Civic Engagement

Two years ago I faced jail for the same thing...but I caved and liquidated my retirement account as ordered by Judge Manzi. I will speak as to the common sense of Mr. Rabinovitz in refusing to do this, and thereby choose to go to jail. My 2 cents is that he is doing his kids more harm by losing his job and his freedom and possibly traumatizing the kids in the process. Does not mean he is wrong, just inappropriate given the practical terms we are dealing with. The judges here are given power they do not deserve by these poorly-written laws. Governor, if you are for real you need to do something about this incredible injustice. On one hand, maybe I should see Mr. Rabinovitz as a poster child for the issue of lousy statutes for governing the Mass family court system, compounded by judges that are out of touch with reality. I admire he takes a stand here, and maybe something will change...I will then thank him. I personally found the price of standing up against bad laws and a corrupt ...

I know David personally, and without any hesitation fully support him. I not only worked with David but became friends with him. He has a high level of ethics, is dedicated to good causes and does what is right in addition to being very bright. Hearing he was put in jail was not only a waste of money and time but a reflection on our government and poor court system that we should all be ashamed of!

David is a con-artist and a crook. He does not tell you he has not paid for his childrens health insurance or child support without the court forcing the issue. Instead of Free David why don't you lobby for David to provide for hid children!!!!!

I don't understand what is gained from throwing a father in jail for not paying? I do think there should be rules, but Jail? How is that man supposed to make money while in there? I a mother who is being discriminated against in the courts, and the father is being given whatever he wants, I do believe our Judges are using this power for themselves, not the children, someone needs to stop this

It seems more and more this judge Kagan is corrupt and is abusing his power. It is ridiculous for the state government to be able to persecute a law abiding citizen in this manner.

Sounds like abuse of power!

lawyers make enough already.. this debt should have been cleared.. Greed above families..

People in jail are normally there for a reason, no? Having said that, I say Free David Rabinovitz!

IN HIS OWN WORDS (A con-artist and a crook?)...

Support is considered to be one of the most important obligations in our state, so important that a father wrongly identified as the biological father six years later was ordered to continue paying child support by the Mass. Supreme Court because somebody had to pay (Paternity of Cheryl 434 Mass. 23; 746 N.E.2d 488; 2001). I was current on my child support - in fact I was overpaid. Even though I am currently "on the run" I am current on child support through mid-April (I am two weeks overpaid!).

A highly regarded law resource is Mass. Practice Series. The section on Family Law and Practice § 72:5 (3d ed.), Chapter 72, is clear that “sentencing a person to jail for failure to obey a judgment of the court relative to the support of his wife or minor child may order that a sentence be served during such hours as will permit the person to continue his employment.” “in order to allow the defendant… to provide continued ...

Governor Patrick, Please help our "Good Dads". So many of them have good jobs, try hard, live day to day and are fully involved in their childrens lives and it seems like the SAME JUDGE--OVER AND OVER AGAIN--SPENCER KAGAN--keeps wasting our tax dollars and tossing men in jail, causing them to lose their jobs, lose their housing, lose everything. Just to have it happen all over again. Its a VICIOUS CYCLE THAT NEEDS TO BE STOPPED!!!!!!!!!

Governor Patrick, This case highlights all that is wrong with our system, not to mention serious judicial misconduct on the part of Judge Kagan. Clearly what's needed is reform of the family court system and new guidelines for determining and collecting child support and/or alimony. I've worked with David and know that he is a well-educated/hardworking man, a devoted father, and is generous with his time (using his own vacation time to volunteer for local charities). Because of this case and this judge, David was wrongly deprived of his freedom, his ability to earn a living, his associated employment benefits (health insurance for him and his children, not to mention his ex-spouse), and his ability to support his children. David's employer was deprived of a key employee and his business clients in Massachusetts and across the country were left in the lurch as well. And an already crowed prison system was further burdened with a ward that had no business being in the system while ...

