Judge Allgood's court needs more observers

Editor:

Wouldnt it be beneficial to society and the families involved if Superior Court Judge Lyn Allgoods court were to be open to the scrutiny of a non-participating, reasonably sized gallery of onlookers?

Ive heard enough anecdotal remarks from a variety of folks who have appeared in Allgoods court to suspect the judge may have a knee-jerk bias on behalf of the young mothers who appear before him - a bias which quite possibly results in a degree of denial of the interests of the helpless children involved!

One particular case with which Im familiar is that of young grandparents seeking legal redress when they were arbitrarily denied visitation time with their grandchild by their young mother. While the court-ordered visitation times were far from generous, they were court-ordered and the mothers failure to comply with the order would appear to the average citizen to be an act in contempt of court.

Presented with the facts of the mothers non-compliance with his own order, the judge, in effect, changed the subject and intimidated the grandparents by expressing concern that they might have been badmouthing the mother to the child. No such charge had been made and after speaking to the child, the judge dropped the subject. Did Allgood charge the mother with non-compliance with his court order? No! Why not?

As I suggested at the opening of this letter, perhaps observing, non-participating citizens could figure out why not?

Gene L. Rickaby

Martinez