Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Summary of the case against me

Readers have asked me to summarize my pending appellate case.

As a result of complaints from a public school busybody and my ex-wife, CPS social worker Sally Mitchell did an investigation of my two kids in Nov. 2007. My ex-wife made a deal with Ms. Mitchell, and they got a court order for the police to seize the kids from our home, without any notice to me.

Ms. Mitchell submitted a report to the court. It was put on the public record,
but I am forbidden to quote from it. Cmr. Joseph did approve that this summary be posted:
There is a list of unverified allegations from unidentified reporting party. Sally Mitchell’s investigation consisted of three interviews of the kids at school. She could not find any single act that she regarded as abuse. She collected an assortment of kid stories about doing homework and household chores. Only one thing had any adult confirmation (but that was refuted by a letter from the school principal). The worst thing I ever did, according to her, was to reset the alarm clock for 7:00 am. Her report said that the alarm clock setting made the kids late for school, but she admitted in oral testimony that the kids had never been late for school. The only other notable bad thing, that she alleged that I did, was to run over a dog. (But the dog owner testified that it never happened.) She disapproves of the “sum total” of my parenting style, but did not say that it was actionable in court. She did not say that I need counseling or that the kids should not be with me. She did not make a child custody recommendation to the court.
Cmr. Irwin H. Joseph refused to allow me to have a rebuttal witness, and ruled against me at the trial. Here is the core of his reasoning, from the Jan. 11, 2008 official transcript:
This Court is not relying on what Sally Mitchell said. ... The techniques and manners and means that Dad thinks are appropriate are now being met with resistance because of the age of the kids. And I grant you, Mr. [AngryDad], that taken singularly, if you were to come in this court and Ms. Travers were to say, "Dad resets the alarm clock," this would have been a five minute hearing that had a very different result. But that's not the only event. That's an indicative event, a representative event. But the events go on and on and on. I read reread last night the report of Dr. Johnson in this which Father said, quote, nothing bad ever really happened, almost the identical words that I heard in this hearing.
In other words, no one could find any substantive wrongdoing on my part. He does not usually take petty complaints from angry moms, but CPS agreed with this complaint so it is legitimate. The CPS agent got caught lying in court, so he is not officially relying on her. But he is relying on her biggest piece of evidence against me, the alarm clock incident.

My alarm clock policy was that I would set the alarm clock for 7:00 am in order to get ready for school which starts at 8:30 am. No one could explain what was wrong with that policy. Ms. Mitchell did testify that, in her opinion, it was okay for me to tell the kids what time to go to bad, but not what time to wake up. She could not explain why. I challenged my ex-wife to explain it at the appellate court oral argument, but she could not do it.

So because of the alarm clock and similar anecdotes, I was not able to see my kids for a year. Cmr. Joseph had said that I could have some visitation under the direction of a local court psychologist named Elizabeth Lee, but she refused to take the case. So did the other two court psychologists in town, and Cmr. Joseph refused to name a replacement or order any visitation.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. it all seems so inane. I'm never one to take anything at face value... are you able to post the judge's complete response online? It seems they feel there are a slew of incidents which comprise an unsavory personality of poor parent. I'm very curious as to what those multiple incidents are (and thus how I would interpret them). Thanks for posting all of this. I can't stand the fact that divorce is the only contract for which there are no ramafications for a breach.

George said...

There are 100s of complaints. Most of them make no sense. I have tried to explain some of them on this blog. You don't have to take my word for it. The judge himself said that the alarm clock complaint was "indicative" and "representative".

Anonymous said...

He didn't suggest a time that the kids should be woken up did he? Silly to ask I know, but I'm just curious what this idiot of a judge would consider appropiate.

George said...

The CPS agent (Sally Mitchell) testified that an 8-year-old girl should have the autonomy to set the alarm clock for any time she wants, even if it was for 5:00 am on a school day after going to bed late. The judge (Irwin Joseph) did not express an opinion on the alarm clock time, but he did say that he did not think that I understood how the kids feel when they have to wake up to go to school in the morning.

Yes, it really was this inane. I have transcripts for all of it. There were other allegations, but the alarm clock was representative, according to the judge.

Anonymous said...

Do you not have 2 children? How old is the other child? If that child is a few years older, are you resetting the alarm clock in their room, too? What if that child wanted to finish up a project before school, wash their hair, or just take some time to get ready? School starts at 830AM you say? How long is the commute to school? What time do they have to leave the house? Were the kids feeling disconcerted that you were resetting their alarms and then they felt rushed to get to class? Why would CPS know this unless the children themselves complained? Why would the children complain unless it *really* bothered them?

Haven't you ever needed to be up early and had an alarm malfunction? You don't sleep very well the next few nights, because you are worried that it will happen again. Now imagine you live with someone who always changes your clock.

George said...

Yes, I have two kids. They both would get up at 7:00 every morning. The kids did not complain. It was CPS and my ex-wife who complained. They knew about the alarm clock because they asked the kids.

Funny you should ask about an alarm malfunction. They never considered whether the alarm clock was working properly.

Anonymous said...

Are you saying part of the CPS interview process is to ask the kids if their parent alters their alarm clock? That doesn't sound plausible.

George said...

The CPS agent quizzed my kids on everything that happened in the morning. According to the CPS agent's report, she had already a complaint from an adult reporting party about how I set the alarm clock to make them late for school. I do not know what role my ex-wife had in that complaint. The CPS agent admitted in court that the reporting party was lying, and that the kids were never late for school. I know all this sounds implausible, but I have court documents to prove all of it.

Anonymous said...

I asked about what time did the Judge feel it appropiate to set an alarm for. For my daughter, I set it at 7am too and I feel that is the best time for her to rise,wash,get dressed and get to school on time. Now if it were left to her, oh around 10am would be fine to fall out of bed. As for the comment made by Anon@8.19pm, totally dumb. I always make sure any homework is done the night before - first thing in the morning is NOT the time to be catching up on schoolwork. If for any reason, she needed to be up earlier, then the solution is easy, send them to bed earlier and let them know the clock is set earlier - though it has been my experience that is hardly ever necessary.

All in all, parents dictate bed times and what time to get up and there is nothing I have seen George do that is unreasonable. Good luck George.

George said...

Yes, the kids could get up earlier if they went to bed earlier. They understood that. But the CPS agent took the position that the kids should be able to go to bed later, and wake up earlier.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is amazing to me. I'm reading this because I've had dealings with Commissioner Joseph in the past that were completely and totally negative and inappropriate and now I am going through a second divorce in which he's been the Commissioner at each of my status conferences. I am highly anxious each time as to the comments he is going to make.
As for your situation, I don't understand what the problem is here. I too have kids that rise at 7am for school that starts at 8:30am. I'm confused. I will be checking on this blog regularly as my next status conference is set for March 24.