3.1 (A)Court Will Weigh Sham Marriage

According to the assignment we were to find an article from a local newspaper, magazine or website about an ethical dilemma involving a woman. cite the article and discuss it from of the feminist perspectives.

The directions did not state how new or old the article had to be, so I wanted to share an article that had special meaning to me. I apologize upfront that there is a missing word as the original was ripped where I have carried the article in my wallet for almost twenty years... (In other words I have retyped it for your viewing pleasure)

I will place my response as after the article since there is no URL.

thanks,

Jesilyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Court Will Weigh Sham Marriage

By Rob Daumeyer

Of the Hamilton Journal-News

Hamilton , Ohio

August 9, 1988

Middletown- The Butler County Juvenile Court must decide weather a 15 year old Middletown girl is allowed to live with her husband, an appellate court ruled Monday.

j****** Tolson M*********** married 22-year old Johnny M*********** last September but immediately was placed by the court in the custody of the Butler County Department of Human Services after the Juvenile court ruled her marriage a �sham�.

The girl will remain in the custody of the human services department until the juvenile , court makes a decision, according to her attorney Michael Booh er.

Lawyers for Tolson M*********** asked the 12th District Court of Appeals to terminate the county�s custody and allow her to live with her husband, but the appellate court remanded the case back to the juvenile court.

The appellate court ruled that the juvenile court �abused its discretion� in (old paper was ripped)

order without first considering the validity of the marriage.

According to the appellate court decision Tolson M***********�s father, Jeffery Tolson removed his daughter from her mother�s custody and later drover her and M*********** to Owsley , Kentucky. , where the two were married.

Tolson claimed he took his daughter from the home because she and her mother were in numerous quarrels. The court warned Tolson that he may face possible contempt of court charges for taking his daughter across state lines into Kentucky to avoid the courts jurisdiction regarding her custody, the opinion stated.

�This is a valid Marriage ,� Booher said. �The person authorized to give consent (her father) did so.�

But the court refused to acknowledge the marriage �without any legal justification whatsoever.� According to Booher. You can�t refuse to Allow a valid spouse to participate in her life� Booher said. �The courts can�t always put it�s self in a position of telling someone who is the right mate for them is.�

The court battle stems from a 1985 complaint filed in juvenile court alleging that the then 12-year-old j****** was an abused child w/ her step father engaging in �sexual activity� with her.

j****** was judged abused and placed in the temporary custody of the Human Services Department. In Feb. 1986, j******�s Natural father, Jeffery Tolson returned to Middletown and was granted temporary custody with the county maintaining protective supervision,

because of Tolson�s occupation as a truck driver, he and j****** left Ohio in may 1986, according to court records. As a result of frequent traveling from city to city with her father, j****** neither attended school on a regular bases nor counseling sessions ordered by the court.

j****** returned to live with her mother in may 1987 and the Human Services Department requested the courts to review her custody status. She then lived with her mother for a short time.

Tolson later returned to Middletown and drove j****** and M*********** to Kentucky where with Toson�s consent the two were married.

�j****** is a young lady with an extremely disturbing background,� booher said. �No one- not her parents, the courts, or the human services department- has done a good job of giving this girl what she needs.� Simply because she is a minor doesn�t mean Tolson M*********** shouldn�t be able to make some decisions on her own, her attorney argued.

�She wants to live with her husband,� he said. �And the wishes of a person under 18 should not be totally subjugated to others opinions.�

*****************************************************************

Incase you haven't figure it out, the article I chose was written almost 20 years ago about me. That's right, at 14-years-old, I was one of the largest ethical cases the state of Ohio had ever seen. I made the news papers several times. Before it was over, our case went to the 12th District Court of Appeals several times and in the end we won. Sadly the marriage suffered damage to great to fix and we divorced 4 years later only to remarry again and separate again 7 years later. No it won't happen again. I've grown up and too much feminism has set in...But This isn't the question. The question isn't about ethics or we could be here all day discussing how the codes of ethics were violated. The question concerns how my article related to the feminist.

Well, as I said before I was raised to believe in a very traditional value system. The same value system as Cathrine Beecher spoke of. Heck Even at 14 years old, I had my idea of how things were suppose to be. I knew that my life had been dysfunctional and I wanted that life to change. For me marriage was my way out. You see... My husband was a Christian man, born the 7th son of 12 children. His father was a pastor. He held a job. I was going to attend school and get my diploma then be a stay at home mother, just like his mother was. I was going to do all the wonderful things that stay at home mom's do like PTO meetings, and ball practice, and girl scouts. I was going to get everyone off in the morning and clean house and have dinner on the table when my husband came home from work. I was going to be the cookie baking, always smiling, everything's perfect mom. the kind that makes sure the kids are acting right and dad's butt crack isn't showing as he walks out the door for church... you know miss molly morals? well... That simply didn't happen due to the events brought on by the courts matter a fact, those events changed my life in more ways than I would have ever imagined.

Now a day, the idea of a traditional family is nothing more than a Cinderella fantasy after all the kids are over 1/2 raised, their values pretty well set in stone, and most of what I always wanted for them can never be done because it's simply too late you can't turn back the hands of time. I can't blame the entire thing on the courts but I know where the roots of the issues began and I know the chain of events that followed. Those situations changed who I was. It took a optimistic young bride who believed in traditional values and created a single mother who was forced to compete in a world of dead end jobs to make ends meet in order to raise her children the best she could. That 14 year old bride is now 34 scared to death of marriage, believes Cinderella exists only in movies, and that the system is something that is so corrupt that one should be weary of any dealings with it unless you have friends in "High" places. This is where my double jeopardy comes in because my integrity says I must fight to stop what happen to me and others like me where the other side of me screams I should be at home till Elizabeth is 18...

I suppose w/ online education recourses I get to do both. Elizabeth turns 11 in a few weeks. I have what 4 more years till I get my Masters... we shall see...

You can read older entries by visiting the achieves on the right. Thank You For Visiting!