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BRING DOWN MARY BROWN

Judge Mary Brown is currently running as a write-in candidate for the 301st Dallas Family District Court because she somehow screwed up her filing to run for election this year.  Then she further screwed up by accepting campaign contributions before she had filed to run as a write-in candidate which is an ethics violation.

Neither of these screw-ups surprises me since she had permanently screwed up the perfectly good relationships that I had with my daughters.

Here is my argument as to why it is critical to ensure that Mary Brown’s butt never sits on a judge’s seat ever again.

Family Court Judges in Texas are given “broad discretion to make decisions in the best interests of the child”.  If you appeal a family court judge’s decision, the appellate court ruling will typically start by saying: “Under an abuse of discretion standard, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s actions.” In layman’s language, that means it is nearly impossible for an appellate court to overturn a family court judge’s decision, especially when it comes to those relating to custody and possession of the child.  So even if you have the financial means to file an appeal, the chances of prevailing are practically zero.  This means that a family court judge is like a King/Queen answerable to no one when it comes to making decisions regarding your child.  In fact, a family court judge even boasted in a forum that I once attended: “I can drive a MacTruck through the law and no one can do anything about it”.

So you would think that such a powerful position as a family court judge should be occupied by only the best of the best people.  Sadly, the opposite is the case as many failed lawyers with the right political connections end up becoming family court judges.  We then have a situation that is like handing a loaded gun into the hands of an immature child.  That is exactly how I would describe Judge Mary Brown and her powers.

In a nutshell, based on my experience with Mary Brown starting from August of 2004 when I first appeared in her court when she was still an Associate Judge, I would say that she is the worst of the worst among the judges I encountered in the family court system over an 18-year period.  During the time I was in her court before I finally got her recused, she destroyed the perfectly good relationship that I had with my daughters due to her capricious and thoughtless decisions.

Based on my experience, following are the reasons I believe Judge Mary Brown is unfit to continue as a judge:

  1. She is highly gullible – at a temporary orders hearing in August 2004, my ex-wife’s attorney convinced her that Indian women who got into arranged marriages were essentially slaves to the men who brought them to the US and hence needed to be protected by the court. Anyone who has some basic knowledge of Indian culture would know that no woman (or man) in the present day is forced into an arranged marriage. In reality, my ex-wife and I did not have an “arranged marriage” but little things like facts do not bother Mary Brown. She hit me with an indefinite $4000/month support payment when I was off project and not earning, she had me and my parents evicted from my home which was later proved to be my separate property and she gave me just two 3-hour periods of visits with my then 3-year-old and 5-year-old daughters thus starting the downslide in my relationship with them.
  2. She is corrupt – I learned later that I needed to find a lawyer/law firm who had contributed to her elections in order to get reasonable decisions in her court.
  3. She is a racist who is biased against brown-skinned Indian men – she even made a statement in open court asking why people like me came to this country.
  4. She has some nexus with mental health professionals – twice, for no valid reason, after I had my daughters with me for several years, she sent me off for psychological evaluation forcing me to spend thousands of dollars just to get certified as fit to get my daughters back.
  5. She makes thoughtless and capricious decisions – twice, for no valid reason, after I had my daughters with me for some years, she put me on supervised visitation. Her reasoning?  She said in open court: “I know you love your daughters and I know your daughters love you, but I think it best that you see them in a supervised setting”.  When I protested saying that would have a very negative impact on my daughters and hence I would not go for the supervised visits she said, “Just remember that if you don’t go that means you don’t love your daughters and I will decide accordingly”.  So, I had to spend hundreds of dollars to see my daughters twice a week at a supervised location and as I expected, the first set of questions from my brilliant daughters at the supervised setting was, “Why are we here?  What did you do that the judge made us come here to see you?”.  I could see the regard they had for me disappearing in front of my eyes.
  6. She has writing skills that are worse than that of a High School student – the Orders she writes by hand are usually riddled with grammatical mistakes and outright errors.
  7. Finally, she has a callous attitude towards fathers, especially brown-skinned ones. In 2013, when I was scheduled to visit my dying mother in India along with my daughters, at a supposed report-back hearing, she asked me to wait in court with the bailiff and instructed my ex-wife to go to my house and take my daughters.  I protested saying to her that she was punishing the children’s grandmother for no good reason by not allowing them to travel with me to see her before she died.  That appeared to enrage/frighten her and subsequent to that hearing she changed my case to “High Security” status meaning that for all future hearings I would have 2 bailiffs in court watching me!

