Judge Thode was attempting to hold my ex accountable for his threat to kill me.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Johnson had just issued a court order that would put me out on the street and give my ex possession of the marital home:
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
01282009 - Ex's Criminal Case - Violation Of PPO - Warrant - Failure to appear [Jan. 07, 2009] - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN
Judge Thode was attempting to hold my ex accountable for his threat to kill me.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Johnson had just issued a court order that would put me out on the street and give my ex possession of the marital home:
Friday, January 23, 2009
01232009 - Email #3 from Attorney Shaw - Ex's Criminal Case - Violation Of PPO - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN
I sent the January 13th emails that I had received from Attorney Shaw - regarding my ex's criminal case- to Magistrate Johnson and to the Porter County Prosecutor's office. In response to me turning Shaw's improper emails over to the prosecutor's office, Shaw sent me this email claiming I had lied to the prosecutor's office. Shaw also demanded in this email that I turn over information to him regarding my ex's criminal case. I forwarded this email to Magistrate Johnson and the prosecutor's office.
Monday, January 19, 2009
01192009 - Ex's Criminal Case - Violation Of PPO - Email #2 from Attorney Shaw - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN
Attorney Shaw is taking advantage of his right to contact me directly, as I am representing myself in the divorce case. However, in this email he is misusing that priviledge to request information for the criminal case against my ex.
Attorney Shaw knows that he does not have the right to contact a crime victim directly, as he is in this case.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
01132009 - Ex's Criminal Case - Violation Of PPO - Email #1 from Attorney Shaw - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN
Attorney Jeffrey Shaw was taking advantage of his right to contact me directly, as I was representing myself in the divorce case at this point.
However, in this email he is misusing that privilege to request information for the pending criminal case against my ex.
Instead of replying to my email regarding my ex's failure to abide by the divorce maintenance court order, Attorney Shaw began asking questions about a previous Michigan criminal case, in which I was a witness for the State.
Attorney Shaw knew that he did not have the right to contact a crime victim directly, as he did in this case. Thus, I forwarded Attorney Shaw's emails to the Porter County Prosecutor's office.
01132009 - Amended Provisional Order - Magistrate James Johnson
In this order, Johnson was removing me from the marital home and turning it over to my ex-husband - although I had a protective order against my ex, which was valid until the final property settlement order / distribution. The protective order allowed me to reside in the marital until distribution of the property settlement. Additionally, my ex was currently facing criminal charges for violating the PPO / threatening to kill me. This order more or less was: get rid of the victim, get rid of the criminal charges.
In this order - which overrode the PPO - I was given only $3,000 to relocate. My ex was court ordered to pay me $400 a week in maintenance, but Johnson did not do a wage garnishment. My ex did not pay me maintenance between January 2009 and October 2010. Johnson repeatedly refused to hold my ex in contempt of this order - which was also a violation of the PPO.
In this order - which overrode the PPO - I was given only $3,000 to relocate. My ex was court ordered to pay me $400 a week in maintenance, but Johnson did not do a wage garnishment. My ex did not pay me maintenance between January 2009 and October 2010. Johnson repeatedly refused to hold my ex in contempt of this order - which was also a violation of the PPO.
Johnson did not freeze any of the marital assets, which were solely in my ex's name. There would be nothing preventing my ex from selling the marital home from under me or putting marital assets in one of his family member's names.
In Paragraph #5, Johnson penalized me the $10,000 I used to pay household bills and expenses that my ex was in contempt of. The receipts for those bills were in the contempt filings. Attorney Shaw also had copies of all the bills I had paid. Johnson refused to hear my contempt filings at the November 24th hearing.
In Paragraph #7, Johnson extended the timeline again for Attorney Shaw and my ex to produce financial declaration forms in complaince with Rule 2100, instead of holding them in contempt of the September order. Attorney Shaw and my ex would also ignore this order. They did not produce my ex's financial declaration forms until May 4th.
The paperwork that Johnson referred to in paragraph #8 were complaints that I filed with Judge Bradford, regarding Johnson's mishandling of my case [failure to protect; etc.]
I showed Attorney John Rhame this court order. He could not understand the rationale behind Johnson's ruling. Rhame represented me after this ruling. I did not move out of the marital home. However, Attorney Shaw would attempt to use every hearing thereafter to have Johnson throw me out on the street.
At the time that Magistrate Johnson was bending over backwards to appease Attorney Shaw and my ex, there was yet another arrest warrant out for my ex for his failure to appear at a January 7th hearing in the criminal case for his threat to kill me.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
01112009 - News Article - Culture of corruption in E.C.? Once a champion for reform, Pabey's city back under federal microscope - ROBERT CANTRELL
Culture of corruption in E.C.?
