She Killed His Son but He Must Pay Her Alimony
Examples of decent, loving dads being manhandled by the anti-father family law system are legion, but this one has to make the Top 10. A recent New Jersey appeals court reaffirmed a decision mandating that a man must pay alimony to his ex-wife–who killed their son. From Legal tussle: Should killer get alimony? (Bergen Record, 11/22/07):
“A state appeals court on Wednesday refused to automatically bar alimony from spouses who kill a child…The decision was issued in the case of Linda Calbi, who is serving a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to beating her son, Matt, on Aug. 17, 2003, during a violent argument at their home. He died hours later from internal bleeding and cardiac arrest…
“Linda Calbi was originally charged with murder, but the charges were later downgraded to aggravated assault, based on expert reports that medical error contributed significantly to the boy’s death. She was sentenced last year to three years in prison and won’t be eligible for parole until November 2008.
“The Calbis were divorced in 2001 after 15 years of marriage. A few months after Matt’s death, Chris Calbi fell behind on his alimony payments and filed papers in court seeking a reduction or termination of his payment obligations.
“‘She took the life of her oldest son, scarred her younger son for the rest of his life, and tore the fabric of my soul from me,’ Chris Calbi wrote in papers filed in Superior Court in Hackensack. ‘To reward this evil and violent woman by allowing her … to derive a financial benefit from the family she destroyed … can only be described as a perversion of our justice system.’”
Chris Calbi had been paying Linda $3,183 a month until her incarceration, and may be saddled with that amount when Linda is paroled. Chris is pictured with his deceased son Matthew and his surviving son Dean above. A few comments:
1) Chris Calbi claimed that Linda abused and assaulted him during their marriage, at times employing a kitchen knife and a hammer. The death of the son is discussed in Typical teen meets a tragic end (Bergen Record, 8/20/03), and Linda Calbi sounds like a real sweetheart:
“As [Christopher Calbi's] company – Robert Christopher Sales – grew, [Christopher] was increasingly away in Europe on business, Linda Calbi said in divorce papers. Though they shared fine dinners, and Christopher Calbi showered his wife with gifts, a physical and emotional distance developed between Matthew’s parents, her papers say.
“Linda Calbi said in the papers that she felt like ‘a highly paid slave.’
“Christopher Calbi countered that his wife subjected him to ‘profanity-laced tirades and ridicule.’”
2) From the same article:
“The couple split in 1999 and – after 15 years of marriage – divorced in July 2001.
“Meanwhile, Matthew was having problems at school, said a woman who worked in the River Vale school system.
“When Matthew was in the special education program at Holdrum Middle School, he regularly came to class with bruises, said the woman, who declined to be identified. The teen always had an excuse for the marks – he was playing with his younger brother, or he fell, the woman said.
“But in April 2002, the woman noticed a strange bruise on Matthew’s wrist, one she thought looked like a defensive wound. She asked Matt to explain, but he couldn’t, she said, so she called DYFS to report the mark.
“As part of the special education program, Linda Calbi met routinely with educators to review her son’s performance.
“But when Calbi showed up, she often smelled of booze, the woman said. ‘You could light the air on fire, she smelled so badly,’ the woman said.
“Linda could not understand why her son wasn’t more successful in school.
“‘She was very forceful when she spoke. Nothing was ever her fault, and of course she was at her wit’s end,’ the woman said.”
3) The father now has to raise the surviving son, Dean, age 12, on his own. Is Linda being asked to pay child support? Isn’t Chris’ ability to provide for Dean negatively impacted by having to pay alimony to the noncustodial parent?
4) Chris also needs to save his money–Linda may be out of prison in less than a year and will be fighting for visitation rights to Dean. In July, 2006, a judge ordered a supervised visitation between Dean and his mother, contingent on the boy’s acceptance.
5) Linda apparently received a lesser charge and sentence for her crime because supposedly there was medical bungling by the hospital after she assaulted her son which contributed to Matthew’s death. How much of her light sentence is due to the alleged medical bungling and how much is just the standard female sentencing discount is unclear.
