THE SHORT, HORRIFIC LIFE OF DANIEAL KELLY: WARNING THIS PAGE CONTAINS GRAPHIC PICTURES AND ARTICLES

THE SHORT,  HORRIFIC LIFE OF DANIEAL KELLY

Danieal Kelly

 

 

Danieal’s life was not always so horrific, by all accounts, when she lived with her father and his girlfriend in Arizona, she appears to have been a happy, well cared for child.

Pictures from this time in her life show her horseback riding, attending school, and attending parties.  She appears healthy and well fed…and happy, her smile lights up the room.

Unfortunately, this happy time in her life did not last, in 2003, Daniel Kelly moved back to Philidelphia with Danieal and in with Danieal’s mother, Andrea Kelly…and although Daniel Kelly, at the time, had custody of Danieal, when he moved out of the family home…he did not take Danieal with him, he left her in the care of Andrea Kelly…her mother…a woman who wouldn’t even touch her, take her out in public, or lift a finger to take care of her.

Despite the neglectful and severely abusive life Danieal was left in she did have love in her life….her brother fought for her, he begged her mother to help her, he begged her to call 911…and when he could not get his mother to take care of Danieal…he did all that he could to try and take care of her himself….He is the hero in this case and my heart goes out to him….I am sure you brought your sister comfort with the love that you showed her.

Many people did try to help Danieal, numerous calls were made to CPS…reports were made and although Child Protective Services was already involved with Danieal’s family…were supposed to be monitoring her care, they repeatedly ignored these reports and did not even lift a finger to check on her.

As a matter of fact, when Danieal died, these worker threw a party…a document forging party, they altered the records to show that they had went to the home, they had protected this child…they fabricated a totally different story then the one that had really occurred.  They did not care that Danieal Kelly was dead, they didn’t care that she suffered an infinite amount of pain…all they cared about was protecting their own worthless asses.

What I am about to post on this page is horrific, heartbreaking and graphic, you have been forewarned.  I will not apologize for posting Danieal’s story on this blog, nor for posting the photo taken during her autopsy, because although it breaks my heart to post such horrible images, this story has to be told.  People need to see what was done to this child to understand the cruel manner in which this child died. 

Danieal’s story not only breaks my heart…it pisses me the fuck off and now that the charges against these “social workers” have been filed I will state loud and clear…these charges are not enough for what they allowed to happen to this child!  These people deserve far worse then this. 

To the Social Workers: You are murderers, every single one of you and you deserve so much worse for the suffering that you allowed this child to endure while you sat on your asses and did nothing to protect her.  I don’t know how you can even look at yourself in the mirror, how you can even stand to be in your own pathetic company…oh that’s right, I forgot, it is all about covering your own ass, you don’t give a fuck about this child or what you allowed to happen to her.  I hope you all rot in hell.

Here is the article describing the charges that have been pressed against these worthless pieces of shit….after them I have posted Danieal’s story, the grand jury report and the autopsy photo…once you have viewed them…you tell me if the crimes these people have been charged with are enough for what they have done….I don’t think so, but I want to hear what you think.

Pa. social workers charged after starvation death

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iduLUk72bbqH7-GPCUHxWPIc-clQD97TJBHO0

By MARYCLAIRE DALE – 1 day ago

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — By all accounts, there is blame to go around for the 2006 starvation death of disabled teenager Danieal Kelly.

Her mother pleaded guilty to murder this week for criminally neglecting the once-vivacious girl. Her case worker and a supervisor are charged with involuntary manslaughter for alleged “ghost visits” to the family’s squalid home.

On Friday, federal prosecutors took aim at their entire company, MultiEthnic Behavioral Services, which had a $1 million-a-year contract with the city to provide in-home services to needy families.

“At some point, they realized they could get paid for doing nothing,” U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid said at a news conference.

Magid’s office charged four company founders and four social workers of the now-defunct firm with fraud, and a ninth with perjury before a grand jury.

Company owners furiously forged documents before routine audits and in the panic that followed Danieal’s death, the federal indictment charges. Worried supervisors tried to destroy computer evidence and client files, prosecutors said.

FBI agent Janice Fedarcyk called it “almost inconceivable” that the defendants would further risk the lives of needy children just to enrich themselves.

The defendants, including case worker Julius Murray and company co-founder Michal Kamuvaka, were expected to make initial appearances Friday afternoon in federal court.

