America, Land of the Corrupt Legal System

I haven't ranted about anything in a while. Heck, I haven't had anything significant to complain about lately.

Well, that all changed last week. Actually, it all changed last September.

Last September I received my pay stub in the mail (I have automatic deposit). I was at home when Kate got the mail. She yells from the other room, "CARY, WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS?" She brings in the pay stub and right there on the front it reads CHILD SUPPORT GARNISHMENT in the amount of 400 dollars. Kate was giving me the "Do you have something to tell me?" look. I assured her I had nothing to tell and told her it HAD to be a mistake. Yes, I formerly paid child support, but that was years ago. My kids are adults now; they live on their own. I haven't paid child support for years.

So I get on the phone and call the payroll department and leave a message. My employer is no different than the rest of the world. You can no longer talk to a real person if you have a problem. Three days later they call me back. I explain the deal and tell them there must be some mistake. She tells me NO MISTAKE, they have a new garnishment order from Indiana.

W H A T I N T H E N A M E O F G O D?! I ask her to explain (actually I think I screamed it). She said she didn't know anything other than they have a new garnishment order for $2100.96 from Indiana and that they had to collect it.

I run to my desk and start calling Indiana trying to find out how this happened. About 20 calls and transfers later I get someone that explains it all in grave detail to me, and it is as follows:

Last spring , my ex-wife Julie, (I will be polite and call her Julie. When I am home or around friends, I call her something much, much worse) went back to court in Indiana (even though she now lives in Missouri) to emancipate our daughter, Joscelyn. Joscelyn at this time had been 18 years old for 8 months, but Julie was in her fear of me going back to court to get child support from her that she did not pay me while I had our daughter in MY custody. When Julie gave up Joscelyn she lived in Paraguay and I couldn't get child support from her without paying 30K+ to get a measly 50 bucks a month (our system has no cheap method of getting child support from parents that live in another country - HINT to all you CS dodging men out there...). I was out of luck on getting CS. I asked Julie at the time if she would be willing to just give me a little child support without paying the 30K. She said no. The actual statement, and my kids can vouch for this, was, "No, you are no longer paying me 375.00 a month CS so that is just like me giving you 375.00 a month," and no I am not kidding. This is actually how she thinks. Even though I paid my CS every month for 15 years to the tune of around 135 THOUSAND DOLLARS total, she was not going to give me a penny. Nor did she. She never paid one red cent to me OR Joscelyn the entire time Joscelyn was under my roof.
So this is why she emancipated Joscelyn. She was afraid that I was going to try and go back and get CS from her. Of course I wouldn't because no amount of money is worth fighting this battle another second.

Anyway, when she did the emancipation I got notification that this was going to happen. I must stress that the notification just said EMANCIPATION, it said nothing about CS being addressed. Seeing as how emancipation had nothing to do with me, I pretty much ignored it. I want nothing to do with Julie or her insane paranoia. Well, the woman on the phone in Indiana tells me that when Julie was in court. she said (I am paraphrasing), "And oh by the way, Cary is still behind 2100.96 behind of his CS from years ago. Because I wasn't at the hearing (and why would I be?) they just awarded it to her. I told the woman I was speaking to that I had never been behind on my CS and this would be easy for me to prove as I have saved every pay stub I ever paid CS on. I kept EVERYTHING. She said it wouldn't help. Because Julie didn't contest any specific date, that meant I couldn't prove anything. This showed up in their system as an additional CS order not a "Go get back CS order" which is different. She said I would have to hire a lawyer and go back to court and contest it.

Of course hiring a lawyer was not an option. You don't spend 3000 grand on a lawyer to fight over $2100.96 dollars.

Now is a good time to explain some past CS issues. Back when I used to pay CS, at least once a year I would get a letter from Julie stating that I was behind on my CS. I would have to send her a letter back and explain that I don't directly pay her CS. It is garnished from my paycheck and that I never touch the money. BY LAW my employer MUST garnish the CS or by law they are liable to pay it. Trust me when I say, it was always taken out. If for some reason (me taking time off without pay, etc) there wasn't enough money to cover the garnishment, they made it up on the next check.

I would also have to explain to Julie that if she was missing a CS check it MIGHT be because my employer would garnish the money from my check and send it to Washington Child Support Enforcement (CSE), Washington would then send it to Montana CSE (She used to live there), Montana would then send it to Indiana CSE and Indiana would send it to Julie. The process was wrought with possibilities for failure. Julie didn't ever care. If she didn't get a check it MUST be because I didn't pay.

One such time was in February of 2003 I received a letter from Julie and it said, "As you well know, you are $2100.96 behind in your CS...". As this was a large amount of money I called Indiana CSE and told them the story. They pulled up my account and said that their records showed that she has gotten every dime that she should have. I asked them to fax me the log showing this which they did. I sent Julie a letter back and explained that she is wrong and if she has a problem with that she needs to go down to the CSE office and talk with them. Done.

