State Commission on Judicial Conduct
61 Broadway
12th Floor
NY, NY 10006
646-386-4800
To Whom it may concern:
In reference to Docket# V-1465-09, V-14966-09, V-14967-09, V-14968-9
V-12529-09, V12530-09, V12531-09, V12532-09, V-12533-09 in Kings County Family Court, part 14, among others, I want to file an official complaint against Judge Sarah :. Krauss and her court lawyer.
Background: Ellen Safir and Ruben Safir (who is the letter writer) has raised 6 children in the Orthodox Jewish faith and community for over 20 years in a very difficult marriage. Around December of 2008, Mrs Ellen Safir or before had met on a camping trip a Robert Bates, or Cayuta, NY, and then made plans to take the children out of their Jewish community, and proceeded to steal documents, papers and money from the house in order to execute her plan to live with her new boyfriend. On April 17th, the day after Passover, Mrs Safir disappeared with the children, Itka Shira Safir, and Schmuel-Lieb Eleazar Safir too undisclosed location. The father searched everywhere for the children and couldn't find them. Finally, after two weeks of filing reports with the 70th present, I went on my first day off of work, May 12th, 2009 to the Family Court, and my case was put in front of part 14, Judge Sarah L. Krauss. She lectured me that I should have went to her earlier, and issued a Habeous Corpus for the children, Orders of Protection, and temporary custody. However, Mrs. Safir was still missing. After nearly 2 months, Mrs. Safir was located in the finger lake region, and was served with papers. She refused to obey the custody orders or the writ. New York State Troopers were finally involved and Mrs Safir finally apeared in court, under threat of being arrested, and apeared before the Judge suddenly and without notice on May 13th, 2009.
The father received a phone call from the court at the Pharmacy that day and they notified me that the children where at the courthouse and that I should come to pick them up. I told them that I can't legally just abandon the pharmacy, as a matter of law, plus I'd lose my job. The court rewarded Mrs. Safir by allowing her to return to the woods with the children.
Greivence of Judicial Misconduct:
Since apearing before Judge Krauss, the court has continued to behave in an abusive manner, and make purposely arbitrary decisions in violation of statutary law, and against the best interest of the child and family. But most importantly, she and her court lawyer has behaved in an abusive manner both on the bench on conference and within the hallways of the courthouse.
Judge Krauss has gone on record as to saying, that even under these conditions where the mother has disappeared, refused to abide by court orders, the she doesn't care that the children have been raised in the Jewish faith and you “Just have to get used to the fact that your wife has moved on”. She proceeded with court proceedings with my laywer in attendence because of a family emergency. She has refused to take the children's history of being raised in Yeshiva's, and in Brooklyn, and allowed the mother to take 2 of the children back to Chuemung County, 300 miles from their home and schools, to live with the mothers boyfriend, and then allowed one child to remain in Brooklyn. Then she shouted, despite the obvious conditions needing addressed, “that the party's better start to figure out what to do otherwise the Women in the black robe who doesn't know and doesn't care about your children, is going to make all the decisions.”
It is inappropriate for the Judge to complain to the father that she doesn't want to interviene in the situation. The mother spent nearly 2 months hiding with the children, enrolling them into public schools, and working them over emotionally prior to the first court date in June and loudly and Judge Krauss loudly and abusively protested that she might have to get involved.
And this has been a running theme in the courtroom and outside of the courtroom by the Judge and her staff. They insist that they are going to punish paintiffs for apealing to the Court for cases that which the Courts existence is designed for. The Court Lawyer has made multiple announcements that the court doesn't have time to listen to cases so that all the cases are going to be judged the same, with the current custody maintained and alternating weekends to be used for visitation. She has refused to hear evidence, including over 900 phone calls in a 2 month period after the case began between the child in Brooklyn and the Mother where the mother directly interference with custodialship of the father. She has refused to account for the childrens 20 year background in a Yeshiva system, and has said she is not going to consider it. She has refused to take letters from the schools in the city. She has allowed the mother to directly and multiple times to directly contact the law guadians to get them to work for her cause. She has ignored the multiple violations by the mother to court orders, including the initial orders of protection against interfering in the fathers custody, which she was in blatant violation of when she refused to give custody to the father after being served. And after the fourth court apearence, she finally allowed for a trial and then punished us by levying the cost on the parents, who haven't had enough money to pay rent, let alone pay $6000 for the foresics expert, leaving me to either defend my children or pay rent for the children still left behind. She has responded to visitation violation by making visitation easier on the mother with less frequent visitation, in a situation where the fathers contact with the children otherwise has been reduced to nothing. She has ignored multiple police reports relating to the mothers violations.
Mrs. Krauss's court lawyer was overtly abuse of the father in private. After filing a violation, the Court Attorney told Mr. Safir that he should be aware that we are going to be in his court's jurisdiction for the next 5 years, and that he should remmeber that, and then said, “Are you going to leave now or should I call the Court Officers.” Upon which Mr. Safir replied, “If you just told me that we're done and to leave, I'd just leave, rather than making abusive threats, I'd just leave.” It was clear that the court attorney was trying to intemidate me from making use of needed judicial resources.
What do these people think? That fathers with children and lives enjoy spending hours of their time hanging out in the emotional basket case that the Kings County Family Court is? Or that a father can be intimindated from persueing the custody of his children when they have been so dramatically removed from him and their upbringing?
Judge Krauss has mishandled this case from the start ignoring the three major and overiding factors that make this case different from the vast majority of cases she sees.
A) The children were taken from a stable family situation in a Yeshiva enviroment in order to live with a non-Jewish man in an adulterous affair.
B) The mother has been given a 3 month head start at indoctrinating the children with her hatefulness and anger at the father, resulting in a complete 180 degree change in the relationship between the children and their father.
The mother has moved the chldren, not only in a culturally alien enviroment, but also over 300 miles west to the poorest county in New York State, effectively cutting the children off of contact with any aspect of their roots, or their father.
The mother openly interferes with all aspects of the father child relationships, often in violation of court orders.
Every attempt was made to contact the court when the mother arrived with the children under threat of arrest, including faxes to the court, but communication from the Pharmacy was cut off rudely.
Her abusive response to any attempt to bring these issues into the discussion in courtroom and in conferences is Judicial Misconduct. It is impossible to get a fair hearing from this Judge who spends more time blustering, bullying and yelling at plaintiffs then she does Judging the cases.
Ruben Safir
1163 East 15th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11230