To the Editor:

I am writing to raise awareness that allowing Sharon Wicks Dornfeld to become probate judge would be a disastrous step along the path toward corruption of government and the degradation of civil rights in the state of Connecticut. Dornfeld has used her position as head guardian ad litem (GAL) to attack some of the most vulnerable citizens in the state - those facing divorce who also have children. Under Dornfeld's leadership, a business model has been developed in which those families are stripped of all of their real and financial assets, with these resources flowing to a small cadre of "divorce industry" insiders.

This system particularly targets those with income and exhibits clear biases with respect to gender and ethnicity that should appall every American. The individuals who suffer the most are of course the children, whose parents are caught in an ever-escalating pattern of conflict and expense. The emotional damage to children and their parents, as well as the compromising of the children's future by bankrupting their families, should be unconscionable to all Americans. But it is the engineered outcome for countless unsuspecting victims in our state. It would be one thing to blame unscrupulous lawyers for generating fees that freely scale to reach 80 percent to 100 percent of a family's assets, and such blame is warranted. But appointed officials, primarily GALs, direct this process, extending it to include dozens of "professionals" such as court appointed psychologists, mediators, councilors, custody evaluators, and on and on and on… each one free to charge whatever the client can still afford. Shockingly, the GALs in Connecticut have complete authority and complete immunity.

I now know of many other individuals and families beside myself whose experience in the Connecticut Family Law system consisted of nothing less than coercion, extortion, and the abuse of the children the system had pledged to protect, all with the same objective - to fund and entrench a corrupt community of profiteers, and Sharon Dornfeld has been at the epicenter of this. I have met personally many parents who have been bullied and coerced by Dornfeld, and were threatened with loss of access to their children if they didn't comply. Cash-for-kids, it's often called, but the reality is far uglier than that. Many victims were actually left with no access to their children or subjected to court-sponsored parental alienation campaigns that can destroy familial relationships permanently.

Why is this happening so frequently in this state? A core problem is the reluctance of state investigators to investigate, even when presented with credible evidence of criminal activity. This reveals the state's inability to effectively police itself and protect its citizens against abuse. Therefore it is up to us. To speak out against the corruption and abuse, to identify publicly those who have been responsible for it, and to try to prevent them from extending their sphere of operations.

Please help me prevent Sharon Dornfeld from obtaining the probate judge position.

Yours Truly,

Sean Keenan

5 Musket Lane, Redding         October 26, 2016