Murray’s lawyer recently said he insists he made the visits, a claim that Ed McCann, chief prosecutor in the city’s homicide unit, calls “ludicrous.”

Danieal, who used a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, appeared chubby-cheeked and joyous in photos taken on school outings in Arizona, where she lived with her father and stepmother.

But after the couple split, Daniel Kelly returned with Danieal to Philadelphia and abandoned her at the chaotic home of her unfit mother, who eventually had nine children living there, a city grand jury found. The father was charged last year with child endangerment.

At her plea this week, Andrea Kelly said she wished she “could have done more to save” her daughter. She denied her food, water or medical care, even when her distressed son tried to intervene.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham called the girl’s death slow and torturous.

Family members had long sounded alarms about Danieal’s demise to Andrea Kelly.

Red flags were likewise raised about MultiEthnic.

The company was formed specifically to bid on the city contract — though prosecutors said one founder had a criminal record — and took in $3.7 million from 2003 to 2006, when it dissolved in the wake of Danieal’s death. It had frequent staff turnover and sometimes relied on student interns to make the visits, McCann said.

As early as 2003, clients told the Department of Human Services that the visits weren’t always made, McCann said. The DHS commissioner knew about the complaints. Yet the yearly contract kept getting renewed.

“It’s not just MultiEthnic’s fault. It’s DHS’ fault, too, for not doing what they were expected to do,” District Attorney Lynne Abraham said Friday.

The city’s top two commissioners were ousted after Danieal’s death, and the department is now being revamped under new leadership, she said. Authorities considered criminal charges against DHS officials but could not make a case for them, she said Friday. Two former city social workers are charged in state court with child endangerment.

Andrea Kelly, 38, was sentenced after her plea to 20 to 40 years in prison.

The MultiEthnic founders — Kamuvaka, 60; Solomon Manamela, 51; Earle McNeill, 69; and Manuelita Buenaflor, 65, all of Philadelphia — face about six to eight years in prison if convicted, and Murray and the other four employees about three to five years.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT:

This is what was done to Danieal Kelly…You look at this picture and tell me that the charges fit the crime in this case!!  They are no where near enough to offer even a hint of justice to Danieal.  Danieal’s deserved better than this, she deserved to be protected and the people who were paid to protect her owed the duty to do so…they purposely failed to protect this child and should be charged with first degree, premeditated murder…they knew what they were doing, they knew by not doing their jobs that they were endangering the lives of children and their frantic actions after Danieal’s death proves that they also knew that they were responsible for her death!

 

Danieal Kelly Autopsy Photo

 

Despite Reports that Danieal Kelly, Who Suffered from Cerebral Palsy, was Being Abused and Not Cared for Properly, Philadelphia’s DHS Failed to Take Action

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/927941/the_death_of_danieal_kelly_philadelphias.html?cat=8

Danieal Kelly, the third of Andrea Kelly’s nine children by five fathers, was 14-years-old when her curled, 42-pound body, starved body was found on August 4, 2006.

Police and paramedics were called to Danieal’s West Philadelphia home and when they opened her bedroom door, the stench of decay hit them. Danieal, who had been dead for several hours, was on a dirty mattress surrounded by feces. Maggot-infested bedsores covered her back. She had been on the mattress for such a long time, the shape of her body was imprinted into the mattress. A grand jury report was released this week, indicting nine people and describing Danieal’s life of pain, neglect, abuse and eventual death.

Danieal Kelly suffered from cerebral palsy and, according to a grand jury report, her mother was said to be “embarrassed by her disabled daughter, didn’t want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids.” According to a grand jury report, Andrea Kelly’s family and friends constantly confronted her about Danieal’s deteriorating condition, but while she would promise to get help for her, she failed to do so, and eventually banished the concerned relatives from her home. While Danieal’s condidtion worsened, Andrea Kelly was said to have entertained, attended classes and tended to her other children.

Danieal was not enrolled in school or given medical attention. The report stated that Andrea Kelly “rebuffed one of her sons when he begged her several times to call 911 to get help for Danieal in her final days.”

