@ Proserpina
Thank you as well for your continued challenge to educate and set me in the right direction. I do appreciate it. No, I am not a lawyer and do not "KNOW" the system as Court Clerk and yourself knows it.
So again - in all the time that you allege Mom kept your child from you, WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT IT? At that time?
We don't ask these questions for the fun of it.
I contacted the court and family services by phone in mid 2001 after my attempts to speak to family produced nothing and letters, even FedEx, to the previous address came back as undeliverable. My bank called me and told me the child support payments via wire transfer were coming back. So I called her bank and they said her account was closed with no other information. As I stated in another post, the person I spoke to told me to hire a private investigator. I had come on hard economic times and did not have the resources to do that.
To give you further perspective, let me give you a little back story and share an incident which caused me to walk on egg shells and look for other ways to address issues with this particular mother.
In July of 1994 shortly after taking her to court I had my daughter on my legal and court order visitation. At the time I lived with two attorneys in Encino, California. Both graduated from USC. One was the past student President of the USC law school or whatever they call it. Both are extremely successful and worked for very well known and respected firms. Fortunately at that time he was able to represent me in San Diego.
One day the car was running in the driveway and there was a knock on the door, it was the LAPD. Long story short, they arrested me for child stealing because the mother called the Escondido Police Department and then the LAPD and lied and said the child was her ex-husbands. I even showed the cops my court papers which I carried with me AT ALL TIMES WHEN I HAD MY DAUGHTER!
EPD even called me at my home in Encino the night before and with my attorney on the phone we addressed the issue. The mother was upset because I had had my daughter out a little later than the mother wanted at City walk playing in the fountain. The officer asked if I would bring the child back a little early to appease the mother. Reluctantly I agreed to do that and was in the process of leaving.
A simple call and lie by this woman put the law in motion regardless of the truth and the facts. I was shackled and handcuffed sitting on the little bench in North Hollywood with m y daughter climbing all over me crying and wondering what was going on.
Maybe I should have called the cops or wherever at the drop of a hat...but I didn't because I saw what her experience with me and the cops did to her.
I thought I would be the bigger person and try to deal with it amicably.
Sorry if I do not have a lot of trust or faith in this system. But at ever turn this woman gets a way with whatever she wants and the system nor the courts do a damn thing. Even my own attorney at the time said just let it go it is not worth it to fight the system.
So... back to what I did. On a whim my wife typed in my daughters name into the search box on My Space, the then number one social media outlet. A girl with the same name and spelling came up. However, on her profile it listed her home state as Washington. It looked like it could be her so I write to her. Remember I last saw her in early 2000 in San Diego when she had just turned 9. She was then 17 when we found the profile. As you know young ladies change dramatically during that time. Long and short of it...it was her and she responded. We exchanged a few e mails and then I asked about her address and where she was etc. She said her mother did not know about the My Space page and asked if i would just write her mother and not mention how I got the address. I wrote the mother. She simply confirmed it was her and that I had finally found the right address etc.
I then started making plans to go to California with my wife and 4 yr old son to see my daughter.
While there I asked the mother when we could discuss getting all the issues including support addressed etc. She said call me. I did...she never returned my calls or letters. I did not want to involve my daughter and she asked me not to put her in the middle. For while my daughter stopped responding to e mails etc. Then I heard from the court with a monthly statement. I called them immediately and started the process of trying to get this worked out and immediately informed them that the mother had lied about what I had paid etc. The system does not respond very quickly. Add to that that I could not afford $25K and am out of state and it makes for a tough row to hoe.
And here we are today. Not being aggressive, but the court or clerks cannot give legal advise. Attorneys want money I do not have. The court does not care at the end of the day what the facts are or who ultimately did what or when...they care about the money. Money by the way that has not been literally paid by the state. The mother simply walked in signed a few documents made some false claims and now I have to prove her wrong. And even when I...there will be no consequences for her. Tell me that is an appropriate system. I am serious...educate me and open my eyes to the truth that this is right.
What no one wants to address or talk about is my losses both physical and economic that have been caused by the mother who is supposed to adhere to the same court order that I am. Why does no one address that? Because it is all about the money!
