This letter/testimony was written and submitted to Ms. Patricia Miles by
Terry, the president of the CCJ Carolinas chapter.
I would like to introduce our organization and myself. We are The Center for
Children's Justice - Carolinas Chapter of which I am the chapter President. I am
a second wife, soon to be mother, stepmother and survivor of both rape and
severe physical domestic abuse who has seen the family court system from both
sides for several years.
The Carolinas are now home to many former residents of Pennsylvania who are
still subject to abuses by actions in the Pennsylvania Family Courts and their
Domestic Relations Sections. It is on behalf of these member's concerns and
issues that I am writing.
Among the areas we are concerned with we are Parent's Right's and Abuse
Victims advocates. Women who are survivors of severe abuses run this Chapter
almost entirely. The issues with Pennsylvania's Protection from Abuse and Child
Support rule and procedures are our major concerns for our members.
Let me start by saying the abuse protection laws in this country, including
Pennsylvania's, lend themselves to the abuse of the courts and gross violations
of civil rights. They also flagrantly misrepresent the alleged protection we
victims of abuse are promised and count on, which in violent cases turns out to
be none at all.
As we see over and again, the civil protection order does not in any way
protect victims of serious abuse from future abuses or from being murdered, nor
could they possibly. Restraining orders will only restrain civilized people who
were no real threat to begin with. Recent news and TV reports of additional
attacks and murders by known abusive personalities show clearly that the
protection from abuse system is in every sense of the word, fatally flawed.
The simple fact is the protection from abuse laws let abusive personalities
free to abuse over and over, victim after victim, but punish innocent victims of
false allegations of abuse with brutalities unfit for a free society.
Countless hours and considerable funding is exhausted basically helping the
real abusers escape justice and holding the real victims in the role of just
that, the victim. Now what we have is helpless victims on both sides of the
system who are in desperate need of relief from both abuse and our legal system.
The facts continue to "fall through the cracks" only to harbor the
real abusers that this system is designed to hold liable.
It is well known that in order to receive the funding from Federal program
funding sources the states and their actions must meet the qualifying criteria
the funds specify. Too often this creates laws, rules and procedures that do
little to nothing for victims of violence, but creates systems for the abuse and
divorce industries to feed off of easily. All at the expense of the victim's
safety and civil rights of all parties involved.
To call what is going on a conspiracy is definitely incorrect, the term
"shakedown racket" is better suited. This racket has created new
classes of the abused, fully sanctioned by the courts and legislatures around
the country; violently abused domestic partners and innocent non-custodial
parents who are lied to by their own attorneys and the courts who are out to
make a fast buck from the Federal coffers. Time and after time we hear that the
priorities of state government are "to make the process quicker and
easier" not more effective.
As you know the Protection from Abuse Orders are civil orders, often
agreements between the parties involved, and are not criminal charges. But an
attack on a person not in a domestic situation with their attacker is a criminal
offense, which can take the attacker off the street by appropriately charging
them with the crime they committed, often the very first instance it happens. A
civil domestic abuse order does not carry the same weight or protection even
after the abuses recur again and again as only the violations of such are minor
criminal offenses (criminal contempt).
The fact is, this failed system has reduced acts of violence against domestic
partners to be less than the same actions toward other, non-domestic parties.
Domestic Violence becomes little more then a summary offense, much like a
traffic ticket. The flaws in the Domestic Violence Codes risk our lives and are
in fact the greatest insult to the abused that we could be given. They scream
loud and clear that we are not worthy of the full protection of the law.
The same is true of those falsely accused of Domestic Violence, they too have
seen no justice as they are completely robbed of their civil rights by a process
that accomplishes nothing beyond generating revenue for the state, attorneys,
and the support systems of the abuse and divorce industries.
It is also our position that most abuse claims are nothing more than the
actions of vindictive spouses who use their children and these poorly written
unconstitutional laws as weapons to undermine the basic rights of their
children's other parent. They increase their child support by way of reducing
the time the non-custodial parent has with them, if they have any all at. Many,
if not most, for no good reason.
