Millionaire allows teen son to marry housekeeper's daughter, avoid school

[Baitball Blogger]

A millionaire that didn't get away with it. Always makes an interesting human story.

MIAMI — A South Florida millionaire has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for allowing his 16-year-old son to get married, effectively keeping the teen out of a Utah boarding school.

A Miami-Dade judge sentenced 65-year-old Dan Rotta on Tuesday. He was previously found to be in contempt of court.

The Miami Herald reports that the wedding followed a long-running divorce between Rotta and his ex-wife, Renee Rotta. The mother had asked the court to send their son to Logan River Academy. A judge approved the request in November 2010, and Dan Rotta was supposed to take his son to the Utah school the next month.

nstead, court records show Rotta took his son to Las Vegas, where the teen married the 18-year-old daughter of Rotta's housekeeper. The marriage made the son an adult, removing him from the court's oversight.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-12/news/os-teen-marriage-boarding-school-florida-20120712_1_teen-son-long-running-divorce-miami-dade-judge

[Javaman]

1. Florida. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

3. 'sez it all.

[Edweird]

19. Please enlighten me. What is the "all" that it "sez"?

[Edweird]

14. Yeah! And? A FLORIDA dad used the rules to keep his son out of a private reform school/prison.

[obamanut2012]

16. +1 good for the Dad

[2ndAmForComputers]

24. And what does his millionare-ness have to do with it?

One could pull the exact same stunt with very little money. OK, money enough for a ticket from FL to NV. Hardly millionaire stuff.

[WI_DEM]

2. this 16 year old will grow up amounting to nothing.

[obamanut2012]

15. Why?

He can still go to school, college, become a good citizen. A marriage of convenience, imo, is a hell of a lot better than being sent to an abusive boot camp school.

If the kid needs therapy, get him therapy, but why send him to a place like this?

[pnwmom]

55. +1000.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

26. IOW....the Junior Senator from Florida(R)

[Lasher]

4. Logan River Academy is a teen behavior modification facility.

Teens are detained there. It's a prison.

http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Logan_River_Academy

[Baitball Blogger]

7. My brother went to one of those.

Worst decision my parents ever made. Years later they would discover he had dyslexia. The military academy was the furthest thing that could help him. He was only there for one summer and he said the other cadets were excessively cruel. They had him stand at attention as they threw darts at him. They obviously tried to just barely miss him, but one of the darts went into his boot. This only caused the other boys to explode in laughter. My brother was extremely sensitive at that age. It would have destroyed him.

[obamanut2012]

12. Exactly -- a "boot camp" where th4 kids are prisoners

Lots of gay kids are sent there, too. The dad did the right thing, since the court wouldn't.

[PotatoChip]

21. Oh wow... I wish I had seen this info before writing my post downthread.

That would be a matter of concern for me too if I was the parent of a child forced to go there.

Otoh, I'm wondering if there was some reason the mother and the judge believed he needed to go there? Not saying it's a good decision- Boot camp type schools, what little I know of them, strike me as inhumane.

Nonetheless, surely the concerned father could have found some other way around this whole thing than underage marriage, if the boy was having some issues surrounding behavior. I highly doubt that making a 16 year old get married is going to solve whatever problems he may be having. In fact, I would guess it'd compound them.

[Baitball Blogger]

27. It really is difficult to understand what's going on in this case without

getting in all the details. However, a wilderness camp where kids are dying may be the ultimate deciding factor. Why would they allow them to continue to operate? If I was a parent that truly believed my kid was in danger, I would probably do the same thing and go to jail happily, knowing that I protected my child.

[obamanut2012]

43. The marriage made his son legally an adult

And he could legally no longer have to obey the court order, since he is no longer a minor.

There was no other way.

There is no legal basis for incarcerating the father.

[PotatoChip]

46. Yes, I realize that now.

If there had been any other avenue, I'm sure the father would have taken it. Definitely a case of a desperate situation calling for desperate measures. What an awful situation. Both father and son are the victims here. The mother and judge in this case really piss me off.

Thank you again for the info you provided.

[obamanut2012]

57. I have a "thing" about these so-called schools

Due to the experiences of someone I know.

[PotatoChip]

60. I'm so sorry to hear about this person you know.

My knowledge of these boot camp type places is limited, but I seem to remember watching a program about one of them many years ago. IIRC it was one of those news magazine type shows.

