Showing posts with label Miami-Dade County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miami-Dade County. Show all posts

Friday

Family Court Judge Stanford Blake Presented with Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence

Court News - 2016

Judge Stanford Blake, Eleventh Circuit, Presented with Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence

The Chief Justice Awards for Judicial Excellence, established in 2015, recognize one county court judge and one circuit court judge who demonstrate exceptional commitment to the judicial branch and who personify judicial excellence, embodying qualities such as strength of character, integrity, fairness, open-mindedness, knowledge of the law, sound judgment, professional ethics, intellectual courage, compassion, and decisiveness.  These prestigious awards are presented by the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court at the annual education programs for each level of the trial court.  At this year’s Annual Education Program of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges, Chief Justice Labarga presented the 2016 Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence to Judge Stanford Blake, Eleventh Circuit.  (Broward County Court Judge Robert W. Lee received the Award for Judicial Excellence at the Annual Education Program of the Conference of County Court Judges of Florida in July.)

Thursday

Florida foster care abuse attorney and life-long advocate for children's rights, will be honored with the University of Miami Law School


"No one sets out on their career in pursuit of such honors, so it's humbling to be recognized for the work my team and I have done on behalf of the voiceless victims in our community,"
He has been recognized for his efforts with The Florida Bar's "President's Award of Merit" and the Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award for the 17th Judicial Circuit. In May, Talenfeld will receive the Professional Excellence Award from the Daily Business Review, and was a past recipient of its Most Effective Lawyer award in the Pro Bono category. He also received Legal Aid's Russell Carlisle Award for child advocacy law. He also is founding president of Florida's Children First, the state's preeminent non-profit that advocates for foster children and the developmentally disabled.
"Howard was a natural for this award. We're very proud of his pioneering work for children's causes," said Edward R. Shohat, a Miami attorney and president of the Law Alumni Association. "The association represents over 30,000 alumni around the world, and Howard is an excellent ambassador for the school."
"Howard exemplifies the characteristics and qualities that make for a great lawyer," added Todd S. Payne, past president of the Law Alumni Association and chair of its National Advisory Council. "When you match great lawyering skills with someone who serves others, particularly those less capable of helping themselves, that's a person deserving of recognition."

Faces of the Family Law Crisis



Join CJE to Stop Court Crimes

Make Change Happen - Suit up in one of our red shirts for our 2016 YEAR OF ACTION to Stop Court Crimes. Our year of action will focus on legislative advocacy, direct action, media advocacy and … Read more

RECENT NEWS




Kids of Divorce Speak Out


Fight Judicial Child Trafficking The Center for Judicial Excellence has been working for nearly a … Read more

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE YOUR STORY WITH US?

If you are a child or adult survivor of the divorce courts and would like to share your story online or with the news media, please contact us at info@centerforjudicialexcellence.org. Any funders who are interested in supporting the expansion of this project are also encouraged to contact Kathleen Russell at this same email address. Thank you for your interest.
Together, we can fix it!





Because judges don't want a accurate reflection of what takes place in family hearings. Why believe your own eyes and ears when you can just listen to the "honorable judge"? Mandatory recording of ALL family hearings is an issue I am contacting our local legislators to sponsor as a bill to become law/ rule etc.(HINT, HINT, HINT) The majority if not all 20 circuit courts have the ability to record audio/video effortlessly but many judges if not all decline to. If recording family hearings is left to a judge's discretion it won't happen. FYI we don't need a little old lady pecking away at a machine to record hearings it is done digitally and cheaply in a lot of court rooms.

My Daughter, A Family Court Judge, and A Falsely-Accusing Alienating Mother

 How To Fight Parental Alienation  ~ If you've been systematically pushed out of your child’s life by a former partner who repeatedly criticizes and deprecates you in front of your child, then you are all too familiar with parental alienation.

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

"Es peligroso tener razón en aquellas cosas en las que los poderosos están equivocados" Voltaire

This story kinda lifts my spirits? Why? Because for me it re-enforces that I am not the only one in the exact same situation in the Miami-Dade Family Courts. Mr. Silva also been in his long-running legal fight with his wife and battle against the Family Court System here in Miami-Dade County's 11th Judicial Circuit to and for his two daughters.


The relief I have and immensely enjoy is that my son has been with his father since his birth. And that no one, especially his mom, has never interfered and/or interrupted and or challenged my ability to Parent and raise our son. Moreover, I have been praised for the good job that I have done as a Father.

Conclusion...  The "REAL STORY"...

The Miami Herald should be reporting is the "inequities of the Family Court System".


Just as the child suffers psychologically from removal from the adult, so is the adult traumatized by removal from the child. The psychological trauma to the adult caused by such acts...

Monday

Free Speech Watch ~ Freedom of speech issues collide with governmental imperatives

Free Speech Watch: Prior Restraint Makes a Comeback as US Courts Seek to Squelch Dissent

13137865Barbara Stone was only able to get out of jail when she agreed to stop blogging. Patty Reid is on the lam. Cary-Andrew Crittenden may be facing further jail time for his efforts to inform others about problems in the Santa Clara County legal system. And Ginny Johnson is under a gag order which nearly eventuated in a close encounter with a jail cell.

