Showing posts with label CJE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CJE. Show all posts

05 May 2011

Press Release May 6th, 2011 Historic Day at the US Supreme Court Washington DC 12 NOON

 

May 5, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONFERENCE May 6th, 2011 at 12 Noon

Location:

US Supreme Court    

One First Street, NE                                 

Washington, DC 20543                         

Sidewalk in front of the US Supreme Court

HISTORIC US SUPREME COURT CASE

Child Advocates and Legal Scholars are anxiously awaiting the filing of a Petition for Writ of Certiorari on May 6, 2011 at 12 noon at the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. in the Sacks v. Sacks case.

This truly will be an  Historic Day at the US Supreme Court, for  America’s children and their “Protective Parents”, as this landmark case is being hand delivered by a Florida Mother and exposes a national crisis all over the US.

The Sacks v. Sacks case is the perfect opportunity for the US Supreme Court to thoroughly explore and address the issue of Battered Mothers and child abuse, and their documented evidence of “protective parents” losing custody  and the failure of family courts and Child Protective Services to thoroughly investigate and handle Domestic Violence, child sexual/and or child physical abuse cases properly, therefore resulting in a verdict, contrary to the “bests interests of the child(ren)”.

Kathleen Russell, from the Center for Judicial Excellence, in the California Progress Report, on 10/19/09 “When Family Courts Get It Wrong”, says “When a parent harms his or her own child, family courts are supposed to step in and safeguard the victim. Can you imagine what a tragedy it would be if courts awarded custody to the wrong parent Actually according to one conservative estimate, more than 58, 000 children a year are court ordered by family courts into unsupervised visitation contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following a divorce in the U.S. The fact that this type of scandal is taking place in the American justice system defies the imagination. Not since the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the US seen this type of institutional harm inflicted on innocent children.” (www.centerforjudicalexcelllence.org)

The National Organization for Women, NOW and the NOW Ad Hoc Law Committee are  addressing this issue and in their Spring 2011,  “and explore what can happen to  a protective mother and her children when she does nothing more than to protect her children”, as quoted on page 36 of the Petition for Certiorari.

The Petitioner, in the US Supreme Court case, Linda Marie Sacks, has been chosen as the “Poster Mother” of the Family Court Crisis, is interviewed for the article.(www.now.org) Click on the Family Law Spring Newsletter.

On April 21, 2011,  in the BMCCVI Digest Number 2011, reports that Eileen King representing Justice for Children participated in the Office of Violence Against Women Roundtable Discussion that took place at George Washington University Law School. The Roundtable was organized by Rita Smith, the Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Prof. Joan Meier, Director of the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DVLEAP) at GWU Law School. OVW will post a report about the Roundtable on their website in the near future. (www.justiceforchildren.org) and (www.dvleap.org)

As noted by Barry Goldstein, Esq. The Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) is part of the US Justice Department that provides grants for programs to reduce and prevent domestic violence. They recently sponsored a forum for their staff and other professionals in various parts of the government to learn about the crisis in the custody court system.

“It was a discussion based upon current scientific research and actual experiences that courts are routinely making catastrophic mistakes in failing to protect children and domestic violence survivors.

Linda Marie Sacks, a Florida Mother, truly the “All American Mom”, has only seen her children at the Family Tree House Visitation Center for  82 hours in the last 4 years and 2 months, is challenging the “Best Interests of The Children” Statute 61.13,  as Domestic Violence, child sexual and physical abuse must be considered in a judge’s decision determining the “Best Interests of the Children”. In the Pro se Cert  Petition, Sacks raises  the constitutional implications of a fit parent to the care, custody, of her children, and without a finding of unfitness by clear and convincing evidence, established by the US Supreme Court ruling in Santosky v. Kramer, U.S. 745, 769-770 (1982).

Her daughters said in April 2007, “Mommy fight for us and do something every day to get us back and don’t ever stop”. Their Mother not only kept her promise to them, but now is a national spokesperson on the child custody crisis, and is speaking up for her children, and all of America’s children affected by the failure of our justice system to protect our most innocent children from sexual and physical abuse. She is a formidable legal opponent, as she has been self taught, going to “Internet Law School” to continue her legal challenge after spending $140,000 to undo an unjust custody decision. The Fifth District Court of Appeals REVERSED and REMANDED the issue of child custody back to the lower court  for a violation of the Petitioners constitutional rights to due process, in 08/08. This rare reversal provided no relief as the lower court of Judge Shawn L. Briese refused to abide by the Appeals court and refused to protect the children and said one child lied about being sexually abused.

In an article by John Weiss, from Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN , “Do children lie about sexual abuse? Not Usually.” Children do lie, but seldom about being abused. “All human beings can and do lie, but it’s hard for kids to do it about sex”, said Victor Vieth, the director of the national Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University. “They can’t lie about something they have no knowledge of” he said, and children don’t learn about oral sex from Sesame Street.

