Couple fights to regain custody of adopted son
First in a three-part series.
Russell and Eleanor Handler in a family Christmas photo when David was 15 months old.
Today is the first installment of a three-part story about a Northport family’s long-running, bitter feud with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over custody of their adopted son, David.
Russell and Eleanor Handler's website features a slideshow of their adopted son David at the beach, petting a pig, go-karting, and in a family Christmas portrait. The soundtrack is Celine Dion's lilting, "My Heart Will Go On."
Legally, though, David is no longer the Handlers' son.
The Northport couple is using the site, finddavidstuarthandler.com, to share their memories of David, now 12, and their harsh criticism of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which removed him from their home in 2007. Then, Oct. 15 of that same year, the court terminated their parental rights.
Full-page advertisements in daily newspapers around Maine in recent months have urged other Mainers with child custody gripes with DHHS to share their stories with them.
These efforts come in advance of a looming federal lawsuit from the Handlers against DHHS, which Russell vowed will expose the department's systematic failings.
"It's not going to be your average complaint," Russell, 62, said of the lawsuit. "It's going to blow the doors off the building in Augusta."
DHHS would neither comment nor release information about the Handlers for this story. "DHHS cannot comment on any case due to laws that govern confidentiality," said John Martins, the agency's spokesman.
The Handlers, though, have plenty to say and are railing against the agency in a single-minded pursuit to have their parental rights reinstated and David returned.
DHHS annually handles hundreds of child custody cases; few, if any, have ever been so vigorously challenged in such a public arena.
"If there is a god, this will be dealt with," said Eleanor, 52, who fondly reminisced about making a "David sandwich," in which she and Russell hugged each other with their son in the middle.
"We will never, ever, quit until we find out that David is OK and he knows we love him," she said.
DHHS terminated the Handlers' parental rights amid concerns their marriage was, according to court documents, "severely afflicted by domestic violence perpetrated by the father against the mother" and that David was both a witness and victim of domestic violence.
Court documents released by the Handlers, for example, show the state accused Russell of putting David in a "cold shower with his clothes on after the child had wet his pants."
In 2005, Russell was arrested for assault, charged with choking Eleanor and forcing her to climb nude into a Dumpster. In 2006, the charge was dismissed.
The Handlers admit while they were not perfect parents, they love David and that DHHS unjustly removed their son.
They allege DHHS didn't adequately follow its procedures during a time when they, as a couple, faced significant medical difficulties -- Russell and Eleanor have each battled cancer, and Eleanor experienced a period of documented mental incapacity from 2002 to 2008.
And because of Eleanor's mental state during that period, the Handlers' attorneys, Eric Mehnert and Joseph Baldacci of Bangor, contend the state should have better vetted her allegations of Russell's abuse.
Eleanor, who is receiving mental health treatment in New York, said her accusations against Russell stemmed from delusions.
In July, the Handlers lost a Freedom of Access Act appeal to obtain information from a Maine Children's Alliance report they requested about David's removal from their home. The ombudsman of that neutral party was tasked with reviewing whether DHHS followed its policies regarding placing a child who has been removed from a home with relatives.
The Handlers' attorneys argue if the public cannot check whether the rights of citizens are upheld in child custody cases then corruption in state agencies can exist.
In the federal lawsuit, the Handlers will claim DHHS violated Eleanor's rights. Because of her mental illness, they said Eleanor was not competent to participate in the very process DHHS used to terminate her parental rights.
That will be for the court to decide. The larger question posed by the Handlers is about what is best for David.
Russell, a former yacht broker, and Eleanor, an ex-physician, believe they can provide for David's best interests. The couple claim to have a loving life and resources to provide David top-notch educational opportunities and rich recreational and cultural experiences.
And as the couple's sole heir, David would stand to inherit a fortune. Eleanor's father, for instance, established a multi-million dollar trust in New York that is slated to go to Eleanor's child upon her death.
Yet David has not been the Handlers' son for five years.
And in Maine, no one who has had his or her parental rights terminated has ever had those rights restored, according to Martins, DHHS spokesman.
That doesn't seem to faze the Handlers; they say they're ready to duel with DHHS in federal court.
