Victims-of-Law Open Discussion

Click to join victimsoflaw_discuss

Click Headline for Full Story

November 2011

CALIFORNIA  

Judge: School Can Ban American Flag Shirts on Cinco De Mayo

By Napp Nazworth | Christian Post Reporter

11-14-11 -- A federal judge ruled that a California school had the authority to ban student displays of the American flag on Cinco de Mayo. Parents of some of the students had sued the school on First Amendment grounds, arguing that their child’s freedom of speech rights had been violated. They also argued that the school violated their 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law and their freedom of expression rights under the California constitution. . . . The principal of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif., argued the ban was necessary to provide for the safety of the students. The school's ban on American flag displays stemmed from a clash between white and Latino students on May 5, 2009. . . . Most Mexican-Americans, and increasingly more Americans, celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for “fifth of May,” a Mexican holiday celebrating Mexico's victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

TEXAS  

Temporary order prevents Judge William Adams from visiting younger daughter

By Mark Collette, Corpus Christi Caller Times    

 11-11-11 -- A district judge granted a temporary restraining order late Thursday against Aransas County family law Judge William Adams, preventing him from visiting his 10-year-old daughter until further court hearings unless the girl’s mother, Hallie Adams, is present. . . . The order was issued after an attorney for Hallie Adams filed a motion that included her seven-page affidavit. The document details what she says is a lengthy history of emotional, verbal and physical abuse, complicated by drug and alcohol use by her ex-husband, Judge Adams. It claims he used the substances during his tenure as judge. . . . Judge Adams’ attorney, William Dudley, could not immediately be reached for comment. . . . The court filings seek to terminate William Adams’ access to the younger daughter.

Parents Buy Chickenpox-Laced Lollipops, Have Kids Attend 'Pox Parties' to Avoid Vaccines

Posted by Bruce Carton, Law.com Legal Blog Watch

11-07-11 -- It looks like the kind of story that would be quickly debunked by a search on Snopes, but as the message is being delivered by Jerry Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, I'm going to assume that it is legitimate. In short, parents who don't want to get their children vaccinated for chickenpox are paying strangers to mail them lollipops supposedly licked by people who have chickenpox. These parents then give the chickenpox-laced lollipop to their children to lick and hopefully contract the virus. The idea is that after suffering through having this self-inflicted chickenpox, the kids will then have immunity without needing the vaccine. Wonderful!  *******Beyond the lollipop idea, the AP reports that parents are also taking their kids to "Pox Parties" that hook kids with chickenpox up with those who do not. There is even a Facebook group called "Find a Pox Party in Your Area."

Third Child’s Death Puts Focus on Pastor’s Book on Child Rearing and Whippings

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

11-07-11 -- The death of a 13-year-old adoptee from Ethiopia has raised new concerns about a pastor’s book advocating whippings with a plastic tube for unruly children. . . . A Washington state couple, Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, were charged in their daughter’s death on Sept. 29, the New York Times reports. It is the third case in which the book was found in the homes of parents who were accused in the deaths of children.

TEXAS  

Judge will not face charges in beating video case

Police chief says case is too old.

By Lynn Brezosk, The Associated Press contributed to this report, Houston Chronicle

11-04-11 -- A family court judge won't face charges in the 2004 beating of his then-16-year-old daughter, an incident shown in a viral YouTube video, because the five-year statute of limitations has expired, Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said Thursday. . . . Had the incident come to light sooner, Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams probably would have been charged with causing injury to a child or other assault-related offenses, Jayroe said. . . . “We believe that there was a criminal offense involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that, and under normal circumstances ... a charge could have been made,” Jayroe said. . . . He said the district attorney determined he couldn't bring charges, though police will discuss the case with U.S. prosecutors even though he doesn't believe federal charges would apply.

October 2011

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Justices restore grandmother's conviction in shaken baby death

By Bill Mears, CNN  

10-31-11 -- The Supreme Court issued a final, stinging rebuke of a lower court's decision on three separate occasions to dismiss the assault conviction of a grandmother in the shaking death of her 7-week-old grandson. . . . The justices in an unsigned opinion Monday said the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals "plainly erred in concluding the jury's verdict was irrational." The high court for the last time reinstated the conviction of Shirley Ree Smith, ending a 15-year legal fight. . . . Prosecutors alleged Smith lost her temper and violently shook Etzel Dean Glass III when he woke up crying and in need of a diaper change in Van Nuys, California, in 1996. The boy's mother had put him to sleep on a sofa, and the grandmother was sleeping on the floor next to Etzel. . . . An initial diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was changed to shaken baby syndrome (SBS) after an autopsy. That conclusion formed the basis of the government's case, but was strongly challenged by the defense. A jury convicted her, and Smith, then 37, was sentenced to 15 years to life.

September 2011

FEDERAL COURTS

11th Circuit Upholds Life Sentences for Juveniles Convicted of Murder

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

09-09-11 -- A federal appeals court based in Atlanta has ruled that juveniles convicted of murder may be sentenced to life in prison without parole. . . . The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) Wednesday in the case of Kenneth Loggins, the Associated Press reports. . . . Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court barred sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of crimes other than murder. The court had noted a “global consensus” against such sentences in the opinion, Graham v. Florida.

Win Without a Lawyer Affordable Step-by-Step Self-Help Tutorials Show How If You Have a Lawyer - KNOW WHAT SHOULD BE DONE If You Don't Have a Lawyer - KNOW WHAT YOU MUST DO Created by an Attorney with 20+ Years Experience Winning Lawsuits Click for instant on-line access Jurisdictionary® When placing an order please use this website to link to Jurisdictionary.

---

August 2011

FEDERAL COURTS

8th Circuit OKs Denial of Social Security Benefits to Daughter Born 2 Years After Dad’s Death

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

08-30-11 -- A federal appeals court has reversed a trial court ruling that a girl born, with the help of in vitro fertilization, two years after her dad's death is entitled to social security benefits. . . . Upholding an Iowa law, since amended, that was enacted before assisted reproductive techniques made such births possible, the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday said the federal government's interpretation of the state statute to exclude Brynn Beeler from receiving social security death benefits is reasonable, the Associated Press reports.

TEXAS  

Texas students sent from classroom to courtroom

By Donna St. George, Washington Post 

08-21-11 -- In a small courtroom north of Houston, a fourth-grader walked up to the bench with his mother. Too short to see the judge, he stood on a stool. He was dressed in a polo shirt and dark slacks on a sweltering summer morning. . . . “Guilty,” the boy’s mother heard him say. . . . In another generation, he might have received only a scolding from the principal or a period of detention. But an array of get-tough policies in U.S. schools in the past two decades has brought many students into contact with police and courts — part of a trend some experts call the criminalization of student discipline. . . . Now, such practices are under scrutiny nationally. Federal officials want to limit punishments that push students from the classroom to courtroom, and a growing number of state and local leaders are raising similar concerns. . . . In Texas, the specter of harsh discipline has been especially clear. . . . Here, police issue tickets: Class C misdemeanor citations for offensive language, class disruption, schoolyard fights. Thousands of students land in court, with fines of up to $500. Students with outstanding tickets may be arrested after age 17.

FLORIDA  

Child abuse survivor now in custody tug-of-war

Behind closed doors, a judge is deciding whether an 11-year-old victim of extreme child abuse can live with Texas relatives he loves — or must stay in Miami.

By Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald

08-18-11 -- Seven months after his adoptive father was accused of killing his sister — and trying to kill him — Victor Barahona is at the center of a judicial tug-of-war as a Miami judge decides who should be allowed to raise him. . . . Over the past three days, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia conducted a hearing to determine who should get custody of the now-11-year-old survivor of a harrowing, yearslong ordeal in the adoptive home of Carmen and Jorge Barahona, the couple charged with killing his twin sister Nubia and torturing him. State child welfare authorities want Victor’s uncle to adopt the boy and raise him in Texas, where Victor has a large extended family eager to embrace him. . . . Standing in the way is the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office, which has been declared a party to the custody dispute as prosecutors seek to thwart the adoption. Their objection, sources say: Prosecutors fear Victor’s uncle may refuse to return the boy to Miami to testify against the Barahonas when they are tried for aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder. The couple has pleaded innocent.

ILLINOIS  

Catholic Charities loses ruling on foster care

Judge rules state is not obligated to renew agencies' contracts

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter 

08-19-11 -- A Sangamon County judge ruled Thursday that the state can decline to renew its contracts with Catholic Charities in Illinois to provide publicly funded foster care and adoption services, meaning the process of transferring children to other social service agencies can proceed. . . . In a packed courtroom just one day earlier, lawyers for Catholic Charities urged Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt to prevent the state from suddenly severing a partnership that has funded foster care and adoption services in Illinois for four decades. . . . But Schmidt wrote in his ruling released Thursday that the longevity of the relationship between the state and Catholic Charities in Joliet, Peoria, Springfield and Belleville did not entitle them to automatic renewal of their contracts. . . . "No citizen has a recognized legal right to a contract with the government," Schmidt wrote. . . . Since March, state officials have been investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster care parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away openly gay parents.

NEW YORK  

Court Backs Discipline of Student Over Violent Essay

By Mark Walsh, School Law" blog of Education Week

08-18-11 -- A federal appeals court has upheld the brief suspension of a middle school student who wrote a violent essay for a class assignment, saying that school administrators must have latitude to "distinguish empty boasts from serious threats." . . . The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City, also unanimously upheld the dismissal of a civil rights claim over the school principal's decision to report the boy's parents to state child-welfare authorities. The principal believed the parents were not sufficiently concerned about the boy's record of misbehavior at school and his emotional well-being.

PENNSYLVANIA  

'Personification of evil'

Unjust judge will have 28 years to mull actions

The Tribune-Democrat

08-15-11 -- We struggle to recall a more despicable misuse of the public trust than the “kids-for-cash” scheme that involved judges in Luzerne County and private juvenile detention centers. . . . On Thursday, some justice was served as Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for accepting more than $1 million in bribes from the builder of two juvenile centers. . . . The 61-year-old had been tried and convicted of racketeering earlier this year. . . . Investigators built a case showing that Ciavarella had sent children, some as young as 10, to private lockups. Many of those children were first-time offenders who had committed minor crimes.

COLORADO   

Johnson: Decision to leave child in car should haunt everyone

By Bill Johnson, Denver Post Columnist 

08-05-11 -- Of course the Arapahoe County district attorney did not charge Mary Celeste. That sort of thing rarely, if ever, happens here or elsewhere when the suspect is a county judge. . . . Oh, but she should have. . . . Prosecutors and judges talk all the time about setting an example for the community when they charge or put someone away for a spell in jail. The community, they say, should have standards. . . . The one standard that should be inviolate in any community is that no one — man, woman or county judge — should ever leave a child alone in an automobile.

COLORADO   

Attorney for Judge Mary Celeste says Celeste admits leaving her granddaughter in a hot car

Written by Jace Larson,  9NEWS.com      

08-01-11 -- The attorney for County Court Judge Mary Celeste says she admits she left her granddaughter in a car while she went to Sam's Club but says there was water in the car, a fan was running and the doors were locked to the outside. . . . "She is regretful that this has happened," attorney Gary Jackson told 9Wants to Know Monday. Jackson said the girl is 7 years old. . . . Celeste is under investigation after police found a young child left alone in her car on July 27 at a Sam's Club parking lot, 9Wants to Know has learned. The temperature recorded in Denver on that date was above 90 degrees. . . . The Arapahoe County District Attorney's office will review evidence and decide if any charges will be filed against Celeste.  

July 2011

FEDERAL COURTS

Appeals Court Upholds Suspension of Student Over Internet Bullying

By Rachel M. Zahorsky, ABA Journal

07-29-11 -- A federal appeals court upheld the discipline of a high school student who created a MySpace page targeted at a classmate that described her as a “slut” with herpes. . . . The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., affirmed the suspension of Kara Kowalski, a student at Musselman High School in Berkeley County, W.Va., in a unanimous opinion that comes on the heals of several recent cases heard by federal courts involving student-created websites that ridicule school administrators or fellow classmates, Education Week reports. . . . In 2005, Kowalski created the page called “Students Against Sluts Herpes,” which featured a photo of the targeted girl, and invited other MySpace users from her school to join.

CALIFORNIA  

Judge orders San Francisco circumcision ban off ballot

California law allows only the state to regulate medical procedures such as circumcisions, a judge says in ordering the ban removed from San Francisco's November ballot.

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times  

07-29-11 -- Reporting from San Francisco -- A San Francisco County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that a measure prohibiting male circumcision should be taken off the November ballot. . . . Judge Loretta M. Giorgi ordered San Francisco's director of elections to strike the measure from the city's ballot because she said that it is "expressly preempted" by the California Business and Professions Code. . . . Under that statute, only the state is allowed to regulate medical procedures, and "the evidence presented is overwhelmingly persuasive that circumcision is a widely practiced medical procedure," the ruling said.

NEW JERSEY  

2 N.J. teens labeled sex offenders for life after 'horseplay' incident

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger

07-20-11 -- Call it bullying or call it horseplay. Either way, a state appellate court panel says roughhousing with a sexual connotation by a pair of 14-year-old Somerset County boys was a crime that requires them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. . . . In a decision handed down Monday, the three-judge panel acknowledged the severity of its decision, but said it was bound to uphold the law. . . . "We are keenly aware that our decision may have profound lifelong ramifications for these two boys as well as others similarly situated," Judge Jose Fuentes wrote. . . . One of the boys, whose case went to trial, said he had sat on the faces of a pair of 12-year-old schoolmates with his bare buttocks in November 2008 "cause I thought it was funny and I was trying to get my friends to laugh," he told a family court judge. . . . But an act is considered criminal sexual contact if it is done for sexual gratification or to degrade or humiliate the victim, and punishable by lifetime registration — even for juveniles — under Megan’s Law, which requires a person convicted of a sex crime against a child to notify police of changes of address or employment.

ILLINOIS  

State can’t snub Catholic Charities

The Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times

07-19-11 -- A judge has confirmed that Illinois must temporarily continue referring foster children to Catholic Charities, despite the group’s policy on gay couples. . . . The Department of Children and Family Services had taken the position it could maintain current cases but did not have to send new children to the not-for-profit group. . . . Both sides agreed Monday that new cases will be referred. . . . DCFS ended its foster-care and adoption services with Catholic Charities on July 1 because it says the group discriminates by not allowing gay couples to take kids.

NEW JERSEY  

Attorney from Saddle River charged with distributing child pornography

By Peter J. Sampson, The Record Staff Writer

07-14-11 -- FBI agents arrested a 64-year-old lawyer Thursday on charges of distributing child pornography after executing a search warrant at his home in Saddle River on Thursday, authorities said. . . . Edward M. De Sear, a partner at the New York office of Allen & Overy, an international law firm, was charged with distributing at least three images of child pornography over a peer-to-peer file-sharing network on the Internet. . . . De Sear appeared in wrist and ankle shackles before U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in federal court in Newark and was released on a $250,000 bond with electronic monitoring.

WASHINGTON   

Accused sex offender allowed to watch child porn in jail

By Keith Eldridge, KOMOnews.com

07-13-11 -- A strange quirk in the law is allowing an accused child rapist to watch child pornography inside the Pierce County Jail. . . . Marc Gilbert is accused of sexually assaulting young boys and videotaping the abuse. . . . Under the law, defense attorneys are allowed to review material tied to the case. And because Gilbert has chosen to act as his own attorney, he has had unlimited access to the pornographic footage. . . . Therefore, the jail says it has no choice but to allow Gilbert to review the footage times over with no limits. Restricting his access would risk a mistrial.

Extremely Obese Kids Should Be Placed in Foster Care, Lawyer Argues in JAMA

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

07-13-11 -- Children who are extremely obese and in dangerously poor health should be placed in temporary foster care, a physician and a lawyer argue in the Journal of the American Medical Association. . . . The commentary says foster care is more ethical than obesity surgery because long-term effects of the operation in children are unknown, the Associated Press reports. The JAMA article was written by David Ludwig, an obesity doctor at Children's Hospital Boston, and by lawyer Lindsey Murtagh, a researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health.

ILLINOIS  

Judge blocks state from canceling Catholic Charities foster care contracts

By Kurt Erickson, Bloomington Pantagraph

07-12-11 -- Nearly 2,000 foster children can stay in their current homes for at least the next several weeks while lawyers battle over Illinois’ new civil union law. . . . In a decision Tuesday, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt ruled the state must continue working with Catholic Charities of the Springfield, Peoria and Joliet dioceses as if contracts were still in place with the organizations to provide foster-care and adoption services. . . . The ruling came just days after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services terminated the long-running contracts it held with the organizations because of the church’s stance on Illinois’ new law legalizing civil unions. . . . The law, which went into effect June 1, sparked the charities to seek a legal order allowing them to maintain their policy of only placing children with married, heterosexual couples and single people who are not living with a significant other.

OHIO  

'Co-parents' need formal agreement, justices rule

Former partner of woman loses battle for shared custody of child

By David Eggert, The Columbus Dispatch 

07-13-11 -- The Ohio Supreme Court has a message for gays and others hoping to continue raising a child if their relationship with the biological parent should end. . . . You'd better get it in writing. . . . In a 4-3 decision yesterday, the justices upheld lower-court rulings that a Cincinnati woman did not agree to shared legal custody of her daughter, now 5, despite planning the in-vitro pregnancy with her partner and naming her a "co-parent" in power-of-attorney documents. . . . Biological mom Kelly Mullen voided those documents after she and Lucy, then 2, moved out of the house they shared with Michele Hobbs in 2007. Hobbs' name appears on the ceremonial birth certificate, and she helped raise and financially support Lucy.

CALIFORNIA  

Gay adoption case reaches Court

Lyle Denniston Reporter  SCOTUSblog."

07-11-11 -- A new gay rights case reaches the Court, testing parents’ rights under the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause. . . . A series of major constitutional disputes over the rights of gays and lesbians are developing in federal courts, and now the first of that new wave of cases has reached the Supreme Court: a significant test case on whether the Constitution protects same-sex couples’ rights as parents.  The case, Adar v. Smith, State Registrar (docket 11-46), was filed at the Court Monday by lawyers for a California couple seeking to be listed as parents on a birth certificate for a five-year-old Louisiana boy they have adopted.  State officials refused, because of a policy against adoption by unmarried couples — in this case, a gay couple.  (The new petition is here; the Fifth Circuit Court ruling being challenged is here.)

