By Susan
Skipp, Co-Chair
We The People Family Preservation,
Connecticut Chapter
January
15, 2014
Colleen
Kerwick, a New York resident was forced to remain in Connecticut, and forced out of her
job because of the vexatious litigation conducted in Family Court by her former spouse’s counsel--Steve
Dembo and Michael Budlong and Campbell Barrett. These attorneys are members of the AFCC, a profit sharing
venture that franchises judicial systems around the world.
Attorney Colleen Kerwick
is a federal civil rights and aviation attorney, with two law degrees and enough
accolades in her legal career to take several minutes of your time just filling you in about it.
I will share a vignette of what I witnessed in the Hartford Court in front of the bench of the Honorable Judge Felcito on Wednesday, January 8, 2014. I have observed Judge Felcito in other cases and until that hearing thought her to be a fair judge.
I will share a vignette of what I witnessed in the Hartford Court in front of the bench of the Honorable Judge Felcito on Wednesday, January 8, 2014. I have observed Judge Felcito in other cases and until that hearing thought her to be a fair judge.
Within days before Christmas this past year, Colleen
lost custody of her son via an ex-parte motion so that the father could take
the child on vacation. As sick and
disturbing as this sounds, this is what happens everyday when people buy and
sell kids in Connecticut’s Court.
On
December 20, 2013, the father, Mr. Kenneth Savino, who had been arrested before for risk of injury to a
minor for medically neglecting his son, requested and received from the Court an ex-parte (emergency) order
that Colleen Kerwick turn the child over at 10:00 am at the child’s doctor’s office, claiming imminent risk of injury to a child.
Colleen was at this doctor's office, however, she was not served the order and did not know about
the order. Even though Savino was at the doctor's office at that time, he did not take the child or tell Colleen about the order. Earlier in the day, Colleen had waited at their usual
switching spot at 9:00am, but he did not show up. Then, at 9:05 am, Savino’s team of lawyers filed the
ex-parte motion.
At 3:40p.m.
the State Marshall, Bruce Kaz admitted to seeing Colleen several times throughout the day as she drove around her Connecticut hometown participating in various activities with her child. Also, as an aside, Marshall Bruce Kaz has a history of providing fabricated testimony in court against litigants to whom he's been paid to deliver court papers.
Still, at 3:45p.m., Savino’s legal team, even though it was in constant conversation throughout
the day with Colleen Kerwick, along with
Kerry Tarpy, the GAL whose bills only reflect time with the father and
speaking with his attorneys, while making no attempt to meet with Colleen and the child,
decided that they had grounds to issue an Amber Alert.
A police lieutenant and supervisor of the Avon,
Connecticut police department and State Marshall Bruce Kaz showed up at Colleens’
home at 5:30pm on December 20, 2013 with no advanced notice and took the four-year-old child from his mother's arms. Father was awarded temporary sole custody and Colleen was barred from all access to her child.
In
Connecticut, the burden must be met that the child is in imminent danger to
change custody via an ex-parte order. The order for the ex parte motion read that
Colleen must return to court on January 2, 2014 to show cause as to why the
order for Mr. Kenneth Savino having temporary sole custody should continue.
At that time, Colleen, representing herself, cited the law stating that the
ex-parte order was not made in good faith since the grounds for the removal of a child from the custody of a parent should only occur when it is believed that the child is in danger of imminent harm. In fact, the child was simply eating lunch and taking a nap with his mother. What occurred was that there was simply a problem in terms of the custody transfer when Mr. Savino did not show up because he was busy scamming the Court into issuing an ex-parte order of sole custody for his benefit.
Up to this point, Colleen has not even been able to address this point, since the focus of the Court during the hearings on this issue have been shifted from what actually took place onto the issue of Colleen's mental health. By simply changing the subject matter of the hearing over to the question of Colleen's mental health, Mr. Savino's legal team, with the collusion of the GAL, has avoided the question of whether the child was in any kind of danger altogether.
This is discrimination and a violation of Prong #3 of Federal ADA law which prohibits discrimination based upon the false perception that a person has a mental health disability that he or she does not have.
Attorney Colleen Kerwick has already
shown credible evidence that she has no mental health disability. She has submitted to two psychological evaluations--one by the notorious Sidney Horowitz PhD, AFCC Board Member
whose professional acumen has garnered him open investigations at the
Department of Health for mal-practice, neglect, insurance fraud who has perjured
himself many times in court. Both evaluations cleared her of any kind of mental health disability.
