Rainer Steinhoff

Rainer Steinhoff, divorce attorney in central Ohio, arts enthusiast, classical music broadcaster

I've been practicing divorce and juvenile law -- and some criminal defense -- in central Ohio since 1992. I also serve as a Guardian ad Litem for children. I spent five years giving legal support to victims of domestic violence. For most of my sixteen years as an attorney, I've been a sole practitioner.

I work hard for my clients, but I also believe that life should be enjoyed. So, I leave room for reading, listening to classical music, jazz, and blues, and attending concerts. I used to be active in theater. (I was in two plays with actor Maggie Grace before she made it in Hollywood.) I work as a part-time radio announcer for CLASSICAL 101. 

My website is www.rsteinhoffattorney.com. I tweet at http://twitter.com/RSteinhoffAtty.  My e-mail address is rainersteinhoff7@msn.com.

I don't charge for the initial meeting with a new client. My phone number is 614-507-0663.

(All original material copyright Rainer Steinhoff 2009 - 2011)

THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT. This web site is designed for general information only. The information presented at this site should not be construed as formal legal advice; no lawyer/client relationship is being created.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, 86, the Twentieth Century's Unparalleled Lieder Singer, Has Died

Opera News, May 18, 2012

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who emerged from the chaos of World War II to establish himself as a peerless interpreter of the lieder and art song canons, as well as an extraordinary opera singer who put his mark on many of the repertory's heroic baritone and bass-baritone roles, has died. Fischer-Dieskau, 86, died at his home in Berg, Bavaria. His death was confirmed by his wife, soprano Julia Varady.

Called "a born god who has it all," by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Fischer-Dieskau's technical mastery, poetic sensitivity and musical profundity found perhaps their most perfect expression in the lieder of Franz Schubert. "Schubert is, for me, the climax of the meeting between words and music," Fischer-Dieskau said, "and this creates at the same time both the simplicity and the difficulties in his songs."Over the span of his career Fischer-Dieskau — along with pianist Gerald Moore — would record every single song written by Schubert for the male voice, along with vast swaths of songs by Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, Shostakovich, Britten and Barber. The baritone was the most recorded singer of all time, and, during the 1970s, won two Grammy awards for his contributions to the song repertoire.

Facebook in divorce court

Tuesday, 22 May 2012 11:26

BY ADELE SAMMARCO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Do you live by Facebook?

According to a survey out by Divorce Online, a British legal services firm, more than one third of divorce filings last year contained the word, wait for it…. “Facebook."

That’s right, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says more than 80 percent of divorce attorneys in the United States have witnessed a rise in the number of cases citing social networking as the cause of their breakup.

“I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time,” says Gary Traystman, a divorce Attorney in New London, Connecticut.

Of the 15 cases Traystman says he handles a year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60 percent exclusively involve Facebook, cites the Wall Street Journal.

“Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,” says K. Jason Krafsky, author of the book “Facebook and Your Marriage”.

In reality, Krafsky says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop.

“On Facebook,” he says, “they happen in just a few clicks.”

Social networking on Facebook offers an opportunity to reconnect with past loves and allows others to “friend” someone they may not even know or only met once in passing. It also puts temptation in the path of those who would ordinarily never risk having an affair.

Some use Facebook as their public diary, and post inner-most thoughts or perhaps even “rants” say lawyers, which can be printed and saved and can be used against you in a court of law.

When couples land in divorce court, divorce attorneys say Facebook posts can even be used to determine alimony and child custody.

Psychologists say the site provides a deceptively comfortable forum for some people to let off steam about their daily, humdrum lives and can inadvertently arouse the suspicions of spouses.

"The difference with Facebook is it feels safe, innocent and private,” says Randy Kessler, a lawyer who currently chairs the family law section of the American Bar Association in Atlanta, Georgia.

"People put an enormous amount of incriminating stuff out there voluntarily.” It could be something as innocuous as a check-in at a restaurant, he says, or a photograph posted online.

Last year, a superior district court judge in Connecticut ordered a divorcing couple to hand over their Facebook passwords to the other’s attorneys.

Kessler says it’s an extremely useful vehicle to gather evidence. “It helps me cross-examine a witness,” he says. Any pattern of behavior that’s recorded on Facebook relating to parenting skills, excessive partying or even disparaging remarks about a spouse that violates a court order could be admissible in court.