I hope to some day read how this is legally possible or that the judge was removed. Either way...just not ignored. I'm disturb to read on the web that this judge has in the past appointed a special master that he had a prior professional and financial relationship. Is that the case now? Who is the Special Master that a 401k must be liquidated for?

http://www.fathersunite.org/Bad_Judges.html

This is typical of the ignorance and prejudices of judges in the Middlesex court. I lost my job due to actions of my ex. Setting the house on fire four times, taking my employer into court because she claimed he was not showing all my income on my pay stub (A large government contractor) and continuously taking me to court on made up actions or asking for more money. Subsequently she took me to court again demanding more money was granted it and when I said this exceeded my total income he demanded that I cash in my 401K and the few stocks I received from my Fathers estate. These were to only assets I was allowed to retain. She got the house,car etc. Was supposed to pay the utilities and didn't and I had to pay them and so on. Judge Elliot Cohen was the Nazi who perpetrated this and other gross injustices.

That was 20 years ago. I am now remarried, I now have a new home,a wonderful wife, my children recognize the lies and deceptions their mother perpetrated. My ex has been and ...

Here it goes again...another father with a good job, good volunteer, and a contributor.....Deval, when (if) they come after you, who's going to stop YOUR oppressors? Didn't you ever read history books? At 15 I was learning about oppression and how great is is to be in America. Now at 53, all I am seeing out of the MA system is what I learned was wrong in other countries. STOP IT NOW.

I am a mother, but I also have been abused by these courts and these lawless arrogant judges. While the father of my children never had to pay a dime of child suppport because the systems stepped in as his hero and took his children, my children on the day that they were born and persecuted me for years for no reason at all. Possibly as punishment for being more intelligent, more attractive and better hearted than them. I never got my children back despite the fact that I am capable, willing and able to raise my own children. They live in foster care since birth (at YOUR expense) and the government looks the other way on their own bad acts refusing to examine what they have done and the lack of substance for it all.

There is little doubt in my mind that this man should not be in jail, the courts ARE lawless and need to be better controlled. They should serve our children not destroy our families without cause.

Renee LaPlume read my story at the following link (as well as ...

This travesty has noting to do with justice, This is corruption and cronyism at its worst and an innocent father sits in jail because of this perverted system. Spencer Kagan should be in jail, not Dave Rabinovitz. The law is perfectly clear here, and Kagan is perfectly criminal.

This is your state, Gov. Patrick. Is this how you want it to run? Is putting Dave Rabinovitz in jail what you meant when you said "Together we can." Or can we get him out of jail and Spencer Kagan off the bench together?

What kind of state do you want to run, Mr Patrick?

Governor, for gay rights you marched. For Father's rights you have yet to take ONE step.

Reminds me of the Bob Dylan song: While his ex wife is free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise David Rabinovitz sits like Buddha in a 10 foot cell an innocent man in a living hell

We really need to fix this

I too am about to be put in jail for notpaying my exs attorney fees and the gal fees.They want to sell my house which has no equity and will get nothing to p[ut 3 other innocent children in the street.What gives the judges to spendmoney we do not have ?Are they getting kick backs from these attornys?Jugde steves and attn. maslowski and the gal attn sullivan should be disbared for putting children at risk for p[ersonel gain.All they do is comp[lain about the child getting 300.00 p[er week in sup[p[ort.Here if I go to jail she gets nothing.Isnt that putting a child at risk.Seems like a conflick of interest between my ex and her attn.When in court tell they judge you want to p[roduce your evedence and do not want anyone a[pp[ointed.If the sitting judge can not handle it ask for another who will.My gal lied about a death caused by me and there is nothing you can do to them.So what good are they if they can lie?Who watchs over them.Oh right the judges who run up[ the bills we cannot ...

Free all dads and the few moms, if any, who are put in prison because they are unable to pay something. Never mind for owing money to a third party whose services were ordered by a judge.

Get out from our lives judges and government, we don't want you and especially not when you do more destruction of families than you do good.

