Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Father's Day Fiasco

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Father's Day Fiasco: Mom gets kid back after each arrest Photo by David Greene By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 13- His tour of duty in th...

Father's Day Fiasco

Mom gets kid back after each arrest

Photo by David Greene

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 13- His tour of duty in the Navy, battling the forces of former Libyan dictator Moammar Khahadafi, was a cakewalk compared to the eight-year battle he has endured in the family court system.

According to Tremont resident James Sterling, his custody battle for his eight-year-old son Justin began when the child was still an infant and has outlasted four judges and two buildings-- but for Sterling there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The single father was expecting to finally get his day in Brooklyn Family Court on June 6.

Sterling, 49, offers proof in the form of three separate police reports where the mother was arrested for violating an order of protection on three occasions. In the most serious incident, Sterling claims the mother attacked him as he drove the mother and child in the family car.

In that incident the mother was charged by police with assault in the third degree, attempted assault, menacing, reckless endangerment, criminal contempt, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. The mother was released and has since had custody of the boy.

Ironically, the judge who oversaw the criminal cases and passed them off to family court limbo, but Justice Suzanne Mondo recently criticized another judge, when she wrote in a court decision, that the other judge caused, "hundreds of adjournments that waste hundreds of hours of court resources."

The father, who has had a handful of court-appointed visits with his son over the years, but has missed key moments of his young son's life, like his first words and first steps, asks, "If a man did this, would he have the child for another second?"

Sterling continued, "Every time she gets arrested, she gets out and she's right back with our son."

Despite his maturity and military experience, Sterling says, "Yet I could not navigate the family court system. The family court system should be family-friendly."

Sterling adds, "If I'm 49 and it's driving me crazy, what would it do to a nice, young college man? It would tear him up at the beginning of his life."

According to attorney Joseph Cordell, co-founder of the law firm Cordell and Cordell, a firm that specializes in defending men in such cases, says of the double-standard, "It's not a theme that anyone has been willing to give much attention too, but it is a Civil rights issue."

Cordell explained, "There has been significant progress in the last 20 years that I have been doing this, but it's by no means a level playing field." The attorney continued, "I think it (the problem) is widespread. I think it exists in every state, just not in every courtroom."

"There's no momentum," Cordell says, "legislatively or judicially to tackle this phenomenon."

Cordell, who has made defending men in such cases his, "mission," since he began practicing law in 1990, is one of three attorneys at his firm currently putting together an article on the subject that will discuss the many problems and possible solutions to this complex issue. They expect the paper to be ready in about another month and will submit it to the many different law journals.

Fellow Bronxite, Roberto Figueroa, 42, whose own bitter custody battle for his two children in the Bronx, lasted 5-years, says of Sterling's case, "If the roles were reversed, they would have settled it in criminal court ... like they did with me."

"I'm the one that walked away," Figueroa explains that he withdrew his petition in 2008, adding, “Every time I visited my kids there was another ACS case. I walked away because of what it was doing to my kids. I can't even talk about it because it's so sad."

Cordell, whose firm has offices in 25-plus cities, said of Sterling's 8-years in legal-limbo, "It's a travesty at 2 to 3 years and 8-years is beyond discussion."

Calls to Sterling's ex went unanswered. Calls to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to learn why the criminal cases were moved to family court, were not returned.

Sterling was asked if he is granted an afternoon to be with his son, what would they do, he replied, "I'd like to take him horseback riding or roller skating and just get to know him better."  

Forty-eight hours before he was due in court, Sterling received a call telling him that the case had once again been postponed until October or November, the reason this time is because a court ordered visit between father and son, had not been granted.

Sterling said after learning the news, "They had marked this case, "Final," on about seven occasions and I just want it to go to trial.

So the battle in legal limbo continues.   

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Community Fighter Remembered

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Community Fighter Remembered: By Dan Gesslein  BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12 - One of the strongest voices defending Bronx communities has been silenced. Community leaders...

Community Fighter Remembered

By Dan Gesslein 

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- One of the strongest voices defending Bronx communities has been silenced. Community leaders and residents said goodbye to Wakefield Taxpayers Associaton president and Bronx News columnist Mary Lauro. 

