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Showing posts with label CORRUPTION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CORRUPTION. Show all posts

Saturday, June 11, 2016

PLEASE HELP! SIGN THE PETITION: STOP AMERICAN FAMILY COURT BIAS AGAINST IRISH IMMIGRANT MOTHER!

Roisin Cassidy is a protective mother from San Mateo, CA who needs your help.  See the story below: 

"My name is Roisin Cassidy. I was a custodial mother of my two children for 15 years, currently aged 15 and 11. I've always been a devoted mother, and all I have ever wanted to do was to co parent my children. Nonetheless, their wealthy abusive father asked for sole custody and was successful, by means of a custody report that I believe to be inaccurate and biased, conducted by Dr. Ken B. Perlmutter. This report was signed into a court order by Judge Raymond Swope, San Mateo. I was not permitted to present my evidence in court. 
This is not a case of substance abuse, mental illness or parental deficiencies. After leaving an abusive marriage, my children and I were subjected to years of expensive litigation and harassment, as well as two custody evaluations by Ken Perlmutter Phd, Palo Alto. These custody evaluations placed me and the children under a microscope for years to the point where I had to account for every decision I made no matter how small and for each and every incident that occurred in our daily lives no matter how trivial. If I was five minutes late for a doctor's appointment, I had to explain why in detail..."
READ MORE AND SIGN THE PETITION AT THE LINK BELOW:

Sunday, January 31, 2016

HOW THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS DROPPED THE BALL AND PLACED CHILD VICTIM IN THE HANDS OF FATHER WHO SEXUALLY ABUSED HER!

Nestor Ramos and  of The Boston Globe report as follows:


"The bad stuff hurt too much, the girl said, so she took trips in her head. She imagined she was playing in the park, not lying on the basement floor or standing naked in the bathroom where, she said, her father touched her.


He told her not to tell anyone, she said, but she told anyway.


She told her mother, who went to the police. She told her therapist, who wrote a letter. She told the people who supervised her visits with her mother, who filed reports. 

“I tried to tell anyone who would listen, but no one believed me,” said the girl, then 7, during a trauma evaluation conducted last spring. The Globe is withholding her name to protect her identity..."

READ MORE:

Friday, January 15, 2016

HARTFORD COURANT REPORTS CT COUPLE CHALLENGES DCF DECISION TO REMOVE THEIR CHILDREN AT BIRTH!

According to Josh Kovner, reporter at The Hartford Courant:
"NEW YORK — The state child protection agency trampled on the rights of a Connecticut couple by removing two children at birth based on "perceptions and stereotypes" of the parents' mental health, a lawyer told a federal appeals court Thursday.
Lawyer Andrew O'Toole of Hartford was arguing on behalf of Joseph Watley, 61, and Karin Hasemann, 47, who claim that their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act were violated when the state Department of Children and Families terminated their parental rights.
O'Toole and the couple, along with several supporters, were at the U.S. 2nd Circut Court of Appeals to challenge a dismissal of the couple's case by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny..."
For more on this article, see below:


Wednesday, January 13, 2016

TO THE CT JUDICIAL BRANCH--NO ONE IS FOOLED BY THESE ACTS OF RETALIATION!

Yesterday, Mr. Ted Taupier, a father and a good citizen of the State of CT was sentenced to 18 months in jail based upon intemperate comments he made regarding his family court judge in a private email he sent to friends.  I am here to say to the CT Judicial Branch and to Judge Gold who handed out this sentence that none of us are fooled.  

Since dozens of individuals approached the CT State Legislature starting in 2014, and since the Task Force was established to investigate the wrongdoing of GALs in family courts throughout Connecticut, the CT Judicial Branch has been going out of its way to retaliate against CT citizens who have complained about its ill treatment.  I am aware of one prominent family court advocate who had DCF remove his children from his care based upon no adequate justification subsequent to the task force hearings on GALs.  I know of many litigants who complained of ill treatment from judges and family court attorneys who are now subject to gag orders.  

I myself was subjected to more than one threat that I might be put in jail if I refused to reveal the sources of an article I published on this website.   As a result, I had to pay significant attorneys fees and appear in court which was very traumatic for me given my past  experiences.  

I know of one specific individual who was particularly outspoken about CT Judicial Branch wrongdoing who had the local police station file false documents which compromised this person's case in family court.  The stories have been coming in from all over this state reporting that Judges have been retaliating against family court activists, and this ruling in the Taupier case is just one more.  

Judge Gold's harsh ruling is simply another attempt to intimidate and silence family court litigants who have legitimate complaints about the corruption and wrongdoing of family court in CT.  

Things have gotten to be so bad in our State's family courts that the term "Corrupticut" is actually an entry in the free internet encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.  How much more of a joke can CT's judicial system continue on being?  This is the question that we are left with.  

The bottom line is that in the email for which he was convicted, Ted Taupier was exercising his Constitutional right to freedom of speech along with a group of his compatriots in a private email.  He never directly addressed the person he is charged with threatening, i.e. Judge Elizabeth Bozzuto.  

It is interesting that The CT Law Tribune, the mouthpiece of the CT Judicial branch, reported how Judge Gold described Mr. Taupier's email as "frightening in its specificity" but did not mention another aspect of Mr. Taupier's email such as its obvious hyperbole, and its joking, exaggerated references to Charlton Heston's vastly hyperbolic encomium to machine guns in a widely circulated, and widely laughed at speech he made to NRA supporters.  Taking Mr. Taupier's comments out of context and then awfulizing them for your own retaliatory purposes does not make a crime, much as my saying so may disappoint members of the CT Judicial Branch and Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers.  

