MOTHER’S ATTORNEYS WANT ABUSE TRIAL MOVED

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1681426

May 22, 2009 – 6:04pm

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. – Attorneys for a woman accused of killing two of her adopted daughters whose bodies were found in her freezer are asking a Calvert County judge to move her trial for the abuse of a third girl.

In a request filed Wednesday, attorneys asked that Renee Bowman’s case be transferred to another court because of extensive pretrial publicity.

The motion says Bowman is unable to receive a fair trial in the county, given that her case has been featured prominently in local media and other factors.

Authorities found the two girls’ bodies in September while investigating an abuse complaint involving Bowman’s third daughter. Bowman faces attempted murder charges in the abuse of the surviving girl.

In Montgomery County, she faces murder and child abuse charges in the deaths of the two girls.

FOSTER CHILDREN TURN 18, THEN TURNED ASIDE

 http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090522/COL14/905230375/Foster+children+turn+18++then+turned+aside

John Johnston’s profile of Quatez Scott tells the story of a remarkable young man’s determination to succeed.

Growing up in the child welfare system and then going to college isn’t just an achievement, it is an epic quest.

 According to a Pew research study, about 24,000 children per year “age out” of the child welfare system in the U.S. They turn 18 and are “emancipated.”

According to the Pew study, within two years of turning 18:

25 percent of those 24,000 kids will be incarcerated.

20 percent will be homeless.

Only 58 percent of them will have finished high school, compared with 87 percent of the general population.

Only 3 percent of the total will earn a college degree.

“Our figures pretty much match the national numbers,” said Moira Weir, director of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services.

About 120 to 150 kids are “graduated” from the system every year in Hamilton County. Only about half finish high school. Last year, only three – not 3 percent, just three – went on to any post-high-school education.

Those of us with children know that parenting seldom ends at the child’s 18th birthday. We expect to remain connected to our children’s lives, to continue to help them, to support them – certainly emotionally and probably financially. We expect to hear from them when they are homesick, or broke, or happy.

For most children of the “system,” whatever supports they had with foster parents or caseworkers get cut at 18.

“I hate that term ‘emancipated,’ ” said Greg Vehr, vice president for governmental relations at the University of Cincinnati. “If you are in foster care and turn 18, you are not emancipated. You are thrown to the wolves.”

The starkness of the numbers has brought together a useful coalition of UC and Hamilton County officials to try to do something. Weir, Vehr, County Commissioner Greg Hartmann and Lawrence J. Johnson, dean of the UC College of Education, have formed the Higher Education Mentoring Initiative, which aims to match those aging out of the child welfare system with educational opportunities at UC, Cincinnati State and Great Oaks vocational school.

The first step is to tell the kids about their options. “Most of them have never had a conversation where someone has said ‘Education is a possibility for you,’ ” Weir said.

Those possibilities will be outlined to teenagers in Hamilton County’s system at an open house May 30 with representatives of UC. UC wants to match up interested students with mentors already enrolled in the College of Education. The school also hopes to house those who enter in its Generation I dorm complex, helping create home and peer support structures for the students.

Given the existing statistics, just bringing two or three students into such a program would double the current rate of “emancipation” success.

These are our children. We, as a society – through the courts, the cops, the social workers – decided to step into their lives because they needed something better than what they had. We shouldn’t stop parenting them just because they turn 18.

David Wells is editorial page editor of the Enquirer; e-mail dwells@enquirer.com

ALEX JONES SHOW GENERATES QUITE A RESPONSE TO “STRIP SEARCH STORY”

Strip search story ‘not true’; phone calls jam HCSO system

http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/local/local_story_142111239.html

By Anita Miller

News Editor

Administrative lines at the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and the Hays CISD were swamped Wednesday afternoon with angry callers responding to a situation that didn’t even occur, officials said a day later. (I believe it did occur, it would not be the first time that CPS and/or a Sheriff’s department  lied to tried and cover their asses because they had done something illegal)

The allegations were that an eight-year-old girl at a Buda elementary school was strip-searched; but both the Sheriff’s Department and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services say it isn’t so. (and just because they say it isn’t so, is supposed to what make it true?)