6) It’s amazing some of the things that an attorney will say. Linda’s attorney, Ian Hirsch, said:
“‘Mr. Calbi is using his son’s death to take away any obligations he has,’ Hirsch said. ‘I think he’s trying to take advantage of a tragedy and turn it around to his economic benefit.’”
Yup–dad not wanting to pay money to the woman who killed his son is “taking advantage of a tragedy and turning it around to his economic benefit.” Bad dad–how could he be so rotten?
7) Can you imagine a judge ordering a woman to pay alimony to the ex-husband who murdered her child? In fact, California has a recent law which created a presumption that a victim of domestic violence should not be required to pay support to a violent spouse.
Once again we see the link between family violence and substance abuse. Misguided feminists often downplay this link because it contradicts the feminist Duluth/”domestic violence is a function of the patriarchy” family violence model.
The new court decision by the Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division can be seen here.
A recent CNN report on the case can be viewed here.
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November 27th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Feminist justice.
A woman murders a boy and is sentenced three years in prison.
A man writes dirty email to a girl and is sentenced fifteen (15) years in prison.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070704/ai_n19341034
November 27th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Along the lines of mrufolo’s point, do you realize that Chris Calbi would stand to serve a much harsher prison sentence for simply falling behind on his alimony payments to Linda Calbi than Linda Calbi was sentenced to for murdering their son, Matthew?
When Mary Winkler murdered Matthew Winkler, and Mary Winkler received less than 80 days of jail time for her crime, I said “that’s the value that American society and the American “justice” system places on a man’s life.
Now…. when Chris Calbi beats her son to death and receives a sentence of three years in prison, and is likely to be paroled much earlier than that, I say “that’s the value that American society and the American “justice” system places on a child’s life (unless that child was killed by a man, of course).
That’s “feminist justice”……….
If this case had involved a man beating his son to death, the feminazis would be lobbying for more restrictions against men, greater entitlements for women, and of course harsher prison sentences, using that case as an example in all of its graphic, ugly detail.
What will come of THIS case, where a brutal, vicious woman abused her sons, abused her husband, and finally took a life?
Nothing… except a stern warning to her husband not to fall behind on his alimony payments!
Do NOT marry in America. Do not procreate. She can kill at will, and receive less prison time than you would receive simply for missing vaginamony payments!
November 28th, 2007 at 8:33 am
This type of alimoney outrage is possible in america and elsewhere, because american males themeselves, like other western males, have foresaken their own gender for profit. In return for a wealthier society, american males have agreed to live and die, as lowly as slave dogs and in extreme personal dishonour.
The question recently came up as to why western males are divided and increasingly friendless. And the resounding answer was that you cannot make friends of men that voluntarily live without mutual self respect. You cannot respect them as decent people if they dont respect themselves !
In an honest society, a mother whose violent beating brings about the death of a child commits an abomination, the punishment of which is capital and absolute. She cannot expect reward or profit out of the bereaved fathers pocket for her vile deed, let alone another day in court on which to claim it. Otherwise you inflict a double insult to the father and the universe, whose reactions may bring about graver consequences to the society that condoned such outrage.
Almost every day, and not just in america alone, you see prospective male leaders and incumbents compete with themeselves to see who can further reduce their fellow man into mere economic objects off which society at large can profit however imoraly. No regard is had to the ethics or justice of these measures espoused against males or the ultimate consequences of the same. Listen to the feckless boasting of craven senator Bidden for example.
Ultimately the mens movement must realise that their fight is not with women or feminists, whom only ever accepted what was offered by men or made politically availiable.
No. The fight is against males of our own gender whose chauvenism and bigottry has brought about a society where men are expected to further pay for the privilege of having their first born sons murdered by their mothers.
I mean can you imagine a more lowly and disgraceful way of living. A big shame on all of us. We really sold out on ourselves didnt we ?
November 28th, 2007 at 8:43 am
You got it wrong yet again Glenn. She terminated HER property. Gesh! Back to the reprogramming facility for you!
TMOTS