However, we can debate this extensively, if we'd like.  But this is the bottom line.  For several years, the CT Judicial Branch has colluded with certain profit minded attorneys and judges to develop a system within the family courts of this state which is intended to rip off citizens of this state who seek to obtain a divorce and establish custody arrangements for their children.  

With the cooperation of many of their members, the Judicial Branch has allowed GALs, unscrupulous attorneys, and corrupt mental health professionals to charge families thousands and thousands of dollars for dubious services which have not benefited children, and instead have bankrupted families and emptied college tuition funds intended to give these children a future.  

With the cooperation of their members, this Judicial Branch has subverted the due process of the law, repeatedly violated our constitution, flaunted its refusal to obey ADA law in the faces of vulnerable litigants with disabilities, and insulted their victims, the unsuspecting parents who have entered the family court system, and chewed up and spit them out onto the streets, homeless and childless, calling them "disgruntled" and "angry".  

Are we angry?  You bet we are angry.  We are angry when Judges hide documentary evidence.  We are angry when Judges refuse to allow us to put the witnesses on the stand whom we paid thousands of dollars to appear in court and conduct studies.  We are angry when judges refuse to rule on the motions they are hired to rule on. We are angry when attorneys flout The Practice Book rules and the law, and judges let them get away with doing so. We are angry when GALs who are supposed to be neutral give one or the other party legal advice and inside information regarding how the judge will rule or how family relations will draw its conclusions.  We are angry when attorneys sworn to facilitate discovery hand in documentation by piece meal over a period of years.  We are angry when judges lie, when attorneys lie, when family relations officers lie, when mental health professionals lie, when clerks of the court lie, and on and on.  

We have all walked in Mr. Ted Taupier's shoes.  We all know what it means to become heartbroken and distraught about how we are treated in family court.  Like many, I have worked hard all my life to earn a living.  I can recall my first babysitting job at the age of 10 when I was paid $.47 an hour.  I fought my way through my undergraduate years fighting against severe depression, worked my way through a master's degree and teaching program that took me five years because I worked full time also.  I could continue on with the challenges of bringing up children--mine are in college now--and running a home business.  Yet, I can recall having to stand before a judge for extended periods of time, keeping my mouth shut while the judge went on and on about what a poor character I had.  

How did that happen that after decades of hard work and showing an honorable character, and obeying the law, and bringing up three children who are good citizens, how did I get to be as much of a piece of shit as the judges on those days described me, as the GAL on those days described me, as the opposing attorney in those days described me?  Such things only happen in a CT Family Court system that is drunk on its power and that has lost its compass such that it can only work under the influence of the almighty dollar and has totally lost  any comprehension that it actually has a responsibility to the citizens of this State, the taxpayers who pay their salaries.  

I also want to return today to what this should all be about, what is justice about in situations like this related to family court.  We are told that we should shut up and put up, that we should stop complaining, that we should stop holding court personnel to account in regard to proper legal practices because the only thing that matters is the best interests of the children, and attorneys and judges are always excusing their rotten deeds by saying they are doing everything in the best interests of the children, parents are of no account, apparently, in such an equation.  However, if there was any one particular point many of the friends of Ted Taupier spoke of yesterday it was how putting Mr. Taupier in jail would harm the Taupier children.  

Did that make a bit of difference to this court?  

No.  

Judge Gold had no hesitation directly harming Ted Taupier's children by giving him a lengthy jail sentence.  The only time, really, that it appears that the CT Family Court System starts mouthing off about the best interests of the children is when they are using it as an excuse to defraud family court victims.  

Finally, it has always been the better part of wisdom to temper justice with mercy.  Anyone who knows Ted Taupier knows how much he loves his children, knows how much they mean to him, and how he would go to the ends of the earth for their benefit.  Instead of giving Mr. Taupier the opportunity to be the great father he is, family court ripped him to shreds.  There is something beneath the dignity of a person in power, at least as far as I am concerned, to take a beaten father and beat him further.  When is enough enough?  

The CT Judicial Branch had an opportunity here with the Taupier case to build bridges and to bring healing to a situation where, through its own fault, it has caused considerably more damage to the citizens of the State of CT than ever Ted Taupier did, damage that goes well beyond the minor distress which Judge Elizabeth Bozzuto experienced, as unfortunate as that was.  

Regrettably, in a haze of selfish, self defensive, arrogant shortsightedness, the CT Judicial Branch allowed that opportunity to slip through its hands.  In doing so, the CT Judicial Branch has grievously failed in living up its responsibilities to the people of the State of CT and it will find, as a consequence, that rebuilding its reputation and rebuilding the trust and respect it once had before the family court fiasco will be a long hard road.  

CT LAW TRIBUNE REPORTS THAT TED TAUPIER WAS SENTENCED TO 18 MONTHS IN PRISON!

MICHELLE TUCCITTO SULLO OF THE CT LAW TRIBUNE REPORTS AS FOLLOWS:

MIDDLETOWN — A Cromwell man who made threatening statements in an email about the judge who was handling his divorce case was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison.
Superior Court Judge David Gold imposed the sentence on Edward Taupier, who was found guilty last year of threatening, disorderly conduct and breach of peace.

"Mr. Taupier's speech in this case was not merely tasteless, it was threatening," said Gold. "It was not just crude, it was criminal. Threats inflict harm and have no societal value. A true threat carries fear and disrupts a person's sense of safety and security. He laid out where and how he was going to shoot her."


Read more: 


http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202746918688/Man-Sentenced-in-Threat-Against-State-Judge#ixzz3x9KjgqOv

Monday, October 19, 2015

FOX NEWS IN NORTH CAROLINA EXPLAINS WHY DCF IN MANY STATES WON'T PLACE CHILDREN WITH FAMILY MEMBERS!

