Monday, March 1, 2010
It sucks to be Dr. Edward J Connor
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Dr. Connor Recommends More Parenting Time for Sex Offenders than he does for Me.
If you live in the Greater Cincinnati Area, there is a good chance you have heard of the ongoing situation concerning Jeni Lee Dinkel. Jeni Lee Dinkel’s rise to infamy came from her arrest and guilty plea for having sex with a fifteen year old friend of her son. She had also provided alcohol to minors at her home. Ms. Dinkel has made the news once again as she is fighting to be allowed to attend her son’s graduation at Covington Catholic High School but the school is not allowing her to attend. Good call.
This woman raped a minor. Jeni Lee Dinkel is a registered sex offender. This wasn’t a lapse in judgment. She provided alcohol to minors and then had sex with a minor. Now she is claiming that Covington Catholic’s decision not to allow her to attend only punishes her son. Yeah, it’s the school’s fault that’s she’s a registered sex offender.
One of the underlying chapters in this story that many people are not aware of is the psychological evaluation of Jeni Lee Dinkel that was performed, for the defense, by Dr. Edward J. Connor and Associates. Dr. Connor, as you know, submitted a “less than adequate” child custody evaluation to the Court in my divorce. Dr. Connor wrote “we believe that minimizing the amount of time that Dan has with the children will in fact sustain their existing bond.” My girls were one and three at the time. Dr. Connor recommended that Jeni Lee Dinkel not receive any jail time because it would be hard on her 15 year old son, who was dealing with some serious health problems.
I feel badly for what this woman put her family through. I feel even worse for the victim of her crime and his family. I don’t feel bad for Ms. Dinkel. What I find to be very disturbing is that a psychologist and child custody evaluator, Dr. Edward J. Connor, would suggest that a father, who has committed no crime, should have his time minimized with his children while recommending that a confessed rapist avoid jail time because it would be hard on her 15 year old son. Dr. Connor provided absolutely no evidence to why my girls would be better served with their dad playing a minor role in their lives. On the other hand, Dr. Connor went on and on about how Jeni Lee Dinkel was at “very low risk” to reoffend in any manner. It’s rather amazing that a child custody evaluator can almost write off alcohol, sex and minors as if it were some type of youthful indiscretion. What would Dr. Connor’s recommendations be if he performed a custody evaluation for the Dinkel family? Would minimizing the amount of time a sex offender had with her teenage son sustain their existing bond?
Many of us face tough choices in life. Most of us are never faced with making a decision about a possible sexual encounter with a minor when alcohol is involved. That’s because responsible people don’t find themselves in those positions. Most people wouldn’t have to think about what they would do in the presence of alcohol and minors because usually morality has already made the decision. In the case of a “moral lapse”; an understanding of severe legal ramifications usually kicks in. If you put yourself in the compromising situation and forget about moral and legal responsibility; you probably don’t fall into the category of being a very low risk to reoffend.
This sickens me. What if one of my children was very sick? Should I get more time with them? What about the time leading up to their sickness? Then there is always the question of what would have happened if I would have had sex with a 15 year old girl? They have a TV show called To Catch a Predator, with Chris Hanson, set up to catch men who do that. Jeni Lee Dinkel is fighting for the right to go to her son’s high school graduation. If I did the same thing with a 15 year old girl, I’d be fighting for the ability to see my girls before they were adults. Of course this would follow a jail sentence that would probably be much longer than Jeni Lee Dinkel’s 59 days.
I always try to do the right thing. I don’t put myself in compromising situations. I fight for the right to spend equal time with my girls by taking on someone who has a lot of influence in the tri-state legal system, Dr. Edward J. Connor. I’ve gotten a Judge to recuse himself and I’m taking on the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology and Kentucky Assistant Attorney General, Mark Brengelman; all in an effort to spend equal time with my daughters. When you turn on 700 WLW, you hear some people calling in to Willie Cunningham and Mike McConnell talking about how we should feel sorry for Jeni Lee Dinkel. Unfortunately a sex scandal involving a minor and a
Saturday, March 28, 2009
It's a dangerous game.
I just found out how dangerous the game is. I never set out to beat the system. I just began acting on my general instincts of right and wrong. If I was going to lose time with my girls, I didn’t want to pay a crooked lawyer tens of thousands of dollars to do it. Win or lose, I called the shots and I will never ask what if. That has been my philosophy and I found out that my strategy couldn’t have been more right.
I always do research on Dr. Edward J. Connor, of Connor and Associates, PLLC. I Google his name almost everyday to see if there is any new information on him. Two weeks ago I found out Dr. Connor’s office was involved in an FBI investigation. His office manager, Catherine Cahill, pled guilty to unauthorized use of a credit card to the tune of $126,558.13. This past week I found an
The easiest part of fighting from your back is the thought that you can’t fall down any further. I have had my girls nearly half the time during the course of this divorce. If Dr. Connor’s evaluation somehow flew, I didn’t think it would be likely that the Judge would wander too far from the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines. I thought he would order joint custody or close to equal time; man was I wrong.
