 | |||||||
| PinoyNation | Asiana Post | Advertise with Us | Subscription | Contact Us | Tels. 561-900-5880 n 561-620-0960 | ||||||
|
Headlines
|
|
||||||
|
A Filipina-American senior assistant Florida state attorney general in the staff of Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth is running in the coming September judicial election for the position of Circuit Court Judge for Broward County (Group 26). Mariza de Guzman Cobb decided to run for the position to increase her support in curbing juvenile crimes, many of which were caused by broken families. "I believe if we don't intervene early enough these troubled children will commit crimes and will get into trouble. And this is going to continue to that point that all of us are at risk," she said. As a civil lawyer representing Florida, Cobb dealt with cases of abused, abandoned and neglected children with the goal of separating them from their abusive parents by terminating parental rights over them. When parents themselves are molesting and endangering their children, Cobb said she prosecutes these cases until the parents lose their authority over their children. "Terminating parental rights will enable these children to be placed with loving adoptive parents," she said. If her quest for the judiciary becomes successful, Cobb wants to look into the cause of the break down of personal supervision on the children at home, in school and other places they stay. She said these may deter children from getting into trouble and work to promote their future. |
Cobb is running against two other candidates but she believed she has an even chance despite her younger age compared with her oponnents. At 36, Cobb has enough experience to even surpass a regular civil lawyer when it comes to the number of cases handled. "Being an attorney general puts me on an accelerated track . So I feel I have the advantage, and besides, I have seen people in their reality being a lawyer. I have practiced law in dirtiest areas, the so-called street law," she said. Cobb's work with children somehow corresponds with her upbringing in rural USA where her parents practiced medicine rather than stay in big cities."I was only 10 when my parents came to the US," she said adding that her father hails from Binmaley, Pangasinan and the mother from Cavite. Her older brother, also a doctor, practiced in Alabama and Kentucky. Her younger sister s is connected with the Royal Caribbean Lines. "I have not forgotten my Filipina culture. I can understand Tagalog but I cannot speak it ,' she said admitting that she still eats Filipino food but not her husband, Jim, also a lawyer. Both of them used to work with Janet Reno in Miami. Cobb is averse to racism. She said there were occasions when she was discriminated against because of her brown color. She said she considers this treatment as a challenge to work harder to show she is better than them. |
"The key to that is to let that guide your path., Keep that as a fuel to keep you moving forward," she said as she advised children not to give up so easily when confronted with the problem and " to keep on moving and show you're not inferior." Cobb is the first Asian to run for Circuit Judge in Broward County. There are 77 judges in the county, four of them Blacks and two are Hispanics. Being a mother and working woman, Cobb needs support for her candidacy. She can be contacted at (954) 929-5076 |
|||||
|
Interview with Mariza De Guzman Cobb |
|||||||
|
|
What do you do? I am currently a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General Bob Butterworth where I represent the State of Florida in the termination of parental rights proceedings.The subject of these cases are abused, abandoned or neglected children who have been lingering in foster care for years. Termination of the parental rights enable these children to be placed with loving adoptive parents. What is your most unforgettable case? I give equal importance to all my cases, but what easily standout was the case involving a mother who was molesting 8 of her 10 children with ages ranging from 3 to 13. I represented the State of Florida in terminating her rights over the children because of the grievous nature of the offense. The case took 10 years before it was resolved, piling up voluminous amount of evidence and I worked into the case like a pyramid. I successfully managed to end the rights of the mother, and all the children are now in foster homes and soon they will be adopted and they will have their own families.Since I am a juvenile prosecutor I also handled cases involving youthful offenders accused in car thefts, burglaries, vandalism and drug trafficking. How many have you prosecuted ? It's hard to tell. As a prosecutor I handled 300 cases every two weeks. I was supposed to be on trial on anyone of these cases.I say I prosecuted as many as 5,000 cases in a span of many years.This is one problem in the criminal justice system, it draws fire from some quarters.There were incidents when you saw the case for the first time and you appear before a jury to work on the case. This actually ages a lot of us knowing that the victims are out there expecting to get justice for the crime committed against them. This is what motivated us to move in. Why are you running for judge? I believe in our children. I do believe if we can work for them young enough, early enough, we can promote their future, because I believe if we don't intervene early enough these troubled children will commit a crime or will get into trouble. And this is going to continue to the point all of us are at risk. And what happens, is that when a 9 or 10-year-old commits a crime he usually commits another crime and another crime and by the time he gets to be 13 to 14 years old, he is old enough to be prosecuted as an adult. And for us to wait until he has committed 20 crimes, I think we need to get tough to these children early. We need to find out what is going on at home. Because it is not normal for a child of 9 and 10 to be |
|
|
|
|||
|
www.bastapinoy.com |
|||||||
