How One Judge Almost Eliminated Foster Care Simply by Applying the Law – A National Model?

The Washington Post recently featured a judge out of Louisiana, Judge Ernestine S. Gray, who has reportedly "reduced foster care numbers to levels unmatched anywhere in the country" in Orleans Parish. Richard A. Webster, writing for the Post, reports: Between 2011 and 2017, the number of children in foster care here fell by 89 percent compared with an 8 percent increase nationally. New Orleans children who do enter the system don’t stay long. Seventy percent are discharged within a month; nationally, it’s only 5 percent. Gray has effectively all but eliminated foster care except in extreme situations, quickly returning children flagged by social workers to their families or other relatives. “We shouldn’t be taking kids away from their parents because they don’t have food or a refrigerator,” she said in explaining her philosophy. “I grew up in a poor family in South Carolina, and we didn’t have a lot. But what I had was people who cared about me.” The greatest threat of harm for most of the children who appear before her, she stresses, is being unnecessarily removed from their families. “Foster care is put up as this thing that is going to save kids, but kids die in foster care, kids get sick in foster care,” she said. “So we ought to be trying to figure out how to use that as little as possible. People have a right to raise their children.”

USA Today Exposes Florida Doctor Medically Kidnapping Children and Destroying Lives

USA Today reporter Daphne Chen has just published an article on Dr. Sally Smith, a pediatrician who is the head of the child protection team in Pinellas County, Florida. Published in the "Torn Apart" section of GateHouseNews.com, this article is reportedly the first in a series investigating Florida’s child welfare system. Chen refers to Dr. Sally Smith as: "the 61-year-old pediatrician [who] is one of the most powerful figures in the child welfare system along Florida’s Gulf Coast. As the head of the Pinellas County child protection team, Smith examines virtually every child funneled to All Children’s Hospital with suspicious injuries. Among prosecutors, her word is like gold." The USA Today Network reportedly investigated hundreds of Dr. Smith's cases, and: "found more than a dozen instances where charges were dropped, parents were acquitted or caregivers had credible claims of innocence yet suffered irredeemable damage to their lives and reputations." Reporter Daphne Chen discusses several cases that involved Dr. Smith, including: "Beata Kowalski, a 43-year-old mother of two, died by suicide in 2017 after Smith accused her of Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a rare disorder in which a parent fakes a child’s illness for sympathy or gain. Her family members are now suing Smith and All Children’s Hospital for what they said were trumped-up claims. John Stewart, a Marine Corps veteran, spent 300 days in jail on Smith’s allegation that he killed his girlfriend’s son by throwing him repeatedly against a soft surface. Prosecutors dropped the charges after a neuropathologist contradicted Smith’s findings, according to internal memos."

North Carolina Military Family’s Breastfed Infant Daughter Medically Kidnapped for 305 Days

When a family welcomes their firstborn, no matter how difficult the labor, how long the labor, whether instrumentation had to be used to get the baby out, or whether an emergency cesarean is done to finally welcome their new bundle of joy, all of this is a distant past with the arrival a new baby.  With ten fingers and ten toes, doctors and nurses unconcerned about the events that took place during birth, you assume you are blessed and have happy, healthy baby.   Families are starting to realize these events that occur during labor can result in underlying conditions that can lead to false allegations of child abuse and tear families apart.   A military family from North Carolina tells us about their almost one-year long ordeal that threatened to take their daughter away from them forever. After taking their baby to the emergency room, they were transferred to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Children’s Hospital, where the Beacon Team, with their Child Abuse Specialists, accused them of abusing their baby.

