Mother Fights For Child Custody, now on 3rd year.

[The Last Legionary]

What a ****ed up abuse of power and example of the screwed up nature of our courts.

SubGenius Cult Mother Fights For Child Custody


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. 1-216-320-9528
Fax: (216) 320-9528
[email protected]

March 19, 2007: A Georgia mother has acquired over $70,000 in legal costs in her ongoing struggle to regain custody of her son, after the child was taken away from her based on her religious beliefs.

Rachel Bevilacqua is a high-ranking member of the Church of the SubGenius, known far and wide as a "parody religion" that engages in satire, performance art, and comedy in a manner widely seen as a spoof of dangerous religious cults. In December of 2005, she became involved in a legal dispute regarding custody of her ten-year-old son, though she and the father of the boy had never been married. Rachel had raised her son with her husband, Steve Bevilacqua, and exercised custody from birth, with the father of the child retaining visitation rights. As with many separated couples, this agreement had been followed by each parent, until the father took steps to request sole custody of the child in December of 2005.

Domestic custody battles take place daily in the court system, but this case took a turn into strange territory on February 3, 2006, when Rachel Bevilacqua's chosen religion was introduced in the court room. Her son's father introduced photos of her performing at the annual SubGenius "X-Day" festival, including participation in an unquestionably adult-oriented parody of Mel Gibson's blockbuster movie The Passion of the Christ. In the SubGenius parody, Jesus Christ is dressed in clown makeup and carrying a cross fashioned in the shape of a dollar sign, while dozens of members of the Church of the SubGenius beat him with sexual toys and objects. This performance was enough to outrage Judge James Punch (Orleans, NY), who subsequently removed custody of Bevilacqua's son and ordered sole custody to be granted to the father.

Rachel's case soon reached the Internet, where it became a rallying cry for advocates in favor of free expression and free speech. Such popular online sites as Boing Boing and Fark spread the word far and wide, casting Bevilacqua as a victim of a legal system that apparently failed to recognize the right to engage in parody, and of a judge who, as quoted in a famous SubGenius slogan, "couldn't take a joke."

Rachel's son has never attended any SubGenius events, which are often adults-only and frequently encourage participants to engage in activities considered offensive and blasphemous to many religious beliefs.

The boy's father, Jeff Jary, was represented pro-bono by a personal friend. The ongoing court case saw numerous delaying tactics by Jary's lawyer, which resulted in the case being extended for the remainder of 2006, and over $70,000 in legal costs to Rachel Bevilacqua.

Following the word of this case being spread on the Internet, Judge Punch recused himself without comment. The case was re-assigned to Judge Eric R. Adams of Batavia, New York. In December of 2006, after months of delays, Judge Adams awarded custody of the child to Rachel Bevilacqua. However, Jeff Jary's lawyer filed an emergency stay order, requiring the case to go to an appellate court. The case is expected to continue in June of 2007.

Rachel Bevilacqua's associates have begun a Web-based fundraiser to allow interested persons to donate to her legal fund. Since the site's foundation on March 10, 2007, over $3,400 has been raised for her legal costs. However, there is a long way to go, and additional donations are being sought.

For further information:
Fund-raiser for Rachel Bevilacqua's legal fund:

www.pledgie.com/campaign/show/90Court transcript of February 3, 2006 custody hearing:

www.box.net/shared/eruimij43vCourt transcript of January 5, 2007 judicial decision:

www.box.net/shared/eruimij43vSummary of the court case:

www.modemac.com/wiki/Reverend_MagdalenBoing Boing:

www.boingboing.net/2007/03/11/reverend_magdalen_st.htmlFark:

forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1969895Church of the SubGenius Web site:

www.subgenius.com

 

[The Last Legionary]

I found the story at http://www.modemac.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Reverend_Magdalen.

Current situation:

December 29, 2008: Case Dismissed…not
Magdalen has put out an end-of-the-year plea for donations. The good news is that the legal debt to the law firm that defended her until 2008 has been reduced to $24,000. More important, she writes:


"After several weeks, Judge Punch dismissed the case! I was so excited I didn’t know what to do, but then my lawyer informed me that it’s possible to appeal even the dismissal of a case. Jeff has until January 15 to submit an appeal, so I am counting down the days to find out whether the case is finally dismissed beyond all recall from the County of Orleans."

• Reverend Magdalen email December 29, 2008

However, once again this has proven to be a false hope. The story continues with this update from Magdalen on January 22, 2009:


"Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I haven't had the internet for a while. With a few days to spare, Jeff did in fact appeal. Now it will be probably a year or more before things will be finished, as Jeff will have several months to put together his appeal, and then several more months before the court will be able to hear it. It will be going before the same Appellate Division court that voted unanimously to give custody back to Jeff, so that's pretty scary, but at this time they will only have the power to decide on the jurisdiction of the case, not custody itself."I'm going to need another retainer for Mr. Goewey, as the appellate case is considered a separate matter. He hasn't given me an exact figure yet, but said it would probably be more expensive than the $3,500 retainer I paid for the original case, so I'm figuring on about $5,000."I told him that my internet fundraising is not going so well, people seem to be pretty strapped for money, everyone is facing such hard times. He suggested to me that in the hardest economic times, the rich tend to get richer, so perhaps I should try asking them rather than just everyone at large. So, I've written an open letter to any Karmic Angels that might be out there, who want to use their money to help people."

• Reverend Magdalen's appeal for charity from any Karmic Angels who might be able to assist

The fact that this case has now been stretched out for three years demonstrates how absurd the legal system is. Much of the issue here stems from the fact that one party has received free legal representation while the other has not. This means that one party can continue to use the courts to harass the other for as long as he cares to…unless, perhaps, notice of this abuse of the legal system were brought to the proper authorities. (The Bar Association, perhaps?)

What a ****ed up case. 3 years, the judge on the case insults and demeans the woman, and gives custody to a total **** up, because he was offended by a ****ing joke. I had to look up this town on a map, it's a ****ing hole in the wall.

Small town judge with a small penis compensation problem. Wow. Glad I don't deal with them. They might lock me up and a deputy step on my johnson just to prove he was a man. (United States v. Walsh)

 

[arnisador]

In the Internet age, everyone knows what you're doing and it's "No Fun Aloud" as it were: Don't post risque pics (like drinking at a party), don't engage in weird activities (like this primarily online "church"), etc.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

It's an interesting county.