#20
Tue, April 03, 2001
From: Dakota County Attorneys
To: 'Robert Lawless'
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 12:03 PM
Subject: RE: Unjust system
Dear Mr. Lawless:
Your recent e-mail message to the Dakota County Attorney's Office has been referred to me. I am the supervising attorney for child support and enforcement in the Dakota County Attorney's Office. Although privacy laws prevent me from discussing particular child support cases with you, I would like to take this opportunity to address the issues which you have raised in your e-mail message. These issues are very troubling and concerning to this Office.
In Dakota County we have found the use of civil contempt to be a very effective tool for achieving compliance with child support orders. I am the first to admit that not all civil contempt cases result in full or partial payment of child support arrears. However, the threat of actual jail time has worked frequently to promote compliance with the child support orders in the vast majority of cases. In those cases where there is a continued failure to pay, the judges in Dakota County have been very willing to order non-paying parents into jail if payments are not made and if the obligor has or had the ability to make the payments.
Our Office is willing to prosecute criminally for nonsupport, although such prosecutions are difficult. The higher burden of proof in criminal cases is a real challenge for the child support office and the attorney's office, in terms of gathering and presenting enough evidence for the jury to find the defendant guilty. The special utility of civil contempt is that the burden of proof is lower and there is a direct incentive for the parent to make payments, because making payments is the only way to eliminate or shorten the jail time. Criminal conviction does not result in payment of child support, though of course it does punish the nonpaying parent.
The issues which you raise are troubling ones for our society and our legal system. We will continue to be as aggressive as the law and facts warrant in each case. Thank you for your interest.
**Please note that the Dakota County Attorney's Office cannot provide you with legal advice. The general information provided in this e-mail is not a substitute for consulting with a private attorney regarding your case.
#30
Mon, March 26, 2001
We just received a letter from Dennis Ozment, Minnesota State Representative, regarding the fact that Dakota County Child support states that they can not speak with Goodhue County Corrections concerning Richards Child Support and arrears due to data privacy reasons. Mr. Ozment spoke with a member of the House Research Department who directed him to Minnesota Statute 13.46 specifically subdivision 2, clauses (7), (21), and (25).
Subd. 2. General. (a)Unless the data is summary data or a statute specifically provides a different classification, data on individuals collected, maintained, used, or disseminated by the welfare system is private data on individuals, and shall not be disclosed except:
(7) between personnel of the welfare system working in the
same program; (21) data on child support payments made by a child support obligor and data on the distribution of those payments excluding identifying information on obligees may be disclosed to all obligees to whom the obligor owes support, and data on the enforcement actions undertaken by the public authority, the status of those actions, and data on the income of the obligor or obligee may be disclosed to the other party;
(25) to other state agencies, statewide systems and political subdivisions of this state, including the attorney
general, and agencies of other states, interstate information
networks, federal agencies, and other entities as required by
federal regulations or law for the administration of the child
support enforcement program;
According to House Research, these provisions should allow two counties to work together to enforce a child support order.
These Laws do only if the county wants to do their job properly, Richard is now over $11,000 in arrears the balance continues to grow, Goodhue county has received money for his fines and will see the $4037 for restitution and my children will not see a cent.
I have filed an informal motion for priority, as written by attorney pro-se, that Minnesota Statute 518.68 be upheld,over a week ago, to ensure that before any more monies get applied to Richards fines or restitution that the monies get applied to his child support obligation. Since it is apparent that Child Support will not do anything. I have yet to hear anything or see an order. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks Jamie And Rob Lawless
#40
Sun, March 04, 2001
We were just contacted by a TV News people in New York City. They are comming out for an interview! I will keep you posted! Thank you badbusinessbureau.com !!!!
UPDATE:
when we first started to post, we were originally upset with because he is still scamming everyone, even down to recruiting officers for the army and national guards.
When we started digging into the laws and started asking for the laws to be upheld, everyone is saying no!! You have to do it the way we tell you to do it because that is how we want it done.
That's bullshit! There are not any laws that I can find that say they can not have Richard Charged Criminally. What he is doing is a criminal charge not civil and have already been there done that and easy to prove. I don't want to give him a chance to con the courts again, waste more time for something that is a proven fact. He will not pay anything toward our children.
I have papers from the civil division from the sheriffs
department where he states this. They refuse to charge him with the criminal offense and allowing him to continue with willfully not paying his court ordered obligations. As Far as "who are the bad guys", Richard and anyone aiding and allowing him to continue with his criminal actives.
This whole case from the first day we went into court has been just unbelievable. He took me to court for full custody, lied to everyone then, and lost, then didn't bother to show up for the final custody hearing. Then when I wanted to terminate his parental rights, once again he didn't show up for that court proceeding (but it did get his attention).... He has a long history of not showing up (9 court dates that we know of). A long history of not taking care of his obligations.... A long history(so does his mom) of trying to make everyone's life but his a living hell.
He is a con artist, and can get anyone to believe what he wants them to. The problem I have is, I have all the proof in black and white and the government is saying "tuff s**t", we don't want to hear it once again. All we is to do is file a criminal
complaint and we can't even get that.