Category: We Are Fathers

Crimes and Civil Debts Bear Reverse Punishments In Our Divorce And Family Courts.

On By leonkozioljdIn Child Support, Civil Rights, Divorce Corp Movie, Family Court, Family Law Reform Conference, Parental Rights, Uncategorized, We Are Fathers4 Comments

 

Seeking Human Rights Protections for Aggrieved Fathers in Paris
 

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Ever wonder why crimes and civil debts bear reverse punishments in our nation’s divorce and family courts? Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas once described these forums as “Kangaroo Courts.” Poor Abe, he would roll over in his grave today if he knew what was happening to our families and children here.

But it’s true, support debtors, nearly 100% of them fathers, are being tossed in a cage every day by self righteous family judges while crimes committed by their accusers are going unpunished. Welcome to Kendra’s Chronicles IV, where we bring you a personal side to the corruption which is occurring in these courts across our country. 

Parents are advised time and again by unscrupulous lawyers to fabricate or embellish upon facts in their petitions and testimony for tactical gains in needless court cases. It is lucrative for everyone but our families. A product of an archaic custody framework, such crimes are preferred over shared parenting laws to keep us fighting over our offspring. Who can blame some when the courts shove moms and dads into an arena reminiscent of a Roman Coliseum with a winner-take-all mentality?

At most, however, a perjuring mother will face a change in custody, and because this may harm the child more than anyone else, such crimes are highly ignored. To be sure, no judge or prosecutor wants to be known as the one who incarcerated a mom even though she caused an innocent dad to be denied access to his children or wrongfully convicted of contempt or abuse. 

For fathers, it’s quite another matter. Judges are programmed to believe that a man is stronger, physically and emotionally, to sustain the pain and suffering caused by the loss of a child’s affection or human liberty while incarcerated for a money debt. When an aggrieved dad reacts to the prejudice, he is ordered into anger management. Put another way, our courts are forcing dads under penalty of losing their children to accept their unequal status in violation of rights protected by our Constitution.

Hence it is the male parent who must bear the brunt of injustices needed to keep this archaic, lucrative and unequal custody scheme in place. It also explains why discrimination is still tolerated, why fathers remain 85% of support obligors and why nearly 100% of jailed debtors are men, including those who learn too late that the subject children were not theirs. Indeed the phrase “dead beat dad” has yet to be condemned for what it is, a sexist slur.

If a dad rightfully demands fair treatment and accountability, it may beget discreet or even overt retaliation of the kind I sustained when shedding light on the corruption which occurs here. I lost ten months access to my little girls until false petitions were finally dismissed for lack of evidence in 2010. I never even had to put in a defense. But as far as the court was concerned, it was over, no damage done. Dad got his girls back.

Seriously? That’s it? I lost four major holidays, two birthdays and my eldest daughter’s First Holy Communion because of the crimes committed by a scorned ex- spouse, not to mention the precious interactions between a loving dad and two innocent girls. But fathers no longer matter in these courts especially after money became their priority. 

Perjury had been rampant in the often deranged testimony of a mother named Kelly Hawse-Koziol. The judge could conclude that much on the contradictions and ill-preparation alone. These were extremely damaging accusations employed purely as custody tactics, yet not even a scolding or slap on the wrist came of it.

The logical consequence of this kind of break-down in the administration of justice is more of the same. It encouraged this woman to repeat her crimes again and again if for example my girls reported a fun outing with a girlfriend or some rumor which could get her more “child support” in retaliation. It was also a product of entitlement mentality prompted by liberals across the country. 

Kelly Hawse-Koziol remains a tenured high school teacher at Frankfort-Schuyler School District in upstate New York. On numerous occasions while still married, I was called upon to proof-read her resumes in a desperate attempt to leave that district notwithstanding my routine defense of the community and school board. Our efforts got her interviews (and arguments) but no success.

Ten years later, this Masters degree teacher was filing court petitions so impaired with grammar defects that a judge was forced to insert five “sic” notations in a single paragraph to make it a part of his decision. Never mind what this teacher might be doing to the students or taxpayers of her school district, it was my job as a co-parent to make sure that no harm was done to my girls’ home studies

On one occasion, Ms. Hawse-Koziol asserted the startling fact that the Nile River flowed south, evidently because it looked that way on a map. For many of you this may seem inconsequential but when it came up during one of our many father-child trivia exchanges, I could have gotten myself in contempt of a court order especially the way I was being scrutinized as a free speaking American. 

My girls are one grade apart in a nearby school district and very smart. You know I’ve got to tell you that, I’m a proud father. They loved to absorb knowledge from whatever source and would never let me stop with the many true-false or multiple choice exercises we practiced during road trips. In none of the family court proceedings over the past six years did such quality activity receive any mention. 

It was one of many learning advantages which was ripped out from under them by a family judge more intent on suppressing the exercise of free speech than dignifying the role of a genuine father.  He damaged these girls in more ways than one. But the inequities of family court generally and the misconduct of this judge in particular had other impacts.

During one of our trivia exchanges, I was subject, as most parents are in family court, to a restriction upon parent-child discourse involving litigation. It’s hard to know how to draw the line where a parent’s authority ends and the state takes over. It was harder still even as a veteran lawyer-parent when my judge, Dan King, found me to possess college degrees I never earned for purposes of imputing child support income. 

Well the conflict found its way into our trivia games and limited weekend fathering activity. To make a long story short, I could not correct answers which my girls attributed to their mother. When they defended her on the degrees she possessed, I was hard pressed not to explain how a judge had misrepresented the facts on this subject. My preferred approach was simply to be a father even if it meant violating orders that made cackling hens more sensible .

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Civil Rights Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Kendra’s Chronicles III: Apathy Can Cost You Life, Liberty And Child In Family Court.

