Another wasted day in court

My ex-wife and I appeared in Comm. Irwin H. Joseph's court this morning for a status conference. We were supposed to report on the status of a psychological/custody evaluation, and to schedule a trial on financial issues.

Comm. Joseph took the unusual step of swearing us in (to testify under oath), and asked about this allegation from my ex-wife: (I have changed the names.)

II. Visitation

George has made no efforts to obtain a supervisor in order to visit Mary and Jenny. He did show up at one of Mary's field trips in San Jose, uninvited. He was invited to Jenny's play, showed up, and then marked up Jenny's name on the play's prominently displayed poster board which displays descriptions of the cast members. Jenny subsequently asked her teacher for white out to redo her name on the poster board. The teacher was quite livid that he marked up school property. Through his behavior, he made Mary, Jenny, and the school officials feel very uncomfortable. He calls Mary and Jenny occasionally. They are uncomfortable telling him about their schedule, because they worry that he will respond in an inappropriate and unpredictable manner.

I don't know whether the teacher, Heather Treen, was really livid. I explained that her sign had erroneously shown our daughter's last name as "Travers". I corrected it by writing in her true last name. Ms. Treen should be using the girl's real name, not the name of my ex-wife's new husband. Comm. Joseph seemed satisfied with this explanation.

Comm. Joseph alluded to my ex-wife's gripes about my blog. He said that he was not allowed to read the blog, so he did not know what was in it. If the blog is really deterring me from being able to visit my kids, then he said that I should consider that.

I told Comm. Joseph that one of the problems in hiring a psychologist was that there were no clear orders on what he would do. Then he gave us a copy of the order that previously went to Elizabeth Lee. Since neither my ex-wife nor I have been able to find a psychologist to take the case, Comm. Joseph acted as if he had no responsibilities in the matter.

I told Comm. Joseph that I wanted to see my kids. He said that he also wants me to see the kids. I reminded him that he has direct authority to let me visit the kids. He just shrugged and changed the subject.

Finally, he asked my ex-wife about a trial on some remaining financial issues. She said that she was waiting on some subpoenas on some bank records from ten years ago, and wanted a September trial. He scheduled another status conference on May 28 in Watsonville. I guess the Santa Cruz family court moved to Watsonville, I don't know.