A judge’s race or gender makes for a dramatic difference in the outcome of cases they hear—at least for cases in which race and gender allegedly play a role in the conduct of the parties, according to two recent studies.

The results were the focus of a program about “Diversity on the Bench: Is the ‘Wise Latina’ a Myth?,” sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Orlando on Saturday afternoon. (ABAJOURNAL.COM; http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/race_gender_of_judges_make_enormous_differences_in_rulings_studies_find_aba; Feb. 6, 2010)

MYTH OF THE COLOR-BLIND JUDGE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RACIAL HARASSMENT CASES (PAT K. CHEW, ROBERT E. KELLEY; WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW; VOL. 86:1117- 1166)

Above Report Last Available Online From: http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/86/5/kelley.pdf

FEMALE JUDGES MATTER: Gender and Collegial Decision-making in the Federal Appellate Courts (Jennifer L. Peresie; The Yale Law Journal; VOL. 114: 1759-1790)

Above Report Last Available Online From: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/images/pdfs/211.pdf

Regardless of the level of interest in the issues of judicial impartiality, judicial accountability, or judicial reform ~ the studies at hand bring a fresh reminder that we are more and more becoming a nation of men rather than a nation of laws contrary to what our system was founded upon. Not diversity, subjective determinations, and the whims of personalities or circumstance but with critical thinking and an objective standard founded within our Constitution.

For the purpose of enabling each State to provide, in appropriate cases, foster care and transitional independent living programs for children who otherwise would have been eligible for assistance under the State’s plan approved under part A (as such plan was in effect on June 1, 1995) and adoption assistance for children with special needs, there are authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year (commencing with the fiscal year which begins October 1, 1980) such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this part. The sums made available under this section shall be used for making payments to States which have submitted, and had approved by the Secretary, State plans under this part.

The program requires state plans for foster care and adoption assistance, allows for federal block grants to the various states, and rewards states for improved adoption scores through incentive programs associated with the operation of state programs.

Pennsylvania has had some recent corruption problems, which it is unknown if that is the cause of the federal government freezing funds across the state, pertaining to judicial corruption. See Pennsylvania Judicial Corruption: What About Judges Jailing Parents for Cash (Feb. 12, 2009)

According to WJACTV.COM, Blair County Commissioners announced Tuesday that they will have to figure out how to survive without $571,000 from the federal government. Blair County is not the only county being affected, with information leading to the entire state’s funding being temporarily frozen. Several counties and the State may have to pay back funds to the federal government due to possible accounting problems with state records.

This move by the federal government could mean that they are starting to pay attention to other areas of concern with programs managed under the Social Security Act, including Title IV-A, Title IV-D, and Title IV-E. For more information about these programs, please see Nationwide Blueprint.

Yesterday, August 4, 2009, WFTV.Com broke the story FDLE: DCF Worker Stole $40K In Tax Dollars.

Corita Adams, a supervisior with the Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) food stamp program quit her job late Tuesday afternoon after she was charged with stealing more than $40,000 from government assistance programs.

WFTV.COM further exposed that:

State agents say Corita Adams used her knowledge from DCF to fraudulently apply for government money.Corita Adams was working at a DCF office when she was arrested. Federal Department of Law Enforcement investigators burst into her office and they say she was surprised to see them.Eyewitness News learned that Adams was well-liked at work and well-respected. She was promoted to supervisor just six months ago after a career at DCF that spanned 15 years.

These issues of state-managed federally subsidized programs in the area of social services are plagued with accountability issues in both the judiciary and the executive branch.

Some additional examples of misspent federally subsidized programs that you might of recently missed:

Report: Fla. Child-Welfare Workers Falsified Data. More than 70 Florida child-welfare workers falsified records in the last two years, leaving 14 children in unsafe homes and causing the state Department of Children and Families to temporarily lose track of at least six other children.