“We don’t strip search children and we didn’t strip search a child this week,” said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the state agency.

“The calls started coming in about 2:30,” said Sheriff’s spokesman Leroy Opiela. “It just went crazy.”

Opiela said the furor arose after the case was discussed on an Austin radio talk show, and that the mother of the girl involved works for the show host Alex Jones.

“Her daughter goes to Buda Elementary, and CPS (Child Protective Services) came over Tuesday, and as they always do when they do anything they call us and one of our deputies went with them,” Opiela said. “They asked the child a bunch of questions and the deputy was in the room when that happened. They wanted to examine the child because she had a bruise  (one) and they asked the deputy to leave the room and he did. It seems like everything was cool until the mother said something to Alex Jones.”

Opiela said he doesn’t know where the information about the bruise came from but noted that “by law, they (school officials) have to report it to CPS. CPS was just out there trying to verify that it’s not child abuse, or verify that it was, one way or the other. They accused of us of strip searching a second grade student and that’s completely false.”

Julie Jerome, assistant superintendent of Information, communications and student services for the Hays CISD, said school personnel had “responded appropriately” to comments made by the child.

“Anytime we get a report of child abuse or neglect, obviously, we have to investigate,” Van Deusen said. “Sometimes we will initiate this by talking to the child at school. Usually that happens with some school personnel present, and as with any investigation we want to interview the victim and then possible witnesses to determine what happened. If there’s an allegation of injury we will ask to see the injury. It’s all voluntary, never anything that’s forced.” (It is force when you are asking a second grader, who you are bigger than and who would be easily intimidated by all of the adults questioning her,  to pull down their pants…it cannot be voluntary when they are this young, they are not legal adults.  Did you  have the parents permission?  So basically what you are saying is, you took this child into a room and a bunch of adults ask her to voluntarily pull down her pants, without her parent present?  This is called an illegal search, the child, who is under age, cannot voluntarily do this.  Furthermore, you expect us to believe that her cooperation with you wasn’t base on intimidation?  Intimidation of a child this age is easy to do…just add adults and a sheriff officer in uniform!  Instant nonvoluntary, illegal, intimidated, consent from the child)

Opiela said he couldn’t recall anything like the response the radio show drew.

“It jammed up all the admin lines here in our building. It tied up all the operators answering calls.”

He said a few calls came in on Thursday as well.

If a stranger asks a child to “voluntarily” pull down their pants, even if the child does it…this stranger can later be charged with a sexual crime.  Many child victims of sexual abuse voluntarily remove their clothes for their abuser…just because a child agrees to do it because they are being asked by an adult…does not make it right, it does not make it legal for the adult to do so, it does not excuse the behavior.  It is still illegal for you to do this.  I can only imagine the emotional damage the Sheriff’s deparment, school and CPS did to this child with their behavior.  They should be prosecuted for child abuse.

CPS WORKER CHARGED WITH FORGERY ( LIKE THIS THE FIRST TIME THEY HAVE FORGED SOMETHING.)

CPS worker charged with forgery

 

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/powell-77795-county-charged.html

By Rob Young/Appeal-Democrat

A Sutter County Child Protective Services employee has been charged with forging a court record and a judge’s signature, the Appeal-Democrat has learned.

Sarah J. Powell, 35, will be arraigned June 1 in Sutter County Superior Court, said Assistant District Attorney Fred Schroeder.

Powell is also charged with forging the seal of the state of California on a document, he said.

Schroeder said he could not comment on the motive behind the alleged forgery. He did not disclose which judge’s signature Powell is charged with forging.

Powell and Child Protective Services officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The three charges were filed May 12. Powell was not arrested but was sent a letter ordering her to appear in court, Schroeder said.

There are no other defendants in the case, he said.

Child Protective Services workers are county employees.

