But according to Insight, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti halted an investigation of the judges association and ordered an investigator to shred documents he had collected. Garcetti has himself become the subject of a related lawsuit. According to Insight, Garcetti operates two private corporations from his government offices, and collects child support which he then withholds from the intended recipients:
…currently 14,000 families are owed nearly $25 million that Garcetti has collected but refused to pay.
With information generated by Insight’s investigation into the family-court system, a lawsuit was filed by taxpayers’ advocate Fine on Feb. 19 on behalf of John R. Silva of Sylmar, Calif., an aggrieved parent.The Silva lawsuit seeks to require Garcetti immediately to distribute the millions in child-support payments he has been holding. Bryer is hopeful that the lawsuit will provide an opening for investigation of the whole child-custody system. “The mishandling of the child-support payments,” says Bryer, “is just one more outgrowth of a broken system that begins with the family court. It’s time for the unholy financial relationship between the judges and other court professionals to end, and the lawsuit filed against Garcetti is as good a place as any to start.”