Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Man shoots wife, kills self in divorce case
A 57-year-old woman involved in a bitter divorce was in "good condition" today as she recovered from a bullet wound inflicted in a West Hollywood parking structure by her husband, who then killed himself, authorities said.
"She's in good condition, and may be released sometime today or tomorrow," Sgt. John Corina of the sheriff's homicide bureau said this morning.
The woman's name was not immediately released. Her husband was Eric Steven Lesin, 59, of North Hollywood, a coroner's investigator said.
Lesin waited for his wife in an underground parking structure in the 9000 block of Phyllis Avenue Wednesday morning, said sheriff's Lt. David Coleman. At some point during their encounter, Lesin shot the woman in the neck, then turned the gun on himself, he said.
Paramedics were sent to the location about 9 a.m. Wednesday. Lesin was declared dead at the scene while his wife was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in critical condition.
Coleman said the pair were going through a bitter divorce, and Corina added: "He felt that she was to blame for his troubles."
Corina said Lesin and his wife had no children together.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - Iowa court fees may increase
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - Iowa court fees may increase
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa - Some court fees in Iowa could be going up.
Gov. Chet Culver is considering a bill approved by the Legislature that would raise certain fees, including suing in small claims court, filing for divorce and changing real-estate titles.
Culver has until May 26 to act on the bill. If he signs it, the increases will take effect immediately.
Court officials say the fee for filing a small claims case would rise from $50 to $85, while an appeal from small claims would increase from $75 to $185.
A civil filing fee to petition for divorce will go from $100 to $185. The fee to change a title on real estate would increase from $20 to $50.
Court reporter daily fees would also rise from $15 to $40.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa - Some court fees in Iowa could be going up.
Gov. Chet Culver is considering a bill approved by the Legislature that would raise certain fees, including suing in small claims court, filing for divorce and changing real-estate titles.
Culver has until May 26 to act on the bill. If he signs it, the increases will take effect immediately.
Court officials say the fee for filing a small claims case would rise from $50 to $85, while an appeal from small claims would increase from $75 to $185.
A civil filing fee to petition for divorce will go from $100 to $185. The fee to change a title on real estate would increase from $20 to $50.
Court reporter daily fees would also rise from $15 to $40.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Super Model Stephanie Seymour Files for Divorce
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Super Model Stephanie Seymour Files for Divorce
A former Victoria's Secret Angel model has reportedly filed for divorce from her billionaire husband, according to the New York Post.
Stephanie Seymour, who also starred in two Guns N' Roses music videos in the early 1990s, is reportedly still living in the home she shared with her husband, Peter Brant, and that the proceedings have gotten "dirty."
According to the Post, Seymour told a friend that "It's OK. I'm sleeping in the maid's quarters. I'm doing the best I can to keep things amicable. I want to be the bigger person. But it's tough. He's playing very dirty with me."
There has been nothing reported as to the reason for the divorce, though the same friend also told news provider that grant has "got the children involved.
Both parties are reportedly due in court with their divorce lawyers on Monday and it is expected Brant will be challenging Seymour for custody of their three children: 15-year-old Peter Jr., 12-year-old Harry and 4-year-old Lilly.
Brant, who collects art and publishes Interview and Art in America magazines, made his fortune with his White Birch Paper Company.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
A former Victoria's Secret Angel model has reportedly filed for divorce from her billionaire husband, according to the New York Post.
Stephanie Seymour, who also starred in two Guns N' Roses music videos in the early 1990s, is reportedly still living in the home she shared with her husband, Peter Brant, and that the proceedings have gotten "dirty."
According to the Post, Seymour told a friend that "It's OK. I'm sleeping in the maid's quarters. I'm doing the best I can to keep things amicable. I want to be the bigger person. But it's tough. He's playing very dirty with me."
There has been nothing reported as to the reason for the divorce, though the same friend also told news provider that grant has "got the children involved.
Both parties are reportedly due in court with their divorce lawyers on Monday and it is expected Brant will be challenging Seymour for custody of their three children: 15-year-old Peter Jr., 12-year-old Harry and 4-year-old Lilly.
Brant, who collects art and publishes Interview and Art in America magazines, made his fortune with his White Birch Paper Company.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - The young child, when parents divorce
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - The young child, when parents divorce
By Dr. Terry Brazelton
There are three people in every marriage, the wife, the husband, and the marriage, says psychoanalyst Judy Wallerstein, who spent many years studying divorce.
Unless the first two are committed to the third, no marriage will survive.
By the time a couple has come to a divorce, they will have been through tension and angry confrontations; even a 3-year-old will be aware of the impending separation.
She feels a need to try to keep her parents together, but when it doesn't work, she feels responsible. "Wasn't I good enough? Was it me they fought over? If I'd been good, would they still be leaving?"
Because of how they understand themselves and why things happens in their world, children assume responsibility for major events in the family even as early as age 3, amazing as it may seem.
This responsibility is too heavy a burden. A child is likely to try too hard to be "good," or she may well become rebellious and provocative -- as if to prove to herself that she is really "that bad."
She isn't likely to dare to keep asking the questions that underlie her behavior: "Why?" or "Is it really my fault?"
Parents must constantly reiterate their own responsibility -- without requiring that the child understand or offer absolution. "Mummy and Daddy just couldn't love each other. But we both love you."
When the divorce is final and parents begin to recover, they are bound to regret the tension the child has witnessed, and the withdrawal from the child that they could not avoid while preoccupied with anger or grief.
Parents often expect or need too much from a child during this period. Perhaps the most difficult and powerful way to help is for each parent to foster the child's relationship with the other parent. Divorce is responsible for most singleparent families, and the nonresident parent is often available, or could be. For the child, this availability is positive and tantalizing.
"Doesn't he want to come live with me?"
At age 4 and 5 it is especially important that each parent respect the child's need for the other. The nonresident parent must:
• Plan carefully and never promise a visit unless it can be carried out.
• Show up on time.
• Talk about how you've missed the child, but be careful not to blame this on the other parent.
• Be at the child's disposal while you are with her.
• Leave her with a memento of you -- a DVD you make of yourself, or perhaps of the two of you as you read to her -- or a special toy as a reminder.
Gifts should not be lavish or too abundant, though, and must not compete with the other parent's relationship with the child.
She needs you to stand up for her other parent, despite the divorce. Affection won at the other parent's expense does not serve the child.
Children wonder: "Will Daddy ever return?" "Does he care about me?" "Was I bad and that's why Daddy left me?" "Will Mummy leave me, too?"
Fear of desertion and the feeling of being responsible are bound to be underlying a child's behavior. During this period, the fear and guilt may lead her either to be "too" good or to test the resident parent.
A child in a one-parent family is bound to fear any loss. A child this age needs to test and to try out independence, but doesn't dare to turn on the single parent.
She needs to identify with others around her and occasionally turn away from the resident parent.
But she won't dare to if she thinks that a parent might desert her. The resident parent needs to reassure her that -- even with all the testing in the world -- she will never be deserted.
When parents divorce, the following recommendations will help protect the children:
• Stay in as positive a relationship as possible with the other parent, or at least agree to put your anger aside when discussing the children. Agree to put their needs first, and commit to working toward consensus whenever the children are concerned. This is a lot, perhaps too much, to ask from parents when they first divorce. They will need time and support, not just to get over the anger, but to overcome the sense of loss, and the fears about what this unexpected life change will mean for their future.
• Never use the child as a football between you.
• Arrange reliable and regular visiting from the absent parent -- talk about it in between.
• Arrange phone calls and Web cam conversations with the absent parent.
• For the resident parent, arrange as much available support -- extended family, reliable and regular friends -- as possible.
• Be available to talk to the child about losses and about her hunger for others.
• Maintain the usual rules and routines. Discipline matters now even more. Divorced parents must make a concerted effort to agree on these, or at least to accept and support the other's approach when that parent is caring for the child. Be prepared for fears of loss or separation. Be prepared for behavior that stems from and increases a child's sense of guilt at having caused the divorce and loss of the other parent.
• Face the child's difficulties in changing households. For any child this is tough. For a child with social, learning, or attentional difficulties, it can be even more difficult.
In some cases, I have recommended that one permanent household be established for the children and that parents switch residences; when parents consider why they can't accept this for themselves, they begin to see the challenges for their children more clearly.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Dr. Terry Brazelton
There are three people in every marriage, the wife, the husband, and the marriage, says psychoanalyst Judy Wallerstein, who spent many years studying divorce.
Unless the first two are committed to the third, no marriage will survive.
By the time a couple has come to a divorce, they will have been through tension and angry confrontations; even a 3-year-old will be aware of the impending separation.
She feels a need to try to keep her parents together, but when it doesn't work, she feels responsible. "Wasn't I good enough? Was it me they fought over? If I'd been good, would they still be leaving?"
Because of how they understand themselves and why things happens in their world, children assume responsibility for major events in the family even as early as age 3, amazing as it may seem.
This responsibility is too heavy a burden. A child is likely to try too hard to be "good," or she may well become rebellious and provocative -- as if to prove to herself that she is really "that bad."
She isn't likely to dare to keep asking the questions that underlie her behavior: "Why?" or "Is it really my fault?"
Parents must constantly reiterate their own responsibility -- without requiring that the child understand or offer absolution. "Mummy and Daddy just couldn't love each other. But we both love you."
When the divorce is final and parents begin to recover, they are bound to regret the tension the child has witnessed, and the withdrawal from the child that they could not avoid while preoccupied with anger or grief.
Parents often expect or need too much from a child during this period. Perhaps the most difficult and powerful way to help is for each parent to foster the child's relationship with the other parent. Divorce is responsible for most singleparent families, and the nonresident parent is often available, or could be. For the child, this availability is positive and tantalizing.
"Doesn't he want to come live with me?"
At age 4 and 5 it is especially important that each parent respect the child's need for the other. The nonresident parent must:
• Plan carefully and never promise a visit unless it can be carried out.
• Show up on time.
• Talk about how you've missed the child, but be careful not to blame this on the other parent.
• Be at the child's disposal while you are with her.
• Leave her with a memento of you -- a DVD you make of yourself, or perhaps of the two of you as you read to her -- or a special toy as a reminder.
Gifts should not be lavish or too abundant, though, and must not compete with the other parent's relationship with the child.
She needs you to stand up for her other parent, despite the divorce. Affection won at the other parent's expense does not serve the child.
Children wonder: "Will Daddy ever return?" "Does he care about me?" "Was I bad and that's why Daddy left me?" "Will Mummy leave me, too?"
Fear of desertion and the feeling of being responsible are bound to be underlying a child's behavior. During this period, the fear and guilt may lead her either to be "too" good or to test the resident parent.
A child in a one-parent family is bound to fear any loss. A child this age needs to test and to try out independence, but doesn't dare to turn on the single parent.
She needs to identify with others around her and occasionally turn away from the resident parent.
But she won't dare to if she thinks that a parent might desert her. The resident parent needs to reassure her that -- even with all the testing in the world -- she will never be deserted.
When parents divorce, the following recommendations will help protect the children:
• Stay in as positive a relationship as possible with the other parent, or at least agree to put your anger aside when discussing the children. Agree to put their needs first, and commit to working toward consensus whenever the children are concerned. This is a lot, perhaps too much, to ask from parents when they first divorce. They will need time and support, not just to get over the anger, but to overcome the sense of loss, and the fears about what this unexpected life change will mean for their future.
• Never use the child as a football between you.
• Arrange reliable and regular visiting from the absent parent -- talk about it in between.
• Arrange phone calls and Web cam conversations with the absent parent.
• For the resident parent, arrange as much available support -- extended family, reliable and regular friends -- as possible.
• Be available to talk to the child about losses and about her hunger for others.
• Maintain the usual rules and routines. Discipline matters now even more. Divorced parents must make a concerted effort to agree on these, or at least to accept and support the other's approach when that parent is caring for the child. Be prepared for fears of loss or separation. Be prepared for behavior that stems from and increases a child's sense of guilt at having caused the divorce and loss of the other parent.
• Face the child's difficulties in changing households. For any child this is tough. For a child with social, learning, or attentional difficulties, it can be even more difficult.
