The Times Leader: Family: Dad just trying to protect kids - - The Salem News Online
LISBON - The father of a Lisbon man arrested in the nation’s capital on a warrant for interference with custody protested his son’s situation Friday.
“He wanted to protect those kids,” Edwin Moore of East Rochester said while standing with two signs in front of the Columbiana County Courthouse.The Sheriff’s Office filed the fifth-degree felony charge against 35-year-old Joseph Leroy Moore, alleging he violated the shared parenting agreement with his ex-wife Chanda when he failed to return the two children to her by 8 a.m. Monday.
According to a Sheriff’s Office complaint filed by Chanda on Monday, she had dropped 5-year-old Sabrina Nicole and 3-year-old Alexzander Joseph off at the Lisbon McDonald’s for their paternal grandmother to pick up for weekend visitation with their father. She was supposed to pick them up at 8 a.m. Monday at his residence, but no one was there. The Sheriff’s Office report also said the former mother-in-law indicated she was told to come to the residence Monday morning to watch the children until their mother arrived, but she also found no one home.
Chanda reported the children missing and Det. Sgt. Allan Young ended up filing the charge after discovering cell phone records which indicated the father had taken them out of state. A charge of interference with custody was still pending in county Municipal Court against Joseph Moore from the time he took off with the children and was found in Florida.
The search for the children ended Thursday in Washington, D.C. with a traffic stop. Moore will be coming back to the county in the near future to face both interference with custody charges. Young said Thursday that additional charges could be filed.
The children were placed in protective custody with Children Services employees in
Washington until their mother arrived to pick them up.
Moore’s father alleged the children were going through abuse and neglect and he just wanted to protect them.
According to the shared parenting plan filed through the couple’s divorce, which was granted in April, Moore was the primary residential parent for school purposes and they had shared custody. The children alternated between the two homes.
His attorney for the divorce, Lawrence Stacey II, commented, “I’m not so sure that Joe has violated any laws.” He explained that they had shared parenting and under the local order, he was entitled to have them for half of the summer vacation.
If in this case, he didn’t notify her that he was leaving, that’s only contempt, Stacey said.
When asked who Moore was trying to keep the children away from, Moore’s family members mentioned the name Chris Farmer. According to the divorce papers filed in Common Pleas Court, which are a matter of public record, the children were to have no contact with Christopher Farmer, who was identified in one document as Chanda’s paramour, or boyfriend.
According to Common Pleas Court records, Farmer’s past included a charge of endangering children related to an incident involving someone else’s child before he became involved with Chanda. The Salem man was sentenced to two years in prison in May 2002 for the third-degree felony charge. The bill of particulars, which described his crime in more detail, said he tortured or cruelly abused a 5-month-old girl by intentionally burning her left hand.
Stacey said his client “loves his kids. He would do anything to protect those kids. I think he believes in his heart and soul these kids are in danger.”
Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net
5 responses so far ↓
1 Kevin Merck // Jun 10, 2006 at 1:54 pm
If the mother took steps to keep her children away from a father involved with a woman that was convicted of “torturing children†she would be heralded as some kind of modern day “heroine†only concerned with the safety of her children and the father would be labeled as a “danger to his children†and probably jailed for exposing them to a convicted “child abuserâ€.
It only goes to show that these criminals will stoop to any level necessary in order to strip fathers of custody in order to extort “child supportâ€. There will be no end to this injustice as long as people continue to pay the extortion.
2 angelc20 // Jun 10, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I agree with above comments that if the situation was reversed the mother would not be in jail but probably the father would for filing phony charges or something else. The irony of this disfunction discrimination system is that it is being fed to the public by the media to both men and women and we believe it. We men and even women need to start taking active action to get these stupid racist laws changed. Men are being mistreated treated not only by women but also by stupit pussy wipped men that seem to believe that women need more protection than men. Just look at all the laws enacted to punish men but rarely are they for punishing women. We need to change this warped status quo. We need to change the laws, the media constnat bombardment of how evil men are. ow many men’s lives have been ruined by a women either directly or indirectly? Maybe we should ask Bill Clinton or OJ Simpson and all the other men that are on skid row or in jail. Wake up guys get political and get the laws changed. We do not need to take this crap anymore. While driving around Redondo Beach today I heard a radio commercial to stop violence against women. I thought to myself, what a sexist remark. What about men or all the other people that are subjected to violence? I then thought about who has paid for that radio commercial? I am guessing it was paid with WAWA funds or some tax public money. I said to myself why is there no radio commercial to stop violence against men, or against old people or against children? Can anyone answer that question? How many men have been subjected to female violence, such as lack of sex, mooching off men, getting kicked out of your own house, being nagged at and many other things that women do? Men we need to organize and change the laws.
3 seanheeger.com // Jun 12, 2006 at 5:33 am
All of this shouldn’t really surprise anyone. The system sucks as usual and always will.
4 5609A // Jun 12, 2006 at 10:53 am
Unfortunately, the 6/10 is a flaming example of what me shouldn’t stand for. The reason you hear about violence and women is because most violent crimes are against women and children. This is a fact. “Lack of sex and being mooched off” does not constitue a violent crime. There are crappy, greedy parents of both sexes. Yes, I am a woman and yes, I believe the laws are biased against men. I come to this site to find ways to support my boyfriend with his custody/support problems. I know first hand how ugly a woman can be. But when all is said and done, what everyone should be asking themselves is this: Why did I create a baby(s) with a total bitch? The reality is people spend more time deliberating over what car they will buy then who they choose to make children with. This is why I am adament about teaching high-schoolers what having children is really like. Sending the kids home with baby dolls or eggs they have to babysit for a night doesn’t educate people about divorce, custody, support laws, and all the tyranny of the legal system. My only child is a boy, and I have reinforced over and over how important it is that he chooses the mother of his children wisely. I have explained the legal system. Yes, let’s fix the system, but let’s also take responsibility.
5 Kevin Merck // Jun 12, 2006 at 8:02 pm
People make poor decisions all the time in life; not just about who they have sex with or marry. They make poor decisions about eating habits, career choices, sexual behavior, use of drugs and alcohol, etc. etc. etc.
Equal protection under the law has nothing to do with any of those poor decisions. Our constitution guarantees “all US citizens†the equal protection of our laws regardless of race, religion, and gender, even in spite of the poor decisions we make.
We can teach our children all we want about making “good choices†but there is no guarantee that they will not make mistakes. What’s important is that we make sure our children are not discriminated against on the basis of gender, no matter what mistakes they make in life.
It is common knowledge that women are afforded preferential treatment in our society based on gender. Women have become “masters†at finding ways to reap the benefits of this “discrimination†and completely avoid any responsibility; all of their “problems†are blamed on men.
I think the most important responsibility any of us can undertake is to help preserve our constitution and the “principles†for which it stands. Equal protection is not just a “good ideaâ€, it’s the law of the land, and anyone who stands in the way of the equal protection of our citizens is a “domestic enemyâ€.
The egregious claim that these criminals are acting in the “best interests of children†only aggravates the situation and should be grounds for the harshest conceivable punishment. Only the lowest of the low would use that excuse to usurp the constitutional rights of millions of Americans, destroy countless lives, and profit from the extortion.
Kevin Merck
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