Deadbeat dad in "contentious custody battle" murders mom with 10-year-old son in next room; friends praise him as "devoted dad" who was "victim"--when will the crap ever stop? (Redondo Beach, California)

Once again, the media chooses to praise abusive killer dad RUSSELL GOLDBERG upfront as "generous" and "kind"--while neatly sidestepping the obvious: that "generous" and "kind" men don't mow down the mother of their children in cold blood, especially with their own child sitting in the next room. This is called delusion, folks, and it makes me sick that the media indulges and quotes these dumba$$es and their fantasy interpretations of reality again and again. In fact, we even hear how poor Daddy was the "victim" of the courts!

Victim! This deadbeat was living off Mom (alimony) because he refused to get a job and he had 50/50 custody! Sounds to me like the courts indulged him just fine! But despite all that, like most abusers, all he did was complain and badmouth the mom. He wanted to sit on his duff forever and whine and threaten, while Mom grew sick of his sh**. Finally she decided that Daddy's gravy train should dry up, and that she should reduce the contact that this moron had with the kids. And for good reason, as events would later prove. In reality, this guy did turn out to be a homicidal idiot. A fact which Daddy's enabling buddies choose to ignore. So who's assessment turned out to be correct, hmm? As the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding.

So that's when Daddy's violent revenge fantasies kicked into full force, and he murdered the mother. Of course, we also mix in all the Daddy Drama trimmings: we kidnap the traumatized boy (then abandon him) and then do the full SWAT team standoff in the State of Utah, where Daddy was later found.

THEN AFTER ALL THAT, THE IDIOTS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA GAVE "TEMPORARY" CUSTODY OF THE KIDS TO THE KILLER'S FAMILY. Revolting.

Who was really the victim of the courts here? Hint: It wasn't Daddy. In fact, I'd argue that the court's catered to and encouraged his narcissism and overall sense of entitlement by granting his lazy @$$ spousal support and all the rest.


http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_20040127

Bitter custody battle escalated into family tragedy in Redondo Beach

By Douglas Morino and Larry Altman
Staff Writersdailybreeze.com
Posted: 02/24/2012 07:44:26 PM PST February 25, 2012 7:57 PM GMT Updated: 02/25/2012 11:57:06 AM PST

Friends described Russell Goldberg as mild-tempered, generous and kind, a man who was dedicated to his two young children. He volunteered at their schools, photographed their sporting events, and emailed pictures to other parents.

"He was one of the most devoted fathers I have ever seen," Chris Robbins said.

But years into a difficult divorce and contentious custody battle, Russell Goldberg stunned his friends. On Wednesday, he shot his 45-year-old ex-wife, Margaret Duffy Goldberg, in her kitchen as their 10-year-old sat in the next room.

Goldberg, 49, later killed himself in his sport utility vehicle on a Utah highway.

"Russ was very distraught about his treatment in court," friend Steve Hemingway
said. "No matter what he said, they turned it around and used it against him. They took an emotional situation and stripped him of his dignity. They turned him into a monster. It's the family law court that turned this thing into a horrible crucible."

The couple's deaths did not put an end to the court battle over the children. On Friday, hours before friends would hold a candlelight vigil and place flowers in front of Margaret's Agate Street apartment, attorneys for both families found themselves in line at the same time at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

Each family and their attorneys filed paperwork seeking guardianship of the couple's 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

Already, Margaret's family members are upset that county child welfare officials placed the children with their father's sister, Robin Trusso, at her home in Redondo Beach.

"Giving the kids back to them is like giving the kids back to O.J.," said attorney Patrick DeCarolis Jr., who represented their mother during the lengthy custody dispute.

On Friday, Margaret Goldberg's sister, Maureen Duffy, petitioned Judge Mitchell Beckloff at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse to allow her to take the children home with Beckloff reviewed paperwork and agreed with a decision by the county Department of Children and Family Services to keep the children with their aunt in Southern California, said Trusso's attorney, Lisa Rosenthal.

"We need to let these children heal," Rosenthal said. "My client wants truly what is in the best interests of these kids."

Russell and Margaret Goldberg's marriage ended in divorce in 2009. The couple split custody of their children 50-50, but Margaret had recently sought to reduce her husband's contact with them.
"She was a high-class gal, got into a bad marriage, had a couple kids and couldn't stop him," DeCarolis said. "He was like a force of nature. He was just torturing her about the kids." DeCarolis said Russell tried to poison the children's minds against their mother, constantly criticizing her.

"The guy wouldn't take responsibility for any of his actions," DeCarolis said. "The guy just wouldn't stop with the criticism, with the things he was saying about the mother. He also wouldn't get off his rear end and get a job."

Margaret had enough and petitioned the court to change the custody arrangement.
Rosenthal said Margaret wanted Russell's custody reduced to zero, while he wanted to maintain what he had. "She decided to stop paying support," Rosenthal said. "I really don't want to speak ill of Miss Goldberg. May she rest in peace."

