AGENTS: BUSH OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE IN FIRINGS

This story made me sick - I want to vomit when I hear about our babies stolen then used as sex toys. What kind of person is turned on by an innocent child? Sick pigs!

How the *&^% do they get away with this?

No, I know how they get away with this they "legally" kidnap them!

What I want to know is are there any non sociopaths in upper management? because only a sociopath could sleep at night knowing this was going on and they didn't stop it!

Foggo sex ring probe linked to forged Iraq dossier, Israeli espionage, convicted lobbyist Abramoff
by Tom Flocco

Washington—March 19, 2007—TomFlocco.com

According to U.S. intelligence sources, President Bush obstructed justice last December when he had senior advisor Karl Rove and White House Counsel Harriet Miers instruct Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to fire eight U.S. attorneys who were among several others conducting ongoing public corruption and secret national security grand jury investigations connected to an espionage–linked prostitution / pedophile sex ring operating at the Washington Ritz-Carlton and other DC hotels, whose clients included U.S. senators and congressmen, elite Washington news reporters and high government officials—some of whom were named by an intelligence insider.

Central to the scandal is fired U.S. attorney Carole Lam of California who was reportedly conducting testimony before grand juries linking indicted former Bush CIA Executive Director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the sex ring, Israeli espionage, GOP Under Secretary of Defense for policy Douglas J. Feith, a forged British intelligence dossier used by Mr. Bush to deceive Americans into supporting war against Iraq and an attempt to plant weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq before the war via an intelligence pipeline through Dubai and Turkey.

During her House testimony before Democrat Chairman Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last Friday, “national security” concerns were given as the reason for prohibiting covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson from revealing that her CIA energy front company Brewster-Jennings had prevented the planting of WMD in Iraq by the White House-linked intelligence pipeline, resulting in the forged British dossier being used for building an artificial case for war against Iraq.

Curiously, intelligence operatives said yesterday that Valerie Plame-Wilson recently had dinner with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Lam, widely known for recently sending Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham to prison in a major government corruption case, garnered “glowing performance ratings” along with the other fired attorneys who were career professionals according to Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Schumer (D-NY) who declined to confirm whether sealed indictments of White House officials at the highest levels of government already existed under national security protocols.

Judiciary Committee Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) confirmed Lam’s Foggo and Abramoff probe on ABC News Sunday, while she also implicated Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-41-CA); but Feinstein also told ABC that Lam "sent a notice to the Justice Department saying that there would be two search warrants" in a criminal investigation of defense contractor Brent Wilkes and Kyle "Dusty" Foggo—and........but the next day on May 11, D. Kyle Sampson, then chief-of-staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sent an email to William Kelley in the White House counsel's office saying, "Please call me at your convenience to discuss the following," referring to the "real problem we have right now with Carole Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires."

Those Republican and Democrat members of Congress who may have been in the crosshairs of Lam and the other prosecutors can be assumed to have an important stake in facilitating presidential obstruction of justice and soft congressional hearings—if only to protect their own careers and potential criminal liability of prosecution for bribery, blackmail, compromised legislation or a corrupt vote to send American troops to die in Iraq based on lies.

Two days prior to leaving office after being fired, Lam won criminal indictments against # 3 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official Foggo and GOP businessman and top Bush contributor Brent Wilkes; but Lam’s firing due to “performance issues,” prevented her from completing her investigation which will now fall to successors hand-picked by Mr. Bush which career law enforcement officials may probe in a case against the President.


Before the scandal broke publicly, federal intelligence agents said Senate Democrats permitted President Bush to obstruct justice regarding the firings which could delay or quash indictments against former Bush CIA Director Porter Goss, who agents say is implicated in the Capitol prostitution ring with Senate Judiciary Ranking Republican Arlen Specter according to daily U.S. intelligence Special Operations Group (SOG) reports seen by intelligence authority Thomas Heneghan.

Capitol Hill sex ring

In an interview with TomFlocco.com last week, Heneghan alleged that federal agents have linked Michael Duffy of Time, John Meacham of Newsweek, George Stephanopoulos of ABC, Mike Allen, John Harris, Mark Halperin—of the Washington Post, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune, Anderson Cooper of CNN, Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), former CIA Director Porter Goss and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the sex ring.

Given Heneghan’s explosive allegations culled from U.S. intelligence reports, we sought additional clarification by asking the insider if it was accurate that federal agents with whom he was in contact were in possession of 1) electronic transmissions, 2) video/photographic evidence and 3) whether operatives had observed the U.S. senators, reporters and other high government officials participating in prostitution or pedophilia at the Ritz Carlton and/or other Washington, DC hotels, to which Heneghan replied, “yes—for all three.”

There have been no public investigations or hearings to determine the extent to which the controversial vote for war or other U.S. legislation may have been compromised by senatorial or congressional blackmail related to the sex ring or the number of important news reports which may have been diluted, slanted, or eliminated if any reporters were compromised; and given the extent of the corruption, Congress will be hard-pressed to investigate their fellow members involved:

AGENTS SAY FOLEY SCANDAL TIP OF ICEBERG

PROSTITUTES SERVICED HOUSE, SENATE MEMBERS, MEDIA HOSTS, TOP MILITARY, OTHER FEDS

Last December the San Diego Union-Tribune partially confirmed the sex ring allegations, reporting that a source close to the San Diego U.S. attorney’s grand jury investigation said lobbyist Mitchell Wade—indicted for bribery—“periodically helped arrange for a prostitute for then-congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham,” that former business associates “were present on several occasions when Shirlington Limousine & Transportation of northern Virginia brought prostitutes to suites” at the Watergate and Westin hotels which had “several bedrooms where lawmakers and other guests could ‘relax.’ ”

TomFlocco.com has also reported extensively regarding actual court testimony and state child protection agency documents linking former President George H. W. Bush and U.S. legislators to Washington, DC child abduction and pedophilia obstructed for years by Congress:


WITNESS SAYS 20-30 LEGISLATORS ABUSED ABDUCTED CHILDREN

PHOTOGRAPHER TIED TO WH CHILD SEX RING ARRESTED AFTER THOMPSON SUICIDE

“George W. Bush is trying to obstruct justice on a massive scale involving pedophilia, blackmail, homosexual whorehouses and the espionage scandal which engulfs the entire Bush administration regarding the Fitzgerald inquiry which is the conspiracy to take the United States of America to war based on a lie via the forged British intelligence dossier,” said Heneghan.

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann went so far as to say that parts of the Patriot Act have nothing to do with national security as originally designed, but have instead been used by the Bush administration to neuter Congress, in effect rendering Democrat and GOP oversight capacity as relatively inconsequential since the Act permits the Chief Executive to appoint interim U.S. attorneys without oversight or consent from Congress among other stipulations.

The legislation enabling the curious firing of eight federal prosecutors late in a presidential term was a little–noticed provision in the Patriot Act allowing interim appointments, an amendment sponsored and endorsed by then Senate GOP Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), known historically for his lone gunman, single magic bullet theory promulgated in the John F. Kennedy assassination probe and employed by the Warren Commission to cover up substantial evidence of a government conspiracy.


BUSH 41 REVIVES LINKS TO JFK WARREN COMMISSION OBSTRUCTION

Obstructing espionage and Franklin grand jury?

Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, resigned last week after reports linking him to the firings through White House counsel Harriet Miers began to surface, even as Senator Schumer charged the White House with “a breach of trust and abuse of power,” adding, “Kyle Sampson will not become the next Scooter Libby, the next fall-guy.”

This, as Capitol news reports revealed on March 5 that Michael Battle, Executive Head for U.S. Attorneys, also resigned, perhaps to distance himself from coming repercussions forced upon Congress as more documents, allegations and resignations surface.