The house where Andrea Kelly lived with her nine children was in squalor, with mattresses on the floor. Kelly’s other children are now in foster care, including the baby she gave birth to the fall after Danieal’s death, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to reports, Daniel Kelly, long separated from Andrea Kelly, had custody of Danieal and her brother Daniel in 1995, when he moved to Arizona and lived with a girlfriend who cared for the girl. Those years are documented with photographs of her riding a pony, at a party at a bowling alley, and smiling with classmates in her special needs class. When Daniel Kelly broke up with his girlfriend in 2001, the girl was withdrawn from school. In 2003, he returned to Philadelphia and asked his estranged wife and her other children to move in with him. Soon after, he moved out, abandoning Danieal to Andrea Kelly’s care.

Danieal was supposed to be under the supervision of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (“DHS”), but a grand jury investigation has uncovered gross negligence in this girl’s care. A 258-page grand jury report documented that neither DHS nor the now defunct, non-profit agency MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., which was out-sourced to follow Danieal’s case, had even seen the girl or properly reported on her care during their tenure. Neighbors contacted DHS numerous times reporting that Danieal was in danger, but those complaints were ignored. Anthony Miller, the father of some of Andrea Kelly’s children, called the DHS hotline on April 20, 2005.

The grand jury states: “Mr. Miller said he was moved to make the report to DHS because ‘I seen Danieal Kelly upstairs in a hot room laying in pee, no curtains, no blinds, no fans, just laying in pee.’” Mr. Miller said no one from DHS ever contacted him.

Nine people have been indicted in her death: her mother, charged with murder, and her father, charged with endangering the welfare of children. In addition, four social workers, suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports, have been charged with crimes including involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, forgery, tampering with public records, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of children. Three of Andrea Kelly’s friends were charged with perjury for lying to the grand jury about the girl’s condition before her death.

The Philadelphia Inquirer this week reported that Assistant Health Commissioner Carmen Paris resigned the day after the release of the grand jury report. Paris was acting health commissioner and oversaw the Medical Examiner’s Office in August of 2006 when Danieal was found dead. Paris allegedly tried to cover up the details of Danieal’s death and told the doctor who performed Danieal’s autopsy and a supervisor in the Medical Examiner’s Office “not to speak to anybody,” not even homicide detectives, about the case. While Paris has not yet been charged with a crime, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said charges could not be ruled out.

Danieal’s case was brought to the public’s attention in late 2006 when the Philadelphia Inquirer published a series of articles focusing attention on the failings of DHS, particularly on the case of Danieal Kelly, and over 20 other children who died while they or their families were supposed to be under the supervision of DHS.

GRAND JURY REPORT

grand_jury_dhs_new

UPDATE CHRISTOPHER THOMAS: DIFFERENT NAME, SAME CHILD FAILING WORKERS

New child welfare agency will hire almost all of La Causa staff

 

By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: May. 1, 2009

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/44202302.html

Integrated Family Services, the agency that will replace La Causa this month and provide services for abused or neglected children and their families in the southern third of Milwaukee County, has hired virtually the entire La Causa staff, including the supervisor who was in charge of the Christopher Thomas case, agency officials said Friday.

That supervisor, however, will be in an administrative position and will not work directly with children or families, said Ann Umhoefer, chief administrative officer for St. Aemilian-Lakeside.

Integrated Family Services is a nonprofit subsidiary of St. Aemilian-Lakeside.

104 of 107 employees

Integrated Family Services hired 104 of La Causa’s 107 employees, Umhoefer said, and will continue to work with La Causa’s 72 network agencies, which provide services ranging from therapy to group homes and transportation.

La Causa announced in December that it would sever its contract with the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare.

La Causa, which provided ongoing case management and safety services, shouldered much of the blame for mishandling the Christopher Thomas case.

Police say 13-month-old Christopher Thomas was beaten to death, and his two-year-old sister tortured, while in the kinship foster care of their aunt, Crystal Keith.

Keith, 24, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and child abuse, intentionally causing great bodily harm. Her trial begins Monday.

Integrated Family Services’ $12.1 million-a-year contract officially begins May 16th.

Teri Zywicki, the agency’s chief executive officer, said Integrated Family Services offers workforce stability – staff turn-over is a chronic and corrosive issue among many child care agencies – over 150 years of experience and an approach to child welfare that melds medical-oriented goals with case management, focusing on the specific physical and emotional needs of children and their families.

The agency will provide ongoing case management for about 650 families with children in out-of-home care, such as foster and kinship care.

It will also provide safety services for about 120 families whose children remain in their homes.

