Washington State Senate Just Doesn’t Recognize Bias – Including Their Own…….
Today, Senator Jim Hargroves Committee heard testimony today with regards to Senate Bill 6511. Frankly I was appauled at the opening of this hearing, that the total bias that is so obvious with this Committee. Let me explain. When Senator Steven’s opened up as to why this hearing was being heard by the committee, she stated that she knows that there are so many WOMEN that are victims of domestic violence. Here we are, in 2012, and we still can’t get the Legislature to understand this is not a women’s issue, but a family issue. Domestic Violence happens to Men and Women equally, many federal studies demonstrate this. Why can’t members of this committee get this into their line of thinking. There is no place for BIAS in Washington State, either in the Legislature, or in the Courts.
It was interesting to hear Grace from the Washington State Domestic Violence Commission state that this bill will keep Domestic Violence victims from getting help they need. What? You have YWCA’s all over this state, you have Millions of dollars in DV funds.
On the flip side, name one single resource for Fathers that are falsely accused? You can’t. They don’t exist. More evidence of Bias bestowed upon Fathers in Washington State.
It was interesting to hear the attorney’s that talk about how short staffed they are for representing DV victims. Recall, none for those that are accused given an attorney. And, if the DV commissioner reduced the number of false accusers, they would not have this issue of not enough resources, since there is so much waste today because of false allegations.
The big issue I have with the lawyers is that they are all about how tough it is to get evidence into the courts. For Gawd sakes, you are affecting the lives of people for the rest of their lives, removing them from the lives of their children, and you are concerned that you have to provide real evidence? These are serious accusations, and they require serious consideration by the courts.
Stop the Bias, stop it now! Watch the Video - http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2012021024 Begins at 60 minutes on the tape.
I am an attorney who was interviewed for a staff attorney position by Northwest Women’s Law Center and has written on women’s rights. However, after my spouse, a fairly prominent VAWA attorney in Seattle, made false allegations of domestic violence and child molestation against me involving our two year old daughter, my life and perspective on a number of social issues have undergone drastically revision. After she made the allegations, I went from being my daughter’s primary caretaker to not being able to see her except under restricted and highly supervised visits for one whole year before the allegations were finally found to be false by both the judge and parenting evaluator.
Initially when the allegations were made, I called for an investigation into the allegations so that I could restore as normal of a parenting relationship as I could with my daughter. However, my spouse and her attorney rejected the call for any investigation and just allowed the allegations to linger while alienating me from my daughter. After the allegations were found to be false a trial by Judge Doerty, he refused to grant my reasonable request for 50/50 residential time. Instead, he granted me with one overnight a week and some additional time on another day while providing my spouse with the vast majority of residential time including additional perks such as exclusive vacation time with our daughter. Unfortunately, Judge Doerty did not even mildly criticize her for making the false allegations. Even the presentation of evidence that my former spouse had some abnormally high scores on psychological testing which showed the possibility of some serious mental health problems did not appear to be of much concern to the judge.
In the end, the family law system just glossed over the trauma that my daughter experienced from being yanked away from her primary parent and the trauma that I experienced as a result of the malicious allegations. I and my child are not alone in facing such injustice. It is difficult for me to believe how easily one can go from having a loving and normal life with their children to suddenly being separated from them based on false allegations. The state is quick to separate the falsely accused parent from their children, but does not care to investigate the allegations in a timely fashion for the best interest of both the child and accused parent. While it is great that there are a multitude of organizations to protect and serve victims of domestic violence, who is going to protect victims of false allegations? This is not a gender issue. I have met women who were also victims of false accusations. This is a law and justice issue and to the extent that there are certain groups which attempt to make this into a gender or other issue, they are doing our society a great disservice by leaving a whole class of victims unprotected under the law.
Please let me know what I can do to help support SB 6511! Thank you very much.
M. Varn Chandola
Attorney-at-Law
Tel: (206) 356-5152
Comment by M. Varn Chandola — May 12, 2012 @ 11:17 pm
Washington will continue to hand out DVPO’s like candy because of the level of federal funding from the Violence Against Women Act, the more DVPO’s, the more federal funding. What a sad and biased system. Washington and their judges (if you can call them that) are so biased and unfocused on the law and applying the law in the way that they swore to, that men and fathers in Washington State are NEVER afforded a fair chance.
I have personally seen this with many of my divorce friends. The DVPO hearings are so biased towards the “victim” that they do not allow testimony prior to issuance of the order (not only the ex parte orders but the ones subsequently issued) as it may be “harmful” to the victim. What about the rights of one to confront their accusers? THOSE rights apparently count for nothing.
“Judge” Doerty is among the worst I have seen. A man who can totally look the other way while screwing over a father for no just reason. He has been quoted in an article as stating that DV expands into the fear and mind of the “victim”. What about those paranoid or otherwise mentally ill? While their fear may be as well founded as their fear of the Easter Bunny, it is not questioned or otherwise challenged.
Until the State of Washington changes its course on all levels – STARTING with Gov. Gregoire (she has spun this state out of control), the Judges that she appoints and the legislature she works with – fathers are doomed to be treated as second class convicts in this state.
My advise for any man about to go thru a divorce, custody hearing or the like.
1) File an ex parte DVPO and allege violence to you and the child(ren) while you have physical custody of the children and she is out or away from home. Have the Sheriff meet her at the door.
2) Have your friends write declarations backing this up
3) File for custody and go on the offensive
This is what many women do these days – while sad, it’s the way to get ahead. Perhaps when men start using the tactics of false DV, then maybe the legislature will take notice. And when the percentage of DVPO’s issued to protect men rises, maybe then they will start to be treated fairly.
As a women, I abhor the politics of The State of Washington and the treatment of men and children in the courts.
I will continue to support these petitions.
Comment by MD — October 31, 2012 @ 6:35 am