 A recent online article highlighted the fact that poor parents tend to serve more jail time for child support issues than middle class or wealthy parents.
Sadly, if parents are arguing about child support, their child is likely paying a heavy price. If family judges get involved, children are doomed, What is grossly unfair about our modern child support system, is how aggressively the state can collect child support arrearages, but how biased family law judges appear to be in making those support orders. Silicon Valley's Family Courts: Worst On Child Support Issues On a recent morning calendar Judge James Towery told a mother that the $200 or so dollars a month she was requesting , pro per, didn't warrant his attention, and the matter was continued by several more months. Through his words and conduct, Towery demonstrated that he has no ability to understand the financial issues related to the children impacted by his rulings. For that child, $200 a month could mean a week of not being to eat healthy food, or a month more of not being able to buy new shoes or coats needed to replace outgrown clothing. For James Towery $200 is just a fancy dinner with wife number three (or four) and a moderately priced bottle of wine. On that same morning Towery told another mother who was seeking discovery on how much her ex made in construction contracts (so she could figure out how much child support he owed), that her motion was denied . That mother's lawyer stated outside the court, "he had never seen anything like it in his life as a family lawyer. " Court files show Towery consistently demonstrates gender bias by denying women basic discovery that is needed to address support and property division issues in a divorce case. Before recess on that same day, Towery told a mother seeking to collect over $50,000 in back child support, that he couldn't be bothered with that because another judge made an order that said he didn't have to, never mind state law that said he did . Towery does not act solely with gender bias, he , like Judge Grilli, act with socioeconomic bias, failing to address support as the law requires when one side is acting without a lawyer ( legally defined as socioeconomic bias) . Such conduct that is supposedly barred by California's Judicial Code of Ethics, and appears to be repeatedly ignored by Santa Clara County judges, acting in one of the wealthiest communities in the state. Best Interests of Children Ignored in Silicon Valley Towery's failure to address the best interests of children is so routine, that he rubber stamps void orders offered by lawyers, and rarely sets contempt motions filed by pro pers , when custody and support issues are at hand. Across the hall in Judge Grilli's courtroom, Grilli seems unpassed by shady paid vocational experts who testify in support of outlandish income imputing requests. Grilli , and her judicial peers appear equally lacking in suspicion when hired gun CPAs, retained and paid by one side, seem to not be able to find any money for support from a wealthy represented parent, and where the other parent is unable to pay a lawyer or expert. Grilli does not even appear to know how to read a tax return , despite bring a family law judge for over 20 years. Furthermore, Mary Ann Grilli, like many of her peers , appears to be incompetent when using a Dissomaster to calculate support. Grilli is so inept in making support calculations using the Dissomaster, that she often assigns the calculations to the represented party to calculate, the fox guarding the hen house ,not withstanding. Court records in cases before Grilli show alarming inconsistencies, where Grilli appears to routinely issue support orders below state law. Grilli's support orders are all over the board. It is fraud , it is abuse of power and it harms children who are under supported as a result. Grilli's unwillingness to lawfully address support , and the best interests of the children during a family law case, date back to her ruling in Re Marriage of Cheriton, where lawyer Bard Baugh got Grilli to order support under $3000 per month ,m for four children, against David Cheriton, Stanford law professor who had over $542,000,000 in tech stock at the time Grilli rubberstamped Baugh's orders and requests. For the children of Silicon Valley, the sixth district overruling Grilli and requiring parents to support their children, fell on deft , dumb and bling judicial heads, where Grilli , and the peers she influences , continue to place the interests of their favored lawyers over those of Silicon Valley's children during divorce cases. Santa Clara County State Guideline Support Inconsistencies- Dissomaster or Judges at Fault??? Judge Grilli , and her Silicon Valley judicial peers, appear to be poorly trained on using and applying Dissomaster software. The software used in courts across California requires accurate inputs to determine what state required child support must be ordered. . Grilli, and her peers , seem to not be able to use or understand this software, and Santa Clara County Court insiders report the county provides no training to family court judges old enough to not be comfortable with modern technology. Therefore, there is more than an appearance that in the heart of Silicon Valley, family court judges are unable, and untrained to use and lawfully apply the routinely used child support calculating software. Judges Go "Off Law": And Use Child Support as Weapon against Pro Per Parents Santa Clara Court records show that parents requesting courts void or modify unlawful child support orders, calculated by incompetent , or biased, judges, are silenced by policies and informal policies and practices that deny due process and prevent the revealing of the systemic failures of family courts. These practices show family court judges writing orders that deviate from state law, rubber-stamping orders of nefarious lawyers seeking to have their clients avoid supporting children during a divorce, and continuing child support motions into the black abyss of the court calendar , where they are never set and often become moot because the child ages out of the system and the parent attempting to collect back support just gives up. Court records show the parent owed back support is given the impossible task of trying to get a judgement to actually be able to collect the support they are owed, when wealthy represented clients pay a