Michigan Votes Forum

In the begining my wife demanded a divorce. The marriage was pure and no other woman or thing was interferring, but she wanted out. She would not file. After 15 months of threatened suicide and depression on her part, and after she screamed, red in the face at our 2 year old child, "I'm not your mother any more!!", and many other episodes, I filed for divorce. She didn't want to be married, to me or anyone. A judge removed her from our house because of the [unstated]domestic violence she committed during a rage, and we began 7 months of 50/50 parenting time. Then a 5 day trial. The divorce was ordered. Our daughter was in effect also ordered to be divorced from her dad in that the mother was allowed to move to France, since she was French (no reason given). I never wanted the divorce. I sure did not ask for a divorce from my child! Yet custody was ordered for 10 months with the mother in France, and 2 during the summer with me. The equal parenting had given a balance to all. The mother had a MI RN nursing license, spoke fluent English, and had a valid green card. How custody can be established in such a way, vaguely related to the divorce action, is absurd, to put it lightly. EQUAL PARENTING LAWS ARE LONG OVERDUE!

Tue, Feb 5, 2008 SAULT STE. MARIE (AP) — A judge in Chippewa County has ordered two men to serve five days in jail for driving off-road vehicles through sensitive wetlands on Drummond Island. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said Michael Edward Coon and Michael Donald Lucchesi pleaded guilty to violating the state's wetland protection law. They destroyed vegetation and disturbed habitat of nesting ospreys and other wildlife. In addition to the jail time, Judge Michael MacDonald ordered them to fix the damage and pay $2,655 in fines and court costs. --------------- Some people deny that where ORVs run they bring torn up ground, noise, pollution, and problems with illegal use, vandalism, trespass, litter and social conflict. Hah! Try asserting that denial in front of Judge MacDonald. It's a well documented and well known fact, folks, that the impact ORVs have on the environment and ambience of places where they run is overwhelmingly negative. Perhaps those in the tiny minority of recreationists who are riding their ORVs don't really notice the impact, or don't believe it is of any consequence. Perhaps they just think the impact is "natural," which it is, of course. It in the nature of the machine to be noisy, to pollute, to tear up ground, to intrude, to overwhelm. But the negative impact is readily noticed and regarded as being of consequence by the vast majority of people who do not ride ORVs for sport. It is noticed to the point that they understand their enjoyment of places they live and recreate is diminished when ORVs run there. The best public policy in respect to ORV recreation is to concentrate the activity and its impacts in areas already impacted by ORV use. Such a policy recognizes and serves all interests, not just those of the small minority of recreationists who enjoy riding their ORVs. This legislation proposes to greatly extend the breadth of territory over which ORVs are permitted to run. That means, in reality, it proposes to broadcast the negative effects that ORVs bring with them across a vastly broader range. It is an unwise bill that serves only the narrowest of minority interests at the expense of public interests at large. This bill should be rejected by the Senate.

I am a father that has spent countless thousands of dollars on attorneys, counselors, etc, each of which recommended that I should have equal parenting with my ex. The courts disagree and the attorneys and counselors didn't understand and said that I should appeal because the Judge clearly was wrong, but I don't have the countless thousands of dollars anymore to appeal. Basically, if equal custody was the norm, which my children deserve, our kids could spend equal amounts of time with both parents which would minimize litigation. They should add a penalty to parents that continue fighting once equal custody has been ordered unless there is some legitimate threat to the children.

Although I agree that the court system is extremely unfair to the fathers in respect to parenting time and child support. I do not agree with joint physical custody with children under the age of 10 years. I believe that uprooting a child back and fourth from home to home is unstable for the child. I do, however, believe that the man should be granted more the the typical 4 hours on Wednesday night and every other weekend. That is crap! I am a mother of two young boys and divorced two years ago. I give my sons' father every opportunity to see his children so long as it does not interfere with school and have also cut his child support to an amount that is agreeable to the both of us. There are too many women out there that are selfish and want everything they can get and have no concern for the feelings of their children or the man they once loved.

The point of paying child support is not to be able to see your children. It is a fact that the man can not be denied parenting time due to not paying child support. However, he can go to jail eventually. The child support is meant to be a means to help support the child (putting a roof over their head, heat, electricity, clothing, food...) I do believe that men do have to pay too much child support than should be required especially if they do not get equal time with their children.

