Florida Tries Again In 2022

Florida is back at it with another attempt at alimony reform. This time with the support of the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar. However, the proposed bill still contains the presumption that parents will share time equally which is the main reason previous bills died. 

Here is the text of the proposed bill:

Dissolution of Marriage; Revises various provisions relating to dissolution of marriage & alimony; creates presumption that equal time-sharing is in best interests of minor child; authorizes separate adjudication of issues in dissolution of marriage under certain circumstances; provides for temporary orders to protect parties & their children.

I find it odd that joint custody is so conversational in this day and age. It seems, well, archaic. Someday, maybe. 

More Corrupt Judges

Continuing my recent theme of corrupt judges - one of most notorious cases of judicial corruption is the Kids for Cash scandal in Pennsylvania where in 2008 two judges were convicted of putting kids in jail, often for long sentences, after they committed petty crimes or, as was often the case, they were framed for committing such crimes. In return, the judges received million of dollars in kickbacks from the privately run prisons the children were sent to.

One of the judges was Mark Ciavarella who is about as bad a person as they come. Reddit had an interesting discussion about him earlier this month. 

Here is a heart wrenching confrontation of Ciavarella and his nearly equally bad attorney Al Flora by a mom who lost her son due to Ciavarella's actions:  

Slap On The Wrist

What happens when a lawyer takes money from a client for the purpose of bribing the police but then keeps the money for herself? Less than you would think. This is exactly what Woodburry, Minnesota lawyer Kristi McNeilly did. Her punishment was 180 days in the county workhouse, restitution of the money stolen and three years of probation from the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board. That's right, she still gets to practice law. 

Given that Nelly Wince committed blatant fraud in court and was rewarded by the court for it, I should be surprised McNeilly received any punishment at all. The Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board is an open joke. 

Furthermore, imagine what would happen to a 25 year old black man who stole $15,000 stating he was going to bribe the police with it? No doubt he would be put in jail for many, many years. 

Equality and justice in our legal system is illusionary.

Occasionally Judges Are Caught

99% of the time judges who commit illegal and unethical acts get away with them. Occasionally they get caught, but most often it is not law enforcement or the legal system that catches them but public opinion. 

Michelle Odinet was a Lafayette, Louisiana judge who while witnessing a burglary outside her home used words that tell a lot about hwo she is:

“We have a n-----, It’s a n-----, like a roach.”

At first she claimed it was due to sedatives she was taking and tried to keep her job but public pressure forced her to resign. 

It isn't clear how the video of Odinet's words were released but given she was at home with her family, I am guessing one of her kids or husband was not too happy with her to begin with. 

Robed In Secrecy

Core to the United States is the idea that we have three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, working in a way that provides a check and balance system to ensure no one branch has too much power. That is the theory anyway. In practice it doesn't always work that well. 

Judges have almost all the power in court. Usually they can get away with blatant discrimination, favoritism and even, as my case shows, openly rewarding crime. 

But once in awhile even judges go too far. One judge who went way too far is Michael F. McGuire from New York. 

That wasn’t his only concerning behavior, according to an ethics complaint filed in 2018 by a state watchdog agency, which accused McGuire of berating court staff members; making “undignified” comments, such as suggesting that people in his court would date a “drug dealer” or a “slut”; presiding over cases in which his impartiality could be called into question; and representing family members and friends in personal cases. The watchdog agency, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, said he “lacked candor” during its investigation.

McGuire was removed from the bench. But that was his only punishment. Indeed, he went from the bench right into the position of county attorney. I am not surprised. 

Misconduct findings are rare in the judicial complaint process. Legal ethics experts say the minuscule share of judges punished every year isn’t necessarily indicative that all is well in the judiciary — it suggests a lack of accountability.

Sadly the only thing unusual about McGuire is that he was caught. Judges, like lawyers in general, are rarely disciplined for misconduct or criminal actions they commit. Which only serves to attract the very people who should never be judges to the bench. 

Accountability vs. Justice

Right after the manslaughter conviction of Kimberly Potter for the death of Daunte Wright, Minnesota attorney general, and former congressman, Keith Ellison stated: 

With the jury finding Kimberly Potter guilty today of manslaughter in the first degree and manslaughter in the second degree in connection with his death, we have a measure of accountability for Daunte’s death. Accountability is not justice: justice would be restoring Daunte to life and making the Wright family whole. Justice is beyond our reach for Daunte. But accountability is an important step on the long road to justice for all. 

Ellison stated something similar after Derek Chauvin's murder conviction for death of George Floyd.

That long, hard, painstaking work has culminated today. I would not call today’s verdict “justice”, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice. And now the cause of justice is in your hands. And when I say your hands, I mean the hands of the people of the United States.

I find find the distinction between accountability and justice interesting. I had not quite thought about it that way before but it does make sense. 

In my own situation, accountability, at least for some of the guilty, is primarily what I am working on now. That is what this site as well as LegalReformMN.org is all about. 

But what about justice? What would that entail. I would be trilled to just get back what I lost financially. But that wouldn't really be justice. Justice would be undoing all the pain and misery I and especially my children and loved ones have experienced throughout the entire nightmare. I suppose a financial value could be put on that but even if that miraculously happened, it would never undo all the damage. 

Attorney View On Lying In Court

The Texas law firm of  Bryan Fagen has an interesting article on lying in family court.  The article itself is, as far as I can tell, accurate but it does exclude some key items, namely.

• It only discusses clients lying in court not attorneys. 
• Although it does mention that attorneys have a duty to report to the judge if they know their client is lying, in reality this almost never happens. 
• The article states that judges will take into account if they determine someone is lying. Sadly, this is by no means assured or even common.   

The reality is in family court lying by clients and lawyers has become just another tool. Indeed, probably the most commonly used tool. If such crimes were prosecuted or negatively taken into account by judges they would never have become some prevalent.