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Showing posts with label PARENT'S RIGHTS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PARENT'S RIGHTS. Show all posts

Sunday, May 24, 2015

CBS NEWS REPORTS FLORIDA MOM INCARCERATED UNTIL SHE WOULD AGREE TO FATHER'S REQUEST THAT THEIR SON BE CIRCUMCISED!

CBS NEWS reports as follows:
"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A Florida woman jailed in a long-running dispute over her son's circumcision has been released after nine nights behind bars.
Heather Hironimus, 31, posted bond and was released at 10:18 p.m. Saturday, jail records show.
She's been portrayed as a martyr by anti-circumcision advocates around the country who have followed her case with rapt interest.
Hironimus and her 4-year-old-son's father, Dennis Nebus, have been warring for years over whether to have the boy's foreskin removed. She initially agreed in a parenting agreement filed in court, then changed her mind, giving way to a long legal fight. Circuit and appellate judges have sided with the father..."
For more on this topic, please click on the link below:

Monday, April 27, 2015

ADVOCATE JOHN DIBIASE CONFRONTS THE G.A.O. ABOUT THE VIOLATION OF HIS ADA RIGHTS!

John Di Biase Jr.
17 Newton Street
Meriden,CT. 06450-4414
  
May 29, 2010
  
RE: Dismissal of my Discrimination 
Complaint
  
Dear G.A.O.:
  
                            I received a certified letter from our state's Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities which was mailed May 24, 2010. My Reconsideration Request for my Gender and Disability complaint against the Ct. Judicial Branch of Danbury, CT. for discrimination in my child custody case for which I have trying to regain custody of my now 14 year old son.   I was a stay at home Father for three years from Dec 25, 1995 until January 4, 1999   when judge Howard Moragahn gave my ex-wife Elena Fernandez Di Biase sole custody of our   son.  She has used my disability against me for the last 11 years to keep me from getting either more time with our son or custody. I was never determined to be an unfit parent so why did the judge rule in her favor ?  It came out in the pendente lite hearings that our son in fact flourished under my care. No harm ever came to our son as claimed by my ex-wife and her legal aide attorney. I was never informed of my rights under the A.D.A. by  the court nor my attorney.
  
                  In fact myself and an ADA advocate William Mulready worked with the Judicial Branch to help them   come into compliance with the ADA.  There wasn't proper notification at the time of my hearings and there were no ADA coordinators at the court house to assist me. There was only one ADA coordinator in the state for the Judicial Branch and she was located in Hartford,CT. at the Human Resources department for employees not for the general public. One notice the Judicial Branch had was in the court in Litchfield,CT. didn't even have the correct address on it. We got them to correct that when we noticed the neglect.  William  Mulready's case was in Litchfield Court. His family was also a special needs family and he wasn't aware of his Rights either at the time of his case and trial.
  
              This neglect by the state of Connecticut has a disparate impact on thousands of disabled persons going though the civil and criminal court system for many years in the past.
  
              Our states practice of giving custody to women more than 90 % of the time is an act of prima facie act of discrimination and has a disparate impact on men and parents with disabilities.
  
              Our states office of  O.P.A. also  refused me legal representation in my case as I am unable to adequately represent myself because of my hidden disabilities. I have been abused and discriminated by a number of judges over the last 11 years.  Twice the courts have taken away my right to file motions without the permission of the court.  The court is more concerned about winning legal battles against me than seeing that my son's best interests are protected which means that he is given equal access to both his parents. I was our sons primary  caregiver for the three most important, informative years of his life, from birth until he was three years of age. He has suffered much psychological harm because of the deprivation of his father and because of the alienating behavior of his mother.
  
  
               I also filed a complaint with the D.O.J. to no avail.  My CT. C.H.R.O. number is 0920396 It was dismissed because they say I was two days late filing my Reconsideration Request. I though that we had filed it on time. Again, the state cares more about winning legal battles against me than seeing I receive justice.  Also I filed a discrimination complaint against the Meriden Police department and CT.'s D.C.F for illegal home invasion and our Attorney General got the case dismissed, again another case of injustice.
  
  
Yours Truly,
  
John  Di Biase

Saturday, April 4, 2015

CARRUBBA V. MOSKOWITZ: HOW THE SUPREME COURT DETERMINED AMC'S WERE ENTITLED TO ABSOLUTE JUDICIAL IMMUNITY, PART IV!

In the family court system the immunity from liability extended to court professionals who arises from the concept of judicial immunity.  In other words, the immunity that judges are entitled to is also granted to other professionals within the legal system who are considered integral to the legal process.  Judges cannot be sued for any of the judicial acts they take in their capacity as judges, although they can be sued in regard to their administrative acts.  This immunity given to judges obtain is supposed to free them up to make the kinds of principled and fearless decisions necessary in order to serve the interests of justice in the court system.


There are two kinds of immunity that can be extended to professionals who work within the legal system. There is qualified quasi-judicial immunity which still leaves you liable if you act maliciously or wantonly outside the law, and then there is absolute quasi-judicial immunity which means that you can't be held liable no matter how badly you behave.  

