Illinois Fathers Gazette

Today was a historic day in the life of our organization. Today, Illinois Fathers was graced with, who can be considered the pioneer if not the father of our movement, Dr. Stephen Baskerville. Dr. Baskerville was the keynote speaker of Illinois Fathers 2nd Annual Fatherless Day Rally. His speech focused on the causes of fatherlessness and some of the issues that prevent us from reversing this dilemma. He also stressed establishing a relationship with the media and making sure you are a part of an organization. One telling remark he made was that government was funding unconstitutional laws like VAWA ( the Violence Against Women Act).


There were many other speakers who gave very moving and passionate speeches as well. There was Mike Doherty of CRC who stated that fathers have been relegated to a position of uncle. Carrie Adams spoke about not seeing her kids in six years and all she had been put through and there wasn’t a dry eye in the area. Tony Taylor of Fathers for Justice spoke about the corruption in the system and that there are judges and legislators who know these things are going on and refuse to do anything.

Our hats go off and we give a big thank you to the two candidates who showed up, Lex Green, Libertarian candidate for Illinois Governor and LeAlan Jones, Green Party candidate for U.S, Senate. Both of these candidates were for Equally Shared Parenting and for less government involvement in family matters. Mr. Jones is the father of two boys he adopted and Mr. Green has been through the divorce process and understands our issues as his ex-wife gave him problems with their children in the divorce. These are two gentlemen you may want to find out more about.

We also want to thank the media that came out and covered the event. TV News Stations 17 out of Decatur and Channel 20 from Springfield were there early to cover the rally. An IRN Radio reporter and State Journal – Register newspaper reporter was there to cover the candidates’ forum that afternoon. We appreciate them taking the time and also for making this issue of fatherlessness a priority. We are making changes.

I guess the one factor that lets me know this was a success was not all the people who showed up in attendance, not all the media that covered the events nor the candidates who showed and the others who didn’t but claimed they wished they could. What makes it all worthwhile is after we were finished, a man that worked for the state Capitol Building came up and grab me by the arm and said, “Thank you for not letting this issue die and keeping it going. I went through this same thing with my ex and had to spend five days in jail because the judge took everything from me and wanted me to still give my ex-wife half my pension when she had 50,000.00 dollars in the bank saved up, gave me her 17,000.00 dollar lawyer bill and our kids”. Knowing that we just gave somebody else hope gained another voice, that’s what lets me know we were successful. There were also numerous motorists, bus drivers, and truck drivers who would honk their horns and give us a thumbs up as they drove by our Rally at the Lincoln Statue.

If you weren’t there you missed it, but we have a lot coming up. On July 3, the Illinois Family Law Committee will be voting on everything. Custody, Child support the whole works. We may not get 50/50 split, which is what Illinois Fathers wants when it’s all said and done, but judging from the votes of last week’s meeting, we will still get a minimum of 35% time. The board of Illinois Fathers was taped for television show Captions in Peoria, IL with shows that will air on July Fourth and July Seventh. Board member General Parker will be in Washington, DC next week to lobby against VAWA and reforms to repeal mandatory arrest. On November 16, mark your calendars. We want as many members as possible to show up in Springfield to lobby our legislators to accept the Illinois Family Law Committee’s recommendation for the increase in custody time for non-custodial parents. We will keep you apprised of any other events as we are made aware of them.

We want to thank all you have contributed to our fundraising campaign and want you realize all the work we do for you so you know your support is being put good use and is effective. If you have not yet contributed, please consider visiting our website and contributing today. We want to thank Mike McCormick and ACFC for the leadership and support they give us. A special thanks goes out to Mike Doherty and CRC and Carrie Adams with Laps for Love. All these organizations working collaboratively with Illinois Fathers helps us to achieve our goals and get these courts turned around and our kids back where they belong. And its going to take the efforts of all us working together, not apart, to win this battle. Just like the civil rights struggle in the 60’s and Equal Rights for women, we need the efforts of all these organizations to help fight on all fronts to be victorious. And people, we will be VICTORIOUS!!! Have a blessed day.