I voted for Deval in the election because I took him to be a man of integrity. If he is who he says he is, Governor Patrick will look into this case immediately and do the right thing! David being locked up in jail is a complete misuse and abuse of the legal system!!!

MOTHERS AND FATHERS ALIKE ARE BEING HARMED BY THIS JUDGE. David Rabinovitz is an example of the extreme bias in the name of financial gain for lawyers and masters involved in child support issues. The father of my child has been protected from even filing a financial statement by Spencer Kagan for 3 years while admittedly earning $1 million annually and never ever seeing his child in her life! BUT KAGAN threw RABINOVITZ in jail and demanded his 401 K be liquidated - which is against MA law - to pay a special master assigned by the judge to do his work and of no benefit to any child in this matter! Like Rabinovitz, Kagan has maligned me, had hearings in private and refused my request to attend, ignored the immediate needs of the child, abused his discretion and permitted gross breaches of law for the profit of lawyers. IT IS A TRAVESTY OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM THAT THIS JUDGE AND OTHERS LIKE HIM SIT IN POWER AND DESTROY PEOPLE'S LIVES AND IGNORE THE NEEDS OF THEIR CHILDREN WHILE THE ...

DAVID RABINOVITZ IS NOT A CRIMINAL, NEVER WILL BE, HE IS HOWEVER JUST ANOTHER VICTIM, AS ARE HIS INNOCENT CHILDREN. WHO'S LOOKING THE OTHER WAY, IGNORING THE FACT (S)? THE REAL JUDGE CRIMINAL, WHO SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE FOR TOTAL DISRESPECT FOR ALL LAW (S) WRITTEN IS. THE BLACK ROBED SO CALLED "HONORABLE" CONTINUES WITH PATTERN & PRACTICE TO HARM HONEST HARD WORKING PEOPLE, FOR $$$$$$. THE REAL CRIMINAL JUDGE SHOULD BE TRIED IN FRONT OF A JURY OF OUR PIERS, WITH AN HONEST JUDGE PRESIDING, WHO WILL RULE ACCORDING TO THE LAW, AND EXPOSE THE CRIMINAL JUDGE, FOR HIS ACTIONS. THE REAL CRIMINAL JUDGE IS STILL ALLOWED TO DISREPECT THE LAW, PERFORM DESTRUCTION,ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS, TO DESTROY HONORABLE PEOPLES LIVES, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN. FREE DAVID, DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY, HIS LIFE HAS SUCH GREAT VALUE, PUT THE REAL CRIMINAL JUDGE BEHIND BARS WHERE HE BELONGS. DAVE LOVES HIS CHILDREN, AND HIS CHILDREN NEED HIM. TOGETHER WE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT IS RIGHT AND THE ...

42 USC 1983. Deprivation of a Civil Right Under Color of State Law. Dear Governor Patrick, We are growing in numbers. We are becoming more knowledgeable of what the lawyers are doing in concert with the Judges. We understand better our rights today, than we did twenty years ago. We should not be victimized, as David is being, in order to further some private monetary gain of those that are in office, such as Judge Spencer Kagan. Let me please remind those that are reading that Article V of the Declaration of Rights of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts states: "All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them."

David Rabinovitz should not be in jail, and his being jailed, is not only a violation of his CIVIL LIBERTIES, but also, his DUE PROCESS, FIRST, FOURTH, ...

Judge Kagan is out of control, sadistic and power drunk. This is an exceptionally bad case of his abuse of power. No one can be jailed for debt, except child "support", which is actually an average of 3.5 TIMES the actual average cost of raising a child in Mass. This judge should be removed from the bench for extortion. Family court judges make a habit of extorting money from family and friends by throwing people in jail who do not have the money to pay. They order ridiculous amounts then work people into jail. I know people who have had heart attacks, lost jobs and end up in jail.

