There is a disturbing case out of Orlando, Florida involving a curious ruling on child support. John Nelson is a father who had lost his six-figure salary as a software executive. Nelson secured a lower paying job as a teacher to support himself and pay his child support. He waited a year to get a hearing before Family law Judge Julian Piggotte to reduce his $2200 monthly payments in light of his lower income. Instead, Piggotte increased the payments and left Nelson with just $200 a month to survive. She then recused herself because her husband works with Nelson’s ex-wife at the state attorney’s office.
While it is the best interest of the children that guide these decisions, I fail to see how forcing a father to live on the street advances those interests. The result is often a failure to pay and incarceration. We have seen similar thoughtless decisions in the past, here. This is a father who has found a new job and is working to pay child support. The response of the court appears to disregard the equities and realities of the case. It is particularly disturbing when the recusal follows such a draconian result.
If there is more to this story, I would be interested to learn about it. On its face, it looks pretty bad. I fail to see how a court can leave a man with just $50 a month. I can see if the reduction is only temporary, but it seems like there has to be some appreciation for such financial changes — unless the court viewed Nelson as hiding funds.
If Piggotte believed that she has no discretion in the matter, then state law needs to be changed. If there is discretion (and there usually is) the decision needs to be reexamined due to both the harsh result and the appearance of a conflict.
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Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful article. Thank you for supplying these details.
My cell. # is 904 234 5313
Please, I need to speak with somebody as soon as posible! Its about a child support situation !
ONCE MORE THIS HAS To BE REPEATED and PUBLISHED
6 THE COURT: Really, I don’t know that I could
7 bear to hear her say that, to be frank with you
i agree 100% Michael..i just saved up $750 over 2 years to get my Judge Biggot transcripts sessions with me and ready to publish…she labelled me a pedophile yet the transcripts show clearly not a bad word was sad about me by any witness just the kidnapping ‘mom’ and her dirtbag attorneys conjecture…we all need to get out transcripts from this family destroyers past and discredit her lest we all fade away and our children never know us..
I think it is time that those individuals the system is hammering into the ground got together and created a united front to stop this kind of nonsense. If the Florida department of revenue and the judicial system cannot administer the system in a way that is not fair and equal to all than maybe its time to shut the system down
should read sorry..
“i will not allow this woman to say a good word about this man in my court”
i sympathize with all those damaged here…however I have been damaged more than anyone NOT something to be proud of….Piggotte branded me a pedophile in 2011 and denied any access to my daughter in favor of an established scammer with millions of dollars of fraud convictions against her..today i paid the first payment of $750 to access court transcripts that show this ****** to be a despicable excuse for a judge….i am free..i have no arrests no accusations and a 100% clean record…yet now i cant even get a job as i have this evil against my good name…in court there was not a single piece of evidence, witness or anything that even suggested i was a bad guy…when i get the transcripts i can start perjury proceedings against my ex which i can prove solidly and most importantly i can share with the world Ms Biggotte denying my character witness the right to testify with the following incredible line:
“i will not allow this woman to say a good word about this word in my court”
my name is Russell Gough…i will spend the rest of my life fighting for the right of parents to have a fair court system….God bless you all
ps i have been a father to step children and numerous other kids for the last 20 years..i have about 20 testimonials from the kids and to this day i am always asked to watch youngsters as i stand up to the drunken and drugged up parents in Daytona Beach…if you have ever seen a teen girl punched in the neck and face by a drunken father you WILL take her to safety….and then seen his gf give her weed (age 14) to shut her up so they can have loud sex…you would feel as angry as i do..people NEED to stand up for kids!!
I am a father who loves his children very much. My child support was based on my income at the time of my divorce. At that time I was earning 325,000 per year. I was working 75 hours a week and had the stress that 20 people should not have to endure. My child support was set at 3160.00 per month. I paid every month and on time. About 16 months ago my employer and I came to an agreement for a mutual separation. I was at the end of my rope, tired and frustrated. My employer was struggling with paying my salary. I received a nice severance and started a new business. I have been earning about 60,000 a year. I tried to reason with my ex wife initially to come to a new support amount. After a month it was obvious that she wasn’t going to agree to a new amount. I hired an attorney to deal with the support and for the last 15 months paid her 1,500 dollars a month every month and on time. Well we waited 13 months to get our day in Duval county court. The judge ordered me 28,000 in the rears and no modification. Gave me 30 days to pay a 7,000 purge. I have no way to pay and there is no way to pay the 3160 a month support. He told me that I needed to find a better job and ordered me to 179 days in Duval county jail if I don’t purge. So in the next week or two I will be headed off to jail. I’ve made two more attempts to try to come to an agreement with the ex and all she says is “you gotta pay the judge says so”. So can anyone tell me how this is beneficial to the welfare of my children? I am going to loose my business, have no job and never get caught up. My life is over at the age of 40 because a judge thinks that 1500 isn’t enough support for my two children. I will also add that I was paying for the medical insurance coverage as well. For those of you who think that there is more to this story there isn’t. I changed my lifestyle to live on a lower income and I don’t have any investments or 401k. I am a father who was trying to pay and has never missed a month.