“Congress is reportedly considering a subpoena for Battle to testify whether he was forced to fire the Little Rock and San Diego attorneys due to the “Dusty” Foggo case and its accompanying sex ring links to espionage and ongoing investigations of criminal acts involving the Bush-Clinton crime families,” said Heneghan.

Several agents who spoke with long-time federal whistleblower Stewart Webb [StewWebb.com] said Miers’ original plan to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys was hatched because the White House is aware that other national security grand juries are hearing testimony, but Mr. Bush and Karl Rove wanted to ensure that all were either obstructed or shut down by attempting to fire everyone—a plan that ultimately gave way late in Bush’s term, likely the result of ongoing and ill-timed scandals—to firing eight who they felt would probably give Bush the most trouble politically and criminally.

SOG intelligence reports say that Douglas Feith is still being probed regarding his use of subordinate Larry Franklin, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in 2005 for passing classified information to Israeli diplomat and American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group employee Steven Rosen from 1999 to 2003 before the Iraq invasion.

Feith has reportedly refused comment on the investigation regarding Franklin who was employed in Feith’s Pentagon office—while Feith used Franklin repeatedly for national security sensitive meetings in the Pentagon Office of Special Plans involving foreign citizens overseas which federal agents say are linked to an Israeli cell in Iraqi Kurdistan that was involved in attempting to plant weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq via an intelligence pipeline through Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

Heneghan said the espionage investigations are also linked to GOP operative Mel Sembler and the Bay Point School in Florida where Choice Point software was used in the Bush-Gore 2000 election fraud ultimately endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision placing George Bush in the presidency despite reportedly damaging testimony by one of the Justices and several Supreme Court clerks, some of which was reported in Vanity Fair Magazine.

Largest corruption case in U.S. history

Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carole Lam is best known for acquiring the conviction of Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, now in federal prison for tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, after the GOP representative admitted to accepting $2.4 million in bribes, making his case many times larger than the next biggest public corruption case in the history of the United States—and the case indicated Cunningham participated in the Foggo and Abramoff sex ring.

Those Republican and Democrat members of Congress who may have been in the crosshairs of Lam and the other prosecutors can be assumed to have an important stake in facilitating presidential obstruction of justice and soft congressional hearings—if only to protect their own careers and potential criminal liability of prosecution for bribery, blackmail, compromised legislation or a corrupt vote to send American troops to die in Iraq based on lies.

Executive Director of the CIA Dusty Foggo ran day-to-day operations of the agency, but also had responsibility for all CIA contracts and procurements, while “occasionally hosting poker parties at his house in northern Virginia” and is under investigation by the CIA inspector general regarding CIA contracts.

Intelligence reports seen by Heneghan reveal that some taxpayer funds Foggo procured for Halliburton via the Pentagon were diverted for use in the Washington, DC prostitution and pedophilia ring instead of medical care and commissary operations for U.S. troops in Iraq, said the intelligence authority.
In a September 13, 2006 e-mail to Miers, Sampson listed one prosecutor, Bud Cummins in Little Rock, as “in the process of being pushed out.” Five others—in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, San Diego and Seattle—were listed as U.S. attorneys “we should now consider pushing out.”

Read all the documents

http://judiciary.house.gov/

While some cable news reporters attempted to spin the firings by saying “Bush just got greedy, wanting to make wholesale changes,” Schumer called the firings “a blatant manipulation of the U.S. attorney system and purely biased politics, despite their glowing performance ratings,” indicating that some legislators on Capitol Hill may be aware that the real reason for firing so many at once was an administration attempt to obstruct grand jury probes of White House criminal acts.

Republican Senator Pete Domenici, who has reportedly hired a defense attorney, raised concerns with the Justice Department last fall regarding New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias who told House members that Domenici called him to move forward on indictments of a high-profile corruption case involving a Democrat before the November, 2006 election.

Kenneth Gross, a Washington lawyer who specializes in congressional ethics rules, indicated that Domenici’s conduct may have violated Senate ethics rules which generally bar communications between members of Congress and federal prosecutors about ongoing criminal investigations, according to reports.

Iglesias told reporters that New Mexico GOP Congresswoman Heather Wilson called him before the November, 2006 election, asking, “I want to know if there are any sealed indictments,” to which Iglesias answered, “Sealed indictments? We only do that for juvenile cases or national security cases. It’s fairly unusual,” adding later to the reporters, “I know that members of Congress should not be making phone calls about pending matters, pending investigations, indictment dates—things of that nature.”

Wilson’s question “raised red flags in my head,” said the fired prosecutor, raising serious questions as to Wilson's knowledge of congressional corruption cases serious enough to be classified under national security protocols.

This also raises serious questions regarding how Representative Wilson became aware of sealed indictments which are only sealed in national security cases and child welfare cases and whether Wilson may also have violated House ethics rules.

U.S. attorney Bud Cummins said in an email released by the Senate Judiciary Committee that Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, had called and expressed his displeasure that the fired prosecutors were talking to reporters about their dismissals.

John Kroger, a federal prosecutor under Clinton and Bush now teaching a Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, was quoted in reports as saying, “It’s really remarkable to have a wholesale removal of an administration’s own U.S. attorneys, particularly this deep into the term,” adding, “Clearly there was a concerted decision made to ask a bunch of them to leave. It suggests a desire to more tightly control policy.”

Original Article

AGENTS: BUSH OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE IN FIRINGS

Family recalls activity before killing, suicide

Larry Meriwether II had gone to court Friday morning with former girlfriend, Fairlen Rawlins, for child custody issues before police say he shot and killed his 7-month-old daughter and then himself, said his father, Larry Meriwether Sr.

Rawlins said she had full custody of the child, I'yanna Meriwether, who lived with her.

"He had her on every other weekend," Rawlins said.

Rawlins said she dropped her daughter off at Meriwether II's house around 11 a.m. Friday, just two hours before the shooting was reported.

Rawlins said: "It was no different than any other time."

Meriwether II had "threatened suicide a few weeks ago, but the family didn't see the need for him to get help," Rawlins said.

"There was never indication that he would ever hurt our daughter."

Larry Meriwether Sr., owner of Foston Funeral Home, said "he never said anything about suicide. He never brought it to my attention that there was trouble, so I didn't take it any further.

"If he talked to me about it, then I would have taken necessary actions to make sure he wouldn't do anything like that," Meriwether Sr. said.

When Meriwether II spoke with him before the shooting, Meriwether Sr. said everything seemed normal.

"He came by and checked on me — I've been under the weather — and he checked on me and called his brother and his best friend, and they didn't detect anything," Meriwether Sr. said. "He was in good spirits. I don't know what transpired (afterward).

"Whatever it is, God will give us direction," Meriwether Sr. said. "I don't know what the problems were."

Remembering the Meriwethers

Rawlins said she wants her daughter to be remembered as a loving child.

"She loved everything around her and loved her brothers," Rawlins said. "She didn't deserve to be murdered. ... We will miss her and always love her."

Meriwether Sr. remembered his granddaughter as, simply, "beautiful."

As for his son, who served as Meriwether Sr.'s assistant at the funeral home, he said, "He was an all-around person, people loved him."

Meriwether Sr. said the family is "doing fairly well under the circumstances."

Investigation

There is no new information about the investigation, Clarksville Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Cheryl Anderson said Saturday.

CPD Detective Tim Anderson, of the Major Crimes Unit, is lead investigator of the case.

Jamie Dexter covers crime and safety and entertainment and can be reached at 245-0719 or by e-mail at jamiedexter@theleafchronicle.com.

Father: Son was in court for custody issues before murder-suicide

Larry Meriwether Jr. had gone to court Friday with the mother of his child, Fairlen Rawlins, in reference to child custody issues before police say he shot and killed his 7-month-old daughter and then himself, said his father, Larry Meriwether, Sr.