Despite all of the positives from our Fatherless Day Rally, we must admit that more attendance from our membership would have made the event even more successful. Our turnout was respectable, yet it paled in comparison to the crowds we have seen from various groups such as the Tea Parties, The Gun Rights people, and others. If you have not yet attended an Illinois Fathers event, please try to do so during the next 12 months. If we could all show up for just one event a year, it would go a long way towards educating the general public, the media and our elected officials that something is very wrong with the family court system.

The link below is a recording of our own Mr. General Parker being interviewed on Peoria's main talk station, WMBD.

http://www.jmpradio.com/pods/gd/gd.xml
Go to June 3, 2010 and click on podcast 3

Illinois Fathers Gazette - April 10th Rally - Chicago, IL

Illinois Family Law Study Committee - Family's Rally - Chicago

     Our Saturday April 10th event taking place in Chicago represents the best opportunity we have ever had to influence the family law system here in Illinois. The Illinois Family Law Study Committee is meeting that morning and we are holding our event in order to let the committee see that there are many of us who are not happy with the way the system is currently forcing parents away from their children. The Illinois Family Law Study Committee was formed for the purpose of examining the current system and proposing changes to the system. Once this process is done, the legislature probably will not want to revisit this issue anytime soon. You can rest assurred that our opposition has had a voice in this process.

     Like our website home page says, "This is where the rubber meets the road". In our quest to fulfill our responsibilities as parents, we of course see the right and mostly the wrong of what is happening in the family courts. We must take a little time to step back however and view the politics of all this. Simply put, we have allowed our opposition to thump us politically for many years. The Morning of Saturday April 10th is when we can demonstrate to our elected officials that Illinois Parents are fed up with being forced out of their childrens lives.

     Like our website home page says, "This is where the rubber meets the road". In our quest to fulfill our responsibilities as parents, we of course see the right and mostly the wrong of what is happening in the family courts. We must take a little time to step back however and view the politics of all this. Simply put, we have allowed our opposition to thump us politically for many years. The Morning of Saturday April 10th is when we can demonstrate to our elected officials that Illinois Parents are fed up with being forced out of their childrens lives.

     Of course, children are welcome. We plan to make this event peaceful and respectable. We really do not need any outrageous signs or behavior. What we truly need is an outrageous number of people to attend !

Illinois Fathers Gazette - Announcements

    Our next scheduled event is for Wednesday, February 17th at the Peoria County Courthouse. Back in November, Judge Richard McCoy responded to Pro Se litigant David Ihben's request for shared parenting time positively by encouraging the Mother to step outside the courtroom and work out a shared time parenting arrangement with the Father (David Ihben). This shared parenting agreement was in place and working out quite well for 6 weeks.


     During a December 11th hearing that was supposedly for other issues, the Judge did a complete reversal on his earlier shared parenting speech, and instead made the familiar statement, "if thw two of you cannot work together, then I have no choice other than to give full custody to the mother and visitation to the father." Our member, David Ihben, explained that he was holding out his hand to work together with the Mother, and that the shared parenting agreement had worked without any problems during its 6 week duration. But because the Mother took the stance that she "could not work together with the Father", the Judge took the shared parenting agreement away from the Father. Keep in mind that typically, a Judge will not change a custody arrangement without a major change in circumstances having had occurred.


     David is in the process of taking this decision reversal to the appelate court. Part of this process is going through the hearing with Judge McCoy that is called a motion to reconsider. On February 17th, at the Peoria Courthouse at 2:30 in the afternoon, David intends to present as evidence the transcript of Judge McCoys own words where he praises shared parenting.

     We are asking our membership to consider showing up on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 17th at the Peoria County Courthouse. We will start by conducting a peaceful protest outside the courthouse beginning at 1pm. At 2:15, we will move inside the courtroom to witness the hearing.

    If David and Illinois Fathers can find some success in reinstating David's original shared parenting arrangement, it would be an excellent precedent setting case that the rest of us can use. Please consider taking the time to attend the important event at the Peoria Courthouse on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 17th. The Peoria County Courthouse is located in Peoria on the corner of Jefferson and Main.

     Also taking place next week, the RADAR organization will be conducting a major lobbying effort and media effort called ABUSEGATE. The purpose of ABUSEGATE is to shine some light on the problem of rampant false accusations, restraining order abuses, and other abuses of fathers, families and children that are currently taking place. Early next week we will release more information about how you can help.
     One last thing, we are holding a support group meeting the evening of Monday, February 22nd at the Urbana Public Library (Champaign area). The meeting will begin at 6:30pm. A big thank you goes out to member Ms. Joni Cox for arranging this support group meeting in her area. We hope to see you there !