UPDATE: ADRIANNA CRAM: OUT OF COUNTRY ADOPTION

House bill seeks to protect Oregon kids adopted outside U.S.

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/house_bill_seeks_to_protect_or.htmlby

Michelle Cole and Susan Goldsmith, The Oregonian

Friday

SALEM — Nobody mentioned Adrianna Cram’s name during Friday’s short House floor debate on a bill requiring more scrutiny when a child from Oregon foster care is sent to live with relatives in another country.

But the legislative sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Tomei, admitted later that she “definitely” had the murdered little girl from Hillsboro on her mind.

“There needs to be more follow-up and much more stringent supervision of each child that goes anywhere,” said Tomei, D-Milwaukie.

 Lawmakers unanimously approved House Bill 3471, which would require specific adoption agreements when a child in Oregon foster care is adopted by relatives outside the United States.

According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, those agreements would include extensive background interviews and training for relatives before a child is sent to live in another country. Once the child is there, the agreements would require regular checks and written reports to Oregon officials until the adoption is final.

 The state had no agreement in place in June 2005, when 4-year-old Adrianna Cram was beaten to death in Omealca, Mexico. Her uncle and aunt, selected by Oregon authorities to adopt the girl, were convicted of aggravated murder.

Adrianna’s teachers would later tell The Oregonian that they tried for months to find help for the bruised and battered girl but couldn’t get local child welfare workers to act. Meanwhile, child welfare workers in Oregon relied on phone calls with the girl’s abusers and sporadic updates from Mexican authorities to find out how Adrianna was faring.

In March, as The Oregonian prepared a two-day series telling Adrianna’s story, child welfare officials announced a 60-day moratorium on international adoptions.

Officials said they needed the time to consult with the U.S. State Department about what Oregon needed to do to comply with The Hague Convention on Protection of Children.

The international treaty, which took effect last year, is intended to protect children from abuse or exploitation.

 On Friday, Erinn Kelley-Siel, head of the state Children, Adults and Families Division, said Oregon is ready to be one of the first states to comply with the treaty.

For example, the state will now require national authorities, not just local offices, to certify that a family is suitable for a specific child, has the appropriate motivation and has received training or counseling.

Oregon had been on track to end its moratorium on international adoptions May 8. But the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and elsewhere has prompted the state to extend its moratorium indefinitely.

“We don’t plan to lift the hold until we have the ability to say we’re not putting a child’s health at risk,” Kelley-Siel said Friday.

If a child taken into foster care cannot be returned to a parent, state law requires authorities to place the child with relatives whenever possible. Increasingly, that includes relatives who live outside the United States.

From 1999 through 2008, Oregon placed 27 children in foster care for adoption in other countries. Eight children from Oregon foster care have been sent to Mexico since Adrianna’s death. Five more children were slated to go to Mexico at the time the 60-day moratorium was announced.

Adrianna’s biological mother, Tausha Cram, who lost custody of the little girl because she neglected her, said the bill didn’t do enough.

“I think it’s outrageous that even with this bill we will be relying 100 percent on authorities in other countries to protect children from Oregon,” she said. “These people failed my child. Why will they protect anyone else’s kid?”

The Legislature is not finished with its work on international adoption. HB3471 now heads to the Senate for its consideration, and a companion bill is pending in the Senate.

– Michelle Cole; michellecole@news.oregonian.com

MY COMMENT ON THE SITE:

Posted by Lawdoll on 05/02/09 at 12:04PM

CPS cannot even protect the children that live a block from their office! Children in America are dying because of CPS’s inability to perform their jobs as required by law…they break the laws that are already in place in this country, they lie, commit perjury, forge and falsify documents, fail to investigate reports of abuse…behave in illegal and unethical manners…so why in God’s name do you believe that this law will protect children place in other countries, when the laws we already have in place for these child do not now protect them??? They will just violate and break this law, the same as they do any other…

Adrianna is dead because Oregon CPS placed her in Mexico and then did not bother to see how she was doing!!!! They washed their hands of her, the same as they do of many other children…they sent her out of the country and then used the excuse that she was out of the country to defend themselves from wrong doing in her death…bunch of BS.

No foster child needs to leave this country…they are legal residents…they should be placed here…period! You want to protect children…start by making laws that hold CPS accountable for their wrong doings…send them to jail when children die because of their negligence.

