Introducing Judge Veronica Mathein

Imagine being in court and knowing that the judge had already ruled against you before a single shred of evidence was produced. That is exactly the set of circumstances I now face. On June 12, 2008 Judge Veronica Mathein issued a ruling against me in the Circuit Court of Cook County Domestic Relations Division. At a glance, it's hardly an earth moving event (except maybe in my life). However, one needs to be aware of a few elements. The first is that that Ms. Mathein has a long standing reputation for possessing a jurisprudence that loosely follows the law, at best, as she bends the law to accommodate her decisions, mostly against fathers, who have few, if any, rights in her courtroom. The second, is that my estranged wife, Rebecca, is the daughter of Playboy General Council and Executive Vice President, Howard Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro has an extraordinary amount of influence in the Chicago political spectrum. He is very well acquainted with Christie Hefner, and her husband, former Illinois state senator William A. Marovitz. When Mr. Shapiro's son, Justin was arrested attempting to board a commercial airline with a loaded (and unregistered) firearm, Mr. Shapiro exerted his influence to get the series of charges reduced to a misdemeanor. I mention this because of the way it has manifested in my situation. Rebecca decided in February that she wanted to divorce me. This was primarily the result of my telling the Shapiros that I was not going to allow them to control how we raised our daughter, Ela. Rebecca and I, like most married couples, certainly weren't problem free, but we had a stable relationship...or so I thought. In March, Rebecca and Mr. Shapiro began meeting with Melissa Grund, a divorce attorney to create their gameplan. Included, was marital counseling to create the appearance that Rebecca was attempting to salvage our marriage. However, while working diligently to save our marriage, she began an affair with Jeffrey Cummings, a civil rights attorney she knew from her law school days. I stumbled upon this information in early April, when Rebecca neglected to log out of her e-mail on our home computer. I certainly do not want to be in a relationship with someone that does not want to be with me, but adults generally have conversations about such matters. Rebecca continued to pretend nothing was wrong. At the same time, Mr. Shapiro began meeting with his influential friends to tilt the court in Rebecca's favor. When I stumbled upon her sexually explicit e-mails with Mr. Cummings, I immediately contacted Rebecca. Rebecca decided to call her parents. The three proceeded to tell me that I was a horrible husband and father, and blame Rebecca's indiscretions on me. This was to become the beginning of the end. Rebecca and I would literally race to the courthouse to file for divorce. There was a bit of tinkering in the judge assignment, by Mr. Shapiro via his friends. Ms. Mathein was handpicked by the Shapiros, perhaps because she has a bias against men, or perhaps because of her relationship to the Shapiros. I don't really know. The result, however, is indisputable. Judge Matthein went so far as to tell me that I was "wasting (my) money hiring attorneys." Needless to say I was shocked by the audacity, I'm still under the impression that I'm entitled, if not encouraged, to retain council. To make the situation more egregious Judge Mathein limited my time with my daughter because under cross-examination I did not speak about my daughter enough. I thought I was supposed to limit my answers to the questions. Finally, she arbitrarily declared me an uncredible witness (clearly for the appellate court)! There was no lie in which I was caught. It was simply arbitrary. To make the situation even more interesting, my ex-wife to be let me know in advance that it was going to happen exactly as it did.