Atty Marianne Charles Screams, ‘I Want My Fucking Bill Paid!’, at CT Family Court Judge James Kenefick

This is an interview with Luigi DiRubba, of Cheshire,  CT, a father who lost his six children to the RICO conspiracy practiced in Connecticut Family Court.  Luigi, a chiropractor, gives an insight into how the game is played.

I loved his story of how his wife’s attorney, Marianne J. Charles of Charles & Boni-Vendola, LLC, demanded from poor old, inept Judge James Kenefick that her bill be paid by Luigi even though the case had concluded, the wife got the money, and the wife was responsible for paying her bills.

It does not always work that way in CT.  Attorneys often tell judges how things will go, and the judges follow orders pretty well.

You can watch the video of the interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2km52lqthw&t=34s

I wrote and played the theme song, and over the music, I introduced the video:

Welcome to our series on Connecticut Family Court, where parents are separated from their children, where lawyers and therapists, guardians ad litem, and custody evaluators conspire to strip the assets of a family and, in so doing, separate, divide and conquer and destroy the lives of children and usually one or both of the parents.

I end the video with another voiceover: So many sad days and nights, children crying for their mother or their father, lonely, isolated, depressed. Mothers bereft of their children, fathers cast out, alone, in the darkness. This is CT family court. 

Now enough maudlin sentimentality, for what’s a parent or two lost if it makes Attorney Charles happy.

When she's smiling, the whole court smiles with her - except the parent she is opposing. Marianne Charles knows how to get her way in court - or else.

When she’s smiling, the whole court smiles with her – except the parent she is opposing and the children who lose that parent. Yes, Marianne Charles knows how to get her way in court – or else.

Frank Parlato
Frank: You’ve been embroiled in a family court lawsuit for some time now.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Luigi: Close to seven years. It started Friday, February 5, 2016, when I was arrested on false charges. She claimed I physically abused her, emotional neglect. I abused the children. She made all these claims to the police department. They escorted me out of the house, and I had to go to court on Monday morning. I stayed at a hotel for three nights. On Monday morning, I had to present myself at Meriden Court.

Annamaria and her six children with DiRubba

Anna Maria DiRubba and their six children. Did Marianne Charles advise her to kick off the lawsuit with a false police complaint? Clients are often advised to do this. It starts things off on the right foot!

Frank Parlato
So a man in Connecticut can just be removed from his house by the simple allegation by the wife, and just like that, you’re thrown out of your own house. Is she the owner of the house?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
No. We had both our names on the house.

Frank Parlato
Were you able to take a change of clothes, a toothbrush?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
The police officer told me that I could take whatever I could carry as quickly as possible. I left with one duffel bag and a shirt and tie, and pants for court on Monday morning.

Frank Parlato
Were the kids there?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
The kids were there. She wouldn’t allow me to say goodbye. She told the police officers, “I’m afraid for their lives.”

Frank Parlato
Were the kids afraid?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
No. But there had been a lot of arguing for that whole year prior. Fast forward two months to late March, early April. One of our family friends came to my office and disclosed that my wife had had an affair that whole year prior. Then everything started to fall in place of why she was causing turmoil in the home.

Frank Parlato
Did you find out who she was having an affair with?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
My attorney hired a private investigator to find out. His name is Matt Menchetti.

Frank Parlato
So did Mr. Menchetti continue his adulterous relationship with your wife?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
For another eight months or nine months. She was just a cash cow to him. He bailed on her when he saw I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Frank Parlato
He went to pinker pastures.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yeah.

Frank Parlato
He left her and mooched along. Did your wife have money at the time this adulterous-led battle began?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
No, but her attorney filed all these pendente-lite motions and froze all my assets and accounts. And Judge Kenefick forced me to pay her legal fees, my legal fees.

Judge James Kenefick
The case was supposed to be heard before Judge Karen Goodrow. Without explanation, the case was heard by Judge Kenefick, a fact that pleased Marianne Charles.

Frank Parlato
What was your net worth at the time?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I’d say at least 4 million.

Frank Parlato
What is your net worth now?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
All I have is my practice. And my building. It’s about $700,000 gross, But one of the attorneys filed a claim against me and put a $250,000 lien on my building.

Frank Parlato
So you started with 4 million. And you’ve been reduced to $700,000. And there’s a $250,000 lien.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
But I have no liquidity.

Frank Parlato
My math shows you’ve been decimated.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes. And then, at the same time, I was also left with close to $200,000 in debt. I’m paying all the debts off little by little, credit cards, IRS.

Frank Parlato
What do you do for a living?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I’m a chiropractor.