Dear Governor Duval Patrick,

Please take your head out of the sand and start making foresight 20/20 rather than hindsight. You let honest hard-working father's get jailed but used a double standard when it comes to women as in my case for not paying child support or alimony. The taxpayers of the Commonwealth would actually honor you if you brought the title IV-D program to the forefront and realize that it is broken and only with shared parenting will you start to bring family values back in line. The family is broken and you Governor Patrick are a major contributor. Keep your head in the sand and you may lose the other half. You speak about budget crunch but yet allowed me to sit in a nursing home not seeing my kids for two years at allowing the taxpayers to spend over $200,000 to date with an estimated 3 million. Stop spending a half $1 million remodels down Washington, DC, $72,000 aides for your wife, who works full-time, the Cadillac, the helicopter, and all the other ...

Budget Problems Governor? Try THIS: STOP the false arrests of innocent people by corrupt cops. STOP the false incarceration by Judges that disregard the Constitution AND the law. STOP the malicious prosecution of people by rogue prosecutors that ignore due process and violate civil rights all day long. STOP the incredulous waste in government driven by greed, power and croonyism, and START bringing integrity, accountability and honor back to public officials who should be held to higher standards, NOT lower standards, then most of those incarcerated. CLEAN HOUSE. The reward - MILLION$

YOU won the election. This is now your state, your watch, your problem. The "real" inconvenient truth is the destruction of families, not the environment. To date, shared parenting, the most voted for issue on your web site since its inception has failed to receive your attention. So far you have chosen to put State Parks and Renewable Energy ahead of people, and FAMILIES. Those will be ...

When Govenor? Will you STOP the atrocities committed under "color of law"? Why Govenor? Do you turn a blind eye to our pleas for intervention in the PUBLIC CORRUPTION rampent in our state? How Governor? Do you sleep nights knowing the crimes being committed against your constituants WITH taxpayers' dollars? What Governor? Are you going to do about the thousands of families being destroyed by our broken court system? Where Governor? Do you find the time to run to the aid of immigrants, walk in parades for the Gay Lesbians, visit Domestic Violence Shelters for Women when you have no time to protect the rights of heterosexual men, conventional families, and legal citizens of your state? When Governor? Will you show us that you hear WE THE PEOPLE, and show us that TOGETHER WE CAN? As a simple first step, FREE David Rabinovitch immediately as it will only take you a minute to review this situation and determine it to be WRONG. A simple next step would be to show you have NO ...

Governor Patrick, I know you are aware of this case. This state allowed judge Kagan to put David Rabinovitz in jail for all the wrong reasons, it is the responsibility of the state to get him out.

You are ignoring the most important issues on this website, is this a joke to you??? An innocent man is in jail and it's up to you to at least send someone representing your office to investigate this issue.

Governor, what will you do??? You can only ignore the people for so long...

BLUE RIBBON !! YES YES! Corruption is the one word that comes to mind, This is Horrendous! Family Courts are Already making Fathers Disposable. Must this man continue down a path of being a criminal for something as not paying a COURT ordered Special Master?!. Who are these Special Masters Governor? I was told they are Friends of the Courts , cough cough...... Judges!! It Is "ILLEGAL" to order someone to Liquidate a ERISA retirement account and this CORRUPT Judge Kagan Has Done Just that. It is time Governor to Hold These Judge accountable for Destroying Father/Child and Mother/Child relationship. These Courts have turned into a Profiteering Industry along with the "FRIENDS" of the Courts. The Public is beginning to understand this and You need to make correction NOW. The Talk of David Rabinovitz is all positive as a Father and a Person in General. What have you done GOVERNOR to Correct Family Courts in Our State. It's been told that it is the WORST in the Nation on ...

Governor: It is time for a blue ribbon panel of parents: 5 dads and 5 mums to outline reforms. The result? Fewer court rooms and fewer tax-payer funded injustices to families. David Rabinovitz is a symbol of the lack of redress that blacks, women and gays have suffered from. Now, CHILDREN have no redress, as they involuntarily lose access to one of their parents, and the custody battle is used by scumbags like Kagan to rule like English Kings of yore, appropriating working family assets into the hands of the new aristocracy.