All these individuals are experiencing, up close and personal, the limits of free speech when that speech inconveniences someone more powerful than they. Twenty, thirty years ago none of these individuals would have faced the grave legal problems they now confront. But thirty years ago, the legal system in the US was not yet in free fall.

The devolution of the US legal system is evidenced in the existence of a dual legal system, wherein there abides two parallel—and often contradictory—systems of law. One system is the written code—the Constitutional and statutory mandates. The other system is what a judge does in his courtroom. And increasingly, judges are acting like monarchs, unaccountable to anyone.

This is well expressed when First Amendment (freedom of speech) issues collide with governmental imperatives.  Prior restraint, that is the imposition of gags or inhibitions on speech not yet spoken, is illegal in the US, according to the written code. Increasingly, however, judges are issuing orders which amount to prior restraint when an individual’s speech becomes politically inconvenient.

A previous article discussed the plight of Barbara Stone, whose mother is under a guardianship in Dade County, Florida. Upon visiting her mother in the home in which the guardian had placed Helen Stone, Barbara was shocked to find her mother emaciated and on a feeding tube. Barbara then allegedly took her mother to lunch.

She was subsequently arrested and charged with “custody interference,” and up until recently was confined to house arrest, an electronic tracking bracelet ensuring her compliance.

The problem was that Barbara would not shut up. She filed a number of lawsuits against guardianship court Judge Michael Genden and also against guardian Jacqueline Hertz and her attorney, Roy Lustig, as well as criminal court judge Victoria Brennan and Governor Rick Scott. She also launched a blog with the purpose of exposing the parties involved in what she termed the continuing abuse of her mother. Tiring of her complaints, Judge Genden charged her with criminal contempt for failing to show up at a court hearing and Barbara went into lock-up.

This past week, Stone, who is licensed to practice law in the state of New York, secured her release from jail at a significant price. She has agreed to stop blogging and also, significantly, to not file further papers in her mother’s case without a lawyer. In other words, the price of her freedom was prior restraint.

Stone’s situation is not unique. Recently, the  Washington Post ran an article in which  attorney Eugene Volokh, summarized the issue as follows:  ”….criminal harassment laws and restraining order laws have been morphing from restricting unwanted speech  to people into restricting speech about people.” (emphasis added)

While the law previously focused on protecting people who didn’t want to be contacted by certain people, Volokh has noted that“courts and prosecutors have increasingly used these laws to cover statements said to the public at large about particular people.” 

Fellow Floridian Patty Reid attempted to support Barbara Stone. Reid, who worked in the nursing home wherein Helen Stone had been placed by her guardian, filed an affidavit with the court, stating that Helen was not being adequately cared for in the home and wished to return to her own home and live with her daughter, Barbara.

Reid has a son who is under a guardianship. Landon Reid, who is twenty years old, has been blind from birth but other than that, states his mother, has no  disabilities. Shortly after Reid filed her affidavit in the Stone matter, she was summoned to court to have her custody of her son revoked. She was also let go from the nursing home.

And that is when Patty and Landon fled. In a recent interview with Patty, who is in an undisclosed location, she stated the following:

“I have cared for my son since birth. Why would I ever turn him over to a court which has proven itself to be abusive to its wards?” 

Several years ago, a New York woman named Nellie Lopez, who has a disabled daughter, also fled the jurisdiction when her daughter was facing institutionalization, on the orders of the guardian. Lopez was subsequently arrested by the FBI.

In Northern California, Cary-Andrew Crittenden is now facing jail for making politically charged allegations, publicly, concerning “particular people.” In this case, the particular people are public servants in Santa Clara County, California, whom Crittenden has alleged are violating the law with impunity. In pursuit of correcting what he believes were wrongs done to others, he utilized the internet to post banners, featuring pictures of SC County police officers, as well as a summary of their apparent wrongdoing, with their phone numbers and addresses. One of his banners names a former San Jose police officer, Robert Ridgeway, whom Crittenden alleges evicted a brain damaged woman from her home, under questionable circumstances.

Crittenden was charged with “using an electronic device to harass and instill fear.”  He pled no contest and was released after a couple of days. He was shortly re- arrested for a probation violation. The violation revolved around a further public internet posting. He served twenty days and a few months later was again re-arrested.

Crittenden was sitting in a Starbucks in Palo Alto this past February when approached by Santa Clara County plainclothes detectives. Detective Tarazi demanded the password for the computer that Crittenden was using. He replied that the computer belonged to a Heidi Yauman and declined the request. Crittenden was subsequently arrested again and charged with another probation violation.  This time, Crittenden spent forty days in jail.

One of the concerns which prompted Detective Tarazi to approach Crittenden at Starbucks was a posting about a deputy district attorney, James Leonard. According to the police report, this posting  “indicated DDA Leonard was a corrupt attorney and a parasite.”

