"More Bad Judges"
Thursday, January 8, 2004 at 12:41PM Jack Newfield of The Nation has a piece about the Bush administration's latest crop of federal judicial nominees. Needless to say, he does not approve, concluding:
Bush is trying to transform America through lifetime judicial appointments for this biased batch and their clones. The bottom line is that the reckless Bushies are willing to violate computer privacy and vandalize the Bill of Rights to expedite this transformation. George W. Bush was appointed President by the Supreme Court after losing the popular vote by more than 500,000. Now he is trying to use the courts to legislate a mandate the voters never gave him by abusing the power of appointment and ignoring the Constitution's "advise and consent" clause.
You can read the whole thing here. (via How Appealing)
Reader Comments (796)
The NEP website is there. So is their blogsite.
Maybe what they're doing hasn't been effective, but at least they are trying. Sometimes just coming together and having a *itch session does a lot to relieve stress. That in itself, is helpful and effective.
Because Darren Mack promised to love, honor, and cherish Charla until death did them part.
Why does that person require $10,000 per month to live? (especially when the other person is already ordered to pay all her expenses)
How do you think those expenses are getting paid?
Why does that person have no work experience?
No recent work experience. She was just doing the trivial, unimportant task of raising the children while her husband proceeded to fornicate with multiple partners.
Married at 30, did she never work?
Work experience gets moldy really quick.
If another situation had presented itself- the business going under or him dying, she would have gone out and found work.
True enough. But his tomcatting around wasn't part of the marital agreement, unlike the situations you just described ("for richer, for poorer" and "until death do us part").
Just for marrying someone, we are not owed a standard of living for the rest of our lives.
No, but there is that pesky pledge to love, honor and cherish until death do us part.
We should all take some pride in earning our own way.
So she's supposed to accept a sharp reduction in her standard of living as her justly due punishment for his continuous fornication?
When a marriage fails, we each need to take responsibility for it and our futures.
Darren Mack sure as hell didn't.
How does anyone know where Darren was going on those weekends?
Where these things have come out in cases I'm familiar with, some of the tell-tale indicators included five-figure credit card bills with entries from known sex clubs, a paternity suit by one of the "swingers," the wife opening the mail and finding a videotape of his exploits (the swingers' club had sent it to the home address instead of the "business PO Box") and, in one memorable incident, the wife getting a call from the Public Health department and finding out her husband had the clap.
These things always come out.
If he did kill his wife and it does appear that way, he is dangerous.
If he did kill Charla , I find it dificult to see his plight. He probably did kill Charla. He almost killed Chuck Weller.
Darren Mack is in very serious trouble and is probably armed and dangerous.
Charla was probably mad also, with the outcome of child support orders that are not timely enforced, and she probably was scared as hell, but did, as a good mother should and as her attorney advised, by adhering to the custody order.
There are five ways out of an abusive relationship.Kill yourself,kill him or her,go crazy and bittter at the system,go on drugs,or leave.
Leaving is not an option with custody orders and doing what is right for your children.
Mack, like so many spoiled men who destroy their mariage, through his attorney, who obviously couldn't accomplish his spoiled view of what is right and wrong, intended to do what so many abusive and contolling spouses do, destroy Charla's life, too. This legal tactic, by forcing her into fiancial nightmare, into paying for attorney's that she couldn't afford, and making her and the kids wait on the system. While the bills wait, cashiers at the food store insist on money for groceries, the lawyers drum up more bills to the opposing attorney, and lie about their real scheules and bump court dates for their clients drawn-out gains. Then they create more he-said-she-said paperwork that creates more hardship for the judge to interpret, instead of just advising their clients to abilde by the orginal order.
Charla was probably just picking up or droping off her childand lost her life to an spoiled, out-of-control-abusive ex-husband.