At this point, Colleen has been ordered to participate in a second Custody Evaluation and in the cash only Peace Program run by Dr. Elizabeth Thayer, another AFCC member. This is
a grand slam for the AFCC. It gets even better for the AFCC when after two days
of a hearing Colleen still has no access to her child.
What exactly can another AFCC court
appointed custody evaluator say any differently than before? Colleen has
spent $110,000 in legal fees and the GAL has collected tens of thousands. It is unknown how much her
millionaire former husband, Mr. Kenneth Savino, who has a history of litigation abuse, has paid his brigade of lawyers. There is no doubt that this legal firm, which is known to have made lots of money by
incentivizing conflict in numerous other cases, intends to destroy this woman’s career, destabilize
her financially and decimate her emotionally by ordering her to jump through
additional hoops just to see her own child.
Meanwhile, the
father continues to have sole custody because he blatantly committed fraud on the Court by committing outright perjury. This is the man who has previously been medically neglectful to his child, to a point where EMT’s had
him arrested for refusing to take his child to the hospital when he had a seizure.
This is very disheartening. I hope that the chairs of the task force do what they promised which was to go after any parties that retaliated against those who came forward with their testimony. It shows that they were deeply threatened by this action. We are going to have to stay strong ,support each other and continue to fight this abusive system.
ReplyDeleteThis article is full of misleading information and statements that are not facts and are not supported in any means. This type of reporting is clearly intended to further sensationalize these proceedings in an open public forum outside of the courtroom with total disregard to facts in this case. You should be ashamed of yourself and the demage you do in reporting these false facts and the allegations against people with no regard to actual facts. Im sure if you were the subject of false allegations you would be screaming and yelling all the way to court to proceed with a legal action against the party making such false allegations about you. If you are going to use the public forum as a means to further your cause, at least report to the public the correct information, not that of what you percieve to be the facts. GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!
ReplyDeletehow do you know these facts are misleading??? do you know these people personally to have such an opinion??
DeleteGood question!
DeleteAgree ! Good question ! Please point out the correct facts as you see it !
DeleteAnonymous provides a lot of hot air and hyperbole, but cannot refute the facts of the case which are well known.
DeleteOk, Anonymous, 9:11AM, I'm not sure you provided more insight into this situation other than hot air. I was actually present during the hearing where the facts regarding this incident were presented to the court. What the Court heard was that while Colleen's ex claimed in a police report that he had not heard a thing from Colleen all that day, in fact there were a total of 41 emails that had gone back and forth between the parties that day. I also heard presented to the court that at 9:05 while the ex's attorney was in court filing an emergency ex parte motion for sole custody declaring Colleen had not handed over the child as scheduled, Colleen was at their transfer location waiting for the ex to show up. I also heard that an hour later, both the ex and Colleen met with the child at the pediatrician's office for a checkup and that the ex declined to take the child with him at that time. I also heard that the marshall who was supposed to serve the order that Colleen transfer the child to her ex but did not, observed Colleen and her home and doing errands around her home town. However, this did not prevent her ex's attorney from issuing an Amber Alert. I also heard that three police officers showed up at Colleen's house later in the day and demanded to take the child. I can just imagine how frightening it was for a little boy, not even big enough to go to Kindergarten, to be asked to go along with three strange police officers with their cruisers flashing their lights in front of the house. I also had the opportunity in Court during the hearing to observe the ex attorney shouting and bullying Colleen and also jumping up and down with manufactured objections in order to prevent Colleen from presenting the real facts of the case to the court. I also observed how ex's attorney took emails that were sent to the current task force with suggested improvements in the court system, and presented them to the Court and asked the Court to hold Colleen responsible for them, even when all that connected Colleen to them was that her name was copied to the list of recipients. I also noted that the Co-Chair of the task force who has been repeatedly cited for wrong doing and profiteering via the GAL system also sat in that courtroom observing the proceedings. Is this retaliation against anyone who would dare speak up against Connecticut's corrupt family court system? There is no damage here. I have stated repeatedly that if you can prove that I have made statements that were incorrect, I would remove them. You are free to present your facts in this comment section, but you chose not to, and you can also include links to any supportive documents. There is ample opportunity for your voice to be heard and the truth to come out here on this blog. In fact, I can assure you, your chances of being heard are ten times greater here on this blog than they will ever be in Connecticut Family Court.
