GEORGETOWN – Essex County Probate and Family Court Judge Frances Giordano ordered Selectboard member Rachel Therrien last week to hand over her doctor-noted comfort support dog, Daphne, to her ex-husband or face 60 days in jail for contempt.
The transfer occurred at 11 a.m. Saturday by Therrien’s friend, Kimberly Fair, at the Georgetown Police Station.
The judge also ordered Therrien to pay $2,135 to Casey Cochran, the ex-husband’s attorney, and $1,917.50 in attorney fees to the ex-husband after she was held in contempt. She was also ordered to pay $1,000 for not returning the dog on Nov. 14.
Therrien, (formerly Bancroft), immediately appealed the decision to the Salem court, but her appeal and request for reconsideration did not stay the ordered transfer as she requested.
“Having to turn Daphne over to him hurts so much. She is so precious to me,” Therrien said. “She protects me and affords me great comfort with her quirky and lovable personality.”
The son had requested to see the dog only once in four months, although he lives with his father a mile away, Therrien said.
Judge Giordano, on Aug. 6, awarded possession of the dog to the ex-husband, Robert Bancroft, Jr., claiming the dog belonged to their 17-year-old son, who moved four months ago to live with his father less than a mile away.
Therrien did not turn over the dog, despite being threatened by the judge with a fine of $200 per day.
Therrien said she refused to turn Daphne over to him for months “to protect her from him. She never belonged to either my ex-husband or my son. You cannot ‘return’ a dog, to someone who never had her and abandoned her over 2.5 years ago when he (her ex-husband) walked out.”
Several friends, who had observed Daphne and Therrien together, wrote to the court, citing examples of how close the dog is with her.
“This is a clear vendetta and an attempt to take everything from me at all costs. It’s vengeance,” Therrian said.
Her attorneys, Jordan Phelps and Kathleen Ryder, did not represent Therrien in her motion for reconsideration and appeal, saying their firm does not handle certain items.
Judge Giordano also allowed the ex-husband to keep the family cat, which he took without permission from their home, Therrian said. The ex-husband has not denied that he took the cat, she said.
Therrien proposed that an equitable split of family assets was for Judge Giordano to allow him to keep the cat and award her the dog. The judge rejected hearing her requests.
The selectwoman presented the court with a letter from her doctor noting that her dog was an authorized support dog. Daphne is registered on a computer chip to the selectwoman who has explained that she has provided care for the dog since she adopted her. The chip is a permanent form of identification to help reunite a lost dog with its owner.
“I don’t know how the judge can ignore facts and a doctor’s orders,” Therrien said.
The judge is also holding a hearing on whether the ex-husband should be held in contempt for turning off her cell phone while she was on vacation in Mexico with a friend. ♦
Regarding Georgetown Selectwoman’s Prior Court Proceedings Article
In the prior The Town Common article of Oct. 29th, ‘Fighting for Her Canine Companion’, documentation presented to the court clerk in the Salem Family and Probate Court with request by Georgetown Selectwoman Rachel (Bancroft) Therrien for inclusion in Docket No. ES23D1580DR was provided to our reporter and reported upon.
It has been brought to our attention that the documents and notarized letters (signed under pains and penalty of perjury – received, stamped, and eye witnessed) were not entered into the official public docket for the case.
During public proceedings, the judge noted that the documents from the selectwoman were not submitted correctly. Mr. Bancroft’s counsel notes that the documents were never “filed” with the court and considers the quotations to be libelous and defamatory. Given the technical nature of their submission and timing, regarding the accuracy of the printed quotations from documents provided to our reporter, we are asking our readers to carefully consider the article to the left which updates or replaces for now the prior piece which can be considered obsolete/redacted. The selectwoman was unable to have her documents of objections “filed” in the matter. With the contempt charges now neutralized (dog surrendered) our coverage ends, unless some other action is taken which would affect the office of the elected official.
Background Regarding Potential Jail Time for Selectwoman
On Nov. 18, 2025, the judge issued a “Partial Judgment on Complaint for Civil Contempt” from the now ex-husband which states in part that “the defendant shall be committed to jail for 60 days or until she shall purge herself of said contempt by returning Daphne [dog] to the plaintiff [husband] along with Daphne’s records, tags, and medications OR until further order of the Court until she be otherwise discharged by due course of law.”
The selectwoman was given a date of last week to comply, and would continue to accumulate fines of $200 per day until December 1, 2025, at which time the judge’s arrest order would go into place. In addition to the jail notice, she has also been ordered to pay fees and fines totaling approximately $5,000, thus far.
Last Saturday, the selectwoman surrendered her companion (see adjacent story). Had she failed to surrender the dog, she would have been the first selectwoman in the known recent history of the town to be arrested, and the second selectboard member in approximately three decades to serve jail time.