In some cases, I have recommended that one permanent household be established for the children and that parents switch residences; when parents consider why they can't accept this for themselves, they begin to see the challenges for their children more clearly.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Father reunited with lost boys
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Father reunited with lost boys
William Wright - Banner Staff Writer
An American father torn from his two British toddlers was recently reunited nearly three decades after his last image was of changing their diapers.
Michael Culp, a Cleveland native, said he never gave up hope and never stopped praying for the day when he could hold both his sons in his arms again. That day came for his son John Foreman last week. Foreman, now 29, and older brother Michael, 32, learned of their father's whereabouts in April.
John took a nine hour flight out of Germany where he is stationed in the British Armored Infantry and arrived in the U.S. within weeks of their first phone conversation.
Michael, who is in the Queen's Royal Hussars, the senior light cavalry regiment of the British army, is expected to arrive in June.
"The last time I held John he was wrapped in a blanket and I was giving him a bottle," said Culp. "I had just changed both of them."
John and Michael were too young to remember their father but none of them ever forgot the love that would one day bring them back together again.
"That whole nine hour flight didn't phase me at all," said John. "But in that last hour I started getting scared. I felt me nerves going. I was shaking. I sat next to a young gentleman and told him I'm going to meet my dad who I have not seen in 29 years. I think I had turned white. I cried the whole rest of the flight."
The emotional release between father and son as they embraced for the first time brought the kind of tears of joy only experienced and completely understood by families of those lost and found.
"All we've ever really wanted was to know where they were, to let them know that we love them -- always have and always will," said Culp whose eyes watered during the interview.
"I told my wife Theresa when we were dating about the boys, how I had lost them when they were adopted and I wondered what they were doing. It's like a whole in your heart. You don't know how to express all these feelings -- the lack of knowledge and peace is awful because you don't know what's going on.
"We carried on those conversations for 17 years on a regular basis, sometimes until two in the morning. Theresa would just hold me and console me and say God is watching out for them. Now, to have this come full circle, we can see that He did watch out for them."
The blessings were more than either father or sons had imagined. Culp discovered he has two grandchildren, Samuel, 3, and Madison, 2. Michael and John, however, were stunned at the news that they had a younger brother, a younger sister and more than 150 blood relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews all wanting to meet them.
In his week long stay with his newfound family, John, who came alone, visited his great-grandmother in Alabama and several relatives around the Tennessee area. Family members were amazed at the father/son resemblance.
Both sons, in fact, are the spitting image of their dad. Not only is there a striking resemblance in features, their behavior and even careers are similar.
Culp, 54, graduated from Cleveland High School and enlisted in the U.S. Airforce at age 17 where he served for more than 20 years. John joined the British Armored Infantry at age 16 where he continues to serve after 14 years. Michael joined the Queen's Royal Hussars at age 18.
It was Michael who, upon turning 18, made it his life's mission to locate his father. Neither father nor sons on opposite sides of the Atlantic had much success until the last papers were recently released from the adoption agency that had placed the two boys with a loving family in England, Rob and Lynne Foreman.
"God put them with parents who loved them, cared for them and did a fantastic job raising them," said Culp. "Their adopted mom and dad are Christians who ran a Christian book store. I want to talk to them and tell them thank you. They did a fantastic job. They put their lives into them. These are their kids and their grandkids as much as ours. God gave us a big family and that includes Lynne and Rob."
In a four page letter to his sons, Culp explained the roller coaster relationship he shared with their British mother Chris, whom he married in England while serving in the U.S. Air force before they were born.
According to Culp, the couple was happy at the arrival of both their sons and even enjoyed traveling to the states to spend time in Tennessee.
"It was one of the happiest times I can remember for us as a little family," Culp recalls. "We went to church and spent time together and had fun."
Culp wrote to Michael saying, "I remember coming home and picking you up and holding you and tossing you in the air and catching you in the backyard and you just squealed in delight. We had a blast.
"I bought you a small pool for you to sit in when it was hot. I would come home from work and take you out to sit in the pool and you would splash like crazy. You seemed to have so much fun."
Culp admits he and his wife argued on occasion and she would even become violent at times which eventually resulted in her moving back home to NewtonAcliff with young Michael. This became an on-again-off-again pattern for the young couple. Three years later Chris was pregnant again.
The arrival of their second son brought another chance at family happiness, according to Culp, but the couple remained separated despite the fact that Culp was urging his wife for a reconciliation.
"She held off telling me anything until one day at work a man showed up and served me the paperwork for a divorce," said Culp. "I was crushed."
Culp hired a solicitor in England who offered advice and guidance on the laws of England to seek custody of his two sons. He even tried to make arrangements to fly them out of the country but his plans were thwarted.
"The day before I was to leave, my commander came to my room in the barracks and informed me that my leave was canceled and that I was restricted to the base," Culp said.
His desperation to be with his sons nearly resulted in his arrest as his estranged wife refused to return his calls or let him visit his boys.
"Chris went ahead with the divorce but I kept working with my solicitor in doing everything I could to get custody," said Culp. "I did not find out that they would not let me have custody of my sons until a year after the divorce."
A police officer even threatened Culp that if he returned to try and see his children again he would be arrested. Culp said he went to court and was granted visitation rights.
The court also informed him that there were no orders keeping him away from his children as indicated by the officer. Later it was discovered his wife was seeing an officer. The last time he saw his sons, Culp said he fed John, changed his diapers and dressed Michael.
The next time he came to visit, Chris and the kids had moved away. No one knew their whereabouts. According to Culp, it took him two years to find out his ex-wife's location only to learn that the children had been taken away from her and placed in a foster home.
Heartbroken, Culp said he was sent back to the states around this time but he continued to try and get custody only to be told that his sons were to be adopted by a family in England.
"I had no rights," he said. "I cried for two days because I thought I had lost them forever. I called everyone I knew to try and find some way to have my boys brought to me. Nothing worked.
"Everyone said they could not help because of the British government's stand and the Status of Forces Agreement. They didn't like kids to be taken out of the country. Today, fathers have more rights."
"I spent the next 27 years praying and missing my boys who were ripped from my life without regard for me or my sons," he said. "I know in my heart now that God heard my prayers and felt my pain as no one else could have."
Years later after he retired from the military and returned to Tennessee, Culp met and married the love of his life, Theresa. The couple moved back to Cleveland in July, 2008. By then, Michael had tracked down his father on an American Web site and would not be deterred by a series of near misses.
The only phone number given was that of his grandparents who were traveling each time he called. On April 8, 2009, enough information was released by the adoption agency for Michael to call his father direct.
Reunited once again, the American father and his British born sons said anyone in search of their loved ones should "persist and never ever give up because it's worth it."
"Having a family means knowing who you are and where you come from," John said. "It means you have people to turn to. Being a part of someone else's family and being a part of your own family are two different things."
When asked what it feels like to go from having only one blood relative to over 150 blood relatives, John smiled, shook his head with tears swelling in his eyes and simply said, "It's wonderful."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
William Wright - Banner Staff Writer
An American father torn from his two British toddlers was recently reunited nearly three decades after his last image was of changing their diapers.
Michael Culp, a Cleveland native, said he never gave up hope and never stopped praying for the day when he could hold both his sons in his arms again. That day came for his son John Foreman last week. Foreman, now 29, and older brother Michael, 32, learned of their father's whereabouts in April.
John took a nine hour flight out of Germany where he is stationed in the British Armored Infantry and arrived in the U.S. within weeks of their first phone conversation.
Michael, who is in the Queen's Royal Hussars, the senior light cavalry regiment of the British army, is expected to arrive in June.
"The last time I held John he was wrapped in a blanket and I was giving him a bottle," said Culp. "I had just changed both of them."
John and Michael were too young to remember their father but none of them ever forgot the love that would one day bring them back together again.
"That whole nine hour flight didn't phase me at all," said John. "But in that last hour I started getting scared. I felt me nerves going. I was shaking. I sat next to a young gentleman and told him I'm going to meet my dad who I have not seen in 29 years. I think I had turned white. I cried the whole rest of the flight."
The emotional release between father and son as they embraced for the first time brought the kind of tears of joy only experienced and completely understood by families of those lost and found.
"All we've ever really wanted was to know where they were, to let them know that we love them -- always have and always will," said Culp whose eyes watered during the interview.
"I told my wife Theresa when we were dating about the boys, how I had lost them when they were adopted and I wondered what they were doing. It's like a whole in your heart. You don't know how to express all these feelings -- the lack of knowledge and peace is awful because you don't know what's going on.
"We carried on those conversations for 17 years on a regular basis, sometimes until two in the morning. Theresa would just hold me and console me and say God is watching out for them. Now, to have this come full circle, we can see that He did watch out for them."
The blessings were more than either father or sons had imagined. Culp discovered he has two grandchildren, Samuel, 3, and Madison, 2. Michael and John, however, were stunned at the news that they had a younger brother, a younger sister and more than 150 blood relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews all wanting to meet them.
In his week long stay with his newfound family, John, who came alone, visited his great-grandmother in Alabama and several relatives around the Tennessee area. Family members were amazed at the father/son resemblance.
Both sons, in fact, are the spitting image of their dad. Not only is there a striking resemblance in features, their behavior and even careers are similar.
Culp, 54, graduated from Cleveland High School and enlisted in the U.S. Airforce at age 17 where he served for more than 20 years. John joined the British Armored Infantry at age 16 where he continues to serve after 14 years. Michael joined the Queen's Royal Hussars at age 18.
It was Michael who, upon turning 18, made it his life's mission to locate his father. Neither father nor sons on opposite sides of the Atlantic had much success until the last papers were recently released from the adoption agency that had placed the two boys with a loving family in England, Rob and Lynne Foreman.
"God put them with parents who loved them, cared for them and did a fantastic job raising them," said Culp. "Their adopted mom and dad are Christians who ran a Christian book store. I want to talk to them and tell them thank you. They did a fantastic job. They put their lives into them. These are their kids and their grandkids as much as ours. God gave us a big family and that includes Lynne and Rob."
In a four page letter to his sons, Culp explained the roller coaster relationship he shared with their British mother Chris, whom he married in England while serving in the U.S. Air force before they were born.
According to Culp, the couple was happy at the arrival of both their sons and even enjoyed traveling to the states to spend time in Tennessee.
"It was one of the happiest times I can remember for us as a little family," Culp recalls. "We went to church and spent time together and had fun."
Culp wrote to Michael saying, "I remember coming home and picking you up and holding you and tossing you in the air and catching you in the backyard and you just squealed in delight. We had a blast.
"I bought you a small pool for you to sit in when it was hot. I would come home from work and take you out to sit in the pool and you would splash like crazy. You seemed to have so much fun."
Culp admits he and his wife argued on occasion and she would even become violent at times which eventually resulted in her moving back home to NewtonAcliff with young Michael. This became an on-again-off-again pattern for the young couple. Three years later Chris was pregnant again.
The arrival of their second son brought another chance at family happiness, according to Culp, but the couple remained separated despite the fact that Culp was urging his wife for a reconciliation.
"She held off telling me anything until one day at work a man showed up and served me the paperwork for a divorce," said Culp. "I was crushed."
Culp hired a solicitor in England who offered advice and guidance on the laws of England to seek custody of his two sons. He even tried to make arrangements to fly them out of the country but his plans were thwarted.
"The day before I was to leave, my commander came to my room in the barracks and informed me that my leave was canceled and that I was restricted to the base," Culp said.
His desperation to be with his sons nearly resulted in his arrest as his estranged wife refused to return his calls or let him visit his boys.
"Chris went ahead with the divorce but I kept working with my solicitor in doing everything I could to get custody," said Culp. "I did not find out that they would not let me have custody of my sons until a year after the divorce."
A police officer even threatened Culp that if he returned to try and see his children again he would be arrested. Culp said he went to court and was granted visitation rights.
The court also informed him that there were no orders keeping him away from his children as indicated by the officer. Later it was discovered his wife was seeing an officer. The last time he saw his sons, Culp said he fed John, changed his diapers and dressed Michael.
The next time he came to visit, Chris and the kids had moved away. No one knew their whereabouts. According to Culp, it took him two years to find out his ex-wife's location only to learn that the children had been taken away from her and placed in a foster home.
Heartbroken, Culp said he was sent back to the states around this time but he continued to try and get custody only to be told that his sons were to be adopted by a family in England.
"I had no rights," he said. "I cried for two days because I thought I had lost them forever. I called everyone I knew to try and find some way to have my boys brought to me. Nothing worked.
