Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Response to presiding judge

Because the family court commissioner wrote a letter attacking me to the presiding judge, I just sent this reply:
Dear Judge Atack:

Commissioner Irwin H. Joseph recently sent you a copy of a letter to me and my ex-wife. We have had a case in his court for the last three years. As you can see from the letter:
(1) The California Judges Association advised him not to view the “Angry Dad” website, but he took action anyway based on his staff viewing the site.
(2) He invited County Counsel to take action against me.
(3) He invited my ex-wife to file a motion to hold me in contempt of court.
(4) He claims that County Counsel has respected his request to exclude him from communications regarding the issue, but in fact Shannon M. Sullivan responded with a letter dated Aug. 4, 2008, and he put it in my court case file.

I vigorously object to this sort of behavior. Comm. Joseph is an acting judge, and his job is just to resolve disputes that are brought before him. It is not to initiate new legal actions or to engage in barratry. It is certainly not to send out private letters with libelous accusations. If my ex-wife had some complaint about my website, then she could bring a complaint on her own. She has spent the last five years bombarding the family court with complaints about me. A judge should not go around fishing for evidence and writing letters urging people to take legal action against me.

To the best of my knowledge, I am not violating any law or court order. Ms. Sullivan raised some concerns, but I addressed them in writing, and apparently to her satisfaction. There are also some related issues that are pending in the appellate court. They are not Comm. Joseph's concerns.

Comm. Joseph seems to be carrying out some sort of vendetta against me. He has prevented me from seeing my kids, even though he could not identify any act of abuse. The case is currently on appeal, and I understand that you cannot do anything about issues that have been decided or that are on appeal. But perhaps you could assign some other judge to our case. We have two hearings scheduled before Comm. Joseph this month. One of them concerns a matter where he has already been reversed on appeal. Neither involves child custody or the website, so there could be additional motions on those issues. My kids and I should not have to suffer a family court judge or commissioner who is so obviously prejudiced against me.
I believe that Judge Atack does have the power to remove Cmr. Joseph from the family court. I suggest that other people also send in their complaints.

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