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Showing posts with label DR. ERIC FRAZER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DR. ERIC FRAZER. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

ANATOMY OF A CUSTODY SWITCHING CASE: THE KATHI SORRENTINO STORY! PART I!

In headlines recently--January 23, 2015--a young teenager, Storm Sorrentino, who had been missing for at least a month, resurfaced a few miles from his mother's home.  According to police, "Storm was sitting on a stonewall, cleanly dressed and possibly waiting for a ride." 
 
Not long afterwards, his mother, Kathi Sorrentino, was released from Niantic prison. Judge Gerard Adelman had placed her there because he said he believed she refused to reveal where her son was, even though Kathi vociferously stated she did not know.  Throughout the entire ordeal, Ms. Sorrentino repeatedly stated she didn't know where her son was and was concerned about his whereabouts.
 
Reports of this case stated that Ms. Sorrentino and her ex Saverio "Sam" Sorrentino are engaged in a bitter custody battle over their son, Storm, and that Mr. Sorrentino had just been awarded custody last May.  Digging deeper into this matter, it has become clear that this is much more than just a custody battle.  This is the story of a custody switching scheme made possible by a combination of quack psychology, judicial negligence and bullying. 
 
Like many of these cases in family court, the Sorrentino case is not a recent situation, but one that has been going on since 2006 and has resulted in approximately 759 motions as of this date. This more recent custody matter began on May 13, 2013 when Kathi's ex husband Sam Sorrentino submitted a request to the Court to file a Motion For Contempt in regard to custody.  He stated that Kathi Sorrentino had "violated the parties Parenting Agreement" and "alienated the parties children" from him.  In his request for relief, he asked to be given custody of their son, Storm.
 
But lets not be naïve.  The real explanation for why Mr. Sorrentino submitted his motion for contempt was primarily because Kathi Sorrentino had gone to court requesting  more child support.  In the vast majority of these custody switching schemes, it is this request for money that precipitates the decision a father makes to go for full custody. 
 
[As a point of interest, you might wonder why Mr. Sorrentino filed a "request" to file a motion instead of the motion itself. When a case is contentious, many judges will issue an order stating that no party in the case can file any motions without first requesting permission of the Court. The hope is that this will stop litigants from constantly filing more and more motions.  However, the reality is that if there are sufficient problems in the case, all this does is double the number of motions as parties both request to submit motions, then submit the motions, because judges rarely deny such requests.  True to form, if you look at the case detail for this case, it is full of “requests”!] 
 
When he saw the motion, the judge should simply have denied permission for the motion for contempt for one simple reason.  There are two children in this case—one, an older sister, who is already in college and out of the home.  So her custody is not an issue.  The other child, Storm, was around 13 years old at the time.   Storm had grown up living with his mother who had been a full time mother for more than 20 years.  As Storm made repeatedly clear in both written and verbal communications, he wished to stay with her. 
 
Unfortunately, instead of using common sense and denying the request, the Court permitted the motion and thus touched off another lengthy round of litigation which continues up to the present.  The end result of the litigation has been that custody of Storm was transferred to the father despite the fact that this is not what Storm wanted.  But who cares what the child wants, right!

What is ironic is that one of the central factors in the outbreak of this custody battle had to do with what Storm wanted. 
 
Apparently, in the Fall of 8th grade, Storm had become interested in going to a private high school called Notre Dame in Fairfield, CT for which he was hoping to get a scholarship.   In preparation, he decided to go to an open house for the school, and this was where the shit hit the fan because before telling his Mom what his plans were, Storm shared them with his father.  Mr. Sorrentino proceeded to tell Storm that he thought it was a good idea and to go ahead.  However, later on in court, Mr. Sorrentino denied that he had given his son permission.  Instead, he said that Kathi Sorrentino had made all the arrangements without his permission, and cited it as an example of parental alienation.   
 
Imagine being this young man—you can’t even hope and dream for your future without your Dad using it as an excuse to go to court and attack your Mom. 
 
I will also say I have seen this frequently, in my own case as well as others, that when mothers try to improve their children's chances of success by sending them to prep schools, either through a scholarship or the assistance of grandparents, abusive men like to use that as a means to attack the mother.  I mean, God forbid their children gain the advantage of a private school education!  



