A member of the board of directors from a chain of abuse shelters contacted us last week. They brought forth a total of 187 current and former employees who are willing to testify to the abuses of shelter residents, falsification of funding requests, embezzlement, padding of resident numbers, sexual harassment of residents, and others throughout a chain of abuse shelters in Florida. We can not disclose the name or location (beyond the state) of this chain of shelters.

The witnesses said that they can prove every item we exposed in our piece, “Congressional Guidelines for Abusing Women” and more, including specific grants violations under HUD, VAWA, VOCA and others.

 True Equality Network has been requested to manage the deposition of the witness, due to the witnesses’ distrust of the legal system. TEN has agreed to do this. In order to accomplish this project we are going to need to find a few attorneys willing to help depose the witnesses – pro bono, raise money to cover running expenses and set-up a temporary office in Florida to run the operation from (this could be a extended stay suite or the like or a borrowed apartment, home, or office space) for approximately two months. For security reasons the temporary office can not be shared space.

Additionally, the witnesses have requested that we find an investigative reporter to work with them to document this story. We need your help to locate all of the above.

Stay tuned for updates…

Yours truly,
Terri Lynn Tersak
President & C.E.O.
True Equality Network
 
member - Affiliate
R.A.D.A.R.: Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting
 
P.O. Box 14214
Research Triangle Park NC 27709
919.442.7200

http://www.True-Equality.org/
|
http://www.mediaRADAR.org/

Subject: EJF newsletter – Nat. Inst. of Mental Health funded study of abused men 6/21/08

Researchers at Clark University and Bridgewater State College are conducting a study on men who experience aggression from their girlfriends, wives, or female partners. If you are a man between the ages of 18-59 and have experienced aggression from your partner within the past 12 months, you may be eligible to participate in this study. We invite you to follow this link to the study webpage where you can complete an Internet survey about your experiences. Link: www.clarku.edu/faculty/dhines and click the link on the left side of the page to participate.

 Their aim is to have at least 500 male victims complete this survey so that sound, empirical information about male victims and their experiences can be provided in the hopes of making domestic violence services more widely available to them.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact the principal investigator.

 ************************************************************

Denise A. Hines, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

Clark University

Department of Psychology

950 Main St.

Worcester, MA  01610

Office: Jonas Clark Room 346

Phone: 508-793-7458

Fax: 508-793-7265

Email: dhines@clarku.edu

URL: http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/dhines

*************************************************************

Judith Lucas of the NJ Star-Ledger is the reporter that wrote this piece of YELLOW JOURNALISM trash about “Operation Falcon” (see below).

Here’s a quote, so you’ll understand the outrage:

“Sheriff’s officers, marshals and county police scoured the state last week for violent fugitives and sexual predators — and parents who are months behind on their child support. ”

She’s essentially putting child support obligors with sexual predators and violent fugitives.

Here some comments from Bruce Eden, and then follows the article below, along with the article’s author email.

Bruce Eden writes:

She didn’t take the time to contact any fathers rights organization leaders like myself to show the injustices of the entire draconian child support enforcement system, and that in NJ the Supreme Court, in the 2006 ruling of Pasqua v. Council, 186 N.J. 127 (2006), and Administrative Office of the Courts require that Directive #18-06 be followed before any CIVIL child support DEBTOR can be arrested (e.g., ability to pay hearings, right to indigency hearings, right to appointed counsel hearings). The fact remains, that child support is a CIVIL matter where there is NO PROBABLE CAUSE to arrest. According to the United States Courts of Appeals and United States Supreme Court, probable cause to arrest can ONLY EXIST in CRIMINAL cases; it does not exist in CIVIL cases.

Therefore, anyone arrested and falsely imprisoned for a CIVIL child support DEBT ( in violation of the NJ Constitutional PROHIBITION, Article I, Section 13, which says that there can be NO IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT in ANY action) , has legal recourse for civil rights and monetary damages against those who arrested and falsely imprisoned them.

Again, we see the newspapers doing the “dirty work” for law enforcement and government violations of rights, but the innocent public be damned. This is nothing more than irresponsible, YELLOW journalism.

Bruce Eden, Civil Rights Director
DADS (Dads Against Discrimination)–New Jersey & New York Chapters
973-616-9558
b_eden@verizon.net____________________________________________________________

Newark, NJ–From State roundup results in 1,600 arrests–Operation targets violent fugitives, deadbeat parents and sexual predators (Newark Star-Ledger, 6/17/08):

Sheriff’s officers, marshals and county police scoured the state last week for violent fugitives and sexual predators — and parents who are months behind on their child support.

By Friday, there were more than 1,600 arrests.

“There is no question, we go after these people because they raise public awareness,” U.S. Marshal James T. Plousis said. “We have to keep the word out there: If you are wanted, we are going to catch you.”

Alleged gangsters and businessmen alike were pushed into unmarked police cars over the course of the week…

In Union County, 42 parents from towns including Rahway, Roselle, Linden and Summit were arrested Tuesday through Thursday. All had to come up with immediate cash or face jail time. The county collected $4,413 in support payments from them…

Today, with Maureen Kanka at his side for an 11 a.m. news conference in Trenton, Plousis will highlight the successes of the weeklong operation.

