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Help Darius Defend His Children

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Over the past three years, I have been representing myself Pro Se in court after filing a motion for a full custody evaluation for my sons. The mother has stood behind her lawyer and numerous continuances in litigation for far too long. My boys are 8 and 6 now.

I have been forced to sit and watch as one of my  sons has been physically fighting every single weekend with his mom, which has placed him in the Emergency Room 3 times in the past month on December 18th, December 26th and again on January 16th. The third event my son had requested that he come home to my house and take a break from his mother, but DCF refused to step in against the mother and allowed the hospital to release him back into her custody once again.

The court has done nothing even though over the past 3 years I have filed 4 contempt motions as I've had to endure as their mother refused to drop my boys off to me, and the most recent event not being able to see them for over 20 days. This is beginning to cause psychological harm, to the point where it is clearly causing depression despite them being so young.

My children have expressed watching as their mother and her numerous boyfriends have fought, had "too many drinks," been mean to them, even to the point where I have been called about mom and my child being in a physical fight at a party she was at. My older son expressed recently that he blames himself for moms breakups because he had to step in the middle of a physical altercation between her and a recent boyfriend, eventually leading to an ugly breakup. He also said that mom made them decide if she should break up with another boyfriend after repeated altercations between them, and also after telling them that he hit her.

I've had to watch as she has made no effort to bring the children to therapy, instead -- she has been fighting to place the blame on my child by hospitalizing him and claiming mental health, even to the point where she was trying to have him admitted to an in-patient facility days before and the day after Christmas. The times he was hospitalized I wasn't notified until over 6 hours later on all occasions, with her trying to circumvent me from supporting him or hide these events from me by not providing the healthcare workers with proper information regarding our shared custody agreement. After having my child in the hospital for multiple days, each time they have deemed he does not require in-patient level of care based on their evaluations.

Two years ago, I was forced to sit and watch as I received a video of my child being locked outside of her car while he tried to climb in through the window as she rolled it up on him. This same time period, I had to watch as he was locked out of his house banging on the front door to come inside while all the other kids sat and watched TV.

I have made sure that I put Therapy at home and at school in place, I was able to get a guardian ad litem approved for my children, DCF has been actively doing an investigation but all have refused to take action.

I have documented, well over 30 occurrences where the mother was late to pickup, or never even showed up until hours after the fact. Multiple times where I was forced to bring my children with me to work until she finally showed up to pick them up. I have went to court so many times I am starting to lose count as it has become almost a weekly obligation to show up, to file contempt, Ex Parte' motions, hearings, and most recently, Trial proceedings and I need help.

Over the years I have felt I was able to fight this with the truth alone but with the situation amplifying and my children's health and safety at risk I feel it is imperative now more than ever in the past years to secure funding to make sure my children are free from the aguish of a situation no child should have to endure.

 I need your help to hire a lawyer that can give me an equal chance in what has PROVEN to be biased towards the mother in Connecticut. If the roles were reversed, my children would already be taken from my custody. I need your help to get my sons into safe and loving care so they can actually begin the healing process before it destroys them for the rest of their lives without salvage. Help to be able to give my children an opportunity to see the world and be released from a system that will wait until one of them hurt themselves, hurt someone else, or is dead before taking action. 

I have called the Fatherhood Initiative, Statewide Legal Aid, written letters to the Attorney Generals office, and other measures to secure low cost legal support but have been driven away due to the case being in a post-judgement status. I have nowhere else to turn, I'm praying for support to overcome a system that will not consider Fathers in the same light as a Mother, when it should be about what is best for the children.

Help me take action now, before it's too late. These funds will be used directly in securing a lawyer to balance what has clearly been inaction on the side of the court. Help me to be a voice for my children that the court will hear and take action before they experience trauma they may never be able to recover from.
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    Co-organizers (3)

    Darius Banks
    Organizer
    Brooklyn, CT
    Patricia Padgett
    Co-organizer
    Rashelle Hall
    Co-organizer

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