Lauro passed away last week after a bout with cancer. The 87-year-old former chemist has been fighting to keep Wakefield and other Communities strong for the past 25 years.

"This is a void that can never be filled," said Carmen Rosa, district manager of Community Board 12.

For years Lauro fought through her organization and her column to correct the issues that were impacting the communities. One such issue was the OTB in Wakefield. She railed against the impact the run down betting parlor had on the surrounding community. The tiny location attracted large crowds that would spill out on to White Plains Road with drinking, garbage and public urination. The community Lauro focused through her column started a letter writing campaign which led to the relocation of the site to a new facility. Eventually OTB was shut down throughout the city.

"Her articles started conversations. Residents would buy the paper to see what Mary had to say this week," Rosa said.

Another major issue Lauro fought was the problem of widespread illegal conversions. In Wakefield and in many Bronx communities, homeowners illegally converted one and two-family homes into multiple family rentals. In addition to the fact that many of these rents are not claimed, the community suffers from lack of services. The populations from these illegal apartments are not counted in the official population and therefore the communities receive fewer services in terms of police and other city services.

"The passing of Mary Lauro is a grievous loss not just for this local Bronx community, but for the borough and city as well because she represented the epitome of what civic involvement is supposed to be about," said Edwin J. Day, Rockland County Legislature. "She was always 'community first' and as a former commander of the 47 precinct detectives and a past civic association president in my hometown, I can make that observation both with absolute certainty and my utmost respect. While Mary will be missed, more importantly she will be remembered as a true beacon for this community."

Friends said even though this month her illness was wearing on her from her hospital bed she was concerned about finishing her latest column.

"I don't know who can take Mary's place," said Elizabeth Gil, president of the 47th Precinct Community Council.

During meetings Lauro questioned beat cops and police commissioners equally when they cited statistics she did believe were accurate.

"Mary was a true believer in community service," Rosa said. "She could have walked away years ago but didn't."

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): White Plains Road will rise again!

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): White Plains Road will rise again!: COMMUNITY BOARD NEWS N’ VIEWS By Father Richard F. Gorman Chairman Community Board #12 (The Bronx) BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE...

White Plains Road will rise again!

COMMUNITY BOARD

NEWS N’ VIEWS

By Father Richard F. Gorman

Chairman

Community Board #12 (The Bronx)

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- I am unhappy to begin my column again this week with sad news. On Thursday, 6 June 2013, Mary Lauro, the decades-long President of The Wakefield Taxpayers Association, died. As many of us knew, Mary was battling for the past several months with lung cancer. Her Funeral Mass was celebrated on this Monday morning past in her longtime Parish of Saint Frances of Rome.

Never one to candy-coat the truth or to cover-up the facts, I am not going to detract from Mary’s memory by doing such at this point in time. Aficionados of the local press are only too well aware that “YOURS TRULY” was one of the most frequent targets --  if not the most recurrent one  -- of Ms. Lauro’s criticism in her weekly column. Such stemmed from a misunderstanding of over 20 years ago when, in my second year as Chairman of Community Board #12 (The Bronx), I did not appoint Mary as the Chair of the Community Board’s Standing Committee on Public Safety, which, for some reason utterly unbeknownst to me, Mary was expecting me to do. Nevertheless, at last being able to leave in the past what should have been long ago left there, there is no denying that the contribution of Mary Lauro to her beloved neighborhood of Wakefield and to all of Bronx Community District #12 was unique and exceptional.

In what she oftentimes labeled the “WILD WEST” days of the 1990’s in the Forty-Seventh Precinct, Mary was a tireless and dogged advocate for better Police protection and for a greater number of Police Officers in our area. She religiously secured and publicly commented month after month on the local crime statistics, undermining the claims of the so-called “powers-that-be” down at One Police Plaza that our Precinct was being assigned an appropriate and adequate number of cops in light of the incidence of crime in our District. She revived a moribund Precinct Council and was a principal, driving force in its many subsequent successes. Mary also took on the issue of public safety in the schools and, hopefully, the annual McGruff “TAKE A BITE OUT OF CRIME” Poster Contest sponsored by the Wakefield Taxpayers will continue to go on in her memory.

