FRESNO -- A father is suing a doctor after the doctor allegedly failed to do a throughout and correct child custody evaluation of his daughter.
Gregg Mattner filed a complaint on April 22 in the Superior Court of California County of Fresno against Susan Napolitano, Ph.D and Does 1-100 for professional negligence.
According to the complaint, a minor daughter was born to Gregg Mattner and his then wife on March 23, 2015. Gregg Mattner then filed a divorce proceeding on June 23, 2015. On May 8, 2019, Dr. Napolitano allegedly completed a 730/3111 Child Custody Evaluation in connection to a custody dispute between Gregg Mattner and his former wife.
On April 27, 2020, Dr. Kim Shirin performed a forensic 733 evaluation of the previous 730 Child Custody Evaluation done by Dr. Napolitano and allegedly found that Dr. Napolitano "chose not to evaluate (1) Each parent’s view of co-parenting issues; (2) Each parent’s view of the child’s psychological, emotional, academic, social, and developmental functioning; (3) Each parent’s perception and thoughts about what the child needed moving forward; and, (4) Each parent’s perceptions of the child’s needs, all of which Dr. Shirin believed should have been included in the CCE."
Dr. Shirin noted that Dr. Napolitano allegedly not addressed the basic issues standard in a CCE and was concerned about the validity of the custody evaluation. Dr. Shirin alleged she believes that Dr. Napolitano also "exhibited bias in favoring Ms. Kelly Mattner as the child’s primary attachment without sufficient data to validate this claim."
Mattner seeks legal interest on the judgment, costs of suit and any other or further relief the court deems just proper. Mattner is represented by Bradley I. Kramer.