Over the weekend, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg changed his own Facebook status to "married" and received more than one million “likes” from his other Facebook friends. Should his new wife be worried? Perhaps marrying one of the wealthiest men in the country provides her with added solace.

Of course, it’s not Facebook’s fault it’s being dragged through divorce court, says Kessler.

“It’s the people who use it.”

Circleville juvenile prison no longer is in crisis

Written by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press

 

COLUMBUS -- An Ohio juvenile detention center considered in crisis less than a year ago because of gang violence and other problems has become a safe and well-managed facility, according to a court-appointed monitor who tempered praise for the changes with caution that an unregulated population increase could undo the progress.

The report underscores dramatic shifts at the Department of Youth Services, which in less than a decade has gone from a full-service detention system to an agency housing the oldest and usually most violent youthful offenders in the state.

The 245-page report says the last time the monitoring team visited Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility south of Columbus in August 2011, "we found the facility in crisis."

The team found significant problems with programs offered to youth, as well as safety, staffing, gang violence, crisis management and youth being held in cells by themselves for long periods of time, according to the report issued earlier this week.

Circleville's average daily population was 127 youth in August, compared to 91 youth in April, according to Youth Services.

The population was reduced during major renovations to living units, but also went down because of a system-wide reduction of about 100 youth. From more than 2,000 juvenile inmates at one time, Ohio now houses 605.

The agency declined to comment in detail about the report, saying it would file a response with the federal judge overseeing the monitor's work. Circleville "provides a safe and rehabilitative environment for youth," spokeswoman Kim Parsell said in an email.

Most juvenile offenders are now kept in county facilities to keep them close to home and community resources and away from the prison-like setting of the state facilities. The goal is to avoid exposing youth to situations that could cause them to worsen during incarceration and make them more likely to commit crimes when they are released.

Annie Person, a Circleville youth specialist -- the name was officially changed in recent years from "corrections officer" -- says things are definitely better.

"It's not perfect, because we are dealing with the most assaultive youth and gang problems, but it's more manageable with less youth," said Person, an 18-year Youth Services veteran.

The report released Monday said adding more inmates without extra staff and money could jeopardize positive changes, including fewer inmates on living units, low staff-to-youth ratios and lots of activities.

Circleville has 10 vacancies and 15 youth specialists on some kind of leave, "which would seriously affect staffing adequacy if the youth population wasn't so low," according to the report.

This past fall, gang problems were so bad at Circleville and Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility in Delaware that Youth Services asked adult prison guards to help move youth identified as gang leaders. Seven youths from Scioto and 12 from Circleville were moved to a separate unit at the Scioto facility.

Circleville now stands as an example of how to positively respond to gang problems, Monday's report said.

Former Circleville gang leaders cited last fall's transfer of gang leaders, clear expectations and consequences laid out by the Circleville superintendent and the increase in activities for youth as the main factors for reducing problems, according to the report.

The report is one of a series of reviews of state juvenile facilities stemming from the settlement of a 2004 lawsuit that alleged a culture of violence permeated the system.

Never-Married Parents Get Help From Special Court

May 7, 2012 

NPR/MPR

 by Sasha Aslanian

Across the U.S., 40 percent of children are now born to unmarried parents. This demographic shift, primarily among younger, low-income parents, can pose a challenge to a child support system designed chiefly to extract money from paychecks.

A court in Minneapolis is now trying a new approach, one that's about more than just the money as it attempts to keep both parents involved in the lives of their kids.

Hennepin County Family Court Judge Bruce Peterson noticed a problem: Young men were showing up for paternity establishment and child support hearings, but the future of their families looked shaky.

"We were telling young dads, 'Congratulations, you're the father legally now. Here's your child support obligation.' " Peterson says. "So it was very apparent to me there was much more work to be done to support these young parents."

Unlike divorce cases, where the couple has a shared history, never-married parents who show up in Peterson's courtroom may not know each other well. They now have an 18-year shared endeavor: raising a child together. The drop-off in father involvement is steep.

In 2010, Hennepin County created a Co-Parent Court modeled after problem-solving courts in the criminal system — like drug courts. The idea is that kids will do better with two involved parents, child support will be more consistent, and the courts will have fewer conflicts to resolve.

On a recent afternoon, 10 mothers and fathers filled the jury box in Peterson's courtroom as he explained the experiment they'll be part of.

"We understand that if you don't have a comfortable place to live or your health isn't good or you've got other problems you're worried about, you can't be an effective parent," he tells the parents.

