Letter Sent Jan. 7th 2009
Dear Members of the Virginia House of Delegates, Members of the Senate of Virginia, and Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia Timothy Kaine:
I write to you all seeking your assistance, guidance, answers and solutions. As you all are aware Virginia's Juvenile and Domestic Relations court is severely broken, which is why I suspect the judicial interviews went about two hours over schedule. Not that this process of reappointment was highly publicized but people still seemed to come out of the woodwork to speak in opposition of these judges being reappointed to the bench. I agree with all of you, this was an extremely long day and for most of us who came to speak and observe, a mentally exhausting one. We too had two plus hours of driving time ahead us. Delegate Albo, I too would have preferred to be at home with my spouse, however, this process was just too important to miss, as it was for the many others who made that long trip to Richmond. As those of you who attended all saw this is not just a small handful of people, but many who are and have had the misfortune of experiencing the blatant judicial misconduct by Virginia judges. Who knows how many there really are. It shouldn't really matter how many or how few for someone to stand up and put a stop to this injustice. Many victims are unaware of who and where to go for help. Many more are so severely beaten down and maimed by these judges and barratrous attorneys that they have simply given up. They have lost all faith in this system. I ask you, How could this system that was put in place to protect destroy and shatter so many? Protective, non offending parents are being slaughtered everyday in Virginia's courtrooms.
I have to question a parent's true love for their child when that parent alienates and severs all contact with the other parent and is willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. Shouldn't a well-educated judge question the same? Shouldn't you all question the judgment of that presumably well-educated judge who does not?
I read in Virginia Code Section 20-124.3, Paragraph 6, where it is stated: "The propensity of each parent to actively support the child's contact and relationship with the other parent, including whether a parent has unreasonably denied the other access to or visitation with the child." When a judge pretends to not see the obvious and allows one parent to, without evidence, viciously attack the other parent time and time again in the courtroom as an attempt to slander that parent, is that judge not ignoring Paragraph 6? I ask you, Is such a judge really acting in the best interest of an innocent child? I realize the financial motivation in attorneys who repeatedly orchestrate these ambushes of the other side, the financially weakest side that often has no attorney and therefore cannot properly defend against the false accusations and outright barratry.
Enough is enough! Innocent children are being destroyed and protective parents are being slaughtered and Virginia judges are allowing it to happen. These judges are jailing innocent, honorable parents who are simply unable to pay the absurd amounts of child support imposed on them. They are being jailed for not having enough money to pay the awarded attorneys fees, fees of up to one thousand dollars for five minutes in a courtroom, imposed on them. I have seen bail money seized to pay attorney fees. These people are not criminals, they're just parents. Parents fighting for their children, fighting for their right to just be a parent. Who would have ever thought that in this "GREAT NATION" anyone would have to fight for that. Our Virginia state flag, displayed in all of our courtrooms and in so many of our government agencies, proudly bears the message: "Sic Semper Tyrannis." I ask you, Who are the real tyrants here?
I lost my right to be a parent five years ago in front of Circuit Court Judge Ann Hunter Simpson, a cohort of the sleazy Tandy B. Rinehart of Rinehart, Lowery, Strentz and Butler, PLC, based on nothing but false allegations about my parenting ability and slanderous fabrications made by both the father of my child and his attorney Tandy Rinehart. I have fought since then, not to deprive my daughter of her father but to simply have equal parenting time. At one point in my fight I even lost my right to work and in the same hearing Judge Gerald F. Dalton increased my child support by more than three times. I ask you, Does $ 477.00 per month sound right for someone earning $ 29,000.00 per year. Not to mention I still had another child at home to care for. Yes, a sixteen-year-old whose own world, by the way, came crashing down with the emotional trauma from losing her baby sister. Since Judge Simpson's decision, in 2004, to remove my youngest from my care, transfering custody to her narcissistic father and the 65-year-old nanny hired by him, my once well-adjusted, bright, happy child now struggles in school and has had to attend summer school just to pass elementary school. Now that she is in middle school, she has deteriorated even more. She currently has four Fs and one C. She has been prescribed a wide variety of ADD drugs, but, despite this, she continues to fail. Five of her friends were just expelled from school for drugs. These are 7th graders, these are 12-year-olds! I think you can see where I'm going. Something has to change before it's too late. Despite my efforts, I see my child four days a month only during the school year because judges have placed her with a father they deem "the better parent." A trial eighteen-months-ago to modify custody due to changed circumstances failed. In that trial, my judge, Stafford County Judge Daltan, did not apply the law in the same way that Fairfax County Judge Finch did not apply the law in the custody modification case of Ms. Liz Haring. Ms. Haring is one mother who testified on December 11, 2008, during the interviews of judges up for re-appointment conducted by house and senate members of the Courts of Justice.
Nor do the lawyers I hire thoroughly and aggressively apply the law. For example, I only recently became aware of "§ 18.2-49.1. Violation of court order regarding custody and visitation; penalty":
A. Any person who knowingly, wrongfully and intentionally withholds a child from either of a child's parents or other legal guardian in a clear and significant violation of a court order respecting the custody or visitation of such child, provided such child is withheld outside of the Commonwealth, is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
B. Any person who knowingly, wrongfully and intentionally engages in conduct that constitutes a clear and significant violation of a court order respecting the custody or visitation of a child is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor upon conviction of a first offense. Any person who commits a second violation of this section within 12 months of a first conviction is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor, and any person who commits a third violation occurring within 24 months of the first conviction is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
A friend who is not a lawyer told me about § 18.2-49.1. My own attorney had never even mentioned it, prefering instead to file civil show causes that really are worse than useless and very expensive. Whereas, a criminal filing for the same offense is free and, I understand, very effective.
The father of my child is guilty of numerous violations of the visitation order. The father of my child is guilty of derelict and defective parenting: my daughter has become dangerously withdrawn. Her grades are down. I have married again. But in the eyes of the court it would appear nothing is enough to qualify as "material changes in circumstances." Here, where I live in Stafford County, where barratrous substitute judge and trial lawyer Tandy Rinehart and friends reign, justice is nothing short of tyrannical.
Again, I write you all and ask for guidance, answers and solutions. I ask for intervention. Specifically, What do you need from me that will help you change these outcomes and help you fix the problem? What do you need from me to help you investigate my case and the cases of all the other mothers similarly aggrieved? What can I do to help?
Respectivly
Sherry Hayward
703-655-2223
