A Message From Peg Dignoti, Retired Executive Director, The Arc of Connecticut
Our staff members started attending the trial of Richard Lapointe. We were absolutely appalled at what we saw in the courtroom: a small, beleaguered, obviously disabled man who was clearly unaware of almost everything that was going on around him.
When the staff reported to our board about what was going on in the court, the board voted to support Richard, and we kind of adopted The Friends of Richard. We gave them a home, or at least and office that they could work from – although their meetings continued to be held every other week in the Burger King community room in Wethersfield, to whom we are most grateful.
The Friends have worked incredibly hard putting together this forum. We hope to educate ourselves to discover why these tragic injustices occur, to raise awareness of them, to learn how we can help Richard, better, to find some solutions – some ways to prevent similar miscarriages of justice from occurring again.
Submitted January 2008