Wonder if any judge can mentally endure through a course of his own orders, remaincalm, cool, fiancially solvent, against all odds, and still have a love for Washoe County family court... let alone forget and forgive the damage done to the children, with orders based on falsities , created by lying-lawyers, pre-judgement favoritism, political tiesand non-enforcement of his own orders?I think not.How do they think others can? And, they wonder why people are so upset with the family court.
Washoe County judge returns to drug court bench after rehab
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO -- Washoe District Court_______ , after about two months in an alcohol rehabilitation center, said he's ready to resume his judicial duties with heightened awareness.
"I feel reinvigorated," the 58-year-old family and drug court judge told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
_____ checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at the end of April and stayed there until the end of June.
He said his drinking reached an uncontrollable level following the death of his father in December.
______ said he'll continue treatment at the center by returning for a day every two weeks for perhaps another month, he said.
_____, who returned to the bench Monday, said he planned to resume his regular calendar of cases, with one adjustment.
"They advised me to reduce my child abuse cases because I tend to take them home," he said. Officials at the center warned that sort of stress could serve as a trigger for a relapse in drinking, he said.
_____ has been a Washoe District Court judge since 1984 and has never been contested in a bid for re-election.
He is credited with helping found the county's family court system. In 2000, he received a humanitarian award from the National Conference for Community and Justice for his work building the court with limited resources.
About three years ago, his drinking began to cause problems in his life, he said.
His mother, Ardella, died in November 2001. Then his 90-year-old father, Loring "Mac" _____, died in December.
"He suffered a stroke and raged in the hospital bed for two weeks -- he roared and flexed and cried out," ____ recalled. "I always looked to him to solve my problems. I couldn't cope with it."______________________________________________
Judge ________ admits shame
Family Court Judge _________, arrested Dec. 9 for drunken driving and failure to maintain a driving lane, said last week the arrest was his most shameful moment.Speaking Thursday morning before a group of 50 people being honored by Tru Vista, a family support organization he founded, _____ said life is filled with high and low moments that can affect the fate of drug offenders who come before him in drug court. By way of illustration, he mentioned incidents in his own life that represented anger, shame and despair, recollections that brought a hush to the crowd.
The moment of despair, he said, came in the city of Hue during the Vietnam War, when he entered a church filled with the bones and skulls of war victims stored behind chicken wire.
“That for me was the depth of despair,” he said.
His angriest moment, he said, came when he had to go to Washoe Medical Center, where an infant placed temporarily with foster parents was dying of shaken-baby syndrome at their hands. The child had been placed with the foster parents while the real parents went through drug rehabilitation. At the hospital, he had to restore parental rights to the real parents so they could order life support to be shut down for the “cherubic little figure.”
He then turned to his DUI arrest: “Probably the biggest moment of shame was last December when, for reasons I still cannot fathom, I made the front page of the Gazette-Journal five times. ... That was my greatest moment of shame.” (In the context of his remarks, _______ “fathom” comment referred to his drinking, not the newspaper’s heavy coverage.)
________ arrest prompted calls for his resignation or recall from a group of fathers angered by his child-support or child-custody decisions against them in Family Court (RN&R, Jan. 22) and by the Reno Gazette-Journal. Eight months prior to his arrest, he had gone to a California rehabilitation clinic for three months of treatment for a drinking problem. The arrest drew particularly heavy attention, both in and out of Nevada, because of his role in starting the Drug Court in Washoe County and speaking on its use across the nation.
______ pleaded guilty to a single DUI misdemeanor and was sentenced by Justice of the Peace Fidel Salcedo to two days in jail, $700 in fines, attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings five days a week, daily breath tests, attendance at a DUI victims’ panel and abstinence from drinking. At the sentencing ______ apologized to those he disappointed
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/NEWS10/606140341/1002
I cannot help but wonder at the condition of Chuck Weller. He may be a bad judge but he is friendly soul.
I am not condoning any of Darren's actions by any means but let's all think about the reason he felt the need to do what he did so we can save someone in the future from having this happen to them. Judge, Dad, Mom, whomever.
