A box of 'zines and I need a lawyer in Seattle area

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This is a long, sad story, and it's only the beginning:

I was served divorce papers and a restraining order at work last week. The divorce papers were not a surprise, the restraining order was. Apparently, in order to get a restraining order, all you have to do is make up shit and insinuate the rest. My wife was claiming I had to be restrained because I would go ape when I got the divorce papers - not true, I wish I'd had video of it, I actually "thanked" the guy who served me in the parking lot (not because I was happy about it, but because I'm kind of over-nice sometimes.)

It was fairly typical BS according the lawyer I went to first, and I spent a few days gathering up information to combat the fear and abuse allegations. As the week went on, it got really painful, didn't hear from the lawyer, was living out of 1 box of clothes they sent about an hour after the papers were served AND I have a 5 year old son and I wasn't able to see him.

We got to court yesterday, fairly confident that we would refute the charges at least as far as full visitation with my son went.

When I got there though? My lawyer looked...weird. Then she showed me a new complaint the wife's lawyer had brought - they wanted supervised visitation only and my wife had rifled my old collector/packrat stuff and pulled out a box of early '90s zines. Rollerderby, Answer me!, Ben is Dead and 1 straight music zine. They listed disturbing images and quotes in the court papers. I was floored. My attorney (a female) looked sick. I tried to explain what they were, but taken out of context like that, it was kind of tough.

We couldn't put up much of a fight, so I walked with supervised visits only for the weekend, each day (no overnights), and two hours on Wednesdays. This will last two weeks, until the main hearing where it's he said/she said time...except now there are all these zine photos and articles and quotes and I'm kind of fucked.

My lawyer has been sort of distant and I think she thinks I'm a freak.

Does anyone know of a great, assertive Seattle area family law lawyer?

Help!

― Garibaldianne (Garibaldianne), Saturday, 22 July 2006 02:43 (nineteen years ago)

So sad. So sorry. I think I still own one old issue of Rollerderby.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 22 July 2006 03:24 (nineteen years ago)

oh man. over ZINES? that's so fucked.

― the eunuchs, Cassim and Mustafa, who guarded Abdur Ali's harem (orion), Saturday, 22 July 2006 03:36 (nineteen years ago)

This is just ridiculous. The books you own are admissible as some kind of character assessment? What about CD and DVD collections? I think everyone on this forum could be similarly screwed over if that's the case.
Fucked x 1000.

― Marmot 4-Tay (marmotwolof), Saturday, 22 July 2006 04:00 (nineteen years ago)

It is being framed by my ex-wife as "the box was on the ground" where our son could find it. It was on the ground, in a back room, in the closet, under 200 unsold singles and covers of my friends really bad band.

Not everyone is in trouble for their art and entertainment collections - you have to have one important ingrediant: insane, vendictive wife.

I'm actually feeling a bit better right now, as all the 'zines which were quoted in the motion are now available in book form from Borders, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waldenbooks. That should legitamize my reading somewhat.

― Garibaldianne (Garibaldianne), Saturday, 22 July 2006 04:08 (nineteen years ago)

what is roller derby

― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 22 July 2006 04:37 (nineteen years ago)

this is a fucked situation

if she's as awful as she sounds -- appears to be a manipulator, and though i don't know the backstory, i wonder if she can be really be a good parent.

i know i will catch heat for asking this, but in a perfect world, would you take full custody? or are you simply looking for more visitation hours after the dust settles? are you firmly entrenched where you live?

― fongoloid sangfroid (sanskrit), Saturday, 22 July 2006 04:38 (nineteen years ago)

She is worse than she sounds. She is getting more insane as she gets older and that is possibly a case for her not being the best parent. However, she "beat me to the punch" as all the lawyers have told me, and now I have to disprove her lies. I was looking for shared custody 50-50, as my son still loves and needs his mom and unlike her I wouldn't want to hurt HIM by going after her, but now I am just hoping that I can see my son without a 3rd party present.

― Garibaldianne (Garibaldianne), Saturday, 22 July 2006 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

rollerderby was a great early-90s zine written by a woman named lisa suckdog. much of it was compiled into a book, and is well worth picking up.

― jergins (jergins), Saturday, 22 July 2006 05:16 (nineteen years ago)

aside from amazon et al, have you tried looking into library collections?

this https://dometest.sdsu.edu/about/depts/spcollections/rarebooks/zinesbox1.shtml
has several copies of ben is dead and rollerderby.

hope that helps.

― hth (iiivan), Saturday, 22 July 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

i think he's looking for a lawyer, not his zines!

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Saturday, 22 July 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

Haw -- leave it to iiivan, he always misunderstands!

― Whitman Mayonnaise (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 22 July 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

All the people associated with those magazines went on to fairly straightforward journalism and literary careers (even suckdog!); I would do some research into the history of the zines, founders, etc. and present that to your lawyer. Also is there some sort of counter-suit you can bring up; falsifying the cause for a restraining order or something like that? What other kind of reading material did you have in the house? Can you put the kids on the stand and have them testify whether or not they've ever seen the zines in question and to say what their regular reading material is?

As for a solid attorney, what pro bono service are there in the area that you can appeal to for help and direction? Time to hit the library and the web in a big way.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 22 July 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

Actually the library collection thing is a good point. Seattle is home of that rock music museum, surely they have the same zines in their collection. ergo, it's not weird for you to have them, as the proof is that libraries and museums (ie respectable cultural institutions) also archive and collect them.

― dar1a g (daria g), Saturday, 22 July 2006 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

ILX has a few lawyers kicking around, maybe they can advise.

I say ACLU for pro-bono. Also try the law schools.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 22 July 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

The K1ng C0unty Bar 4ssociation has a refferal hotline, 267-7010. That's worth a try. Good luck, dude. I hope you find a lawyer about whom you can feel confident. What a scary situation.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Saturday, 22 July 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

i hate to say this, and i'm no lawyer so ignore away, but the rape issue of answer me! could actually cause you trouble if that was in the stack. depending on who the judge is and all that. the aclu might actually be a good group to call.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 22 July 2006 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think the ACLU have different fish to fry and couldn't really help, but a call to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund might get you a referral to a hip and competent local lawyer. http://www.cbldf.org/

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Saturday, 22 July 2006 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks everyone. Trying to struggle through the day here. I have a line on a lawyer a friend referred me to and will meet with him tomorrow. Also got a nice, uplifting email from Lisa Carver.

Oh, and no, I never had the rape issue, thank god.

― Garibaldianne (Garibaldianne), Saturday, 22 July 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

I wonder what happened to Garibaldianne.

― 7Crutis (libcrypt), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 21:31 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, this was insane.

― microsoft and I decided to do some t-shirts (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 21:36 (seventeen years ago)

Good thing he posted this information on a message board home to a running meme about "rape dollars".

― •--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 21:38 (seventeen years ago)

I do actually happen to have that Rape issue of Answer Me! at home. But no children, whew.

― 7Crutis (libcrypt), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 21:53 (seventeen years ago)

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