From R-KIDS of MN and GPF

The Minnesota Family Court Disaster Mill

Modern Day Flat Earth Society

Just as there were vast numbers of people centuries ago who proclaimed loudly that the earth was flat, and anyone who disagreed with that assessment was deemed crazy, our Minnesota judiciary, a closed society unto itself, is no different, and living in a world saturated in incestuous thought.

After carefully reviewing every word of Hennepin County Family Court Judge, Stephen Aldrich’s commentary in the August 2, 2005 Pioneer Press, complaining about the supposed inaccuracies and shortcomings of Associate Editor Mark Yost’s articles relating to the Minnesota Family Court system, and if he was serious about his remarks, I wondered just what color the sky was in the world of Judge Aldrich. In the alternative, and to give the Judge the benefit of the doubt in a strange sense and let him off that hook, I also wondered if he was simply the recently appointed unofficial public relations person for the Minnesota Bar or the Judiciary as a whole. His article resembled a familiar piece of some disinformation campaign piece designed to defuse growing public discontent and to provide further cover for a “system” rife with malcontents and resulting controversy of late.

Said differently, if this is a demonstration of naiveté on his part, Judge Aldrich is in my view a part of a collective elitist mindset and wallowing in denial, and therefore very much a part of the problem as discussed in Mr. Yost’s articles. If he is simply and intentionally attempting to distort the truth, he is, in fact and in deed, very much a part of the problem as well, and attempting to fool the public. In either case, Mr. Yost has it correct, and if anything, he could be accused of understatement in his reporting.

Having served as an unpaid volunteer on multiple state-wide task force and advisory committee projects during the past thirteen years, including the Minnesota Supreme Court, so-called “Parental Cooperation Task Force”, I have devoted thousands of hours of my life sitting across the table from a number of judges and various and ancillary court connected and “human services” personnel from all over our state, directly and indirectly connected to Minnesota’s Family Court “industry”. And yes, I did mean to say “industry”.

The Family Court merry-go-round is an annual multimillion-dollar business in the State of Minnesota to be certain, and there are many players deeply invested in it in terms of their collective wallets and political power base. Sadly, and in spite of so much evidence presented over the past fifteen years at least, which clearly indicates that thousands of Minnesota citizens have been and continue to suffer horribly at the hands of this out of control and dysfunctional “system”, these people continue to prove time and time again that they will do just about anything to promote the continuation and expansion of their business practices.

At the risk of a partial plagiarizing of one of Judge Aldrich’s lines-and contrary to [Aldrich’s assertions in his article], joint “legal” in conjunction with joint “physical” custody is not routinely ordered “all over the state” or, “when the father evinces any caring at all” for his children. Such a co-parenting arrangement, with both of these elements would result in a relatively mutual and equitable co-parenting or “joint custody” situation. Although a clever lawyers trick, which brings with it additional disrepute upon the family court judiciary, Judge Aldrich intentionally misleads the reader by suggesting that “joint legal” custody carries with it any real life significance at all when it applies to an equitable parenting arrangement between parties. Judge Aldrich’s column is saturated with similar half-truths and intentional distortions of the sad reality, which hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans have been subjected to since he began practicing his craft in the family court arena over the past two decades. There are far too many to site.

However, imagine the arrogance and disdain for the public that it takes for a veteran “officer of the court” to intentionally mislead with regard to such serious public health matters, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our state citizens for generations to come.

In fact and in practice in Anoka County per example, there is a “hush-hush” unwritten rule that there will be no “parenting plans” [co-parenting] allowed if the parties “parenting plan agreement” can be at all discouraged by the Court. This is true in other counties as well all over the state. It is usually not over the “objections of the parties”, but over the “objections of the Court that “parenting plans” are actually created and adopted per Order or by stipulation. Any suggestion to the contrary is a prevarication of the truth—a lie.

Ask Northwest Airlines aeronautical engineer Jeffrey Marcolina whether if “father evinces any caring at all” he will be treated fairly by the Court. This decent man, a clear victim of this farce and judicial bungling, and non-fact “she said this- and she said that” so called “fact driven” custody dance in Ramsey County, has not seen his two daughters for over six plus years….at all. In fact, no one on Mr. Marcolina’s side of this family system has seen these two young girls for over six long and miserable years, and for no good solid and rational legal reason whatsoever. Now, the Ramsey County authorities are spending an incredible amount of time and energy, not fixing this problem or even beginning to address it openly and honestly. Rather, they appear to be very interested in covering it up, even to the point of hiding incriminating tapes of a court proceeding—[the Court Record], and refusing to allow these tapes to see the light of day. This does not sound like the Ramsey County Court system, or the larger example of the Minnesota’s Judiciary is in good form.

What about the tragedy of Johnny Tester and his daughter Mikayla, now deceased as of last September. After five years of brutal judicial pounding per the Ramsey County Court, pathetically, Mr. Tester took the life of his six-year old child as well as his own. By all accounts, John Tester was a perfectly normal guy prior to his five-year encounter with the Court. And although many would say that “there is never an excuse for this kind of behavior” or horrible overreaction, a statement with which I would agree under normal conditions, there is absolutely nothing normal about the relentless punishment wielded by the family court system far too often, and therefore nothing normal about the outcome potential given that we all have a different breaking point. Tragically for Mikayla in particular, as well as John Tester and his family—he reached his breaking point to be certain.