ReplyDeleteGood response !!
Deleteif that's what you heard then you must be deaf or as delusional as others on this site.
DeleteAccording to the court records, the State Marshal did not testify to seeing Colleen Kerwick serval times during the day of December 20, 2013. What was stated by the State Marshal was that he thought he saw Colleen driving her car,but it turned out not to be her. That was the only time the State Marshal thought he had seen her. He never said that he saw her anywhere else during the day. He did state that he did see her car parked at her residence just prior to the police and the State Marshal arriving at her residence. Once again, you provide misleading facts. I can only assume you want to intentionally distort the issues of this case for your purposes. How shameful!
DeleteOh, are you referring to Marshal Kaz who pretends to be an indifferent party but who regularly looks for incriminating evidence against the person he delivers papers to and has provided testimony for well known corrupt attorneys with scams like that. That is the marshall you are referring to? Just checking!
DeleteI think what is particularly shameful is keeping a 4 year old little boy from his mother. That is shameful.
DeleteYou just don't get it! It is shameful that a young child is not seeing his mother - this is very sad. However, what you folks don't get is that the facts of the case bear out that Ms. Colleen Kerwick could have avoided all of this if she had only followed the court orders that she had agreed to. If that had happened she would still be seeing her child and if she wanted to modify the agreement she could have gone to court and attempted to do this, but she has not done this. Instead she tries to enter as evidence a hand written agreement that she states was between her and Mr. Savino, signed by both of them that altered the divorce agreement. On top of that she claims to have it notarized after the parties were alleged to have signed it. An agrement that is notarized must have the parties sign the document in front of a notary. Again attacking Attorneys, Judges, and State Marshals does not change the fact that the blame in this matter is clearly on the shoulders of Ms. Kerwick. Its about time she and your members start realizing this instead of making excuses for her actions. By the way, what have her actions and misrepresentation of facts gotten her? I believe the Judge in this case issued a ruling against her. Seems to me the Judge did not believe Ms. Kerwick's testimony. I still find it amazing that Ms. Kerwick is an attorney practicing law and does not know how to handle a simple objection or how to follow the Practice Book or court procedures. She should had hired an attorney to represent her instead of herself as she did not fare well. Point of fact - take responsibilty for your actions - there are legal remedies that Ms. Kerwick could have pursued instead of taking justice into her own hands. Bottom line - If Ms. Kerwick had followed the law instead of taking it into her own hands she would still be seeing her child. Shame on you Ms. Kerwick and take responsibility for your actions instead of excuses and misrepresentation of facts. You did not respond to the fact of the presence of the police on December 20, 2013 at Ms. Kerwick's residence regarding the flashing lights of the police cars. Where you there? I take it that your lack of addressing this means you were not and therefore your statement that you published in regards to this is false along with your continued misrepresentation of an Amber Alert - which is also false. I can't speak about State Marshal Kaz overall, but it appears what he had testified to in this case is based upon what he observed and was backed up by a police report that Ms. Kerwick herself admitted as evidence in this case. If it was incriminating evidence against Ms. Kerwick it still was what happened according to the police and Marshal Kaz who were present that day. Again, where you there? I believe you get your information from one source that being Ms. Kerwick herself without looking at the entire picture. Who is suppose to be the impartial person on this blog. Its obvious to me that you are not impartial therefore using your logic (since we disagree) you must be corrupt also. I would think that if you have a cause you would be better suited to stop with the name calling, misrepresentation of facts, etc. and concentrate on how you can make a positive impact on change instead of a negative one as you are doing here.
DeleteSo, ok, let me get this straight. Colleen, from what you said, disobeyed a SINGLE court order in regard to parental access and the solution to that is to completely cut off all access that Colleen has to her four year old little boy permanently. Boy, wow! Ok, I would like to introduce you to a considerable number of parents each year who come to the Court with Motions For Contempt regarding parental access where their exes have disobeyed multiple court orders who end up with absolutely no action on the part of judges. I think all of them would be in heaven if they had Mr. Sorvino's luck, particularly when it comes to the judge. Yes, even attorneys who are well trained find it hard to represent themselves when their exes have drained them of every dime they have with frivolous litigations funded by greater financial resources. That is why, for the better part, even doctors wouldn't treat themselves. It would be foolish. So you have definitely proven that point. I am not misrepresenting the Amber Alert--you described it to me yourself and I just based my response on what you told me. But, what can I say, you have the typical attorney rhetoric which we all know can transform relatively minor matters into a phantasmagoric mountain and you have the judges in your pockets so you get away with it, and leave misery and destruction in your wake. Imagine this little boy when he grows up and finds out about the criminal damage you did to his life and to his mother.
