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Transcript of
Melanie I. Cummings at the Public Hearing on
February 17, 2005
NYS Judicial Institute, Pace school of Law, White Plains, NY
ISSUES
Custody /
Parental Gender Bias / Child Support
TANF Funding
College Expenditures
Judicial
Oversight
Conclusion
Good morning!
My name is
Melanie Cummings. I have been affiliated and am a staunch supporter
of several National and State Children and Fathers rights groups for
over ten years.
Thank you for
allowing me to speak in front of the NYS Matrimonial Commission. I
am proud to stand here with all non-custodial parents and share with
all of you New York State Family Court’s disrespect for the basic
human rights of children, fathers, mothers and Hardworking American
taxpayer families. The Hardworking Taxpayers of America, to include
the Hardworking Taxpayers of New York State, are footing the bill
for this injustice, fraud and extortion. Not to mention paying for
the divorce cottage industry. Hardworking Taxpayers Federal Tax
Incentive Funds = Power.
NYS judges are
legislating at the bench which is not their role. Their role is to
interpret and uphold the written laws that the NYS legislature has
passed.
Due to time
constraints I will be keep my focus on TANF incentive funding. Yes,
the funding that
New York
State
receives from the Hardworking Taxpayers of America in order to pay
for social programs/entitlements via child support collected. You
will see that this entire New York Family Court System is not about
the best interests of the child, it is about the state’s treasury.
NYS has laws
that stipulate that BOTH biological parents are required to
emotionally and financially support their children and are to
receive due process and equal protection under the U.S.
Constitution, specifically, Amendments 1, 5, 9 and 14. The U.S.
Constitution guarantees BOTH biological parents their rights to
their children without any interference from the state and judicial
system.
I am here today
to explain how NYS family courts, without a compelling state
interest, systematically and arbitrarily remove one of the parents
from the child(ren)'s lives. Parental contact is crucial – and not
through the internet. To make matters worse, I am here today to
explain how non-custodial parents (over 90% fathers) are financially
driven away from their families post-divorce and the Hardworking
Taxpayers of America are being defrauded in the process.
Custody Issues / Parental Gender Bias /
Child Support
By a decade of
actions, NYS Family Court has spoken – parental equation = mother.
This is a misapplication of the law, not in the best interests of
children and gender biased. Parental Equation = Father plus Mother.
NY’s Office of
Court Administration yearly issues a Blue Book, “Report of Child
Support Order”. The gender-biased results are 1993 – 90.9% custody
to mothers; 1994 – 91.2% custody to mothers. More recent public data
is available but the public, who pays for this, is having trouble
retrieving it. Need I say more? Non-custodial parents have become
the Dred Scotts of the 21st Century. Now will come the time for NYS
Family Court Judges to explain to all children why NYS judges do not
like fathers except for their money.
When a divorce
occurs, NYS Family Court decides which parent will have custody and
which parent will be granted parenting time which NYS still calls
"visitation". Parents are not visitors; only convicted, incarcerated
criminals receive visitors. The family court decides that the
"visiting" parent will pay the child support bill. The courts rule
against fathers in
New York
in 90-95% and impose on them by force to pay a fictitious,
artificial child support obligation, which in reality is de facto
alimony. In today’s society, it takes two incomes to maintain one
household.
Child support
should be based on Net Income – No intact family spends monies on
children on gross income. They already gave money to the federal /
state governments.
End the
double-dipping. It boggles the mind that based on divorce laws, as
an adult, a whole team of state financial gurus cannot figure out
the transfer of intact family monies nor did they do a study on
this. Hire a Columbia University economics freshman student to
figure it out.
Currently, after
four years of college, three years of law school and work experience
we have lawyers and judges who are mathematically challenged.
A letter from
Assemblyman Gordon Burrows on 5/9/74 to the Governor’s Counsel
stating not to change emancipation from 21 to 18 because “The
Commission wishes to emphasize that any reduction in the parental
duty of support has fiscal implications for the State. Enactment of
these bills would mean that henceforth any funds expended by the
State to assist a person between the ages of 18 and 21 could no
longer be recovered from the parent”. Yet, you can vote at 18.
Assemblywoman
Weinstein’s Chief of Staff told me several years ago that they
cannot make a mother work. Well, you make a father work. You cannot
have it both ways. This is discrimination. These mothers' choices
are illegal. They are defrauding us, the Hardworking Taxpayers of
America. Are our legislators, family law attorneys and judges
enabling them?
TANF Funding
Welfare Reform
has usurped our system of law and destroyed liberty and justice for
all. NYS should watch out. Look at what you have done.
NYS has received
consistently over six years approximately $2.0 Billion a year from
the Hardworking Taxpayers of America to use for state entitlement
programs to include the NYS Earned Income Tax Credit. The
administrative costs are over $1.4 Billion and system costs are over
$35 Million. These monies flow in via child support collection
incentive matching funds.
