Leon R. Koziol, J.D.

Parenting Rights Institute

The media, Congress and oversight agencies continue to ignore the widespread abuses of child support and family court funding which have been gradually transformed into a silent killer of loving parents. This is particularly true among historically prejudiced fathers in our nation’s divorce and family courts.

Michael Brancaccio of Tampa Bay, Florida and Utica, New York is a prime example. He lost his life at age 46 on October 11, 2020 after his 9-year old daughter, Bella, was taken from him due to such unrestrained abuses. His ordeal is exposed among many others in my recently published book, Whistleblower in Paris.

A former client of mine wrongfully accused of assault upon an off-duty cop and an aide to former state senate majority leader Joe Bruno, Mike was acquitted by a jury and ultimately awarded a settlement in civil court. But that harrowing experience paled in comparison to the persecution he suffered before family judge, Daniel King, who is now up for re-election in Lewis County (see related post on this site).

Unable to secure employment commensurate with support orders, this committed dad was nevertheless “sentenced” without a jury or due process to a jail term of six months by Judge King in 2015. Such abuses have effectively resurrected debtor prisons to maximize performance grants under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. Put another way, the more dads that King could remand to jail, the more revenues he could realize to elevate his status for re-election or higher judgeship.

It is a growing abuse which politicians are refusing to investigate or publicize out of fear of offending special interest groups. In Mike’s case, his incarceration in a human cage could not be reconciled in his mind with inmates around him who were being released despite convictions for violent crimes. Current bail reform laws in New York do not include child support injustices.

Any further punishment, disguised as contempt violations, should have been restrained, but Mike had now entered the standard revolving door hell which logically depicts what is really occurring here. In petition after petition served upon his release, this dad was humiliated in open court and threatened sadistically with more jail time.

During this period, Mike suffered hospitalization for stress-induced kidney damage and other maladies. Ultimately, he was given the choice of incarceration or termination of rights to appease a custodial parent mother seeking to have Bella assume the last name of her new husband. The choice was effectively one of life or death, and the permanent separation of dad and daughter was irreparably devastating upon the child and paternal family.

This led to increased depression and premature death which was never even considered for investigation by any government oversight agency. It is an abuse which is causing suicides and health impairments that have also never investigated. For a more detailed explanation of this silent epidemic, any interested party can Google “Candor Entertainment and Leon Koziol” for a ten-minute “mini-documentary” published in 2014 which is still relevant today.

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