[We are guessing the same situation is affecting us here in CT.]

Brian Shilhavy of "Health Impact News" reports as follows:

"We are very pleased to see local media investigate the corrupt practices of child service agencies kidnapping children. While we disagree with the News Anchor at N.C. Fox 8 who started this report by stating that removal of children by the State is “almost always” in the best interest of the child (we have been covering this issue probably longer and have looked into probably more cases than they have, and we have found that it is almost NEVER in the best interest of the child to remove them from the home), we do applaud their investigation into why children removed from supposed “abusive homes” are almost never placed with family members, but instead go into the foster care system to strangers.

Fox 8 points out in their investigation that North Carolina rejects funding that would put children permanently with relatives instead of in foster homes. Grandparents who are able and willing to care for their grandchildren, for example, are routinely rejected by the State.

Why?

Melissa Painter of Fox 8 points out that in North Carolina more than 10,000 children are in foster care under the care of the State. This brings in more than $198 million of funding to take care of these children.

Federal laws actually require states to give preference to placing children with relatives. There is even federal funding available to place the children with relatives in “permanent legal guardianships.” But North Carolina (and many other states) do not follow this practice, because children put up for adoption bring in more federal funding. Instead of giving federal funds that can be designated for relatives in guardianships, they keep the funds for themselves to administer the foster care and adoption system.

In short, a child put into the foster care system on the path to adoption, brings in more money to the State and employs more people to “administer” these children. They are simply unwilling to give these funds to relatives to take care of the children, because their job security is at stake."

- See more at:

http://medicalkidnap.com/2015/05/06/report-exposes-why-corrupt-cps-agencies-seldom-place-foster-children-with-family-members/#sthash.gic8tfNs.RARdHXVQ.dpuf

Sunday, October 18, 2015

BRITISH NEWS ORGANIZATION REPORTS ON CORRUPTION IN FAMILY COURT IN AMERICA!

Peter S. Green and John Mazor of "The Guardian" report as follows:
"When Margaret Besen, a 51-year-old nurse from East Northport, Long Island, filed for divorce from her husband in March of 2010, she believed justice was on her side.
Judge William Kent’s preliminary ruling seemed like a first step toward compromise. Margaret and Stuart Besen, who agreed their marriage was beyond repair, would remain in their suburban Suffolk County house, living in separate rooms – and keeping away from each other – while sharing custody until a resolution could be reached.
But within weeks, the situation deteriorated. Stuart Besen, a politically connected attorney for the town of Huntington, had an anger problem, Margaret told authorities. The couple’s screaming matches left Margaret feeling intimidated and their children – a daughter, 11, and son, 7 – terrified, she said. So in August of that year she obtained an order of protection prohibiting Stuart from harassing her. Three weeks later, Stuart entered Margaret’s bedroom and hovered over her as she slept, she told police. They arrested him for violating the order, reporting that Stuart had stared down at Margaret with his arms folded on three consecutive nights. She got temporary possession of the family home.
In the years that followed, Besen’s hopes for an equitable settlement dwindled as she battled a series of harsh and hard-to-explain decisions against her..."
READ MORE:

Saturday, October 17, 2015

MICHAEL VOLPE COMMENTS ON THE INCOMPETENTS INVOLVED IN THE TSIMHONI CASE!

Michael Volpe of "Communities Digital News" reports as follows:

"WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2015 — The individual chosen to implement a five-day reunification therapy in an explosive Michigan custody case had little more than a high school education, was working with a suspended psychiatrist and revealed an inherent bias toward the father.
A Michigan judge ordered three Tsimhoni children to engage in controversial “reunification therapy” after they refused to spend time with their father, Omer Tsimhoni. Judge Lisa Gorcyca of the Oakland County Family Court had previously sentenced the children to juvenile hall after refusing to have lunch with their father, who they say has been repeatedly abusive toward the children.
CDN has now learned that the three Tsimhoni children completed the five-day reunification therapy with Dorcy Pruter, who runs the Conscious Co-Parenting Institute. Pruter stated in a Wyoming deposition for another case that she ran the Tsimhoni children’s reunification therapy, despite statements on her web site that “this is not therapy.”.."



Read more at:

Sunday, October 11, 2015

THE CT JUDICIAL BRANCH, DESPERATE TO DEFLECT ITS CRITICS, HIDES BEHIND LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO TO CONVICT FAMILY COURT REFORM ACTIVIST TED TAUPIER AND NULLIFY THE FIRST AMENDMENT!

On August 29, 2014, a SWAT team of 75 officers along with two armored vehicles stormed Cromwell resident Mr. Ted Taupier's house with their weapons drawn, threw him to the ground and arrested him. [I am hearing that there was no need to throw him on the ground; he was apparently quite cooperative and just stood there!  Anyone else is welcome to comment!] 

The basis for this arrest?  

Apparently, late in the night on August 22, 2015, Mr. Taupier sent an email to six other friends which appeared to threaten the life of Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Bozzuto, some of it couched in the language of movies and science fiction and other parts of it appearing to be more serious.  One of the recipients of this email, Jennifer Veraneault, was frightened by the email and so after consulting with a friend, and a failed attempt to reach Mr. Taupier, she reported the email to authorities.  

The result was the absolutely dramatic arrest scene which I have described, and subsequent charges filed against Mr. Taupier for 1) threatening in the first degree; 2) threatening in the second degree; 3) two counts of disorderly conduct; and 4) breach of peace in the second degree.  He was released on bail of $75,000, was required to wear an ankle bracelet and was put on house arrest.  