Once a champion for reform, Pabey's city back under federal microscope
NWI Times
Jan 11, 2009
nwitimes.com/news/local/culture-of-corruption-in-e-c/article_40f5c78a-0da0-5242-b3f4-7cfdff0b9163.html
EAST CHICAGO | Mayor George Pabey promised change after he broke Robert Pastrick's 33-year stranglehold on East Chicago politics in 2005, but at least one thing remains the same: Federal agents are investigating city employees.
And region political observers say the political culture that seems to persist in East Chicago can only mean more bad fortune for the historically embattled city.
City spokesman Damian Rico denies Pabey did anything wrong by hiring contractors and friends -- who also are East Chicago city workers -- to fix up a house owned by Pabey and his daughter Maria Pabey in Gary's Miller neighborhood.
Federal agents have not spoken with Pabey about the matter. So far, agents only have interviewed engineering department employees, Rico said.
Pabey's election was a break from corruption and waste, including a sidewalks-for-votes scandal that occurred on Pastrick's watch, Rico said.
"Mayor Pabey has run this administration with professionalism and integrity," Rico said.
But not everyone in city government sees it that way.
Former city employee Alicia Lopez-Rodriguez, a Pabey ally turned enemy who was crushed by Pabey in the 2007 Democratic mayoral primary, said she believes where there is smoke, there is fire.
"I don't think that it'll end with anything but indictments," she said. "If they really start investigating, they're going to find out a lot."
Any East Chicago official who may be indicted would be upholding what some refer to as a long tradition of shame in the city. And some region political observers say the chain of corruption continues to hold down the city from achieving better social and economic footing.
History of shame
The Sidewalk Six -- three Pastrick-era city department heads and three city councilmen convicted of trading $24 million in concrete work and tree trimming for votes -- are the most famous people indicted in city history, but lesser scandals have felled other officials.
East Chicago political fixer Robert Cantrell was convicted of 11 fraud counts in June. Cantrell ran the barely breathing county GOP for many years with cooperation from Pastrick, the Democratic rainmaker.
Pastrick never was charged in the Sidewalk Six investigation, but Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter in 2007 hit Pastrick and others with a civil racketeering lawsuit, accusing Pastrick of running the city as a "corrupt enterprise." The trial is expected to start this spring.
Pastrick inherited the city from John Nicosia, who resigned under federal investigation. Nicosia was convicted in 1979 of obstructing justice in a case involving kickbacks.
But a criminal conviction won't necessarily end a politician's career in East Chicago. Eleven years after Noah Atterson Spann was sentenced for taking bribes as a Lake County commissioner, Pastrick hired him to run his 1999 campaign.
Rudy Byron was indicted with Spann. He pleaded guilty in 1988 to filing false tax returns, and he failed to report more than $63,000 he received from two maintenance companies. Pabey made Byron parks superintendent. Byron later was transferred, then laid off, Rico said.
Corrupt culture
East Chicago's one-party political culture is not without a system of ethics, said Dan Lowery, a political commentator and a dean at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting.
"What you have is the ethics of the Mafia, in effect," Lowery said. "It's taking care of family. That is an ethic. It's just not an ethic that's legal."
Politics is a religion in East Chicago, Lowery said, and power is built through ethnic coalitions that care for their own.
City patronage jobs are crucial in East Chicago, a poor city that doesn't offer a lot of private jobs, Lowery said. In cities that depend on patronage, budgets bloat, services flounder and residents suffer, Lowery said.
City Controller Charlie Pacurar said the city has trimmed its work force since Pastrick ruled. Pabey has trimmed the city staff from 1,049 before Pastrick's defeat to 809 now, Pacurar said.
And Rico said Pabey aimed an early round of firings at eliminating corruption from the Pastrick era.
But Pat Bankston, director of the Indiana University Northwest School of Medicine, said the region's reputation for corruption hurts local businesses, including hospitals. Region residents drive hundreds of miles away for routine medical care they could get in the region, and outsiders have heard the area is "not so nice." Government corruption contributes to a self-fulfilling prophecy of mediocrity.
"You think you're not so good, so you're not so good," Bankston said.
Pabey has said nothing substantial on the current investigation, saying through Rico he doesn't want to impede the federal process. Approached Tuesday by a Times reporter at his news conference announcing his new appointment for police chief, Pabey showed clear frustration as he again declined to comment.
"When the time comes, I'll give you anything you need," Pabey said, before he turned away, shook a few more hands and disappeared into a private meeting.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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