The ''independent'' investigator appointed by Attleboro Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nassif to assess whether David and Rebecca Corneau were fit parents is a self-styled cult buster committed to luring members away from ''aberrant religious groups.''
The Rev. Robert T. Pardon heads The New England Institute of Religious Research, a ''mission'' he founded to provide ''training in ministering to those caught up in such destructive groups.'' His Web site names the sect to which the Corneaus belong as one such cult.
The court's choice of Pardon to make an ''impartial'' assessment of parental fitness bolsters the couple's contention that bias might have skewed the court's custody decisions. ''Who cares if he's biased,'' responds Carol Yelverton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services. ''He's not some nut; he was educated at Princeton. Our focus is that two babies are dead and we don't want any more.''
The Corneaus are the focus of a debate that pits an individual's right to practice religion against the state's responsibility to protect children. The couple's four known children are in the custody of DSS, placed there after Nassif found them in need of protection from ''a bizarre and dangerous cult.''
The sect's leaders, Jacques and Karen Robidoux, face trial next month in the starvation death of their 10-month-old son, Samuel. He was buried deep in the Maine woods alongside his cousin, Jeremiah Corneau, an infant David and Rebecca say was stillborn. The Corneaus are not charged in either death, but have been deemed a danger by Nassif because of their association with the Robidouxs.
A Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice could rule this week whether the couple should be incarcerated for contempt for refusing to obey Nassif's order to reveal whether Rebecca recently gave birth again. Without knowing whether a baby exists, Nassif already has awarded custody to the state. ''We can't take chances with a baby's life,'' says Yelverton. ''Given the history, we have to take every precaution. We would do that in any case.''
Well, not every case. Just last week, Eric E.G. James of Roxbury was charged with an assault that left his 2-month-old son near death. James had history. In October 2000, he was living with his girlfriend when her 1-month-old son was beaten to death. That homicide case is still open. DSS found evidence of abuse, but did not keep tabs on Christine Carreiro's roommates or her reproductive state. ''We can't wait by the door to see if a couple has another baby,'' says Yelverton. But didn't DSS do just that in the Corneau case? ''No,'' she says. ''We were called by people who saw her pregnant and in active labor.''
The vigilance of our child protection system, then, is dependent on the presence or absence of nosy neighbors? Or a judge and a guardian ad litem with an agenda.
The conventional role of guardian ad litem is to provide an independent evaluation of a family's situation to the court. Pardon clearly had other interests in October 2000 when Nassif named him guardian for Katerina Corneau, the baby born in a prison hospital after Nassif jailed Rebecca for refusing to submit to medical exams prohibited by her religious beliefs.
''I can testify to you that your beliefs and practices are not consistent with His Word, nor, more profoundly, with His character,'' Pardon wrote to the Corneaus on Dec. 10, 2000, after they declined to meet with him. ''One day all of us will stand before Him and give an account of our lives and the choices we have made ... Lives are being destroyed, David, and all in the Name of God. How God must weep over your decisions.''
If they would not renounce their leader as a ''false prophet,'' Pardon wrote, ''I will have no choice but to inform the judge that the Court should proceed to a hearing on your competency as parents.''
And the rest, as they say, is legal history.