SJC plans to release Harmony Montgomery custody hearing records

The question has swirled around this high-profile case for years since 5-year-old Harmony’s father, Adam Montgomery, beat her to death: What exactly drove a Massachusetts juvenile court judge to decide to place a vulnerable girl in the care of a man. with a history of violent crime?

A closed custody hearing in February 2019 allowed Adam Montgomery to obtain custody of his daughter, despite a lengthy criminal record and little history of caring for the girl. Ten months later, she was dead.

The hearing has been the subject of numerous reports, interviews and characterizations, but the details of its exact conduct have remained hidden from the public because Massachusetts laws generally protect juvenile court records.

“I really hope the SJC will look at the original principle behind this level of secrecy in juvenile court,” said Jennifer Lamanna, the Boston attorney representing Lichtenstein in the SJC case.

Lichtenstein said they have been searching for the records since last May. An Essex County judge denied the request to make custody hearing documents public, he said, and so he appealed to the state Court of Appeals.

Records show the SJC, which is above the Court of Appeal, took jurisdiction over the case on May 1. It did so “sua sponte,” meaning the High Court took up the case on its own, rather than in response to a specific new appeal.

On May 8, the SJC issued a call for amicus briefs on the case, giving outside entities the opportunity to weigh in on its legal arguments. Montgomery’s name does not appear anywhere in the announcement, which refers to a media company’s appeal for access to “various audio recordings of juvenile court proceedings in a high-profile care and protection case » which are seized.

Lichtenstein’s SJC case file does not mention Harmony’s name, nor the names of his parents; it includes “Father,” “Mother,” and “Child” as those involved in the case, as well as the state Department of Children and Families and Lichtenstein’s company. DCF declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation, and attorneys for the three unnamed parties did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the case. But the Globe received confirmation that the case involves the case of Harmony Montgomery from Lichtenstein, his lawyer Lamanna and another person familiar with the proceedings.

The court system declined to comment.

DCF, “Mother” and “Child,” as well as Lichtenstein, all filed briefs that were seized, according to court records and the clerk’s office.

The Public Legal Services Committee, which has appointed attorneys to represent the father in the case, did not comment directly on the details of the proceedings, but said in a statement that opening the juvenile court “is a question complex with which we continue to struggle. .”

“On the one hand, the families and young clients we represent have important privacy interests in the highly sensitive information that is often disclosed during hearings in these cases,” the organization said in a statement. “However, our clients also have an interest in ensuring that justice is administered fairly, and public oversight through public hearings is one way to achieve this goal. »

In February, a New Hampshire jury found Adam Montgomery guilty of murdering Harmony and then trying to hide her body, which was never found. He was sentenced earlier this month to 56 years to life in prison, where he was already serving a 2023 sentence for weapons possession.

Harmony’s death exposed dangerous failures in child welfare services in two states, in part because her disappearance in 2019 went largely unnoticed by authorities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts for two years. His mother, Crystal Sorey, had lost custody in 2018 as she struggled with addiction, leading to the 2019 hearing in which Adam Montgomery was awarded custody.

It was not until Sorey turned himself in to Manchester police in November 2021 that a concerted effort to find Harmony was mounted.

In 2022, New Hampshire Governor Christopher T. Sununu wrote a letter to the SJC encouraging the court system to review the judge’s decision in the custody hearing.

“It is unclear why the Massachusetts courts acted so quickly with this permanent placement before the end of the home study,” Sununu wrote. “Why would the Massachusetts court choose to give custody of Harmony to this horrible individual? What caused such a fateful decision?

Maria Mossaides, director of the Massachusetts child advocate’s office, produced a 101-page report two years ago detailing how different elements of the child welfare system had failed Harmony. Regarding Harmony’s custody in 2019 At the hearing, the report criticized DCF’s attorney, saying he “failed to present a strong legal argument” about why Adam Montgomery should not have custody.

Mossaides declined to comment for this story.

Lichtenstein and Lamanna said the OCA report simply includes descriptions of what happened at the hearing.

“What was actually said, not someone’s interpretation of what was said, is what journalists and the public need to know,” Lichtenstein said.

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Sean Cotter can be contacted at [email protected]. follow him @cotterreporter.