Or…how about Mr. Robert Knauff, (Minnesota Supreme Court [NAK case]) the only surviving parent of his daughter, who spent three years fighting everybody in the “System” all the way up to our Minnesota Supreme Court in order to finally get his only child back. It was a corrupted system and disturbing and so-called “fact driven” custody decision on the part of a questionably intact Hennepin County Family Court Judge, James T. Swenson, which cost this family as well as the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of needed financial resources…just to fight back. However, the human cost was and is even greater. Trying to rebuild his life during the past two and one half years of relative peace, and working double-time to do it, while at the same time raising his daughter alone, Mr. Knauff died of a massive heart attack in May of this year. We cannot afford to ignore the loss of this human being, or this human capital.

There are so many true-life tragedies I have encountered over the past thirteen years, that to recount them all would be far too depressing. One is too many. The examples above are not the exception to the rule as Judge Aldrich would mislead the reader to believe---they are the rule, and the result of incompetence, stupidity, and collective denial. Superior Court Judge Watson L. White of Cobb County, Georgia, is correct and honest about his assessment of our nations dysfunctional so-called “family courts”, as he says, “There is something bad happening to our children in family courts today that is causing them more harm than drugs, more harm than crime, and even more harm than child molestation”.

However, it will suffice to say that when the facts are presented to our legislators, court administration personnel from the Minnesota Supreme Court on down the bent and broken chain of command, year in and year out, the result is always the same. “There’s no systematic favoritism toward arrangements where mothers get custody and dads visit”—no discrimination. “There’s no abuse of power or unsavory conduct by the courts” “Everything is fine--and our system---and our Judges---and our referees---and our guardian ad litem program---and our court services personnel---are perfect!” Just ask us…or better yet, ask Judge Aldrich…or Ramsey County’s Chief Judge Johnson… everything is running perfectly! But, for whom is the system running perfectly is the real question here.

Keep in mind that these are only people sitting on “The Bench”, armed with little more than a law degree, and with perhaps the assistance of political connections, get themselves appointed as judges, referees, or magistrates. There is no psychological testing or periodic performance reviews as we might expect of our law enforcement or fire department personnel. There is no real civilian review board, or internal affairs department to monitor his or her behavior, conduct or performance. There is no mental health or psychological training as one might expect of people dealing with “thousands of family law matters” as attested to by Judge Aldrich in his article. No training at all to establish competency in order to handle difficult emotional situations involving complex family dynamics, as proclaimed by Judge Aldrich.

When cornered about these issues, their collective institutional response is that “it is up the electorate to remove them” for poor performance, or unsavory, or even bizarre behavior. Or by impeachment by our legislators, many of who are attorneys themselves in key positions on key committees who would block or ignore such a petition. The Board on Judicial Standards is an insiders club for those who do understand that agency in real life terms, and in place to protect and to serve the Judiciary. This is all bureaucratic incest at its worst, and it is not going to get better by itself. Radical reform is the only solution. Such reform will likely come from outside judicial circles, not from within, but it has to come sooner or later, or our judicial system will slip into the abyss of absolute disrepute and chaos.

In closing, it is also an important footnote to mention that, year in and year out, during the legislative season at our capital, and when there is even a hint of reform in the air relating to “judicial oversight” or “family law” reform, or reform of any kind connected to any facet of this dysfunctional, crazy and crazy making family court “business”, it is the Hennepin and Ramsey County Judges in particular, and the Minnesota Bar Association who, arm in arm with all of the additional bit players connected with this industry, violently oppose any and all changes to the current Minnesota Family Court Nightmare. With regularity and precision, they show up like an army to protect and to defend…themselves…and the self-perpetuating “jobs program(s)” they covet.

To amplify this position, as opposed to other kinds of court matters, family court cases can go on for many years, a decade or longer in many instances, in and out of court system dozens of times each. Just imagine how many millions of sorely needed tax dollars are wasted each year due to this bottomless pit of avoidable judicial recidivism. Add to this the fact that there are approximately 10,000 divorces in Minnesota each year and it becomes fairly easy to understand the lay of the land. About two thirds of them include children. This number does not even begin to include those individuals entering the court system that had children and never bothered to marry in the first place. You do the math.

Judicial Oversight Now... please. Our Judiciary, especially the Minnesota Family Court is not a healthy place---for any Minnesota Family…

and by the way…the world is not flat either Judge Aldrich and company.

Bob Carrillo

Former Member: Commissioners Advisory Committee / Department of Human Services / Child Support Enforcement Division

Minnesota Supreme Court “Parental Cooperation Task Force”

Minnesota Quadrennial Child Support Guideline Review Task Force

KDWA Radio / weekly volunteer radio program / 1996-2004 / “Common Sense Over The Back Fence”

CTTV Cable Television Program / Monthly volunteer talk show / 'You’ve Got To Be Kidding'