January 5, 2005
I would like to tell my story. It is about a little boy named JJ. He is a 3 year old child who was safe, healthy & happy with a mother whom he adores. The mother is young, only 23 years old, and not aware of how our justice system works. She is told to file for custody of a child that she already has custody of because she is not married to the father. In doing so it sets in motion a series of irreversible repercussions.
The father is angry at her for leaving him, and abuses both mother and child verbally and physically. He threatens the mother as he so often did in the past bringing her physical pain that is documented in police reports repeatedly. This same man has other reports against him ranging from aggravated assault to a police officer, threatening a 83 year old man with a gun as well as Lewd and Lascivious behavior in a mall / golf course location, by exposing and ejaculating in front of female joggers, he was arrested and fined $100.00, he admitted doing this and to hitting my child and leaving marks.
After fearing for her life and requesting two restraining orders that Judge Edward Garrison did not give her, one in which she was in a women’s shelter for safety, the mother flees Florida for a peaceful life away from this violence. The Father counter petitions for custody of the little, innocent boy. When he cannot get the mother to respond and appear at court he hires a criminal attorney and fabricates lies of drug use and neglect, and files an emergency order to bring the mother in for a drug test and psychological exam. It is at this time that Judge Edward Garrison of Palm Beach County decides to turn this little boy over to this violent monster and ordered it to be done in 10 days. The mother knows nothing of this until it is too late and didn’t appear for the hearing. The mother was not given due process to appear at the hearing. She only finds out about the fate of her child by calling the clerk’s office. She is a law abiding citizen and thinks that no body would let a monster like this man keep an innocent child and violate her constitutional rights by removing her child for no reason – but she is wrong, Judge Garrison not only lets him keep this little boy but when the mother finally has a chance to be heard and he sees that she isn’t the drug addict she was portrayed to be, he tells her she can have 50/50 custody if she lives in Palm Beach County. He doesn’t he look at the father and say, “Why did you lie?” He has all of the evidence in front of him about the father’s character and moral state, and yet he allows this child to stay where he is because of status quo, and if the mother is to have shared custody, she must move back to the same county she fled from for safety.
Shouldn’t this be about who is the better influence on the child. Why do we have statutes in the law books if Judges are not required to follow them? It clearly states if domestic violence is an issue the child should not be placed with that party. The mother has no domestic violence reports against her, the father does, and what about the sexual deviant in him, will JJ be his next victim? What about this little boy, doesn’t he have rights? He is a human being, he has rights, the right to be with the one person who always protected him, nurtured, and loved him. Does he have a right to a father, yes, but only if the fathers influence is a positive one. He can’t decide that for himself, that’s why we as adults have to decide that for him – Judge Edward Garrison has put him in jeopardy, simply because he refused to admit that he reacted hastily and unreasonably. Wouldn’t justice have been better served if he had ordered the mother to appear before him with the child, and then deciding on what he hears and sees?
Judge Edward Garrison has based this case on one moment in time when I was not given a fair chance to appear. He is wrong and obviously doesn’t care about the rights of the children. He sits on the bench with “In God We Trust” above him when he took my God given right away to protect and nurture my child.
Why does the system only work for the people who have money or power, why is it when your resources are gone, you become the loser because you can’t fight the system any longer?