I don't hear one more word about this alleged $2100.96 until September of this year when I get the garnishment despite the fact that Julie has been in court three times since February of 2003.

After talking to Indiana CSE for over an hour trying to get this straightened out (Oh and its important to note that even now they say that they have no record of me being behind and fax me proof of such yet again) I decide to call Julie to find out what is going on. Of course she refuses to answer my calls as its much easier to keep money that isn't hers than it is to get to the bottom of her alleged shortage. I then call her husband Eric. He tells me he doesn't know what is going on and that he will ask her to call me which again she never does. I try to call her numerous times, still she will not answer.

I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated all this made me. I did everything that society and state laws demand of me. I paid all my CS, I maintained a relationship with my kids, despite Julie moving them 5 times to 3 different states and one other country.
Even though I did all that the system allows that a vindictive mother can get back into court and just say that the father is behind in CS and the court orders it paid, no questions asked. Keep in mind she did not have to nor did she provide any proof that she didn't receive the $2100.96.

I talked at length with my wife and we decide that I would try and fight this on my own without a lawyer. I found a woman at the Indiana Supreme Court website that was very helpful in explaining exactly how to appeal this decision myself and to make a long story a little less long, I did just that. I was able to get a new hearing based on the rule that by law they should have had to notify me that they were going to address CS in the emancipation hearing. My hearing was last week. My wife and I put together an entire package that would help me in court. I took with me every shred of proof that I would need to beat this. I took a log from my employer showing every payment made to Indiana. I took the log that Indiana had just sent me of every payment they received from my employer and every payment made to Julie. It all added up. Every last cent. (Actually it didn't, I OVERPAID by 87 dollars the last year)

Last Monday I flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove to Crown Point Indiana (ugliest place on earth, which is fitting). On Tuesday (court day) I went to the court house which also houses Indiana CSE. I went down and asked if I could sit down with someone and go over the log that they sent me so that I could understand what every code and number on it meant. The woman there was more than helpful and pulled up my account. She told me that when it was closed a couple years ago it was not behind and that it would have never been closed had I still owed money. She also added up the four years on the log just as Kate and I had done numerous times. It all came out the same, $9044.88 (which is what my yearly CS was) for every single year (yes except for the last year that it was OVER). Actually let me correct that, two years were off, because CS is taken out of my checks every two weeks no matter what, one year was one payment short and the very next year was one payment over. That is just how it worked out due to the amount of checks I received in a year, but over the four years it was right. Let me just clarify that if Kate and I and the woman from CSE all added it up (about 50 times) and we each came out with $9044.88. It would be one hell of a coincidence that we all came up with the exact amount of my yearly CS requirement, would it not?

1:00 came and it was time for my hearing. I went in and sat down opposite from Julie's lawyer, Jim. He has always been a big fat piece of crap (again being polite) who when the kids were little and living with their mom in Indiana would yell at them and say nasty things to them when Julie was visiting his office. Joscelyn asked me when I left for Chicago if I was going to be seeing Jim the lawyer. I said I was and she replied "give him this for me" and then gave me the bird. I happily said I would (in reality I said much worse to him). That kind of shows you how evil this guy was. Ten years later and my daughter still hates him.

Anyway I digress. The hearing starts. The judge (a woman) explains some rules. She explains that I will get a chance to tell my story (She lied) yada yada and then she tells Jim that he can start. He starts right off bashing me. Makes comments about me not showing up to the last hearing and that we shouldn't even be arguing this issue again. It is finally my turn and as I start to read my statement he objects. He says he objects to arguing all this over and this isn't a forum for me to rant (paraphrasing) (I wasn't ranting I didn't get two words out before he objected). He goes on and on about what a piece of crap I am. Says that I pick and choose what hearings i attend (true enough, why would I attend hearings that have nothing to do with me that are halfway across the US?), even goes so far as to outright lie and say that I owe him money! I have NEVER had a judgment against me for costs EVER. I start to cut in at this outlandish accusation and the judge says "WHOA WHOA WHOA, YOU DO NOT INTERRUPT IN MY COURTROOM!!!" She says that she has a three strikes rule in her courtroom and that was strike one for me. Jim starts up again and goes for another 5 minutes telling lies and bashing me. Seriously, he is just making things up! None of it has anything to do with what we are doing and I have to sit there and listen to it.
I finally get to start talking again. Every time I start to talk he objects and starts in again. The judge allows all this. I finally am able to tell the judge that Julie did not have to provide any proof that she did not receive any CS. Jim objects (big surprise) and says that she indeed did provide proof. He coughs up a HANDWRITTEN log of every check Julie says she got and what she didn't get. I speak up and say that unlike Julies handwritten log, I have the log that I had just gotten from Indiana CSE that proves she got everything she should have. Jim objects to it, she overrules him and takes it. I then explain in detain everything on the log. I also tell her that Indiana CSE JUST TOLD ME that I am not, nor have I been behind and that Julie has gotten every cent she should have gotten. I show her the code for all the checks that were received and cashed. I explain that I have drawn a line at the split of every year so it can easily be added up and I also explain the two years that are one payment over and one under. Jim sensing he is losing ground now objects and states that we aren't even sure that its CS that I am behind on. This is ridiculous based on the fact that he just got through giving the judge Julies log that she said showed shorted CS checks. I also produce a letter at this point from Julie where she states "Due to shorted and missing CS checks...). After much back and forth and about 800 objections from fat ass Jim, the judge says she would like us to be quiet now so that she can figure this out. She sits up there for what must be 5 minutes typing away on a calculator and scratching her head.