Sutter County spokesman Chuck Smith said he learned of the case from the Appeal-Democrat.

“I have no idea what her job status is,” Smith said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.

I emailed the reporter in this case and asked him to use the Freedom of Information Act to get more information on this crime.  As far as I know the crimes that this CPS worker have been charged with are felony charges, yet she was sent a letter telling her to appear in court.  Talk about differental treatment, she should have been carted off to jail in cuffs, force to bond out, fingerprinted, just like any other criminal.

I mean honestly, did she do this to illegally remove a child?  If so, did it work?  Where is that child now?  I think there is an urgent need for more information on this case.  These are serious charges and should not be taken lightly.  They are also a matter of public record and should not be hidden as they are.  I have to question why they are being so hush, hush about this crime.  If it were anyone other than a CPS worker the name, picture and exactly what they had done would be all over the news…having been released by the very people who in this case, will not comment.

We the public have a right to know exactly what this woman did and if there was a child involved it makes it urgent in my mind.  This “cover up” behavior is how CPS continues to break the law and get away with it.

TAJANAY BAILEY’S MOTHER GETS 35 YEARS IN HER DEATH

 

Sentence for felony neglect is more than prosecutors asked for

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090523/LOCAL18/905230451/1195/LOCAL18/TaJanay+Bailey+s+mother+gets+35+years+in+her+death

By Jon Murray

Posted: May 23, 2009.

 The final chapter in the abuse death of TaJanay Bailey closed Friday with a 35-year prison sentence for her mother.

The 3-year-old girl’s November 2007 killing in a crime-ridden apartment complex, as her case was under the watch of the state Department of Child Services, focused scrutiny beyond her family to the child-welfare system.

The man who delivered the blows — her mother’s live-in boyfriend — is serving a 65-year prison sentence for TaJanay’s murder.

But the failure of the girl’s mother to protect her child led a Marion Superior Court judge to take the rare step Friday of issuing a stiffer sentence than even prosecutors requested for felony neglect.

During a five-hour hearing, prosecution witnesses said Charity Bailey, now 22, spurned repeated offers of help.

“There were plenty of opportunities to leave and take that baby,” said Janice Springfield, TaJanay’s foster mother for most of the child’s life. “She could have prevented this.”

The fallout from TaJanay’s death has reached far beyond the courtroom.

The young mother

Bailey’s tumultuous upbringing and experience with domestic violence prompted many to lobby the court for leniency.

Advocacy group And Justice For All submitted a petition with about 100 signatures — including one from former U.S. Rep. Andy Jacobs Jr. — urging a lenient sentence.

And Bailey’s attorney, Ray Casanova, presented extensive evidence and testimony about mental health problems attributed to Bailey’s difficult life.

Born with methamphetamine in her system, Bailey was raised by a grandmother in an environment of drugs, sexual abuse and family discord. She dropped out of high school and gave birth to TaJanay at age 17.

Bailey later moved in with Lawrence Green, who would kill TaJanay, and stayed with him despite episodes of domestic violence. They have two sons, both now in foster care.

Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said millions of Americans survive such difficult circumstances. Judge Kurt Eisgruber said he was not swayed before giving Bailey a sentence longer than the 30 years prosecutors had requested but less than the maximum of 56 years.

 

“You were passive toward the torture of your daughter,” the judge told Bailey.

She could win release in about 16 years with credit for good behavior. She said before learning her fate that she misses TaJanay and wants to counsel other women.

“I want to tell them that there is help out there, and they do not need to be afraid to get it,” Bailey said, sobbing.

The violent boyfriend

Last month, Eisgruber sentenced Green, 22, to 65 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder to avert a trial and the risk of life imprisonment.

Prosecutors said Green abused TaJanay several times in the final week of her life, including hanging her by her T-shirt on a coat hook for 20 minutes, partly because of problems with potty training.

He delivered a litany of blows the morning of her death after TaJanay soiled herself; at least 40 bruises were found during the autopsy.

