Parent's Rights Advocate Jailed

ANCPR Calls For Immediate Release of Purple Heart House Founder

 

10/22/98 10:15 PM

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On Friday, October 22, 1998, noted parent's rights advocate, Christopher Robin, was sentenced to a 30 day jail term by Los Angeles County Municipal Court Judge Ronald Schoenberg. The judge, and Mr. Robin's court appointed Public Defender both had told him to sell his house in order to pay his child support arrears which amount to $9000.00. The house in question is the Purple Heart House in Hollywood which has become well known to parents and father's rights groups internationally. Robin, who is reportedly only a part owner of the house, refused, and was subsequently sentenced to jail

Christopher Robin is founder of the Purple Heart Foundation. The Purple Heart House, located at 2297 Holly Drive in Hollywood, California is a local landmark. The two story home is covered with Purple Hearts, each with the picture of a child who has been separated from his or her non-custodial parent as the result of a court ordered sole custody decree. To date there are well over 700 broken families commemorated on the walls of the house. The pictures have been sent from countries spanning the globe.

The plight of Christopher Robin is particularly distressing in light of the wide disparity between his and his ex-wife's standard of living. His ex-wife, Brandy Robin, is the daughter of Joanne Hale, a millionaire, and CEO of the Gene Autry Museum. Brandy is reportedly living with her mother, working at a high paying job at Universal Studios, driving a new Lexus, and has recently had a facelift. In contrast, Christopher Robin is a voice coach with a very unstable income. He has also been denied any contact with his son for over two years.

"We feel that the imprisonment of Mr. Robin is completely unjustified," said Lowell Jaks, President of ANCPR, the Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights. "Not only is his child not suffering as the result of Christopher's unstable income, but we fear for Mr. Robin's health which has suffered due to the stress of this trial. How, we ask, does jailing this man and further endangering his health benefit his child? It is our suspicion that Judge Schoenberg actually has an agenda. He is sending a message to all parents who protest against the injustices of Family Court-Back off, or go to jail."

ANCPR is calling on its 2500 members nationwide to wage a letter writing campaign, urging Judge Schoenberg to release Christopher Robin immediately and unconditionally. ANCPR will also call on Judge Schoenberg to order that Christopher Robin be re-united with his son. ANCPR is also calling on all interested parents to attend its protest march to take place on Saturday, October 24 from 8:30 AM until 12:30 PM and the College of the Canyons, 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road in Santa Clarita. As part of the activities, leaders of ANCPR, along with other members and parents rights advocacy groups will stage a ceremonial burning of their child support and custody orders to demonstrate their contempt for a court system that is systematically destroying families. "We had originally planned to burn just our support orders," said Lowell Jaks. "But now, the first thing to burn will be a miniature effigy of Judge Schoenberg. We hope he gets the message. We're watching, we're paying attention, and we're ready to fight back."

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