Frank Parlato
You’re a chiropractor, and you have a practice. And you started with 4 million, and you were dragged into CT Family Court because your wife was the plaintiff. Now you have a $700,000 property minus a $250,000 lien minus $200,000 in debt. My math shows me that all you have left is a quarter of a million dollars in net worth; you started with 4 million. How much have you spent on legal fees, and how much is your wife spent on legal out of your $4 million in assets?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
She didn’t spend a dime. I was forced to pay her legal fees close to $400,000. I was forced to pay my legal fees, which were $325,000. I was forced to pay the GAL $125,000. I was forced to pay the psychological evaluation $10,000, all the therapists for the children – probably another $25 to $30,000. We had supervisors for supervised visits that cost me another 15 grand.

Attorney Anthony Solimine did not do well for Luigi but well for himself, and that’s what counts.

Attorney Thomas Esposito

Attorney Thomas Esposito, ditto.

Attorney Mohan Sreenivasan

Attorney Randi Calabrese

Attorney Mohan Sreenivasan and Attorney Randi Calabrese, ditto, ditto.

Janis Laliberte, Guardian Ad Litem

Well, actually, two attorneys for the wife, if you count the GAL Janis Laliberte, who made an easy $125,000 representing the children’s best interest.

Frank Parlato
So we have about a million there, don’t we?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Including the criminal attorneys. I spent close to probably 1.4 million.

Frank Parlato
For both you and your wife?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes.

Frank Parlato
Let me just try to figure all of this out in short, straightforward language. One day, you were the king in your castle. And then, the next moment, you are escorted out of your house. Your assets were frozen. You had 4 million dollars. Your wife got the home. Your wife got the kids. You got the shaft. You were forced to spend $1.4 million. You still owe money, and you’re essentially living from one chiropractic adjustment to the next.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Paycheck to paycheck. I’m lucky. I have a place to live only because of my mom. She had to liquidate her retirement to help me get something to live in.

Frank Parlato
When was the last time you saw your children? Visited with them or had any kind of—

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
September 3rd, 2018.

Frank Parlato
Three and a half years, right?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
That’s my three youngest ones. My three oldest ones I haven’t seen in five years.

Luigi's six children.

Luigi’s six children.

Frank Parlato
You have six kids with the same woman?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Same woman.

Frank Parlato
How did things get so are hateful with a woman that the bore six of your children?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
From what the psychologists have said, she’s got a borderline personality from what I can gather. She was diagnosed with a histrionic personality disorder. In 2014, she started hanging out with two women that were divorced. Personally, I didn’t care for them; they had foul mouths. I didn’t like them around my children. Slowly I think they made her, you know, they knew she did have a great life. I’m not going to say she was an evil woman, mother-wise. She lost two brothers as a child. She was the sole child of two parents devastated by what happened.

I think childhood trauma reenacted itself, and she never really had a childhood. So these women, I believe, gave her the wrong sense of what it’s like to be free. And slowly, it declined. I don’t know how she met this loser [she had an affair with]. He’s a loser because everyone knows him. He’s been in the newspaper, heavy gambler. He owes money to the state. He foreclosed on his golf course. You look him up. He’s pretty famous in Connecticut.

Frank Parlato
He’s known for a controversial and checkered life.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
And to top it all off, I go to find out afterward, after during trial, that my attorney represented him in cases, and that’s why he didn’t want to bring him in to testify as a witness and put him on the stand. So I had to get a different attorney. It’s a very, very convoluted case.

Frank Parlato
He had a conflict because Mr. Menchetti was a former client of your attorney. How many attorneys did you wind up having?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Six.

Frank Parlato
How many judges?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Oh, God, Judge Kenefick, for the trial. It was supposed to be Judge Goodrow initially.

Judge James Kenefick

It was a quick switch from Judge Karen Goodrow into the court of Judge Kenefick.

Frank Parlato
These are just rough numbers.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
At least five.

Frank Parlato
And your wife had how many lawyers?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Same lawyer.

Frank Parlato
What court were you in?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
New Haven first with Judge Kenefick. We had the trial. He came out with his final determination, and he buried me. So I appealed. I found an attorney to appeal. I tried to get going with the appeal, and my attorney, James Sexton, tried to appeal, and one day he was getting decimated by the opposing side because they were going to family court and getting all the stays removed. Judge Kenefick was ruling on them in the opposite side’s favor.

In his Memorandum of Decision, Regional Court Judge Leo Diana required Luigi to sign over his retirement fund and prevented Luigi from filing any motions without the special consent of the court.

Frank Parlato
Kenefick took a dislike to you, didn’t he? Or did he just have a liking for the lawyer for your wife?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I think he liked the lawyer for the wife because his daughter is a GAL, and she’s good friends with my ex’s attorney.