Anyway, it was around the mid to late 90's when that "tough-love" crap was in vogue for "difficult" children. In that context, the spin about these places was overwhelmingly positive, but I remember instinctively feeling sickened by it, even though it was being touted as this wonderful new thing by many "experts" at the time.

Not long after, egregious cases of children becoming very ill or even dying due to harsh treatment (such as denying them water while on hikes in 100+ degree heat, ect) began appearing in the news. Seemingly overnight, people, including the so-called "experts" who had been pushing the idea, faded from view. I guess I wrongly assumed that these "schools" were no longer operating after that.

I'm sorry to hear that that was not the case. I can only imagine the harm this has caused the survivors of this ill conceived form of "discipline". I bet it was every bit as emotionally traumatic as physically. My sincere sympathies to your friend. I hope that he or she is doing ok now, despite having undergone such trauma.

[hifiguy]

31. That sheds an entirely different light on the whole story.

Can't say that I blame the father for trying to keep his son out of a hellhole like that.

[Lasher]

63. This is just another shitty example of what passes for journalism in the US.

It's become so common in the US media, I often check stories like this out for myself.

[CBGLuthier]

5. This will be one for the lawyers. He did not break any laws. He just made a court order moot.

He still sounds like a better dad to me than that asshole who beat his kid for dropping the ball. Hell I would bend the law rather than send a kid of mine to anything in fucking Utah and it sounds like this place is one of those RW brutalize em till they turn out right kind of places.

And I think he did get away with it. The kid is still married right?

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Without really knowing why the mother would take such an extreme measure, it really

is difficult to judge. If she did it to punish the father, then, well, of course we would side with the dad. If the son has true discipline problems which she fears will only get worse living with the dad, it really depends on how you feel about military school. As I see it, it really depends on the kid. It might work for some, and it might create psychological damage in others.

[obamanut2012]

17. This isn't a military school

It's one of those faux wilderness places, where they imprison and abusive kids, and where kids sometimes die.

If the kid is messed up, then he needs therapy and they all need family counseling.

Maybe the boy is gay -- a lot of gay kids are sent to places like this.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. Would keep my eye on the Miami Herald to see what develops.

Thanks for the info.

[2ndAmForComputers]

25. Short of the son being a serial killer, no, it isn't hard at all to judge.

[treestar]

6. I hate the way the media covers these things

"180 days in jail for allowing his 16-year-old son to get married, effectively keeping the teen out of a Utah boarding school."

It would be more accurate if they would describe just how it got this way. A parent can give a child permission to marry, and the clerk in Vegas must have been satisfied with that. So whatever he is arrested for, it must be something like contempt of court order. And the court that made that order may not have the legal right to trump the boy getting married.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. With his kind of money, I'm sure that if there is another side of this story, we'll hear about it.

[obamanut2012]

9. Good for the Dad -- this appears to be a "boot camp" wilderness place

If she wanted the boy to get a good education and go to a private school, Florida has plenty of prep schools and Catholic schools.

And, as other posters stated, no one broke any laws, so the father shouldn't be sentenced. Ridiculous.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. You're probably right.

I'll amend my comment in my original poster.

[PotatoChip]

13. That's just so wrong. Wtf?

Making (or allowing?) a 16 year old boy to marry for such a stupid reason.

Sounds as if the father is too bitter to think of what is in the best interest of his son. I'm not saying that the original ruling to send the boy away was fair. Don't know enough about the particulars to judge, one way another.

But if I didn't want my kid to go off to a school thousands of miles away, I'd first try to appeal, and if that didn't help, I'd move there temporarily to be near him, before I'd make such a life altering decision as marriage for my minor child. It's clearly not as if the father didn't have the financial resources to afford such a move if need be.

[obamanut2012]

20. Some links about this youth prison masquerading as a school

External Links
Info Pages

Info: Program Homepage
Info: HEAL-online about Logan River Academy
Info: Tavasi School homepage
Info: Wellsville residential treatment center for teens still causing concern, by Landon Bench, UtahState University, Hard News Cafe, October 20 2006.
Info: Logan River Alumni, myspace
Info: Provo Truth Exposed, website mentions Logan River Academy

Survivor groups

Survivor group: Logan River Academy, group of former survivors on Myspace
Survivor group: Logan River Academy Kids, Myspace
Survivor group: Private closed group, Myspace



Survivor group: Logan River Academy, facebook
Survivor group: Logan River Academy (LRA), facebook

Message boards

Forum: Logan River Academy, thread about the facility on Fornits webforum
Forum: New List of Reportedly Abusive Programs In Utah, thread about the facility on Fornits webforum mentioning the facility.
Forum: Logan River question, a thread on Fornits webforum
Forum: would like to know if boarding/treatment centers are recommended for children with nonverbal learnin, Friends of Quinn

http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Logan_River_Academy

[PotatoChip]

22. Thanks for the info obamanut.

I was unaware of what this "school" was about when I wrote my post.