NEW JERSEY  

Children's advocates push for more kids to be involved with family court proceedings

By Susan K. Livio/Statehouse Bureau, The Star-Ledger

07-06-11 -- A year after she fled her drug- and alcohol-addicted mother and begged Camden County police to find her another place to live, Wendy Logan pleaded with a judge to keep her in foster care. . . . Logan, then 13, explained in a letter to the judge what home had been like: Flunking two grades because she had to look after her three younger siblings. Enduring beatings and hunger. The constant moving so drug dealers couldn’t find them. . . . Logan went to family court in Camden but was told to wait in the hall. She was never invited into the courtroom, and the judge ordered she and her mother to attend counseling — a step she feared would eventually force her to return home. . . . The counseling didn’t work out and Logan remained in foster care until she was 18. But she’s still angry she never got her day in court.

June 2011

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

California ban on sale of 'violent' video games to children rejected

By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer

06-27-11 -- The Supreme Court has struck down a California law that would have banned selling "violent" video games to children, a case balancing free speech rights with consumer protection. . . . The 7-2 ruling Monday is a victory for video game makers and sellers, who said the ban -- which had yet to go into effect -- would extend too far. They say the existing nationwide, industry-imposed, voluntary rating system is an adequate screen for parents to judge the appropriateness of computer game content. . . . The state says it has a legal obligation to protect children from graphic interactive images when the industry has failed to do so. . . . "As a means of assisting concerned parents it (the law) is seriously overinclusive because it abridges the First Amendment rights of young people whose parents (and aunts and uncles) think violent video games are a harmless pastime," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority.

‘Snow White’ Cited in Scalia Opinion Striking Down Ban on Violent Video Games

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

06-27-11 -- The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law barring the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. . . . The court ruled 7-2 that the law violates the First Amendment. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion (PDF). "Our cases have been clear that the obscenity exception to the First Amendment does not cover whatever a legislature finds shocking, but only depictions of 'sexual conduct,' ” Scalia wrote. . . . California’s argument in support of the law could stand a better chance if the nation had a history of restricting violent fare for children. But violence pervades the literature of children and high-school students, Scalia said.

DELAWARE  

Delaware pediatrician convicted of sexually abusing patients

By the CNN Wire Staff

06-23-11 -- A Delaware judge on Thursday found a pediatrician, accused of molesting dozens of his patients, guilty on 24 counts, according to a source in the judge's office. . . . Judge William C. Carpenter issued his decision more than two weeks after a one-day bench trial, which was mandated after the defendant last month waived his right to a jury trial. . . . Earl Bradley, whose practice was in Lewes, originally had faced 529 counts of rape, sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful sexual contact and other charges.

TEXAS  

A Texas judge declares spanking a child a crime

San Francisco Chronicle (blog)

06-23-11 -- A Texas woman was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to the charge of Injury of a Child. What did this Corpus Christi mother of three do? She spanked her then nearly 2-year-old daughter. . . . "You don't spank children today," said Judge Jose Longoria. "In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don't spank children." . . . Prosecutors are requiring Rosalina Gonzales to take parenting classes, follow Child Protection Services (CPS) guidelines, and pay $50 to the Children's Advocacy Center in addition to being on probation. . . . Gonzales spanked her daughter in December 2010. Her daughter's paternal grandmother noticed red marks on the child's bottom and took her to a hospital to be checked out, according to KZTV-10, Corpus Christi.

NEW JERSEY  

Is spanking a part of raising children or is it simply child abuse?

By Phil Giannotti/Parental Guidance The Star-Ledger

06-21-11 -- The hot-button issue of spanking recently returned to spotlight as a Texas mother, Rosalina Gonzales, was sentenced to five years of probation for spanking her two-year-old daughter. . . . When the paternal grandmother noticed the child’s butt was red, she had the child taken to a hospital. They found Gonzales’ daughter healthy, with no lasting injury. Still, they notified the Department of Family and Protective Services who remanded custody of Gonzales’ three children to the grandmother. . . . Gonzales must complete parenting classes and her children will be returned when the Department of Family and Protective Services decides she is ready to have them back. In court, the judge told the mother that spanking your own child is not allowed. . . . “You don’t spank children today,” said Judge Jose Longoria. “In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?”

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Miranda rights for minors

The Supreme Court decided correctly in extending the warning to children questioned by police in school.

The Los Angeles Times Editorial

06-20-11 -- It's obvious — except to a minority of the Supreme Court — that a juvenile being questioned by the police will feel less able to get up and leave than an adult in the same situation. Adapting that reality to the requirements of the Miranda rule, a five-member majority held this week that courts must consider a suspect's age in deciding whether he should have been read his rights. Any other decision would have been unconscionable. . . . The 5-4 ruling arises from the interrogation of a 13-year-old North Carolina boy suspected of committing two home break-ins. A police investigator questioned the boy in a school conference room, but he wasn't read his rights. By adult standards, the boy wasn't in custody, the trigger for a Miranda warning.

TEXAS  

Father sues girls over video

Daughter was threatened and defamed online, lawsuit alleges

By Cindy George, Houston Chronicle 

06-17-11 -- Who sues kids for cyberbullying? A Houston lawyer does when his daughter becomes the target of a nasty video posted on Facebook, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Harris County. . . . Last month, three Kingwood students who attend Riverwood Middle School filmed themselves offering unkind words about a classmate, then uploaded the video to the social networking site, the civil complaint says. . . . The targeted child's father, Jason Medley, provided the video to school officials, then sent cease-and-desist demands to the three girls and their parents. The letters said he would sue if the youngsters didn't stop all communication with his daughter and if their families did not donate at least $5,000 each to the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, an Oregon nonprofit. . . . Receiving no response by his early June deadline, one of Medley's colleagues filed a defamation of character lawsuit on Tuesday against the three girls, accusing them of making defamatory and false statements that "impute sexual impropriety and misconduct" on his daughter. The complaint also alleged that the video includes threats to physically harm the girl and seeks a permanent injunction to prevent the three from further contacting her.

NEW JERSEY  

DYFS head to explain to judge how case of 8-year-old Irvington girl was handled

By Susan K. Livio/Statehouse Bureau The Star-Ledger

06-13-11 -- Children and Families Commissioner Allison Blake speaks about an annual DYFS report as well as the handling of the case involving Christiana Glenn, 8, (who was found dead in an Irvington apartment due to a broken femur and malnutrition) in U.S. District Court in Newark. . . . Department of Children and Families Commissioner Allison Blake will appear before a federal judge today to describe how the hotline appears to have mishandled a call last month, nine days before an 8-year-old Irvington girl was found dead in her home. . . . Blake was already scheduled to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler to discuss the latest progress report on New Jersey's eight-year-old effort to improve its billion-dollar child welfare system.  . . . But the report is likely to be overshadowed by the stunning revelation Friday that a child abuse hotline screener received an anonymous call May 13 about "the appearance and well being" of children at the same address, where the Division of Youth and Family Services had investigated four complaints of abuse and neglect from 2006 to 2008. Investigators at that time deemed all four reports "unfounded," but required the mother undergo a psychiatric exam and accept a parental aide in the home in May 2006.

OHIO  

Ken Oswalt: Ruling on statutory rape may be hurdle

Written by Jessie Balmert The Newark Advocate  

06-09-11 -- The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled sexual activity between two children younger than 13 without force or impairment cannot be defined as rape. . . . But Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said the decision would prevent his office from charging a 12-year-old who commits sexual acts with a toddler. . . . "It doesn't solve the problem," Oswalt said. . . . In August 2007, a 12-year-old boy was accused of engaging in sexual acts with an 11-year-old boy in Licking County. A young witness said the older, taller boy would bribe the younger one with video games, but the conduct did not occur until the 11-year-old consented, according to the case background.

May 2011

MINNESOTA   

Disgraced attorney owes $15 million to teenager he raped

Article by: Abby Simons , Star Tribune

05-24-11 -- Aaron Biber's actions "intolerable," judge said. . . . Disgraced former attorney Aaron Biber, imprisoned for raping a 15-year-old friend of his son, has been ordered to pay $15 million to a trust in the teen's name for acts a judge deemed "utterly intolerable to the civilized community." . . . Hennepin County District Judge Denise Reilly ordered Biber, 48, formerly of Shoreview, to pay $10 million in punitive damages and $5 million for assault, battery and emotional distress inflicted on the teen, leading up to and including the October 2009 assault. . . . Attorney Michael Schwartz, trustee for the teen, said he and other attorneys will immediately work toward collecting on the civil judgment, which concluded a lawsuit brought by the boy and his family.

OKLAHOMA  

$4.2 million paid to private attorneys for DHS foster-care lawsuit defense

By Ginnie Graham, Tulsa World Staff Writer 

05-15-11 -- Oklahoma taxpayers have spent about $4.2 million on attorneys since April 2008 for the state Department of Human Services to defend a class-action lawsuit alleging abusive conditions in the state's foster-care system, records show. . . . The suit was filed in February 2008 in federal court in Tulsa by Children's Rights. The New York-based nonprofit accuses the state of placing foster children in danger because of systemic deficiencies including too many cases per worker, not enough home visits, multiple placements and not enough foster parent training. . . . DHS is facing a shortfall in the next budget of about $39 million and is considering cutting staffing levels and changing the eligibility standard to receive child-care subsidies.

RHODE ISLAND  

Judge to consider canning RI foster care lawsuit

Associated Press, Boston Globe 

05-06-11 -- A federal judge is set to hear arguments on a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Rhode Island's foster care system is broken. . . . The suit claims that children in state custody are routinely abused, neglected and shuffled from home to home. . . . The state says the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.

FEDERAL COURTS

Editorial: End the injustice of life-without-parole sentences for juveniles

Detroit Free Press Editorial 

05-04-11 -- The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan could rule this month on the constitutionality of Michigan's notorious juvenile lifer law. No one can predict what U.S. District Judge John O'Meara will do, but recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have established ample legal precedent for finding Michigan's law -- which denies even the possibility of parole for certain crimes committed by children as young as 14 -- unconstitutional. . . . The Supreme Court declared state laws authorizing the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional in 2005. Last year, the high court ruled that states can't sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole for non-homicide convictions. Neither ruling directly affects Michigan, where the maximum adult penalty under state law is life without parole, not death. Even so, the court has clearly articulated a legal basis for treating children convicted of serious crimes differently than adults.

TEXAS  

Cheerleader who wouldn't root for assailant loses

Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer  

05-03-11 -- Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of a basketball player - the same athlete she said had raped her four months earlier - lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal Monday. . . . A federal appeals court ruled in September that the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when called on to cheer the athlete by name. . . . The Supreme Court denied review of the case Monday without comment. . . . The girl, identified by her initials H.S., was 16 when she said she was raped at a party in her southeast Texas hometown of Silsbee in October 2008. She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton, a star on the Silsbee High School football team. . . . Bolton ultimately pleaded guilty in September 2010 to a misdemeanor assault charge and received a suspended sentence.

April 2011

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. paid $7M to settle lawsuits from three abused foster children

By Susan K. Livio/Statehouse Bureau, The Star-Ledger

04-25-11 -- Nate was 8 years old when he first accused his foster mother of abusing him. But it took several complaints over a number of years before state child-welfare investigators could prove she was abusive and move him to another foster family. . . . Then the boy was abused again in another foster home — this time by his foster mother’s son. . . . “He was taken from his mother at a very young age. He was in 22 different places over the course of his life,” said attorney Joel Garber of Voorhees, who represented the boy and his adoptive family in a lawsuit against the Division of Youth and Family Services. “This kid has been through it all.” . . . Nate, now 17 and living in Colorado with his adoptive family, received $1.2 million last year from the state to settle the suit. . . . It was part of the nearly $7 million New Jersey paid out last year to settle lawsuits brought on behalf of three foster children harmed in a system created to protect them, according to information from the state Attorney General’s office. The state admitted no wrongdoing.

ARKANSAS  

State Supreme Court strikes down adoption ban

By John Lyon, Arkansas News Bureau 

04-07-11 -- A state law banning unmarried, cohabiting couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents is unconstitutional, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously today. . . . The high court upheld a Pulaski County circuit judge’s ruling that the law unconstitutionally burdens fundamental privacy rights. . . . Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said the ruling is a relief to more than 1,600 children in the state who are in need of a permanent family. . . . “This ban wouldn’t even allow a relative — gay or straight — to foster or adopt a child with whom they had a close relationship, so long as that relative was unmarried and living with a partner,” Sklar said. “The court clearly saw that this ban violated the constitutional rights of our clients and thousands of other Arkansans.” . . . Jerry Cox, president of the Christian conservative Family Council, said the decision “is the worst ever handed down by the Arkansas Supreme Court.” . . . “This is a classic example of judicial tyranny,” Cox said. “Unfortunately (Thursday’s) ruling puts the rights of adults ahead of the rights of children and their welfare.”

NEBRASKA  

High court takes on custody rights

By Paul Hammel, The Omaha World-Herald 

04-03-11 -- The couple were together for 15 years when they decided to have a child. . . . Together they prepared a nursery and selected a name as they listened to the “thump-thump” of a heartbeat and played music for the wondrous boy growing in his mother's womb. . . . After the child's birth, they shared the responsibilities of parenthood — feeding, bathing and clothing the baby and later helping with homework and attending parent-teacher conferences. . . . But the storybook family life ended in 2006, when the couple broke up. The split spawned a court fight over custody and visitation, with the conflicting claims about each parent's fitness and involvement that custody battles so often entail. . . . The legal dispute would be a lot less complicated if this couple were a traditional husband and wife. . . . But the mother of the child, Susan Schwerdtfeger, and her former partner, Teri Latham, are lesbians. Under Nebraska law they cannot marry, and, as the non-biological parent, Latham couldn't adopt the boy she helped raise. . . . The case of Latham v. Schwerdtfeger will be argued Thursday before the Nebraska Supreme Court, which plucked the case away from the lower Nebraska Court of Appeals. . . . The case will provide an opportunity for the high court to clarify the parental visitation and custody rights of an ex-partner in a same-sex relationship. . . . Latham v. Schwerdtfeger also raises the question of whether a person who has been acting as a parent — a legal doctrine called “in loco parentis” — ever forfeits that status.

March 2011

TEXAS  

Lawsuit filed in suicide of Joshua MS student

By Pete Kendall, The Cleburne Times-Review

03-29-11 -- The family of Jon Carmichael isn’t interested in riches, their attorney Martin Cirkiel of Round Rock said Tuesday. . . . They want a heightened awareness of school bullying and its consequences. . . . To that end, Cirkiel said, he and the Carmichael family will probably hold a press conference in Joshua in the coming weeks to explain their side of an incident that concluded with Jon Carmichael, a 13-year-old student at Loflin Middle School, taking his own life last March. . . . The Carmichael family filed suit against Joshua ISD and representatives of the district Monday in federal court in Dallas. Joshua ISD representatives named were Superintendent Ray Dane, school board president Ronnie Galbreath, teacher Kenneth Randall Watts, teacher Walter Strickland, teacher Dayton Barone and counselor Elizabeth Rosatelli. All are listed as defendants. . . . Cirkiel said the district and the representatives had not been served with papers as of Tuesday. . . . “But they know about the suit,” he said. . . . Dane acknowledged he was aware of the suit. He added, “I haven’t seen it, so I have no comment, and if I had seen it, I would have no comment.” . . . Galbreath added, “Mr. Dane told the board about the suit Monday night. I have no other comment.” . . . According to the Carmichael family, the boy had been bullied at school, stuffed into a trash can and held upside down with his head in a toilet.

TEXAS  

Judge comes down on Texas CPS in twins case

State agency hit with rare sanction for taking custody of Spring infants

By Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle 

03-27-11 -- Rushed casework by Texas Child Protective Services resulted in a rare if not unprecedented legal sanction against the agency Friday for trying to take premature infant twins from their parents without proving it was justified. . . . Not only did state District Judge Michael Schneider rule against CPS for what he termed a "groundless cause of action," he ordered that $32,000 of the Spring family's attorney fees be paid by the agency. . . . And as if to drive his point home, he ordered the caseworker and her supervisor to write the court a report proving they understand the state's child removal statutes within 30 days. . . . "The offensive conduct by (CPS) has significantly interfered with the legitimate exercise of the traditional core functions of this court," Schneider wrote in a 13-page order filed on Friday. . . . The twins were returned to their parents earlier this month on the judge's order. . . . Darcy and Tye Miller had been taking their twin girls, born last December, almost weekly to their pediatrician because of concerns about their weight. At birth, one weighed less than 5 pounds and the other 6 pounds. . . . When their older child's bronchitis was passed to one of the girls, Darcy Miller brought her to Methodist Willowbrook. When the baby didn't get better, the hospital referred the family to Texas Children's Hospital.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Victims of juvie crime can seek payments

$500,000 in fund for victims of juveniles whose convictions were vacated due to scandal.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker Law & Order Reporter Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

03-23-11 -- The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office has begun accepting applications for a special fund set up to compensate victims of juveniles whose criminal convictions were vacated in response to the juvenile justice scandal. . . . Senior Berks County Judge Arthur Grim and Luzerne County District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll provided details of the application process at a press conference Tuesday. . . . The $500,000 fund was established last year by the state Legislature to compensate juvenile crime victims who were denied full restitution in light of the October 2009 state Supreme Court decision that vacated the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before former Judge Mark Ciavarella.

STATE COURTS

States change laws, send fewer juveniles to adult court

By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY

03-16-11 -- Fewer kids in trouble are being sent to adult court because of a five-year trend of states changing laws to keep young offenders away from adult prison, according to a report out today from the Campaign for Youth Justice, a Washington, D.C., organization that focuses on the issue. . . . Three states have now raised the age at which kids are automatically tried as adults to 18. Connecticut, where change was spurred by the suicide of a 17-year-old in adult prison, considers juveniles all those under age 18. Illinois now keeps 17-year-olds charged with misdemeanors in juvenile court. In Mississippi, all 17-year-olds except those charged with murder, rape or armed robbery now are kept in juvenile jurisdiction.

VIRGINIA  

In Va. assault case, anxious parents recognize ‘dark side of autism’

By Theresa Vargas, Washington Post’s Post Local blog 

03-12-11 -- When a Stafford County jury this month found an autistic teenager guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer and recommended that he spend 101 / 2 years in prison, a woman in the second row sobbed. . . . It wasn’t the defendant’s mother. She wouldn’t cry until she reached her car. It was Teresa Champion. . . . Champion had sat through the trial for days and couldn’t help drawing parallels between the defendant, Reginald “Neli” Latson, 19, and her son James, a 17-year-old with autism. . . . James might have said this, she thought. James might have done that. She had fresh bruises on her body that showed that James, too, had lost his temper to the point of violence. . . . “This is what we live with,” said Champion, of Springfield. “When they go over the edge, there is no pulling back.” . . . The cause of autism — a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others — remains the subject of heated debate. What’s not in dispute is the soaring number of children found to have the disorder. In 1985, autism had been diagnosed in one out of 2,500 people in the United States; now the rate is one in 110.

CALIFORNIA

California Family Courts Helping Pedophiles, Batterers Get Child Custody

by Peter Jamison in SF Weekly.

