Opinion ID: 1927683
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: In re Brittany P.

Text: On June 7, 1984, when Brittany P. was seven months old, her father killed her mother, his ex-wife, and then committed suicide. Brittany was left in the care of her teenage maternal aunts and her maternal grandfather. Six different petitions seeking guardianship of Brittany were quickly filed in the Waldo County Probate Court. Petitioners included Brittany's teenage maternal aunt Julie H. and Brittany's maternal grandfather; Brittany's paternal grandparents; certain of Brittany's paternal cousins; certain friends of Brittany's mother; and a former baby-sitter for Brittany. Three days of informal hearings were conducted by Judge Barrett in July and November 1984. On the last day of hearings, November 21, Judge Barrett told the parties that he would try to make a decision by Christmas 1984. When he had failed to do so by the following February, the attorneys involved began calling the Probate Court. In May 1985, when no opinion was forthcoming, two of the attorneys filed formal complaints with the Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability. In answering those complaints, the respondent wrote the Committee a lengthy letter in July 1985 in defense of his then seven-month decisional delay. He there explained that he was purposely delaying a guardianship decision in the hope that the paternal and maternal branches of Brittany's family would mend their relationships to one another, so that both would be available to support Brittany emotionally as she grew up. In that July 1985 letter he stated that his decision [was] well-framed in both mind and in writing and has been for some time, although additional writing and inquiry continues. In October 1985 the Committee informed the respondent that a hearing was necessary on the complaints. The hearing originally set for early December 1985 was, because of illness of counsel, rescheduled to January 31, 1986. In the meantime, on December 27, 1985, Judge Barrett entered his decision appointing Brittany's aunt Julie as her sole guardian and denying the other petitions. At the Committee's hearing the respondent testified that his reasons for delaying issuance of a decision had been that he wanted to see how Brittany's aunt Julie worked out as her caretaker, in order to be sure that his initial decision was in Brittany's best interests; and that he wanted the two sides of Brittany's family, for her sake, to forgive and forget their shared tragedy and that he was afraid a quick decision would destroy any chance of that reconciliation. At no time, however, subsequent to the close of the hearings on November 21, 1984, did the judge receive any further evidence that would be proper for his consideration in deciding the multiple guardianship petitions pending before him. Furthermore, the respondent testified that he would have withheld his decision for much the same period of time even if he had been sure from the beginning which petitioner he should appoint as guardian.