Randy's StoryApril 4, 2004 |
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My name is Randy Kravitz. I'm 16 years old. I've been in the family court system for 6 years. This is what has happened in my case. The person who was appointed as my attorney, Matt Gary, dragged the case on for a long time to keep getting paid for supposedly representing me, although he was really representing my father. My mother and father separated 6 years ago, starting a custody battle that is still going on. I always wanted to stay with my mother. I had a really good life with her. I lived on a small ranch, I was active in a church youth group, I had lots of friends, and I was active in 4-H going to fair and showing goats. But what I wanted didn't seem to mean anything in the Sacramento County Family Court System. My court experience consisted of lawyers, judges, and evaluators who seemed not to care what I wanted or what was best for me. My court appointed attorney Matt Gary would talk to me and I would tell him that I wanted to stay with my mother. Then he would talk to my father and would do whatever my father said. Matt Gary stated he wasn't allowed to talk to my mother, but yet he talked to my father all the time and for extended periods of time. The judge, Mc Brien, would never listen to my mother in court. I wrote tons of letters to him, but nothing happened. But whatever Matt Gary said in court, it was done. I was stuck with no voice. Matt Gary even threatened my mother and I with jail because I didn't want to live with my father. My father kept threatening to kill himself which made me afraid to live with him. I told that to Matt Gary but he wouldn't believe me. He called me a liar. My mother tried everything, but she got shot down every time. All it caused was rising legal bills and the disruption of my family life. I tried everything, calling and writing letters to people that I thought could help. But since I had a court appointed attorney, no one would do anything. They would only listen to him. Also, my grandparents were involved in my court case. They used an attorney, Tom Wertz, to represent them who was paid to be a public defender. He was busy going to court against my mother to try to help my father get custody of my brother and me, while he was being paid to be a public defender. Tom Wertz got caught with drugs and prostitutes. Even though he did a lot of immoral and illegal things which were made public, he was not disbarred. Even though I was closest to my mom and she had always taken care of me and had done nothing wrong, I was ordered into the custody of my father, simply because it was what my father wanted. My father was living in Indiana. My brother and I refused to get on the plane for Indiana so the plane took off without us. Even that didn't work. My father came out from Indiana and we were forced by police to go with him. The judge assured me that it was going to be a short visit; just another lie! I was there 2 years and was not allowed to contact my mother. I hated it in Indiana. My father didn't really pay any attention to my brother and me. All we had to do all day was sit around with no friends and watch TV or use the computer. I was lonely and depressed. I missed my mother and the life I had in California. I was told that I would have to go to a psychiatrist. I went to Wanda Stonebacher. During the sessions she did most of the talking saying that I should get used to living in Indiana and make the best of it. Every time I asked about visiting or calling my mother she said I couldn't, because it was court ordered. Wanda Stonebacher received several phone calls from my mother, but never returned one of them. During the last summer visit to my grandparents home in California, who are my father's parents, I decided to run away. I thought anything was better than living with my father in Indiana. I was 13. I lived from place to place with friends, and moved around so I wouldn't get caught and sent back to my father. For those 2 years I taught myself so that I wouldn't fall behind in school if I would ever be able to go back. Eventually when I was 15, I found someone to help me. I figured by that time, I was old enough that I could just run away again if I needed to, if anyone tried to force me to live with my father again. I got an attorney on my own and she listened to me and believed me. That made it possible for me to finally live with my mother again. What I have learned is that you can't trust anyone in the court system. They don't really care about what is in the best interests of kids. They will do just the opposite if they get paid enough. And people in the court system are not held accountable for how they ruin people's lives. --- Randy Kravitz, written at age 16 |