Did Ted Taupier deserve this dramatic response to his late night diatribe against Judge Bozzuto?

On June 11, 2015, Attorney Norm Pattis, a highly regarded civil rights and criminal attorney blogged about the Ted Taupier case on his website stating, "Just how the state perceives [the email Ted Taupier sent] to be a threat to anyone is beyond my comprehension.  The speech is certainly ugly, even irresponsible, but if there is a specific intent to cause alarm or harm to Judge Bozzuto in the email, I can't see it."  

Commenting on his observations regarding the subsequent trial in the case, Attorney Pattis stated, "there's little doubt that the state failed to prove Taupier guilty of threatening.  His reckless bluster among folks he thought were friends and fellow travelers cannot be construed as an intent to threaten the judge.  No evidence suggests that he intended, or foresaw, that anyone would forward the email to Judge Bozzuto."  

At the very worst, Attorney Pattis anticipated that Ted Taupier would be acquitted of threatening and perhaps be convicted of disorderly conduct or breach of peace.  Instead, much to my surprise, on October 2, 2015 Judge Gold found Ted Taupier guilty of all charges in a 56 page decision that at times comes across as rambling and at other times obscure.  

While I never expected that Ted Taupier would get off scott free from these charges, it does appear excessive and vengeful that the Court convicted him on all charges and he now faces a six year prison sentence simply for speaking in an exaggerated and hyperbolic manner about a family court judge.  This is particularly true when you consider that Mr. Taupier never directly addressed Judge Elizabeth Bozzuto with any vituperative language and anything he said was written in an email sent people he believed were likeminded friends.  

Make no mistake, this Judge's decision was a purely political act, a blatant attempt to silence and intimidate current and potential critics, and has nothing to do with the law.  

I say this because in the last few years there has been escalating political unrest directed towards the CT Judicial Branch, particularly in connection to accusations that the family court system is corrupt. Along with many others, Mr. Ted Taupier, who has played a central role in advocating for reform of the legal system, has faced systematic retaliation from the CT Judicial Branch.  I myself have reported that this blog has also been the focus of vicious retaliation from the legal profession in the last year.  

What can be done when the judges of the CT Judicial Branch use their power within the judiciary to wreak revenge upon their critics?  

First of all, it should be noted that Tanya and Ted Taupier are typical of the kinds of successful couples that the CT Family Court likes to exploit and that in the course of obtaining their divorce they suffered the full gamut of the kind of corrupt behavior standard in family court.  

Tanya Taupier has a high level position at Aetna Insurance Company and Ted Taupier, prior to his arrest, had a solid position with Citicorp.  They have two children -- a son and a daughter.  Ms. Taupier filed for divorce in the fall of 2012 and had sufficient income to hire two divorce attorneys--Attorneys Geraldine Ficarra and Michael Peck--who continue to remain her attorneys.  At the same time, she also hired a criminal defense attorney Chris Morano formerly a prosecutor in the Michael Skakel case, no doubt also highly expensive.   

For his part, Ted Taupier hired in succession Brown, Paindiris and Scott, a highly regarded divorce attorney firm, then Attorney Henry B. Hurwitz, and then finally Lobo and Associates, LLC and then went pro se.  

In addition, the parties hired Attorney Margaret Bozek as the guardian ad litem for the children--Attorney Bozek has been associated with other problematic cases.  Attorney Bozek quickly racked up a bill of $30,000 and counting.  

It took three years before the divorce was final and, from what I've heard, a whole bunch of legal professionals cashed in before the case was over.  

So what happened specifically that so deeply radicalized Ted Taupier and ultimately led him to express his anger so strongly in regard to Judge Bozzuto in a private email to fellow advocates.  We just don't know because there is no information regarding Mr. Taupier's perspective in the entire October 2, 2015 decision. 

This is true despite the fact that Judge Gold stated on page 3 of his decision, "the determination of whether a defendant's allegedly threatening statements may be prosecuted and punished under the law requires that they be examined and considered in the light of their entire factual context and with reference to all surrounding events."  We got something in the Memorandum of Decision of October 2, 2015, but it certainly wasn't the "entire" story.

Instead, the Court summarized two very sanitized and edited stories in which Ted Taupier's perspective is entirely eliminated--one in regard to where the Taupier children would go to school and the other in regard to Mr. Taupier's disposal of his antique gun collection told from the perspective of the prosecutors.  

I certainly experienced this kind of repeated editing in my case and I know many others have experienced this.  What Judges do when they write Memoranda of Decision is simply pick and choose among the facts they like, and ignore or suppress the evidence they don't want to hear or acknowledge.  Along the way Judges often invent several extra stories for good measure just because it fits in with the legal picture they are attempting to develop.  

So even while making pompous and high minded sounding remarks about how all the evidence must be heard, Judges regularly edit or eliminate essential information from the record.

Not only do Judges tamper with court cases by suppressing the defendants side of the story, they also refuse to listen to witnesses at will.  Thus, in Ted Taupier's case, the Court simply dismissed as not credible the witnesses who came in support of Mr. Taupier and put their testimony in footnotes.  Meanwhile, inexplicably the Court stated that the one witness who felt threatened by Mr. Taupier's remarks was credible, even though we all know that she acted out of mixed motives that everyone is well aware of.  

This is not justice.  This is not the "entire factual context." 

What it actually adds up to is a legal exercise in judges using their superior status and the benefit of the doubt they receive from people who have watched too many episodes of "Law and Order" to smear the reputation of a vulnerable citizen who doesn't have anything like the same social and financial resources.  

