Supreme Court boots marital master from case, cites vulgar, offensive comments

Mark Hayward, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
·3 min read

Dec. 16—NASHUA — A judge-like marital master can no longer preside over a long-running divorce case after muttering a vulgarity and calling children in the dispute a "bunch of morons," the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The Supreme Court unanimously ordered that Bruce DalPra, one of two full-time marital masters in the state, must step aside from the 5-year-old case. DalPra presides in Nashua family court.

Last month, DalPra and the judge who oversees him, Circuit Court Judge John Curran, had decided that he could remain on the case despite his mutterings.

According to court records and transcripts, DalPra made the remarks under his breath in November 2020 during a four-hour telephone hearing. Recording equipment captured the remarks.

DalPra muttered, "Who gives a f+++" when Nashua resident Dana Albrecht lamented that his children no longer had the holiday dinners he used to cook for them.

Later in the hearing, he muttered, "Of course not, they're a bunch of morons," when their mother, Katherine Albrecht, discussed whether the two teenage girls make wise decisions when it comes to homework and household chores.

"It's just absolutely despicable. He's out to lunch. No family court judge should say this," said Dana Albrecht. He said DalPra should resign and publicly apologize to his family.

In a four-page order, Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald vacated DalPra's most recent order and said a different judicial officer must be assigned to the case.

MacDonald wrote that a judge can often voice critical, disapproving remarks that don't hint of bias.

But DalPra's remark, which was not intended to admonish any lawyer or witness, would lead one to believe he "quite literally, no longer cared about the defendant's testimony, and could no longer keep an open mind and decide the case impartially," MacDonald wrote.

At the time of the hearing, none of the people on the telephone heard either comment.

But two weeks after the hearing, DalPra wrote the Judicial Conduct Committee to say he muttered a "sentence that was completely in appropriate" and "who the f+++ cares."

(DalPra's description was incorrect, and the transcript reads, "Who gives a f+++.")

He wrote he was extremely embarrassed.

"I wish to emphasize that the comments — as inappropriate as they are — were not directed to any party. They were uttered out of frustration and under my breath," DalPra wrote.

Two months later, the JCC held a hearing on the matter, but its results have not been released.

Dana Albrecht is part of a group of Nashua divorcees who has coalesced around the case of Julie Instrocaso. A Nashua Circuit Court judge, Introcaso resigned last year and was convicted last month of tampering with public documents to cover up a mistake in a contested divorce case.

Many of those parents also have complained about DalPra. Marital masters preside like a judge, hear both sides in a dispute and make recommendations that are then reviewed by a judge.

DalPra has been on the job for 30 years and currently earns $158,500 a year.

Albrecht said he's grateful for the Supreme Court order in his case. But he said his is likely not the only case.

"What about all of the other children and families in New Hampshire who are also suffering because he's doing exactly the same thing to them?" Albrecht said.

He said DalPra should have retired a long time ago.

Albrecht's ex-wife's attorney, Michael Fontaine, did not return a call seeking comment.

After the 2020 hearing, Albrecht paid $795 for a transcript, which initially did not include the two comments, he said.

But last week, the state Supreme Court issued an order for the transcriber, the Phoenix, Ariz., company eScribers, to reissue the transcript with the comments.