For first time, Pa. voters oust a Supreme Court justice

NEPA News

While the decision to oust this judge appears to hinge on salary issues - make no mistake that this is an important example of how the judicial branch (not to mention the legislative) can be taken back through collective action.

Excerpts:

In an unprecedented vote, Pennsylvanians denied a Supreme Court justice a second term Tuesday as public anger at state lawmakers over a pay-raise law spread to the state's highest court. A second justice won another term only narrowly.

Justice Russell M. Nigro received only 49 percent of vote _ making him the first statewide judge to be turned out of office in a yes-or-no retention election in the 36 years such elections have been held.

Justice Sandra Schultz Newman won a second term with 54 percent of the vote, a close margin for a retention election, the partial returns showed.

In the last judicial election in 2001, the three jurists on the ballot all were retained by margins of 3-1.

"It's a clear signal that Pennsylvanians have awoke from their long slumber," said Russ Diamond, chairman of PACleanSweep, a political action committee that aims to challenge every incumbent legislator in next year's elections. "I think that the voters fully understand what's going on here."

Pennsylvania Lifesteps Program

post-gazette.com

Butler -- Families Forever, a Lifesteps program, is for families interested in learning how to minimize the effects of divorce and/or custody situations. The next session is from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Family First Resource Center, 216 N. Washington St. Registration fee is $50 per family; the program is free to those who show proof of receiving cash assistance. Call 724-283-1010 for more information.

Fathers Collaborative - Pennsylvania

In relation to the previous post, I thought I would add a bit more info on the Fathers Collaborative.

The web site for the Fathers Collaborative can be accessed here. From the site:

The Fathers Collaborative is a synergistic partnership that builds on the strengths of each collaborative member to provide a seamless system of quality services for non-custodial fathers. The Fathers Collaborative is committed to expanding cooperative and reciprocal relationships to reach its goals.

Goals

Create a unified system of coordinated services for non-custodial fathers to enhance their involvement with their children; Increase non-custodial fathers' capacity to fulfill financial responsibilities, including child support payments; Improve the non-custodial fathers' ability to function as a family member; Increase the number of visits of non-custodial fathers with their children

The contact information as well as various other information is available on the site. It appears there is relatively specific criteria for involvement.

The Fathers Collaborative is part of the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development.

Information on the Fathers Collaborative Fatherhood Training Institute.

Truce for custody battles - Pennsylvania

Truce for custody battles - PittsburghLIVE.com

Excerpts:

In their fight for increased access to their children, Fisher and many other noncustodial parents, mostly fathers, have received legal help from the Fathers Collaborative, a new joint venture of University of Pittsburgh's School of Law and Goodwill Industries of Pittsburgh.

Since June 2004, the collaborative has helped 370 parents to calm down and talk, reach agreements with each other and gain greater access to or even custody of their children. The effort is sponsored by a grant from the state Department of Public Welfare's Bureau of Child Support Enforcement.

Parents seeking help are evaluated by a specialist at Goodwill regarding their income, employment and family situations. Only those individuals who make less than $22,500 annually can qualify for help.

The parents also must agree to have child support deducted from their paychecks.

Gruener emphasized that by law parents are allowed to see their children even if they owe child support.

"Although the law doesn't make that connection," said Gruener, "people connect those two all the time."

"When you go in and you're a father, the court has two stereotypes of you: You want to get even with (the mother) by taking away the kid, or you want to pay less child support," said Kevin Sheahen, who heads the local chapter of the National Congress for Fathers and Children. "It's not on the court's horizon that you want to be a dad."

The courts don't track the proportion of mothers who have custody, but "it's safe to say the vast majority of the custodial parents are mothers," Gruener said.

With the collaborative's help, Anthony Gan, of the East End, gained primary custody of his 15-year-old son within a year. He tried for a decade before with no success.

"It does a lot for my self-esteem and his self-esteem," Gan said. "Now he has a role model."

Although it took one mediation session for Fisher and his wife to agree on joint custody of David, Fisher said the legal backing he got from the collaborative also helped assure his wife that he would play by the rules.

"It brings us some closure so we didn't have to argue over how many days 'Tiger' gets to spend with me," said Lorena Walker, who is in divorce proceedings with Fisher. "It made us come to an agreement."

Sperm donor gets sympathy,still must pay - PA

Philadelphia Daily News 05/18/2005 Sperm donor gets sympathy,still must pay

I hate to say it men, but if I were you I think I would stay away from women all together...