DeleteOkay, Catharine Sloper - Feb. 8, 2014 at 1:54pm, you state that you are not misrepresenting the Amber Alert and that I described this you and you based your response on what I told you. I would like to know where in any of my responses, that are Anonymous, that I described the Amber Alert to you? I know that I have never met you, so therefore I could not have told you about an Amber Alert in person. Also, I was not present with the police on December 20, 2013 so I have no first hand knowlwedge - all I do know is what the police have told me and that is there was no Amber Alert issued in this case as you continue to state it was. NO AMBER ALERT!!!! Do you get it now? Maybe I should say it one more time - NO AMBER ALERT!
DeleteYou seem to be having a very hard time talking. I stand by everything that I have said in my articles and in my commentary. If you or your ilk so much as put your feet or any part of your anatomy in a police station that day, that is enough. What you are debating is completely irrelevant and that is the point--you change the subject, you fog the subject up with misinformation and misdirection, you stir up mud, you make irrelevant, repetitive commentary on minor points. The bottom line is that you have no moral values, you lie, you take thousands and thousands of dollars from your client in order to harass and vilify an innocent mother, and bottom line you have viciously denied a young child his relationship with his mother by hammering away at her legally and doing everything you can, illegally, to destroy her reputation, her livelihood, and her relationship with her child. If the police were smart enough to figure out your game on time, it does not somehow eliminate the fact that you tried to get one, and maligned and lied about Colleen Kerwick as you did so.
DeleteYou post "Since they acknowledge no Amber Alert was needed..." who is they?
DeleteKen Savino's attorneys, I would assume!
DeleteI am just reviewing the old message from the individual who supports Kenneth Savino in this case. I had heard reference to this written agreement between Colleen and Kenneth granting Colleen permission to have the child from the 20 to the 22 and I believe that it exists. If so, it appears to modify the parenting agreement in a legitimate way. If both parents sign an agreement to modify a parenting agreement, that is a legal agreement, even if it isn't notarized. I say that because I have established similar types of hand written agreements with my ex. So the concept that Colleen wasn't obeying the parenting agreement in this case is wrong.
DeleteBe that as it may, the Savino's had an agreement whereby they would transfer custody at around 9:00am in the morning. On the 20th when that transfer was supposed to be taking place, apparently, Colleen was at the transfer location while Ken and his attorneys was at the Hartford Courthouse filling out an ex parte emergency order for Colleen to convey the child to Mr. Savino. What this means to me is that if Colleen really thought she had an agreement to keep the child, she wouldn't have been at the transfer location. And if Ken Savino really intended to pick up the child he would have been at the transfer location not in court filling out an ex parte emergency order to obtain him. So something isn't quite right on both sides there!
I think it is irrelevant as to whether the court did or did not rule in favor of Ms. Kerwick since the injustice is so severe at Family Court that we would hardly expect justice to prevail. However, it is not surprising Colleen Kerwick did not know The CT Practice Book since she practiced law in New York and she is originally from Ireland. However, I observed her work and I've read transcripts in which she defended herself and she has done a really great job. I don't see that she took the law into her own hands. That's a real fabrication!!!! I'd say that Budlong and Barrett took the law into their own hands by obtaining court orders based upon fabrications in violation of their professional ethics as attorneys!
You state that it is a lie that there were flashing lights at Ms. Kerwick's home. I don't know if that is a lie so much as it is an assumption I make based upon prior experience of what I've seen. If police officers use their vehicles to go to a private home, they generally flash their lights as a rule. if they did not in this case, I'd be surprised, but it is bad enough that police officers were allowed to take a child from his mother on trumped up grounds.
Nothing in Marshall Kaz report indicates that Colleen Kerwick did anything illegal and nothing in any police report indicates she did anything illegal either. Looks to me like a discredited attorney firm's desperate attempt to hold onto the shredding rags of respectability despite repeated examples of acting illegally and without regard to the law..
With one caveat, if you are an abusive male with lots of money and time on your hands to make your ex miserable, you will definitely be heard by judges and attorneys doing business in our corrupt, crooked, twisted Connecticut Family Court System.
ReplyDeleteWho was the company involved? Was it Maximus? If so, I may have the inside track on the company.
ReplyDeleteBudlong and Barrett!!!!
DeleteSteven Dembo is my ex's attorney. Dembo lies in Court no problem, I am pro se, so I know how he shuts one up wit his screaming. Motions filed by him contain multiple madeup stories without any evidence and it passes the Court systems, no problems.
DeleteYes, I know what you are talking about. I haven't actually observed Dembo conducting himself this way, but I do see how judges accept attorneys madeup stories without any documentation or testimony and continue on stating the contents of those stories as truth. It is beyond me to understand why the Court allows that, particularly when there is other direct evidence proving the tales to be absolutely false. I hear you on this!
DeleteMarina, They all lie. They are not under sworn oath so they have carte blanche to lie. Every lawyer I have spoken to about my case and my ex's lawyer, have criticized her for having a long history of lying to the judges. One went so far as to say that the all of the judges know that she lies.
DeleteSteven Dembo lies to the court all the time. He works with Marshall Kaz who is a known witness for hire. Budlong & Barrett are no better.
ReplyDeleteThe only ones lying here are Catherine Slope and the people who support her. The facts are all in the record and the judgement speaks for itself. There is a reason Ms. Kerwick does not have access to her child. She cannot take any responsibility for her actions. Plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteI have now looked at the record and I have no problem in saying that you are not telling the truth. The only reason why Colleen Kerwick had no access to her child when that happened is that members of the attorney firm Budlong and Barrett lied and the GAL Kerry Tarpey was a liar as well. Pure and simple. That's what the record indicates.
DeleteWhen you have the judges and the attorneys in collusion, basically manipulating court rules to benefit their cash for kids scam, anything in a memorandum of decision or any documentation on the record, any testimony before the court lacks any credibility. What is interesting is the manner in which attorneys and judges allow the accumulation of lie after lie so that it becomes almost impossible to explain what has gone on in the case, the stacks of documents multiply, and then it becomes difficult to get these cases before the media or have an independent body investigate because there are so many twists and turns in the case that you can't track your way back to the beginning. Of course, this is the plan right from the beginning. This is how a case ends up lasting over a decade and becoming a moneymaker for unscrupulous attorneys, GALs and the judges who collude with them.
ReplyDeleteThen they blame the victims.
ReplyDeleteJudges and attorneys in collusion?? Lies by attorneys and judges?? Your comments just show why you and others following you have lost their rights to their children.
ReplyDelete
DeleteI hear you that what we are saying about family court seems so amazing. How can it be possible that a profession such as the legal profession which has truth as it primary value could be filled with liars, defrauders, manipulaters, and con people. I would never have believed it before I had the experience myself. To be honest, I'm just a small town writer and a few people enjoy what I have to say and I find that gratifying. However, if there is one area where God, if I had only copyrighted it, or charged ten dollars a look, my article on crooked attorneys "Going, Going, Gone" garners thousands and thousands and thousands of hits every single week. If you look at my list of popular posts, consistently, every single day, you will see "Going, Going, Gone" right on the top of the list. If I were to talk about a runaway hit, that posting is far and above the most frequently read and talked about posting on my blog, followed at a considerable distance by my blog about crooked GALs (of course, again attorneys!). I get so much attention for these blogs alone. In fact, seriously, if I shut down the blog and simply posted those two blogs and charged say $10.00 a look, I wouldn't need any child support or alimony any more. I could just live off the proceeds. Every once in a while I go, darn it, I am missing out on an opportunity. So this goes simply to say, you are skeptical, but don't be. The numbers prove that my description of the corruption of judges and attorneys and their widespread wrong doing and misbehavior is well know among a broad range of citizens here in Connecticut. I find it immensely saddening that such an historic, and dignified, and noble calling has been demeaned by a group of gangsters whose outrageous behavior remains unchecked. At this point, I would call upon those within the profession who have any remaining self respect and integrity to do something to correct this problem.
This is a disgrace and those attorneys should be ashamed of themselves but worse they should be tricked and have to give up their children. Things would quickly change. When in CT you must accept its a mans world an a good ol boy network unless you are up for a long fight
ReplyDelete