lawyer to play " keep away". Most alarming is the pattern Santa Clara County Courts appears to be employing that serves to block parents seeking to appeal unlawful child support orders. Court records show that Susan Walker , manager of the appeal section for the trial court, refuses to answer the phone, claims staff shortages have caused as much as a five to six month delay in sending appeals to the appeals court, and has knowledge that payments for appeals have been redirected and notices of default are intentionally delayed or backdated, all giving rise for lawful dismissal of appeals that leave a parent unable to collect guideline child support through the courts. Parents who speak up the loudest about the trial court's failure to properly address child support in family law cases, appear to be labeled by the county's judiciary , blackballed from getting basic discovery , and at times even declared vexatious, where they are perpetually denied the opportunity to modify or void unlawful child support orders. Jailed Parents Can't Support their Children In Santa Clara County judges appear more than willing to send innocent parents to jail for failing to pay child support when those parents are self represented. However, judges do not apply the same zeal when a parent in default of child support is represented and the parent attempting to collect child support is unrepresented. Support orders issued by judges in Santa Clara family law cases appear to be highly problematic. Court files show judges will more quickly enforce judgements and issue sanctions when requests are made by an ":in crowd" of lawyers, and will completely ignore the same requests and issue no sanctions when the requests are made by a pro per, or less favored lawyer. Children are suffering as a result. Support that is unpaid, often stems from an unlawful order made while one parent was unable to afford a lawyer, and the order shows more of an abuse of discretion and financial fantasy calculations of a single judge, than anything that resembles the state mandated child support laws. Across the country decorated navy veteran Kash Jackson is so outraged at the jailing of parents stemming from child support issues, that he has taken to the national roadways, and airwaves, with an inverted flag as a symbol, to bring attention to what is wrong with child support and family courts in America today. If anyone stopped and did the math, they would find poor parents imputed for income they could never afford, and wealthy parents spending 100% of child support orders to hire lawyers to get them out of supporting their children. No judge appears to be looking at he insanity of legal fees parents appear willing to pay to get out of supporting their children. Lack of parity, where one parent is represented and has access to costly experts to avoid lawful child support payment appears to be more the general course of business and acceptance by today's family courts. It doesn't belong in child support issues and judges should not be allowed to continue to ignore the state mandate on legal parity found in Family Code 2030 and 3557, when child support issues are at hand. Children in America Bankrupted by Family Courts Most children whose parents are compelled to try to collect support through family courts are under supported, and never afforded the opportunity to go to college, Parents so intent on burying their ex are willing to spend millions on lawyers and court fees , and then quibble over paying a few hundred dollars in child support. Children are expensive , they have needs and they need to be supported to become valuable citizens in the future, it is a societal issue. And one of key importance. Parents , no matter how bitter at a former spouse, have to rise to their parenting obligations and support the needs of their own children. Courts must demand this, and cease in contributing to disputes that so severely fail our children. . Somewhere society allowed a single family law judge to become involved in child rearing issues. Judges are human, and often unable to provide quality parenting for their own children, they should not have power over the children involuntarily forced into the family court jurisdiction. Systemic judicial abuse and arrogance has no place in the role of parenting , or supporting, our children. Judges demonstrate over and over the human flaws of the judiciary, our children should not be subjected to those flaws that so greatly impact their future. Time to Stop Jailing Innocent Parents Over Child Support Issues It is long past time to speak up against the judges , and the agencies, who are stealing our children's child support for their own livelihoods, or jailing parents based on phantom income and fantasy finances. We must start showing what these judges are doing to our children, and their innocent parents. Please forward redacted copies of tax returns, w-2 statements , filed court documents, and child support orders. Name your judge and the lawyers involved if you have an order that looks more like fantasy finance than the reality of supporting a child. Include with your information billing statements of how much lawyers billed, on both sides, to address child support issues., Redact last names, children's names and Social Security numbers, do not redact judge or lawyer names. Email to :caljohnqpublic@gmail.com
9 Comments
Mari-Lynne Earls
11/7/2016 01:00:28 pm
Well, paint a bulls eye on me: 2003 Judge M. Johnson rubberestamped a void order wherein no guidline for the child, the trust is named as half of the child's needs source, violating FC 4065. 2007 attempt to restore CS; Johnson says outright "I am unlikely to award guideline', ties CS motion to long cause hearing, 8 mos delay, has private ex parte talk with dad's attorney and agrees to deny a motion for an EXPEDITED hearing on the CS, and does without allowing my attorney to object, trial judge when says retroactive CS would be 'an undeserved windfall to mother', echoed by sixth dist. app. ct. in 2008. After the 2003 void order, dad bought an 81k Lexus. when son questioned that, Carlton Gene Amdahl told his son, I'm allowed to spend money on myself'. Sixth Dist app. justice Elia said re; my CS motion, "you mean, she can keep coming back for more?" and 'He has money, let's get some of it!: No CJP discipine for anyone. How many Canon violations can you count? Sorry, no prize for correct answer.