Parents are offered help from community agencies to find work or deal with domestic violence, addictions or mental health problems. They're required to participate in four weekly co-parenting sessions so they can write a parenting plan covering everything from holiday schedules to communicating with one another.

Maisha Giles and John Jackson are the parent navigators. Over a lunchtime buffet with six moms, they talk about some things to avoid, like bad-mouthing the other parent in front of the child.

"Y'all ever seen this?" Giles asks. "You know, one parent trying to be the favorite parent?"

Jackson jumps in with an example, "You put a punctuation on the end of it like, 'Bet your daddy don't do that!' Those kinds of little things, that's what she was referring to."

One of the moms nods and says, "It's not a competition."

Joseph Arradondo is a 28-year-old dad who went through Co-Parent Court last year. When Arradondo and the mother of his 2-year-old son, Nasir, broke up, he says, he didn't get to see his toddler son for six months.

"I couldn't let that happen. That's my son, that's my boy," Arradondo says. "It's important to me that my son has his father. I grew up in a single-parent household, and I don't understand why any mother would do that to a boy."

Arradondo and Nasir's mom were assigned to go through Co-Parent Court and agreed to share custody. Nasir now stays with his dad three days a week, and Arradondo is paying child support.

Arradondo says Co-Parent Court, held in downtown Minneapolis, gave him a chance to show he's not a deadbeat dad.

"I think more men should go downtown, don't be afraid to go downtown, regardless of if you're afraid that the relationship is going to get even worse," he says. "I think you need to go downtown on the strength of just your child, and ask for time with your children."

It's the children court administrators will be following up with to see if Co-Parent Court pays off.

Virginia father gets green light to seek damages in Utah adoption

Virginia • High court says he was misled about Baby Emma’s adoption in Utah.

By Brooke Adams

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: April 20, 2012 06:15PM
Updated: April 20, 2012 11:04PM

John Wyatt of Dumfries, VA, is trying to get custody of his daughter, Emma, who was given up for adoption to a Utah couple by the girl's mother without his consent.

The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday gave new life to the legal battle over a child known as Baby Emma by ruling her father was “purposefully kept in the dark” about her Utah adoption and could argue in federal court that the proceedings interfered with his parental rights.

In a split decision, the justices said John Wyatt could pursue monetary damages in federal court for loss of companionship, mental anguish, loss of services and expenses incurred in his fight to recover his now 3-year-old daughter. Wyatt has a lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Mark McDermott, a Virginia attorney; A Act of Love, a Utah adoption agency; Lorraine Moon, the agency employee who facilitated the adoption; Larry Jenkins, a Utah attorney; and the adoptive parents.

The federal court had asked the Virginia Supreme Court to settle two questions: whether the commonwealth recognized the right to pursue a tort action for interference with paternal rights and, if so, what burden of proof must be met and what elements constitute a cause of action.

The decision is the first to address such questions in Virginia, the high court noted.

The majority found that while Virginia statutes do not specifically recognize “tortious interference with parental rights,” such a cause of action has existed in common law since 1607 and “continues to exist today.”

Failure to recognize that claim would “leave a substantial gap in the legal protection afforded to the parent-child relationship,” the majority wrote. It said an “overwhelming majority” of courts in “sister states” have reached similar conclusions.

“It is both astonishing and profoundly disturbing that in this case, a biological mother and her parents, with the aid of two licensed attorneys and an adoption agency, could intentionally act to prevent a biological father — who is in no way alleged to be an unfit parent — from legally establishing his parental rights and gaining custody of a child whom the mother did not want to keep, and that this father would have no recourse in the law,” the majority said.

It said the facts of the case showed that the defendants went to “great lengths to disguise their agenda from the biological father, including preventing notice of his daughter’s birth and hiding their intent to have an immediate out-of-state adoption, in order to prevent the legal establishment of his own parental rights.”

The court also found that Wyatt must meet a preponderance of the evidence standard, a less rigorous standard, in proving “tangible and intangible damages” caused by the “unauthorized” adoption. However, under a tort action, Wyatt is not entitled to seek an injunction or new custody orders involving his child.

There were two dissenting opinions in the 4-3 decision. In one dissent, a justice said that while “the facts as pled by Wyatt are unquestionably disturbing,” there was no cause of action under Virginia law and the majority was engaging in “legislating public policy in Virginia through judicial pronouncement.”