To conclude – the children’s grandmother died in October 2013 without seeing her beloved granddaughters who she had helped me raise.  Further, my daughters never again returned to stay in my home as Judge Brown’s handwritten “Order” of July 12, 2013, gave me no pathway to get them back home (as I was later told by the late Judge Jeff Coen she was supposed to have done). Despite all my efforts to bring them back home over the years (including sitting for hundreds of hours in family reunification counseling and going to law school and passing Bar exams in order to fight my case in both trial and appellate courts), I was unsuccessful in bringing them back home.  In effect, Judge Brown aided and abetted my ex-wife to alienate my daughters against me due to which the father-daughter relationship was completely broken for good which ensured that they would never agree to come back to my home again or have anything to do with me.

Now, finally, we have an opportunity to send this half-wit judge packing for good so that someone competent and decent can take her place.  So, when you go into that polling booth, I strongly recommend that, whatever name you write, DON’T WRITE DOWN MARY BROWN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Another win against Cancel Culture…

Item 10 magically disappeared off the Agenda

Score – Venky:2, Woke Mob:0

Win against Cancel Culture!

Score – Venky:1, Woke Mob:0

Attack on free speech by Cancel Culture

After over a year when I did not have the time or inclination to write in my blog, finally I have an issue which has provided me the motivation.  So here it goes…

I moved to the City of Coppell from Fremont, California in July 2002 to take up a job in this area and then bought a house in this City later that year.

After living in this lovely City for a few years, I thought I should volunteer my time and give back to this City in some manner.

Around the year 2005 (if memory serves me right), I came to know about several Boards in the City where one could serve as a volunteer.  One of the Boards that sounded interesting was the Conduct Review Board as it was supposed to look into any malfeasance by City personnel from the Mayor downwards.  So I applied to be on this Board, got appointed and was then sworn-in at a public function at City Hall.

At the time I joined this Board, I thought the Board would meet every few months to deal with any issues that were brought to the attention of this Board.

This Board position expires every 2 years and one needs to reapply to be reappointed.  I did that every 2 years since I first joined and got routinely reappointed and sworn-in each time except for one 2 year period many years ago where I forgot to apply and so I was not on the Board during that period.

In effect, I have been a member of this Board for some 14 years.

During this period this Board NEVER met even once presumably because not a SINGLE City personnel had ever engaged in any misconduct or malfeasance.  The only thing I had to do was to reapply and attend a function to get sworn-in every couple of years to continue to be on this Board.

After about a decade, I found the fact that no issue ever coming before this Board so astonishing that I recall remarking once at a function to the then Mayor Karen Hunt: “Either Coppell City personnel are so clean that they never do anything wrong – or they are so clever that they never get caught when they do anything wrong!”. 

As usual, I re-applied this year to continue on this Board and got reappointed without any interview.  Unfortunately, I missed attending the swearing-in ceremony (which I had never missed in the past) due to some last-minute conflict and was sworn-in a few days later in a private ceremony (pictured above).

I was expecting that this will be another uneventful 2 years of do-nothing time vis-à-vis this Board till, to my great surprise, I learned a few days ago that my membership of this Board became the subject of a controversy.

To provide the context to this controversy, I have to refer to another aspect of my life.

Sometime in 2010-11, I was contacted by the then President of the Coppell Republican Club, David Bittermann.  He was apparently impressed with a presentation I had made to the Coppell City Council sometime earlier and invited to join the Board of this organization as the VP of Programs.  I accepted the invitation and then over the years conducted forums for candidates running for the Dallas Fifth Court of Appeals, Coppell City Council, Texas House of Representatives and US Congress (among other things).  I was even invited to attend the State Republican Party Convention which I did and, in the process, met some of the bigwigs in the Republican party, both State and National level leaders.  Later I became President of the same club but sometime in 2013-14, I resigned due to both a difference of opinion with other Board members as well as lack of time as I had to deal with some personal matters due to which I decided to attend law school.  During my tenure at the Coppell Republican Club, I used to manage their Facebook group.  On my departure from this club, I started my own Facebook group in September 2014 which I initially called Coppell Opinions and later renamed it to Coppell Global Public Square (CGPS).

