On March I got a letter from Manhattan Family Court (Referee Elizabeth Barnett) infroming me that I had lost custody my son. One of the reasons she gave me as to why I lost custody of my son is because I failed to give my sons father (a retired N.Y. C Police Officer) a school uniform (believe it or not). Referee Barnett refused to allow me to discuss my relationship with the father which I felt could have helped my case tremendously, allowed the father to read his testimony from a piece of paper, the father would show up to court late and she would not say anything. It's obvious that she was showing him preferential treatment so my lawyer at the time (I no longer have one) and myself started the process to have her removed from the case she refused.
I wrote letters of complaint while the case was still pending before she made her decision (because I already knew what her decision was going to be) to the following: Administrative Judge Joseph M. Lauria, Chief Court Attorney Peter Passidomo, Deputy Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Jolly, and last but, not least The Chief Judge of the State of New York Judith Kaye. It saddens me to say that I got the same responce from all of the following people that they are not permitted to comment or intervene in a case that is or was pending before another Judge. I never got a responce from the people that I actually wrote to it was from a secretary or an assistant of theirs.
After Referee Barnett became aware (everybody in Family Court know each other) she was angry with me and based on the outcome you can tell how angry she was and that's the only reason why I feel I lost custody of my son. I was his sole/care giver for the first five years of his life. My son was born with a serious medical condition and I was the one that nursed him back to health. My son for the first two-three years of his life (when the dad wanted nothing to do with him) was seen by over twenty specialist and when I tried proving that in court Referee Barnett didn't allow it. She did however allow the dad to bring up things that I did when I was a minor and hadn't had my son yet. She also never took into consideration that I have my own place (while the dad who is twenty-years older than me lives with his mother in a two bedroom apartment).
My son's Law Guardian Paul Matthews in the five-years has mete with his client that I am aware of once and that was when my son was much younger and couldn't really speak well. Family Court as a whole but, especially Referee Elizabeth Barnett and Law Guardian Paul Matthews did not do what was best for the child and isn't that what Family Court is about. Because of there decesion not only am I suffering tremendously but, my son is also.
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