Complaint Review: Wayne County FOC Fame - Detroit Michigan

 In August of 2014, I filed for a simple change of joint custody to full custody, based off mothers involvement with child services stemming from abuse on a child. I filed with Wayne Co judge Eric Cholack, who referred the case to FOC. In October 2014, we met with a FOC referee who ordered that FAME do an assessment and give a recommendation. The judge had set a court date of Feb 9th, 2015. I received a notice in late December from Shelly Bonanno, who was the FAME worker ordered to do assessment. It took her from the end of October to end of December to notify me of assesment schedule. She scheduled it for January 29, 2015. This was less than 2 weeks from when we were to get first date with judge.

I arrived for meeting and my ex was 15 minutes late. The notice clearly states be on time and if you aren't it goes against you in the report. Shelly interviews my ex first and then myself. She starts off by asking when my court date is and I reply with in few days. She states that it will have to be changed cause she can't do her report in said time. This didn't sit well with me since I'd already been in limbo since August. I supplied Shelly with a pile of documents and facts of what had occurred since my divorce. Her and I didn't see eye to eye but I dealt with the interview. At conclusion of interview she stated that we wouldn't be in contact again but if I had anything else to say or documents to provide, I could fax her. A few days later I faxed her another 30 pages of documents including a written letter of things I forgot as well as police reports I'd forgotten, school records,and pages of text exchanges with my children as well as ex wife.

At the end of my interview, Shelly asked me "why do you want full custody and mom to have supervised visit's?" My reply was simple, " I fear for what she will do next." Within a few days of that fax, my ex was arrested for abusing our 12 year old. Wasn't first time abuse occurred but was first time she was arrested. Being the arrest occurred before Shelly wrote her report, u faxed her a notice of what occurred. Our court date of Feb was changed to March, which then was moved to May. I received a copy of Shelly's assessment and she did what I call the unthinkable. First off, she stated both parties were asking for full custody. That is not the case, only I had. She then says I have no attorney, which was opposite of the situation. My ex had no attorney, my attorney had filed all documents and his name was on everything.

In her report, she made no mention of any of documents I provided. She reported nonsense that my ex had told her of prior to our children being born. She wrote her assessment in favor of my ex and used all the information I provided as fire stater or toilet paper. She concluded her report with mom deserved full custody and went as far as recommending that I have less time with my children. Being that my ex went to jail for abuse while Shelly was writing her report, she made a note at bottom that stated, " dad faxed me telling me mom was arrested, but he provided no proof ". That fax was only few hours after the arrest, so I didn't have documents to provide. She said if it were true, she'd redo her report. We saw the judge in May with Shelly's report. Judge sees that report is to be redone if abuse was true. The police report,cps report and sentencing of my ex on a guilty plea was provided. Judge ordered that she redo her assessment. He gave her 6 weeks,and set us a court date for June. A few days prior to court date, I received a notice from Shelly that she wanted us in for another interview in mid July.

So our court date was pushed to August. I spoke with her director a John Frasik, who told me no reason to interview again, that she just has to write addendum based off documents received after the arrest. I spoke with director again who left me a voicemail stating he spoke with judge and all that is needed is to rewrite report. It is now the day assessment was scheduled for,and I received a text from my children stating mom was dragging them to a meeting that I had been told my children didn't need to endure. Point is this. Shelly Bonanno refuses to do her job in timely manner and has no regards for a judges order or what her supervisor tells her. On top of that, she clearly isn't very good at her job and gas had her supervisor apologize more than once for her inability to do what she is supposed to do. It's all the more proof to why she is a limited psychologist and not been able to receive her PhD. All I ask is that people do what they're paid to-do as well as do what a judge orders you to do. Disgruntled Parent