REFORM Talk

FacePalm Friday

2012-03-02T21:56:00.000-05:00

Russia DOS Notice about Regional Suspensions

2012-03-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

Following Russia's latest call for a full ban on Russia to US adoptions, US DOS issues a notice about...suspensions.

See here and pasted below:

"Russia

Notice: REGIONAL SUSPENSIONS ON ADOPTION PROCESSING IN RUSSIA
The Department of State has received reports that local departments of education and some judges in Russia have instituted a de facto freeze on adoptions to the United States. In some instances we are told that local departments of education have refused to provide referrals which are necessary for agencies and families to schedule court dates.

The Department of State has not received official notice that adoptions to the United States have been suspended and continues to work closely with Russian authorities to obtain as much information on the situation as possible. Updated information will be provided as it becomes available on www.adoption.state.gov."

New York, Indiana and Kentucky and Child Death Reports

2012-03-02T18:39:00.000-05:00

New York

"Elisa’s Law, a measure loosening the secrecy regulations in child-abuse investigations. Among other reforms, the law required a public accounting of the events leading up to the death of any child in New York State who had been reported as abused or neglected.

But for the last five years, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services has been working quietly and persistently to limit access to those case reports, which in most instances are the only record of the circumstances leading up to the deaths. "

In 2007, the office tried to have the law changed. When that failed, it made its own rule. According to a policy enacted by the office in September 2008, it will not release the fatality reports mandated by Elisa’s Law if there are siblings or other children in the home and officials decide that revealing the family’s abuse and investigative history is not in their “best interests.”

After The New York Times began asking about the policy on withholding reports, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the governor’s office would review the change.

The fatality reports were intended to permit public scrutiny of the performance of child welfare authorities while protecting the privacy of those involved. The reports do not identify deceased children, their caseworkers or anyone else by name. But they do list every complaint of abuse or neglect involving the child, the child welfare agency’s response to the complaints, and an assessment of whether the response was adequate.

The state issues about 250 fatality reports each year. And in 2010, for example, two-thirds of the reports issued in New York City involved homes with multiple children, meaning that under its new policy, officials could withhold information about their deaths.

So far, multiple bills drafted at the request of the Office of Children and Family Services to limit the public disclosure portion of Elisa’s Law have failed. The most recent was introduced in the Assembly in the current legislative session and in January was referred to committee.

The bill would require the state to release its recommendations for administrative or policy changes resulting from a child’s death. But in cases where there are surviving siblings or other children in the home, the bill would permit the state to withhold the details of the family’s case history and how the local child welfare agency responded if releasing those details was deemed to be against the other children’s “best interest.” The local agency, which in New York City is the Administration for Children’s Services, would have a say in the decision, even though that agency might have been responsible for any missteps.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the Assembly version of Elisa’s Law, would not comment on the changes to public disclosure proposed by the Office of Children and Family Services. But a spokeswoman said on his behalf that any bill to amend Elisa’s Law would be vetted to determine whether the process protects “to the greatest extent possible” New York’s children and their families.

Marcia Robinson Lowry, a lawyer and the director of Children’s Rights Inc., a national watchdog group dedicated to reforming government child welfare services, said limiting access to reports would hurt efforts to make the system more responsive to children in dangerous homes.

“They are something a public advocacy group or a think tank or a responsible party can have available to understand the systemic failures that have led to these children’s deaths,” she said. “They are critically important.”

State Keeps Death Files of Abused Children Secret
[New York Times 2/28/12 by Jo Craven McGinty]

Indiana

"House Democrats are gearing up for another push to require more accountability for the state agency responsible for investigating child abuse and neglect

The Democrats' renewed effort comes after several setbacks this week in the Legislature. They're calling for a review of Department of Child Services' policies, performance, spending and the new child abuse hotline, which routes all reports to a call center in Indianapolis. The abuse hotline has received some criticism in recent weeks after reports that more allegations of abuse are being screened out and not investigated since the hotline was created.

Minority Leader Patrick Bauer told The Indianapolis Star that changes are needed.

"There's been reports all over the state about the deaths of children that didn't have to happen, that this state could have prevented," he said. "We have to have our Republican colleagues and the governor answer this call."

Republicans are defending the agency and said the number of caseworkers that investigate abuse and neglect has doubled since its creation in 2005. That's when Gov. Mitch Daniels moved the department out from under the purview of the Family and Social Services Administration.

Rep. Jeff Espich, R- Uniondale, argues that fewer children are dying from abuse and neglect and that more children involved with DCS are getting regular monthly visits with their caseworkers.

But Democrats say they were moved to seek more oversight because of complaints from constituents, including judges, child advocates and DCS workers. The lawmakers cited recent news stories about children who died after they were called to the attention of DCS, and the growing number of reports that have not been investigated since the agency opened the central call center.

They also question the agency's decision to return more than $300 million allocated by the legislature to help troubled children and families since 2009 and a high turnover rate among DCS workers.

The South Bend Tribune reports that DCS Director James Payne said during a speech Thursday that changes are coming in the state and across the nation. Payne, speaking in Goshen, said the department plans to release numbers next week that show Indiana had 25 substantiated child fatalities in 2011. He said only four of those involved families with previous DCS contact, a decrease from previous years.

"If we have any number up there, it is too many, we all know that," Payne said. "But what has happened is that fatalities have gone down because communities and families are working together."

Bauer said cases are being labeled as unsubstantiated and records are being purged, leading to a lack of transparency in reporting and inadequate record keeping to help catch repeat abusers.

Payne defended the call center in Indianapolis, saying that since its launch in 2010, the department has increased the number of investigations it has completed — from 56,448 to 76,092.

Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, said he plans to offer two amendments to the bill when it comes back to the House floor for a vote next week. One would route reports of suspected abuse or neglect back to county offices, which is how they were handled before the hotline. The other would shift the responsibility for investigating reports from DCS to county sheriffs. He noted that police officers are trained investigators.

"We have got to stop our children from dying," he said."

Democrats want review of Indiana child protection agency
[News-Sentinel 2/24/12 by Associated Press]

Kentucky

"A House committee approved legislation Thursday to provide more outside scrutiny of child abuse and neglect deaths and to tighten the definition of what constitutes abuse.

But the bill does not define what information officials must release under the state open-records law about child abuse deaths and serious injuries, as the sponsor, Rep. Susan Westrom, initially had intended.

Instead, Westrom said she will refer the issue to a proposed task force that would take a broad look at state laws affecting juveniles before the next legislative session.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has found that current law requires the cabinet to release all records in cases in which children die or are seriously injured from abuse, ruling in lawsuits brought by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald Leader. He has allowed only limited deletions from such records, a decision that the cabinet has appealed."

"Westrom said she believes HB 200 clarifies what constitutes abuse and could help officials uncover cases of death from abuse or neglect that may have been overlooked — considered accidental or from natural causes."

"HB 200 requires the cabinet to classify abuse if the perpetrator is a parent, guardian, a relative over 17 or a partner of the child’s parent or guardian."

"It also would create a statewide independent panel to examine all child fatalities or serious injuries from abuse or neglect that come to its attention from the local panels, health care officials or other interested parties."
Kentucky House panel passes bill ratcheting up scrutiny on child abuse deaths
[The Courier-Journal 3/2/12 by Deborah Yetter]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Travis Messenger case-Child Death

2012-03-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Danville, Illinois, 12-year-old Travis Messenger was one of four siblings removed on July 6, 2011 from an Illinois home due to "alleged abuse and neglect by the children's mother and father" but only substantiated NEGLECT against ONE of the children (NOT Travis), according to DCFS spokesman Kenneth Marlowe.

Travis did not want to be in the foster care home in Urbana and ran away more than once. Prior to placing the child back into a foster home, the procedure is to take the child to the a medical clinic for a customary medical examination. One DCFS official was with him on Monday, July 23 at a Hoopeston hospital emergency room, 30 miles from his home. News-Gazette says "Travis stole a pickup truck from the driveway of a residence about a block from the hospital and headed south toward his hometown on Illinois 1. The stolen truck was in an accident around 5:30 a.m. Monday at Illinois 1 and U.S. 136.

According to witnesses, a boy about 12 to 14 years old fled the scene.

About three-tenths of a miles from the accident scene, another vehicle — a minivan — was stolen from a garage.

At some point, a 14-year-old male friend joined Travis, said Capt. Rod Kaag of the Vermilion County Sheriff's Department.

Shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, witnesses said the speeding minivan lost control and left 1750 East Road, east of Westville, about where the road surface changes from hard top to gravel, and rolled at least once. Both occupants were thrown from the van.

The boys were taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, where Travis was later pronounced dead at 6 p.m. Monday. The second accident victim, Logan Cudney, remained in critical condition Wednesday evening."

The State Journal-Register says, "Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Kendall Marlowe tells the News-Gazette newspaper in Champaign that the boy apparently was driving toward his family's home in Danville."

Lincoln Courier says, "At a Wednesday night gathering at a Danville park for Travis’ family and friends, an older sister said Travis and twin brother Trevor didn’t want to be in foster care.

“He was just scared,” 16-year-old Kaylee Messenger said. “He just didn’t know what to do. I spoke with them every night and told them to just take it easy and it would all work out.”

DCFS History

News-Gazette says "On March 5, 2009, the court held that DCFS would provide support services to the family. Marlowe said he could not say what specific services would be offered because of privacy issues, but the family was allowed to stay together, and the case was open with services being offered from March 5, 2009, to Aug. 11, 2010.

"In the general process, a case is closed if a family no longer needs support or has proven to not seek the support services," he said.

Then on Jan. 24 of this year, DCFS received another report of alleged abuse and neglect against the father, causing the case to be reopened Feb. 10 and services were once again offered.

Marlowe said the agency was unable to substantiate another report against both parents for abuse and neglect on March 2.

"In the course of this family's case, the court granted guardianship of all four children (Kaylee, Travis, Trevor and Ashley) to DCFS July 6 and the children were placed in foster homes," Marlowe said. "The other three children currently remain in foster homes in the care of relatives."

Marlowe said Travis ran away from the Urbana foster home on July 12. Officials indicated that the boy returned to custody more than once this month."

"The general trend in child welfare is to reach out before a crisis occurs and try to steer away from removing children until we have to," Marlowe said. "The problems in this situation are tough to solve. We want people to change, but they have to be able to change."

On Monday when Travis was returned to DCFS custody, he was taken to Hoopeston for a customary medical examination that precedes a return to foster care.

"It's not surprising he was headed back to Danville," Marlowe said. "What we've found is that children in foster care are usually running to things, not away from them. They head to the places and people that they know."

Sources:

Boy dies after crash
[Commercial News 7/26/11 by Brian L. Hutchel]

Danville youth's final days reconstructed
[News-Gazette 7/28/11 by Pat Phillips]

12-year old wrecks stolen van and dies in Eastern Illinois
[The State Journal-Register 7/28/11 by Associated Press]

Boy wrecks stolen van, dies in E. Ill. [Lincoln Courier 7/29/11 by Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Illinois CPS Fail.

Thanks for a great blog week

2012-03-02T13:15:00.001-05:00

I want to publicly thank the creative people at Land of Gazillion Adoptees who came up with the idea behind adoption blogger annoy me week. There is much to be annoyed about in the adoption establishment and after reading all of the blog entries I am more annoyed than ever. At the same time it's encouraging to see so many people talking about the issues and problems and I know my perspective was stretched and expanded this week.

I enjoyed reading each and every entry, but a quote from Shelise's final thoughts about the establishment stood out to me,

"They tell you (and they even get adoptees to tell you) that adoption is this bright, shiny thing and then they jump ship when you discover it’s really a gray, tangled mess and you need substantial help."

She pretty much nails it right there.

Press on and thanks again!

Catching up on Foster Care Deaths

2012-03-02T10:50:00.000-05:00

Over the next week, we will be adding over a dozen more foster care death cases to our How Could You? archives that we missed from 2011. Some were accidental (neglect), some suicide. We will also be posting new ones as they come up.

What annoys me about the adoption establishment?

2012-03-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to be a part of this effort led by Land of Gazillion adoptees. The posts so far, which we have listed here have been amazing. This post is just Rally’s unleashed opinion. It does not constitute the opinion of any other collaborator on this blog. I swear, they didn’t even see it before it went up. Direct all comments to me. (I am not really worried, I just love smileys. )

Before I started this blog fourteen months ago, I already knew that many things annoyed me. I said to my partners: How about a regular Friday column where we would list whatever thing that is particularly annoying that week and invite others to add. And FacePalm Friday was born. One of my favorites is the descriptive adoptive parent term post from last May. See here.

But I digress…this post is about my overall annoyance of the adoption establishment. There are so many things about the 3P’s that annoy me-Process, the Postadoption lack of resources and the People that I want to say but ultimately, it comes down to the

Message Control from the establishment.

The messages about adoption have been controlled for so long by the adoption establishment, that the general public is JUST NOT AWARE of the issues and that is a major purpose of why this blog exists. I don’t have to look any further than who rang today’s NASDAQ opening bell- the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) ! Money and adoption unite again! “The National Council For Adoption, an adoption advocacy non-profit that serves children, birthparents, and adoptive families as the authoritative voice for adoption, will visit the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City's Times Square.”

Who the died and branded the NCFA the authoritative voice for adoption! THIS is the that the general public sees DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY. Bethany had their message play ALL DAY at the SUPER BOWL . Places like Bethany have multiple, names, initiatives and are very sly in their marketing and the general public cannot make the connection. (You need to scroll to the very bottom of the webpage to see the tiny print with the Bethany copyright on it.)

WE need to control the message. Now, who are WE? WE are the people that have the TRUTH. This includes many adult adoptees, many original family members and some, yes there are a few, adoptive parents that are sane and care about ethics. We have organizations and blogs with the word REFORM in them, not “Journey to” this or “red thread” that or some Bible verse. We don’t pray for families to separate, we don’t sell insane adoption “merchandise”, we don’t put adoption agencies on a pedestal and act like some freaky cult.

Do you know who has the LEAST say in adoption? The US Taxpayer. They have their money taken and handed to the industry through adoption tax credits and subsidies and they are clueless to what is going on. Awareness of the false messages is high with adult adoptees and original families. We are doing our part to make APs aware (they should be aware, but they just aren’t--ignorance begets ignorance), but we need to educate the 90+% of the general public who are NOT involved in adoption, who will in turn also influence the legislators to do something about this. If they understood that they were unknowingly playing adoption Santa and their own wallets were being hit, I think that could prod them to act.

In the meantime, we all need to voice our opinions to legislators, governments, media and whoever else will listen. A list of places that we all can complain to is on this pdf

Naming names time

Because I consider my audience to include the general public and APs who unfortunately don’t research who the people are in the industry, I will include a number of names now.

There are 5 categories of the establishment that I want to mention. These people control the message from A to Z: adoption agencies; adoption lobbying groups; publications; adoption service providers; and connected-to-the industry organizations and individuals.

It is obvious WHO the adoption agencies are. The rest are not so obvious.

The lobbying groups include secular and religious groups. JCICS and Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), which consists of powerful elected officials from both major political parties, are two of the main secular groups. The religious groups include The National Council on Adoption (NCFA), Hope for Orphans, Together for Adoption, Christian Alliance for Orphans, Both Ends Burning Campaign and I single out Bethany Christian Services as they are the most insidious, largest conglomerate on the planet Earth setting up foster care systems as well as placing internationally. Foster care even in the US (see surrogate family concept ). Bethany influences many of the religious groups because they are members of multiple lobbying groups just mentioned.

Publications-Adoptive Families magazine was begun by and is run by the adoption industry. Most things in it are completely biased and blessed by the industry. Adoption Today is better but still avoids the hottest issues and diverts some of the truth.

Adoption Service Providers. Yes, I separate this. There are “entrepreneurs” like who we discussed on Monday , the APs who start dossier services , APs who charge by the hour for consultations, APs who charge for fundraising advice and on and on. There also APs that don’t make money but do it for “savior” reasons-those who “advocate” for children as if they are social workers. Those that provide adjunct services that are the bulk of their business are also included—some international adoption doctors and their organization American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Foster Care and Adoption section.

AAP adoption section? You see, many of these doctors are members of JCICS--they fight for JCICS issues. They may or may not realize what they are fighting for…but ultimately those that speak out on JCICS behalf have their entire careers banked on IA. There are many IA doctors who only have a small portion of their practice as IA. Those are not who I am talking about. I am talking about the entrenched ones, the “famous” ones, the ones you see interviewed everywhere. Issues with teenagers, mental illness, placement in RTCs and what to do if their child will not be able to live independently as an adult are not ever addressed by this group. So many APs are now having to deal with getting guardianship of their soon-to-be adult adopted children who never recovered from their preadoption life. Love WAS NOT enough and none in the adoption establishment give a about assisting any of these families. Admitting that these are the issues would be bad for business. Shut out from support groups and shunned by the adoption establishment and sometimes their own families, these are some of the silent victims. You can say “they should have known better” to adopt severely disabled and/or neglected children all you want, but the fact is that this affects our whole society now and YES THE TAXPAYER who will have to dole out SS until these adults die…

Connected-to-the-industry organizations and individuals: Elizabeth Bartholet and Jane Aronson, DO come to mind when I think of individuals granted the podium whenever anything “bad” comes up about adoption so they can whitewash it over. These two are deeply entrenched with the industry-one for research, the other for her NGO and service provider businesses.

Organization: I will give a riddle. It has 6 letters and begins and ends with a vowel. Yea, they are not on the link list on our home page. That is not accidental. Ask how they were formed, who formed them and who really sits on their Board of Directors and those answers will lead straight to the ~~devil~~ industry. Come clean or shut up.

Disruptions (I use this term interchangeably with Dissolutions)

Lastly, I want to take this opportunity to tell you about an effort of mine this week. The silence on this issue is another annoyance of mine. In addition to updating a slew of horrendous adoptee abuse and death cases in our How Could You? files (Fun fact: I almost named that archive crAP for what I say every time I hear of a new case), I had another AP tell me the awful story of their needed disruption (yes, needed) in great detail. You see, I have been working on a summary of international adoption disruptions that I have been collecting since November 2010. The industry will tell you that this never occurs. DOS reports only give self-reported Hague adoption figures. In FY2011, only 29% of international adoptions were done under Hague. They reported 5 disruptions. Well, so far I have collected 116 stories of disruptions during this time. Yesterday, I took the unidentifying information and sent it to Senator Lugar who not only heads the Foreign Relations committee but is part of the CCAI. I also sent it off to DOS.Now neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch can say that they haven’t heard about international adoption disruptions and the tip of the iceberg data collection that I have done. Sadly, this is probably the ONLY place that you will hear about it as I suspect it will just be buried, erased, .

New Resources on Home Page

2012-03-01T12:41:00.000-05:00

We have now packaged some of our posts into easy-to find pdf resources. On our home page, if you hover your mouse over the Resources tab, you now will find a drop down list of 6 resources.

The first one is a book list . It is sparse and needs updating, so send us some good suggestions to add to the list.

The second one is our International Adoption Industry 101 free course , which is a series of links to our posts that explain the industry. Everything in our resources is and will always be free.

The third one is for PAPs and APs called The Guide to International Medicine Doctors . It is the most comprehensive and up to date guide of doctors for the US.

The fourth one, just added, is the Quick List of Adoption Issue Reporting. This is the list of places to report complaints from our Be Part of Adoption Reform post plus individual links to each state for social worker issue reporting. Print it. Report things. Be part of Adoption Reform.

The fifth one, just added, is one we call the Ethics Package . We have packaged the essentials of the following posts into one document that frames many issues in preadoption, postadoption and reform:

Ethical Adoption and Prospective Parent Motivation

Let's Get Real: Adoption Reform

Red Flags in International Adoption

Kudos: Nine Ideas for Adoption Reform (Domestic)

Tuesday Terms: Disruption and Dissolution

Ethical Considerations After Trafficking Discovered/Suspected

The sixth one, just added, called the Mental Health Resources Package , combines our unique mental health resources posts into one document:

Let's Get Real: Adoptive Parenting and PTSD

CAFETY and Advice for Placing Children into RTCs

Wilderness Camps-Tips, Support, HEAL

Suicide Prevention Resources and Support for Survivors

As we add more posts on these subjects, we will add to these resources.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

International Policy Conference on the African Child (IPC):"Inter-country adoption risks children lives"

2012-02-29T20:32:00.001-05:00

"Inter-country adoptions negatively affect adopted children if not properly regulated, a law commissioner has observed.

Law Commissioner Gertrude Hiwa made the observation in Lilongwe on Monday during a consultative workshop for the fifth International Policy Conference on the African Child (IPC) organised by the Malawi Law Commission.

She said inter-country adoptions in some instances are marred by dysfunctional and insufficient regulation which result in serious violations of children's rights.

She said the very children which the system endeavours to improve their wellbeing may be exposed to even greater risks by the system.

"Such risks may include child trafficking, sale of the children , abduction and abuse, coercion of birth parents especially mothers to relinquish their babies, fraud and also corruption," Hiwa said.

"Further Africa has not yet carried out a comprehensive situation analysis of inter-country adoption with the result of unavailability of proper information on the issue and therefore a gap on the accurate
status of inter-country adoption in Africa," she said.

Hiwa further said it is important for Africa to try and address this matter collectively and collaboratively in order to ensure a harmonious approach to defeat unscrupulous actors who take advantage of the countries whose rules and systems are weak and therefore puts vulnerable
children at even greater risk.

In an interview, Executive Director for Youth Net and Counselling Macbain Mkandawire expressed concern over the provision of the Malawi adoption legislation, saying the country's legislation does not expressly prohibit or regulate inter-country adoption.

"Declaring that inter-country adoption can take place in Malawi is not enough to safeguard the best interests of the child there is more that needs to be done," he said.

Mkandawire further said the legislation does not provide for regulatory framework for the establishment of systems and procedures aimed at safeguarding and promoting the best interests of the child who is the subject to an inter-country adoption.

The consultation meeting was organised in preparation for the Fifth International Policy Conference on the African Child (IPC) which will be held in Ethiopia in May."

__._,_.___

Inter-country adoption risks children lives [The Daily Times 2/28/12 by Patricia Nkhoma]

On February 8, 2012, US DOS issued a notice, pasted below:
"Notice: Ongoing Nationwide Judicial Strike Closes Courts in Malawi

Due to a nationwide judicial strike by certain judicial employees in Malawi, the court system halted all functions on January 9, 2012. Since this time, no new or pending cases have been processed. The strike has caused a backlog of pending civil and criminal cases. These cases will have to be processed before new cases, including adoption hearings, can be accepted. We advise prospective adoptive parents against travelling to Malawi for a hearing until the strike has ended and you have received a firm court date.

Prospective adoptive parents are encouraged to remain in contact with their adoption service provider to stay up-to-date on any information pertinent to their individual case. In addition, please continue to monitor www.adoption.state.gov for updates. We also suggest that any families with pending or potential adoption cases contact the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe, Malawi, at consularlilong@state.gov to make the Embassy aware of your case."

Malawi is not a Hague country and has placed only a total of 20 children to the US since 2000.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Countries that do not have the infrastructure for international adoption have high risks of trafficking.

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Kenneth Brandt

2012-02-29T09:50:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Dayton, Ohio, adoptive parent and board member of the Troy Junior Basketball Association, Kenneth H. Brandt, 39, and two other men Jason Zwick, 29, of Beavercreek and Patrick Rieder, 31, of Dayton "were the subjects of an Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation," according to WHIOTV.

WHIOTV says that Kenneth Brandt has been charged with "three counts of rape and one count of compelling prostitution. He is in Miami County Jail on $800,000 bond."
"Meanwhile, state and local agencies have launched separate investigations into the child abuse allegations and the adoption process."

"Brandt has adopted three children – a 9-year-old girl and three boys, ages 9, 10 and 12, according to authorities. The adoption of a fourth has not been finalized. The children — who are not all birth siblings — were adopted in 2011 from Texas via a private adoption agency.

Brandt had removed the girl from the Troy school system on Jan. 2 and two of the boys Feb. 13, according Troy City Schools Superintendent Eric Herman."

"One of the boys in Brandt’s home said that Brandt had allowed Rieder and Zwick to have sex with him, according to a police report.

On Friday, Troy police were contacted by a representative from the Franklin County ICACT . Police were told that Brandt had been communicating online with an undercover detective and was making arrangements to allow the detective to have sex with a 10-year-old boy on Sunday.

That same detective had chatted online with two men who were claiming to have had sex with the boy.
Troy investigators executed a search warrant Friday at Brandt’s house. Police found Brandt and the children at his parents home, also in Troy.

During questioning, Brandt admitted having sex with the 10-year-old about 10 times, according to the report. He also told police that Zwick had sex with the boy, but denied Rieder’s involvement.