03-02-11 -- While the above linked article is more than interesting and educational it has produced such a high volume of responses that the writer, Peter Jamison, is addressing them today as noted below: . . . Thanks to Victims-of-Law reader, Julia Cotton. for her email alert to us to the article: "Illegal Guardians,"

ILLINOIS  

Judge: Anti-gay shirts worn by Neuqua Valley students OK

Chicago Sun-Times   

03-02-11 -- Neuqua Valley High School students would be allowed to wear “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirts under a ruling Tuesday by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. . . . The court had rejected Indian Prairie School District 204’s argument that school officials could prohibit students from wearing the shirts to prevent some students from having their feelings hurt. . . . In its opinion, the court said a “school that permits advocacy of the rights of homosexual students cannot be allowed to stifle criticism of homosexuality.” . . . “The school argued (and still argues) that banning ‘Be Happy, Not Gay’ was just a matter of protecting the ‘rights’ of the students against whom derogatory comments are directed,” the court said. “But people in our society do not have a legal right to prevent criticism of their beliefs or even their way of life.” . . . Nate Kellum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys who represented the students in the suit, responded: “In an environment that freely allows speech that promotes homosexual behavior, the school simply cannot shut out the opposing viewpoint.”

February 2011

CALIFORNIA

Child custody expert linked to lewd Web photos

Joseph Kenan was removed from one case and has been challenged in others after posting the photos.

By Kim Christensen and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

02-27-11 -- A prominent Beverly Hills psychiatrist who has helped decide hundreds of child-custody disputes was thrown off one recent case and has been challenged in at least two others after posting lewd photos of himself on Facebook and allegedly promoting illegal drug use, unprotected sex and male prostitution. . . . Dr. Joseph Kenan, president of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, is also being investigated by the Medical Board of California on at least four complaints by parents who hired him to do custody evaluations, according to records and correspondence reviewed by The Times. . . . Among the postings on Facebook and other websites under the slightly different names of "Joe Kegan" and "Joe Keegan" were photos showing Kenan baring his buttocks to the camera in public and another of him posing with a friend holding a cake that explicitly depicted a sexual act, court records state. . . . The litigation over Kenan's fitness sheds light on a highly influential, but lightly regulated, group of experts — the evaluators who advise family courts in contested custody cases. Evaluators can earn fees of tens of thousands of dollars for assessing parents' fitness.

Thanks to Victims-of-Law reader, Julia Cotton for the above alert.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Pennsylvania court reviewing teen's abortion case

By Marie McCullough, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

02-25-11 -- For the first time, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has acknowledged it is reviewing the case of a pregnant teenager who was denied permission for an abortion by a county judge. . . . Pennsylvania's 17-year-old abortion law requires girls under 18 to get consent for an abortion from a parent or, if she wants to bypass her parents, from a judge. . . . The high court's ruling could clarify how much discretion county judges have to refuse to grant a "judicial bypass" - but only if the justices bend the requirement that such cases be kept confidential. . . . Because of the potential importance of the ruling, groups on opposite sides of the abortion debate have asked the high court to redact information that might identify the minor, then make the judicial record public. . . . "The public's right to know can be served without in any way compromising the privacy rights of the minor," says a petition filed last week by media representatives, including the publishers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Inquirer and Daily News.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Judge Orders Injured Teen to Have Spinal Surgery

FoxNews.com

02-10-11 -- A judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that a 16-year-old injured wrestler must have spinal surgery – despite the fact that the teen and his parents do not want it to happen, myfoxphilly.com reported. . . . Delaware County took custody of Mazzerati Mitchell after his parents refused to allow their son to undergo the surgery because they believe in natural healing and herbal remedies. . . . In a video given to Fox 29 by the teen’s mother, Vernall Mitchell, you can see the Chichester High School student moving each of his limbs. . . . Appearing on Fox 29's "Good Day" program on Thursday, Mitchell said she was submitting the video as part of her claim to prove to that her son does not need the operation. . . . "It could actually cause paralysis," Mitchell said in the interview. "There are alternatives."

GENERAL

New Federal Funds Prompt ABA Proposal to Aid Transitioning Foster Youth

By Rachel M. Zahorsky, ABA Journal 

02-08-11 -- Homelessness, incarceration and unemployment are the likely scenarios that await a disproportionate number of the nation’s foster youths when they reach adulthood and are thrust into society ill-prepared and alone. . . . Nearly two-thirds of emancipated foster youths don’t have driver's license; fewer than four in 10 have at least $250 in cash, and less than 25 percent have the basic tools needed to set up a household, according to a report released today by the American Bar Association Commission on Youth at Risk. Read the executive summary (PDF). . . . These harsh realities for the more than 29,000 teens and young adults that exit foster care systems every year have prompted some states to allow individuals to remain in foster care until age 21 and prompted new federal legislation which, for the first time, earmarks federal funds to let states support foster youths beyond age 18.

WASHINGTON   

State settles suit over 6 abused brothers for $6.6 million

By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter  

02-01-11 -- The state has settled a lawsuit for $6.55 million filed on behalf of six brothers who suffered years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse despite 33 complaints filed with Child Protective Services (CPS) over their treatment. . . . Blaine Tamaki, attorney for the brothers, said the children were starved and locked in closets and "endured unimaginable acts. The physical and psychological damage is almost incomprehensible." . . . They were so distraught that one pulled out his hair with pliers at the age of 4, and three others attempted suicide. . . . According to the 2009 lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court, the abuse occurred while the boys were living with their mother in Seattle in a home where drugs and alcohol were rampant. Their mother, a drug addict, neglected the children and their biological father was physically abusive, according to Tamaki. . . . But it was a series of the mother's boyfriends, he said, who potentially caused the most "horrific" damage to the younger children by sexually and physically abusing them for years.

January 2011

FEDERAL COURTS

Federal Judge’s Theories About a Child Porn Gene Get Him Tossed from Case

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

01-31-11 -- U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe has a theory about people who view child pornography. . . . About 50 years from now, scientists will discover that child porn consumption is caused by “a gene you were born with,” Sharpe said as he sentenced a defendant to 6½ years in prison in December 2009. "And it's not a gene you can get rid of." . . . Now a New York-based federal appeals court has ruled that Sharpe’s theories justify resentencing for the defendant, Gary Cossey, according to the New York Times and the Associated Press. “It would be impermissible for the court to base its decision of recidivism on its unsupported theory of genetics,” the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its opinion (PDF). . . . The court said the sentence should be decided by a new judge.

PENNSYLVANIA  

State high court to consider girl's maturity in having an abortion

By The Associated Press, PennLive.com 

01-31-11 -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided to consider the role judges play in deciding whether a minor can have an abortion. . . . The case started when a girl referred to as “Jane Doe” in court documents asked an Allegheny County judge for permission to have an abortion after she was unable to obtain consent from one of her parents as required by law. The judge denied her request, and her appeal was rejected. . . . Attorneys representing the girl are asking the state’s highest court whether a lower court should have done more. They argue that the appeals court should have considered the girl’s maturity and ability to consent to an abortion rather than reviewing the legal process used by the county judge. . . . Details of the case, including the girl’s age and whether she had the baby, have been sealed to protect her identity. . . . The case is apparently the first in which the state Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal involving a judge’s denial of a juvenile’s request to have an abortion.

OKLAHOMA  

Accused District Judge, Spouse Turn Selves In To Authorities

Couple Faces Felony Charges
KOCO Oklahoma City       

01-24-11 -- County District Judge Tammy L. Bass-Lesure and her husband Karlos Antonio Lesure Sr. have turned themselves in to authorities Monday morning. . . . On Friday, prosecutors filed more than 30 charges against the couple. . . . They face accusations of illegally accepting public funds, in the form of adoption payments, for raising foster children they weren't really raising. Specifically, prosecutors said the district judge and her husband adopted 3-year-old twins in 2008 and gave them to somebody else to raise but continued to accept money from the Department of Human Services. . . . "Typically, foster parents receive anywhere from $354 to $498 a month just depending on the age of the child," said DHS spokeswoman Sheree Powell. "Now, the adoption subsidies, once someone adopts a child, that amount goes down a little bit. That's typically around $300 a month."

NEW JERSEY  

Father: 'My children are being held hostage'

Christian homeschooling family broken apart by N.J. agency

By Brian Fitzpatrick, © 2011 WorldNetDaily

01-20-11 -- It's every parent's nightmare. . . . Army Major John Jackson and his wife Carolyn, devout Christian homeschoolers with a history of serving as adoptive and foster parents, had their five children taken away in April, 2010 by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services – and despite the collapse of the evidence against the Jacksons, DYFS hasn't returned the children to their parents. . . . During the course of a nine-month legal battle to regain custody of their children, the Jacksons say they have encountered prejudice against their religion and home schooling as they fight a state agency determined to see the children adopted by strangers no matter what the evidence says. . . . According to the Jacksons, DYFS employees, contractors and foster parents alike have demonstrated anti-religious bias, including one case supervisor who refused to allow the Jacksons to pray with their children as they wished, for the reunification of the family. . . . "You can pray about other things, you can pray that they’ll be happy in their placements," said a DYFS worker identified by Jackson as Denise Hollerbach. . . . Jackson accuses DYFS of fraudulently misrepresenting statements by himself and his children to build a case against him, "brainwashing" the children by telling them they have been abused, and "isolating" them by not allowing them to be assessed independently by U.S. Army investigators. . . . The father of five claims DYFS suppressed a medical report concluding that injuries suffered by daughter Chaya Jackson could not be proven with "medical certainty" to have resulted from child abuse. Dr. Mark S. Finkelstein of the Alfred I. Dupont Hospital for Children wrote, "It is equally possible that this injury may have occurred in or around the time of birth or in the later post-neonatal period" – before Chaya was adopted by the Jacksons. . . . "DYFS kept this out of the court. We had to get it and provide it as evidence," said Jackson.

NEW YORK

Harlem infant who was kidnapped in 1987 finds her real mother

By Reuven Fenton & Jamie Schram, NY Post

01-19-11 -- A 19-day-old old infant snatched from Harlem Hospital in 1987 has been amazingly found alive -- and reunited with her biological mother -- after she discovered baby pictures of herself on a missing children’s website and contacted the NYPD, authorities said. . . . Carlina White, now 23 and raised in Connecticut and Georgia, went missing on Aug. 4, 1987, after she had been admitted to Harlem Hospital because she was suffering from a 104-degree fever. The next morning, the baby’s mother, Joy White, then 16, discovered the infant was missing. . . . Twenty-three years later, Carlina White -- who was raised Njedra Nance -- suspected she was not biologically related to the family that raised her. As a teenager, White said she had never been able to find her birth certificate. . . . After doing an Internet search, White wound up on the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children site and spotted a photo of a girl named "Carlina Renae White." . . . On Jan. 4, the center called the woman Carlina believed to be her her biological mother and forwarded her the baby picture snapped by the family she is now living with.

RHODE ISLAND  

Advocates ask for RI foster care suit to proceed

Associated Press, Boston Globe 

01-19-11 -- Advocates for foster children are urging a federal judge in Rhode Island to allow a lawsuit against the state to move forward. . . . The lawsuit alleges that Rhode Island's foster care system is broken and that children in state custody have been abused, neglected and shuffled from home to home. The suit was initially dismissed in 2009 but reinstated last year by a federal appeals court.

NEW YORK   

Prosecutors turn up heat on pedophile juvenile justice worker

By Laura Italiano, New York Post   

01-07-11 -- Manhattan prosecutors ratcheted up the pressure yesterday on an admitted pedophile juvie justice worker -- saying that if he doesn't take a three-year prison deal they'll try to confront him with old allegations of cocaine use and the rape of a 13-year-old girl under his care. . . . Disgraced department of juvenile justice worker Tony Simmons is only officially on the hook for allegedly assaulting three girls ages 15 and 16, one of whom he admitted raping. He'd been supervising the troubled teens in Manhattan Family Court at the time. . . . Simmons, 47, had originally pled guilty to those attacks and been promised a no-jail deal -- but lost the deal in November after his judge learned he'd later derided his victims as randy, settlement-seeking opportunists and said that he'd only pleaded guilty to avoid jail.

VIRGINIA  

Arlington lawyer gets year in prison

By Tom Jackman, Washington Post (blog)

01-07-11 -- An Arlington County lawyer who defrauded the parents of special needs children was sentenced Friday to a year in prison by an Arlington Circuit Court judge. . . . Howard D. Deiner, 54, specialized in representing parents in the wrenching process of challenging local school boards' handling of their children. Four different parents testified at Deiner's trial in October that Deiner told them he was a lawyer, and that he could appeal their cases to the courts if they lost at the schools' administrative level. . . . One parent said he hired Deiner after having already lost at the administrative level, specifically to appeal in federal court. . . . But Deiner had allowed his bar license to lapse from January 2006 to April 2009, and he was not legally able to file court actions. Still he did file a federal suit on behalf of that family, and forged another lawyer's signature on the pleading, that lawyer testified.

FLORIDA  

Former lawyer for Rifqa Bary could face sanctions

By Adam Longo, Central Florida News 13 Reporter  

01-05-11 --- The former lawyer for an Ohio teenager who ran away to Florida after converting to Christianity could face sanctions from the Florida Supreme Court. . . . Now, his response to hearing that news is angering his former legal adversary. . . . John Stemberger, the Orlando attorney who had formerly represented Rifqa Bary, has been basically accused of slander in a misconduct complaint filed by the lawyer who represented Bary's parents in Ohio when the case was removed from Florida. . . . That lawyer, Omar Tarazi, said Stemberger continued to go on television as Rifqa's attorney, even though he had stopped representing her. . . . When The Associated Press reached Stemberger for comment on the complaint, he called it "a frivolous motion by a disgruntled opposing lawyer."

December 2010

PENNSYLVANIA  

Judge hears testimony in 'I (heart) boobies' controversy

By Nathan Gorenstein, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer   

12-17-10 -- Everyone kept a straight face in U.S. District Court on Thursday as a judge heard arguments about whether boobies is a vulgar word - or at least a double entendre - and therefore can be banned by middle school administrators. . . . The lawsuit was filed after the Easton (Pa.) School District forbade the wearing of "I (heart) boobies" bracelets and suspended two eighth-grade girls who refused to remove them. . . . Ironically, the incident occurred on Oct. 28, Breast Cancer Awareness Day, which the school district endorsed and participated in. . . . Just not with the boobies bracelets now enjoying a boomlet among teenage girls. The bracelet sales fund a nonprofit group that educates young women about breast cancer. . . . In court, the very self-possessed and very serious students testified that the word is not offensive when used in the context of breast cancer, and that banning the bracelets violated their right to free speech.

OHIO  

Ohio Court Ruling Demonstrates Why Congress Should Stop Planned Parenthood's Taxpayer Money Grab

PRNewswire-USNewswire

12-10-10 -- Wednesday, Ohio Judge Jody Luebbers ruled that Planned Parenthood failed to comply with state abortion laws and thereby caused a young Planned Parenthood client significant psychological and emotional harm. . . . The young girl, who was fourteen at the time of the abortion, became pregnant by her 22 year-old soccer coach. Planned Parenthood did not report suspected child abuse, nor did they provide the mandatory counseling session (including offering different options) 24 hours before the abortion was scheduled. Still pending in the case is a decision about Planned Parenthood's potential violation of state parental notification laws, as well. . . . Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments: . . . "Judge Jody Luebbers stood up to the nation's largest abortion provider, ruling that Planned Parenthood defied state laws by not reporting suspected child abuse and not providing a mandatory counseling session – including offering pregnancy options – 24-hours prior to the abortion.  Despite these kinds of abuses, Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar-a-year organization, raking in approximately $350 million annually in state and federal grants.“

FLORIDA  

$350,000 settlement in case of St. Lucie County kindergartner voted out of class

By Colleen Wilson, TCPalm.com

12-02-10 -- The mother of Alex Barton, the autistic child voted out of his St. Lucie County kindergarten class about three years ago, has reached a $350,000 settlement with St. Lucie County education officials, according to federal court documents. . . . The proposed settlement still requires a review by a guardian ad litem, a third party designated to consider the best interests of the child, before the agreement can be finalized in the courts. . . . About $200,000 of the settlement, reached Nov. 24 in Miami, is to be paid within 30 days of the court entering the order, the documents show. The remaining amount will be paid in a structured settlement beginning in 2020, when Alex is 18 years old, and ending in 2032, the documents state.

‘I Got Arrested—Now What’?:
Comic Book By Teens Gets to the Basics

By L.J. Jackson, ABA Journal

12-01-10 -- While most teenagers are still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives, 16-year-old Khaair M. knows exactly what his future holds: “I want to run for mayor of New York City.” Khaair credits his budding interest in government and public policy to his work with the Youth Justice Board. Run by the nonprofit Center for Court Innovation in New York City, the Youth Justice Board helps high school teens develop leadership skills and learn about public policy and government. The board also serves as a vehicle for policymakers to hear what kids have to say about the public policy issues affecting their age group. . . . The yearlong program offers teens the opportunity to study issues they consider important. Participants learn about civics and public speaking, conduct research and interviews, and interact with policy makers. The program culminates with the development of a pol icy proposal presented to local officials. . . . Most of the Youth Justice Board participants are between 14 and 18 and hail from the New York public school system. Some of them have had personal experience with the juvenile justice system, but all are inspired to learn more about how they can effect change by learning about public policy. . . . “All of us came in with the mindset that we wanted to change something in New York City,” says Khaair, a senior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens who didn’t want his last name published. “I feel like the youth of New York City don’t have representation—and we really need a voice, especially for the stuff that involves us.”

Click link to download entire comic book. (PDF)

November 2010

FLORIDA  

Juvenile offenders still get near-life terms

By Lloyd Dunkelberger, H-T Capital Bureau 

11-21-10 -- More than six months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida's practice of sending juveniles to prison for the rest of their lives for non-murder crimes was unconstitutional, not a single former juvenile sentenced in such cases has found much relief. . . . Instead, Florida courts, in several high-profile cases are re-sentencing the juveniles to new terms that still amount to life sentences. . . . And Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Cabinet are now poised to reject the clemency case of a 15-year-old who received four life sentences for armed robberies in the Tampa Bay area.

CALIFORNIA  

L.A. Judge in Jessica's Law Ruling Has Controversial Past

By Jana Winter, FoxNews.com 

11-09-10 -- The Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who blocked enforcement of a major provision of the state's Jessica's Law last week — possibly paving the way for sex offenders to live near schools or parks — is well known to Californians. . . . He's the same judge who used a cable documentary to keep alive the possibility that filmmaker Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, may have been a victim of judicial misconduct. And he's the same judge who ordered the release of a convicted killer after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed his parole four times. 