Information is
available via the DHHS –
HHS
Department, TANF Funding. So as you see, the more you collect into
the system, the more federal funding a state receives. Do you really
think no one would figure this out? No wonder there are no downward
child support modifications – not even if a father loses his job.
This is the crux of the problem in the NYS Family Court System. It
says it all – it is all about the money to the states, not to the
children.
Ms. Frye, Chief,
Office of Child Support in CA on
3/20/97 testified before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the U.S. House
Committee on Ways and Means for the Welfare Reform Bill. She
states:
“As we understand it, the proposal goes far beyond the
Congressional intent to develop an incentive system that rewards
good outcomes and in fact encourages states to recruit middle class
families, never dependent on public assistance and never likely to
be so, into their programs in order to maximize federal child
support incentives”. She goes on to say, “And my colleagues across
the country have already informed me how I can win at this system;
recruit the middle class, bring those higher orders into your system
and that way you will be able to benefit like some of the other
states from the cap removal on the never-welfare population”.
Just
think! NYS’s emancipation age is 21 – additional three years of our
monies. Where are these monies going? Supporting the judicial
system? Into the New York State's
General Fund? There are hundreds of millions of dollars in unobligated and
undistributed funds reported to the DHHS.
Let’s recap: Per
the NYS Family Court System --Fathers help create a child, fathers
are not considered parents, fathers pay child support, fathers have
huge problems with parenting time interference which is contempt of
court but mothers receive no punishment {PL 135.45 and 135.5 says
that custodial interference is punishable}, fathers pay federal and
state taxes to pay for social programs/entitlements, mothers collect
all federal and state tax credits that someone else is paying,
fathers are told to pay for college, mothers collect the college tax
credits to include Pell Grants; therefore, pay nothing on a required
amount, the state of NY gets billions of dollars to spend on social
program/entitlements, fathers are not entitled to social programs
and lawyers get rich by this adversarial process. The sad part,
children lose a parent and suffer everything that goes with that.
What a country!!!! Guess NYS Family Court personnel became
everyone’s daddy. Judges are not above the law nor should you have
disrespect for parental rights or family rights.
Since Welfare
Reform, PRWORA Act of 1996, falls under the Social Security Act,
states must follow the federal regulations and federal code. The
Social Security Administration’s Form 223, Obligee Form, that it
sends to the representative payee parent (who receives social
security benefits for the children) with a number of detailed
questions asking how the money is spent on the children each month.
Use this form for child support purposes with non-custodial parent
receiving a copy. Lawyers and judges have made it quite apparent
that they have a reckless disregard of the law by alleging it would
be too difficult and intrusive for the custodial parent to account
for how and where the support for the child is used. Hardworking
Taxpayers of America should, therefore, file criminal charges
against the judges and lawyers. No immunity! For your information,
over 50% of the child support enforcement agencies caseloads are
Non-TANF and the monies collected and distributed are also over
50%.
Per public
policy and public outcry, it is financially irresponsible to collect
hardworking taxpayers' monies without being employed full-time. It
appears that mothers take monies from society with no intention of
repaying the money. If a father did this, he goes to jail.
College Expenditures
There is no
intact family in America nor is there any Federal law in America
that states that any parent is obligated to pay tuition, general
expenses, room and board, lab fees or books for post-secondary
education. This is unconstitutional. It is a parental decision to
pay for this; not a law or a child's entitlement but our wonderful
lawyers and judges do this daily - judge's judicial discretion. How
many people in this room had their parents' pay 100% for college and
did not have to work during the summer and school breaks to even
offset some costs? We are not teaching our children work ethics. If
your parents are divorced, the courts say, parents pay up or fathers
pay up. Children in New York are quite aware of this entitlement.
Judicial Oversight
There is none in
New York
State.
Chief Justice Judith Kaye needs to issue a memo stating that only
proven unfit parents cannot have custody to their children. This is
to include changing each and every NYS Family Court and Supreme
Court documentation that says “visitation” to parenting time and
also sanctions for false allegations of domestic violence. The
lawyers should be sanctioned too. They are quite aware that filing
this false allegation gives you one-upmanship on custody decisions.
Then she needs to go to the New York Bar Association and tell the
lawyers to cut-out all this nonsense, stop wasting money and time
and abide by the laws. Too bad their revenue opportunities will be
diminished.
They can find
something more honorable to do with their time. The judges must
regularly have their decisions reviewed – review the transcripts.
Since so many parents are complaining, something is wrong and the
legislating and acting above the law must stop. Sanctions are in
order.
As for child
support – change to based on net income and make it clear and
accurate for rebuttable presumption, line by line, and then subtract
all federal and state tax credits that a child is entitled to. The
double-dipping must stop.
Do not use in
the best interests of the child as an excuse. Are we teaching
children to steal from the Hardworking Taxpayers of America?
