THE FAMILY COURT PROJECT HAS COME TO A CLOSE.
Effective 6/1/08, Family Court Chronicles has become inactive (announcement), and
no new information will be added. The page below is retained for
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the webmaster will
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removing information that is destructively obsolete.
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It was a “fairytale wedding” the announcers said. Blessed with the approval of the Queen, the bride’s family, the Houses of Parliament of both Britain and Canada and the prayers and good wishes of millions, you’d think that the marriage had everything going for it.
Apparently not. Something got lost in this ceremony. Something got run over.
Part of a series on juvenile prostitution in Oakland.
(See "Related Stories" in the article's sidebar.)
OAKLAND - WHEN AN 11- and 12-year-old girl went missing last month and police suspected they ended up prostituting themselves on the streets, the entire community took notice.
But what many don't realize is that those missing girls are just two of the legions of kids turning tricks in an exploding local prostitution business filling the pockets of pimps.
Compassion butted heads with budgets on Thursday as dozens of advocates for the homeless and poor confronted a list of possible cuts in welfare benefits and food stamps being considered by the state.
"This is morally reprehensible," Leroy Pelton, a UNLV professor and activist for the homeless, said during a three-hour public workshop. "You'll be denying food stamps to a child who is innocent."
Division of Welfare and Supportive Services staff had the workshop to discuss ways to curb costs. Such cuts are necessary, they said, because growth and difficult economic times have increased demand for public assistance while federal funding is set to decrease and state funding has remained stagnant.
"We have a certain amount of money to spend, and our spending currently exceeds what the available revenue is," said Gary Stagliano, deputy administrator of program services for the division. He added that the division's reserve funds are rapidly depleting.
A court hearing to decide the fate of the 416 children swept up in a raid on a West Texas polygamist sect descended into farce Thursday, with hundreds of lawyers in two packed buildings shouting objections and the judge struggling to maintain order.
The case - clearly one of the biggest, most convoluted child-custody hearings in U.S. history - presented an extraordinary spectacle: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century, pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a courtroom and a nearby auditorium connected by video.
At issue was an attempt by the state of Texas to strip the parents of custody and place the children in foster homes because of evidence they were being physically and sexually abused by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon splinter group suspected of forcing underage girls into marriage with older men.
As many feared, the proceedings turned into something of a circus - and a painfully slow one.
CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that an 11-year-old Clark County boy should not have been deemed a delinquent by a judge after the stabbing of a fellow youth in self-defense.
In a decision in which the boy was called only Juan G., the Supreme Court decided Monday that Clark County District Judge William Voy wrongly adjudicated the young man a delinquent.
"A reasonable fact finder could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Juan did not act in self-defense," justices said.
19-year-old De Shawn Pearson may not look or act like a role model, but for kids already in gangs, he may have the power to change lives.
...
Since age 12, he's served time in jail for selling drugs, robbery and even pimping. He was a loyal gang member. Now, using his life lessons, he's trying to save these kids before it's too late.
"All of my homies that I grew up from my hood, they are all dead, all under 21," he said. "They need people they can relate to. That's why I come in here dressed like I dress. I'm not going to put on no suit because I'm not no better than these kids in here."
Guys have been known to do a lot of crazy things in the name of love. Turn their backs on best friends. Trade in the Camaro for a Caravan. Go on a diet. Get a tattoo.
But seldom in the annals of amour do we encounter love as a defense in a judicial ethics complaint. That, in essence, is Family Court Judge Nicholas Del Vecchio's defense as he attempts to address the 38-count complaint filed Feb. 8 by special prosecutor Mary Boetsch on behalf of the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. In his response last week, Del Vecchio claimed that Rebeccah Murray's allegations of sexual harassment were mitigated by the fact the two had had a consensual relationship, and that at one point the judge wanted to marry her.
You see, it was about love. And when the love dissolved, the bitterness remained.
Except that, well, that's not Murray's version of events. For starters, she accuses Del Vecchio of taking advantage of her more than a decade ago when she was just 14 and he was married to her mother. She alleges he shot nude photos of her and coerced her into performing oral sex.
Metro detective Scott Black says of all the graffiti you see, only 10-percent is communication between gangs. The other 90-percent is done by street crews whose whole purpose is fame.
"We have identified what we call 500 tagger crews and what a tagger crew is is a gang -- they fit the legal definition of a gang," said Det. Black.
The harder the location is to reach, the more credibility these vandals get. They even take it one step further -- MySpace. We found dozens of sites dedicated to graffiti where vandals show off their destruction.
Now that recession is upon us, with Las Vegas probably suffering more than other cities, what will be the impact on Family Court?
