How Did D Town Adopt Kids and Get Charged For Child Support He Didn't Know He Adopted.

Think the justice system always gets it right? Think again.
In this shocking story, one man says he was never in court, never agreed to adopt these children, and yet he’s still being forced to pay child support. Even more unbelievable—he says the judge ignored the facts and let it happen anyway. If this is true, it raises serious questions about what’s happening in Kent County’s 17th Circuit Court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You have to hear this story for yourself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is DK, a family court coach, and you are listening to The Dark Side of Family Court. I got D Town with us today, and he has the same judge that I have, Judge Patricia Gardner. So welcome D Town. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

I'm doing all right. I'm just uh just hanging in there. It's a beautiful day. Hopefully.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Are you still in Michigan?

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Yeah, yeah, I'm still in Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Alright, Kent County uh 17th Circuit Court, Judge Patricia Gardner is who we're talking about today. And uh you had some interesting uh story that happened with her. So you want to go ahead and tell us all about it?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, um uh many years ago, maybe around uh 2003, I believe, um, so I was married to a woman, and um she wanted to get custody of her family members, her mom's brother's children. Um he had a long history of drugs, uh, rights terminated indefinitely, so we couldn't get any of his children. So he's obviously cleaned his act up. Uh, mother was still on drugs when he cleaned his act up, and so he wanted to what I call have a backdoor-cut way of being in his kids' life, because he knew that they weren't gonna give him the kids, so he decided to ask his niece if she could get them. She had all of the qualifications to get the children. So she asked me about it. I'm like, yeah, go ahead, do it, you know. And so um, so she started in the process, and um, there came a point in time where they said, well, in order for her to get the children, she'll need her a husband, or she need to be married to have a husband to participate. So I was a little worried about that part of it. But I said, okay, um, well, I'll participate just enough to keep it going for you, you know. And so I went to a maybe two classes. I think she went to the first four. So I went to the two classes and I backed back out of it. So then, you know, she kind of came to me again like, well, they're just not gonna push this through if you don't, if you're not, if you're not gonna help completely. So, um, so I just thought, you know, I thought about it. I was the adoption worker was coming up to me with me at my uh commission only job. And she I was asking her different questions, like, well, how are the kids gonna be supported, you know? And she said, Well, the adoption agency is gonna take care of the children. Uh, she showed me the contract, they were gonna get like $32 per day for one child, because they were twin boys, and 28 per day for another child. Uh and the pickers up about $1,700 a month. I'm like, oh, okay, you know, I'm young, I'm probably about 22 at this time. And so I'm like, okay, well, they're gonna take care of them, cool. So I read flagged, if you will. I read flaggish slowly proceeded, but not proceeded, just kind of like had cautions up. And so, but I was, again, I didn't want to be involved altogether anyway, so I just was trying to do what was necessary to help her out. So then there came a point in time where I just didn't trust the situation anymore. Uh I think the because the worker was meeting with her a lot, stopped giving me certain pieces of information, and then me and her were also having problems, so I just kind of felt like uh maybe this is not a good idea. Um, I knew I didn't want to be the kids, you know, father anyway, because if we were to adopt, it'd have to be kids that wasn't related to me personally. And she knew that also. And these are family members, and we all live in the same city as the family. So um, so you know, we we were just having problems, having issues, this, that, and the other. And for you know what I said, you know what? I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm just not gonna do this all together. I'm not even gonna proceed any further. So when I said that, her go to it, you gotta get out, because that's what she would do, she would kick me out at that time. Problem was before when she would kick me out, I had to sit up and sit on a court or something, open, she opened the door. She called police for no reason. I could never go to jail because I never did anything wrong, but she would just say, I want him to leave. And that's what she would use in order to try to get me to cooperate. But it didn't work this time. I had somewhere to go and I left and I never came back. So when I left, uh, I was gone. I moved on with my life, and three years later I was here with back child support. So I was trying to figure out how the hell that that happened. Right. Well, yeah, so come to find out, I do remember um before leaving, before backing out, because I also, I'm sorry, I'm leaving something out.