Pennsylvania Judicial Corruption: What About Judges Jailing Parents for Cash? “They sold their oaths of offices to the highest bidders,” Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI’s Scranton office, said at a news conference Monday. (Source:AOL NEWS; 2 Pa. Judges to Plead Guilty to Public Corruption; Orig. Article; Jan. 27, 2009)

Fort Bend Woman Guilty in Child Support Fraud Ring ~ ”Fort Bend County jury has found 42-year-old Debra Hodge guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity for her part in bilking over $40,000 in fraudulent child support from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.”

Child Support Worker Arrested in Bribery Scheme ~ “ORLANDO, Fla. — A former employee of the Department of Revenue’s Child Support Enforcement program was arrested Thursday on bribery charges.” (Local6.Com “Child Support Worker Arrested In Bribery Scheme” March 8, 2007)

Title IV-D Employee Embezzles Quarter of Million in Child Support Enforcement Money ~ “A Natomas woman stands accused of bilking the state Department of Child Support Services of more than $250,000, turning her procurement job into a means of buying a Lexus, hot tub and big-screen television, among other things.”

The Weekly Standard Indicts CSE Title IV-D Welfare Program ~ “There is mounting evidence that the system now encourages marital breakup and exacerbates fatherlessness by creating a winner-take-all game, where the losing parent–commonly a father wanting to save the marriage–is unfairly penalized by the loss of his children and by a federally enforced child support obligation.”

Federal Child Support Enforcement Program Makes Little “Cents” to the Taxpayer ~ “So the man, named Michael Eugene Lamb, is going into prison at the age of 49, sitting there on a federal conviction, and coming out sometime when he is almost 51 years old. The federal system will charge the taxpayers for his 1.5 year confinement at a cost between $30,000.00 to $50,000.00 depending on the facility and not including any health issues of the confined.”

Child Support Clerk Charged With Embezzlement: More Government Corruption ~ “Another County employee, this one in Lauderdale County, has been indicted by a grand jury on felony embezzlement charges for allegedly stealing more than $216,000.00 of program money, paid for by taxpayers, by writing unauthorized checks to herself from January 2002 through April of 2007. This employee was released on a $10,000.00 bond, which no doubt was probably a drop in the bucket considering she has already been sitting on the $216,000.00 plus her lush salary.”

Two Main Media Outlets Reprot More Thieving Title IV-D/CSE Employees ~ “Two separate reports have come out about a Maine Child Support Enforcement Worker (Title IV-D Employee) that has been stealing money orders from children the agency touts to protect. This most recent employee, who is now on administrative leave pending investigation, was reported as intercepting money orders and depositing them in her personal bank account.”

Mounting Accountability Problems With Child Support Programs: Data Stolen ~ “Yuba County scrambled this week to contact 70,000 people whose names and personal information were on a laptop computer stolen from the new Child Support Services office in Linda. County officials said the stolen laptop contained Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and other private information on 70,000 people+.”

Identity Theft: Opt Out of Family Court Services Before it Happens to YOU! ~ “…customers in at least three states have already experienced serious breaches in their personal information, including social security numbers being compromised and potentially handed over to hackers that might want to steal identities in the last few months alone.”

Mounting accountability problems exist in nearly every area of social services related programs at both the federal and the state levels. The list above represents only a limited list of headlines that were determined to demonstrate corruption, extortion, and other activities to the detriment of the taxpayers.

For more information on these issues, you may contact Lary Holland at the Get Your Justice Live News Network by telephone: 517-325-3789.

The Associated Press released an article titled Report: child-welfare workers falsified data claiming an astounding “More than 70 Florida child-welfare workers falsified records in the last two years, leaving 14 children in unsafe homes and causing the state Department of Children and Families to temporarily lose track of at least six other children, a newspaper reported Sunday.” (Orlando Sentinel; Report: Fla. Child-Welfare Workers Falsified Data; July 12, 2009) The report was not named, although we are looking into further information to see the extent of the information that was not reported in the mainstream about this case.