"Everyone said they could not help because of the British government's stand and the Status of Forces Agreement. They didn't like kids to be taken out of the country. Today, fathers have more rights."
"I spent the next 27 years praying and missing my boys who were ripped from my life without regard for me or my sons," he said. "I know in my heart now that God heard my prayers and felt my pain as no one else could have."
Years later after he retired from the military and returned to Tennessee, Culp met and married the love of his life, Theresa. The couple moved back to Cleveland in July, 2008. By then, Michael had tracked down his father on an American Web site and would not be deterred by a series of near misses.
The only phone number given was that of his grandparents who were traveling each time he called. On April 8, 2009, enough information was released by the adoption agency for Michael to call his father direct.
Reunited once again, the American father and his British born sons said anyone in search of their loved ones should "persist and never ever give up because it's worth it."
"Having a family means knowing who you are and where you come from," John said. "It means you have people to turn to. Being a part of someone else's family and being a part of your own family are two different things."
When asked what it feels like to go from having only one blood relative to over 150 blood relatives, John smiled, shook his head with tears swelling in his eyes and simply said, "It's wonderful."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - States grant more rights to gay couples
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - States grant more rights to gay couples
Couples' benefits grow, even where marriage banned
By Carol J. Williams - Tribune Newspapers
When Maine's highest court ruled two years ago that lesbians Marilyn Kirby and Ann Courtney could adopt the two children they had cared for since 2001, the man who has led the state battle against gay marriage for 25 years got a glimpse of the defeat now looming.
"There's a sense people have -- a sense of inevitability -- and a tremendous sense of frustration because of the history of the gay-rights fight in Maine," said Michael Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.
He was referring to rights incrementally accorded gay couples that have led to virtual equality between same-sex and heterosexual unions in states where gay marriage remains banned, a growing trend in Maine and elsewhere, experts on both sides of the issue agree.
These rights are expanding as legally married gay couples relocate to states that don't allow gay marriage, forcing courts, legislatures and employers to deal with a new wrinkle on issues of custody, divorce, inheritance and end-of-life decisions.
The adoption ruling in Maine had the effect of granting parental rights to same-sex couples. Now, by the time its legislature adjourns for the summer, Maine may become the fifth state to legalize gay marriage, 11 years after voters banned it, according to experts following the situation. The Maine House on Tuesday passed a same-sex marriage bill that now goes to the state Senate.
In New York, which does not allow gay marriage but recognizes those conducted elsewhere, recent court decisions have granted a divorce to two gay men and surviving-spouse benefits to another. In California, federal judges have twice overruled decisions by the federal government to deny health-care coverage to gay employees' legal spouses, teeing up a constitutional challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal benefits to same-sex couples.
As more same-sex couples marry where it is legal, the administrative fallout in other states is expected to expand.
"The courts are going to have to wrestle with these issues as more and more states make it possible for people to marry," said Toni Broaddus, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Equality Federation Institute. "People don't stay in the same state for their whole lives anymore, so the courts in states without marriage equality are going to have to address these issues."
Rights advocates predict the tide eventually will sweep into some of the 30-plus states that have passed laws or constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
"A body of law is emerging because it has no choice. Cases have been filed, and they have to be decided one way or another," said Joseph Milizio, a Long Island, N.Y., lawyer specializing in gay and lesbian representation.
The legal developments allow people to become comfortable with "the fact that gay marriage is going to be recognized in many different aspects, even in states that don't allow it," Milizio said.
In the workplace, proponents of extending spousal rights to same-sex couples, such as health-care benefits, have succeeded by challenging employment practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Seven states now guarantee full equality, an advance that is lamented by opponents.
"These are serious cases of widespread importance, where we see same-sex couples attempting to use the laws of another state to push their agenda in a state that does not recognize their union," said Jim Campbell, litigation counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.
"This is a danger that will spread to all states but will not necessarily result in same-sex marriage in all states," Campbell said, noting that opponents would continue to press their elected officials to reject gay-marriage initiatives.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Couples' benefits grow, even where marriage banned
By Carol J. Williams - Tribune Newspapers
When Maine's highest court ruled two years ago that lesbians Marilyn Kirby and Ann Courtney could adopt the two children they had cared for since 2001, the man who has led the state battle against gay marriage for 25 years got a glimpse of the defeat now looming.
"There's a sense people have -- a sense of inevitability -- and a tremendous sense of frustration because of the history of the gay-rights fight in Maine," said Michael Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.
He was referring to rights incrementally accorded gay couples that have led to virtual equality between same-sex and heterosexual unions in states where gay marriage remains banned, a growing trend in Maine and elsewhere, experts on both sides of the issue agree.
These rights are expanding as legally married gay couples relocate to states that don't allow gay marriage, forcing courts, legislatures and employers to deal with a new wrinkle on issues of custody, divorce, inheritance and end-of-life decisions.
The adoption ruling in Maine had the effect of granting parental rights to same-sex couples. Now, by the time its legislature adjourns for the summer, Maine may become the fifth state to legalize gay marriage, 11 years after voters banned it, according to experts following the situation. The Maine House on Tuesday passed a same-sex marriage bill that now goes to the state Senate.
In New York, which does not allow gay marriage but recognizes those conducted elsewhere, recent court decisions have granted a divorce to two gay men and surviving-spouse benefits to another. In California, federal judges have twice overruled decisions by the federal government to deny health-care coverage to gay employees' legal spouses, teeing up a constitutional challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal benefits to same-sex couples.
As more same-sex couples marry where it is legal, the administrative fallout in other states is expected to expand.
"The courts are going to have to wrestle with these issues as more and more states make it possible for people to marry," said Toni Broaddus, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Equality Federation Institute. "People don't stay in the same state for their whole lives anymore, so the courts in states without marriage equality are going to have to address these issues."
Rights advocates predict the tide eventually will sweep into some of the 30-plus states that have passed laws or constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
"A body of law is emerging because it has no choice. Cases have been filed, and they have to be decided one way or another," said Joseph Milizio, a Long Island, N.Y., lawyer specializing in gay and lesbian representation.
The legal developments allow people to become comfortable with "the fact that gay marriage is going to be recognized in many different aspects, even in states that don't allow it," Milizio said.
In the workplace, proponents of extending spousal rights to same-sex couples, such as health-care benefits, have succeeded by challenging employment practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Seven states now guarantee full equality, an advance that is lamented by opponents.
"These are serious cases of widespread importance, where we see same-sex couples attempting to use the laws of another state to push their agenda in a state that does not recognize their union," said Jim Campbell, litigation counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.
"This is a danger that will spread to all states but will not necessarily result in same-sex marriage in all states," Campbell said, noting that opponents would continue to press their elected officials to reject gay-marriage initiatives.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Lawyer - Decline in marriages, rise in divorces shaping practices
Augusta Military Divorce Lawyer - Decline in marriages, rise in divorces shaping practices
Statistically speaking, divorce lawyers in Wisconsin were busier in 2008 than they have been for much of the last three decades. But while divorce filings rose by more than 420 from 16,458 in 2007 to 16,885 in 2008, they have declined for the most part since 1980, according to an April report published by the state’s Department of Health Services.
Since 1990, the number of marriages in Wisconsin has also declined, including about 700 fewer weddings in 2008, compared to 2007.Several Family Law attorneys attributed the trends to younger couples being more cautious about jumping into marriage than their parents, but they also noted that the landscape of divorce work is evolving to meet the needs of clients going through the process.
Collaborative EffortFamily Law attorney Daniel R. Cross said it is difficult to predict whether the number of divorces will continue to rise and he could not pinpoint the reason for the rise in 2008.Divorces jumped by almost 500 from 2005 to 2006, but have declined in three of the last five years.Cross suggested that divorce attorneys are adapting to the changing culture and expanding on the services they provide to clients to include alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation, rather than litigation.“What it means is divorce lawyers have to become more flexible in how they can offer services,” said Cross, of Peterson, Berk & Cross SC, in Appleton. “When I came up, the practice was if someone was in a divorce they were in with both feet.”
Milwaukee Family Law attorney Catherine A. La Fleur started doing divorce mediations three years ago and said business has been steady. La Fleur, of La Fleur Law Office S.C. in Milwaukee, suggested that divorce settlements have been on the rise, simply because people cannot afford to take their cases to court. “I’ve seen people be a lot more amenable [to mediation] when they look at the bottom line and decide they cannot afford to fight,” said La Fleur, who also does guardian ad litem work.That has especially been true in the last two years as the economy slipped into a recession.While there was an increase in the number of 2008 divorces, attorney Barbara L. Burbach suggested that the majority of those likely came in the first part of the year because couple were “paralyzed” by the economy later in the year.“The interesting thing is toward the end of last year I actually noticed a dip in my practice,” Burbach, who practices at Burbach & Stansbury S.C., in Milwaukee.
“Don’t forget that the economy was really good in early 2008 and it’s possible there could have been a slew of filings at that time.”Burbach said her “intake” levels have since recovered, but she is doing more mediations than in the past.Getting Things SettledRegardless of whether divorce filings increase or decrease in 2009, Cross said one of the continuing challenges is whether spouses choose to hire attorneys at all during the process.“We don’t have a significantly high rate of pro se divorce cases in our county, but an increasing number are electing not to retain attorneys,” Cross said.While Milwaukee County led the state with 2,443 divorces in 2008, more than 80 percent of all divorce cases that come to circuit court involve at least one party that is pro se.Burbach said in her experience, people are looking to alternatives to expensive litigation and doing it themselves is sometimes the only option they consider.“I think the trend shows there is less emphasis on litigation and people are looking for other ways to resolve their disputes,” Burbach said.La Fleur added that while mediation can be a more cost-effective option, especially if there are children involved, middle-income couples may still struggle with the question of whether to get divorced and whether to hire an attorney.“I feel badly, but nobody out there is working for free,” La Fleur said. “If someone is making $30,000 a year, they don’t qualify for free lawyers, but that doesn’t mean they can afford one.”
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Statistically speaking, divorce lawyers in Wisconsin were busier in 2008 than they have been for much of the last three decades. But while divorce filings rose by more than 420 from 16,458 in 2007 to 16,885 in 2008, they have declined for the most part since 1980, according to an April report published by the state’s Department of Health Services.
Since 1990, the number of marriages in Wisconsin has also declined, including about 700 fewer weddings in 2008, compared to 2007.Several Family Law attorneys attributed the trends to younger couples being more cautious about jumping into marriage than their parents, but they also noted that the landscape of divorce work is evolving to meet the needs of clients going through the process.
Collaborative EffortFamily Law attorney Daniel R. Cross said it is difficult to predict whether the number of divorces will continue to rise and he could not pinpoint the reason for the rise in 2008.Divorces jumped by almost 500 from 2005 to 2006, but have declined in three of the last five years.Cross suggested that divorce attorneys are adapting to the changing culture and expanding on the services they provide to clients to include alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation, rather than litigation.“What it means is divorce lawyers have to become more flexible in how they can offer services,” said Cross, of Peterson, Berk & Cross SC, in Appleton. “When I came up, the practice was if someone was in a divorce they were in with both feet.”
Milwaukee Family Law attorney Catherine A. La Fleur started doing divorce mediations three years ago and said business has been steady. La Fleur, of La Fleur Law Office S.C. in Milwaukee, suggested that divorce settlements have been on the rise, simply because people cannot afford to take their cases to court. “I’ve seen people be a lot more amenable [to mediation] when they look at the bottom line and decide they cannot afford to fight,” said La Fleur, who also does guardian ad litem work.That has especially been true in the last two years as the economy slipped into a recession.While there was an increase in the number of 2008 divorces, attorney Barbara L. Burbach suggested that the majority of those likely came in the first part of the year because couple were “paralyzed” by the economy later in the year.“The interesting thing is toward the end of last year I actually noticed a dip in my practice,” Burbach, who practices at Burbach & Stansbury S.C., in Milwaukee.