The majority, however, said it hoped that threat of civil action would help “deter third parties such as attorneys and adoption agencies from engaging in the sort of actions alleged to have taken place.”

“It means that if third parties interfere with a person’s normal parental rights, you can sue and hold them liable,” said Philip Hirschkop, Wyatt’s attorney. He said the federal case is set for trial in mid-July.

Wyatt and his then-girlfriend Emily Colleen Fahland were dating when she became pregnant. He accompanied Fahland to doctor appointments, and she repeatedly assured him they would raise the child together.

However, at the behest of her parents, Fahland also met with McDermott, an adoption attorney. He instructed Fahland to falsely indicate on adoption paperwork that she did not know Wyatt’s address, according to the court opinion. At McDermott’s urging, she also made other false statements to Wyatt so that he “would not take steps to secure his parental rights and prevent the adoption.”

Fahland gave birth in Virginia on Feb. 10, 2009, and two days later relinquished her rights and custody of the baby to the adoptive couple, who traveled to Virginia to pick up the infant. On Feb. 18, Wyatt initiated a paternity action in Virginia and was ultimately awarded custody of his daughter. However, a Utah court subsequently found he had no standing to intervene and approved the adoption.

The Utah Supreme Court upheld that finding in July 2011, holding that Wyatt did not meet required deadlines for asserting his parental rights under Utah law. Also, the court found that he was barred from arguing that the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act required Utah to follow a Virginia judge’s order granting him custody because he failed to raise that argument in the lower court.

Journey: a Memory

I recently read the novel “The Cat’s Table” by Michael Ondaatje.   It’s a fictional – but, perhaps, autobiographical -- account of an ocean voyage by Michael, an 11 year old boy who travels, on a ship, from Sri Lanka to England to join his mother.

Reading the book brought back some memories for me.

I was about 11 years old when I took almost the same trip, but in reverse.  My mother and I resided in Germany. My dad had found a job in Bangkok, Thailand, and already lived there. Mom and I boarded an unglamorous freighter in Genoa, Italy. From there we travelled through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and on to Bangkok.  

My voyage was not as adventurous as Michael’s. There was no prisoner on board, and I had no crush on a fellow passenger. There was a storm, however, as in the novel. But I was not lashed to the deck while waves crashed around me. I spent the stormy days and nights sick in a cabin.

When the storm subsided, I resumed my wanderings around the ship. I discovered a lounge with a record player, and listened over and over again to a Swedish Rhapsody by Hugo Alfvén. One of the passengers eventually had to tell me to stop.

I made friends with some boys my age who spoke English; that’s how I learned the language.

Michael’s story ends with his arrival in England. My story is still being told.

Suez Canal Bridge, Wikipedia

Pa. appeals court upholds awarding of embryos to wife

April 14, 2012|By Marie McCullough, Inquirer Staff Writer; Philadelphia

http://www.philly.com/

For the first time, a Pennsylvania appeals court has confronted the complex question of who gets custody of embryos, ruling this week in favor of a Chester County woman who hopes to give birth using frozen embryos that her estranged husband wants destroyed.

The Superior Court decision upheld a lower court, but ran counter to the small body of national case law on embryo custody. In six other states where high courts have grappled with disputes over frozen embryos, they concluded that parenthood should not be forced on an unwilling person.

The Chester County couple, Andrea Lynn Reiss and Bret Howard Reber, underwent in vitro fertilization in early 2004 - three months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36 - because they feared cancer treatment would leave her infertile, according to court documents.

Thirteen embryos were created with her eggs and his sperm, then she underwent surgery, followed by eight cycles of chemotherapy, and 37 rounds of radiation.

Reber filed for divorce in December 2006 and later fathered a child with another woman.

Reiss, now 44, sought the frozen embryos in the division of marital property, the decision recounts.

The Court of Common Pleas in Chester County awarded the embryos to her in May. The court accepted Reiss' testimony that her doctors had led her to believe she was infertile, even though she didn't provide definitive medical tests.

The three-judge Superior Court panel affirmed and quoted the trial court's reasoning: "Because Wife cannot achieve genetic parenthood otherwise, we conclude that Wife's interest in biological procreation through the use of these pre-embryos outweighs Husband's professed interest against procreation."

Cheryl Young, the Norristown-based attorney who represented Reiss, said Friday that her client was "very pleased" and "cautiously optimistic," but realized the legal fight might not be over.

