Handy Law Profile & Reviews

Filing for divorce; husband has been running the streets and has been arrested multiple times for drugs and violating the RFA that I was granted o. Feb 14, 2025. Child custody issues. I need a good lawyer. I always get a private lawyer but thought that with my husband Stephen’s past and recent criminal history and active drug abuse that a public defender would be able to meet my goals easily but it seems that I am being punished for Stephen’s crimes and I am perhaps experiencing some prejudice and retaliation from the Courg system. DCF has become involved and filed an emergency hearing and my children were put into DCF custody at the end of July, I am clean, I went to treatment in August and am having clean UA’s and have no criminal history nor any accusations of abuse or neglect of my boys but the State seems to think they can just take my children from me because I can’t afford a private lawyer which is NOT the case. The public defender who was assigned to me in this case slandered me and provided untruths and personal information about my girlfriend at the hearing in front of DCF, the states attorney, and the judge prior to me arriving in court that morning. Up to the start time of the hearing I did not know who my lawyer was, I was not on the docket and my lawyer did not contact me to identify herself as my counsel-recognized my new partners name as she was one of two people that DCF had approved to live with me and the boys as I awaited placement at rehab. My partner Chelsea was in a relationship with one of My lawyers previous clients let’s say her name is Lisa. Lisa had an open DCF case with her older children and she had a new baby. Lisa’s public defender asked Lisa with newborn in toe to come live with her and slowly began to mother this baby and was encouraging her to stop breastfeeding the baby, to stop sleeping with the baby, to stop allowing the father of the baby to have contact with their child. Her lawyer was taking her to parties where drinking and drug use was occurring. The lawyer per reports became the babies foster parent and then the state tried to terminate Lisa’s parental rights. Lisa challenged this and won and which to my knowledge is rare. Christa was beyond pissed and somewhere down the line-I don’t know if it was months or a couple of years but Lisa began to date Chelsea. I believe when Christa read the affidavit, she recognized Chelsea’s name and went to the DA and Judge and said she knew this woman and said she was not a suitable custodial candidate to live with me and my boys and said that she remembered the situation from the last DCF case when I had Stephen removed from our home due to his drug use and verbal and emotional abuse. I was very confused because my DCF worker James and his supervisor Monique had instructed Chelsea to come to court with me on Monday but when I arrived to court, Christina met me in one of the front rooms and became asking me about Chelsea saying “how long had I known Chelsea” and how well do you know this woman. I was very confused why this was being discussed. Chelsea had parked the car and was going to join me in the courtroom but when she arrived at the door my lawyer said she can’t be here this is a closed hearing-I explained my DCF workers had been very happy with Chelsea throughout the time she had been living with me which had been about 5 months and she had been approved to live with me as part of the safety plan since late April. My DCF workers said that if I lost the boys temporarily that she should fight for the position to care for them until I completed drug treatment. I stood up and went to talk to Chelsea in the hall and told her what was happening and she was so confused but did not push against what we were being told. Chelsea was walking away from the courtroom and she heard my lawyer yelling at me and berating me and she suddenly recognized her voice from her previous Girlfriends case and realized that this was no mistake that the DA, judge, and DCF and realized that this woman should not have taken my case, as she was clearly unable to be unbiased and Chelsea came back to the room and asked me to come out to the hall for a moment. After Chelsea explained the situation to me, I told my lawyer I wanted to request a new lawyer due to a conflict of interest and she without resistance agreed with me and said just this to the judge. The judge seemed annoyed and irritated and told my lawyer that she wanted to know the reason that their was a conflict of interest. My lawyer repeatlwt said I felt their was a conflict if interest and she agreed that their was but the judge would not let it go. My lawyer then said that one of her previous clients was dating my current girlfriend and alluded that their was something wrong with her. The judge agreed to give me knew cancel but said they would move forward with putting my boys into DCF visit within 24 hours and I was not to return home until I was notified that the boys were gone. I was absolutely heartbroken and terrified for my boys. Since that day nothing g that was promised happened. I was told that this case would be quick and I should be reunited with my boys fairly quickly about 2 month was the estimate I was given. It has now been 4 months and now there is talk of the boys being uprooted from their home, school, pets, and mother ( where I am living with my Girlfriend about one mile away from the residence I own. The affidavit that was written to the DA was peppered with inaccuracies, one major o e being I was addicted to multiple different substances including alcohol and cocaine which I do not do not have an issue with. One of the first responders lied in his report saying when he arrived I was intoxicated and “reeked” of alcohol and this was absolutely false. He also implied that the person who called for help misled them to believe they were called for a leg injury but when they arrived nothing was wrong with my leg ( I had fallen into a small table in my bathroom and knocked off two drinking glasses which I fell onto and my leg was covered I. Blood and I was actively bleeding from 3 different lacerations requiring stitches in all those areas. The affidavit was almost entirely incorrect as it either was not told with all the information thus was completely misleading, was told out of sequence to support their case that I was a unfit parent, or was unsubstantiated hearsay that was not fact checked. It was so unethical and so misleading I asked my new assigned Public defender Betsy Gibbins where I could file a complaint about this detestable writ that caused my children to be taken from me but just she laughed and said you don’t-you just discuss it with me-i knew I was I trouble then. I am an educated Nudse with two BS degrees from Virginia Tech, I have only been married once, I have only been pregnant twice and they were planned and I live my boys more than life itself. I know I am a wonderful mom because my boys are amazing and they tell me what a good no