Federal Investigation Determines that Oregon CPS Violates Parental Rights of Disabled Parents – Too Low of IQ Not Reason Enough to Take Away Children

Back in 2017 Sherrene Hagenbach, an Oregon volunteer Social Service Agent (SSA), reached out to Health Impact News regarding a couple she was mentoring at the time, Eric and Amy Ziegler, who lost their two children when social workers determined that their IQs were too low to be parenting. Sherrene was not happy with how their parental rights were being violated, and became a whistleblower.  Both parents had highschool diplomas, and there was no history of abuse. But Oregon CPS took away their children as soon as they were born. We published the Ziegler story, interviewing both Sherrene and the parents, and soon the story went viral, gaining national media attention. An Oregon judge eventually returned custody of both children to the Zieglers last year (2018). Due to all the media coverage of their story, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began to investigate Oregon CPS and their practices of removing children from disabled parents. They allegedly found out that Oregon's practice of discriminating against parents with disabilities was not limited to the Ziegler case. Today (December 4, 2019), it was announced that the OCR reached a "voluntary resolution agreement" with the Oregon Department of Human Services concerning the rights of parents with disabilities in Child Welfare Programs.

Will Paul Petersen and His Accomplices in Child Trafficking Ever See Justice?

Arizona Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who was indicted in three different states for illegally trafficking children through his adoption agency, has requested that his trial in Arkansas be delayed for almost a year. He is currently free on bond. The hub of Petersen's alleged illegal activities was Maricopa County, in Arizona, where he serves as the County Assessor, an elected official. Authorities in Arizona have been unsuccessful in removing him from office so far, but they recently seized many of his assets. So far, no one in the mainstream corporate-sponsored media seems to be doing any investigative work on their own to try to uncover this scandal further. It is hard to believe that Paul Petersen could have accomplished this operation on his own, especially since he served in a public office as County Assessor for Maricopa County. Health Impact News has conducted its own investigation, and if federal law enforcement is serious about stopping child trafficking flowing through Arizona, Mr. Petersen's connections should be investigated. What about the judges who approved these adoptions? What connection does Paul Petersen's case have to former Arkansas Senator Linda Collins-Smith's murder? Here is what our own investigations have uncovered so far.

New York Vaccine Police State: Proposed Mandatory Gardasil Vaccine to Target Homeschoolers?

Given recent legislative actions in New York, as well as proposed new ones, to remove any exemptions to vaccines and mandate that all children must be vaccinated, the idea of New York becoming a vaccine police state is no longer a theory or warning. It is happening in full public view, thanks to what one lawmaker refers to as "the corruption in Albany." A new proposed bill in New York would mandate the HPV Gardasil vaccine as a requirement for school attendance, both private and public, including daycare. Parents who no longer can enroll their children in schools, whether public or private, due to the loss of religious and medical exemptions to vaccines, are apparently turning to homeschool education as their only option left to educate their children. But a lawmaker from Warsaw, Assemblyman David DiPietro, has stated that lawmakers are planning on outlawing homeschooling, because they want to be able to vaccinate the children in the schools, without parental approval or knowledge.

Texas Mom Tells her Story of How a Child Abuse Pediatrician Used CPS to Medically Kidnap her Baby

In the middle of the night on May 23rd, 2016, my husband, Tim was caring for our 4-month-old infant son, Tristan, our third of three boys, while I was trying to get some rest. Tim awoke to find our son completely unresponsive. He immediately woke me up and told me to go to the emergency room as fast as possible. I rushed him to the hospital without a moment’s hesitation; no wallet, no phone, no shoes. I will never forget the pure fear of those moments holding my unresponsive baby in my arms praying to God not to take my baby. When I got to the hospital, the ER doctor told us Tristan had a small subdural hematoma and at the time we had no idea what that was. After a day of testing, our prayers were finally answered when Dr. Sandberg, Tristan’s Neurosurgeon, came in with his diagnosis of a tiny subdural hematoma caused by birth injury. He let us know it would resolve itself in the next couple of days, that he was canceling the scheduled MRI, and that we could go home, as he said there was no reason to intubate and bathe our baby in that much radiation. This was the moment that our family had been praying for, and for the first time we felt relieved to know that Tristan was going to be ok and we would all be going home soon. But unbeknownst to us, our nightmare was just beginning.  While we were taking in the comfort in Dr. Sandberg’s diagnosis, the child abuse pediatrician (or CAP) was formulating her own diagnosis for Tristan’s medical emergency… Abusive Head Tramua.  She used CPS to medically kidnap our baby.