I don't know where you're getting your facts but there is no proof that children of married people or single families grow up to do any of those things. My two brothers and I grew up in a single mother family along with over half of my friends and family and I can only think of one or two people that have done any of the things that you are suggesting. I have 5 female cousins that grew up their whole lives with their married parents from birth and 4 of the 5 girls either do drugs have used abortion as a form of birth control and so on. So get your facts straight.

When my boys were little it was my job and delight to provide more than70% of their daily needs as well as at least 50% of their financial support, while working full time...It was this way for 10 years and I loved every minute of it. For whatever reasons my wife was generally too tired to deal with it all. Despite this our Wayne County Judge stated as a matter of record "with all things being equal, as they are in this case, I would like to apporve shared custody, but this being Wayne County, Michigan, the standard is to award the mother the custodial rights and both parents equal legal rights and liberal visitation. I have spent the last 12 years begging to be able to exercise my 50% legal rights and visitaion! No one told me that her live in boyfriend would also have so much say about my time with my sons! Who stands up for and supports us? Oh, by the way...raise your voice after driving 80 miles for a scheduled visit to find your sons are not there....and the Sherrif is NOT exactly on your side! Chuck Grand Rapids, mi.

If women were truly more like you claim to be...We as fathers would not have such an issue! Instead a majority of the Custodial Moms are influenced by their new boyfriends and other women who were "wronged" by their man! My X bragged about our marriage, until she met her new best friend and began hanging out after work...all of a sudden I was no longer a good husband, a good and caring father....Now, I anytime my sons and I want to spend time together...we nearly have to beg for the right!

What is the legal definition of "unfit" and "fit"? What entity is to make these determinations? Who is going to pay for the determinations? Who will be authorized to make determinations? What entity will be the oversight authority for the determination process? What entity will be implementing the enforcement of determination and what is the grievance process? How about reducing the amount of government intervention. I want the invisible hand of government out of my pockets, for it shall take taxpayer money and the money of the parents to participate in this process. Is "unfit" and "fit" part and parcel of MCL 722.622 et seq. ? This must be first clarified, otherwise, the child welfare arms will be open ready to receive. We understand that parenting is a privilege, so how is it that parental rights are commanded? How can "rights" be terminated when it is a privilege. This legislation is the forerunner of licensing for parenting. Think about it... Beverly Tran

We can battle back and forth on personal stories. I have seen dads I firmly believe do not deserve their kids. The problem is, by saying this I have to also say that those same kids do not deserve their dads. I can't do that. Our government has pushed themselves into our family and sits on our couch pushing the family off onto the floor. We have been listening to the "i know what's best for you" philosophy of the damn democrats for too long. God knows what he is doing and if you don't believe in God, then nature selected male+female=child. I cannot fathom that a citizen in a semi-free nation desires ultimate control over families by the state.

"We understand that parenting is a privilege". What?? Who is this idiot who who says "We understand that parenting is a privilege". It is a right!! The government dosen't give you the right to parent your own kids!YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT!!!

http://www.dadsamerica.org/jc.htm Joint Custody is Not in the Best Interest of Children when: The mother is on Crack: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Women+addicted+to+Crack+cocaine&spell=1 The mother is on Drugs : http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=women+with+drug+addiction&btnG=Search The Mother is Bipolar.. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=women+with+mental+bipolar+problems&btnG=Search The mother has a Gambling Problem : http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Women+who+gamble+to+much&btnG=Google+Search

We have noticed that their is a law that provides for women to : "Parent ? allowed to anonymously leave "unwanted" child at authorized facility", Biological "Fathers" are not included in this law. Why ? Suggest that Biological Fathers be included as having a say and/or be given an opportunity for "Sole Custody" of the "unwanted" child by law . Thanks DADSAmerica.Org Supporting Father Sole Custody of his own Children

Re: "Parenting is a Privileg" as asked on March 22. Yes, parenting is a "Privilege" when State Court Judges have the right to "treminate Rights". Furthermore, "Joint Custody" advocates are people trying to expand the State power over the kids by asking the State to make a law for "Joint Custody" when such a law is not needed. Parents have the right to STIPULATE to any agreement including "Joint Custody". The real question is why do some people want to take up the time of the legislature with such dumb crap. Victor Smith, DADSAmerica.Org

What court did this happen and what judge? More info would help...Send me a note at EMAL7717@yahoo.com