Kanka’s daughter, Megan, was raped and killed by a sexual predator who lived in their neighborhood. Her death gave birth to Megan’s Law, which requires local governments to notify residents when a sexual offender moves into the vicinity.

Marshals helped with the county operations, assisting sheriff’s and county officers in arresting 1,020 people who were reported behind in their child support…

Morris County Sheriff Edward Rochford, who also serves as president for the Sheriffs Association of New Jersey, said: “It’s tough. The economy is tanking, but you’ve got to take care of your children.”

A few points:

1) Isn’t it lovely how law enforcement and the media lump fathers who are behind in their child support in with violent criminals?

2) Given that there are violent criminals out there, why are we wasting police resources going after fathers who are behind in their child support largely because they’re poor?

3) Child support enforcement officials love to pretend that “deadbeat dads” are living high on the hog with their sports cars and trophy wives. Yet let’s examine this sentence–”42 parents…were arrested…All had to come up with immediate cash or face jail time. The county collected $4,413 in support payments from them.” In other words, these men paid everything they possibly could because they wanted to avoid jail, and the amount they paid is a whopping $105 each. Where are the high-flying deadbeats we’re always told about?

4) One official did have a few brain cells firing. Morris County Sheriff Edward Rochford said: “It’s tough. The economy is tanking, but you’ve got to take care of your children.” Gee, you think? Funny how everybody is so worried about the recession and our economic woes, yet the minute you say “deadbeat dad” all that stuff goes out the window. Rochford, to his credit, is apparently something of an exception.

5) The reporter, Judith Lucas, can be reached at jlucas@starledger.com or (908) 527-4011. Perhaps readers could attempt to enlighten her a little as to the problems faced by child support obligors.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/OPINION/806190486/1001/NEWSFRONT

Barack Obama’s recent call for responsible fatherhood is welcome, overdue — and misleadingly incomplete.

That America’s fathers need to embrace their most important role is no secret. Activist fathers have been trying to make the same claim for decades, without much success.

Not all fathers are trying to be good dads, it goes without saying. But neither are all absent by choice, as Obama’s message implied. (more…)

Barbara Kay on how courts disenfranchise fathers

Posted: June 17, 2008, 5:00 PM by Marni Soupcoff

Barbara Kay

I once sued a horse dealer for fraud. The evidence in hand was irrefutable, so justice-wise the case was a lock. Nevertheless, my world-weary lawyer, familiar with the presiding judge’s record, told me I would likely torpedo my case on the witness stand. Stung, I protested I was truthful and knew my case backwards.

Precisely, he replied. This judge is a small town guy. You’re too urban and obviously competent and articulate for his comfort. He’ll assume you could have looked out for your interests. The defendant will play up her humble rural working life (she did), and he’ll be sympathetic to her.

It was as he predicted, and I lost on a meaningless legal technicality.

One lesson of many I took from this misadventure — the main one being that justice and judgments are two separate animals — is that although a judge must be knowledgeable in the law, he may also be a social idiot, with zero interest or ability in reading human behaviour, as well as blind to his own bias (the furious blushes that accompanied my opponent’s lies, so outrageous they drew spontaneous gasps of incredulity from onlookers familiar with the facts, were ignored).

My case only involved money. Rewind my little vignette and play it out in family court where the right to parent one’s own children is at stake. In 90% of disputed custody cases mothers walk away with “primary care” (in effect sole custody) of their children because, deservedly or not, judges feel sorry for them and find a technical or legal opening to issue the judgment they have already made in their hearts.

The introduction to a book presently nearing completion, called Deadbeat Judges: How Courts Disenfranchise Fathers, outlines the triple cause of the syndrome. In the absence of constitutional protection of parental rights, and masking their power-grab under the guise of “best interests of the child,” courts have usurped disputatious parents’ natural right to equal guardianship of their children. Add to that judges’ superannuated impulse toward chivalry for the perceived underdog — virtually always the mother in their eyes — bolstered by a legal culture dominated by third-wave, anti-father feminism.

The result is a perfect storm favouring judicial activism for mothers: “Our Lords and Ladies reflexively defer to women in court, especially mothers. Motherhood is sacred; the role of our noble knights in shining armor on the Bench is to protect it at almost any cost.” (more…)

A fathers’ rights campaigner has been arrested after he ended his protest on top of a Newcastle city bridge.

Real Fathers For Justice demonstrator Simon Anderton scaled the Tyne Bridge in the early hours of Sunday, where he unfurled a banner reading: “Happy Father’s Day” and tied a dummy with its head in a noose – intended to represent a father – to the arch of the bridge. (more…)

The Fathers 4 Justice activists, named as Mark Harris, 46 and Jolly Stanesby, 41, from Plymouth, climbed onto the house in south London dressed as Captain Conception and Cash Gordon.

The group, which campaigns for fathers’ rights, said two more unnamed members were inside the building and had unfurled a banner from a bedroom window which read “A father is for life, not just conception”.

Miss Harman and her husband, Labour party treasurer Jack Dromey, were said to be inside the house at the time. (more…)