unknown 4:12

I told the worker that I wasn't gonna do it as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Actually, it was the worker that I told before I told her, and that was when it got back to her, she was kicking me out. But before I told the worker I wasn't gonna do it, I played a trick by asking her in a subtle way, well, what did I need to do for this to be finalized? I was asking in such a way so that she could tell me and I could see if I had been too much. But when she told me that I needed a physical and that it was mandatory that I took it, then I knew, okay, this is my way to back out. I just won't take the physical. Well, when I found out years later after being here with child support, how the adoption got finalized, considering I didn't take the physical, well, when they got me the file, which took them years to do, by the way, I found the physical, then I never took in the file. I was like, oh my God, so they put a fake physical in. So that's how they pushed this through. I never went to court. They went to court without me. I wasn't even living there. And the Judge Garner gave her custody of the children as me being a father without me being in court. And I've been playing child support ever since. And when I went to court to see Judge Garner, and uh, and I actually showed Judge Garner this fake physical that they put in the file. I got the hospital records showing I was never there to take that physical and everything. She gave the paper back to me and said, uh, you need to send it to the right address to get her to come to court. So I'm looking, I'm kind of stunned now because I'm looking like, okay, first of all, I wasn't in court either when you gave it with these children. But nevertheless, I went right. So I went back down to the illegal assistance center as she requested. I got the right address on file, and I sent her the right address to come to court. Well, guess what? She didn't come to the next center. She called in and gave some story. So when I went in front of the judge, Judge Barney didn't even see me. She sent me to another judge, like a magistrate. As soon as they called me up, the magistrate's first words was Mr. Humber, Mr. Hunger, when you adopt a child, the child become legally yours, this, that, and the other. And I said, when she got done, I said, I understand, Shauna, but I didn't fully, I didn't adopt these children. I backed out with the adoption. She proceeded by telling me, well, and I told them, I said they committed fraud some type of way to push this through. She told me it doesn't matter what they did to push you through. They got it to go through and you gotta pay until you die. And I've been paying every since.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

So you don't pay when they turn 18. You have to continuously pay for them.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I'm still paying for them right now, and they're like 22, 23. Never made a child in my life.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

That is absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, my life has been ruined. It's been turned upside down. And um, and even right now, because I just lost my job after nine years, uh, child support is already going after my unemployment. I've been seeing the children since they were about five months old. They're 22 now and I'm still paying. I owe her about 25,000 in arreages for some children that she never had.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

That she never had, you never had, and you didn't even adopt them.

unknown 6:53

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Wow. Yeah, so there's a lot of, I know we've talked and I've talked to you about my case and the shady stuff that happened in my case, but there's a lot of shady stuff that is going on in Kent County, and nobody will talk about it. My name is a whisper throughout the town. Everybody seems to know who I am, but nobody can seem to do anything. And it's kind of interesting. And now we have the mayor, David Legrand. Um, he's very aware of Judge Gardner. We had conversations about her years ago. I actually helped David Legrand on his uh first campaign um running for center against Bill Hardaman, and he didn't win that, and then I moved on, and he I think he lost a couple more races, and then he started winning. Now he's the mayor of Grand Rapids. Um, I have my longest known friend had him in her case with her daughter. He was the guardian lightum. He wouldn't even talk with her. Um, I've recently met somebody else who had him um in the case and said that he was absolutely horrible. David Legrand is a criminal defense attorney. And then Rosalind Bliss, who was the attorney or the um mayor before that, has a um a legal degree as well. So how they don't know this stuff is happening. And Rosalind Bliss, I've been to, she used to put on these um uh like events you could go for kids, and and before my ex got custody, I used to go to them. She knows who I am, but none of them have bothered to go in and look at my case to see what's going on and go to Judge Gardner and be like, what is going on? Um, I ended up discovering that the Guardian Man light of in my case. Um, her husband is the vice president of a bank across the street from the courthouse, and my ex-bouse's divorced attorney's law law firm at that time was in the um the bank's building, and they all just met in the back and gave him custody. That's what happened. So, custody is being sold in Grand Ripets, Kent County. I've been talking about this since 2013, and nobody's done anything. It's a whisper throughout the town. My name just whispers everywhere, and nobody does nothing.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yep, and then the people that can't afford a lawyer, like like me, they're wondering what all these years you can't afford a lawyer. Well, when you live in check to check, you know, if they backday these things, first of all, the the the my wife at the time, she made up a job that I worked. She knew exactly where I worked, she knew I worked before a mortgage company. If you're married and you're my wife, of course, you know I'm working, right? Right. She made up a job that I never worked before in my life. And she made up an amount that I make per hour, which is clearly a lie, and then they started me out paying $800 a month with this false information, and they round it back up to $28,000 from the very beginning. So I started out on $28,000 based on a job that I never worked at a day in my life. Like she completely lied, and they just allow her to, and I just don't understand why these people are are giving this power, or Judge Garner is allowing this to happen. And every time I would go in her courtroom, the few times I did go in front of her, the first thing she looks for is a warrant to see if I got a warrant from IRS. So, and then I I also went to Cooley Law School because I couldn't afford a lawyer, and guess what? They they denied helping me. Well, years later I found out Judge Garner is on the board at Coley Law School. So it's like a monopoly.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Hold on, hold on. She's not on the board, she has donated so many, so much money, she is a lifetime member because I also went there to get help. And they said my case was too complicated, that they didn't have enough resources, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