The clearest answer: more divorce.
Divorce rates always rise during recessions. During the relatively mild and brief downturn of 1997, the national divorce rate rose by 17%. The current recession will probably be harder on marriages, not the least because it is hitting families at the heart of their financial universe: the value of their home and their ability to borrow against it.
For the past few weeks, Clark County principals have been recommending up to 100 students for expulsion each day, putting extra strain on a disciplinary system that many say has long been stretched too thin.
The School District’s daily volume of expulsion referrals is at an all-time high, according to Associate Superintendent Edward Goldman.
The increase is putting pressure on the district to find enough seats at its three continuation schools for expelled students and at its five behavior schools for students given less severe punishments. In the past, Goldman, who is in charge of the Clark County School District’s education services division, has been forced to close behavior school campuses to new arrivals until other students rotate out of the program. As of Friday, at least one campus was teetering on the edge of closure.
They had been good students back in Los Angeles. But with the move to Las Vegas in 2005, things began to change.
There weren’t as many after-school activities available, and they had left behind an extended family network in California. Soon their parents were getting calls from the middle school reporting skipped classes, hallway scuffles and poor performance.
“They bottomed out at Eldorado,” their mother said.
As punishment for the gun incident, the brothers spent several months at Morris Behavior School on East Washington Avenue at North Pecos Road. After that, they could have been sent back to one of the district’s comprehensive high schools, where the cycle might have continued.
But Edward Goldman, associate superintendent of the district’s education services division, found another option.
Today, the center's budget is about $1.3 million, and it shelters about 40 youths. Funding comes from private donations and contracts with local municipalities and the state.
About 3,000 youths ages 16 to 21 have stayed at the center since it opened.
The facility provides housing, counseling, substance abuse treatment and job placement. Each resident gets an individual treatment plan. The young residents can stay as long as they are enrolled in school, have a job or both.
They must be drug-free, and they are required to observe nightly curfews and save 80 percent of their incomes.
The center's goal is to prepare the young people to care for themselves by teaching them how to find a job, cook for themselves, get along with roommates and pay bills.
Residents are referred to the center from various social service agencies and shelters. Some simply walk in off the street. Many are former foster kids or runaways from abusive homes. Plenty come with substance abuse problems.
"They're basically good kids who have been dealt a bad hand," Fred Gillis said. "They don't have the safety net most people take for granted. They're used to people going in and out of their lives, so they don't trust you."
Not since the months following the terrorist attacks in September 2001 has Southern Nevada's economic picture looked so bleak.
All 10 data series contributed negatively to the Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators in January, the first time that's happened since the index was established in 1990, UNLV economist Keith Schwer said.
In a response filed Wednesday, Del Vecchio attorney Bruce Shapiro described his client's relationship with the woman, Rebeccah Murray, as consensual.
Del Vecchio hired Murray as his assistant because he wanted to help her with her legal career, the response states. It says their relationship grew beyond "just being friends" to the point where Del Vecchio wanted to marry her.
That version of the relationship is vastly different from Murray's.
She accused Del Vecchio of taking nude photos of her when she was between the ages of 14 and 16 and had her perform oral sex on him.
When she later worked for him beginning in 2002, Del Vecchio allowed her to work an adjusted schedule on condition she have sex with him, the complaint with the Judicial Commission states.
Del Vecchio, 51, also became hostile toward Murray and threatened to fire her when she tried to break off the relationship, the complaint states.
Comments from the Webmaster
The judge's response, even if accurate, doesn't exactly get him off
the hook.
Even if the relationship was consensual it certainly isn't
conveying the kind of "family values"
the general
electorate supports.
Although it isn't technically
illegal, there is something unsettling about
a man taking up with his former step-daughter.
Certain boundaries have been crossed.
Woody Allen seems to have got away with it,
but he wasn't running for Family Court.
"There are no good choices -- you either cut services or capital projects," said County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury.
And the county's tentative plan right now is to leave nearly 350 new government positions vacant and to delay funding half a billion dollars worth of capital improvement requests -- money that would have gone toward building more fire stations, police sub-stations, and parks -- as well as replacing outdated computer equipment and aging county vehicles.
After years of observing government
at every level, I can confirm that these
theories are true! Our country isn’t run
by politicians but by a secret cabal of
faceless bureaucrats. They pull the
strings and make the politicians do what
they want them to.
In spite of its impressive track record, Las Vegas has been harder hit than other destinations by the combined effect of the subprime mortgage crisis, rising gas prices and the broader economic slowdown, said Ray Snisky, president of Funjet Vacations, a brand of Mark Travel Corp., one of the nation’s largest operators of travel charters and packaged tours. The company, which is stepping up special offers in vacations it packages for major airlines and big hotel companies such as MGM Mirage, has seen some Las Vegas rates drop by more than 20 percent from a year ago.
