“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything.” – Albert Einstein

Being Silent Is Being Complicit!

“If I asked you about love you probably quote me a sonnet. But you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone could level you with her eyes. Feeling like! God put an angel on earth just for you…who could rescue you from the depths of hell.

And you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel and to have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. You wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in a hospital room for months holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term “visiting hours” doesn’t apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.

But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy.

The little idiosyncrasies that only I knew about. That’s what made her my wife. Oh, and she had the goods on me, too, she knew all my little peccadillos. People call these things imperfections, but they’re not, aw, that’s the good stuff. And then we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds.”

Taken from Good Will Hunting

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

Lao Tzu

“Silence can only be equated with fraud where there is a legal or moral duty to speak, or where an inquiry left unanswered would be intentionally misleading…..”

Cited: U.S. v. Tweel, 550 F. 2d 297, 299.also ; U.S. v. Prudden, 424 F .2d 1021, 1032; Carmine v. Bowen, 64 A. 932.

“Anything calculated to deceive another to his prejudice and accomplish the purpose, whether it be an act, a word, silence, the suppression of the truth, or other device contrary to the plain rules of common honesty.”

Cited: 23 Am J2d {2.

Love lasts forever. There is nothing more powerful than the bonds of true love and true happiness between two people. Nothing at all that trumps a lifetime spent together.

Nothing at all, except the judicial system. At the end of your life, when you are in your final moments, and you are barred from spending your last breath and hours with your loved one, only then do we truly realize the extent of this broken system.

My name is Stephan Showstark, and I would like to raise public awareness and funds to fight the injustices I faced when I was prohibited from seeing my wife before she passed away. My goal is to stop these injustices; to shine a light from the media on these critical areas that impact and harm so many families. This deterioration of our court system has damaged the fabric of our society and our respect for one another.

Finally, I hope to prevent this kind of injustice from occurring to families in the future through education, judicial policy reform and media coverage. The principals in this case in Miami are Judge Mindy Glazer and attorney Kenneth Kaplan.

The names of the others who were involved in causing such an outrageous act and outcome are to be revealed as time passes. If you, or anyone you know, has dealt with the people who have already been named, or those to be named, please reach out to us as we’d like to hear from you and your knowledge of this obfuscation of justice and elder abuse. This would help to further the investigation.

We strongly encourage anyone who may have knowledge of these events to please come forward and contact us to assist our investigation. We are especially interested in connecting with Nurse/Aide Anna Arteaga, who from December 2013 to June 2014 worked for Catholic Charities as a hospice nurse at a retirement community called The Palace in Coral Gables.

My story is an immoral and tragic disruption to the marital bliss shared by two elderly people. The 21-year relationship blossomed over time to include Susan, my daughter and three children from Susan’s previous marriages. The children had been living with their biological father until their lives were damaged to such an extent that they fled to be with their mother and me. My only daughter was included in this extended family. Our blended family laughed together, cried together and endured the many heartaches and fears as well as the many joys and moments of triumph associated with living in a family environment. Susan, my daughter and Susan’s children were the love of my life and the focus of my world.

I raised Susan’s children as though they were my own, affording them every advantage, including college education, travel, the best schools and a home. Sadly, I was met in return with a manipulative legal scheme to break up our marriage and profit from its demise at a time in our lives when we were most vulnerable.

Susan was diagnosed on Nov. 25, 2012 with a terminal brain tumor in Gainesville, Florida where we lived. That diagnosis led to countless treatments and research, and a total of three surgeries over one year, including numerous medications, chemotherapy, radiation treatments and surgery. I explored every possible means of securing her well-being worldwide and hopeful cure, never leaving her side. Her condition created paralysis, paranoia, confusion and other ill effects for that year that we both struggled to resolve.