From another site:" Like I said before, his family has money and the boys grew up in a privileged environment. I knew his brother better, and he was kind of a goofy kid, but Darren was the jock-type that had everything given to him.
As to whether he would commit suicide...yeah, he's a rich kid on a rampage. He's already killed one and tried to kill another, so, as I said before, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they find him dead at the summer house. Getting there is a different story; there's not too many places you can run in Reno--there's only two freeways - I80 and US395 - and they're pretty easy to watch (and you know they're watching them since they know what he's driving). That's the tough thing about living in a desert--it's easy to get lost, but tough to hide in."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1647993/posts?q=1&&page=301
If it's so bad, leave. Scrounge what is yours and be done.
A kid makes it harder to do this, but the endless fighting and bickering makes it impossible. A lot of energy is lost to hate; be happy you are out.
An elderly friend has always said: "It's better to be alone than poorly accompanied."
IF these angry upset people were able to set aside their differences in the first place, let go of their selfishness and do the right thing for their children, there would be no need for a judge to intervene..
If they're going to be angry, they need to be angry with themselves. They are the ones who created the mess they're in and the judges are just doing their jobs. They don't WANT to make these decisions - they want the adults to act like adults.
You are telling me the consequences for his actions within the marriage are to pay MONEY?
The obligation was assumed freely. When Darren decided that he'd rather have lots of sex with other women, he still had that obligation.
So are you saying we pay for Love with Money.
Well, one could simply keep one's word, but I guess that's just too old-fashioned.
So he has to pay money for his infidelities because he swore, "till death do us part".
Yes. He freely assumed the obligation to love, honor and cherish his wife, forsaking all others, until death them did part. He then decided that gratification of his perversities was far more important than his wife and children.
The people that chose to end a relationship or marriage should do just that. End it. Don't try and make the other person so miserable in life that they want to hurt you.
In other words, your penis is your master, and you wish to serve your true master without any adverse consequences, and you really wish your wife and kids would quietly applaud your "maleness" and then just as quietly disappear.
Bottom line to me is the fact that they have 4 houses (one that was to be sold), he makes $44000/month and was ordered to pay less than 25% of that salary to his ex and child, and yet he felt the need to kill his ex and attempt to kill the judge even though there would be joint custody and he'd still have more money than most of us would make in a lifetime of work. Spoiled rotten rich kid comes to mind!
http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=&ie=UTF-8&ui=blg&bl_url=nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com&x=264&y=18
Why?
You missed my point.
I was simply asking that everyone ponder the questions- be more open-minded. Darren could not have been a complete monster. Charla married him, had a child with him; she was with him for over 10 years.
I was not picking sides, just pointing out that we only seem to be seeing one side: that of the victim of the crime. We don't hear what might inadvertently make the criminal appear more human. That's the way the media works.
Anyway, your answers to the points I bring up... are they facts? or just your opinion?
I never said that she shouldn't get anything. But divorce shouldn't be about punishing anyone monetarily or otherwise. It should be about being fair and helping the family move on in a healthy, productive way.
What is reported to have happened in the past year in the Mack divorce is not healthy. How could they each have let go of the situation when it is brought up repeatedly each month?
It's one thing for the daughter's support. But as for the spousal support: He's required to support her for eternity; she's required to be dependent on him for eternity. That's a bad equation when people are acting willingly; obviously destructive when it is forced upon them.
Your argument for recent work experience is ridiculous. People have to stay continuously employed or the are unemployable? C'mon!
If that was somehow the case, maybe an order for tuition so she could have learned a career would have been a better choice.
I'm not sure where you got all your tom-catting, fornicating information, but even if that was the case, the marriage would have been better simply ended- without the perpetual litigation that just continually fueled the fire.
It's precisely the biased attitude you're showing that makes these cases all the worse. You say "these things always come out" - I hope if they don't, you'll feel differently.
