Posted on 09/06/2009 1:22:50 AM PDT by Chet 99
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia man who spent a year in jail for nonpayment of child support -- despite the fact he has no children -- has been cleared of the debt, his attorney said Tuesday.
Frank Hatley, 50, spent 13 months in jail for being a deadbeat dad before his release last month. A judge ordered him jailed in June 2008 for failing to support his "son" -- a child who DNA tests proved was not fathered by Hatley.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
What a stinking pile this case is!
They need to give the man back his drivers license and refund his $6,000 immediately.
Then he needs to sue the bastards for putting him in jail in the first place.
What a travesty.
This judge needs to be impeached.
Ah yes, good ole family court... the very reason why so many no longer trust any facet of the judicial system.
Sadly, this is the state of ‘justice’ in America, and has been for a very long time.
Many people on FR believe in “the rule of law”.
Unfortunately for them, they would be quite shocked by just how much our so-called justice system exists merely to extort money from citizens.
The reason why people with money can buy their way out of most any legal trouble is because the system has been manipulated to be that way on purpose. It exists primarily to justify and feed its own existence.
Legal problems?
Go to jail... or pay a fine and heavy court fees to the state and walk.
And more often than not, the crime is either trumped up or over-hyped in the first place. It is amazing how completely unrecognizable the prosecution’s case can be from reality when presented in court. And let’s not forget, the prosecutor, public defender, and judge all work for the same boss: the State.
Somehow I don’t think that is what the founding fathers really had in mind.
This is a story that has been repeated numerous times in numerous states.
I recall a story of one judge that said something to a defendant along the lines of “The child may not be biologically yours but someone must be held accountable for its well being.” and then slapped him with child support payments.
Again, this is not an issue of politics but right and wrong and I can think of no issue as clear cut in illustrating judicial abuse of power than cases such as this.
Impeached
Were I Frank Hatley, I think my actions towards the judge who put him in jail may just be a little more harsh than suing him.
The court agreed that Hatley had to comply with the consent agreement for the period he believed the child was his son, said attorney Latesha Bradley..."
His mistake was to acknowledge the child as his for any period and especially in writing without DNA PROOF. That said, what happened to this man is an outrage. The situation in child support cases in utterly rigged against the man.
” A Georgia man who spent a year in jail for nonpayment of child support —
despite the fact he has no children — has been cleared of the debt,
his attorney said Tuesday.”
“It’s a small world after all!”
As this very evening late at night (about 11PM), I saw a commercial
by a law firm in Mid-Missouri actually run a societally-useful
advert to drum up business.
From the advert, all I can tell is that there is a short-lived
provision that allows males (who else?; and I can say that as I “are one”)
to legally demand DNA testing of themselves and the purported off-spring
to make sure of paternity (or NON-paternity).
I have to give Missouri credit. Unless they’ve had some major change
since 2005 when I fled, California was famed for delivering default judgement
to males when some female they hardly knew (and sometimes never
“made whoopy” with) would name them as the father of their child.
And the California judicial/court system refused to allow the male
saddled for up to 18 years of child-support statement to demand and
receive the result of a paternity test to see if “Papa” actually be
“on the hook” and that the child was actually the guy’s offsping.
This was an ugly legacy of former and charismatic Los Angeles
District Attorney Gil Garcetti.
He’s a decent photographer...probably a better one than he was
a District Attorney.
Did you read the whole story?
The guy made child support payments for 13 years, and then stopped when he discovered the child wasn’t his. But he was still ordered to make backpayments to the State (who else?) to the tune of $16,000... of which he paid $10,000, even after becoming HOMELESS.
The State destroyed this man’s life, imprisoned him for over a year, and he’s not going to see a penny of the tens of thousands of dollars the government wrongfully confiscated from him, nor will he likely see restitution for wrongful imprisonment.
Our government is absolutely corrupt at every level.
As I said, it exists primarily to fund its existence on the backs of the long suffering citizens.
Not only did I read the entire story, I remember the original story when the judge ordered him to pay child support even after the dna tests proved he was not the father.
Even then I said this guy should go find the judge in an alley with a lead pipe.
These family services organizations seem to hate men. They systematically strip them of their parental rights but expect them to pay — even when a child is proven not theirs.
That sounds almost exactly like what happened to some poor guy in Ft Worth a few years ago. The system is FUBAR.
Not a SHRED of common sense exhibited here.
Indeed, it is true. “The law is an ass”
So is this Judge.
Doesn’t matter if it is wrong, it is all about the children.
Even if the bastard isn’t yours.
No one has mentioned Mama here. She needs to be arrested and prosecuted for fraud, and sued for every penny she ever got out of him plus penalties. If she did indeed report the possibility of a different father, the DFACS case workers should be prosecuted for bringing the case in the first place.
The judge knew and signed the order anyway. The judge should be jailed on fraud and theft charges.
I’ve said it before and now I will say it again. The only legalized form of Slavery, (or Indentured Servitude if you prefer that form), left in the United States is Child Support for a child that is not yours and Alimony for life to your ex-wife.
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