By Doug Draper
A chief Ontario coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino has been adjourned again, and that is a good thing.
Reilly Anzovino
Dr. Jack Stanborough, the presiding coroner, ruled in favour of the adjournment after hearing statements from Maureen Currie, the new lawyer the family has retained, and from Reilly’s father, Tim Anzovino, asking for at least two more weeks to review the volumes of information that have accumulated following the 18-year old’s death in the early hours of December 27, 2009.
Reilly was pronounced dead after she was ambulanced to an emergency room at the Niagara Health System’s Welland hospital site from a car accident scene on Hwy. 3, midway between her hometown of Fort Erie, Ontario and Port Colborne. Many in the community, including her family, wonder if Reilly would still be alive had the NHS not converted the emergency rooms at its hospital sites in Fort Erie and Port Colborne earlier that year to urgent care centres which can no longer accept patients with the kind life-threatening injuries she sustained as a passenger in one of the vehicles.
The inquest has been on hold since earlier this November when the Anzovino family dismissed lawyer Wayne Redekop, feeling that he was not asking witnesses, including the Niagara regional paramedics who responded to the accident, the questions that needed to be asked.
In his statement to Dr. Stanborough this November 21, Tim Anzovino said the inquest “remains very important to our family and we are expecting serious, fair consideration in this matter.” He said the family believes it is only fair for the new attorney to be granted enough time to review the information and prepare her line of questioning to witnesses ranging from paramedics and firefighters at the scene, to medical experts and emergency room staff at the Welland hospital site, and NHS administrators.
Anzovino also said the family has concerns about the amount of money left, following an invoice from Redekop, to retain Currie for a hearing that may continue for another two or more weeks. The inquest was about to go into its second week of testimony before a five-member jury when the family dismissed Redekop.
Niagara At Large will continue to follow this inquest and is posting the full contents of Tim Anzovino’s November 21 statement to the presiding coroner below for our readers’ information.
“Mr. Coroner, ladies and gentlemen –
Mr. Coroner, as you know we had very serious difficulties with our former legal representative. You graciously granted us an adjournment to seek new representation. During the first week following the adjournment we spent many hours researching, contacting and meeting other lawyers.
As promised, we contacted Mr. Blain within the week to advise him of new legal representation. We contacted the Ministry of community safety and Correctional services immediately following our change of council, we contacted specifically the Director of the Legal services branch regarding remaining funding for legal representation at this Inquest.
The director advised us that she would be out of the office for a week and that an alternate would be in charge of our file. Also during this second week we met a few times with Ms. Currie to discuss retaining her as legal council. No decision could be made until Mr. Redekop made his invoice available so that we could ascertain how much funding would remain to retain Ms. Currie and no decision has yet been made by the ministry. We received an unapproved copy of Mr. Redekop’s invoice this past Friday November 18th/11.
Mr. Coroner we are not prepared to proceed with representing ourselves. My wife is suffering and being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of Reilly’s accident and death.
We feel that it is a fair request to allow Ms. Currie two weeks to prepare given the large volume of information and reports that she must read.
When we last met all legal council agreed they had the months of December and January available to continue with the Inquest.
Ms. Currie has also indicated that she too is available December January and most of February for the same.
We feel that this is a very reasonable request and thank you for your consideration. This process remains very important to our family and we are expecting serious, fair consideration in this matter.”
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Niagara At Large 
One must wonder why Mr Redekop would not ask the questions that the family wanted him to ask.
One must also wonder how much Mr Redekop is billing for work done so far. If he was unwilling to carry out his client’s wishes, perhaps his billing should be seriously questioned.
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The Anzovino family has done the right thing in my opinion, they dont need a lawyer who tries to sit on both sides of the fence and makes it look that he is doing the best job for the client and he has the gall to tell them to their face that he is doing the best for them.
They need a person who will put the client first and themselves second in this very important fight that could effect the whole community.
Billing, what billing? I have known since I was a teenager that if I was contracted to do a job and I did’nt do it to the customers satisfaction that I would not get paid. Where does he get off acting like an elitest?
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