"Go to a Homeless Shelter," Judge Tells Wife About to be Evicted From Marital Residence, Based on a Fraudulent and Unlawful "Guardianship."

NASGA has been fighting unlawful and abusive guardianships – the real thing - but this case involved a shocker – a make-believe guardianship.

A member in Westchester County, New York, is about to be UNLAWFULLY evicted tomorrow morning, May 16, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. from her marital residence based on an unlawfully imposed "guardianship" by a judge who knew or should have known that she was violating the law and the rights of the wife.

If you're anywhere within travel distance of Katonah, NY, and can be present tomorrow morning, the address is:  21 Equestrian Drive, Katonah, NY - the former marital residence of Michael Rotanelli and Diane Colletti.

I have never seen a record of such judicial misconduct in my long experience. It involved an extremely contentious matrimonial action, a lot of money and property, and an ex-husband who is quite wealthy and known politically.  His attorney is Gordon Burrows, whose name is also known locally.

In court, without a lawyer, as the wife realized her rights were being violated, she began to object.  The judge interrupted her and said she was going to appoint a guardian, and had the wife removed from court.

In court the next day, a stranger came over to the wife and announced that he was her attorney.  The wife went into the courtroom, objecting strenuously, and this time she was physically removed from court.  A document had been placed on the table where she sat, but when she was removed, it remained behind, so she did not know what it contained.

Hearing that the trial had been adjourned for a week, the wife appeared in court, only to learn that the trial had actually taken place without her, after her removal, the prior week.

It was later learned that total control over the wife was given to Atty. Kenneth L. Bunting, as Guardian ad Litem (“GAL”) whom the court had ordered to represent the wife.   The Court also ordered the GAL to sign all necessary documents (instead of the wife signing them), to inventory everything, to act as a Receiver, and take control and transfer all property, including wife’s premarital property, inherited property, jewelry, etc., to arrange for what was described as a "logical" conclusion.   He was also told to pay himself $300 an hour from the wife’s frozen bank account, which is now in his name, as the GAL.

Subsequently, another judge signed a facially void and fraudulent judgment of eviction with a perverted case caption - guess what?  He's now retired! Oh, yes, and the one who took away all the wife's rights - she's been elevated to a higher court!

The wife went to court today with a show cause order - alone, without a lawyer!  Can you guess what happened there?  They returned her papers, unsigned, without even holding them long enough to read them!  (Would that surprise you?)

What did the judge tell her when she asked how she could maintain herself, after the judge had manipulated the case so that she would lose everything?   "Go to a homeless shelter!”   She has a sick dog and you can't take pets to a shelter!  There was a lot of money involved, but most everything is now in control of the husband, thanks to the  judicial misconduct, which is readily apparent from the court documents.

We're aware of other cases where guardianships have been interjected into matrimonials, in order to gain control over a party.

We're told that documents and exhibits have been altered and/or removed from the record; that the docket sheet itself has been altered, so that it does not reflect what actually happened in this case.  Actually, it doesn't reflect anything, with mostly meaningless one-word entries.

HERE'S WHAT THE LAW ALLOWS:
A GAL is restricted to merely helping a party to a litigation and reporting to the judge; they do not have any power or control over the assets or property of the party on whose behalf they are appointed, cannot force a party to make decisions they do not want to make, and cannot sign documents in place of the party who must sign them, as a matter of law.  Only in a Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 proceeding with full due process procedures - which this was not - can a guardian make decisions that result in the loss of a fundamental right. A GAL has no such power and the court is not authorized or empowered to grant such authority to a GAL.
But grant it, she did!  

NASGA slogan:  If you don’t know your rights; you don’t have any!
(This case involves egregious violation of rights!)

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?  IS THIS THE STATE OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN WHAT USED TO BE AMERICA!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE.  THIS IS NOT OVER!
By a NASGA member.