I spoke with a guy who did everything by the system. He had a lawyer. He got his own professional witness to testify in court. His professional witness testified to the biases of the evaluation conducted by Dr. Connor. His witness testified to the inconsistencies that existed in the evaluation. His professional expert was shocked to find out that the Judge didn’t take any of her testimony into account and gave the father less than the minimum time recommended by the State of
Dr. Connor won’t quit. He wants to hurt me. I found out that a guy with a lawyer and a professional expert got less than the minimum time. What do you think
The evaluation report recommended that I seek Cognitive Behavioral Therapy “as it relates to parenting.” My treating therapist and medical doctor for ADHD didn’t even know what that meant. If the guy who had a lawyer and an expert got a raw deal in court, could you imagine what the self represented dad who won’t keep his mouth shut would have gotten?
Judge Carl H. Taul of the Ripley Circuit Court gave numerous conflicting answers as to why Dr. Connor didn’t have to release the evaluation case file and failed to hold Dr. Connor accountable for misleading the Court and the parties of the child custody evaluation. My former attorney, Thomas Blondell of Zerbe, Garner, Miller and Blondell, kept saying “I don’t know if it’s a bad evaluation. I’m not a psychologist.” Mr. Blondell charged me several thousand dollars for listening to me and then fired me citing “communication problems” when it came time to question Dr. Connor. Dr. Connor said I wasn’t entitled to the evaluation case file because I was representing myself and then said that it was against the law for him to release the case file to me. The Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology ruled that there were no apparent violations of law in my 237 page complaint against Dr. Connor and declined to even investigate it. The Assistant Attorney General of
I may have re-written the rules of thinking outside of the box. How do you think you battle powerful entities that don’t follow the rules? You make up your own. I got the Judge to remove himself from the case and then I subpoenaed him to appear to testify at the final hearing. I requested a copy of Dr. Connor’s response to my complaint that I filed with the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology. No one had ever done this and I could see why the Board could just sweep the problem under the rug. The Deputy Attorney General of Indiana file a motion to quash (throw out) the subpoena of Judge Taul because I didn’t tender the required fees for the expense relating to appearing for a subpoena and they claimed that the Court speaks from the Court’s orders and the court record so the Judge doesn’t have to appear. I filed a response stating there is no official record or order explaining what was said between Judge Taul and Dr. Connor when they decided to communicate outside the presence of the parties and the Indiana Judicial Code of Conduct states that a judge is not allowed to accept compensation or reimbursement for expenses if it gives the appearance of judicial impropriety. (I keep thinking about Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack handing the guy a wad of cash and saying “keep it fair, keep it fair.”) I may be subpoenaing the whole Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology to testify what laws Dr. Connor is allowed to break when conducting child custody evaluations.
All of these “officials” are backtracking. I backtrack all of the time when I am putting my daughters’ toys together. I get cocky and think I am above the instructions and before long I am backtracking because I have extra parts; but failing to follow the instructions is not against the law. These officials are backtracking, not to correct errors or missed observations, but to cover themselves for failing to do their jobs in the first place. What do the actions of all of these “officials” have in common; they all seem to have an interest in making sure Dr. Connor doesn’t fall. They also seem to take offense to all of the problems I caused. Sorry that I forgot to be intimidated.
Tell me what you think. Dr. Connor said he found my writings to be confusing and difficult to follow. Dr. Connor told the
I continue to post this information on my blog to get the word out and to help people who have been victimized by Dr. Connor. Please pass this story on as I hope somebody with some kind of authority will have the nerve to do something about it. People want to point fingers at deadbeat dads yet no one cares about the dads who fight tooth and nail just to have an equal part of their children’s lives. Where is Oprah, Dr. Phil, Ellen, Glenn Sacks, or Alec Baldwin when you need them? What about Hannity, Michael Savage, or Bill O’Reilly? Where’s Mike Wallace, Steve Kroft, Leslie Stahl and the rest of the 60 Minutes gang? How come the “voice of the common man”, Willie Cunningham of 700 WLW, hasn’t come to the rescue? If someone talks to President Obama, tell him I’m trying to make the world a better place by fighting for change in the family court system. I wonder what Barack Obama would do if Michelle tried to take Malia and Sasha away from him. If you see President Obama, tell him I love my daughters just as much as he loves his. It would be great to see someone dive in and stop evil people like Dr. Edward J Connor Psy. D. but I think I’d better keep working until the cavalry arrives. Thanks for stopping by.
For more information visit www.dadsfamilycourtexperience.com