Prince William County Circuit Court
Organized Child Abuse

Organized Child Abuse		Prince William Circuit Court (703)792-6010 9311 Lee Avenue Manassas VA 20110	Kangaroo Court Term descriptive of a sham legal proceeding in which a person’s rights are totally disregarded and in which the result is a foregone conclusion because of the bias of the court. - Black's Law Dictionary

The Judges of the Prince William County Circuit Court should have helped protect Liam from the abuse of Cheri Smith and Loretta Vardy but they did not. Either the Judges have very little knowledge of and/or have very little respect for the Constitution of the United States and laws of the state of Virginia. They have willing refused to fulfill their duty to protect the rights of citizens including ones, such as Liam, who are too young to speak for themselves. They appear to act as if they are above the law and can replace the Constitution and laws with their own personal bias, the sad part is that this is about the only issue they are right about.

This court has a reputation for significant gender bias and that it will only award custody to a father only if he can prove the mother has severely beat the children, and that nothing else matters to them. Not how good a father he is, not how bad the mother is, not what is best for the children, not the laws of Virginia and not the Constitution of the United States. I had great respect for our legal system and found this impossible to believe but unfortunately for Liam, the courts reputation is largely accurate, and my previous respect for the courts entirely underserved.

Liam and I have been abused by the Circuit Court for over 2.5 years (and counting) including:

• Awarding "temporary" custody of Liam to his mother at a hearing that WAS NOT ABOUT Custody, in a case that DID NOT INVOLVE Custody. By doing this the court prevented me from presenting evidence and/or witnesses to document my good parenting skills and close relationship with Liam and the behavioral problems, including "uncontrollable rage", that his mother suffers from. The ruling violated the rules the court but neither the judge involved or any others have been willing to apologize for or correct the error.
• Awarding "temporary" custody without following state guidelines. The court did not properly consider the following as requied by law § 20-124.3: (2) the mental health of the mother, (3) my close relationship with my son, (5) my role in caring for my son including staying home to care for him while his mother wanted to work instead, (6) Cheri Smith not supporting my contact with and relationship with Liam, including her having unreasonably denied me access to and visitation with Liam (what could be less supportivee than a false protective order and repeatedly calling the police?) (7) Cheri Smiths refusal to participate in mediation and counseling to help us work together to raise Liam. (8) The preference of Liam to spending large amounts of time with me (even Cheri Smith admits it) (9) Cheri Smith's history of verbal and physical family abuse, even when I have a written apology from her for physical violence and a tape recording of her admitting to making death threats against a family member.
  
  Given the factors set by law are in my favor the court should have awarded me custody. If the court trusted Cheri Smith's judgment, it still should have awarded me custody, as she felt I had better parenting skills, based our parenting plan on her working and my staying home and caring for Liam, and even stated 4 months before court started that "...you would both be better off without me." and one month before filing a protective order (dismissed, expunged) she wrote "...you've always taken very good care of him...".
  
  Clearly it would have made more sense for the Judge to award custody to me since the law indicated I should get custody, and that the my wife had agreed I was a better parent, had always taken good care of our son, and had chosen to leave our son in my care while she worked, especially when she has documented and admitted problems with "uncontrollable rage", domestic abuse, and a mood disorder treated with psychotropic drugs.
  
  Its very hard to come up with any explanation for the ruling removing a child from my care when both parents agree I've always taken good care of Liam to leave him with a parent who has uncontrollable rage and chose to work rather than raise him and whose ability to care for him properly is in doubt. It appears the Judge made the decision largely or solely based on gender in spite of the law § 20-124.2 prohibiting him from considering gender -- especially when the Judge had gone so far as to threaten me with NO VISITATION and told me that he had given me a better deal than he gives "most fathers". It was clear from his remarks that he felt fathers had no place in a child's life.
• The court has overlooked many rule violations by Cheri Smith's attorney, Loretta Vardy, including serving me notice of hearings without sufficient notice, then turns around and enforces the rule when I file just one day late. The court has so far refused to issue sanctions against Cheri Smith and Loretta Vardy for not complying with discovery requests even after one year and appear to be willing to cooperate with them in trying to hold a final hearing without providing me with significant evidence related to the case.
• The court had scheduled and heard motions filed by Loretta Vardy even when her filing did not comply with the rules and while I was out of state and unable to attend. It issued a blatantly unconstitutional order while I was out of state with Liam during our court ordered vacation period, yet the court has refused to hold hearings that I filed on time, that did not require the opposing party to be present, on the grounds that her attorney could not attend due to being out of state. In fact their order was so blatantly unconstitutional they haven't had the balls to try and enforce it (or vacate it), I guess they are aware of the First Amendment and were just hoping I wasn't. The Judge must have thought he could intimidate me into giving up my first amendment rights.
• Yet while happily holding hearings for my wife without proper notice and giving me a reasonable chance to attend, the court had refused to hear my motion asking the court to order Cheri Smith to stop illegal activity that is harmful for Liam. Its been about 9 months since I filed it, and I have scheduled and rescheduled it and the court still refuses to hear it, yet it is somehow able to hear a motion asking to end my visitation, which even my wife has stated would be harmful to Liam, on just a couple days notice (I got the notice Friday New Years Eve for a hearing 600 miles away on Monday).
• Denying any visitation at a hearing without giving me a chance to attend and at a followup hearing threatening me with jail when I tried to point out that the "facts" that Loretta Vardy claimed to justify cutting off visitation were false.
• The court has refused to order Cheri Smith to answer questions or provide evidence relating to her adultery which has been having a significant negative impact on Liam, causing him emotional distress, and apparently requiring him to give up his bed and sleep on the couch so she can have sex in his bed. The court claims this is allowed on 5th amendment grounds, yet the supreme court has ruled that the 5th does not apply since there is no credible fear of prosecution of adultery in Virginia. Somehow the court feels her adultery is illegal enough to grant her 5th amendment protections over established case law by higher courts to the contrary, and yet somehow it isn't sufficiently illegal for the court to order her to stop the behavior or to take steps to protect Liam from this illegal misconduct. It would appear the court is a willing partner in attempting to help her hide her sexual misconduct and its adverse impact on Liam and are trying to coerce me into doing the same.
• The court has refused to order my wife to comply with Discovery. I can see their point, if they aren't willing to consider any evidence in court why make her hand it over... still it is illegal violations of Due Process and equal protection on their part.

Please contact me if you or someone you know has been a victim of the Prince William County Circuit Court.


     permission is granted to copy this page and post it on other web sites. Posting this page in other locations will help mothers, attorneys, and judges understand that the only way to protect their reputation is to behave in an honorable manner and give up the notion that they can hide their misconduct with unconstitutional court orders to take down web sites.