Re: DCF destroying evidence, making false statements

a_weisman_at_yahoo.com
Date: 03/25/05 

Date: 24 Mar 2005 16:29:13 -0800

kathLOON you selfish obnoxious troll, this is a LYME DISEASE NEWSGROUP

STOP SPAMMING

NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BATTLE WITH DCF OR GOVERNOR ROWLAND OR THE
ENTIRE PLANET

GO TAKE YOUR MEDS

kathleen wrote:
> http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:59322
>
> Against a Parentīs Will
> After a murder and arson, an East Hartford church family took in one
of
> the surviving children. Now, the DCF says the family is unfit to care
> for him.
>
> by Dan Levine - March 25, 2004
>
> TRUTH BAPTIST CHURCH PHOTO
>
> The Truth Baptist Church in South Windsor.
>
> Nearly five years have passed since the Silk family home in East
> Hartford went up in flames, the work of a mentally unbalanced mother.
> Kelly Silk stabbed her husband to death, doused herself and her
> daughter in gasoline, and then set the fire, apparently intending to
> murder her entire family.
> Two of the Silks' four children survived the June 10, 1999 inferno,
> including the girl Silk drenched in gas. And just as the tragedy can
> only be described as seismic, the legal ramifications of those
horrific
> events are still shocking the court system.
>
> In their wills, the Silks left custody of their children to Chad and
> Sara Prigge. Chad Prigge was a minister at Truth Baptist Church in
> South Windsor, an independent evangelical group described alternately
> as a congregation and as a cult, according to a December 13, 2001
civil
> complaint the Prigges have filed against the state.
>
> The Silks belonged to the church and lived across the street from the
> Prigges, who rescued the children the night of the fire.
>
> "Chad ... and Sara Prigge awoke to screams for help and a blaze of
fire
> coming toward their house," the complaint says. "Sara recognized the
> person as Jessica, threw water on her, and had her roll on the front
> lawn to put out the fire in her hair."
>
> After the murders, the Prigge couple attempted to gain custody of the
> youngest Silk child, 4-month-old Joshua (the older daughter went to
> live with her biological father).
>
> Despite the Silks' wishes expressed in their will, the state
Department
> of Children and Families ultimately awarded custody of Joshua to
> another family who were not members of Truth Baptist Church.
>
> That decision -- and the DCF's decision methods -- prompted an array
of
> legal challenges. First, the Prigges challenged the custody order
> directly. Though a Superior Court judge harshly criticized the DCF's
> methods -- including destroying evidence sought under subpoena -- he
> upheld the agency's decision, saying the child had already formed a
> bond with the adoptive family. That family had been awarded temporary
> custody pending the court's decision.
>
> The state Supreme Court decided against the Prigges, ruling that
wills
> are not ultimately binding when it comes to child custody.
>
> But the DCF's actions prompted a separate civil suit from the
Prigges,
> claiming that former commissioner Kristine Ragaglia and other DCF
> employees discriminated against the family due to their religious
> beliefs. And a Waterbury Superior Court judge recently resisted the
> state's attempts to have the lawsuit dismissed in its entirety,
ruling
> that many of the Prigges' claims are specific enough to be considered
> at trial.
>
> "We know the families we serve are very diverse," says Gary
Kleeblatt,
> a DCF spokesman. "We are very aware of the need to respect those
> differences. We train for it, and we emphasize them."
>
> But according to the couple's legal complaint, the DCF took a dim
view
> of the Prigges immediately following the fire. A DCF investigator
began
> interviewing witnesses, some of whom described the church as a cult
> that reportedly did not believe in taking medication, and said the
> Prigges employed corporal punishment.
>
> The DCF based its custody decisions on these allegations, "despite
> overwhelming evidence" that they were false statements, the Prigges'
> complaint says.
>
> Shortly after the fire, Prigge called DCF caseworker Kelly McVey and
> declared his intention to pursue custody of Joshua, his complaint
says.
> McVey took notes of the conversation, but when those notes were
> subpoenaed, she destroyed them, the complaint says. In their place, a
> typewritten version stated that Prigge was unsure about whether he
> wished to pursue custody.
>
> "Neither the defendants nor any other DCF representative has ever
> conducted an inspection of the Prigges' home or interviewed the
> Prigges," the complaint says.
>
> "Social service agencies cannot make placements solely on the basis
of
> religion," says Phyllis Bossin, a Cincinnati-based attorney who is
> chairwoman of the family law section for the American Bar
Association.
> "They can't have a policy to refuse to send a Catholic child to a
> Jewish home."
>
> Nevertheless, every custody case turns on the best interests of the
> child, Bossin says. And even though parents can express a preference
> for who gets custody of their child -- as the Silks did in their will
> -- it is still only a preference, she says.
>
> That means the Prigges have no real rights to Joshua, making their
> chances of prevailing against the DCF very difficult, Bossin says.
>
> "I don't think they're going to win this suit," she says, adding:
> "There's not a lot of law on their side."
>
> danadvocate@sbcglobal.net