I am even though I made a mistake. I will be completely honest with you, I am begging you to take my case. Even if you don’t have time to represent me at he next chins hearing, just saying that I have you as my lawyer should give the DA and DCF the message that I am going to fight and that I now have a strong and knowledgeable lawyer who will not let the things that have been occurring to continue I know in my gut they think they can just run me over and My counsel is not listening to me and is not even trying to disprove the affidavit. She says just produce clean UA’s nothing else matters but I am doing that and my DCF worker James is still making excuses that make absolutely no sense about why the boys should not live in their home that the boys have both lived in since birth stating that he does not feel that the boys will be safe there because of Stephen-this is outrageous. I worked with the Burlington Pllice department to secure my home, they patrol my street, and submitted a request to the judge for a RFA which was granted and then became part of his conditions for release. The boys were safe from Stephen’s emotional abuse ever since I had him removed back in Feb and yesterday he pleaded guilty to violating the RFA two times Ali v with two other drug related charges. The victims advocate worked with me to create a plea that would continue to protect me and the boys whenever they were in our home. It is super strong because instead of calling g the police if he violated the order -which I would still do of course if he were trying to break I and hurt us, but if allows me to stay in close contact with his parole officer and if Stephen violated the conditions he will face jail time. This was a huge win for yesterday and offered what he protection I have wanted for the last 5 + years. Yet James did not seem to understand or not want to admit that that this was the case. I explained to him that this did not happen passively, that I fought for that deal and worked with the DA to produce something they felt would protect me and my boys by deterring Stephen. I feel strongly that the boys were NOT chins at the time the petition. Was filed as DCF had approved Chelsea to live with us while a bed opened up at Valley Vista. James himself wrote I. The affidavit that he performed a safety risk assessment t for the boys that came back high but another safety risk assessment was performed with the safety plan I place (which included Chelsea or my mother in Law Melody Scimone staying with me whenever one or both boys was with me in case I overdosed came back as low risk yet James filed the affidavit anyway. He said he felt I was dragging my feat going to treatment but I was simply trying to get my oldest son stabilized on a new antidepressant that his pediatrician and doctors at a recent hospitalization for his severe OCD were unable to convince him to take. After I had called Valley Vista and was awaiting a bed in late May I believe, I was able to convince Hudson to try this medication and it has cured his OCD and has helped his anxiety greatly. In addition to Stephen’s addiction which was obvious to DCF, DCF assumed that My so. Was not going to school because I was not making him, even though I explained ed to his school the reason he was not there and I believe his guidance counselors supported that reason but DCF acted like it was an excuse and were not able to grasp how serious Hudson’s OCD was-he was extremely suicidal, had been deemed a threat to himself and others, spent almost 30 days at Brattleboro Retreat, only to leave there without them being able to get him o. The medicine and he was traumatized there due to their lack of experience in treating children with OCD there but because he was being extremely dangerous and his OCD was just getting worse (he would barely leave his own room) he had to go there for safety purposes. My lawyer was good when she cross examined James and asked him if he recalled the reason I had delayed my treatment-he did not recall and Betsy asked James if he recalled the reason that I gave him above and he unapologetically said something like oh I do remember something like that going on.

I apologize for the long email but I felt that I needed to tell you what I was dealing with so you could decide if you thought you could convince the judge that my intentions were good-I admitted my use of opioids was becoming unmanageable and I needed to get away from home and the responsibility of taking care of my boys to focus on the beginning of my journey into sobriety and I have been able to do that and my life was full of hope and new beginnings but the weeks turned into months and my ability to stay positive and trust James was crumbling before my eyes and my boys have been really anxious as my sons kept asking me after I got out of rehab when they thought I would have full custody of them again and I said I did not know for sure but I thought by Halloween the latest. My boys are loosing faith and I am everything to them!! This punishment is entirely too severe for what has transpired and I feel pretty confident about this as I listen to the stories of other’s in my IOP and many of them endangered their children and got charges, one woman was found passed out drunk with her two young children strapped into their car seats crying-I never drove with my children when I used. I was not perfect but I know I am being treated disproportionately and my boys are suffering because of it. I can’t help but blame myself but I deserve to be treated fairly and they shouldn’t be able to get away with lying and manipulating the court and the expense of my innocent t boys. Please please help me. I will promptly pay the retainer and whatever else is needed.

Than you,

Warmly,

Maggie 802-207-8932

Was great to deal with.would use them again,highly recommended.

This lawyer picked up my mother’s phone call on a Saturday. Mr. Handy was very helpful and patient. I really appreciate it.