The boy initially told police that he didn’t want to tell them anything because he was afraid he would be taken away from his home and separated from his new brothers and sister. But when police asked him to help them protect his siblings , he wept. He told police he had sex — spelling out the word — with Rieder and Zwick. He said Brandt had sex with him two to three times a week since he had arrived at the home.

The two other boys also told police that Brandt had sex with them. The 9-year-old boy said it started about two weeks after he arrived from Texas.

Zwick was arrested Tuesday. No charges had been filed against Rieder late Tuesday, but he is to be in court Wednesday. A preliminary hearing for Brandt is set for March 6."

Dayton Daily News says "Kenneth H. Brandt, 39, is charged with raping three of his children and allowing two men to have sex with one of them.

“Our involvement at this point is due to the allegations of abuse,” June Cannon, executive director of Miami County Children’s Services, said Tuesday. “We are working a child abuse investigation in conjunction with the criminal investigation that the Troy police department is doing.”

Cannon said the four children are being cared for by Brandt’s mother. She said the child who wasn’t yet adopted likely will be returned to Texas.

An Ohio Department of Job and Family Services spokesman said his agency will review how the adoption took place.
The children were adopted via the Interstate Compact for Placement of Children (ICPC) program Dayton-based Action Inc., a private adoption agency at 6000 Philadelphia Drive.

Oversight of such an adoption and follow-up falls mostly to the private agency, according to officials from both Texas and Ohio. Ben Johnson at ODJFS said the ODJFS will assist Miami County."

"Patrick Crimmins from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said that office also will review this case. “We are heartsick about what has happened to these children — they are Texas children — and we are going to be taking a hard look at all aspects of this, from the beginning,” Crimmins said.

Messages left for Action Inc. were not immediately returned. Patricia Hill is listed as the agency’s director. The nonprofit’s website said it was founded in 1994. Johnson said the agency is licensed.

Troy Superintendent Eric Herman said one of Brandt’s children was enrolled in Troy schools from Aug. 18, 2011, until Jan. 2; another from Aug. 13, 2010, until Feb. 13, and a third from Dec. 17, 2010 until Feb. 13.

Herman said Brandt fulfilled his obligations to home-school the children by proving he had a high school diploma and by turning in a proper curriculum. Cannon said her office had no legal right to check on the children until there were allegations of abuse or neglect."

Community Reaction

Dayton Daily News says "Brandt, who owned Brandt Insurance Services, LLC — but did not have an insurance agent license, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance — had never been booked into the Miami County Jail prior to his Friday arrest, according to county jail records.

“It’s beyond my comprehension,” said Jeff Price, president of the Troy Junior Basketball Association, of the news about Brandt. “You don’t expect these things to happen so close to home.”

Price declined to comment on Brandt’s role in the youth sports program, but a 2010 Troy Junior Basketball Association handout posted online lists Brandt as a board member who served as 7th–9th grade representative.

On Tuesday, a man and a woman, who declined to identify themselves, were moving furniture and other items from Brandt’s ranchstyle brick house.
“I’m so ashamed. I don’t have anything to say,” the man said.

Brittani Jackson, who has lived a couple of houses down the street since October, said she did not see people around the house. A For Sale sign was in the yard recently, led her to think the occupants were moving.

“I was very shocked,” Jackson said of Brandt’s arrest.

Ed and Sherry Rogers said Brandt was living in the neatly kept house across the street when they came to the neighborhood five years ago. They said the first child showed up at the house about two-to-three years ago, followed by others last summer. They said they would see two boys and a girl with Brandt. They said they did not see three boys."

Details emerge in Troy child sex case
[WHIOTV 2/27/12 by Lou Grieco, Kelli Wynn and Mark Gokavi]

Man accused of child rape
[Dayton Daily News 2/29/12 by Kelli Wynn and Nancy Bowman]

Man used private Dayton adoption agency
[Dayton Daily News 2/29/12 by Mark Gokavi]

Accused rapist in process of adopting fourth

[Dayton Daily News 2/29/12 by Kelli Wynn, Lou Grieco and Mark Gokavi]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Jaren Wayne Blacksmith case-Child Death

2012-02-28T20:18:00.001-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Billings, Montana, this 2011 case just came to our attention. Three-year-old Jaren Wayne Blacksmith's body was found on August 17, 2011 in a hot car outside of location said to be a daycare. KULR states that it was the Little Praise Day Care Center. Outside temperatures reached 93 degrees that day. Jaren was a member of the Crow tribe.

The Billings Gazette says, "Lavonna Bird, 50, the child's foster mother, is being held in the Big Horn County Detention Center in Hardin on a state complaint charging her with negligent homicide in the Aug. 17 death of Jaren Wayne Blacksmith. Bond is set at $100,000.

But an application for a search warrant filed by the FBI said agents wanted to search a 2006 gray GMC Envoy for possible evidence of federal crimes, including assault resulting in serious bodily injury and murder.

According to an affidavit filed with the request for a search warrant, Bird assaulted the toddler while the vehicle was parked outside Indian Health Service (IHS) in Crow Agency.

Major crimes against Indians on Indian reservations are usually handled by the FBI.

While the cause of death was determined to be prolonged heat exposure, an autopsy showed fresh bruising to the scalp, forehead, right cheek, mid-shoulder and upper back.

The affidavit said Bird, who lives in Hardin, told investigators that she had traveled to the IHS dental clinic in the late morning with the boy and two other children, but was not able to get a walk-in appointment.

Bird said she put the children in back in her Envoy and drove back to Hardin. Blacksmith fell asleep on the way home. When she arrived in Hardin in the early afternoon, she left him to sleep with the windows of the vehicle rolled down, she said. About 6 p.m., she went to check on the child and found him dead, she said.

But one of the other children who was in the vehicle told investigators that the Blacksmith boy awoke when they arrived at the IHS clinic that morning and that Bird became upset with him. She said Bird assaulted the boy, slamming his head on the floor board and against a car window."

Ravalli Republic adds that " One of the children told investigators she became upset with the boy and slammed his head on the floor of the car and against one of its windows before driving back to Hardin.

Bird is accused of leaving the boy locked in the car once she got back."

The Billings Gazette/Sep 8 says " A woman charged with negligent homicide for the death of a 3-year-old boy found locked in a hot car was arraigned Thursday [September 8, 2011]in Big Horn County District Court.

Lavonna Bird, 50, appeared before Judge Blair Jones more than three weeks after the Aug. 17 death of Jaren Wayne Blacksmith, one of three foster children in Bird’s care.

Bird pleaded not guilty to the charge, and Jones maintained bond at $100,000 after rejecting a request form Bird’s attorney for a lesser amount.

Bozeman attorney John Hud represented Bird at the arraignment and told the judge that Bird has no prior criminal record. Bird is not a flight risk, Hud said, and she is charged with a crime of negligence, not a deliberate act. Hud asked the judge to set bond at $25,000 or $50,000.

Hud also suggested that conditions such as GPS monitoring and a curfew could be imposed to ensure Bird’s compliance with pre-trial release conditions.

Jones said he was concerned that Bird could flee to the Crow Reservation beyond state jurisdiction before her case can be resolved.

The judge suggested that he would consider reducing Bird’s bond later if she signs a waiver of extradition, which would allow authorities to return her to state jurisdiction from the reservation.

The judge also ordered that Bird have no contact with children outside the presence of another adult while her case is pending. Hud told Jones that Bird had three foster children in her care at the time of the boy’s death. She also has several grandchildren, the attorney said.

Bird and her husband, who is listed as a witness in the criminal case, also ran a day care for many years, Hud told the judge.

A trial date will be set later. At the conclusion of the court hearing Thursday, Bird was returned to the Big Horn County jail where she has been held in solitary confinement since her arrest."

"Prosecutors allege in court records that Jaren died from hyperthermia — or elevated body temperature — after being locked in a car at Bird’s residence for several hours on a day where the outside temperature reached 93 degrees.

The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call from the residence at about 6 p.m. Blacksmith was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Bird initially told authorities that she left the boy in the back of the car because he was sleeping and he was a fussy child when he woke up, according to charging documents filed by Chief Deputy County Attorney David Sibley.

“The timelines of when she had left the child in the vehicle changed multiple times, but each time (Bird) admitted that she had left the child in the vehicle,” court records state.

Bird also told investigators that she left the windows of the vehicle down, but Sibley alleges in court records that the investigation determined that the windows were up when the child was in the vehicle.

“Evidence was found in the back of the vehicle which indicated that there was likely someone in the back of the vehicle, attempting to escape and unable to do so,” Sibley said in court records.

Child locks on the vehicle doors were engaged, Sibley said."

Another child told authorities that Jaren was sleeping in the vehicle on the way to the clinic and awoke when they arrived. Bird became upset with him, the child witness said, and she assaulted the boy by slamming his head on the floor board and against a car window.

The child said Jaren appeared to go back to sleep, and he was left in the vehicle wrapped in blanket outside the clinic.

When they returned to Hardin, Jaren was again left in the vehicle, the child said. The child said she went to check on Blacksmith at about 2:30 p.m. and saw him flailing in the vehicle.

It was unclear Thursday if federal authorities, who have jurisdiction in major crimes against Indians on reservations, intend to file charges in the case.

A senior FBI agent in Billings said recently that the investigation was ongoing and that federal and state prosecutors would decide whether the case would proceed in state or federal court."

KULR says " A trial date has been set for Lavonna Bird.

She's charged in the death of 3-year-old Jaren Blacksmith in Hardin. If all goes as scheduled, Bird's trial will start April 23rd, 2012."
Sources:
INVESTIGATION INTO BOY FOUND DEAD IN CAR
[KULR8 8/19/11 by Nicole Grigg]

Child who died in hot car may have been beaten [The Billings Gazette 8/23/11 by Lorna Thackeray]

Hardin: Boy who died in hot car may have been beaten by foster mom
[Ravalli Republic 8/23/11 by Associated Press]

Hardin woman denies charge in death of child
[The Billings Gazette 9/8/11 by Greg Tuttle]
FOSTER MOTHER TO STAND TRIAL IN APRIL
[KULR8 11/1/11 by Chelsea Rabideau]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Pashia Henderson case-Child Death

2012-02-28T17:13:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Harrisburg, Illinois, foster child Pashia Jayline Henderson, 9 months old, died in a Cairo, Illinois foster home on January 1, 2012.

"Family seeks answers following baby’s death: A baby died on New Year’s Day in the care of a foster parent in Cairo. It shouldn’t've happened..."

January/February 2012 Print Headlines
[Disclosure News Online 1/17/12 by Angela Howser]

"Pashia Jayline Henderson, 9 months, of Harrisburg, died Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, at St. Frances Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo."

"She was born on March 30, 2011, in Henderson, Ky., to Jerome and Danielle (Hammond) Henderson."

Obituary Pashia Jayline Henderson
[Daily Register 1/4/12]

We include all child deaths in foster care and adoption in our How Could You? archives.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

RICO suit against Little Pearls Adoption Agency May Proceed

2012-02-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

Adoption Agency Can't Toss Couples' RICO Case [Courthouse News 2/27/12 by Marimer Matos] says "Couples trying to adopt children from Vietnam can pursue claims that an unlicensed adoption agency took deposits for adoptions it could not perform, a federal judge ruled.

In their March 2010 complaint, three couples and a would-be mom said the Little Pearls Adoptions Agency took their money with full knowledge that the adoptions would fail because the agency did not have a license.

Operating out of Tampa and South Pasadena, Fla., Little Pearls held itself out in ads "as being specialists in this area of adoptions of orphans from Vietnam," according to the complaint.

Little Pearls Adoptions Agency collected $133,000 to "hold" children for its clients, then informed them it had a "license issue," and refused to return the money.

In the federal racketeering complaint, the seven plaintiffs sued Debbie Fischer and Richard Feinberg, directors of Little Pearls when it was known as "An Angelic Choice."

Fischer moved to dismiss, claiming the plaintiffs failed to list the individuals who are actually responsible for deceptive actions, Maily La Trace and Marie LaTrace.

"Defendant's motion to dismiss lacks merit," U.S. District Judge James Moody wrote. "Even if the La Traces were intimately involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme, it is well-recognized that joint tortfeasors need not all be named in one lawsuit."

2010 and Previous Media

Seven Claim Adoption Agency Rolled Them [Courthouse News 3/24/10 by Marimer Matos] said "Couples trying to adopt children from Vietnam say the Little Pearls Adoptions Agency took $133,000 to "hold" children for them, then informed them it had a "license issue," and refuses to return the money. In the federal RICO complaint, the seven plaintiffs sued Debbie Fischer and Richard Feinberg, directors of Little Pearls, which formerly was known as "An Angelic Choice."

Little Pearls operates out of Tampa and South Pasadena, Fla., according to the complaint. The plaintiffs - three couples and a would-be mom - say the defendants took their money knowing that the adoptions couldn't be completed since the agency was not licensed.

They claim Little Pearls collected $133,000 in deposits, and then them a letter informing them about the "license issue," but claimed it would soon have a license.

Now the defendants refuse to return the deposits, according to the complaint.

The would-be parents claims Little Pearls "deceptively induced the plaintiffs into entering contracts to purchase adoptions services from them" and "encouraged [them] to send money immediately to 'hold' a child for adoption."

Little Pearls held itself out in ads "as being specialists in this area of adoptions of orphans from Vietnam," according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs seek punitive damages for fraud, breach of contract, and RICO violations.
They are represented by Sean Boynton."

PoundPup files can be found here .

Justia has some documents available here.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Not a One-Size-Fits-All-Approach

2012-02-28T14:35:00.001-05:00

This BBC article breaks from the adoption mantra that number of adoptions is the important statistic. Adoptions: Ofsted issues tougher new rules[BBC 2/26/12 by Angela Harrison]

The end of the article says it best: "The prime minister has called for early adoption to be made a priority, saying that this greatly improves a vulnerable child's chances in life.

Ofsted will bring in the changes from April. As well as looking at delays, inspectors will look at:

Whether adoption has been considered as an option for all children in care
Evidence that adoption has been considered early and not "as a last resort"
Whether siblings are adopted together where possible
The vetting process for people who want to adopt
Support given to those who adopt

John Goldup, Ofsted's deputy chief inspector, said the new framework "would make it much harder" to get a "good" or an "outstanding" rating.

"Everything we are publishing today is about raising our expectations for our children. It is essential that children in care, often the most vulnerable, get the very best support to have a happy, stable and fulfilling childhood, " he said.

"That is why we want to raise standards further and focus on what real difference is being made to children's lives.

"Our scrutiny of delays in the adoption process will help focus and bring forward a smooth and quicker adoption process. The earlier children are identified for adoption and placed with a family the better the chances that adoption will be successful."

In November, the government published details of how long adoptions took in different local authorities and other information, such as how well children in care did at school in each area.

Delays in adoption can often occur in the legal system.

Most children who are adopted now have been removed from parents who are judged by the authorities to be unable to look after them and parents will challenge the decisions in the family courts.

In previous generations, more would have been given up by their parents.

The body which represents the heads of children's services in councils in England, the Association of Directors of Children's Services, has said it is committed to adoption and to improving the current system for approving adopters - but that adoption is not the only way of providing children with a permanent home.

It says long-term fostering or arrangements where a child is put in the care of grandparents can also be good options for a child.

Experts say adoptions are not always suitable for older children, particularly teenagers, and that such adoptions are more likely to break down.

ADCS president Matt Dunkley said last week: "What is important is that the needs of the child are paramount in all such decisions, taking into account their age and any additional needs and the likelihood of finding an adoptive family for them.

"We must not over‐simply what it a complex and life-changing decision."

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Dual Russian/US Citizen Returns Adopted Twin Toddlers to Russian Adoption Authority UPDATED

2012-02-28T14:25:00.001-05:00

Hmmmmm.......

"A pair of 15-month-old twins was returned to a St. Petersburg adoption authorities by an unidentified man, the city’s child ombudsman said on Tuesday.

“The twins were left on the doorstep of the Moskovskaya Zastava adoption authority. An unidentified man brought them in a baby carriage and left quickly,” St. Petersburg child ombudsman Svetlana Agapitova said.

The babies were adopted by a St. Petersburg resident last October. The adoptive mother, however, faced legal problems after a probe revealed that she failed to notify authorities about her dual Russian-U.S. citizenship as well as having an American husband.

The woman was originally advised to get a letter of consent from her husband before the adoption. It was unclear how she was able to document the adoption without her husband's involvement.

“However, she decided… to abandon the twins. Moreover, she decided not to do this in person,” the ombudsman said.

A probe has been launched and the woman was put on a wanted list. The babies are currently under medical supervision in a children's hospital."

Twins Returned to Adoption Agency's Doorstep
[RIA Novosti 2/28/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:"Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman has called for a full ban on US adoptions of Russian children. The move follows an American couple’s shocking decision to abandon baby twins on the cold streets of Saint Petersburg.

Children’s Right Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov demanded “the suspension of the issuance of documents on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens” until a bilateral agreement on child adoptions between Russia and the US is ratified.

His strong words came after a Russian citizen holding a US passport abandoned her adopted children in Saint Petersburg this week.

According to reports, an unidentified man brought the children to a Saint Petersburg custodial organization on Monday with a note saying the kids' "foster mother had given them up."

A search warrant has been issued for the woman, who had concealed the fact that she was a US citizen married to a foreigner when she adopted the children.

"This US citizen's immoral and illegal act is destroying the work done by the US to bring order to adoption issues. Unfortunately, the US is currently unable to protect children adopted in Russia," Astakhov's press service said, Interfax reports.

Saying the two children were adopted by an "absolutely immoral person," Astakhov further went on to say that "people should lose their US citizenship over such actions.”

The latest outrage follows a stream of instances where adopted Russian children were mistreated at the hands of adoptive US parents.

In March 2010, an American couple was arrested for systematically torturing their three adopted daughters.

The same year, Russia suspended adoptions after a Tennessee woman put her unaccompanied 7 year-old adopted son on a flight back to Russia because she didn’t want him anymore.

Last July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a bilateral agreement on child adoptions. The agreement will require psychological testing for the adoptive parents, and require them to adopt strictly through accredited adoption agencies.

However, the agreement is yet to be ratified by Russian lawmakers.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign ministry had also said the adoption of Russian children by US citizens should be put on hold until the bilateral agreement is ratified.The ministry’s statement followed the decision by a Pennsylvania court to give “an unreasonably soft sentence” to a woman convicted of viciously abusing her adopted daughter."

Left out in the cold: Russian official demands full ban on US adoptions
[RT 2/29/12 by Reuters / Ilya Naymushin]

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Gabriel Trujillo-Child Death

2012-02-28T13:25:00.001-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Commerce City, Colorado, guardian and grandmother Doris Becky Trujillo,60, was arrested on February 14, 2012 for the blunt force trauma head and neck injuries of 4-year-old Gabriel Trujillo that resulted in his death. She was charged on February 21, 2012 with child abuse and first degree murder.

Gabriel and his sisters, Krista and Monique, were in Doris' custody since March 2011.

Gabriel was "found unconscious" on Valentine's Day after Doris called 911 saying that a child had fallen and was rushed to Children's Hospital Colorado

in Aurora. He was taken off life support and died on February 17, 2012.

CPS History
"Concerned neighbours first asked for a welfare check in September last year, 9News reported."

"Then in January this year Gabriel had a broken arm and bruises to his face and lip.
Just a week before the injury that took his life, the little boy's paternal grandmother had asked for a welfare check.

Elizabeth Trujillo was worried about photos she had seen in which Gabriel had large bruises. She told welfare officers Doris had taken Gabriel out of Head Start and that he was getting hurt at home.

Social workers did not

go to the home but advised her to call police.

Police went to the home on February 7, but when Elizabeth Trujillo called back the following day, officers said they would not go back because the family seemed normal.

Now the devastated grandparent says she feels that if police had listened to her concerns and checked on her grandson he would still be alive."

"Family friend Frank Rios, said he also saw the boy being abused.

Speaking through tears, he told the station: 'He put up with a lot and went through a lot of abuse, I know he did.'"

"The state has opened an investigation looking into possible mistakes made in the lead up to Gabriel's death."

'He didn't even get a chance with life': Four-year-old was 'abused to death by his grandmother'
[Daily Mail 2/22/12 by Hannah Roberts]

"Trujillo is next scheduled to appear in court for a setting hearing on Feb. 28.[2012]"

Toddler died from trauma, grandma charged
[9 News 2/21/12 by Blair Schiff]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

CPS and police investigations were pathetic...

Why Does the Adoption Lobby Annoy Me? They All Get Along

2012-02-28T12:23:00.000-05:00

REFORM Talk's guest blogger Reformatina provides a prelude to this week's adoption blog theme, "Why the adoption establishment annoys me." Blog owner Rally's post will appear later in the week.

Why do they bug me?

They all get along. Yes, you heard me, it's annoying.

This is one of those weeks when I realize why we haven't developed a united front against the adoption industry. If you take a look at CCAI/NCFA/JCICS, their goals are similiar: to keep the institution of adoption alive and well and seen in an all-positive manner, even when it's not.

That is their goal. In 2012, there are plenty cracks in their carefully crafted agenda, with the ongoing exposure of chronic trafficking, agency lying, parent and child coercion, and corruption. Despite the heinousness of these crimes and the staunchness of the denial, these industry members have one thing in common: They all have each other's backs.

Why can’t reformers do the same?

I realized last week that I have not been out of my zone in a while. I find working on these issues is tough when I am reading PAP blogs entitled “Journey to Whoever,” knowing not only what they are going to face but that they are incapable of listening to anyone outside of the adoption lobby. But when you are working just in your zone and on the issues in front of you, it is easy not to look around and see what the general thoughts are in the adoption galaxy. So I took a peek around the reform community last week and I noticed something that is flawed in reform: Lack of compassion. And that is sad because it is the one place where it should be.

Today I am not calling out the establishment because they have more than enough compassion--to keep their high paid jobs and positions of power. They know who their enemy is—it’s any critic of their agenda. The reformers, on the other hand, often seem to have a vague sense of common goals to achieve and virtually no agreement on exactly what they want to accomplish. If you sit and listen to members from different groups you will find commonalities...that coercion is bad, fraud is bad, huge amounts of money, bad. And these are relatively easy issues to agree on for those who have critical thinking skills and a heart.

Where this community loses its focus and power is in the coming together. When I say "we" I mean the community of reform at large. I believe the two greatest hurdles we need to overcome are ego and lack of compassion. Both are relatively easy to get past if you do the work. Both can be overcome by exercising the ability to step into another person's shoes and sit there for a moment and consider how adoption has affected them.

It occurred to me that very few people try to do this. Instead, they jump to preconceived judgments about others when coming into an effort to reform something. They marginalize. I have watched the reform movement discard or push out some genuinely good and thoughtful people over the years due to its own biases and sometimes downright meanness.

But why do we do this if we’re all supposed to be on the same reform-goal page?

Adoptee who speaks about loss or issues of abuse in adoptive families = Angry Adoptee.

(Underlying message: ungrateful, out of control, not to be trusted, invalid opinions)

First parent who speaks of coercion or loss = Unprocessed.

(Underlying message: If you were a good person you would have found a way to parent. Now you need to move on and get over it.)

Adoptive parent with a child who has serious challenges = Bad, ungrateful parent.

(Underlying message: Everything you do is wrong unless you are raising a healthy, happy well-adjusted child. And don't you dare say there are issues that resulted from things that happened before adoption--those are your fault too.)

Prospective adoptive parent who loses their life savings to adoption fraud or agency incompetence = Sucker.
(Underlying message: They are the reason for the problems so if they lose their money it's their fault.)

Did any of those smart a little? Now step into the other shoes and try them on. How do those feel?

Lack of compassion is huge in this community. The list is long--lack of compassion for adoptees, for placing parents, for duped parents, for APs who were duped by agencies, for children in homes affected by traumatized children, for the traumatized child, and on and on.

There are many people I admittedly have trouble developing compassion for. These include agencies, lobbyists, APs who know they are getting/have a trafficked child and don't care one iota. That's not who I am talking about here.

In the reform community, there is way too much ego. I think it’s in part because in a community with critically thinking persons who have a lot of drive, ego is bound to get in the way. Such as:

*I know what needs to change so I don't need to listen (much less try to understand) to others’ experiences.

*We have more "connections" than they do so how dare they try to change things.

*How dare they get involved in this fight? They are the reason it happened in the first place.

*I want credit for change therefore I won't share my information with anyone else lest they push this measure through and take the glory.

*I would not have done THAT, therefore my agenda is valid and theirs is not.

People, listen to me, please. It’s way past time to put all of this down. Everyone needs to show some compassion. Everyone has been affected in some negative way by adoption--if not, we wouldn't be here. For some the loss and pain is more than for others, so have the goodness to listen and respect it, even if you can't come to a place to agree.