Such fathers will either use their power to refuse as a means to wrest financial concessions from their ex-wives, or else as in the Sorrentino case, use it as a way to seize custody by claiming they were not consulted, even when the evidence shows they were—another testimony to the concept that no good deed by a mother will go unpunished.

Eventually, in the Sorrentino case,  the father’s motion for contempt appeared before Judge Corinne Klatt on November 8, 2013 who then decided to appoint a Guardian Ad Litem, Dr. Eric Fraser, Miami Institute of Psychology grad, and an expert on the quack theory of parental alienation syndrome which is in standard usage for custody switching schemes perpetrated by abusers and their allies.  And from what I gather from Dr. Eric Fraser, there isn't a custody switching scheme this psychologist doesn’t like. 
 
When she did this, Judge Klatt made the statement that she was interested in hearing from Storm regarding what he wanted stating “ What I want to know is what the child is thinking, and then I’ll issue orders..”  And further she stated, “I don’t know who to believe, that’s why I’m going to listen to what a guardian ad litem’s going to say – hear from the child.” 
 
The question we are left with then is, granting the evidence of recent events, did anyone hear the child? 
 
Apparently, no. 
 
Storm did not wish to have a change in custody.  He stated that repeatedly. 
 
As it stands, he spent two months at Notre Dame High School where he was happy and successful, until his father withdrew him and transferred him to Newtown High School.  So what happened to what Judge Klatt said about wanting to know what the child was thinking?  Was that all a scam? 


At this point, it is my understanding that Storm is being told, among other things, that he can never see his mother or sister again, and this is why he runs away from home. He is also being told that his mother will be thrown in jail if he sees her.  How can this situation ever be considered in the best interests of a child.


More on this story in Part II.

 

Friday, December 5, 2014

DR. ERIC FRAZER, PAS EXPERT: HE IS FOUND TO BE LICENSED BUT STILL GUILTY AS CHARGED OF BEING STUPID!

I've had many people tell me how smart I am -- thank you -- which did not protect me from the mistake of thinking that Dr. Eric Frazer, a psychologist practicing out of Westport, CT, did not have a license.  I did investigate very carefully prior to publishing that information, but I still ended up being misled by the way the State database worked.  So I am not immune to error.  However, I would not say that I am stupid, which is more than you could ever say about Dr. Eric Frazer. [And before I proceed, I do want to thank those who were quick to contact me on that point.  I am very grateful to my readership for keeping me on track!]

Recently, a mother contacted me to let me know that Dr. Frazer had become involved in her case as a PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome) expert and GAL and that he had investigated her case and concluded that she was alienating her child from the father.  She assured me that this was not so and showed me additional information that led me to believe she was telling the truth. 

In contrast, from the documents I saw it appeared as though Dr. Eric Frazer had misrepresented the facts of PAS on the stand and had lied about the mother. 

Of course, I am not surprised that anyone who characterizes him or herself as an expert in the quack theory of PAS also turned out to be a quack as well.  Licensed or not, a psychologist who acts on the basis of a quack theory remains a quack. 

The end result of his wrongdoing and false testimony was that this mother lost custody of her son who had been living with her for many years and the young man was summarily transferred into the primary care of the father.  This demonstrates more powerfully than anything else how the testimony of a psychologist can end up devastating a custody case even though such testimony is completely bogus. 

Remarkably enough, however, before this family court case was over, nobody bothered to check out Dr. Eric Frazer's credentials.  They should have--because they are seriously not that great!   

First of all, so-called Dr. Frazer claims that he received his Psy.D. from the Miami Institute of Psychology.  The Miami Institute of What?  What is with our Court system that it could actually place the serious responsibility for the wellbeing of a family in the hands of a graduate of some obscure college in Florida that no one has ever heard of!  Are there no professionals who actually graduated from the University of Connecticut or Yale University that the Family Court could have checked with, schools that have some kind of track record and credibility? 

He does have a license in the State of Connecticut--but my question is--how did he get it despite being so poorly qualified!  I am sure there is an explanation!

