Louisiana Voice

In the high-visibility work of news reporting, particularly investigative reporting, we get a lot of leads that turn out to be a nothingburger. They’re either sour grapes or wildly exaggerated in their scope, so a lot of what we hear never sees the light of day. That’s the nature of a business that operates as much in the glare of the public spotlight as ours.

But when we start hearing repetition after repetition of the same general story or problem, we begin to understand there may be more to a story than meets the eye so, we start digging.

That’s exactly what happened when we started getting reports of a screwed-up family court system. At first, we dismissed the early complaints as nothing more than a he-said, she-said dispute between couples who had grown to hate each other.

But gradually, the stories began to grow in number and similarity—not from the same person or even the same place, but enough to know there was more than just smoke coming from the smoldering ashes of a failed marriage.

In most of the cases we’ve heard and read about thus far, it’s the husband or father who holds the cards—or financial advantage—in courtroom disputes over child custody and far too often, we’re getting reports of evidence of sexually abusive fathers being awarded CUSTODY of a child a man fathered by RAPE—when the mother herself was only a child of 12.

Nor is it entirely clear why a judge in West Feliciana Parish would remove a “no contact” bond condition for a man accused of sexually abusing a child—and another judge would inexplicably award the same man temporary SOLE CUSTODY of three children.

East Baton Rouge Parish has come under a barrage of criticism for the way women—mothers—fare in family court as men—fathers—with control of the bank account and with far more financial resources, bury former spouses with paper, false charges and legal delays, in many cases bankrupting the mothers of their children as if it all was some variation of the Game of Thrones.

Nor is the damage limited to the mothers. The story of a father’s plight in St. Tammany Parish defies all logic.

He ended up in 22^nd JDC Judge Dawn Amacker’s court in St. Tammany Parish (more about her in subsequent stories). He has asked that his identity not be revealed and that request is being honored.

JUDGE DAWN AMACKER

“When my daughter turned six, the state asked me to take a DNA test,” said. He said he complied with the request “within days” to take the test. “[I] waited and waited but never got any results. [I] figured [it] wasn’t mine and kept going.”

He said a year went by before a supervisor called him into the office at work to explain his employer had received paperwork to garnish his wages. “I took the paperwork and called the office (presumably the court) and that’s when I was told I was a father.”

A court date was set and he attended. “They took us into the back, talked finances and they told me how much I had to pay. That was it. No talk about custody or visitation or me even being able to see my daughter. Court was over. I talked about it with several people and the general response was I should get a lawyer. Except it was hard enough to cover rent and I wasn’t always good about paying support on time as it was. How was I going to afford a lawyer? It sucked and I just kind of accepted it. I have seen her four times her entire life.

Last year, about two months before the case was going to close, he made his final legally-required child support payment, paying in advance to cover the rest of the [support] time.

“A month later, with only a month left before she turned 18 (11 years after first being informed he was a father) and the state closed the case, I got my first-ever letter explaining my rights. I had the right to request visitation and everything else.

“I may not the best person but I try to be the best father. I feel the court robbed me of that chance with her.

“That’s just my quick story. I’m sure there is some far worse.”

Was this a case of just sloppy work on the part of the court or was something more sinister at play?