Recognize the common enemies: greed, lies, ego, ignorance, hate, stereotypes. These should be our targets.

If we put aside our differences, imagine what we as a group could do.

Hypocrisy in the “special” child

2012-02-27T19:22:00.000-05:00

We can’t count how many times that we’ve have heard a PAP advocate about how special and unique the child that they are about to adopt is. Really, we understand anticipating your life with a referred child and all that brings. That’s what moves people to adopt, after all.

But we also read a lot of gushing over children who aren’t yet cleared for adoption. Or that might just be a pipe dream because the PAPs have big hopes and no money to pay for them.

Thanks to a reader who emailed us this blog, we have just seen pre-adoption gushing taken to an entirely new level—one that has left our jaws agape. (And trust us, that takes a lot.)

This blogger made an incredibly awful decision when her first “referral” did not work out. She decided NOT to tell her biological children that the child they adopted from the Ukraine instead is a DIFFERENT child.

Worse, this wasn’t even a real referral. We refer to it as a “faux” referral because you can’t actually legally have a referral for Ukraine before you travel. You must travel blind. You cannot legal have any guaranteed referral for ANY child no matter what any agency or ministry tells you. (Hi there, Reece’s Rainbow! Paying by the rules again, are you, honey?) If you do adopt a pre-identified child, you are in violation of Ukranian adoption law and you ought to be stopped.

To read these comments for yourself, go to
http://www.yourlovewillcarryme.blogspot.com/2012/02/your-love-will-carry-me.html

Excerpt from the post:

“I was worried that Kyle and Brandon would be able to tell that Zoey was not Alaina. God answered a prayer and as soon as they saw the picture of Zoey, they exclaimed “Alaina!” And for the most part they call her Lainey now, and not Alaina. So thankful for that!”

You have to track back a few posts to understand why they did not adopt that faux-referred child. See http://www.yourlovewillcarryme.blogspot.com/2012/02/difficult-post.html

“In order for us to be able to adopt Alaina, we have to have the approval and support of the orphanage social worker; she must testify in court that Alaina would be a good fit for our family We do not have that support. Alaina has aggressive behaviors that go above what would normally be expected of a child with DS. She does not like other children. She prefers individual attention from adults. They will strongly recommend that she is placed in a family that has no other children or significantly older children.

I can’t even begin to put into words how emotionally exhausted and crushed we are. We truly fell in love with that sweet face.

I know many of you are crushed and disappointed as well. So many of you have prayed and cried over Alaina. So many of you have had her picture on your walls or refrigerator for what seem like years. “

Setting aside the illegal picture of the child on the refrigerator part, I have to say, that maybe those prayers ACTUALLY WERE ANSWERED and the child may be placed in home that is MOST SUITABLE for her. Remember, adoption is supposed to be about best placement of the child, not FOR the AP who “fell in love.”

Bizarrely, there is no mention about Reece’s taking in money for this child who couldn’t be placed. Obviously whatever information that they had gotten on this child (and it begs the question on HOW they get ANY information on ANY child since getting it would have been in violation of Ukranian adoption law) was not accurate. Why this concerns no one escapes me. They are on to "advocating" a second time for this child.

If you think something is very wrong in the Ukraine, guess what—you’re right!

China and Pre-adoption Contact

2012-02-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

We made a stir with a post on January 10, 2012 when we discussed two disgusting behind-the-scenes adoption schemes.

We now will cast one of those schemes—PAPs being charged by an outside party for contact and information about a “waiting” child--into a new light. We should have known better than to think this was a new and innovative money-making opportunity. In fact, it was competition for an already established business!

Yes, that’s right. There has been a very OPENLY advertised business doing this for quite some time . It even boasts of 700 contacts made pre-adoption. OBVIOUSLY NO GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY cares--or do they? (See Wasatch reference below.)

The business has such a sweet name too: Ladybugs N Love. It is run by a former facilitator for the adoption agency All God’s Children International.

See http://ladybugsnlove.com/catalog.php?category=14

“We are making orphanage calls!

Angela spent over 4 years as a facilitator for an American adoption agency. She forged relationships with many SWI personnel in this time. Angela has made over 700 orphanage calls to date. She knows the culture and boundaries set by the various orphanage staff.

We have received photos from approximately 95% of these calls. Angela has a way with the SWI staff and she can usually get most questions answered within 7-10 business days.

*We have even been able to get new information
for prospective parents in the 48 hours window
for locking in a file on the shared list.*

We are always willing to try to ask for updates and have successfully asked for more medical information and tests for some of our clients.

IF YOU NEED HELP, WE WILL TRY TO GET ANSWERS!

If we ever receive sensitive new information about your child, the first call we make is to your agency to notify them.

(for instance, we have found that a child has passed away...or has had surgery...or has a new medical condition.)

CURRENTLY THE FOLLOWING ORPHANAGES ARE NOT COOPERATING WITH US FOR UPDATES:

KunMing, Yunnan

BeiJing CWI

Hangzhou SWI

Chongqing ( need LOA BEFORE UPDATE)

Feng Cheng

GANSU province SWIs

EFFECTIVE 10/31/2011 -
Wasatch has asked their families to work directly with their agency for getting updates and sending packages. "

Wait a minute… didn’t Wasatch JUST get suspended for SN placements? Hmmm…don’t you love all this marketing? “These orphanages are NOT COOPERATING”. That is agency-speak for THESE ARE THE ONLY ORPHANAGES FOLLOWING THE RULES!!!!!!!

Care Packages

Not only does Ladybugs N Love make calls, you can send care packages to your waiting orphan through their service. See http://ladybugsnlove.com/catalog.php?category=8

"BASE CARE PACKAGE

The base care package letter and service fee is $35.00
This includes a letter up to 600 words and the fee for our time/energy to get your package ready to go. Many times this involves personal shopping to honor requests.

YOU MUST PURCHASE THIS BASE PACKAGE TO SEND A CARE PACKAGE.

"Add ons" are found below and on the following pages.

**These item are bought at the cost you pay--there is no mark-up***
They include:
a camera w/loaded film and battery - $12.00, candy/nuts - $8.00,
photo album - $12.00, three photos - $4.00,books - $6.00, blanket - $10.00, age appropriate toy - $10.00, stuffed animal - $8.00,
decorated cake - $25.00, photo pillow - $30.00
seasonal outfit - $30.00, Self Addessed Stamped envelope to Angela-$3.00”

Now we have been told that if you are an “advocate,” you get a discount for some services. I feel like I am in a cheesy infomercial. Maybe they could throw in a BlanKid buddy or a Snuggie for Dogs while they are at it.

Hague

Hague regulations Chapter 2, Article 4 (c )(2) and (3) talks about giving consent FREELY and not induced by payment or compensation of ANY kind found at this link and pasted below

http://www.hcch.net/upload/conventions/txt33en.pdf

“the State of origin –

a) have established that the child is adoptable;

b) have determined, after possibilities for placement of the child within the State of origin have been given due consideration, that an intercountry adoption is in the child's best interests;

c) have ensured that

(1) the persons, institutions and authorities whose consent is necessary for adoption, have been counselled as may be necessary and duly informed of the effects of their consent, in particular whether or not an adoption will result in the termination of the legal relationship between the child and his or her family of origin,

(2) such persons, institutions and authorities have given their consent freely, in the required legal form, and expressed or evidenced in writing,

(3) the consents have not been induced by payment or compensation of any kind and have not been withdrawn, and

(4) the consent of the mother, where required, has been given only after the birth of the child”

Pre-adoption contact, which seems to be completely contrary to Hague regulations is a long-time, lucrative “adoption service” being provided by a former agency representative.

Just as the “special focus” program is a free-for-all for frothing adoption agencies clamoring to get the next kid locked for themselves so they can get the precious 1 healthy child for every 5 Special Needs children placed, these side businesses are all allowed to continue as they did before China was a Hague country.

I would really like to know why the US bothered to sign the Hague if its regulations are so brazenly flaunted—for profit.

Perhaps former facilitator Angela would like to comment. We’d love to know all about her “special” relationship with orphanages. PAPs need to know what these relationships are like too.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Guest Blogger Barbara McArtney on Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys Me

2012-02-27T16:14:00.000-05:00

REFORM Talk begins the Unofficial Why the Adoption Establishment Annoys the out of Me week with a bonus guest post by Barbara McArtney. Barbara is an adult adoptee, adoptive parent, lawyer and social worker. She has worked on reform for many years.

The dirty secret is out.

IA is about competing for children on a financial basis. No oversight, no respect for country, triad or human rights. No real social work or reunification, /extended family placement efforts. Even if the $ doesn’t end up in a directors, facilitator or official’s or birthparent’s pocket, the paradigm is the same. AID and Support = referrals. Regardless of the US legal definition of trafficking – this IS trafficking. It is buying babies and inducing the creation of laundered orphans in too many cases if not most in places like Nepal. The industry dominated the meaningless Hague reforms that just encourage agencies to CYA not improve practices. Every country the Industry enters has been dirtied and only created problems and anger in its wake. If this is such wonderful, helpful work, where’s the accolades from countries, HR groups and ANYONE outside the industry? It faces nothing but criticism from all but its insiders. There has been a lack of any meaningful enforcement or improvement. Just the same rush to country to make as much money as possible before it closes due to their own illegal actions. There is no preservation of identity or family relationships. The closed model of adoption is the norm and has been proven by research to be bad for children yet it continues.

I do believe that adoption can be a viable solution in some countries but not in the way its practiced currently. Get the money out and then we will know the REAL need (or lack thereof) for international adoption. If the money were taken out, how fast would the profiteering industry vanish? The agencies doing this work may have had good intentions going in but they have only contributed to the problems by succumbing to market demand, baby bidding, corruption and trafficking. Any agency who says they don’t play this game IS LYING unless their fee structure is radically different from the norm and 100% transparent for ANYONE not just COA or state licensing. Until we face up to the ugly truth that this is money driven, not child or family centered nothing will change and the US will continue to be the biggest offender.

USG needs to stop this on our end with enforcement, reform and strict transparent fee caps.where there is infrastructure to control it. No developing country will be able to stop corruption where there is this much financial inducement to create ” inventory”.

This industry’s influence is rapidly waning. They have discredited themselves, they been shown to be harmful and an enemy to children and family rights. JCICS is laughable in their efforts to reinvent themselves as champions of children after every dirty trick in the book hasn’t increased adoption revenues. Now they want be THE ANSWER? They are refashioning as selfless purveyors of humanitarian aid and world wide networks for all children. (provided someone will pay them to do so or they can eventually squeeze in adoption!)

The “industry” stinks like a rotten fish from the head down.

REFORM Talk Notice-Congo-February 27, 2012

2012-02-27T10:58:00.000-05:00

Once again, we are doing the job that DOS won't do. Discussions of "Child trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of children" and agency intimidation for coming forward with concerns are going on in the DRC (Congo) adoptive parent community... enough for us to give a warning to not proceed with a DRC adoption at this time.

See Alama ya Kitumaini "Sign of Hope" for what prospective adoptive parents should be DEMANDING from their agencies.

They include asking about how money is spent in DRC; expedited fees; money use in orphanage and by orphanage director; investigations of corruption; and reunification of child to original/extended family efforts.

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Unofficial “Why the adoption establishment annoys me” Blog Week UPDATED

2012-02-27T10:23:00.007-05:00

Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees have launched this great effort.

We at REFORM Talk are proud to be participating. Our "official" and "bonus" posts will be posted later this week. We will link to all blogger's entries in this post.

The posts:

www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-week-my-top-5.html

adoptionechoes.com/2012/02/27/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me/

http://www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-week-what-bugs-me-about-adoption.html

http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/02/guest-blogger-barbara-mcartney-on-why.html

http://thirdmom.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-adoption-establishment-annoys-me.html

http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-does-adoption-lobby-annoy-me-they.html

http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/02/29/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me-an-lga-conversation/

http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/03/01/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me-final-thoughts/

http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-annoys-me-about-adoption.html

http://rebecca-hawkes.blogspot.com/2012/03/five-for-friday-why-adoption.html

http://jessicasunlee.com/thislife/2012/03/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me/

http://anotherversionofmother.com/2012/03/02/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me-i-am-just-a-girl/

http://www.declassifiedadoptee.com/2012/03/fine-line-between-feeling-and-fact-in.html

British Couple Caught Smuggling "Adopted" Child Out of Pakistan

2012-02-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

"A Pakistani-British couple arrested in Gilgit Airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle an infant out of the country, may be charged with human trafficking, according to official sources on Saturday.

The couple, Hafeez Rajab Ali and Arsh Noor, who are British citizens were arrested at the Gilgit airport when they were about to board an airplane for Islamabad. They had arrived in Gilgit a week ago to adopt an orphan and were staying at a hotel. Their arrest lead intelligence agencies to a chain believed to have links with an offshore child-smuggling ring.

“There are chances that other children may also have been smuggled out of this region in the past,” disclosed an official, adding that a detailed investigation is under way. The police said they did not know yet whether the child’s parents were aware of the adoption, though locals suspected of involvement have been arrested for interrogation.

On Saturday, the police produced the couple before a local court for physical remand for further investigation, while their lawyer submitted an application for bail to the judge. However, the court sought time to study the case before taking a decision. Noor has subsequently been shifted to a women’s police station.

During preliminary investigations, the couple informed investigators that they were interested in adopting a child and that they had contacted a local woman running a private maternity home for assistance, who sold them a two-month old baby. She has allegedly facilitated adoptions of children before.

Adoption of children by foreigners came into the limelight a few years ago, after Gilgit-Baltistan’s Supreme Appellate Court, taking suo motu notice, asked a Gilgit-based NGO to explain how children had been entrusted to the care of foreigners."

Child smuggling: British couple face trafficking charges
[The Express Tribune 2/26/12 by Shabbir Mir]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Mary Roelofs

2012-02-25T10:55:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Princeton, Minnesota, 46-year-old foster mother, Mary Roelofs, has been charged with "cruel punishment, endangerment and neglect of a child" in an incident involving a 3-year-old child of an employee that she was babysitting. She was "widely-respected" for fostering 300 children over 24 years.

"Mille Lacs County District Court records say 46-year-old Mary Roelofs of Princeton put a 3-year-old boy out in the cold in little clothing, and even withheld food as punishment when he didn’t do as she instructed.

Court records show on December 9, 2011, Mary Roelofs was caring for the child of one of her employees. That mother noticed a bruise on her boy, and the child’s doctor was concerned about the extent of the bruises on his upper body.

When questioned by authorities, Roelofs told investigators she “grabbed him and put him in the garage” and admitted to putting him outside in the cold when he didn’t sweep the floor. She said she put him out in the cold three or four times, because that was how the boy’s mother punished him, and she was trying to be consistent.

Authorities say the weather in Minnesota that day ranged between 5 and 17 degrees. A witness at the home told investigators the boy was outside with a T-shirt and “pull-up” diaper.

Other court allegations include punching the boy after he pushed another child, saying, “How do you like to be bullied?” Records also say Roelofs withheld food and naps as punishment.

When asked to explain the bruises on the child’s upper body, Roelofs told Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s deputies she didn’t remember doing anything that would have injured the boy. According to court records, she said she didn’t recall being frustrated, but added that “it’s possible on any given day to step over the line, but that’s not her goal.”

"At her home, Roelofs referred WCCO to her attorney, Kevin DeVore, saying she couldn’t comment with the pending case.

“I can tell you they are absolutely devastated and shocked because of the charges,” said DeVore. “They’ve dedicated their lives to caring for some of the most troubled youth and adults in the state.”

"“Mary Roelofs will vigorously defend herself against these charges. Her day in court will come and she will have her opportunity to tell her side of the story, and I know when that happens it will be clear she is innocent of these charges,” said DeVore.

Roelofs’ foster children were removed from the home as part of the protocol with the investigation.
Roelofs appears in court Tuesday [February 28, 2012]. If convicted of the charges, she could face up to nine years in prison or a $22,000 dollar fine."

Foster Mom Accused Of Child Endangerment, Neglect
[CBS Local Minnesota 2/24/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Kendall Graham

2012-02-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

FacePalm Friday

2012-02-24T19:25:00.000-05:00

Welcome to this week’s edition of FacePalm Friday.

This is where your hosts will list their top picks for this week’s FacePalm moment—something they learned or read about this week that caused the FacePalm to happen (you know, the expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, shock, disgust or mixed humor as depicted in our Rally FacePalm smiley).

We invite you to add your FacePalm of the week to our comments. Go ahead and add a link, tell a personal story, or share something that triggered the FacePalm on the subject of child welfare or adoption.

Your Host's Selections:

(1) New Ghana Program NOT "reason to celebrate"
From the PR wing of Bethany Christian Services, One News Now

""After they saw our foster care program in Ethiopia, we were invited by government officials to partner with them in order to work on inter-country adoption, foster care, domestic adoption and family reunification." Their adoption program began this year.

Children available for adoption from Ghana may have a history of malnourishment, low birth weight, and/or have other undiagnosed medical needs.

As a pilot program, Batts says, "We're working with the government and also through the churches to identify potential foster families, and we're assisting with the provision of training to those foster families." Government backing gives them credibility, too.

Because they partner with the local church, Bethany can get a better feel for the needs of the community. The church acts as both evangelist and disciple for those in the program, too. "Our staff in Ghana are all Christians, and that's something that will continue. Many of the foster families will be Christians as we will find them through the Church."

But they are NOT there to evangelize and proselytize. Sure!

"We have an office in Ghana, and they're working directly with orphanages and the region to figure out which children could be reunified with their families, which ones could be placed in foster care/domestic adoption within Ghana, and which ones may be best placed in inter-country adoption."

We will guess that the young girls will be deemed "best placed in inter-country adoption, " right?

(2)Everyone thinks they are an adoption advocate. Now US APs are using PR statements for Ethiopia. http://www.prweb.com/releases/RuthAnnBox/02/prweb9210497.htm

(3) International Adoption will be FIRST for Bethany in Uganda

As always, this is how US agencies set up programs. They first get all of the young ,healthy kids out. And only THEN do they work on family preservation. Of course they can save the whole country, too!

Bethany steps into overwhelming orphan problem in Uganda

"Ethical ministries and orphan care programs are desperately needed to ensure that Uganda's millions of children receive nourishment, care.." Ok, we agree with this part...but then

"and the hope of a Savior who loves them.

Enter Bethany Christian Services. A few months ago, Bethany launched a program in Uganda.

"We saw a need to develop more of a structured inter-country adoption program, as currently there are some ethical issues with completing Uganda adoptions," explains Bethany's Kim Batts. "So we want to come in and develop a better system."

It's difficult work. Weeks have gone by as the ministry works with the Ugandan government to get a better adoption system in place. "We are just processing our first case now," says Batts.

Besides the time commitment, navigating the waters of values in a sometimes-corrupt system has been hard, as well. "I think that the biggest challenge we face is just ensuring everything is done in a very transparent, very ethical way," says Batts.

Thankfully, Bethany is making headway. Batts says the ministry is working with an experienced law firm and has contracted a social service worker. They plan to move into foster care and domestic adoption later down the road, which will involve the local church in a significant way. "

They admit that there is corruption and that they JUST got a social worker on board but they already are processing a case!

(4) Back to Basketball fundraisers. Now Babies of Destiny...

Students Play Ball to Help Ugandan Babies

"For every three-pointer, the teams make, sponsors donate money to the "Babies of Destiny" project in Kampala, Uganda"

"Babies of Destiny" rescues these children and takes them to the Destiny Village of Hope, where they receive care and become candidates for adoption."

They "become" candidates for adoption.

(5) Adoption mum 'let down' by law despite court order The article should be called how to on the adoption that you opened.

"It took over a year to prove my case and yet all of the law should have immediately validated our family status.

"I had to be evaluated over a year to prove I was a supportive parent and in the end I was highly praised."

Of course, this is about your self-esteem and need of validation.

"A spokeswoman for Warwickshire Police said they had not taken action against the birth mother since there were no powers of arrest under the court order.

She added the birth mother's actions had been investigated thoroughly, with officers deciding no harrassment offences had been committed."

(6) South Florida Families Among Many Who Face Adoption Heartbreak

It is sad that someone has spent $90,000 and 28 trips. ""An influential Guatemalan attorney [I wonder who that would be?] helped the family win their case but Albert and Robin Sarkees from North Florida aren’t as lucky. They have made 28 trips to Guatemala and spent almost 90 thousand dollars in the hopes of bringing Micah home – a boy they met as a newborn. That was 4 and half years ago."

Their story was also at http://guatemala900.org/wp/?p=1845 where it says "Narrator: In Micah’s case, says Robin, a birth mother was identified and even though in the beginning she said that she wanted the adoption to continue, she has recently disappeared. Today, the case is in the hands of a judge."

Disturbing! "recently disappeared"?

Pair of stupid quotes

(1) "South Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says families are being held as political pawns by some countries as the U.S. holds countries to a higher standard when it comes to adoptions.

“There’s no doubt that the Guatemalan government and the Vietnamese government want to send the US government a message that they feel discriminated against that they feel slighted and their using the pain of these American families to send a message to the state department as pawns to the state department to say approve us, find some waiver get us in this adoption program again and we’ll let these children go.”

(2)"Lehtinen says she doesn’t expect any fast resolution for these families or for the high number of Guatemalan adoptions to return to what they were in the foreseeable future."

Guatemala and the US have no plans to go forward with new adoptions or is there something that you know that no one else does?

"The Sarkees’ say it’s a possibility Micah could eventually be adopted by a Guatemalan family. Other families just like theirs have recently been told their children are being adopted domestically. But they say that until that happens they’ll continue to fight to bring him home."

ALL the children have that possibility as that is what Hague is for. WHY would anyone that is "for the children" want a child to WAIT for a family when one could be found in their home country.

India "Adoption Racket" Arrested

2012-02-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

This time, a cook with the social welfare department is accused of selling a baby from an orphanage.

"Vijaya Sonawane, 48, the cook with the social welfare department who had allegedly sold a baby from the orphanage to a childless couple recently, her accomplice, Ratna Obale, and Pradhan and Babli Kanojia, who sold their baby for Rs 2.3 lakh, were arrested on Thursday evening.

DCP Dr. Shivajirao Rathod said, “We have arrested all those involved in the racket. We also have three teams that will continue to work on the case.”

"On Wednesday, the social welfare department had issued a 24-hour notice to Sonawane to vacate the department quarters.

On Thursday, Sonawane was seen loading her belongings into a tempo after she had vacated the quarters. When she spotted the reporter, she began to cry loudly, warning the reporter against taking any photographs. She even threatened to commit suicide if pictures were taken and said she would name in her suicide note all those who had ‘landed’ her in this situation. However, 10 minutes later, she calmed down and started to tell her story.

She said until a few days ago she had been working as a cook and earning Rs 25,000. She said one Umesh Sonawane [the tabloid reporter, who had changed his name when he met the woman] and his wife came to her and told her that they were from Nashik, which is Vijaya Sonawane’s native place, and that they had no child despite being married for many years.

“So, I spoke to the north Indian couple Pradhan and Babli Kanojia with the help of Ratna Obale. The family is very poor and they have five children. They readily agreed to part with their newborn, happy that the child would go to a good family,” Sonawane said.

She said she was taking the advice of an advocate and would file an application in the Ulhasnagar court for anticipatory bail. “I have not taken a single penny of the amount given to the Kanojias,” she said."
Adoption racket: All accused in case arrested
[Hindustan Times 2/24/12 by Kiran Sonawane]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Wasatch Suspended by CCCWA from Special Needs China Program

2012-02-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

According to Wasatch's website http://www.wiaa.org/chinanews.asp "Due to a suspension by CCCWA, Wasatch is unable to accept new clients into our China adoption program. All families currently in the adoption process will not be affected by this suspension. All individual list children have been released to the shared list."

Another adoption agency reported in January 2012 that CCCWA was concerned about a facilitator who works for multiple agencies and the procedure for locking in children's files during the matching process. We do not know if this suspension is related to the file-locking procedure.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Baby Trafficking Ring-Vietnam

2012-02-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

"The Hanoi People’s Court Tuesday opened the trial of a former nurse at the Vietnam National Ob-gyn Hospital who used her position to run a baby trafficking ring.

Nguyen Thi Kim Chi told the court that she had noticed many women having unexpected and unwanted pregnancies while sterile couples pined for children, so she thought of connecting the two, the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper reported

The indictment said that Chi and her husband Dang Quang Hy had conducted four successful transactions between January 2009 and November 2010, earning around US$5,000.

Chi will be charged with baby trafficking under the Penal Code, which carries a wide range of punishments between ten years in jail to life sentence.

In January 2009, Chi took a newborn from Tran Thi Thao and sold him several days later to Pham Van Hoa and his wife for VND35 million (US$1,680).