Finally she says "OK I think I have this figured out." She then explains that she just picked an arbitrary year (I think it was 2000) and added it up. She then says, "Mr. Cleland, you told me that every year added up to 9044.88, but I just picked one year and added it up and it in fact DOES NOT add up to $9044.88, it comes out to 8 thousand...(can't remember the exact number, although it was not close). At this point I am in a full on panic because I have spent 1000 dollars to get to court in Indiana and I am about to lose because the judge just added wrong. I blurt out "BUT!" and as I do she screams "DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!" at which point I add "BUT YOU ADDED IT WRONG!" she then screams again "DO NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD"! Then the bailiff stands up and tells me to "shut my god damned mouth" and that if I say one more word he will arrest me. So there I sit in silence while the judge says, "Mr. Cleland, I figure if you can't add one year correctly, you can't add any of them correctly and therefore I think you probably do owe the money, judgment is for the plaintiff".

There you have it. This ladies and gentleman is our legal system. This is America's great system of justice.

You can take a guess at why this happened. Either the courts will never let someone win if they are representing themselves, which to some extent makes a lot of sense. If people were successful at representing themselves then why would we need lawyers any longer? Judges are basically lawyers with a better job. They work with and are friends with other lawyers, it would make sense that they are going to make sure people know that representing yourself will never work.

Or maybe I lost because the judge can't add. I actually doubt this. I had proof from Indiana CSE that showed I was never behind and in fact they would have never closed my case had I still been behind. The judge ignored that fact, a rather large fact.

I do intend to file a formal complaint against the judge as I will get a transcript of the hearing complete with her incorrect addition and then I can submit the document from Indiana. I would hope that at some point in the complaint process someone would add the figures and see that she added wrong. That won't undo anything but maybe she will get her hands slapped.

There are a couple key points to remember with all this. First my ex-wife, like a lot of ex wives, is angry. Angry because she is fat and stupid and lives a terrible life. My kids, as soon as they were able, got the hell away from her as fast as possible. Both of them dislike her. Hate is probably a tad strong but dislike is spot on. When both of them heard this whole story at the beginning they each called her and told her they would not be talking to her until she dropped this. They kept that up for a couple months but they have a brother and sister on that side of the family and couldn't not communicate with them forever. I do understand that. Adam has had some good fights with her about this topic. He said he now remembers why he got away from her, she is insanely ignorant. Julie is angry because her kids want little to do with her. They have grown up wanting to be near me. They are very clear on who the hateful dishonest one was all those years.

The next point to remember is that Julie never paid me one penny of CS while I had Joscelyn. I had Joscelyn for 3 years that CS should have been paid to me. Sure I didn't go to court to ask them for it but I did ask her and she said no. Hell, even Joscelyn called and asked her for help, she always said no. Isn't this just classic for bitter divorced mothers? She receives around 135 thousand dollars from me and won't pay me a penny in return. She even went so far as to lie to the kids about working in Paraguay. Adam went there to visit and everyday Julie would dress up to go somewhere. He asked her if she had a job, she would reply no, she just had errands to run. He said it was a joke as she dressed up nice and left for most of the day. He later found an embassy badge or whatever she used to get in the building. Clearly she was just lying to keep him from knowing she had a job AND wasn't paying CS.

You have to be a damned bitter angry piece of crap to not pay CS AND go back and take more that you are not owed. Hell, you would think even a moderately good person would think that even IF they thought they were owed money that they would think to themselves, "Yeah, but I never gave him a dime so I will call it even". Nope. Not bitter angry Julie. Too angry, too miserable.

Oh well, in the game of divorces and CS, I still feel like I did OK. I am happy and I get to spend the 5th Christmas in a row with ALL my kids on Christmas morning. She will be spending it with my $2100.96

Merry Christmas Julie you hateful money sucking bitch:)