The connection in last month’s coverage involving a 7-year old’s alleged suicide while in foster care was not referenced in the current article. The newspare referenced some apparent sections in the report discussing some of the issues it had discovered, including one reference “Police discovered four foster children living in tents in a yard of a Wildwood house with no running water, food or clean clothing, the day after a caseworker reported she had inspected the home.”

Often times if a potential litigant is signs their name to a falsified government document they can be prosecuted for some serious crimes. In some cases of ommissions or falsification it can lead to serious indictments, like on a bankruptcy petition under Title 18, U.S.C. 152(3). Nearly every official document, a citizen can be held guilty of perjury or other crimes.

The Orlando Sentinel did not go into great detail as to what happened to the offending government bureaucrats, but they generally stated “Half the caseworkers who falsified records in 2007 and 2008 were DCF employees, while the others worked for private contractors hired by the agency to supervise child-safety cases. Nearly half were prosecuted, according to state and court records. Almost all were fired or quit.”

We questioned one attorney on their thoughts of government falsification of documents and he indicated that similar to police officers that are offending in various degrees it can collectively affect cases involving criminal actions and generally indicated that the issues should be brought to the media for public consumption and scrutiny.

In the case at hand, we applaud the limited coverage in the Orlando Sentinel, and hope that they elaborate to the public to ensure that none of the offenders are under government or tax-payer employ again.

We are looking forward to other reports across the nation to reflect similar findings and will be sure to report them as updates to this and upcoming stories.

This particular headline is interesting because the father brought the issue of threatening voice mails and the resulting outcome is that the mother obtained a restraining order against him.

In the second voice mail message Ms. Simone pretty much states that there could be a conspiracy through the use of her office by threatening “There are several investigators who will be more than happy to let certain people know you are cooperating with the Feds — do you understand?”

There are significant threats possibly going in both directions in this case, but where a government official is allowed to abuse such authority and power it warrants a greater scrutiny than just some random member of the public making threats against another.

Daly said the state’s attorney could still bring “disciplinary or criminal” charges against Simone over the voice mail messages.

Simone works in Alvarez’s narcotics unit. She has continued to work at the Criminal Court building since the tapes surfaced. She is the daughter of Palos Township Democratic Committeeman Sam Simone.

Although a protection order was granted to Simone against Rosales, and the attorney for Simone is stating that she is right because one was issued, it is a far cry from seeing all the facts. The Chicago Tribune didn’t cover the fact that restraining orders are issued with little to no evidence based on low evidentiary standards and that each time an order of protection is handed down that the states receive a bonus stipend in civil or criminal proceedings.

It will be interesting to see how more of these “high-profile” personal custody cases play on public perception of divorce and separation cases.

According to Ginger Thompson of the New York Times, which was found in a republished article at the SFGate.Com website on June 28, 2009, the Nebraskan Supreme Court has ruled that the state “acted improperly when it terminated a Guatemalan woman’s rights to her two American-born children after she was detained on charges of falsely identifying herself to a police officer and then deported.”

The Nebraskan court also stated that “a parent’s custody of their children is perhaps the “oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by the United States Supreme Court.”" This isn’t the first good caselaw ratifying and enumerating that parental rights are an inalienable right, but here are just some of the reasons that the court made its ruling:

The court pointed out, for example, that the authorities did not provide Luis with adequate legal representation while she was in Nebraska. Her first language is Quiche, a Mayan dialect, and her interpreters spoke Spanish. The court faulted state authorities for failing to contact consular officials to intervene on Luis’ behalf. And, the court, said social workers failed to provide her with proper guidance on how to recover custody of her children after she was deported.

The state did not prove Luis was unfit, the court found. Instead, it said the record showed that the state made no effort to reunify the family, largely because social service workers “thought the children would be better off staying in the United States.” State officials would not comment on the ruling.