Chi's trial had been delayed after she was weakened by a stroke that she suffered after she was arrested for the crime."

The 59-year-old former nurse said that after she retired, she returned regularly to big ob-gyn hospitals in the capital, getting acquainted with the hospitals’ staff and drivers outside the hospitals and having them introduce unwanted babies to sterile couples."

Former nurse on trial for baby trafficking in Vietnam
[Thahn Nien News 2/22/12]

Previous Vietnam Trafficking posts can be found here, here and here.

Stopping the Industry Spin on Bac Lieu Province Adoptions post can be found here.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

This serves as a reminder that doctors, nurses and hospitals are often involved in baby trafficking.

Baby Trafficking Ring-Indonesia

2012-02-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

"Little did Anah, 29, know that finding new home for her children could get her into trouble with the law.

Without little means of support and next to no knowledge about legal issues, the mother of two decided to give up her next child when she found out she was two months' pregnant.

Anah, who works as a house helper in Bogor, West Java, gave birth to twin boys on Feb. 10.

With a deadbeat husband and no money to pay for hospital bills, Anah resolved to offer her unnamed newborns for adoption.

Anah said that her family could not offer much help. She lives with her parents and 12 other relatives in a two-bedroom home. Her father is a farmer and has been ill for the last two months. Anah said that her income as a housemaid was not enough to raise four children.

One week after the twin's birth, a woman identified as MS, a 49-year-old shopkeeper, came to Anah's house and offered a solution.

MS promised that she would take the twins to her relatives and gave Anah Rp 1.85 million (S$258) to cover her medical fees.

Anah said that she trusted MS wholeheartedly.

Events turned grim for the twins when MS did not bring them to her relatives, instead allegedly attempting to sell the boys to a third party for Rp 40 million.

The buyer turned out to be an undercover detective.

The Depok Police had been targeting MS after receiving reports that she was involved in a human trafficking ring operating in the city.

MS was arrested. The babies comprise the principal evidence in the case.

The Depok Police, led by officers from the Limo precinct, are investigating the case, as they believe MS may be part of a larger human trafficking syndicate.

"The suspect may face up to 15 years in prison for violating the Children Protection Law and the Human Trafficking Law," Depok Police chief Sr. Comr. Mulyadi Kaharni said.

Anah said that she wept after learning that MS allegedly attempted to sell her children, claiming that she never wanted to sell her sons, no matter how unfortunate her situation. "They are my own flesh and blood. I would not sell them for any reason."

The Depok Social Agency took custody of the boys, now named Asep and Ujang, and placed them in the Bina Remaja Mandiri Foundation orphanage in Depok.

Amiruddin, a social worker, said that Asep and Ujang would stay in the orphanage until the investigation was finished and the case was taken to court.

He also said that the agency welcomed couples who wished to adopt the twins. Couples must be married at least five years, have no any children and be at least 30 years old.

Anah said she would not take her children back, believing that her sons would have a brighter future with more prosperous parents.

"I promise I will not take them back. I did this for their own good." Sad that there is no safety net!

Trafficked twins show gaps in system: Jakarta
[Asia One/The Jakarta Post 2/23/12 by Lutfi Rakhmawati]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

New Alabama Proposed Law to Eliminate Need for Re-Adoption

2012-02-24T11:20:00.000-05:00

Senate Bill 280 passed the Senate on Thursday, February 23, 2012. See the bill here, searching on "Karina's Law".

Bill as of February 24, 2012 reads as follows:
"To add Section 22-9A-11.1 to the Code of Alabama 1975, to provide for the State Registrar to issue a Certificate of Foreign Birth without judicial proceedings if certain criteria are satisfied.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:

Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as Karina's Law.

Section 2. Section 22-9A-11.1 is added to the Code of Alabama 1975, to read as follows:

§22-9A-11.1.

(a) A child who has automatically acquired United States citizenship following a foreign adoption and who possesses a Certificate of Citizenship in accordance with the Child Citizenship Act, CAA, P.L. 106-395, shall be exempt from the provisions of Section 22-9A-11, which require a judicial report to acquire a Certificate of Foreign Birth.

(b) The State Registrar, upon written request, shall prepare a Certificate of Foreign Birth reflecting the actual date and place of birth for a child who was born in a foreign country, adopted by a United States citizen, and who has automatically acquired citizenship in accordance with the federal Child Citizenship Act upon the production of all of the following documents:

(1) The child's Certificate of Citizenship.

(2) A certified copy of the child's foreign birth certificate and certified English translation.

(3) The original documents related to the foreign adoption certified by the United States Embassy abroad and certified English translation.

(4) The Social Security card of the child.

(5) A valid government issued picture identification of parent or parents, such as a passport or driver's license.

(6) Proof of residency of the parent or parents in the State of Alabama.

(c) The State Registrar shall develop any necessary forms for adoptive parents to submit in order to request a Certificate of Foreign Birth.

Section 3. This act shall be known as Karina's Law.

Section 4. All laws or parts of laws which conflict with this act are repealed.

Section 5. This act shall become effective January 1, 2013, following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law."

Friend of Adoptive Parents Got Law in Motion

Sen. Phil Williams, R-Rainbow City "sponsored a bill to require the state registrar within the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the state Department of Public Health to issue a certificate of foreign birth for adopted children who automatically acquire U.S. citizenship.

The Senate on Thursday passed the bill, which Williams named Karina’s Law, by a 30-0 vote.

It goes to the House where Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Rainbow City, said he’ll handle it."

Bill cuts foreign adoption red tape [Gadsden Times 2/23/12 by Dana Beyerle]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

THIS is the true meaning of bureaucratic red tape being eliminated. There are still states that require adoptive parents to readopt after the adoption was finalized in the foreign country. Other states need to follow in changing this.

What "bureaucratic red tape" is NOT: determining whether a child has been coerced into a foreign placement or trafficked aka investigations in Nepal, Vietnam, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Uganda etc. The adoption industry likes to group all of this into the same category.

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Quebec Foster Care

2012-02-24T11:03:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Quebec, Canada, a now 17-year-old former foster child "whose identity is protected by law, said his former foster father sexually abused him for six years. The foster father was charged but prosecutors stopped the proceedings, telling the teenager there was conflicting testimony and a lack of evidence.

The Quebec Human Rights commission then investigated the alleged victim's case and had some serious criticisms of the youth services program he was involved with."

CBC exclusive: Foster care in Quebec
[CBC 2/22/12]

The organization involved is Batshaw Youth and Family Centres.

""It started when I was about six, it happened probably on a twice-a-week, three-times-a-week basis" over six years, Robert [pseudonym] said.

He didn't dare breathe a word about it at the time because "you're scared of losing the only home you really know."

Batshaw shut down the Laurentians foster home in 2006, after another child in the home reported abuse.

The foster father faced several charges involving several alleged victims.

But the Crown prosecutor stopped the legal proceedings.

"She told me there was conflicting testimony between a few of the children," Robert said.

"She didn't think she had enough evidence, hard evidence to press for a guilty verdict."

Commission Report

"CBC News obtained a copy of the commission's investigation conclusions, which includes the following:

Robert's version of events, that he repeatedly experienced sexual abuse by his foster father.
Information about another foster child in the home who became pregnant at age 12, which went unnoticed until she was in her 35th week of gestation.
The commission does not make any conclusions regarding the baby's paternity.

Battista says she is shocked.

"Irrespective of who the [baby's] father was, a girl getting pregnant, and giving birth at age 12 is simply not acceptable to me while she's under foster care," she said.
The commission concludes that several aspects of foster care protocol were not followed in Robert's case, including:

Certain background and criminal record checks required when applying to become a foster family were not done.
Investigating questionable information raised by third parties on the basis that it was not significant enough.
Children being informed of their rights by the Youth Centre involved.

The commission report also concluded that the children in the case were interviewed in the presence of their foster parents, despite allegations of abuse."
Ex-foster child account triggers Quebec investigation
[CBC 2/20/12]

Need of Foster Family Tracking Registry

""Information has circulated that the foster mother has entered into a new foster family agreement in another region of Quebec," said the conclusion of the report.

"That's not possible to verify because there's no central information system concerning foster families in this province," it said.

Battista said the findings are disturbing. "This is a tragic story and I am convinced that it's not just these kids who have suffered," she said.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Health and Social Services said it is looking into a central database.

The CBC asked Batshaw spokesperson, Marion Leroux, if it notifies other agencies across the province when it shuts down a foster home. Leroux said "The protocol we must follow when we have terminated a contract with a foster family is to inform the Health and Social Services Agency of Montreal."

Batshaw said when it comes to finding out if people applying to be foster parents have ever been foster parents in other regions of Quebec, it relies on the applicants to be honest about that information.

Leroux said a province-wide registry would be helpful."

Rights commission wants database on foster parents
[CBC 2/21/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Now Canada has joined Russia in understanding the need to track abuse events and people involved in out-of-biological-family care. When will the US wise up to this need for internationally adopted children, foster parents who move out of state and even abuse within the state?

Study Shows Improvement of Executive Functioning in Children with FASD

2012-02-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

The 11-page American Journal of Occupational Therapy free PDF can be found here. The Chicago clinic doctors and therapists from Children's Research Triangle who treat children from foster care and international adoption conducted the study.

Wells, AM, Chasnoff IJ, Schmidt CA, Telford E, Schwatrz LD. Neurocognitive Habilitation Therapy for Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: An Adaptation of the Alert Program AJOT 2012; 66 (1):24-34.

The study was done in foster and adopted children aged 6 to almost 12 years old.

"OBJECTIVE.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of neurocognitive habilitation, a group therapy intervention
for foster and adoptive caregivers and their children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol.

METHOD.

Participants were recruited from clients seeking evaluation for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) and were randomly assigned to treatment and
no-treatment control groups. Forty children participated in the treatment program and were compared with 38 control participants using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC).

RESULTS.
Significant differences between the treatment and control groups were demonstrated on the BRIEF and on the RATC, suggesting that the intervention improved executive functioning and emotional problem-solving skills.

CONCLUSION.
These findings yield promising evidence of the effectiveness of the neurocognitive habilitation intervention in improving executive functioning and emotional problem solving in children with FAS or ARND."

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Chinese couples come to U.S. to have children through surrogacy

2012-02-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

Appropriately filed in the Business section, this new article discusses how rich Chinese couples are coming to California to spend $100,000 on surrogacy since that is supposedly "outlawed" in China. Yet China sure lets them back into the country with their new US citizen baby.

"U.S. and Chinese authorities say they do not track the numbers of Chinese couples coming here for surrogacy services, but surrogacy experts and clinic operators say there has been a sharp upswing.
[This BEGS the question: What the heck do US authorities track when it comes to child movements?]

"In the last year, it went from nonexistent to being tremendous," said Parham Zar, managing director of the Egg Donor & Surrogacy Institute in Los Angeles. He estimates that about half of his company's business comes from Chinese couples.

Surrogate Alternatives Inc. of San Diego has three agents in China who recruit couples. Last year about 40% of Surrogate Alternatives' 140 client couples were from China, Chief Executive Diana Van De Voort-Perez said."

"Chinese are the premiums"

"Clinic directors say a gestational surrogacy typically costs $80,000 to $120,000, with higher costs if there are complications or if repeated implants are needed.

The price rises about $30,000 if the prospective mother's eggs are not viable. In these cases, the clinics typically obtain eggs from donor clinics.

Most Chinese couples insist on eggs from ethnic Chinese women, which has led to inflated prices, said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of the Fertility Institutes in Encino.

A Caucasian woman normally gets about $5,000 to $8,000 for 10 to 14 eggs, Steinberg said, with the money technically being paid for the energy, time and pain associated with the "donation." An ethnic Chinese woman can command $15,000 and up for her eggs, according to Steinberg and other surrogacy specialists.

"It's supply and demand," Steinberg said. "Chinese are the premiums."

Shelley Smith, owner of the Egg Donor Program in Studio City, said she does not usually pay Chinese women more for their eggs, but acknowledged that she is planning to pay an ethnic Chinese woman who lives in New York $15,000, which is higher than her normal fee.

Much of that premium is because the woman is a repeat donor whose eggs have proved to be fertile, Smith said, but other factors are also at play.

"This Chinese egg donor is in great demand," Smith said. "She has perfect 1600 [SAT scores], she is very, very pretty, and she went to an Ivy League school.""
Finders Fees

"Chinese clients have become so important that California surrogacy clinics hire agents based in China to drum up business.

Li Dong Ming works in Beijing for the Agency for Surrogacy Solutions and its sister company, Global IVF in Encino. She gets a "finder's fee" for every client who opts for that firm's service, but declined to specify how much that fee is."
US citizen babies

"They want to go to America because they think the science is better," Li said in Mandarin. "They want a precious treasure, and if finances allow, the dream is to have a baby in America."

A baby born in the U.S. is automatically granted U.S. citizenship, which remains valid even when the couple return to China with the newborn.
Robert Walmsley, an attorney who specializes in surrogacy cases, said American citizenship is an "extra perk" for his Chinese clientele, which he says has grown 20% over the last three years.

Like others, he says the trend is being driven by the robust Chinese economy. Clinic directors say many of their Chinese clients are middle-aged couples who can now afford the cost of raising a second child — and also can afford to pay the hefty financial penalty for violatingChina's"one-child" policy.

"In the last year we have had several Chinese couples already with a child between 16 and 25 years old," said Juli Dean, director of Coastal Surrogacy in Newport Beach. "They are literally starting over again and having a second family."

The process isn't always easy. Dean notes that some Chinese couples see the procedure as strictly a business transaction, viewing the surrogate mother as a hireling. American surrogate mothers, she said, tend to want to have a relationship with the couple whose child they are bearing.

"We have to educate [Chinese couples] that the surrogate is not an employee, that it's more than a business transaction," Dean said. "We have to say it's very disrespectful to the surrogate mother, and a lot of Chinese culture is about respect and not being disrespectful, so they can understand that part and relate to it."

Cultural differences aside, the procedure is also time-consuming — and doesn't always go according to plan."

Chinese couples come to U.S. to have children through surrogacy
[Chicago Tribune 2/18/12 by Shan Li, Los Angeles Times]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Worst CPS Fail Award-Utah Josh Powell case UPDATED

2012-02-23T10:37:00.001-05:00

Josh Powell, under suspicion for the disappearance of his wife Susan Powell since December 2009, never was arrested or charged in her disapperance. Susan and Josh had two sons, Charlie and Braden.

According to Good Morning America, Josh lost custody of the boys in September 2011 when "his father, Steven Powell, was arrested in September and charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of child pornography. The pornographic images were kept in the home the two men shared with Josh and Susan Powell's boys."

At a custody hearing on February 1, 2012, he was told that he would have to undergo a psychosexual exam in order to regain custody.

On Sunday, February 5, 2012, Josh left "weird" email and voice mail messages to his sister, Alina Powell. ""He said something about [how] he can't live without his sons and goodbye." She then "called 911 to say she was receiving "weird" messages from her brother via email and voicemail that made her too "terrified to drive over there" herself."

CPS worker "Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, who had brought the boys to Powell's home for a supervised visit, called 911 after she said the man let the two boys into the house but slammed the door in her face.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before -- one of these supervised visits. I'm really shocked," she said in the 911 call, one of seven released."

"She told the 911 operator she wanted to move her car out of the driveway because she smelled gas coming from the house, and then asked for police to be sent to the home. But the 911 operator said officers only get sent to life-threatening situations.

"This could be life-threatening," she said. "He went to court on Wednesday and he didn't get his kids back. I'm afraid for their lives." "

Josh's attorney Jeff Bassett received a message "'I'm sorry and goodbye." Ed Wadagnolo, who said Powell worked for him, called 911 after seeing news of the house explosion and said he received a similar "strange email" that read, "I'm sorry. Goodbye."

Both Bassett and Wadagnolo said they received the emails at 12:05 p.m."

Then at approximately 12:30 PM, Josh attacked "his two young boys, Braden, 5, and Charles, 7, with a hatchet and ignit[ed] a gas leak that blew up his house."

All three of them died.

The Salt Lake Tribune said "The three bodies were later found in the same room in the middle of the home."

Fox News on February 10 revealed that "Washington state authorities received materials from Utah police that had been discovered on a computer in Powell's home two years ago. Authorities say the images depicted "incestuous" sex and were disconcerting enough that they prompted a psychologist to recommend that Powell undergo an intensive psychosexual evaluation.

But a lawyer for Powell's in-laws, who had custody of the boys, wasn't invited to see the materials before the custody hearing - even though a Utah judge had specified in a sealed court order that he was one of the few people allowed to see them.

Had he seen the images, attorney Steve Downing said, he might have asked the court to change the terms of Powell's supervised visitation with the boys, such as by asking for the visits to be in a public place. Instead, Downing said he didn't learn until Thursday morning - four days after Powell killed himself and the boys in a house fire - that he was allowed to see them.

"That would have absolutely given me the opportunity to submit a declaration about our deep concern. I was approved ... to view those pictures and I was never notified," Downing said. "I could have gone into all the reasons why the visitation could have or should have been restricted."

Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the images collected by investigators from Powell's home computer in Utah two years ago were realistic computer-generated depictions of "incestuous" parent-child relations.

"It's family-oriented in nature," Troyer said. "It is incestuous."

Troyer said the images couldn't be legally defined as pornography because they don't involve real people. Troyer said the judge in last week's custody hearing was apprised of the images at the proceeding."

"On Jan. 30, the sheriff's office arranged a viewing of the materials, said Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services.

Among the attendees were [Washington state assistant attorney general John] Long and a Child Protective Services social worker. Downing said he wasn't notified of the viewing. Long confirmed Downing had been listed as one of those allowed to see the images. However, Downing was not technically a party to the Feb. 1 hearing, which was between Powell and the state, so there was no rush to make sure Downing saw the materials beforehand.

Josh Powell's attorney, Jeffrey Bassett, also did not attend. He said in an email Thursday that there had been some "miscommunication," and he didn't learn about the viewing until after the fact. He wasn't able to immediately schedule another viewing.

Two days later, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Nelson heard arguments from Josh Powell seeking to regain custody of his children. Long opposed that, noting only that "concerning" images from his computer had been provided by the police in Utah.

After considering Long's arguments and the recommendation for the psychosexual evaluation, Nelson denied Powell's request. She said she wouldn't consider granting Powell custody unless he underwent the exam. She didn't make any changes in the visitation schedule, which allowed Powell to see his boys, 5 and 7, at his house twice a week while supervised by a social worker."

Sources:

Josh Powell's last act 'just evil,' West Valley police chief says
[Salt Lake Tribune 2/6/12 by Sheena McFarland, Melinda Rogers, Brooke Adams, Jen Harper and Pamela Manson]

CPS Worker Pleaded for Cops to Come Before Powell Blew Up House
[Good Morning America 2/8/12 by Dean Schabner and Michael S. James]

Powell had 'incestuous' images on his computer, police say
[Fox News 2/10/12 by Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: "Chuck and Judy Cox today joined Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, 31st District, in urging changes at Child Protective Services that they believe will help protect children.

Judy and Chuck Cox are grandparents of Charlie, 7, and Braden Powell, 5, who were murdered by their father, Josh Powell, on Feb. 5 at the beginning of what was supposed to be a state-supervised visit. Josh Powell let the boys in his Graham house, then blocked the social worker from entering. Moments later, the house exploded into flames.

During the hearing, the boys' grandparents, their attorneys – Anne Bremner and Steve Downing – Roach and members of the audience offered ideas to prevent what went wrong from happening again.

"Some of what needs to change will be up to the Legislature," Roach said. "Some of it can be addressed by the governor issuing a directive to the executive agency responsible for child safety in these matters, the Department of Social and Health Services."

Cox and his wife emphasized the need for grandparents to be given the same level of credence as a biological parent, pointing out that the boy's father was able to say anything during the custody process without having to back it up with proof.

"We had a feeling something bad was going to happen," Judy Cox said. "(The boys) did not want to go for the visit that day."

She said she wanted to call and say they were sick, but she and her husband were afraid to say anything for fear they would lose custody of the boys.

Roach and the attorneys for the Cox family emphasized that DSHS knew Utah's West Valley City Police Department was conducting a murder investigation based on Susan Powell's disappearance and that they were looking at Josh Powell as a suspect. The attorneys noted that search warrants had been issued in Nevada, Utah and Washington.

On Wednesday, Roach filed several bills to address the concerns in the Powell case and will be introducing legislation similar to what she offered in 2010, which gives grandparents standing in dependency proceedings.

Roach's new bills include:

• Senate Bill 6602 – creating child welfare transparency committees within each of the six DSHS regions. The four legislative caucuses, the attorney general and governor would appoint the six members.

• Senate Bill 6603 – preventing a child custody award to someone considered a suspect in an active murder investigation.

• Senate Bill 6604 – establishing what is to be contained in background information for guardians ad litem. The list includes a statement of financial affairs, number of years of experience, level of formal education and founded allegations of child abuse.

• Senate Bill 6605 – requiring Child Protective Services workers to be licensed social workers and bonded.

• Senate Bill 6606 – breaking the Department of Social and Health Services into the Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Public Welfare, and Department of Medical and Rehabilitative Services.

Roach announced at the hearing that Sen. Randi Becker, R-2nd District and Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, have been appointed by DSHS to the Child Fatality Review Team. The complete case records will be provided to team members for their review and study.

The department will make the Child Fatality Review report available upon completion to appropriate committees of the Legislature and on the DSHS website."

Sen. Roach, Powell grandparents question Child Protective Services

[Auburn-Reporter 2/23/12]

How Could You? Hall of Shame-UK Rex Case

2012-02-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Southampton, UK, 68-year-old foster father Rex Case was convicted on "18 counts of abuse, including indecent assaults and rape" that occurred over a 30 year period of being a foster carer. He faces life in prison.

"The case had taken almost two years to come to court but spanned back to the 1980s when Case preyed on his first victim, who was a girl aged 15.

The Daily Echo has sought the consent of each of the five victims and had to make a special application to the judge in order to reveal the full and sickening behaviour of Case."

"During the past two and a half weeks jurors have heard how Case:
• Raped a girl under the age of five.
• Sexually assaulted girls daily, sometimes in their bedrooms or in the bathroom.
• Would sneak into rooms while they were sleeping to touch them.
• Would bathe and dry girls as old as 13, rubbing baby oil and cream on them.
• Would carry out some of his vile acts while his wife Carol watched.

The sex abuse was carried out mostly in Case’s large family home in Holly Hill, Bassett, Southampton, where the couple lived with their son Dean.

Giving evidence in his own defence Case told how he had fostered some 24 boys and girls since qualifying as a foster carer.

But he went on to say he had many more young girls staying in his home – 34 in total – who included foreign children who had come to Southampton to study."

"• Victim One
The court was told how his first victim, who we are referring to as “M”, was aged 15 and lived with Case between August 1982 and August 1983.

She had already suffered a childhood of sexual abuse but Case took advantage of her while she was drunk – sitting on her bed, stroking her and kissing her open mouthed.

• Victim Two

His second victim was much younger – aged just 20 months when she first lived with Case in June 1995, because he was fostering her mother.

The court was told how the little girl, known as “J”, grew up being told to call Case grandad.

She would have to watch him having sex with her mother before he began to turn his attention to her.

Jurors were told how Case’s wife would sometimes watch as “J” was abused in her bedroom, where she would be locked in behind a stair gate, and in the bath.

It was so sustained she would be left crying out in pain, being sick and bleeding.

When it was over he would tell her she was “dirty and disgusting” and when she complained it hurt he would laugh.

• Victim Three

Case’s third victim, “A”, was aged four to five when she spent six months living with Case from July 1998, when her mum was too unwell to look after her.

She was scared and felt unsafe living with him and he would tell her she had “sexy legs” and looked good.

He would make her kiss him on the lips and he would kiss her neck, face and touch her bottom.

In her bedroom he would tickle her and then sexually assault her on her bed and he would dry her and abuse her when she took a shower.

• Victim Four

In June 2000 Case’s fourth victim, referred to as “R”, went to stay with him at the age of six. He was her mother’s foster carer but was minding her daughter.

She woke on two occasions to find Case – who she was made to call grandad – sexually assaulting her under the blanket, having pulled her pyjamas down below her knees.

It was only just before “R” was about to sit her GCSEs in May 2010 that she finally plucked up the courage to tell her mother what had happened.

• Victim Five

His final victim, “M”, was aged 13 and was not being fostered by Case when she first stayed with him in June 2003.

During a holiday in Florida he would sneak into her bedroom and sniff her hair and he sexually assaulted her on the couch.

Back home in Southampton a year later the girl was sexually assaulted by Case “every other night” and he would tell her it was their “special time”.

The girl told how she let it continue for five years because she had a younger sister and didn’t want it to happen to her.

Case showed no emotion yesterday as he was told he would be remanded in custody until he is sentenced for his crimes.