UTAH  

Caution: Nude Baby Photos Can Result in Arrest, Law Prof Warns

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

11-08-10 -- A recent Utah case involving some misinterpreted baby photos serves as a cautionary tale for parents who are tempted to snap pictures of their nude infants. . . . The case began this spring with a call from a Walgreens photo technician alarmed by a picture of a man kissing a naked baby on his face, buttocks and genitals, according to an ABC News account of the incident. The man, Sergio Diaz-Palomino, was arrested and deported, his wife was also arrested, and the child was removed from the home, according to a column published by MSNBC.com. Charges were later dropped after police determined there was no sexual abuse. Prosecutors said the picture, when taken in context with about 30 photos snapped at the same time, showed a proud father kissing his baby after a bath.

Shut down Child Protective Services
Phyllis Schlafly, WND

11-03-10 -- When the liberals and the feminists, including Hillary Clinton, began saying the "village" should raise the child, most people recognized village as a metaphor for government. We're now seeing how intrusive Big Government Nannyism really is. . . . Operating under various names, state agencies such as Child Protective Services, or CPS, have been assigned the task of protecting kids from abuse or neglect by any adults, especially by their own parents. A new study casts doubt on the value of CPS. . . . Child Protective Services, which rushes into action based on anonymous tips, investigated more than 3 million cases of suspected child abuse in 2007. Alleged to be at similar high risk for abuse, researchers examined the records of 595 children nationwide and tracked them from ages 4 to 8. . . . The researchers concluded that CPS's intervention did little or nothing to improve the lives of the children, and there was no difference between children in the families CPS investigated and did not investigate. The social scientists looked at all the factors known to increase the risk for abuse or neglect: social support, family functioning, poverty, caregiver education and depressive symptoms, plus child anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior. . . . The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed by Congress in 1974, and about 45 states passed complementary state laws. Taxpayers' money began to flow big-time to the bureaucrats.

October 2010

STATE COURTS

Courts ‘Flooded with Appeals’ After Supreme Court Decision on Juvenile Life Sentences

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

10-29-10 -- Juvenile-justice advocates plan to test the reach of a U.S. Supreme Court decision barring life-without-parole sentences for youths who commit crimes other than murder. . . . According to the Wall Street Journal, the May ruling in Graham v. Florida “has emboldened attorneys nationwide to push for shorter sentences for juveniles serving life sentences for murders.” The Reading Eagle reports that courts around the nation have been “flooded with appeals” since the ruling.

NEW YORK  

4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case

By Alan Feuer, NY Times   

10-28-10 -- Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence. . . . The ruling by the judge, Justice Paul Wooten of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, did not find that the girl was liable, but merely permitted a lawsuit brought against her, another boy and their parents to move forward. . . . The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three weeks later.

MISSISSIPPI  

Mississippi voters can decide 'personhood'

Pro-lifers to get question on ballot

By Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington Times 

10-27-10 -- A traditional-values group is jubilant at the renewed likelihood that Mississippi voters — among the most pro-life in the nation — will have a "personhood" measure on their 2011 ballots. . . . "We believe if the voters of Mississippi get the chance to decide this issue at the ballot box, instead of having activist judges decide it for them, they are going to choose life," Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association (AFA), said Wednesday, a day after a circuit court judge cleared the way for Measure 26, the Mississippi personhood amendment, to be on the 2011 ballot. . . . "The road that will lead to overturning Roe v. Wade is going to run right through the state of Mississippi," Mr. Wildmon said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

MAINE

School must oblige transgender 6th-grader

Bill Bumpas - OneNewsNow

10-04-10 -- The radical homosexual agenda is making itself known in Maine, where a human-rights group has ruled a school must accommodate the sexual preferences of a sixth-grader. . . . The Maine Human Rights Commission recently ruled that Orono Middle School erred by assigning a separate bathroom to the boy, who wants to live as a girl. The decision comes after the child's parents filed a complaint with the Commission, claiming their son -- who no longer attends school in the district -- experienced anxiety and depression during the 2008-2009 school year. The panel also made a similar ruling against the elementary school that the child had attended. . . . "I think this is an example of this whole individual rights agenda going completely amok," laments Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute of Concerned Women for America (CWA). She thinks the parents' objection to the school's action is revealing.

September 2010

ILLINOIS  

Lawyer and His Wife Explain Why They Gave Up Their Adopted Daughter

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

09-21-10 -- Chicago-area lawyer Craig Gertz and his wife, Lori, are going public about their painful decision to give up an adopted child whose mental health issues were so severe they feared their family was at risk. . . . They hope their story will raise awareness and lead to more resources for children with mental illness, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to the story, “There's little support available for emotionally damaged children—even for families like the Gertzes, with money and connections.” . . . The Gertzes learned after they adopted Ellie that her birth mother, who later committed suicide, had used PCP and crack cocaine. The problems began right away. “Almost from the beginning, Ellie could not be soothed, sometimes screaming for hours, nonstop,” the story says. Later, telling the child “no” would send Ellie into an uncontrollable rage.

August 2010

MASSACHUSETTS

Want to Run for 8th Grade President? Well, What Race Are You?

Posted by Bruce Carton, Legal Blog Watch

08-31-10 -- I'm still shaking my head in disbelief over this memo from Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss. that specifies which race you must belong to in order to run for certain school offices. What's that? You are a black kid interested in running for 8th grade president? Ha!! Try vice president or reporter instead. . . . According to the Popehat blog, where I first learned of this, the story was first broken here on Aug. 25 by the Mixed and Happy blog. Mixed and Happy reports that it received a Facebook message from the mother of a white NMS student whose "daughter came home from school telling me that she wanted to try out for the school reporter, but it is only open to black students...They told her “she should run for class president, that was open to only white students.”

GEORGIA  

Attorney charged with forging judge's signature

By Christian Boone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

08-10-10 -- Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents on Tuesday arrested a Stockbridge attorney alleged to have forged a Fulton County judge's signature on several court orders. . . . Lynn Swank was arrested at her office and charged with four counts of forgery, two counts of perjury and one count of theft by deception. Swank also stands accused of lying under oath after telling the judge her former husband forged the signatures. . . . Fulton Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan requested the GBI investigation in January after discovering her faked signature on four orders terminating parental claims. The orders, required before a child can be placed for adoption, were presented by Swank on behalf of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

MINNESOTA    

Freed Toyota Driver: My Children Don't Know Me

Attorney Credits ABC News Report for Helping Koua Fong Lee Win Release from Prison

By Angela M. Hill, ABC News    

08-06-10 -- In his first interview since winning freedom yesterday, Koua Fong Lee, the Minnesota man jailed after his 1996 Toyota Camry sped out of control and killed three people, said his two youngest children don't know their father because he's been imprisoned on vehicular homicide for the past three years. . . . "The first thing I'm going to do is talk to them, to get to know them, to play with them," Lee told ABC News. "I want them to know I am their daddy. I will teach them what the word daddy means." . . . After a judge ordered Lee freed from prison Thursday pending a new trial, prosecutors announced they would not try Lee again.

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. children with Nazi-inspired names taken from parents

By Joe Tyrrell, Newjerseynewsroom.com

08-05-10 -- The state Division of Youth and Family Services was right to take three small children with Nazi-inspired names away from their parents. . . . A three-judge panel ruled DYFS "proved the need for protective services" for Adolf Hitler Campbell, 4, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 3, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, 2. . . . The judges overturned a Family Court ruling that there was insufficient evidence that the parents had abused or neglected the children. That ruling was stayed to allow the children's legal guardian and DYFS to appeal. . . . In reversing, the appellate judges said the Family Court decision relied on "an overly narrow view of domestic violence in the context of abuse or neglect of children." . . . DYFS removed the children in January 2009 from the custody of their unemployed parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell of Holland Township.

July 2010

NEW YORK  

Injustice for Children

New York Times  Editorial 

07-16-10 -- If New York abides by the settlement it reached this week with the Justice Department, mentally ill children in four of the state’s infamous youth prisons will finally get decent psychiatric care and will no longer be subject to brutal disciplinary practices. As important as it is, however, the settlement cannot be a substitute for the overhaul of the state juvenile justice system proposed by Gov. David Paterson’s juvenile justice task force. . . . The Justice Department focused on New York because of people like Darryl Thompson, an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old who died after being pinned face down on the floor at the infamous Tryon Residential Center. A federal investigation found that children in the system were often brutally punished for minor offenses like laughing too loud or sneaking an extra cookie.

CALIFORNIA

Kidnapped girl, 7, found in Phoenix

Colin Lecher - The Arizona Republic

07-15-10 -- A kidnapped 7-year-old California girl who had been missing nearly her entire life was found by authorities in Phoenix on Wednesday. . . . Los Angeles detectives, FBI agents and Phoenix officers took part in her recovery. . . . Police said her identity had been concealed and that officers were able to confirm who she was after serving a court order for identifying traits. Photographs and DNA swabs were taken and her footprint was matched to the one on her birth certificate. . . . Phoenix police said she was recovered about 1 p.m. near 16th Street and Thomas Road from a family to whom she isn't related. . . . Police reported an adult woman at the residence tried to hide the girl in a bathroom shower under a pile of clothes and towels.

CALIFORNIA  

Jaycee Dugard to get $20 million in settlement

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau, San Francisco Chronicle

07-02-10 -- Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard and the two children authorities say she had with her alleged abductor - a paroled sex offender - will receive a $20 million payout from the state under a settlement lawmakers approved Thursday. . . . Dugard, now 30, was kidnapped in 1991 from South Lake Tahoe when she was 11 years old and discovered in Phillip Garrido's backyard Antioch compound in August. . . . In a claim filed against the California Department of Corrections in February, Dugard and her family accused the agency of "various lapses," and said she and her family suffered "psychological, physical and emotional injury" while she was held as a virtual sex slave for nearly two decades. Her children are now 12 and 15 years old.

June 2010

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Fathers 4 Justice are on song

Daily Echo  

06-17-10 -- PARENTS from across Hampshire have lent their voices to a new song being released by campaign group Fathers 4 Justice. . . . The Anthem For Justice song is being launched by the Hampshire-based campaign organisation for Father’s Day this Sunday as an Internet download track. . . . Mothers and fathers from across the county travelled to London to record the song this week and film a video for the single, which is promoting equal rights for parents.

Start a Revolution on Father's Day

by Rebecca Hagelin, Townhall.com           

06-16-10 -- What we need when Father’s Day arrives on Sunday is nothing short of a family revolution, led by America’s fathers. . . . Ours is a broken culture — of fathers and mothers with broken vows, families with broken bonds, and children with broken hearts. . . . For every 100 babies born in America, 60 are born to a broken family. That is, they are either born out of wedlock, or to a family that will soon suffer divorce. Our teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the Western world. Our little girls are looking and behaving like sex kittens at younger and younger ages. Boys are afraid of marriage, addicted to pornography and have few or no manners. There are about 1.2 million abortions in America every year. . . . Mothers feel overwhelmed as they seek to "do it all" — earn a paycheck, nurture the children, manage the finances and keep the family together. Much of that is the fault of a radical feminist movement that perverted the battle for equal treatment into a battle for total independence from men. Many men just sat out what became a destructive force, and now all of us — men, women and children — are suffering the painful results as we realize that we really do need each other after all. . . . Imagine how our culture would be transformed if fathers refused to be bullied by angry feminists and took more of a loving role of responsibility in their own homes. What if husbands started pouring out unconditional and constant love on their wives in the same manner in which Christ pours love out for his people.

PENNSYLVANIA   

For parents, justice not served

Paperwork goes unfiled, appeals are dismissed.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker, Law & Order Reporter,  Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

06-16-10 -- Mary Tullis was devastated last August when a Luzerne County judge terminated her rights to her son and daughter. . . . She and the children’s father, Jeff Harris, had been working to resolve the problems that led Luzerne County Children and Youth to place the children in foster care. She was confident the state Superior Court would overturn the decision on appeal. . . . She never got the chance to argue the merits of her case, however, because the assistant public defender assigned to represent her failed to file the required court papers, resulting in her appeal being dismissed outright. . . . A Times Leader investigation revealed she is not alone. . . . Since 2005, 15 of the 53 parents who challenged the termination of their parental rights or the involuntary adoption of their children have seen their appeals dismissed because the Public Defender’s Office or other court-appointed attorneys failed to follow proper court procedure, according to a review of cases filed with the state Superior Court. . . . The revelation prompted newly appointed county Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. to launch an investigation. He is reviewing records, including those identified by The Times Leader, to determine if anything can or should be done to seek to restore the appeals. . . . The newspaper’s review showed that in nine of the 15 cases at issue, the appeals were filed, but later dismissed because the attorneys failed to file the required legal briefs that detail the errors the trial judge allegedly committed. . . . In another six cases, the appeals were “quashed” – a legal term that refers to the dismissal of an appeal for failure to comply with some other aspect of appellate court procedure, such as filing the appeal late. . . . The lack of action by the attorneys means the parents were deprived of their right to have the Superior Court review the lower court ruling to determine if it was properly entered – a result an advocate for parental rights described as “appalling.”

FLORIDA  

Assets Sought on Behalf of Abraham Shakespeare's Sons

Abraham Shakespeare Case

By Merissa Green, The Ledger

06-14-10 -- The slaying of Abraham Shakespeare left behind a penniless estate that a Lakeland lawyer has worked for months to try to straighten out on behalf of the lottery winner's two small children. . . . So far, the returns are still to come. . . . For instance, lawyer Stephen Martin is trying to get a Corvette and a Silverado pickup being held by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating Shakespeare's death. Sheriff's officials haven't said when or whether the vehicles will be turned over to the estate. The Silverado belonged to a woman charged in Shakespeare's death, and the Corvette was bought by her and was driven by her former boyfriend. . . . Martin said he plans to claim the two vehicles and to sell them to use the proceeds to pay for the operation of the estate and to set up trust accounts for Shakespeare's two young sons, Moses Shakespeare, 9, and Jeremiyah Butler, 18 months, both of Lakeland. . . . Another target for Martin is the home at 9340 Redhawk Bend Drive in North Lakeland that Shakespeare bought in 2007 for about $1 million after he won a $17 million lump-sum payment from the Florida Lottery in November 2006. And Martin said there are other houses Shakespeare owned to which the estate is entitled. . . . Shakespeare, 43, was found shot to death in January. . . . "There's a lot to do," said Martin. "Once we get these cars and get rid of the (Redhawk Bend Drive home), we will have cash. I owe it to them (the two boys) to do the best job I can."

NEW YORK  

Real Justice for Juveniles

New York Times Editorial  

06-10-10 -- Gov. David Paterson of New York has sent the Legislature a juvenile justice bill that would achieve two urgently important goals. It would improve the quality of the leadership and care in the state’s often dangerous and inhumane juvenile facilities. And it would ensure that only children who need to be institutionalized — because they present a risk to the public — end up in the facilities. . . . Albany’s lawmakers must finally stand up to unions that are more interested in preserving jobs than in doing what is best for children. . . . The argument for closing down the worst facilities and treating low-risk children in their home communities is irrefutable. In a report last year, the Justice Department found that young people in state detention facilities were frequently hit and abused; emotionally disturbed children rarely got the help they needed. Governor Paterson’s juvenile justice task force found that more than half the children sent to these facilities were guilty of minor, nonviolent infractions.

May 2010

PENNSYLVANIA  

Judge: Juvenile law changes attainable

Added protections for young defendants have interest of Rendell, lawmakers, he noted.

By Mark Guydish Education Reporter, Times News Leader

05-28-10 -- Shortly before convening the last meeting of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, Chairman Judge John Cleland said he believes all the recommendations in the report the commission was about to approve are attainable, and what gets done depends on how determined the governor and state legislators are. . . . “These are fiscally difficult times, the environment of politics is tough,” Cleland conceded, but that should not be a reason for inaction. “There are no pie-in-the-sky recommendations in this.” . . . During a press conference Thursday after the report was officially released, Cleland acknowledged the commission has no way of making sure the recommendations are acted on, but said its members will remain available to help if needed. He noted the governor and multiple lawmakers have asked about the report and expressed interest in moving forward on the recommendations.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA  

From rats to heaters, doctor-lawyer team fights barriers to family health care

By Lena H. Sun, Washington Post Staff Writer

05-26-10 -- Thirteen-year-old Haji Conteh had all the irritating symptoms of seasonal allergies when her father took her to see a pediatrician at a D.C. clinic last summer. . . . But when the doctor questioned Haji and her father, she began to suspect there might be a cause other than pollen for the girl's sneezing and itchy eyes: the rats and mold in the family's Northwest Washington apartment. . . . The pediatrician didn't have the time or expertise to probe more deeply. But she did refer the family to a specialist-- not another doctor, but a lawyer. . . . The family is among 1,400 referred by doctors and others at Children's National Medical Center to the Children's Law Center. As part of a medical-legal partnership that began in 2002, lawyers work alongside doctors at four District clinics run by the hospital. Their shared goal is to overcome legal and social challenges that threaten the care of their patients -- low-income children, predominantly African American, and virtually all covered by Medicaid.

FEDERAL COURTS

Suits Claim Pampers Dry Max Diapers Cause Rashes, Burns; P&G Disputes Claim

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

05-14-10 -- Two lawsuits filed in federal court in Ohio claim Pampers diapers made with Dry Max technology are causing rashes and even chemical burns in babies, a claim Procter & Gamble says is “completely false.” . . . The suits, filed by Seattle law firm Keller Rohrback, seek class action status, KOMOnews.com reports. More suits are planned, the firm’s managing partner, Lynn Sarko, told KOMOnews. . . . Cincinnati-based P&G says clinical testing shows its product is safe, the Wall Street Journal reports. "While we have great empathy for any parent dealing with diaper rash—a common and sometimes severe condition —the claims made in this lawsuit are completely false," P&G said in a statement.

ALASKA  

State high court justice steps away from abortion lawsuit

Court: Organization suggested possible conflict of interest.

By Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News 

05-12-10 -- Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen is stepping down from hearing a lawsuit against a ballot initiative that would make doctors tell a teenage girl's parents before she could get an abortion. . . . The lawsuit against the initiative was filed by Planned Parenthood, and Christen was a board member of Planned Parenthood during the mid-1990s. The Alaska Family Council had sent out e-mail alerts Tuesday and Wednesday, urging its members to contact the state judicial conduct commission and complain that Christen had a conflict of interest and shouldn't be participating in the case. . . . Christen sent out a notice Wednesday afternoon that she was removing herself from the case. She didn't offer an explanation. The case will go forward, with the other four Supreme Court justices scheduled to hear arguments May 20.

