Judging by what I read here, I am more convinced than ever that Judge Jose Padilla needs to be removed from the bench NOW. This buffoon basically sentenced Dawn Axsom to death by refusing to let her move away from her crazy abusive ex-boyfriend GABE SCHWARTZ, the father of her 2-year-old son. The son that Daddy Dearest, out of his great paternal compassion, ABANDONED at the murder scene. Now the judge is trying to back pedal and claim he didn't know the full story. Bull malarkey. Mom said plenty--if only the smug and idiotic judge had listened.
And it's f-----g unbelievable that the judge recommended that somebody with Dad's history of chronic unemployment, domestic violence, and mental illness (multiple suicide attempts, including one while with the child) "baby sit" while Mom is at work. And four days of (unsupervised) visitation a week? More proof that Padilla is a clueless moron who's a disgrace to the judiary.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/10/27/20091027roberts1028.htmlJudge failed to serve domestic-violence victims
by Laurie Roberts - Oct. 28, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
You cannot watch the grainy courtroom video and not want to punch something - the rewind button perhaps.
There is the woman, her head in her hands after asking a judge to let her leave the state yet not telling him why she needed to go. And there is the judge, pointing out that she can leave whenever she wants. She just can't take her 22-month-old son with her.
"If I permit the relocation, the relationship between dad and his son will forever be irreparably harmed and I will not permit that," Judge Jose Padilla said during an Oct. 6 hearing.
Ten days later, Peoria police say the child's father, 28-year-old Gabe Schwartz, shot and killed the child's mother and grandmother before killing himself, leaving the baby to fend for himself.
Dawn Axsom, her mother, Linda Braden, and their killer became Arizona's 93rd, 94th and 95th people to die as a result of domestic violence this year, according to the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Dawn's father and stepmother are trying to come to grips with the deaths and with Padilla's decision to force her to stay. "Dawn believed she would be able to go," her stepmother, Kathy Axsom, told me. "I really think she had confidence in the system and obviously it failed her."
There is a lesson in the death of Dawn Axsom for the judges of this state. And for the many other Dawns out there, 30 of whom will be dead before the end of the year, if statistics hold true.
Axsom, 23, and Schwartz lived together briefly but by the time their son, Xavier, was 2 months old, Axsom was the only real parent. Family members and Axsom, in her testimony, said that Schwartz would baby-sit but that stopped after he overdosed on her grandmother's medication while alone with the boy. In July, Axsom filed for child support and he countered with a request for joint custody. A week later, court records indicate that he broke into Axsom's Peoria home and got into her bed. She awoke as he was taking off her clothes.
Axsom got an order of protection the next day.
Padilla knew about that order of protection on Oct. 6, but curiously, he asked no questions about their relationship. And Axsom never told the judge or even her attorney what was really going on, that Schwartz was threatening her, telling her he would never let her leave.
"My daughter was very strong but she was afraid of this man," Gary Axsom told me. "He had texted her so much that her hair was turning gray like mine."
I don't know why she didn't tell the judge, or her attorney, Ron Saper. Maybe it's because she thought she could handle it. Maybe it's because Schwartz was in the courtroom. Or maybe it's because she trusted the judge to get it right.
To listen when she testified that Schwartz had never been able to hold down a job and that he had tried to commit suicide several times, once while alone with their son. To hear her when she told him that Schwartz wasn't involved in the child's life and had never bought so much as a diaper. To remember that order of protection and to ask questions when Axsom testified that she and her mother wanted to move to Maryland to take care of an elderly family member. To consider the fact that this was her chance to go to school so that she could provide her son a better life.
Instead, the judge announced that the child would remain in Arizona for the time being to be near his dad. When Saper questioned how Axsom could realistically stay without the help of her mother, Padilla had a smug reply.
"Well, she doesn't have to remain here is the bottom line," he said.
Saper: "Well, she's not going to leave the child with him, your honor."
Padilla: "Well, again, that is her choice."
Padilla also offered a helpful suggestion. Schwartz, he said, could baby-sit while Axsom is at work, easing child-care expenses. He did order Schwartz to undergo mental-health and drug evaluations by January, but in the meantime ordered visitation four days a week, leaving me to wonder if there was something wrong with the video of the hearing that I was watching.
There was nothing wrong with the video, according to Elizabeth Ditlevson, of the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ditlevson said far too many judges don't take domestic violence seriously.
"Judge Padilla is part of the problem but he is not the problem," she said. "The problem is a system that allows judges to act like this and that is privileging abusers access to children over victim and child safety."
Saper said he can't take issue with Padilla's decision to keep the child here, given that neither he nor the judge knew the extent of the threats to Axsom. "I would have given the judge and I did give the judge every single thing we had to allow her to leave and that information would have helped," he said. "Whether it would have been sufficient or not remains to be seen."
Padilla wouldn't speak with me about this case but through a spokeswoman said, "I believe all family-court judges take domestic violence seriously, both personally and professionally."
He said he was saddened by what had happened, but didn't answer a question about whether it would change the way he does his job.
And that, I think, is maybe the saddest part.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8635.
