In January 2008, a caller to a DCF hotline reported that Piccone's 3-year-old son had told a day care worker that his father had sexually assaulted him. Within hours, two DCF social workers and a pair of Dalton police officers arrived at Piccone's home.The DCF asked to interview the boy. Piccone said he would allow an interview only if the DCF videotaped it. A DCF worker allegedly said, "We don't do videotape."
The DCF employees insisted that Piccone leave his house that night and asked him to sign an "interim service plan" that outlines the goals and tasks for families receiving services from the agency.
He refused and wrote instead: "I am being forced to sign this agreement or else my three children will be taken this evening to foster care. I offered to completely cooperate on condition that any interaction of my children be videorecorded. I was told ‘[the DCF] doesn't do video.'"
From there, the intensity of the case rapidly increased.
The next morning, Piccone's wife, Elena, took the child to a pediatrician who found no evidence of sexual abuse. The doctor subsequently called the DCF to inform the agency that the child appeared fine.
Three days later, the DCF told Piccone that it had scheduled a Sexual Assault Intervention Network, or SAIN, interview, and allegedly warned him that if he didn't cooperate and agree to stay out of his house indefinitely, the DCF would seek custody of his children.
Later that day, Elena Piccone took their three children to New York, removing them from the DCF's jurisdiction. From there, they would eventually travel to Russia - where Elena was born and raised - and then to Canada, where they currently are living in a small apartment, afraid to return to the United States.
Over the ensuing weeks and months, the DCF would obtain an ex parte order granting the agency custody of Piccone's children. For traveling with his wife and children to Paris before they went on to Russia, he would be accused of kidnapping. When he returned to the country, he was arrested and held for 30 days before he was allowed to post bail.
"All of that jail time was in administrative segregation, where you spend 23 hours in your cell. There were innumerable strip searches. It was not pleasant," he says. "It was just a fiasco. It really was. It really opened my eyes to what is a sore on the American myth of liberty and freedom. The system is not working."
Piccone maintained his innocence throughout and became an outspoken critic of the DCF and the Dalton Police Department. His supporters launched a website - berkshirehorror.com - that portrayed him as a victim of a power-hungry system that felt threatened by a lawyer defending himself.
He claims the DCF was retaliating against him for challenging the state's authority: Piccone had been helping a lawyer defend a day care center in Pittsfield against allegations of child neglect. A week before the abuse charges were levied against him, he says, he informed the state Department of Early Education that he planned to challenge the constitutionality of G.L.c. 119, §§51A and 51B, the statutes that govern the protection and care of children.
Here's something to keep in mind:
Piccone and his lawyers, Boston's John G. Swomley and Eric B. Tennen, are trying to overcome those hurdles by suing seven DCF employees, two Dalton police officers and a state trooper under federal civil rights statute 42 U.S.C. §1983, claiming that each person violated Piccone's civil rights in their individual capacity. The full text of the complaint can be found by clicking here.
Piccone says "the secret" to successfully suing the DCF is to pursue the employees as individuals and "attack those aspects of a social worker's function where they are acting solely in an investigatory function. Then you have a much greater chance of getting a successful result. That is what I am going to focus on."
For those following The Archdiocese of Boston's actions in Fr. "Gio"'s case (more on that later), this is also an important citation in the article?
He argues that the DCF routinely "acts in a way in which they don't have constitutional authority to act. In some ways, the social worker acts as an investigator, prosecutor and judge."
This is precisely the problem with Cardinal O'Malley's delegation of authority of his own employees to act as "investigator, prosecutor and judge" in allegations made against other employees. They are acting in ways in which they don't have the constitutional authority to act.
Did I mention that J. Bryan Hehir is supervisor of the Cardinal's Kangaroo Court?
I'll be getting in touch with Louis Piccone for the continuing story.
BTW: More also on this later, but if you have a moment, please stop by Fr. Gordon MacRae's website, read some of his story - offer a prayer. ThreeStoneWalls.com.
Fr MacRae writes as a falsely accused and imprisoned priest. He wasn't as lucky as Louis Piccone.
n.b. Don't miss this quote from the Piccone article:
"Generally, people are suing us for things that fall under the Tort Claims Act, so employees are not individually liable," Peel says. In cases where plaintiffs allege individual employees violated their civil rights, "it is much less likely that people will be successful with that.'
3 comments:
WE ARE 'OUT OF CONTROL' ...
CHILDREN AE NOW LESS SAFE BECAUSE HEALTHY CARING PEOPLE ARE KEEPING THEIR DISTANCE IN THE LITIGIOUS SOCIETY WE HAVE CREATED ... SUE SUE SUE GET $$$$$ ANY WAY YOU CAN.
GIO
Sometimes you've got to fight fire with fire. How many people and lives do you let people destroy before you hold them accountable?
There's a measure of responsibility that comes with the power to conjure up accusations of sexual abuse without evidence.
fight cps all the way, dont let them violate your constitutional right. cps will violate and lie, i did not bilieve cps would do such thing until now, because its happening to me and with some legal advice and some help from louis piccone, im fighting my case all the way and im not waiving any of my rights
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