However, public safety, despite ranking as her first and most ardent passion, was not the only challenge to be assumed by Mary Lauro. Group homes, clean streets, illegal conversions, Government lethargy in responding to local needs, the maintenance of our White Plains Road commercial strip, and homeless shelters were among the cornucopia of concerns to which Mary addressed her criticisms and complaints, usually in rather unforgettable fashion and colorful verbiage.

At our Stated Meeting for the month of June, I shall request that my colleagues on Community Board #12 (The Bronx) propose that the name “MARY LAURO WAY” be added to that block on Matilda Avenue on which she lived. While this is a most apropos manner in which to honor and to remember Mary Lauro, I trust that we shall all truly do so by carrying on her unparalleled commitment to the quality of life in our neighborhood and to the well-being of all of its residents. As it says in Sacred Scripture in the Book of Revelation, Chapter XIII, verse 14:

“Let her rest from her labors, for her works follow her.”

In the meanwhile, Community Board #12 (The Bronx) is continuing to monitor the recovery from the latest catastrophe to befall White Plains Road. On Wednesday, 15 May 2013 at Community Board #12 Headquarters in Town Hall, just up a block or two up White Plains Road from the scene of the recent devastating fire, a meeting was convened in order to get the rebuilding of a vital portion of our commercial strip underway. Those business owners and entrepreneurs afflicted by the conflagration, accompanied by ministers from the area’s Islamic

community, joined our local public officials or their staff representatives, District Manager Carmen L. Rosa and me, and leaders in both the public and the private sectors in order to determine the needs of the impacted entities and the resources available to them.

Uppermost in the minds of all present was the desire to remain in the District and to get started without further delay on the daunting task of getting all back on their feet. Our elected officials, including Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie  --  who literally drove all the way from Albany on the morning of the meeting in order to attend  --  Council Member Andy King, and Mr. Gerard C. Savage, the Chief of Staff to State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, committed themselves to advocating for the needs of those present in order to get them the help that they require to re-build.  The representatives of various municipal agencies of Government  --  the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (C.A.U.), the Office of the Borough President of The Bronx, the New York City Fire Department (F.D.N.Y.), the New York City Department of Buildings (N.Y.C.D.O.B.), the New York City Department of Small Business Services (N.Y.C.D.S.B.S.), the Bronx Overall Economic Development Agency (B.O.E.D.C.), and the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Agency (“SOBRO”)  --  informed attendees of prudent and wise steps needed to be taken and various pitfalls that should be avoided. The Legal Aid Society sent several representatives who were ready to offer free legal advice to those with questions pertaining to law.

There is absolutely no doubt that undertaking to repair the hole in the heart of our White Plains Road commercial strip will entail numerous difficulties and delays. However, the enthusiasm of those present at Town Hall on the morning of 15 May 2013 and the solid determination to move forward exhibited by them provides true hope for better days ahead. In the meantime, all in Community Board #12 (The Bronx) can do their share to help the impacted enterprises  --  and, indeed, all of the businesses on White Plains Road  -- to grow ever stronger. Whenever possible, BUY LOCAL! Patronage is the most potent

prescription for a healthy commercial and business sector. To keep White Plains Road alive economically, no one can do everything but everyone can do something. This is the time for our neighborhood to “put its money where its mouth is” and into the cash registers of the stores on White Plains Road.  On this point, I pray that we all agree. 

I conclude by making particular mention of and extending singular praise to the Clergy Coalition of the Forty-seventh Police Precinct and, in particular, to its energetic and dedicated President, The Reverend Dr. Edward Chambers, for its endeavors “above and beyond the call of duty” in aiding our local Islamic community find another appropriate worship space. “Rev,” here is hoping that all of your sisters and brothers in Bronx Community District #12 exhibit the same sort of good neighborliness that your good example is teaching us.

Until next time, that is it for this time!

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Soccer is Alive in the Bronx!

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Soccer is Alive in the Bronx!: Spain Beats Ireland, at Yankee Stadium By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- Soccer fans at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night had the r...