A Day to Bare Our Souls - and Find Ourselves

GREED LEADS TO ABUSE OF THE LAW... AND FAMILIES

This is a must read. One very greedy judge allowed wealthy litigants in divorce cases to pay him off with no regard for the welfare of the children, the other parent or the families involved.

I feel compelled to post this to show how horrific some judges can be in divorce cases and how money rather than truth often talks when it comes to the law.

This digusting man should rot in prison and all his cases should be re-evaluated and the children given therapy to help them cope with the greedy and unfair decisions in these cases.

My prayers for these mothers today.

Mothers tell how crooked judge ruined their lives
BY NANCIE L. KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Crooked judge Gerald Garson faces up to 15 years in prison for taking bribes to fix divorce cases. But the Brooklyn parents whose lives were ruined in his courtroom say no penalty could make up for the pain he caused. Here are some of their stories:

Frieda Hanimov
The Israeli-born mother of three claims that when she first went before Garson in 1999, he forced her to settle with her millionaire husband.

"He threatened to put me in jail," said Hanimov, who dropped all financial claims in exchange for custody of the kids. "I lost my house. I had to start my life from scratch.

"As soon as I saw Garson, I knew I was going to lose my kids," she said.

Hanimov secretly wore a wire for eight months to prove to prosecutors that Garson's courtroom was corrupt.

Sigal Levi
Sigal Levi's ex-husband, Avraham, pleaded guilty to giving Garson a bribe to fix their case. It looks like the sop worked.

The mother said she effectively lost custody of two of her kids and nearly lost her home thanks to the greedy jurist.

The mother of five originally agreed to joint custody for their two oldest sons, ages 12 and 13, when the split happened in 2001.

But Avraham Levi took both to live with him and denied her visitation - and Garson refused to enforce the agreement.

Now, Sigal Levi says, her boys are so alienated from her they barely have a relationship.

"Garson didn't look at the children as human beings. He looked how to benefit," she said. "He stole my boys from me. He took the brothers from the other brother and two sisters. He took something from me nobody can repair."

Lisa Cohen
The mother of two said she knew she "was doomed" in Garson's court because her husband was good friends with the judge's cronies, Paul Siminovsky and Nissim Ellman.

Her husband did not seek custody in the 2002 case, but she alleges he lied about his income and got away with it.

"I had a 15-pound box of canceled checks, invoices and documents from his business that proved he made more than $100,000 a year. My ex presented nothing. He claimed he made $40,000," she said. "Garson didn't want to see anything. I was never able to speak. We never had a hearing."

Threatening to report her to the IRS, Garson ordered Cohen to accept just $340 a week in child support.

"He wasn't interested in discussing the children. Not a word was ever mentioned about whether they could continue summer camp, things about a child's life," she said.

Jenny Lopez
Jenny Lopez, a stay-at-home military wife for 20 years, filed for divorce in July 2001, charging her husband with abuse and infidelity.

From then, she began chasing her two girls, ages 9 and 10, across the country because she says Garson told her to give her ex custody or be denied any visitation or alimony.

Lopez claimed her former spouse filed false abuse charges and that Garson wouldn't allow child welfare officials to testify they were false.

"I had to sign because Garson said, 'If she does not sign, she will get nothing,'" she said.

Her ex quickly moved from Brooklyn to Maryland and now lives in Pennsylvania. She said she rarely gets to see her daughters, now teens, and he isn't paying the court-ordered alimony and pension.

She had to move back to her native California because she's broke.

"We still have to suffer for what he did, and who has to suffer the most are the children," she said, crying. "I'm not happy. When I talk to my daughters, they are not happy where they are. They didn't want to live with their father. They are never going to get over this. I am not going to get over this."

nkatz@nydailynews.com
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