I must say I agree with you totally LISA, some of these people are insane. Only thing is you left off so much because their are not enough hours in the day to comment on all the wrongs in child support. Why should MOM be in charge of DADS paycheck period if they are not together? Nobody was telling me how much I had to spend on my kids when mom and dad were together so how the fuck can anybody justify putting a price tag on kids according to my wages. Mom doesn’t have to spend one fucking dime on those kids from child support and nobody is going to do shit about it but if dad can’t afford to pay child support one month because he had to get his car fixed so he was able to get to work to even be able to pay his child support judge is gonna throw his ass in jail dad loses job due to incarceration and falls even further behind on child support. What the fuck man FUCK YOU FAMILY COURT. No this didn’t just happen to me but a friend and it is truely insane. And don’t comment on this by saying well they can’t or wouldn’t do that because I have personally seen it, judges very rarely have to answer to anything. The legal system in general was established by good honest fair people that had the best of intentions but they would never have guessed that corrupt people would eventually take these positions and fuck shit up. Lets face it people the laws are not perfect but yet they are not that bad. The problem lies with these fucking ignorant judges enforcing a law to a situation without just cause and not enforcing it when they have just cause. Again the legal system was set up assuming that all judges and attorneys would follow rules and regulations to better serve our communities. What they didn’t anticipate is a way to force judges to actually be ethical, they rarely face penalties for there actions. The rules are in place to supposedly ensure all goes well, however the system does not allow any way to make a judge follow the law in family court. Until the family court is forced into having jury trials the moms, the dads, the kids, evrybody in general is FUCKED. The system isn’t broke we just need one of 2 things,to get the fucking corrupt judges the hell outa there or take it outa there hands by using a jury trial and actually enforcing perjury within the family fucking court system. PEACE OUT and fuck all you all fucking bias and corrupt mother fuckers, just fuck the fuck off.
The entire family law system who my grandchildren have now been the victims of in Citrus County Florida for five years is broken corrupt and does not serve the best interest’s of children but have allowed the mother in spite of a documented psychiatric history, in spite of a documented drug history, arrested last Jan for shoplifting and resisting arrest, arrested for domestic violence,was living with a woman and two male drug dealers the other female had lost custody of her children due to drug abuse in spite of DCF removing the children from the custody of the mother for drug fraud, horrible filthy living conditions such as sleeping in a broken down bedroom in a trailer on urine soaked mattress’s and a baby that was so starved bite marks were on the bars of the crib we have a custody evaluator who did not use any documentation not once but twice charged 2500 and spoke to relatives on the mothers side who dont live in this state- the above happened 3 months after her report was done and now the court has allowed the nightmare to be relieved as she has left her mothers house moved in with 2 strange men in the same neighborhood that she was drug trafficking in last year. The court wants this same custody evaluator for another 1250 dollars, the attorney doesnt listen the judge doesnt look at documentation and you wonder why children die every day in this country from the lack of human empathy, lack of judicial fairness and gender bias my poor granddaughter and grandson are 70 TIMES more likely to come to harm and that is a fact Please Help us anyone out there who can help this is a living nightmare
check out Paccs on facebook.. it is what it is.. there is a thin line between child support and baby mama support.. I am sorry to inform all the Gold diggin bitches out there. if you cant give the child the same luxuries the father can.. give them up… The father is not obligated to take care of you.. Lets say for the sake of argument men do that because they dont want to pay.. I dont blame them.. the system is not right and it will change.. it just takes time.. Child support should max out.. no matter how much you make.. no parent should recieve over one thousand dollars per mo for a child period..
Like I said its a thin line between child support and baby mama support.. child support and money for weed support.. child support and money for lortabs support.. child support and money for the casino support… I can go on all night.. long..
its not right.. everyone on the planet knows its not right. Why dont you call it what it is.. IM gettin back at you cause you left me support..
why is it when you get a raise they take it out your check before you get your check but if you are laid off or lose your job you have to request a hearing…
can you say 21st century lynching…
THE WOMAN GETS PREGNANT.. POSSESSION IS NINE TENTHS OF THE LAW.. SPEND MORE TIME READING TO AND LOVING YOUR CHILD AND LESS TIME MAD AT THAT MAN FOR WHAT EVER REASON
Child Support is a Lie.
Its not really child support. He was really just financially supporting the woman. The way that child support is calculated has nothing to do with how much it costs to raise the child. They say its about child welfare, and that is a lie also. Its about money.
