, particularly the fathers, continue to pay the high price of lives damaged and destroyed by San Diego County Child Welfare Services.

In the early to mid 1990’s, there was a push to force CPS agencies to behave according to due process and to be accountable for their misconduct. This was only partly successful. Although the extreme atrocities of the Alicia Wade and Dale Akiki cases are now less common, CPS continues to abuse its power and acts with incompetence, irresponsibility, and impunity ruining the lives of children and their parents without due process.

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US Constitution Second Amendment vs. Restraining Orders

February 11th, 2009 No comments

Gun control laws are likely to be a topic of further discord under the Obama Administration. The US Constitution Second Amendment states:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Over the years, some of the federal cases involving 2nd amendment law found that there was no individual right to bear arms but that instead the right belongs to the States. Other decisions found the right to bear arms is an individual right accorded to the people of the United States, not merely to the States.

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Swedish Mother Kidnaps Australian Boys

February 10th, 2009 1 comment

Swedish mother Ann-Louise Valette is wanted on child abduction charges for the parental kidnapping of her sons Frank and Andre. She is believed to have been hiding them in Sweden, but it is not certain if they are still there as Swedish police have been unable to locate them. Valette violated court orders to put the boys on an October 9, 2008, airplane flight to return them to their father in Melbourne, Australia.

Andre Nicholas Valette age 9 (left) and Frank Oliver Valette age 11 (center) have been missing since they visited their mother Ann-Louise Valette (right) in Sweden.

Andre Nicholas Valette age 9 (left) and Frank Oliver Valette age 11 (center) have been missing since they visited their mother Ann-Louise Valette (right) in Sweden.

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