"(Rawlins) did have full custody (of Iyanna Meriwether)," Meriwether, Sr. said, adding that "they went to court (Friday)" and were supposed to go again on Dec. 26.

Meriwether, Sr. said there was no indication anything was wrong Friday before the incident happened.

"He came by and checked on me — I've been under the weather — so he checked on me and called his brother and best friend and they didn't detect anything," Meriwether Sr. said. "He was in good spirits. I don't know what transpired (later)."

For more on this story, see tomorrow's The Leaf-Chronicle.

Original Article -
The Leaf Chronicle - www.theleafchronicle.com - Clarksville, TN

White washing complaints

Say it aint so ...

See-

Two New York Judges Censured....(MORE, CLICK HERE)

No wonder I haven't been able to get justice in my case!

Maybe now I can get my babies back- maybe just maybe the guards at the gate are being watched!

Worry drives out DCF staffers

REFRESH - Go to Home-Page

I am appaled when they try to say they need more money and that's why they have such a large turnover.

It IS the money that is causing these people to leave Federal funding translates into "legally kidnap" these kids.

Perhaps some of them have a heart, or maybe they've figured out they are being held accountable for "stealing" our children.

Negative publicity creates high turnover in child welfare agency

By Amy Bennett Williamsawilliams@news-press.com

Originally posted on December 02, 2007

In the past 21 months, almost 90 percent of Department of Children and Families' child protective investigators in Lee County have left the agency. Eight of the 38 investigator jobs in Lee are vacant. Five more resignations go into effect Dec. 10.

Small wonder DCF called its turnover rate "pervasive" in a management report released in October.

Even though there are five soon-to-be investigators scheduled to graduate from training early this month, they'll be joining ranks of people almost as fresh as they are. Throughout Circuit 20 — Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties — 70 percent of investigators have less than two years' experience; 55 have less than a year.

Why?

"Many factors contributed to the turnover, including the inherent difficulties of the job made even more difficult by poor public perception of the Department in the community," the report said.

DCF spokeswoman Kristi Sonntag put it more succinctly: "Every time there's a high-profile case where an investigator is named, we lose people."

The News-Press has been investigating the Florida Department of Children and Families for two years. It has hosted a community roundtable to find ways to help Southwest Florida's most vulnerable children and has created a page on news-press.com complete with databases, resources and additional coverage on child welfare.

For example, Sonntag said, the year before Michelle Fontanez died in February 2006, allegedly at the hands of her stepfather after telling investigators he'd been abusing her for years, the turnover rate among Lee child protective investigators was 23.6 percent.

It's now 88.3 percent.

Last straw
One of those lost was Sara Phillips, 25, who resigned after a Lehigh Acres toddler burned with a curling iron became headline news last month. After the incident, in which 18-year-old mother Breanna Hall denied to Phillips she burned the child, but later confessed to a deputy, The News-Press columnist Sam Cook wrote: "The names of DCF directors change, but the song sounds the same for their investigators — incompetent."

That was the last straw for Phillips, who said she did everything she was supposed to.

"I dotted all my i's and crossed all my t's," she said.

She was called a "superb" investigator in a March performance evaluation. DCF secretary Bob Butterworth called Phillips' leaving sad. The department asked her to reconsider her resignation, but she remains adamant.

"The things that have been written about me have not only affected me, but have also affected my family, friends, and co-workers," Phillips said. "I love my job, really I do, but the stress of this was just too much."

This echoes the October review: "Public perception of the Department — particularly with respect to child protection — is poor. ... This has adversely impacted the Department's ability to recruit and retain child protective investigators and has seriously eroded staff morale in this area."

As wrenching as it is for workers who leave, children they serve suffer, too, said Harriet "Cookie" Coleman, the new Circuit 20 administrator.

"With such high turnover, you have less-experienced employees," she said, "and that makes the work of keeping kids safe much harder to do — let alone do well."

Desiree Lewis Dahlke would second that. She was in the child welfare system for years before she became too old for foster care at age 18. Now 24, she's a cook at Jayne's Victorian Garden in Fort Myers.

"At first, I was shoved around a lot," she said. "Then I had a really good one (caseworker) and had her for about six months. Then after that, it seemed like I had a new one every month. The last one, I didn't even meet."

Retention issue

DCF itself has historically held some of the blame for turnover, Butterworth said, because of pervasive secrecy and a willingness to scapegoat workers. "If employees think management is going to throw them under the bus, obviously that hurts."

Butterworth said he vows to change that, championing openness and responsiveness, yet he acknowledges finding and keeping frontline workers is a challenge.

"It's a very tough job, we require a college degree, and then we pay a whole $34,000 a year," he said. "If the Legislature would let me pay them more, I absolutely will, but until then ... ," he said, trailing off.

Meanwhile, Butterworth is working to fix DCF's perception from within.

"I'm hoping to change the image of us as 'the beleaguered agency,'" he said. "I want people to say, 'Wait a minute — we do lots of good things.'"

Closer to home, circuit administrator Coleman has ideas of her own, starting with a strong internship program.

"We need to expose people to the rewards and challenges of this work. It is not a thankless job, but it is a difficult job," Coleman said. "You really do make a difference."

Yet, though an internship agreement exists on paper between DCF and Florida Gulf Coast University, no one is enrolled.

Part of the problem, said professor Sakinah Salahu-Din, director of FGCU's division of social work, is the university requires its interns to be supervised by DCF workers with social work degrees, and they are in short supply, she said.

Top ranks leave

At the same time that its front line churns, there's turnover in DCF's top ranks as well. That often happens when there's a new administrator, Sonntag said.

Last month, circuit administrator Robert McHarry was demoted and replaced by Coleman while operations manager Harry Propper resigned, to be replaced by Kimberly Kutch on Dec. 3. And Nov. 21, Coleman dismissed 17-year DCF veteran George Glatt, the program administrator in charge of Collier, Hendry and Glades counties, although his last performance evaluation called him "an excellent leader and manager."

Glatt's firing was a shock to many of his colleagues, including Jackie Stephens, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Center of Collier County, which consults with DCF on cases of physical or sexual abuse.

"It was very much a surprise, and we're certainly going to miss him," said Stephens, who worked with him for more than 15 years

.Glatt, 63, who'd been hoping to retire from DCF, said he feels puzzled, betrayed and stunned by the way Coleman handled it. "She terminated me over the phone the night before Thanksgiving while I was on vacation."

Coleman realizes her move might puzzle outsiders. "George has done an excellent job, (but) he just didn't fit into my concept of a team."

Media spotlight

Glatt believes media coverage has a far greater effect on the department than the public realizes.

"When you're reading about your operation in the paper every day and when management fails to deal with it and, in fact, says, 'It's the newspaper's fault,' well, no, it's your fault," Glatt said. "These new managers come in and you hear these great platitudes, but none of these new managers really know the business of our business.

"Saving children's lives. Period. That's what this is all about.

"Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, based in Alexandria, Va., agrees, but points out turnover is symptomatic of deeper ills.

High-profile child death cases create a fear-based backlash he calls a foster care panic, which in turn creates a vicious cycle of stress, burnout and turnover — all of which ultimately endanger vulnerable children, Wexler said.

"If management climbs into a bunker, or worse, hunts for scapegoats, and the media do the same, then every caseworker becomes terrified of having the next such case on her load," he said. "So they rush to tear apart more families. That only further overloads workers."

The 30 remaining child protective investigators in Lee County average 30 cases each, Sonntag said, although each case might have as many as seven children. And when the five new resignations become effective Dec. 10, everyone's caseload will increase again, she said.

That spells more trouble for the children, warned Wexler, because even if replacements are hired quickly, they have to get up to speed on old cases.

"Of course, they're not going to know every case as well as they should. They may only have time to skim a file instead of reading it thoroughly," he said.

Then the cycle repeats itself: The more cases workers have, the less time they can spend on each, "So they make even more mistakes."

