Kane County, Illinois has a notorious reputation for failing to protect children in child custody matters. Two-year-old James Ryker Biel died mysteriously in 2019 after being left with his abusive father.
On October 31, 2019, at approximately 9:50PM Kara Witkowski’s two-year-old son was found dead at the home of her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Biel.
“He was found in the master bedroom and his lips were blue,” Witkowski said of her son.
At the time of her son’s death, Witkowski was barred from seeing either of her two children by court order of Judge John Dalton of the Illinois 16th Circuit and upon the recommendation of DCFS. Dalton has not responded to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment, though it is standard procedure not to comment on ongoing cases.
Despite that sordid history, Kane County is determined to put at least one more child in mortal danger.
On November 12, 2024, Jennifer Barrone lost her custody rights {temporarily} to her daughter after she took her to the doctor for suicidal ideations and filed for a protective order after her daughter’s father attacked her in the hospital.
{I spoke with Jennifer about this set of events in the podcast so please check it out.}
Judge David ignored the shocking allegation made by Jennifer when asking for the protective order.
Initially, Jennifer was granted her order for protection.
A hearing was scheduled for December 3, 2024, but Dan Hibbler, the father, couldn’t wait. His aggressive lawyer, Bill Opal, quickly filed a motion, asking to suspend Jennifer’s custody time.
Mr. Opal declined comment stating in an email, “I cannot comment on a pending matter, but you are welcome to review the public record of the court file to review the history of the case.”
i asked Mr. Opal if it was a bar rule which forbade him from commenting on an ongoing case, and he gave me a new excuse why he was too cowardly to talk to me.
“Most of what I would have to say about an ongoing case would touch on attorney client privilege, and I cannot jeopardize the privilege.” Opal stated in a follow up email.
{Check out this story including an interview with attorney Angel Camino, who was not afraid to talk about an ongoing case}
This case has been ongoing since 2017, with many twists and turns. In fact, John Dalton, the judge most responsible for killing James Ryker Biel, was the original judge on this case.
Judge Dalton didn’t nearly as much damage to this child as Judge Bradley David. The parties had a tenuous agreement with both seeing their daughter about half the time. Judge David decided to go along with the haphazard request of Mr. Opal and granted Dan sole custody with no hearing.
Jennifer’s attorney is Dheanna Fikaris, and she was not any more transparent than Mr. Opal when I contacted her by email.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss this matter with you as it breaks confidentiality with my client,” Ms. Fikaris replied initially.
She followed up with another email.
To answer one question, Custody has not yet been determined. We are going to trial. As I assume you heard, Atty Opal wanted a final determination that day suspending the parental rights of my client. I objected and the Judge agreed with me. At trial, all witnesses will testify. I also plan on deposing witnesses; however, I have not heard back from Jennifer regarding trial strategy. This is all that I can share with you.
Ms. Fikaris is right that the order issued by Judge David is a temporary order, but temporarily, her client can’t see her daughter at all.
She also referred to a moment at a January 15, 2025, hearing which I witnessed. During the hearing, Mr. Opal pointed out that his emergency motion did not ask for a temporary but permanent order. Furthermore, the order was not a temporary one.
Mr. Opal asked to have Judge David’s November 12, 2024, order be permanent with no hearing.
Judge David and attorney Fikaris were both taken aback. Judge David, knowing that granting a permanent no contact order with no hearing would be too much even for his corrupt butt, quickly read through his order- likely hoping he did not put the world “permanent” into it.
He noted that while his order did not say temporary it also did not say permanent, and he deemed it a temporary order after the fact.
At the same hearing, the guardian ad litem, Doug Cuscaden, spoke. He’s been on and off this case for several years, but Judge David recently ordered him back on to do some sort of investigation.
The investigation wasn’t completed before the January 15, 2025 hearing, but he has interviewed the girl at her father’s home. It appears that she told him everything was swell, and the abuse allegations were not disclosed.
Except, Cuscaden violated basic protocol when speaking to a child who alleges abuse: that interview can never be done in the home of the abuser.
Cuscaden, who did not respond to an email for comment, is an attorney, and he is either not trained to do a proper interview or he’s simply doing enough to validate the judge’s November order.
Either way, he will do nothing to protect this child.
In 2022, he issued a letter portending the events which have recently occurred.
Judge David was in no hurry to have a hearing. He scheduled a bench trial for late July 2025.
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