NEW YORK  

Former foster kid overcame odds, with help from many friends, to earn law degree

By Donna St. George, Washington Post Staff Writer

05-07-10 -- When Jelani Freeman came home after school one day, his mother was gone. Eight years old, he waited, realizing as the hours passed that she would not be back. She was mentally ill and in need of treatment. His father was in prison. . . . "I just knew that was it," he recalled. . . . By the next afternoon, social workers were involved. So began a way of life that he came to know as foster care, a world of in-betweens and stopgaps that brought six moves and inevitable questions about how to get beyond hurt and want and poverty. . . . On Saturday, against the odds, Freeman will graduate from Howard University Law School, where he has told few of his professors how far he came just to take a seat. Still, his journey has been a source of inspiration to advocates, friends and mentors, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who cited him in the 2006 edition of her book "It Takes A Village." Many of those supporters will cheer him on as he crosses the stage at the Washington Convention Center to receive his diploma, one man's humble demonstration of what is possible when grit and determination are melded with offers of help from others. Freeman is not the first child of foster care to earn a law degree, but experts say many youths who "age out" of the system struggle to finish high school. . . . For Freeman, what's made the difference has been a kind of makeshift family of those who have cared along the way. Some cooked him dinner. Some steered him toward opportunities. One couple paid for a year and a half of his law school tuition. Many gave him the kind of advice a parent might bestow.

TEXAS

Questions arise in La Joya schools ‘sexting' case

Jared Taylor, The Monitor

05-05-10 -- It seemingly began as high-tech flirting between two high school teenagers. . . . Jorge Suchil exchanged text messages with a 16-year-old girl the evening of March 28. The cell phone message exchange eventually turned sexual, with the 17-year-old Suchil asking the girl to send him a photo of her topless, police said. . . . The girl eventually agreed. She took a photo of herself topless and sent it to Suchil. . . . The girl later told police that Suchil demanded she send him a completely nude photo. If she didn’t, police said, Suchil told her he would pass the topless shot on to his friends’ cell phones. . . . The girl — whose name was withheld by police — went to Palmview High School administrators the next day, said Raul Gonzalez, the La Joya school district police chief. . . . Suchil was called to the assistant principal’s office, where the topless photo of the girl was found on his cell phone, police said. He gave police a written confession that he had the nude photo on his phone, according to the criminal complaint in the case. . . . La Joya school district police arrested Suchil on Monday on child pornography charges, as requested by one of the girl’s parents. Gonzalez said besides the photo of the girl, police found at least five other nude photos of other minors on his cell phone.

April 2010

Gates will review deployment, custody issues

By Karen Jowers - NavyTimes.com Staff writer
04-30-10 -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would “take a fresh look” at service members’ concerns in child custody disputes, according to two members of Congress who met with him Thursday. . . . Reps. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said they appreciated Gates’ acknowledgment of the problem of deployments being used by judges as a criterion in deciding child custody cases. . . . In a statement issued by Turner’s office, he and Herseth Sandlin noted the need for “a national, baseline standard that protects service members and allays their unrest about future deployment being used as a criterion in deciding child custody cases.”

NEW YORK  

Judge: Boy Abandoned At St. Patrick's Should Return To Florida

By: NY1 News

04-28-10 -- A tug of war is brewing over who should get custody of a three-year-old boy abandoned at St. Patrick's Cathedral last week. . . . A New York judge recommended the case be moved to Florida, where Nathaniel Fons lives. . . . The toddler's paternal grandparents are hoping to get custody, and traveled here in hopes of bringing him home.

VIRGINIA  

Attorney for parents of special needs kids accused of practicing without license

By Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer

04-23-10 -- Life for parents of special-needs children can be challenging on its best days and crushing on its worst, some parents like to say. The parents of kids with autism, learning disabilities and other problems band together to share stories of frustration and success, and to swap the names of the best schools, the best psychologists -- and the best lawyers. . . . Into this close-knit world entered Howard D. Deiner, 53. He worked his way into the inner circle by listing himself as a lawyer on a number of Web sites that cater to special education parents, operating in the legal niche for families wanting to challenge the way public schools educate -- or fail to educate -- their children. . . . But Deiner wasn't licensed as a lawyer for much of the time he took those cases, according to court records, and to bypass that issue he allegedly once signed another lawyer's name on important documents. He lost several cases at a point in the special education process that is the bleakest and the most critical for parents. . . . "I felt betrayed," said Mark Griffin of Arlington County, who hired Deiner to recoup the cost of his son's expensive private education.

PENNSYLVANIA

School District Snapped 56,000 Images on Student Webcams

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

04-20-10 -- An upscale suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly snapping photos of high school students at home via webcams on their district-issued laptop computers has completed an investigation. . . . And it apparently supports at least some of the claims made in a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of one sophomore. The district says school officials remotely activated the webcams 146 times, snapping a total of nearly 56,000 images, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. . . . While many of the records could not be recovered, images found included photos of students, at least some photos inside their homes and screen shots showing programs or files, investigators state. Most of the time, technicians turned on the webcam when a laptop was reported lost or stolen and then turned it off when the machine was found. In some cases, however, the webcam wasn't turned off and simply kept snapping a new image every 15 minutes, accounting for some 13,000 of the total tally, according to the newspaper.

ARKANSAS  

Arkansas judge strikes down gay adoption ban

Bhargav Katikaneni, JURIST

04-17-10 -- An Arkansas judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that a state law prohibiting all unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children violates the Arkansas Constitution [text, PDF]. Critics claimed that the Arkansas Adoption and Foster Care Act of 2008 [ACLU backgrounder], or Initiated Act I, was discriminatory because it prohibited all gay couples from adopting or fostering children as Arkansas does not recognize gay marriage. Judge Christopher Piazza of the Pulaski County Circuit Court [official website] agreed and said that while the the law, passed via ballot initiative, was valid under the federal Constitution, it violates the Arkansas state constitution: / Initiated Act 1 prohibits cohabiting same-sex couples and heterosexual couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents. It does not prohibit them from becoming foster or adoptive parents if they do not cohabitate. However, the act significantly burdens non-marital relationships and acts of sexual intimacy between adults and forces them to choose between becoming a parent and having any type of meaningful intimate relationship outside of the marriage. This infringes upon the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed to all citizens of Arkansas.

Pediatricians warn educators not to promote being 'gay'

'It is not the school's role to 'affirm' perceived personal sexual orientation'

By Bob Unruh, © 2010 WorldNetDaily

04-08-10 -- A professional organization for pediatricians has dispatched letters to thousands of school superintendents across the United States with a warning that promoting – or "affirming" – the homosexual lifestyle to young children can damage them. . . . The letter was sent just days ago by the American College of Pediatricians, a nonprofit organization funded by members and donors, to school superintendents that tells them plainly, "It is not the school's role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student's medical condition, and certainly not a school's role to 'affirm' a student's perceived personal sexual orientation." . . . Further, schools can create a "life of unnecessary pain and suffering" for a child when they reinforce a behavior chosen out of a child's "confusion." . . . "Even when motivated by noble intentions, schools can ironically play a detrimental role if they reinforce this disorder," said the letter, signed by Dr. Tom Benton, the organization's president. . . . The group also has created a website called Facts About Youth as a resource for school officials to obtain the facts from a "non-political, non-religious channel." . . . Officials with the College of Pediatricians told WND today that the effort is to counter information delivered to the same schools in 2008 in a brochure called "Just the Facts About Youth and Sexual Orientation" that was sponsored in part by the American Psychological Association. . . . The brochure, the College of Pediatricians said, "omits critical facts and makes recommendations that are refuted by decades of scientific research and extensive clinical experience."

March 2010

MASSACHUSETTS   

District attorney faces unique challenges in prosecuting teens

By Maria Cramer, Boston Globe Staff

03-31-10 -- The district attorney investigating the suicide of a South Hadley student took a bold and highly unusual stand on Monday when she announced that the actions of the nine classmates who allegedly bullied Phoebe Prince were so cruel they were criminal, legal specialists said. . . . But, they said, when Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel takes the case to court, she will face a unique challenge: With no statute criminalizing school bullying, she must rely on a series of laws rarely used in such cases — including those against stalking, civil rights violations, and statutory rape — and convince a jury that a series of those crimes led to Prince’s death. . . . “Are these the sorts of charges that would have been filed had there not been a death?’’ said Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a Harvard law professor. “Is the prosecutor using existing criminal laws in ways that have not been used before in order to vindicate what is, yes, a very horrible tragedy, but a tragedy that may not be recognized by the criminal law?’’ . . . Because of the barrage of charges, Scheibel may face an additional challenge before a jury of appearing a just prosecutor who is meeting her obligations to prosecute crimes, rather than a zealot using any means to avenge the death of a teenage girl, Sullivan and others said.

MARYLAND   

Child support payments could go up significantly

Proposed legislation rewrites guidelines for courts to use; covers wealthy for first time

By Julie Bykowicz | Baltimore Sun

03-22-10 -- Some child support payments in Maryland could soon go up - a change that state Human Resources Secretary Brenda Donald called "long overdue." . . . For the first time in two decades, lawmakers are poised to revise the guidelines that courts use to set child support when divorcing or unmarried parents cannot agree on an amount. Those guidelines are based on household expense data from the 1970s, and although they accommodate rising incomes, advocates say they don't account for the escalating costs of raising a child. . . . Human Resources officials estimate there are about 500,000 child support orders in Maryland - a mix of private agreements and court cases. . . . "We think the changes are reasonable and fair and about time," said Donald, who led a work group over the past year to revise the guidelines. Her agency administers about half the state's child support cases.

Putting Private Info on Government Database

by Phyllis Schlafly, Townhall.com 

03-09-10 -- Far more personal information on students than is necessary is being collected by public schools, according to the Fordham Law School Center on Law and Information Policy, which investigated education records in all 50 states. States are failing to safeguard students' privacy and protect them from data misuse. . . . Some states collect a lot of data that has nothing to do with student test scores, including Social Security numbers, disciplinary records, family wealth indicators, student pregnancies, student mental health, illness and jail sentences. A couple of states record the date of a student's last medical exam and a student's weight. . . . The Fordham study reported that this collection of information is often not compliant with a 35-year-old law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The only punishment for a FERPA violation is for the Department of Education to withhold federal education funding, but the department has never done that. . . . The building of databases that track students from pre-school through entry into the workforce began with the emphasis in the 1990s on testing and standards, and was expanded under "No Child Left Behind" mandates. This data collection has been proceeding at what observers call a "breakneck pace" under the Obama administration because of the offer of federal grants awarded through the Race to the Top competition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $250 million in stimulus funds.

February 2010

CALIFORNIA  

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Woman Forced to Share Daughter with Lesbian Ex-Partner

By Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com 

02-25-10 -- US Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Texas mother challenging her former lesbian partner’s claim to be the second parent of her daughter, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.  . . . Kristina S. had conceived her now six-year-old daughter Amalia through artificial insemination during her domestic partnership with lesbian Charisma R. However, Kristina left the partnership three months after her daughter’s birth. . . . The former partner initiated a legal challenge to gain visitation rights, but her case was not considered by state judges until the California Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that homosexual partners involved in the process of conceiving and raising their partner’s child had legal rights as “co-parents.” . . . Charisma had not seen the little girl for five years when an Alameda County judge in California ordered that visits commence based on the state high court’s ruling. . . . Since the US Supreme Court refused to review the case, the decision of California’s First District Court of Appeal will stand that Christina is the legal “co-parent” and has visitation rights.

MASSACHUSETTS   

SJC says lewd IMs to minors not illegal

Patrick, legislators aim to close loophole

By Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement, Boston Globe Staff

02-08-10 -- A Beverly man who sent a series of sexually explicit instant messages to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl had his convictions overturned yesterday by the state’s highest court, which declared that state law does not bar people from sending lewd computer messages to minors. . . . Although state law bans the dissemination of “any matter harmful to minors’’ - including photographs, magazines, movies, and “handwritten or printed material’’ - it does not mention instant messaging or other text sent online. . . . “The online conversations in this case, as they were not written with pen or pencil, cannot be considered `handwritten’ materials,’’ Justice Francis X. Spina wrote on behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court, in a ruling that illustrates how evolving technology outpaces changes in legal language. . . . “If the Legislature wishes to include instant messaging or other electronically transmitted text in the definition,’’ the court added in the unanimous decision, “it is for the Legislature, not the court, to do so.’’

Child Pornography, and an Issue of Restitution

By John Schwartz, New York Times

02-02-10 -- When Amy was a little girl, her uncle made her famous in the worst way: as a star in the netherworld of child pornography. Photographs and videos known as “the Misty series” depicting her abuse have circulated on the Internet for more than 10 years, and often turn up in the collections of those arrested for possession of illegal images. . . . Now, with the help of an inventive lawyer, the young woman known as Amy — her real name has been withheld in court to prevent harassment — is fighting back. . . . She is demanding that everyone convicted of possessing even a single Misty image pay her damages until her total claim of $3.4 million has been met. . . . Some experts argue that forcing payment from people who do not produce such images but only possess them goes too far. . . . In February, when the first judge arranged payment to Amy in a case in Connecticut, Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, called the decision “highly questionable” on his blog and said it “stretches personal accountability to the breaking point.” . . . The judge in the case acknowledged, “We’re dealing with a frontier here.”

January 2010

OHIO

Mom Makes Federal Case Out of Latest Student Hairstyle Rights Fight

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

01-28-10 -- Headlines about school district battles over student hairstyles are now focusing on Ohio, where a mother of an 11-year-old boy says he was publicly humiliated by a teacher and a classroom aide and has filed a federal lawsuit over their alleged "gender-based harassment" of the boy. . . . When the unidentified boy was younger, some children teased him about his professionally styled, apparently shoulder-length hair. At that point, his mother, Amanda Anoai, says she told her son to toughen up or cut his hair, reports the Associated Press. . . . But when her son told her that the teacher and the aide had made him stand at the front of his sixth-grade classroom, put his hair in ponytails, and then introduced him to students there as new female student—before the aide walked him to other classrooms and performed similar introductions there—this was "a totally different story," Anoai says.

FLORIDA

Young Lawyers bring Santa back for an encore

by Joe Wilhelm Jr., Jacksonville Daily Record  Staff Writer

01-25-10 -- Outside was gray and dim due to a morning rain storm, but inside the office of Family Support Services of Northeast Florida the smiles of foster kids were wide and bright. . . . The Young Lawyers Section of the Jacksonville Bar Association and Northeast Florida Paralegal Association volunteers co-hosted the event Jan. 16 to provide a “Holiday in January” for foster kids who may not have received presents without the party. . . . “It is geared toward children who were relocated during the holiday season due to an unsafe, neglectful or even abusive homes,” said Fraz Ahmed, chair of the project. “The purpose is to give these children a holiday they did not otherwise get to enjoy.” . . . The event served 25 children from the Jacksonville area, providing 20 bikes and toys for kids.

NEW JERSEY

Federal monitors give largely positive marks for N.J. child welfare

By Statehouse Bureau Staff, The Star-Ledger - NJ.com 

01-07-10 -- Children in New Jersey's child welfare system are safer and many are kept with their brothers and sisters when they enter foster care, according to a federal report issued today. . . . But too many children under state supervision remain in the system for too long without a plan for their futures and are kept from their parents once separated. . . . In the first look at whether the more than $1 billion overhaul of the state system is actually helping the 48,000 kids it oversees, a federal monitor said New Jersey "exceeded expectations" in several areas directly connected to children's well-being and continued to strengthen the structure of the once-broken system. . . . Federal Monitor Judith Meltzer added, however, that much work remains and said Gov.-elect Chris Christie and lawmakers must maintain the financial investment made over the last four years in order to continue improving children's lives.

Federal judge asks prosecutors to put a price on child porn

A federal judge pushes prosecutors to demand restitution from those caught with explicit photos.

By James Walsh, Minneapolis Star Tribune

01-05-10 -- She goes by the name of "Amy," and the photos her uncle took of her a decade ago -- when she was 8 or 9 years old -- are among the most widely circulated series of child pornography images in the United States. . . . Now her fight for damages from those who possess or distribute those photos is emerging as a big issue in federal courtrooms across the country. Including here. . . . The question is: How much can one offender possessing any of the millions of images circulating on the Internet be expected to pay to any of the thousands of victims worldwide? Amy is seeking a total of more than $3.3 million. . . . On Monday, Judge Patrick Schiltz in U.S. District Court in St. Paul issued an order demanding to know why restitution was not even requested by the U.S. attorney's office in the case of a Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

NEW YORK

Juvenile Injustice

New York Times Editorial

01-05-10 -- Gladys Carrión, New York’s reform-minded commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services, has been calling on the state to close many of its remote, prison-style juvenile facilities and shift resources and children to therapeutic programs located in their communities. Her efforts have met fierce and predictably self-interested resistance from the unions representing workers in juvenile prisons and their allies in Albany. . . . A recent series of damning reports have underscored the flaws in New York’s juvenile justice system and the urgent need to shut down these facilities. The governor and the State Legislature need to pay attention. . . . A report by a task force appointed by Gov. David Paterson describes a failing system that damages young people, fails to curb recidivism and eats up millions of tax dollars. Children should be confined only when they present a clear threat to public safety. But the most recent statistics show that 53 percent of the youths admitted to New York’s institutional facilities were placed there for minor nonviolent infractions. . . . The report also says that judges often send children to these facilities because local communities are unable to help them with mental problems or family issues. But once they are locked up, these young people rarely get the psychiatric care or special education they need because the institutions lack trained staff. . . . A report from the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the state, documents the use of excessive and injury-causing force against children in juvenile facilities, often for minor offenses such as laughing too loudly or refusing to get dressed. And last week, the Legal Aid Society of New York City filed a class-action suit on behalf of youths in confinement, arguing that conditions in the system violate their constitutional rights.

What The Divorce Revolution Has Meant For Kids

by Sasha Aslanian, NPR

01-03-10 -- The 1970s saw changes great and small in American society. More women began to move into the workforce and began to define themselves as more than wives, mothers or girlfriends. . . . While men grew their hair and wore flowered shirts, children were listening to Marlo Thomas singing "Free to Be... You and Me." . . . Gender roles were changing. It was OK for Mom to be a doctor and Dad to be a nurse. It was also increasingly OK to leave behind the confines of marriage. The divorce rate, which had begun to climb in the 1960s, soared in the 1970s, as states began to adopt no-fault divorce laws. . . . But what did the 1970s divorce boom mean for the kids? . . . Producer Sasha Aslanian spent five years working on a documentary about the children of divorce. Here's some of what she found:

Kramer vs. Kramer was the quintessential divorce movie of the 1970s. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1979. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep starred as the estranged couple, locked in a custody battle over their young son.

But the child they were fighting over doesn't have much of a voice in the movie. It's more a drama about his parents.

Avery Corman wrote the novel the movie was based on.

"I know when I saw a screening of it in a movie house for the first time, when I got up, there were kids all around kind of slumped all in their seats," Corman says. "And I knew exactly who they were."