On By leonkozioljdIn Call To Action, Child Support, Civil Rights, Divorce Corp Movie, Fathers For Walter Scott, Justice Department, Kendra's Chronicles, King's Chronicles, Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, Parental Rights, We Are Fathers1 Comment

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Gift to Leon Koziol by mom, Kelly Hawse-Koziol, during two years of cooperative separation prior to the greed, retaliation and corruption sustained in family court. Child photos and identities have been removed.
Administrator’s Note: 

This is our third in a series we call  “Kendra’s Chronicles” designed to convey a personal side to this war on parents, children and families in our nation’s domestic relations courts. The reader is encouraged to review the opening segment posted on April 21, 2015 for background. 

An earlier series entitled “King’s Chronicles” exposes the misconduct of a family judge in Lowville, New York by the name of Daniel King. His behavior may be compared to your own experiences but in Leon’s case, power was abused to censor speech, reform efforts on this site, testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption and civil recourse under the American Constitution. 

(Testimony of Leon Koziol, J.D., before the New York Moreland Commission on Public Corruption at Pace University on September 17, 2013. Leon’s eye-opening presentation can be viewed at approximately the 2 hours, 31 minutes and 45 seconds mark:)

Injuries to Leon’s livelihood, licenses and family relationships compelled him to seek justice on a broader scale in Paris, New York, Washington, Nashville, Charlotte and Charleston, South Carolina where an unarmed father was shot dead fleeing from a child support warrant. This month, Leon was invited to Southern California to help expose corruption in that state.

Our domestic courts have become so draconian in their practices that good parents are now seeking shelter in foreign countries. It was a common report in Leon’s travels. One father resisted by setting himself on fire in front of a courthouse in Keene, New Hampshire, a police investigator took his life and that of his ex spouse leaving three childen without parents in Utica, New York, and countless fathers working under the table show that lawlessness is escalating. This is government oppression of the worst kind because children are being exploited.

It is also insidious because the abuses are being carried out in the forums where we expect justice to be served with equal treatment under the law. Unfortunately the ominous trends and ugly facts have been suppressed or misrepresented to the public because court conflicts have generated a trillion dollar industry. 

Welcome to Hillary Clinton’s Village, a socialist court structure envisioned by our former “Secret-ary of State” in the nineties (discussed in our opening post). In light of her secret, even treasonous government e-mails and latest scandals involving the Clinton Foundation (rewarding the rich for their contributions), we must ask ourselves, who is this candidate purporting to serve as our next president? Is there anything left that we can trust about her? 

Here at Leon Koziol.com, we’ve been exposing corruption and cautioning moms and dads about the costly calamities which await us in Hillary’s New World Order. Time and again we have been proven correct. The murder in Charleston is only one example of a growing crisis. Today we continue this series with a look at how money corrupts and turns family court into the ultimate oxymoron.

Child Support is Harming The Children That Were Supposed To Be Benefited In Family Court.

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

You can’t throw everyone in jail who violates a family court order. We are already the most imprisoned nation in the free world. But as we all know, such orders are being violated all the time in communities across America. So if a guilty party is not thrown in jail, the judge simply takes his ego out on the parents, children and innocent families. Lawyers and third parties profit immensely.

This unprecedented form of injustice is occurring because government was never intended to raise children, at least not under our Constitution, and judges are ill equipped to direct the countless styles of parenting we find in America. But they do it anyway for money, political and career purposes, employing a wide range of costly “experts” and leaving us to make sense of  the confusion and disasters which naturally follow.

Walter Scott learned this the hard way after numerous stints in jail for child support. It was a cycle of debt not unlike the kind that can confront any American citizen, and it landed him in a cage. Most people suppressed under our current governing structure remain incredulous when we report that monthly obligations continue to accrue when a father is imprisoned or denied various licenses. How can they ever get out of debt everyone asks.

Indeed our current federal child support laws take indentured service to a whole new level of absurdity. Ultimately Walter’s bills got him murdered by a cop without commission of any crime. As I explained to a New York Times reporter while in Charleston, nearly 100% of these jailed debtors are men. In my March 1, 2015 report “We Are Fathers,” which was given to her after our discussion, I predicted the high impacts upon minorities and veterans.

The same New York Times reporter, however, followed with a story this past week which excluded these crucial facts. Instead she preferred information from another source citing that one eighth of all inmates in South Carolina are there for back child support. This is additional proof of the information censorship which is occurring here as I have emphasized over the past eight years. And so the band plays on. More deaths, suicides and child injuries will follow unless we victims finally take a stand.

Think about it: one-eighth! That’s one heck of a lucrative debtors’ prison we’re creating in America. Recall earlier posts here at Leon Koziol.com regarding the “Kids for Cash” scandal in Pennsylvania which  landed two judges in prison and the reversal of 4,000 juvenile convictions. If you don’t believe a crisis is already upon us, you’re living in a fairy land, not the quaint kind once enjoyed by my girls in “Kendra’s Chronicles II,” but a real life kind which causes children to lose their dads for no good reason.

If you’ve been following our stories in both chronicles, then you know how I lost my children, livelihood and licenses because of a stand that I took against this corrupted family court enterprise. It’s a sacrifice I was forced to make not unlike the ones by Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King. However my ordeal continues to escalate as I refuse to back down.

In 2005, when the separated parents in my children’s lives worked out their own agreements, everything was promising. But when lawyers, judges, “experts” and federal support laws intervened, my girls were irrevocably harmed for the sake of the almighty dollar. Before their arrival,  “mommy” declared to the world that her children’s “hearts belonged to daddy.” Today she is declaring that he belongs in jail, a false and highly inflammatory declaration.

This is what money can do in today’s divorce and family courts. In our next segment we will show you how the Nile River flows south and what happens when greed combines with ignorance to enrich this system even further.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Civil Rights Advocate

(315) 796-4000

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Kendra’s Chronicles II: Diamonds Are For Lovers, Children Are Forever.

On By leonkozioljdIn Book Publishing, King's Chronicles, Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, Parent-Child Relations, Parental Rights, We Are Fathers1 Comment

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An Important Message To All Our Followers:

We have received heart warming compliments from around the country regarding this site. Some state that they look forward to our posts each day, others that we give them hope to avert serious consequences, and more who simply encourage us to press on. 