The failing system

TaJanay’s death revealed lapses in oversight by the Marion County juvenile court and the state Department of Child Services. The agency had returned TaJanay and her younger half brother to Bailey and Green a month before her death for a trial reunification.

TaJanay had been the subject of two abuse or neglect cases and spent most of her short life in foster care.

A DCS review cited failed communication and a lack of urgency among everyone handling the case. Officials took no disciplinary action, however, attributing any mishandling to errors of judgment.

The community response

After TaJanay’s death, dozens of stuffed animals were deposited at the base of trees in the Phoenix Apartments, the caldron of poverty and crime where she died.

The Northeastside complex’s Edgemere Court was home to the most violent crimes of any residential block in the city. The killing spurred responses from faith-based groups as well as the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County prosecutor’s office, which both set up outposts there.

Those outposts, which aren’t staffed full time, remain open. The prosecutor’s spokesman said child support is the most common issue addressed at its office, though fewer residents than hoped have stopped by.

S.C. FUGITIVE, TEEN FOUND IN WOODLAWN

 

Mother, 555-pound son were missing since Monday

 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-md.fatboy22may22,0,2489602.story

By Richard Irwin | dick.irwin@baltsun.com

May 22, 2009

A woman wanted by South Carolina authorities and her 555-pound 14-year-old son were found by Baltimore County police Thursday afternoon washing their clothes in a Woodlawn laundry, county police said.

Awaiting extradition to Greenville, S.C., and held at the Woodlawn precinct was Jerri Gray, 49, of Travelers Rest, a city about 10 miles north of Greenville, said Lt. Matt Weatherly of the Woodlawn Precinct. She was being sought on a warrant charging her with violating a child custody order.

Her son, Alexander Draper, was turned over to the county Department of Social Services after he was taken by Fire Department medics to Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where he was examined and declared in good health.

(If he was found in good health then why are they taking him????)

Weatherly said after police agencies were notified that the mother had not kept a court appointment in Greenville, police monitored messages on her cell phone and traced at least one call to the Woodlawn area. Officers patrolled the area near the Social Security Administration building on Security Boulevard, and about 4:35 p.m. spotted the woman’s van parked outside Sudsville, a commercial laundry on Security Boulevard near Whitehead Road.

Inside, the officers found the mother and her son, Weatherly said. He said the boy was dressed in sweats and that each cooperated with police. At the precinct, the boy told police he was in the eighth grade and had had weight problems his entire life.

“He was well-behaved and well-spoken,” Weatherly said.

Weatherly said the boy told him he and his mother had no relatives in Maryland and that they “were just riding around.” Weatherly said the mother had driven north from South Carolina and was on Interstate 695 (the Baltimore Beltway) when she turned onto Security Boulevard and spotted the laundry.

He said the county fugitive squad was working with Greenville police to arrange for the mother’s extradition. He did not know when the boy would be returned to his mother or other relatives.

Investigators didn’t know if Gray had an attorney, and her relatives have not responded to messages left by the Associated Press.

Lt. Shea Smith of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, told the Associated Press the mother failed to keep a scheduled court appearance Tuesday in Greenville so officials began investigating claims of child neglect and endangerment.

Authorities said the teen was at a “stage of critical health risk” but wouldn’t provide details about his medical condition beyond his weight, Smith said.

Gray and her son had been last seen Monday at their home in Travelers Rest.

Marilyn Matheus, a spokeswoman for the South Caroline Department of Social Services, said, “This agency doesn’t get involved in such cases based on a child’s weight alone, but will take action in cases where health care professionals believe the child is at risk due to the parent’s possible neglect in providing medical care.”

A Greenville County judge ordered the child taken into protective custody when found.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

 

Authorities arrest mom for medical neglect of 555-pound teen

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/21/sc.missing.boy/

CNN) — South Carolina authorities have located a 555-pound teenager and his mother, who faces a charge of violating a custody order, police said Thursday.

Alexander Deundray Draper, 14, "is possibly at a stage of critical health risk," social services said.