"If some bastard with DHHS thinks he's going to ruin our son's life, he can think again," said Russell. "I'm not a quitter and I will never quit on that kid."
FOR BETTER …
Russell and Eleanor met in 1984 when he sold a yacht to her father in New York.
"By their second date Ellie knew Russ was the man she would marry," observed Elizabeth R. Spiess, of the Maine Adoption Placement Service, when she conducted a home study report in 1999 on the Handlers.
When the couple wed Dec. 13, 1986, The New York Times announced that Dr. Eleanor Bellucci and Russell Hartmann Handler exchanged vows at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan.
The bride, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Long Island Obstetrics and Gynecology Group in Great Neck, graduated cum laude from the Lenox School, magna cum laude from Barnard College and from New York Medical College. She was 14 when she started Columbia University as an English major, 18 when she entered medical school and 22 when she started her residency at Cornell/North Shore University Hospital.
The groom, who graduated from Cornwall Academy and attended Boston University, was an executive in Long Island, N.Y., with Hartmann Palmer Yachts Inc., yacht brokers, and Hartmann Palmer Shipbuilding Ltd., yacht designers and builders.
In her report April 26, 1999, Spiess indicated the Handlers wanted to adopt a Caucasian infant, twins or triplets. She had conducted a home visit and spent time individually with both Eleanor and Russell.
Spiess wrote, "Ellie says that she and Russ have been given a lot in life and feel that they want to give and share what they have with children ... Settled and more mature now, they feel they are in a better place to be good parents than ever before."
At that time, Eleanor's annual income as an obstetrician at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast was listed at $100,000; the space for Russell's income was blank.
Eleanor spoke highly and warmly of her childhood nanny from Nice, France, who taught her to speak French before she spoke English.
Otherwise, Eleanor, who grew up in a Manhattan brownstone, told Spiess that she had vague memories of her formal upbringing. "She can recall dressing up, including gloves, to play in Central Park with her nanny," wrote Spiess.
Eleanor described her mother to Spiess as a volatile, irrational and bigoted woman, who was also a hard-working, successful obstetrician and gynecologist. Eleanor called her father a brilliant, gifted surgeon who was extremely egotistical, controlling and manipulative.
Spiess characterized Russell in her report as a "kind man with a generous spirit" who easily makes friends.
Russell said when he was a child he was self-confident, played sports, sailed competitively, was a voracious reader and had a great deal of freedom to explore and do "anything he wanted to do."
He remembered that his father, an editor and publisher at Fairchild Publications, showed him around the office and he recalled that his mother, an expert in horticulture, often took him and his brother to the theater and frequently invited musicians to perform in their home.
His parents separated when he was about 8, and he told Spiess that his mother and father "were at war" after that.
Russell said his parents used him and his younger brother, Frederick, in the warfare. Russell said that he and Frederick had different values growing up and were not close.
"Over the years, Russ has attempted to be gracious and walk away from conflict," wrote Spiess. "His brother hasn't responded in kind, so Russ wisely avoids contact with him."
This tense relationship -- and his brother's sudden death -- would later thrust the Handler family's conflicts onto the pages of The New York Times.
Spiess' 1999 report concluded that "this year will mark Russ and Ellie's 12th wedding anniversary. In considering the loving, stable relationship they have established, the wealth of resources they can provide for children, and the secure, nurturing environment they are ready to provide, I believe they are excellent candidates for adoption."
Spiess said a 1999 check with the Maine State Police turned up no criminal activity by the Handlers.
Later that year, David came to live with them when he was a few days old and the Handlers adopted him soon after.
Then, in 2001, Russell underwent aggressive treatment for cancer that began in his tonsils. He said his physician told him, "There's a possibility we'll kill you (with the treatment) before the cancer will."
Eleanor, who delivered thousands of babies during her medical career, said in 2002 she began to have intrusive recollections that she had been repeatedly sexually abused by an adult male relative when she was a child.
The couple's life began to publicly unravel with Russell's arrests, Eleanor succumbing to mental illness and battling colorectal cancer, and ultimately the state terminating their parental rights.
Tomorrow: the Handlers' public problems and Eleanor's battle with mental illness.
Beth Staples
Pasted from <http://www.kjonline.com/news/couple-fights-to-regain-custody-of-adopted-son_2011-09-29.html?pagenum=3>
Russell and Eleanor Handler in a family Christmas photo when David was 15 months old.