“Don’t forget that the economy was really good in early 2008 and it’s possible there could have been a slew of filings at that time.”Burbach said her “intake” levels have since recovered, but she is doing more mediations than in the past.Getting Things SettledRegardless of whether divorce filings increase or decrease in 2009, Cross said one of the continuing challenges is whether spouses choose to hire attorneys at all during the process.“We don’t have a significantly high rate of pro se divorce cases in our county, but an increasing number are electing not to retain attorneys,” Cross said.While Milwaukee County led the state with 2,443 divorces in 2008, more than 80 percent of all divorce cases that come to circuit court involve at least one party that is pro se.Burbach said in her experience, people are looking to alternatives to expensive litigation and doing it themselves is sometimes the only option they consider.“I think the trend shows there is less emphasis on litigation and people are looking for other ways to resolve their disputes,” Burbach said.La Fleur added that while mediation can be a more cost-effective option, especially if there are children involved, middle-income couples may still struggle with the question of whether to get divorced and whether to hire an attorney.“I feel badly, but nobody out there is working for free,” La Fleur said. “If someone is making $30,000 a year, they don’t qualify for free lawyers, but that doesn’t mean they can afford one.”
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - VA rejects vet transfer in final GI Bill rules
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - VA rejects vet transfer in final GI Bill rules
By Rick Maze
The Veterans Affairs Department’s final rules for the Post-9/11 GI Bill remove some proposed restrictions on current service members sharing educational benefits with family members, but the regulations reject requests that the same transfer rights be given to veterans.
VA officials, who received many letters asking for veterans to have the same GI Bill transfer rights as current service members, said they could not allow veterans to share benefits with family members because transfer rights for the new benefits program are, by law, limited to people who are in the service Aug. 1, when the new GI Bill program begins.
Also rejected in the final rules: living stipends for people using the new GI Bill for distance learning; and special rules for veterans suffering traumatic brain injuries that would provide them full payments even if they are not full-time students.
For veterans who plan to attend private colleges or universities, the final rules revise procedures that could reduce tuition for some students under a matching fund program. Colleges or universities will have more flexibility in deciding which categories of students would be eligible for reduced tuition, which VA officials expect will encourage more institutions to participate.
The new GI Bill educational benefits program, which takes effect Aug. 1, features monthly benefits to fully cover the cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public college or university, plus a $1,000 annual book allowance and a monthly living stipend pegged to the cost of renting a two-bedroom townhouse in the same ZIP code as the campus.
Final rules also add commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to those eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.
Jurisdiction over the Post-9/11 GI Bill is divided between two agencies: VA is responsible for payment of benefits — tuition payments directly to the school, but stipends paid to the student; and the Defense Department is responsible for setting rules for how current service members will be able to share earned benefits with a spouse or children.
The VA is done with its part of the rule-making, but the Defense Department has yet to announce details on how service members will be able to transfer benefits, although some basic eligibility guidelines are established by law and by VA rules.
In three ways, the final VA rules set the stage for more generous policies involving the transfer of benefits.
• Kickers — the extra GI Bill benefits earned as enlistment bonuses by some recruits — can be transferred to a spouse or children along with basic benefits, VA officials said in the final rule.
• When benefits are transferred, a spouse’s divorce or a child’s marriage will not terminate benefits. This is a 180-degree change from rules proposed in December. Benefits can be transferred — if a service member meets eligibility rules, still to be announced — to a current spouse and to an unmarried child. A subsequent divorce from a spouse or marriage of a child does not automatically cancel benefits, although a service member can reduce or rescind the transfer of benefits at any time, without reason.
• A military spouse who earned GI Bill benefits in her own right, and used them, can also use transferred benefits. The only limitation is that only one GI Bill benefit may be used at a time.
While making transfer rights more liberal, the final rules make it clear that veterans’ educational benefits are not marital property that could be divided in a property settlement after divorce. The rules also clarify that the monthly living stipend — equal to the basic allowance for housing of an E-5 with dependents — will not be paid to the spouse of an active-duty service member, just as it will not be paid to a service member using the GI Bill while still in the service.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Rick Maze
The Veterans Affairs Department’s final rules for the Post-9/11 GI Bill remove some proposed restrictions on current service members sharing educational benefits with family members, but the regulations reject requests that the same transfer rights be given to veterans.
VA officials, who received many letters asking for veterans to have the same GI Bill transfer rights as current service members, said they could not allow veterans to share benefits with family members because transfer rights for the new benefits program are, by law, limited to people who are in the service Aug. 1, when the new GI Bill program begins.
Also rejected in the final rules: living stipends for people using the new GI Bill for distance learning; and special rules for veterans suffering traumatic brain injuries that would provide them full payments even if they are not full-time students.
For veterans who plan to attend private colleges or universities, the final rules revise procedures that could reduce tuition for some students under a matching fund program. Colleges or universities will have more flexibility in deciding which categories of students would be eligible for reduced tuition, which VA officials expect will encourage more institutions to participate.
The new GI Bill educational benefits program, which takes effect Aug. 1, features monthly benefits to fully cover the cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public college or university, plus a $1,000 annual book allowance and a monthly living stipend pegged to the cost of renting a two-bedroom townhouse in the same ZIP code as the campus.
Final rules also add commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to those eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.
Jurisdiction over the Post-9/11 GI Bill is divided between two agencies: VA is responsible for payment of benefits — tuition payments directly to the school, but stipends paid to the student; and the Defense Department is responsible for setting rules for how current service members will be able to share earned benefits with a spouse or children.
The VA is done with its part of the rule-making, but the Defense Department has yet to announce details on how service members will be able to transfer benefits, although some basic eligibility guidelines are established by law and by VA rules.
In three ways, the final VA rules set the stage for more generous policies involving the transfer of benefits.
• Kickers — the extra GI Bill benefits earned as enlistment bonuses by some recruits — can be transferred to a spouse or children along with basic benefits, VA officials said in the final rule.
• When benefits are transferred, a spouse’s divorce or a child’s marriage will not terminate benefits. This is a 180-degree change from rules proposed in December. Benefits can be transferred — if a service member meets eligibility rules, still to be announced — to a current spouse and to an unmarried child. A subsequent divorce from a spouse or marriage of a child does not automatically cancel benefits, although a service member can reduce or rescind the transfer of benefits at any time, without reason.
• A military spouse who earned GI Bill benefits in her own right, and used them, can also use transferred benefits. The only limitation is that only one GI Bill benefit may be used at a time.
While making transfer rights more liberal, the final rules make it clear that veterans’ educational benefits are not marital property that could be divided in a property settlement after divorce. The rules also clarify that the monthly living stipend — equal to the basic allowance for housing of an E-5 with dependents — will not be paid to the spouse of an active-duty service member, just as it will not be paid to a service member using the GI Bill while still in the service.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - "Jon and Kate Plus 8" divorce drama
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - "Jon and Kate Plus 8" divorce drama
By Liz G - gather.com
They have eight kids – all under the age of eight. A set of twins and sextuplets from fertility treatments helped nail them what is now one of the most popular shows on TLC, Jon and Kate Plus 8. Having one's own reality show and living in a million dollar home doesn't necessarily make life easier for them. Every time I watch the show, I always cringe. Why is Kate so bitchy to Jon? The man looks stressed out. Do you agree? However, despite the nagging from his wife, I highly disprove of Jon's recent alleged activities.
It's rumored that in February reality star Jon Gosselin was seen partying with female co-eds from Juniata College and that he told them he and his wife Kate might be getting a divorce. Later he was spotted in April by paparazzi at 2 am leaving a bar with a woman, who was behind the wheel of his vehicle.
Jon has claimed, "I went to Legends [the bar] to speak to the owner. A friend of mine wanted to check out my car, so I let her drive it to her car." But why no wedding ring? Married people, I would love to get your input: do you often hang out in bars without your wedding ring on?
I hate cheaters, and I don't want to think the worst, but the whole story seems very shady to me. And the fact that Jon and his wife Kate are making money by creating a television show with their children doesn't help my opinion of him.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Liz G - gather.com
They have eight kids – all under the age of eight. A set of twins and sextuplets from fertility treatments helped nail them what is now one of the most popular shows on TLC, Jon and Kate Plus 8. Having one's own reality show and living in a million dollar home doesn't necessarily make life easier for them. Every time I watch the show, I always cringe. Why is Kate so bitchy to Jon? The man looks stressed out. Do you agree? However, despite the nagging from his wife, I highly disprove of Jon's recent alleged activities.
It's rumored that in February reality star Jon Gosselin was seen partying with female co-eds from Juniata College and that he told them he and his wife Kate might be getting a divorce. Later he was spotted in April by paparazzi at 2 am leaving a bar with a woman, who was behind the wheel of his vehicle.
Jon has claimed, "I went to Legends [the bar] to speak to the owner. A friend of mine wanted to check out my car, so I let her drive it to her car." But why no wedding ring? Married people, I would love to get your input: do you often hang out in bars without your wedding ring on?
I hate cheaters, and I don't want to think the worst, but the whole story seems very shady to me. And the fact that Jon and his wife Kate are making money by creating a television show with their children doesn't help my opinion of him.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Attorney - Washington National Guard Fights Unemployment and Divorce
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Attorney - Washington National Guard Fights Unemployment and Divorce
In the state of Washington, the Army National Guard currently has a full Heavy Brigade Combat Team with approximately 2,400 of its citizens deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The brigade will re-deploy to Washington by mid-August 2009 only to find many jobs non-existent. According to a recent report provided by the Washington National Guard, current projections indicate approximately 650 members of this brigade will be unemployed after mobilization ends in August 2009. This on top of a troubling trend that 60 percent of those Guard members who deployed from 2004 – 2006 earned less wages after their return compared to wages earned prior to deployment. And currently those wages for Guard members E-6 and below is less than $2,000 per month.
"It's a challenge," said Tom Riggs, retired SGM and now the Deployment Cycle Support Transition Chief for the Washington Guard. "They are one accident, one pregnancy, one lay off away from poverty."
Financial stress and pressure not only impacts businesses but is often the leading reason couples site for divorce according to the Institute for Family Studies. Some studies, however, suggest the economy is forcing couples to stay together who would rather divorce, just to avoid poverty. With over half a million of Washington's population living in poverty, that number is subject to increase with the financial odds facing the troops. And with it, the divorce rate. "But all hope is not lost," according to Riggs.
He and his team are facing these challenges head on. In addition to their positive messaging campaign to the troops through webinars and podcasts from the Governor and recognized sports celebrities that share how the troops can connect to jobs, they are also breaking from the traditional method for processing out Guard members once they return to their home state. Traditionally, the troops face 5 days of briefings, physical exams and paperwork, with most of the claims or benefits paperwork being stretched later over a couple of drill weekends. Riggs has partnered with the Federal VA, American Legion and the state's Department of Veterans Affairs to commence the demobilization process during the last 30 days in theatre. When the troops arrive at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin prior to returning to Washington State, they will finalize any remaining paperwork before returning to Washington. All forms will be pre-populated and just require review and signature.
By initiating this process earlier, Riggs and his team will eliminate 9 months from the traditional VA claims process that most Guard and Reserve families experience in other states. This will provide Washington troops almost immediate access to employment compensation, vocational rehabilitation and health care for any identified medical conditions.
Additionally, they are developing Project 100 – a pilot project that brings new unions and organizations to the employment table that will offer apprenticeships. Currently, they have over 300 organizations willing to participate and the list continues to grow.
A peer to peer relationship strengthening program is also undergoing review that will move the traditional marriage workshops from the classroom into the community, with ongoing intranet and small group support.
Riggs and his team are hopeful this new way of doing things will help eliminate financial pressures and help keep the family unit intact.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
In the state of Washington, the Army National Guard currently has a full Heavy Brigade Combat Team with approximately 2,400 of its citizens deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The brigade will re-deploy to Washington by mid-August 2009 only to find many jobs non-existent. According to a recent report provided by the Washington National Guard, current projections indicate approximately 650 members of this brigade will be unemployed after mobilization ends in August 2009. This on top of a troubling trend that 60 percent of those Guard members who deployed from 2004 – 2006 earned less wages after their return compared to wages earned prior to deployment. And currently those wages for Guard members E-6 and below is less than $2,000 per month.
"It's a challenge," said Tom Riggs, retired SGM and now the Deployment Cycle Support Transition Chief for the Washington Guard. "They are one accident, one pregnancy, one lay off away from poverty."
Financial stress and pressure not only impacts businesses but is often the leading reason couples site for divorce according to the Institute for Family Studies. Some studies, however, suggest the economy is forcing couples to stay together who would rather divorce, just to avoid poverty. With over half a million of Washington's population living in poverty, that number is subject to increase with the financial odds facing the troops. And with it, the divorce rate. "But all hope is not lost," according to Riggs.