What follows, Wexler said, is turnover. "The fear of being crucified creates still another incentive to get out. So that's exactly what workers do."

For their part, Glatt and Phillips say they have no idea what they'll do next.

Yet Phillips remains optimistic there will always be those who want to protect children.

"There are a lot of people who honestly care about kids," she said. "Someone will come along who's a lot like me."

Original atricle= The News-Press, news-press.com, SS: Children's Resource Center, Worry drives out DCF staffers

Child Protective Services faces legislative changes, may see its funding cut

By Josh Brodesky
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 11.27.2007

After nearly a year of intense public scrutiny following the deaths of three Tucson children, Child Protective Services faces the prospect of legislative changes and possible funding cuts.
The agency is in the midst of public hearings about its handling of cases involving three Tucson children who allegedly were killed by their parents.

Legislators want to hold a hearing in December on how CPS handled the case of 5-year-old Brandon Williams, an autistic boy who was killed in March, allegedly by his mother and a friend. That follows a September hearing on how the agency handled the case of 4-year-old Ariana Payne and her 5-year-old brother, Tyler, who were killed last year, allegedly by their father and his girlfriend

Some of the legislative changes under consideration would make CPS case records more open, allow CPS workers to file missing persons reports, give them greater access to criminal history records and open state employee records to the public in the same way as municipal and county employee records.

But with the state roughly a billion dollars in the red, there is also the prospect that the beleaguered agency will take a funding hit, even as it tries to meet public expectations for improvement.

"The governor has indicated it is her intent to hold children's services harmless from the majority of the reductions that would have to occur in agencies to meet the budget deficit," said Ken Deibert, deputy director of the Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS.

"Any significant budget cuts for our services would certainly have some very concerning repercussions," Diebert said.

State Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican who has taken the lead in the legislative hearings on CPS, said he expects cuts across all state agencies, but he does not want to see a reduction in CPS workers.

"I don't necessarily think things are going to be improved if you lose more caseworkers," Paton said.

Low morale, high turnover

Against that backdrop of controversy and scrutiny, CPS workers continue to push on, handling roughly 35,000 reports a year.

For workers in Pima County, the year has been marked by high turnover and low morale, said Ilene Stern, a program supervisor and investigator.

"Morale is … seriously affected by workload, by media, by criticisms, by high turnover," she said. "It hasn't been good for a while."

Stern mostly handles reports involving children who have been placed with relatives or in foster care. She also oversees an investigator in Ajo and picks up reports on the side, partly because of staffing shortages.

CPS currently has 13 openings in Pima County.

"There are very few of us here for more than five years," Stern said. "I'm here 17 and a half, and I will retire here."

In that time the agency has evolved. Workers have less family contact and more case management, she said. Methamphetamine is prevalent in many cases. There is also an emphasis on in-home services, essentially referrals to family services such as counseling and parenting classes, as a way to keep children with families.

This emphasis on family is also seen in the agency's push for workers to take a more global approach to investigations, essentially looking beyond the black-and-white world of allegations to see what services or needs a family might require.

A recent independent review of the agency's handling of the Payne and Williams cases faulted CPS workers for being too focused on whether the allegations were true rather than the broader family situations and risks that existed.

To encourage a shift in philosophy, the agency has adopted a new assessment tool, which some workers have criticized because of its length. A sample version is roughly 80 pages.
Stern was diplomatic about the new tool, saying that while it took more time to fill out, the fieldwork didn't change, or at least it shouldn't.

"Your face-to-face time shouldn't be affected by your documentation," she said.

In her own handling of cases, Stern adopted this broader investigative approach.

The ride-along

On a warm, late October morning she treks out to White Elementary School on Tucson's far Southwest Side to investigate a report from the school of a young boy with a cut on his ear. Reportedly his father shot him with a disc gun, a small toy gun that fires plastic discs.

Stern interviews the boy about the cut, as well as his two older brothers, who are also students at the school. Her focus, however, quickly shifts from the cut, which is fairly small and clearly accidental, to concerns about a gun in the home and the employment situations of the parents.
After about an hour and a half interviewing the three children separately, she heads to the parents' house.

Neither parent is working full time. The mother goes to beauty school. The father works construction jobs but has been staying home to watch their young daughter. Stern gives them a referral for day-care services, which would allow the father to work more.

"They were very cooperative," she said. "This job is often sorting through who is pointing the finger at who. Part of my job is to put that information together."

In the public eye

There is no doubt public pressure about the handling of the Payne and Williams cases affected morale at the agency.

During the ride-along, Stern remarked that the Arizona Daily Star's coverage of the cases did not reflect the personal side of the work, or the workers.
And this summer, after the Star ran an article quoting state Rep. Steve Farley — a Tucson Democrat who took a ride-along with a CPS worker and has been supportive of the agency — a number of CPS workers forwarded the article by e-mail, commenting on how they had found a supporter.

"So often we only get the very negative media, and while some of that is included here, we now have someone supporting us," wrote Karin Kline of the DES public information office.
Lillian Downing, who heads CPS in Pima County, remarked via e-mail that perhaps the comments from Farley would help "turn the tide."

But Paton said the public scrutiny has brought about some needed changes to the agency, notably the requirements for workers to check court records and not to date clients or former clients — policy changes that he hopes to make law.

"You can see the results of an agency that's kind of been hidden away, and there have been some really bad things that happened," he said. "At the end of the day you see that because of the public's attention on what's going on, that scrutiny ultimately led to changes that they've made in their policies."

● Contact reporter Josh Brodesky at 807-7789 or jbrodesky@azstarnet.com.

As of this writting there are 27 comments on this story -
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Child Protective Services faces legislative changes, may see its funding cut www.azstarnet.com ®

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

From the legislative desk of Senator Nancy Schaefer 50th District of Georgia

November 16, 2007

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

BY: Nancy Schaefer

Senator, 50th District

My introduction into child protective service cases was due to a grandmother in an adjoining state who called me with her tragic story. Her two granddaughters had been taken from her daughter who lived in my district. Her daughter was told wrongly that if she wanted to see her children again she should sign a paper and give up her children. Frightened and young, the daughter did. I have since discovered that parents are often threatened into cooperation of permanent separation of their children.


The children were taken to another county and placed in foster care. The foster parents were told wrongly that they could adopt the children. The grandmother then jumped through every hoop known to man in order to get her granddaughters. When the case finally came to court it was made evident by one of the foster parent’s children that the foster parents had, at any given time, 18 foster children and that the foster mother had an inappropriate relationship with the caseworker.


In the courtroom, the juvenile judge, acted as though she was shocked and said the two girls would be removed quickly. They were not removed. Finally, after much pressure being applied to the Department of Family and Children Services of Georgia (DFCS), the children were driven to South Georgia to meet their grandmother who gladly drove to meet them.

After being with their grandmother two or three days, the judge, quite out of the blue, wrote up a new order to send the girls to their father, who previously had no interest in the case and who lived on the West Coast. The father was in “adult entertainment”. His girlfriend worked as an “escort” and his brother, who also worked in the business, had a sexual charge brought against him.


Within a couple of days the father was knocking on the grandmother’s door and took the girls kicking and screaming to California.

The father developed an unusual relationship with the former foster parents and soon moved back to the southeast, and the foster parents began driving to the father’s residence and picking up the little girls for visits. The oldest child had told her mother and grandmother on two different occasions that the foster father molested her.


To this day after five years, this loving, caring blood relative grandmother does not even have visitation privileges with the children. The little girls are in my opinion permanently traumatized and the young mother of the girls was so traumatized with shock when the girls were first removed from her that she has not recovered.


Throughout this case and through the process of dealing with multiple other mismanaged cases of the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), I have worked with other desperate parents and children across the state because they have no rights and no one with whom to turn. I have witnessed ruthless behavior from many caseworkers, social workers, investigators, lawyers, judges, therapists, and others such as those who “pick up” the children. I have been stunned by what I have seen and heard from victims all over the state of Georgia.


In this report, I am focusing on the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS). However, I believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents and families should be warned of the dangers.

The Department of Child Protective Services, known as the Department of Family and Children Service (DFCS) in Georgia and other titles in other states, has become a “protected empire” built on taking children and separating families. This is not to say that there are not those children who do need to be removed from wretched situations and need protection. This report is concerned with the children and parents caught up in “legal kidnapping,” ineffective policies, and DFCS who do does not remove a child or children when a child is enduring torment and abuse. (See Exhibit A and Exhibit B)


In one county in my District, I arranged a meeting for thirty-seven families to speak freely and without fear. These poor parents and grandparents spoke of their painful, heart wrenching encounters with DFCS. Their suffering was overwhelming. They wept and cried. Some did not know where their children were and had not seen them in years. I had witnessed the “Gestapo” at work and I witnessed the deceitful conditions under which children were taken in the middle of the night, out of hospitals, off of school buses, and out of homes. In one county a private drug testing business was operating within the DFCS department that required many, many drug tests from parents and individuals for profit. In another county children were not removed when they were enduring the worst possible abuse.

Due to being exposed, several employees in a particular DFCS office were fired. However, they have now been rehired either in neighboring counties or in the same county again. According to the calls I am now receiving, the conditions in that county are returning to the same practices that they had before the light was shown on their deeds.


Having worked with probably 300 cases statewide, I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.

I have come to the conclusion:


* that poor parents often times are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the where-with-all to hire lawyers and fight the system. Being poor does not mean you are not a good parent or that you do not love your child, or that your child should be removed and placed with strangers;


*that all parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean your children are always to be removed from the home. Even if the home is not perfect, it is home; and that’s where a child is the safest and where he or she wants to be, with family;


*that parenting classes, anger management classes, counseling referrals, therapy classes and on and on are demanded of parents with no compassion by the system even while they are at work and while their children are separated from them. This can take months or even years and it emotionally devastates both children and parents. Parents are victimized by “the system” that makes a profit for holding children longer and “bonuses” for not returning children;

*that caseworkers and social workers are oftentimes guilty of fraud. They withhold evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights. However, when charges are made against them, the charges are ignored;

*that the separation of families is growing as a business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets;

*that Child Protective Service and Juvenile Court can always hide behind a confidentiality clause in order to protect their decisions and keep the funds flowing. There should be open records and “court watches”! Look who is being paid! There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. There are psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, caseworkers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to the children in state custody to provide job security. Parents do not realize that social workers are the glue that holds “the system” together that funds the court, the child’s attorney, and the multiple other jobs including DFCS’s attorney.

*that The Adoption and the Safe Families Act, set in motion by President Bill Clinton, offered cash “bonuses” to the states for every child they adopted out of foster care. In order to receive the “adoption incentive bonuses” local child protective services need more children. They must have merchandise (children) that sell and you must have plenty of them so the buyer can choose. Some counties are known to give a $4,000 bonus for each child adopted and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child. Employees work to keep the federal dollars flowing;

*that there is double dipping. The funding continues as long as the child is out of the home. When a child in foster care is placed with a new family then “adoption bonus funds” are available. When a child is placed in a mental health facility and is on 16 drugs per day, like two children of a constituent of mine, more funds are involved;
that there are no financial resources and no real drive to unite a family and help keep them together;

*that the incentive for social workers to return children to their parents quickly after taking them has disappeared and who in protective services will step up to the plate and say, “This must end! No one, because they are all in the system together and a system with no leader and no clear policies will always fail the children. Look at the waste in government that is forced upon the tax payer;

*that the “Policy Manuel” is considered “the last word” for DFCS. However, it is too long, too confusing, poorly written and does not take the law into consideration;

*that if the lives of children were improved by removing them from their homes, there might be a greater need for protective services, but today all children are not always safer. Children, of whom I am aware, have been raped and impregnated in foster care and the head of a Foster Parents Association in my District was recently arrested because of child molestation;

*that some parents are even told if they want to see their children or grandchildren, they must divorce their spouse. Many, who are under privileged, feeling they have no option, will divorce and then just continue to live together. This is an anti-family policy, but parents will do anything to get their children home with them.

*fathers, (non-custodial parents) I must add, are oftentimes treated as criminals without access to their own children and have child support payments strangling the very life out of them;

*that the Foster Parents Bill of Rights does not bring out that a foster parent is there only to care for a child until the child can be returned home. Many Foster Parents today use the Foster Parent Bill of Rights to hire a lawyer and seek to adopt the child from the real parents, who are desperately trying to get their child home and out of the system;

*that tax dollars are being used to keep this gigantic system afloat, yet the victims, parents, grandparents, guardians and especially the children, are charged for the system’s services.

*that grandparents have called from all over the State of Georgia trying to get custody of their grandchildren. DFCS claims relatives are contacted, but there are cases that prove differently. Grandparents who lose their grandchildren to strangers have lost their own flesh and blood. The children lose their family heritage and grandparents, and parents too, lose all connections to their heirs.

*that The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in 1998 reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public and that once removed to official “safety”, these children are far more likely to suffer abuse, including sexual molestation than in the general population.

*That according to the California Little Hoover Commission Report in 2003, 30% to 70% of the children in California group homes do not belong there and should not have been removed from their homes.

FINAL REMARKS

On my desk are scores of cases of exhausted families and troubled children. It has been beyond me to turn my back on these suffering, crying, and sometimes beaten down individuals. We are mistreating the most innocent. Child Protective Services have become adult centered to the detriment of children. No longer is judgment based on what the child needs or who the child wants to be with or what is really best for the whole family; it is some adult or bureaucrat who makes the decisions, based often on just hearsay, without ever consulting a family member, or just what is convenient, profitable, or less troublesome for a director of DFCS.

I have witnessed such injustice and harm brought to these families that I am not sure if I even believe reform of the system is possible! The system cannot be trusted. It does not serve the people. It obliterates families and children simply because it has the power to do so.

Children deserve better. Families deserve better. It’s time to pull back the curtain and set our children and families free.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy” Proverbs 31:8-9

Please continue to read:
Recommendations
Exhibit A
Exhibit B

RECOMMENDATIONS

1) Call for an independent audit of the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) to expose corruption and fraud.
2) Activate immediate change. Every day that passes means more families and children are subject to being held hostage.
3) End the financial incentives that separate families.
4) Grant to parents their rights in writing.
5) Mandate a search for family members to be given the opportunity to adopt their own relatives.
6) Mandate a jury trial where every piece of evidence is presented before removing a child from his or her parents.
7) Require a warrant or a positive emergency circumstance before removing children from their parents. (Judge Arthur G. Christean, Utah Bar Journal, January, 1997 reported that “except in emergency circumstances, including the need for immediate medical care, require warrants upon affidavits of probable cause before entry upon private property is permitted for the forcible removal of children from their parents.”)
8) Uphold the laws when someone fabricates or presents false evidence. If a parent alleges fraud, hold a hearing with the right to discovery of all evidence.

To read the Exhibits and thank Senator Nancy Schaefer
Click here Senator Nancy Schaefer: ...because integrity matters.

REFRESH - Go to Home-Page

Open Letter to Senator Diane Savino on behalf of ACS targeted parents

I sent the letter below along with a copy of this story- Click here: The Toccoa Record: Top Stories to Senator Savino, I suggest all targets of abusive CPS practices alert their Senators and ask for the same.

November 29, 2007

Senator Diane Savino
36 Richmond Terrace,
Suite 112
Staten Island, New York 10301
Tel: (718) 727-9406
Fax: (718) 727-9426

Good afternoon Senator Savino:

Last week I sent you copies of letters I had written to the DOJ, the D.A. and Judge Minardo asking for a special prosecutor to investigate the “legal“ kidnapping of the children in the Uccio v Argenziano apparent politically connected case.

I also sent you before and after pictures of my children, I am sure it was clear these children need someone to intervene.

Due to ACSs fraudulent practices, as well my estranged husband’s apparent political connections to Judge Panepinto, my children have been emotionally abused repeatedly for the last five years.

Now my Divorce/custody case is before Judge Panepinto and she is refusing to recuse herself, while acting like a street thug on the bench using arm gestures more likely to be found in a gang fight. Judge Panepinto is claiming there is no connection and that after 17+ years of working under Jospeh Panepinto; he and my husband have never met, nor does Mr. Panepinto know my estranged husbands last name. Judge Panepinto also stated my estranged husbands live in alleged child pornography photographer girlfriend Aggie Panepinto is not a relative to Judge Panepinto’s husband.

The system is broken, and I know that you are aware of this.

I also know that you are aware of the Amber James ACS “legal” kidnapping case. The targets of ACS have come together, [including an ex case worker] and have been exposing the fraud destroying our families. Please help us with your powerful and respected voice; as the Senator in the enclosed article has helped those targeted in her district.

I respectfully ask that you begin an investigation by a special prosecutor with these two cases [Uccio v Argenziano] and [Amber James] into the fraudulent practices of ACS and give our families a chance to become the next generation of functioning healthy Americans.

There are many other families that are victims of the rampant abuse of power in our country today, please be a voice for these children, and say enough is enough.

Respectfully Submitted



______________________
Louise Uccio

Marital Rape and Abuse Victim Seeks Justice From Oregon's Governor

This story reminded me of my nightmare, so what's the story "connected" abusive fathers are not only allowed but guided and supported when they decide to further abuse their victims by "kidnapping" their children?


This is a disgrace,and like the woman in this story I've asked the Governer to please open an investigation into this apparent political "legal" kidnapping of my babies!

This is a special plea for justice from an abuse survivor to Oregon's Governor. Does hope exist in Oregon's legal system? This is a story every one should know. Part One in a special series.


(DALLAS, Ore.) - After surviving years of childhood and marital abuse and neglect, a woman suffers a physical collapse and severe mental/nervous breakdown. While in a near catatonic state, the woman is physically assaulted and raped. She becomes pregnant.


Toward the final stages of her pregnancy, she fully recovers from her breakdown. She births her baby, and mother and baby enjoy bonding and breastfeeding. The mother cherishes her newborn son. After undergoing several psychiatric tests and evaluations, her physicians state that she is well.

Her abuser, the father of the child, manipulates the judicial system and seeks custody of the baby. With intervention from the religious community and testimony about the mother's prior mental history, the father is awarded custody of the nursing infant. The mother is ordered to pay her rapist/abuser exorbitant child support while suffering from homelessness and disabilities. She is no longer allowed contact with her child. When the baby is abruptly taken away, the mother goes into shock.


The 'father of the child' has committed crimes against the mother according to Oregon statutes and laws (Chapter 743, Oregon Laws 1971, 163.375), but is embraced and rewarded in our judicial and religious system. The victim becomes the criminal. I am this woman; this baby is my child; and the father of this child is my ex-husband.


November 26, 2007

Dear Governor Ted Kulongoski, Attorney General Hardy Meyers, Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence, Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force, citizens and lawmakers of Oregon:

I am writing you because something has gone terribly wrong in your backyard, specifically: The Polk, Marion and Wasco County courts and district attorney offices. When I sought safety and help in Oregon’s judicial system, I was not prepared for the horrors I experienced these past 12 years. I am requesting that the acts of disrespect, dishonesty and violence against me be acknowledged and resolved.


The ideology and belief system in Oregon’s judicial system have given power and legal rights for certain individuals to act inhumanely, including judges and district attorneys. This power must have checks and balances. In my case, there are no checks and balances. I cannot find help to correct this injustice. I repeat, no help.

This “Open Letter” is intended to demonstrate that wealthy perpetrators, supported by Oregon’s judicial system and attorneys, can continue to commit crimes of violence against their victims by harassing them and stalking them through the courts. My case history supports this fact. When you do not have monies for your own legal defense, you can be victimized indefinitely. Oregon’s legal system has given numerous individuals the legal right to commit criminal, depraved and inhumane acts against me.


According to Euro-American history, women and children were considered legal property, the chattel, of the father or husband. By taking his name, the wife 'belonged' to her husband.


Today, women and children are not legal property, but attitudes have been slow to keep up with the law and many men still believe it is their right or privilege to control women. I experienced this first hand, when I sought safety from my ex husband, Mr. Marty Warner, in Polk County, Oregon in 1995.


In 1999, I wrote a letter to Governor Kitzhaber that was included in the first chapter of my published book and true-life story, BONSHEA: Making Light of the Dark. I asked him “where should I go for help? I never received a response.

Today, I am not asking you “where I should go for help,” because I know, now, that there is “no help” elsewhere. So I am simply asking you “to help.”


I want to be free from the ongoing “legal stalking” by my ex husband who has been supported by what I believe is a corrupt Oregon judicial system. My health is frail and can no longer continue to endure this systematic form of legal terrorism. I want emancipated from my former husband, Mr. V. Martin Warner, and the Oregon judicial system.


I want my children to have access to psychological help as was recommended by Judge Paula Brownhill at the 2003 court hearing. I am distraught over the fact that I have been forced to give up my children so they can remain in a dysfunctional household fraught with abuse. I believe if there is no intervention for them in the near future, my children will learn the art of manipulation and lies to survive. They will be conditioned and will learn to keep family and church secrets. I want the cycle of violence to stop.

I have extensive documentation, including affidavits from physicians, co-workers and neighbors, court transcripts of nearly 42 court related hearings, tapes and videos, medical and mental reports and witnesses to substantiate and elaborate on this story. I believe when this case comes to light, someone will have to answer for the abuse and silent violence I have suffered in the Polk, Marion, and Wasco County courts. Martial and ritual abuse has evolved into legal abuse.

My “Open Letter” is also an effort to expose the fact that the advocacy system, as is, can offer no help or assistance in cases like mine. I have not received any help with my case from local, state, or from anyone or group on a national level, even though my case history in Oregon courts has been documented by many advocates, including my counselor and mentor, Dr. Barbara May, Professor of Nursing, Linfield College, as one of Oregon’s most violent and obscene cases.

Even though I have written hundreds of letters throughout the years to Oregon state legislators, to the media, lawyers and legal advocates, to the Governor of Oregon’s Council on Domestic Violence and Attorney General Hardy Meyers Sexual Assault Task Force in an effort to seek help and promote awareness for the need for better laws for women and children escaping domestic violence and abusive situations, there is often no response.

The letters received from the Oregon State Bar and the Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence was shocking. Legal aid cannot and will not help and U.S. Staff Attorney for Domestic Violence, Poverty and Homelessness, Naomi Sterns, in Washington DC, was of no help either.

Many people have been perplexed by this lack of help. Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson has written of my case, "BONSHEA also illustrates the degree to which the legal system can also be used as a vehicle to further perpetuate abuse even after the victim has chosen to take a stand against the abuse"

I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on court and legal fees and ordered to pay child support that soon amounted to twice my income, to my wealthy ex husband. I live below poverty level, have a disability due to the abuse I have suffered in my marriage and from the many years of ongoing court trauma. I have had no legal representation for the past 10 years. There is presently a $6,100 Summary Judgment against me through the Polk County District Attorney’s office for back child support based on income I never earned and errors throughout the years in the courts. My passport has also been revoked until all child support is paid.

Many people wonder why this is happening to me, when I was a victim of a crime, have a disability and have no contact with my children. It is not money that Mr. Warner wants. He wants vengeance and power and control over me.

have not had visitation privileges with my children for nine years, and was ordered in December 2003 by Judge Paula Brownhill that I could not visit, phone, write or send gifts to my children. I had to give away the Christmas presents that I had purchased for my children that year due to Judge Paula Brownhill’s court order. My children have been actively discouraged from having a relationship with me. They have been severely brainwashed by my ex husband, his family, attorneys, school and religious educators.

LIFE Magazine, USA Today and many other organizations have featured articles on women in prison in America. They report that women prisoners are allowed to keep their babies with them for eighteen months while serving their sentences (Florida Statute 944.24). I am haunted by this single question. Why was I treated lower than a criminal in America and I have no criminal record and have no history of alcohol, drug or child abuse?

I was physically and mentally incapacitated during the time of my illness and unable to consent, and suffered repeated sexual assaults by my husband, Mr. Warner. My children were allowed to remain with the man accused of these crimes. My contact with them was completely, suddenly and arbitrarily removed.

Marital rape can be defined as any unwanted intercourse or penetration (vaginal, anal or oral) obtained by force, threat of force, or WHEN THE WIFE IS UNABLE TO CONSENT [mentally and/or physically incapacitated] (Bergen, 1996; Pagelow, 1984; Russell, 1990).

On July 5, 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states, under at least one section of the sexual offense codes. In 17 states and the District of Columbia, there are NO EXEMPTIONS FROM RAPE PROSECUTION GRANTED TO HUSBANDS. Oregon is one of the 17 states.

I want District Attorney John Fisher and Deputy District Attorney Martha Hill investigated in regards to this criminal and civil matter in Polk County. I want the civil judgments and my case with the Polk County District Attorney’s office dismissed. I want protected from my abusers, Mr. Marty Warner and the Polk County judicial system. No woman who has been raped and suffered the abuse I have endured should be forced to pay her wealthy abuser and rapist monies.

In situations similar to mine, impoverished women have spent years in jail for owing back child support after losing their young children to their wealthy ex husbands. Their only crime: poverty.

I wonder what “is next” for me in the Polk County justice system.

I have risked and lost everything to escape my ex-husband, but I have never been more sure that the choices I made were the only choices I could make and survive.

Dr. Barbara May has been involved in my case since 1997. Throughout these past years she shared extraordinary wisdom and insights with me that helped transform my life from victim to survivor.

She writes, “Coral A. Theill is an abuse survivor who has been resourceful on her own behalf against all odds. She lives below poverty level income and has had to live out of her car at times in the past. Unfortunately, she has continued to be systematically beaten down and broken down in a variety of ways by other individuals, by her family, by her community, and by society despite her efforts to try and eke out a so called, ‘normal life.’ Anyone, even the strongest person, reaches a breaking point, especially when all avenues turn into dead ends and you are let down, rejected, turned away by everyone again and again. An excerpt of a letter I sent to District Attorney John W. Fisher, JD of Polk County Oregon on August 2, 2006 typifies just one example of many I have on how the system failed Ms. Theill."

"Having just heard the news from Coral that she will have to appear at a court hearing next month, I am appalled by what is happening to her in the name of the law. I am extremely concerned about her mental health which is what prompted my letter. I appeal to your sense of humanity to please see what you can do to seek true justice in this matter." (I received no response to this plea from D.A. Fisher and Ms. Theill was required to appear in court). --- Barbara A. May, PhD, APRN, BC, Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Professor of Nursing, Linfield College

Maureen T. Hannah, Ph.D., Chair, Battered Mother’s Custody Conference, has written of my true-life story, "As shocking as it may be, Coral's story resonates with the truth. I hear pleas for help from protective mothers like Coral every day, week after week, year after year--all of them pleading for their very birthright, their greatest right, which is to be a mother. She pinpoints, with heart-piercing accuracy, the historical hatred of females and of the feminine that has permeated societies, including our present one, for eons. Her personal story of living with and divorcing an abusive "religious" man who was cheered on by the community's religious, governmental, and legal authorities mirrors the persecution of all women who, like Coral, choose to say "no" to male dominance and power. Coral also calls out for the only true cure for the dark side of human nature, and that is to live in the light."

"Coral's work is a special blessing for me and for my sisters throughout this country. Not a single particle of the wisdom Coral shares misses the mark. BONSHEA pierces through the darkness that hides the legal system's routine abuse of mothers and children.”

Patricia Evans, nationally known author of the books, The Verbally Abusive Relationship, Verbal Abuse Survivors Speak Out, Controlling People, The Verbally Abusive Man-Can He Change, has commented, “Coral's story is extremely common in the U.S. today. Hundreds of thousands of fine, intelligent, loving, giving mothers have lost their children via the family court system. When I watched a good friend die when her immune system collapsed after ten years of her ex husband’s constant law suits, aimed at totally taking away her children; after I stood next to a woman who trembled from head to toe, in a room filled with women who had all lost their children as had she; after I talk with one of the thousands of women who tell me how they are abused, and that they cannot leave because they've been told, "If you leave, you'll never see the kids again," I know that abusive men, will, if they have money and are so inclined, say and do anything to get back at their wives for leaving them. I have also seen a psychopathic woman of wealth do this to her husband.

”How can this enslavement be happening in the United States? Because power over the innocent is condoned. Power over those who have what one wants is condoned. Power over the poor is condoned. Furthermore, there is no oversight of the family court system, nor is there any standard for determining justice in custody cases.” See the Website: VerbalAbuse.com.

Oregon NOW Advocate, Anna Goldreyer, who has followed Coral's story since 2003 writes, “What is being seen over and over is that mothers are routinely prohibited from having even the most basic contact with their own children, not because they were unfit parents, but because they were outspent, out represented, and out-maneuvered in a court atmosphere not prepared to understand the needs of families dealing with domestic violence.

”To unnecessarily and violently separate a woman and her young children can represent the gravest form of abuse, with major social ramifications in generations to come.

”To harass and exhaust a victim through repeated, frivolous court actions aimed at punishing and controlling her, beyond the point where a victim is physically, mentally, or financially able to defend herself, can evolve into a form of legal stalking. The family court system as it is does not yet recognize this, and the advocacy system is literally not financially able to help these survivors spend thousands and thousands of dollars defending themselves year after year in court.

”In the controversial documentary "Breaking the Silence, Children's Stories" aired by OPB last year, which illustrated some of the ways a wealthy abuser can use the system as a tool of abuse, a non custodial mother remarks: "to lose one's children in such a way would unmake any woman." And it is true. Taking a woman's children is the last great punishment an abuser can scar them with. To be publicly and permanently branded 'unfit' is a new scarlet letter. It can and will scar an entire family for life.

“Awareness that such things can even happen is the first step. For stories by some of the children who have survived being taken from their mothers by abusers, some of whom brought lawsuits against their parents, see the website: courageouskids.net. For stories of the many other mothers and children in Coral's position and those trying to help them, as well as information and resources on this issue, please see her websites at the end of this story.

You can visit the National NOW Family Law Advisory Ad Hoc Committee Website here: nowfoundation.org/issues/family

In April of 2007, prayers were answered when Tim King printed an article on my life story at Salem-News on May 12, 2007, Abuse Under the Watch of the Oregon Justice System. Tim King’s outstanding article received national attention. People from all over the world were truly outraged by the circumstances surrounding my Oregon court case and story. One commenter on Tim King’s original article, Rachel, South of the Border, May 15, 2007 1:30 PM (Pacific time) wrote: “An extraordinary piece. I cannot believe, with all the domestic violence organizations and money spent via NFP's, politicians, and organizations that no one has yet gotten Coral's children back to her. Yes, the outrage is what happened, but the secondary outrage is the lack of help even the domestic violence community lends to its victims. We can give victims all the well wishes and support in the world, but unless we give them proper legal care first, and then proper trauma care second, then the system is still a failure. Domestic violence advocacy has been watered down to grant writing, politics, and lots of talking at the victims' expense, while leaving women like Coral no better off than before millions were spent to 'study' this phenomenon.”