In the process of reviewing Crittenden’s allegations and his several arrests, this reporter did a search for James Leonard’s financial transactions vis a vis his home loans, on the Santa Clara County Grantor Grantee index. It is known that members of the government legal profession, be they district attorneys or judges, have laundered pay offs through their home loans

The search for Leonard’s home loan history produced concerning results. It appears that Leonard has reconveyed loans on his personal property no less than ten times in the past fourteen years. This excessive loan activity is generally seen as a red flag, indicating that a public official may very well be feeding at the “pay off/bribe/money laundering” trough.

This information was forwarded to the Santa Clara County DA’s office and a request for reply was tendered. At the time of going to press, no reply has been received.

Ginny Johnson, who is a business owner in Raleigh, North Carolina, has also fallen prey to the “particular people” caveat. Johnson’s father, WWII veteran Hugh Beverly Johnson, went under a guardianship with an attorney named Linda Funke Johnson (no relation) as court-appointed guardian.  In an application for a temporary restraining order filed by Linda Johnson in August of 2014, she stated that Ginny had sent out emails, to her and to others, alleging that the guardian had “mismanaged her father’s real property and personal belongings and abused Defendant’s father.”

Without any finding of libel or slander by a court of law, Linda Funke Johnson declared these emails to be defamatory and injurious to her profession as a lawyer. Her request for a restraining order was granted without any evidence being tendered that Ginny Johnson’s allegations were false.

The order, signed by Judge Kendra Hill, stated that Ginny Johnson shall “neither communicate nor have contact of any kind, with or concerning Linda F. Johnson.” The judge went on to order that “Violation of this order shall be punishable by criminal contempt of court, including the possibility of imprisonment.”

That is some protection racket….

As Administrator of her father’s estate, Ginny Johnson has sued Linda F. Johnson, alleging that she dumped Hugh Johnson’s home, valued at $1,179,907.00 dollars, for $683,000.00.  In addition, the complaint filed by Ginny Johnson against the guardian alleges that Linda Johnson used proceeds from the sale of Hugh’s home to pay encumbrances on that property which were the responsibility of her sibling, Susan Morton. That lawsuit is pending in court.

The above cases are indicative of a trend in jurisprudence which effectively squelches outcries of dissent. As attorney Ken Ditkowsky has written,

“Free Speech is dangerous to the health of dishonest political figures.”

“The Rule of Law is not only aborted, but the core values of America are sold to the highest bidder. Statutes reiterating the Rule of law are rendered impotent – not by corrupt judicial decree, but by fraud on the part of judicial officials charged with protecting the public.”

“The American Bar Association is silent.  The ACLU is silent….   The Civil Rights organizations are silent.   Political figures running for office are silent.  Who is defending the Constitution and our liberty?” 

After over fifty years of practicing law in Illinois, Ditkowsky was suspended from the legal profession by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for the act of sending emails to government officials asking for an honest and comprehensive investigation into the abuses going on in guardianship proceedings. Attorney JoAnne Denison, also licensed to practice in Illinois, was suspended for running a blog, marygsykes.com, critical of guardianship practices in Illinois and elsewhere

Janet C. Phelan, investigative journalist and human rights defender that has traveled pretty extensively over the Asian region, an author of a tell-all book EXILE, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.




UPDATE - Judge and Marshall FIRED!!!

8 News NOW

After a serious accusations from Monica Contreras, who says a court marshal ordered her into a side room at the court and sexually assaulted her, and another incident where a family court lieutenant allegedly choked a woman, family court leaders reached out to advocacy groups for help.

Together, the advocacy groups created a memo of more than 15 items they say need to be changed at the family court.

The list is something Lisa Lynn Chapman of Safenest says they've been waiting years for.

"They said, 'you're right. We are having problems. And we're going to address these.'" Chapman said.

One of the first changes will be how those on the bench are allowed to interact with domestic violence victims, like Lisa Reed.

The bruises are long gone from Reed's face, but the remarks from her court hearing master stay with her.

"It looks like someone played tennis with my face," Reed said.

She is barely able to see because of her injuries. She says the remarks from the bench were insensitive at her most vulnerable.

"Are you making a joke out of something where I was almost died?" Reed said.

Reed says there are even bigger problems for people seeking protective orders, including a lack of barriers between victims and attackers facing off in court.

"You could be sitting on the same row with the person who victimized you," she pointed out.

Family Court Judge Frank Sullivan is leading the reforms.

He says all hearing masters will undergo domestic violence education and mandatory sensitivity training.

"Just the wording you say can send the wrong message," Judge Sullivan said.

Sullivan says a lack of information is what contributed to problems in Temporary Protective Order hearings.

"To be honest, I don't think we had enough judicial oversight that was going on," he said.

Survivors like Reed are glad changes are coming but are still hesitant.

"It depends on the changes they plan on making," she said.

She says sweeping reforms are a must to help others.

8 News NOW



Our justice system is broken, no one wants to address the fact that good cops won't expose the bad. That innocent people exposing corrupt or dishonest judges are terrorized.

We only support organizations who show an understanding that children need both parents, and that either parent is equally capable of the choice to perpetrate hate or declare peace.

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