Alexander Deundray Draper, 14, of Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and his mother, Jerri Althea Gray, were located at about 4:30 p.m. near a laundromat in Baltimore, Maryland, by the Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office, said Matt Armstrong, a spokesman for the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Draper was checked out by EMS [Emergency Medical Services] personnel and turned over to the Maryland Department of Social Services,” Armstrong said.

The South Carolina Department of Social Services will work with its Maryland counterpart to have the boy returned to South Carolina, he told CNN affiliate WYFF.

The mother is being held in a detention center and will be extradited to South Carolina on an outstanding warrant, he said.

“The understanding was that the individual was of the weight where it was decided by medical authorities that he needed treatment that was not being provided for by his mother,” Armstrong said.

Earlier in the day officials said the boy “is possibly at a stage of critical health risk.”

Gray was supposed to appear in family court Tuesday with her son and failed to do so, the sheriff’s office said. During the family court hearing, the boy was ordered into state custody because of medical neglect, as well as his mother’s failure to appear. The Department of Social Services then contacted the sheriff’s office, authorities said.

The warrant said Gray was served with papers Monday and told to report to court for a hearing in which the department would seek state custody of Draper. “The defendant has avoided the custody proceeding and has concealed the child,” the warrant says.

 

Okay, I agree this child needs some help with his weight, but is this really abuse and a reason for the state of SC to assume emergency custody?  It says right here in the news article that the child was found to be in good health, wouldn’t it make more sense for the South Carolina DSS to help the mother find a program to help her son loose weight, instead of yanking him away from his family and placing him God knows where, with God knows who.  I can only imagine what DSS will do this child, what foster parents may do to this child….

Furthermore, the mother was served with papers on Monday to appear the next day…So she didn’t even have time to contact an attorney, was one appointed to her by the court?  Was his name on the documents she was served with and what about due process????   I don’t blame her for running, she obviously loves her “wellbehaved, well mannered child,” and did not want to loose him. 

This is a case where DSS should have offered this mother and child help with the weight problem, instead they decide to rip a family apart.  What kind of evidence could this judge have had before him or did he base his decision on the child’s weight and the word of DSS alone?

Let me know what you think of this situation?

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST INVESTIGATION CONTINUES

 

By: Andrea Pacetti

http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/coastal/609557/school-psychologist-investigation-continues/Default.aspx

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Investigators said some of the pictures of naked children found in school psychologist Johnny Clevinger’s home date back at least two decades.

Authorities said they also expect to find more photos on three computers they seized.

“A number of photographs [were taken] right there at the house, and there was some information that he was utilizing the computers for this type of activity,” District Attorney Scott Thomas said.

Some of Clevinger’s neighbors said they were suspicious that something was wrong in the home. One neighbor said she had even called child protective services in the past after worries about Clevinger’s adopted children.

Clevinger worked as a school psychologist for the Carteret County School System. Administrators said he’s suspended with pay pending an investigation.

They said every employee must undergo a criminal background check.

Before coming to Carteret County, Clevinger worked for schools in Louisiana and North Carolina, including Wilkes County from 1984 to 1996. He then worked at Person County Schools from 1996 to 2001.

An online profile of Clevinger states he has worked with troubled adolescent boys. It also lists nudism as one of his interests, and includes links to nudist Web sites.

“If that’s his lifestyle, that’s up to him,” Thomas said. “But that’s not a defense in a situation where you may have illegal photographs of minor children.”

But authorities said the investigation into Clevinger is ongoing, and they still don’t know exactly who or how many children were photographed.

Clevinger was arrested after a store clerk found lewd photos in film Clevinger dropped off for processing. He is being held in the Carteret County jail on $250,000 bond and is charged with first degree sexual exploitation of a minor and taking indecent liberties with a child.