There are several ways the innocent victims of false allegations of abuse
loose their rights. I am sure you are aware that many of the civil restraining
orders are made by mutual consent of both parties. Often these result in civil
orders with no finding of abuse. Now, if there was no finding of abuse why was
there a need for the restraining order to begin with?
That is simple to explain, we know full well that these laws are
unconstitutional and the agreements prevent civil rights suits against the
states by the real victims in these cases, the defendants. Also, without a VAWA
compliant order none of the social services organizations; attorneys and others
can file for payment from the Department of Justice under VAWA. This is just
part of the state's feeding frenzy on the Federal block grants. The problems
with these “agreements” are several.
These orders with no finding of abuse show up in NCIC exactly the same as one
with a finding of abuse, ordered or agreed upon. The defendants are rarely, if
ever told this. Those that are told this are most often told the entries in NCIC
will only be there for the duration of the order. The fact is they are permanent
entries. Many find out later on when they are declined advancement into
positions that require security clearances when these ambiguous entries show up
on their background checks.
Here’s a case where the both the prosecutors and the defendant's own
attorney have committed constructive fraud, if not actual fraud. These types of
issues plague the system. Over and again we get lied to by the courts and then
treated like idiots simply because we want justice and expect people to do
things properly - using our tax dollars.
It has gotten so bad in many areas of our country, that the real victims of
abuse are having trouble getting help from the very system set up to help them
and are being murdered instead. Why aren't claims of Domestic Violence
investigated as any other claim of a violent act is?
To the Lawyers, Judges and Lawmakers we say to make no mistake about it: our
blood is on their hands as much as anyone else's and we plan to never let them
forget it. We are nothing more to them than media fodder, used to proclaim how
more of the same is needed. On the contrary, what needs to be told is that the
protection from abuse racket is by far the single greatest reason abuses
continue today at the level they do.
Please understand that most of the leadership of CCJ-Carolinas has seen this
first hand. Being victims of abuse ourselves we have sat in the same waiting
rooms of the Courthouses and listened to the boasts of the false accusers.
We personally heard them proclaim how easy it is to have the courts torture
their soon to be ex-significant other for them and that all parties concerned
will be financially rewarded for doing so. It was clear that there is no fear of
reprisals even if they are caught in flat-out lies to the courts, which last we
heard should be called perjury.
A scenario so common we have given it a nickname occurs where children are
involved. We call this process the "PFA Two Step." This requires two
sequential PFA's to be filed. The first one lists the children as well as the
custodial parent. The courts and the attorneys all make a big deal out of the
fact that the children are taken out of the court order. Here too the defendants
are threatened with incarceration and/or loss of visitation if they don't agree
to the PFA.
Shortly after this PFA a custody agreement is reached or one is ordered.
Followed by a second PFA on behalf of the children in question. This process
seems to be resolved by assigning court appointed mental health care workers to
child, whom the non-custodial parent is told their children are in desperate
need of. Again they are threatened with incarceration and/or loss of visitation
if they don't agree to the PFA.
The second PFA seems to uphold their custody order. But the PFA does not
actually reference the custody order, it references the first PFA. Often because
the final order is not retyped, hand written notes are simply added to the
initial PFA filing instead and the switch is missed. Subsequently, neither
attorney is willing to simply correct what should be a simple clerical
correction citing that it would seriously upset the court to do so.
The defendants are then met with the original complaint at the schools and
the court appointed mental health care worker’s offices and thusly denied any
visitation what so ever. The schools, court appointed mental health care workers
and law enforcement officers normally can not tell the difference between
complaint and the actual order as the documents are almost identical, including
the case/docket number. Most victims of the PFA Two Step never regain visitation
of their children. This can be likened to what we call bait and switch in the
private sector.
Defendants in PFA cases are also rarely if ever clearly and specifically told
that the agreements they are baited and/or coerced into eliminate their rights
to appeal, due process and equal protection under the law, but they do in fact.
