Another open letter to Judge Gerald W. Hardcastle, Family Court, Clark County, Nevada - Las Vegas

(I know I just wrote one, but I've got to get this shit out of my head before it kills me.)

Dear Mr. Hardcastle (I've stopped using titles & conventions that are misnomers),

You barely skimmed the final written page of my statement.  Unfortunately, that was the part where I stopped touting myself and pointed out that we learn how to parent from our parents.  Therefore, when you find a shockingly poor parent, you can pretty much rest assured that their parents SUCKED as well.  Not a tough puzzle to put together.  Little too tough for you it seems.  Since you just gave my children to the Mother of an insanely abusive Mother.  WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK SHE LEARNED THE ABUSIVE PARENTING BEHAVIORS?!?!?!?!  You asshole.

Let's look at the case at hand and your ruling.  Four months ago, to the elation of my children and myself, Judge Teuton made a temporary ruling giving me full physical custody of my children.  This came following a 5 year progression which began with me having 1 hr of visitation with my children, once per week, at Donna's House and joint legal custody.  I sucked it up and jumped through each hoop placed before me.  While my ex- slowly discredited herself with each step, I gained credibility.  When at last Judge Teuton began to realize that I am not the garbage my ex- claims me to be but I may in fact the be the good father I claim to be.  So we have a test four months until the evidentiary hearing,

The four months go by without drama.  Finally the kids got to live a life without manipulation and head games,  where screaming, yelling, and fighting are not being modeled for them on a regular basis.  They finally saw that effective communication and understanding can be a two way street for a parent and child.

Then came the hearing of Monday, Feb. 11th, 2013.  Judge Teuton has taken on new responsibilities and you are assigned the case.  At the hearing, the only substantial new evidence is the recordings of the abuse.  Everything else has been said before a million times.  A hearing to make the final ruling is scheduled for that Friday.

So what do you do?  On Friday, you elect to throw aside Judge Teuton's orders.  A colleague's decision, based on 5 years of experience handling the case is completely ignored in favor of your opinion, grounded upon a single 3 hour hearing.  With the exception of some disturbing recordings of the mother, i.e. with no new evidence, you decide that the children should be removed from my home and placed under the full physical AND legal custody of my ex-'s mother (i.e. maternal grandmother - Nana) and I am to have 4 hours of supervised visitation twice per week.  WHAT?!?!  BASED ON WHAT?!?!  What EVIDENCE do you have to support placing such massive restrictions upon my relationship and parental authority with my children - in TOTAL OPPOSITION to the order made just four months prior?  NONE.  You have none, nothing but your personal assumptions, prejudices, and bias.  Three unavoidable influences which every Judge tries to minimize, NOT BASE ONE'S ENTIRE RULING UPON.  My children's lives are at stake and you are spewing your emotional baggage all over the courtroom.  You're a disgrace to your position and peers.

So it's been a week and I've seen my children for two hours, playing on the floor of Nana's sterile home.  Now I've been informed I WILL NOT SEE MY KIDS until after she has a copy of the signed, written order.  She has also determined that the only acceptable person to supervise my visits is my 73 year old, handicapped mother who lives in Summerlin (I'm on eastside and Nana is in Henderson).  How thoughtful and considerate of her...  My kids have lived with me UNSUPERVISED FOR THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF WITHOUT A PROBLEM.  I've dealt with supervised visits for five degrading years and elicited nothing but comments about what an outstanding father I am, and YOU still decide I'm not to be trusted with my children.  Blow me.  My son has been pulled out of his school and will be flung into a classroom of strangers for the THIRD time since September.  He's in Kindergarten.  I went to a TOTAL  of 3 schools K-12.  It's his FIRST FUCKING YEAR!  I'm very excited about some of the Public Charter Schools and want to take advantage of this great resource.  I can't even get their mom or Nana to bother looking at one of the web sites.  Now I don't even have legal authority on paper! (I've only had it in practice for the last four months).  I won't even go into the the psychotic Voodoo-Christianity prison you've thrown my kids into...  My father is Born-Again, I know what that's about.  These people are out of their fucking minds.  You, Mr. Gerald W. Hardcastle, have made a terrible error and my children are paying dearly for it.

I may be down, but I'm not out.  What's a few more months and thousands of more dollars?  Very little to you, but a cruel & painful blow to my family.  But I will continue.  I'm appealing.  I will pull the money out of my ass. I will correct your failure.  And my children & I will win.  Fuck you.