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We also wish to re-emphasize that we need resources to continue this site with its valuable information. Kindly consider making a donation while reaching out to others to do the same. We’re in this together!

Administrator’s note: 

This is our second in a series of posts intended to convey a personal side to this war on parents in our divorce and family courts. Although discriminated fathers are an undeniable aspect, extreme harm occurs to both moms and dads when they are fleeced of their hard earnings and even their life’s savings through needless or protracted litigation. 

The combined financial and emotional damage is ultimately passed on to innocent children in unconscionable ways. We are here to advocate for all such victims. But there is one which has received little or no attention in family law reform. It’s the parents’ partners impacted by the same system, perhaps through a scorned ex-spouse for reasons having nothing to do with a child’s “best interests.” 

What about them? What are their stories? The girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses anxious to get on with a new life with divorced or separated parents. They suffer a different kind of harm. This post is dedicated to them, and the reader is encouraged to review our opening background for Kendra’s Chronicles found in an April 21, 2015 post here at Leon Koziol.com.

DADDY, DADDY, I’M A PRINCESS!

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

“Daddy, daddy, look, I’m a princess.”

There standing in front of me were my two little girls caked with cosmetics of all variety. I couldn’t tell you what they were but I’ve seen them many times before on adult women in the course of my personal and professional life.

But not like this. Shelly had lipstick on her cheeks, powder in her hair and colors that would have made Picasso proud. Not to be outdone, Debbie sported a masterpiece of her own to include a new dress, arms and legs. She even performed a ballroom dance of sorts to convince her dad that this little princess was headed for stardom. What just happened?

“Holly did it for us,” Debbie explained while reaching for more eye shadow.

“Holly did this?” I asked in disbelief.

“I think what she means, Lee, is that  your girls found my purse and went through my stuff while I was upstairs.”

The adult explanation came from Holly, our newest addition to the household as she descended from our second floor bathroom with a clean-up kit. We had met over the summer in 2008, and this was her first chance to get to know my girls, aged five and six at the time. I was out mowing the lawn figuring that everything was under control.

Holly wanted very much to impress me through my daughters. We had just returned from a book signing with Alec Baldwin in Manhattan, and this was certainly not what she had in mind. But to her credit she had the resourcefulness to repair this calamity. Looking back, it was real special, an event destined for our scrap books.

After all, how could Holly know how two little girls could go off on their own adventure to leave her in this circumstance? But no harm was done, and soon she would become close to these mischievous ladies. A fashion consultant one day, a girly confidant the next, and a scapegoat for misbehavior whenever they needed her, who could ask for a better partner for their dad?

“It was much worse but I’ve just gotten started here,” she added sheepishly. “Don’t worry, I’m good at this.”

Holly was a hairdresser, she knew how to look pretty, elegant, or whatever the circumstances called for. You might say she resembled the cartoon princesses which my girls had become enamored with on the videos we all watched together. For a dad struggling to be both a mom and dad on our weekends, I felt like Jude Law in the blockbuster movie, The Holiday.

Whether she knew it or not, this eventual fiancée in my life was special in a lot of other ways. She had no children of her own and no desire to play mom here. She assured me of it time and again but was willing to make my life better where she could. That alone made her another princess in my life. It was a fairy tale worth living, at least until the courts intervened.

Over the next six years, the four of us would enjoy so many wonderful and joyous times, holidays, birthdays and extra-curricular events at schools and churches. It could not all be recounted here, but anyone who has ever been in this circumstance can relate. You have to balance nature’s laws with those of deranged outsiders to make sense of the world we live in today.

Unfortunately one of those deranged outsiders was an infinitely scorned ex-spouse lurking behind the scenes to find any opportunity to strike. Kelly Hawse-Koziol would exploit family court to find fault with everything we did. When a para-sail adventure got my girls reporting all their enjoyment in 2013, the trap was set. A newly seated judge already seeking to avenge my public criticisms now had a means for completing it.

“Family Judge” Daniel King in Lowville, New York was not happy with my 2013 reform testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. Far removed from our county of residence, he imposed mounting conditions upon my parenting liberties based on false petitions. They were being lodged by the month in the latter half of that year. He went so far as to order separate lodging for my children and fiancée during my niece’s wedding out of town despite six years of joint residency without incident.

When it was all said and done, I could no longer function as a normal father. Dan King had seen to this with judicial misconduct further explained in our earlier series, “King’s Chronicles.” This man could not possibly know anything about our private lives to play God in the manner he did. Worse yet, he showed no conscience for the damage he caused. Lovers come and go, but children are bound to their parents for eternity. Only a corrupt regime would allow such a “family judge” to get away with something so evil.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Parental Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Readers’ Note: Leon is offering professional editing and consulting services for those wishing to publish books regarding their own ordeals. For further information, see our earlier posts on the subject or simply call him directly.

 

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Kendra’s Chronicles: A Story of Two Little Girls Harmed by a Corrupted Family Court in Hillary Clinton’s Village.

On By leonkozioljdIn Book Publishing, Divorce Corp Movie, Family, Family Court, Fatherhood, King's Chronicles, Parental Rights, Uncategorized, We Are Fathers3 Comments

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A loving dad’s surprise gift to his little girls with memories to last an eternity.

Crucial Introduction:

A lucrative child control industry has emerged in America’s divorce and family courts, inflicting moral, educational and productivity declines among our cities, towns and villages. It has made us the most litigious nation in the world as we spend our valuable time and energies on court contests instead of more constructive pursuits. 

It’s one thing when the fight concerns products or property but quite another when innocent children are exploited. As parents bound by laws of nature, we cannot remain idle in this escalating crisis while lawyers, bureaucrats and “experts” profit at our children’s expense. How many little ones will never see a good education or career in today’s competitive global market because their parents squandered life’s savings on endless court battles?

