1. From: mjwaxy@aol.com [mailto:mjwaxy@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 2:33 PM
To: Janelle.Dunn@maine.gov; john.virginio@maine.gov
Cc: igormalenko@hotmail.com; Igor-Malenko@idexx.com; Harwood, William; Carlos.Diaz@maine.gov
Subject: Fwd: Child Support Motion
Janelle and John:
The ball is back in your court. I need to know the person I should be speaking with to get to the bottom of
this annoyance. Who would that be? Please advise ASAP.
In particular, I need to know a) how to correct the Department's misimpression that Mr. Malenko has a
"debt" of $7,770, b) how to get DHHS to back away from any enforcement actions, including serving a
Withholding Order on IDEXX while this case meanders through the court system, c) what
information/misinformation Ms. Handrahan has given the Department about Mr. Malenko's payments and
d) what your arrangement with Ms. Handrahan is in terms of whether she is paying the Dept a fee and if
so what that is. Under normal circumstances, when other parties take action that has no real basis in
fact, I ask the Court to award me attorney fees, for causing the problem. In this case it is DHHS who is
causing -- not solving -- a problem. Please feel free to inquire of Daniel Despard regarding Ms.
Handrahan's motivation for, and skill at, causing problems. He is very familiar with this case.
As you can see, I have spent a substantial amount of my day dealing with this, instead of billing my
paying clients $225 per hour, all because this Dept JUMPS when Ms. Handrahan asks it to, without doing
sufficient due diligence or investigation of its own beforehand. This is quite frustrating. I am sure we
could ALL be doing more productive things today.
Please put me in touch with the proper authorities immediately. Thank you.
Michael J. Waxman, Esq.
One Monument Way, Ste. 206
P.O. Box 375
Portland, Maine 04112-0375
(207) 772-9558 phone
(207) 772-9567 fax
www.waxmanlaw.us
-----Original Message-----
From: Diaz, Carlos <Carlos.Diaz@maine.gov>
To: mjwaxy@aol.com
Cc: Dunn, Janelle <Janelle.Dunn@maine.gov>; wharwood@verrilldana.com
Sent: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 2:18 pm
Subject: RE: Child Support Motion
Michael:
Either party may request the assistance of DHHS, but if there is no public assistance and both parties are
represented by private counsel, then the AG’s Office will not become involved. In any event, I would not
become involved unless I received a legal referral from my client, DHHS. If you disagree with DHHS’s
actions then your recourse is to pursue that issue with DHHS or to take it up with the court, as you have
done.

2. For what it’s worth, it is my understanding that the filing of a motion to modify child support does not
ordinarily cause income withholding to cease, although it does ordinarily stop some other “hard
enforcement” measures such as license revocation, execution of liens, etc.. I wonder whether Agent
Vierra was referring to those enforcement measures rather than income withholding?
Finally, please be aware that I am not in a position to tell DHHS to “back off.” First, I represent DHHS in
court and provide legal advice, but I do not tell DHHS what to do. Second, even if I had that authority, I
do not see any legal basis for DHHS to stop income withholding until the court has so ordered. Third,
even if there were some legal basis for DHHS to disregard the court order requiring income withholding,
DHHS would not be in a position to do so based on your client’s unilateral assertion that the support
obligation should be lower. Again, your client needs to have the court decide this issue and modify the
existing child support order.
Carlos Diaz
Assistant Attorney General
Maine Office of Attorney General
44 Oak Street, 4th Floor
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 822-0498
carlos.diaz@maine.gov
Carlos
From: mjwaxy@aol.com [mailto:mjwaxy@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:53 PM
To: Diaz, Carlos
Cc: igormalenko@hotmail.com; Igor-Malenko@idexx.com; Dunn, Janelle; wharwood@verrilldana.com
Subject: Re: Child Support Motion
Carlos:
These are better cites, yet none of them requires the Dept to take the enforcement action it has just
taken, as far as I can tell. That is probably why Ms. Viera told me that the Dept. would NOT take any
enforcement action since there are so many motions pending before the Court. This is the kind of thing
that makes people think that DHHS is a feckless bureaucracy that can't seem to get many things right,
Carlos, I am sorry to say. One person says to me, "don't worry, we are not going to enforce anything
now, until the Court makes a decision on the pending motions," and then another arm of the SAME
agency sends my client notices that are absolutely wrong factually (one letter from Augusta says he is in
arrears to the tune of $7,770!!), and completely ignore the previous asseverations. Is there some
plausible explanation for this, besides incompetence and unprofessionalism???
And, I am curious in any event, about whether the Dept. has entered into a fee agreement with Ms.
Handrahan and if so, what the terms of that agreement are. For instance, has the Dept agreed to waive
any fee and if so, why? Mr. Malenko is forced to hope that he can find a pro bono attorney or spend
money that he would otherwise use to pay his heating bill or his rent to defend this action, even though he
has been paying child support all along, while Ms. Handrahan gets to use this bureaucracy to make
trouble at little or no cost to her? That is fair in your view of the world?

