Blumenthal Files Motion To Remove Southbury Monitor

HARTFORD (AP) — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Tuesday that he filed a court motion to remove the federally appointed monitor overseeing the Southbury Training School.

Blumenthal submitted the paperwork in US District Court after learning that the monitor, Philadelphia attorney David Ferleger, was disciplined in Pennsylvania for practicing law without a license. Governor M. Jodi Rell has also written to federal Judge Ellen Bree Burns, asking her to remove Ferleger.

“This individual is unfit for his judicial role and responsibility in this case,” Blumenthal said.

Ferleger was first appointed “special master” of Southbury in July 1997. State officials are reviewing how nearly $3 million in state money was spent on his services. Annual costs for his office have recently increased from $220,000 to $400,000.

Ferleger had been appointed to enforce a ten-year-old US Justice Department order to improve conditions at the training school, a facility for the mentally retarded.

According to court records, Ferleger, 57, admitted to being actively involved in five court cases in Chester County, Penn., after his law license was placed on inactive status in 1997. He had failed to maintain his required continuing legal education credits.