Judge Henry told him he could not exclude an indeterminate sentence because he had concerns over him posing a danger, particularly to young girls, in the future."
Paedophile foster carer Rex Case facing jail after years of abuse in Southampton
[Daily Echo 2/23/12 by Jenny Makin]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

EPIC Fail Florida DCF

2012-02-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Years ago, William DeJesus had his parental rights from a prior marriage severed in New York. Fast forward to 2007, when he and Deanna Beauchamp were raising two boys in Florida. Jeshiah was 4, and suffered from autism. His brother was 2, and was also being tested for a developmental disability."

"DCF’s child-abuse hotline received a report on Sept. 18, 2007. During a drinking binge, DeJesus had choked his wife, and punched his children’s bedroom door, leaving a hole. And it wasn’t the first time:

An investigator noted the couple had placed a picture of the children over an older hole in the children’s bedroom wall.

A police report on the incident said DeJesus had a handgun on the couch when officers arrived. Beauchamp was crying. “Thank you, thank you,” she said. “You saved me.”

The abuse had gone on, Beauchamp said, for eight years, and she showed an investigator scars to prove it. Beauchamp said DeJesus had stabbed her, punched her in the stomach, causing a miscarriage, and pushed her in the bathtub, leading to a back injury.

DCF filed a dependency petition in court, asking a judge to order the family to accept the agency’s help and supervision, but the children were not taken into protective custody. “There is no evidence of physical or sexual abuse to the children, nor is any suspected,” an investigator wrote.

But the evidence soon followed. In February 2008, after Beauchamp left DeJesus and went to a domestic-violence shelter, she told authorities that both parents had been molesting the children, both in New York, where they had lived previously, and in Florida.

DeJesus, she said, “had been fondling the children for a long time,” a report said. “She stated that he had told her that his family had shown their love by touching the children’s privates. The mother stated that the father would touch the children every other day when the children had their Pampers off. The mother also disclosed that the children’s father told her to touch the children, and she states that it did not feel right, but she did it anyway because she loves her children. He had made her believe that this was the way to show the children their love.”

And, she told investigators, there was another reason she molested her own children: “She was afraid William would kill her if she refused.”

When asked if he had evidence Jeshiah had been sexually abused, the boy’s psychiatrist said he had once pulled his pants down in a waiting room and fondled himself.

A child-abuse investigator took custody of the two boys immediately.

While the children were in foster care, new allegations arose. A therapist and a court-appointed guardian both reported seeing DeJesus repeatedly touch the boys between their legs while engaging in “rough” play during a supervised visit on May 26, 2009. The younger boy disclosed that his father had hurt him and touched “his pee pee,” records say, but investigators wrote they could not be certain whether that touching occurred during the May visit, or sometime in the past.

But the agency soon confronted a serious obstacle: Beauchamp was once again living with DeJesus and she now recanted the molestation allegations.

Beauchamp insisted authorities had been able to manipulate her into making the earlier statement because her husband “was not present to protect her.”

Records provided to The Herald do not make clear why the children were returned to Beauchamp and DeJesus, but a July 2009 notation in the file says the agency required “clear and convincing evidence” that the parents were unfit, and such evidence was “not present.”

Follick, the agency spokesman, said: "We took the steps necessary to remove the children from the house, and the mother recanted her accusations. At that point in the process, there were no physical signs of abuse with the children....Within the bounds of the law, there were no grounds to remove the children at that point."

The boys’ foster parents were outraged, telling case workers “the department does not care about the children and are just concerned about saving money.”

Having decided to reunite the family, child welfare administrators and a judge in Daytona Beach, where the family was living at the time, turned to another thorny question: how to begin visitation as the children transitioned back to their parents. A therapist for the boys testified in court that the children’s odd behavior did not result from their disabilities, but “was due to severe abuse and neglect.” She also warned that “exposing” the boys to their parents again would be “traumatic for them.”

For the next two years, though, the couple was given, first, supervised visits with the children, and, later, unsupervised contact while they completed parenting classes and counseling.

When the visits began, there were, once again, troubling signs: In August 2009, the younger boy told his foster mother that the “Monster” was going to kill him. The younger boy experienced a “significant decline” in his behavior. Both a therapist and court-appointed guardian reported the two children were “terrified” of their father — and the younger boy appeared to be afraid of all men. The younger boy began touching himself inappropriately after the visits began. And Jeshiah took all his clothes off at an after-school program in May 2010.

During the three-year separation, DeJesus became anxious, as well. He told a case manager in July 2009 he was worried that his children were “lacking affection.” He cried during a visit with the children when he noticed the younger boy’s hands were “chapped” from cold weather. He told a caseworker in April 2010 he would complain to the presiding judge because “he felt like it was taking too long for the children to come home.”

DCF ended its involvement with the family on Dec. 20, 2010. An Oct. 9, 2010, notation said the couple was receiving help to cope with the boys’ “tantrums and manipulations.”

“They show love for the children,” a worker wrote Oct. 29, 2010."

Heinous Ending

"Two weeks ago, the 41-year-old Broward man drove his family to a Deerfield Beach trailer home, killed the occupant, and held police at bay for seven hours while he stabbed each member of his family before killing himself. DeJesus’ oldest son, 9-year-old Jeshiah, was pronounced dead at the scene; born disabled, he had never uttered a word in his short life. His brother, 7, was hospitalized with a knife blade stuck in his head.

He remained impaled for a day before a surgeon could remove it. Both he and his mother, Deanna Beauchamp, 37, are now recovering.

In the weeks since Jeshiah’s death, Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives have tried to figure out both why DeJesus chose to “execute” the man in the quiet Broward neighborhood and why he tried to wipe out his own family."

"The inquiry centers on a petition the Department of Children & Families filed — and later withdrew — seeking to permanently sever the rights of DeJesus and Beauchamp to their young sons."

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/02/22/3893345/florida-boys-returned-by-dcf-to.html#storylink=cpy

Florida boys returned by DCF to parents are stabbed by dad
[Bradenton Herald 2/22/12 by Carol Marbin Miller/Miami Herald]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Parents Regain Custody of Son After Six Year Legal Battle

2012-02-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

First, the story from the victims from Friends of Noah Levi Bond Website . The adoptive parent cruel keepaway game didn't work this time:

"I, Ibbaanika Bond, and my son’s father, Craig Lentz, are fighting for the best interest of our son, Noah Levi Bond. Three years ago Megan and Stuart Taylor coerced me into signing away my parental rights through legal fraud. I was in college when I found out that I was pregnant. I told my family I was going on an internship and hid my pregnancy from my family out of embarrassment and fear of disappointing them. After my baby was born I met Eileen and Randal Bakers who attended the International House of Prayer, a church in Kansas City. The Bakers said that they wanted to help me “get right with God” and help me break the news of my pregnancy to my family. The Bakers introduced me to their friends Megan and Stuart Taylor who also presented themselves to me as Christian people who wanted to help me through this difficult time. In reality, when the Bakers told them about me they saw an opportunity to take my only child easily and inexpensively, although they have their own biological children. The Bakers offered to let my son stay in their house for a short time while I broke the news of my pregnancy to my family. I was to take care of Noah during the day and Eileen would take care of him at night.

When I brought Noah to Eileen and Randy's house Eileen took me aside and told me that, as a condition for their help, I now had to sign a childcare agreement with them for liability purposes in case anything happened to Noah at their house. It would be evidence that I didn't abandon him so that he wouldn't be taken into DFS custody. It was hand written on a piece of stationary, which I signed. The Bakers have since refused to give it to me, and it has never been produced in court.

Without my knowledge the Bakers gave this piece of paper to the Taylors who, along with Michael Mann, a lawyer that the Taylors hired, who claimed to represent me though he didn't, went to court behind my back and claimed that this piece of paper was a foster care agreement, and that because he was a “foster child,” the court had jurisdiction over my son. The paper I signed was not a foster care agreement.

I had never signed any retainer agreement with Michael Mann or any other agreement that he represented me. Contrary to what the Bakers told me, the true purpose of having me sign that paper was so that the Taylors could go to court behind my back, claim that I was ready to relinquish my parental rights and request that a family court commissioner prohibit me from taking Noah out of “foster care.” Commissioner Alan, the family court Commissioner residing over the case granted the Taylors this legal hold. With the aid of the Bakers, the Taylors and Michel Mann committed fraud in court to gain control over my son and keep me in a position to be coerced because I had to go through the Bakers to see my son.

Later, Eileen claimed that she had to go out of town to visit her daughter and she couldn't take back the plane tickets. Randy Baker wouldn't help me care for Noah and I didn't want him to go anywhere else so I planned to just take my son home and I thought my family would just have to find out this way. When I told Eileen what I planned to do she told me that a Commissioner had said I was a bad mother and placed a hold on my son, so I couldn’t take him away from her home. She showed me part of the hold papers that had been filed in court. There were two pages to the hold papers (though I wouldn’t find that out until months later in court), one that was the request by the Taylor’s that the hold be placed on my child, and the other (the one Eileen Baker showed me) where the judge ordered the hold. Eileen hid the first page from me because she knew I would never sign away my parental rights if I knew that the Taylor’s had been going to court behind my back to manipulate my child away from me. Because I couldn’t take him home, she said that if I didn’t move into her house my baby would have to be cared for by another lady in a foster home and if anything bad happened there my child would likely go to the state.

During the time I stayed at the Baker’s, Randy Baker, who had not left town with his wife, constantly pressured me to relinquish my parental rights, saying it was God’s will--using my belief in God to manipulate me. My child was sick and I had to stay up round the clock caring for him and Randy offered me no help. What Randy did do was discourage me, saying that my lack of parenting experience would not be good for my son, and that for my sons sake I should just give him up. As a new mother experiencing postpartum depression and exhaustion from lack of sleep this pressure was overwhelming. I was eventually taken to the Baker’s and Taylor’s church, the International House of Prayer where I received taped prophecies that the Taylors later played repeatedly for me to finally convince me to relinquish my rights against the will of my son’s father Craig Lentz.
At the time the Taylors and Bakers were coercing me, my son’s father Craig Lentz, who had been involved in his son’s life from the time I found out I was pregnant and continued to call me every day, was living and working in another town trying to find work in Kansas City in preparation for raising our son. During our phone conversations he began to suspect something was wrong and came into town to see me. When he found out what the Taylors were doing he met with them and pleaded with them not to try to adopt his son. They told him they were going to adopt his son whether he liked it or not and went to court the next day, claiming they didn’t know who Noah’s father was, and got temporary custody. Craig immediately hired a lawyer and brought a case to gain custody of Noah. After the pretrial hearing for his case the Jackson County Family Court put Craig and I under a gag order for the next two years and threatened to throw me in jail if I ever talked about what happened to me.

Once I got away from the Baker’s house I realized that I had made the worst mistake of my life and went to court to revoke my relinquishment, but the court denied my motions without so much as a hearing or any other kind of consideration of the overwhelming evidence of duress in my case. When the Taylors asked that a hold be placed on my son in the first place, Commissioner Alan saw that I wasn't at the court date, but didn't bother to verify whether Michael Mann was really my lawyer. He didn't bother to verify whether anything the Taylors were claiming about my intentions to relinquish were true and he didn't question the Taylors’ need to have a hold placed on my son if I really planned on relinquishing my rights. He didn't even bother to verify the authenticity of the fake foster care agreement the Taylors claimed to have but never showed him, which supposedly gave him jurisdiction over the matter in the first place. Instead of doing his job he gave the Taylors control of a child who had a legal and custodial guardian who had done nothing wrong, without even questioning it. When I tried to revoke my relinquishment, Commissioner Alan had an opportunity to right this wrong but he wouldn’t even do that. Commissioner Alan actions were negligent and corrupt.

The corruption didn’t stop there. Craig never signed away his rights and did everything the state said he had to do to establish his paternity. The local family court said that under a new law, section 453.030 of the Missouri Statutes, he had no right to his son and would not allow him to present any evidence of his paternity. Craig was on the birth certificate, and the local court would not take that into account. He had a DNA test, and the local family circuit court BARRED DNA FROM BEING ADMITTED. He had been involved and supporting his son from the time he found out I was pregnant but the local court deemed that to be inadmissible. They gave Craig’s baby to the Taylors and threatened to throw him in jail if he ever talked about it.

Craig’s case went to the Supreme Court of Missouri in December of 2006. He won unanimously. The Taylors tried to have the Supreme Court case put under a gag order but the Supreme Court denied their request to gag the case. The Supreme Court found that it could never be found that Craig abandoned his son. He had done everything the state required to establish his paternity. The Supreme Court sent it back down to the local court so Craig could present evidence of his fitness as a parent and get his son back. When Craig got back down to the local level, instead of letting him present evidence of his fitness as a parent, Commissioner John F. Payne refused to acknowledge the Supreme Court of Missouri’s finding that his paternity had been established--that he had the same rights as any married father under the Missouri State Constitution and the United States Constitution. Instead he let the Taylors just file for a third adoption petition which was almost identical to the other two adoption petitions that they had already filed which were overturned by the Supreme Court of Missouri. This was illegal. This child was unadoptable without the legal father’s--Craig Lentz’s consent. Craig's lawyer filed a motion for the dismissal of this petition, but Commissioner Payne did whatever he pleased.

The Taylors first two adoption petitions which had been overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court included abandonment and neglect as charges against Craig and this third petition cited these same charges, thus revisiting issues that the Missouri Supreme Court had already decided on. The main reason that was stated on the third petition for the adoption and termination of Craig rights were that he had neglected and abandoned his son for 6 months prior to the filing of this third petition for adoption. The Supreme Court had already made a finding that he did not abandon his son. Craig was winning in the Supreme Court three months prior to the filing of the Taylor's new petition. He also sent a check for $450.00 for child support, one of many support checks sent to the Taylors, though he was never ordered to pay child support, which the Taylors received and signed for a day before they filed this third petition for adoption. However Commissioner Payne just gave an order for the date of filing to be back dated six days and let them file the adoption petition anyway.

Then Commissioner Payne just kept scheduling hearings and at the last minute he would cancel them. He canceled one for a procedural reason a week after the Supreme Courts decision was finalized. Two months later he canceled the hearing because he "had a divorce that was running long" (this was illegal because according to state law contested adoption proceedings are supposed to be heard before all other hearings because the permanency of the child is of utmost importance). Three months later Commissioner Payne gave an all summer, three month long extension to the Taylors because their attorney Cheri Cole Simpkins', 9 month old son might have to have a tonsillectomy, which he never had. Commissioner Payne was removed from the case for letting the Taylors have that extension. The new commissioner, Molly Merrigan, tried to have a hearing at the end of July but the Taylor's attorney Cheri Cole Simpkins said that "no time would be good for her until the end of August," Finally, in August Commissioner Molly Merrigan was supposed to have a hearing on the adoption and Craig’s fitness as a parent.

At that hearing she acknowledged, and gave an order stating, that indeed Craig’s paternity had been established, and that it had been a finding by the Supreme Court that he was Noah Levi Bond's natural father and that his paternity was established. As such the Adoption petition should have been dismissed then because Craig was a fit parent and he did not consent to the adoption of his son. Instead though, Commissioner Molly Merrigan refused to have a trial and started a 211 DFS investigation for abuse on Craig even though he had never abused or neglected his son and had never been accused of any abuse, neglect, or wrong doing. At the cost of the taxpayers Commissioner Molly Merrigan had Craig investigated up one side and down the other—just like a person that committed child abuse would be, only he never committed any abuse. She only gave Craig supervised visitation—just like an child abusing parent would get though there was never any abuse. A court date was then set for October 22, 2007 where the petition for adoption was to be decided and the abuse investigation was to be decided.

On October 22, 2007 the juvenile officer for the DFS dropped the investigation against Craig because he had never done anything wrong and he was a fit parent and the DFS therapist recommended a six week plan for reunification with his son. As such the court had no jurisdiction and they definitely should have given Craig’s son back to him. But Molly Merrigan continued on with hearings on the adoption petition. In court it was revealed that the Taylors had actually been breaking the gag order that they had requested for three years with a blog that chronicled the way that they planned to steal baby Noah that was posted online. This blog also revealed in their own words that they had been committing welfare fraud and lying to the court about it, that they were mean to Noah when his parents sent gifts, and that they were planning to flee the country with baby Noah. In this blog Megan Taylor describes herself as semi-stable and talks about how she wants Craig dead when he sends his son a Christmas present because it would simplify her life. Though the court allowed this to be entered into evidence, Commissioner Molly Merrigan said that she thought it was normal for these things to be written given the stress of the trial and that even though specific information was posted about trial dates and their outcomes on the internet Commissioner Merrigan said that she didn’t think that the blog violated the gag order.

On January 1, 2007 Commissioner Molly Merrigan terminated Craig’s parental rights for the exact same reasons that the Supreme Court had already overturned the earlier petition. She directly defied the Supreme Court of Missouri and cut off all visitation that Craig had with his son immediately. Craig didn’t even get a chance to tell Noah good-bye.

Craig had been visiting with Noah twice a week in Craig’s home for seven months, planning for Noah’s homecoming. Noah is a very sweet boy and has gotten very close with his father and his grandmother as well. He told them 'I love you' all the time. He has his own room at Craig’s home that he calls his room, with toys he picked out and furniture bought just for him. Now his room sits empty and according to Commissioner Molly Merrigan Craig will never see his son again.

This is a kidnapping. The Supreme Court of Missouri already decided that Craig was Noah’s legal father. He did everything he was supposed to, as required by the state, to establish himself as Noah’s legal father--as was found by the Missouri Supreme Court. Through a DFS investigation the state has declared him to be a fit father and found that he never abused or neglected his son. Commissioner Molly Merrigan cannot just terminate Craig Lentz’s parental rights and cut him out of his sons life forever just because she feels like it. That is illegal--and that is what she is trying to do. She is defying the Missouri state Constitution, the US Constitution, the Supreme Court of Missouri and the Missouri state laws governing adoption. This Commissioner must not be allowed to assist in the kidnapping of this child, she must be stopped. This court has wasted a year of Noah Levi Bond’s life."

Now, the Better News

"Seven years after he was born, a Raytown boy is finally living with his biological parents."

"Noah Bond is now seven-years-old, but his birthday in December was the first he ever spent with his parents. It was December 2004 when Craig Lentz filmed the birth of his son when his girlfriend gave birth. But during a bout of what she says was postpartum depression, Ebbie Bond agreed to give up custody.

Lentz’s name wasn’t on the birth certificate so he had no legal standing to stop the process.

“When we went to get it, there was no record that Noah was ever born.”

"“Somehow the Taylor’s had changed Noah’s birth certificate without ever having an adoption and that if I died in the accident there would be no record that he was ever born and he would’ve just disappeared into Texas and that would’ve been that,” said Craig Lentz.

The accident Lentz refers to was a car crash on Highway 350 in June of 2010. He died on the operating table twice only to survive months of painful rehabilitation and more delays to his expensive custody battle."

"Justice for Craig and Ebbie came in August when Craig was finally awarded permanent custody of Noah.

“I knew a time when I missed him so much and I wanted to see him every day and every child I ever saw reminded me of him and know I can get up in the morning and see him, see his face I don’t just have to imagine his face,” Bond said.

Now, in first grade, Noah’s parents say he’s adjusted well with the help of therapy.

“These people played keep away for six and a half years and now Noah’s returned to us, they wouldn’t even participate in the therapy that was ordered by the court,” Lentz said.

FOX 4 asked Noah if he wondered why he wasn’t living with his biological parents when he was living with the Taylor’s in Texas. Here’s how he responded.

“I didn’t know they were my mom and dad,” he said.

When the Taylor’s handed Noah off in August they left him a letter explaining they would be cutting off all contact.

“He needs to attach to Craig and Ebbie and the family he will be a part of,” Taylor said.

“I didn’t think I could love him more but my love has just deepened so much from actually being able to take care of him,” Bond said.

Craig Lentz was allowed visitation with Noah over the last six years but it was limited and Ebbie Bond wasn’t allowed to see him at all because legally, she had given up custody.[And obviously the adoptive parents didn't care for her to have any bond with her son. How very cruel!] But there’s nothing to keep her from seeing Noah since now that Craig has custody and the two are still a couple."

Parents Regain Custody of Son After Six Year Legal Battle
[Fox Kansas City 2/21/12 by Rob Low]

Florida Kinship Adoption Fail

2012-02-22T19:46:00.000-05:00

Paternal grandparents lose fight to adopt granddaughter.

"Paga" lived with her dad and dad's girlfriend. After domestic violence incident, Paga was removed from the home and placed with maternal grandparents. Caseworkers removed her from the maternal grandparents due to "suspicious" people in the home. Paga was placed into foster care. This is where the paternal grandparents tried to step in and parent Paga.

They came down from New Jersey to Florida and were hoping that their son would be able to regain custody. "But they made it clear to caseworkers, they said, that if Patrick and K'Tina didn't get their act together, they were willing to adopt their granddaughter."

Preparation

"Mary Ann Hagerty, 67, is a retired administrative assistant who worked for Johnson & Johnson for 42 years. Stuart, 71, was a mechanical designer with a research center for 38 years. Their retirement revolved around time-shares they visited in Hilton Head Island, St. Kitts and Puerto Vallarta.

In the spring of 2010, caseworkers in Florida wanted to know if the Hagertys were willing to adopt the little girl. People told the Hegartys they were crazy to adopt a young child at their age. But they decided she was family. They needed to do this for her.

So they initiated a home study with child welfare workers in New Jersey. This involved three visits to their home, criminal background checks, a review of their finances and medical appointments to determine if they were fit enough to care for a young child.

By the summer of 2010, the couple had taken 28 hours of courses on subjects like attachment and loss.
They thought it was only a matter of time before they brought her home." [That is 2.8 times more training that someone adopting a child from a foreign country under Hague.]

"Paga's caseworker, Elaine Cole, and court-appointed advocate, Vicki Mitvalsky, stood in the doorway. They asked questions that they had asked before: Did the Hagertys want to adopt? Would they be able to sever contact with their son?

Mary Ann says she was engrossed with the child and never heard the question. But Stuart says he told them they would do whatever it takes to adopt the child.

"But I wanted to know exactly what they were talking with regard to severing contact," Stuart said.

The next day in a Pasco County courtroom, Mitvalsky testified that Mary Ann would not answer the question, that she would not even make eye contact.

"They can't say that they will protect by keeping Patrick away" from his daughter, Mitvalsky continued.

Stuart and Mary Ann felt ambushed. Mary Ann says she didn't realize her visit with Paga was an interview.

The Hagertys were battling a perception, created early on, that they could not see their son's flaws and only wanted to adopt Paga to give her back to him. No matter what they said, the child welfare workers seemed unwilling to change their minds.

"I think what the case manager and the guardian are alleging may have been parents who in the beginning … put a whole lot of hope in Patrick," Patrick's attorney, Loretta Silvestri, said at the hearing. "I think they realize at this time that that is not a possibility. … They're willing to keep Patrick out of her life."

Stuart reiterated once again their desire to adopt. But he still didn't understand to what degree they had to keep Patrick out of their own lives.

"Patrick's my son," Stuart said in court. "They said that I can never have contact with him again. That is totally out of the question. … If I see Patrick on the street, I can't talk to him?"

"In November 2010, Pasco Judge William Webb terminated Patrick and K'Tina's parental rights. The only question now was: Who would get Paga?

Webb has been handling dependency cases in Pasco for years. The Hagertys had heard a lot about him. People in and out of the courtroom called him "God."

For the past 15 months, Paga had been with foster parents who said they didn't want to adopt her.
The Hagertys wanted their granddaughter, but they had no right to speak during the court proceedings.

So they had hired an attorney.

"Grandparents in Florida have very limited rights," said their lawyer, Kerry O'Connor.

O'Connor said this case is a perfect example of why the law should be changed, but her only legal recourse was to seek standing as an "adoption intermediary" on the Hagertys' behalf.

The Hagertys wanted an opportunity to explain directly to the judge that they wanted to adopt Paga and they would not let Patrick see her. The caseworkers were misrepresenting them, they said."

Judge Webb rejected O'Connor's request to intervene. In addition to herself, O'Connor had listed her law firm on the grandparents' request. It was a small legal discrepancy, but it meant the Hagertys would not be able to speak in court."

"In December 2010, Judge Webb shut them out completely. That was the hearing when he removed them from his courtroom. That was the hearing when he entered an order denying their lawyer the right to intervene.

His order relied heavily on the lingering doubts that caseworkers had about the Hagertys:
The grandparents were only trying to adopt the child to give her to their son. The Hagertys were reluctant initially to take the child because Stuart had had heart bypass surgery. The Hagertys initially had said the girl should be reunited with her father. The Hagertys had bonded their son out of jail and helped him with legal fees.

