Monday, July 26, 2010

Asbury Park Press: State pays $70G to settle Ancora sex aid suit

When I saw that headline at APP.com my first thought was, "There are sex aids on staff at the state psychiatric hospitals?"

I don't think my health insurance plan covers those kinds of practitioners. Maybe there's something to government run health care after all! I wondered if Frank Pallone wrote that into ObamaCare. Nancy Pelosi said she had to pass the bill to see what's in it. Could Frankie have slipped in universal sex therapy? That would be better than having to issue 1099s to all of my vendors. If I ever needed a sex aid, I would hope I wouldn't have to be an inpatient at Ancora. I wonder if I would have to wait six months to get an appointment.

When I started to read the article I realized that the sex aid was not a staffer, like a nurses aid, but a device. Who writes these headlines? Someone should send that one to Jay Leno.

So the sex aid is not a staffer, but rather a device. What kind of therapy are they doing at the state psychiatric hospital with these devices? Is this some kind of kinder gentler shock therapy? What went wrong that caused $70K in damages? Does Frank Pallone's health care committee have oversight over these devices?

That wasn't it either. The APP, being a family newspaper and all didn't really describe what the device was, but gave curious readers like me enough information to google it.

Turns out the device is not a sex aid, but rather a sex aid holder, called the "Love Seat." Google Love Seat and you'll find the JC Penny catalog selling furniture. I don't think JC Penny sells this seat though.



The product used to be called My Buddy, but they changed the name to The Love Seat by CiciLoves. Cici wasn't named in the law suit.

The website that sells The Love Seat by CiciLoves will sell you the sex aid to go with it, as an option. They seem to favor The Genuine Magic Wand by Hitachi. I thought Hitachi made power tools,construction machinery, and consumer electronics. I guess The Genuine Magic Wand could be a power tool or a consumer electronic device.

I'm not going to give you the link to the website that sells CiciLove's Seat, just in case you're at work reading this on a government computer.

So how did this turn into a law suit that cost New Jersey taxpayers $70K?

Turns out the real CiciLove is Dr.Peter Quintieri. He works at Ancora as a behavior support technician, whatever that is. Sounds like the guy who administers shock therapy, thus my initial confusion.

Outside of the hospital, Dr. Quintieri spent 5 years developing and testing the Love Seat. Look at that thing! Most of those five years had to be in the testing phase rather than the design phase.

Frances Vadas of Tuckerton..she got the $70K, plus another $10K from Quintieri... worked as a social worker at the hospital. She claimed that Dr. CiciLove asked her to appear in a DVD video demonstrating the Love Seat, and that the doctor used state computers at Acora for his Love Seat business. This gave Vadas headaches and caused her stress and sleepless nights. Quintieri and his wife, strongly denied the allegations, but say they agreed to settle the suit and cough over their $10K to get on with their lives. OK for them, but why did New Jersey settle with $70K of our tax dollars?

There's a few things that don't add up about this story, as the APP told it.

Vadas is 50. If you find the Love Seat website (please be careful about doing so at work or if your kids are around at home), you will discover that CiciLove found a model much younger than 50 to demonstrate the Love Seat, complete with the Hitachi Genuine Magic Wand. No offense to my 50+ female readers, but if I'm selling sex aids, I'm using 20 something models in the video.

The other thing that doesn't add up is that Vadas lost her job at the hospital on June 25, according to Ellen Lovejoy (no relation to CiciLove),a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services. The APP said June 25, no year, so I'm assuming that means this year, like a month ago. What law suits settles for $80K in a month?! This one apparently. I guess the Attorney General's office has been too busy researching whether or not New Jersey should join the lawsuit against Obama/Pallone care.

The bottom line is that once again the taxpayers got screwed and it wasn't fun, and my health insurance still doesn't cover sex aids, human or mechanical.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Art

looked at the FEC reports saw something interesting..Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula raised money this quarter, almost 43K he has on hand. He lives in the 6th District and his campaign committee is Chivukula for Congress....I know he has been looking to run for Congress, he has given a lot of money to the Middletown Democrats in past years according to their ELEC reports. He is tied in with Lynch as he is Bob Smith's runningmate who ran against Pallone years ago. He represents Somerset and Middlesex....I hear he is looking to run against Pallone in 2012 in the primary. He would have the lines in Middlesex and Somerset Counties...are you hearing anything regarding this?

Art Gallagher said...

Chivukula been lining himself up to replace Pallone when Frankie takes Lautenberg's Senate seat for years.

With Corzine gone, Pallone would actually have to run for the Senate seat, rather than be appointed to it. He won't take that risk.

Maybe Chivukula will run against Anna Little in 2012, if Middlesex is still part of the district when the new lines are drawn.

Anonymous said...

You think the Monmouth County Democrats would just give this congressional seat to a non-Monmouth resident Art? I highly doubt it. Just like the Monmouth County GOP wouldn't give the seat to a non Monmouth resident if they had control. This is a Monmouth County seat.

Anonymous said...

Aide

Art Gallagher said...

You think the Monmouth County Democrats would just give this congressional seat to a non-Monmouth resident Art?

That's why Chivukula has been spreading money around Monmouth County races.

Who would the Monmouth County Dems run instead? They don't have a very deep bench.

Its silly to speculate who will run in 2012. We don't even know where the district lines will be drawn or who the incumbents will be.