disgusted
11/7/2016 01:34:00 pm
It is entirely unlawful, not to mention immoral, to live above the mean one's offspring, custodial or non-custodial parent, end of story, This is why they fight so hard for custody when they have assets too high or, to hide. 8/6/2017 01:48:35 pm
This happened in my state, too, way far away from CA. This article describes the state of the NATION with regards to child "support"
disgusted
11/7/2016 01:29:49 pm
When I was self-representing in Alameda and Contra Costa County, suing for back child support, arrears were in the tens of thousands and my child was 17 years old. Deadbeat's millionaire family's favored-son and heir-intent had only been required to pay $179 a month while living solo in a three-story Tudor home on Indian Rock in Berkeley, California while putting his eldest daughter, Hannah M SHAFSKY through CAL and Hastings Law School, grooming her to participate in his "illegal transfer of assets", and getting(paying big bucks for too) a master's degree himself, hiding out in Academia and Native American peyote sweat lodges claiming to be Native AND indigent. In the same year my attorney I hired then fired during d i v o r c e, where she staked claim to law digs across the street from his in my hometown, my fired lawyer was rigging my mom's trust. She was not from Danville, Ca. like we were. This was plotted to set me up to lose in Probate Court 10 years later, and in front of the judge that worked at her place of employment as an intern the Attorney General's office while I was suing, using a court appointed crony from my x lawyer's legal alma mater with close ties to embezzling trustees who'd been taking notes, hiring my fired lawyer, their lifelong friend and co-embezzler. I finally won but not before taking it to the Board of Supervisors in Berkeley because the State Support Service Agency would NOT DO ITS JOB. I was continually harassed for expecting due process while they low-income shamed me, ignoring my court order. I was subjected to slander, libel, and two very abusive, discriminating administrative hearings, charging the state for failure to use every available tool according to the Federal Uniform Child Support Act. Because I had sole physical and legal custody and had become disabled from having to work two 8 hour jobs, seven days a week to make up for the government's lack of compliance, I desperately needed all back support. The agents unlawfully acted like his/their attorneys, making personal attack remarks and phone calls to me after listening to his lying, whining dribble. I told them they had no right to re-adjudicate my support order or a custody order in their offices when for 11 years they refused to modify or enforce entirely. Last disgusting agent in charge actually said to me after final judge finally told him to pay up or go to jail, "well, I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.", no apology formal or otherwise they took their sweet time getting it to me after payment, also unlawfully. Criminals, the lot of them. He wasn't even supposed to be driving his brand-new Forerunner to court let alone get a license to practice marriage and family therapy while in arrears, By Law. After he inherited our daughter got nothing, and he never spent a day in jail for committing perjury and hiding his income, assets and lying about his ability to earn as a supposedly working therapist/"shaman" in San Francisco California. As with Probate now, I have boxes and boxes and boxes of documentation. The Civil Rights lawyers who successfully sued for these exact kinds of child support violations within the state of California said my case was one of the most egregious they'd seen in the entire country. What our lives would have been like if there was such a thing as Justice and rule of law across the board. I would like to thank judge Michael Lamb for believing/respecting my evidence and me, and the head of the Berkeley Board of Directors for rattling the cage of the director of the Alameda County Support Enforcement services. But I condemn judge sugiyama who was Assistant Attorney General at the top of the child support enforcement for not caring to do his job for custodial parents by law, and their children who were suffering, any more than he cares about the low income people who are unfortunate enough to appear in Probate before him like me, or for any reason.
L. B.
11/8/2016 08:56:22 am
Getting rid of as judge is complex and difficult, as evidenced by Judge Persky's ongoing recall.
Citizen C
11/8/2016 08:58:16 am
Does anyone know the process for getting rid of Victoria Henley?
Citizen C
11/9/2016 10:50:35 am
Does anyone know how Victoria Henley was appointed?
disgusted
11/14/2016 12:18:39 am
No return? The return is The Truth and the taxpayer right to know. From there, perhaps change. Joe isn't some demi-god. He's one guy who lost, and he's pissed like the rest of us. What he's proven, like lots of us could, is that ILLEGAL Judicial Retaliation is real, the State sets us up to lose to squire our shit, and money rules, not justice. Lawyers=Evil. Judges are lawyers..
farewell to arms
11/11/2016 03:27:41 pm
The Court is one big ugly machine. There is no way to win. They have all the power and control. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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