State Officials have qualified quasi-judicial immunity for actions performed during the course of their duties in their work.   Public defenders are also at the same level--they have qualified quasi-judicial immunity.  But there are other court employees who are considered entitled to absolute quasi-judicial immunity because their work is thought to be integral to the judicial process. These include judges' law clerks, prosecutors, witnesses, and court-appointed professionals such as psychologists and psychiatrists--the list begins to get quite long.  

For example, the Supreme Court decision in the Corrubba case goes further to mention other functionaries such as bankruptcy trustees, probation officers, court appointed receivers and court appointed medical examiners that are also entitled to absolute quasi-judicial immunity.


When the Supreme Court in Corrubba v. Moskowitz affirmed the right of AMCs to absolute quasi-judicial immunity, it did so by adopting a three pronged test for establishing immunity developed by the U.S. Supreme Court.  These three prongs are as follows:

1) Does the official in question perform functions sufficiently comparable to those officials who have traditionally been afforded absolute immunity at common law;

2.  Is the likelihood of harassment or intimidation by personal liability sufficiently great to interfere with the official's performance of his or her duties;

3.  Do procedural safeguards exist in the system that would adequately protect against improper conduct by the official. 

In regard to prong #1--functionality--to understand how the issue of functionality could be interpreted in regard to a Guardian Ad Litem, an Attorney for the Minor Child, and a regular attorney, you would have to understand their respective positions. 

A Guardian Ad Litem's job is to pursue an investigation and return with recommendations which serve the children's best interests.  An AMC is required not only to advocate on behalf of the children's legal rights, he or she is also expected to work on behalf of the children's best interests, so she has a double  role.  A regular attorney simply advocates diligently for the legal rights of his client and develops strategies to obtain those rights. 

Attorney George Kramer for the Plaintiff, Paul Carrubba, argued that an Attorney For the Minor child's job isn't in the least bit different than that of a regular attorney who is diligently advocating for his client's legal position. 

In contrast, the Amicus Brief in support of the Defendant Emily Moskowitz, argued that an Attorney For the Minor Child has the unenviable task of determining when to advocate for the children's legal position, and when the children's insight and capacity for decision making is deficient to the point where the Attorney For the Minor Child is obligated to push for the children's best interests instead. 

Further, Attorney Robert Kor pointed out that an Attorney For the Minor child doesn't have the same freedom when advocating for their child clients.  Specifically, an AMC is not authorized to have a psychiatrist or psychologist evaluate a child or his or her parents for a custody evaluation without the authorization of the Court.  Furthermore, an Attorney For the Minor Child is not able to proceed with a deposition or an appeal without the permission of the Court. 

Of course, I am not sure that balancing out the warring imperatives of legal rights versus best interests of the child standard inherent in an AMC's job is any different than balancing out the warring imperatives a family court attorney has between winning at all costs versus taking into consideration the needs of the children in a dissolution of marriage action. 

And while an AMC may not be able to proceed with various evaluations or depositions, the likelihood is that the parents' attorneys will conduct both of those activities for the better part and thus provide sufficient information for an AMC to advocate his or her position.  So these are very minor differences.

Prong 2--harassment--the U.S. Supreme Court test raised the question of whether AMC's would be the subject of harassment from parents and thus be unable to do their jobs without judicial immunity.  Attorney Kor proposed that if AMCs didn't obtain immunity, such attorneys would be so afraid of reprisals they wouldn't be able to do their jobs.  He proposed that "to deny the protection of immunity would exert a chilling effect on all court-appointed attorneys for minor children." 

Of course, reading that statement, I dwell on the word "would", indicating the future.  Is Attorney Kor implying that the chilling effect would only happen in the future because it hasn't happened in the past?  I would have loved to have seen the actual statistics in the decade leading up to the Carrubba v. Moskowitz decision--was there a paucity of Attorneys For the Minor Child at that time because of ongoing chilling effects that resulted from disgruntled and angry parents?  Was the Children's Law Center dangling on the brink of extinction because of this chilling effect?  

Somehow I doubt that. 

It is so easy, particularly within the context of a lawsuit to make unfounded statements because they sound good.  I often wish that judges could have as great an understanding as family court victims do in regard to how cheap talk is, particularly without evidence. 

Finally, Prong 3 asks the question of whether there is any recourse when an AMC goes rogue and acts negligently or maliciously.  According to the Defendant there were options.  For example, Paul Carrubba could have gone to the judge and ask to have the AMC removed.  Of course, Mr. Carrubba did that, but was summarily turned down. 

Anyone who has gone through a difficult divorce knows that a Trial Judge will never disqualify a Guardian Ad Litem or An Attorney for the Minor Child no matter how disruptive, negligent and unethical their behavior is.  Somehow judges are able to redefine the horrendous actions of negligent GALs and AMCs and redefine them as insignificant. 

thus, if you look how the Supreme Court decision, you will see how it redefines Paul Carrubba's complaint against Attorney Emily Moskowitz for spouting profanity and lying as merely "express[ing] dissatisfaction with the manner in which the defendant carried out her court-appointed role." 

Wow, if that's all that is, well, ok. 