A U.S. Marine on the front lines in Iraq wrote this comment in response to Tim King’s article: May 14, 2007 3:15 pm (Pacific time) COMMENT “We receive so many comments from people back in the states 'Thanking us for their freedom.” Well, the thought of some of those people being the ones who put Mrs. Coral through what she has been through makes me ask the question; What the hell are we over here fighting for, so the American Man will have the freedom to do what? Abuse, rape, torture not only strangers but their own wives! And we fight so certain public figures will have to right to protect them. One lady compared the treatment of American women to those of other countries and I can tell you as bad as Iraq and Afghanistan is towards their women (and I have seen them both first hand) I have never heard of a story as bad as this one and because of that it's even sadder. We as a society have the technology to put 'Men on the Moon' but we, as a society can't fix the problem of 'lack of support' for victims of domestic abuse. I will go on patrol tomorrow here in Iraq and risk my life and the lives of my fellow Marines so Mr. Warner and all those supporting him can continue to do what they do! 'Only in America.” Mrs. Coral, keep your head up 'Change is going to come,” 'SEMPER FI'

The U.S. Marine’s profound comment reminded me of the Cheyenne Proverb, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its woman are on the ground. Then it is done; no matter how brave its warriors, nor how strong their weapons.”
(To be continued)

REFRESH - Go to Home-Page

Are they begining to come clean?

Social Workers Allege Child Protection Service Abuses

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Social workers are alleging abuses in Kentucky’s Child Protective Services.
In a follow-up to a 3-year investigation of CPS, NewsChannel 32 interviewed a group of Kentucky social workers who alleged families are harassed and workers are pressured in efforts to boost adoption numbers.

Pat Moore said she was a state social worker until she was fired for not ignoring half a dozen allegations of abuse in a foster home.

“I did what I felt like I had to do,” Moore said. “It was the right thing to do and I stand by the complaint.”

When Moore found that two foster parents had criminal records, a son living with them had multiple felonies, and a convicted sex offender visited and, sometimes, cared for the children, she refused to arrange an adoption.

Her supervisors responded to her complaint with a memo suggesting the adoption proceed quickly.

“Our theory is that the basis for this is the tie to the federal money,” Moore’s attorney, Tom Beiting said. “That every time a child is not placed in the home comma the state of Kentucky through its Cabinet is losing money”

After she was fired, Moore filed suit and last month, the Commonwealth paid $380,000 to settle it.

The high-adoption trend apparently began in 2004, when adoptions in Kentucky ballooned to 724 while the federal bonus money more than doubled from $452,000 the previous year to more than $1 million.

“The Cabinet puts pressure on stats because federal and state money come from statistics,” said another social worker who wants her identity concealed for fear of retaliation against her family. “You get praised. The Cabinet praises you for terminating rights and adopting kids out immediately.”

She said the concerted effort to take children away and put them up for adoption was so brazen, she actually saw someone successfully place an order for children.

“Someone could not have a child and wanted a child so within the community,” the social worker said. “This person saw a family in distress, having a hard time, relayed to workers that they would like those children, and that’s exactly what has happened.”

And a former CPS supervisor, who also wants anonymity for fear of retaliation, said if an order for a child was delayed or denied, her supervisors would overturn local decisions.

“This one family was promised a child, and when it happened that this child was going to be reunified with the parent, they called our regional office, and our regional office came in our county and they harassed the birth parents and that kind of thing because they didn’t agree with our decision,” the former supervisor said.

Vanessa Shanks had her kids taken away and, when she fought back, her relatives had their children taken away. Then, after she won in court, her attorney’s child was taken away.

The former CPS workers said that kind of retaliatory power is common and, in the secretive, one-sided system, they can take anyone’s kids away on a moment’s notice - and get away with it.

According to data just released, there’s a huge disparity between counties on adoption rates. Some counties reunify 100 percent of children taken with their families. Other counties adopted out as many as 82 percent of children taken from their homes.

Original article - Social Workers Allege Child Protection Service Abuses - Print This Story News Story - WLKY Louisville « TN Family Court In Ne...

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Why?

One might wonder...

Why air your dirty laundry online?

Why share the details of your divorce/custody case?

Answers in order of importance to me..

(1) Because I know my children have been lied to, and told I don't love or want them!

Nothing could be further from the truth and they need to know that!

(2) Because I know my children think I don't care!

Nothing could be further from the truth and they need to know that!

(3) Because I know there is major corruption going on in my case and I will expose it all!

Ever hear the term [DON'T COME BETWEEN A MOMMA AND HER BABIES?]

They DID- They came between me and my precious babies, and they need to be exposed!

(4) The public needs to wake up and see what really goes on behind closed doors!

(5) My reputation was destroyed and I'll be damned if I sit by quietly having my children's friends and thier friends parents thinking I voluntarily chose to be out of their lives!

(6) So that when my children are old enough, if God forbid I've passed by the time they figure it out, there will be documentation of how hard I tried and how I never for one day let up trying to get them back after they were "LEGALLY KIDNAPPED"

Page 8 Final Page of Lawsuit

Without Corruption how has this case played out like it has?

I ask you the public, what's YOUR OPINION?

Page 7 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

Are you keeping up here?

It's pretty easy, I think a fifth grader could figure this out, then why haven't my children been returned?

Should we get fifth graders to sit in for our judges in family courts?

Page 6 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

Apparently NOT!

It appears he has been rewarded for his false calls and for destroying my life (Go Figure)

Page 5 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

One might even like to believe that My estranged husband would be held accountable for his numerous false calls to ACS considering the last one led to this lawsuit.

Page 4 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

It's perfectly clear here, the estranged husband was relentless in his goal to destroy me, he called ACS numerous times before they screwed up and falsely "indicated" me.

Wouldnt you like to think they would be smarter than to be manipulated by an abusive husbands numerous vindictive and false calls to them.

Page 3 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

Short Sweet and to the point..

Page 2 Lawsuit Against ACS and NYC

My attorney pulls no punches, it's apparently clear what is going on here, keep reading.

Page 1 Moving right along lie after cover up after lie

My civil rights attorney files the Law Suit, now we have gone through the 50h hearing.

I've told them, who I feel is behind why I have not seen my children, yet nothing..

I haven't even had so much as a phone call with my babies!

Writ and more time wasted

As you can see, that Notice of Motion went in October 06 [last year] yet ACS has NOT returned my children, apparently that's not how it works.

I have spent the last TWO YEARS before Judge McElrath wasting my time energy and money, from July 12 of 06 I had been trying to get him to act on CPLR 5015 [New Evidence] and a Writ Of Habeaas Corpus, yet he stalled and stamered, allowing all kinds of sick blatent lies from my estranged husband and his perjuring attorney Catherine Bridge.

When he wasn't excusing them for whatever BS they came up with as to why they wouldnt be in court that day [after I drove from Westchester to Staten Island 50ish miles] he claimed the Writ was lost, then the Writ wasn't put on the calendar and it was the clerks fault, then he didn't know how to proceed with the Writ when it finally made it's way back to his court.

On the day that Ms. Bridge sat in the court room claiming she wasn't retained for this hearing (gotta love it) while McElrath read out loud a hand written note from the estranged husband claiming he wasn't able to attend the hearing on the writ.

And yes you guess it, they were once again forgiven!

At the time my attorney had been planning to bring this case to my area of residence via a divorce, and he told me to say I wanted the Writ Dismissed, I did and well here we are- the big divorce bomb is in front of panepinto.

What a disgrace!