He and his team are facing these challenges head on. In addition to their positive messaging campaign to the troops through webinars and podcasts from the Governor and recognized sports celebrities that share how the troops can connect to jobs, they are also breaking from the traditional method for processing out Guard members once they return to their home state. Traditionally, the troops face 5 days of briefings, physical exams and paperwork, with most of the claims or benefits paperwork being stretched later over a couple of drill weekends. Riggs has partnered with the Federal VA, American Legion and the state's Department of Veterans Affairs to commence the demobilization process during the last 30 days in theatre. When the troops arrive at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin prior to returning to Washington State, they will finalize any remaining paperwork before returning to Washington. All forms will be pre-populated and just require review and signature.
By initiating this process earlier, Riggs and his team will eliminate 9 months from the traditional VA claims process that most Guard and Reserve families experience in other states. This will provide Washington troops almost immediate access to employment compensation, vocational rehabilitation and health care for any identified medical conditions.
Additionally, they are developing Project 100 – a pilot project that brings new unions and organizations to the employment table that will offer apprenticeships. Currently, they have over 300 organizations willing to participate and the list continues to grow.
A peer to peer relationship strengthening program is also undergoing review that will move the traditional marriage workshops from the classroom into the community, with ongoing intranet and small group support.
Riggs and his team are hopeful this new way of doing things will help eliminate financial pressures and help keep the family unit intact.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Berlusconi snaps back in melodramatic divorce battle
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Berlusconi snaps back in melodramatic divorce battle
ROME (AFP) — In a script worthy of a soap opera on one of Silvio Berlusconi's bubbly television channels, the billionaire Italian leader said Monday that divorce from his wife is all but inevitable.
Having bitten his tongue Sunday when scorned former actress Veronica Lario revealed to the media through friends that her "marriage is over," the 72-year-old -- accused of "cavorting with minors" by his companion of nearly three decades -- came back out fighting.
"Veronica must apologise publicly," the one-time cruise ship crooner Berlusconi told Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"Madam says I'm running around with 17-year-old girls. It's an assertion I cannot allow," Berlusconi said.
"I am friends with her father, that's all. I swear."
The pretty blonde at the centre of the row turned 18 last week, and Lario's patience finally snapped when it emerged that Berlusconi leapt into her birthday celebrations in Naples, offering her a gold necklace.
The 52-year-old was reportedly furious at his presence, noting that he never showed up at any of his own children's coming-of-age parties.
Lario last week issued an open letter complaining over reports that Berlusconi was considering a string of young women with no political experience to stand for his centre-right party in European Union elections in June.
One is a former Miss Italy contestant.
"My marriage is over. I can't stay with someone who cavorts with minors," Lario was quoted as saying by a friend.
"I read in the papers about how he has been hanging around a minor -- because he must have known her before she was 18 -- and how she called him 'Papy' and about their meetings in Rome and Milan.
"How can I stay with such a man?" she was quoted as saying in La Stampa.
The flamboyant premier hit back in Corriere, snarling: "It's the third time she's done this to me in the middle of an election campaign. It's too much."
Asked whether the near 19-year marriage could survive, Berlusconi said: "I don't think so.
"I don't know if I want it to this time."
With a huge divorce settlement all but certain, the Italian press has begun totting up the Berlusconi family's complex fortune, built from a modest construction company into a sprawling media empire estimated by Forbes to be worth some 6.5 billion dollars (4.5 billion euros).
Berlusconi's Fininvest empire includes three television channels teeming with game shows and soap operas featuring scantily clad starlets.
The couple, who have three children, are rarely seen in public together, while Berlusconi is a bon vivant known for his stamina at late-night dinner parties.
In January 2007, Berlusconi issued a public apology to Lario after she learned through the press of his verbal dalliance with a young lawmaker.
"Please forgive me, and take this public testimony... as an act of love, one among many," Berlusconi said after Lario wrote to the daily La Repubblica demanding his contrition, which she said he had failed to show in private.
Speaking to La Stampa, Berlusconi said he was "worried and disappointed" this time.
"I've stayed on in a difficult situation out of love for the children, but now it's over," said Berlusconi, who also has two children from his first marriage.
"I can't accept that this has wound up in the newspapers."
The public divorce row is a rare spectacle in Italy.
"It's an unprecedented public outpouring," said political scientist Mario Tarchi. "Before, you didn't even know if leaders had wives or children, if they were divorced or not."
Tarchi's colleague Marc Lazar said he doubted whether a second divorce, even in conservative, predominantly Catholic Italy, will hurt Berlusconi.
"This story might upset part of his electorate -- practising Catholics -- (but) his popularity rests on other things," Lazar said.
"Anyway, the election campaign will make people forget all that. He's going to start making sharp attacks against the left in the next hours or days," Lazar told AFP.
Tarchi agreed: "People are used to (Berlusconi's) macho attitude and even approve of it to some degree, including some women."
Lario's remarks about cavorting with minors "doesn't sit well ahead of the elections," he said. "But it won't do anything for the left."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
ROME (AFP) — In a script worthy of a soap opera on one of Silvio Berlusconi's bubbly television channels, the billionaire Italian leader said Monday that divorce from his wife is all but inevitable.
Having bitten his tongue Sunday when scorned former actress Veronica Lario revealed to the media through friends that her "marriage is over," the 72-year-old -- accused of "cavorting with minors" by his companion of nearly three decades -- came back out fighting.
"Veronica must apologise publicly," the one-time cruise ship crooner Berlusconi told Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"Madam says I'm running around with 17-year-old girls. It's an assertion I cannot allow," Berlusconi said.
"I am friends with her father, that's all. I swear."
The pretty blonde at the centre of the row turned 18 last week, and Lario's patience finally snapped when it emerged that Berlusconi leapt into her birthday celebrations in Naples, offering her a gold necklace.
The 52-year-old was reportedly furious at his presence, noting that he never showed up at any of his own children's coming-of-age parties.
Lario last week issued an open letter complaining over reports that Berlusconi was considering a string of young women with no political experience to stand for his centre-right party in European Union elections in June.
One is a former Miss Italy contestant.
"My marriage is over. I can't stay with someone who cavorts with minors," Lario was quoted as saying by a friend.
"I read in the papers about how he has been hanging around a minor -- because he must have known her before she was 18 -- and how she called him 'Papy' and about their meetings in Rome and Milan.
"How can I stay with such a man?" she was quoted as saying in La Stampa.
The flamboyant premier hit back in Corriere, snarling: "It's the third time she's done this to me in the middle of an election campaign. It's too much."
Asked whether the near 19-year marriage could survive, Berlusconi said: "I don't think so.
"I don't know if I want it to this time."
With a huge divorce settlement all but certain, the Italian press has begun totting up the Berlusconi family's complex fortune, built from a modest construction company into a sprawling media empire estimated by Forbes to be worth some 6.5 billion dollars (4.5 billion euros).
Berlusconi's Fininvest empire includes three television channels teeming with game shows and soap operas featuring scantily clad starlets.
The couple, who have three children, are rarely seen in public together, while Berlusconi is a bon vivant known for his stamina at late-night dinner parties.
In January 2007, Berlusconi issued a public apology to Lario after she learned through the press of his verbal dalliance with a young lawmaker.
"Please forgive me, and take this public testimony... as an act of love, one among many," Berlusconi said after Lario wrote to the daily La Repubblica demanding his contrition, which she said he had failed to show in private.
Speaking to La Stampa, Berlusconi said he was "worried and disappointed" this time.
"I've stayed on in a difficult situation out of love for the children, but now it's over," said Berlusconi, who also has two children from his first marriage.
"I can't accept that this has wound up in the newspapers."
The public divorce row is a rare spectacle in Italy.
"It's an unprecedented public outpouring," said political scientist Mario Tarchi. "Before, you didn't even know if leaders had wives or children, if they were divorced or not."
Tarchi's colleague Marc Lazar said he doubted whether a second divorce, even in conservative, predominantly Catholic Italy, will hurt Berlusconi.
"This story might upset part of his electorate -- practising Catholics -- (but) his popularity rests on other things," Lazar said.
"Anyway, the election campaign will make people forget all that. He's going to start making sharp attacks against the left in the next hours or days," Lazar told AFP.
Tarchi agreed: "People are used to (Berlusconi's) macho attitude and even approve of it to some degree, including some women."
Lario's remarks about cavorting with minors "doesn't sit well ahead of the elections," he said. "But it won't do anything for the left."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Conflict precedes Dade City shootings
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Conflict precedes Dade City shootings
By Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer
DADE CITY — In a matter of days, things seemed to go from bad to worse for Terry Wayne Scott.
Scott spent four days in the Pasco County jail after an April 17 arrest on charges of grand theft. Two days after his release, Scott's wife of 10 years filed for divorce.
At some point, apparently, it became too much to handle.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Scott, 59, fatally shot his wife, Veronica, and then killed himself Saturday at their Dade City home.
"There had been some animosity from him toward her because of the divorce," said Kevin Doll, a spokesman with the Sheriff's Office.
Detectives were still investigating the shooting deaths Sunday, looking for more clues into what might have led to the grisly scene they found at the couple's mobile home at 14507 Mount Zion Road. The home sits on 2 acres of mostly sprawling pasture, far back from the road and down a long sandy drive, barely visible at night.
Deputies were sent to the home about 8 p.m. Saturday to check on the pair, Doll said. Veronica Scott, a registered nurse, had not shown up for work that day and a co-worker was concerned.
Earlier in the day, neighbors reported gunshots in the area but mostly thought nothing of it in such a rural area.
"We wouldn't have had any reason to respond until we got the welfare check," Doll said. "And these are big yards, multi-acre properties. ... Gunshots probably aren't all that uncommon out there."
When deputies arrived at the home, they found the bodies of Veronica, 48, and Terry Scott in the garage.
Preliminary information indicates that Terry Scott first shot and killed his wife and then shot himself with a handgun. Doll wouldn't comment on whether a suicide note had been left.
But according to public records, it's clear Terry Scott had been having a rough couple of weeks.
Scott was arrested by the Zephyrhills Police Department on April 17 for grand theft. He was released from jail on April 20 after posting $2,500 bail.
A copy of the arrest report couldn't immediately be obtained from the police, and Doll didn't know details of the arrest.
Then on April 22, Veronica Scott filed for divorce. The Scotts, who were both previously divorced, lived at the Dade City home with her teenage son.
The teen was not home at the time of the shootings. Doll was not sure if Terry Scott was the father of the boy.
A day after the shootings, most neighbors still had not heard news of the grim discovery at the Scotts' home. And mostly due to the secluded and sprawling nature of the rural area, few knew much about the couple and their son.
"We saw a bunch of cars coming in and out of that area last night," said Ruth Blessing, who lives farther down the road on Mount Zion. "We had no clue. That's awful news."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer
DADE CITY — In a matter of days, things seemed to go from bad to worse for Terry Wayne Scott.
Scott spent four days in the Pasco County jail after an April 17 arrest on charges of grand theft. Two days after his release, Scott's wife of 10 years filed for divorce.
At some point, apparently, it became too much to handle.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Scott, 59, fatally shot his wife, Veronica, and then killed himself Saturday at their Dade City home.
"There had been some animosity from him toward her because of the divorce," said Kevin Doll, a spokesman with the Sheriff's Office.
Detectives were still investigating the shooting deaths Sunday, looking for more clues into what might have led to the grisly scene they found at the couple's mobile home at 14507 Mount Zion Road. The home sits on 2 acres of mostly sprawling pasture, far back from the road and down a long sandy drive, barely visible at night.
Deputies were sent to the home about 8 p.m. Saturday to check on the pair, Doll said. Veronica Scott, a registered nurse, had not shown up for work that day and a co-worker was concerned.
Earlier in the day, neighbors reported gunshots in the area but mostly thought nothing of it in such a rural area.
"We wouldn't have had any reason to respond until we got the welfare check," Doll said. "And these are big yards, multi-acre properties. ... Gunshots probably aren't all that uncommon out there."
When deputies arrived at the home, they found the bodies of Veronica, 48, and Terry Scott in the garage.
Preliminary information indicates that Terry Scott first shot and killed his wife and then shot himself with a handgun. Doll wouldn't comment on whether a suicide note had been left.