In a phone interview last week, Webb said his utmost concern in every adoption is the best interests of the child. He said he always looks for relatives and friends first.

In this case, he said, he reviewed all eight volumes and after looking at all the testimony, "I was satisfied they would not protect the child from the father."

And what about the fact that the Hagertys had now said several times — including once in open court — they wanted to adopt her and protect her?

"Simply because someone says something doesn't mean that that's their real motivation," Webb said.

"Eckerd's and the guardian ad litem's position is that it was a sham, that the grandparents were so supportive of their son in all ways that they were blinded to his ongoing substance abuse. That it would be an adoption in name only. That it would not be in the best interest of the child … I concluded in my order that that was accurate."

"This past April, K'Tina and Patrick had another baby. He was born in Hillsborough County. He had brain swelling and other medical problems.

Caseworkers removed him from K'Tina's custody.

A Hillsborough County judge allowed Stuart and Mary Ann Hagerty to take the child home.

When the judge asked Mary Ann in court if they would keep the child away from his parents, she said they would. And she said they have honored that pledge.

"I said 'I promise, it's not a problem,' " Mary Ann said."

"Caseworkers had always told the Hagertys that Paga would be sought after. In fact, the child protection investigator who initially removed her from her parents had tried to adopt her until someone said it was a conflict of interest.

On Feb. 1, a hearing was held in Webb's courtroom to discuss Paga's adoption. It has remained unresolved for 2 1/2 years because the foster parents who originally had her kept changing their minds about adopting her. They didn't want her, then they did, then they didn't again.

The Hagertys filed another motion to intervene. Webb denied their request again.

In August, Paga was placed with new foster parents who said they wanted to adopt her. The adoptive mother is a probation officer with the Department of Juvenile Justice, who sometimes appears in Webb's courtroom.

Then the final adoption hearing, which had been set for Tuesday, was canceled.

April Putzulu, a spokeswoman for Eckerd, stressed that Eckerd is committed to placing children with family members.

"The case you referenced is a particularly complex case that involves at least two judicial circuits, three states and multiple system of care partners," she wrote in an email to the Times. "We want to stress that no final decisions have been made in this case."

Paga recently turned 3. Her grandparents still want to bring her home to her brother."
Doors close on grandparents' adoption fight as judge doubts their willingness to sever ties with son
[Tampa Bay Times 2/19/12 by Leonara LaPeter Anton]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

I guess common sense is too much to be asked for in this case. They are ok to adopt the special needs grandchild, but not the "sought after" girl.

Native American Child Adopted, Disrupted to Foster Care, and Now May Be Reunited with Mother

2012-02-22T19:16:00.000-05:00

A Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe mother voluntarily terminated her rights to her son, now 12, in 2006. She had a history of substance abuse. His adoptive parents adopted him in 2008 and one year later "sought out-of-home placement because she could no longer care for him due to his behavior. The boy was then placed in foster care with a Native American adult who is not a member of the boy's tribe. The adoptive parent terminated her rights and the boy seemed to thrive in foster care."

Under the Indian Child Welfare Act, the biological mother " was allowed to then petition for custody. Citing the mother's history and pending criminal charges, an Aitkin County judge denied her request, reasoning that returning the boy to his mother was not in his best interests.

The Appeals Court disagreed, saying the district judge did not take into account any current evidence that may affect the decision. Additionally, a judge may only rule against the parent after expert testimony that "the child is likely to face serious emotional or physical damage if reunited with the parent," according to the act."

"The case will now return to Aitkin County."

Ojibwe mother may seek custody of son
[Star Tribune 2/21/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Domestic Adoption Fraud/Fake Pregnancy in Pennsylvania

2012-02-22T18:37:00.000-05:00

"32-year-old Amy Slanina, who, according to court records and interviews, pretends to be pregnant so infertile couples or, in some cases, female friends or lovers will shower her with attention, affection and sometimes money, clothes, food and shelter."

"Authorities list Slanina at 5-foot-4 and 175 pounds, and those who've met her said she could pass for being six or seven months' pregnant."

She is alleged to have used text messages, phone calls and emails to scam multiple prospective adoptive parents inlcuding Barry and Rebecca Vest.

"Slanina has been in jail in Kittanning, some 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, since she was arrested in December on theft of services charges for staying at a battered women's shelter after allegedly claiming to be the abused wife of a police officer, who authorities say doesn't exist. She used the shelter's computer and a cellphone to contact the Vests."

"She called herself Aimee and claimed to be due Jan. 17 but texted Dec. 29 to say she was in labor, shortly after the Vests arranged for their caseworker to meet her. She even pretended to have the baby's father provide updates.

Unbeknownst to the Vests, as they flew to Pittsburgh and rushed 30 miles to the hospital in a rental car the next day, Slanina was under arrest."

Arrest

"Since the Vests spent $2,500 rushing to Pennsylvania, Slanina was charged with a section of Pennsylvania's disorderly conduct law – the only statute police could find that might fit her actions. Public defender Chuck Pascal got a district judge to dismiss that charge, though he doesn't dispute Slanina's actions.

'She took on a persona and lied and, as a result of that lie – what? – somebody flew here from Idaho? So what?' Pascal said. 'If I were to start criminalizing when one person lies and, as a result of that lie, other people take an action, then everybody's in jail.'

Slanina has a different public defender on the women's shelter charges who didn't return repeated calls attempting to get a message to her.

But even the officer who called the Vests, Greg Koprivnak, acknowledged, 'To be quite honest with you, there's no statue that deals with this kind of behavior.'

Pennsylvania doesn't criminalize false adoption offers, in part, because biological mothers have up to 30 days to change their mind after birth, said Anne Bale, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. That makes it difficult to differentiate between a fraudulent adoption offer and a reluctant birth mother, Bale said.

As for cases where there is no baby, Bale said, lawmakers are loathe to pass laws covering applying to rare situations."

Previous Arrests

"Instead, Slanina has been convicted at least twice, not for faking pregnancies, but for thefts she committed in the process.

Slanina was sentenced to 25 months in prison for identity theft in January 2007 in Tennessee, where she used the name of a female lover she had conned into believing she was pregnant.

She was also arrested in February 2010 for grand theft auto and other charges after befriending Lisa Booth and her elderly mother, Helen, of Fredericktown, Ohio.

Slanina met the Booths online, then sent three large flower arrangements around Christmas 2009, which the Booths later learned were purchased with stolen checks and credit cards.

She moved in with them in January 2010, claiming to be pregnant with twins through artificial insemination, court records show. The Booths didn't respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.

Slanina was gone before the Booths could get too suspicious. She persuaded Helen to lend her a car to run errands on Feb. 8, 2010, and disappeared.

She was eventually sentenced in June 2010 to 17 months in an Ohio prison for stealing Helen Booth's car, checks and bank card.

By September 2011, Slanina was out of prison and targeting Jen Asbury, a 25-year-old Army reservist from Morgantown, W.Va., who met Slanina through a Craigslist ad in which she claimed to be an Ohio nurse expecting twins via artificial insemination.

The two began a romantic relationship that Asbury called wonderful. During a month of text messages and phone calls she and Slanina spoke of marriage and raising the twins, and Slanina moved in with Asbury at her parents' home in October.

A week and a half later, Slanina said her mother in Pittsburgh died, Asbury said. She called while she was away to say she'd given birth two months premature to twins. She came home while they remained in the hospital.

About a month passed, and she told Asbury that one of the twins was being released from the hospital and Slanina was going to pick him up, Asbury said.

'I never heard from her after that.'

Less than two weeks later, Slanina showed up at the Kittanning battered women's shelter, about 85 miles north of Morgantown."

This woman 'fakes pregnancies and has left multiple would-be adoptive families devastated' - and it's not a crime
[Daily Mail 2/21/12 by Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

RTC: Judge Rotenberg Center

2012-02-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

What do you call 31 electric shocks on a restrained child (face down and helmet over head) for 7 hours with no water, food, or breaks? Treatment or torture? They are still in business and fighting for the...uh..."right" to shock...

"Video of a disabled teen tied down and given painful electric shocks for seven hours should be made public, the youth's mother said, so everyone can see what she describes as the "torture" her son went through at the controversial school, the only one in Massachusetts that uses pain to treat its clients.

"This is worse than a nightmare," Cheryl McCollins said about her disabled son, Andre. "It is horrific. And poor Andre, who had to suffer through this, and not know why."

The ordeal began after Andre hit a staff member. Inside a classroom, as a camera was recording, he was tied to a restraint board, face down, a helmet over his head.

He stayed like that for seven hours without a break, no food, no water, or trips to the bathroom. Each time he screamed or tensed up, he was shocked, 31 times in all. His mother called the next day to check on him.

"I said, 'Andre.' I said, 'Hello.' And so he said, 'Help me,'" McCollins said.

After spending three days in a comatose state, not eating or drinking, Andre was taken to Children's Hospital, where he was diagnosed with "acute stress response" caused by the shocks.

"The doctors took all the shackles and all those things off of him. Andre's not talking to me. I'm just holding him and telling him how much I love him, and asking him please to talk to me, just tell me what happened," McCollins said.

What happened that morning in October 2002 became clear after the Rotenberg Center showed her the video of Andre's ordeal, recorded by the classroom camera.

"When I viewed the tape, I saw Andre walking into a room, someone asking him to take off his coat. Andre said no, they shocked him, he went underneath the table trying to get away from them. They pulled him out, tied him up and they continued to shock him," McCollins said.

"When you look at that videotape, what was the purpose of all those shocks?" asked FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet.

"I have no idea," McCollins replied.

"Did you get an apology?" Beaudet asked.

"No, they felt what they did was therapy," McCollins replied.

"Does that look like therapy to you?" Beaudet asked.

"No, it was torture," McCollins said.

For now, the public can't see for themselves what Andre's treatment looks like because the Rotenberg Center asked a Norfolk Superior Court judge to seal the video tape, saying it would be unsettling for viewers who didn't understand the context. The judge agreed, and the video remains under a protective order.

"This is video they fought vehemently not to release, fought vehemently to keep quiet and I think now are very concerned that this tape is out there," said attorney Andrew Meyer, who represents Andre McCollins in a lawsuit against the Rotenberg Center.

"The Judge Rotenberg Center has consistently gotten away with being able to soft sell their treatment, to whitewash what they've done about it being therapeutic: 'It's not so bad, it helps these children.' But the eyewitness accounts that we now have about what actually goes on at this center puts to lie everything they've been saying," Meyer said.

But not everyone agrees. When asked about the perception that electric shock therapy is torture, school attorney Michael Flammia said, "Absolutely wrong."

Flammia would not talk about Andre McCollins.

"But I can tell you I'm familiar with every kid who has been at the school, who have been at the school over 20 years and I can promise you the treatment here is safe, it's effective, it's administered properly and every kid has benefited enormously from it," Flammia said.

"We talked with a parent who says, 'Put that video out there, let the public see what happened to my son here. Let them see what she calls torture,'" asked FOX Undercover's Beaudet.

"The matter is in the hands of the courts and we have complete confidence in the court system on that particular matter," Flammia replied.

"So you don't want us to see that video?" Beaudet asked.

"It's in the hands of the court," Flammia replied.

But McCollins says the public needs to see the video of what happened to her son.

"I hope this stops it. I hope this tape being exposed puts an end to this torture. Because I feel it. You watch it, you feel it," McCollins said. "How do we sit here and let this go on?"

It's certainly getting tougher for the Rotenberg Center to use these shocks.

New York and Massachusetts recently barred shocks on new students, though the school is fighting those restrictions in New York and is planning to do so here.

This is also not the first time this kind of video has become a problem for the center. Last year, the school's founder, Matthew Israel, was indicted on charges that he ordered video of improperly shocked students to be erased despite an ongoing investigation.

Israel agreed to a deal that gives him pre-trial probation in exchange for his stepping down from the school."
Teen tied and shocked for hours; mom calls it "torture"
[Fox Boston 2/19/12 by Mike Beaudet]

Mayo Clinic describes what to expect when receiving electroshock therapy aka ECT. Hint: It does NOT include 31 shocks over 7 hours without food, water or breaks.

Last August, we posted about where to get advice before enrolling your child in an RTC. A group called CAFETY gives detailed advice. This resource is also on our ethics links on our home page.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

God's Red Thread

2012-02-22T15:35:00.006-05:00

As we expose the underbelly of adoption and child welfare, we continue to be amazed at absurdly contrived concepts. The latest for Christian adopters? God's Red Thread. Yes, there are blogs that incorporate this theme into their titles and blog posts. We could post them, but decided not to...hoping to end this trend without calling anyone out specifically at this time.

We refer readers to an earlier post on REFORMTalk, The Right to Know Who the Rant They Are, in which Crabbina attacks the adoption community's use of the red thread concept.

The red thread theory used in Chinese mythology is also known as the red string of fate and the red thread of destiny. According to Chinese folklore, there is a Chinese deity who is in charge of tying a red string between soul mates (as in couples—NOT parents and children). As if twisting the red thread into a happy international adoption tale weren't enough, Christian bloggers are now inserting the Judeo-Christian God into their mix. No longer just a red thread bringing Chinese children to American/Canadian/European parents, these bloggers have decided that the red thread belongs to God. This implies that their adoption matches are predestined.

What on earth is wrong with these bloggers? Do they have no shame at all? Because....if this is a Christian God's red thread it begs the question: What Would Jesus Do?

We sincerely doubt that Jesus would tie a red string around people with the intent of separating children from families. We doubt he would crow about creating pain, loss, and trauma to a child. We doubt he would cause fraudulent documents full of pretty lies to be created for a child. We doubt he would use or sanction the use of bribes paid out by allegedly good Christians in order for this union to take place. In other words, Jesus would not buy into this bogus red thread business, and neither do we.

Crabbina adds: Perhaps these delusional PAPs might spend their blogging time more wisely by re-reading the Holy Bible in order to refresh their memories about the true meaning of the Gospel. And then perhaps they might realize that stealing another culture’s myths merely shows the world quite how ignorant and unqualified to adopt transracially they really are.

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Tanda Marsh-Smith and Odice Smith UPDATED

2012-02-22T14:33:00.001-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Dayton, Texas, eleven abused and neglected children were taken into Texas CPS care last month from sex offender Mark E. Marsh III's home. Ten adults were in the home at the time.Two 16-year-old boys who had runaway from nearby foster homes were also found in the home. Identities of the children have not been established yet, but media indicates that many are likely to be cousins.

The eleven children ranged in ages from 5 months to 11 years.

""The children were removed due to physical abuse, physical neglect and medical neglect," said Gwen Carter, spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. All the children are currently in foster homes.

Investigators discovered restrained toddlers, sick babies, beaten-up boys, teen runaways and a caretaker with numerous CPS investigations in two states at an address that a registered sex offender listed as his residence.

Nearly two dozen people, including 10 adults, were cramped inside the 1,700-square-foot brick home about 40 miles northeast of Houston. The Liberty County residence was not licensed as a day care, residential treatment center or foster home, Carter said.

Authorities removed 5- and 8-month-old boys; a 1-year-old boy; a boy and girl, 2; a 3-year-old girl; a girl and a boy, 4; a 5-year-old girl and two older boys, 8 and 11. Most are believed to be first cousins and the grandchildren of their caretaker.

Around 2 p.m. on Jan. 24, a CPS investigator and a Dayton Police Department sergeant found eight children in a "very dark" bedroom with no working light fixture and a piece of plywood covering the window, according to a CPS affidavit in support of removal filed in the Liberty County District Court.

Both 2-year-olds were tied to their beds and a legally blind 5-year-old girl was restrained on a "filthy mattress," the document said."

"All 10 adults present during the investigation were interviewed. "None of them felt like this was a problem, and stated that they tie the children up for safety," the affidavit said. The children were reportedly restrained around their chests to the bed at night and for two to three hours for naps during the day.

Both infants were transported to Texas Children's Hospital because of concerns from paramedics of "pneumonia and failure to thrive," the affidavit said. Other children's bodies had signs of abuse. According to the affidavit, one boy had a black eye, fingerprint marks on both forearms and a knocked-out tooth. He said one of the adults choked him on occasion. That boy also said all the children were restrained while sleeping and sometimes while awake during the day. Another child said the youngsters were kept in the room for as long as three days, according to the affidavit.

None of the children attended school, according to the affidavit. The house is blocks away from two Dayton ISD campuses.

During the visit, two teen runaways were found with a stolen car. The boys, both 16, left different Harris County foster or adoptive homes about five days prior. One said he heard from his older brother that the Liberty County home "was fun."

One of the caretaker's adult sons is a registered sex offender, the result of an offense with a minor, and lists the home as his current address. He was not present when authorities visited."

"
The case remains under investigation. No arrests or charges had been filed as of late Monday.

According to the affidavit, the caretaker lost custody of six children in Michigan in the early 1980s, in part because of sexual abuse allegations, and she was accused in 2005 of sexually abusing one of the children removed last month.

In 2009, one of the caretaker's daughters told CPS the woman "was hitting the kids" and admitted seeing bruises on a boy.

Douglas Waller said he saw nothing unusual at the home a few days before Christmas when he stopped by for a brief visit with the 4-year-old girl who he believes to be his daughter. The 33-year-old is petitioning the court for custody of the child.

"She looked all right. She looked healthy and happy," he said, but changed his mind after the girl was removed from the home.

"After reading the papers I've received from the courts, I would not trust them with an animal - much less a child," he said. "I had no idea of the stuff that was going on at the house."

Waller said he has a stable home and job, and would have sought custody before now "if I'd have known that my daughter's mother gave the grandmother permission to use restraints on my child," he said. "That is wrong and should not be done to any child - not just mine."

The first step in Waller's custody battle for the girl he calls "the spitting image of me" is to pass a DNA test."

State removes 11 abused and neglected children from Dayton home
[Houston Chronicle 2/20/12 by Cindy George]

Of those eleven children, "[t]hree who were age 5 or older had not been enrolled in school."

" Liberty County District Attorney Mike Little said his office would present a case to a grand jury next month, but he declined to discuss possible suspects or charges.."

"The home with a "No Trespassing" sign out front is in a subdivision near land used for farming and ranching. A tricycle and other toys were in the backyard Tuesday, and several cars were parked outside.

People leaving the home declined to talk to media assembled outside, and other residents and their relatives declined to comment or didn't respond to phone messages. [A photo shows three white women, one very pregnant, leaving the home.]

One person in Texas' online sex offender registry listed the house as his address. Mark E. Marsh III was convicted in Michigan 15 years ago of criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl. He did not have a working phone number listed."

"Neighbor Wayne Hardin said he never saw the youngest children and had no idea so many people were living in the house. Though he often saw eight or more cars parked outside, Hardin said he was told the residents had a big family.

"I was shocked," said Hardin, who had called police about loud music blaring from the house. "We didn't have a clue."

Along with the children, two teenage runaways with a stolen car were at the home, authorities said. The boys, both 16, admitted running away from foster homes, smoking marijuana and driving a car they knew was stolen, authorities said.

Carter [CPS spokeswoman] said the home was not registered as a foster home or day care."
11 children removed from sex offender’s home after some were found tied to beds
[New York Daily News 2/21/12 by Associated Press]

Did the foster parents ever report to CPS that these two boys had runaway?Were they still collecting those monthly paychecks?

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: The main two adults have been identified as Tanda Marsh-Smith (mother to sex offender Mark Marsh III) and Odice Smith. Most children have been identified as Tanda's grandchildren.

"Eight of the children were found inside a 10-foot-by-10-foot back bedroom. Though it was about 2 p. m., the room was dark because the window was covered with plywood and there was no light fixture, according to the court filing. Three of the eight children in the room were restrained to their beds at the time the authorities visited. One child told the authorities that the children were placed in restraints while they slept at night and sometimes during the day when they were awake, and another child said they were kept in the room for up to three days at a time. The harness-style cloth restraints, tied around the chests of some of the children and attached to their small beds, were so tight that they had only about one or two feet to maneuver. None of the older children attended schools, the court papers said. "

" 2-year-old girl was tied up in a restraint attached to her bed. Nearby another 2-year-old child, a boy, was restrained to his bed, too. A third child, a blind 5-year-old girl who appeared to be in a daze, was tied up on a filthy mattress. An 11-year-old boy had a black eye and finger marks on his forearms, and one of his teeth had been knocked out. "

A court document said "said that Ms. Marsh-Smith was reported to have had six children removed from her home in Michigan in the early 1980s and had been accused in more recent years of physical and sexual abuse of her grandchildren."

"Three large prefabricated structures, including one red barn-style shed, had recently been placed in the backyard and were occupied by people at night, neighbors said.

“I was shocked,” said a neighbor, Wayne Hardin, 59, who is the pastor of Grace Community Baptist Church in Dayton. “The people mainly stayed in the house. They have not had a good relationship with neighbors at all. If you walk on their sidewalk, they consider that their property, and they’ll go out there and holler at people.”

In a Texas Home, 11 Children Found in Grim Conditions

[New York Times 2/23/12 by Manny Fernandez]

Proposed South Carolina Foster Care Law UPDATED

2012-02-21T14:08:00.001-05:00

The shock is that this isn't already a law.

"Legislators are discussing a bill that would make it illegal for convicted sex offenders to serve as foster parents in South Carolina.

Current law prohibits children from being placed in foster care with people who have a history of child abuse or have been convicted of certain crimes like criminal domestic violence.

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday is taking up the bill that would add sex offenders to that list.

The proposal would also bar courts from awarding custody to parents who are convicted sex offenders. "

SC bill to bar sex offenders from foster parenting
[Herald Online 2/21/12 by Meg Kinnard/Associated Press]

See the bill here

Amendment will be Section 2 (A) 3
SECTION 2. Section 63-7-2350 (A) of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"(A) No child may be placed in foster care with a person:
(3) who is required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Article 7, Chapter 3, Title 23."

Those required to register include the following:

"SECTION 23-3-430. Sex offender registry; convictions and not guilty by reason of insanity findings requiring registration.

(A) Any person, regardless of age, residing in the State of South Carolina who in this State has been convicted of, adjudicated delinquent for, pled guilty or nolo contendere to an offense described below, or who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere, or found not guilty by reason of insanity in any comparable court in the United States, or a foreign country, or who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere, or found not guilty by reason of insanity in the United States federal courts of a similar offense, or who has been convicted of, adjudicated delinquent for, pled guilty or nolo contendere, or found not guilty by reason of insanity to an offense for which the person was required to register in the state where the conviction or plea occurred, shall be required to register pursuant to the provisions of this article. A person who has been found not guilty by reason of insanity shall not be required to register pursuant to the provisions of this article unless and until the person is declared to no longer be insane or is ordered to register by the trial judge. A person who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere, or found not guilty by reason of insanity in any court in a foreign country may raise as a defense to a prosecution for failure to register that the offense in the foreign country was not equivalent to any offense in this State for which he would be required to register and may raise as a defense that the conviction, adjudication, plea, or finding in the foreign country was based on a proceeding or trial in which the person was not afforded the due process of law as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and this State.

(B) For purposes of this article, a person who remains in this State for a total of thirty days during a twelve-month period is a resident of this State.

(C) For purposes of this article, a person who has been convicted of, pled guilty or nolo contendere to, or been adjudicated delinquent for any of the following offenses shall be referred to as an offender:

(1) criminal sexual conduct in the first degree (Section 16-3-652);

(2) criminal sexual conduct in the second degree (Section 16-3-653);

(3) criminal sexual conduct in the third degree (Section 16-3-654);

(4) criminal sexual conduct with minors, first degree (Section 16-3-655(1));

(5) criminal sexual conduct with minors, second degree. If evidence is presented at the criminal proceeding and the court makes a specific finding on the record that the conviction obtained for this offense resulted from consensual sexual conduct, as contained in Section 16-3-655(3) provided the offender is eighteen years of age or less, or consensual sexual conduct between persons under sixteen years of age, the convicted person is not an offender and is not required to register pursuant to the provisions of this article;

(6) engaging a child for sexual performance (Section 16-3-810);

(7) producing, directing, or promoting sexual performance by a child (Section 16-3-820);

(8) criminal sexual conduct: assaults with intent to commit (Section 16-3-656);

(9) incest (Section 16-15-20);

(10) buggery (Section 16-15-120);

(11) committing or attempting lewd act upon child under sixteen (Section 16-15-140);

(12) peeping, voyeurism, or aggravated voyeurism (Section 16-17-470);

(13) violations of Article 3, Chapter 15 of Title 16 involving a minor;

(14) a person, regardless of age, who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere in this State, or who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere in a comparable court in the United States, or who has been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, pled guilty or nolo contendere in the United States federal courts of indecent exposure or of a similar offense in other jurisdictions is required to register pursuant to the provisions of this article if the court makes a specific finding on the record that based on the circumstances of the case the convicted person should register as a sex offender;

(15) kidnapping (Section 16-3-910) of a person eighteen years of age or older except when the court makes a finding on the record that the offense did not include a criminal sexual offense or an attempted criminal sexual offense;

(16) kidnapping (Section 16-3-910) of a person under eighteen years of age except when the offense is committed by a parent;

(17) trafficking in persons (Section 16-3-930) except when the court makes a finding on the record that the offense did not include a criminal sexual offense or an attempted criminal sexual offense;

(18) criminal sexual conduct when the victim is a spouse (Section 16-3-658);

(19) sexual battery of a spouse (Section 16-3-615);

(20) sexual intercourse with a patient or trainee (Section 44-23-1150);

(21) criminal solicitation of a minor if the purpose or intent of the solicitation or attempted solicitation was to:

(a) persuade, induce, entice, or coerce the person solicited to engage or participate in sexual activity as defined in Section 16-15-375(5);

(b) perform a sexual activity in the presence of the person solicited (Section 16-15-342); or

(22) administering, distributing, dispensing, delivering, or aiding, abetting, attempting, or conspiring to administer, distribute, dispense, or deliver a controlled substance or gamma hydroxy butyrate to an individual with the intent to commit a crime listed in Section 44-53-370(f), except petit larceny or grand larceny.