Today is the first installment of a three-part story about a Northport family’s long-running, bitter feud with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over custody of their adopted son, David.
Russell and Eleanor Handler's website features a slideshow of their adopted son David at the beach, petting a pig, go-karting, and in a family Christmas portrait. The soundtrack is Celine Dion's lilting, "My Heart Will Go On."
Legally, though, David is no longer the Handlers' son.
The Northport couple is using the site, finddavidstuarthandler.com, to share their memories of David, now 12, and their harsh criticism of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which removed him from their home in 2007. Then, Oct. 15 of that same year, the court terminated their parental rights.
Full-page advertisements in daily newspapers around Maine in recent months have urged other Mainers with child custody gripes with DHHS to share their stories with them.
These efforts come in advance of a looming federal lawsuit from the Handlers against DHHS, which Russell vowed will expose the department's systematic failings.
"It's not going to be your average complaint," Russell, 62, said of the lawsuit. "It's going to blow the doors off the building in Augusta."
DHHS would neither comment nor release information about the Handlers for this story. "DHHS cannot comment on any case due to laws that govern confidentiality," said John Martins, the agency's spokesman.
The Handlers, though, have plenty to say and are railing against the agency in a single-minded pursuit to have their parental rights reinstated and David returned.
DHHS annually handles hundreds of child custody cases; few, if any, have ever been so vigorously challenged in such a public arena.
"If there is a god, this will be dealt with," said Eleanor, 52, who fondly reminisced about making a "David sandwich," in which she and Russell hugged each other with their son in the middle.
"We will never, ever, quit until we find out that David is OK and he knows we love him," she said.
DHHS terminated the Handlers' parental rights amid concerns their marriage was, according to court documents, "severely afflicted by domestic violence perpetrated by the father against the mother" and that David was both a witness and victim of domestic violence.
Court documents released by the Handlers, for example, show the state accused Russell of putting David in a "cold shower with his clothes on after the child had wet his pants."
In 2005, Russell was arrested for assault, charged with choking Eleanor and forcing her to climb nude into a Dumpster. In 2006, the charge was dismissed.
The Handlers admit while they were not perfect parents, they love David and that DHHS unjustly removed their son.
They allege DHHS didn't adequately follow its procedures during a time when they, as a couple, faced significant medical difficulties -- Russell and Eleanor have each battled cancer, and Eleanor experienced a period of documented mental incapacity from 2002 to 2008.
And because of Eleanor's mental state during that period, the Handlers' attorneys, Eric Mehnert and Joseph Baldacci of Bangor, contend the state should have better vetted her allegations of Russell's abuse.
Eleanor, who is receiving mental health treatment in New York, said her accusations against Russell stemmed from delusions.
In July, the Handlers lost a Freedom of Access Act appeal to obtain information from a Maine Children's Alliance report they requested about David's removal from their home. The ombudsman of that neutral party was tasked with reviewing whether DHHS followed its policies regarding placing a child who has been removed from a home with relatives.
The Handlers' attorneys argue if the public cannot check whether the rights of citizens are upheld in child custody cases then corruption in state agencies can exist.
In the federal lawsuit, the Handlers will claim DHHS violated Eleanor's rights. Because of her mental illness, they said Eleanor was not competent to participate in the very process DHHS used to terminate her parental rights.
That will be for the court to decide. The larger question posed by the Handlers is about what is best for David.
Russell, a former yacht broker, and Eleanor, an ex-physician, believe they can provide for David's best interests. The couple claim to have a loving life and resources to provide David top-notch educational opportunities and rich recreational and cultural experiences.
And as the couple's sole heir, David would stand to inherit a fortune. Eleanor's father, for instance, established a multi-million dollar trust in New York that is slated to go to Eleanor's child upon her death.
Yet David has not been the Handlers' son for five years.
And in Maine, no one who has had his or her parental rights terminated has ever had those rights restored, according to Martins, DHHS spokesman.
That doesn't seem to faze the Handlers; they say they're ready to duel with DHHS in federal court.
"If some bastard with DHHS thinks he's going to ruin our son's life, he can think again," said Russell. "I'm not a quitter and I will never quit on that kid."