December 2009

DELAWARE

Delaware Pediatrician Is Accused of Raping Patients

By Ian Urbina, New York Times

12-23-09 -- For more than a decade, Dr. Earl B. Bradley was a trusted fixture of the small coastal town of Lewes, Del., seeing thousands of children at a private practice he called BayBees Pediatrics. . . . On Wednesday, an official from the state attorney general’s office said that Dr. Bradley might have raped or molested as many as 100 children over the last 11 years, and the police scrambled to identify victims seen on videos that they say the doctor made of the assaults. They also began contacting law enforcement agencies in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where they believe the doctor may have also seen patients. . . . Last week, Dr. Bradley, 56, was charged with molesting or raping at least seven patients, including some infants. A court hearing in the case was canceled Wednesday because Dr. Bradley had been placed on suicide watch. . . . “We are acting as quickly as possible,” the attorney general, Joseph R. Biden III, said Wednesday at a news conference.

Cut the Power of the Family Courts

by Phyllis Schlafly, Townhall.com

12-22-09 -- Do you think judges should have the power to decide what religion your children must belong to and which churches they may be prohibited from attending? We have long suspected that family courts are the most dictatorial and biased of all U.S. courts, routinely depriving divorced fathers of due process rights and authority over their own children, but this December a Chicago judge went beyond the pale. . . . Cook County Circuit Judge Edward Jordan issued a restraining order to prohibit Joseph Reyes from taking his 3-year-old daughter to any non-Jewish religious activities because the ex-wife argued that would contribute to "the emotional detriment of the child." Mrs. Rebecca Reyes wants to raise her daughter in the Jewish religion, and the judge sided with the mother. . . . As Joseph Reyes' divorce attorney, Joel Brodsky, said when he saw the judge's restraining order: "I almost fell off my chair. I thought maybe we were in Afghanistan and this was the Taliban." The lawyer is appealing. . . .  Doesn't the First Amendment extend to fathers? Apparently not, if they are divorced. This case sounds extreme, but it is a good illustration of how family courts, the lowest in the judicial hierarchy, have become the most dictatorial of all courts because of the tremendous number of families and amounts of private money they control and the lack of accountability for their decisions. . . . In another divorce case this year, a family court in New Hampshire (where the state motto is "Live Free or Die") ordered 10-year-old Amanda Kurowski to quit being homeschooled by her mother and instead to attend fifth grade in the local public school. Judge Lucinda V. Sadler approved the court-appointed expert's view that Amanda "appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith" and that Amanda "would be best served by exposure to multiple points of view."

NEW YORK

Monroe County judge rules that DHS must pay foster care money for kinship care

Daniel Weaver, Albany CPS and Family Court Examiner

12-18-09 -- In a decision of November 25, 2009 but just released three days ago, Monroe County Family Court Judge, Patricia E. Gallagher, ruled that the Monroe County Department of Human Services must pay foster care money to Loretta K., the friend of the family of a neglected child, who took the child in. According to the ruling, the Department of Human Services must treat Ms. K. in a equal manner to the way it treats a foster mother who is a stranger to the child. . . . New York State's definition of kinship care not only includes people related by blood who care for a neglected or foster child, but also includes people who have a significant or close relationship with the child, even if they are not related by blood. . . . While foster care support is automatically provided to strangers who foster children, it is not automatically provided if for kinship care. A relative has to request foster care money.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Man accused of raping 2d child while free on bail

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Boston Globe Staff

12-14-09 -- A man accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl in Kingston this weekend had been charged this summer with raping another child. But Joseph Gardner, 26, had been released on $10,000 cash bail and was free when he allegedly attacked the second victim on Friday, according to police and court records. . . . Prosecutors had asked that Gardner be held on bail of $150,000 to $200,000 after his arrest on Aug. 22 on charges of daytime breaking and entering and the rape of a 5-year-old girl, according to Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for the Plymouth District Attorney's office. . . . But Judge Joseph M. Walker III ordered bail set at $10,000, which Gardner posted on Oct. 8, court records show. On Friday night, Gardner is accused of raping a 3-year-old child with force and intimidating a witness.

NEW YORK  

Paterson Admin. to Judges: Stop Sending Kids to State Facilities

NBCNewYork.com obtains advance copy of state report

By Melissa Russo, NBC New York 

12-14-09 -- After repeated fits of rage at home a 16-year-old is about to head upstate to what's been described as one of the most brutal juvenile detention facilities in New York. . . . "I am a single mom. My son's father is deceased so it's been hard for me. I depend on the state to help me out and I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere," his mother told NBCNewYork.com. . . . She says her attempts to get her son counseling close to home failed. . . . "My son is an adolescent he's going through puberty he's overall a good kid. He might be a little misguided at this moment. I don't feel like sending him to a secure locked facility is the type of situation that that's gonna be helpful to any child." . . . What's remarkable is that the officials running the state juvenile detention system agree children should not be sent there because the system is failing and children are regularly subjected to excessive physical force.

Lesbian awarded custody of Christian's only child

Decision sets up showdown over claim from ex-partner

Posted: December 05, 2009

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

12-5-09 -- A Vermont court ordered a Christian child taken away from her mother and given to a lesbian ex-partner, setting up, according to a lawyer for the Christian family, a dispute that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will have to resolve. . . . Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, told WND the recent order from the Vermont judge that Lisa Miller turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to the lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day is being appealed. . . . In the interim, a separate court hearing on the dispute is scheduled to be heard in a Virginia court during this coming week. . . . "We're arguing that the state of Virginia cannot enforce an out of state, Vermont, civil union because it's contrary to Virginia law," Staver said. . . . Ultimately, he said, the issue probably will have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, because the case is being moved along parallel tracks in both Vermont, where Jenkins lives, and Virginia, where the Millers live.

MAINE   

Task force outlines plan for transforming juvenile justice

By Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News Staff

12-4-09 -- Increasing the state’s high school graduation rate will decrease the number of Maine’s children in the criminal justice system, and offering more alternatives to incarceration will give juveniles in that system a better chance of staying out of prison and succeeding as adults, Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley said Thursday. . . . “Maine cannot afford to lose one more of its young people to prison and jails, to homelessness, to hopelessness,” Saufley said at a press conference in her office in Portland. “Maine’s response to juveniles in our communities is in urgent need of improvement.” . . . Saufley, along with Peter Pitegoff, dean of the University of Maine School of Law in Portland, announced the recommendations of a 70-member task force that has spent the past eight months strategizing on improving the options for at-risk youth. The results will be discussed in detail today at a forum called “Maine Rising: An Innovative Approach to Transforming Juvenile Justice” at the Augusta Civic Center.

MINNESOTA   

Judge: State can take, keep newborns' data

'Blood samples are biological, not genetic, information'

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

12-4-09 -- A judge in Minnesota has ruled the state can routinely collect, analyze, store and retrieve biological samples that include DNA from all newborns even though a state law specifically requires prior written authorization. . . . The decision from Hennepin County District Judge Marilyn Rosenbaum dismissed a case brought by members of nine families who alleged the state was going beyond what it was authorized to do. . . . Although not part of the lawsuit, Twila Brase, president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care, has been monitoring the dispute since its beginning, battling the state Department of Health, which reportedly has been taking and warehousing newborns' genetic makeup for years but not following "written consent requirements." . . . The group has cited a number of cases in which the state's genetic privacy act law apparently was ignored, or there was an attempt to ignore it.

November 2009

ALASKA  

New fight develops over rights of fetuses

Abortion Issue: Lawsuit filed to keep initiative off the ballot.

By Sean Cockerham, The Anchorage Daily News

11-28-09 -- A ballot initiative that sponsors hope will outlaw abortion in Alaska by declaring fetuses to be "legal persons" appears headed for a court fight. . . . It's questionable whether the initiative could actually lead to abortion being illegal -- the state attorney general issued an opinion that it wouldn't. But opponents argue the measure is so broad it could have huge consequences regardless of whether it halts any abortions, ranging from women potentially sued following miscarriages to a legal argument that fetuses should be receiving Permanent Fund dividend checks. . . . "It is just insane," said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the Alaska Civil Liberties Union.

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Hearing for homeschooler forced into gov't system

Judge: 'Lost opportunity' if child's Christian views not challenged in public setting

By Chelsea Schilling, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

11-24-09 -- The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a 10-year-old homeschool girl who has been ordered into a government-run school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith. . . . As WND reported, a girl identified in court documents as "Amanda" had been described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level." . . . Nevertheless, a New Hampshire court official determined that she would be better off in public school rather than continuing her homeschool education. . . . The August decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that Amanda's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." . . . The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court. . . . The ADF filed motions with the court on Aug. 24 seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H. On Sept. 17, a lower-court judge refused to reconsider or stay the order. . . . The denial of the motions, signed by Judge Sadler of the Family Division of the Judicial Court for Belknap County in Laconia, states, "Amanda is at an age when it can be expected that she would benefit from the social interaction and problem solving she will find in public school, and granting a stay would result in a lost opportunity for her."

NORTH CAROLINA

America's dead children and Child Protective Services

Lisa Nixon, Surry County CPS Examiner

11-11-09 -- The list is long and heartbreaking, the children on it have been beaten, broken, drowned, burned, strangled, starved or neglected, and all of them are dead.   Headlines have drawn attention to the cases of some of them, Danieal Kelly, Erin Maxwell, Kayla Allen, and Christopher Thomas,  but there are many more, Phoenix Jordan Cody-Parrish, Brandon Williams, Elizabeth Goodwin, Logan Marr and Alexis (Lexie)Agyepong-Grover, just to name a few. . . . . The children on this list died in very different settings; some died in their own homes, some in foster care, while others were killed by their adoptive parents.  Yet, all of these dead, abused, children had one thing in common, Child Protective Services. . . . . Statistics / Bill Bowen in his short documentary film, Innocents Destroyed, states that, "Over 1,000 children die of neglect or are tortured and murdered each year, in the care of an entity where children are up to 600% more likely to die a horrific death, CPS." . . . .  According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, "The National Child abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,760 child fatalities in 2007."  All of these deaths are attributed to child abuse or neglect. 

VIRGINIA  

State Supreme Court censures Va. Beach judge

By Kathy Adams, The Virginian-Pilot 

11-6-09 -- The state Supreme Court reprimanded a Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge Thursday for violating ethical conduct standards in a 2007 case. . . . The court censured Judge Ramona D. Taylor after finding that she intentionally blocked a 15-year-old boy from appealing her decision to detain him. Her actions constituted "conduct prejudicial to the proper administration of justice," Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. wrote in the 53-page opinion. . . . Taylor declined to comment, but her attorney, Kevin Martingayle, said they plan to petition for a re hearing within 30 days. If that doesn't go in Taylor's favor, she can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . "We're obviously disappointed with the majority decision," Martin-gayle said. "We believe that it contains some mistakes of law and fact."

MASSACHUSETTS   

SJC rebukes state agency and judge for emergency removal of newborn

By John R. Ellement, Boston Globe Staff

11-4-09 -- In a sharply worded rebuke, the state’s high court today said that a judge and the Department of Children and Families moved too fast to remove a newborn from a Western Massachusetts mother – who had already lost custody of two older children because they were not being properly cared for. . . . In a unanimous ruling written by Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, the Supreme Judicial Court said that judges handling emergency custody cases must wipe from their minds any information gleaned from other cases involving the same mother or family. The girl was identified only as Zita. . . . “It may be impossible to erase a judge's memory of the prior case,’’ Marshall wrote. “But each party is entitled to an impartial magistrate and a decision based on the evidence presented in her case… Zita's removal by the Commonwealth from her custodial parent implicates constitutional rights of the highest order.’’

HELP KEEP VICTIMS-OF-LAW ON THE WEB SHOP OUR ADVERTISERS OR CONTRIBUTE NOW

October 2009

NEW YORK  

Juvenile justice expert says judge children as children

By James T. Mulder / The Post-Standard

10-6-09 -- Treating children as adults in the court system is a bad policy that is ruining youngsters’ lives and exacting a heavy economic toll on society, according to juvenile justice expert Michael A. Corriero. . . . Corriero, who served as a state Supreme Court judge for 28 years and now runs Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, was in Syracuse today to speak at the Salvation Army’s annual civic celebration luncheon in the Oncenter. More than 500 people attended the event. . . . “You can’t try kids as adults because they are not,” Corriero said in an interview before the luncheon. “Locking kids up, which may appear to be expedient, is not the answer.” . . . Corriero is a harsh critic of Juvenile Offender Act of 1978, which allows children as young as 13 to be tried in adult court for crimes such as murder and receive the same penalties as adults.

MISSOURI  

Missouri ‘Judge’ Lets Admitted Child Molester off with Probation

By Bob Ellis, Dakota Voice 

Judge John M. Torrence

10-1-09 -- From Fox News comes a story on another worthless judge.  Granted, not all judges are this kind of despicable scum, but far too many are, and they are the reason the word “justice” is becoming a mockery of the actual concept in America. . . . Jarred Elwood in Missouri plead guilty to molesting a girl for 8 years beginning when she was only 6 years old. Elwood plead guilty to charges of first-degree statutory sodomy, child molestation, and enticement of a child. . . . “Judge” John Torrence (I put quotes around the word “judge” because the title deserves more respect than this man’s name can bring to it) let the molester off with probation only. . . . Notice in the attempted interview below, this creep won’t even bother to try and explain his reprehensible actions. . . . This is the kind of trash we have passing itself of as a “judge” in this country these days.

September 2009

ARKANSAS

If you have been unfairly treated by Arkansas Judge Joe Griffin, CPS Watch needs your story

Daniel Weaver Albany CPS and Family Court Examiner

9-25-09 -- If you have been or are being treated unfairly by Judge Joe Griffin of Miller County Circuit Court, Juvenile Division in Texarkana, Arkansas, CPS Legal Watch would like to hear from you. . . . CPS Legal Watch is currently involved in defending the parents of children taken by the state simply because they had an association with Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, not because they have committed any crimes. . . . You can contact CPS Legal Watch at (772)341-4068 or (417) 294-9955. You can also email them at tcpr@gate.net or cheryltbarnes@yahoo.com.

ARIZONA

Bath Time Photos Prompt Child Porn Allegations

Arizona Couple Suing Wal-Mart for Calling Cops Over Bath Time Photos

By Dan Przygoda, Sarah Netter & Lee Ferran, ABC News

9-21-09 -- For A.J. and Lisa Demaree, the photos they snapped of their young daughters were innocent and sweet. . . . But after a photo developer at Wal-Mart thought otherwise, the Demarees found themselves in a yearlong battle to prove they were not child pornographers. . . . "I don't' understand it at all," A.J. Demaree told "Good Morning America" Monday. "Ninety-nine percent of the families in America have these exact same photos." . . . The eight photos in question were among a batch of 144 family photos the Demarees had taken to their local Wal-Mart. The developer alerted the police and the investigation into child pornography began in earnest, even though the parents maintained they were innocent bath time photos. . . . The Peoria, Ariz., couple had their home searched by police and worse, their children -- then ages 18 months, 4 and 5 -- were taken away from them for more than month. Their names were placed on a sex offender registry for a time and Lisa Demaree was suspended from her school job for a year. The couple said they have spent $75,000 on legal bills.

Chinese babies stolen by officials for foreign adoption

In some rural areas, instead of levying fines for violations of China's child policies, greedy officials took babies, which would each fetch $3,000 in adoption fees.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

9-20-09 -- Reporting from Tianxi, China - The man from family planning liked to prowl around the mountaintop village, looking for diapers on clotheslines and listening for the cry of a hungry newborn. One day in the spring of 2004, he presented himself at Yang Shuiying's doorstep and commanded: "Bring out the baby." . . . Yang wept and argued, but, alone with her 4-month-old daughter, she was in no position to resist the man every parent in Tianxi feared. . . . "I'm going to sell the baby for foreign adoption. I can get a lot of money for her," he told the sobbing mother as he drove her with the baby to an orphanage in Zhenyuan, a nearby city in the southern province of Guizhou. In return, he promised that the family wouldn't have to pay fines for violating China's one-child policy. . . . Then he warned her: "Don't tell anyone about it." . . . For five years, she kept the terrible secret. "I didn't understand that they didn't have the right to take our babies," she said. . . . Since the early 1990s, more than 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted abroad, the majority to the United States. . . . The conventional wisdom is that the babies, mostly girls, were abandoned by their parents because of the traditional preference for boys and China's restrictions on family size. No doubt, that was the case for tens of thousands of the girls.

OREGON

The child welfare system: What we need isn't another study

by Timothy Travis, guest opinion

9-11-09 -- The state's proposed outside review of Oregon's foster care system will not be helpful. Reviews, including mandatory federal reviews, have been done. They all told us that we have the same problems every other state has. There is nothing new here to know. . . . The first step to improving foster care outcomes is the realization that the "child welfare system" is much larger than the state child welfare agency -- the Department of Human Services. . . . The department does not and cannot control all the agencies and entities whose mission is to address and ameliorate child abuse and neglect, or those entities that do not directly identify as part of the child welfare system but whose actions -- or inactions -- contribute as much to forging outcomes as the efforts of those who do. . . . This is why, when there is some spectacular failure of the child welfare system, it's not fair that the bright light of TV news should shine on only one part of that system: the Department of Human Services. The agency takes the blame for the inadequacies of the system as a whole. No measures the department can take, on its own, will bring about satisfactory improvement of outcomes.

TEXAS  

Insult lands man in jail

Judge's sentencing in out-of-court incident is questioned.

By Chuck Lindell, American-Statesman Staff

9-8-09 -- This summer, incensed by a ruling in a child-custody case involving his granddaughter, 69-year-old Don Bandelman followed the judge into a public courthouse restroom and berated him as "a fool," court records show. . . . District Judge Jack Robison, Bandelman said, angrily told him to leave. . . . Then Robison did something more problematic, raising questions about whether he abused his power as a judge. Robison directed bailiffs to arrest Bandelman and then sentenced the man to 30 days in jail for contempt of court. . . . There was no hearing, no notice of charges and no lawyer present for Bandelman, who was handcuffed and taken to the Caldwell County Jail to serve his term in a cell with 12 bunk beds and 23 far younger inmates. After the first two nights of near-constant noise and never-extinguished lights, the grandfather said, he was physically wrecked and doubted he could survive another 28 days in captivity.

Controlling Children's Minds

by Ken Klukowski, Townhall.com

9-5-09 -- Most people have now heard that President Obama is going to address America’s school children on September 8. He’ll be speaking to them directly, without their parents there to serve as a filter. . . . Taken with an outrageous situation unfolding in New Hampshire, where a home-schooling mother has been ordered to put her daughter in public school because the daughter is too outspoken in her Christian beliefs, a terrifying truth emerges: If you can force a child into government schools, you can control that child’s mind. . . . On Tuesday, around the nation, millions of children will be in a setting where they’re expected to accept what adults tell them, and where they are required to obey. . . . Many teachers will carry out White House instructions (now officially modified) to give writing topics to their students. The original theme: How can I help President Obama? Children are also encouraged to read books about Obama, and even kindergarteners will be asked, “Why is it important that we listen to the president?”