During the last two years, a custody fight that should have taken two days extended to 15 hearings, DeCarolis said. In their last court confrontation Feb. 17, the couple argued about Margaret's decision to stop paying spousal support.

"I really liked her a lot," DeCarolis said. "She was just a great woman in that she was able to withstand this act as long as she did."

Five days later, Russell would strike.

Attorneys told the Daily Breeze on Friday that the couple's 10-year-old son was sitting on the couch in his mother's living room Wednesday morning when his father arrived.

His parents spoke in the kitchen. The boy heard the gunshots, ran to the kitchen and found his mother lying dead on the floor.

His father grabbed the boy. They climbed into his 2007 Saturn Vue and drove to his parents' apartment at the New Horizons retirement village in Torrance. Russell dropped his son off and raced away.

He got as far as Utah.

Nearly 12 hours after Redondo Beach police officers discovered his ex-wife's body, Utah Highway Patrol troopers spotted Russell driving north on Interstate 15 just outside Parowan, a small town in southern Utah.

After a brief pursuit, Russell hit a spike strip laid across the freeway. The SUV came to a stop in the middle of the rural highway.

A three-hour standoff ensued, but a SWAT team approaching the vehicle discovered that Russell was dead. Authorities told a Utah television station that they suspect Russell shot himself before the vehicle even stopped moving.

"It was probably somewhere right after he came to a stop there. The officers were a ways behind him," Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel told KCSG. "From the time they stopped him until the time they got in, there was no movement in the vehicle whatsoever."

A woman claiming to know Russell told KUTV that he might have been on his way to see her at her home in Herriman, just south of Salt Lake City.

Jacque Meadows, who said she met Russell through a mutual friend about three years earlier, said he became "very persistent, very aggressive" in the last month.

"Some of the messages, emails and Facebook stuff was a little bit inappropriate," Meadows said. "The fact that he was coming to Utah, through Utah, in this direction, creeped me out."

Nearly a year ago, Russell posted a Facebook message asking for legal help:
"Does anyone know a good Family Court Attorney that will feel bad for me and work Pro Bono?" he wrote. "I am losing my kids ... this is SERIOUS STUFF ... just asking."

"That's what he lived for, his kids," Meadows told the station. "That's all he wanted."

Friends said Russell helped his wife start a real estate property company, and while her business grew, his own suffered.

Russell, who sold book bindings, told the woman that money was important to his wife, and that she was using her resources to discredit him. She began dating a man she met through her work.

The divorce proceedings took their toll.

"I know this had been a long, drawn-out court proceeding," Robbins said. "It seemed to be handled in a pretty irresponsible manner by the lawyers."

Russell recently hosted a party at his Redondo Beach home for his daughter's 13th birthday. The girls were treated to makeovers and participated in a "murder mystery" performance.

His children visited with his parents, Arlene and Michael Klosk, who also acted as his attorney in the custody case.

The Klosks regularly attended their grandchildren's games. Arlene Klosk taught other parents how to knit on the sidelines, said a friend who did not want to be identified.

"They were a really close family," the female friend said. "The children love the grandparents and it was very clear they loved their father."

Michael Klosk did not return calls or a message left at his front door.

Pictures of the grandchildren, including some with their father and mother, covered their refrigerator door.

Friends knew Russell had a gun registered with the Redondo Beach Police Department. They did not believe he would use it.

DCFS social workers arrived at the Redondo Beach police station shortly after their mother's death to look after the children. Spokesman Armand Montiel said he could not specifically address the case, but officials normally conduct background checks and visit homes of relatives and friends to find a suitable place to temporarily house the children.

"The main thing is we understand the trauma that children go through when they experience loss and we don't want to add to it," Montiel said. "We want to minimize the terrible change they were going through."

DeCarolis said he begged DCFS officials to place the children with Margaret's best friend in Redondo Beach until their mother's sister could arrive from New York to take them home with her to Long Island.

Instead, "in the face of the lawyer begging them not to do this," DCFS officials "placed the children with the murderer's family," DeCarolis said.

"It just sickened me," DeCarolis said.

Rosenthal said the children prefer to remain in Redondo Beach and continue to go to school. "They want the parents to stop arguing," she said. "The kids are saying, `We want to stay here with our friends. We want to remain with people we know and people who won't judge us and people who won't talk about the case.' That's what's in the best interests of these kids."

The children became DCFS wards with their parents' deaths. DCFS officials could hold a hearing Monday in Monterey Park to determine their guardianship, or a probate judge on Friday in Los Angeles could determine their fate. An attorney was appointed to represent their interests.

"It's not about the parents. It's not about the anger of the relatives," said Rosenthal's partner, attorney Robert Levy. "It is about the children."