Indeed, one of Reber's attorneys, Elizabeth Gardiner of Philadelphia, said Friday: "It is my understanding he does want to appeal" to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Superior Court opined that the couple's conflict could have been avoided if they had signed an agreement spelling out what to do with the embryos in case of divorce or death, or if the state legislature had passed a law addressing the issue.

But even when such agreements or laws are in place, disputes over frozen embryos are an ethical and legal quagmire, said lawyer Jessica Arons, author of a report on the subject.

Madoff Victim Can’t Revise Divorce Deal, Appeals Court Says

Bloomberg

By Chris Dolmetsch - Apr 3, 2012

A New York real estate lawyer who paid his ex-wife $2.7 million of the supposed value of his account with Bernard Madoff can’t revise the agreement because he lost money in the Ponzi scheme, a state appeals court ruled.

The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, today dismissed a suit brought by Steven Simkin against his former wife, Laura Blank, reversing the decision of a Manhattan appellate court, which had said the case could proceed.

Simkin, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP’s real estate department, sued Blank in February 2009, saying she was unjustly enriched by their 2006 divorce settlement. A trial-level judge in Manhattan dismissed the complaint in December 2009, and the intermediate appellate court later reinstated the suit.

Judge Victoria A. Graffeo of the Albany-based Court of Appeals wrote in today’s ruling that Simkin could have redeemed all or part of the investment until Madoff’s Ponzi scheme began to unravel in late 2008, more than two years after the division of property was completed.

“This situation, however sympathetic, is more akin to a martial asset that unexpectedly loses value after dissolution of a marriage,” Graffeo wrote. “The asset had value at the time of the settlement but the purported value did not remain consistent.”

Madoff Account

Simkin and Blank separated in 2002 after almost 30 years of marriage and divorced in August 2006. Simkin agreed to pay Blank $6.25 million in the settlement, including $2.7 million from an account with Madoff that was valued at $5.4 million as of September 2004, according to the ruling.

Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to running what prosecutors say is the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. He is serving a 150- year sentence in federal prison in North Carolina. A trustee is liquidating Madoff’s firm in federal court in New York.

The case is Simkin v. Blank, 101501/2009, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).

Facebook 'Friend' Feature Exposes Bigamist

Updated: Friday, 09 Mar 2012, 8:38 PM CST
Published : Friday, 09 Mar 2012, 5:35 PM CST

MANUEL VALDES, Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) - Facebook's automatic efforts to connect users through "friends" they may know recently led two Washington women to find out they were married to the same man, at the same time.

That led to the man, corrections officer Alan L. O'Neill, being slapped with bigamy charges.

According to charging documents filed Thursday, O'Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O'Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the "People You May Know" feature.

"Wife No. 1 went to wife No. 2's page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake," Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The Associated Press.

Wife No. 1 then called the defendant's mother.

"An hour later the defendant arrived at (Wife No. 1's) apartment, and she asked him several times if they were divorced," court records show. "The defendant said, 'No, we are still married.'"

Neither O'Neill nor his first wife had filed for divorce, according to charging documents. The name change came in December, and later that month he married his second wife.

O'Neill allegedly told wife No. 1 not to tell anybody about his dual marriages, that he would fix it, the documents state. But wife No. 1 alerted authorities.

"Facebook is now a place where people discover things about each other they end up reporting to law enforcement," Lindquist said.

Athima Chansanchai, a freelance journalist who writes about social media, said Facebook over the years has played a role in both creating relationships and destroying them.

"It's just the latest vessel by which people can stray if they want to," she said.

O'Neill, 41, was previously known as Alan Fulk. He has worked as a Pierce County corrections officer for five years, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

He was placed on administrative leave after prosecutors charged him Thursday. He could face up to a year in jail if convicted.

O'Neill and his first wife had issues that went back to 2009. In 2010, his first wife was arrested after an altercation with the woman who later became the second wife.

A Facebook message to wife No. 1 was not immediately returned. There was no immediate phone number available for O'Neill and his second wife.

Lindquist said it's unclear why O'Neill and wife No. 1 didn't go through the divorce.

"Every few years we see one of these (bigamy) cases," he added.

O'Neill is free, but due in court later this month, which is standard procedure for non-violent crimes, Lindquist said.

"About the only danger he would pose is marrying a third woman," he said.

This year's first flowers in my back yard (Feb. 20, 2012)