On November 26, 2013, one of my stepchildren secreted my wife from me when she was having post-op suture removal following her third surgery in Miami. I was waiting for Susan in a doctor’s office while she went downstairs for a CAT scan when a nurse informed me that they no longer had knowledge of Susan’s whereabouts. My search for her resulted in my learning she was with my stepdaughter. I returned to my hotel to pack and join them when my stepdaughter called to say she owed me no explanation for what was happening with Susan and hung up on me. She had me deliver Susan’s medicines and wheelchair to a parking lot in Miami. I tried to reach Susan numerous times by phone, text and email with no success. They had taken her from the hospital under false pretenses, had Susan change her will and give them power of attorney and then offered to let me hold her hand only in exchange for money. Attorney Kaplan called me at 5 p.m. on 12/9/13 to tell me there is a hearing the following day at 10 a.m. in Miami. They did this without a bond that is to be posted as per the law, without me being present, without my lawyer there, and without notification. They illegally froze our Monies which are still frozen to this day. Since they had changed Susan’s legal papers, I contacted two attorneys, one in Miami and one in Gainesville, Florida, and they said if she was taken from me my wife then for safety purposes move our savings to another bank. Since I was not able to contact my wife in this fluid minute-by-minute, second-by-second drama, I was awaiting some form of empathetic compassionate communication from the other side which never came. I was never allowed to see Susan, my wife and partner of 21 years, ever again. Rather I was divorced from her 31 days after she was taken (and 66 days after her last surgery to relieve paralysis) at a hearing that included no medical testimony nor myself being present, at Christmas time when you can’t even get a parking ticket heard in 31 days in Miami. Susan was testifying incoherently, not answering questions and was often having to be directed back to the original question by her attorney and the judge. My wife in Miami on questioning by her lawyer, Kenneth Kaplan (who was severely rebuked by the 4th District Court of Appeals of Florida for harming others in a divorce case), asking whether she signed the divorce papers, stated, “No,” and of course there was no follow up question, which seemed very odd. The Miami judge, Judge Mindy Glazer (http://www.robeprobe.com/find_judges_result2.php?judge_id=2617&judge_Mindy_S._Glazer), did a bifurcated divorce ending our 21 years in one hour without regard to the fact that the law states the venue was not to be in Miami but in Gainesville, Florida. What was the rush? The judge then sent the remainder of the case back to Gainesville. If you have any past knowledge of these two individuals, help us by contacting us so that we can go to the media.

After having been granted guardianship papers to see my wife in the facility in Miami where she was placed, my attorney and I went there to see her on May 25, 2014. But the staff denied that Susan was even there. This was during Memorial Day weekend. Susan’s two daughters and future son-in-law and one of the owners of The Palace (an upscale senior independent and assisted-living facility in Coral Gables, Florida) along with two Coral Gables policemen confronted Susan in her hospice bed about her husband being downstairs. One can only imagine the pressure and anguish Susan was under – with six people around her – and only 15 days away from passing away. We were armed with a certified court order with a judge’s signature. But after some private conversation the police and owner said they could not verify the judge’s signature and courts are closed until Tuesday. But when Tuesday, May 27 came around, the Miami courts remained closed due to a mold problem.

Also that same day Susan called me twice – 20 minutes apart. I called her back between the two calls and left a message telling her that I missed her, I loved her and I wanted to be with her. She sounded as though someone had a hand over her mouth when speaking into the phone. I immediately called the administrative offices at the facility she was staying at and begged them to send a nurse to her room to check on her. The administrator told me that he couldn’t do that because it was a “legal matter.” I pleaded with him to send somebody. If a person is in need of help, they should receive it. But this man repeatedly ignored my request and Susan’s needs, furthering the scheme to separate me from my wife. This is my last memory of her, as I did not speak to her or see her again before she passed away on June 9, 2014.

It was known by all the children through calls and texts that Susan was saddened and depressed through this journey. I had numerous back and forth texts about this with all the children. Susan’s children indicated they were happy that she had a neuro-oncology psychiatrist appointment the day after her third surgery suture removal. But after she disappeared, they canceled the psychiatry appointment. As I found out later in court, they feared she would be found incompetent, and that would have put the divorce scheme on hold for three years. A world-renowned neuro-psychologist submitted an affidavit and testified that my wife was having problems with competency and presented information to the Gainesville judge after the divorce. The court didn’t care.

I have been in the court system for almost four years now, filing appeals on the fact that having this court hearing in Miami was unjust and illegal. We lived in Gainesville, Florida, which is where the hearing should have taken place (not that there should have been a hearing in the first place). My guardianship attorney on May 28, 2014 received an extortion e-mail from the opposing attorney that said if I drop the appeals they will find a way that I could be with my wife in Hospice. This exploited Susan’s mental incapacity for financial gain.

Lies given to the Gainesville Judge not being addressed, hiding of the new Power of Attorney my wife signed from the courts that had not been addressed by the Judiciary, the Judge’s refusal to recuse himself, laws not being carried out and adhered to. Also the Judge in Miami stating, “Oh I know brain cancer,” to my wife’s attorney and step children. Comments that were later made by the Miami Judge behind closed doors were allowed into the official record. That’s simply unethical.

