Innocent Man Sent To Jail for Missed Child Support

Started by DLove, Dec 07, 2007, 08:41 AM

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DLove

Here is another case of oppressive judicial tactics. What is the purpose of garnishment if you are held responsible for $$ once it is deducted from your pay check. Folks wonder why some resort to violence. This judge.......well, (omitted).

DLove



http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14763949/detail.html

Innocent Man Sent To Jail for Missed Child Support
Man Says Former Employer Withheld Money


BOSTON -- Systemic problems allowed an innocent Massachusetts man to be labeled a deadbeat dad and sent to jail.

Team 5 Investigates' Rhondella Richardson reported that it happened to John Caliri.
"I wake up in the morning and I go to bed at night, knowing that I've been in jail because of something I did not do, and I don't deserve it," said Caliri.
Caliri was sentenced to 90 days in jail after he was accused of falling eight weeks behind on child support payments.
"There was a balance of $2,240," Caliri said.
He has proof of a good payment history. But problems came last spring with his new job at Daniel's Townline Pizza in Weymouth.
Townline Pizza garnished child support from Caliri's wages but never sent the money to the Department of Revenue for his ex-wife and three children.
He went to court last month to explain it all but instead went to jail.
"He heard the case, and he found me in contempt, and I was absolutely floored," he said.
Townline Pizza failed financially and closed in July. Manhattan Deli opened in September. The new owner told Team 5 Investigates that the child support issue is just one of the problems the old place had.
Deli owner Ari Black said bill collectors for food vendors still visit looking for the previous owner.
For court, the Department of Revenue provided Caliri with a letter stating that $2,240 had been withheld in pay. The case is under review to see what enforcement action, if any, officials can take against Daneil Hoyng of Townline Pizza.
"This person who took the money out continues to walk the streets, free," Caliri said.
Caliri said that he is also furious with Judge Michael Livingstone's ruling and attitude.
"He told me if I wanted to work at a pizza place, Papa Gino is hiring down the street," he said.


FP

Judge Livingstone, the epitome of a "Masshole" from the great state of Taxachusettes.

Aegis

This Judge Michael Livingstone looks like he's in hot water.  The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct filed charges against him for unethical activity.  He continued to operate a real-estate business while a sitting judge.  He even went so far as to send letters threatening to cut off utilities to a tenant, which would be all the more intimidating and confusing coming from a judge.  And he took a percentage of fees from former clients that he gave to another lawyer once he became a judge.  Both are no-nos.

Article link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/10/22/commission_files_misconduct_charges_against_probate_judge/

And if anyone is interested in reading his response to the charges:  http://www.mass.gov/cjc/livingstone10222007.pdf

And there is an article from The Patriot Ledger, September 21, 2004, profiling Judge Livingstone.  It describes his practice of routinely abusing his contempt of court authority to send fathers to jail for usually 30 days, and sometimes as long as six months if they don't come up with the money.  This part says it all:
Quote
Nearly all of those jailed are found in civil contempt rather than prosecuted criminally, simply because the process is easier.


I must say that I found the tone of the article sleazy.  In impartial journalistic language, the selective attention of the article suggested that the piece was a sort of "profile in courage" for the judge brave enough to bend civil rights to a new breaking point when it came to child support.  The author of the piece is Karen Eschbacher.  She left the paper to work at the Indianapolis Star, and then left journalism altogether this September.  Now she's Director of Development Communications at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
(317) 278-1986
[email protected]

I think I'll send her an email.  Lots of people can get taken in by somebody, but she should have known better.  Throwing people in jail for six months under the auspices of contempt of court?  She saw this as justice?

Men's Rights Activist

Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness are fundamental rights for all (including males), & not contingent on gender feminist approval or denial. Consider my "Independence" from all tyrannical gender feminist ideology "Declared" - Here & Now!

Aegis

Here is the email that I just sent to the reporter Karen Eschbacher.  She is the one who wrote the sympathetic piece on Judge Livingstone in 2004 titled "Can't pay?  It's off to jail with you."

