Hi! I am very frustrated with what judges can do to people and get away with! I have had a horrible experience with Judge David Talamante in family court. I am wondering what types of experiences others have had with this judge? He has backed me into a corner where I have no where else to turn but the media, blogging, the Board of Judicial conduct, and recently painting my car to warn the public about this judge. I probably cannot change what happened to me but hope to help others to request a change of judge if Judge Talamante is assigned to their case!

I am divorced from a man with a head injury, who has behavioral and emotional consequences resulting from his head injury. There was a lot of bad stuff to include cocaine and alcohol use, compulsive masturbation, emotional and verbal abuse, control and manipulation, inability to relate to my older child in a realistic way, infidelity, and suicidal and homicidal talk while we were separated (talked of killing himself, me and both children) necessitating a protective order.

Anyways, our child was born, and within months we were separated and then divorced. We went through a custody evaluation, and to make a long story short, I ended up with sole custody in our divorce decree and my ex had supervised visitation for 1 year.

The problems began almost immediately with our child when he came off of supervised visitation on Fall 2007.Our child started to display and verbalize inappropriate sexual behavior. There were four occurrences over the course of the year. The last incident was quite disturbing and I talked with the visitation supervisor and she was very concerned and advised me to stop visitation and go to the court to ask for a temporary emergency change in visitation. I did hold one visit and went to the court in the morning with my paperwork. However, I was told that I needed a permanent modification request attached as well or the judge would not see me. I went to the law library and thought I would attempt it to get this taken care of right away but of course I could not do this last minute and did not have what I needed with me. So, I left the court and had to get to work.

Within days, I went to see an attorney. She advised me that in order to handle this correctly I needed to take my child to a therapist for evaluation, which I did. The therapist was concerned with my son's behavior and felt I should be as well. She felt my ex should go back on supervision and I should contact CPS. She wrote me a letter stating such, in case I needed it in court. I did contact CPS. My son's developmental nurse also contacted CPS when she was told of his behaviors. It took CPS a couple months and several phone calls from me and the nurse to finally come to my home. I questioned them on what they could do and when I told them the situation, they felt they should go to my ex's home.

In the mean time, my ex was pushing for increased visitation time, part of which was already called for in our decree when our son turned 3 years old, but holidays and vacation were not spelled out. I was, of course, reluctant, as any parent would be given my son's behaviors and verbalizations. I expressed this to my ex and soon he had retained an attorney and was also asking for joint custody. I expressed my concerns to his attorney and stated that I would not consider joint custody. I initiated the holiday schedule, but of course pending the outcome from CPS and any future court intervention.

I will try to shorten this as much as possible as I know it is lengthy. Anyways, my ex's attorney filed for mediation and it was denied in error, but his attorney did not make the call to correct this. We ended up in front of Judge David Talamante for an RMC. I could tell at that time that he was going to be unreasonable. During the hearing, one issue that was addressed was the fact that my ex was not welcome at the day care due to his behavior. His behavior made the day care providers very uncomfortable and they took my son but asked that Dad not come to the day care. The Order of Protection was in place so initially it was not a problem, but then Dad kept calling and trying and they would tell him no. Anyways he brought it up in the RMC and I had a letter from the day care provider for the judge and I also explained what happened when he questioned me on it. His comment was "There had better be something better than that," obviously, siding with Dad instead of telling Dad that there are consequences for your behavior.

The judge sent us to mediation. In mediation we cleaned up some of the judge's errors in the holiday schedule and agreed to a one week summer vacation, which was never an argument, it just had not yet been addressed. Dad told me that he was not going to proceed with the joint custody request. We should have been done at this point, but he then brought up a new issue! He stated that he wanted me to do the pick up or drop off during his mid week visit with our son and was refusing to pick up and drop off at day care stating he had to be at work by 8am. He moved from Ahwatukee Foothills area to Gilbert, and was expecting me to drive an hour to an hour and a half in traffic every Thursday morning to pick up my child from him and take him back to the day care in Ahwatukee Foothills area, and then my office is in Gilbert! The mediator suggested a halfway point but Dad refused. I asked him if he wanted to go to court over this and he said "yes" so we ended up in a trial!

I looked at retaining an attorney but they wanted 10K from me because it was a trial and coming up soon! I could not afford this and did not feel it was necessary over Dad's very unreasonable demand, after talking with a few attorneys.

The trial was a disaster. Instead of the judge telling Dad he was being unreasonable in his request, he ordered me to do the pick up from Dad every Thurday morning so that Dad could be at work at 8am. I forgot to mention, I have another child at home to get off to school every Thursday morning! The judge said I needed to figure out what to do with my other son and I needed to pick up my son from my ex by 7:30 am every Thursday, even though he was made aware of all the factors of the situation! It gets even better. He stated in open court that if Dad had come forward with wanting joint custody that he would have just given it to him, even though this was never even presented in court! It gets even better. Judge Talamante told me I was unreasonable that I took my child to a therapist even though he knew I was advised this was the proper procedure by council! He then went on to say that I was unreasonable that I contacted CPS, even though he knew I was advised to do this by a medical professional who examined my son and that a nurse also called CPS!!! He then went on to say that I would be responsible for my ex's filing fee, his mediation fee and he would take attorney's fees under advisement! I could not believe it. I felt the pain of being abused and controlled by my ex all over again through Judge Talamante!

I then spent $2500.00 and retained an attorney to help me. He decided it was best to file a motion to reconsider and he filed a motion regarding the attorney’s fees as well. The motion to reconsider was very well written and was black and white for anyone who reads it as to what the proper ruling should be! Judge Talamante denied the motion to reconsider and assessed me $3150 in attorneys fees, my ex's filing fee, his mediation fee...and his serving fee for a grand total of $3428.50.

So this judge has caused me to go into debt $7k!!! He has sanctioned me for protecting my son and following advice of professionals. He has put me in a situation where I am responsible for getting my ex to work on time every Thursday morning, with no regard for my job or my other son. The judge has allowed my abusive, controlling ex to continue to control me through the use of the court system, and he has not protected my child in any way. I am sick over this whole thing. Oh, I did not mention that the judge found me unreasonable regarding what I did to protect my son, but when he asked me the details in court he did not allow me to speak to them!!!!! So he sanctioned me for doing what I did and did not even know the story!

My attorney and three others have reviewed this case, and all say it is outrageous and wrong. They have stated that the judge is being "vindictive" toward me and "does not like me." They say I have been sanctioned for doing the right thing and being the reasonable one in the case!!!!

Would love to hear from anyone regarding this! Thanks.