We should also be troubled by Judge Gold's heavy reliance on the Supreme Court case State v. Krijger which came out on September 2, 2014.  For one thing, the State V. Krijger involves a defendant who made a direct verbal threat to the complainant (an attorney--surprise, surprise!).  In contrast, Ted Taupier never made a direct threat towards Judge Bozzuto--he was merely speaking with several friends in a private email.  And while Judge Gold from his standpoint thinks it was inevitable that one of those friends would communicate with authorities regarding the content of Ted's email remarks, that is not a given in my view.  Despite Judge Gold's insistence that all his conclusions were purely objective, reasonable people cannot help but think that subjective biases might have influenced Judge Gold's thinking process.  Therefore, what we have here are two very different circumstances, yet Judge Gold is treating them as if they are identical, which makes no sense to me.

Another point to keep in mind is that this case wasn't even the law at the time the alleged criminal act had taken place.  In many respects, the timing of when the decision in this case was issued, immediately after Taupier was arrested, bears the mark of case law especially formulated to target a particular individual such as a political activist.

What is additionally troubling when it comes to the State v. Krijger decision that acted as the basis of the Judge's determination in this case is that it essentially eliminates our first amendment right to freedom of speech in the State of Connecticut.  Take a look at the content of this decision on page 24 of Judge Gold's decision: "a state may punish those words that by their utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace....Furthermore, the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a state to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except when such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."  

This language is so broad that it really encompasses and identifies as illegal, even criminal, pretty much any meaningful political action that is time honored in most democratic countries.  For instance, with a definition of this kind, what would happen to someone like Malcolm X who stated that he intended to gather together an army to defend African-Americans "by any means necessary."  

What happens to someone like Martin Luther King who advocated acts of civil disobedience, i.e. the freedom riders, lunch counter sit ins, thus "inciting or producing imminent lawless action."  What about my friends in wheelchairs who have protested violations of their ADA rights by blockading intersections with their wheelchairs in violation of the law.  Are the discussions they held planning that political demonstration a violation of the law?  If they are, all of us who hope to create social change for the better are in serious trouble.

The bottom line is that when the Judicial Branch of the State of Connecticut becomes so afraid of its critics that it creates laws that eliminate CT citizens' first amendment right to free speech and then uses that law to jail possibly for six years the first innocent man it can find, we have a problem!  

More seriously, I question the focus here.  Why are we looking at a citizen's potential threat to a judge, when what we really need to do is look at the threat that is leveled upon many citizens by the actions of that judge.  

Further, we are not just concerned about a single judge; we are concerned about the entire CT Judicial Branch.  As Mr. Michael Nowacki pointed out succinctly a few years ago, the CT Judicial Branch has been creating law for several decades in violation of CT General Statutes 51-14, and in violation of the Constitution which mandates the separation of powers.  

Further, investigative journalists have discovered serious RICO violations within the CT Judicial Branch.  One commentator stated, "We know that an unregistered, sub regulatory corporation has been running through the CT Judicial Branch for 30 years, with member and directors in all positions of administration, from grant writing, program administration, and even regulation and oversight.  We know the judges and professionals they appoint onto cases they preside over are tied in profitable business relationships.  We know that numerous CT agencies, departments, and branches (DCF, DOC, judicial and others) are beholden to an agreement to collude in order to fix case outcomes to maximize funding over all other factors, including constitutional rights, due process, and human rights.  We know that judges are deliberately placing children in the most dangerous homes available to them, including violent pedophiles and murderers, in order to generate endless billing hours for their business partner lawyers, evaluators, and treaters, all of whom judges are appointing in the first place.  We know that many judges have non-profits that contract with the judicial branch, some even list a business address in their chambers.  We know that hundreds of millions of dollars are running through each of some of those non-profits per year.  We know that the Office of Inspector General audited some official judicial accounts in 2010 and found $13 million missing and unaccounted for." 

I'd forget chasing an insignificant (ok maybe not to himself!) individual like Ted Taupier around the block.  What about our State government that fails to protect its citizens? 

I am also aware that there are a considerable number of family court litigants and their children who have spoken about experiencing discrimination against them based upon their disabilities.  They have talked about how the CT Judicial Branch is completely non-compliant with federal ADA law as well as the ADAAA and denies people their reasonable modifications which are required for them to be able to obtain testimonial and participatory access to legal proceedings.  

Yet nothing has been done about any of these illegal activities--not a thing--despite the CT Department of Justice major announcements that they intended to investigate.  

Further, the CT Department of Justice specifically stated they would have a report on the compliance of the CT Judicial Branch with the ADA at the end of August 2015, and yet they still have not produced one and it appears have no plan to produce one. Further, they have broken the back of this so-called investigation by stating that they have no intention of looking at the specific complaints that people with disabilities have made against the CT Judicial Branch.  Aren't those complaints with their associated documents essential evidence in regard to whether the CT Judicial Branch has complied with the ADA or not?  Basically, the refusal to investigate complaints represents a complete indifference to the many disabled victims of the CT Judicial Branch's indifference and disregard of their fundamental civil rights.

How is it that all these State resources--police, a 75 man SWAT team, prosecutors, etc. etc. and CT Judicial Branch resources could be used to persecute a single man who made a few off color remarks in a bad moment, yet law enforcement personnel disregards and ignores the widespread human rights and civil rights violations and corruption for which the CT Judicial Branch is responsible?  

How is it that within only a few months of denying Adrianne Oyola a protective order which could have stopped Tony Moreno from tossing Baby Aaden off a bridge to his death, Judge Barry Pinkus is apparently back on the bench in Middletown adjudicating complex DV cases which he is clearly incapable of handling.

Someone please explain this to me.  What can we do as citizens to protect ourselves from the foolish and negligent actions of the Connecticut Judicial Branch when it is that very Branch we are supposed to turn to in order to obtain relief!

