2016-02-10

The First Installment Of 'Worthy Of The Woodchipper': Are You Worthy?

If I wasn't so strapped for time, lacking of energy and ambition and whatever excuse I care to come up with, I'd make 'Worthy for the Woodchipper' a regular feature. Alas, I don't have that kind of drive and you'll have to settle for intermittent posts on the subject.

That being said, given it's a new feature, I have two stories needing woodchipping today.

The first involves a judge so wicked witches are petitioning she steps down lest she gives them a bad name.

Her name is Amanda Sammons. Erm, Judge Amanda Sammons.

Read about her heroic feats to protect children here, here, here and (sigh) as if all that wasn't enough, here. 

From link 1:

"Two children were taken from their home this week and kept from their parents for four days after a judge ordered so without a hearing or legal cause, according to statements in court Friday.

As their parents wept, 8th Judicial Circuit Judge John McAfee ordered the children, ages 15 and 3, returned home, declared the actions of the judge who ordered them taken "improper" and removed her from the family's case.

McAfee repeated that action Friday two more times, striking down Campbell County General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons' removal orders in the case of a 19-month-old baby boy who had been in the care of a grandmother described by a guardian as an "excellent caregiver" and of a 14-year-old in the care of a grandmother deemed by state Department of Children's Services attorneys as blameless.

In each case, DCS lawyers told McAfee they did not seek removal of the children nor believe the agency had legal grounds to do so. In the case of the two children taken from their parents on Monday, DCS attorney Apryl Bradshaw said the agency had no pending complaint involving them. The agency instead had been working with the parents on issues involving a third child in the temporary custody of DCS. Sammons held no hearing before ordering them into state custody, said attorney Kristie Anderson.

"The Juvenile Court had no jurisdiction on those … children," DCS regional general counsel Sean Muirgaen told McAfee."

Winner.

Link 2:

"A request to review the actions of General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons, who is believed to have destroyed the only physical record of a court order, has been certified in Campbell County Criminal Court.

Assistant Public Defender Bill Jones, who claims that Sammons destroyed the only copy of documentation showing the acceptance of an appeal in a case, filed a petition asking a higher court to take action.

While representing Christopher Watkins, Jones and the state entered an agreement to not pursue prosecution, the writ shows."

Disgraceful.

Link 3:

"Brandon Byrge lost two job opportunities because a Campbell County judge didn’t sign an order to which the teenager was legally entitled.

It would take five months, legal action and another judge’s intervention for Byrge, 18, to get Campbell County General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons’ signature on an order wiping his record clean of a misdemeanor vandalism charge that already had been dismissed, court records and statements made Monday in Campbell County Circuit Court showed."

"...Sammons, a former prosecutor who won the judgeship in 2014 with a campaign promise of “a revolution” in Campbell County’s judicial system, at one point simply refused to sign expungement orders, records showed. And there was a growing list of other complaints about her handling of the court, including refusing entry to latecomers and then ordering them arrested for failing to show up, that were spawning a slew of appeals.

There were 10 appeals of Sammons’ rulings in juvenile court matters on McAfee’s docket Monday, and her decisions were overturned in most of them with little or no argument from either side in those cases."

What 'revolution' could possibly be needed and why do people vote for people who promise such nonsense?
 
And Link #4:

"A Campbell County judge insists she has no choice in forcing poor people to pay a fee for court-appointed counsel even if they never make use of that service.

“That fee I assess cannot be waived,” Campbell County General Sessions Court Judge Amanda Sammons told the News Sentinel. “It’s not a waivable fee.”

The law says otherwise — twice stating the fee can be waived. Nowhere in the law establishing the fee does it require the poor to pay for taxpayer-funded attorneys who never handled their cases."

/turns woodchipper on.

I trust she'll be removed soon enough before she destroys more lives and makes mockery of the justice system.

***

Heaven forbid you homeschool and run afoul of the indoctrination of the state:

"This past month, two Ohio families from two separate school districts contacted HSLDA after they were served with criminal complaints with similar facts.

And under the charges they face, these families could be fined tens of thousands of dollars and be sent to jail for more than a decade.

Both families were somewhat new to homeschooling in Ohio. One family filed a notice of intent when they began homeschooling last year, but did not know they had to file another notice for this school year. The other family filed their annual notice of intent, but did not submit an educational assessment with their notice because they had not yet completed it, and had been told by their school district that there was no deadline for submitting the assessment.

Even though both families continued to educate their children, their school districts decided to treat the children as “truant.” The schools also waited to contact the families until the children had accumulated more than a month of “absences,” instead of addressing the issue when the school began marking the children “absent.”

As soon as both families realized their errors, they took action to comply with their districts’ demands. After filing the paperwork, both families received a letter from their superintendent verifying that their homeschool program is in compliance with state law for the 2015-2016 school year. Then they brought criminal charges against the parents.

The criminal charge is “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” a first-degree misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in the county jail. Each day that a child is “truant” can be considered a separate offense.

There is no question that homeschooling families have to meet certain filing requirements in Ohio, and this statute’s primary purpose is to deal with parents who ignore their responsibilities to direct the upbringing and education of their children. But that is not what is happening here. When schools use this statute to prosecute families for what amounts to a simple clerical error, the response is disproportionate and draconian. HSLDA’s litigation team is hard at work preparing a rigorous legal challenge to these charges, which will be tried later this month. "

First, Ohio is insane. Second, one can only hope the woodchipper is rusty enough for the superintendent who I reckon is the asshole who filed.

You think your kids belong to you? Think again. If you, heaven forbid, misfile something you can find yourself in serious trouble.

The old Roman axiom of 'the more numerous the laws, the more corrupt (and immoral I might add) the society.

Good luck to HSLDA in righting this evil wrong.

4 comments:

  1. You are so right!
    Ohio IS insane
    ...and I know it firsthand as I live in that state.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope you're not a Browns or Cavs fan! They'll let you down!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not much into sports, actually.

      Delete
    2. ...except for bowling.
      But only if I myself am playing.

      Delete

Mysterious and anonymous comments as well as those laced with cyanide and ad hominen attacks will be deleted. Thank you for your attention, chumps.