CPS VIDEO’S

In memory of those protected to death by cps

Another child death…

CPS: More Could Have Been Done For Slain Boy

Death of a foster child part1

Death of a foster child part 2

DCF: Jeb Bush’s Legacy – Justin Part 1 – Child Abuse – CPS

DCF: Jeb Bush’s Legacy – Justin Part 2 – Child Abuse – CPS

Don’t Mess With Texas CPS

At Least 370 Texas CPS Workers Have Criminal Histories

CPS Involved In Child Trafficking Rings Explains Senator Schafer 1 of 4

CPS Involved In Child Trafficking Rings Explains Senator Schafer 2 of 4

CPS Involved In Child Trafficking Rings Explains Senator Schafer 3 of 4

CPS Involved In Child Trafficking Rings Explains Senator Schafer 4 of 4

Nancy Schaefer exposes the EVIL CPS

Mass CPS corruption

Mass CPS corruption P2

Child Protective Services: CPS & Police Abuse Constitution, Invading Homes, Kidnapping Children, Ignoring Courts, and Criminalizing Americans. Polygamist FLDS Raid Sheds Light on More Cases.

“VIRTUAL PARENT” ???? WTF, FOSTER CHILDREN AGING OUT, NEED SOMEONE REAL TO TURN TO!!!!

“Virtual Parent” Debuts to Help Ohio Youth Transition to Adulthood

 

http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/8954-1

May 20, 2009

Columbus, OH – Ohio teens have a new “virtual parent:” a website that debuts today. It will provide information to youth preparing to “age out” of foster care, helping them make the transition to adult independence. More than 1,300 Ohioans leave foster care each year.

Brandi Scales with the Public Children Services Association of Ohio says many of these youth have been in state care for several years and have no safety net to help them deal with the challenges of adulthood.

“Most young people are about 25 years old before they are able to stand on their own two feet. Foster youth are in an interesting situation because they are sent out into the world – without any stable relationships with adults – to figure things out on their own at age 18.”

The website is organized into categories such as education, money management, employment, health, housing and legal issues. It will enable users to access many of the state’s resources in one central location.

Scales says it is essential that young people develop their own understanding of their rights and responsibilities.

“Foster youth often transition into a desperate outcome – they end up homeless or in the juvenile justice system – so this is a way for them to curtail destructive activity by getting good information, even if they don’t have a connection to an adult.”

The Ohio State Bar Foundation and the Public Children Services Association of Ohio collaborated on the project. The website URL is www.MyMissionTransition.com.

Mary Kuhlman, Public News Service – OH

 

These children who have essentially been made legal orphans by the state, many without just cause, need a real person that they can turn to…not a computer program!  What in the hell is wrong with you people???

DA: CPS SUPERVISOR DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL INFO

 

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/05/20/cps_confidential/

Posted on Wednesday, 20 of May , 2009 at 12:16 am

NASSAU COUNTY—-A former supervisor with the Nassau County Child Protective Services (CPS) was arrested Tuesday after he illegally accessed the agency’s confidential database in an attempt to discredit a police officer who had given him a speeding ticket.

 Glen Tuifel, 40, of Glen Cove, was arrested Tuesday morning by investigators from the district attorney’s office and charged with official misconduct and illegally disclosing confidential information, both misdemeanors. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

 District attorney Kathleen Rice said that on or about Oct. 6, 2008, Tuifel accessed the New York State Office of Children and Family Service’s secured database to determine whether an Old Brookville police officer who had written him a speeding ticket had ever been investigated by Nassau County CPS. Tuifel discovered that the officer had been investigated in 2004, and attempted to use that information in court to get the ticket dismissed. The motion was denied and Tuifel paid the ticket. The 2004 CPS investigation of the officer was determined to be unfounded and the case was dismissed.

An extensive investigation by the district attorney’s office began after the police officer filed a complaint with Nassau police. The investigation revealed that Tuifel’s username accessed the secured database on Oct. 6.

“He was in a position of trust and he abused that trust,” said Rice. “He launched a personal vendetta and when he abused his public position he crossed the line and his vendetta became criminal.” 5-19-09