ERIN MAXWELL UPDATE: FRANCES LANIGAN CANNOT BE FIRED

Chairman: Legislators can’t legally fire Lanigan

 

http://www.valleynewsonline.com/viewnews.php?newsid=85571&id=1

Carol Thompson 05-02-2009

by Carol Thompson

Unless she chooses to retire, Oswego County Department of Social Services Commissioner Frances Lanigan will keep her job.

Members of the legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee learned Wednesday that they have no legal standing to remove Ms. Lanigan as the commissioner.

So far, according to county officials, Ms. Lanigan has done nothing that would justify removal under the law. Officials said she refuses to resign although some legislators said they would like to see her do so.

“Elected officials and appointed officials have nothing to do with her resignation,” Legislature Chairman Barry Leemann said. “Legally we would need charges to fire somebody. There are no valid charges that could be made that would stick. It would not be upheld in court.”

The legislature has been under public pressure to fire Ms. Lanigan since the death of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell, who died Aug. 30, 2008. According to police and autopsy reports, she was asphyxiated and suffered sexual trauma. Her stepbrother, Alan Jones, has been charged with her murder, while her father and stepmother, Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell, are facing child-endangerment charges for allegedly allowing the child to live in deplorable conditions.

Department of Social Services staff had visited the home on three occasions and each time concluded there were no grounds to remove the child from the home. An investigation, conducted by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, concluded that DSS, although faulted on several matters in regard to their handling of the case, could not have prevented the child’s death.

While the legislature cannot legally remove Ms. Lanigan, the state Office of Children and Family Services can. “They have the ability to remove any DSS employee or department head,” Leemann said. “That office could remove Ms. Lanigan.”

Although legislators have received public pressure to oust Ms. Lanigan, Leemann said the hands of the legislators are tied because they have no legal standing. If she were terminated by the legislature, that move could be easily overturned if Ms. Lanigan were to challenge it.

The firing of Ms. Lanigan was urged by Legislators Doug Malone and Art Gearsbeck. The committee could not take action on their recommendation because it does not have the legal authority to do so, Leemann noted.

A report expected to be released by Cornell University later this month, could change things, the chairman said.

“The report is to look at what they did and how to change procedures,” Leemann said.

When asked if the Cornell report could change Ms. Lanigan’s outcome, Leemann responded, “Things could change from day to day, so yes, anything could make a difference.”

The chairman added that Erin Maxwell’s situation is not uncommon statewide and that caseworkers are limited as to what they can do when they find a child living under the same deplorable conditions.

“There are currently 84 bills in the state legislature to change the child services laws,” Leemann said. “This is not just a local problem. This is a statewide problem.”

Several legislators have stated that they do not want to see the death of a child become politicized and further stated it is more productive to move forward and make necessary changes to the department.

Ms. Lanigan began her employment with the DSS in 1974 as a case worker and later became a senior case worker, case supervisor, director of administrative services, and deputy commissioner until her appointment as commissioner in 2003.

Last year, her term was extended until 2013. In November, she was given a satisfactory employee evaluation by the health committee, according to information received from the county under the Freedom of Information Law. Both Malone and Gearsbeck were members of the committee at that time.

- Valley News

INVESTIGATORS: FAMILY SAYS IT’S TARGET OF DSHS RETALIATION

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_043009INV-langley-foster-parentsKS.6d8ad6b.html

10:25 AM PDT on Friday, May 1, 2009

By SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News

The KING 5 Investigators continue their investigation into the handling of a case by the Department of Social and Health Services. This story raises the question – is the state practicing good social work or retaliation against foster parents who speak up for their children?

The Langleys are set to lose Poca, the child they consider their daughter after Child Protective Services reported they’d neglected a different child.

Poca has struggled from day one. She was born a very sick preemie, weighing just 2 pounds, 4 ounces, with neurological problems.

This is a very fragile child, a child with special needs with a very serious beginning to her life who needed more than the usual amount of consistency, love and support,” said her pediatric neurologist, Dr. Stephen Glass.

CPS didn’t think Poca would get that at home. Her parents had a history of trouble. The dad is a convicted felon for selling meth. The mother had a prior baby die after testing positive for meth at birth.

So the state placed Poca, as an infant, with foster parents Amy and Dick Langley.

That was nearly four years ago. To Poca, the Langleys’ home is her home, and the state’s about to take her away from it.

“We love her more than anything,” Amy Langley said. “I tell her every day I love her with all of my heart and I will love her forever.”