It’s not all our fault despite what many judges claim. They know privately that needless court battles are ended only because the money runs out. In the meantime, they could care less that our children or families suffer. Outdated custody doctrine is vigorously retained over shared parenting because unequal classifications beget controversy which, in turn, justifies state intervention. It is a crisis created by socialist-liberals who made the policy case long ago that government is better suited to raise our children. 

Hillary Clinton made the same case against both moms and dads in her 90s era book, “It Takes a Village.” Her propaganda sounded good at the time because children were used as a pretext for big government, but it resulted in further erosion of parental authority, leaving minors free to set their own standards of behavior. Almost anything a parent does today to correct a child can be the subject of an agency inquiry, school report or custody impairment. 

In plain terms, Hillary’s village works like this: get the people of a community gossiping about their neighbors’ private affairs. Convince them to report objectionable styles of parenting to authorities. Once under a court’s jurisdiction, these fit parents can be conformed to an elusive standard for lawyers to argue and profit over. It goes on all the time in divorce and family courts with “parent education” programs and court ordered evaluations.

This is our latest series regarding court corruption entitled “Kendra’s Chronicles.” Here we provide you with real life injuries caused by socialist policies injected into family litigation. Judges overwhelmed by their “super-parent” roles and overcrowded dockets issue orders based on scripted testimony or lawyer summaries having little regard for the human tragedies they produce. It can easily become a “turn ’em and burn ’em” enterprise. 

In “King’s Chronicles” we showed you how a new family judge named Daniel King of Lowville, New York abused state power in retaliation for Dr. Leon Koziol’s public criticisms and reform testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. His criticisms included King’s fabricated college degree, parenting conditions in violation of a higher court order and impositions which placed his critic (Koziol) under risk of contempt by ambush.

Ultimately two innocent children were denied access to a fit and loving  father for a period of 456 days and counting. This human rights atrocity committed upon Dr. Koziol was orchestrated through absurd parenting conditions added with each public criticism until Leon was forced to abandon his role as a natural father. Here we give you some heart wrenching consequences of Dan King’s egotism in a court which might as well be located in Hillary Clinton’s village.

DADDY, I WANT TO GO THERE!

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Author’s note: My daughters’ names have been substituted with “Shelly” the elder and “Debbie” the younger for purposes of this website post. Collectively, and with further editing, this series will comprise a part of my book to be published later this year.

“Daddy, I want to go there!”

It was an uncontrolled scream from a five year old girl which I will never forget as long as I live. Only words, I’ll admit, but they were the world to me coming from my eldest daughter as I opened the front door to our home early one morning. There in the distance was an elaborate playground constructed specially for her and her sister as a father’s day surprise.

The year was 2007, a long time ago, but only if you measure it as a business person. I can recall every detail of Shelly’s facial expressions as she took in something bordering on paradise. Miraculously it had appeared overnight. That was enough for Debbie to exploit the moment, shoving past her older sister into the sunlit yard with a sound that ignited sparrows, robins and blue jays from all surrounding tree limbs. As if on cue, our nearby frog pond erupted with croaking and splash-outs.

Well it worked! All my efforts to make this event a memorable one paid off. You might call it perfect. But you should also know that it was anything but easy. I had to order the apparatus from Georgia and have the area excavated, rearranged and protected by two retaining walls. On one occasion, I rode my girls on a bobcat during a clearing process to give them a sense of participation in this project (with no idea of what was coming). I never disclosed this fact until just now, so don’t report me to their mom.

When the playground components arrived, my contractor went to work (as I did to my law office to pay for it all). After several days, the assembly phase turned into a real mess. The guys could not seem to put everything together properly. I was furious when learning of it outside the courthouse. But that’s where the rescue came in. I was representing an old college friend who I had just gotten out of a real mess of her own without any fee. She owned a ranch and knew a few things usually reserved to men.

Hearing my dilemma, she quickly offered to rectify the errors. With the help of her woman assistant, she completed paradise in time for father’s day. Favors have a way of coming back around. This client will be forever remembered for her rescue as will another very special woman who arrived one year later, about the time when a trampoline was added to the mix. Together we made this place a regular treat for my little girls. These are exciting stories reserved to a later episode in this series.

You might think that a private playground of this caliber meant that my girls would become spoiled. Quite the contrary, they enjoyed the public venues even more. I can still remember Shelly, she couldn’t have been but one or two, dutifully lugging her “Blues Clues” up the ladder with endless repetition before throwing the poor puppy down the slide with a glee that resonated across New Hartford Town Park. And Debbie, running off to the “wilderness” (trail system) which had me split in every direction.

At Lake George, our summer destination, I will never forget a playground near East Cove where the girls enjoyed themselves as much as they did boating and swimming. I don’t believe those outings were eclipsed until many years later when I took both up for their first para-sail adventure. And boy did I hear it from mom in a family court petition after that one! But she was a “custodial parent” by then which changed everything.

I like to think I was different than most dads at these public playgrounds. While they watched or tended to their barbeque grills, I was chasing my girls all across the slides, monkey bars and whatever else was there to exploit. They easily made lots of friends because the other children would simply join in the games I made up to everyone’s delight. Some of the parents knew I was a lawyer and probably figured that our activities were liability-proof, or more likely that I had regressed to my own childhood.

No matter. I didn’t really care. As a “non-custodial parent,” my time was sadistically limited by our courts, so I would be taking full advantage of such moments, knowing they would one day find their way into memories like this one. Although moms seemed to dominate these places, I actually think that playgrounds were constructed with dads in mind. Such fun places resonated deeply within my girls. That much I know.

In practical terms, these playgrounds are all gone now. The one at my home hasn’t been visited in more than a year. But in my mind I can still hear the laughter, the crying, the giggling, whispering, and happy faces, indeed all the things that made them so special in their day.