[font=Verdana]You wrote an article in the Patriot Ledger, published September 21, 2004 called "Can't Pay?  It's off to jail with you".  It profiled Judge Michael Livingstone, probate and family court judge.  In this article, you described his experience of imprisoning 2 to 4 noncustodial fathers who would or could not pay their arrearages for child support.  You described his practice of abusing his contempt of court authority to imprison them for up to six months, and how he chose this method over criminal procedures "simply because it is easier."

I am writing to you to let you know that Judge Livingstone is in the news again, this time for imprisoning an innocent man.
link:  http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14763949/detail.html
A Weymouth man, John Caliri, working at a pizza restaraunt had child support garnished from his paycheck, and was called into court, accused of not paying it.  He explained to Livingstone that the pay was being garnished, and must have been stolen.  Livingstone once again abused his contempt of court authority to summarily imprison Mr. Caliri for 90 days.

This was not the only recent news piece regarding Judge Livingstone's misconduct.  He also is being charged with unethical activity by The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.  In part, he is charged with continuing to operate a real estate business while a sitting judge, going so far as to send a letter to a tenant threatening to cut off her utilities.  This would be a rather intimidating and unjust letter to receive from a sitting judge.  He also is accused of taking payment for legal fees rendered by another lawyer for clients that he used to represent before becoming a judge.
link: http://www.mass.gov/cjc/livingstone10222007.pdf

The charges from the commission have not yet been resolved, but the evidence in that matter, as well as the travesty with Mr. Caliri, paint a rather different picture than the one gleaned from your article from September 2004.  Hindsight may be 20/20, but your sheer myopic ignorance in 2004 was truly breathtaking.  Any high-school educated citizen of the United States should have seen the injustice inherent in casual and routine use of contempt of court to imprison men appearing before a family court judge in a civil matter.  I see no mention of that in your article.  Judge Livingstone's apparent public support has surely figured into his ability to do as much damage to Massachusetts families as he has done.

Congratulations on your new job at the IU School of Medicine.  I also commend you in your discretion in deciding to leave the profession of journalism.  Journalists' duty to preserve liberty through the nurturing of a well-informed public is vital to the health of this nation.  It is a duty best served by professionals.

Best Wishes[/font]

Men's Rights Activist



What can be said about Judge Jackass, except, "Family court laws, which are not in the best interest of children, or their parents, are an ass." Though we often hear Judge Jackass braying his impractical and high-sounding platitudes from the bench, his words often have an ill effect on those expected to comply with his asinine judgments.

Judge Jackass is a ubiquitous character.   He is also one of the most insidious criminals loose in American society today and is likely the biggest mass murderer in the history of America. Judge Jackass has lost track of how many decent and innocent Fathers he has sentenced to prison, or driven to commit suicide, but the numbers are in the tens of thousands and more likely in the hundreds of thousands.  Those imprisoned Fathers are the political prisoners of Judge Jackass.  

Through his wielding of corrupt family court decisions Judge Jackass has put onerous financial burdens on men's backs that he would, or could, not bear himself. When poor men have been unable to come up with the exorbitant amounts he's decreed them to pay, or have gotten ill and couldn't work, or some other mishap, Judge Jackass has kicked many of them towards his beatdead Dad debtor's prison, or their graves.  Judge Jackass is cruel, and  inhuman and shows no consideration of a bankrupt Dad's inability to pay.

Judge Jackass's desk drawers are full of the seized passports, contractor's licenses, drivers' licenses, etc. that good men needed to not only pay their child support obligations, but also to support themselves.

Judge Jackass was last seen in Massachusetts, braying his inane commands at some poor father who thought he would find equitable treatment and justice before Judge Jackasses' stall. Instead, duped dad found only a cartload of donkey manure where his family and wealth had once been.
Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness are fundamental rights for all (including males), & not contingent on gender feminist approval or denial. Consider my "Independence" from all tyrannical gender feminist ideology "Declared" - Here & Now!

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