| -PEERgroup Parental Equality Enforcement Resource |
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| The Kouvakas Case |
| "All the cards were marked in advance. The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance." - Bob Dylan, Hurricane |
| PEERgroup, with the help of others who have responded to the injustice of the Kirk case, is currently assembling documentation on another example of injustice at the hands of Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura: The Kouvakas case. The Kouvakas case is another outrageous example of gender-bias and an inexcusable miscarriage of justice orchestrated by Judge Bonaventura that was reported only by the Indianapolis Star/News. Why wasn't this story reported by The Times? Do you suppose it was because Mary Beth Bonaventura is on the Editorial Board of The Times? You'll have to decide for yourself, but one thing is indisputable. This is another example of Judge Bonaventura's habit of disregarding the evidence if it does not agree with her sexist personal agenda. Additional details of this case will be posted on an ongoing basis. Bookmark this site and come back soon. |
| [PEERgroup note: Bold added for emphasis] Juvenile Justice at its Worst By JAMES PATTERSON Published on Saturday, June 19, 1999 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR / THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS Before B.A. was born, at least one doctor had encouraged his mother not to have him. Renee D. Kouvakas is prone to epileptic seizures. Her neurologist, fearful of how her anti-seizure medication might affect the unborn child, recommended an abortion. Renee went ahead anyway. B.A. was born July 27, 1994. His birth should have been a blessing to his Crown Point family. Instead, B.A. arrived at a time when his parents' marriage was disintegrating. Less than a month after he was born, his father, John A. Kouvakas, filed for divorce. That ignited an intense custody battle for the couple's only child, created dissension within the Lake County Office of the state Division of Family and Children and has pitted a Lake County juvenile judge against the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. John was given temporary custody of B.A. on Aug. 23, 1994. The baby spent four days a week with his father and three with his mother. John's Merrillville attorney, Karen Coulis, filed for an emergency hearing on March 13, 1995, because B.A. was losing too much weight. Dr. Clark E. Kramer, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, had documented the boy's weight for nearly three months after visits with each parent. He stated that B.A. would consistently drop 2 to 5 ounces during the three-day visits with his mom and gain the weight back after time with his dad. "I am therefore recommending that overnight visitations with Renee Kouvakas be terminated and replaced by strictly supervised visitations at a neutral site," Dr. Kramer wrote to John's attorney on March 10, 1995. That did not happen. Judge James Richards of in Hammond set a May 1 hearing date but before the hearing could take place, Richards transferred the case to juvenile court, which placed B.A. in foster care on April 13, 1995, and stripped John of his custodial rights. The Kouvakases didn't understand how it could be transferred from civil to juvenile court and John's rights taken away without a hearing. Since then, John has been tormented. With legal costs mounting, he filed bankruptcy on Aug. 24, 1995. One of the creditors from whom he sought relief was his son's court-appointed guardian, Debra L. Dubovich. On Nov. 14, 1997, he had been ordered by Lake County Juvenile Court Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura to pay $75 a week in child support and 70 percent of the guardian ad litem's $22,617 bill, or $15,832. Bonaventura also awarded custody of B.A. to Renee. Even though John's Valparaiso lawyer at the time, Christopher A. McQullin, informed Dubovich and Judge Bonaventura that John's petition to bankruptcy court had been amended to include protection from the Dubovich bill, Bonaventura found him in contempt of court in June 1998. She issued a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 1, 1998, despite the fact that he had been under bankruptcy court protection from creditors since May 22, 1996. Bonaventura also ordered the arrest of John's father, Spiro J. Kouvakas, unless Spiro agreed to turn over audiotapes of phone conversations between the Kouvakases and caseworkers, tapes that could be damaging to the Lake County Office of Family and Children. The judge didn't stop there. She garnished John's wages Feb. 24, 1999. Things are at a standoff. John was placed on leave from his job at Sears because his employer tired of police showing up with warrants for him. John and Spiro are in hiding. Bankruptcy court has yet to schedule a hearing, where Judge Bonaventura's orders could be reversed. If the facts of this case seem perplexing, they are. Volumes of documents point to corruption and under-the-table deals designed to keep John from his son. -by James Petterson The Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis News |
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