Excerpts:

Several justices said they were concerned by the wider public-policy implications of the case, which arose after a woman who convinced her ex-boyfriend to help her conceive by in-vitro fertilization later changed her mind and sued for support.

A Dauphin County judge excoriated the mother, Ivonne V. Ferguson, but awarded her up to $1,520 a month from the biological father, Joel L. McKiernan. The decision was upheld last year by the Superior Court.

Justice Ronald D. Castille asked Ferguson's attorney, Elizabeth A. Hoffman, whether letting Ferguson renege on her deal would make it harder for couples to obtain sperm donors. Castille offered the example of a lesbian couple who needed a donor to conceive.

"What man in their right mind would agree to that if we decide this case in your favor? Nobody," Castille said.

Ferguson and McKiernan had a two-year affair while they both worked at Pennsylvania Blue Shield in Harrisburg, although according to court records it had "waned" before the twins, now 10 years old, were conceived. Their birth certificates list her ex-husband as the father, although DNA tests later confirmed that McKiernan is the biological father.

McKiernan later moved to the Pittsburgh area, married and fathered two other children.

In exchange for his sperm, Ferguson released McKiernan from "any obligation, financial or moral," according to the Superior Court ruling. She filed for support in 1999, five years after the twins were born and three years after her most recent contact with Mc-Kiernan.

The county and Superior courts both sympathized with McKiernan and called Ferguson's actions "despicable," but they also ruled against him, saying "legal, equitable and moral principles" made it impossible to enforce their contract.

Montco resident seeks help in bringing son back to U.S.- PA

The Times Herald

The move away case from hell...

Excerpts below:

That is because his 3-year-old son, Nicholas, is being held by his ex-wife in her native country of Belarus, a former republic of the Soviet Union located in Eastern Europe just east of Poland, according to Kratz.

The 34-year-old computer software salesman said he last saw his only child last May 20 when, while the family was vacationing in the Belarus capital of Minsk, his wife disappeared with the toddler in the city where her family resides.

Kratz in January took a leave of absence to concentrate his efforts on having his son returned to the United States, which has no treaty with Belarus concerning child custody.

He is working with his local attorney, Charles J. King Jr. of Plymouth Meeting, and a lawyer he retained in Belarus. He is also busy contacting anyone he thinks might be able to assist him in having his son returned, from local police to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office to the federal Department of State and the office of Congresswoman Allyson Y. Schwartz, D-13th Dist.

"I just want my son back," said Kratz. "I do not want him to grow up in a country where all his rights and freedoms are abridged. I want him to have every opportunity that the United States has to offer."

Instead, Kratz said, his ex-wife has told him that when Nicholas turns 18, he can decide where he wants to live.

Fearing she would cut him off from contact with their son, Kratz petitioned the county court for custody. Typical in many custody battles, Kratz portrayed his wife as a poor and abusive mother while she claimed he was a poor and abusive father. The courts in the spring of 2003 granted each parent shared physical and legal custody of Nicholas.

The couple subsequently reconciled in the summer of 2003 and the custody petition was withdrawn.

"I truly loved my wife and wanted things to work out," said Kratz. "I told her that Nicholas should have both parents."

When Iryna expressed an interest in vacationing in Belarus and showing Nicholas off, Kratz said he agreed.

"I had never been out of the United States and it was going to be an adventure," said Kratz, adding he took his own mother along and that, while his brother was invited, he could not make it at the last minute.

Later that day, he received a call from Iryna and her family members, telling him through a friend they had sent to him to translate that he and his mother should return to the United States and that Iryna intended to remain in Belarus with Nicholas. Iryna was not happy in the United States and wanted to remain with her family, the translator told Kratz, he said.

Later, Kratz said, he discovered that Iryna, before leaving the United States, had run up bills on their charge accounts and had packed and brought with her to Belarus most of her clothing and Nicholas' clothes. At the time, he said, he had simply attributed the large amount of luggage to gifts that his wife wanted to bring to family members.

Kratz said he moved to a hotel with his mother, contacting his lawyer in the United States, obtaining a lawyer in Belarus and all the white trying over the phone to convince his wife to return to the United States.

He flew back to the United States on May 31 to appear in Montgomery County Court to seeking an emergency custody order while also filing for a divorce. He was subsequently granted temporary full custody of Nicholas, with the provision that this order could be modified if Iryna returned to the United States with Nicholas. His divorce became final on Feb. 23 of this year, according to court records.