FOR BETTER …
Russell and Eleanor met in 1984 when he sold a yacht to her father in New York.
"By their second date Ellie knew Russ was the man she would marry," observed Elizabeth R. Spiess, of the Maine Adoption Placement Service, when she conducted a home study report in 1999 on the Handlers.
When the couple wed Dec. 13, 1986, The New York Times announced that Dr. Eleanor Bellucci and Russell Hartmann Handler exchanged vows at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan.
The bride, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Long Island Obstetrics and Gynecology Group in Great Neck, graduated cum laude from the Lenox School, magna cum laude from Barnard College and from New York Medical College. She was 14 when she started Columbia University as an English major, 18 when she entered medical school and 22 when she started her residency at Cornell/North Shore University Hospital.
The groom, who graduated from Cornwall Academy and attended Boston University, was an executive in Long Island, N.Y., with Hartmann Palmer Yachts Inc., yacht brokers, and Hartmann Palmer Shipbuilding Ltd., yacht designers and builders.
In her report April 26, 1999, Spiess indicated the Handlers wanted to adopt a Caucasian infant, twins or triplets. She had conducted a home visit and spent time individually with both Eleanor and Russell.
Spiess wrote, "Ellie says that she and Russ have been given a lot in life and feel that they want to give and share what they have with children ... Settled and more mature now, they feel they are in a better place to be good parents than ever before."
At that time, Eleanor's annual income as an obstetrician at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast was listed at $100,000; the space for Russell's income was blank.
Eleanor spoke highly and warmly of her childhood nanny from Nice, France, who taught her to speak French before she spoke English.
Otherwise, Eleanor, who grew up in a Manhattan brownstone, told Spiess that she had vague memories of her formal upbringing. "She can recall dressing up, including gloves, to play in Central Park with her nanny," wrote Spiess.
Eleanor described her mother to Spiess as a volatile, irrational and bigoted woman, who was also a hard-working, successful obstetrician and gynecologist. Eleanor called her father a brilliant, gifted surgeon who was extremely egotistical, controlling and manipulative.
Spiess characterized Russell in her report as a "kind man with a generous spirit" who easily makes friends.
Russell said when he was a child he was self-confident, played sports, sailed competitively, was a voracious reader and had a great deal of freedom to explore and do "anything he wanted to do."
He remembered that his father, an editor and publisher at Fairchild Publications, showed him around the office and he recalled that his mother, an expert in horticulture, often took him and his brother to the theater and frequently invited musicians to perform in their home.
His parents separated when he was about 8, and he told Spiess that his mother and father "were at war" after that.
Russell said his parents used him and his younger brother, Frederick, in the warfare. Russell said that he and Frederick had different values growing up and were not close.
"Over the years, Russ has attempted to be gracious and walk away from conflict," wrote Spiess. "His brother hasn't responded in kind, so Russ wisely avoids contact with him."
This tense relationship -- and his brother's sudden death -- would later thrust the Handler family's conflicts onto the pages of The New York Times.
Spiess' 1999 report concluded that "this year will mark Russ and Ellie's 12th wedding anniversary. In considering the loving, stable relationship they have established, the wealth of resources they can provide for children, and the secure, nurturing environment they are ready to provide, I believe they are excellent candidates for adoption."
Spiess said a 1999 check with the Maine State Police turned up no criminal activity by the Handlers.
Later that year, David came to live with them when he was a few days old and the Handlers adopted him soon after.
Then, in 2001, Russell underwent aggressive treatment for cancer that began in his tonsils. He said his physician told him, "There's a possibility we'll kill you (with the treatment) before the cancer will."
Eleanor, who delivered thousands of babies during her medical career, said in 2002 she began to have intrusive recollections that she had been repeatedly sexually abused by an adult male relative when she was a child.
The couple's life began to publicly unravel with Russell's arrests, Eleanor succumbing to mental illness and battling colorectal cancer, and ultimately the state terminating their parental rights.
Tomorrow: the Handlers' public problems and Eleanor's battle with mental illness.
Beth Staples
Pasted from <http://www.kjonline.com/news/couple-fights-to-regain-custody-of-adopted-son_2011-09-29.html?pagenum=3>