Susan had a medical episode the day before the divorce. She could not swallow and was paralyzed and appeared in court that day in a wheelchair with an aide. Fraud charges were brought and yet a judge saying, “I don’t want to hear about fraud on the court unless you can show how it has anything to do with division of property,” left my attorney and me speechless. My wife’s sister, who worked for me, told my office manager that the kids had her well-hidden. Susan’s sister and grandson could not even reach her. From the first days of her diagnosis to the re-occurrence of the dreaded tumor, I had been in contact with a doctor in New York City who had all of my wife’s medical MRIs and other records. He was saving people’s lives by injecting through the femoral artery the medicine that was deposited on a patient’s brain tumor. Once I found out that my wife’s vaccine had failed, I could not contact her to tell her that there was another hope lying ahead for her with Dr. John Boockvar (https://youtu.be/uf0vmwYIjDg). As I stated the step-children and a high probability Kaplan made sure no contact would occur between us. These are the injustices I wish to fight.

The divorce gave my wife’s children the entire inheritance of her will. They robbed me of the last few months of my wife’s life to make a profit off of her death.

I am both heartbroken and enraged by what has happened. My wife died shortly thereafter, never comprehending the tireless efforts I made to get back to her.

I hope to prevent this kind of injustice from occurring to families in the future through judicial watchdog policy reform. I know that I am not alone in this battle and that there are situations similar to mine happening every single day due to this unfairness in the family court system.

My goal is to empower the public through existing platforms in the judicial system to require judges to be ethical, lawful and just. These individuals are responsible for you and your families’ futures when you enter the courtroom, and many judges abuse this power. I will lobby for stronger monitoring of judicial oversight and for the manner in which judges and lawyers conduct themselves. I in no way, believe that the lack of judicial curiosity and ethics by a capricious judge and lawyer is the rule but rather the exception However, it is necessary to enhance the process and accessibility for people to report and right an unjust situation should it ever arise. I am looking to prevent this type of situation from happening to other people.

It’s time for change. But change won’t happen overnight. Help us with social media to break up the good old boys club of legal fellowship hometowning, camaraderie, outright lack of judicial morality and lack of judicial curiosity, with laziness thrown in. This must come to an end. If you have been a victim of this judge and attorney, notify us. Things like this can happen to anyone at any time without any warning or knowledge. If you have experienced this unlawful courtroom behavior, tell us and join our efforts for change. Use your social media skills to spread the word so future generations will not endure these injustices. Collectively we need to show them that we are watching through social media. The people are the power. If you have observed Injustice, report it. The media must see that these are not isolated instances of injustice.

Being Silent Is Being Complicit!

Have the courage to help so many others who have been harmed by The Runaway Judicial System. Judges and attorneys have to be held accountable. There has to be some standard of quality for their actions and their system. When you are in the court system, you may be experiencing some of the most crucial and scariest moments of your lives. The last thing you need is incompetent judges and attorneys.

As John Walsh has a TV show about criminals in the streets, we need an exposé on the judicial system. We need to shine a light to expose the court system and make it accountable and end this inconsistency and incompetency.

I am sure the black robes and suits and ties are just as tired of some of the stresses they are under.

This is not a Witch Hunt. We must elevate all of us. This is to save the fabric of our society. For the despair and destruction for all of us starts at the bottom then filters out to all of us saying, “what’s the use of fighting for change.”

We are all in this together. We are the American unit. We are all on this rock in space together. Think about it. By stopping the spread of a disease in another country, we protect our people. Think about it. If we can create an atmosphere of integrity and trust, it can spread up the ladder of our nation. And then we protect the weakest among us.

Remember. Being Silent Is Being Complicit!

To accomplish these goals, I am raising money to fund fees, consultants and other expenses that come along with this kind of legal effort. Please consider donating. Additionally, if you or any of your connections have any experience moving legislation through the system, and/or with the media, these contacts would help many people and I would be very interested in hearing from you.

I, in no way, wish to profit from your donations, but will use the money to fight these injustices from occurring in the future. This type of inconsistency by judges and exploitation by the judicial system must be stopped. Please join me in my efforts to bring an end to the abuse of people from the lawyers and Judges of the Family Courts. Many people have been abused by opportunistic members of this group. Together we can stop them.