Trace this story very carefully all the way through, because the most important points are buried or otherwise obscured.
Dad ALEJANDRO MENDOZA has been accused of molesting his daughter, and in fact, is CHARGED WITH A CRIME IN KOREA. What crime? Rape, sexual abuse? The New Jersey reporter apparently doesn't bother to find out or clarify, even though this should be a matter of record.
Could this explain why Dad hightailed it out of Korea--where the family had moved TOGETHER--and back to good old New Jersey after just a few months? It sure seems likely to me like Dad is trying to avoid prosecution for a crime in Korea by fleeing to another country. But the reporter doesn't comment on this interesting "coincidence."
Mom, who is originally from Korea, decides to stay in that country with the children. She did not "kidnap." SHE DID NOT FLEE. DAD DID. Let's be straight on that, since the reporter fudges this point entirely. At first it is claimed that Mom "took" the children to Korea. Only in the next paragraph is this contradicted by the facts, which is that the family, including the father, had moved to Korea, and that the father subsequently left Korea. A little bias here? Or just an inability to report a story consistently or accurately?
But Daddy engages the corrupt judiciary of New Jersey to now do his bidding. He goes to a Superior Court Judge in Hackensack and gets court orders granting him custody. Was Mom notified? I doubt it. Did she attend or have a representative present? I doubt it. Do you think the judge knew that Daddy was charged with a crime in Korea? Maybe he did and just didn't care. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he just didn't bother to find out why this Daddy who was suddenly rushing at breakneck speed back to the US, leaving his wife and children behind in another country, was suddenly and inexplicably filing for custody. No red flags here for ya? Or did you just not care about all that either?
So Mom makes the tactical error of entering Guam, a US territory where she is promptly arrested on a "fugitive warrant." What a crock of bull. And now SHE--not Dad--is sitting in jail in New Jersey on $100,000 bond.
What the hell? Has the world gone mad? I can find you fathers who brutally murdered their own infant sons and daughters who are out on much less bail than this. And even if Mom makes bail, she won't be released because of contempt of courts charges.
Realize that New Jersey is a state with an active and aggressive fathers rights presence. That's how a father who is fleeing another country--apparently to avoid prosecution of sexual abuse charges--can march into a New Jersey courtroom and get custody with no questions asked. Is it clear yet what the fathers rights movement (a/k/a Abusers Anonymous) is all about? Anybody want to tell me again about poor New Jersey dad David Goldman, who got a free chartered plane to pick up his son from Brazil? Something really stinks in the Garden State.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/052510_Korean_mom_locked_in_custody_battle_with_Dumont_man_transferred_to_Bergen_County_Jail.html
Korean mom locked in custody battle with Dumont husband transferred to Bergen jail
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Last updated: Wednesday May 26, 2010, 9:42 AM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
The Record
Staff Writer
A Korean mother who was arrested in Guam two months ago for taking her two children to South Korea and refusing to return them to New Jersey has been transferred to the Bergen County Jail, officials said Tuesday.
Si-Nae Shim, 34, has been involved in a dispute with her husband, Alejandro Mendoza of Dumont, over the custody of their two children since the family briefly moved to South Korea last year.
Mendoza, a Broadway violinist, returned to Dumont a few months after the move, but Shim, who is also a musician, decided to stay there with the children despite the father’s protest, Mendoza’s attorneys said.
Mendoza later obtained court orders from a Superior Court Judge in Hackensack that gave him custody of the children and required Shim to return them to New Jersey.
Shim did not comply, alleging that Mendoza molested their daughter and is charged with a crime in Korea.
Shim was arrested in March on a fugitive warrant when she traveled to the U.S. territory of Guam. She was moved to the Bergen jail on Monday.
"Alejandro is in tears. He’s been waiting for this forever," said Scott Laterra, Mendoza’s attorney. "Hopefully the next step is that he gets his children back."
Shim is being held at the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 facing a criminal charge of interference with custody.
She cannot be released even if she makes bail because another court order holds her in contempt of court until she returns the children to Bergen County.
No court date has been set yet. Shim’s attorney, Jay Yanavok, said he was in talks with Mendoza’s attorneys to agree on a date for a hearing in family court.
A Korean mother who was arrested in Guam two months ago for taking her two children to South Korea and refusing to return them to New Jersey has been transferred to the Bergen County Jail, officials said Tuesday.
Alejandro Mendoza with daughter, Haerin, and son, Kristian. Si-Nae Shim, 34, has been involved in a dispute with her husband, Alejandro Mendoza of Dumont, over the custody of their two children since the family briefly moved to South Korea last year.
Mendoza, a Broadway violinist, returned to Dumont a few months after the move, but Shim, who is also a musician, decided to stay there with the children despite the father’s protest, Mendoza’s attorneys said.
Mendoza later obtained court orders from a Superior Court Judge in Hackensack that gave him custody of the children and required Shim to return them to New Jersey.
Shim did not comply, alleging that Mendoza molested their daughter and is charged with a crime in Korea.
Si-Nae Shim Shim was arrested in March on a fugitive warrant when she traveled to the U.S. territory of Guam. She was moved to the Bergen jail on Monday.
"Alejandro is in tears. He’s been waiting for this forever," said Scott Laterra, Mendoza’s attorney. "Hopefully the next step is that he gets his children back."
Shim is being held at the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 facing a criminal charge of interference with custody.
She cannot be released even if she makes bail because another court order holds her in contempt of court until she returns the children to Bergen County.
No court date has been set yet. Shim’s attorney, Jay Yanavok, said he was in talks with Mendoza’s attorneys to agree on a date for a hearing in family court.