The abuse industry fosters hate, not growth, in the name of increased
revenue, as it is not anything more than a social engineering scheme run amok.
The first step to becoming a survivor of a mess of any sort is learning to
clearly separate your emotions from your intellect and work for change and
closure intellectually. Failing to do so keeps you a victim, as choices tend to
come from emotional needs that will never be met by any "system" or
agency. This feeds into the continuation of the failed systems. The system
teaches us victims to hate, keeping us trapped as victims.
The abuse industry's survival is completely dependant on abuses never ending
or to be invented. For it to grow the level of abuse must actually increase
and/or the definition of abuse must expand indefinitely and more creative
inventions need occur. Ending abuse is clearly a conflict of interest for these
systems, as the very survival of the abuse industry depends on more and more of
us to suffer again and again.
The protection industry commits frauds and blatant violations of the rights
to due process and equal protection under the law. Making it nothing more then a
shakedown racket of unparalleled scope and depth. In the cases of non-custodial
parents, one so brazen that not even the Mafia, which pales in comparison, would
stoop to steal someone's right to their children only to extort additional money
from them.
These actions have created a class of victims made up of the defendants in
many, if not most of these cases. Most of which are innocent fathers who simply
want to be a loving part of their children's lives. They, in these cases are the
ones who truly need to be protected from the legal, financial and emotional
abuses that have become commonplace in our nation's Family Courts.
Instead, based solely on allegations, they are tortured into submission,
degraded, humiliated by the courts and then robbed blind by their own attorneys
and the child support agencies for simply caring enough for their children to
stand up to a vindictive parent. These systems operate in a manner that is
certainly tantamount to tyranny. Justice demands due process!
I have to ask again, what makes these acts different for domestic partners
than from non-domestic events of violence? Why are there no investigations that
include detailed gathering of evidence? Why aren't male victims of domestic
violence permitted in tax dollar funded abuse shelters? Why aren't there any
programs for the male victims of abuse? Why do the plaintiffs receive free legal
assistance without having to provide any verifiable evidence the person they
accuse committed anything towards them?
What upsets me most lately, both emotionally and intellectually, about this
issue is that none of the present rules and/or procedures address the failure of
proper forensic evaluation of injury in alleged abuse cases. A recent
documentary with forensic specialists from Duke University detailed many of the
failings of the present methods of evaluation and investigation in Domestic
Violence cases.
Basically, simple photographs do not in any way show the depth of injury,
especially in cases of head trauma where the outward signs can be minimal, but
the real injury can be extensive. Nor do they always prove who or what caused
them and guilt is simply assumed in PFA cases.
Photos need to be retaken over a period of days, not just after the incident
in question, MRI’s are needed as well. The list of failings is considerable
and the technology to do what is needed is very much off the shelf as is the
application of them. The point is, we are doing it ALL wrong.
Lack of proper evaluation injures all parties concerned, both true victims of
violence and those falsely accused. None of the present rules and/or procedures
addresses or provides any safeguards against this fraud within the system.
Physical assaults must be treated as criminal acts no matter how or in what
setting they are committed. Both victims of abuse and the defendants of these
cases are entitled to due process and equal protection under the law. Under the
current VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) compatible statutes neither the
plaintiffs’ or the defendants' rights and safety are protected, but rather
completely stripped away from them. They both become second-class citizens under
the law.
Simply put, without proper evaluation and investigation we will never protect
the victims of violence or end the abuse of the court system.
The protection from abuse laws and the industry they has created the need for
all of this "system" to be reviewed under the highest level of
scrutiny possible. The laws cannot simply be "strengthened"; they must
be rewritten so that all parties concerned are provided with equal protection
under the law, guaranteed due process and criminal acts are prosecuted as the
crimes they are whether acts of violence or false allegations of abuse.
On the issue of Child Support, the most common complaints we at CCJ-Carolinas
hear have to do with failure of proper notice and incorrect, unreasonable,
unsupportable incomes being used to determine their support obligations.