Conclusion
Let us all be
honest here. I am quite sure a fair amount of what I have said today
has fallen on deaf ears. And now let me tell you why. New York State
is more concerned with the inflow of monies from the Federal
Government as well as the inflow of monies into the NY State
Treasury and even though you may have momentarily considered some of
what I have said to be fair and just, the reality is you are more
concerned about revenue than you are of what is truly in the best
interest of the child. I do not know how all of you look at
yourself in the mirror at night! Can you honestly tell me that you
could explain the current state of affairs to your own children with
a clear conscience? Where is everyone’s moral compass?
Policy
objectives and child support enforcement systems need to be modified
to reflect the fact that enforcing child support includes enforcing
parenting time orders. Unless and until such modification occurs,
the repeated violations of and noncompliance with court-ordered
parenting time rights will continue to lead to increased bitterness
and civil disobedience. In the meantime, a great disservice is done
to our youngest citizens as their constitutionally protected
parent-child relationships continue to deteriorate.
Set the record
straight – do the right thing! After four years of college, three
years of law school and years of work experience, New York State
Family Court Judges have received an "F."
Over 25 Million
non-custodial parents across this nation will receive a copy of my
written testimony. I have all original documentation. My written
testimony is more detailed. The people have spoken.
Melanie I. Cummings letter to
The Honorable Sondra Miller, Associate Justice, Appellate Division
Chair, Matrimonial Commission
November 19, 2004
The
Honorable Sondra Miller
Associate Justice, Appellate Division
Chair,
Matrimonial Commission
Appellate Division, 2nd Department
140
Grand Street, 6th Floor
White
Plains, NY 10601
Dear
Justice Miller:
Re:
Matrimonial Commission Hearings –
Official State of New York, Office of Court Administration Documents
1993 – 1994 Custody Results
It is
my understanding that there seems to be some confusion about custody
arrangements in divorce hearings in the State of New York. I am
particularly referring to the 11/4/04 letter to you from Mr.
Dickinson of the Coalition of Fathers and Families New York, Inc.
and the testimony of Ms. Linda Hicks on 11/4/04. Ms. Hicks stated
that of those men/fathers who seek custody of their children, 70
percent are successful. Ms. Hicks is very wrong. Attached are the
“official” documents from the Office of Court Administration {this
is a Blue Book with information from the State of New York Unified
Court System, Report of Child Support Order, Form UCS-111, Summary
of OCS-111 Data For All Cases Reported} stating the following to
Judge Jonathan Lippman from Chip Mount, Subject: Child Support
Standards Act Report. This report was submitted for Judge Milonas’
signature.
|
Year |
Tot. Physical
Custody For Child Support Awarded |
#
Mothers |
% |
#
Fathers |
% |
#
Third Party Custody |
Other - Not Accounted. For |
% |
|
1993 |
91,239 |
82,964 |
90.9% |
3,508 |
3.84% |
206 |
4,561 |
5% |
|
1994 |
82,728 |
75,455 |
91.2% |
3,439 |
4.16% |
172 |
3,662 |
4.4% |
This
report is done yearly and should be easily obtainable. This is
pursuant to Judiciary Law Section 216(4) as required by Child
Support Standards Act. The annual report data is to be seen by the
State Legislature and the Governor on amounts of awards of child
support, alimony, maintenance and allocations of property included
in court orders or judgments providing for child support. I find it
hard to believe that each and every judge in New York State has not
accessed this report. Pertinent information can be extracted from
this report and since this is public information, everyone else
should be privy to this yearly information. A data base in your
offices has been and I reconfirm, has been built years ago. It
takes very little time for a computer programmer to write a program
to generate this data for years 1995 – present. However, the data
is there. This should eradicate any doubts on the gender bias
issues. Now will come the time to explain to all children why the
State of New York Family Court Judges do not like fathers.
As for
non-custodial parents which are statistically the fathers, the proof
is here. The NY Family Court System is saying that the majority of
fathers in New York are not capable of being parents. Sorry.
Parental Equation is father plus mother. When a parent divorces,
the child does not divorce one parent. Being a parent requires more
than every other weekend parenting time. Fathers are not visitors,
they are parents. Only convicted, incarcerated criminals receive
visitors. In the spirit of this thinking, it is high time that they
(fathers) have a seat at the table. They are part of this
“Matrimonial Commission”. It affects them, too, not just those in
the judiciary. To my knowledge we are an “equal rights” country.
Prove it by allowing them seats at the table, otherwise, you are
discriminating. The children are theirs, too. Let us finally set
the record straight and straighten out the New York State Family
Court System.
A
little side bar, for your information, the 1998 National Child
Maltreatment and 1996 Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse
and Neglect states that female natural parents abuse and neglect
their children more than male natural parents. In over 80% of child
abuse cases, the natural mother is responsible. With this in mind,
why would a judge allow over 90% of mothers to get sole custody. It
is an absurdity. It is criminal. After four years of college,
three years of law school and work experience, the judges and
lawyers are now intellectually and ethically challenged. If shared
parenting laws were passed, children have been proven to fair far
better post-divorce. These reports are easily obtainable from the
U.S. Federal Govt.
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