The legal term is "parens patriae. 15 U.S.C sec. 15c. Beverly Tran

Good Evening Everyone, Can someone please direct me on how to get involved in changing the laws in order to get equal treatment by the court? I have been divorced for several years (3) and have a 7 year-old daughter. We had joint custody, where I had her for 5-6 nights a week (by order) and she had her 1-2 nights. Our case was, and is, heard by the Oakland County FOC. During the last 3 years, my ex-wife has moved 6 times and had several different live-in boyfriends. I petitioned the court for full custody and PROVED that she was an alcoholic, PROVED that she uses illegal drugs (Vicodin among others), PROVED that she is committing federal and state tax fraud (by over 75K a year), PROVED she lived with at least 3 different men, and PROVED that she lied under oath (she was impeached on 7 different occassions) regarding important issues. My ex freely admitted under oath that she calls me a "f*&( ass)*(" to my daughter on a regular basis. I did not lie under oath and was not impeached one time. The referree came back with a recommendation to give my ex-wife more time with her (3 nights)and stated that I did not provide clear and convincing evidence. However, they did give me $100.00 per week in child support. I am not interested in the money as much as getting my daughter out of my ex-wife's care (she is living with a self-purported gangster who posted my daughter's picture on his MySpace page). I am filing an objection to the ruling and am willing to take it to the Court of Appeals if necessary. I would like some feedback from those of you that have dealt with the Oakland County FOC. My attorney says that we should appeal (but what else would he say), and I think that I have been dealt an enormous injustice. Have any of you gone to the Court of Appeals in Michigan? Please let me know how to get involved.

How did this court case end up???

I am sorry to hear your case. I am a foreigner, well educated and degreed. Born in England, and have lived all over the world (including South Africa during the apartheid years). I have ALWAYS conducted myself in a gentlemanly manner in court, yet the referee has treated me like a common criminal who has committed some heinous crime! I am APPALLED at the manner in which the FOC conducts itself and the overtly obvious anti-male bias they display. I am not exaggerating when I say it reminds me of what I saw the oppressed black people go through in South Africa! This is supposed to be the "Land of The Free", I feel very much otherwise.

I am looking for individuals of paternity fraud to participate in a television documentary. This will be an opportunity to state you case in the court of public opinion. If you are a person who does not agree with the paternity fraud concept I want to hear from you too. This program will air throughout the sate of Michigan. Legislation has been introduced on the topic and the voting public needs you stories to make smart voting choices. Please email me at paternityfraudmovie.com or drevus@msn.com

Has anyone had any issues with Judge Elizabeth Pezzetti with the Oakland County FOC? How about any of her staff?

I am a father and had a divorce case in front of Judge Elizabeth Pezzetti last year. She was completely uninterested in hearing from either myself or my attorney. She let my ex-wife's attorney speak all she wanted but very rarely let my attorney speak. When she (my attorney) tried to speak, the Judge yelled at her. I don't know what I did to make Judge Pezzetti upset, by my impression was that she didn't like me. My only guess is because I'm a male / father. I never disrespected her or spoke out of line. Despite a mountain of evidence against my ex-wife, she gave custody of my two children to my ex-wife and awarded her child support. If someone is going to begin recall efforts against this judge, I am more than willing to throw my hat in the ring to help. She has absolutely no business being on the bench.

I as a Father need to know what actions or motions(court terms) need to be fidled for the courts to do an ivestigation on my ex wife. She has moved 16 times in three and a half years. I have proof of all addresses and its funny cause 6 of them are on Oakland County FOC docs. The others i had to find on my own and believe me it wasnt that hard. Most of her eviction was for non payment, and she also gets childsuport from another Father too. She was getting $1400 dollars between the two of us, and in which i found out from an exroommate she was not using daycare she was just not paying people for there services. She has never presented an legal document from any type of daycare in any hearing i have had, now the other father has a case in macomb in which she has never shown any legal proof of day care and he doesnt have to pay for his daughters daycare but yet I do. WHAT CAN I DO??

