The court-appointed substance abuse evaluator who played God with families' lives had his license revoked after a state investigation revealed years of misconduct.

Raymond Griffin
P. Raymond Griffin, the court-appointed substance abuse evaluator whose license was revoked by OASAS.

For years, Raymond Griffin was the go-to substance abuse evaluator for Westchester Family Court and Supreme Court judges. He operated out of a small office at 5 Waller Avenue in White Plains, conducting drug and alcohol evaluations that could determine whether a parent kept or lost custody of their children. Courts had been appointing him since at least 2005.

In our case, Griffin was appointed to evaluate Dad for substance abuse — despite the fact that Dad was the victim of drugging, not the perpetrator. The toxicology evidence showed Dad had been administered lithium and Seroquel without his knowledge. Nevertheless, Mom and her family's attorneys successfully steered the court toward ordering Dad to be evaluated by Griffin.

The OASAS Investigation

In July 2019, the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) launched an investigation into Griffin after complaints were filed. The probe revealed a staggering pattern of misconduct. Within months, OASAS revoked Griffin's license as a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC), forcing courts across Westchester to scramble for new evaluators.

The violations cited by OASAS included:

The Journal News Investigation

On October 5, 2020, the Journal News (lohud.com) published an investigative report by Jonathan Bandler revealing that Griffin had also been working as an alcohol and drug counselor in Connecticut since 1998, and that Connecticut's Department of Public Health had reached out to OASAS about Griffin in November 2019 and was conducting its own investigation.

A spokesman for New York's court system confirmed that judges had stopped using Griffin for evaluations in July 2019, but cited only a "handful" of cases Griffin handled in Family Court and said it would be "too burdensome" to review all cases for any involvement by Griffin.

"He played God with me and my kids. He pressed his thumb on the scales of justice to get the outcome he wanted."

Griffin's Declaration and Stipulation

The evidence archive contains two key Griffin documents: a signed declaration letter and a signed stipulation from August 2019, both produced during the OASAS investigation period. Griffin also left a voicemail that has been preserved in the archive.

Griffin listed himself on multiple professional directories as "Dr. Raymond Griffin, PHD" and "Griffin Raymond A MD" — misrepresenting his credentials to courts, patients, and the public. His office at 5 Waller Avenue in White Plains was described as a "self-service drug-testing lab" where the integrity of urine samples was compromised.

This is one of the "court-appointed experts" referenced in The Courts post. The "COMING SOON" section about "Recused Judges, Fake Doctors, and a Corrupt Network of Westchester Experts" — this is the fake doctor.