But according to public records, it's clear Terry Scott had been having a rough couple of weeks.
Scott was arrested by the Zephyrhills Police Department on April 17 for grand theft. He was released from jail on April 20 after posting $2,500 bail.
A copy of the arrest report couldn't immediately be obtained from the police, and Doll didn't know details of the arrest.
Then on April 22, Veronica Scott filed for divorce. The Scotts, who were both previously divorced, lived at the Dade City home with her teenage son.
The teen was not home at the time of the shootings. Doll was not sure if Terry Scott was the father of the boy.
A day after the shootings, most neighbors still had not heard news of the grim discovery at the Scotts' home. And mostly due to the secluded and sprawling nature of the rural area, few knew much about the couple and their son.
"We saw a bunch of cars coming in and out of that area last night," said Ruth Blessing, who lives farther down the road on Mount Zion. "We had no clue. That's awful news."
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - A Soldier's Battle Back: Noberto Lara
Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer - A Soldier's Battle Back: Noberto Lara
Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers
Norberto Lara left his tattoo behind in Iraq.
A rocket-propelled grenade erased it, along with his entire right arm. It happened before dawn, in one previously unimaginable moment in June. The traumatic shoulder amputation was complete and irrevocable, and so was Lara's surprise.
"I never thought I would lose an arm," Lara said.
Both war and its aftermath can confound expectations. So here the graduate of Visalia's Sequoia High School is: rebuilding his unanticipated new life at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Always lean, the 31-year-old Army staff sergeant is down to about 125 pounds. Five milligrams of methadone daily help keep the pain at bay, but he still feels his phantom arm. One singed lung is still recovering from the intolerable heat of the grenade blast. Among the roughly 11,000 Americans wounded or injured in Iraq, Lara is in relatively small company. As of last week, he was one of 195 amputee patients treated at Walter Reed since the war began two years ago.
Some aspects of Lara's old life are gone forever. He was, after all, right-handed. Some unexpected grace notes have come and gone, like his appearance with first lady Laura Bush at this year's State of the Union speech. Better yet, some sense of normalcy is returning.
He's running, once more, and fully intends to enter the Army 10-Miler in Washington this October. He's learning to use a prosthetic arm. He's training with the Department of Veterans Affairs. By June, he expects to be a working civilian for the first time in 10 years.
And his missing tattoo? Lara is getting that replaced, inked onto the flesh-emulating silicon of his prosthetic arm. "Erminia," it will say, "1939-2003." It will look unnervingly real, much like the prosthetic itself.
"My goal," Lara said, "is for when I'm walking down the street, no one will be able to tell the difference."
Erminia was his mother. Friends knew her as Minnie Pallanes. Lara got his original tattoo two days after she passed away from cancer in mid-August 2003. The last two weeks she was alive, he spent almost every waking minute with her.
"I would look at my tattoo," Lara said, "and remember her. I can't wait to see it on my prosthetic."
A single mother after her husband died, Erminia Pallanes saw her son through Goshen Elementary School and Divisadero Junior High School. She saw him through high school, his first marriage to Dannelle and the birth of his two children, Eibren and Mia.
She was there through his subsequent divorce and his January 1995 Army enlistment, and through his second marriage in 1997 to a fellow soldier named Starlyn.
Pallanes was gone, though, by the time Lara shipped out for Iraq last March with the 293rd Military Police Company. Once she passed away, he volunteered for the next military police unit bound for the war zone. He ended up attached to the 3rd Infantry Division, learning what he could from those who had already been to Iraq.
"They said it was like the Wild West," Lara recalled.
They were right.
Gunfire shattered the nights. Mortar attacks were common.
Explosives peppered the supply convoys.
Lara was based in an Iraqi police station in Baqouba, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. The military police patrolled supply routes and the local neighborhood. Each day could bring more of the same, or something altogether different.
Sometime around 4 in the morning on June 18, Lara's team was out on the streets. A curfew was in place, and it seemed quiet. Lara was sitting in the right front seat of his armored Humvee.
His lieutenant, a red-haired former member of the West Point women's bas-ketball team named Dawn Halfaker, was behind him. Halfaker had quick hands. Once, as a West Point senior, she snagged seven steals and scored 21 points against Bucknell.
They had no warning. Simply: Before, then After.
"I saw this flash, and I heard this boom, and then everything started moving in slow motion," Lara said.
The rocket-propelled grenade, 4 brute pounds traveling up to 965 feet per second, sliced off Lara's arm at the shoulder even before it exploded. He didn't know that at first. He just knew he wanted to open the Humvee door, but something wasn't working right when he tried.
Then he couldn't breathe.
In the back, Halfaker was screaming to get back to the station.
The grenade had exploded, shredding flesh. She would, in time, awaken in a hospital to learn her own right arm had been amputated.
The driver raced the Humvee back to the police station in about four minutes, while Lara tried to hang on.
"I remember thinking I was never going to get to hug my kids and tell them that I love them again," Lara said. "I was really scared that I was going to die because I thought that not being able to breathe was a sign I wasn't going to make it."
An oxygen mask passed over his face. Fade to black.
At a 1st Infantry Division base near the Iranian border, Staff Sgt. Starlyn Lara -- Norberto Lara's wife -- was settling into her own job several hours later that same day. Starlyn is an administrative specialist.
That morning, she had fired up her computer to examine the latest list of U.S. wounded.
"I was scrolling down the list, and there his name was," Starlyn Lara re-called. "There was a good 45 seconds when I was just in shock."
It was a fluke, not how the Army wanted the notification to happen.
Still, she wouldn't see her husband until July as he was passed up through the chain of medical care. In the meantime, Lara's ex-wife, Dannelle -- since remarried to Visalia firefighter Tommy Jiminez -- had, with the help of Jiminez's fellow firefighters and the community, flown to Germany and sat bedside. Lara himself remained medically sedated, until doctors transferred him to Walter Reed and then slowly brought him around.
"I woke up," Lara said, "in August."
He couldn't talk, because he had a tracheotomy tube in his throat.
He had a bedsore from his weeks of lying motionless. He looked ghastly.
Bo Bergeron, a tall, athletic, gray-haired physical therapist, would visit Lara in the intensive care unit. She would manipulate his limbs through range-of-motion exercises that he wanted no part of. She made him work when he fell breathless after a few steps.
He hated her. Once, not quite coherently, he tried to hit her.
"I thought everybody was against me," Lara said. "They made me do things I didn't want to do."
Now, Bergeron and Lara enjoy an easy rapport, like a coach and player who are starting to turn a losing season around. When the White House called in search of a suitable wounded soldier -- for the State of the Union speech, it turned out -- she recommended Lara.
Before meeting with Bergeron on a recent Friday, Lara had an hourlong session with occupational therapist Oren Ganz. Ganz is a civilian with a frank sense of humor and a technical vocabulary: He describes Lara's injury as a shoulder disarticulation. He works daily with eight or 10 amputees.
"This is probably the ideal population to work with," Ganz said.
"They are highly motivated, they're young, they're basically all athletes."
Rock music is playing in the background in the plain-looking occupational therapy room. Dawn Halfaker, Lara's lieutenant, has already passed through. She has since been promoted to captain, and in her spirited rebound from catastrophe, Lara said he has found inspiration.
Lara is wearing a black Orange County Choppers T-shirt. The right side gets rolled up, exposing the angry slash of Lara's wound. Ganz attaches two sensors: one to the back and one to the chest.
Technicians already have constructed Lara's uncanny prosthetic arms. He has three: one that looks like an arm, one that resembles pincers and one that is a standard hook. Altogether, Ganz said, the prosthetics would cost more than $150,000 if Lara had to pay for them.
Surgeries, however, have slowed Lara's ability to use them.
So now, with the sensors attached front and back, Lara is practicing for the technological marvel called a myoelectric arm. When he manipulates his muscles, tiny electrical signals about one-millionth the strength of an average light bulb are conveyed through the sensor. The amplified signals control a motor, which runs the hand.
Back muscle contracts, prosthetic hand opens. Chest muscle flexes, prosthetic hand closes.
For training purposes, the sensors are attached to a laptop computer. The screen shows a little car moving through an obstacle course. Lara flexes and contracts his back and chest muscles to drive the car through the portals.
There's other learning: how to put on a belt with one hand. Or tie a shoe, or tie a tie, or put on a watch.
"The rule is, I have to do it myself," Lara said. "If I can't do it myself, I won't let anyone do it for me."
After an hour, Lara moves on to the physical therapy room. More men are there, and their manifest trauma slaps the mind. One man maneuvers around the room, his right leg amputated at the knee and his reddened left leg encased in a cage. One man in a black T-shirt sits in a wheelchair, his back to the room. He stares out the window.
Lara and Bergeron greet each other and get to work. They're emphasizing balance and cardiovascular endurance now. Lara will, in the course of this hour, pass through several exercise cycles. He starts warming up.
Next to him, a frail young man in blue pajamas trudges slowly on a treadmill. He looks about 19 years old, and appears to have all his limbs intact. He moves, though, as if he is unutterably shattered somewhere deep inside.
Lara looks straight ahead. The two soldiers do not talk. Each man is on his own treadmill, and Lara's is picking up speed. One foot follows the other. There is a race to be run.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers
Norberto Lara left his tattoo behind in Iraq.
A rocket-propelled grenade erased it, along with his entire right arm. It happened before dawn, in one previously unimaginable moment in June. The traumatic shoulder amputation was complete and irrevocable, and so was Lara's surprise.
"I never thought I would lose an arm," Lara said.
Both war and its aftermath can confound expectations. So here the graduate of Visalia's Sequoia High School is: rebuilding his unanticipated new life at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Always lean, the 31-year-old Army staff sergeant is down to about 125 pounds. Five milligrams of methadone daily help keep the pain at bay, but he still feels his phantom arm. One singed lung is still recovering from the intolerable heat of the grenade blast. Among the roughly 11,000 Americans wounded or injured in Iraq, Lara is in relatively small company. As of last week, he was one of 195 amputee patients treated at Walter Reed since the war began two years ago.
Some aspects of Lara's old life are gone forever. He was, after all, right-handed. Some unexpected grace notes have come and gone, like his appearance with first lady Laura Bush at this year's State of the Union speech. Better yet, some sense of normalcy is returning.
He's running, once more, and fully intends to enter the Army 10-Miler in Washington this October. He's learning to use a prosthetic arm. He's training with the Department of Veterans Affairs. By June, he expects to be a working civilian for the first time in 10 years.
And his missing tattoo? Lara is getting that replaced, inked onto the flesh-emulating silicon of his prosthetic arm. "Erminia," it will say, "1939-2003." It will look unnervingly real, much like the prosthetic itself.
"My goal," Lara said, "is for when I'm walking down the street, no one will be able to tell the difference."
Erminia was his mother. Friends knew her as Minnie Pallanes. Lara got his original tattoo two days after she passed away from cancer in mid-August 2003. The last two weeks she was alive, he spent almost every waking minute with her.
"I would look at my tattoo," Lara said, "and remember her. I can't wait to see it on my prosthetic."
A single mother after her husband died, Erminia Pallanes saw her son through Goshen Elementary School and Divisadero Junior High School. She saw him through high school, his first marriage to Dannelle and the birth of his two children, Eibren and Mia.
She was there through his subsequent divorce and his January 1995 Army enlistment, and through his second marriage in 1997 to a fellow soldier named Starlyn.
Pallanes was gone, though, by the time Lara shipped out for Iraq last March with the 293rd Military Police Company. Once she passed away, he volunteered for the next military police unit bound for the war zone. He ended up attached to the 3rd Infantry Division, learning what he could from those who had already been to Iraq.
"They said it was like the Wild West," Lara recalled.
They were right.
Gunfire shattered the nights. Mortar attacks were common.
Explosives peppered the supply convoys.
Lara was based in an Iraqi police station in Baqouba, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. The military police patrolled supply routes and the local neighborhood. Each day could bring more of the same, or something altogether different.
Sometime around 4 in the morning on June 18, Lara's team was out on the streets. A curfew was in place, and it seemed quiet. Lara was sitting in the right front seat of his armored Humvee.
His lieutenant, a red-haired former member of the West Point women's bas-ketball team named Dawn Halfaker, was behind him. Halfaker had quick hands. Once, as a West Point senior, she snagged seven steals and scored 21 points against Bucknell.