 
So what about Dr. Eric Frazer's education?  What is interesting about Dr. Frazer's "about me" page is it doesn't say a thing about his academic credentials which would be the first thing you would want to know about a professional who is going to take on powerful responsibilities such as deciding which parent a child ends up with.  For that information on Dr. Frazer I went to the Yale University School of Medicine where he claims to be an Assistant Clinical Professor--ah hemm--part time. 

On the Yale University School of Medicine website where Dr. Frazer has been listed, the only academic credentials he provides is the information that he received his Masters of Science at the Miami Institute of Psychology in 1998.  The only problem is that at another location online--his "linked in" page--Dr. Frazer claims that he was working on his Psy.D. at the Miami Institute of Psychology from 1996 to 2000 and makes no mention of a Masters in Science.  So what did he get--a Master's Degree or a Psy.D.? 

You might speculate that he got both, but that is not how it works.  Ordinarily, a credible Master's Degree takes at least two years to obtain.  A Psy.D. takes minimally four years.  Based on that, there is no way that Frazer was able to get both a Master's degree and a Psy.D. degree at the Miami Institute of Psychology in only four years.  He either received one or the other. Or else, considering the timeframe, and this is something I hadn't considered when I first started writing this article, Dr. Frazer obtained two degrees that are of seriously poor quality! 

I am aware that the Miami Institute of Psychology made arrangements for students at Miami-Dade Community College to transfer credits into the Institute, but that would hardly be a quality level education.  Still, it is possible that this is what Dr. Frazer did because there is a gap of two years between his graduation at Fordham in 1994 and the start of his education at the Miami Institute in 1996. 

Of course, then that turns attention onto Dr. Frazer's time at Fordham where it seems that Frazer only spent two years from 1992 to 1994.  Perhaps this was also a community college supplemented education, although Dr. Frazer doesn't tell us. 
And this is my problem.  That information should be up front and available to people who are considering whether to take advantage of his professional services.  It leaves me wondering how much I can believe of what he has posted up there.

At one point in this conversation, I had a person ask me "Where did Dr. Frazer get his doctorate?  And this is where I again kind of have an argument.  Can you legitimately call a Psy.D. a doctorate?  For me personally, I don't think you can.  You see, a Ph.D. and a Psy.D. are two entirely different degrees.  In order to obtain a Ph.D., you are required to do an original piece of research which you ordinarily write up into what is called a dissertation which is required to show a mastery of the subject matter.  This dissertation is frequently up to 100 pages or more. 


Once you have completed your dissertation, you are required to stand before a department committee consisting of professors in your department where you defend the results of your dissertation from their scrutiny.  Frequently, these dissertations end up being published as a book and/or certainly the results of the research could end up published in a professional journal. 


With a Psy.D. all you do is pass an examination and you are done.  In terms of respect and prestige within the academic community, a Psy.D. is considerably less.  As a point of interest, the Miami Institute of Psychology is accredited for a Psy.D. degree, but it is not accredited for the Ph.D.  So Dr. Frazer could not have obtained an accredited Ph.D. at the school he went to because it is of insufficient quality to offer one.


Be that as it may, somebody please tell me how this guy was ever able to become a psychology fellow at Yale University Medical School with such slim qualifications!  He's not even a member of the American Psychological Association, although he appears to be affiliated with the infamous AFCC and he is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association without being a lawyer.  I mean, why get picky about whether you have a J.D. or not! 


So tell me how this guy is able to walk into courtrooms here in the State of Connecticut and change lives forever on the basis of a diploma that is of such poor quality? 

Who is in charge here? 

Who is at the wheel to see that the experts who provide testimony in Connecticut Family Courtrooms meet some basic standards in terms of professional capability?

I have left messages with Dr. Eric Frazer at his office at Westport and also with the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University Medical School.  If either returns my call and provides me with additional information, I will certainly include their responses in this posting.  So far that hasn't happened. 

P.S.

Dr. Eric Frazer is now associated with Dr. Linda S. Smith in their mutual business Child Custody Analytics which is listed as being in practice from September 2014 to the present.  For those of you concerned that you might face false charges of PAS, I'd stay away from these guys.