Gosh, I wish the New York Times had sneaked in Manhattan Family Court when I was a regular customer there, from 2001 to
Guantánamo
2009. But later is better than never. William Glaberson’s article from yesterday, Friday November 18, describes the making of people’s family justice in New York City. Readers can learn what divorced fathers have come to know as they tasted family courts. It is Guantánamo right here in the city.
I guess many people don’t know the most important piece of news one learns from this article: Family courts in New York City are not supposed to be the secretive places they are. On the contrary, they have been ordered to be opened to the public since 1997. Yet it looks that for fourteen years now, the media has not been welcome there. Glaberson mentions arrogant cops denying reporters entry to court rooms, judges asking reporters to show their credentials to court clerks, who ask them to get the approval of the state’s chief administrative judge. As a result, accountability is nil. The little world of family court does as it pleases and prospers. Trials last what they last – mine lasted more than six years, law guardians sleep on the children’s interests which they are to represent; unsupervised social-agency workers that supervise the visitations with your children have the leeway to bully you while you are trying to keep your relationship with your kids from deleting.
The media should not stop halfway in this most welcome attempt to lift the veil on the nauseating secrets of family justice in New York State. There is a lot of investigating to do about the work of support magistrates, these gracious people who behind close doors decide about child support payments that too often put non-custodial parents in the red and sometimes in jail. And please, pay a visit to the nasty fellows of the Support Collection Unit on 151 West Broadway, in the City.
When is the reform of family justice be on the agenda of New York State Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman?
My name is Carlos Pena I’ve been requesting a child support modification from Manhattan family court for over a year. I currently work with the MTA grossing $70,000 per year. In the past I had a second job that made my gross annual income $100,000. Child support was calculated from the $100,000 income. I currently pay $1700 dollars a month in child support. Because of my visitation with my daughter I was unable to hold two jobs. I stayed with the MTA and quit the other job. The support magistrate that handles my case Karen Kolomechuk wants me to work two jobs and would always result to underhanded tactics to deny my modification. I’ve complained numerous times to the Manhattan family court about her and how she manipulates the audio recording in the courtroom. On June 19th 2012 during my support modification hearing I gave Kolomechuk a copy of my visitation order so that she can see that it was impossible for me to work a second job. After the hearing Kolomechuk made a report that claimed that I had said “that a homicide would take place before the custody trial. My visitation order was immediately terminated, freeing up my time to get a second job. Because of my prior history with Kolomechuk I always carried a video recorder with me. In the video you can clearly see and hear that I never said anything close to what Mrs. Kolomechuk is alleging. Can anyone help?
Kolomechuk is a menace to any and every non custodial parent, male or female. She sides with the custodial parent no matter what (regardless of imbalance of earnings, living circumstances etc.) and seems to take a kind of sick pleasure in seeing the suffering of those of us who have to work only to pay child support and not have any kind of decent life for ourselves. She should be retired, gracefully and hopefully a new kind of thinking will come to prevail over this terrible, difficult issue of child support. We all love and want to support our kids. But not this way – not when they see us broken down, hounded and running from one shitty hovel to another. Our kids want to see us as people – real parents, not rats. This breaks my heart. My ex broke my heart. My children are my only true joy in the world and still I feel like I’m running to keep up…