My main problem with the child support laws is the fact that there is no
accountability. Any money not used exclusively for the child (Not the custodial
parent's car payment, mortgage or gifts for their boyfriend/girlfriend) should
be returned to the non-custodial parent. Otherwise child support becomes nothing
but hidden alimony. I would like to see requirements for receipts for support
expenses. Any expense that a receipt cannot be provided for should be completely
discounted.
Modification hearings for out of state parents are often done via telephone.
I have been present for several of these. In the course of the conference the
defendants are told they will have ten days from the date of receipt of the
order to file an appeal. First, the orders clearly say "Ten Days from the
Date of the Order" not from date of receipt. Second, there are no tracking
methods used to determine the date of receipt. Third, the orders are mailed
bearing postmarks past the ten-day period stated in the actual order.
We live is a dynamically changed world since 9-11, Ms. Miles. In our area
post offices have been shut down due to biological agent discoveries. To date
even false alarms cause closures for days at a time. All mail within the
affected Post Office is held until either the situation is cleaned up or found
to be a false alarm. At this time there is no reasonable belief it won't happen
again.
With the post offices being shut down without notice, there is no way to be
certain of a delivery date via the United States Postal Service to or from the
Domestic Relations Office. Therefore it is unreasonable to expect an appeal to
be made ten days from the date of any court order. A response postmarked for
return within ten days from actual verified receipt, is more reasonable. A
thirty-day period postmarked for return from the actual verified receipt date is
what I suggest.
Additionally, those who have retained counsel in Pennsylvania find that the
attorneys are never sent copies of the orders. They find the same issue with
delivery times and are also held to the ten-day from the date of the order
appeal period. In both cases they find the support orders are based on grossly
incorrect incomes, some as much as one hundred and fifty percent of their actual
income. Then they are denied appeals.
These among other notice issues have brought about complaints and even
constitutional challenges. Specifically to Pennsylvania’s Rules of Civil
Procedure Rules 1910.16-3 and 1910.19. A case in point, Attorney Eugene A. Wrona,
sent a constitutional challenge to THE HONORABLE ZYGMONT A. PINES Acting Court
Administrator of Pennsylvania via certified US First Class mail, on May 9, 2000.
He has yet to be responded to in any manner. Why is there no response?
The defendants are told over and over about their right to appeal. The fact
is, the defendants are often baited and/or coerced into agreements that
completely eliminate their ability to appeal, deliveries of orders are delayed
past the permitted period for appeals to be filed and challenges to these action
go without response from the state, even to attorneys. The fact is, the
defendant’s rights to due process and equal protection under the law are
violated routinely in Pennsylvania's Child Support and PFA cases.
These are only some of the issues with the Domestic Relations Rules and
Procedures we have encountered nationwide. But these are the most common among
all states, including Pennsylvania.
We are very aware of how much money the states receive in matching funds from
various Federal grants based on the amount of collected child support and PFA
orders issued. These amount to little more then the federal kickbacks and are
what drives the system.
Pennsylvania's, as are most other states’, guidelines for child support
awards have no factual economical relationship to one parent's share of children’s
basic financial needs. Protections from Abuse Orders fail to protect the abused
and are routinely used to undermine valid visitations and leverage higher child
support awards.
Nobody has a problem supporting his or her own child, but a lot of people
have a problem with supporting the other parent, the live in boyfriend or
girlfriend, and other details unrelated to the support of their children.
Few people have any issue with seeing abusers put in jail when it is clearly
proven they did in fact commit criminal assault. But many have great issue with
seeing unconstitutional acts that the state is committing and/or endorsing
against people who did absolutely nothing wrong, while actual abusers are set
free to abuse again.
Frankly we don’t care how much money the state looses from Federal grants
as a result of meaningful reforms as our lives and civil rights are worth far
more than political and social agendas. I hope Pennsylvania and other states
come to agree with their citizens’ lives and rights being worth more than a
Federal paycheck. We look forward to seeing meaningful reform through the
actions of your committee. For the benefit of children and parents throughout
your state and ours.