It's great that a lot of dads want equal parenting time, and as a mom, I support most of you. A lot of times dads talk the talk, but dont walk the walk. I have 50/50 parenting time with my ex, although he has physical custody. (week here, week there.) IN the 3 years since the order, he has not once taken our daughters to the doctor for check ups or illnesses, and on one occasion ignored the advice of the school nurse about sores on my daughters face. I found out about her being sick at a conference, which he did not, nor ever attend. I could not get ahold of him, and ended up tracking my daughters down the next day at his moms house. I took my daughter to urgent care, and she had strep throat and impetigo. During his parenting time, they spend 1-2 nights at his girlfriends house, and 1-2 nights at his moms house, and every morning before and after school they stay with his 82 year old grandma. I am married, have 2 other children, one older, one younger, and work 30 hours a week, home by 2pm, before they are out of school. My husband works 2nd shift the days I work, so my kids are home before and after school. I have filed a motion to change custody. Not all dads want the responsibility that goes along with being a dad. For those of you who do, do it! Be a dad in name and in action. Your kids need you.

If you get her for a judge run. She doesnt care about childern at all. She has put our ganddaughter in serious danger because she does not look at any information about the parents or the people involved. She takes things personally or possibly friends with the attorneys on the other side so hope you are not on that side because she only cares about how she fells not the facts.

PARENTAL ALIENATION, PARENTAL ABDUCTION & PARENTAL KIDNAPPING ARE LEGAL IN THE U.S.A. TODAY! There are many men / fathers fighting for equal rights to their children. The simple core is create a joint legal & joint physical custody order at birth. Any parent who creates just cause to revoke or modify that order will be dealt with as it always has. Elementary Watson. Read Brandon's Law on www.WheresDADDY.org for many innovative ideas and options from common since to controversial discussions on fathers and children's rights. Coming back Aug 2008 www.AChildsRights.org

Sir I can't believe it, something has to be wrong. For you not to get your kids out of there you must be really bad yourself. Tell me more about you. But I do KNOW the kids should be TOTALLY REMOVE FROM HER CARE. ty

The courts have imputed support income to 16.00 per hour when I am only making 9.00, I only live on 125.00 per week and this makes it hard to pay 500.00 for rent. She nets 3,700 per month plus gets 1,050.00 of my taxed income. I live under poverty level. while she gets a brand new performance car that gets 20 mpg. why would anybody by a car like that with prices of 4.00 per gallon, guess I'm paying for that too. I have always paid my child support but I can no longer financialy survive on this FOC order. I hardly have money for gas to pick up my 10 year old son plus buy him anything when I have him. Last weekend I did have enough to buy him some ice cream and that was all. He was ok with it though he just likes to be with me, which is great! But I would personally like to buy him things. Empty pockets. By the way our judge is a female do you think she is unfair to fathers or maybe it is just me. How many other fathers are going thru this?

I had the same experience! I decided not to sign but after talking with my attorney (An ADAM attorney) we decided to sign it and then fight for the custody. The problem is that the form (for unwed couples)gives custody to the mother and at the same time it acknowledges that you are the father. If you say you are the father then it goes to say that "OK" now we are giving custody to the mother. Its the most ridiculous document you could ever sign. If you don't sign it then you are saying that you are not the father and then you have no legal argument for custody....basically you are screwed!

I AGREE....this bill is in the right direction. There is NO evidence that any one parent (female or male)is better than the other by default.

Who ever wrote this has not done the research. You can take a personal example and apply it to the rest of the millions of other examples!!!

Who ever wrote this has not done the research. You can take a personal example and apply it to the rest of the millions of other examples!!!

I agree 100% with you. Children, especially babies and any child under 8 need to be at home where they LIVE. It is not fair to have the children bounced around. If you want to visit the child do so where the child is comfortable and around the parent they are most comfy with ( especially babies/toddlers/and little ones never living with both parents!) How come when the parents are married the judge doesn't make mommy leave so the father and his side can have time with the kid alone. I think there is something wrong with people who feels in order to spend time with a child they must do so without mom around and away from where the child knows as home. Children need both parents, but biological parent means nothing if it is in a disfunctional situation which is not just drug abuse and the other stuff we call bad, but children months apart and stuff like that. When fathers force themselves in the child's life early on is it really a commitment to the child forever or just because you are hot under the collar at mom and feels she has something that belongs to you because you dropped a little sperm? Are you going to be there 5 years from now or is mom going to have to comfort the child becuase dad disappoints the child because he didn't think things all the way through when he decided he wanted to be involved. I don't know if any of you all notice this or not but men seem to change their minds about fatherhood when they are not married to the mom or when other things or people come into thier lives. I agree, prove it. Moms should work with dad but dads need to leave baby and really young children at home with mom. You and mom will know when the child is ready to spend the night away from home. How is that we don't make kids spend the night away with friends when they are young but we allow courts to force kids to spend the night or nights away from home and such young ages. Courts do this but fathers allow it, so shame on you fathers.

