How is this Judge Colin sleeping? (Rhetorical Q - I'm sure just fine!)
Makes Judge Heller look like a bit of a hero (albeit, an ineffective one).
I'm sure I'll get pushback for the latter comment, but exhausted and furious that so many women who've been terrorized by the men they've allowed in their lives have to appeal to a system that is rigged in favor of the abuser (provided abuser goes by the pronouns he/him).
@curiousinCt, I still haven't gotten over reading the commentary from 'Judge Colin' in the Dulos case. IMO he had a view of who JFd and Fd 'ought' to be based on their education that had nothing to do with the commentary that JFd and her attorney delivered to the Court. JFd didn't just report the issues once, no, she reported multiple times and the Judge seemed to think that 2 educated people should be able to figure things out and IMO:
Quote from article:
However, Stamford Superior Court Judge Thomas Colin denied the request, saying Jennifer Dulos did not prove “there is an immediate and present risk of physical danger or psychological harm to the parties’ children.”
In his ruling, Colin acknowledged the raw emotions between the couple and that Jennifer Dulos perceived her husband to be “controlling and aggressive.”
Colin encouraged the couple to work together through their attorneys to resolve the custody issues.
“The court is hopeful that once things settle down and cooler heads prevail, these extremely well educated and accomplished parents will be able to reach an agreement,” Colin said.
However, the incident in the New Canaan driveway occurred just days later, prompting Jennifer Dulos to file a contempt of court document on Aug. 9, 2017.
In the document, Jennifer Dulos described the incident and claimed her husband violated the judge’s order by displaying “intimidating and degrading” behavior in front of their children, divorce records show.
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What I have difficulty with in the Judge Colin comments here is the tactic to send the 2 parents back to 'figure things out' when the reason they were in Court was because they couldn't agree? He then treats the behaviour as temper tantrums and doesn't make any attempt to understand and evaluate the JFd claims about the Fd behaviour. The Fd behaviour was consistent throughout and never changed IMO. Fd wasn't pretending to be someone he wasn't in Court and ample evidence existed as to how he treated JFd and the children. IMO the Judges just chose to dismiss the claims and give Fd a 'pass'.
How much evidence does a Judge need about Fd behaviour? There were other incidences from Fd prior to this so none of this was news to Judge Colin. There also was no assumption from Judge Colin that DV was present IMO or that Fd had any capacity for emotional or physical violence. Judge Colin seemed to stupidly IMO believe that impeccable education means that people will behave in a civil way and treat each other with respect etc. The flaws with this assumption are simply too many name and I find it hard to believe anyone could be so naive and frankly ignorant.
But, Judge Colin was just one of 3 Judges that touched the Dulos case and frankly Judge Heller made many similar remarks to the couple along with her infamous remarks about 'relationships with both parents and fathers etc.' and she made this remark EVEN after Fd had gotten the children to lie on his behalf.
I hope that some day someone in the CT Family Court system will take the Dulos file apart piece by piece and actually look at what JFd was saying and then evaluate the behaviour of Fd. Fd told the court and the Judges who he was from Day 1 in the case and the problem was that nobody believed him! JFd IMO did an accurate job of describing the Fd behaviour but nobody seemed to believe her. Its nuts to even write this all out but its almost as if Judge Colin couldn't believe what he was seeing because of the 'excellent education' of the Dulos couple?!?? Its insane that someone could assume perfect correlation between education (or quality thereof) and behaviour!
To me, Fd started testing the Court Day 1 and once he saw what he could get away with then he just continued to push and push JFd and it was a campaign of torment and torture that JFd was faced to deal with daily. The stress of the situation was unreal and JFd sustained it and worked hard to keep it together for her children for 2 years.
I just keep going back to the LA testimony about Fd arriving 1/2 early for visit on 4/22. This wasn't the first time that the had an 'opposite day' and didn't follow hand off or visitation instructions. Nope. It was an ongoing situation. But, going back to 4/22, that explanation from LA about dropping the food off outside and then going inside and locking the door told me everything I needed to know about the fear that JFd and LA faced on an ongoing basis and how without doing anything overtly physical that Fd was effectively torturing JFd on an ongoing basis.
The Fd tactic was to always make a little change in the schedule and then pretend ignorance or make excuses for drop off and pick up times or plans etc. JFd could never achieve any level of balance with the situation as there was always a 'change'. She couldn't trust Fd to do anything per the Court orders.
There really was no safe space or predictability in JFd life and originally I had thought that Welles was her 'safe space'. My guess is that Fd figured out some way to violate that safe space and I don't know if he did it via an electronic device used by one of the children or some other means but I think he did it and he used the information to further torture JFd. Sounds nuts, but I think Fd was obsessive in his desire to torture and torment JFd. JFd was living in fear on an ongoing basis and god only knows what it did to her mental health and physical well being?
MOO