Difference between revisions of "Faux Process And Rubber-Stamped Orders"

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(Created page with "=McMasterForCobb.com= <blockquote> If you asked me a year ago what I would be doing in 2022, I would have said: "Who knows? But I want nothing to do with child custody cases....")
 
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==The Cobb County Family Court System Is Prone To Failure, But It Doesn't Have to Be That Way==
==The Cobb County Family Court System Is Prone To Failure, But It Doesn't Have to Be That Way==


If we were to pretend that R. Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein were simply "really good at hiding things" (until they weren't), we would be fooling ourselves. Child sexual abuse occurs when the people and safeguards in place designed to prevent and/or stop the abuse are destroyed or otherwise corrupted. These include: law enforcement, Department of Human Services, Division of Family & Child Services ("DFCS"), parents, social workers, lawyers, guardians, and judges. Unfortunately under Georgia law, not all of these protectors are created equal and, rather, the JUDGES reign supreme with the ability to dismantle the entire social structure designed to protect our children.  
Our broken judiciary is not the result of a bunch of evil judges sitting around a conference table plotting against the well-being of society and the Cobb County community. No, our maimed “justice” system is the result of flawed philosophies and the misalignment of incentives. In other words, our judicial officers have more to gain personally by not doing their job than by actually doing their job. And we The People suffer for it. So what are these personal incentives that detract judges from proper execution of their jobs? Simply put: Time and Money.


In 2020, I represented a mother in Muskogee County fighting for custody of her 5-year-old son. The mother had full custody at the time and an intermittent hearing was held to potentially appoint a Guardian Ad Litem to the case. The Muskogee County Superior Court did not change custody that day—and the judge asked the father’s attorney to draft an order appointing the Guardian Ad Litem to the case. The opposing counsel drafted the “proposed” order for the judge to review. In the proposed order, however, the opposing attorney inserted a clause that changed full custody from the mother to the father. Though no hearing on custody took place, the judge signed the order without scrutiny and, without notice or a hearing in the matter, the mother lost full custody of her son.


From the period of February 2021 through September 2021, while I represented a Father trying to get custody of his daughter from a Mother who was in and out of jail fighting drug addiction, I watched Cobb County Superior Court judges take action (or inaction) that put a 15-year-old girl (now 16) in the home of a 42-year-old single man, not blood related to her who had a history of [https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/1/1b/Cobb_Superior_21101795_Affidavit_Redacted.pdf physically abusing the Mother]. Sure, the girl’s Mother had issues with drug addiction, but the Father, Aunt and Grandparents were very much involved in her life, at least before April 15, 2021. No, this 42-year-old man did not have standing to obtain custody of this child at the time even under child election laws.<ref>[https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/6/61/06-09-2021_Motion_to_Vacate.pdf ''Motion to Vacate Temporary Order and Motion to Modify Custody'', June 9, 2021]</ref> When I stood my ground against the judge’s decision to grant this man standing, the judge said, "Listen, Mr. McMaster, you're really getting on my nerves to be honest with you.” I responded telling the Judge that "I don’t play politics." He began yelling at me telling me to appeal his decision if that is what I wanted and when I asked why he was yelling at me he said, "Because you're driving me crazy. Okay. You're really irritating me.” I responded: "I'm a human being before I'm an attorney." This was Cobb County Superior Court Judge, Robert E. Flournoy, III, who was appointed to the bench in 2002 by the governor of Georgia at the time.
So what happened here? How could a judge simply sign parental rights away at the drop of a hat, without a hearing any evidence? This is what I call “faux process” (contra to “due process”) and what attorneys refer to as a “rubber-stamped” order. This was not the first time I had a client fall victim to a rubber-stamped order, nor was it the last. In fact, my first recollection of such injustice occurred at the hands of Judge Carl W. Bowers, and my most recent experience was at the hands of Judge G. Grant Brantley. While my heart sincerely wants to believe these were honest mistakes, rare flukes as a coincidental result of an alignment of the planets. However, mere cursory research into the personal backgrounds and experience of these two judges shows otherwise.


In 2022, Judge Bowers praised Brantley stating


Since that April 15, 2021 hearing, Father has not been able to communicate with his only daughter while she has been in the custody of the 42 year-old-man. Because this young lady is now 16 years old, if our worst fears materialize into reality, this man cannot be prosecuted for statutory rape under Georgia law. See [https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2020/title-16/chapter-6/section-16-6-3/ O.C.G.A. § 16-6-3]. No, this man did not adopt her; and no, there was no emergency warranting such a placement of this child. He is merely one of at least five (5) ex-boyfriends that the Mother has had over a period of eight (8) years,<ref>[https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/7/7f/06-08-2021_Rivera_Affidavit.pdf ''Affidavit of Father", June 8, 2021]</ref> with one major caveat: he was represented by Judge Flournoy's  former attorney who helped Judge Flournoy gain custody of his grandson in 2010 and also happened to be Judge Flournoy's election campaign Treasurer since 2016. I later learned that this is Judge Flournoy's lame duck term, meaning he is not running for re-election in 2022.  Here is an [https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/1/1b/Cobb_Superior_21101795_Affidavit_Redacted.pdf Affidavit] of the child's Aunt which shows how dangerous this man and the circumstances enabled by Judge Flournoy truly are.<ref>[https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/1/1b/Cobb_Superior_21101795_Affidavit_Redacted.pdf ''Affidavit of Aunt'', April 14, 2021]</ref><ref>See also [https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/images/4/4d/BullFrogz.pdf ''Assault & Battery Indictment of Christopher Curry'', March 4, 2010]</ref>
Imagine losing your house or, worse, your child simply because a judge was too lazy to read what they were signing. A judge disregarding true due process and lackadaisically


 
We The People are regularly robbed of rights by judges acting like cogs in a wheel, simple machines stamping signatures on pieces of paper without scrutinizing the contents. Apparently, they just don’t have time for that.  
When I discovered the close and longtime relationship between Judge Flournoy and this man’s attorney, I motioned to have Judge Flournoy recused from the case. Recusal of Judge Flournoy was the only hope Father had to save his daughter from the lion’s den, and the decision to recuse Judge Flournoy lied in the hands of Judge Robert "Rob" D. Leonard, II. Judge Leonard denied my request for recusal and the case remained with Judge Flournoy. I came later to find out that Judge Leonard gives "sua sponte" Guardian Ad Litem appointments primarily to local attorneys and firms that donate to his re-election campaign. And, that same attorney described above, who represented Judge Flournoy in his 2010 custody case and has been Judge Flournoy’s Treasurer since 2016, was founder and partner of the highest donating family law firm of Judge Leonard’s campaign. In the month of January 2022, Judge Flournoy himself was the highest donating individual to Judge Rob Leonard's re-election campaign. On February 9, 2022, Judge Leonard announced that the founding partner of the firm of the Guardian Ad Litem in the case was named as Co-Chair to Leonard's campaign.  




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