"If she does not want to have a relationship, that's fine but I want my son back so I can be with him, so he can have his father and so he can be raised in this country," said Kratz.

Iryna filed divorce and custody petitions with the courts in Belarus but the lower court denied her request because of the similar filings in the Montgomery County Court, according to Kratz. She has since appealed that decision to a higher court in her native land and that appeal is pending, he said.

He said he also is working with federal state department officials and federal children agencies in the hope that they can convince government officials in Belarus to convince Iryna to return Nicholas to the land of his birth.

Kratz said he unsuccessfully attempted to convince local and state police to put Nicholas' picture and information on a nationwide computer system of abducted children.

One person willing to listen to his situation was county District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., according to Kratz.

"While his wife may have deceived Mr. Kratz about her reasons for leaving the country, there was no custody court order in effect at the time," said Castor.

Rachel Leed, Schwartz' press aide, said a legislative aide has been assigned to work with Kratz "and give him whatever help we can." Leed said she did not know what assistance they can offer Kratz because the office is in the preliminary stage of researching the situation.

Pennsylvania - Bill would give 50-50 custody

Excerpts below, full article at dailyitem.com

Bill would give 50-50 custody

The rally, sponsored by Fathers’ And Children’s Equality, was meant to show support for House Bill 888 which advocates say would order that children of separated parents begin in joint custody arrangements, spending half the time with each parent.

"Pennsylvania is one of the states where in a case of separation, divorce or out-of-wedlock birth, for no rhyme or reason, there is a presumption that the child is best off with the mother," said Rep. Robert Belfanti, D-107 of Mount Carmel. Fathers are often forced to petition the court to gain more time with their children, the legislator said.

The proposed legislation would "put both parents on an equal footing," Mr. Belfanti said.

Under the proposed legislation, the parents are asked to develop a parenting plan to be approved by a judge. If the parents can’t agree on such a plan, the "guideline parenting plan" would be used: the father would get the kids the first and third week of the month; the mother would get them the second and fourth week of the month.

If one of the parents wants to petition to change the custody from 50-50 joint custody to a different arrangement, he or she can still do that, Mr. Belfanti said

Northumberland County hearing officer Michael Seward said that currently the court typically uses "shared custody" arrangements which give one parent primary custody. The criticism of joint custody is that by making them split time evenly between two homes, the children don’t have one place that they can really consider their home, he said.

Mr. Belfanti said that the change is needed because the current situation is unfair.

"If we’re going to have gender-based equal rights, then it should be across-the-board," Mr. Belfanti said, adding that he often supports legislation that is aimed to benefit women’s rights. "Let’s not compare apples and oranges," he said.

The current proposal is a revised form of legislation Belfanti initially introduced seven years ago.

Two Northumberland County judges — President Judge Robert B. Sacavage and Judge William H. Wiest — contacted by The Daily Item Thursday disputed the notion that women have an unfair advantage in custody disputes.

State Rep. Russell Fairchild, R-85 of Winfield, said he signed as a co-sponsor of the legislation because he hopes it will provide a better means of determining custody arrangements.

The movement to increase joint custody is one that has support from some mothers as well as fathers, he said. "It works both ways," Mr. Rummel said. "There are women who want the fathers in the picture to help out more."

PA Bill Proposes New Custody Standards

State Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon, "has proposed legislation saying that "joint physical and legal custody" would be the new standard for Pennsylvania judges to use in ruling on custody battles. He said 30 states already use some form of the joint custody rule, also called shared custody."

Of course there was opposition: "Camp Hill family law attorney Maria Cognetti, representing the Pennsylvania Bar Association and some women's rights organizations, complained that Stevenson's proposal could have negative results on children." - Geez, women and attorney's do not want a presumption of joint custody? Why on earth not? Oh, oops, that would largely eliminate child support and outlandish attorney fees in divorce cases. Right. I forgot.

Read the article at the post-gazette.com.

Contact Tom Stevenson to show your support through the Pennsylvania House website .

Butler, PA Divorce/Custody Support

Borrowed from the North Bulletin Board:

Butler -- Parents Forever, a Lifesteps program, is for parents interested in learning how to minimize the effects of divorce and/or custody situations. The next session is from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 26 at Lifesteps' Butler Center, 383 New Castle Road. Registration fee is $45; the program is free to those who show proof of receiving cash assistance. Call 724-283-2154, ext. 333, for more information.