Judge Hopeful Eyes Keyes Legacy

Americo Carchia never thought he would run for office until the looming retirement of the man he considers a mentor ushered him into the political arena.

After 32 years, Probate Judge Jack Keyes is set to retire in January. (Read more about his retirement in this story from the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary.)

Carchia, a Democrat is the first candidate to file paperwork to run for the seat. City government Reentry Director Clifton Graves is weighing a run and said he plans to file papers this week to seek the Democratic nomination as well.

Probate judge is the only judgeship in the state that is chosen through a partisan election process. Judges serve four-year terms and the position pays an annual salary of $125,000. Candidates are required to live in the district where they will serve.

he probate court deals with such proceedings as adoptions and custody cases. It also can sort out what to do with an estate after someone has died and how to protect the rights and money of people who are elderly, physically infirm, have a mental illness, or an intellectual disability.

Keyes said that the long and short of the work of the probate court involves protecting people, their rights, and their money. The court monitors trusts and makes certain that trustees aren’t stealing or people aren’t otherwise being taken advantage of.

“The people most likely to steal are lawyers, believe it or not,” Keyes pointed out in a phone interview.

The court appoints third parties to help keep track of peoples’ money when they can’t. It also is part of society’s legal apparatus for managing those who have a mental illness but are not longer institutionalized and those who are elderly or sick and can no longer make decisions for themselves. Keyes called that a boom industry: The budget for work on such cases was $300,000 when he started. Now, it’s $9 million. The court is probably most known for the central role it plays in deciding the fate of children and their parents.

He said most people think probate is all about estates, but Keyes said it’s that and much more.

“The job would be a lot easier if it was just estates,” he said.

The best advice that the longtime judge, who went from being the youngest probate judge in the state to the oldest, is pretty simple, but possibly hard to do for some.

“Use your ears more than your mouth,” he said. ​“Listen to people.”

Counting On Experience

Carchia, 50, is hoping that voters will see him as a natural choice given that he has worked in the probate court system for 22 of the 24 years that he’s been an attorney in New Haven County. He counts Keyes, who he has worked with during those years, and the other judges of the probate system, as his teachers.

“The court provides so many services that I think are essential and that is really why I want to be able to do this job,” Carchia said. ​“Not to slight any of my fellow politicians, because I think they provide great services, but this particular position balances the judicial as well as the community aspect.”

“Oftentimes people feel like lawyers don’t do anything good for anybody,” he added. ​“But the reality is attorneys in the probate court system provide an enormous amount of services but they usually do it under the radar.”

Carchia grew up in the Hill section of the city. For the first 13 years of his law career, his office was at 129 Church St. He has since moved his office to North Haven. He and his wife, who also is an attorney, and their five children (two of which are in law school) currently live in the Morris Cove section. When he’s not in court, he can be found riding his bike and camping with the family at Hammonasset Beach State Park.

Carchia said he was tapped by Keyes to handle probable cause and commitment hearings for detaining people dealing with mental illness. He said that experience has allowed him to learn other aspects of the probate court system including representing people before the probate judge on the other matters that the court handles and even serving as a conservator — a person appointed by the court to oversee someone’s financial affairs. (Click here to read a story about a case where Carchia was appointed as a conservator after a firefighter drained the account of an elderly woman to the tune of $80,000.)

“This is not a job where you just pick it up as you go,” Carchia said of the probate judge’s position. ​“It takes a long time to understand and to make sure everything is balanced out. I’ve had great teachers with the judges in the probate court system and I’ve seen it work both ways. We’ve not always gotten the best results but we go back and look at what we did, what we could have done and where we might not have been paying enough attention. You learn and you get better at it.”

New Haven is known for its award-winning Regional Children’s Probate Court, which Keyes also oversees. Carchia was one of the two attorneys chosen to work on the study that helped usher in a new way of handling complex child custody and guardianship cases. He said what flowed from that study helped the system innovate and better serve children and their parents, particularly when it came to connecting them to services.

He credited Keyes, along with State Sen. Martin Looney and former State Sen. and now Mayor Toni Harp, with thinking outside the state funding box to provide additional funds for people who want to take in the children of relatives and for those who want to become guardians of children they’re not related to but can’t afford it.

“Children’s court is probably the biggest thing we do, and it is what gives the judges perhaps the most variations,” he said. ​“Every case is different. Some aspects of the cases are similar, but most aspects are a little different, especially the children and the parents. You really have to look at every single child and figure out what’s in their best interest.”

He said making that decision can put a judge in the position of having to choose between the long-term emotional well-being and the ideal economic conditions for a child.

“We may have to say perhaps this other placement isn’t as nice and it might not have as many resources, but what they do get is the nurturing, the support at an emotional level,” he said. ​“From my perspective its good view of how different people are and how to balance things out.”

Making His Own Mark

Carchia said if he is elected probate judge his goal would be to continue connecting people to resources. He cited three areas in which he’d like to see the probate system improve: being more user-friendly, providing more continuing education and recruiting more people to get involved.

Carchia said currently there are restrictions on how much information probate court clerks can give people, particularly when it comes to legal options. He said clerks at the very least should be able to point people who show up to the wrong court in the right direction and explain to them why. He said happens often because the probate court has jurisdiction over custody matters, but so does the Superior Court.

He said if elected he would seek to continue Keyes’ efforts to provide services in the community.

“Not only has Judge Keyes been able to mentor me and make sure that I do the right thing, but the other judges around the area have also been able to guide me and ensure that I have a good solid base in which to help make better decisions in the future,” he said. ​“I certainly think that that is a strength that I have, that I bring to the job.”