Free Republic

An Ohio mom has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after she was caught on camera ambushing her ex-husband and fatally injecting him with a powerful animal tranquilizer during an ugly custody dispute over their kids, federal prosecutors said. Amanda Hovanec, 37, pleaded guilty this week to poisoning 36-year-old Timothy Hovanec when he arrived to drop off their three daughters at her Wapakoneta home in 2022. “She then pulled on his back to bring him to the ground, holding him around the neck until his body went limp and he became unresponsive, lying on the driveway,” prosecutors said. Newly...

A violent Portland Antifa ringleader has been convicted by a jury in a five-day trial marred by tight security restrictions and intimidation from Antifa members in the gallery. Alissa Eleanor Azar, 32 (b. Feb. 12, 1991), was charged with felony riot, disorderly conduct in the second degree and unlawful use of mace in the second degree. The jury found Azar guilty of felony riot and second-degree disorderly conduct. The unlawful use of mace charge resulted in a hung jury. The case stems from an Antifa riot in 2021 at a park in Clackamas County, Ore., and that's where the trial...

Oklahoma prosecutors have charged a fifth member of the anti-government group “God’s Misfits” with the killing and kidnapping of two Kansas women. Paul Jeremiah Grice, 31, is now facing two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder in Texas County. The charges stem from the deaths of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, of Hugoton, Kansas. According to an arrest affidavit, Grice admitted to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent that he was involved in the killing and burial of Butler and Kelley, the wife of Pastor Heath Kelley, who leads...

ELBERT COUNTY, Colo. — A child custody exchange in Colorado turned deadly on Sunday when the father of a 4-year-old was fatally shot by his ex-girlfriend’s fiancé, authorities said. According to a news release from the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office, Jeffrey Church, 26, of Colorado Springs, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The victim was identified as Michael Bolan, 36, of Parker, The Denver Gazette reported. He had gone to a gas station for a custody exchange with his former girlfriend in the community located 25 miles southeast of Denver, USA Today reported. Deputies responded to a call at...

In October, two Santa Cruz siblings were violently removed from a relative’s home and forced into a family therapy program with their mother. After that, Maya and Sebastian, now 16 and 12, were not heard from until May 29, when they ran away from their mother’s home and went into hiding. “We finally got away,” Maya says in the first of a series of videos, taken with a shaky camera as the kids were driven away during their 3am escape. Since then, the kids have taken to Instagram to describe their experiences with reunification therapy, a controversial program that ostensibly...

René Salinas Ramos says the legal change is an attempt to gain full custody of his daughters, because Ecuadoran law favors mothers in custody battles. A cisgender man in Ecuador legally changed his gender to female in an attempt to gain custody of his two daughters. But LGBTQ groups are concerned about the man’s use of a law designed to promote transgender rights, and what effect it could have in the future. René Salinas Ramos, 47, told local media that the change was not related to his sexuality or identity, but rather that the Ecuadorian legal system gives preferable rights...

The Brazilian Tutelary Council has begun removing the children of Brazilian election protesters from their parents’ custody. This comes after the National Council of Justice in Brazil issued an order to verify the condition of children involved in protests that have dominated the country following the election of far-left politician Lula da Silva. The order outlines a plan to identify protest points and inspect them for children. The Public Ministry, Guardianship Council, and auxiliary bodies have been assigned to “protect the children,” removing them from the protests and their parents’ custody when they deem necessary.In a move that many Brazilians...

Republican lawmakers filed a bill Wednesday that would require expecting fathers to pay child support beginning at conception. The "Unborn Child Support Act" would "establish and enforce child support obligations of the biological father of an unborn child." With the mother's consent, once paternity is proven, fathers would be responsible for the payment amount determined by a court. The bill would amend the Social Security Act which outlines the existing state-enforced requirements for biological fathers to make child support payments to the mother of their child. Not only would the legislation expand the requirements and ensure state enforcement of mothers'...

Josh Homme’s legal team wanted five day jail sentence for Brody Dalle after criminal contempt conviction By Louder about 11 hours ago Brody Dalle escapes jail, receives community service sentence for her criminal contempt conviction stemming from custody battle The Distillers leader Brody Dalle has been ordered to undertake 60 hours of community service and fined $1,000 in a Los Angeles courtroom, as a sentence for her conviction for criminal contempt arising from her bitter custody battle with her former husband, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Rolling Stone reports that Homme’s lawyers had called for his ex-wife...