Most of the people who came to know me during my tenure at the Coppell Republican Club joined this new group at my invitation.  This included Mayors (including the current Mayor, Wes Mays, who was a member right from the outset some 7 years ago, who I endorsed in this group after he visited me in my home when he was running for election this year, but recently left the group possibly due to the current controversy, a spineless, CYA, action in my opinion), City Council members, judges, lawyers and many other highly reputable individuals. 

I was clear from the outset that this would be a non-partisan group and all viewpoints stated intelligently, however controversial, would be entertained.  There would be no room for political correctness.  Further, this group would definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea and if someone who joined did not like reading the posts, he/she could easily leave.

Most importantly, this was a PRIVATE group, meaning no one outside of the group could read any of the posts and anyone doing so by joining this group was doing so by his or her own CHOICE.  The best analogy I could use to describe this group – it is like someone choosing to come into my house because they believed I had something worthwhile to say and then either staying (if they liked what they heard) or leaving (if they did not like what they heard).  IN NO EVENT WOULD I ALLOW ANYONE TO COME INTO MY HOUSE/GROUP AND TELL ME WHAT I COULD OR COULD NOT SAY AND IF YOU DID SO YOU WOULD BE SUMMARILY EJECTED FROM MY HOUSE/GROUP.

Having said that, the only entity that had any say on what I could or could not post was Facebook itself.  So none of the 10,000 odd posts that can be currently found in the group are in in violation of any Facebook guideline.

See this link for a more detailed description of this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1488932914712931

Now we come to the controversy.

A woman by the name of Amelia Anderson (see: https://www.facebook.com/amelia.anderson.75) has recently filed a Code of Conduct complaint against me stating there in essence “Mr. Venkatraman has a public record of making racist, homophobic and misogynistic statements in writing” and attaching to her complaint some 15 screenshots from the CGPS group (which would constitute around 0.15% of the 10,000 odd posts I have made in this group since its inception).

On doing some investigation, I learned that she was the wife of Robert Anderson (see: https://www.facebook.com/robert.anderson.12935) who recently ran to become Mayor of Coppell and was soundly defeated.

Finally, my response to this complaint.

In the over 7 years that this PRIVATE group has been in existence, I have made around 10,000 posts (as stated above) on pretty much every topic under the sun.  Friends have communicated to me that they enjoyed reading my posts since they found my posts to be refreshing, fearless, unfiltered, politically incorrect, telling it like it is, not holding back on anything, etc. More importantly, they told me that they agreed with most of my posts and that I was saying things in writing that they were too afraid to say in the current environment where everyone has to watch what they say due to the fear of being CANCELLED. So much so they were too nervous even to “like” anything I posted in the group leave alone comment or post themselves in the group.  In recent months they warned me that one day the “woke mob” (which has nowadays taken upon itself to decide what one can or cannot say) will come after me and try to CANCEL me as well.  I had told them that I would not be intimidated by anyone and I did not come to this country, which prides itself on allowing everyone FREE SPEECH, over 37 years ago only to allow some crazy nutjobs to cow me down and tell me what I can or cannot say in my own PRIVATE group.

Now it appears that the woke mob is targeting me and the spearhead of this woke mob is this woman who is either clueless and does not know that I am on a Board that has never met in 16 years, I have not been paid a penny to be on this Board and so it makes little difference to me whether I am on this Board or not and hence she is engaging in a futile exercise in trying to get me removed from this Board – or she is shilling for her husband  who may continue to harbor some political ambitions and this complaint could be part of some grand strategy by him.

