Those factors include how the parents interact and are bonded with their children; the moral fitness of both parents; their willingness to work with the other; and mental and physical health of both parents, among others.

The Daily Press & Argus randomly reviewed about three dozen divorce or child-custody cases assigned to Garagiola and learned that, in some of her cases, the judge deemed the father unsuitable to have custody of his children either because of allegations of domestic violence, alcohol or substance abuse, mental illness, lack of financial support, or similar reasons. In these cases, Garagiola granted physical custody to the mother and gave the father visitation.

Yet in some cases where the mother appears unsuitable due to alcohol or substance abuse, mental illness or other issues, Garagiola still awarded custody to the mother, even when the children’s court-appointed attorneys, social worker, psychologists or Friend of the Court determine the mother is the less-desirable parent.

Garagiola said she cannot talk about the specifics of individual cases.

“I feel I was labeled by the judge in a negative manner,” Andrew Basa said after his son and daughter were taken from him. “Everything was one-sided in (my ex-wife’s) favor. In all honesty, I don’t think I was given beyond a reasonable doubt in anything or that anything I said was taken to heart.”

Andrew Basa said his ex-wife, Carleen Gautz, had custody of the children and he paid child support, once falling behind when he lost his job due to downsizing, but he caught up. He said his ex-wife gave him custody of their children in 2007 because she was moving to Arkansas to live with her parents because she told him she was about to become homeless.

Andrew Basa and his current wife, Amy, have a letter that his ex-wife wrote in which she encourages Garagiola to give him custody of Chloe and Karl.

“The judge would not consider it,” he said.

Carlene Gautz testified at a hearing that she felt she had no choice because it was it either move “or become homeless” due to financial difficulties.

However, court documents state that Gautz voluntarily left a full-time job with the University of Michigan Brighton Health Center, where she was making $11.66 an hour, to move to Arkansas to be with her parents. About two months after relocating, Gautz found a job paying her $16 an hour.

Both the judge and Gautz chastised Andrew Basa for frequently changing jobs, Gentry said.

“In reality, his history reveals that whenever he was laid off from a position, he usually quickly secured a new one and then advanced to full-time status and higher rank,” Gentry wrote in court documents.

The appeals court agreed with Gentry, and said Garagiola erred when the judge “overemphasized (Gautz’s) improved life in Arkansas instead of focusing on the benefits to the children from the move.”

“Instead of focusing on defendant’s failure and plaintiff’s improved financial stability, the trial court should have focused its analysis on whether a $4.34 hourly wage increase and proximity to plaintiff’s parents had the capacity to improve the children’s lives, even though the move would result in a loss of the continued presence” of their father in their everyday lives, the appeals court opinion stated.

Gentry said Garagiola found Andrew Basa’s living with his father as “unstable,” but considered Gautz’s living with her parents as “improving her stability.” He said the judge found Andrew Basa’s layoffs to mean he was “economically unstable,” but the judge dismisses Gautz quitting a financially stable job as a necessity.

Chloe Basa said she told Garagiola that she felt abandoned by her mother, but the judge ignored her feelings.

Gautz even acknowledged that Chloe felt she had been abandoned by her mother’s move, but the judge takes issue with the children’s court-appointed attorney as well as their therapist using that same characterization.

Garagiola dismissed the experts’ opinions, saying she found Gautz was “demonstrating responsible and necessary behavior” under the circumstances, according to the judge’s August 2008 order granting Gautz permission to relocate her children to Arkansas.

The judge further notes that she found it “concerning” that Andrew Basa, Amy Basa and none of the professionals involved in the case had helped the children understand their mother’s move to Arkansas was anything but abandonment.

“While ‘abandonment’ is the children’s experience, that is not the reality of the circumstances of mother’s move to Arkansas, as the move was motivated by financial necessity,” the judge wrote in her opinion.

However, the appeals court took Garagiola to task, saying her ruling “failed to consider Chloe’s feelings of abandonment” by her mother.

A father’s value

Experts agree that children need their fathers in their lives.

“Too often, the system looks at the mother and assumes the mother is solely responsible for upkeep,” said Debi Cain, executive director of the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. “The bottom line is, for the best interest (of children), it’s most advantageous if a caring and active father is in their life as well.”

Cain says that in any courtroom across the state, there is an equal number of women making the same complaint about a judge being prejudiced against her.

“The reality is, we expect the people who make those recommendations to be experts in everything — alcohol abuse, drug abuse, child abuse and neglect,” she said. “We expect them to understand sexual violence in the family. The truth is, in my experience, the reality is that most professionals have very little training (in those) issues. The reality is, the evaluations are only as good as the people who make them.”

When asked why the court system bothers to use GALs to make recommendations, Cain replied: “Whatever they offer is that much more information (for a judge to consider).”

However, Cain said, the reality is that the judge, attorneys or GALs may not ever get a “complete picture.”

Waiting on answers

Meanwhile, Andrew Basa continues his fight for his children while trying to enjoy the moments, like Christmas, that he gets with his children.

He said he is cautious about the appeals court’s ruling because the family must still return to Garagiola’s courtroom for her revised analysis of his case.

Amy Basa said the couple is disheartened to learn Chloe and Karl are not receiving the court-ordered counseling on a regular basis and that their mother is mostly absent from their upbringing.

“Their mom is at school all day Monday through Thursday, so she’s really there for them only on Friday and weekends,” she said. “Their grandma and grandpa put them to bed and feed them. Their grandma and grandpa are raising them.”

Those factors include how the parents interact and are bonded with their children; the moral fitness of both parents; their willingness to work with the other; and mental and physical health of both parents, among others.

The Daily Press & Argus randomly reviewed about three dozen divorce or child-custody cases assigned to Garagiola and learned that, in some of her cases, the judge deemed the father unsuitable to have custody of his children either because of allegations of domestic violence, alcohol or substance abuse, mental illness, lack of financial support, or similar reasons. In these cases, Garagiola granted physical custody to the mother and gave the father visitation.

Yet in some cases where the mother appears unsuitable due to alcohol or substance abuse, mental illness or other issues, Garagiola still awarded custody to the mother, even when the children’s court-appointed attorneys, social worker, psychologists or Friend of the Court determine the mother is the less-desirable parent.

Garagiola said she cannot talk about the specifics of individual cases.

“I feel I was labeled by the judge in a negative manner,” Andrew Basa said after his son and daughter were taken from him. “Everything was one-sided in (my ex-wife’s) favor. In all honesty, I don’t think I was given beyond a reasonable doubt in anything or that anything I said was taken to heart.”

Andrew Basa said his ex-wife, Carleen Gautz, had custody of the children and he paid child support, once falling behind when he lost his job due to downsizing, but he caught up. He said his ex-wife gave him custody of their children in 2007 because she was moving to Arkansas to live with her parents because she told him she was about to become homeless.

Andrew Basa and his current wife, Amy, have a letter that his ex-wife wrote in which she encourages Garagiola to give him custody of Chloe and Karl.

“The judge would not consider it,” he said.

Carlene Gautz testified at a hearing that she felt she had no choice because it was it either move “or become homeless” due to financial difficulties.