(23) any other offense specified by Title I of the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-248), the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). "

REFORM Puzzle Piece

What in the world are they checking in a SC homestudy?

Update: "The bill passed Tuesday [February 21, 2012] by the House Judiciary Committee would also prevent judges from giving legal custody of a child to anyone convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

The bill now moves on to the full House for debate."

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/02/21/3757206/sc-bill-to-bar-sex-offenders-from.html#storylink=cpy

Panel OKs ban on some sex criminals fostering kids
[Herald Online 2/21/12 by Meg Kinnard/Associated Press]

What Child Welfare Reform Needs Now: A Little More Action

2012-02-21T13:43:00.000-05:00

At ReformTalk we discuss many issues related to reform. Numerous other groups are talking about the issues too, but we want to take this opportunity to remind people that talking, learning and brainstorming are great, but at some point you must TAKE ACTION or nothing will change.

Adoption Industry Propaganda Article

2012-02-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

Another article requires some serious debunking....

This is the third article in a trilogy of adoption industry propaganda. Int'l Adoptions Part 3: Is the US State Dept. Opposed to Inter-Country Adoption? [Christian Post 2/18/12 by Napp Nazworth]

Our comments in red.

"In 2004, Americans adopted 22,991 orphans from other countries. That number has steadily declined to only 9,319 in 2011, according to State Department records. This decline is happening due to a set of complicated factors based partly upon different views regarding what is best for an orphaned child."

[This is #1. No, it is not complicated. It is called corruption and trafficking. The views are only “different” if you refuse to accept the truth about the adoption industry.]

"The Christian Post spoke to several international adoption experts to understand why the decline is taking place, and why adoptive parents have recently run into difficulties with the State Department when trying to bring their children home."

[This is #2. No, you didn’t. You spoke to agency shills. You only spoke to people that lobby for more adoptions or who make money from adoption.]

"Part one of this series was about Becky Morlock, a missionary in India who has been living there for four years because she has been unable to get a visa from the U.S. State Department to bring her child home. "

[You did not cover this story well. See our coverage here. This adoption did not follow Hague or ANY other process that came before Hague. This was purely political string-pulling.]

"Part two followed the Carrolls, Gerigs and Reeveses as they struggled with alleged falsified information and witness badgering from State Department officials when they were getting visas to bring their adopted children home from Ethiopia."

[This is #3. Ethiopia’s blame can be squarely placed at the foot of the adoption agencies, orphanages, and corrupt Ethiopian officials. There is ample documentation of falsified paperwork. How else would USE figure out what is falsified from truth unless they undertake detailed investigations?]

"It's an enormous collapse of a really valid service to children. It didn't just happen by accident. There's a reason that this all happened," Tom DiFilipo, president and CEO of Joint Council on International Children's Services, said in a Jan. 19 interview with The Christian Post."

[Yes, Tom, the reason is that YOUR JCICS is the organization that put the whole Ethiopia process in motion. JCICS LITERALLY WROTE THE RULES! See our post regarding 2008 activities here That it is so corrupt is the fault of you, Tom! As a side note, that post also shows the partnering of JCICS with the Christian Alliance for Orphans and other influences they have.]

"Which is a priority: a child's need for a loving family or a child's race and ethnicity? How one answers this question drives some of the disputes over inter-country adoptions, according to Jedd Medefind, president of Christian Alliance for Orphans and former head of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the George W. Bush administration, in a Feb. 2 interview with The Christian Post."

[Strawman alert! Jedd loves to deflect from the corruption and coercion issue.]

"Both internationally, as well as domestically in the U.S., there have been fierce debates over which is more important, a child's ethnic background, or their need for a family," Medefind said."

[This is #4. There has not been ANY debate about this when it comes to Ethiopia. This is a total fabrication. The debate has ALWAYS been about corruption. Fly Away Children, ACT’s report…all about trafficking and coercion.]

"For those who place a high priority on keeping an orphan close to their country of origin and with families who share their race and ethnicity, an international adoption is a low priority."

[And your point is? Ethiopia process is a cesspool. It is difficult to wade through it and THAT is why there are delays.]

"Most everyone is, theoretically, supportive of inter-country adoption," Medefind explained. "Some just place it as such a last resort that it effectively never would happen."
[This is #5. Your agencies are filling orders for young children. You know that there are NOT 5 million children in orphanages in Ethiopia and that most children who are adoptable are either older or disabled. YOUR agencies continue the problems by being concerned more about cash flow (by signing up as many PAPs as you can) than assessing WHICH children really need homes (older and disabled).]

"Though a diversity of opinions can be found, the United Nations and UNICEF, the U.N.'s program to help children, tend to be biased toward placing race and ethnicity at a higher priority than a family, according to Medefind."

[This is #6. You know full well that UNICEF is not behind the issues in Ethiopia.]

"The U.N. is an important player in international adoptions due to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption, which was designed to facilitate inter-country adoption and help ensure that every inter-country adoption is done ethically and in the best interest of the child."

[This is #7. Actually, US adoption industry personnel who used to be part of JCICS helped write the weak Hague requirements. They were written to protect the PROCESS, not the children.]

"In every country where the Hague has been implemented, however, inter-country adoptions have declined, according to attorney Kelly Ensslin in a Jan. 10 interview with The Christian Post."

[Yes of course they have as MORE children are being placed domestically and deinstitutionalization is occurring. That is a GOOD thing unless your goal is to proselytize, traffic in children, and defend corrupt adoption agencies. ]

"Ensslin specializes in representing parents in international adoption cases and was hired by the Carrolls, Gerigs and Reeveses. She first got involved with inter-country adoption cases when she adopted a child from Vietnam four years ago and also ran into difficulties with the State Department."

"I'm a trial lawyer. I used to just fight about money. When my own kid got stuck, I realized there were not very many people in the country who could help me get her out. So, I had to figure out, on my own, how to fight the system, and when the system is your own government, it's damn crazy," Ensslin said.

Ensslin represented 25 families who had adopted children in Nepal in 2010 and is currently representing close to 20 families who adopted children in Ethiopia."

[Since Ensslin worked in Nepal, she is fully aware of just how dirty that country is, and how much trafficking really went on. Too bad she chose the wrong side to represent. When are you going to come clean about how many bribes make the adoptions in Nepal go ‘round, huh, Kelly? And maybe then you can discuss why Vietnam shut down too.]

"The U.S. State Department appears to take the position that all inter-country adoptions should, eventually, be done through the Hague Convention. Susan Jacobs was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the newly created Special Adviser for Children's Issues in 2010. The Christian Post contacted her to get the State Department's view on these issues, but she has not returned our call."

[Did you try calling again? Or emailing? Or working a different source which is what a competent journalist would do? Maybe she would rather not be part of your propaganda piece. We don’t blame her. How stupid is it that the US is party to the Hague yet 71% of FY2011 adoptions were non-Hague? Seriously, what is the point if most adoptions are not going to follow it?]

"A press release announcing Jacobs' appointment stated, "Secretary Clinton has created this new foreign policy position to address inter-country adoption and international parental child abduction."

Concerns over child trafficking, or child abduction, could also be driving some of the State Department's greater scrutiny of international adoptions. There was a case where a couple in Missouri had adopted a child from Guatemala in 2008. Three years later, the child's birth mother claimed the child was stolen from her and went to court to get her child back."

[This is #8. “Could be” driving it? How low are you going to stoop? And why hasn’t Anyeli been placed back with her victim-parents in Guatemala?]

"All three experts that The Christian Post interviewed believe, however, that concerns over child trafficking are overblown."

[This is #9. You did not interview three experts. You interviewed THREE AGENCY SHILLS who make money from adoptions, period.]

"The claims of child trafficking are definitely not rooted in fact," Medefind said."

[This is #9, and the worst one yet. Medefind clearly does not have a clue. All he has to do is hit the Google button and he will find page after page of links to hard facts and documentation about countless cases of trafficking. ]

"The Christian Post also spoke with a source in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) who confirmed that fraudulent adoptions are very rare."

[Name your source, you hypocrite. USE checks paperwork. They don’t confirm ethical or unethical adoptions. It is coercion that is the concern and USE has let SCORES of falsified paperwork through. How do we know this? Because ADOPTEES end up telling their APs their true stories that—guess what!-- DO NOT MATCH THE PAPERWORK! That means their paperwork was deliberately falsified = trafficking = corruption = exploitation of children.]

"There are so many truly orphaned children around the world that a potential child trafficker would have little to gain financially by stealing or paying for children. Those involved in adoptions still need to remain diligent, though, to avoid the possibility of child trafficking, Medefind believes."

[This is #10. You are hoping that the reader believes your inflated orphan numbers and that they believe that orphans live in orphanages. Most DON’T. MOST Single and double orphans live with their surviving parent or extended family or in their community. Furthermore, street children -a big issue in many countries (again these are not infants) are usually not available for international adoption. They usually have extended families and there needs to be some process established by the foreign government. Just because one of your agencies sees the child, does not mean that your agency has "dibs" on the child's future.

Orphanages mostly have older or disabled children in them. Most PAPs want YOUNG kids so traffickers DO have reason to steal those young children or coerce poor families to make money. They ALSO steal older kids and prostitute them making the first wave of money and THEN sell them to orphanages to make a SECOND wave of money off of the SAME CHILD! The traffickers for adoption and sex trafficking ARE THE SAME!!!]

"Poverty, in some cases, is so severe that the promise of a certain amount of money could lure a parent who is on the edge of survival to give up one of their children in exchange for money."

The most difficult adoptions do not have anything to do with fears of child trafficking. Rather, they have to do with figuring out what is in the best interest of the child when the mother is in a desperate situation."

[This again is where a conflict of interest occurs when the adoption agency is the one offering family preservation.]

"The place where the hardest ethical decisions are made," Medefind explained, "are when there is a parent, who is still alive, that potentially could still care for this child, but that parent has chosen to give the child up. And the decision of whether to accept that child for adoption or to force the birth parent to keep the child, and to do all you can in supporting them in that, can be a very difficult decision."

While DiFilipo, Ensslin and Medefind all support the concept of a properly functioning Hague Convention, they all agree that is has not worked in practice.

DiFilipo put it this way: "A good law that can't be implemented is a bad law."

[And bad people in your industry cause lifelong devastation for many impoverished families!]

"One of the issues with the Hague Convention is that many developing countries do not have the resources to implement it. The Hague Convention requires a plethora of documentation to prove that a child is an orphan before she can be adopted.

"One of the complaints in Ethiopian cases," Ensslin said, "is that the police don't adequately document their investigation into abandoned infants. Well, you go to these police stations and they are essentially lean-to sheds with a desk and a cot and 64 officers. No computers, no filing cabinets. What would we have them do?"

The issue then becomes, how much should be demanded to ensure that a child is an orphan before allowing them to be adopted? The more that is demanded, the more orphans there will be without a chance to be adopted by a loving family. The less that is demanded, the more the possibility that children could be adopted for whom adoption is not the best option.

The U.N. and UNICEF also tend to be biased toward making inter-country adoptions more rare, Medefind believes, because officials at these agencies generally believe that orphans are better served by reducing poverty and government corruption than by inter-country adoption. The two approaches to caring for orphans do not need to be exclusive, however."

[Why should ANY country want to get rid of ANY healthy child who could make a difference in the future for their country?]

"Many in the foreign aid world see a zero-sum game between a focus on investing in programs and an openness to inter-country adoption. It doesn't need to be that way," Medefind said."

[Why do you think foreign aid should come AFTER adoption?]
"The recent events in Ethiopia and elsewhere suggest that the U.S. State Department may also share a bias against inter-country adoption.

"What you're seeing is a clear position by the U.S. government," DiFilipo said. "There is a strong preference for international adoptions to be completed through the Hague Convention. And, countries that are not party to the Convention, you're seeing a lot of push, and a lot of criticism, and a lot of accusations about corruption and poor practice."

[Wonder why, Tom? It’s because you continue to defend the indefensible. The agency members of the JCICS are plagued with grotesquely inhumane and overpayed directors and employees. They cloak their lies in “Christian values” and “only in it for the children.” ]

"Ethiopia decided this past October, just a few weeks before the backlog in adoptions occurred at the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia, that it would not sign onto the Hague Convention.

Governments and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) also tend to favor solutions that can be delivered on a mass scale, such as food aid and rooting out corruption in government.

"Adoption cannot be delivered by governments, so, those seeking to solve problems through large scale programs naturally would emphasize the types of solutions that they are best at delivering," Medefind explained."

[How stupid! Every Hague country delivers adoption by government. Many did so PRIOR to Hague-all the ones with centralized systems did so. WHY do you think adoption is the solution for poverty?]

"Domestic politics can also be a source of reductions in the number of adoptions, according to Medefind. A party out of power may criticize a party in power by pointing to the number of adopted children leaving the country as evidence that the government is not working well. The party in power may respond to the criticism by reducing the number of inter-country adoptions.

The USCIS official said there are no current plans or discussion of plans to stop inter-country adoptions from Ethiopia. They also said that they were working closely with officials at the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia to alleviate some of the problems the embassy had processing the adoptions, and they are satisfied with the progress made thus far. The Christian Post also discovered from a congressional source that a meeting was planned for mid-February among the State Department, USCIS and members of Congress or their staff to work out some of the difficulties in the inter-country adoption process."

[This is #11. Oh give us a break! The Christian Alliance for Orphans spilled the beans in their blog post when they promoted their faux survey, claiming it was “official”!]

"In the Ethiopian cases investigated by The Christian Post, the problems that the Carrolls, Gerigs and Reeveses faced were not simply a matter of the embassy being more diligent or applying greater scrutiny. They were problems that could only have been created by either incompetence or an intentional desire to reduce adoptions."
[This is #12. What kind of “investigation” did you do? Talk to a couple of agencies who are subjects of exposes on coercion, and then the JCICS? Come clean with your sources and name them. Any incompetence is on the part of the adoption agency. The ones that the PAPs paid $30K to!]

"What we're finding, in every [Ethiopian adoption] case," Ensslin said, "is that the children are orphans. The indicators of fraud are nonexistent and are really the product of sloppy work, at best, by the embassy."

[This is #13. Sloppy work? PAPs have been complaining for years about sloppy work by their agencies. One orphanage used a template with the same relinquishment information for each kid. See ACT report analysis here]

"DiFilipo offered suggestions for improving inter-country adoptions out of Ethiopia and making the Hague Convention more workable."
[Tom ALREADY wrote the messed-up regulations in Ethiopia. WHY should he do the re-write?!? The only thing that you want workable in the Hague is to make it easier for your agencies to make money. It has nothing to do with protection.]
"The U.S. embassy in Ethiopia should have more resources to deal with the number of inter-country adoptions from that nation. Plus, the embassy should have a USCIS officer on site to help process the visa applications."

[Why? Is the Embassy in the adoption business? The industry should have to fund that if they want more help—the problems are from the adoption agencies’ incompetence, fraud and corruption. Why should taxpayers fund a no-limit adoption business for your buddies?]
"Also, if a developing country is encouraged to sign onto the Hague Convention, there should be resources offered to help that nation implement the convention so that there is not a sudden drop in adoptions."

[Why? Actually, a country should NEVER be open for international adoption until an ethical, centralized process is in place. In the meantime, a lot of aid and training should be given to the country. But, you see, THAT would be money OUT of the industry’s pocket and they want money IN their pockets.]

"Partnerships must be brought to bear. Resources must be brought to bear. Not just encouragement. Not just criticism. There needs to be partnerships and financial assistance," DiFilipo said."

[Why should a foreign government partner with people making money off of their (mostly healthy) children?]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Wisconsin CPS FAIL UPDATED

2012-02-20T21:39:00.002-05:00

The family was investigated in 2007 about possible sexual abuse of their daughter. They were uncooperative with police. Apparently nothing came of that.

Two neighbors called CPS to report abuse, but to no avail.

The child was homeschooled, so forget about mandated school reporters.

On February 6, 2012, the 15-year-old girl, who looked like an 8-year-old, finally was rescued from her tortured life. Two other children were also removed from the home. There is no word on their conditions.

"Neighbors of a severely malnourished Wisconsin teenager found wandering outside, her bare feet purple and her face bleeding, say they rarely saw the girl leave home, and that when she did emerge she would scavenge through the trash and eat discarded scraps.

At least two neighbors called social services to report potential abuse at the house, but it wasn't until the 15-year-old was spotted walking outside in the cold last week wearing just thin pajamas that details of what she allegedly endured were revealed. Authorities say she was forced to stay in an unfinished basement for years and eat her own feces. Her father and stepmother have been arrested on suspicion of child abuse and neglect, and a hearing is set for Thursday.

Mark Stuntebeck, who lives next door to the family in Madison, said he called child protective services within the last two years after he saw the girl taking out the garbage and scavenging through it to find food. He doesn't know if anyone ever followed up with the girl's family.

"She seemed to be hiding and munching on crumbs or remnants of something," said Stuntebeck, 44.

Melissa Clark, 38, who lives across the street, said the girl rarely came outside but she could hear her family berating her inside the house. Clark's mother, who was visiting from Florida last year, noticed the girl and called child protective services. Clark said she doesn't know if anything was done.

Her parents once yelled at her for showing too much skin when she was bent over and her blouse hung off her, Clark said.

"It was horrible," she said. "She was treated like Cinderella."

State Department of Health Services spokesman Sara Buschman said Wednesday she couldn't immediately comment but planned to have more information Thursday.

The 40-year-old father and 42-year-old stepmother, whom The Associated Press is not naming to protect the girl's identity, were each being held on $20,000 bail after their arrests last week. Their hearing Thursday is expected to include a review of their bail and a discussion about the status of the potential charges, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.

Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Wednesday that the teen was getting medical treatment and remained in protective custody.

The girl, who only weighed 70 pounds, told authorities she had been forced to stay in the unfinished basement of her father and stepmother's home since 2006 and that an alarm would sound if she went upstairs. She said she ate what she could find in the garbage and sometimes she was made to eat her own feces and drink her urine, according to a police affidavit.

She said if she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up.

The allegations came to light after Mike Vega saw the girl walking in thin pajamas, barefoot and crying on a cold Feb. 6 afternoon. She was bleeding from a gash on her nose and other small scrapes and was so scrawny he mistook her for an 8-year-old. He called police.

"It was the most shocking thing I have ever seen," Vega, 31, said Wednesday, recalling the day he found her. "A little girl looking like that. I've never seen anybody look like that, to be honest."

A doctor quoted in police reports said what the girl went through before Vega found her amounted to "torture."

Vega, who lives about a mile from the girl and her family, said he was driving on a busy street not far from home when he spotted her. As he slowly passed her, he looked through his rearview mirror and saw her bare feet, which were purple from the cold. He backed up, and she told him she needed help.

Once she was inside Vega's car, she was scared at first, but Vega said she became more comfortable after he showed her photos of his three young sons and a Mary Poppins video on his cellphone.

According to police records, the girl told authorities she had been let out of the basement that day to "clean some papers" for her stepmother and that the woman became angry because she wasn't working fast enough.

The teen told Vega the stepmother threw her back downstairs but she managed to escape out a window. Vega said the girl told him she feared the woman would throw her down the stairs again. She said the woman even threatened to kill her.

Vega said the girl "wasn't crying, wasn't hysterical" when she spoke about her stepmother's alleged death threat. "But it wasn't nonchalant either," he said. "You could see fear in her eyes. It was very disturbing."

Barbara Knox, a physician at American Family Children's Hospital quoted in the police reports, told officers the malnutrition the girl suffered "poses a significant risk of death" and that chronic starvation had caused her puberty to be arrested. Knox also said the girl would be at high risk for other disorders and complications that can lead to death.

The teen said her stepmother homeschooled her using a third-grade workbook, according to the affidavit.

The girl's 18-year-old stepbrother also was arrested on a probation and parole hold. DeSpain said he couldn't comment on the arrest. Two other minors in the home were taken into protective custody, DeSpain said.

Police said they encountered the girl in 2007, when someone alleged she might have been molested by a family member. The girl did not corroborate the allegation and her family was not cooperative, police said.

She appeared healthy at the time, police said."

Neighbors had reported possible abuse of Wis. girl
[Associated Press 2/16/12 by Carrie Antlfinger]

"When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away.
The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.

The girl's statements, contained in court documents, paint a troubling picture of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The girl describes running away, only to be found, brought home and threatened. Confined to the basement, she had no one to ask for help. She wasn't allowed to go to school or church, have visitors or talk on the phone.

Dane County officials say the girl is getting help now. She gained 17 pounds after about a week under doctors' care, a criminal complaint said. She has been placed in foster care, and child welfare officials say there's been an outpouring of support from people across the nation, who sent cards and letters."

"Her father and stepmother have been charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. The charges carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 11 years, 3 months. The girl's 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and child sexual assault and faces 68 years behind bars if convicted."

"[The] father and stepmother are still applying for public defenders.

The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That's also when the family began keeping her in the basement.

Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, "they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face," she said.

She said she was forced to do chores naked and had to call upstairs for permission to eat. She was often told her stepmother was too busy to feed her.

"I know it's a lie," the teen told police. "She's playing with my brother upstairs. I can hear her upstairs watching TV."

She wasted away to 70 pounds. In contrast, police records say her father weighs 240 pounds and her stepmother 370 pounds.

The girl implied she could unlock the basement door but said there were motion sensors and an alarm that would draw her stepmother's wrath. Still, she said she fled a couple times, but her parents always found her and threatened to report her to police as a runaway.

Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl."

Starved Wis. Girl's Statements Detail Her Life
[ABC 2/21/12 by Dinesh Ramde/Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: "The father, stepmother and stepbrother accused of starving and abusing a 15-year-old girl for years remain in custody facing multiple charges.

The charges against the parents include child abuse and neglect while the stepbrother is charged with sexual assaulting a child.

Among the allegations the parents face is an attempt to inhibit the recent state Department of Human Services investigation and even cover up their alleged crimes.

But records show that, years earlier, the girl's father, Chad G. Chritton, and stepmother, Melinda J. Drabek-Chritton, stood in the way of another investigation -- and did so legally.

The criminal complaint said that in 2007, Chad Chritton refused to sign releases to help out a Dane County Human Services investigation, barring officials from interviewing his now 15-year-old daughter.

"People have a right to privacy in regards to parenting. That's a protected right under the law," said Julie Ahnen, who manages Child Protective Service for Dane County. "The parent or the owner of the private property has the right to say we cannot, to bar us access to the child."

Ahnen said usually there is a way around the parents for investigators.

"If a child is attending a public school, we can go to the school and interview the child without the parent's permission," Ahnen said.

But if a child isn't school-age yet, class is out for the summer, or, like in the Drabek-Chritton case, the child is homeschooled, a knock on the door from Child Protective Services officials may legally go unanswered, making an investigation harder.

"Those cases can be more complicated as far as gaining access," Ahnen said.

Lynn Green, director of Dane County Human Services, said she doesn't feel current laws restrict investigators from uncovering child abuse.

"I'm not sure that the law prevents us from unearthing some abuse and neglect that occurs, so much as human dynamics," Green said.

Green said that children frequently won't reveal they've been abused. Green said she's confident that in this case, her staff did all they could. "I believe that we appropriately screened out and did not have the grounds to intervene any more fully," Green said.

"Screened out" refers to cases where a report has been made but the information it contains does not rise to a legal level that allows an investigation.

And when parent's don't cooperate, Child Protective Services can involve the police and does have other means, when necessary, to compel people to speak.

The agency has latitude to talk to others but without releases from parents, no information is required to be given to officials, with the exception of some medical information. A school or day care provider could decide to give up that information if they felt there was good reason to do so.