In any event, whatever, the motivation of this nitwit might be, she is clearly an embodiment of the CANCEL CULTURE of this time and so, as a matter of principle and with the support of friends who want me to take on this CANCEL CULTURE, I am NOT going to step aside even from this inconsequential role as a member of the Conduct Review Board without a fight.

So gird your loins and be prepared for combat, you woke folks…

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Letter to my alienated daughter #8

I bought this house in 2002 because my loving faithful daughter told me when we were moving from CA to TX that she wanted an upstairs-downstairs house!

I bought this house in 2002 because my loving faithful daughter told me when we were moving from CA to TX that she wanted an upstairs-downstairs house!

Dear Sakshi,

In 2001, when you were just 3 years old, and I had decided to move from California to Texas to take up a new job, you said “Dad – my friend here has an upstairs-downstairs house. I want to also have an upstairs-downstairs house. Can you get me one?”.

Since I could refuse you nothing from the time you were first born and looked at me with your beautiful brown eyes, I immediately said “Of course, I will get you one konthey (baby)”.

So I told the realtors in Dallas not to bother to even show me any house that did not have “upstairs-downstairs”. Eventually, I zeroed in on this house with 2 stories.

At least from my end, I have some very fond memories (bolstered by thousands of pictures and hundreds of hours of video) of you and your sister growing up in this house. So it was really painful to me (and it still pains me till today) when you made it appear during your testimony in court that nothing good ever happened to you when you were with me in this house. (A more competent lawyer would have torn your testimony apart for being so extreme and absolute in your statements but that is another story).

Under the circumstances, I can be reconciled with the fact that you and I may never have a relationship again and move on with my life ONLY when I am able to find out what is the rationale based on which you have completely rejected me.

Per Dr. Richard Warshak an authority on Parental Alienation regarding a parent who alienates a child from another parent:

“Through persistent bad-mouthing, lies, exaggerations, overlooking positives, and drum-beating negatives, they manipulate their children to reject the other parent in the same way a politician paints a unfavorable picture to alienate voters from the opponent.”

At this time, I believe your mother engaged in this type of behavior. As long as I believe that is what happened to you, you can rest assured that your mother will pay a steep price for destroying your relationship with me. On the other hand, if it is some other reason that has ripped us apart, it might be in the best interest of everyone involved that you let me know what exactly happened (from your perspective) that turned my “loving faithful daughter” into somebody I cannot recognize anymore.

I assure you that I will leave no stone unturned to figure out what happened to the girl who used to be the apple of my eye and the light of my life, however long it takes.

Hopefully, one day, sooner rather than later, you will let me know “What happened?” and bring an end to this quest.

Best wishes.

Venky Venkatraman
B.Tech, MBA, JD



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Letter to my alienated daughter #7

Cute comment on my blog by my loving faithful daughter when she was just 13 – weaponized by her in court 3 years later!

Dear Sakshi,

In November 2012 I wrote a blog (see:
https://venkyvenkatraman.com/2019/04/letter-to-my-alienated-daughter-7/ ) after being part of a jury as if I was actually addressing you and your sister. You were smart enough even then, when just 13 years old, to write a nice comment which was even appreciated by the now CISD Superintendent, Brad Hunt (see above).

Then just 3 years later, you used what I wrote in my blog and what I might have told you in private (don’t recall ever telling you that a jury panel was “12 idiots picked off the street”, though) to effectively weaponize that against me in court (see above), along with your testimony that followed, to pretty much torpedo my quest to bring you and your sister back home.

Clearly, that ingenious idea was entirely yours as neither your mom nor her lawyer would have known about this blog from 3 years ago and what I may or may not have said to you in private.

Now that another 3 years have gone by since your testimony, do you have any regrets about doing this? If you do, then I will forgive you as you were just as a (precocious) child who did not understand the long term ramifications of what you were doing. On the other hand, if you have no regrets even now at age 20 for what you did when you were still 16, then I can only say, Beware of Karma. One fine day, someone who was close to you and to whom you confided private matters, will spill those confidences (even distorted) in open court causing you great embarrassment and consternation. And that person could even be your own child! And on that day you will remember and regret what you did in November 2015.