The Langleys are not afraid to speak up when problems have come up in the case. Social workers, trying to reunite Poca with her birthparents, withheld negative information about them from the judge.

The child’s former court-appointed advocate wrote DSHS “concealed information” and “denied information existed.” He quit in protest when his case manager told him to alter reports to the judge. When he refused, Lindsay said the manager changed his reports for him.

Langleys complained when social workers kept telling the judge Poca’s visits with her biological parents were going well.

That’s not true. Her pediatrician reports they’ve been “traumatic” and have cuased “stress.”

Her neurologist says he has seen firsthand in his office a regression since Poca started overnight visits four months ago. “She will go downhill if she is moved. She has gone downhill with weekend visitations,” said Dr. Glass. “She will come back irritable, disconsolate, unable to feed, unable to self-soothe; taking days to recover back to her baseline.”

The Langleys complained when state workers discounted a slew of medical providers who wrote Poca should stay with them, given her bonding and special needs.

“The decision to remove this child from their care is unconscionable,” Dr. Glass said.

“She doesn’t understand DNA or genetics or family trees,” Dick Langley said. “The only thing she understands is that we’re the only family she knows.”

When no one listened, they complained outside the system.

They’ve testified before legislative committees.

“We are told over and over and over again, we can’t help you,” Amy Langley said. “You’re foster parents, you have no rights.”

They’ve written every single legislator, the attorney general, the state ombudsman for children, Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge and the governor.

“All trying to get somebody to understand that this is an injustice, this is wrong,” Amy Langley said.

Speaking up backfired.

After all that complaining they got a letter in the mail. DSHS intended to revoke their foster license.

CPS found them guilty of neglecting their 6-year-old-son Taylor.

Without a foster license, Poca would have to go.

“It’s horrible, it’s feels like someone has ripped your heart out,” Amy Langley said.”Because this is your life.

This is a child. This is a child, and somebody’s going to take her away, and what is that going to do to her?”

Taylor

Dick and Amy Langley adopted Taylor as a baby. He was born addicted to heroin and as he got older, the Langleys say he became aggressive and dangerous.

“He attacked everybody,” Amy Langley said. “It didn’t matter who you were, how big you were.”

Two years ago the Langleys decided they couldn’t do it anymore. They wanted Taylor out and sent him to live on a farm with a family friend.

Some people might question that decision. But the Langleys have a lot of experience with special needs children. For nearly 10 years the state has been entrusting them with medically fragile foster children like Poca. They’ve cared for 20 different foster kids over the years, including drug-affected babies, a blind baby, and developmentally delayed children.

The Langleys say Taylor was a very different case.

By age 6, he’d broken Amy’s nose, set fires, strangled animals, pulled a screwdriver on a friend and attacked their younger children.

They say they made the decision to protect their other kids, including four daughters and Poca, their foster child.

“I don’t know what else we could have done,” Dick Langley said.

A few months into the stay, CPS got a call that Taylor could be in trouble. A farm visitor said the Langleys had “pawned off” a son who was being exposed to an “illegal nightclub” run in the barn. CPS investigated, finding them guilty of neglect.

“We removed him because that was in the best interest for him and for our family,” Amy Langley said. “So how is that neglect?”

KING 5 looked into the state’s investigation. CPS said the Langleys “abandoned” Taylor and didn’t care what he was doing. But we found the CPS investigator never interviewed his caregiver, the farm owner Jeff Schock.

“I’ve never been asked anything about Taylor,” Schock said.

Schock said the Langleys checked on their son all the time.

“They would bring food in boxes all the time,” he said. “They were here constantly.”

CPS found the Langleys didn’t care that their son was exposed to “strippers” at drunken barn parties.

KING 5 obtained video from those parties – concerts held on weekends. Many people told us these were family friendly events that didn’t feature nude dancers.

CPS also said the Langleys must be exaggerating Taylor’s dangerous nature because he behaved just fine in school.

But KING 5 obtained a letter from his teacher showing the opposite. She writes he was difficult, and one day he “pinched a girl’s back, stomped on her feet, and twisted another girl’s arm.” They almost “called the police.”

The Langleys believe they’re targets of retaliation by DSHS, pegged as troublemakers for complaining about Poca’s case.

