SAM PAZZANO and TONY SPEARS, QMI Agency
First posted:
He and his wife have been divorced since late-summer 2009.
In competing affadvaits filed for the divorce hearing - where the couple exchanged blistering attacks on each other - information about the couple's marriage was revealed.
His ex-wife, Christel Strippoli, jabbered at and berated the "reserved and reclusive" doctor.
And she showed an "inability to accept constructive criticisms" - that she was getting fat, according to his affadavit.
Palumbo "never called (Strippoli) 'fat'," he clarifies in one document. "But (he) has always expressed concern for her health given the hereditary obesity in the applicant's family."
It wasn't always thus.
Before Palumbo said Strippoli destroyed all CDs of "a certain country artist's music ... in a fit of rage" on the last night they would share their South Ottawa home, love flared bright.
Their brief 1992 courtship led to a fall wedding. She was 20.
From then on she became ensnared in family duties as child upon child was born, hand-delivered by Palumbo in their home. The Montfort Hospital surgical assistant remained the family doctor, treating them without inoculations and dentistry.
That is until their youngest daughter developed a painful, abscessed tooth. The dentist was shocked by the state of her teeth, Strippoli says in her affidavit.
Increasingly isolated, she was forbidden from telephoning everyone but her mother-in-law, her affidavit says.
And yet it was his mind that snapped in 2006.
Bringing the family to the basement, he became "one with God" by grasping a light bulb with his hand, her affidavit says.
He screamed as the heat seared his hand, then threw himself to the concrete floor.
The impact gashed open his head, "which bled profusely" and he spent a week in the psych ward.
Strippoli and the children finally left him in May 2008, fleeing to a shelter in a taxi with nothing but the clothes on their backs, her affidavit says.
He hired a private detective to track them down.
The children, now 18, 15, 14 and 11, became more relaxed after leaving the home and are now allowed to see their friends and cut their hair, Strippoli's affidavit says.
But Palumbo remains far behind on his child and spousal support, even as Strippoli studies and works full time, and raises the kids.
Palumbo has soured on his family.
"They have all rejected me," he wrote in neat, block capital letters in October 2009.
"I, therefore, have no choice but to disown them... I believe they have received too much from me already."
It was a sad man who remained at their Twin Falls Pl. home long after the court ordered him to sell it so he could pay the court-ordered support.
Some nights he'd sit in his darkened bedroom staring down at the street, face glinting in the orange streetlights.
But other days he'd throw wide the windows and set the block aroar with music.
Neighbours identified it as country.
tony.spears@sunmedia.ca
@ottawasuntonys
Commentary by the OttawaMensCentre.com
John Palumbo own writing shows the seriousness of his delusions. Apart
from all his aberrant behaviors its the state of the children's teeth, his
refusal to allow them to have that dental care that disqualified him from
being a responsible safe parent.
After his divorce, his behaviour got worse, his personality disorder became
even more obvious, total disregard and a lack of empathy for the neighbours
who probably knew that very shortly, they would never see him again.
What really places John Palumbo in the insane category, is his decision to
"disown" his children.
This case is another example of how the courts fail abysmally to recognize
the problems of mental health early in cases and take appropriate responses
which should be an appropriate assessment of his problems and strict
requirements to follow any professional advice such as medication.
When the mentally ill person is a doctor or even a judge, they go on to
lifetimes of endless destruction and repeated relationship failure. The
people who suffer the most are the children who are deprived of one parent
and in many cases, its because their female, custodial parent is the one
with the serious mental health problem. That is obviously not the case here.
John Palumbo is a raving lunatic and if the courts fail to order him to be
assessed and treated appropriately, he will continue to leave a trail of
destruction.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com