KSTPTV::Children and the Court System
From R-KIDS of MN and GPF
Children and the court system Updated: 09/03/2004 11:43:58 AM
One of the most gut wrenching things parents can go through is fighting for custody of their children. Over the years Eyewitness News has interviewed many parents who feel our system is broken.
Every day judges make life-altering decisions for children. Today those judges listened, hoping to learn how to do their jobs better.
The pain of families torn apart by the courts is impossible to measure unless you're in their shoes.
Robert Knauff had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get custody of his own daughter after his ex-wife died. "You don't take a child from a parent without a reason,” Knauff said.
Jeff Marcolina is in a five-year battle to see his daughters after a bitter divorce. “The judicial system has virtually abandoned me in my attempts to establish a relationship with my children.”
These two fathers want the judges to know their pain. They attended the listening session to put a human face on the rulings that come from the bench.
"Obviously these are tremendously important life altering decisions and they are ones that society has given to our courts to make,” Justice Sam Hanson said. Supreme Court Justice Sam Hanson believes Minnesota has a very good court system, but he and others heard from those who strongly disagree.
They got an earful from Bob Carrillo who volunteers with the fathers rights group R-Kids MN. He says the state must better monitor the decisions coming from the bench. "Power corrupts,” Carillo said. "If you do not establish a system of checks and balances in this system, that's your fault. The aftermath is what you're looking at right here. This is the result of not doing it right.”
Carrillo was referring to the two fathers whose lives are forever changed by the courts.
"We can only hope that something positive can come from this so other fathers are not put in the same situation that I've been put in in my life,” Marcolina said.
Will things change? There's no timetable to put these suggestions in place but the judges say they'll share this important information and work to make improvements.
