Help my son get his rights recognized
My son Jonathan had just turned 14 last month. He is a happy teen who has always stayed out of trouble, loves baseball and hockey, and has lots of friends. He adores his older brother, who just turned 18. Since my divorce in 06 I had custody of both teens, and the father had in fact only supervised visitations with the younger one since last year, due to an episode of violence when he threatened both boys with a pair of scissors. The judge overseeing our case in Johnson County, Kansas, Thomas Foster, has been bias and partial from the beginning, and had refused to let the boys testify against their father and/or speak up in court, against both their constitutional and statutorial rights. After a full year when the father had only a total of 24 hours supervised visitations with Jonathan, the judge decided to give my son to him and allow me, the mother, NO contact whatsoever with my son, so that "they could have some alone time..". No logical or legal reason behind this ruling. After a week, we were informed that the ruling would continue for another two weeks....and now, as of August 14, my son is with this father for "an unspecified amount of time..." during which we are allowed no contact whatsoever. There is no legal justification for this, no change of circumstances, no constitutional ground for this judge's behavior. And certainly no human right would allow anyone to take a child from the environment he grew up in, around the people he knows and loves and to place him with his abuser. No child should be taken away from his mother unless under extreme circumstances of abuse. There was never even a hint of abuse allegations from me and several from the father. The father got the child! The father has since: not fed him properly(sometimes he has one meal per day, sometimes as late as 5:00pm), constantly cursed and verbally abused him, my son had called 911 one night because of the father's abuse, SRS has been investigating and has found that at "least verbal abuse has occurred..". I know this because my son was able to text me on occasion. Everyone in Jonathan's life has been cut off completely, even his adored brother. My son wrote a letter to the judge begging him to let him go back homer. The judge did not even bother to read it. My son asked to speak up in court, based on his constitutional rights to do so. That right was denied to him. We have been asking for my son's right to due process and equal protection under the law to be observed. Judge Foster has threatened me and the Guardian Ad Litem that "if we dare do anything he will put the child in foster care...". thus taking away all possible right to due process and freedom of speech. Meanwhile, Foster is keeping everything "temporary" , just for an indefinite amount of time, because if he were to make his ruling permanent we could appeal and his ruling would be reversed because unconstitutional. This judge is a dictator and someone needs to step up against him and his crazy, illogical and ultimately illegal rulings that damage our children. His ruling is destroying my son. I don''t want for something terrible to happen to my son. I want him to have his life back, his friends, his brother, his baseball..his smile.
I want to protect my son , stop the abuse, see his civil rights recognized and observed. He is a human being who is treated worse than a piece of property, with no right whatsoever. Please, help me get my son back and this judge out of office. He is running (!!) for re election this year.
UPDATE: After spending hundreds of dollars in order to see my son on supervised visitations with the Layne Project at $35/hour, I was approached by the father after three months and offered my son back if "I would give up the $18,000 he owed me, and accept to have maintenance reduced by $600". I agreed: a child is priceless to a real parent. We presented the bargain to Foster, he approved what would be considered "black mail" in any other country in the world, and now my son is back with me. It was all about money, from the beginning: the CASA people, the Layne Project, the GAL, the attorneys, the father. No resepct for legality, human rights, dignity, nothing.
Justice did not prevail here but what counts is that I have my son back.
Foster has been re-elected, unfortunately, even though thousands of people signed to get him off the bench. Many more families will pay the price of the re-election of this highly unprofessional and dangerous judge.
The family court in Johnson County is one of the worst in the country.
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