Illinois Fathers Action Alert - Kerry Sandusky

Children Need Both Parents

Action Message

Is 2 Hours Enough?

Is it possible to have a court award of only 2 hours time with your son every week? Is it possible to be forced into a center that charges $30 an hour to watch you play patty cake with your two year old son? Is it possible for that visitation center to be filled with empty beer bottles? Is it possible this is in the best interests of our children?

Apparently so in the Markham Courthouse in Cook County (Chicago).

Illinois Fathers would like to bring your attention to Mr. Kerry Sandusky. Kerry has a two year old son, who was born out of wedlock. Shortly before the birth of his child, Kerry's ex-girlfriend moved away with his son. After refusing all visitation to Kerry for nearly a year, Kerry pursued visitation rights in the courtroom. Following the usual litigation routine that most non-custodial parents undergo, Kerry was ordered to have a home study that revealed he had a broken porch step on his property. Kerry has since moved away from this property, however, after spending much needed money on an attorney as well as investing much of his time, the Judge in his case authorized Kerry to spend a mere 2 hours a week of supervised visitation time with his son in a certified visitation center.

This based solely on the condition that the opposing attorney requested a psychological evaluation and the home study identified a broken porch step. We have not been able to identify any proof of any psychological conditions having ever existed on Kerry's behalf to warrant such a request. The problem, as we sees it, is that Kerry has not done anything wrong, or even been accused of doing anything that would justify he and his son being limited to the 2 hours a week of supervised visitation. Of great concern is that at 2 years old, this child is at the formative stages of his life. This is the time that this child defines his parental relationships and its highly questionable how that can occur at only 2 hours a week. There's no doubt that significant damage to the relationship between Kerry and his son has already occurred due to the extremely limited time they see each other, but what happens if this extremely limited time is allowed to continue? So we ask the question, "Is 2 hours enough?"

Kerry does not have the funds to afford a high paced attorney and without a generous out flowing of emotional support from the community, we fear that his relationship with his son is in danger. Illinois Fathers and their members have attempted to find alternatives to this course of action by volunteering our time to supervise Kerry at no cost on our own time, however, our members' attempts were refuted by the Judge. All this is despite the condition of the visitation center that the Court orders Kerry to go to. Kerry has photographed a barrel full of empty beer bottles(available here) in the visitation center, and he has also noted that the A/C and heat do not even work. Instead, they provide a space heater. Certainly, the love of a parent and a broken step is better than these conditions at a visitation center with beer and no heat. We question, highly, if this is in the best interests of this child!

Illinois Fathers has been unable to find an e-mail address for Judge Martin D. Coghlan, who is the Judge in Kerry's case. However, Kerry's case has been written about before in both the Kankakee newspaper, and also a Cook County Newspaper, (The Daily Southtown). We are encouraging our membership to contact both of these newspapers and ask a simple question, "Is 2 hours enough?". Letters to Judge Coghlan and phone calls to the court house are also highly encouraged. Note that they will probably not respond via phone, but simply ask to leave the message in regards to Kerry's case, "Is 2 hours enough?".

Case History:

https://w3.courtlink.lexisnexis.com/cookcounty/FindDock.asp?NCase=2007-D-650515&SearchType=0&Database=4&case_no=&=&=&=&PLtype=1&sname=&CDate=

Media Contacts:

Antonio Young, The Daily Journal (Kankakee), 815 / 937 - 3385 AYoung@Daily-Journal.com
John O'Brien or John Stein, The Daily Southtown is 708 / 633 - 4800 or 708 / 633 - 6777 jobrien@southtownstar.com jstein@southtownstar.com

Judicial Contacts:

Judge Martin Coghlan - Cook County Municipal Judge, District 6, Room 204Q, 16501 South Kedzie, Markham, Illinois 60471 - (708) 210-4170 (708) 210-4170

Please consider writing a letter, placing a phone call, or send an email to any and preferably all of the contacts above to ask the question, "Is 2 hours enough?"