Somerfleck, clients support Calvo's choice

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Attorney Daniel Somerfleck and his clients support Governor Eddie Calvo's hope to replace the federal management team with retired Superior Court of Guam judge Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson. Somerfleck has been representing the plaintiffs since they first filed suit more than ten years ago alleging Mental Health and DISID are failing to provide adequate services. Somerfleck in his filing in court states "the high hopes the court and parties had for the federal management team have been dashed... At the wast of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the FMT has been hallmarked by incessant in fighting, alienation of medical health professionals and rudderless leadership which has ignored the mandates of the amended permanent injunction with the same nonchalance as have the defendants' for the past eight years. Guam's failure to meet minimum health care standards after 12 years of litigation, and eight years after the issuance of the permanent injunction, is an absurdity of stunning proportions, especially considering we have the smallest mental health system under the American flag." In the meantime this week's hearings for the case have been moved to next week.