They had no warning. Simply: Before, then After.
"I saw this flash, and I heard this boom, and then everything started moving in slow motion," Lara said.
The rocket-propelled grenade, 4 brute pounds traveling up to 965 feet per second, sliced off Lara's arm at the shoulder even before it exploded. He didn't know that at first. He just knew he wanted to open the Humvee door, but something wasn't working right when he tried.
Then he couldn't breathe.
In the back, Halfaker was screaming to get back to the station.
The grenade had exploded, shredding flesh. She would, in time, awaken in a hospital to learn her own right arm had been amputated.
The driver raced the Humvee back to the police station in about four minutes, while Lara tried to hang on.
"I remember thinking I was never going to get to hug my kids and tell them that I love them again," Lara said. "I was really scared that I was going to die because I thought that not being able to breathe was a sign I wasn't going to make it."
An oxygen mask passed over his face. Fade to black.
At a 1st Infantry Division base near the Iranian border, Staff Sgt. Starlyn Lara -- Norberto Lara's wife -- was settling into her own job several hours later that same day. Starlyn is an administrative specialist.
That morning, she had fired up her computer to examine the latest list of U.S. wounded.
"I was scrolling down the list, and there his name was," Starlyn Lara re-called. "There was a good 45 seconds when I was just in shock."
It was a fluke, not how the Army wanted the notification to happen.
Still, she wouldn't see her husband until July as he was passed up through the chain of medical care. In the meantime, Lara's ex-wife, Dannelle -- since remarried to Visalia firefighter Tommy Jiminez -- had, with the help of Jiminez's fellow firefighters and the community, flown to Germany and sat bedside. Lara himself remained medically sedated, until doctors transferred him to Walter Reed and then slowly brought him around.
"I woke up," Lara said, "in August."
He couldn't talk, because he had a tracheotomy tube in his throat.
He had a bedsore from his weeks of lying motionless. He looked ghastly.
Bo Bergeron, a tall, athletic, gray-haired physical therapist, would visit Lara in the intensive care unit. She would manipulate his limbs through range-of-motion exercises that he wanted no part of. She made him work when he fell breathless after a few steps.
He hated her. Once, not quite coherently, he tried to hit her.
"I thought everybody was against me," Lara said. "They made me do things I didn't want to do."
Now, Bergeron and Lara enjoy an easy rapport, like a coach and player who are starting to turn a losing season around. When the White House called in search of a suitable wounded soldier -- for the State of the Union speech, it turned out -- she recommended Lara.
Before meeting with Bergeron on a recent Friday, Lara had an hourlong session with occupational therapist Oren Ganz. Ganz is a civilian with a frank sense of humor and a technical vocabulary: He describes Lara's injury as a shoulder disarticulation. He works daily with eight or 10 amputees.
"This is probably the ideal population to work with," Ganz said.
"They are highly motivated, they're young, they're basically all athletes."
Rock music is playing in the background in the plain-looking occupational therapy room. Dawn Halfaker, Lara's lieutenant, has already passed through. She has since been promoted to captain, and in her spirited rebound from catastrophe, Lara said he has found inspiration.
Lara is wearing a black Orange County Choppers T-shirt. The right side gets rolled up, exposing the angry slash of Lara's wound. Ganz attaches two sensors: one to the back and one to the chest.
Technicians already have constructed Lara's uncanny prosthetic arms. He has three: one that looks like an arm, one that resembles pincers and one that is a standard hook. Altogether, Ganz said, the prosthetics would cost more than $150,000 if Lara had to pay for them.
Surgeries, however, have slowed Lara's ability to use them.
So now, with the sensors attached front and back, Lara is practicing for the technological marvel called a myoelectric arm. When he manipulates his muscles, tiny electrical signals about one-millionth the strength of an average light bulb are conveyed through the sensor. The amplified signals control a motor, which runs the hand.
Back muscle contracts, prosthetic hand opens. Chest muscle flexes, prosthetic hand closes.
For training purposes, the sensors are attached to a laptop computer. The screen shows a little car moving through an obstacle course. Lara flexes and contracts his back and chest muscles to drive the car through the portals.
There's other learning: how to put on a belt with one hand. Or tie a shoe, or tie a tie, or put on a watch.
"The rule is, I have to do it myself," Lara said. "If I can't do it myself, I won't let anyone do it for me."
After an hour, Lara moves on to the physical therapy room. More men are there, and their manifest trauma slaps the mind. One man maneuvers around the room, his right leg amputated at the knee and his reddened left leg encased in a cage. One man in a black T-shirt sits in a wheelchair, his back to the room. He stares out the window.
Lara and Bergeron greet each other and get to work. They're emphasizing balance and cardiovascular endurance now. Lara will, in the course of this hour, pass through several exercise cycles. He starts warming up.
Next to him, a frail young man in blue pajamas trudges slowly on a treadmill. He looks about 19 years old, and appears to have all his limbs intact. He moves, though, as if he is unutterably shattered somewhere deep inside.
Lara looks straight ahead. The two soldiers do not talk. Each man is on his own treadmill, and Lara's is picking up speed. One foot follows the other. There is a race to be run.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Lawyer - Investigators say marital discord a possible spark
Augusta Military Divorce Lawyer - Investigators say marital discord a possible spark
By Lee Shearer
Investigators say they believe a University of Georgia marketing professor's wife planned to divorce him - and that the discord may be the motive that drove him to shoot and kill her and two other people outside Athens Community Theater.
An FBI investigator said Friday that statements by friends and family members indicate that 47-year-old Marie Bruce may have been about to file papers for a divorce.
Police say Bruce's husband, 57-year-old George Zinkhan III, burst in on a reunion party for Athens' Town & Gown Players shortly after noon last Saturday, argued with his wife, got two handguns and fatally shot her, Tom Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, all members of the theater troupe.
Some who knew Zinkhan through UGA's Terry College of Business also apparently knew the couple's relationship was in trouble.
Earlier this week, UGA marketing professor Warren French said he had no clue that anything was troubling his colleague, Zinkhan.
"I now find out that two people knew of problems, an adjunct (professor) and a Ph.D. student," French said Friday.
Zinkhan asked the student to hold his mail for him over the summer, French said.
"I find that strange," he said. "My shock is that he would tell some problems to his students, but not to his peers."
Still, some of Bruce's friends in the Town & Gown Players say they had no inkling of domestic strife.
Investigators, among others, have speculated that Zinkhan killed the recently divorced Tanner out of jealousy.
"It appears as though George may have made that assumption (that Tanner and Bruce were romantically involved). Obviously, he didn't know Tom. That was not the case," said Marisa Castengara, a member of the Town & Gown Theater group and a friend to both.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Lee Shearer
Investigators say they believe a University of Georgia marketing professor's wife planned to divorce him - and that the discord may be the motive that drove him to shoot and kill her and two other people outside Athens Community Theater.
An FBI investigator said Friday that statements by friends and family members indicate that 47-year-old Marie Bruce may have been about to file papers for a divorce.
Police say Bruce's husband, 57-year-old George Zinkhan III, burst in on a reunion party for Athens' Town & Gown Players shortly after noon last Saturday, argued with his wife, got two handguns and fatally shot her, Tom Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, all members of the theater troupe.
Some who knew Zinkhan through UGA's Terry College of Business also apparently knew the couple's relationship was in trouble.
Earlier this week, UGA marketing professor Warren French said he had no clue that anything was troubling his colleague, Zinkhan.
"I now find out that two people knew of problems, an adjunct (professor) and a Ph.D. student," French said Friday.
Zinkhan asked the student to hold his mail for him over the summer, French said.
"I find that strange," he said. "My shock is that he would tell some problems to his students, but not to his peers."
Still, some of Bruce's friends in the Town & Gown Players say they had no inkling of domestic strife.
Investigators, among others, have speculated that Zinkhan killed the recently divorced Tanner out of jealousy.
"It appears as though George may have made that assumption (that Tanner and Bruce were romantically involved). Obviously, he didn't know Tom. That was not the case," said Marisa Castengara, a member of the Town & Gown Theater group and a friend to both.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Georgia Divorce Attorney - Take advantage of day of prayer
Augusta Georgia Divorce Attorney - Take advantage of day of prayer
May 7 marks the 58th annual observance of national prayer day since President Truman signed a joint resolution with Congress in 1952. President Reagan amended the resolution in 1988, designating the first Thursday of every May as the National Day of Prayer.
During the landing on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He offered a prayer: "Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in thee."
Victory Day, known as "D-Day," was on June 6, 1944. Eighteen months later, World War II was over.
President Abraham Lincoln also knew the value of prayer. He said, "It is the duty of nations as well as men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God."
Let us take advantage of Thursday's National Day of Prayer and pray in our different ways that God will protect, heal and bless our nation. We need to pray for our government, our military, our businesses, our education system, our churches and our families.
Although much has been said about prayer in our nation, sadly enough, very few people pray. The first Sunday after the terrorist attacks (Sept. 11, 2001) churches in America were full. Sadly enough, people forget so quickly, and many have not returned to those churches again.
Here are some things I would like to encourage you to pray about:
n We need to pray for our children and young people. Today there is so much pressure on young people. Many are living in a one-parent home. Teachers and counselors are having a difficult time dealing with these children in the classroom.
n The violence in our schools is a result of improper care, inefficient discipline and lack of love in the home. We need to pray that God can give wisdom, knowledge and common sense to parents to deal with their children.
n We need to pray for school personnel and police officials as they deal with the young people and their families.
n We now have more divorced people than married people. And in a divorce, the whole extended family is involved. In most cases it is the children who suffer the most. We need to pray that couples can go back to the old tradition of family values and remember their wedding vows: "Till death do us part." There are many single parents who need prayer to cope with everyday living and especially in raising their children.
n Violence in the movies and on TV, and certain video games, contributes greatly to the violence in our society. Many TV talk shows encourage promiscuity. We need to pray that the entertainment world can take inventory and realize what they are doing. Our parents need to be alert to what their children are watching or playing in video games or viewing on the Internet.
n In the majority of our American homes, the family has become accustomed to two salaries. Mom and dad come home exhausted from work and frequently do not have time or energy to give proper attention to the children. Of course, in many cases, second incomes are necessary to make ends meet. Let us pray, especially, for young couples that God can give them wisdom, knowledge and common sense with financial matters.
n Offer praise and thanks to God for the daily blessings (life, family, friends, shelter, food, clothing, employment).
n Ask God for your own personal needs. Be clear and specific. "Help me find a job; help me control my temper; help me to manage my money correctly," or, "Help me to understand my mate (teenager, mother-in-law, boss, etc.)."
I challenge you to participate in our National Day of Prayer. Be bold! Pray at work! Take advantage of this opportunity to pray. God always hears the prayers of his children.
So reader, put your pride and shame aside, and ask someone to pray with you. As the saying goes, "Just do it!"
The more you pray, the better you will become at praying. Call a friend and pray together. It may just be the most important thing you have ever done in your life.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
May 7 marks the 58th annual observance of national prayer day since President Truman signed a joint resolution with Congress in 1952. President Reagan amended the resolution in 1988, designating the first Thursday of every May as the National Day of Prayer.
During the landing on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He offered a prayer: "Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in thee."
Victory Day, known as "D-Day," was on June 6, 1944. Eighteen months later, World War II was over.
President Abraham Lincoln also knew the value of prayer. He said, "It is the duty of nations as well as men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God."
Let us take advantage of Thursday's National Day of Prayer and pray in our different ways that God will protect, heal and bless our nation. We need to pray for our government, our military, our businesses, our education system, our churches and our families.
Although much has been said about prayer in our nation, sadly enough, very few people pray. The first Sunday after the terrorist attacks (Sept. 11, 2001) churches in America were full. Sadly enough, people forget so quickly, and many have not returned to those churches again.
