Judge issues gag orders in contested adoption case

The contested adoption trial of a 6-year-old girl between her Penn Hills foster mother and her Cameroonian maternal aunt was interrupted twice for the presiding judge to hold hearings to determine potential contempt of court.

The first time, in March 2015, Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families attorney Diann McKay accused Catherine Gana, the girl’s aunt, of violating the confidential nature of the proceedings.

Ms. McKay said that a letter sent by one of Ms. Gana’s attorneys to CYF administrators was considered to be a threat to disclose information on the case because she suggested that the story of Ms. Gana and her niece was newsworthy.

And then, on March 11, 2015, a story about a fundraiser to help Ms. Gana raise money for legal fees ran in a local newspaper.

Common Pleas Judge Guido DeAngelis did not find Ms. Gana in contempt, but he stripped from her and her attorneys access to the juvenile and orphan’s court records in the matter.

Then, on May 1, 2015, he issued an oral gag order preventing Ms. Gana and her attorneys from disseminating any information about the case to anyone.

Throughout the proceedings, the judge threatened Ms. Gana and her attorneys with jail for any violation of that order.

Last month, the judge held another hearing premised on a motion filed by Ms. McKay. She accused Ms. Gana of violating the gag order by going to the Penn Hills police and speaking to an assistant district attorney about her concerns that the foster mother’s adult son — a Megan’s Law offender — was visiting her niece’s home.

The police referred the matter to the state’s ChildLine, which in turn notified CYF.

At a hearing on that issue on March 23, Judge DeAngelis said he could not prohibit Ms. Gana from speaking to a police agency.

“Her speaking to a police officer, which she has the freedom and the right to do about a certain matter does not violate that gag order,” he said.

But he said he wanted the police and DA’s office to turn over any documents relative to Ms. Gana’s interaction with them to the county law department, “to determine whether those documents contain any information which is false, which is misleading or misguided. Or contains any information amounting to false reports to law enforcement.”

If it is determined that any of that information or activity is unlawful, the judge continued, “or it’s determined to be contrary to the terms [or] conditions of her visa status, then that information shall be reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to determine whether her status and her visa status should be reviewed so that further the appropriate authorities, INS, can determine whether they need to take certain actions concerning deportation.”

At that same hearing, Judge DeAngelis informed the parties that he received a letter in the mail that he considered to be threatening that referenced Ms. Gana’s case.

The letter, mailed from Pittsburgh but with a Providence, R.I., address on it, mentioned the recent cases of former state Supreme Court justices J. Michael Eakin and Seamus McCaffery and the scandal over offensive emails.

“I have been sitting here wondering what they’re going to do to you when they learn that you knowingly sentenced, sentenced, I repeat, a sweet little 6-year-old girl to live out the rest of her youth in the home of a … old woman and her son, a tier-three sex offender,” the letter read.

“You denied custody to the child’s loving, intelligent aunt who traveled 6,000 miles to unite her niece with her brothers.”

It goes on to say that the judge’s name will become synonymous with “judicial misconduct and corruption.”

The judge said the letter could be both an implicit and explicit threat to him, though he was unsure if it rose to criminal conduct. Judge DeAngelis said he was forwarding it to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office for investigation.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said staff was notified of the letter this week and it has been referred to the appropriate authorities.

Ms. Gana denied writing the letter or having any knowledge of it.

Whatever the letter’s intent, the judge continued, “this court has no reservation or pause or hesitation whatsoever, and that this court is fully competent and steadfast that I’m absolutely able to judge the testimony, the evidence and the entire record in this case with fairness, impartiality, appropriately and with justice.”

On Thursday afternoon, Ms. McKay filed an emergency motion with Judge DeAngelis accusing Ms. Gana of continuing to disregard the court’s instructions about the confidentiality of the case by contacting the state and Braddock agencies.

“CYF believes that based on the foregoing history, there is imminent and actual continued unauthorized disclosures, invasions of privacy, attempts to harass, embarrass and annoy the parties, including the foster mother and her adult children and extended family, as well as, continued inappropriate extra-judicial actions for the purpose of influencing the proceedings before this court,” Ms. McKay wrote.

Ms. McKay noted in the motion that the state’s Western Region office of CYF has now initiated an investigation into the foster mother, Deborah Cutrary, and has requested “all information and files about Ms. Cutrary, including for time periods pre-dating [the child’s] placement with Ms. Cutrary.”

Then, Friday afternoon, Jennifer McGarrity, an attorney for KidsVoice, the agency that represents the child, filed an emergency motion with Judge DeAngelis asking for permission to speak to the Post-Gazette off the record about the case.

The motion was denied.

“Anyone who has violated the gag order as to any upcoming media publication shall be dealt with very seriously by the court for violation of its order,” Judge DeAngelis wrote in a text message to the parties.