Corruption may or may not be rife in Westchester Family Court. Either way, the feeding circle between the judges and the lawyers seems robust.
The judges hand out what appears to be millions of dollars and taxpayer funds to lawyers, including assigned counsel, who then create circuses at the expense of families, separate children from their mothers and fathers – and then expect the lawyers to attend their fundraisers to re-elect them.
Court records show, for instance, that Judge Lewis Lubell sits on cases for years, then passes the case off to another judge, who then takes their time, and then it’s too late to repair the damage.
The family court judges appoint forensic custody evaluators at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars – and then expect the parents to redo the forensics when the judge deems the reports stale.
Two of Juge Lubell’s favorite lawyers are Jo-Ann Cambareri and David Guttridge. It is hard to know how well they do, for it seems they do not register their court appointments from judges.
If there is a cap on how many cases each attorney can be awarded, if they don’t declare their cases, they will never exceed the cap.
Divorce attorney Cambareri took Steve Luftshein’s children from him, then got a court order to turn up at his closing to confiscate the funds from the sale of his house. Then he killed himself.
A story is told of how attorney John Guttridge turned up at an important hearing concerning his partner Jo-Ann Cambareri’s alleged illegal email communications with a litigant. Attorney Guttridge sat in the back of Judge Lubell’s courtroom and “stared down the judge.”
It seemed like a scene out of The Godfather where two brothers exchanged a glance before the Senate hearing was called to order.
In another case, it appears Judge Lubell appointed Cambareri to act as the attorney for the children. She filed a motion to put the mother in jail.
Filing on behalf of the mother’s 11 and 14-year-old children, who had no idea their so-called lawyer – was making a claim against their own mother n their behalf.
Cambareri alleged the mother discussed the case with the girls, which was prohibited by either parent.
Cambareri simultaneously suppressed a report explicitly stating the father spoke to the children about the case.
The mother had full custody, and no one ever accused her of not taking the best care of them—including sacrificing to ensure they had the best private schooling.
Two forensic reports stated the father, who was formerly in a mental hospital in Yonkers, and was diagnosed as bipolar, should have only supervised contact.
But Cambareri’s influence with the judges was so great that when she recommended the mentally ill father get sole custody, and the mother receive only therapeutic supervised visits with her children, Judge Robert S. Ondrovic flipped custody to the bipolar father.
It was understandable. Cambareri’s partner, John Guttridge’s daughter, was the judge’s intern then.
Judge Ondrovic made a statement on the morning of the trial. “Off the record. Just some housekeeping before we start. John Guttridge’s daughter is my intern, but it won’t affect this trial. She won’t be involved.”
That was it. The mother knew she was losing her kids. Now they are “homeschooled” by the mentally unstable father, which is to say they are likely not schooled at all.
There isn’t a single photo of Jo-Ann Cambareri available anywhere online. She is said to look like Rachel Maddow. If anyone has a photo, please be kind to send it along.
Rachel Maddow
Frank Report disclosed NY Courts removed Dr. Marc Abrams, the forensic custody evaluator, from the list of court-approved psychologists. He allegedly propositioned women whose custody evaluations he was doing.
Judge Lubell officiates at his colleague and friend Marc Abrams’ wedding.
Judge Lubell may have more in common with Abrams than merely officiating at his wedding and following his every custody recommendation to flip custody to unfit fathers and away from perfectly good mothers.
FR learned some women want to share their experiences with Judge Lubell, who reportedly called them into chambers and propositioned them. FR plans to interview these women to try to determine if they are telling the truth or simply slandering the good judge because he flipped custody and removed them from their children’s lives, desolating mothers and their children, much like he did to the late Catherine Kassenoff and her children.
It will be curious to learn if Abrams and Lubell were ever accused by the same women in the same cases, and if the mothers had only “put out” for the good court actors, they might have their children today.
Did Judge Lubell ever ask mothers to just give in a little bit for a big reward?
Though Catherine Kassenoff is dead, FR is not done with our investigation. And as Kipling once observed, “For the sin they do by two and two, they must pay for one by one.”
