Bribery in Fairfax County Circuit Court

Bribery in Fairfax County Circuit Court

next time, if these judges are not stopped from running the court system as they please, it could be you.

My journey in the Fairfax County Circuit Court began in the Spring of 2004 and continues to this day. CH2003-182004 for the curious, as I can only touch on a few details of the egregious miscarriage of justice in this post.

The Commissioner's Hearing in March 2004 was presided over by Steven Garver of Reston. The thrust of his subsequent report was to strain to make everything 50/50.

He minimized my ex's lengthy massage parlor/prostitute/pornography habit, despite his testimonial admittance and documented social diseases, equating it on "fault" grounds as tantamount to my fibromyalgia, which he seemed to imply may have justified and provoked it. Apparently he missed the part in the transcript where the ex admitted his habit had begun well before I met him, porno at 13, prostitutes at 20, and was concealed in whole or in part for most of our 20 year marriage.

Mr. Garver is still a Special Commissioner and in my opinion, a spouse behaving badly's best friend. The next stop was the Equitable Distribution Trial, now retired Langhorne Keith presiding over a two day debacle and most of the post Final Decree hearings. He allowed, over my fervent opposition, the marital residence, with its multitude of hidden problems, to be sold without full disclosure at the top of the bubble real estate market, specifically ordering me to be gagged and evicted when it was shown. For my efforts on behalf of truthtelling, I was heavily sanctioned. The marital residence was subsequently foreclosed upon and Fairfax County's own property records indicate it was sold at an "invalid sales price." http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Forms/Datalets.aspx?mode=SALES&taxyear=2010&ownseq=1&jur=&card=2&item=1&State=11&items=1&sIndex=0&idx=1 Then came Jonathan Thacher, still on the bench, who rubberstamped most of Langhorne Keith's handiwork in February 2005, and accepted and charged me with a variety of questionable bills, some clearly fraudulent on their face, associated with the ex's sale of the marital residence. About the same time, fed up with the antics of the ex and his new wife, noting his behavior got infinitely worse after he hooked up with her in the fall of 2002 , a "prize" just six weeks off her last affair with a married man (admitted under oath) when that happened, I brought two tort suits, L226331 and L226453, because of their distressing conduct - such activity as rerouting my mail, canceling my credit cards, and an IRS audit which resulted from the ex's claiming as "alimony" money he gave me in early 2002, when we were separated but trying to work things out, as his share of the running of the marital residence which he still frequented. The Pendente Lite Order was not entered until January 2003. Judge Arthur Vieregg, now retired, ordered a sanctions trial on my Motions for Judgments, and in his Letter Opinions called the ex's tax fraud "...not taken steps related to income tax returns..." and "...not filed the necessary tax forms...". You can read the Tax Court opinion which ultimately went against the ex to see how off base the Fairfax County Circuit Court judge was. www.ustaxcourt.gov/InOpHistoric/katchmeric.sum.WPD.pdf In June of 2007, a hearing was held, motioned by the ex's attorney, Michael A. Ward of Fairfax, but intentionally not noticed to me so that I would not have knowledge of it until after the fact, seeking to get money from the joint escrow account from the sale of the marital residence for all these bogus judgments aforementioned against me. Judge Gaylord Finch presided and less than 30 days later, in violation of the court's own "default" judgment rules, $76,957.21 was released to my ex and his new wife and his attorney.

I did not find out until November 2008. Almost from the start, the ex has been non compliant with the Final Decree. The alimony payment was rarely on time. His work information changed twice. I found out about it, but not because he ever informed me - or the court - per the dictates of the Final Decree. The first time he wrote me a note, signed and dated, copy in the case file, saying he did not have to comply; the second time, it was because he lost his high level security clearance and good government job, in part over the tax fraud which Judge Vieregg had found so insignificant, and there has been no response to my letters, from the ex, or from his attorney, who drafted the Final Decree. For years. Fed up, I filed Motions for Contempt and Sanctions and Motions to Compel thinking that might prod compliance. Nada. The motions were finally docketed per order of Judge Marcus Williams, to be heard on November 24, 2008, for a full day trial. That day, the judge was Leslie Alden. She was in and out in less than an hour, spent most of that time listening to Mr. Ward, never heard my Motions for Contempt and Sanctions and banned me from bringing any further ones. In January 2009, after bombarding all the members of the court with my complaints, I received a letter from her allowing me to bring these motions in Motion for Order to Show Cause form. The documents were promptly filed against the ex, the new wife and Michael A. Ward. And then began the stall to hear them by Erica Everhart, Judge Alden's then law clerk. I would have to come on three separate Fridays, and would at best get part of thirty minutes. Portions would not be heard. Not necessary to be on Judge Alden's docket, although in her letter dated March 26, 2009, the judge specified they were to go to her and her alone. These particular type of motions require a judge's order, which to date, almost a year later, despite being promised but has not been forthcoming. Fed up with the run-around from Erica, I contacted the Chief Judge.

His July 7, 2009 response indicated a willingness to assign a particular judge and give me the entirety of a Friday motion day. I argued for the original full day trial on a day other than Friday, in line with how the original Motions for Contempt and Sanctions and Motions to Compel were scheduled.

His response, a letter dated September 21, 2009, was a blow off where he went back on his word, claiming these were appellate matters, which they could not be, since they were just filed and never heard. Nonsense. I wrote back to him at the beginning of October and there has been no response to date. All of the court's ex parte communications, noting mine were not, have been placed in the file.

The ex's violations of the Final Decree continue, and shortly they will impact my rights to his retirement account, if he hasn't raided it like all the others already. You can't make this stuff up, and this is just a thumbnail tip of the iceberg rendition. The file is not sealed; read it for yourself. Because next time, if these judges are not stopped from running the court system as they please, it could be you. And check back for future installments on my experiences with the Fairfax County Circuit Court and with their appellate brethren in this state.
Karen Ann DeLuca
Alexandria