Dr. Deborah Day of Psychological Affiliates, the court ordered custody evaluator said the minor child at 8 years old had pediatric bipolar and that negates any child sexual abuse, and then  thwarted the DCF investigation. The court record clearly showed that the child DID NOT have bipolar, but  the trial court still refused to protect the children, which is typical from cases all over the US.

One day justice will prevail for America’s children. Could it be in the Sacks v. Sacks case?

National Advocacy groups and Mothers will be attending events to shed light on this crisis in America’s Courts.

Mothers Day, May 8th, 2011  in Washington DC will also have the Mothers of Lost Children from 6-9:30 PM at the White House. 

6:00-9:30 p.m.

6:00 pm speak out

7:00 pm march

7:45 Candlelight vigil

Information will be available on Sunday night about activities on Monday.

And another group will be having the:

Million Mom March Mother’s Day 2011 in Washington DC

Feb 152011

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Mom-March-Mothers-Day-2011-in-Washington-DC/153380204718360?sk=info

CONTACT:

http://americanmotherspoliticalparty.org/

The Sacks v. Sacks is an historic case.

Linda Marie Sacks

386-453-3017

For more information and press

Please contact:

Kathleen Russell 

Executive Director

Center for Judicial Excellence

495 Miller Avenue, Suite 304

Mill Valley, CA 94941

Main 415.388.9600 Fax 415.388.4610

www.CenterforJudicialExcellence.org

IMPORTANT: CJE DOES NOT GIVE LEGAL ADVICE. The information in this e-mail is not intended to serve as legal advice or as a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of any particular legal matter. If you have a legal problem, seek professional legal counsel.

29 January 2011

Audit unveils court problems

Source:  http://www.marinij.com/opinion/ci_17221225

Marin Voice: Audit unveils court problems

By Kathleen Russell
Guest op-ed column

Posted: 01/28/2011 01:59:00 AM PST

THE California Bureau of State Audits last week released its 109-page report, detailing the results of its 17-month audit of the Marin and Sacramento Family Courts.

Across the board and on nearly every measured aspect, the Sacramento and Marin family courts failed to meet the minimum standards required by law.

So you may wonder what the latest audit of the Marin family court means, and how the same report described by state Sen. Mark Leno as "quite disturbing" could be hailed by local Marin court officials as "proving beyond any doubt" that "there's no problem."

Simple. The Marin Court has deliberately mischaracterized this audit as comprehensive and boasted that "the report does not contain a single finding of "... judges and mediators putting children at risk."

Interestingly, the Center for Judicial Excellence and our allies drafted an earlier audit request focused on evaluating "increasing evidence that children in custody disputes are being removed from their primary, non-abusive caretakers and placed in the custody of parents who have been identified as the children's physical or sexual abusers."

The Administrative Office of the Courts — the lobbying arm of the California courts — labeled these "very serious allegations" and fought to narrow the scope of the audit, explaining in a May 19, 2009 letter, "these claims cannot be verified or refuted by the data collected

in the audit."

The Marin Court has apparently forgotten the California judiciary's stated position on the parameters of a viable audit.

The audit provides a valuable explanation as to why things remain awry in the Marin family court.

Consider some of the findings: The Marin Office of Family Court Services could not demonstrate that five of the seven family court mediators met even the minimum qualifications and training necessary to perform mediations and make custody recommendations. The court does not document and track complaints and potential conflicts of interest and their dispositions.

The Marin mediators' current supervisor is not qualified to perform clinical supervision of family court mediators regarding its individual cases, as required by law.

For all eight sampled complaints filed against mediators, the manager did not document whether he consulted with the mediator during the complaint investigation. In a considerable number of instances, the audit reported "limitations in their ability to determine the number of complaints received," making their data unreliable.

We must wonder whether the mass document destruction by the court and others during an eight-month standoff with the state auditor contributed to the significant gaps in recordkeeping.

The Marin Court could not demonstrate that its private evaluators were qualified and met certain requirements. For three of the five sample cases that the auditor reviewed involving a private custody evaluator, domestic violence training certificates were not attached to completed evaluation reports, as required by California Rules of Court.

Quality control issues dominate the report.

Because of the national impact of our work to protect children in family court, the center was recognized in October by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at an intimate White House ceremony commemorating Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

We were also honored to coordinate and facilitate the first White House briefing on the national family court crisis last May.

While the Marin Court seems unable or unwilling to accept auditor criticism and instead is attacking the center, we remain steadfast in our nearly five-year commitment to try to work collaboratively with the Marin Court to improve its service to our community's children.

We invite the Marin Superior Court to enlist the Marin County Bar Association and other interested stakeholders in a community forum to discuss how we can collaborate to transform Marin's Family Court into a model of best practices that protects children and makes us all proud.

Kathleen Russell is executive director of the Marin Center for Judicial Excellence.