Ohio Constitution

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We won, then we lost even more!

Paul and Demetra take a breather during the F4J Justice March at the 2008 Family Preservation Festival in Washington DC. dcfestival2008.com Judge Zitter has issued a new judgment on this case. Mother is awarded full custody, father has visitation for 48 hours everyother weekend. In all her wisdom, Judge Zitter has upheld her previous findings and appended a "change of circumstance" section to comply with the mandate of the Ohio Supreme Court. She also removed incriminating statements against the mother and added new opinons detrimental to the father. Her choosen change of circumstance is that the father "Apparently changed his intentions." Judge Zitter has determined that is in my daughter's best interest to only have time with me 27 hours a week, on average. Interestingly, she reached this conclusion without a new hearing, using the exact same evidence as her previous determination that 50% parenting time with both parents was in my child's best interest. • same issues • same case • same circumstances • same witnesses • same evidence + Differnt day + Different mood = a different "Best interest of the child," and a different verdict! This case demonstrates the casual tyranny that occurs everyday in family court everyday. No consistancy, no predictability, just totally arbitrary judgments. This is the disease of "Judicial Discretion" in America's Family courts. What is to stop them from doing this to you and your children? • First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. • Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out. • Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. • And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me. - Martin Niemoeller

One thing had changed...
The judge's legal discernment was determined to be WRONG by the highest judicial authority in Ohio. That has a rather strong ability to effect a judges mood.

Judge Zitter rules that I harmed my daughter's "expectation of stability" when I kept her from her mother in the wake of a .207 DUI arrest. Despite repeated incidents of the mother's drug and alcohol abuse, Zitter makes no mention of these facts in the new order.

Judge Zitter has determined that harm caused by removing a child from daily contact her loving and committed father and disrupting the only routine the child has ever known, is outweighed by the benfits of placing her in the care of a drug and alcohol abusive mother, because the mother is less likely to disrupt the child's "expectations of stability".

No mention of the child's expectation that her father will always be there to protect her, or perhaps the child's natural expectation that she should be raised by a mother and a father.

This is not a joke, this is effects of a legislature that gives total authority to family court judges to fabricate the law as they see fit.

(I have delayed in posting this update as it has been a very difficult one to accept.)

I am exhausted, and cannot find the verve to write my own appeal. You will see it posted eventually, it is nearly completed, but I am out of time. I have no more assets left to sell, nor do I have an attorney.

Further more, I had promised myself that I would not force my child to endure an ongoing custody dispute for the entirety of her childhood. Seeing that a victory is not possible, as this dispute will simply rage on with each new allegation, or incident. And seeing that my government will do nothing to reign in these judges or reform the law. It is clear I will have no protections from further lies, and abuses of discretion.

I now see that my daughter and I have become nothing more than pawns in a vile game of words and law. I cannot justify running in the hampster wheel of family court any longer. I will take my chances as a non-custodial father, and pray I have made enough of a difference thus far.

By no means does this mean I am quitting, I am simply protecting my daughter from the destructive turmoil of bitterness and being forced to choose sides. Time will judge my decision, I pray I am making the right one.

If anything can be done, it must be done to the family law system as a whole.
I do not support judicial activism, and I will not change the system through the courts!

To all those who will be impacted by the reforms to come, remember this judge. Remember us, and remember our struggle. Please do not allow this struggle to be a single entertaining event on the news.