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, has admitted to unlawfully retaining a document containing national defense information and committing international parental kidnapping, the Department of Justice announced.Shirley, 47, pled guilty to one count of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information” and one count of “International Parental Kidnapping.”  Shirley admitted to unlawfully retaining a National Security Agency (NSA) document containing information classified at the TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION (TS/SCI) level relating to the national defense that outlines intelligence information regarding a foreign government’s military and political issues.  Shirley also admitted to removing her child, of whom she was the...

Well-to-do Illinois parents, including lawyers, doctors and realtors, are reportedly giving up custody of their high school-aged children in order to help them secure scholarships and financial aid reserved for low-income students. Separate investigations conducted by ProPublica Illinois and The Wall Street Journal have uncovered dozens of cases in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago involving parents transferring legal guardianship of their teenagers to grandparents, aunts, friends, or even co-workers over the past year-and-a-half. The idea behind the tactic, which is legal in Illinois, is that once the parents give up custody, the children are able to declare themselves financially independent...

Contact: Janice Grenadier, 202-368-7178 ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- A young mother was jailed Friday for reporting physical abuse of her son by the father to government authorities and for talking to her 10 year old son's therapist and psychiatrist about her medical concerns for her son. Hard to believe? The court reporter transcripts reveal it all in Cases CJ 14001064 and 14001065 in Alexandria Circuit Court in Virginia. Her attorney is Jonathon Moseley (703) 656-1230. Judge Lisa Kemler announced in her official decision before a court reporter that she was punishing the mother for making a...

DETROIT — A spokesman says a Michigan judge wasn’t aware of a sex offender’s criminal background when he granted the man joint legal custody of a child born to a woman who said the man raped her when she was 12. Michigan Supreme Court spokesman John Nevin told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Sanilac County Judge Gregory Ross didn’t know 27-year-old Christopher Mirasolo had two criminal sexual conduct convictions, including one concerning the woman.

Governor Snyder signed the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act into law on May 3. The new law helps prevent a rapist from gaining custody of a child. The law was included in a larger package of bills addressing domestic violence that Governor Snyder also signed. Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, “Half of women who become pregnant through rape don’t have abortions and most of those women decide to keep their child. Michigan was not doing enough to protect women from their attackers in those circumstances.” Under old state law a parent whose child was conceived through...

Complete Headline: Girl, six, to be LEGALLY torn away from her loving foster parents of five years because she is '1.5 per cent Native American' and the family is white Lexi, a six-year-old with one-and-a-half per cent Choctaw Native American blood, is about to be ripped away from the only home she's ever known Summer and Rusty Page, Lexi's foster parents, are not Native American Due to the 'Indian Child Welfare Act', Lexi can only live with other Native American families Summer and Rusty from Santa Clara, California, have been fighting for two years to adopt the child Now a...

UPDATE: Sinead O'Connor is reportedly "safe and sound" and receiving medical assistance, according to Irish police. A distressing update appeared on Sinead O'Connor's Facebook page on Sunday (Nov. 29). The status, which comes from her verified Facebook page and appears to have been written by the singer-songwriter, includes the sentence, "I have taken an overdose" and reads like a possible suicide note. She added she is staying at a hotel room in Ireland under a different name. Over the past 24 hours, there have been a series of disturbing posts on her Facebook, stemming from a battle with Irish folk...

A U.S. Navy sailor from Washington State is currently serving on a submarine thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, but a judge has ordered him into an impossible custody scenario: Appear in a Michigan courtroom Monday or risk losing custody of his 6-year-old daughter. Navy submariner Matthew Hindes was given permanent custody of his daughter Kaylee in 2010, after she was reportedly removed from the home of his ex-wife, Angela, by child protective services. But now a judge has ordered him to appear in court Monday, or risk losing his daughter to his ex-wife in addition to a...

ADRIAN Being posted on a submarine in the Pacific Ocean does not exempt a father from obeying child custody orders, a judge ruled Monday in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

Is it possible that the Family Court System in Arizona and perhaps across the nation is broken? Lawyers get Judges involved who cannot or will not make a decision, who in turn appoint a Parenting coordinator, who brings in many other "professionals" to evaluate a small child. Then a Best Interest Attorney is also brought in and MORE evaluations begin. Money, money, money and a system that consumes your entire life and drains your bank accounts.

Child custody and support laws have become more onerous over the last 50 years due to fewer parents staying together and women becoming equally as capable as men at earning a living outside the home.  Instead of reflecting these changes, the laws have lagged behind, continuing to favor mothers over fathers. The laws generally award primary custody to the parent who spent more time at home with the children and less time working, even if the difference was miniscule. The other parent is then ordered to pay a crushing amount of child support, sometimes on top of alimony. In a...