Other Cases Involving Dr. Connor
These are cases involving Dr. Connor that are on the internet. It’s scary to think that Dr. Connor has the power to decide if a person lives or dies.
Dr. Connor works on both criminal and civil cases. Dr. Connor went through the better part of a 31 page custody evaluation rambling about how he had a hard time communicating with me because I had severe ADHD. He found my writings confusing and difficult to follow. Dr. Connor “interpreted” my psychological test data even though he claimed he had a hard time understanding a person with ADHD. How could this man possibly be qualified to evaluate someone on death row?
Marco Chapman was executed by the state of Kentucky on November 21, 2008. Dr. Connor was one of the professionals who evaluated Chapman.
Marco Chapman plead guilty to killing two small children and leaving a sister and the children’s mother for dead at the families’ home in Warsaw, Kentucky. Words cannot explain the magnitude of the tragedy. To say the least, I was utterly shocked to find out that the man who claimed that he had a hard time communicating with a person with an above average IQ and ADHD, is the same person who served as a professional expert for the defense of Marco Chapman. The following information was taken from the Appellant Brief filed with the Kentucky Supreme Court, on March 1, 2006, on behalf of Marco Chapman. The brief contained Dr. Connor’s report of Marco Chapman and included the following:
Marco Chapman was depressed as a baby due to the emotional detachment of his parents. Chapman’s parents suffered from depression, serious alcohol abuse, depression, and mental disorders. Chapman’s father sexually abused him and routinely beat him unconscious. His parents gave Chapman alcohol in his baby bottle. A babysitter molested Chapman. Chapman began to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol at the age of eight and became sexually active and suicidal as a child. Chapman experienced dissociative states. He was plagued by conduct disorders and dysthymia and Chapman’s emotional disturbances had physical manifestations. Around the age of 14, Chapman attempted suicide by hanging himself and cutting his wrists. This was around the same time Chapman began to abuse LSD, embalming fluid, and PCP. Chapman suffered from gender identity issues. He abused heroin, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamines and drank alcohol in binges. Chapman was in acute psychological turmoil suffering from substance dependence, Dysthymic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, intrusive thoughts, odd sensory experiences, including visual and auditory hallucinations, dramatic mood swings, troubling thoughts and dreams, and personality disorders (he had symptoms of both Borderline and Anti-social Disorder.
I’m not here to debate guilt or argue whether the death penalty is right or wrong; I’m questioning how Dr. Connor can be qualified to evaluate someone like Marco Chapman if he can’t understand me. On the flip side, if Dr. Connor lied about not being able to understand me, he shouldn’t play a role in determining whether someone is competent to die.
Dr. Connor recommends more parenting time for rapists than me.
It was a rather surreal moment when I found out that Dr. Connor recommended that Jeni Lee Dinkel receive no jail time because it would be hard on her 15 year old son. Ms. Dinkel pled guilty to having sex with her 15 year old son’s friend after providing alcohol for minors at parties being held in Ms. Dinkel’s home. Many of us face tough choices in life. Most of us are never faced with making a decision about a possible sexual encounter with a minor when alcohol is involved. That’s because most people don’t find themselves in those positions. Most people wouldn’t have to think about what they would do in the presence of alcohol and minors because usually morality has already made the decision. In the case of a “moral lapse”; an understanding of severe legal ramifications usually kicks in. If you put yourself in the compromising situation and forget about moral and legal responsibility; you probably don’t fall into the category of being a very low risk to reoffend. But what do I know? I am not a professional. The Sentencing Memorandum file by Ms. Dinkel’s counsel gives Dr. Connor’s opinion of the likelihood of Ms. Dinkel re-offending:
“Psychometric testing on M. Dinkel indicates that there are no indications of psychopathology or asocial behaviors that would warrant concern or further investigation. In his initial evaluation Dr. Connor was of the clinical opinion that Jeni Lee Dinkel is at “very low risk” to re-offend in any manner. He did not find her to be a danger to the community. In Dr. Connor’s updated report of July 25, 2007 Dr. Connor indicates that her progress in individual psychotherapy has even further reduced her risk to recidivate.”
