The letter to Fargo's office was headed with "third request". "Please forward to my office all orders and correspondence related to the court hearing dated April 7."
Angelo was trying to get to the bottom of what happened at the secret hearing on that date that involved Frank but we weren't invited to. Angelo saw it on the courthouse's web site of previous hearings. Three weeks after he asked for the order of the hearing to be retrieved from the court files, he got a phone call from the cabal of secretaries in Domestic Relations that his file was ready to be picked up. Angelo went that very day, an hour drive into Delaware County, to the office of Domestic Relations where the women work who thought it was so funny when we showed up for the canceled hearing.
"Hello, I'm here to pick up this order." Angelo hands the woman the file number. She turns and looks through the files for a few minutes and says, "I'm sorry, it's not here. Did someone tell you it was here?" the woman asks innocently.
Angelo is fuming already. "I just got a call this morning! What do you mean it's not here?"
"It must be in the judge's chamber, try over there." she offered.
Angelo was shuffled around the courthouse from one office to another; being passed around like gossip at junior high. He finally ended up at the office of the District Attorney to complain. The woman in the office looked at him like he just landed there from planet Mars and asked to be taken to her leader. Angelo was beginning to feel like he was on another planet. He hadn't practiced law in a while, but when he did, in Philadelphia and New Jersey, he had never run into such an unscrupulous bunch as these people. He had no choice but to leave empty-handed after being told the order was lost. What was in this order that no one wants him to see?
He continued pressure on Fargo to hand over the order, as she is required to do, because the secretary never did produce a copy for us. Two months later, after the appeal period was over, Fargo's office finally sent a copy of the order. We found out that Kat and Fargo had their secretary friend, the one that thinks this is all so funny, set them up with a court date to finalize the divorce before our hearing, thereby rendering our request for spousal support immaterial. So, she had our hearing cancelled yet held one of her own without any notice to Frank's home or attorney. The transcript was even more unbelievable. This divorce has been unfinished for seven long years because Kat refused to sign the papers because it would mean handing Frank money. The first thing the woman judge asked was "Is this divorce uncontested?" Because she noticed that neither Frank, nor any attorney to represent him, was there. Fargo answers, "ummm . . . the other side hasn't shown up. We don't know why."
Here is Fargo lying under oath with Kat standing silent right next to her. They both know exactly where Frank is, in jail, because they put him there. The judge asks no more questions and finalizes the divorce. Fargo asks the judge for Frank to pay her $2500 in attorney's fees and the judge says, "why don't you take $3,000 just to make sure you have enough to finish up." Fargo thanks her and it's over.
These are two women who know each other very well, they are both on the same committees and boards and they both went to the same law school as well. I can't imply that there was collusion, but to finalize a divorce after seven years when the plaintiff or his attorney wasn't even there is a little questionable, especially when this very same judge refused to appoint Matt guardian of Frank at a previous hearing. It should have been postponed at the very least.
Angelo appealed the decision so we could move ahead with our request for support saying that our hearing could not be stayed for not having a guardian, while her hearing moved forward. Our appeal was set to be heard in July along with the support hearing with the same judge. Meantime there was alot of papers flying back and forth. Angelo wrote a brief with our issues and Fargo had to answer. The main question was why weren't we notified about this hearing. Fargo said that she sent a notice to Frank in prison and she had to assume that he read it. Angelo answered back that if you knew he was incompetent to have a hearing for the spousal support, why would you think he would be competent enough to be the sole receiver of a notice of a hearing to finalize his divorce. She answered that if Frank were truly incompetent, there would be a doctor there to read it to him. Her answer that she admits that she sent notice of the divorce hearing to prison is a direct contradiction to her sworn testimony in court that she had no idea where Frank was, which is a crime known as perjury. Finally, she expects us to believe that she feels that there are doctors hanging around the prison reading mail to people and making sure their attorneys are notified of any pending legal proceedings; it's preposterous.
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