A lot of serious topics surrounded this morning’s show. From keeping our homeland safe, to standing up for a Jersey comedian who is facing prison time for a toy gun, and we even discussed the difficult issue of child custody.

Carlo Bellario declines bargain plea deal

NJ actor and comedian, Carlo Bellario, declined a 3-year sentence, during his pre-indictment trial. Bellario is potentially facing a sentence of anywhere up to 10 years in prison under New Jersey strict fire arms law. On the set of an independent film, Bellario played a drug dealer body guard character with a prop gun. Although, Bellario admits he is no stranger to the law, it shouldn’t influence his future. Should the past influence his future?  Carlo joins us to tell us what happened yesterday during his pre-indictment trial.

Carlo Bellario joins us to tell us what happened during his pre-indictment yesterday.

He says “In the back of my mind I had a feeling, it was going to go this way. Prosecutor presents his case, I haven’t vilified them. He made it sound like I had an assault record. The biggest surprise was the judge. They offered me three years, there was no way.” Listen to the full call below.

Carlo Bellario started a GoFundMe page to cover any legal fees after his arrest . Let’s support Carlo’s case.

Listen to my full interview with below.

Congressman Tom MacArthur makes a safety a priority in NJ

The question of security comes to mind in New Jersey after the terror attacks in Brussels. I went to the airport last night, and there was no added security. Everything was completely open.

Congressman MacArthur stated “ the death toll now is up to 34. It was meant to be an attack on the whole civilized world. Isis declares you are not safe anywhere. One of the things we were asking about is: Where is the comprehensive plan to defeat Isis? There have been many months since it was passed into law and signed by the president. This group is wreaking havoc and we have to have a better plan to deal with it. I think all these kinds of actions are to make people feel safer. My concern is that we have a sustained effort. I applaud reasonable steps.”

MacArthur listed what has to be done in order to tighten security: 1) Security needs to focus on those coming into the United States. Airport need to focus on the power of our overseas. 2) We need to be permanently vigilant. Hear an in depth conversation of a Congressman MacArthur’s domestic plan to tighten security with by eliminating terrorists below.

Child Custody in New Jersey

Both men and women in New Jersey are losing custody rights to their children, due to a simple complaint by the other parent. It takes at least six months to a year or more on warranting over custody to a parent. Why don’t we expedite the process?

Lawyer Paul Clark called in to the show to clarify why this lawsuit would help parents fighting for custody of their child.  Clark said “What happens, still going on in NJ, the state takes the position that if the person who is complaining about the treatment, sometimes the complaint doesn't even have to be about negligence. we have cases where a parent shows up in court and simply says 'I want full custody of the child.'"

Clark says that the majority of the times it is the mother who does that but there are times it can be the father as well. What happens then, according to Clark is "the court will frequently just say 'alright, I'm  going to strip the father of custody, sometimes completely. Sometimes the father loses legal custody, loses physical custody. Sometimes it's drastically reduced."

Clark says that the complaint doesn't even have to be an allegation of violence for the court to make this decision. The family court, based on the filing, can strip custody from the parent, for anywhere from 6 months to a year until the hearing takes place.

The lawsuit asks that the state treat all these cases the same, according to the Supreme Court ruling. The lawsuit would accomplish following the constitutional standard that a parent would not lose custody unless there is clear and convincing evidence of abuse or neglect that would be harmful to the child.

Listen to Paul's full call and explanation of the lawsuit and what they are trying to accomplish below.

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