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| Andy Thibault |
If you are interested in more of the details of this membership, please see the link below:
Andy Thibault attended Boston University and has been in the field of journalism for approximately 30 years. He has done a considerable amount of work in the area of the court system. In fact, he probably could teach the members of the Committee a thing or two himself, even the judges and attorneys. For instance, Mr. Thibault worked as a columnist for the "CT Law Tribune" for six years between June 2000 and May 2006.
He is also the founder of the website "Cool Justice" where, for many years, he has challenged audiences regarding matters related to the law and how justice is or is not served. See the link:
In that regard, he is the author of two books: "Law and Justice in Everyday Life: Featuring the Cool Justice Columns of Law Tribune Newspapers" (2002). This book included an introduction by Howard Zinn and a foreword by F. Lee Bailey; "More Cool Justice" (2014).
Andy Thibault has always fought for the underdog in his work and has been a major voice for justice in the State of Connecticut. His Goodreads biography mentions that the novelist Chandra Prasad called him "Connecticut's premiere journalistic warrior." Wally Lamb, according to this bio, states that "Thibault is a junkyard dog for justice who bares his teeth at pomposity and institutional unfairness and only bites the truly deserving."
Some of Andy Thibault's most outstanding work in this regard was his effective championship of Bonnie Jean Foreshaw, a victim of domestic violence who was wrongly convicted of premeditated murder. Subsequently, she was sentenced to a lengthy sentence of 45 years which was unprecedented in the history of CT jurisprudence. In 1994, the story of Bonnie Foreshaw was featured by Yale University student, Ondi Timoner, in a film entitled "Nature of the Beast." Mr. Thibault also partnered with CT author Wally Lamb in working hard for Ms. Foreshaw's release. Wally Lamb worked with Ms. Foreshaw and eventually included stories of her life in his two books of stories by prison inmates. Bonnie Foreshaw was eventually released in 2013, after serving 27 years of her sentence.
Another of Andy Thibault's achievements was the central role he played in reporting on the Woody Allen case here in CT. In this case, the celebrity filmmaker Woody Allen was accused of molesting his daughter Dylan Farrow. Andy Thibault wrote a pivotal article on that case which appeared in the April 1997 issue of "Connecticut Magazine". This article has played a central role in clarifying the pressures that were placed on then prosecutor Frank Maco to put aside Dylan Farrow's accusations. In the years since the article came out, Mr. Thibault's work has played a central role in assuring that the truth gets told about that case despite subsequent pressure to misrepresent and distort the events that took place.
In 2014, family court victims were extremely grateful when Andy Thibault played a central role in publishing an article in "The Register Citizen" which clearly and accurately informed the public of the many concerns they had about corrupt legal practices in family court. He was fearless in naming the legislators who sought to rig the family court task force as a means of silencing victims. He was also very clear about the unethical practices of the Association of family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) which had spread its tentacles through the CT Family Court System.
Of course, upon hearing about Andy Thibault's appointment to the Judicial-Media Committee, several family court advocates have expressed concern that he could be made a tool of the Judicial System. However, upon inquiry, Andy Thibault has expressed the view that he will be able to assess issues fairly and impartially, despite the fact that he is on the Committee. He does not anticipate that his membership will in any way undermine his ethical integrity.
As a point of interest, Andy Thibault has recently been hired as the City Editor of the "Republican-American" in Waterbury, CT, a position that should start for him on October 24, 2018. We certainly wish him luck in this new enterprise.
For more information on the concerns family court victims have expressed about the Judicial-Media Committee, see the link below:
