Lake in the Hills boy remains separated from family

An 11-year-old Lake in the Hills boy will spend Thanksgiving away from his grandmother after a McHenry County Judge Friday delayed his child custody hearing until Dec. 10.

Joey Dombroski had been living with his father, Joe, and paternal grandmother, Agnes Dombroski, since his mother, Kelly, struck Joe repeatedly in the face with a sledgehammer in January 2003 while he slept.

Joe Dombroski died three weeks ago on Oct. 14, and the next day the Department of Children and Family Services placed the sixth-grader with a Villa Park foster family. “They could have very easily put him with his father's best friend. Then he wouldn't have had to change school and drop sports,” said Joe Dombroski's previous wife, Debbie, after a brief court hearing in McHenry County Friday morning.

Kelly Dombrowski pleaded guilty to the 2003 attack on her husband, which left him with permanent injuries, including partial blindness, frequent headaches, and loss of taste and smell.

Joe Dombrowski was able to care for Joey, then a toddler, with the help of Agnes Dombrowski. She watched the boy while Joe went to his job as a printer in Skokie, Debbie Dombroski said.

Kelly Dombroski served about six years in prison before she was released from the Dwight Correctional Center in January 2009, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Relatives on Joe Dombroski's side are upset that the state is even considering granting Kelly custody of her son.

“I want to fight to have visitation with my brother because right now, I don't have any,” said Ashley Dombroski, who is Joey's half-sister.

Ashley Dombroski said authorities told her that her father's death was due to natural causes.

Family members say that while Kelly Dombroski was behind bars, she made little effort to contact her son and hasn't since her release.

Debbie Dombroski said the move into DCFS custody could not only put the boy in a new school, but force him to drop basketball, football and baseball.

Even though the sides will reconvene in juvenile court next month, she isn't optimistic the family will see him for the rest of the holidays.

“I can guarantee you he probably won't be around for Christmas (either),” Debbie Dombroski said.

Attorneys for Kelly Dombroski declined to comment Friday.

Under state law, DCFS can stop efforts to reunite a minor with a parent if the parent has been stripped of parental rights, convicted of violent crimes against children, or if the reunification is not in the best interests of the child.

Court records show that Kelly Dombroski's parental rights were not revoked and visitation rights were left open after her release from prison.