Judge declines to rule on Ashleigh's dad's castration offer, says he must endure additional pornographic penile testing if he's ever again to see daughter snatched from him in 1998

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (June 21, 2002) -- A judge ruled today that the crusading father of 7-year-old Ashleigh Danielle Abbott will have to endure additional inadmissible psychosexual testing before he is permitted to see his daughter again.

The father, against whom no specific allegations nor charges have ever been lodged, nonetheless offered during today's 1 1/4-hour hearing to undergo castration if it meant that he could again see the daughter he had raised singlehandedly since infancy, until she was seized in April 1998 by Kathleen Kearney, then a Broward judge and now embattled Florida DCF secretary.

However, Broward County Circuit Judge Marcia Beach declined to rule on the castration offer, instead insisting that Paul Scott Abbott, 45, of Miramar, could not see his child until he undergoes yet another psychosexual evaluation. After the hearing, the attorney ad litem, representing Ashleigh, told the father that castration would be simpler than what the state is demanding.

Abbott has not seen his daughter since March 2001, shortly after a meeting with Gov. Jeb Bush, who has stood behind Kearney in her vendetta against the crusading Abbott.

On June 19, an appeals court denied Abbott's petition for a writ of certiorari to block his having to again have his genitals wired while he is forced to view pornography.

State officials have used the demands for such testing as a means to bar Abbott from seeing his daughter for the past 15 months, even though he has never had the right of an evidentiary hearing on parental rights termination.

The one-sentence ruling, issued without explanation by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach supports that, according to the original petition, Florida courts have "the authority to order a party who faces no criminal charges nor specific civil allegations to submit to highly intrusive, unwarranted, humiliating and potentially harmful expensive out-of-state examinations and procedures that are not admissible in this state and/or nondispository in the instant case and violate civil and constitutional rights of said party, under threat of continued denial of parent-child contact." The ruling also specifically upholds that parties may be ordered in such civil proceedings to undergo a penile plethysmograph.

The father filed Friday a petition for appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Abbott, a seminary graduate and journalist, passed a voluntary Florida psychosexual evaluation two years ago, but the state demanded the second testing, sending Abbott at his expense to Memphis in April. However, part way through the procedure, the doctor stopped, citing fears he and the medical center might be sued. Mental health professional testimony has since informed the court that subjecting the father to such procedures again could cause irreparable harm.

Meanwhile, Ashleigh was moved in in January with her mentally ill, child abuser mother. At today's hearing, Beach approved of the mother -- a Canadian citizen with a history of flight risk in connection with her felony child abuse of a first child from a previous marriage -- taking Ashleigh to Alaska in August.

The judge declined to act today on continued attempts by the state and the mother's attorney to shut down a third party's website -- www.extralove.com -- that contains information about Ashleigh's case.

In April 1998, Kearney, then a Broward dependency judge, ordered Ashleigh, then 3, seized from her father, six weeks after Ashleigh, then 2, was hit by her mother on a court-ordered supervised visit. Kearney sent the tot indefinitely to a group emergency shelter where, according to media reports, she was sexually molested. As the father has crusaded for his child's return and on behalf of other equally innocent victims, the state's campaign against him has expanded to include unfounded incestuous pedophilia allegations. No specific allegations have ever been made, nor have any charges ever been brought.

When Abbott denounced Kearney while speaking June 3 to a Florida HouseDCF Oversight Committee in Orlando, he was assaulted by an Orange County sheriff's deputy and is now recovering from shoulder injuries. Two days later, on June 5, a Broward judge added insult to injury by ordering Abbott to pay the state $3,256 for its care of Ashleigh, with enforcement abated pending disposition of the father's appeal that day to the Florida Supreme Court of earlier rulings related to his daughter's seizing.

The next dependency court hearing has tentatively been set for Friday, Aug. 16, at 2 p.m. in Room 6840 in the North Wing of the Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. (Observers are always most appreciated.)

CONTACT: Paul Scott Abbott (home 954-962-2503, cellular 305-469-5276).
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The Ashleigh Danielle Abbott case returned in front of Broward Circuit Judge Marcia Beach on Friday, June 21, at 2 p.m., two days following an appeals court denial of the 7-year-old girl's father's petition for a writ of certiorari to block his having to again have his genitals wired while he is forced to view pornography.

The one-sentence ruling, issued without explanation June 19 by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach supports that, according to the original petition, Florida courts have "the authority to order a party who faces no criminal charges nor specific civil allegations to submit to highly intrusve, unwarranted, humiliating and potentially harmful expensive out-of-state examinations and procedures that are not admissible in this state and/or nondispository in the instant case and violate civil and constitutional rights of said party, under threat of continued denial of parent-child contact." The ruling also specifically upholds that parties may be ordered to undergo a penile plethysmograph in such civil proceedings.

The father, Paul Scott Abbott, is expected to file Friday a petition for appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

State officials have used the demands for such testing as a means to bar Abbott from seeing his daughter for the past 15 months, even though he has never had the right of an evidentiary hearing on parental rights termination.

Abbott, a seminary graduate and journalist, passed a voluntary Florida psychosexual evaluation two years ago, but the state demanded the second testing, sending Abbott at his expense to Memphis in April. However, part way through the procedure, the doctor stopped, citing fears he and the medical center might be sued.

DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney, then a Broward dependency judge, ordered Ashleigh, then 3, seized from her father in April 1998, six weeks after Ashleigh, then 2, was hit by her mother on a court-ordered supervised visit. Kearney sent the tot indefinitely to a group emergency shelter where, according to media reports, she was sexually molested. As the father has crusaded for his child's return, the state's campaign against him has expanded to include unfounded incestuous pedophilia allegations.

When Abbott denounced Kearney while speaking June 3 to a Florida House DCF Oversight Committee in Orlando, he was assaulted by an Orange County sheriff's deputy and is now recovering from shoulder injuries. Two days later, on June 5, a Broward judge added insult to injury by ordering Abbott to pay the state $3,256 for its care of Ashleigh, with enforcement abated pending disposition of the father's appeal that day to the Florida Supreme Court of earlier rulings related to his daughter's seizing.

Meanwhile, Ashleigh was moved in in January with her mentally ill, child abuser mother, and the father is seeking hearing Friday of matters related to the apparent intent of the mother, a Canadian citizen, to take off to Alaska with Ashleigh in August.

The Friday hearing also is expected to include further attempts by the state to shut down a third party's website -- www.extralove.com -- that contains information about Ashleigh's case.

The Friday hearing is to be held at 2 p.m. in Room 6840 in the North Wing of the Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. (Observers are always most appreciated.) ###

Hearing. June 2002 Ashleigh Hearings

In February, Judge Vitale quashed subpoenas of Gov. Bush, Kate Kearney et al in this case. The state contends the father owes them 10s of 1,000s of dollars for their taking care of his daughter for four years after they illegally seized her and placed her for most of that time in a group emergency shelter in which she was sexually molested.

On Monday, June 17, the day after Abbott's 5th Fathers' Day since Ashleigh's abduction, all is set for a 30-minute hearing in Karen Gievers' civil suit on Ashleigh's behalf, at 11 a.m., before Judge Miette Korda Burnstein, Room 1030, Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. The state is trying to get the suit dismissed on claims that the father no longer has the right to proceed since they moved Ashleigh in with her mentally ill felonious child-abuser mother in January 2002.

A dependency court hearing is set for Friday, June 21, at 2 p.m., before Judge Marcia Beach, Room 6840 (north wing), Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. Several key issues are pending, including (we pray) restoration of father-daughter contact. Also to be addressed is that the state again is seeking to shut down a third party's web site -- www.extralove.com -- that contains information on Ashleigh's case and asking that the father be jailed for alleged contempt in connection with the web site.

You may reach Ashleigh's father, Paul Scott Abbott, at any time at 305-469-5276.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (June 5, 2002) -- A Broward County judge ruling today that Paul Scott Abbott must pay the state thousands of dollars for "housing" his young daughter for years in an emergency shelter in which she was molested sends a chilling message to Florida parents.

"It means the state can improperly seize anyone's child at any time and force a parent to pay the state for bringing up the child in a hazardous environment," said Abbott, 45, of Miramar.

Broward Circuit Judge Linda Vitale refused to hear argument about the
circumstances under which Ashleigh Danielle Abbott, then 3, was taken from her father's care in April 1998, terming the matter before her "simply a collection case." She ordered the father liable to pay the Florida Department of Revenue $3,256, with enforcement abated pending disposition of the father's appeal today to the Florida Supreme Court of rulings related to his daughter's seizing.

The father appeared before Vitale for the 30-minute hearing in a sling and neck brace, due to his injury two days earlier at the hands of an Orange County sheriff's deputy who assaulted him Monday as he testified in Orlando before the House Select Committee on Oversight of the Florida Department of Children & Families about the misdeeds of DCF Secretary Kate Kearney, who as a Broward judge had initially seized Ashleigh.

Abbott left two pennies on the courtroom table, telling a newspaper reporter, "I left them my 2 cents because they may not want it but that's what they're getting out of me."

With several fathers' rights activists in the courtroom, the Florida Attorney General's Office, pursuing the child support action, backed down on earlier demands for more than $30,000 and did not mention earlier threats of jailing the father and seizing his property.

In another development today, a dependency court compulsory counterclaim against Gov. Jeb Bush, Kearney and others that had been stamped in as filed April 22, 2002, by the Broward County Clerk of Circuit Court Juvenile Division apparently was "lost" by the clerk's office. In a move that staved off default judgments in the father's favor, the clerk's office restamped-in the counterclaim with today's date after consulting with Broward Circuit Judge Marcia Beach, who is the 18th judge on the case.

Abbott is next scheduled to be before Judge Beach on Friday, June 21, at
2 p.m., Room 6840 (north wing), Broward County Courthouse, 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. Abbott may be reached any time at 305-469-5276 ###

The Ashcroft Tit

Florida's inept Department of Children and Families (DCF) is headed by Secretary Kathleen Kearney, who was appointed by our Republican Governor, Jeb Bush. Rather than listen to reason, the Bush administration decided to defend the hiring of Kearney. It is also known that Jeb Bush’s wife, and the GOP Chair whose law firm was hired to defend DCFare cousins.