I also proved my ex to be very unfit! I have a ppo against him, he has created fake myspace pages of me and our 6 year old daughter, he has no license due to 4 DUI's and still with the ppo they made me take the kids and drop them off with him everyother weekend and every wednesday. He has NEVER paid child support over 8,000 in arrears, he tried suicide a couple weeks ago, violated the ppo and was charged but still gets to see my kids?? I dont understand?? He also is addicted to vicodin and xanix and drinks like a crazy person, they dont care about the kids, Pezzetti is who i was in front of.

Beware of Judge Pezzetti!! I have been victimized by this incompetent moron for over seven years. She never reads briefs or motions provided to her and nearly always allows the wife's attorney free reign in court. During one motion hearing, we started at 11:55AM (at her request), then were promptly told that she had a luncheon appointment and we had to "hurry along".....this was a motion to move my daughter to a school district 90 miles from my home. Needless to say, the wife's attorney and wife presented a quick and tearful argument for this move, and we had less than 10 seconds; you can guess the outcome. Despite promising to live with her daughter, the mother quickly moved in with a boyfriend 75 miles from my daughter and she went to school with her cousins. On another account, the wife made many claims about not owing me money. This time, the judge finally sided with me............but it took seven years and then she didn't award any fees, interest or compensation for the time the wife had the $$$ The stories go on and on with this loser.

Beware of Judge Pezzetti!! I have been victimized by this incompetent moron for almost nine years! She never reads briefs or motions provided to her and nearly always allows the wife's attorney free reign in court. During one motion hearing, we started at 11:55AM (at Pezzetti's request), then were promptly told that she had a luncheon appointment and we had to "hurry along".....this was a motion to move my daughter to a school district 90 miles from my home. Needless to say, the wife's attorney and wife presented a quick and tearful argument for this move, and we had less than 10 seconds; you can guess the outcome. Despite promising to live with her daughter, the mother quickly moved in with a boyfriend 75 miles from my daughter and my daughter went to school with her cousins (despite the JoD specifically prohibiting a school district move!). On another account, the wife made many claims about not owing me money, despite clear definition of asset splits in the JoD. This time, the judge finally sided with me............but it took seven years and then she didn't award any fees, interest or compensation for the time the wife had the $$$ The stories go on and on with this loser.

 I have been in front of Pezzetti and she does not allow me to talk. I had a 3.4million dollar estate and she did not let me have my first right of refusal on my home as it was entered into the Judgement of Divorce. My attorney sold it so she could get paid her attorney fees and I told Judge Pezzetti that I wanted to exercise my first right of refusal on my home and she said I dont care what you want. But it was in the Judgement of divorce. They gave my children and I 10 days to get out. We were thrown out on Thanksgiving day, my kids and I.  I am going to court again this wed on the 4th for two more motions, She will not give me the time of day to say what I need to say. She needs to come off  and not be a judge. She is not  a nice person. I was so misrepresented by Clark Hill Law firm and they put it in writing that if I dont sue them they will give me money out of My house that was bought and paid for, so lower their fees as well. I needed the money to move, but because I signed that, I gave up all my rights to sue Clark Hill. They did put my children and I out into the streets.

Also, my ex deposited almost $700,000 into our account the year prior I filed and they will not use that as evidence that he had money coming in from his business's. He claims to make $2000 a month income from all of his business's. I can prove that he deposited it into our account and they said that was in 2005. It is now 2009, get real is what they told me.  I lost everything I had and I am now representing my self and I had paid Michael ELkins $15,000.00 to finish this mess and he did nothing for me and took the money. Try and get your money back, it is a joke and these attorneys are all in bed together. I was so nelected in my case and pezzetti just smiles but does not listen to a word. Even proof. I will get slammed on Wedsdays hearing. I have to be their at 8:30 if anyone wants to be their to see her tactic ways. She will not give me the time or day.  Their is NO Justice.... This whole thing is what day it is with her. She has NEVER listened to anything. I have so much an these attorneys and some day I will get them back. I will be heard in front of everyone!!! She is ruthless.   You should fight custody,,,,,,,, Dont give up..