Yes, playgrounds were a means for overcoming that weekend warrior status accorded to fathers under “the law.” But above all else, they have reserved to another time and place the fact that my girls had a genuine father who loved them, then and now and for eternity.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Parental Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Administrator’s note: Dr. Koziol is offering professional assistance to family members seeking to publish books regarding their own court ordeals, see earlier posts here at Leon Koziol.com for details .

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Should Judges be Subject to Mental Health Evaluations?

On By leonkozioljdIn We Are Fathers1 Comment

 

In the Wake of Recent Events, Litigants are Entitled to Better Accountability and Due Process.

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

When New York’s Chief Justice, Sol Wachtler, was arrested and imprisoned for stalking a debutant and falsifying reports to authorities, it was clear to the world that he suffered from a severe mental disease. Several years ago, this convict was re-licensed as an attorney and assigned to teach ethics if you can believe that.

But there is much more to this story which the public has generally not known. For example, while serving in our third branch of government, Sol Wachtler directed paid staff in chambers to investigate a New Jersey lawyer for the purpose of impairing his law license. That lawyer had become too friendly with the debutant Wachtler had been secretly dating as a married man.

Such precedent has relevance to my ordeal as a civil rights attorney, unblemished for more than 23 years, when I began a reform campaign directed to our divorce and family courts. With each public criticism or formal complaint there arose a matching act of retribution which harmed my parent-child relations and professional livelihood, this coming from the branch of government charged with the highest duty of protecting First Amendment rights.

As fate would have it, the “ethics lawyers” employed by an appeals court in Albany, engaged in the witch hunt against me, were fired for falsifying time sheets in 2013, only weeks after admitting in a closed hearing that they had been targeting my website and formal complaints. As a defense attorney, I once had a client who was charged with a felony for alleged misuse of a city gas card amounting to $16. Yet here, the standard- bearers of attorney ethics, Peter Torncello and Steven Zayas, have never faced any public charges while I remain damaged by their misconduct.

Today we read about a deranged airline pilot who crashed a passenger jet into the French Alps. The public is rightfully demanding better mental health accountability. In our family courts, parents and children are being subjected to mental health evaluations every day on self serving accusations of a scorned litigant or state agency. As explained in prior posts here at Leon Koziol.com, such orders yield billions of dollars in fees and revenues for lawyers and bureaucrats.

But what about the judges, top jurists like Sol Wachtler, who issue such orders like burgers at a restaurant? Didn’t his court clerks have a duty under the ethics code to report his misconduct and seek a mental health evaluation before the public was harmed? Did anyone even raise the issue? Or do we conveniently assume that this was all an isolated series of crimes no longer relevant to our system of justice? Well think again, it’s only gotten worse.

In 2013, a Syracuse family judge, Bryan Hedges, was removed from the bench for admitting to sexual misconduct upon his five year old handicapped niece. At the same time, a Michigan judge admitted to an extramarital affair in chambers with a mother during a child support case which resulted in her pregnancy. Shortly before that, a family judge in Texas was exposed on video beating his teen daughter. In 2009, a state Supreme Court judge in New York City was imprisoned for taking a $9,000 bribe to fix a custody case against a fit mother, and two Pennsylvania judges were also sent to prison in the now infamous “kids for cash” bribery scandal requiring the reversal of 4,000 juvenile convictions.

These are only some of the shocking cases of judicial misconduct that we have featured here. When viewed individually, it’s alarming enough, but taken together, it raises a potential epidemic in our justice system. For example, how would you know that your opposing lawyer is not so connected as to fix a custody case? In the Michigan case, an unsuspecting father was prejudiced with monitoring devices and jail threats to the glee of his pregnant adversary. How many cases are out there today which will never be discovered given the brazen nature of these very recent incidents?

Make no mistake, it’s not just ethical misconduct being overlooked by our judicial commissions, but felonies and deranged actions of office holders held to the highest public trust. Children are being alienated and even removed from fit and loving parents simply because an unscrupulous lawyer with a paid psychologist is able to concoct some voodoo syndrome to explain human emotions inflamed by these very same needless and lucrative court proceedings.

Suddenly the children are at risk and court ordered evaluations are required as a condition for seeing one’s offspring. This is the gold mine that is causing people like investigator  Joseph Longo to commit a murder-suicide that left three children without parents. How are such losses any different than those caused by an airline pilot or his German superiors. Shouldn’t deranged judges and lawyers who profit from their misdeeds be held similarly accountable with mental health evaluations?

In coming days, we will be exposing the deranged behavior of a family judge in Lowville, New York who goes by the name of Dan King. He is a quintessential example of incompetence, arrogance and evil which mars our system of justice and harms innocent children exploited as a means of retribution for public criticisms properly asserted against him. Hopefully, with enough public support, we can remove him like we did Bryan Hedges before more harm is inflicted upon families in family court.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Civil Rights Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Billions in Child Support Going to Lawyers and Bureaucrats

On By leonkozioljdIn We Are Fathers4 Comments

 

Public Apathy and Lack of Accountability in Family Court are Damaging Our Children

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

While federal and state prosecutors focus on high profile politicians for public accountability, our third branch of government remains self regulated and largely overlooked. As a result, parents, children and extended families are being fleeced by lawyers and third party beneficiaries every day to unconscionable levels. It’s all part of a lucrative child control industry.

Consider the recent custody case reported by the New York Post involving Dr. Eric Braverman, a highly committed father and respected neuro-surgeon in Manhattan who spent more than $4.5 million in an unsuccessful attempt to retain a meaningful relationship with his children. A judge-appointed attorney for those same children went to horrendous lengths to pervert this man’s efforts with fees approximating a half million dollars.

Now come on folks, let’s not lose sight of sanity here! How can one lawyer acting on behalf of immature and unsuspecting children be worth so much on a single case? Was this lawyer truly committed to “client” interests or was he seeking to justify his gigantic personal pay-out for a dubious role in a sensitive matter?