The Sentencing Memorandum also states:
“In Dr. Connor’s follow-up letter he indicates that [Ms. Dinkel] has been progressing in her treatment therapy and is ‘now ready to enter group therapy for female offenders.’ He would refer her for that treatment to Dr. Jean Deters a certified sex offender treatment program provider. Dr. Deters runs the female offender community based treatment program in Northern Kentucky.”
Dr. Jean Deters works out of Dr. Connor’s practice, Connor and Associates, PLLC in Erlanger, Kentucky. On Monday February 18, 2008, Jeni Lee Dinkel was arrested for violating her probation. Cincinnati.com reported the following:
“In an affidavit filed in the clerk of courts office, Dinkel’s probation officer Tara Cooper said the defendant failed to complete a sex offender treatment program as ordered by the court. She was kicked out of the program on Feb. 14 because she failed to accept responsibility for her crime and refused to take a polygraph test.”
...And I can’t get joint custody because I have ADHD
In less than a half hour, Dr. Connor has the ability to determine that the depression of a man with an IQ under 60 had substantially subsided and the man was competent to stand trial.
When I talk about these cases involving Dr. Connor, I am neither questioning the Court’s ruling nor the innocence/guilt of the person on trial. I am simply trying to present a pattern of Dr. Connor’s gun for hire, cookie cutter operations. In the case of Anthony Winkle, Dr. Connor testified that, in November of 2003, he tested Mr. Winkles IQ “and the overall was 59, classifying him as mentally retarded.” The opinion from the Kentucky Court of Appeals states:
“At the time the defendant was seen by his witness [Dr. Connor], he was significantly depressed which significantly contributed to Dr. Connor’s opinion that he was incompetent to stand trial.”
The Court goes on to mention that Dr. Connor met with Mr. Winkle before the November 3, 2004 hearing:
“Dr. Connor, however spent thirty minutes with the defendant prior to the instant hearing, and modified his opinion to the effect that the defendant was ‘marginally competent’ to stand trial. When asked what was meant by this opinion, he said that the depression he had noted in Mr. Winkle had substantially subsided and that he could stand trial, provided the court appointed an attorney, in addition to his defense attorney, (a) to educate the defendant as to court personnel and the jury and (b) to sit with the defendant during trial and explain carefully what was going on to ensure that the defendant would grasp the meaning and significance of the events and testimony. In this fashion, it was Dr. Connor’s opinion that Mr. Winkle could effectively assist his attorney in the case”
As I have said, I am not a psychologist. I just gather information and look for inconsistencies in Dr. Connor’s conduct.
1) First and foremost, Dr. Connor claimed that he had difficulties communicating with me because I had ADHD so how could Dr. Connor be qualified to evaluated someone suffering from depression who has an IQ less than 60?
2) After not seeing Mr. Winkle for a year, how could Dr. Connor determine that Mr. Winkle’s depression had subsided? My layman’s understanding of someone suffering from depression is that the depression isn’t always there. I would question if Mr. Winkle could have been more upbeat for the day if he was under the impression that his circumstances were going to change for the better.
3) Dr. Connor seems to have a tremendous understanding of courtroom procedure. Why didn’t Dr. Connor know that it was against the rules to contact Judge Taul in my case?
4) How can anyone determine the state of a person’s mental health in under thirty minutes? If you go to your treating physician with an ear ache, it takes at least 10-15 minutes to properly diagnose the problem. They will take your blood pressure, your weight, your temperature, your tonsils, your ears, and question you about how you feel and how long you have noticed the discomfort in your ear. At some point the doctor will check your medical record to see if there is a history of ear infections and what medications had been prescribed. There may be additional tests for things like strep throat. This is all necessary to treat what you and your doctor are 99% sure is just a common ear infection. In roughly the same amount of time, Dr. Connor claims he has the ability to see in someone's head and get a seemingly thorough analysis of their complete state of mind.
