Difference between revisions of "The Lion's Den"

This article is the detailed summary of [https://thewikilaw.org/wiki/index.php?title=Matthew_D._McMaster,_Esq. Matt McMaster's] recount of events that inspired his candidacy to run for Cobb County Superior Court Judge against incumbent Judge Robert D. Leonard, II (a.k.a., Rob Leonard) in 2022. The original article was published here [https://mcmasterforcobb.com/why-matt The Lion's Den] in 2022 as notice to the Cobb County, GA voters of what appears to be a broken family court system.

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/3/3a/Cobb_Superior_21101795_Affidavit.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. 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.