As a Children’s Rights Advocate, I work as a volunteer for the Pennsylvania Families Association. Every Monday and Wednsday my time is spent on the 4th floor of the Lancaster County Courthouse, where these temporary PFA orders are taken before a judge. There are as many as 80 of the these orders scheduled to be heard every week.
This year the number of Temporary Protection From Abuse Orders here in Lancaster County could be as high as 1,500. That is almost 3 times higher than York County will have this year. It is worth noting that York and Lancaster are similar in population! Are the citizens in Lancaster 3 times more likely to be dangerous than the citizens of York? NO! Then we need to ask ourselves why is the number so high and what can we do about it?
I spent the last 4 weeks in PFA Court and what I have seen makes me sick! There are 2 organizations that benefit from this high number of PFAs: Mid-Penn Legal and the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic. Both of these organizations are largely funded by tax dollars to assist victims of abuse. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that, the higher the number of victims they assist, the more of your tax dollars they receive! Hmmmm.
You only need to spend one day in PFA Court to clearly see that both of these organizations are corrupt and could care less about Children. They do all they can to give people the status of victim, so they can jack up the numbers of people they assist! Our staff attorney came on board a month ago with NO courtroom experience and she has not yet lost a case! The reason why is because at least 90% of these Temporary PFAs should have NEVER been written.
Even the judges hate what’s going on! I have watched Judge Kenderdine and Judge Totaro very closely over the last month and the citizens of Lancaster are lucky to have these two in our Judicial system. Neither of these two Judges like these PFAs and I know their hands are tied when the deals are made outside the courtroom!
The citizens of Lancaster need to stand up and put a stop to this! Mid-Penn Legal and the Domestic Violence Legal clinic are NOT helping victims, they are creating them!
It is NOT just mothers using these PFAs! The abuse is so wide spread that anyone wanting to get a leg up in a separation or divorce can use a PFA to do so. I am seeing a high number of fathers taking PFAs out on mothers and it at the expense of tax payers and the real victims of Domestic violence! The children involved are paying a heavy price when they are kept from either parent! It’s really sad!
I believe firmly in the PFA process, sadly. Because of the nature of domestic violence, it is absolutely necessary to afford women, children, and on occasion, lest we forget, men, these protections. However, because it is a system that most would agree violates some form of due process for the defendant, it relies solely on the ethical conduct of those working the system. MidPenn and DVLC both consistently prove that they are very happy to whore themselves out to women with sights set on affecting divorce proceedings or child custody actions…
Sadly, most men that end up unfairly accused are poor shmoes who aren’t articulate enough, financially stable enough, or well-versed enough to fully understand their rights when a PFA is filed. It’s a shame there’s no cottage industry propping up that end of the system, because all of the public money is poured into the poor victims, which I am sure there are many who are indeed legitimate. However, if we’re making any citizen subject to a quasi-criminal complaint that deeply affects their lives, guilty or innocent of domestic violence, they should enjoy the full compliment of support that victims seem to enjoy.
I encourage everyone and anyone to bring this matter to their state representatives and senators. In the end, this is all about money, not about true justice or true protection. A cynical evaluation shows a system that is corrupted beyond its original intent within Lancaster County.
Mid Penn Legal and Domestic Violence Legal Clinic have been helping people negotiate the ‘Protection From Abuse’ process for decades in an ethical and supportive manner. Both organizations represent men as well as women and continually conduct themselves with professionalism in a process that is highly contentious and over-crowded.
Someone who has worked such a brief time in the PFA arena (4 weeks) is hardly qualified to make judgments on the entire PFA system.
I have heard numerous compliments and praises over the years from all judges involved in the PFA system about the incredible work done by these programs. In addition, please ask any persons employed by DVLC or Mid-Penn and you will quickly hear that they do it for the love of helping people and NOT for the fictional abundance of tax dollars.
You are sorely off base and short sighted in this assessment.
I feel I need to reply to the last comment…. Let me start by saying Mid-Penn “DOES NOT” help people, they help WOMEN! I know this first hand. Mid-Penn would not help me when my daughters mother took her away for NO reason. I had NO job and no income! I later found an attorney that was willing to help me Pro-bone, but informed me I had to do it through Mid-Penn. Mid-Penn put a stop to allowing that to happen. Then they sent an attorney to the courthouse to help the mom, who did have a really good job and nice income. Yea, I guess Mid-Penn wanted my daughter to go longer than a year and 5 months fatherless!
Negotiate? Last week I seen a DVLC woman tell a defendant that the PFA states that there was no violence, and that this was a non-violent PFA. If that’s the case why was there a PFA at all? Why was this woman trying to destroy this man’s future with a PFA? PFAs can haunt you forever in employment and in custody. That lady could have been hurting that man’s future children. He was not a violent man! With that PFA on his record, he will be looked at as a violent person, maybe for the rest of his life! Negotiate? Are you kidding me? If they are doing it out of love, it’s out of the love of hurting MEN!
I also seen a DVLC lady tell the Court that a child just could not spend Sunday nights with her father, because he would not get her to Daycare by 7am, like the mothers does! She stated “The Daycare is paid for by the State and if she does not use ALL of her hours, she would be kicked out of that program. I wanted to speak up and help that father, because that statement is an outright lie! If a parent does not use every hour of the paid Daycare, they “WON’T” get kicked out of the program! To me that act was CRIMINAL and she should be removed from being involved in any court proceedings that involve Children! Children are NOT better off in Daycare! Daycare is for eating, sleeping, peeing, and pooping!
Dads have much more value than that to their children. These people do not Value fathers in any way, except maybe for support! Maybe you should take the course that is mandated by the court for anyone who is in a custody proceeding. You know that Trans Parenting class that states the very BEST thing for a child is to have daily and equal access to BOTH parents!
You can pick 100 PFAs at random that were written by DVLC and Mid-Penn, and I bet I could get 80 of them thrown out, and I am not an attorney! My experience with this is NOT just 4 weeks in PFA court! I lived it and the ONLY PEOPLE OFF BASE ARE THE CORRUPT PEOPLE THAT WRITE THESE PFAs. They are the real child abusers!…
The days of giving people the status of Victims for money is coming to an end! I said it before and I’m going to say it again! Those two organizations DO NOT HELP VICTIMS, THEY CREATE THEM!! I find it sad that these people use REAL VICTIMS, when they claim they are helping!! Sad soooo Sad!