CHILDSUPPORT

 

 

Weedman' jailed by judge for not paying child support 

March 24, 2000 
By Mike Mathis  BCT staff writer- 
Burlington County Times 
 
 

(MOUNT HOLLY) - Ed "njweedman" Forchion, would-be candidate for the Burlington County Board of Freeholders, was jailed yesterday after refusing to pay child support for his daughter. 

Forchion, a Pemberton Township resident who plans to run for freeholder as a candidate with The Father's Rights Party, was ordered to jail by state Superior Court Judge John Almeida following a hearing in family court. 

He was being held on $1,500 cash bail yesterday, county jail Warden Juel Cole said. 

At a previous court appearance, Almeida threatened to jail Forchion for not paying child support to his ex-wife for his 5-year-old daughter. Forchion said he wouldn't do it unless he was allowed to visit the child. 

The girl lives with her mother in Lumberton. 

Forchion, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, released a statement to the press in which he blamed his legal dilemmas on a court system that fails to accept that smoking marijuana is an integral part of his Rastifarian faith. Two years ago, state Superior Court Judge Marie White Bell stripped Forchion of his custody and visitation rights after he acknowledged that he used marijuana for religious purposes, Forchion said. 

The revelation was made in 1998 when he ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1st, of Haddon Heights, on The Legalize Marijuana Party ticket, he said. 

Forchion also ran unsuccessfully last year for seats representing the 8th Assembly District and on the Camden County freeholder board. 

"The court and its Christian officers have consistently refused to enforce existing visitation orders and ultimately withdrew them when I openly proclaimed my faith, my teachings," Forchion wrote in a letter to Almeida and released to the press. 

Forchion was arrested by New Jersey State Police last week after he lit a marijuana cigarette in the state Assembly chambers in Trenton to protest what he called his persecution because of his religious beliefs. A stay-at-home father to his other three children, Forchion said he had to enroll his children in day-care centers so his wife can continue to work while he is incarcerated. 

He has experienced health problems since an automobile accident in January 1997, he said. 

"I am a good father," Forchion wrote in the letter to Almeida. "I have participated in the every day development of three of my four children". 

"The fourth has been withheld from me by her scorned mother," he continued. "With the protection and support of the state of New Jersey, this unlawful act seems to have gotten the special sanction and endorsement of the ... court system." 

I can't believe this story didn't really deal with the fact that I had my child taken for what I thought and (did’t) believe. I have not been convicted of a crime yet, I’ve had my child taken for what I think.