Post by TimeToUnite on Mar 29, 2009 19:30:43 GMT -5
Father Jailed for Double Payment of Medical Bills.
Dave’s fiancé has a gourmet cookie business, she needs to sell 200 boxes of cookies to raise funds for Dave’s legal defense. Go to www.horriblecookies.com/ and check them out.
On March 27, 2009 Dave Beatty was sent to jail for Contempt of Court, his crime? Alleged non-payment of $853 in uninsured medical bills. Even after Dave produced documents proving that the double payments were ordered in error, the judge held him in contempt and put him in jail. The second excuse to put Dave in jail? If he could afford a car loan he could afford to pay the medical bills. Dave received an unconventional car loan from his bank. The judge simply did not believe him, nor give him time to produce proof. So how could he get a loan? He must be hiding something? Judges must make these judgment calls all of the time, but this type of Swift Justice is the same Justice that put kids in jail for cash in Pennsylvania. Dave now faces 90 days to 2 years in jail for Child Support and Spousal Support. While Dave admits he does owe some money from when he was out of work, the amount is in dispute. Dave has paid thousands so that his children could remain in their home. He has not walked away from his duty as a parent. Will swift judgment come again without the facts being taken into account?
What is the most disturbing about this is Mom’s refusal of visitation. Dave has been denied over 400 visits with his three daughters. This has been done in direct violation of a court order. Moms consequences? Custody and control of the children. No contempt of Court Orders. Apparently $853 in medical bills is vastly more important than a good Father’s relationship with his children.
This is not unique to Maine, this is happening all over the country. Our own Congress has put in writing the importance of Fathers and Families. The following are some of the congressional findings from Senate Bill S1626, co-sponsored by then Senator Obama:
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The most important factor in a child’s up bringing is whether the child is brought up in a loving, healthy, supportive environment.
(2) Children who grow up with two parents are, on average, more likely than their peers in single parent homes to finish high school and be economically self-sufficient.
(3) Father-child interaction, like mother-child interaction, has been shown to promote the positive physical, social, emotional, and mental development of children.
(4) Children typically live without both parents when their parents are divorced or did not marry. More than 1⁄3 of all first marriages end in divorce, and 60 percent of divorcing couples have children. More than 1⁄3 of all births are to unmarried women.
(5) More than 1 in 4 families with children have only 1 parent present, and more than 1 in 3 children live absent their biological father.
(6) Recent studies demonstrate that most unwed fathers in urban areas are highly involved with the mother of their child before and after the child’s birth, with 80 percent involved during the mother’s pregnancy, and 50 percent living with the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth. However, the relationship between the parents often does not last, and many fathers do not maintain contact with their children as the children grow up.
(7) An estimated 40 percent of the children who live in households without their father have not seen their fathers in at least 1 year.
(8) The inability of parents to sustain a healthy relationship with their child’s other parent and remain involved in their child’s life can have severe negative consequences for the parents, the child, their community, and taxpayers.
(9) Single-parent families are 5 times as likely to be poor as married-couple families.
(10) Children raised in single-parent families are more likely than children raised in 2-parent families to do poorly in school, have emotional and behavioral problems, become teenage parents, commit crimes, smoke cigarettes, abuse drugs and alcohol,
and have poverty-level incomes as adults.
We need to start driving these findings into our court systems, before more children are damaged.
Dave’s fiancé has a gourmet cookie business, she needs to sell 200 boxes of cookies to raise funds for Dave’s legal defense. Go to www.horriblecookies.com/ and check them out.
On March 27, 2009 Dave Beatty was sent to jail for Contempt of Court, his crime? Alleged non-payment of $853 in uninsured medical bills. Even after Dave produced documents proving that the double payments were ordered in error, the judge held him in contempt and put him in jail. The second excuse to put Dave in jail? If he could afford a car loan he could afford to pay the medical bills. Dave received an unconventional car loan from his bank. The judge simply did not believe him, nor give him time to produce proof. So how could he get a loan? He must be hiding something? Judges must make these judgment calls all of the time, but this type of Swift Justice is the same Justice that put kids in jail for cash in Pennsylvania. Dave now faces 90 days to 2 years in jail for Child Support and Spousal Support. While Dave admits he does owe some money from when he was out of work, the amount is in dispute. Dave has paid thousands so that his children could remain in their home. He has not walked away from his duty as a parent. Will swift judgment come again without the facts being taken into account?
What is the most disturbing about this is Mom’s refusal of visitation. Dave has been denied over 400 visits with his three daughters. This has been done in direct violation of a court order. Moms consequences? Custody and control of the children. No contempt of Court Orders. Apparently $853 in medical bills is vastly more important than a good Father’s relationship with his children.
This is not unique to Maine, this is happening all over the country. Our own Congress has put in writing the importance of Fathers and Families. The following are some of the congressional findings from Senate Bill S1626, co-sponsored by then Senator Obama:
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The most important factor in a child’s up bringing is whether the child is brought up in a loving, healthy, supportive environment.
(2) Children who grow up with two parents are, on average, more likely than their peers in single parent homes to finish high school and be economically self-sufficient.
(3) Father-child interaction, like mother-child interaction, has been shown to promote the positive physical, social, emotional, and mental development of children.
(4) Children typically live without both parents when their parents are divorced or did not marry. More than 1⁄3 of all first marriages end in divorce, and 60 percent of divorcing couples have children. More than 1⁄3 of all births are to unmarried women.
(5) More than 1 in 4 families with children have only 1 parent present, and more than 1 in 3 children live absent their biological father.
(6) Recent studies demonstrate that most unwed fathers in urban areas are highly involved with the mother of their child before and after the child’s birth, with 80 percent involved during the mother’s pregnancy, and 50 percent living with the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth. However, the relationship between the parents often does not last, and many fathers do not maintain contact with their children as the children grow up.
(7) An estimated 40 percent of the children who live in households without their father have not seen their fathers in at least 1 year.
(8) The inability of parents to sustain a healthy relationship with their child’s other parent and remain involved in their child’s life can have severe negative consequences for the parents, the child, their community, and taxpayers.
(9) Single-parent families are 5 times as likely to be poor as married-couple families.
(10) Children raised in single-parent families are more likely than children raised in 2-parent families to do poorly in school, have emotional and behavioral problems, become teenage parents, commit crimes, smoke cigarettes, abuse drugs and alcohol,
and have poverty-level incomes as adults.
We need to start driving these findings into our court systems, before more children are damaged.