Of course I am a huge advocate of having a cell phone in order to protect you and to document any concern. Time and time again we have children who have clearly stated that they were being abused or threatened and it was never believed until video evidence came to light. If the father and the judge is this concerned about the child's use of a cell phone, then there must be something they are both trying desperately to hide.
I can not understand why judges continue to prevent children from protecting themselves from abusive parents. With video evidence there is no question about what was said and the manner in which it was said. Cameras have shown judges asleep, lawyers lying, cops roughing up children, and fathers beating their daughters. Why all the fear Judge? What are you trying to hide?
A Brooklyn judge says a 10-year-old boy at the center of a heated custody battle should get rid of his iPhone because it has become a spy tool for his TV commentator mom.
Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Sunshine says the high-tech phone is a nuissance because the boy takes pictures and recordings of his dad, John Hannigan, and sends them to his mom, Annemarie McAvoy.
"Get this iPhone out. It's too much of an intrusion," Sunshine said during an emergency trial to assess the risk of the boy, who recently threatened suicide if he has to stay with his dad.
The boy lives with his father, but the judge said McAvoy instructs his son to get any dirt on her ex-husband.
"The mother entered the father's home and took residency with the iPhone," the judge said, recommending the boy downgrade to a flip phone.
Sunshine ruled there's no imminent danger to the boy and upheld a temporary 2007 order of a Queens judge that switched custody from McAvoy to Hannigan.
The father's lawyer, Audrey Sager, called the iPhone "an intrusive weapon utilized by the mother" to document her former husband.
McAvoy, who acted as her own attorney, blasted the decision, saying her son uses the phone to video-chat and do homework with her.
"It just shows how out of touch this judge is," she said of the ruling. "This is ridiculous."
Sunshine told McAvoy to dial down her "exaggerations" about the boy's condition. He implored the warring parents to think different.
"Life is not a cross-examination," he said. "Nor is parenthood."
