Let’s look at the mega incompetent practice of law known as Public Defenders. Our questionable court system is only designed to work with competent attorneys who know the law, know how to prosecute a case before a competent judicial authority. Well, we know it never works like that; the judges are clowns and the Public Defenders are clueless.
Take the Office of Assigned Counsel in Erie County of the 8th Judicial District of New York State. A battered mother in safe haven is appointed counsel, a Yvonne Vertlieb and her assistant Todd Potter. Paid by the public to provide competent legal representation to a beaten mother protecting an abused daughter. How simple can it be? Instead of hitting the law library, consulting with legal specialists, these two clowns conduct a public opera on how they don’t know the law, don’t understand the jurisdiction question, don’t comprehend child trafficking, have no understanding of paedophilia, opine of making plea deals, send the case to another state, can’t spell UCCJEA….the list goes on; ad nauseam.
The scary part is that these two clowns control the case for the mother. Clueless as they are; they decide mother can’t apply for a restraining order after dad threatened to kidnap the kid. They decide the strategy, the tactics, the tricky legal points of defense and attack. Only problem is they don’t have a plan. Even more frightening is that they have no schedule for discovery, depositions nor a clue about issuing subpoenas. All this legal incompetence on the taxpayer’s dime.
Can any two attorneys be so stupid? Or is this simply Judge Paula Feroleto’s way of throwing battered mothers under the domestic violence bus? Ensure only the dumbest, uneducated, clueless attorneys are assigned to handle such cases outside their areas of competence. A perfect scam? Who would notice? Who would care? How could a battered, abused and emotionally traumatized mother recognize that she is being played by court appointed counsel?
The case in point involves the notorious Mr. Couloute. Yes, Mr. Matthew Conel Couloute, Jr., Esq. The case is simple, dad lives near Atlanta, mom near Buffalo. Dad abandoned kid and mother, pays no child support, engages in suspicious activity with the kid. NY State seized the child and put her in foster care for protection. All the court needs to hear is Attorney Vertlieb’s argument that mom is fine, dad is a nut case and the kid has a stable life and support network in safe haven of Buffalo. DSS concurs, as public policy is upheld under DRL § 75 [2]; mother and child protected. Court awards sole custody to mom, orders dad to pay child support and allows supervised visitation for dad in Buffalo. Done!
To embellish the argument, Vertlieb merely presents facts that NY has exclusive jurisdiction over the family as dad took up residence in Georgia in October of last year, obtained a GA state driver’s license in December, drives a Cadillac with GA plates, works for a used car dealer in GA, which he claims to hold ownership interest, does not file federal or state tax returns, refuses to disclose financial information required for child support determination, lied to the NY court about being a resident of Connecticut, makes false claim of jurisdiction, lied to law enforcement about having a residence in Fairfield, CT; lied to law enforcement in Bloomfield, CT to obtain a false arrest warrant on the mother; failed to disclose to law enforcement and the courts that he is a resident of Georgia and that the LAPD has to force him to comply with visitation schedules for his son of another mother; add in that he is a lawyer admitted to the Connecticut Bar and watch the judge explode.
Problem is the public defenders/appointed counsel are too clueless to even complete discovery to present the material facts to the court. The legitimacy of the court cannot be supported if administrators of the court like Judge Paula Feroleto don’t wake up to the fact that the lawyers before the bench are idiots. It is abuse of office and a waste of public funds to assign incompetent counsel to represent victims of domestic violence.
Attorney Yvone Vertlieb
Judge Paula Feroleto, AJ Eighth Judicial District NY
