My name is James Armstead. I am a black man in America who gets targeted, taken advantage of, profiled, and maliciously prosecuted year after year after year. My problems have got to stop somewhere.
I am trying to find a lawyer to help pending Child Support/ Child Custody case and a lawyer who can help win my defemation of character/ malicious prosecution lawsuit.
My wife and I lived in Goldsboro , North Carolina from May 2006 until August of 2008. During that time, Matta Karimu put in a complaint for custody and child support in Baltimore City . Neither myself, Matta, nor the child ever resided in Baltimore City . The complaint was sent to me while we stayed in North Carolina . I filed an answer, stating that if the little boy was mine, I was requesting a DNA to prove paternity. And that was the last we heard about the case. No one ever responded, sending me a letter from court telling me the court date or a response to me asking for a DNA test. We moved to Greenville , North Carolina , and sent in a change of address form to Baltimore City . Still didn't hear anything back. When we called while living in Greenville , the clerk who answered the phone said that the case had been closed out. We thought that was the end of the case.
We moved back last year, August 2010. I was pulled over in November 2010, and arrested for driving on a suspended license. While I was in jail for 2 weeks, my wife went to the MVA to get my record, it stated that my license was suspended due to non-compliance of a child support order! The record stated that they mailed out a letter to me but it was mailed back to them because the address was incorrect.
We went to Baltimore to reopen the case. We found out I had an order for child support where Matta Karimu was supposed to let me have the little boy for the summer and keep in contact twice a week. She has not gone by the order. DNA was never established. And Matta opened the case out of jurisdiction. We moved here from North Carolina , and where we come from, a woman cannot just go to the court house and put a man on child support without first establishing paternity. In my original answer, I explained the circumstances, and told the court that I only believed the boy was mine based on the fact that Matta told me that the little boy was his. And that if the boy was in fact my son, that I was entitled to the same rights as Matta Karimu. In our second letter to the court, I requested a DNA test. The court never responded to my motion. If we would have known then that a person "must file for complaint of custody and child support in the county/state where the parent and child reside" (according to Maryland Law), then we would have filed that before filing the complaint.
Since we found out about the case, we have filed numerous motions to include:
- motion to dismiss due to lack of jurisdiction
- petition for DNA test
- motion for contempt/ show case order (not following order of letting James see the child she claims is his son)
- motion for waiver of paternity tests costs
- motion to release suspension of license
- motion to stay the case pending investigation
- motion to audit for child support
- Exception to Master's ruling (when he went to master's hearing, the Master ordered him to pay $400 for paternity testing)
It took the Baltimore City court nearly 4 months to look over any of my my paperwork. I filed an exception to the Master's ruling, yet the court still granted her order. We are living on one income right now, my wife's income. We have 3 children together and can barely afford to pay rent, food, or any other bills right now. We cannot afford to pay $400 for a paternity case! There has to be something that can be done to help. The case should have been thrown out in court based on the fact that Matta opened the case in a county where she never lived or worked.
Yesterday, we found out that the "motion to dismiss due to lack of jurisdiction" was denied in court because Judge Howard stated that though my allegations my be true, I did not file for a motion to dismiss in a timely manner or before my original answer was filed! I am disabled. I am dyslexic. My wife is the one who handles all of my paperwork; in fact, she is the one posting this story for me. The courts are taking advantage of my disability. When I go in the clerk's office, even the supervisor's get smart with me, saying, "If you don't understand or know what any of this means, have your wife fill it out. Mrs. Armstead, please let him know that he needs to sign this (mind you, I'm standing right beside her when they say this)."
On top of that case, we have another civil case that we are trying to file against the state of Maryland . We moved back to Maryland last August 2010. Since then, the same woman, Matta Karimu, has placed more false allegations against me. I tried to go visit the little boy at his home in Pioneer City in Severn , Maryland . Whenever I try to visit, Matta will call the police. I even go with my wife and she calls the police. In August of 2010, Matta filed false claims of assault against me when I went to her home to pick her son. She tried to slam the door in my wife's face, and I caught the door. She screamed, telling her oldest son to call the police because she said that I had hit her in the head with the door! She tried to put a protective order on me, but it was thrown out in circuit court because the judge (JUDGE HARRIS) realized she was lying and changing her story too many times. Yet and still, Matta used the temporary protective order to have a warrant placed out against me in December 21, 2010, 3 months later. How could a warrant for “Violation of protective order” be placed on me when there WAS NO ACTIVE protective order in the system?! How could a commissioner (COMMISSIONER SNOW) even sign that warrant when he could see for himself that the case had been appealed and dismissed by Judge Harris in circuit court?
The system makes too many mistakes on its citizen’s records. Those mistakes cost people their freedom, their family, their jobs, their lives! I can’t even get a job because there are over 17 charges on his record from Matta Karimu. Even though the charges have been dismissed, Nolle Prosequi, or dropped, they still show up on his background report, making me look like a repeat offender that just got away with it. My wife struggles to pay bills on her own everyday because I can’t get a job because of my record.
I opened a whole new child custody/ child support case in Annapolis (case 02C11163021). And I have/ reopened a lawsuit against the state of Maryland which the judge closed a few days ago because the state of Maryland filed a motion to dismiss! Please, someone out there has to know how to help me...
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