Rockville Connecticut Superior Court should be closed

Review finds problems with monitoring by Rockville court

Associated Press
August 31, 2007

VERNON, Conn. - Workers at Rockville Superior Court failed to properly oversee defendants who are under electronic monitoring while out on bond awaiting trial, according to a review by the state Judicial Branch.

The review concluded that there were "serious problems" with the court's monitoring program, but did not find similar troubles at other courthouses, WTIC-AM reported Friday.

Judicial Branch officials looked into the issue in response to the case of Scott Shefelbine of Tolland, who was charged in June with going into a West Hartford teenager's bedroom and kissing her after meeting her on the Internet. At the time, he was free on bond in connection with other sexual assault charges involving teenage girls.

Shefelbine had been on electronic monitoring and was supposed to stay at his home, with some exceptions for church, counseling and visits with his lawyer. Officials say that when he called in as required to tell court staff that he was leaving home, the staff never checked with doctors, ministers or lawyers to verify where he went.

William Carbone, the Judicial Branch's court support services executive director, said an employee at Rockville Superior Court failed to follow up when the monitoring equipment showed the defendants had improperly left their homes.

"It raises some questions about the monitoring of these offenders and does have some implications for public safety, so there's no question that they need to improve their performance there," Carbone said.

Carbone said the review also turned up other instances of lax supervision of defendants.

One employee faces a three-day suspension as a result of the review, the radio station reported. Another was counseled about her organizational abilities.

Staff members have been told to monitor defendants every morning and follow up if there are violations. The review also found that the work area where employees oversee electronic monitoring needed to be cleaned up, and files needed to be put in order.

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Information from: WTIC-AM, http://www.wtic.com

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Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

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My comment in the Courant Forum:

Rockville court is a free for all.

It is politics and corruption in a nutshell.

Judge Jonathan Kaplan brought up a man's race, made fun of his ancestors homeland, and used stereotypes to take away the man's kids. His wife with a politically powerful lawyer had stabbed her husband.

The ex-wife was awarded the children. The husband has never been convicted of anything and can only see his children now after 3 years if he pays to see them while guarded.

By the way he tried to have Judge Jonathan Kaplan removed.

I tried to have Kaplan removed for bias in civil cases. He then sat on my criminal trial for having resisted a mugger that attacked me on my property using pepper spray.

I got prison from Kaplan.

So, Rockville is about public abuse, retaliation, greed, inefficiency, incompetence, and in not serving taxpayers.

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/