This definitely does not sound like a place I'd want my child to be.

[2ndAmForComputers]

23. The 180 days in jail are SO worth it.

I'd stay in worse places for longer, to keep my kid from THAT.

[JNelson6563]

30. Good info. Bravo to the dad!

He may well have saved his son's life!

Thanks for the info Obamanut!

Julie

[obamanut2012]

44. You're welcome

Cheers!

[Starry Messenger]

47. I was just about to google that, thank you.

When I saw Utah, I suspected that might be the case. They're the biggest source of coercive teen boot camps.

[MrScorpio]

28. The rich ARE different from you and me...

They're fucking weird.

[Edweird]

29. So what would you have done differently?

[MrScorpio]

36. Uhhhh… YEAH! nt

[Edweird]

37. Again, I ask: What would you have done differently?

[MrScorpio]

45. I would have sent the kid to school

I certainly wouldn't have taken a 16 year old to Vegas to marry him off to the housekeeper's daughter.

That shit's bananas.

[Cal Carpenter]

48. I really recommend

reading some of the additional info and links available on this thread.

The so-called 'school' that the mom and courts want to send this troubled kid to is what is bananas.

I am generally not quick to defend the lifestyles of millionaires with housekeepers, but that's not what this is about. The dad is risking months in jail to stop his kid from being forced to go to an abusive situation. The courts in Florida are not giving him many options.

The story should be about the fucked up school and others like it, and Florida's judicial system promoting these academies despite their terrible, violent, and even fatal track records.

The housekeeper and the money make the marketable headline and detract from the real scandal in this situation.

I do wonder about the young woman who married this kid, if she is being coerced, or if she is hopefully, maybe, benefiting in some way. But if all is well on that front, then I have no problem with what the dad did. He was desperate, and this seems to have worked. He would rather be in jail himself then see his kid get sent to this shithole.

[MrScorpio]

50. Couldn't they have sent the kind to a different school for better care?

If the mom wanted to toss her child into an abusive situation then she's no better than the dad.

I have a feeling that if these parents had less cash to throw at their child custody battle, the results wouldn't have been so fucked up for the boy. They might have been impelled to come a more common sense solution out of necessity.

Again, the rich are quite different from you and me.

[Cal Carpenter]

54. I realize

that the rich are different, believe me. But the Orlando paper took a couple paragraphs from a complicated story and made it about the dad's money and the sham marriage. Those details are what makes this particular case news, unfortunately. The reality is that kids get sent to these places all the time, often by the Florida court system (usually to in-state facilities). They are physically and emotionally abused. They sometimes die. This is not an exaggeration. I know more about this than I want to, and there is tons of info all over the net about it if you are really interested in learning more. Google boot camp survivors or something like that and the trail to info will be clear.

It *is* ultimately about money, of course, but not the father's. It is about these for-profit hellholes, a history of judges getting kickbacks, and a legal system that generally screws the people, and in this case, even a rich kid.

[Edweird]

53. Ignorant knee-jerk comments are much more entertaining :)

[ieoeja]

49. That's what I did! And it ended up ... poorly.

Ex-wife sent my ex-stepson to a similar place. The home succeeded in turning an honor roll student who was reading at 9th grade level in the 3rd grade into a kid who flunked all but one class his sophomore year in high school.

He goes to school when he doesn't have something important to him to do instead. Sits in the back with his headphones, head bobbing to the music, seemingly paying no attention whatsoever to the teacher. Doesn't do his homework. If I sit him down and force him to do the homework, 9 times out of 10 he doesn't bother to turn it in to the teacher.

Then he aces all the tests. Unfortunately, tests alone account for a majority of the grade in one class which was, not coincidentally, the only class he passed last year.

Basically, he isn't going to do shit because too much shit was done to him.