They told me that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

But so the thing is, is that you can't have a judge, and and then I had Judge Zemidas, who was an adjunct professor there as well. But you can't have a judge that's teaching um these law students who are coming up, and then have them come and help you. Now, the the access to justice program that you went to to get information, years prior, I wrote them actually a letter and why they didn't have an access to justice program for what was going on in the family court system with kids because they had a program for um prisoners who have been in jail. So I'm the one who actually suggested that they start the access to justice program. And then when I go to the program for help, they tell me they can't help me because Judge Gardner is a lifetime member, she's donated so much money to them. Yeah, Judge Zabitus was an adjunct professor, and so he was teaching there. When I brought this up, and uh I got a demonstration while we demonstrated in front of Kuli Law on their open house day, uh they were all freaking out. Um Judge uh Zabitus ended up quit being an adjunct professor, he's probably back being an adjunct professor, I don't know, but he probably is. Um, but this is the stuff that goes on in Grand Rapids. And when the whole Epstein thing came out, I started looking, and Epstein actually had a camp for I think it was girls, um, up north, I want to say, like in Traverse City, it was up north. And sometimes him and that Galene or whatever her name is would stay there. So it makes me wonder if all these judges are into part of the Epstein stuff, and I've been waiting for it to come out. I I mean I don't know. I haven't looked and researched all this, but I wonder if I looked and put in Judge Gardner's name if it would pop up.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

I wouldn't be surprised.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

I would not either.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

I I wouldn't be surprised, I'm not even gonna lie, you know, and I just don't understand.

unknown 11:58

You know, when I look at child support, it's it's it's almost like HIV.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

You know, can you imagine going to court for an order to show cause hearing and everybody in the room is their kids except you, and you're being treated the more the harshest, the more harshest, harshest, if I if you will.

unknown 12:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

You know, I'm sitting in there and and everybody in the room are looking at me like, oh my god, these aren't even your kids. Everybody I tell my story to can't believe it. And the fact that the kids being related to her, they're her biological cousins. Like, I don't understand why no one looks into this. They they really destroys my dreams, man, because um I I was trying to, I was into rapping and things like that. And I knew when I came off on tour, uh, I had like a $10,000 bench went out for my arrest. They forced me to go to child support classes five days a week for these kids. They would give me two bus tickets, one to get there, one in three, one to get there, one to get to a job, and one to get home. If I didn't go and comply, I'm going to jail. So that that's what my life has to be. Either pay child support or go to jail. The real dad, on the other hand, is living really good. He's running his own business, he's doing way better than me.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

And so it's it's heartbreaking when you see this kind of thing to know that I haven't seen these kids in a thousand years. The kids don't even know me.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

And and all they do is get my money that she spends with her new relationships. And of course, she was spending married after me and all of these things, and she's just doing way better. And I just feel like it's just such an injustice. It just really truly is.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