Black-Listed Documentary Banned in Europe on History of Child Trafficking in Switzerland Premieres Online

5 years in the making and black-listed in Europe, filmmaker Omar Agustoni along with co-producer Neal Sutz has just released the documentary, Trees of Shame, which premiered online November 24, 2019. The film documents the history of child trafficking in Switzerland through Child Protective Services and the Juvenile Court system, with riveting interviews of former and current victims. According to the history of the International Social Service (ISS), today's "Child Protection" child welfare system which exists in most Western countries, originated in Switzerland just after WWI in 1920 in an effort to deal with "displaced" children, or "orphans." The headquarters was established in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1924, and the U.S. branch was established in New York City in 1926. During the Great Depression, the Social Security Act established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 allocated funds to establish child welfare programs throughout the U.S., and is the birth of modern Child Protection Service agencies nationwide. While Simonetta Sommaruga, former President of Switzerland and the current Vice President, allegedly apologized for past crimes of child trafficking against the Swiss people by the Swiss government in April of 2013, where many of these children labeled "orphans" were trafficked as child laborers, much like the old "orphan trains" in the U.S. back in the mid 1800s, Trees of Shame documents how these crimes of child trafficking still happen today. This is similar to what is happening in the U.S. today, as we have documented for the past 5 years at Health Impact News on our MedicalKidnap.com website, where the modern day Foster Care system is a massive multi-billion dollar child trafficking system. Trees of Shame can be rented and viewed online at: http://www.treesofshame.is/

California Parents Flood School Board Meeting – Demand Parental Rights Sanctuary Regarding Vaccines and Sex Education

This week the Murrieta Unified School District in Southern California saw hundreds of parents turn out for a school board meeting to protest the loss of parental rights when it comes to the issue of mandatory vaccines and the sexualization in sex education of their children without parental approval. They brought a proposal to make their community a "sanctuary city for parental rights," claiming that if illegal immigration can be protected by a sanctuary status, then so can parental rights. Reporter Michelle Mears was present, and published a report at the California Globe. "Hundreds of residents in a Southern California community swarmed a school board meeting Thursday night to speak out about the loss of parental rights in schools. Anxious parents, many with children in tow, students, pastors and doctors demanded the Murrieta Unified School District become the first sanctuary city for parental rights in California. For two hours people waited to speak out on the action item titled, 'To consider Proposal by Community Member to Become a Sanctuary School District.” Those in favor of the sanctuary status understood the trustees could not change the laws set by the state. However, their argument is, if illegal immigration can be protected by a sanctuary status then so can parental rights.' One of the highlights of the night was a reading of an affidavit by a nurse known on Facebook as "Sandra RN." Police attempted to block her efforts and remove her from the room, but when she stood up for her rights as she was being filmed, police backed down and allowed her to speak.

Why is NY Governor Cuomo Delaying to Sign 2 Bills with Overwhelming Bipartisan Support to Protect Families?

The N.Y. State Central Register Reform Bill seeks to protect families by raising the state’s unusually low standard of evidence for listing parents on a state abuse and neglect registry, and reducing the economic impact of being listed. In 2018, more than 47,000 cases were added to the database, which is visible to potential employers. Parents are often listed even if no court action has been taken against them and remain on the registry—regardless of the severity of the accusation against them—until their child reaches age 28. The bill would require a “preponderance of evidence,” not “some credible evidence,” to list parents, a standard in line with most other states. It would seal parents’ records on the registry after eight years, in most cases, and make it easier for parents to challenge their records before that. The other bill, the Preserving Family Bonds Act, would allow children adopted from foster care to continue to have contact with their parents if a judge agrees that it’s in the child’s best interest. Termination of parental rights has been called a “civil death penalty,” but this bill would protect family bonds by ensuring open adoption, even when it’s not possible for a child to return home. Taken together, these bills represent an important effort to reduce the punitive effect of the child welfare system. Too often, the system punishes and permanently separates poor families—especially Black and Native families—as the U.S. has done through law and through economic inequity for its entire history. The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, passed in 1997, remains especially damaging and reflects the time’s hysteria about Black families, when media images of “super-predators,” “welfare queens,” and “crack babies” demonized Black mothers and children. The law cut the length of time parents have to reunite with their children and provided financial incentives to states to prioritize adoption. The federal government also provides nearly unlimited funds for foster care but almost none for supports that enable families to keep children safe at home.