“We have been threatened many times, if you aren’t quiet, you will lose your license, you will be sued, you will lose your foster child, and that is exactly what they’ve done,” Amy Langley said.

DSHS official Sandy Kinney says their goal is what’s best for children – not to punish the people who care for them.

KING 5 Investigator Susannah Frame asked her: “From where you sit does the department retaliate against foster parents who complain?”

“Once again it gets back to the focus and that not being the child, and getting down to the facts of the case, not the emotional aspects of the case,” Kinney said.

The timing of the Langleys’ neglect finding is suspicious. CPS investigations are supposed to take 90 days, max. This one took more than a year.

It finally wrapped up with a black mark on the Langleys record, after they repeatedly complained.

“They want us cut out of this picture completely,” Dick Langley said.

The Langleys are fighting back. Their home’s in foreclosure after spending all they have on attorneys in hopes of overturning the decision to keep Poca in the only home she’s ever known.

“We didn’t care if we lost the house,” Dick Langley said. “We didn’t care if we were living in a van by the river as long as the family was intact, and that was our goal, to keep the family intact, and she’s our family.”

Update: There’s been a major turn of events with the Langely’s neglect charge.

An appeals judge has just issued a detailed, 36-page ruling which states DSHS was wrong.

Administrative Law Judge Laura Valente has ruled the Langleys did not neglect Taylor or any other child. She’s ordered the state to restore the Langleys clean record as foster parents, immediately.

In a shocking move to the Langleys, that’s not good enough. As of tonight DSHS and the Attorney General’s Office is still forging ahead with their plan to take Poca away from the Langleys. She’s not going to her birthparents either. Just last week Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris found they are still not ready to take care of her because she suspects the biological parents may be drinking and doing drugs again and that they’ve been “lying” and “hiding information” from social workers.

The plan is to move Poca to a new foster home soon, with people she’s met only a few times. DSHS tells us their hands are tied because Judge Farris refuses to let Poca stay with the Langleys, despite the fact they’ve been exonerated after an extensive hearing before Judge Valente. In a statement to KING 5 late Thursday, DSHS says Judge Farris made the following ruling in March, which forces them to take Poca away: “Regardless of how the (appeal) hearing turns out the Langleys are not an appropriate placement, based on the court’s independent assessment of the evidence. The court remains concerned regarding return home (to biological parents), but also recognizes [the child] cannot remain with the Langleys.

The court also recognizes that it would be traumatic to place [the child] in an unknown foster home.”

 

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE DSHS WEBSITE:

http://www.dshs.wa.gov/mediareleases/2009/pr09071.shtml

Contact: Sherry Hill, 360-902-7892, hillsl@dshs.wa.gov

April 30, 2009

 

DSHS releases new information on the Langley foster home case

 

Olympia, WA — A television news story aired Tuesday, April 28, regarding concerns expressed by foster parents Amy and Dick Langley about actions of the state involving a foster child in their care. The Department of Social and Health Services wants to ensure that anyone reporting on this story is aware of recent legal developments in this case.

The child is in the custody of DSHS pursuant to a dependency proceeding in Snohomish County Juvenile Court and her case is reviewed on an ongoing basis by a judge assigned to hear dependency cases. This judge ruled in March of this year that the foster parents in this case were “not an appropriate placement, based on the court’s independent assessment of the evidence.” The same judge ordered on Monday that the child be removed from the Langley home and placed into foster care with another family with whom the child is familiar. Children’s Administration will comply with the judge’s order.

This story reveals the complexity of family and placement issues that Children’s Administration must deal with in every case. We have the same goal with every placement – we consider what is in the best interest of the child and where the child will thrive and be safe. Children’s Administration must make reasonable efforts to reunify a child with the family if that is at all possible.

However, family problems and issues can complicate and sometimes hinder, or halt reunification, and decision’s about a child’s placement decision can be delayed or modified because of the change in circumstances.

An additional complexity to this case is that there was a parallel case involving the Langleys concerning their care of another child. Based on a finding from an investigation by Child Protective Services of the Division of Licensed Resources, the Department last year issued a from letter revoking the Langley’s foster care license. The Langleys appealed both the revocation and the finding. On Tuesday, April 28, an Administrative Law Judge determined that the report that lead to the investigation was “unfounded” and ruled that the Langley’s foster care license should not be revoked.

While this is a new development, the Snohomish County Juvenile Court judge was fully aware of the finding and licensing appeal and considered them in her March ruling.