I am also surprised that Mr. Taupier's attorney did not argue self defense in this case.  Of course, there could be a very clear cut answer to this as I am not an attorney.  But consider the various ways in which CT Family Court destroyed Ted Taupier's life and cut him off from his relationship with his children.  Yes, it is true the Court made sure none of that evidence made it on the record.  Still, I am pretty sure that what this family went through was pretty devastating.  

Under the circumstances, couldn't Mr. Ted Taupier's remarks be construed as self-defense.  I was reading the 2008 OLR Research Report entitled "Castle Doctrine and Self Defense in Civil Cases."  This report describes the  Castle Doctrine by stating that the doctrine "establishes the circumstances under which a person can use physical force and deadly physical force to defend himself or someone else without being convicted for assault, manslaughter, or murder."  These are so called "stand your ground" laws.  Could stand your ground law apply to verbal defense as well as physical defense?

Wouldn't it be fair to say that a good many family court litigants have reported that the CT Judicial Branch is corrupt and that its employees are doing violence to their families and children, destroying their lives, bankrupting them, putting them out to live on the streets, snatching their children, allowing their children to be medically neglected or physically abused.  

Under these circumstances, couldn't we argue that the true threat here is not to Judge Bozzuto; the true threat here is to Ted Taupier and his family and to all the many family court litigants who have been exploited and taken advantage of in CT Family Court?  Yes, Ted Taupier made a statement which could be considered a threat, but wasn't he grievously provoked?  

Yet I don't believe this Castle Doctrine was ever raised, because the Court System carefully crafts the grounds upon which it will prosecute a defendant; it excludes anything it doesn't want it or the public to hear and then sets out to orchestrate these highly sophisticated show trials carried out as public relations gambits and media spectacles intended to divert attention from their own sordid crimes.  This is how a case which should be about a family court victim attempting to defend himself gets transformed into legal debates over whether a few exaggerated comments made in private to close friends is a true threat to a judge who wasn't even a part of the conversation.

One last point: if you look at the Memorandum of Decision of October 2, 2015 in the Taupier case and attempt to understand the Judge's explanation of the CT General Statutes and the case law which he used to justify convicting Ted Taupier, the more convoluted and incomprehensible it gets--after all it is 56 pages, plus an additional 12 to discuss the recent U.S. Supreme Court Elonis decision.  

If the average person makes the simple assumption that he or she has the right to freedom of speech--and most people do that---how could they possibly comprehend or even know of the Judge's extensive listing of the broad and extensive exceptions he and his pals have made to our Constitutional right to free speech.  Doesn't that make any one of us subject to entrapment within any context that we express ourselves--on social media, in letters to friends, on blogs--pretty much anywhere--because we aren't aware of the many exceptions.  Personally, I consider that thought chilling as should any reasonable Connecticut citizen.

Friday, October 2, 2015

DAVID IVERSEN OF WTNH CHANNEL 8 CONTINUES TO REPORT ON FAMILY COURT GAL CORRUPTION!

David Iversen of WTNH Channel 8 reports as follows:
"(WTNH) — In October 2014, new rules that regulate Guardian Ad Litems went into effect in Connecticut. 
A Guardian Ad Litem is a court appointed investigator who, in effect, reports to the court what is in the best interest of a child in the midst of a divorce. 
The News8 Investigators asked Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano and Representative Dan Carter about what they see as the legislatures role in the future of oversight within family court."
SEE MORE:


Monday, August 31, 2015

THE DOJ'S TOOTHLESS RESPONSE TO CONNECTICUT CITIZENS' COMPLAINTS THAT THE CT JUDICIAL BRANCH VIOLATES THEIR FEDERAL ADA RIGHTS!

By Elizabeth A. Richter


Buzzzz!  Times up!  Today is the last day that the Connecticut Department of Justice had to submit on time the report it has been promising regarding the compliance of the CT Judicial Branch with Federal ADA mandates.  They said they'd have the report out to us at the end of August 2015; tomorrow is September 1, 2015, and it looks like they will have missed the deadline!  How did that happen?  It happened because the Washington DOJ and the Connecticut DOJ have one thing in common: a profound unwillingness to enforce the ADA at the Connecticut Judicial Branch despite the fact that so many CT citizens have contacted them to report repeatedly violations of their Federal ADA rights during family court and DCF legal proceedings.  

THE WASHINGTON, D.C. DOJ
Now, I can't speak for what everyone else has gone through, but I can share what went into my ADA complaints which have been so colossally ignored by those whose job it is to respond to them.  My journey began way back in April 2012 when I contacted Equal Access Associates headed by Dr. Karin Huffer and had them draft a Federal ADA complaint on my behalf and that of my two children, both of whom have ocularcutaneous albinism and are visually impaired.  This was then sent out to the Washington, D.C. Department of Justice offices.  I didn't hear anything in the months afterward, so in the Fall 2012 I again sent a copy of this complaint to the Washington Department of Justice by Fax.  Again, I didn't hear anything in the months afterward.  Then, in March 2013, I again sent a copy of my complaint by certified mail, return receipt requested since I had not received a response.  Still, I did not get an answer from the Washington, D.C. Department of Justice, no information regarding whether they had received the complaint or anything about what they intended to do about it.  


Finally, I heard about the fact that there was an option to send my complaint to the Washington, D.C. DOJ offices online by email (I understand this option has since been suspended!).  Thus, on December 18, 2014, I again sent my Complaint to the Washington DOJ, the Disability Rights Section.  This time I was lucky enough to get an automatic response indicating they had finally received my complaint, "The Disability Rights Section has received your email."  it said.  Further, the automatic response continued on as follows:


"We will review the information you have submitted and will notify you of any action this office will take with respect to the issues you have raised.  Please be advised that this office receives a large volume of correspondence from the public.  If you do not hear from us within 3 months, you may contact us to determine the status of our review."  

