Gearin Makes Her Move

                                                     (Judge Kathleen Gearin)

Judge Kathleen Gearin finally made a decision on a motion filed by Sandra Grazzini-Rucki.

On Monday March 4, 2019, Judge Gearin issued her decision.

Here is part of the court docket,

03/04/2019

Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order

Remarkably, the decision comes nearly three weeks after a hearing was held; that hearing was held on February 12, 2019. It was held without Sandra Grazzini-Rucki so it is not clear why the decision took so long.

Coincidentally or not, the decision comes immediately after I wrote an article wondering why a decision had not been made. I wrote that article on Saturday March 2, 2019. 

Here is part of that article.

“It appears the judges handling Sandra Grazzini-Rucki’s child support are not entirely sure what to do. As I recently reported, the judge assigned to the case, Judge Phillip Kanning, is no longer assigned. Meanwhile, a motion first filed in October continues to languish three weeks after a hearing to argue it was held.“That motion awaits a decision from another judge, Kathleen Gearin.”

I asked Gearin on Tuesday if this was merely a coincidence or if I was her puppet master, but she did not respond to my email.

I also asked the four members of the Minnesota Judiciary public affairs team- Lissa Finne, Kyle Christopherson, Alyssa Siems-Roberson, and Beau Berentson- but they also did not respond.

I also asked Jeff Shorba, the Minnesota Court Administrator, but he also did not respond.

Background

In October, 2016, Magistrate Maria Pastoor ordered Sandra Grazzini-Rucki to pay $975 per month in child support, even though she had recently been convicted of six felonies and hadn’t worked since 2015. Here is part of what I wrote then. (a magistrate is a junior judge)

“Despite being incarcerated, a convicted felon, and on public assistance Sandra Grazzini-Rucki has been ordered to pay nearly one thousand dollars a month in child support.
“The order handed down by Dakota County Minnesota Judge Maria Pastoor on October 13, 2016, calls for Grazzini-Rucki to pay $975 per month.
“Judge Pastoor issued the order even though Grazzini-Rucki is currently incarcerated in the Dakota County jail serving her sentence which began on September 21, 2016, for her role in hiding her two daughters for approximately two and a half years.”

That order was stayed while Grazzini-Rucki finished her sentence.

The court could not wait that long; on May 7^th, 2018, Pastoor issued an order reinstating the $975 per month in child support.

Grazzini-Rucki had only days before been released and was still on probation.

This was appealed and Pastoor quietly was removed replaced by another magistrate, Jan Davidson.

Davidson held another hearing; she, without requiring either party to provide income documents, ruled that David Rucki made $10,000 per month and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki made $1,429 per month.

“The obligor (Grazzini-Rucki) is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed,” Davidson wrote.

When phantom income is determined by a judge, this is referred to as imputing income.

Indeed, she has six felonies on her record and is unlikely to find work anywhere, so voluntary is a matter of perspective.

Davidson ruled that Grazzini-Rucki should pay $215 per month.

Interestingly, Davidson also noted that David Rucki receives public assistance despite her determination he makes $10,000 per month; she did not address that clear fraud in her ruling.

When, in September, the Minnesota Department of Health, moved to suspend Grazzini-Rucki’s driver’s license for non-payment, she appealed that.

She also filed a motion to stay, also in October 2018.

The Minnesota court did nothing even though the license was to be suspended at the end of October.

Indeed, the court ignored all requests until the end of January, when a hearing for February 12, 2019, was scheduled.

This may be because the assigned judge at the time, Phillip Kanning, was out of country for three months.

Kanning is a retired judge as is Gearin.

Davidson could not hear the case I believe because the suspension of the license made it above her pay grade.

Everyone believed the February 12, 2019, hearing was for the license issue, but this did not happen.

Instead, Gearin, in her March 4 order, ruled on the motion to stay.

“Petitioner’s Motion for a Stay of Proceedings is denied.” Gearin said in her March 4 order.

This should have been an easy to order to write since Grazzini-Rucki did not even attend the hearing and a motion to stay is relatively easy, but it took nearly three weeks.

The motion for the license has never been addressed and her license was indeed suspended at the end of October 2018.

It’s likely David Rucki paid his attorney, Lisa Elliott, more to attend the hearing on February 12, 2019, than he would receive for the month.

Besides that, he is a multi-millionaire, who received 100% of the estate, including four homes, nine classic cars, and 100% of their trucking business in the divorce.
Remarkably, when the divorce first started- and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki had custody in 2011- David Rucki was ordered to pay $10,000 per month in child support and alimony (he never actually paid it). This means, the first judge determined David Rucki to make far more than the $10,000 per month Davidson determined him to make. 

Still, not only is he chasing after his ex-wife for $215 per month, but he has the support of his county; the Dakota County Prosecutor’s office has filed briefs in this case on his behalf.

Gearin’s order is below.

Gearin by on Scribd