Frank Parlato
So Kenefick’s daughters, a GAL?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes. In the same courthouse.

Frank Parlato
Does she ever appear in front of her daddy?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I don’t know. She wasn’t my GAL, but I’ve seen her, and she’s been in the courthouse all the time with cases.

Frank Parlato
I see. So Daddy and daughter work together in the operation. And the lawyer, what’s your wife’s lawyers name?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Marianne Charles.

'I want my fucking bill paid,' said Mariane Charles to timid Judge Kenefick

Attorney Marianne Charles: $400,000

Frank Parlato
Marianne Charles. Is she known to work with the daughter?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes, she’s had plenty of cases with her.

Frank Parlato
It’s like a family affair.  And how about your lawyer? Did he work with the judge’s daughter? What’s the daughter’s name? Kenefick’s daughter?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
You have to please forgive me? I don’t know.

Frank Parlato
All right. We’ll call her “the little one.” She works with Charles, but did she work with your lawyer?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I believe so. They all know each other. I know they go to a Christmas party together. Marianne Charles’s partner Corinne Boni-Vendola has a Christmas party every year. And they’re all at her house. The judge’s daughter, my attorney, my wife’s attorney Marianne Charles, and the GAL Janis Laliberte.

Frank Parlato
A dark-haired woman?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Heavyset, dark-haired. I couldn’t change her because she became court-ordered.

Janis Laliberte, GAL

Attorney Janis Laliberte, GAL

Frank Parlato
She has quite a presence in the courtroom, doesn’t she? And she’s well known to Judge Kenefick? And Laliberte wanted your wife to have the children. Who paid Laliberte?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I had to.

Frank Parlato
Who determined the scope of her work?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Judge Kenefick did.

Frank Parlato
How come you don’t have supervised visits now?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I don’t know. Because all of the supervised visit reports are in my favor.

Frank Parlato
But Judge Kenefick doesn’t want you to have supervised visits.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
When we presented the reports to him, he ignored them. I submitted them as evidence and had the supervisors on the witness stand. Pretty much, he gave me a parenting plan. We had a parenting plan, but my ex-wife was constantly obstructing it. I had one Father’s Day out of the two and a half years that the parenting plan was in effect. I had one Father’s Day and one holiday, every time, she would do something to obstruct it. I’d have my attorney try to try to do something. And we go into court. The hearing was in regards to the children’s issues. It would not even be brought up. I would get hammered with some other financial issue.

I walked out of the courtroom, Frank and I would look at my attorney, and he goes, “the guys always get the shaft,” and then little by little, I started realizing that, you know, they don’t give a shit. Everybody was getting paid. It didn’t matter who won or lost or fair trial. It was; they had the guy who was paying for everything. So it didn’t make a difference. So they dragged it out as much as they could. Our court trial was 14 days or something. And the questions that were brought up by the opposing side. Am I gay? I mean, literally to the point insulting, degrading.

Frank Parlato
Did your attorney object?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
He tried, but Judge Kenefick pretty much let things; he fell asleep three times on the bench, by the way.

Frank Parlato
The judge?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes.

Frank Parlato
Well, why do you think he fell asleep? What was your testimony not scintillating enough?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
No, he’s really old.

Frank Parlato
I see. He dozed off.

Judge Kenefick.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
He dozed off three times. And we had to wake him up.

Frank Parlato
Oh, yeah. That’s a hardship on a judge to try to stay awake for these cases when they’re bleeding one of the parties. I don’t think it’s necessary for him to stay up for the whole case. I think it’s unfair to require the judge to stay awake for the whole trial when he already knows what his decision is going to be, don’t you?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Are you serious?

Frank Parlato
Can anything be serious about Connecticut Family Court other than the fact that they steal parents from their children? They destroy families for profit. That’s all that’s happened here is that you were robbed. You were used, bludgeoned and robbed and used as a victim. And now your money’s gone, and it’s kind of petered out. Your wife has custody. Who lives in the home that you were kicked out of?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
She sold it, and she pocketed the money.

Frank Parlato
And you got nothing for that?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Nothing. Judge Kenefick didn’t give me anything.

Frank Parlato
The old man really didn’t like you, did he?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
And then so we appealed. Sexton was getting hammered in family court because all the stays were being removed.

Frank Parlato
Was Sexton your appellate attorney?

Appellate Attorney James Sexton hired and paid for an appeal that never happened.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Right. And then, by the time it was ready for an appeal to submit the brief, I didn’t have an appeal because all stays had been removed. So he walked away from my case. He says, “I can’t help you.” I got screwed there. I couldn’t find another appellate attorney to take on the case. So it got dismissed. Then I started representing myself pro se, filing motions because of, you know, neglect and also the children. My parenting plan wasn’t being abided by; she was obstructing, and we’d go into court.