More disturbing, while this lawyer was busy racking up billable hours in his agenda against the father, those fees were being exacted from the same children’s college funds. Once again, it all goes back to our earlier posts warning followers of Leon Koziol.com that no amount of fees is enough once you enter divorce and family court. We even offer a program to convince would-be victims to choose mediation, counseling and alternative resolutions.

Compounding this uncontrolled greed is the lawyer glut entering the market. There are more than 1.25 million licensed attorneys in the United States today with about  300,000 in California alone and at least that many seeking a law school education each year. These people have to work somewhere and the bureaucrats are making room for them in family court. This is where apprentices typically learn their trade and marginal lawyers can concoct litigation to last an entire career.

The public is generally unaware that our federal government rewards the states by the number and magnitude of support awards generated in their family courts. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that such incentive grants make the decision makers inherently biased against fathers. Support obligations are artificially hiked through such judge-created fictions as imputed income. Fathers comprise 82% of support debtors per our Census Bureau.

To give an appearance of ethics, many states impose rules which prohibit lawyers from executing contingent fee arrangements in domestic relations cases. However, exceptions have been crafted which allow them for support collection purposes. This gets very interesting when you look deeper into the deceptions and the greed.

Think of it! A lawyer can now charge thousands of dollars in up front fees and billable hours during protracted litigation and then double dip on the back side by getting a third of the actual support intended for the children. The state typically gets all the interest generated off these awards in addition to a custodial fee and the federal incentive money.

In New York, the tax department is assigned support enforcement authority. In effect the state is intervening with all its machinery on the side of the so-called “custodial parent” while no similar powers are offered to the lower class parent to remedy child access deprivations. It prompted one state Supreme Court justice to question the state’s involvement in a private debt between self sufficient parents.

If you’re a debtor, you could be charged with your lawyer’s fees, the children’s lawyer, opposing fees, the contingency collection fee and court costs such as counseling, supervision and “parent education” as they call it. In countless cases, particularly those involving veterans and minorities, the debtor fathers will never be able to complete their servitude, landing them in debtor prisons. This will only add to our tax burdens and a dubious distinction as the most imprisoned population in the “free” world.

This kind of piling-on caused one police investigator to commit a murder-suicide, leaving three children without parents and city taxpayers with a $2 million liability. Nowhere in the civil rights case will you read about this father leaving support court living on $28 per week, see Pearce v Longo, 766 F. Supp. 2d 367. It begs the question: what would make a law man resort to such extremes after following the “proper” channels?

We’ve been doing our best to inform you of these alarming developments because the media is ignoring this crisis. But we cannot continue to do so without your financial support in a war against a trillion dollar industry. Public apathy has allowed this to happen along with the lawyer greed shockingly rationalized to be in our children’s best interests. It is a gold mine of unparalleled proportion that is causing so many of our social ills today. And who pays for that?

Please help us by sharing this post with friends, contacts and media: http://wp.me/pXgi5-Mn

Petition to Congress: Family Court Corruption and to Abolish Title IV-D Funding from States to have incentives to illegally courtnap children, CPS corruption, judicial corruption

http://www.petition2congress.com/10413/family-court-corruption-to-abolish-title-iv-d-funding-from-states/

 

Family Court Final Four Tournament Results

On By leonkozioljdIn We Are Fathers

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Not since the Big East Conference boasted three of the final four teams in NCAA Tournament play did we see such a lopsided outcome. It occurred over the weekend not far from all the sports arenas and domes in a competition we can call the Family Court Final Four. While visitation dads were obsessed with the orange ball, feminists were busy getting more laws passed to criminalize them as parents.

Here at Leon Koziol.com we try to keep up with all the developments that get by our fathers while they’re watching the games. We try to organize opposition to laws that are effectively criminalizing fatherhood and removing good dads from their children’s lives. But the guys seem to prefer spending on game tickets and other priorities than donations or participation in family law reform.

That’s why family judges today see no problem with debtor prisons and gender discrimination in parenting decisions. Fathers and their women supporters do not send them any public message that there’s a growing crisis here, so it’s simply not a problem. Oppressive laws continue to be passed which send good fathers to lower class status, bankruptcy and jail. Horrendous psychological damage to children is utterly disregarded along the way for the almighty dollar.

To cite only one example, a federal law known as the Parent Punishment Act (you can look it up, it really exists) makes it a crime to take up residency in another state with a $5,000 support debt. Now how many dads know that they can be arrested by getting behind on a debt so easily achieved after losing a job (or failing to get one that a well paid judge thinks he can get)? Move a few miles across a state line for a new job and go to federal prison? Rapists and child molesters get more respect, i.e. Attorney Steven Lever.

Despite crucial rights violated under our Constitution in this way, the war on fathers presses on, right over the foxholes where guys focus only on their own war stories. There is no sacrifice for a greater cause and so there is no relief in sight. Politicians regurgitate that same old song and dance about how these measures are designed to benefit our children when they know of the real damage.

This is because a go-along mentality gets votes. Remarkably an uniformed public then applauds the erosion of our rights just as Adolph Hitler once predicted in Nazi Germany. Just say it’s for our children, and the people will “happily accept any curtailment of their liberties.” It’s all there in Mein Kampf, and it’s been happening here in the states for many years.

The real crimes lie in a widespread suppression of speech and reform which then facilitates the ongoing discrimination, abuse and injustices. While this fatherless crisis grows, politicians simply demand more tax dollars to pay for the social costs. It’s called job creation after all our real jobs went overseas to avoid other forms of over-regulation. In short, government is spending our money to create a problem and then making us pay for it on the back side.

Our Constitution is the supreme embodiment of law that our soldiers sacrifice everything for each day only to return home to these same prisons and oppressive laws. In our next post, we’ll tell you about a quiet scheme which gets even more child support in the hands of lawyers and how desperate victims have now resorted to murder, suicide and lawlessness as a preferred remedy to such injustices. In the meantime, enjoy the games.

Be Sure to Follow Leon Koziol, J.D., on Twitter (Click Here)

False Accusations in Family Court Overlooked to Incite Emotions, Conflict and Profits.