MINNESOTA   

Who pays for the lawyer? The county does

Appeals Court rules that in child protection cases, counties must pay for poor parents' attorneys.

By Joy Powell, Star Tribune

9-1-09 -- Counties must pay for attorneys for poor parents in child protection cases, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday. . . . The decision grew out of a Rice County case in which County Judge Thomas Neuville appointed a private lawyer to represent a woman whose newborn baby was taken away by the county. Neuville ordered the county to pay the lawyer, but Rice County commissioners refused and challenged the judge's order in the Court of Appeals. . . . Tuesday's ruling was a victory for attorney Grant Sanders, who said he is still owed money by the county for representing the impoverished 19-year-old woman, who he helped regain custody of her baby.

August 2009

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Court orders Christian child into government education

10-year-old's 'vigorous' defense of her faith condemned by judge

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

8-28-09 -- A 10-year-old homeschool girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith. . . . The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." . . . The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court. . . . The ADF confirmed today it has filed motions with the court seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H.

OKLAHOMA  

Law Requiring Ultrasounds for Abortions Is Struck Down

Oklahoma Judge Says Measure Violates State Constitution

By Kari Lydersen, Washington Post Staff Writer

8-19-09 -- An Oklahoma judge decided Tuesday that doctors do not need to perform ultrasounds and offer women detailed information about the tests before performing abortions, striking down the strictest such law in the country. . . . Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki L. Robertson ruled that the 2008 law, which included other abortion-related provisions, violated a state constitutional provision that requires laws to address only one subject. . . . Thirteen states regulate the provision of ultrasounds by abortion providers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health think tank. The provisions have been pushed by abortion opponents as a means of deterring women from having the procedures.

July 2009

NEW JERSEY

Justices clarify requirements for juveniles' representation

Mary Fuchs, Star-Ledger Staff

7-30-09 -- The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that those charged as juveniles must have an attorney present at "every critical stage" of their criminal proceedings -- including when they are asked to waive their Miranda rights. . . . The 5-2 ruling clarifies when a minor is required by law to have a lawyer present to protect their interests. . . . "Under the Juvenile Justice Code, a juvenile is entitled to have counsel at every critical stage of the proceeding, which in the opinion of the court may result in the institutional commitment of the juvenile," Justice John Wallace Jr. wrote for the court. . . . Laura Cohen, a clinical law professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, said some counties with smaller public defender offices and juvenile courts frequently allowed juveniles to appear for their first hearing without a lawyer present.

SOUTH CAROLINA

S.C. case looks on child obesity as child abuse. But is it?

By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY

7-23-09 -- Jerri Gray was doing all she could to help her son lose weight, her attorney says. But something had gone terribly wrong for the boy to hit the 555-pound mark by age 14. . . . Authorities in South Carolina say that what went wrong was Gray's care and feeding of her son, Alexander Draper. Gray, 49, of Travelers Rest, S.C., was arrested in June and charged with criminal neglect. Alexander is now in foster care. . . . The case has attracted national attention. With childhood obesity on the rise across the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gray's attorney says it could open the door to more criminal action against parents whose children have become dangerously overweight. . . . "If she's found guilty on those criminal charges, you have set a precedent that opens Pandora's box," Grant Varner says. "Where do you go next?" . . . State courts in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Mexico, Indiana and California have grappled with the question in recent years, according to a 2008 report published by the Child Welfare League of America.

June 2009

ARIZONA 

Police: Child Porn Linked To Attorney

Flash Drive Found In Busy Parking Lot

Omadelle Nelson, Reporter, KPHO.com

6-27-09 -- A Valley attorney was booked on suspicion of having child pornography on his computer. . . . David William Curtis Jr., 63, faces 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, the maximum amount of charges a person can face for crime, said a Tempe police spokesman. . . . Police said an employee of Tempe Marketplace found a computer flash drive in a parking lot south of Harkins Theater at Tempe Marketplace. . . . Police said after the employee found the device, he took it home and put it in his computer and found several files with "images that depict the sexual exploitation of a minor." . . . “I’m Mr. Curtis,” replied Curtis Jr.'s father when he answered to the door to their Phoenix home. “I have nothing to say to you. Goodbye.”

ARIZONA  

The People Speak: Dismiss judge in child rape case from bench

Sharon Tidwell, Council Hill / published in Muskogee Daily Phoenix

6-27-09 -- I couldn’t disagree more with the opinion stated in the June 21 article of “Editorially speaking” regarding the Pittsburg County child rape case. The punishment Judge Bartheld imposed on David Earls is shameful. It is high time that people (yes, even judges) are held accountable for their actions. . . . Regardless of who initiates the action of removing Bartheld, public opinion is clear and stands firmly on the side of right. I applaud the resolution Reps. Mike Ritze and Mike Reynolds have submitted. These gentlemen are elected officials who are speaking for and acting on my behalf. Since I don’t have the resources to voice my concerns to the Council on Judicial Complaints, I am thankful they are making an effort to correct what is wrong with our society and judicial system. . . . Why not let of the people, for the people, and by the people work for a change?

TEXAS

Sweet Victory:
Texas Governor Vetos “Take Away Your Child Act”

By Sarah Foster, © 2009 NewsWithViews.com

6-24-09 -- In a move that has parents and children’s rights advocates cheering, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday vetoed Senate Bill 1440, a contentious measure designed to make it easier for the state Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to remove children forcibly from their homes for interrogation and examination during investigations of alleged child abuse or neglect. . . . In his veto statement the governor said the bill “overreaches and may not give due consideration to the Fourth Amendment rights of a parent or guardian.” . . . The governor’s action was the result of an intense veto campaign spearheaded by the Parent Guidance Center, an Austin-based grassroots organization that helps low- and middle-income families caught in the snares of the state’s child welfare and protection systems. . . . Launched by PGC co-founders Johana Scot and her sister Judy Powell as soon as the bill was passed on May 30, the three-week campaign mobilized an opposition that cut across political lines, generating 17,373 letters and phone calls to the governor’s office from concerned Texans and their sympathizers across the country, according to spokeswoman Allison Castle.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court Sides With Student's Family in Special Ed Funding Case

Zach Lowe, The American Lawyer

6-23-09 -- Experts are already debating the impact of Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case pitting the family of a special needs high school student (and his legal team at Bingham McCutchen) against the school district that had been ordered to pay the student's hefty private school tuition (and the district's lawyers at Sidley Austin). . . . Educators and public school officials everywhere were watching the case, and they had claimed that millions -- maybe hundreds of millions -- of public money was at stake. If that's so, public officials might be cringing today, because the Court sided, 6-3, with the student's family and Bingham. . . . The ruling upholds a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals mandating that the school district pay $65,000 for the boy's private school tuition.

MICHIGAN  

Michigan Class Action Settlement on Autism Treatment Hailed as Landmark Case

Tresa Baldas, The National Law Journal

6-23-09 -- In what plaintiffs lawyers are calling a landmark autism case, a Michigan insurance company has agreed to reimburse at least 100 families for costs involving treatments for their autistic children. . . . The $1 million class action settlement from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan comes amid a legislative wave in which a growing number of a states are passing laws that require insurance companies to pay for autism treatments and screenings. To date, 13 states have such laws, the most recent being Connecticut, Colorado and Nevada. New Jersey is currently considering an autism bill, and Pennsylvania's law goes into effect July 1. . . . The June 17 Michigan settlement, meanwhile, has autism advocates hopeful that insurance companies will stop claiming that behavioral therapy for autistic children is experimental, and start paying for it.

OKLAHOMA  

Our Opinion: Despicable human being

Judge's short sentence for child rapist causes furor

Times Record News Editorial

6-21-09 -- David Harold Earls is a sick individual. . . . That much is indisputable fact. . . . He’ll even tell you so, in so many words. . . . Instead of pleading innocent to rape, charges that lacked substantial testimony and forensic evidence, Earls pleaded no contest. By giving up the fight, he painted himself as a menace. . . . The 64-year-old McAlester, Okla., man pleaded no contest in May to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy of a 4-year-old, a no-doubt traumatized little girl, now 5, who at one point became so upset on the witness stand that she fled the room and ran down the hallway, away from this harsh reality. . . . Can you blame her? . . . But because her testimony, as described by prosecutors, included “contradictory statements” during pretrial hearings, a plea bargain was made. Prosecutors thought Earls could get five years to life for such a despicable act against a child. . . . He faced decades behind bars, but in an outrageous turn of events, Earls struck a deal that whittled down his 20-year sentence to simply one year in prison. . . . Charges that he raped the little girl’s older brother, 5 years old at the time, were dropped because the youngster changed his story and said he couldn’t recall the incident. . . . Forensic evidence, according to several wire reports, revealed the girl had been assaulted, but none pointed to Earls’ involvement. . . . One year in jail — all because a little girl was too scared to talk about what had happened to her. . . . Again, can you blame her?

OKLAHOMA  

Daughter Says Oklahoma Rapist Deserves Life Sentence

By Jennifer Loren, The News On 6

6-20-09 -- The daughter of a convicted rapist speaks out, saying he deserves more than one year behind bars.  She says her father deserves a life sentence.  David Earls' rape conviction made national headlines this month after a Pittsburg County judge sentenced him to only one year in prison. . . . His own daughter says Earls is a monster and needs to be put away forever. . . . David Harold Earls is a convicted rapist.  Earlier this month, he pleaded no contest to charges he raped and sodomized a 5-year-old girl.  Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld accepted a plea deal of 20 years in prison, 19 of them suspended, meaning Earls will only spend one year in prison. . . . The story infuriated cable news audiences across the country and led some state legislators to call for the judge to be kicked off the bench. . . . "In Oklahoma, when somebody commits this crime on a 5 or 6 year old and only give them a year, it really needs to be looked into. What are we doing in our court system?" said Representative Mike Ritze of Broken Arrow. . . . Now, Earls own daughter, Denise, is calling for action. . . . "My father is a monster and he needs to stay, he needs to stay in prison," said Denise Earls. . . . Denise Earls says when she was young Earls raped her.  She hoped he was finally going to get the punishment he deserved.

GEORGIA  

Court throws out ban on exposing children to gays

By Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6-15-09 -- The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge’s order that prohibited children in a divorce case from having any contact with their father’s gay and lesbian friends. . . . The ruling was hailed by gay rights groups who said the decision focuses on the needs of children instead of perpetuating a stigma on the basis of sexual orientation. . . . The state high court’s decision overturned Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards’ blanket prohibition against exposing the children to their father’s gay partners and friends. . . . “Such an arbitrary classification based on sexual orientation flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children,” Justice Robert Benham wrote. / Decision in Mongerson v. Mongerson

CALIFORNIA

As L.A. County spun its wheels, children died

Innocents Betrayed

By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times

6-14-09 -- Sarah Chavez was returned to the home of her great-aunt and great-uncle in Alhambra despite having shown signs of abuse. She later died, primarily from a severed lower intestine, caused by a blow to her abdomen, the coroner found. She had just turned 2. The uncle was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse. The aunt pleaded no contest to being an accessory. . . . Agencies have long failed to share information that could save lives. Repeatedly, ghastly cases shock officials, who call for action, which eventually fizzles. An effective database remains elusive. . . . By the time he was rescued last year, the 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy was so malnourished his kidneys were failing. His hands were so badly burned he could barely open them. . . . Child welfare officials traced his history, trying to make sense of what had happened. According to documents obtained by The Times, they learned that eight separate agencies in Los Angeles County had pieces of information on the household: . . . One had evidence that the mother and her girlfriend were abused and neglected as children. Others knew both had committed violent crimes. Still others were aware that both women had been ordered into mental health treatment and that the sickly boy had missed appointments with county doctors. . . . Over the years, these agencies had come into contact with the boy or his caregivers 108 times -- yet no one had pieced together how much danger the child was in. Indeed, county social workers had closed a 2005 child abuse investigation because the evidence was "inconclusive." They might never have stepped in but for a concerned stranger who delivered the child into their hands.

WISCONSIN

Child-care providers with criminal past getting licenses, state funds

Cashing in on Kids | A Journal Sentinel Watchdog Report

By Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel

6-13-09 -- A couple of days before Thanksgiving in 1996, Lisa Johnson took her 12-year-old foster daughter to the basement, pulled out an extension cord and whipped her with it, repeatedly. . . . Johnson turned on some music and cranked up the volume to drown out the girl's cries. Still, other foster children in the house later told Milwaukee police that they could hear the girl beg for mercy. . . . "I swear to God, Mama, I will be good," the children reported hearing. . . . Good - meaning she would never chew gum in school again. . . . Johnson, now 42, was charged with felony child abuse and in 1997 pleaded guilty to battery and domestic abuse. Her foster license was revoked. . . . Yet three years later, she opened a certified day care center in Milwaukee County called Planting Seeds. . . . And as of April 2009, she had taken in more than $430,000 from the taxpayer-supported Wisconsin Shares child-care program, while running a center with numerous violations and recurring problems. . . . Johnson's story isn't that unusual. The Journal Sentinel found that child abusers and people who have committed other serious crimes are becoming licensed child-care providers and are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Wisconsin Shares system. Nearly 500 child-care providers in Wisconsin with criminal records have received funding from the state in the first half of 2009 alone, according to a computer analysis by the Journal Sentinel. . . . The $350 million-a-year program subsidizes child-care costs for roughly 35,000 low-income working families. But the system has been easily scammed by parents and providers. . . . In addition to posing a potential safety risk to the state's neediest children, some criminals appear to be conning the child-care system, doctoring attendance records, the Journal Sentinel found.

MASSACHUSETTS

Kids attend prom from 'sexual hell'

You won't believe how children as young as 12 years old partied

By Chelsea Schilling, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

Note: This story contains material that readers might consider graphic and offensive.

6-12-09 -- Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes. . . . Children from middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts on May 9 attended a Youth Pride Day event ending with a prom inside of Boston City Hall sponsored by the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth, or BAGLY, a group seated on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. . . . Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a proclamation welcoming homosexual and transgender youth to the celebration. A man in drag introduced a homosexual activist from Menino's office to read the letter. A video of that proclamation is below. . . . MassResistance, an organization that describes itself as a pro-family action center, sent a 20-year-old college student named Max to the prom to take pictures and learn more about what Massachusetts children were doing there. . . . Brian Camenker of MassResistance said Max was astonished by the number of children who appeared to be between 12 and 14 years old. . . . "They look pretty darn young," Camenker told WND. "He said there were a lot of middle school kids there. It really bothered him." . . . The day's events began with a transgender Elvis and a parade. Attendees were given condoms and pro-homosexual material such as a bookmark for kids on how to get involved with several homosexual groups and "Transgender Rights Now" stickers. Then many children attended the prom that evening at City Hall.

NEW JERSEY  

N.J. justices uphold law in child sex abuse cases

Emotional effects key to timing of lawsuits

By Mary Fuchs, Statehouse Bureau, Star Ledger

6-12-09 -- The state's highest court yesterday upheld a statute of limitations law that determines when victims of childhood sexual abuse can bring charges against their alleged abusers. . . . Advocates for sex abuse victims lauded the decision, saying the state Supreme Court was lending its authority to a law they say was loosely interpreted by lower court judges. . . . "It's a game-changer," said Stephen Rubino, a Margate lawyer who has represented victims in clergy sex scandals. . . . The Child Sexual Abuse Act, enacted in 1992, gives victims two years to sue the accused offender once they have realized the emotional and psychological effects of the abuse. But Rubino said courts often misinterpreted the law and threw out valid cases of sexual abuse. . . . "Trial courts routinely misunderstood the law. The test for most courts was, 'Do you remember the abuse,'" said Rubino. Remembering the abuse is not enough to show a victim completely understands the extent of the injuries caused by it, Rubino said.

April 2009

ALABAMA  

Judge criticizes zero-tolerance bully policies

By Megan Matteucci, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

4-21-09 -- Students used to handle bullies on their own: with a good beatdown on the playground. . . . Now bullies and their victims are both punished for fighting. . . . Most schools across the metro area — and across the nation — have a “zero-tolerance” policy against fights, which means both the bully and the victim are disciplined, said Steven Teske, president of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges of Georgia. . . . “Zero tolerance is zero intelligence,” said Teske, a juvenile court judge in Clayton County. “It’s merely a political response, a knee-jerk reaction and often not put much thought is put into it.” . . . Last week, 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide after relentless bullying at Dunaire Elementary School in DeKalb County, his family said.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Amid layoffs, child support pacts fraying

Stressed-out parents ask family court for help, relief

By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff

4-13-09 -- A Massachusetts family court system that is strained during the best of times and taxed with implementing new child-support guidelines faces another challenge: divorced parents seeking relief from - or enforcement of - support arrangements as their financial and employment situations deteriorate. . . . Although the probate court system, which has jurisdiction over child-support cases, does not keep statistics on modification petitions, judges and lawyers within the system say such filings have increased noticeably in recent months as the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed have swollen. Layoffs, cutbacks, and battered investment portfolios have affected custodial and noncustodial parents on all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, along with tens of thousands of Massachusetts children. . . . Nationally, the picture is just as grim, according to a survey released last month by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. The 1,600-member group reports a 39 percent increase in the number of divorced spouses seeking changes to child-support arrangements in a tight job market and deepening recession.

NEW HAMPSHIRE  

Chief judge launches internal review

Panel will investigate release of child rapists

By Annmarie Timmins Monitor staff

4-10-09 -- The chief justice of the state's superior courts has launched an investigation into why the Hillsborough County Superior Court missed deadlines that set free two child rapists deemed sexually violent predators. . . . The release of Raymond Fournier, 40, and Richard Hilton Jr., 49, on technicalities has outraged the public and prompted the state Senate on Wednesday to tighten the new state law governing violent sexual offenders. Fournier has settled in Mont Vernon with relatives; Hilton has moved to Manchester. . . . Wayne Sawyer, 45, a third sex offender also considered dangerous and likely to re-offend, could be released soon on the same technicality. At issue is a 10-day window in which the judges had to find probable cause to hold the men for further proceedings. The judge missed the deadline in each case by several days, according to court records.