3. As I have tried to communicate to DHHS through the emails I have shared with you, this is simply an
unnecessary annoyance that is not helping this family in any way, shape or form. Can you just, PLEASE,
back off? Let's agree on the right child support number and move forward on that basis. Let's have
DHHS correct the misrepresentation that my client has a debt of $7,770 immediately, ok? And if the law
does not REQUIRE DHHS to perform actual enforcement actions, then please do not do that. Is that
something you can engineer?
You know that I like and respect you, Carlos, so I am hopeful that you can inject some reason and logic
into this silliness. Thanks.
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: Diaz, Carlos <Carlos.Diaz@maine.gov>
To: mjwaxy@aol.com
Cc: wharwood@verrilldana.com; Dunn, Janelle <Janelle.Dunn@maine.gov>
Sent: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 11:21 am
Subject: RE: Child Support Motion
Michael:
Pursuant to 19-A MRSA Sec. 2108, DHHS is required to provide child support enforcement services. (See
also 19-A MRSA Secs. 2102 and 2103(2), which state that DHHS may enforce the right of support against
the obligor on behalf of the obligee.) The fact that Judge Moskowitz found the obligor to be more
credible than the obligee (as noted by the Law Court in its recent decision on this case) does not mean
that the obligee cannot enforce the child support order. Your client may have reasons for disagreeing
with DHHS’s enforcement in this case, but the bottom line is that the child support order is enforceable.
Furthermore, because the court determined the child support, only the court has the authority to
change that obligation. Even if the parties agreed to a different amount, that agreement would not
change the obligation until the court issued an order to that effect. See, e.g. Wood v. Wood, 407 A.2d
282, 287-288 (Me. 1979); Fisco v. DHS, 659 A.2d 274, 275 (Me. 1995); Beck v. Beck, 1999 ME 110, Para.
7. As long as the current order remains in effect, DHHS has no authority to disregard it. Therefore, I
think that your request to have the court recalculate the child support obligation on an expedited basis
is the right approach.
Carlos Diaz
Assistant Attorney General
Maine Office of Attorney General
44 Oak Street, 4th Floor
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 822-0498
carlos.diaz@maine.gov
From: mjwaxy@aol.com [mailto:mjwaxy@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:37 AM
To: Diaz, Carlos; wharwood@verrilldana.com; Dunn, Janelle

4. Cc: igormalenko@hotmail.com; Igor-Malenko@idexx.com
Subject: Child Support Motion
Since I cannot seem to get any assistance in correcting the Child Support Order by agreement from either
DHHS or Ms. Handrahan, we shall let the Court take the appropriate action.
Michael J. Waxman, Esq.
One Monument Way, Ste. 206
P.O. Box 375
Portland, Maine 04112-0375
(207) 772-9558 phone
(207) 772-9567 fax
www.waxmanlaw.us
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