What a surprise! Another criminal judge defying the laws of the land to destroy a father in this corrupt family court system. Judges like Spencer Kagan and Peter C. Digangi should be the ones behind bars.

I would also like to make it clear that all of these fathers who are posting messages on this website are not angry because of the rulings in their cases, certainly everyone has a right to his or her opinion and to believe that fathers are lesser parents than mothers for whatever ignorant reasons is not a crime.

What is a crime is a judge who manipulates the process by ignoring the constitutional rights of fathers to guarantee a particular profit-driven outcome. Can you say Title IV-D funding?

The law simply does not exist in these kangaroo courts because NO ONE is holding these black-robed criminals accountable.

This is an unexcusable action taken by "Criminal Kagen" to extort money to fill the state's coffers and pockets of his cronies. The Family Courts in this state care nothing about rights, justice or equality. This is a State of Anarchy! The State destroys families for profit.

If Deval Patrick cares anything about families, children and family values then he will take immediate action to release David Robinovitz and send a clear message to the Family Courts that it's time they put an end to their agression against parents and families.

If the state won't hold these judges responsible for their outrageous behavior then it's time the people do!

Shared parenting and equal responsibility IS the solution.

From another "Good Dad" taken from his children and family financially and emotionally destroyed by the Family Court.

Governor Patrick,

This needs to be stopped. There is no reason for a good person or person to be put in jail for this and being forced to cash in his 401k illegally. The Family and probate court need to be looked at this is one recent unnecessary ruling (unlawful) by family courts. There are to many situations where parents are in this situation, made to pay for things they should not being jailed for inability to pay, as well as good parents being made visitors in their children lives or even worse when they are prevented from being involved at all due to court orders and false allegations.

This is suppose to be family court and need to do everything in their powers to help families and maintain good relations parent child relationships.

Please start to put a stop on this craziness and destruction of humans and families by FREEING David RABINOVITZ. Please look in to the issues that family courts cause people like David and to families,

We should be trying to build and ...

Governor Patrick, you have the ability to fix this. This is YOUR state and YOUR judicial system. Please do something about this injustice.

Obviously another judge that doesn’t know the law. Civil confinement must be coercive and not punitive. Thus, a set term is unlawful.

Once again the divorce courts in this police state we call Massachusetts have taken the liberty of a true patriot away for just being a "DAD" "He shall be Judge" Kagan "in the end by a higher power" abused is authority so one of his cronies could get money he did not deserve by taken the remaining asset that David had. David was up to date on his child extortion but now is in risk of losing his job and falling behind on supporting his child. This is how Kagan creates criminals by putting them in a no win situation.

Deval please do something about this or the people of this police state will.

This is an outrageous abuse of judicial power.

Judge Spencer M. Kagan of Middlesex county probate court has once again abused his judicial discretion and jailed David Rabinovitz. What was David's crime? He did not terminate his 401k and turn the after tax proceeds over to kagan's hand picked "special master". David did not even hire this lawyer as special master. He was forced upon David by Sencer Kagan. Additionally, 401k plans are protected against creditors by ERISA law. However, Judge Kagan cares not about law...he does what he wants to do. He thinks he is the king in what he likes to call his "Kingdom of Cambridge"

This kind of judicial misbehavior cannot be tolerated in a free civil society. Rogue judges, like kagan, have no oversight and it is about time the executive branch looked into this.

David sits in jail while Kagan remains free to continue his reign of terror.

Please free David Rabinovitz.

Once again, this states Probate and Family courts have exceeded not only their powers, but basic human decency. David Rabinowitz does not belong in jail any more than Spencer Kagan, the judge who threw him there, belongs on the bench. Get David, and all other fathers thrown in jail for similar reasons, out of jail now. And then open your eyes to the crimes committed by these courts in your state and start prosecuting the real criminals, those wearing the black robes!