Buddah:
That much conflict? There are some 400 people under the same employement as the ex wife and the Plantiff. This is what I have read in the file and will share. You gotta admit that the judges obligation is to disclose and offer other options to the plantiff.
On Nov 18, 2008 a hearing was held. The Judge stopped a line of questioning when some evidence was entered that revealed a possible conflict of interest and pointed this out to all in the court room. The participants agreed that even though the judge’s husband had the same employer as Mr. Nelsons ex, the fact that they had not worked together was acceptable to all and agreed to continue. A ruling that denied the motion was entered on JAN 6, 2009. On APRIL 6, 2009 Mr. Nelson filed a new motion (2nd petition) for modification. It was on this date April 6, 2009 that Mr. Nelson asked that the judge be reassigned from hearing this SECOND case. Of course, who would want the judge that just denied your petition to hear it again if an appeal case were granted? So, contrary to the way Mr. Nelson words his calculated releases, he acknowledged, accepted and continued the hearing. He had plenty of time, almost 2 month before the ruling and another 3 months before filing his second lawsuit for modification to make issue of this matter. Mr. Nelson’s misrepresentation of this matter is slanderous and self serving. The news station should issue an apology for showing the Judge and framing the story as if this judge did something unethical. Mr. Nelson should stop twisting truths and apologies also
We don’t act in a vacuum; we act on pleadings and apply the facts and law to those pleadings. It doesn’t sound much like a summary judgment issue, or a judgment on the pleadings issue. What facts were determined as to whether the father intentionally took a diminution in income in order to defeat child support? Some assume that the father’s diminution is and was of his own making, and others assume differently. without a fact-finding in that regard, how was it possible to determine whether there should have been a reduction, or an increase, in child support? What says the Uniform child support Worksheet Guidelines?
I was hasty in my original comment, but my personal disdain for the judiciary in Broward County, Florida, due to the corrupt acts of Judge Michael Gates in knowingly sentencing an innocent defendant to 60 months in prison is palpable, at best, because the sentence was imposed purely for the sake of protecting and covering up the most despicable acts of the state attorney, as well as the unethical and criminal conduct of the Public Defender, “Help-Me-Howard” Finkelstein, and his assistant, Madeleine Torres, who deliberately sabotaged the defense by speciously losing the exculpatory evidence in the case (namely, an altered and falsified surveillance video tendered by the City of Hollywood Florida police department forming the basis for the prosecution in the first place), and then falsely testifying against their own client in order to deprive their client of meaningful access to the courts and to meaningful habeas corpus in the latter stages of the case. Cf., http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrorinblue/
When the State is too lazy or too incompetent to investigate incomprehensible video evidence when a historically corrupt police agency (The Hollywood Florida Police Department) presents such evidence as probable cause supporting criminal charges, and an incompetent public defender sits on such incomprehensible evidence for six months and fails and refuses to investigate why they have been presented with (Brady) evidence that makes absolutely no sense, and when neither entity seeks justice when the state’s evidence is shown to have been altered and falsified by a second video secured by a private investigator, but instead drops their demands for 18-to-22 years imprisonment vice “plead guilty to any charge and you can go home, today” smacks of tyranny and corruption. Further, when the Public Defender orders the defendant to go to the police department and file an internal affairs complaint (alone, and after Miranda warnings), where the words of the complaint are, in the opinion of the IA Officer at trial, a confession, and where the Public Defender refuses to request a jury instruction on self-defense and fails to object to the IA Officer’s instruction to the jury that a “defendant does not have a right to resist excessive force by a Hollywood Police Officer; he must fall down, curl up –” and accept whatever torture, beating or death the officer may decide to deliver, any ability to accord any respect for the judiciary in Broward County is myth. The utter corruption of the judiciary in Broward County was further brought to light when the state attorney, Scott Raft, later advised the habeas court, “if we find any evidence that the Brady video (or any other video) has been altered, that will end the ball game. We will ask this court to undo this conviction.” Then, in Mr. Raft’s opening statement to the habeas court, he gave extensive prologue of the perjury that he was about to elicit from the defendant’s former counsel, (Public Defender) Madeleine Torres. Mr. Raft then emphasized the fact that former counsel, Torres, lost the Brady video, AND, the state attorney has also lost its copy of the Brady video, THEREFORE, there has been a break in the chain of custody and the habeas court should not consider the Brady video at all. Notwithstanding Ms. Torres’ confession of habeas counsel, Ms. Melissa Minsk-Donoho, on the day before the habeas hearing, Ms. Torres took the stand at the defendant’s habeas hearing and with venom in her demeanor, testified falsely against the defendant, her own client. There is nothing I would cherish more than to have Ms. Torres, Mr. Raft, Mr. Satz, or Mr. Finkelstein sue me over these truthful remarks.
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John McNamara
Another term you should familiarize yourself with is “reversible error”.