Ok, so it took four tries to get an answer.  What about folks that are far more fragile?  How do they ever begin with a system like this?


January, February, and March 2015 went by, and still I had no response.  Finally, in June 2015 I contacted the DOJ directly and asked them what the Washington, DOJ intended to do with my complaint.  The people there referred me to a very nice lady named Carmen Romero who said that she would forward my question on to decision makers via email.  Looking for an answer to that email, I followed up with phone calls to Carmen on June 23, 2015, June 29, 2015, July 9, 2015, July 21, 2015, July 22, 2015, and August 3, 2015.  In the end, I never received a response to my inquiry.  

Now I am not asking for anything extraordinary.  Yes, I would like the Washington DOJ to pursue my case seriously and demand a correction of CT Judicial Branch's outrageous behavior.  But at the very least, it would be nice to receive a timely acknowledgment [i.e. not over two years!] that I have sent a complaint, as well as a statement regarding what they are going to do about it, or if nothing is to be done, why not.  In fact, my understanding is that the latter response is mandatory.  Specifically, under Item #6 of the "Information and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act" published by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division it states as follows:  Since we receive a high volume of ADA complaints and have limited resources, we cannot investigate or litigate every complaint.  If we cannot investigate your complaint due to lack of resources or for some other reason, we will send you a letter explaining why your complaint will not be investigated."  I am still waiting for the letter, as I am sure many thousands of others are as well.  Keep in mind that Item #7 of this Information Sheet delineates the period of three months as their optimal time frame, not all of eternity.


Here is a department that is especially set up to deal with the needs of persons with disabilities, yet it has the nerve to ignore and play games with the needs of people with disabilities who send them legitimate complaints.  I find that an incredibly traumatizing way to deal with people who deserve so much better because they have already been traumatized enough.  As ADA documents have said, persons with disabilities have historically been disenfranchised and excluded from access to the services, programs, and activities of government.  There is no better example of disenfranchisement and exclusion than the silent treatment, which is what the Washington DOJ greeted me with, as well as all of my fellow advocates who also sent in complaints which were also ignored.

THE CONNECTICUT DOJ
Given that I wasn't receiving any satisfaction from the Washington DOJ, several friends advised me to approach the Connecticut DOJ.  Thus, On December 24, 2012, I sent a letter to Attorney John B. Hughes certified mail, return receipt requested.  In that letter I stated that the "CT Judicial Branch is not complying with the ADA and ADAAA" and I asked him to intervene.  

I also noted that the CT Judicial Branch is acting only according to employment law, Title I, and not according to that of a public agency under Title II as it should.  I mentioned that the CT Judicial Branch has no Designated Responsible Employee under Title II of the ADA, 28 C.R.F. Sec. 35.107(a).  I pointed out that the CT Judicial Branch doesn't have a meaningful grievance procedure as required under Title II of the ADA, 28 C.R.F. Sec. 35.107(b).  I further stated that the CT Judicial Branch has not conducted a self-evaluation as required under Title II of the ADA 28 C.F.R. Part 35 Sec 35.105.  And I also pointed out that while the CT Judicial Branch was accommodating those with visible disabilities it was limiting the access of those with invisible disabilities.  Finally, I documented in detail how I was denied access to my ADA reasonable modifications from March 2009 until December 2012 in violation of Federal ADA law.  I received no response to this letter.  

Then, On June 10, 2013, I hand delivered an additional letter addressed to Attorney Deidre [sic] M. Daly, acting United States Attorney at the Connecticut DOJ.  In that letter, I mentioned that I had filed a federal complaint on November 16, 2012 against the CT Judicial Branch, et. al. based upon the fact that it discriminated against me and failed to provide me with reasonable accommodations.  I included a copy of the earlier December 24, 2012 letter to Attorney John Hughes so that she could become oriented to my complaint.  I asked Attorney Daly to authorize the Connecticut DOJ to file an Amicus Brief on my behalf.  

In response, on July 9, 2013, Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and her assistant Ndidi N. Moses send me a letter which stated, "I have reviewed your complaint dated June 24, 2013 [incorrect date!  I had sent in two letters--one dated December 24, 2012 and the other dated June 10, 2013] alleging that the state of Connecticut Judicial Branch has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.  You complaint is under review by this office, and we will contact you if we have any questions."

Months went by and she never responded to my complaint  indicating whether she thought it was legitimate or not, and she never responded to my request for an Amicus Brief either with a yes or no.  I still have not heard what the outcome of the so-called "review" of my case was.

Meanwhile, during the same time period that I was complaining to the Connecticut DOJ about the CT Judicial Branch's refusal to comply with Federal ADA and ADAAA law, so was Ms. Susan Skipp of Litchfield and potentially others.  Thus, on January 8, 2014, I received a letter signed by both Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and Attorney John B. Hughes stating as follows:

"...the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division have elected to conduct ADA compliance review of the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch.  This review will examine ADA complaints that the Judicial Branch has received, the responses, and the accommodation process.  It will also examine the training that the judges and support staff receive regarding the ADA.  Included in the review will be inquiries into the family court and divorce court processes.  I must inform you, however, that, consistent with our jurisdiction, the review will focus on the ADA, and not other matters.  This review, which is already underway, is expected to take some time."