This is precisely the part where our Family Court fails everyone miserable: the sides are pre-judged, cases are pre-decided.
It is way too much of a win-lose system. They do nothing to empower the two parents to behave as adults and support the kids.
In spite of the bad situation divorce most often creates, the system should be a win-win-win situation, starting with the first win going to the children. This is the only way it can be a true "Family" Court; until then all it is is just another court.
The point of this whole situation should not be which Mack was right or wrong- that would only serve to perpetuate the stupidity of our Family Court system.
The point is also not whether our courthouse needs bulletproof glass, but why.
We, as a community, need to focus on what went wrong in the system. And fix what is wrong in the system. The system we have obviously cannot be accepted as "good enough."
And, pointing fingers will not do it.
IF these angry upset people were able to set aside their differences in the first place, let go of their selfishness and do the right thing for their children, there would be no need for a judge to intervene..
If they're going to be angry, they need to be angry with themselves. They are the ones who created the mess they're in and the judges are just doing their jobs. They don't WANT to make these decisions - they want the adults to act like adults._______________________________________________Agree 100%
Sometimes one spouse is unselfish and has set aside their differences, but the other one hasn't, won't, and resorts to destuction ofthe one who abides by the court decisions?
What do you suggest to the one who did set aside differences and needs when the said orders are violated intentionally, repeatedly?
Have you ever forked up to and way over $5000 at a time for each time your non-abiding spouse violates the judges orders? Wouldn't you just stop trying to enforce the orders and spend the money on what it should be spent on in the first place, the children?
Also, what to do if you've spent more than ever recieved on legal representation, from continual harrassment than ever waspaid in child support, who is the winner here?Not the parent, and certainly not the child.
If the one who "won't" abide, get a job, and pay $50 a month for a child, has an extreme history of violence, free legal representation, andgets by with un-enforced order after order, isn't that selfish and ungrown-up-like? How does one parent set that aside? They need the court to be intelligible and fair and have the judges enforce the orders without costing the "will set aside parent" their entire savings and property and extended familiy loan monies.
There is more to it than meets the eye and it can make a person angry, but they still need the help from our system and that should be the best trained court admin. and judges that employ a better system to analayze.
It really is about the children and the one/s trying to develop the potential of the child.
Please try the link you posted and refresh your screen. The page is there.
Also, try the mainpages:
http://www.nevadansforequalparenting.organdhttp://nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com/
You simply are mistaken.
Where's this one?
http://nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-bad-judges-is-judge-weller-fair.html
Does that mean that Judge Weller deserves to be shot? Absolutely not. It's not his fault that my Husband and his ex wife were selfish assholes.. he did his job. If they didn't want him to make those decisions, they should have stopped the fight.
92 posts matching blogurl:nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com - showing 1 through 10Judge Weller Released in Good Condition.1 hour ago by NEP Admin
Nevadans For Equal Parenting are relieved to hear on this morning's news that Judge Weller, the victim of an apparent assault earlier this week, was released from medical care in good condition Wednesday. NEP send their heartfelt wishes ...
Nevadans For Equal Parenting - http://nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com"More Bad Judges" -- Is Judge Weller Fair for Washoe County Families?24 Apr 2006 by NEP Admin
The Legal Reader (San Francisco) comments on controversial judges. While NEP tries to remain politically neutral, our eye was caught by negative comments about Washoe Family Court Judge Chuck Weller's adjudication. ...
Nevadans For Equal Parenting - http://nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com
It's comes up on my screen. It's dated April 24, 2006.You probably need to refresh your screen.
Anyone else having troubles getting to this page?http://nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-bad-judges-is-judge-weller-fair.html
Curious:Watch your browser and see if it trying to locate:
http://WWW.nevadansforequalparenting.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-bad-judges-is-judge-weller-fair.html
Then, take out the 'www.'