Dating to 1997, Child Protective Services had received seven reports of possible abuse or neglect in the Drabek-Chritton home, and only two of those were substantiated -- the most recent and another in 1997, before the girl came to live in Wisconsin, according to records."

Child Abuse Suspects Blocked Earlier Investigation

[Channel 2000 2/22/12]

Soaked for More China Adoption Fees Yet Still Not Mad at Agency

2012-02-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

I could have titled this Why Agencies Can Continue their Corrupt Ways, too. It is because PAPs take it because they are so close to finalizing the adoption. This is why Hague is a joke.

Excerpt from the Public Forum China Adopt Talk http://chinaadopttalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=80339.0

"Just a few days before we left, we were notified of a number of fees that needed to be paid that we were unprepared for.

One of them was the guide fees and hotel fees. We thought those fees had already been paid but apparently they had not. The hotel fees we thought we would pay while we were actually at the hotel and that we could use our business credit card because we are also here on business, most of our in country costs are paid for thru my dh's company except for the parts of our trip that are only adoption related. I was surprised to find out that we had to send a check prior to travel for these hotel and guide fees.

Also, I just got an email from our China coordinator that the majority of her fee has not been collected. $1000 to her is waiting to be paid. I am so annoyed!! We just paid about $4000 more than we were notified about in advance. I understand all the fees, really I do. But, I have been so careful to ASK about all the fees that were due BEFORE travel so we could prepare for them. We don't have a money tree growing in the back yard since I last checked....

I am frustrated and annoyed that these fees weren't disclosed and of course, I would never think to not pay them but THIS is not the time to be notified of such things. NOT AT ALL!!"

This is more than "annoying". Besides being unethical, China is a Hague country. Hague rules state that ALL fees SHALL be disclosed PRIOR TO APPLICATION! 22 CFR " § 96.40 Fee policies and procedures.

(a) The agency or person provides to all applicants, prior to application, a written schedule of expected total fees and estimated expenses and an explanation of the conditions under which fees or expenses may be charged, waived, reduced, or refunded and of when and how the fees and expenses must be paid.

(b) Before providing any adoption service to prospective adoptive parent(s), the agency or person itemizes and discloses in writing the following information for each separate category of fees and estimated expenses that the prospective adoptive parent(s) will be charged in connection with a Convention adoption:"

Hotel fees should not EVER have to be paid to an agency. Kickbacks are common in this type of scheme.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Agencies don't follow Hague rules and there is no enforcement when they refuse to follow it. International adoption is still the wild west even in Hague countries.

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Andrew Burd case-Child Death

2012-02-20T15:46:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Corpus Christi, Texas, foster parent Hannah Overton, convicted in September 2007 of capital murder by omission in the October 2, 2006 death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd has had "an appeals court has ordered the trial court to hear new evidence that may suggest her innocence."

Andrew had a very high salt content in his blood after he had collapsed at his home and was brought hours later to an urgent care center, dying the next day.

"The ruling came this week from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which decided on an application for a writ of habeas corpus that a new hearing is required."

"The appeals court handed down a list of specifics concern the evidence, telling the trial court needs to explore “in detail” the discrepancy between the sodium levels found in the child victim’s stomach and that found in his blood. It also needs to assess the “mathematical accuracy of the expert testimony concerning the amount of Zatarain’s seasoning … necessary to raise the victim’s blood sodium level.”

The trial also needs to review what scientific studies “support the state’s theory.”
New hearing in salt-poisoning murder
[WND 2/19/12 by Bob Unruh]

Andrew Burd's Death

PoundPup Legacy has files up to February 2010 here. A lengthy column was written in January 2012 in Texas Monthly by Pamela Colloff here. Hannah's supporters have a website called Free Hannah.com.

Here is our summary of the case:

Andrew Burd was born to unwed teenaged parents on July 28, 2002. His sixteen-year-old mother was alleged “to [use]alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine and crack cocaine, LSD, marijuana, cigarettes, and taking prescription Xanax.” CPS got involved when Andrew was one years old and his mother brought him to a hospital with a broken arm. Between age one and two and a half, there were four investigations involving the biological mother and grandmother and meth use. At two and a half, he was taken into care due to immediate danger.

He was placed with a foster mother Sharon Hamil who had custody of him for 18 months. The biological father, who NEVER was alleged to be a drug user, and paternal grandmother fought to gain custody and lost.

In 2006, Hannah and Larry Overton had four biological children and Hannah was pregnant with a fifth child. Hannah had her own rough history. According to Texas Monthly, Hannah's father was "Reverend Bennie Saenz, an evangelical preacher in Corpus Christi whose fall from grace profoundly altered the course of her childhood. Hannah was seven when Saenz was arrested in 1984 and charged with a singularly horrific crime: the bludgeoning death of a sixteen-year-old girl whose nude body was discovered at the water’s edge on Padre Island. "He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Hannah was a missionary and eventually was a private-duty nurse for a disabled child before she had children.

The Overtons attended the nondenominational church Calvary Chapel of the Coastlands. Sharon Hamil also attended that church with Andrew. According to Texas Monthly, "Larry taught Sunday school, Hannah led a Bible study, and their children, whom Hannah homeschooled, attended youth group and socialized with other members’ kids." The Overton children and Andrew were in the same Sunday school class. Supposedly each week Andrew's prayer was "to be adopted." The three- and four year-old children supposedly begged their parents to adopt him.

"A church elder, who was himself an adoptive parent, invited the Overtons to dinner one night and encouraged them to consider bringing Andrew into their home. Andrew’s foster mother, who had provided refuge to roughly three hundred children over three decades, was also supportive. But others at Calvary Chapel expressed their concern. The church’s pastor, Rod Carver, and his wife, Noreen, had initially considered taking in Andrew but ultimately decided he was more than they could handle. More outspoken was Andrew’s Sunday school teacher, who sat Hannah and Larry down and told them that he was a troubled kid. He hoarded food and sometimes ate from the trash, she warned, and he threw intense temper tantrums, which could be tamed only by holding and rocking him. On several occasions his fits had grown so extreme that she had resorted to asking a male parishioner to physically remove him from the classroom until he could regain self-control. “Think of your other children,” she urged the couple.

Yet if anyone was up to the task, most everyone agreed, it was the Overtons, and Hannah in particular. She was unflappable and unfailingly patient with children. Hannah shrugged off the teacher’s warnings, certain that Andrew would improve once he had the stability of a permanent home. “All he needs is lots of love and attention,”  she told Larry."

Spaulding for Children was the agency that arranged this out-of-birth-order placement for Andrew into the Overton home. It remains unclear why the pastor and other church members were able to influence the decision of this placement. The Overtons' "love is all you need" attitude towards his behavior is a clear signal that they were unprepared.

"The Overtons moved forward with the adoption process, and in the spring of 2006, they received word that Andrew would be coming to live with them for a six-month trial period before the adoption was finalized." His first night with the Overtons was on Mother's Day.

The Overtons claim that Andrew had a long list of issues including being very sensitive to sounds, hoarding food, speech-delayed, and developmentally delayed. " If he was denied a second or third helping, he would routinely throw a tantrum or get down on his hands and knees to scavenge the floor for crumbs. Larry and Hannah caught him trying to eat cat food, crayons, toothpaste, glow sticks, tufts of carpeting—anything he could get his hands on. When they took him along on errands, they had to keep him from eating the old gum and cigarette butts he found on the ground."

What is clear is that they did not take him to be evaluated for any of these things. They took him "to a pediatrician for an adoption screening shortly before he had come to live with them, and the checkup had raised no red flags. “We truly thought his obsession with food was a behavioral issue, not a medical one,” Larry said. “We thought that he would stop turning to food for comfort when he learned that he could trust us.” To try and curtail Andrew’s compulsive eating, they put him in time-outs, though to little effect." They clearly were trying to parent him in the same way as their other children.

In September 2006, the family was involved in a serious car accident, injuring Hannah. At the same time of this stress, Larry was trying to purchase the landscape business from his boss. Andrew "picked at mosquito bites on his body incessantly, prompting Larry to put socks on his hands; still, Andrew would not stop scratching and eventually developed a staph infection on his arm. His tantrums grew longer and more extreme, and he often banged his head against the floor. Sometimes he cried inconsolably for hours." It still appears that they did not try to get him any help nor recognize that he may have PTSD.

Larry decided to do the following to squelch Andrew from getting up in the middle of the night to steal food: He told him he would make as much food as Andrew wanted. That meal consisted of 18 eggs and a plate of sausage. Andrew ate it all and threw up. Again, this clearly shows that the Overtons had no clue on how to deal with Andrew's issues. They also let him eat 5 bananas at a time and a whole jar of pickles on another occasion according to 20/20 interview.

His strange eating habits were eventually reported to the SW in a postplacement visit on September 25, 2006. On Sunday October 1, 2006 Larry took the bio kids to church and Hannah stayed home with
Andrew. Texas Monthly says "Before the family returned home, Andrew asked if he could have lunch, and Hannah told him that he needed to wait; Larry was bringing them something to eat, she explained, and he would be back in a few minutes. Andrew flew into a rage. He defecated on the floor of his bedroom, then smeared feces on the bed, the dresser, and the walls.

Larry attempted to restore order upon his return, putting Andrew’s soiled sheets in the garbage and hosing off the boy and his foam mattress in the backyard. While Larry tried to scrub down the bedroom, Andrew pulled his sheets out of the trash several times, despite repeated warnings not to do so.

The 20/20 interview available at the FreeHannah site shows that the garbage can that the sheets were in was in the kitchen with easy access for Andrew to get at. It is unclear why they disposed of something so smelly inside the house. It also shows the outdoor grill as the place where the sheets were burned (approx. minute 14:33 to 14:35 of video). The Texas Monthly article portrays it as a fire pit. There is no media article or interview that shares or asks what discipline was given to Andrew that night.

The 20/20 interview has caseworker interview of the biological children. One clearly states that they get pepper in the mouth as punishment. Hannah laughs when asked about this and claims that one pastor one time talked about this in a sermon and that they don't do that.

Calvary Chapel of the Coastlands raised nearly $700,000 for their defense.

The Death as Told by Hannah and Larry Last Month

Their story omits any punishment given to him during the entire incident.

Hannah and Larry in Texas Monthly claim that this is the sequence of events"LARRY LEFT FOR WORK THE following morning, and Hannah, who was still in considerable pain from the car accident, gave Andrew and Sebastian breakfast before bringing them into bed with her to watch cartoons. Exhausted from the previous night, she briefly dozed off, then awoke to discover that Andrew had slipped out of the room. She found him standing on a stool in the pantry, near the baking ingredients, having pulled something off the shelf. She could not recall later what, exactly, he had been holding in his hand.

According to Hannah, Andrew once again asked for an early lunch, and once again, when she told him that he would have to wait, he defecated and smeared feces across the floor. Hannah managed to clean him up, but when she reiterated that he would have to wait until lunchtime to eat, he defecated on the floor again. Finally she relented, heating up what she had on hand: leftover vegetable-beef soup flavored with Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning. Shortly after noon, Larry picked her and the boys up and took them to a McDonald’s drive-through, and then the chiropractor, before returning to work. (Andrew was told that he could not have any food at McDonald’s, since he had already eaten.) When Andrew complained of being hungry that afternoon, Hannah gave him more of the leftover soup.

When she refused to give him a second helping, he threw a tantrum and shouted, “I hate you!” Finally, Hannah resorted to sprinkling some Zatarain’s into a sippy cup of water, hoping that the taste alone would appease him. After drinking a little, he threw another tantrum that continued unabated for twenty minutes.

Then, abruptly, Andrew grew quiet and stumbled to the floor. “Mommy, I’m cold,” he said, and threw up. Shortly afterward, at three-thirty, Hannah called Larry and asked him to come home since Andrew was vomiting and she needed his help. The boy’s symptoms that afternoon—vomiting, chills, and lethargy—initially suggested to the Overtons that he had a routine ailment, like a stomach bug. But as the afternoon wore on, his symptoms grew troubling; his breathing became congested, and he became less and less responsive. Just after five o’clock, the Overtons put him in their car and rushed him to a nearby urgent care clinic. A block away from the clinic, as they waited at a red light, Andrew stopped breathing. Frantic, Hannah began administering CPR in the backseat. At the clinic, she continued giving him mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions until paramedics took over, but the four-year-old lay motionless. He soon lapsed into a coma."

The Death as told during Trial

At the hospital, they were not allowed to visit Andrew and were interviewed by police quickly.

From caller.com 11/21/06 by Mary Ann Cavazos

"Nueces County Medical Examiner Ray Fernandez said autopsy results showed Andrew Burd had a lethal level of sodium in his system and signs of blunt head trauma that contributed to his death.
Hannah Overton, 29, is charged with capital murder and her 30-year-old husband Larry Overton is charged with injury to a child in connection with the boy's death. They were attempting to adopt him at the time.

According to arrest affidavits, Hannah Overton fed Andrew a mixture of water and Cajun seasonings as punishment on Oct. 2. After he drank the mixture, vomited and drifted in and out of

consciousness, the Overtons waited nearly three hours before taking the boy to a medical clinic, the affidavits said. He later was taken to Christus Spohn Hospital South but died the following day.

Arrest affidavits also stated one of the Overtons' four biological children told investigators Hannah Overton watched Andrew on a security camera in a bedroom and used food and pepper as a form of punishment."

From caller.com 8/28/07 by Mary Ann Cavazos

"Ulcerated lesions on one of his hands, bruises to his knee, face, chest and buttocks, along with sores on one of his elbows, were depicted in the photos."

""There were so many bruises and scratches it would have been difficult to describe them all," Rotta said, adding that photos made documenting the injuries easier. "

"Some of the areas on Andrew's body with scratches were unlikely to be self-inflicted, Rotta said.

Defense attorneys argued that bruises on his face and chest could have come from performing CPR, bruises on his knee could have been from injecting needles for IV fluids and sores on his elbow were from mosquito bites he had scratched repeatedly.

Rotta, who was the only witness to take the stand Monday, testified it would have taken 23 teaspoons of Zatarain's Creole Seasoning to reach the toxic level of sodium in Andrew's system. A 17-ounce container of that same brand was found at the Overtons' house.

But defense attorneys proposed the high level of sodium may have been caused by fluids injected into Andrew's body by medical staff. Rotta countered it would have had to have been an enormous amount for that to be possible.

Both Rotta and a hospital social worker have said Overton told them she gave Andrew a glass of water with chili powder in it after he threw a fit.

During Monday's testimony Rotta recounted the other possibilities he ruled out for the high sodium level, including forms of diabetes, dehydration, an eating disorder and ingestion of soap.

Defense attorneys argued that only a specialist in diagnosing various forms of diabetes or the eating disorder known as pica, where a person eats odd substances, was qualified to rule those out."

From caller.com 9/8/07 by Mary Ann Cavazos

During the trial, prosecutors questioned why Overton and her husband made several phone calls but none to 911, and delayed taking the boy to a clinic for more than 1 1/2 hours. One of the doctors who treated the boy that day testified their delay in seeking help reduced his chances for survival.

When polled, all 12 jurors said they found her guilty because of her failure to act.

A gag order issued by Longoria prevents prosecutors and Overton's attorneys from commenting on the verdict until after Overton is sentenced. Some friends and family of Overton did not want to comment following the verdict.

During the trial, Overton, a former licensed vocational nurse, admitted she gave Andrew a cup of water mixed with spices but said it wasn't to punish or harm him."

"Sharon Hamil, Andrew's foster mother for the 18 months before he lived with the Overtons, said she remembered a much different boy.

"When I had Andrew I didn't have any problems," Hamil said. "To me he was a happy, typical child.""

From wnd 9/23/07
"Mrs. Overton's story is quite different.

Andrew had an eating disorder of some kind that left him hungry all the time – even immediately after a meal. If he didn't get more food, he would become quite agitated. She was told by someone familiar with such symptoms to add something distasteful to the child's food once he had clearly had enough. First she tried lemon juice, but Andrew liked it. Next she tried Zatarain's Cajun Seasoning. But he liked that, too. She believes she may have administered in food and drink one-quarter of a teaspoon to Andrew prior to his attack.

The prosecution also focused on delays in getting Andrew emergency medical attention once symptoms began.

She says she treated the symptoms. When Andrew was cold, she wrapped him in blankets and put him in bed. Later, when he was still cold, she gave him a warm bath. He wheezed, she gave him breathing treatment. When he did not respond, she rushed him to the hospital within one hour and 49 minutes of becoming symptomatic.

Prosecutors claim it took her three hours and grilled her about not calling 911. But once Andrew got to the hospital, doctors did not immediately diagnose the problem. In fact, according to Carver, they shot sodium into his veins because they did not recognize the salt intoxication. "

From KIII 3/11/08 "Hannah Overton was convicted of capital murder in the poisoning death of 4-year old Andrew Burd. She will spend the rest of her life in prison.

Hannah's husband, Larry Overton, was facing the same charges. Overton's attorney and the district attorney were able to reach a plea deal.

Larry Overton's charge of capital murder was reduced to criminally negligent homicide. That means he will not spend any time in prison."

Hannah Could Have Had Lesser Charges Applied But She Said No

From Texas Monthly "Capital murder carries two possible punishments in Texas—the death penalty or life without parole—and the district attorney’s office had already decided not to seek death. If convicted, Hannah would receive an automatic life sentence. However, Judge Longoria could allow the jury to consider a lesser charge if he felt that the evidence did not support capital murder, and after hearing the state’s case, he did so, telling both the prosecution and the defense that he was willing to let the jury consider manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. (Both carry shorter sentences and differ from capital murder on the issue of intent; a motorist who hits and kills someone while driving too fast is often deemed to be criminally negligent in that he did not set out to take a life but was aware of the danger of speeding.) Gilmore urged Hannah more than once to agree to have the jury consider a lesser charge, but she was uneasy with what she perceived as an underlying suggestion of wrongdoing. She could not consent to a lesser charge, she told her attorneys, because she felt it would mean she was admitting fault."

Dr. Moritz

A proponent of Hannah was unable to be deposed for the trial. He was interviewed by 20/20. Texas Monthly says "Moritz is the clinical director of pediatric nephrology at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he specializes in children’s kidney diseases. In 2007 he published a seminal paper on salt poisoning, in which he examined, among other things, documented cases of children who had accidentally ingested excessive quantities of salt. He found that they fit a narrow profile: they were between the ages of one and six, they had been in the foster system or were from abusive homes, and they had pica. Moritz, in fact, had been asked to testify as an expert witness for Hannah’s defense at her trial. After examining Andrew’s medical records, he had determined that the boy’s death was likely accidental. Yet the jury had never heard from him. Short on time as the trial drew to a close, the defense had asked Moritz—who needed to return to Pittsburgh—to sit for a videotaped deposition; when the deposition ran long and could not be completed, the defense was unable to enter it as testimony."

Dr. Moritz may have found similarities in the children in these cases, but that NOTHING to do with the negligence in this case or the others. All it shows is that a bunch of 1 to 6 year old kids in foster care died of salt poisoning. Guess what? A lot of foster parents have been negligent and many have died in foster care. Being in foster care ranks in the top 5 risks for child abuse! It is ridiculous that this data could somehow determine that this was an accidental act.

Hannah was a nurse. It is hard to believe that she was clueless to what was going on that day.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

It is clear from the media articles that this family was unprepared to handle his issues or even address the issues. I find it hard to believe that this out-of-birth-order with a baby on the way family was the best long-term placement for this child.

They let things go on for almost four months before discussing with a social worker and it appears that he was not screened for any condition postplacement.

Spaulding did not seem to have any accountability in this situation. It remains to be seen if Hannah's conviction will be overturned

How Could You? Hall of Shame-Cody and Felicia Beemer

2012-02-20T13:19:00.000-05:00

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Warren, Ohio, Trumbull County Children Services has failed to keep an infant safe during a "supervised" visit at the Children Services Center. The daughter, a special needs 9-months-old and in state care since birth, was raped by her biological parents Cody, 22, and Felicia, 21 in September 2011. The photographed images of the assault were discovered on a cell phone by other family members after the visit. Another 18-month-old child had assault images on the phone causing the arrest of two other relatives.

Felicia's other daughter, Tiffany Banks Cross, was also taken into state care at birth and MURDERED in foster care at 21 months of age in 2009 by foster mother Bonnie Pattinson, 31. PoundPup Legacy has some details on Tiffany here. Bonnie pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter in October 2009 and was sentenced to 9 years in prison in December 2009 according to Foster mom gets nine years in prison [Trib Today 12/18/09 by Christopher Bobby]. The article states that "Banks died as a result of asphyxiation associated with multiple blunt traumatic injuries, according to her death certificate."

"Felicia and Cody Beemer both pleaded innocent to rape charges in Warren Municipal Court on Friday[September 30, 2011]"

"Sources say Cody Beemer was a juvenile sex offender, and the couple went through parenting classes before being allowed the visits. Children Service's officials said they are cooperating with prosecutors.

Felicia and Cody Beemer are being held in Trumbull County Jail on $250,000 bond. The investigation is continuing and additional charges could be filed.

They are due back in court next week."

Couple Accused of Raping Daughter During Supervised Visit
[WYTV 9/30/11]

"Bond was set at $1 million each for Cody and Felicia Beemer, who were arraigned Friday morning on accusations of molesting their daughter. If convicted, they each face multiple life sentences.

In a direct presentment from a Trumbull County grand jury, Cody Alan Beemer, 22, was indicted on a count of gross sexual imposition, rape and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

Felicia Banks Beemer, 21, was indicted on two counts of rape and three counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

"Each defendant told the court that they could not afford to hire an attorney. Matthew Pentz, director of the Trumbull County Public Defender's Office, told the court that his office cannot represent both of the Beemers because of a possible conflict of interest involving another case.

Judge Mckay said he would assign Cody Beemer's case to Pentz's office and assigned an outside attorney to Felicia Beemer's case.

Cody Beemer's case is being assigned to Judge Andrew Logan's court. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.

Felicia Beemer's pre-trial will be heard on Wednesday.

Loretta Banks, Felicia's mother, said she did not understand why the prosecutor's office changed her daughter's bail. Bail for each defendant had been set at $250,000 in their initial appearance on Sept. 30.

"I know what she did was wrong," Banks said. She believes her daughter was forced."
Rape suspects arraigned
[Trib Today 10/8/11 by Raymond L. Smith]

"Trumbull County Children Services is asking a visiting judge to allow a now 17-month-old girl who was allegedly raped inside the county facility last summer to be put up for permanent adoption by someone outside her family.

Attorneys argued several matters Wednesday in Trumbull County Family Court during a hearing before retired Visiting Judge David E. Stucki of Stark County, including whether a relative of the girl has legal ground to gain partial custody. The relative wants the judge to place the child with another CSB agency in a neighboring county.

CSB attorney Susan Collins argued because the girl has been in CSB's custody since birth, the agency has met and exceeded the necessary steps to take full custody of the girl.

No action was taken at Wednesday's hearing. Stucki ordered the five attorneys involved to submit written briefs by Feb. 24. The judge expects to issue judgments on certain issues during a hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. March 7."

"David Engler, attorney for Loretta Banks, who is seeking the partial custody, argued that the woman would clearly act in the best interest of the child."

CSB attorney "Collins countered that Engler and Banks are attempting to insert themselves in the case for financial gain through lawsuits. Engler has filed one lawsuit on the behalf of Tiffany Sue Banks Cross, another relative who was killed by a foster parent in 2009."

"Attorney Kimberly A. Kohli, the girl's guardian ad litem, told the court Loretta Banks has a long history with Children Services, dating back to 1987 when her own children were taken away.

She said she believes it's in the child's best interest to be put up for adoption. She also said the child, who has ''special needs'' because of health issues, and was in good care with her current foster parents.

''I don't think CSB is jumping the gun on permanent custody,'' said Kohli, who was not the guardian ad litem at the time the girl was raped. ''The ultimate goal is permanent custody. She is in a safe environment.''

Engler responded by arguing that if a child was sexually molested in a foster home, CSB would take the child from the home. Engler argued that CSB should likewise lose its privilege with the child because the girl was sexually assaulted in their building.

''Have a different CSB come in and take the child,'' Engler said. ''It's beyond me why we don't have a neighboring CSB take over when this case is so rife with conflict.''

Engler hinted to two state probes - an investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to determine if any CSB employee was criminally negligent and one that was recently finished by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that reviewed 20 cases to review employees policies and procedures.

Stucki said he would make a decision quickly because six months means a lot to the child.
''I'm going to keep my focus on (the child),'' Stucki said. ''Time is important. Frankly, legally speaking these are critical cases.''
CSB wants rape victim to be adopted
[Trib Today 2/9/12 by Adam Ferrise]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

CSB fails for two children of the same family.