Pure cowardice on my part. I should have lawyered up and tried taking him away from his mother. But when I read up on the home it stated that it was for kids in abusive homes, and I thought it might help. His home wasn't physically abusive. But his mother, well, her condition finally got diagnosed, but not until later.

[Edweird]

52. Florida dad (1) Dads from wherever you are, being represented by you (0)

[obamanut2012]

58. Wow

So, better a "school" proven to be an abusive youth prison rather than a marriage of convenience?

[MrScorpio]

59. A different school, not the one listed

There has to be a better place available

[Edweird]

61. Except that the son was COURT ORDERED to go there. You, as father, have no discretion.

[obamanut2012]

62. THERE WAS A COURT ORDER as the OP stated

There is no "different place." There is only this place.

[Cal Carpenter]

32. More info here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/11/2891681/fisher-island-man-jailed-for-marrying.html

This is not about the guy being a millionaire.

This 'school' is a bad, bad place, as others have pointed out above. The kid has ADHD and other issues. He may need help, but this school is NOT going to provide it to him. And it very likely could cause him lifelong emotional trauma.

Florida judges seem to have a hard-on for these boot camp nightmare places. Google for more info - several academies like this in Fla have been in the news over the last couple of decades for deaths and abuse. Many have been shut down. Florida judges still send troubled kids there despite this. To these FOR-PROFIT hellholes that, in some cases, have provided kickbacks to judges. So it is no surprise that the judge allowed the mom to force her child to this place in Utah.

This dad took a *desperate measure* in order to keep his kid out of the place. He would rather spend 6 months in jail than send his kid to this place. Kudos to him.

His money has nothing to do with it, except that maybe it will help him to appeal his way out of prison time.

The marriage is clearly one of convenience, but it will scar this child less than the Utah 'school' would.

[Baitball Blogger]

33. Holy Miscarriage of Justice!

Putting a normal kid into one of these wilderness places is criminal! Putting an ADHD kid into one of them is torture!

Thanks for the info!

[obamanut2012]

38. There's also a reason why so many of these places are in Utah

And also other countries: their supervision of these places is very lax. Most states won't allow them.

This "school" isn't a "granola" wilderness-type boarding school, where students learn real skills and take care of animals and gardens while also learning academic subjects from real teachers. These schools aren't even like a military school, which is a real school, and the best of them teach organization and personal discipline. These places are abusive prisons.

Minors in this country are afforded very few rights over themselves, and this father is a frigging HERO for getting his kid a LEGAL way out. He didn't break the law, nor did his son or his son's new wife.

[JHB]

51. I recall cases where places like this were basically insurance scams...

..."send your troubled teen to our 'intensive therapy clinic'... for as long as your insurance will pay for it." Once they hit the limit, presto, kid is cured!

[Fearless]

34. The 16 year old did go along with it...

Maybe he didn't want to go to that school?

Divorce settlements are never good, even if not especially if you have a lot of money.

I feel bad for the kid. Being the center of the storm and all.

[Ikonoklast]

35. I'm wondering what law was broken here for a man to be imprisoned?

Did he violate a court order to get the 180 days?

The father had a time frame to follow, as per the court order. He was still within the parameters of that time frame.

I don't see anything about the son not being allowed to get married *before* he was supposed to report to the hellhole bootcamp.

Guess the judge never thought of that tactic, and forgot to include it in the court order.

The judge sounds like a typical Authoritarian asshole who doesn't like getting outmaneuvered.

[obamanut2012]

39. +1

[riderinthestorm]

41. +1. nt

[riderinthestorm]

40. I've never been divorced but don't 16 year olds typically get to provide some input

to the judge on their living arrangements - even their preferred schools - by that age?

From friends and family who have been divorced, its usually pretty hard to "tie down" a mobile (driving) 16, 17 year old to strict custody arrangements. They usually start to create their own living patterns between the two households (n my sister's case its driven mostly by who has the best snacks for her 17 year old son and his friends at any given time). My sister's teens spent time with the guardian ad litem who listened to what they wanted and made recommendations to the court.

Even their high school decisions were basically left up to the kids to decide where they wanted their "primary residence" to be which would decide where they went to high school.

It sounds like they didn't even try to factor in what this boy may have wanted.

[obamanut2012]

42. "Loving Father Saves Son From Abusive Youth Facility"

That should be thw article's true headline!

[Trillo]

56. I think you're probably correct.

It is a parents duty to protect their children, and that includes not sending them to hostile workplaces.