It has been four years since Luis’ children were taken away. She last saw them in February 2008, when she came to the United States for a hearing. Luis said she never gave up hope she would get her children back, and that she could not wait to have them join her in Guatemala.

In another case out of the Nebraskan Supreme Court under Farnsworth v. Farnsworth “a court cannot overlook or disregard that the best interests standard is subject to the overriding recognition that the relationship between parent and child is constitutionally protected.” Everyone should be keeping their eyes on Nebraska, because their Supreme Court Justices apparently think parents should be the ones to raise their own children.

The threats and other harassing communications against federal court personnel have more than doubled in the past six years, from 592 to 1,278, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Worried federal officials blame disgruntled defendants whose anger is fueled by the Internet; terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into federal court; frustration at the economic crisis; and the rise of the “sovereign citizen” movement — a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don’t respect federal authority.

It would appear that the inferences that are being drawn in the article as to why there are these “drastic” increases are somewhat fuzzy with blame being placed on the Internet, Frustration at the economic crisis, the rise of sovereign citizen movements, among other reasons for the federal level threats and “harassing communications.” Taking a look at all of the alleged threats and harassing forms of communication would allow the inferences to become a bit more clearer, especially in today’s age where people are accused for harassment for demanding copies of their records and other broadly harmless activities.

The article addresses loosely state claims, although no statistics were given, of harassment and threats. Although the inferences drawn at the state level certainly are more on target to reasonable expectations.

State court officials are seeing the same trend, although no numbers are available. “There’s a higher level of anger, whether it’s defendants or their families,” said Timothy Fautsko, who coordinates security education for the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg and said threats are coming from violent offenders along with divorce, probate and other civil litigants.

Probate and Divorce actions certainly cause a ruckus in the system because there is such a high rate of conflict already surrounding cases where people are losing access to their children, their homes, their jobs, and more as a result of a broken divorce industry. In a system where people are willing to kill each other, as examined in this blog article, states that Family Court is a Deadly Business, with new additions to the list nearly every month.

When perusing the Constitution, the people have what appears to be an indiscriminate duty and liberty to redress their grievances with the government, but when the government doesn’t listen… what is a person’s next step? They certainly get angrier, louder, and more boisterous. A closer look at policies in our courts likely would reduce conflict at the state level, and provide a more amicable outcome in the divorce, child custody, and child support cases across the nation. The most obvious solutions at the state level are to reduce the number of people in adversarial processes, that lead to threats and misunderstandings over civil dockets between separating couples.

Judge Donald James Venne was represented by Attorney Doug Kelley of Kelley & Wolter, P.A. According to their website “Mr. Kelley has successfully represented both individuals and corporations in many areas including mail, wire, bank and health care fraud; RICO; breach of contract and gaming law. He also has expertise in political campaign finance reform and fair election practices.”

According to the Pioneer Press through TwinCities.Com the case was heard in Anoka by retired Judge John Oswald who “was previously chambered in St. Louis County.” (TwinCities.Com; Anoka County Judge Fined for not Filing Tax Returns; June 22, 2009)

Judge Venne’s attorney was quoted publicly in the TwinCities.Com article when referring to Judge Venne that:

“He still is on medical leave and he is seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression. All of this was triggered by a traumatic family event — that is, a family member who tried to commit suicide and was almost successful. That would be a child.

“Based on that event, he concentrated all on that … He hadn’t opened his mail for years. He had a $6,300 refund check from the IRS that could have covered all of his unpaid taxes, and that wasn’t discovered until one of my investigators went to his house and discovered all of these bags of mail.”

Judge Venne’s term expires January 2013, after being last elected in 2006. Originally appointed to the bench in June 1986 by Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich, he won subsequent elections in 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2006. He was formerly employed as partner at Jensen, Venne & Schmidt, P.A.

To see Judge Venne’s entire judicial profile, you can view it at the Minnesota Courts website at http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=JudgeBio_v2&ID=30046