The same goes for Statewide Grievance.  A family court litigant will never get satisfaction by submitting a complaint to Statewide Grievance even when there are criminal actions involved. 

So what these Supreme Court Judges did in going through the three prong test, particularly when it comes to the final prong is provide a fully developed piece of verbal nonsense in order to open the door to even more exploitation and family court corruption by granting absolute judicial immunity to Attorneys For the Minor Child. 

That panel of judges--Borden, Norcott, Katz, Palmer and Vertefeuille--who wrote the decision, in my opinion, knew exactly what they were doing, the havoc they would wreak by granting absolute quasi-judicial immunity to AMCs, and they did it anyway.  This is why we so desperately need to make sure that Bill #5505 is passed in the legislature this year, to begin to repair the harm and damage that has been done to so many families as the result of these irresponsible and improper decisions.

Before I close this discussion, I do want to mention that Paul Carrubba also filed a negligence complaint on behalf of his son, Mathew Carrubba, acting as a "next friend".  I didn't go into this subject as extensively as the issue of AMC judicial immunity.  However, I do think it is worth mentioning that all the way down the line, from superior court, to appellate court, and finally on the supreme court level, Paul Carrubba was essentially denied the right to pursue an action on behalf of his child. 

Specifically, the Supreme Court determined that during a dissolution action, the child's interests are assumed to diverge automatically from that of the parents and so, therefore, Paul Carrubba lacked standing.  The Amicus Brief quoted Linda D. Elrod's article "Raising the Bar for Lawyers Who Represent Children" stating that "Only the child should have any right of any action against a 'Child's Attorney' or a "Best Interest Attorney'". 

So, how exactly is a child supposed to do this?  Is this just another one of those weird half-baked things that attorneys say in order to sideline common sense?

I cannot be sure. But one thing I do know, it is time to restore sanity to our Connecticut Family Court System.  It is time GALs and AMCs were held accountable, and it is time that the CT Judicial Branch stopped trashing parents who know far more than any paid professional who just met them what is in the best interests of their children.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

CHERYL HILL ANNOUNCES TWO ORGANIZING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARENTAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS!

As you are like aware, many changes have come over our nation, and specifically-CT. Under the guise of education, these changes continue to chip away at our parental rights, civil liberties and local authority. Furthermore, it's at the expense of our childrens' real education, rights and safety. 

Jonathan Pelto, is one of our leading advocates and champion. He has posted of two opportunities for CT residents to attend. Come, share your thoughts, ask questions and be inspired by other CT champions!

Please share these unique opportunities with your contacts especially, via email and fb.

Also, we have some elected officials that understand the far-reaching implications of these programs. We are grateful for their advocacy! However, it's critical that ALL of our elected officials hear from their constituents. WE are the largest voting population and parental rights should garner bipartisan support.

So, please extend a personal invitation to your elected officials to attend these two events- the second, a presentation at Fairfield University would be especially critical as our CT advocates help us to be more fully informed.

Thank you for YOUR advocacy!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

REBEL PUNDIT REPORTS: GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE OF NEW JERSEY EMBROILED IN FAMILY COURT RICO LAWSUITS!

According to "Rebel Pundit",

"Chris Christie has been named as a defendant in two cases that are part of series of lawsuits across the country where serious concerns about violations of citizens’  rights in family courts are under scrutiny.

CALIFORNIA
An upcoming civil RICO lawsuit to be filed on behalf of the watchdog group Family Court Accountability Coalition (FCAC) will allege that a feeder system created by the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Division, in conjunction with several powerful judges, creates a racket which chooses favored divorce lawyers and makes sure those lawyers get favorable rulings in Sacramento County family court rooms.
 
In 1991, Judges Vance Raye and Peter McBrien, formed the Family Law Executive Committee (FLEC) to help deal with family law cases in Sacramento County family courts. This FLEC would be a group of lawyers, according to the upcoming suit, chosen by the Sacramento County Bar Association’s family law division which would act as judge pro temp on certain family law cases and in exchange, the suit will allege, the lawyers chosen for this task would be given favorable rulings, deserved or not, when they appeared in divorce court in their regular roles.
 
One of the most high profile case examples of this scheme which will be featured in the suit is that of Ulf Carlsson who appeared in front of Judge McBrien and whose story received significant media attention culminating with a lengthy feature in the documentary Divorce Corp."
 
For more information on this article, please click on the link below:
 

Friday, January 23, 2015

INTRODUCED BY SEN. JOHN KISSEL, PROPOSED BILL NO. 661, TO REDUCE TENSIONS BETWEEN PARENTS AND THE CT FAMILY COURTS!

General Assembly
  Proposed Bill No. 661  
January Session, 2015
  LCO No. 2319
  *02319*

Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
 
Introduced by: 
SEN. KISSEL, 7th Dist. 

AN ACT CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONNECTICUT PARENTAL RIGHTS ADVISORY COMMISSION.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

That the general statutes be amended to establish the Connecticut Parental Rights Advisory Commission, which shall advise the Judicial Branch regarding family court issues with the intent of reducing conflict between parents and the state's family courts.

Statement of Purpose:
To establish the Connecticut Parental Rights Advisory Commission.