In 2008, Colleen Kerwick, a citizen of Ireland and aviation attorney who had been living in New York City, married her second husband, Kenneth Savino, an American citizen living in Connecticut and involved in Wealth Management. The two had their first child in 2009. Despite this auspicious beginning, on July 4 2011 Colleen Kerwick served her then husband with papers for separation and relocation to NY, to which her ex responded by filing for divorce in Connecticut Family Court on July 11, 2011. Two years later, on December 20, 2013, Ken Savino obtained sole custody of their son, then four years old. In contrast, Colleen was barred from seeing her son for several months.
How did Colleen Kerwick, a bright, well functioning, successful individual and loving responsible mother lose all rights her child? The answer to this question lies in understanding the legal machinations of our corrupt family court system here in Connecticut.
Before proceeding with this discussion, I think there are some important factors that I think anyone looking at the Colleen Kerwick case needs to keep in mind. I present them in no particular order of importance.
First, of all, Colleen Kerwick is not an American She was born and raised in Ireland, graduated from high school and law school in Ireland with honors. It was only subsequent to her graduation from law school, at the age of 24, that she immigrated to the United States.
Ms. Kerwick speaks with an Irish accent, she is a native Irish speaker, and remains with the attitudes and presumptions of a person who for whom American culture is a taste acquired later in life. As several prominent examples have shown--the Amanda Knox case comes immediately to mind--we must always take particular care when attempting to process a citizen of a foreign country through our legal system.
We must ensure that a grave injustice does not occur simply on the basis of the profound cultural differences that exist between countries. I came to this country at the age of 4 and I still have problems with this issue.
Simply based upon this factor alone, the Colleen Kerwick case is a particular embarrassment to the citizens of the State of Connecticut and to the legal system itself.
Second, Colleen's ordeal began when she served her ex-husband, Ken Savino with papers on July 4, 2011 for separation and relocation to New York, to which he responded by filing for divorce on July 11, 2011. Her decision to leave Mr. Savino arose after a considerable period of neglect and absenteeism in her life and that of their child. During the marriage he was very controlling, was highly critical of her looks and behavior, and tried to restrict her access to sleep, even after their son was born. Once Colleen made it clear that she could no longer stay in the marriage, this appeared to trigger Mr. Savino into a rage to the point where he has been extremely vengeful towards Colleen, has sought to destroy her relationship with their son and has filed several complaints with the police in an attempt to have her arrested. Luckily, these attempts have failed.
Third, Colleen Kerwick was/is a victim of domestic violence as was her child. Thus, I have before me a letter dated October 12, 2011 written by Shanthi Rao, MSW of Interval House West in which she states, "[Ms. Kerwick] contacted our agency [on] July 2011 and was found appropriate for our services. Ms. Kerwick shared her personal history and incidences of occasions of physical, emotional and verbal abuse by her husband during the course of their marriage, especially when she was pregnant with their son."
Further, Ms. Rao stated, "As a domestic violence counselor, it is my professional opinion that Ms. Kerwick is a victim of very serious intimate partner violence/domestic violence and abuse. These are extremely difficult issues and I wish to express my appreciation of your capable sensitivity to the complexities of this situation."
I say this with confidence particularly because Ms. Shanthi Rao is a highly respected domestic violence worker who is very reliable in her judgments. I have personally met Ms. Rao and if she has assessed Colleen Kerwick and concluded that she is a victim of domestic violence, I find that very persuasive. Shanthi Roe is well respected among women's advocacy circles, not only by her colleagues, but also by her clients.
I also base this assessment on the psychological report dated November 6, 2012 of neuropsychologist Dr. Rimma Danov who concluded that, along with having many other admirable qualities, that Ms. Kerwick is "an emotionally stable, mature, well-adjusted and responsible individual..." This is hardly the kind of person who would just make something up.
Finally, I just have to look at the behavior of Colleen's ex-husband, Kenneth Savino and his attorneys to know that they are simply not good people. When Ms. Colleen Kerwick lost her child as the result of a fabricated Amber alert in 2013, the incident was reported in several articles posted on this blog.
Not long after they were posted, an individual who was clearly an attorney representing the father, Kenneth Savino, posted several aggressive, bullying and factually inaccurate comments regarding Colleen Kerwick and family court reformers underneath these articles. This alone reveals the abusive character of Colleen Kerwick's ex-husband.
In addition, if you look at the case detail for the Savino case, it appears that Mr. Savino essentially hired two of the most unscrupulous and warlike attorneys practicing in Connecticut Family Court today, i.e. Budlong and Barrett, LLC and Attorney Steve Dembo.
If Kenneth Savino was serious about co-parenting his child, Nicholas, he would never have hired such litigious counsel. You just have to see two attorneys jumping up and down and giving speeches on one side of the courtroom while Colleen Kerwick is on the other side representing herself to know exactly who is the victim here. And I might add, ridiculing and mocking Colleen Kerwick because of her use of words which arises from her background as a citizen of Ireland.
I want to add that not only has Budlong and Barrett, LLC been bullying towards Colleen Kerwick, it has also been bullying towards me.
For instance, this law firm has submitted a complaint to the West Hartford police department because I cut and pasted a section from the law firm's own website and pasted it onto mine.
In addition, Budlong and Barrett, LLC sent me a threatening letter indicating that it may at some point sue me on the basis of "incitement to violence" if I don't stop blogging about them.
Nothing like honest words to scare bad people to death and put the fight in them. In a recent incident where Divorce in Connecticut reporter, Elizabeth Richter was court watching for a friend, Attorney Michael Budlong stood before Judge Jorge Simon and made false statements about her and persuaded Judge Simon on the basis of those lies to remove her from the courtroom. If Kenneth Savino condones behavior of this kind, there is no doubt in my mind what kind of abuse he is capable of personally himself, and in regard to directing others to perpetrate it on his behalf.
To be continued...
