It has been readily apparent to activists who have worked so hard to establish the task force to Study Legal Disputes Involving the Care & Custody of Minor Children that there are those in the State Legislature and beyond who would like nothing better than to scuttle any possibility that the task force will achieve any good results.
This is why, right from the beginning, we all protested the appointment of Attorney Sharon Dornfeld and Attorney Sue Cousineau to the task force, and most particularly their appointments as Chair and Co-Chair. Both of these attorneys are members of the AFCC (Association of Family and Conciliation Courts) whose corrupt practices within the Judicial Branch the task force has the job of investigating. This is a conflict of interest because Attorney Dornfeld and Attorney Cousineau are thus investigating the corrupt practices of an organization they actually belong to.
If you want to know who is responsible for this deliberate attempt to undercut the work of this task force, please focus your attention on REPRESENTATIVE BRENDAN SHARKEY and also SENATOR DONALD WILLIAMS. These are two political hacks you do not want to vote for when there is another election.
The fact that Attorney Dornfeld and Attorney Cousineau were appointed to this task force as chair and co chair indicates the deep disregard and contempt that both Representative Brendan Sharkey and Senator Donald Williams have for the citizens in the State of Connecticut who worked so hard to put this task force into place.
Now to add insult to injury, the task force now has a new member, Attorney Carolyn Signorelli whose appointment is a complete violation of the legislation that put this task force into place.
There are two positions for mental health professionals on the task force. Item #3 of Substitute House Bill 6685 requires that the majority leader of the House of Representatives appoint a licensed mental health professional with expertise in forensic child custody evaluations.
Item #5 of Substitute House Bill 6685 requires that the minority leader of the House of Representatives appoint a mental health professional with expertise in working with family systems.
For more information, click on the link below to review Substitute House Bill 6685:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/fc/2013HB-06685-R000736-FC.htm
For more information, click on the link below to review Substitute House Bill 6685:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/fc/2013HB-06685-R000736-FC.htm
Currently, Dr. Elizabeth Thayer is occupying the seat for one of these mental health professionals and Attorney Carolyn Signorelli is sitting on the other! Thus, Attorney Carolyn Signorelli is sitting in a seat that is supposed to be filled by a mental health professional. What's up with that?
Plus, Attorney Signorelli's involvement with a 2011 debacle over the payment or rather the CT Judicial Branch's lack of payment of court appointed GALs to the tune of millions certainly calls into question her appropriateness for this position.
Not only that, Attorney Carolyn Signorelli stated that she works for the Attorney General's office, but is participating in the task force as a private citizen.
There is no possible way that Attorney Signorelli can legitimately make such a distinction. It is totally unacceptable that an individual who works for an agency that would ordinarily be given the job of defending the Judicial Branch should it be found to be legally liable for the wrong doing it has committed against individual litigants be afforded the opportunity to sit on the task force as a "private citizen".
When a task force member has such a major conflict of interest this completely undercuts the legitimacy of the task force as a whole.
I remember a similar kind of thing happening in family court--they would obstruct and harass you when you were on your way to a hearing you had requested, so that by the time you get to the hearing you've been obstructed and waylaid so much it drains your energy and you can't remember what you intended to say. So many of the citizens who worked so hard to establish this task force and were traumatized by these kinds of games, now find that the task force is playing exactly the same games in order to avoid the responsibility of doing the job they were asked to do.
Instead of reaching out to the public and finding out what has been going on and how citizens have been impacted by the problem of GALs and AMCs in child custody cases, the task force has essentially consisted of the two co-chairs Attorney Dornfeld and Attorney Cousineau taking up valuable task force time by speaking loudly and at length in praise of the GAL and AMC system. At the same time, they have been working overtime at bullying and silencing any member of the task force who has the nerve to propose that any problems exist or that some adjustments might be in order.
In my opinion, the citizens of the State of Connecticut who worked so hard to put this task force into place deserve much better service.
The appointment of Attorney Signorelli to the Task Force is far more insidious than any of us can imagine.
ReplyDeleteAttorney Signorelli was the legal counsel to Child Protective Services, when the GAL and AMC training at Quinnipiac was intiated by the judicial branch in advance of the formal approval of such training that was advanced by the passing of Practice Book Rule 25-62 and Practice Book Rule 25-62a, which mandates the taking of these training classes.
The legislature itself has failed to conduct public hearings on the practice book rules since 1969 as required by CGS 51-14.
To when the legislature fails to do its job and allows for the Practice Book rules to expand the powers and jurisdiction of the courts,
The appointment of Signorelli, who was involved with Judge Munro in the construction of the AMC and GAL seminars in March 2011 (including raising funding from lawyers, presenters) in advance the approval of the Practice Book Rules 25-62 and 25-62a (which were not even voted upon until June 2011)
Attorney Signorelli worked in CPS as its Lead Counsel until its function was incorporated into the Office of Public Defenders. Attorney Signorelli's former CPS staff continues to or organize and run the AMC and GAL program.
The fact is that Larry Cafero (another lawyer) designated the appointment of Signorelli to replace the spot mandated by the creation of the ten person task force to be a "mental health professional".
So our complaint needs to be made to Larry Cafero's office and letters to the editor go into the Connecticut Law Tribune and the Hartford Courant to expose the corrupt appointments to AFCC members and Attorney Signorelli as "mental health professional".
The agenda item of the last meeting that addressed the "establishing the procedures for the posting of testimony" no doubt" came from the first few letters which were sent to LDCC@cga.ct.gov mailbox.
None of that testimonycontained in my letter addressed to the Task Force requiresting distribution concerning abuse of the statutory limits of authority of AMC Veronica Reich has been posted on the task force website.
Therefore, I am going to requrest that the chairs, under the FOI Act provide information as to the "routing" and "distribution" of my letter and others which have been sent in to the task force.
However, the issue of the appointment of Attorney Signorelli to a Task Force position that was to be allocated to a mental health professional, is a troubling one for the "loading" of the task force with members intending to preserve the status quo.