“It’s been surprising to us because Las Vegas has always been considered recession-proof,” Snisky said.
The laws being challenged in AB 579 are based on the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, signed into law by President Bush in July 2006. The federal law lumps teenage sex offenders 14 and older in with adults when it comes to certain punishments and requires that many of those juvenile offenders be included in Internet sex offender registries. The state’s new laws would also be applied retroactively, meaning anyone who was at least 14 years old and convicted of a crime against a child after July 1, 1956, is subject to the new regulations.
Susan Roske, deputy public defender, argued the state laws were unconstitutional for a number of reasons, including that such punishments are cruel and unusual and would relegate juvenile sex offenders to a lifetime of public humiliation counterproductive to rehabilitation.
Voy rejected this argument. He also rejected Roske’s argument that the court cannot change a juvenile offender’s sentence retroactively. In fact, he rejected all of Roske’s arguments but one: The new laws, Voy agreed, are unconstitutional because they violate due process.
The number of Clark County homes that entered preforeclosure status reached a record 6,152 in March, up 52 percent from February and more than double the 2,813 preforeclosures in the same month a year ago, Sacramento, Calif.-based Foreclosures.com reported.
The county has 15,937 preforeclosures through the first quarter of the year, or 3.11 percent of its 512,253 households, the online foreclosure source reported.
Nevada leads the nation with 2.42 percent of its households, or 18,087 homes, in preforeclosure through March, followed by Arizona (1.96 percent), Florida (1.87 percent) and California (1.05 percent).
Staggering foreclosure numbers are the result of a multitude of factors, including a meltdown in the mortgage lending industry, fraudulent appraisal values and overzealous speculators.
Moving to sweep away the tangle of inaccurate state data that has obscured the severity of the nation’s high school dropout crisis, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will require all states to use one federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates...
The adoption of a federal graduation formula would correct one of the most glaring weaknesses of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Although the law requires states and high schools to report their graduation rates to the federal government, it allows states to set their own formulas for calculating them. As a result, most states have used formulas that understate the number of dropouts, and official graduation rates are not comparable from state to state.
Comments from the Webmaster
We expect this new change to reveal that the dropout rate in
Clark County is much higher than previously reported.
Nevada has felt the pinch of a $500 million shortfall but projections now push the Silver State's budget deficit to around $900 million. That puts state agencies on edge as they wait to hear where the axe will fall.
Systems like the correctional facilities are saying they can't handle any more cuts without putting safety on the line. The number crunching has been done and the cuts are going to hurt much more than first thought.
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4/28/08:
Charles & Diana's Wedding Disaster
(Family Court Chronicles/Glenn Campbell)
Family court newsletter #43 Entities:
divorce (subject),
Glenn Campbell (author) 
4/18/08:
Activists for the needy appeal to state agency
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Lynnette Curtis)
Entities:
The Great Las Vegas Crash (subject) 
4/16/08:
Former Gang Members Helping At-Risk Kids
(KLAS-TV/Melissa Duran)
4/14/08:
Divorce Tsunami Heading This Way!
(Family Court Chronicles/Glenn Campbell)
Our newsletter #41 Entities:
divorce (subject),
Glenn Campbell (author) 
4/12/08:
CARING COUPLE SLOWS DOWN: Youth shelter founders retire
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Lynnette Curtis)
Entities:
Center for Independent Living (founders retire) 
4/12/08:
Bleak reading for the valley: Economic index shows sharp drop
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Hubble Smith)
Entities:
The Great Las Vegas Crash (subject) 
4/10/08:
Judge denies claim of abuse, declares he loved accuser: Response describes relationship as consensual
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/David Kihara)
Entities:
Nicholas Del Vecchio (subject) 
4/9/08:
County Budget Shortfall Leaves Hard Choices
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Alyson McCarthy)
Entities:
The Great Las Vegas Crash (subject),
reid (quoted),
Bruce Woodbury (quoted) 
4/8/08:
Secret Government Exposed! (Newsletter #40)
(Family Court Chronicles/Glenn Campbell)
Entities:
Clark County Board of County Commissioners (obliquely related to) 
4/3/08:
ECONOMY: Bad news mounts in housing: Clark County preforeclosures hit record in March
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Hubble Smith)
Entities:
The Great Las Vegas Crash (subject) 
4/1/08:
State Agencies Brace for Huge Budget Shortfall
(KLAS-TV/Aaron Drawhorn)
Entities:
The Great Las Vegas Crash (subject) 