FLORIDA  

Parents of hurt child say embattled attorney Clark Cone mishandled lawsuit

By Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

4-8-09 -- The fallout from the downfall of a once respected West Palm Beach attorney continues. . . . A West Palm Beach couple that claims their son suffered hearing loss and possible neurological damage when he was misdiagnosed at St. Mary's and Palm Beach Gardens medical centers discovered their lawsuit was dismissed because their attorney A. Clark Cone mishandled the case. . . . At a hearing today, attorney David Kelley tried to persuade Palm Beach County Circuit Judge David French to let him salvage the lawsuit. . . . "It's a very sad story, and an unfortunate one," Kelley said. . . . Cone, whose ability to practice law was suspended by the Florida Supreme Court last month for using at least $600,000 meant for injured clients as his own, gave Shawn and Samantha Bennett no clue that he wasn't pursuing their lawsuit against the hospitals. When Cone didn't return their phone calls, they looked up the court records and discovered the suit had been dismissed, Kelley said. . . . Kelley said he has heard from at least one of Cone's other clients who is in a similar situation.

NEW JERSEY  

Top court blasts DYFS in custody case

The agency is criticized for placing two children without a hearing

By Mary Fuchs, Statehouse Bureau, Star Ledger

4-8-09 -- The state Supreme Court yesterday criticized the state Division of Youth and Family Services for ending an investigation of a woman who had "abused and neglected" her two children, saying a full hearing process is needed before determining where children should live. . . . In a unanimous decision, the justices said DYFS and the trial judge should have decided in court where the children could live, free from harm, instead of awarding custody to the woman's ex-husband. . . . "Rather than relying on the wishes of the children, the division should have focused on whether the children could be safely returned to the custody of the mother," Justice John Wallace Jr. wrote. . . . Public defender Yvonne Smith Segars said the precedent-setting decision establishes rules all Family Court judges must now follow.

March 2009

A debate swirls over teens' lurid pictures

Should self-portraits draw harsh penalties?

By Jennifer Golson And Joe Ryan, Star-Ledger Staff

3-29-09 -- In Pennsylvania, authorities are threatening to prosecute three teenage girls after finding risqué images of them on a cell phone. . . . In Indiana, a middle-school boy faces obscenity charges for transmitting naked photos of himself to female classmates. . . . And last week in Passaic County, authorities accused a 14-year-old Clifton girl of distributing child pornography, saying she posted nude portraits of herself on MySpace. . . . In a growing number of states, law enforcement agencies are cracking down on teens who use cell phones and social networking sites to share lurid photographs. Prosecutors say they are trying to stamp out a dangerous trend. But their use of stringent child-pornography and sex-offender laws has ignited a debate. . . . "Do we really want to tag this 14-year-old girl as a sex offender for the next 30 years?" asked Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "Communities nationwide are scratching their heads about what role, if any, law enforcement should play in these cases."

PENNSYLVANIA  

Clean Slates for Youths Sentenced Fraudulently

By John Schwartz, New York Times

3-26-09 -- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Thursday ordered the slate cleaned for hundreds of youths who had been sentenced by a corrupt judge. . . . The young people had been sent to privately run detention centers from 2003 to 2008 as part of a judicial kickback scheme that shocked Pennsylvania and the nation. The judge in the cases, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of Luzerne County, is one of two who pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud and conspiracy for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks. . . . The exact number of records to be expunged was not stated in the court’s order; a special master is investigating the cases. . . . Judge Ciavarella and the other judge, Michael T. Conahan, admitted that they had agreed to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers that paid them for the business. Under their agreements, the judges will serve 87 months in federal prison and will resign from the bench and from the bar.

TEXAS

Funding a child custody case: Attorney’s fees are only part of it.

James Roark, Houston Family Law Examiner

3-19-09 – A hotly contested child custody case in Harris County is likely to rack up some hefty attorney’s fees.  No surprise there.  Not everyone has the ready funds to match an attorney’s retainer demands in such cases. . . . Often, waiting to save up for a retainer is not an option.  Either you have been served a petition and have a short time to respond, or you learn of a situation that requires fast legal action to assure the well-being of the child. You manage to pull it together from a variety of sources, at least enough to get things started. At least now you have some breathing room, right?  Maybe. . . . The first order of business is the hearing for temporary orders.  That is, giving the court a preliminary presentation of the facts so it can set some ground rules for the parties to abide by during the pendency of the case.  Witnesses testify, documents, pictures, and other exhibits are presented.  What follows is hypothetical, but not beyond the realm of possibilities. . . . The judge can’t decide and needs more facts.  An amicus attorney is appointed to represent the child.  Ideally, this attorney will interview you, the child, the other party, and visit the homes to compare living environments, and participate in all other aspects of the case.  
Cost: $1500 per side to start, and if it goes to trial, could be more than what you pay your own attorney.

Sexting, Seduction and Spring Breaks

by Chuck Norris, Townhall.com

3-18-09 -- Sending nude photos and sexual videos via cell phone (called "sexting") is a fast-growing and dangerous trend among youths. And with spring breaks upon us, YouTube won't be the only one streaming videos during these juvenile siestas. . . . Sexting is not new, but it is on the rise. Cases are bubbling up all over the country. Just this past week in Virginia, at least two Spotsylvania County students were facing child pornography charges in a sexting case. The naked images of three girls (including an elementary-school student) were discovered on seven phones and traced back to the two accused students. . . . Last month, high-school girls in Greensburg, Pa., also were charged with child pornography after they sent semi-nude photos of themselves to male classmates. . . . Other similar incidents have resulted in charges in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida. Law enforcement has been called out recently to investigate sexting-related crimes by dozens of teens in many states across the nation. . . . And sexting is not just a male-dominant problem. A new national survey says that at least one-fifth of all youths have sent nude or explicit photos or videos of themselves via cell phone or have posted such images online.

MINNESOTA

Parents sue state over babies' DNA

Minnesota accused of depriving newborns 'of lawful privacy rights'

By Bob Unruh, © 2009 WorldNetDaily

3-12-09 -- Nine families have filed a lawsuit against Minnesota's health department over its practice of collecting DNA from newborns and then keeping and using the private information. . . . The announcement was made by the Citizens' Council on Health Care, which said the department has been violating the state's 2006 genetic privacy law by collecting, storing, using and disseminating blood samples and DNA information. . . . Agency spokesman John Stine said the lawsuit was being reviewed, but he confirmed the department takes the blood samples from about 70,000 infants annually, and unless the parents specifically choose to opt out of the program, their children's DNA is saved. . . . He said the agency relies on "clinicians" to let parents know of the requirement that they choose to opt out of the program and only provides that information to parents through a website and if they call and ask.

ARKANSAS   

ACLU Asks Judge To Keep Adoptions Suit Alive

by Andrew Demillo, Associated Press, The Edge

3-2-09 -- An Arkansas law banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children does not help promote marriage because the state does not allow gay or lesbian couples to wed, opponents of the act told a state judge Friday. . . . The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union asked Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Chris Piazza to deny the state’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit over the new law, which went into effect Jan. 1 after voters approved the ban in November. . . . Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked Piazza in January to dismiss the group’s challenge of the initiated act. . . . In a brief filed Friday, the ACLU rejected the state’s argument the initiated act promotes a legitimate state interest in marriage.

FLORIDA  

Florida judge criticized for castigating runaway foster child

By Carol Marbin Miller, The Miami Herald

3-1-09 -- A child-welfare judge drew the ire of his chief and local children's advocates when he told a 15-year-old runaway foster child she would end up a "toothless, dead crack whore" if she didn't mend her ways. . . . Exasperated that the girl was refusing to return to a home where she said her caregiver hit and cursed at her, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig lectured the sobbing teen about making bad choices during a hearing Tuesday. . . . "You're throwing your life away," Eig told the girl. "You could end up on the street toothless. You've seen these toothless hags on the street? You know how they get there? They blow their opportunities in life when they're 15. They run away ... people turn them into whores." . . . He added, "Toothless, dead crack whore; dead at age 19? Is that the destiny you're looking for?"

February 2009

OHIO

Judge tells Whitehall parents tying boy to bed, chair too extreme

By Bruce Cadwallader, The Columbus Dispatch

2-25-09 -- A Whitehall couple were placed on probation yesterday after a judge sternly reminded them that tying their hyperactive son to a bed and chair was a crime. . . . Kimberly A. Bogardus, 33, and Dennis O. Desenberg, 49, were each charged with two felony counts of child endangering after Bogardus' 12-year-old son told a clinical counselor about the abuse in April 2007. . . . The counselor contacted Whitehall police, who found a rope tied to a bed in the home at 4689 Harbinger Circle W. . . . The couple said they tied the boy to the bed to control his night wanderings and tied him to a chair because he violated house rules. . . . An investigation showed that the restraints left marks on his wrists and ankles and that he was not permitted out of bed to use the bathroom.

Court Battle Over a Child Strains Ties in 2 Nations

By Kirk Semple, New York Times

2-24-09 -- When David Goldman’s wife, Bruna, and their 4-year-old son, Sean, boarded a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport in June 2004, Mr. Goldman was planning to join them a week later in Rio de Janeiro. Several days later, Ms. Goldman called and said she wanted a divorce. She was staying in Brazil, her native country, and so was the boy, she announced. . . . With that call, the Goldman family was sent into a high-profile international abduction and custody case that continues in American and Brazilian courts and has now reached the highest levels of the Obama administration. . . . Mr. Goldman has seen his son, now 8, only once since the boy boarded that flight: a fleeting reunion in Rio this month. And he never saw his wife again. She died of complications from the birth of a daughter with her second husband, a lawyer who represented her against Mr. Goldman. . . . The case has become a sore point in the relationship between the United States and Brazil and may be on the agenda when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister, meet on Wednesday afternoon in advance of a scheduled meeting next month between President Obama and the Brazilian president, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, former and current State Department officials said.

PENNSYLVANIA  

Suit Names 2 Judges Accused in a Kickback Case

By Ian Urbina, New York Times

2-13-09 -- Several hundred families filed a class-action suit Friday against two Pennsylvania judges who pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending juveniles to private detention facilities. . . . “At the hands of two grossly corrupt judges and several conspirators, hundreds of Pennsylvania children, their families and loved ones, were victimized and their civil rights were violated,” said Michael J. Cefalo, one of the lawyers representing the families. “It’s our intent to make sure that the system rights this terrible injustice and holds those responsible accountable.” . . . Pennsylvania lawmakers called on Friday for hearings into the state’s juvenile justice system. And the Juvenile Justice Law Center in Philadelphia, which blew the whistle on the judges, said it had sworn affidavits from families who said they had sought court-appointed counsel but were told that their children would have to wait weeks, sometimes months, for a lawyer. During that time, the children would have to remain in detention, the families said.

Judge picked to review Ciavarella juvenile cases

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, Law & Order Reporter

2-13-09 -- The state Supreme Court has appointed a senior Berks County judge to review potentially thousands of cases that were handled by Luzerne County juvenile court judge Mark Ciavarella dating back to 2003. . . . In appointing Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, the high court said it wanted to ensure a thorough review is conducted of all cases to determine whether a “travesty of juvenile justice” occurred under Ciavarella’s tenure, and, if so, to take whatever action is necessary to provide relief to the affected juveniles. . . . That relief could include holding new hearings, filing petitions to expunge their records or to vacate their adjudications entirely, the court said. . . . The court was prompted to act following the filing of criminal charges on Jan. 26 against Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan that alleged, in part, the judges profited from Ciavarella’s sentencing of juveniles to detention centers once owned by Butler Township attorney Robert Powell.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Mass. court voids DYS custody based on 'dangerousness'

Justices' ruling to free 12 held

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

2-11-09 -- The highest court in Massachusetts struck down a law yesterday that allows the state to keep juvenile offenders who are slated to be released at 18 in custody for three more years if they are believed to be dangerous. . . . The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling that the law is unconstitutional will result in the release of a dozen juvenile offenders whom state officials had kept incarcerated after their 18th birthday. . . . One of those was among a group of young offenders who had challenged the law. The high court wrote that the law fails to define dangerousness, gives "unbridled discretion" to the Department of Youth Services, and violates the due-process rights of offenders. . . . "The language contains no indication of the nature and degree of dangerousness that would justify continued commitment and offers the department no guidance on how to make such a determination," wrote Justice Judith Cowin.

FEDERAL COURTS

Judge in autism case injects insult to Sarah Palin

By Thomas Zambito, Daily News Staff Writer

2-6-09 --A federal judge got political Wednesday, taking a swipe at Sarah Palin while powwowing with lawyers in the case of an autistic boy whose parents are fighting a ban on big dogs at their luxury upper East Side building. . . . Manhattan Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald blasted the Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate for bringing her Down syndrome child on stage after a debate. . . . "That kid was used as a prop," Buchwald told lawyers during a hearing on Wednesday. "And that to me as a parent blew my mind." . . . Buchwald, a 62-year-old Democrat appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said Palin should have put her child to bed. Such conferences are often held behind closed doors, but Buchwald held yesterday's session in open court. "Tell me who told the reporter," Buchwald demanded after realizing her words were on the record.

DELAWARE

Court says lesbian can't seek child custody

By Randall Chase, Associated Press Writer

2-6-09 -- A lower court judge was wrong to grant a lesbian joint custody of her former partner's adopted daughter, the Delaware Supreme Court has ruled. . . . . In a unanimous decision handed down this week, the justices said the woman had no standing to petition for custody in Family Court because she was not the child's legal parent. The court affirmed that under Delaware law, a person who is considered a "de facto" parent of a child does not have the same rights as a legal parent and is not entitled to custody. . . . . Citing existing law, Justice Randy Holland wrote that a person who does not qualify as a legal parent has no standing to petition for custody of a child unless the child is dependent or neglected and a judge determines that he or she should not be placed in the custody of the legal parent.

CONNECTICUT  

Judges concerned about how custody battles affect mental health of children

Video offers advice to divorcing parents

By Amanda Norris, Hour Staff Writer

2-1-09 -- A new video created by the state's Judicial Branch is urging divorcing parents to set aside their own concerns and settle their disputes out of court for the benefit of their children. . . . Two Superior Court judges got tired of wielding Solomon's sword after learning about the specific impact of custody battles on children's mental health. . . . Psychological research conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital has had a shocking impact on the legal community, according to family court Judge Elaine Gordon, who is featured in the 20-minute long video. . . . Researchers found that children who are subjected to high-conflict custody disputes, that is those that take a judge's ruling or court orders to resolve, have the same psychological profile as children whose parents have had their custodial rights severed due to neglect or abuse. . . . Called "Putting Children First: Minimizing Conflict in Custody Disputes," the video's production was spearheaded by Gordon and Judge Linda Munro, who both have decades of experience as lawyers and judges. The video has become the latest tool for divorce lawyers and therapists, who seem to agree with the judges that everyone benefits when conflicts are minimized and resolved quickly. . . . In the video, Gordon emphasizes that the stereotype of divorce as being ugly and contentious of necessity is not true. The statistics Gordon quotes from the Massachusetts General study only apply to the 10 percent of cases, those considered "high conflict."

January 2009

Attorney: Lesbian custody case now an 'agenda' item

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

1-27-09 -- A lesbian child custody case goes back to court this week. . . . Lisa Miller had a child named Isabella while in a lesbian relationship with Janet Jenkins in Vermont, but Miller left the relationship after converting to Christianity and moved to Virginia. Now, a Virginia judge is honoring Vermont's civil union law by ordering that Jenkins have visitation rights. (Previous article) . . . Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel says that ruling was handed down in court with all three present. He notes Isabella has been negatively affected by the forced visitations. . . . "Just for a little while visiting with Janet, Isabella has already had a reaction," he notes. "And in fact little Isabella, six-and-a-half years old who otherwise is just an absolutely adorable little girl, came away from that visitation and said she wished she were dead."

OREGON  

Judge criticized for allowing child-rape suspect care for son

The Associated Press, Seattle PI

1-24-09 -- The Oregon attorney general's office has accused a Clackamas County judge of gross abuse of discretion for ordering bail for a child-rape suspect to help decide custody for his 13-year-old son. . . . Judge Deanne Darling had ordered state child welfare officials to help release Russell Paul Hamblen of Wilsonville, who had been charged in April with rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of underage teenage girls. . . . The judge said Hamblen should have a chance to care for his son while the case was pending because his wife, Christine, suffers from drug and alcohol abuse and has her own legal problems. . . . The boy, meanwhile, remains in foster care. . . . The attorney general's office called the bail order unprecedented and inappropriate, and appealed it to the Oregon Court of Appeals. . . . The appeals court stayed Darling's bail order last month but declined to release a copy of its decision or related documents. . . . The paperwork was released Thursday in response to a motion filed by The Oregonian.

WISCONSIN

Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine

By Dirk Johnson, New York Times

1-20-09 -- Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor. . . . After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival. . . . The county coroner ruled that she had died from diabetic ketoacidosis resulting from undiagnosed and untreated juvenile diabetes. The condition occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, which leads to severe dehydration and impairment of muscle, lung and heart function. . . . “Basically everything stops,” said Dr. Louis Philipson, who directs the diabetes center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, explaining what occurs in patients who do not know or “are in denial that they have diabetes.”

TEXAS  

‘Too Old’ Grandparents (59 and 52) Hope for Custody Under New Judge

By Martha Neil, ABA Journal

1-15-09 -- A judge in a controversial child custody case in Texas has angrily stepped down after apparently being persuaded that a related judicial conduct investigation required him to do so. . . . After Juvenile Court Judge John Phillips decided last year that Yolanda and Arnold Del Bosque were too old to raise the young grandchildren they had been caring for since infancy and had the two boys removed to a foster home, the couple—who were 59 and 52, respectively, at the time of the ruling—made an age bias complaint against him. Armed with a letter from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct stating that it is investigating the Del Bosques' complaint, their lawyer, law professor Barbara Stalder of the University of Houston, asked Phillips to recuse himself from the custody case, according to an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle. . . . Although Phillips, according to Stalder, had no choice but to do so while awaiting an administrative judge's ruling on her recusal motion, "high drama ensued" at a Jan. 8 pretrial hearing, when Stalder objected to Phillips' continuing on the case, the newspaper writes. Raising his voice, an increasingly angry Phillips accused Stalder of arguing with him and ordered a bailiff to escort her from the courtroom, the Chronicle recounts. . . . “Honest to God, I really thought he was going to have the bailiff taking me directly to a holding cell,” Stalder, who works for a University of Houston legal aid clinic, tells the newspaper.

MINNESOTA   

Child custody law up for review

by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio

1-5-09 -- Within the next two weeks, a state court official must report a study group's findings to the Legislature on whether Minnesota should change its child custody laws. At issue is whether judges should automatically presume that children split their time living with each of their divorced parents. . . . St. Paul, Minn. — When a couple with a child divorces, a judge is supposed to start with a clean slate before deciding whether the child will live solely with mom, dad, or split living with each of them. . . . But under a legislative proposal, judges would presume the child would live with both parents unless there's a good reason not to -- such as child abuse. . . . While adding the word "presumption" to a statute may seem trivial, it would level the legal playing field that fathers' rights groups say is currently tilted against them.