justice’s posterous

Paul Martikainen aka Kristian Turunen had a history of being abusive. Nevertheless, he was given court-ordered visitation with a toddler. Why. Why why why why why why why. http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20091128/BREAKINGNEWS/91128014/1006/news01/Police+looking+for+dad+in+abduction Read more at http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/ Read more about fatherhood and child custody issues at the liz library

UPDATE: and, apparently, a criminal record, including aliases:  http://www.wftv.com/news/21764062/detail.html What in heck were you thinking, Judge Charles J. Roberts, giving this man visitation with a toddler? Any visitation at all. Even supervised.  Why? He's a role model?  Nurturing?  Do you think the kid needs to spend time with him?  It's doubtful.  For whose benefit was this? We've got to get off this fatherhood exaltation nonsense already. The man's got a long rap sheet.  Drugs. Dangerous. A liar. An abuser. He's got one fit parent; that ought to be enough for the State. The mother expresses her fear and concern (albeit mothers with concern about fathers generally are accorded the credibility of dried worm meal in family courts).  DCF confirms the abuse of the child. What more is there? What more could you possibly need? What could this man possibly have to offer of benefit that a 3-year-old has to have? Why can't we err (IF it's an "err") your Honor, on the side of children? If you make a mistake and deny a good man his visitation rights, really, it still won't hurt the kid.  We've got exemplary men and women who are parents fighting in the Middle East, separated for months or years from their children. Come ON, already!  Time to quit catering to the "parenting" rights of these men. http://www.wftv.com/video/21763914/index.html

UPDATE: SAFE!  Thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard. (Now, Judge, will you terminate the guy's parental rights, please?) http://www.news-press.com/article/20091201/NEWS01/91201013/1075/Missing-Cocoa-boy-found-safe-off-Sanibel-coast

"Robert J. Beiser's threats against his estranged wife started long before he assembled the weapons to kill her, according to a man who became romantically involved with Teresa Beiser as her marriage disintegrated..." http://www.oregonlive.com/tualatin/index.ssf/2009/11/post.html

"The unidentified man surrendered to Palm Bay SWAT team members at about 6 a.m. and was taken to the Palm Bay Community Hospital after appearing under the influence of an unknown substance... The woman and the children, a 14-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, managed to escape the home during the overnight hours, police said." http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20091117/BREAKINGNEWS/91117002/1006/news01/Dad+arrested+after+hostage+situation+ends+in+Palm+Bay
          Lucky them that they are still alive. Note to defense-minded apologists: neither the woman nor the children were able under these circumstances to make the 911 call. Had this "event" somehow been managed, and then reported after the fact, perhaps in a family law case or in connection with the seeking of a restraining order, how seriously would you have taken it?
          And get this idiotic media statment: "Investigators said it began as a fight between Christopher Lynch and his estranged wife. They said Lynch had two guns on him at the time of the standoff." http://www.wesh.com/news/21636380/detail.html  (First the media unidentifies him -- in case it's yet again just some "dad" -- see the floridatoday.com URL -- accused wrongly of domestic violence. And then another news source describes barging into someone else's home armed with two guns as a "fight".)

"Teresa Beiser was asking for joint custody of her two children with Robert Beiser in what appeared from court documents to be an amicable dissolution of their marriage." Excellent commentary and links to the news stories at http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/11/mom-files-for-joint-custody-but-gets.html

"A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show 'harmful material' to their children has come under fire after a US prosecutor said he couldn't file charges against a man accused of forcing his eight- and nine-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography... one of the girls told a counsellor in June that her father made them watch adults having group sex and various other acts at his home in Amarillo. The parents of the girls, and their seven-year-old sister, are divorced and share custody." Where's the family court judge here? http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/924640/dad-escapes-charges-in-child-porn-case

"Two weeks before she was killed, Dawn Axsom pleaded with Judge Jose Padilla of Maricopa County Superior Court to let her leave Arizona with her son because she feared Gabriel Schwartz, the toddler's father, would harm her or their boy... Padilla denied the 26-year-old's request and ordered the pair to attend parental counseling together.   Axsom's body was found in her Peoria residence Friday. Police also found the bodies of Schwartz, 28, and Lisa Braden, 56, Axsom's mother." http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/10/19/20091019peomurder1020.html This judge should be removed from the bench.  Also see liznotes at thelizlibrary.org on these misguided fatherhood exaltation, joint custody and anti-relocation laws.

We've been getting in email nearly daily from family court litigants around the country who are distraught over the messes being made in their lives by so-called parenting coordinators, a fairly newly-invented field in which a third party "professional" is granted rather free-for-all authority -- without responsibility or liability -- to manage "co-parenting" between child custody litigants. Before you agree to a parenting coordinator, or relent to a court-ordered parenting coordinator without a fight and an appeal, if necessary, read this: http://www.thelizlibrary.org/parenting-coordination/parenting-coordination.html

The case for abolishing guardians ad litem: "It should be sufficiently alarming to a legal system cast with life altering decisions power that the role of the guardian ad litem, one of its sacred cows, is apparently more elusive than is the definition of "best interest'". http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/DucotearticleJuly2002.pdf

 More: The case for abolishing custody evaluators. http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/DoreArticle4-061.pdf

Glen Richard Dillon was in violation of a court order mandating supervised visitation when he apparently deliberately smashed his car into a tree resulting in the incineration of his 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. The children's mother had fought for more than 2 years in family court to keep her children safe. http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/i-couldnt-protect-my-kids-grieving-mum-20090902-f8b8.html http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/09/dad-breaches-court-order-requiring.html

Jon E. Pomeroy, and stepmother Rebecca A. Long are monsters. They deserve life; they are unlikely to get charged with anything having remotely close to a decent sentence.
      "Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Carnation home the evening of Aug. 13, 2008, after neighbors reported hearing a girl screaming. In court documents, the deputy sheriff who interviewed the 14-year-old described her as 'extremely skinny and pale' and found she weighed only 48 pounds. Their daughter told police she was allowed only about 6 ounces of water each day and was monitored by Long when she bathed to keep her from 'sneaking' extra water... The girl and her brother, 12, were forced to sleep on their parents' floor so she wouldn't sneak out to drink water, and the parents even blocked the door with a heavy dresser after the girl was caught sipping water from the toilet... In one instance, the stepmother duct-taped the girl's hands behind her back and dunked her head in the toilet as punishment." http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/08/custodial-dad-pleads-guilty-to-starving.html