It is. And that program, I was actually in that program. I want to say at the time I was the only female. And I just finished getting my degree if you have a bachelor's degree in human services, and they had a position that was open, and they wouldn't hire me for it. Okay. So I was in there, you had to spend so many hours, and I would get my stuff all done that you had to do, and then I was helping out the dad, you know, doing stuff, and they would come to me and they say, Hey, do you know about this, about this job and this job? And I was like, Yeah, do you know about this job, this job, and this job? Um, at the time, there was a position open at the front of the court. I've got the degree, I can do the job. They would not hire me. Um, I went to another um position that was opened, I can't remember, oh, I think it was with the county. They went hire me. There was another position I applied for, and they ended up going with the other girl, and the other girl was a hairdresser and didn't even have a degree. I ended up getting a job at Pine Rest. I worked there maybe like six months, and then all of a sudden I get hauled into the office with some crazy stuff. Like somebody, I guess a new person said that I was barroom dancing in the gym with the girls with my thong hanging up. Well, first of all, I don't wear thongs, I hate thongs, and second of all, I had hip issues at that time, I couldn't be bar room dancing. So I mentioned that to her, and she says, Oh, do you think she's lying? I said, Did you pull up the cameras? And I said, You know what? I'm I'm just I'm done. Well, then I ended up finding out Judge Gardner sat on the board of a program at Pine Rest. So, you know, she and and I I kept getting I have jobs and I get fired for the craziest things, and I moved out of Michigan, and all of a sudden I wasn't getting fired anymore.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Jeff, I think she's Jesus of the judicial system in Michigan for some odd reason.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Right, right. Well, and now she's at probate court, she's the head of the probate court, and I keep trying to tell people if you look at my TikTok, I have a book that I got on writing your own living will. Because what people don't understand, first of all, if something happens and you become incapacitated, right, the court's gonna come in and they're gonna sign a guardian man light on two. It's gonna be from the probate court, it's gonna be Judge Gardner. If you don't have a living trust saying if you become capacitated, who you want to be your guardian. If you pass away and you're in Kent County, you gotta go in front of Judge Gardner. That's who you go in front of now, and they will suck every ounce of money, asset, and whatever you have if you don't have your um belongings in a will and a trust. They will take it. I mean, if they will reap and harvest off from us with our kids, they will have no problem taking all the money in probate court. And Judge Gardner is heading it up.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

That's horrible.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

It is.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Who's over her? Is there anybody over her?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Well, there is. Most people don't know who this is. You and I will have a private conversation about that because it's a dangerous place to go. And I don't just tell anybody to go there because you have to be prepared, um, because they will try and take you out. So, yeah, so I will talk with you about that off off air. Um, if you want to go there, you can, but enter at your own risk and just know the dangers of it. So, yes, and then um, you know, she um when uh so I'm talking to a mom actually, she was the first person in Michigan who um got a felony for back child support. Okay, so I was talking to her and she's like, you know, she's like, I have this felony, but she's like, they never brought me to court and never had a day in court, nothing. So she happened to get curious and she called down there, and the lady says, Um, you know, she doesn't owe child support or anything anymore, and she called down there and the lady says, Well, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but she's like, Do you know you have um um a felony? And she's like, Yeah, I know. What does she have a felony for? She doesn't owe any bat child support, everything's been paid, but she still has a felony on there, but she's never gone to court and never had her day in court to go to trial or any of that. They just said, Oh, we're giving you a felony. Here you go, you got one. This is the stuff that goes on in Garner Ethics, and people need to be aware of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

It is absolutely ridiculous. It's crazy. It really is, and it's just like it's almost like a it's it's like a darkness that no one wants to shed light on.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Right, it's a whisper. It's a everything whispers about everybody whispers. So I used to go to Schuler's books on 28th Street and Breton, I believe it is. They had a fireplace there. I like the fireplace. I'd go and I'd sit there with my laptop and I'd be doing stuff. And I actually met some really cool people there. Um, I met one lady and her husband worked in the court system. I can't remember what it was um he did. Um, but yeah, they're like afraid of her. She um another lady had gone to like a party, she had worked, I can't remember what she did. She worked in the courthouse, she had gone to a party, Judge Gardner was there. People won't even smoke around her. That's how afraid they are of her. They're like, oh god, I can't smoke like Judge Gardner's here, right? And then the minute she left, everybody let up cigarettes. It was kind of crazy. They're scared of her. Oh wow. Um, another time I met a lady, she came in, I was telling her about Judge Gardner. She's like, no, not Judge Gardner, because Judge Gardner used to be for kids and all about kids. She's like, Oh no, not Judge Gardner. I'm like, yeah, Judge Gardner, right? A couple weeks later, she was in front of Judge Gardner, could not believe how she ruled, and came back to me and said, You were right. I was in court with Judge Gardner. She's like, I couldn't believe the way she was ruling against this child. I was like, I've been trying to tell you. So, yeah, this is some of the experience that I've had. I've met so many, I stopped over, I think it was a hundred women at that time, a hundred moms who didn't have custody of their kids. Um, because I just couldn't keep track of them all, count of them all and everything at that time. Um, at one point in time, she threatened to put a personal protection order against me, and I went on social media and I said, Oh, that's okay, because I'm gonna fight it. I'm gonna invite the over 100 moms that I know to come on, and I said, if you want to come in that courtroom with a hundred moms that you have screwed over and given custody to their abusive ex, you go right ahead and come, baby. And guess what? My personal protection order disappeared. I was calling the personal protection order. I um volunteered for Dart Domestic Assault Response Resistance Domestic Assault Response System. And um I went, I called them up, they didn't have anything. I called the PPO office, they didn't have nothing, it just disappeared. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

It's that's crazy. I guess uh if you if you fight hard enough, you can make things disappear. But if you lay down, they'll stump right on you.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Right, right. Well, they'll take you out.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

They'll take you out.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

They'll take you out.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

So if so if she's the head of the probate court, then she's no longer the same judge uh in that particular case, then that that so if I went to uh let's just say I'll order not an order to show cause, let's say I'll schedule a um a hearing. Is that still the same judge?

