Wednesday, June 29, 2011

More court frustration

My ex-wife and I were in court today at 8:30. As usual, Judge Heather Morse processed every other before calling ours. We have been in her court for over a year, and nothing has been resolved. Each hearing has just created more issues that require more hearing.

Since I am now accused of contempt, and I did not waive my rights, the judge had to schedule us to come back next month in order to schedule a trial date.

I explained that I believe that I am in compliance with all orders, and that a trial will be a waste of time. I suggested that a clarification of her orders might resolve the matter. She rambled about her orders, and for a while I thought that she was trying to clarify them, but she sure did not clarify anything.

Meanwhile I have not seen our kids since March 6, because my ex-wife refuses to permit it.

My ex-wife is asking to make her sole custody permanent, because the supervised visitation is too much trouble for her. She said that if she had permanent sole custody with visitation entirely at her discretion, then she would be willing to let me attend one of the kids's soccer games, provided that I was accompanied by a visitation supervisor of her choice. The judge said that she believed my ex-wife's arguments that she want me involved in the kids' lives, but she is worried that there might be no visitation at all if my ex-wife gets what she wants.

On the way out, I called out to my ex-wife that I wanted to have a word with her before she goes. The bailiff (armed guard in court) leaped to his feet and told me that I cannot do that. I thought that he did not want me talking in the courtroom, so I told him that we were going to talk in the hallway. He then asked my ex-wife about three times whether she wanted protection from me talking to her. She kept saying that it was okay, so he eventually went away.

A few minutes later, the bailiff re-emerged to tell me that he had a complaint that I was talking too loudly in the hallway. I asked him whether he could hear me in the court, and he refused to answer. "I am warning you for the last time," he said. Wow, that guy was touchy. They have seats and tables in the courthouse hallway, and my ex-wife and I had a simple financial matter to settle. There was no one else in the hallway. The clerk was within earshot about 50 feet away, but I don't know why he would care how loudly we were talking.

I still don't have a visit scheduled, and my ex-wife is still refusing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It wasn't about how loudly you were talking to your ex. in the hallway, it was that he didn't want you talking to her in the first place.

The court personnel want as much control over you as possible.

George said...

My guess is that the bailiff called the clerk, and asked him if he heard anything. He said yes, even tho it was not anything that he would normally complain about or even notice. The mindset of these folks is to always assume that people are guilty of something.