In my evaluation, Dr. Connor wrote, “Dr. Connor interviewed Dan thoroughly regarding bipolarity and there are no indications that he is bipolar.” Dr. Connor knew I took a higher dose Ritalin which could be detrimental to a person suffering from Bipolar Disorder. Dr. Connor had the results from my psychological test data the indicated that I did not suffer from Bipolar Disorder. Having all the information available, Dr. Connor still claimed that he needed to interview me thoroughly regarding bipolarity. Why didn’t Dr. Connor extend his thorough analyzing techniques to Mr. Winkle? Or maybe Dr. Connor just liked to use the word BIPOLAR several times in my evaluation to give the impression that there may have been some concern about my mental health.
Dr. Connor was brought in to help Baby Justin... by Dr. Connor’s divorce attorney.
The circle of life is an everlasting merry-go-round in the professional world of Dr. Connor. On March 2, 1999, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported:
COVINGTON — The court-appointed guardian of a 2-year-old boy caught in an interstate custody battle will seek the advice of Covington psychologist Ed Connor before he draws up final visitation plans for the boy and his biological parents.
The guardian, attorney Tom Willenborg, said he wants to consult with Mr. Connor because he has more training when it comes to determining how to ease the child from his home of the past year in Girard, Ohio, into the custody of his biological parents in Covington.
“I don't feel qualified,” Mr. Willenborg told Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe on Monday. She approved his request to consult with the psychologist, saying that the two couples fighting over 2-year-old Justin would split the cost of up to $500.
In a September 5, 2008 Opinion of the Kentucky Court of Appeals of a different case, the Court stated that the trial court denied the Appellant’s motion to terminate the court appointed guardian ad litem (GAL). The Appellant was appealing the matter because they felt the GAL labored under a conflict of interest because he represented the custody evaluator in the evaluator’s own divorce case. The lawyer was Thomas Willenborg and the evaluator was Dr. Edward J Connor. Mr. Willenborg referred the Baby Justin case to Dr. Connor in 1999, whom then retained Thomas Willenborg as a divorce attorney, and then Thomas Willenborg served as a GAL in at least one custody case involving Dr. Connor. Dr. Connor later married Dr. Sara Jones Ph D who was/is an associate in Dr. Connor’s office. Dr. Sara Jones-Connor oversaw the family observation sessions during my custody evaluation.
Dr. Edward J Connor works for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in legal action involving the termination of parenting rights.
Dr. Connor testifies on behalf of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ cases involving the termination of parenting rights. Dr. Edward J Connor oversees the psychological services of the Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky. The Children’s Home of Northern provides treatment and services for children with a variety of behavior disorders, including children with problematic sexual behaviors. Dr. Connor meets twice monthly with the clinical staff to review the residents, in addition to providing staff training. Once again I question how Dr. Connor is qualified to train and oversee a facility dedicated to treating children with a variety of behavioral disorders when Dr. Connor stated he had troubles communicating with an adult with ADHD who has no history of behavioral problems.
Dr. Connor claimed that there were state and HIPAA laws that prevented him from providing me a copy of the case file from my custody evaluation. KRS 403.300 states the custody evaluation is inadmissible in court if the case file isn’t provided to the parties. Dr. Connor provides training to the staff of the Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky yet in my divorce case, Dr. Connor seemed as if he wasn’t aware of the laws and regulations concerning child custody investigations. Throughout the course of my divorce, Dr. Connor made statements like the following knowing there was never a protective order that prohibited Dr. Connor from releasing the case file:
“Our correspondence with Judge Taul indicates that you have a right to the ‘evaluation’ at this time. As such, we do not interpret this as you having a right to the entire file, but simply the evaluation report.” -March 27, 2008
“It remains my understand that, per Judge Taul, we are not to release the case file you, but only the evaluation, which you already have. Please contact Judge Taul regarding this matter.” -April 3, 2008
“I do not interpret Hon. Judge Taul’s ruling dated 9/03/08 to be an order to release the case file, but I will forward this letter to him to understand if I am understanding his ruling correctly.” -September 9, 2008
Dr. Connor continued to contact the Court directly and the Court never issued a protective order nor sealed the evaluation case file yet Dr. Connor refused to give it to me. Dr. Connor used all of his experience and knowledge to manipulate the system to prevent me from getting a copy of the case file. This is the man who is supposed to serve the best interests of children.