The relevant provision of the judge’s order of March 18, 2009 is: “Regardless of how the CAPTA/licensing hearing turns out the Langleys are not an appropriate placement, based on the court’s independent assessment of the evidence. The court remains concerned regarding return home, but also recognizes [the child] cannot remain with the Langleys. The court also recognizes that it would be traumatic to place [the child] in an unknown foster home.”

The court ordered that the child was to remain in the Langleys’ care temporarily until a final determination could be made on a suitable placement for the child.

The Dependency Court judge evaluates recommendations from parties on child placement, including the child’s biological parents and their attorneys, volunteer Guardian Ad Litems, medical and other community professionals, foster parents, DSHS, etc. Although foster parents are not parties in dependency cases, DSHS is required to notify them of hearings and they have the opportunity to present information to the court regarding children in their care. It is the responsibility of the judge to weigh all of the information and recommendations and to ultimately decide the issues relating to the child’s placement and the rights of the parents.

After the March court order was issued, Children’s Administration notified the court of issues with the birth parents that prevented their scheduled reunification with the child. Complying with the March 18th court order, Children’s Administration searched for and found a suitable foster home for the child with a family with whom the child is familiar.

On Monday, April 27, 2009, the Juvenile Court judge issued the following order: “Prior orders entered in this matter shall remain in full force and effect…The child shall remain in DSHS-approved out-of-home care with the [name redacted for privacy] family.”

DSHS DISCLAIMER:

DSHS does not discriminate and provides equal access to its programs and services for all persons without regard to race, color, gender, religion, creed, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, veteran’s status or the presence of any physical, sensory or mental disability.

 

Honestly folks these foster parents are just finding out first hand what biological parents have known all along, CPS will go through any lengths, lie, commit perjury, forge documents, falsify records, break the law…whatever it takes to take a child…..

Furthermore, at least foster parents have some kind of law that is supposed to prevent CPS from retaliating against them…there is no such law for everyone else….

GABRIEL MYERS UPDATE: OFFICIALS ORDER LOOK AT DRUG USE OF FOSTER CHILDREN

After 7-year-old’s suicide, officials order look at drug use of other Florida foster children

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-gabriel-myers-suicide-probe-b042909,0,7126124.story

Jon Burstein | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

7:06 PM EDT, April 29, 2009

MARGATE – In the aftermath of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers’ suicide, state child welfare officials will review the case files of every foster child in Florida to see how many are on mind-altering drugs.

The head of the Department of Children & Families also took the rare step Wednesday of appointing a panel to examine the circumstances surrounding Gabriel’s death. The child hanged himself April 16 with a shower hose in the bathroom of his Margate foster home.

“It is difficult for any of us to comprehend how a child so young could have deliberately and consciously made the decision to end his life,” DCF Secretary George Sheldon said. “But in order to help prevent this type of tragedy from happening again, it is critical we review all available information to determine the factors that led to Gabriel’s death.”

Four weeks before his suicide, Gabriel was prescribed Symbyax, which is a combination of the generic forms of the anti-depressant Prozac and the anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa. He already had been taking Vyvanse, a drug to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Sheldon has asked his agency to examine how many of the more than 20,000 foster children in Florida are taking psychotropic drugs. A DCF study in 2005 concluded that one in every four foster children was on a mood-altering drug.

Child advocates in the state have long criticized what they have described as the rampant use of psychotropic drugs on foster children.

“One of our concerns is that they use the medications as ‘chemical restraint’ and not as a medication to treat a disease or condition,” said Andrea Moore, executive director of Florida’s Children First.

Child welfare records released last week indicate Gabriel started taking Symbyax even though there apparently was no court order in place. Under Florida law, parental consent or a judge’s order is needed before a foster child can be administered a psychotropic drug.

“We need to develop a refined protocol for the use of these types of drugs in our children,” Sheldon said. “I want to ensure that prescription drugs of this nature are used appropriately, always under medical and judicial supervision and with consultation with DCF staff.”

To delve into Gabriel’s death, Sheldon appointed a five-member panel to be led by Jim Sewell, a former assistant commissioner with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Jon Myers, Gabriel’s uncle, said he hopes that something good will come out of DCF’s actions.

“We realize (child welfare officials) have a tough job and the idea is that they learn from this and pass some laws which are in the best interest of the children,” Myers said.

Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4491.