On By leonkozioljdIn Call To Action, Child Support, Civil Rights, D.C. Rally, Divorce Corp Movie, Donald Bren, Dr. Phil Show, Family Court, Family Law Reform Conference, Fatherhood, Founding Father March, Fundraising, Nashville, Non-Custodial Parent, Parent-Child Relations, Parental Rights, Parenting Rights Institute, Veterans Day, We Are Fathers1 Comment

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Meanwhile Fathers in Debtor Prisons Give us Distinction as Most Imprisoned Nation in the World!

So you’d rather watch tournament games and go bowling than support a “We Are Fathers” campaign for justice and equality. Well that’s your choice, it’s a free country, in theory anyway. But you should know that  countless lawyers, child experts and bureaucrats are cheering you on because they profit from all this apathy and a misguided sense of priorities.

Fathers rights and court reform have failed time and again because the victims are complaining about the symptoms, they’re only interested in their personal war stories, and they would rather pay the lawyers who grow their problems than contribute to reform entities like this one committed to everyone’s benefit. In short, today’s fathers are not shooting straight, if at all, even when the target is right in front of them.

That target is a federal support law which must be repealed or modified to comport with present day realities. It means we must focus our efforts at the nation’s capital. Instead victims have come to some bizarre conclusion that someone else will travel there, do all the work and pay for it. They think that five guys with signs in front of a local court might influence reform.

As our report, “We Are Fathers” explains, the support standards law under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act rewards the states based on the number and magnitude of support orders manufactured in their domestic relations courts.  Put another way, all judges presiding over support cases benefit from higher awards, making them inherently biased under the same federal law. It’s all part of a trillion dollar child control industry.

To keep the federal money flowing, competing states must retain the antiquated custody scheme as opposed to shared parenting. This in turn benefits lawyers and third parties who thrive on the conflicts naturally inflamed by an unjust and unequal parenting system.

Let’s face it , when was the last time you heard of a scorned mother imprisoned for perjury or false reports? Such a precedent would lead to less conflict and less money for lawyers. Meanwhile fathers are being thrown into prison every day without the commission of any crime simply because of the unrealistic support orders made through biased judges.

They’ll tell you it’s all for uniformity sake, that the state knows best how to raise your children, but we know it’s all about the money. If you haven’t learned that by now, keep watching the balls go round and round while feminists next door at the government arenas are rallying for more laws you don’t know about.

Census Bureau reports continue to show that 85% of all parents paying support are fathers. Moreover, nearly 100% of all litigants committed to debtor prisons for back support are men, adding to our dubious distinction as the most imprisoned population in the free world. Minorities and veterans  suffer a higher rate of abuse but hey, who’s counting. This gold mine is so lucrative that judges will set aside the Constitution to keep the unequal treatment in place.

So next time you’re watching a tournament game, don’t forget to have a buyer for your tickets when a sheriff serves you with a support petition or arrest warrant. In an upcoming post we’ll tell you about a neuro-surgeon in Manhattan who spent over $4.5 million fighting false allegations only to lose free contact with his children while facing potential incarceration. With this economy, you can easily become the next victim.

As we’ve said repeatedly, no amount of money is enough in these courts. They’ll be happy to take your children’s college funds to feed the greed. So please support this vital cause today. Make a donation at Leon Koziol.com and help recruit participants for our “Fatherless Day” rally at the Supreme Court on June 19th. Because they’re your children too.

Dr. Leon Koziol

Parental Rights Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Should Fathers Stop Paying Support in Protest of Discrimination?

On By leonkozioljdIn Call To Action, Child Support, Civil Rights, Family Law Reform Conference, Fatherhood, Nashville, Non-Custodial Parent, Parent-Child Relations, Parental Rights, Parenting Rights Institute, Uncategorized, We Are Fathers





“We Are Fathers” Campaign Begins in Nashville

It’s the boldest proposal coming from my first day in Nashville. A sponsor of our campaign originally suggested the idea at the Divorce Corp Family Law Conference at our nation’s capital this past November. Now it is gaining momentum.

After years of frustration seeking justice and equal rights in a Tennessee family court, the father who advanced it is adamant that conventional channels will remain corrupt and dysfunctional for many years to come. Something more profound was needed to secure meaningful reform. Debate on the subject was lively to say the least.

Of course, opponents of the plan argued that a united consensus among fathers to stop paying support would mean breaking the law. Guys could go to jail for this. Women’s rights groups would go wild and our cause would be harmed. Finally the question was put: what about the children?

To this I emphasized that Susan B. Anthony was a convicted criminal who refused to pay her fine in protest of discrimination against women. Her crime: voting in the 1872 elections. The U.S. Supreme Court justice who presided over her criminal trial never did commit Susan to jail as was the prescribed remedy for such a willful violation of the so-called law. 

As for the children, the real question is this: is it more important for them to have money or a real father? What incentive is there for a father to earn money when he is not accorded equal rights in parenting or alienated altogether in order to enrich family court lawyers or a scorned adversary?

Two ironies emerge from the Nashville proposal and the crimes committed by  our greatest women’s rights advocate. First, had Susan B. Anthony continued to comply with “the law” women would still be considered too ignorant to vote. And with such precedent, can it be said that today’s fathers are being ignorant when they comply with the current system of discriminatory laws which makes them visitors and indentured servants in their children’s lives simply because of their parental birth status? The Census Bureau continues to report that 85% of all parents paying support are fathers.

This leads to our second irony. The courtroom in Rochester, New York where my law license was suspended for a refusal to pay support is dedicated to none other than Susan B. Anthony. If a conscientious father, model citizen and successful civil rights attorney, unblemished for over 23 years can make such a sacrifice, why not others? Our military makes a greater sacrifice before returning home to the same unjust laws.

As for women’s rights groups, one of the first supporters to be sought behind such a proposal should be the National Organization for Women. After all, if equal rights is their true mantra, they should be out front seeking it for children and future generations. Otherwise their whole movement is nothing more than a giant hypocrisy. 