As always, I am waiting for your eyes to open and if and when that day comes, if I am still alive and kicking, I will welcome you back with open arms.

Best wishes.

Venky Venkatraman
B.Tech, MBA, JD

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Letter to my alienated daughter #5

My loving faithful daughter made this in kindergarten!

Dear Sakshi,

I had sent you this communication when you took on your new role:

I made this comment on your post and it never got published.  And there are no other comments either.  One way you can ensure that people pay less and less attention to your paper is if you ignore and disrespect your readers or don’t interact at all with them.  If you are really looking for ways to revive people’s interest in journalism and journalists, keep that in mind.

P.S.  In the event you would prefer such feedback be sent to you privately, just me know and I will be happy to do so.

Congrats on your new position and best wishes for a successful tenure as Editor-in-Chief!

With respect to your question “Would people even care if our industry quietly faded into nothing?” my response is in this era of “fake news” and spin, people are yearning for reporting which is unbiased and covers a story from all angles. Rarely do we see that nowadays with the so-called journalists wanting to add their spin to every story they write. So if your paper under your leadership provides unvarnished facts such that people begin to trust in your reporting, you and your paper will thrive. On the other hand, if you cherry pick facts to reach some predetermined conclusions, then eventually people will see through it and your readership will dwindle to just the hard-core ideologues who agree with your point of view.

So give this some thought – and to show that you do actually care for other points of view, I hope you will publish this comment.

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Letter to my alienated daughter #4


My loving faithful daughter while in elementary school…

Dear Sakshi,

Today at the gym I ran into an old friend after a long time who asked me “How is Sakshi?”.

For a moment I thought of answering “truthfully”, “I have not seen her in almost 2 years.  She says she has no relationship with me. So I have no idea”.

Instead I chose to respond “She is doing great. She is in NYU and she is already the Editor-in-Chief of her college newspaper.  I am very proud of her”.

Lesson to you as a soon-to-be journalist – so-called “truth” can be used as a weapon by selectively revealing some information but not disclosing other relevant information.

Hope you will keep that in mind while talking or writing about me and our “relationship” (or lack thereof, according to you).

Best wishes.

Venky Venkatraman

B.Tech, MBA, JD

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Letter to my alienated daughter #3

About 5 years ago, my loving faithful daughter wanted to go to Tisch school at NYU and be an actress!

Dear Sakshi,

I got an alert about an online post where you were criticized and later admitted your error.  See:

“WSN Editor-in-Chief Sakshi Venkatraman admitted the piece “was written with a clear bias” and “was sensationalist and wrong.” Venkatraman also acknowledged that the comparison to McInnes and Yiannopoulos “was clearly a reach—and disrespectful.”” From:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/03/13/sars-m13.html

I really wish you would bring that kind of clear thinking to your relationship with your own father to whom you might owe an apology as well!

I am also impressed by your response to this controversy – shows your maturity.  See:

http://www.collegemediamatters.com/2019/03/12/objectivity-questioned/

As someone with far more experience, I would like to be on your side and advise you when someone attacks you online or elsewhere and you feel beleaguered – for that you need to reach out to me.

Best wishes.

Venky Venkatraman

B.Tech, MBA, JD

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Letter to my alienated daughter #2

Note from my loving, faithful daughter from eons ago

Hello Sakshi,

Very impressed with this statement (presumably) made by you in https://nyunews.com/2019/02/19/statement-from-washington-square-news/ and I agree 100% with it.

But when I saw the line “We publicly acknowledge when we make errors and welcome letters to the editor from anyone disagreeing with how we do our jobs.” I had to say to myself “Really?” since you have failed to publish in your paper the constructive criticism I have provided on many of your writings.

I hope you are able to see the dichotomy here – if not, I am hoping some more seasoned journalist will be able to point it out to you one day.

Further, you state “If some activists choose not to provide comment for our coverage, then we’re left to report on what is said in public forums and meetings. “. Based on that I think you would agree that if you do not provide any responses to communications sent directly to you, then I am left with only the choice of responding to you in a public forum.

Hope you will give that some thought.

Best wishes.

Venky Venkatraman

B.Tech, MBA, JD

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