Parents' Rights Activist Murtari Hasn't Eaten Since July 31

Parents' Rights Activist Murtari Hasn't Eaten Since July 31

October 10, 2006 by
teri stoddard  
teri stoddard
teri stoddard
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Parents Rights  |  Ex Wife  |  Hunger Strike  |  Activist  |  Liabilities

John Murtari, Criminal or Loving Father?

John Murtari, New York father and passive resister to the immorality of current family law, hasn’t had solid food since reporting to jail on July 31 to serve a 6-month sentence for “willful failure to pay
child support .” Murtari says he isn’t able to pay the full amount ordered, based on a salary he no longer had at the time of his divorce and hasn’t had since, a practice called imputing income.

Murtari, an Air Force Academy graduate and ex-training pilot, planned on being a priest at one time but gave it up when he realized how badly he wanted a family. Not only was the child support calculated unjustly, says Murtari, his ex-wife was allowed to move his son across the country against his wishes. Given the choice of staying in his son’s life which meant paying for costly flights several times per year, or sending that money to his ex-wife who Murtari claims is well-off financially, Murtari followed his conscience. Calls to his ex-wife have not been returned.

Murtari’s request for a stay while he waits to appeal the sentence was refused. Today he learned he has a court date of Wednesday, October 18th at 8:30 a.m. to ask for a reduced sentence. If this request is denied he expects to get out December 1, after four months in jail. Four months his son couldn’t see him, four months he risked losing his small internet business (one of his employees recently left, leaving one man to handle the entire operation), four months with no food. Murtari is being fed through a nasal feeding tube and stays on the medical floor of the Onodaga County Justice Center. “This isn’t a hunger strike. I have no desire to die. I am making it as inconvenient as I can for them to keep me locked up,” said Murtari.

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hello. i am almost 16 years old and i just found out this last may in 2006 that i never knew my father. i was a baby went him and my mom split up. they just put him in jail, this last weekend in novemeber around the 18th. my mom will not let me see or know him and wont talk to me about him or what happened. i really would appreciate it if anyone with information about "Lawrence Hoffert" in NYS around the boonville, utica, or oneida area...to email me at twerp09@hotmail.com i really would like to meet my dad. i will be 16 on december 22nd and it would be the most best present to meet him by then. thanks so much for listening. =]
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Posted on 11/20/2006 at 8:11:00 AM

John is not alone and fathers like us all over the world are rebelling against institutionalised discrimination, exploitation and the outright lies of the feminist creed. For too long it has been "her" story that grabs attention of media and authorities thank you Terri for putting HIS story back into history ;-D
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Posted on 10/19/2006 at 8:10:00 AM

It is a disgrace that people are reduced to self imposed famine in order to see their child(ren). No boy or girl should grow up to be denied parenthood or feel it is appropriate to abuse another human being in this way. As a child who lost their father through natural causes at a very early age I despair that this living bereavement is imposed upon anyone.. especially the child. I am not religious but godspeed Murtari, love and light, my best respects.
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Posted on 10/17/2006 at 12:10:00 PM

Valarie: Just think! If there was equal custody, there would be no need for child support! And children could have both parents.
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Posted on 10/14/2006 at 4:10:00 PM

The real problem here is that the current laws reward one parent for keeping the child away from the other parent - with money. We need to change that. John is a hero, and a very brave and determined man. I shudder to contemplate what kind of monster his ex-wife must be.
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Posted on 10/14/2006 at 11:10:00 AM

We must ask ourselves how stories like this one about Domenic and John exist in today's world. We scream that existing systems cant seem to get appropriate results. Many of us know some of the reasons. How can it be easier to make war on a country half way across the globe for no good reason and then the law used by the same government allows itself to do things to people like Domenic and John? Where is Domenic's mother in all this? John is a hero to every child in America, each passing night lying on a bed with a tube stuck down his stomach. John has defied torture only to incur even worse torture. Little wonder government arrogance causes it to act so casually with life be it in Iraq or in Syracuse, New York. Hillary you are really missing the boat. You could have rocketed yourself to the stars for truly saving the nation's children and dumped fathers starting right here at this moment with Domenic and John. Teri Thank you for your noble mission! Long live John Murtari, Teri Stodd
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Posted on 10/13/2006 at 8:10:00 PM

Claiming that he "should have paid" anything is to deny the God-given right of a father to his own children. That these "rights" are found in our own Bill of Rights only makes it more disturbing. "The father owns the child." There is more than enough prior case law, some going back 2000 years, that overwhelmingly denies the "State" has any authority to interfere - at all. The "obligation" to support ones children was reserved only for those fathers who actually abandon their children. At law, when either the State or the mother take the children from him, he has NO obligation at all. The child support laws in this country were directly imported from the USSR prior to that country's collapse, and are credited as one of the primary causes of its collapse. It is a sad commentary on the state of the enormous intrusion of government into our private lives. I firmly believe that our country is headed for deep, deep trouble, and this very issue is one of the primary c
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Posted on 10/13/2006 at 4:10:00 PM

Unfortunately there are too many who think like Valerie Smith who are not willing to look at the real victims, the kids! No matter what your opinions are, fact are facts. The family courts need a complete overhauling to ensure that the future of our country is assured by the very basic unit of society, family. Whether the parents are together or not, the family should cooperate to "family" the kids, providing them the access, love, and support or both parents. Support is not limited to money, Valerie. Place yourself in this man's position and then cast that stone. John, we are all praying for your continued strength and the reunion with your son. Your non-violent protests should ignite some change in the upcoming elections.
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Posted on 10/13/2006 at 3:10:00 PM

Excellent Article. The injustices in the family courts of today in our country are so rampant as to make our family court system of the single most critical failures of America. Regardless of whether you believe in what John Murtari is doing or not - your votes should merit this excellent presentation of the situation - this is what the votes are for. Nonetheless, it is clear that the key intention of John is to bring attention to a system that has largely gone out of control. It has lost the "best interest" of the child and now is a big money making machine stewing in out-dated, political, and societal ideology. Anyone posting here should first and foremost be fully aware of the fact that States receive approximately 60 cents on the dollar for every dollar they take as a result of a court order for child support. This alone is the most contemptuous uses of our law as to border on criminal. It immediately results in unfair support calculations - not to mention a whole myriad of other
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Posted on 10/13/2006 at 2:10:00 PM

Quote Valerie Smith: "The right choice would have been to pay as much of his child support as he could and to petition the court to take the airfare costs into account." If you had actually been keeping up with this, you'd know that he has already done that. Unfortunately, it's all about the money. No one seems to care that if he had paid the CS his son wouldn't have been able to see his father. Money can be paid at any time. However, time lost is just that: time lost.
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Posted on 10/12/2006 at 8:10:00 PM

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