In the weeks that followed this January 8, 2014 letter I dropped off documents in relation to my ADA complaint and that of my daughters.  I also hand delivered a copy of the ADA complaint from the Joseph Watley and Karin Haseman case.  I am also aware that many other people dropped off or sent emailed information to Attorney Deirdre Daly and Attorney John Hughes regarding the ADA violations in their cases.  The response?  Silence, silence, and more silence.  During the remainder of the year in 2014, I occasionally sent out an email with additional information in regard to further violations by the Connecticut Judicial Branch.  In addition, I made further inquiries regarding when this investigation would be completed.  Again, I received no answer.  Finally, in November 2014, I hired an attorney so that I could get an answer: Attorney Donna Drumm.

On February 25, 2015, Attorney Drumm sent an email inquiry to Attorney Hughes just reviewing the history and asking for a copy of the report that the Connecticut DOJ had promised in its letter of January 8, 2014.  Now, this is a full year later that Attorney Drumm asked this question.  On March 18, 2015, Attorney John Hughes responded by stating, "The report is still in a draft form and it is not expected to  be finalized for several more months.  When it is competed, you and Ms. Richter will receive a copy."  This is what is outrageous--that for over a year Attorney Hughes refused to respond to my emails asking the very same question, but after I hired an attorney at considerable expense, then he was willing to respond to the attorney.  It is as if, as far as Attorney John Hughes is concerned, I am not even a human being entitled to reasonable courtesy!  This is the person that the government chooses to put in charge of Civil Rights investigations!

In regard to my complaint, and the complaints of so many others, Attorney John Hughes went a step further and said that the Connecticut DOJ did not intend to take any action on them stating, "We are not investigating individual claims of ADA violations or attempting to set aside court orders relating to divorce, alimony, custody, appointment of guardians ad litem and related financial orders."  For those who had been waiting now for over a year for the Connecticut DOJ's investigation to be completed, this was devastating news.  You would have thought that if the DOJ did not intend to address peoples' complaints that the issue was of such significance, they would have clarified that from the beginning.  Instead, the Connecticut DOJ kept everyone dangling for months on end, and then said we don't intend to help you.  

Again, on June 12, 2015, Attorney Donna Drumm wrote to Attorney Hughes and asked, "Can you please give us a projected date of completion?" [for the report on the ADA compliance of the CT Judicial Branch].  She also asked again in regard to what would be done about my specific complaint.

A month later, on July 13, 2015, Attorney John Hughes responded with the following: 


"In response to your email from June 12 in which you enclosed a letter from yourself about previous correspondence related to ADA complaints made by your client, Elizabeth Richter, I wanted to let you know that the current projected completion of a Report is the end of August [emphasis added]. While I understand that Ms. Richter and several others have made individual ADA complaints about the State Judicial Branch, the focus of our review is the overall compliance process by the State and not those individual claims. This office and the Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section of the Department of Justice are empowered to investigate a pattern or practice of ADA violations. That is what the subject of the Report will be."



That is why I started this blog with a buzz, because clearly, the end of August has now passed and we still do not have a finalized report.  Do you think the Connecticut DOJ has ever heard of the Langston Hughes quotation, "Justice delayed is justice denied!"  I do also want to note that Attorney John Hughes states that they are "empowered to investigate a pattern or practice of ADA violations."  Well, yes, an upper level government official may have limited the investigation, however, the mandate of both the Washington DOJ and the Connecticut DOJ is to investigate specific complaints and a look at the case law in the State of Connecticut indicates that is exactly what they have done.  Why these departments chose to deviate from what they do normally in the face of litigants' complaints regarding the CT Judicial Branch is a very good question we should all ask.  It seems as though the DOJ is good at telling everyone else to obey federal ADA law, but when it comes to demanding that their own fellow attorneys and institutions obey the law, it seems they don't want to.  How hypocritical is that?

I will say that on August 15, 2015 the Washington DOJ and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint statement entitled "Protecting the Rights of Parents and Prospective Parents with Disabilities" which resoundingly supports the rights of parents with disabilities in accordance with Title II of the ADA and the ADAAA in legal proceedings related to child welfare cases and the court system.  Of course, if this is a statement without any teeth because of the DOJ's refusal to enforce the expressed policies, it is a piece of nonsense.  Still, it is admirable that these policies have been articulated.  The link to this statement is below:

http://www.ada.gov/doj_hhs_ta/child_welfare_ta.html

It could be that this statement is the result of the work of activists throughout Connecticut who have been fighting for the rights of parents with disabilities in family court and in regard to DCF.  I certainly know that this issue has concerned people here in Connecticut as well as activists all over the country.  We may never know.  One thing I do know is that we were promised a report from the Connecticut DOJ in regard to the compliance of the CT Judicial Branch with the ADA and we still haven't gotten it.  

We are waiting.

________________________

As a followup, on September 1, 2015, the CT Law Tribune reported that the CT DOJ is planning on investigating CT hotels for non-compliance with the ADA.  See the link below:

http://divorceinconnecticut.blogspot.com/2015/09/ct-law-tribune-reports-ct-doj-is-making.html

In the last decade, several Connecticut residents, many representing their children's interests as well, have contacted the CT Department of Justice and requested assistance in obtaining their federal ADA rights.  Well over a year and a half ago, the CT DOJ stated it would proceed with a compliance review of the CT Judicial Branch.  When I made an inquiry about when that review would be completed, as I stated, I was reprimanded because Attorney John Hughes stated that his offices were overwhelmed with work and could we possibly ask them to do more.  Yet now we get a news report indicating that after delaying any kind of response to the complaints of family court victims and refusing to address their individual concerns the CT DOJ is now volunteering to take on a new area of concern, i.e. hotels.  This is a slap in the face of all family court victims with disabilities who have been waiting for years for redress.