Hillsborough County Judge Christine Vogel

 We received this email about a citizens experience with Hillsborough County Judge Christine Vogel. 
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I just got out of Hillsborough County Judge Christine Vogel's courtroom at about 7 p.m tonight, 11/1/10.  Here is my my UNBELIEVABLE experience . . .

I was trying to get a Hillsborough County restraining order to protect my daughter from my ex-wife's boyfriend.  I have 1 daughter.  My ex and I have 50% rotating custody.  My daughter spends 1/2 of her time with my ex.  Over the last 5+ years, I have had many experiences with my ex's boyfriend initiating verbal and physical assaults against me, in my daughter's presence.  There has also been several instances where my daughter would come to my house with burns, scratches, and bruises for which her explanations did not make sense.  I have suspected abuse for 5+ years, especially considering my many run-ins with this man.  HCSO, DCF and the courts never do anything - I've tried many times.  For the rest of this account, I will refer to my ex as M and her boyfriend as J.

M and J have 2 children in common and M has my daughter every other week.  Some time around March or April of this year (2010) M broke up with J because he was abusing her.  She claimed he even threatened to bury her in the yard.  M filed several court documents in April and May, including an Injunction for Protection, in which she repeatedly claimed abuse against herself and the children.  She very clearly stated, multiple times, that she feared for the lives of herself and the children.  She also stated that she was too scared (of J) to tell HCSO and DCF the truth about the abuses when they came to investigate (multiple times).  She had a domestic violence hearing in front of Hillsborough County Judge Vogel in which she testified to these abuses.  Her case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

This September, out of the blue, M emailed me that she was back together with J again (I'm sure it is for financial reasons as M refuses to work and can't live the lifestyle she wants just from welfare money), and that he was going to be around her sons AND my daughter again.  She told me that if I don't like it, that's too bad.  I warned her that if she brought him back into my daughter's life that I would have to take legal action - notify DCF, Injunction for Protection & attempt to get FULL custody of my daughter with M having as little part in her life as possible.  We went back and forth arguing via email and I continued to warn her that I would take legal action.  All of this email traffic occurred after 9/3/10.

Today in court, Hillsborough County Judge Vogel refused to consider the many verbal and physical assaults by J against me, in my daughter's presence, dating back to 2005, as legitimate acts of domestic violence against my daughter.  I read to her verbatim from the statute that the state of florida considers domestic violence to include acts against a family member or household member.  She also said my daughter's statements of abuse and intimidation against her, by J, made to me on 9/13/10 were pretty much irrelevant as she (7 years old) was not there to testify.  I've sat in her courtroom for 3 days (including today) and listened to her accept and consider many parents' (mothers) testimony of their children's statements, even after hearsay objections.  Yet for some reason, it wasn't OK for me.  She then refused to allow me to complete my testimony.  She didn't even allow me to establish a timeline for the most current events that led to the injunction.  Judge Vogel called my witness as I objected, pleaded with her to allow me to finish my testimony.

My witness was a hostile witness that I had to subpoena to appear.  My witness was M.  I had subpoenaed her to appear on 10/7/10 and again on 10/20/10.  She avoided HCSO and Mercuryserve for 8 combined attempts to serve her.  I had to get 2 continuances.  Finally, she was served for the hearing today.   That is why I sat in the Hillsborough County courtroom for 3 days.

So, M testifies, in contradiction with her previous allegations made in 3 court documents and in her court appearance against J that J has never abused her nor any of the children.  I read, verbatim, many of the allegations of abuse and she denied all of them.  I asked M if those allegations, documents and previous testimony were made honestly and truthfully because her testimony today was quite contrary.  M then claimed that I coerced her to do all of that by threatening the legal action stated above.  Then J started testifying IN FRONT OF THE WITNESS, during my examination of the witness, about my motivations and that I was making her do things and he offered the emails mentioned above.  M, a witness actively being questioned, then reiterated what J said.  Judge Vogel read the emails, one of them aloud.  During all of this I was trying to object repeatedly for hearsay, speculation, speaking out of turn, testifying in front of the witness, not being afforded reasonable time to review the emails being presented and for both M and J making allegations about me and calling to question my character.  Judge Vogel repeatedly told me to shut up.  Judge Vogel then admonished me for the emails and stated that she was going to accept M's testimony from today because she believed that I coerced M into making the allegations, filing the documents and testifying against J previously.  The emails that supposedly "coerced" M began on 9/3/10.  All of M's previous allegations, court documents and testimony were from APRIL and MAY . . . 4+ months before my emails.  I had no idea about those things at the time they were occurring.  Furthermore, Judge Vogel refused to allow me to sufficiently review the emails that were not previously entered as evidence, stating that I could take as much time to read them as I wanted when I got home!  It was only on the way home that I realized the time disparity and that those emails could have in no way possibly effected M's actions from MONTHS before.  And apparently as a Father having 50% custody of my daughter, I cannot tell M that I will take legal action if she allows my daughter to be around a person that abuses her . . . at least not in Hillsborough County Judge Vogel's courtroom!  

So basically, Judge Vogel refused to allow me to complete my testimony, had different rules for me than for other petitioners, allowed a witness to perjure herself with no repercussion, allowed a defendant to testify in front of the witness and in the middle of the witness' testimony (allowing the witness to testify further afterwards), refused to allow me sufficient time to review newly presented "evidence" and threw out my petition because somehow my emails coerced a key witness' actions 4+ months before they were ever written!  Judge Vogel said she didn't like the "tone" of my emails . . . well, I wasn't on trial here and that should have no bearing on this matter.  I was well within my legal rights to inform M that I would take LEGAL action.  And my "tone" is specific to the relationship between M and I and has nothing to do with what the hearing was about.  M was a WITNESS, not a PARTY.  She also didn't consider the entire string of email traffic between the 2 of us that those emails were part of and the gravity and context of the situation in which they were written.  She may not like my personality or the relationship I have with M, but it is entirely unprofessional to base her judgment on this!  She is supposed to judge whether my daughter is in danger, not what kind of person I am based on a few emails with a person who I feel is endangering my daughter.

I will stop short of making certain charges here, but I will say that I went through hell to just be a part of my daughter's life.  I rarely saw her for the first 2 years of her life because her mother made many (false) allegations against me and the family law judge just accepted them as gospel without a shred of proof.  It took me 2 years to PROVE MY INNOCENCE in Hillsborough County.  Today's fiasco is just more of what I, as a FATHER in "The Great State of Florida", have been dealing with continuously since 2003.  

So, my daughter gets to continue to spend time with J because I had a negative tone while threatening LEGAL action against M for allowing a person she swore, under oath, is a child abuser to come back into my daughter's life and that "threat" of LEGAL action time traveled 4 months into the past and forced M to make allegations very similar to my own and my daughter's!  UNBELIEVABLE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !  

I am a disabled Marine Corps veteran.  It's nice to know that this is the kind of legal system in Hillsborough County Florida I defended and sacrificed for!