SPEAKER_00 20:31

It could be. So she took herself off my case saying that I was harassing her. You can't harass a judge, they're an elected official, they work for you. Um, so I had gotten this bill. I don't know what this bill was for, right? So I wrote, like, I'm not paying this bill, and then they ordered me to come into court, and it was Judge Gardner who signed the order. So I want to respond to the order, but I don't know who who does it go to. Is it go to judges minus my current judge? Does it go to Judge Gardner who ordered me in here? Is there a different you know, judge for this issue that's happening? So I go in with a friend and I said, Look, I filed this motion, I don't know who to file it to, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She looks at my friend and she says, I think you should help her write a motion. I've got a motion. I've represented myself for six 15 years, 17 years. I have a motion sitting on the table, and you're looking at my friend telling her to help me write a motion. I got up and I went into the courtroom. I don't know who the judge was, and I was like, I need to talk to somebody else because these people don't know what they're doing. She's like, Well, this is the people who like head up the friend of the court. They're like, do not leave because I will put out a warrant for your arrest. I'm like, okay, fine. So I go back in there. I'm like, I need a public defender. You people have no clue what you're doing. Well, the public defender had left, so then I had to go back. And then when I went back, that's when they said Judge Gardner was going to put a personal protection order against me. Um, it's it's all just a shit show. None of them know what they're doing, and they're just doing whatever they can to take your money, take your kids. And don't think what happened with the whole Epstein stuff is not happening. Happening in Michigan, because I'm pretty sure it is.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Right, everything started from before. You know, just when you find out about it, it doesn't mean it just started happening. Because there's a reason why they started doing it themselves. That means they got it from someone else.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

So or somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

And then um, what was it? The I want to say the governor during COVID, wasn't it? Whitmere, like they opened up that area of the COVID thing because they wanted to go up there and they wanted to um, I think it was like Labor Day Memorial Day or something, and they wanted to go up there, be on their boat, and be at their cottage or whatever. Um, so those people have cottages and stuff up there. I'm not sure exactly where the Epstein Island of Michigan is at, but it's up north somewhere. It's a campground for girls. Makes you wonder if anybody wants to dig into that, let me know. We can have them on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

That's that's horrible.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So I will I'm gonna send you the link to this, and if you want to share it to everybody in Michigan, if you can do that, and I'll share it, and we'll try and get it out to as many people as we possibly can and uh stir up some town there, some uh some things up there in Grand Rapids.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yep, I just want to see justice come to Grand Rapids. Um, you know, if if a person becomes so high that no one can see them, then that that that's just a major problem with within the city. You know, someone has to always oversee the overseer. You know, if if we don't have no one who could come and oversee people that are in the highest position, then we don't stand a chance against the things that they can do. And and that's in in every type of ruling we talk about, you know, people have monopolies here, and and people like us don't even have pieces to play the game.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Right, right. Well, I've been to everybody, the FBI, the state police, all the politicians, everybody I could think of, and nobody would help me in my case, nobody would investigate, nobody would do anything. So nobody's going to do anything, we're gonna have to do it ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Well, I'm with you, and let's and there's many, many people, even more than you and I, that I've gone through similar, if not uh uh more horrific uh circumstances, more dangerous circumstances, more harsh circumstances, and I don't know that they know that they can do something about it because when things have been going on so long, you get to thinking, well, who can help me or who would help me, especially if doors have been closed in your face. Um, you know, people have exhausted money, have exhausted time, have exhausted options, thinking that this is the door that's finally gonna be the breakthrough, and there's nothing. You know, so so who's really gonna help us is the question. Who's really, really gonna have the courage to step up and help us? And I'm waiting on that answer.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Right. We're gonna have to do that ourselves, but we gotta go. Our time is up. Thank you for coming on the dark side of family court. And um we hopeful uh uh hope that your case will get better soon. And um thank you for coming on, and we'll talk with you shortly.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Thank you very much. You're welcome to Jump Cadet.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

You as well.