Marianne Charles and her crew would literally go into chambers with Judge Kenefick, come out, my motion wouldn’t be heard. And I’d get hammered with some other financial order.

Frank Parlato
This was when you were pro-se?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yes.

Frank Parlato
And so the other attorney met privately with Judge Kenefick while you sat outside, and then they come out, and they would rule against you.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Right. And there was one instance that occurred where Marianne Charles went into chambers with Judge Kenefick and was cursing him out. Everybody could hear her. “I want my fucking bills paid,” literally. Okay, so he’s in chambers with her. Judge Tindall, in the other courtroom, walks into our courtroom and says to the marshal, “You better tell them to shut up, or I will go in there myself.”

And this happened twice.

"I want my fucking bills paid!" demanded Attorney Marianne Charles of Judge Kenefick.

“I want my fucking bills paid!” demanded Attorney Marianne Charles of Judge Kenefick.

Frank Parlato
Who did they want to have shut up? Tindall wanted who to shut up?

Judge Erika M. Tindall CT Court Herzog

Judge Erika M. Tindall– “You better tell them to shut up, or I will go in there myself.”

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Marianne Charles.

Frank Parlato
I see, so in other words, Marianne Charles was berating her stooge, Judge Kenefick, and Judge Tindall was annoyed because if Marianne Charles is going to berate Judge Kenefick, she should do it sotto voce and not yell and scream.

I mean, if you’re going to tell the judge what to do, I think it’s important that you do it with a soft voice in court because it might offend Judge Tindall and others, I get that.

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I love your sarcasm. You must be a New Yorker.

Frank Parlato
Well, I do come from New York, but I’m glad I don’t appear in Connecticut because they have their own set of rules. So did the marshal go in and advise Judge Kenefick that he just better obey Attorney Charles and keep it down?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
She kept it down, and then it happened again.

Frank Parlato
How soon after?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Within a matter of like five minutes, another marshal came in from Judge Tindall’s courtroom and he basically told the marshal to tell them to tone it down.

Frank Parlato
And did they then finally listen to Judge Tindall?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yeah, they finally did. And they came out within a matter of minutes.

Frank Parlato
Did Judge Kenefict then obey what Attorney Charles insisted he do?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Yeah, what ended up happening is that I got hammered for some other financial issues, and my motion for my children never even got heard. And he ruled on it. And he dismissed it.

Frank Parlato
The poor old man, poor old Judge Kenefick. He couldn’t stand up to that lady. And so he hammered you. And out the door you went; your motion for seeing your children wasn’t heard. The Queen of the court…

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Not just once, this happened four times.

Frank Parlato
But I’m fascinated with this screaming. So Charles was yelling at the judge, demanding you pay her bills. How much money were we talking about?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
I don’t know what she was talking about. Because the trial had already concluded. And I wasn’t supposed to be responsible for anything post-judgment.

Frank Parlato
So who wound up paying this bill for Charles, you or your wife?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Me, but somehow it had to go through my wife for her to pay it because Judge Kenefick would turn around and hammer me for more money for her with these false claims that she would make, I didn’t pay this. I didn’t pay that when in reality, I had all the records, but he never even acknowledged them. She owed me close to $18,000, and I never got it. And I ended up having to pay her.

Frank Parlato
How much did Marianne Charles make in this case?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
400 grand. And that’s not including what I don’t know.

Frank Parlato
What do you mean?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
Well, post-judgment. Whatever’s happened since. After the appeal got dropped and dismissed, I filed for Judge Kenefick to be recused, and this was brought to Regional Court.

Frank Parlato
All right now, I just want to stay with the money for a minute because Marianne Charles got $400,000. In fact, at times, she had to resort to yelling at the judge to make sure he gave the orders that were in conformity with her demands. And you were sitting there pro-se like a lamb to be shorn, and he made sure that you paid everything. Did she come out with a smile after she left the court chambers after she had done her screaming?

Dr. Luigi DiRubba
She’d always smile. She was always; she knew no matter what I tried or did, she knew she had the upper hand. She would walk into court so confident that pretty much I already knew that something was occurring behind the scenes. I’ve been in front of Judge Kenefick. I’ve been in Judge O’Connor, I’ve been in front of Judge Goodrow. I have been in front of what’s his name, Judge, a male… Oh, God…

Frank Parlato
Well, they’re all the same, the names don’t matter. They’re all the same. Anyway, here’s what I think we should do. Luigi, I’ve got a little flavor. This is a good place to stop.