It leads to one final irony. During my civil rights career, I became the attorney and trusted advocate for Karen DeCrow. For those of you who do not recognize the name, she was an attorney and president of the National Organization for Women. A referendum on this bold proposal is expected before Father’s Day 2015. Will NOW be its strongest supporter.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Parental Rights Advocate 

(315) 796-4000

Lawyer Profits in Divorce and Family Court are Maximized by Archaic Custody Laws

On By leonkozioljdIn We Are Fathers1 Comment

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Unequal Parenting Scheme Exploits Children for Money

Future generations will look back on today’s domestic relations courts and be amazed at how truly barbaric they once were. A scheme of laws and processes derived from feudal equity doctrines has been retained which features loving parents engaged in brutal contests over their offspring in a public arena. A winner-take-all battle for custody leads to over-regulation of families by the state and marginalization, alienation or outright extinction of one fit parent from the children’s lives. Anal investigations of the combatants’ backgrounds by self serving advisors incite further controversy to last a lifetime. It is a spectacle reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum.

No person or entity has ever been able to achieve a comprehensive study of the vast detriment which this archaic custody and support system has had upon our society. Any such effort would assuredly be stymied by the beneficiaries of a lucrative child control industry. However common sense dictates that our nation could be well served with sweeping reforms here in our least scrutinized branch of government. We can put a man on the moon, split atoms, engage artificial intelligence and achieve vast breakthroughs in medicine but remain unable to extricate family courts from their nineteenth century practices. We at Leon Koziol.com are starting a public initiative in Nashville this week which aims to do exactly that.

Entitled “We Are Fathers,” this initiative seeks to balance our scales of justice so that lawyers return to their offices with less fees and parents go home with more money to spend on their children. Profit-seeking lawyers and political insiders have managed to retain this archaic and unequal scheme of custody laws through a divide and conquer approach to shared parenting efforts. They have pit moms and dads against one another and routinely secured judicial pronouncements which placed all the blame for family court conflict upon both when the money ran out. Judges who earlier practiced this very same profit agenda earned political favor each time such an unfair pronouncement was doled out.

Ongoing propaganda in support the unequal custody scheme stigmatizes fathers generally as “dead beats” and unfit for child nurturing. Unfit mothers buy into this scheme because it satisfies some ego boost, scorn or jealousy complex involving the private lives of their ex-partners. A growing number of responsible mothers, however, are wising up to the fact that good fathers are being lumped together with absentees and abusers under the same scheme. In the end, the system fleeces both parents of savings and assets better applied to their children’s needs as opposed to lawyer wealth. They are concluding sometimes too late that unequal custody laws are harming women and children more than they are discriminated fathers.

In the case of most fathers and non-custodial mothers, they are relegated to the standard two monthly weekends under prevailing doctrine and made to exercise “visitation,” that degrading form of child rearing more appropriate for funerals and prisons. The injustices inherent with “custody” and “visitation” are not new. However, as the central features for federal incentive grants based on the number and magnitude of support awards manufactured by these courts, their harmful consequences are universally suppressed. For example in Webster v Ryan, 729 NYS 2d 315 (Fam. Ct. 2001), a veteran family court judge condemned the use of the antiquated terms in favor of “parenting orders” of the kind successfully employed under the laws of Australia. The text at footnote one of a highly researched opinion warrants a reprint here:

“At the outset, the Court notes that the terms ‘custody’ and ‘visitation’ have outlived their usefulness. Indeed their use tends to place any discussion and allocation of family rights into an oppositional framework. ‘Fighting for custody’ directs the process towards determining winners and losers. The children, always in the middle, usually turn out to be the losers… This Court has abandoned the use of the word ‘visitation’ in its Orders, using the phrase ‘parenting time’ instead. If the word ‘custody’ did not so permeate our statutes and was not so ingrained into our psyches, that word would be the next to go… This misplaced focus draws parents into contention and conflict, drawing the worst from them at a time when their children need their parents’ best.”

Obviously this jurist was ahead of his time and his views have been shared by countless others privately. Five years later, a Matrimonial Commission would make the same recommendations to New York’s Chief Justice (The “Miller Report”). But the damaging terms have survived to the present day and adopted by states across our country only because the federal support statute mandates their exclusive use as a condition for mass funding. The words father, mother or some other neutral term are not available under the support formula which must be employed to validate divorce and separation agreements. Instead parents are enticed into that fight mentality under the federal support laws to win both the children and the money which is then spent to remove the losing parent altogether through alienation tactics and false petitions.

The Webster decision was quickly reversed the following year and its wisdom has remained suppressed or dormant in the fourteen years since it was issued. During that period, tremendous harm has occurred. Countless fathers never knew the experience of placing a child on or off a school bus, thousands of children were alienated or psychologically damaged, and non-custodial parents were held to self-crafted rules dictated by their severed partners. This all occurred even though no utopian standards for child rearing existed. Instead controversy was increased exponentially while making an ultimate oxymoron of the words “family court.” Indeed the Matrimonial Commission found that our custody laws created a “shoe horn” effect. To make the profitable scheme work, judges simply used custodial parents as court supervisors over their counterparts. In effect, the state became an uninvited party to all court cases.

When the state gets too involved in sensitive, private matters, the outcome is usually damaging, irrational and even unintelligible. We have started a crusade for reform that we hope you will join. It will take literally millions of dollars to fight the powerful bar associations and insider PACs opposed to reform. We are asking our followers to begin their own personal recruitment campaigns behind a rally in Washington this June. You can be contacting veterans groups, your local chamber of commerce, good government groups, media, fellow bloggers, public figures, bowling associations, fraternal and family groups, in short, all the impacted constituencies which could make a long overdue reform effort become viral. Don’t do this for us, and don’t expect us to do it for you, instead do it for your own families and children while such an effort is actually underway. And please do not pass over the donate option on this site. We will keep you updated on our progress.