Here are some things I would like to encourage you to pray about:
n We need to pray for our children and young people. Today there is so much pressure on young people. Many are living in a one-parent home. Teachers and counselors are having a difficult time dealing with these children in the classroom.
n The violence in our schools is a result of improper care, inefficient discipline and lack of love in the home. We need to pray that God can give wisdom, knowledge and common sense to parents to deal with their children.
n We need to pray for school personnel and police officials as they deal with the young people and their families.
n We now have more divorced people than married people. And in a divorce, the whole extended family is involved. In most cases it is the children who suffer the most. We need to pray that couples can go back to the old tradition of family values and remember their wedding vows: "Till death do us part." There are many single parents who need prayer to cope with everyday living and especially in raising their children.
n Violence in the movies and on TV, and certain video games, contributes greatly to the violence in our society. Many TV talk shows encourage promiscuity. We need to pray that the entertainment world can take inventory and realize what they are doing. Our parents need to be alert to what their children are watching or playing in video games or viewing on the Internet.
n In the majority of our American homes, the family has become accustomed to two salaries. Mom and dad come home exhausted from work and frequently do not have time or energy to give proper attention to the children. Of course, in many cases, second incomes are necessary to make ends meet. Let us pray, especially, for young couples that God can give them wisdom, knowledge and common sense with financial matters.
n Offer praise and thanks to God for the daily blessings (life, family, friends, shelter, food, clothing, employment).
n Ask God for your own personal needs. Be clear and specific. "Help me find a job; help me control my temper; help me to manage my money correctly," or, "Help me to understand my mate (teenager, mother-in-law, boss, etc.)."
I challenge you to participate in our National Day of Prayer. Be bold! Pray at work! Take advantage of this opportunity to pray. God always hears the prayers of his children.
So reader, put your pride and shame aside, and ask someone to pray with you. As the saying goes, "Just do it!"
The more you pray, the better you will become at praying. Call a friend and pray together. It may just be the most important thing you have ever done in your life.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Soldier held in shooting comes from 'good family'
Augusta Military Divorce Attorney - Soldier held in shooting comes from 'good family'
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
DEL RIO, Texas -- A drizzle fell continuously on this close-knit border town covered by gray skies and questions about how one of its own came to be accused in a Fort Bliss shooting that took the life of a high-school student and wounded a soldier.
The suspect, Spc. Gerald Polanco, 37, for years had been a school district police officer in his hometown of Del Rio before drifting through a couple of other jobs and then joining the Army.
Army officers last week charged Polanco with murder in the death of 18-year-old Ezra Gerald Smith of Chapin High School and attempted murder for allegedly wounding a soldier. Post commanders at Fort Bliss have been silent about most details, even declining to reveal the name of the wounded solder. But, they said, Polanco was in a home on post when the gunfire broke out. Both shooting victims were outside, Smith heading for school on his bicycle.
Shortly after Polanco's arrest, news spread quickly by word of mouth in his hometown, situated next to Lake Amistad on the Rio Grande, 154 miles west of San Antonio.
"We are a small community and everybody knows everybody," said Joe San Miguel, publisher-general manager of the town's afternoon daily, the Del Rio News-Herald. "It was a shock. He's a good kid. We don't know how this happened."
San Miguel's daughter attended Del Rio High School with Polanco.
Del Rio is the type of South Texas Mexican-American town where familias have known each other for generations.
School, home of the Rams, is the only high school. Polanco, a member of the class of 1990, was a well-known student because he is the son of the school's former longtime basketball coach, Manuel Polanco.
A member of the family said he wanted to talk to a lawyer before commenting about the criminal case against Gerald Polanco.
"He comes from a good family," more than one resident mentioned in this quiet town, which bills itself as "The Best of the Border."
Those who know Gerald Polanco did not want to say anything critical, at least not for publication, because in a town of 38,000, chances are high of running into families at the H.E.B grocery, at church or along Veterans Boulevard, the main road in town.
Polanco has roots in Del Rio. He grew up there, worked there in law enforcement and had children there.
He started work in August 1992 as a security guard before becoming a police officer in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
The district's police chief, Raymond Haynes, talked reluctantly but described Polanco as someone who enjoyed law enforcement and received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
"He worked for me for 12 years. He was a good officer, and he took his job seriously," Haynes said.
"Until we know the circumstances behind this, we should refrain from adding to rumors," Haynes said. "Both families (the Polancos and the Smiths) are suffering here. Both families are looking for answers to why this happened."
But state records show that Polanco's run as a school police officer had trouble spots.
His peace officer's license was placed on "probated suspension" in 1995 because Polanco was charged with misdemeanor theft of more than $500, said Laura Le Blanc, spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.
"His license was not in good standing, but it did allow him to continue to work," Le Blanc said.
She said Polanco's license was fully restored after he satisfied the terms of the suspension, and he currently has a valid peace officer's license.
Del Rio Police Department staff members said they had no records of any criminal case involving Polanco.
While working in Del Rio, Polanco's personal life turned rocky.
Val Verde County court documents show that he married Maria Eugenia Polanco on June 2, 1990. They had three children, but they separated on March 16, 1999.
In May 2003, Polanco married Rita Ashley Celedon Polanco. At the time, Polanco was 31 and Celedon was 19. The couple had a daughter in July 2003.
A well-publicized blowup between them occurred on Sept. 13, 2004.
Celedon, an inspector for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, allegedly went to the high school and threatened Polanco with her handgun, according to court documents. Unclear was what led to the confrontation.
A grand jury indicted Celedon in 2005 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and having a prohibited weapon.
Celedon's lawyer, Gregory Torres, of Eagle Pass, Texas, declined to comment because the case still has not been resolved.
Divorce documents stated the couple stopped living together about Sept. 13, 2004. Their divorce became final in February 2008.
Two months after the gun incident at the school, Polanco resigned from the school district police force, citing "personal reasons," Haynes said.
He found another job In law enforcement in January 2006, but did not keep it for long.
The Kinney County Sheriff's Office hired Polanco, but he worked only a few weeks in the county east of Del Rio along the Mexican border.
"He was a linebacker," Sheriff L.K. Burgess said. Burgess explained that Polanco was a deputy assigned to watch U.S. 277 as part of Operation Linebacker, a state program that provided money so police and sheriff's departments could hire staff or pay overtime for officers to target border crime.
"He didn't get along with the chief deputy, didn't follow orders good. He was kind of independent," Burgess said of Polanco. "... I got a recommendation from Del Rio that he was a good officer. They didn't tell me he couldn't follow orders."
Del Rio residents said that Polanco also worked in a contract security detail for a time at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio.
Fort Bliss officials said they did not have information about when Polanco joined the Army. Haynes said Polanco enlisted about three years ago.
Court documents show Polanco was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and served in Iraq in 2007. He helped train Iraqi police in March 2008 as part of the Army's 18th Military Police Brigade in Baghdad, according to a military press release with photos of Polanco teaching Iraqis about firearms.
Polanco arrived at Fort Bliss last July, a post spokeswoman said.
On the morning of April 25, Polanco allegedly opened fire from a home, killing Smith and wounding a fellow soldier. Polanco is being held in a jail in Otero County, N.M., the post spokeswoman said.
Military authorities have declined to discuss a motive for the shooting. Unclear is whether Polanco knew the people he is accused of targeting.
Post officials, citing health confidentiality laws, also declined to discuss whether Polanco was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In Del Rio, the questions continue about how a local son, a former police officer, turned into a murder suspect.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
DEL RIO, Texas -- A drizzle fell continuously on this close-knit border town covered by gray skies and questions about how one of its own came to be accused in a Fort Bliss shooting that took the life of a high-school student and wounded a soldier.
The suspect, Spc. Gerald Polanco, 37, for years had been a school district police officer in his hometown of Del Rio before drifting through a couple of other jobs and then joining the Army.
Army officers last week charged Polanco with murder in the death of 18-year-old Ezra Gerald Smith of Chapin High School and attempted murder for allegedly wounding a soldier. Post commanders at Fort Bliss have been silent about most details, even declining to reveal the name of the wounded solder. But, they said, Polanco was in a home on post when the gunfire broke out. Both shooting victims were outside, Smith heading for school on his bicycle.
Shortly after Polanco's arrest, news spread quickly by word of mouth in his hometown, situated next to Lake Amistad on the Rio Grande, 154 miles west of San Antonio.
"We are a small community and everybody knows everybody," said Joe San Miguel, publisher-general manager of the town's afternoon daily, the Del Rio News-Herald. "It was a shock. He's a good kid. We don't know how this happened."
San Miguel's daughter attended Del Rio High School with Polanco.
Del Rio is the type of South Texas Mexican-American town where familias have known each other for generations.
School, home of the Rams, is the only high school. Polanco, a member of the class of 1990, was a well-known student because he is the son of the school's former longtime basketball coach, Manuel Polanco.
A member of the family said he wanted to talk to a lawyer before commenting about the criminal case against Gerald Polanco.
"He comes from a good family," more than one resident mentioned in this quiet town, which bills itself as "The Best of the Border."
Those who know Gerald Polanco did not want to say anything critical, at least not for publication, because in a town of 38,000, chances are high of running into families at the H.E.B grocery, at church or along Veterans Boulevard, the main road in town.
Polanco has roots in Del Rio. He grew up there, worked there in law enforcement and had children there.
He started work in August 1992 as a security guard before becoming a police officer in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
The district's police chief, Raymond Haynes, talked reluctantly but described Polanco as someone who enjoyed law enforcement and received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
"He worked for me for 12 years. He was a good officer, and he took his job seriously," Haynes said.
"Until we know the circumstances behind this, we should refrain from adding to rumors," Haynes said. "Both families (the Polancos and the Smiths) are suffering here. Both families are looking for answers to why this happened."
But state records show that Polanco's run as a school police officer had trouble spots.
His peace officer's license was placed on "probated suspension" in 1995 because Polanco was charged with misdemeanor theft of more than $500, said Laura Le Blanc, spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.
"His license was not in good standing, but it did allow him to continue to work," Le Blanc said.
She said Polanco's license was fully restored after he satisfied the terms of the suspension, and he currently has a valid peace officer's license.
Del Rio Police Department staff members said they had no records of any criminal case involving Polanco.
While working in Del Rio, Polanco's personal life turned rocky.
Val Verde County court documents show that he married Maria Eugenia Polanco on June 2, 1990. They had three children, but they separated on March 16, 1999.
In May 2003, Polanco married Rita Ashley Celedon Polanco. At the time, Polanco was 31 and Celedon was 19. The couple had a daughter in July 2003.
A well-publicized blowup between them occurred on Sept. 13, 2004.
Celedon, an inspector for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, allegedly went to the high school and threatened Polanco with her handgun, according to court documents. Unclear was what led to the confrontation.
A grand jury indicted Celedon in 2005 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and having a prohibited weapon.
Celedon's lawyer, Gregory Torres, of Eagle Pass, Texas, declined to comment because the case still has not been resolved.
Divorce documents stated the couple stopped living together about Sept. 13, 2004. Their divorce became final in February 2008.
Two months after the gun incident at the school, Polanco resigned from the school district police force, citing "personal reasons," Haynes said.
He found another job In law enforcement in January 2006, but did not keep it for long.
The Kinney County Sheriff's Office hired Polanco, but he worked only a few weeks in the county east of Del Rio along the Mexican border.
"He was a linebacker," Sheriff L.K. Burgess said. Burgess explained that Polanco was a deputy assigned to watch U.S. 277 as part of Operation Linebacker, a state program that provided money so police and sheriff's departments could hire staff or pay overtime for officers to target border crime.
"He didn't get along with the chief deputy, didn't follow orders good. He was kind of independent," Burgess said of Polanco. "... I got a recommendation from Del Rio that he was a good officer. They didn't tell me he couldn't follow orders."
Del Rio residents said that Polanco also worked in a contract security detail for a time at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio.
Fort Bliss officials said they did not have information about when Polanco joined the Army. Haynes said Polanco enlisted about three years ago.
Court documents show Polanco was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and served in Iraq in 2007. He helped train Iraqi police in March 2008 as part of the Army's 18th Military Police Brigade in Baghdad, according to a military press release with photos of Polanco teaching Iraqis about firearms.
Polanco arrived at Fort Bliss last July, a post spokeswoman said.
On the morning of April 25, Polanco allegedly opened fire from a home, killing Smith and wounding a fellow soldier. Polanco is being held in a jail in Otero County, N.M., the post spokeswoman said.
Military authorities have declined to discuss a motive for the shooting. Unclear is whether Polanco knew the people he is accused of targeting.
Post officials, citing health confidentiality laws, also declined to discuss whether Polanco was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In Del Rio, the questions continue about how a local son, a former police officer, turned into a murder suspect.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
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