Recording Surfaces of Illinois Department of Health Planning to Medically Kidnap Newborns from Parents Who Refuse Vitamin K Shot at Birth

Earlier this year (2019) the Chicago Tribune reported on a federal lawsuit where parents sued several doctors at three hospitals and DCFS for medically kidnapping their newborn infants simply for refusing the Vitamin K shot at birth. Megan Fox, writing for PJ Media, has published a recording from an April 12, 2018 meeting of the Perinatal Advisory Committee (PAC) that operates under the Illinois Department of Public Health. In the recording, health officials that apparently include doctors and possibly nurses who are authorized to give the Vitamin K shot to newborns, discuss how they can work together with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to take custody of newborn babies from parents who refuse the Vitamin K shot at birth. The members of the Health Department basically conclude that since it is DCFS policy to mandate the Vitamin K shot, that medical professionals have the authority to take custody of the child and administer the Vitamin K shot over the objections of the parents, even without DCFS involvement. Such "custody" can be as little as only "2 minutes," the time it takes to give the shot. So basically Illinois Health Department officials decided in a meeting that they had authority to take a child away from the parents, without DCFS involvement, without parental approval, and with no court or judge's order to take custody, and forcibly inject the newborn child with the Vitamin K shot.

Michigan Law School Professor: Parental Rights Attorneys Too Often Give Up Instead of Fighting

For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading transcripts from child protective hearings. Hundreds of pages of transcripts. I’ve seen examples of clear legal errors. I’ve read many lines of parents’ lawyers grumbling and complaining. I’ve read even more of those lawyers simply agreeing to whatever the agency is proposing. I’m still waiting, though, to see one key phrase in the transcripts. I’m waiting for one lawyer to say it. “I object.” In fact, in the six years I’ve co-directed the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, I’ve rarely seen that phrase in a transcript. I’ve rarely seen motions filed by parents’ lawyers, even when confronted with obvious mistakes. I’ve rarely seen a hint of outrage about the process. Instead, I usually see very little advocacy. I’m typically struck by the acquiescence of the lawyers in the courtroom.

Is There an Arizona and Mormon Connection to Child Trafficking in Arkansas and Senator Linda Collins-Smith’s Murder?

Episode 6 of The Medical Kidnap Show aired on November 10, 2019, on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 out of Phoenix at 9 p.m. Sunday night. (11 p.m. EST) The guest interviewed on the show was Kathy Hall. Kathy is a grandmother who was living in Arkansas when her daughter was tragically killed by a hit-and-run vehicle being driven by an illegal alien. Her daughter left behind a young child, and Kathy has been fighting to get access to her granddaughter ever since. Getting no help from attorneys in Arkansas, Kathy turned to an Arkansas State Senator, Linda Collins-Smith, to help her get her granddaughter back. The two became close friends until Linda Collins-Smith was murdered in Arkansas, within hours after returning from a week-long trip to Arizona, where she was reportedly investigating child trafficking. Kathy then found out through a Social Media post that her granddaughter had already been adopted out to a Mormon family who then left the State of Arkansas and moved to Wisconsin. The attorney who allegedly arranged the adoption was Paul Petersen, an adoption attorney who was also the Maricopa County Assessor in Arizona, and who has since been indicted on federal charges in three states, including Arizona and Arkansas, for human trafficking.

Federal Judge in Texas Fines CPS $50K a Day for “Shameful” Foster Care: CPS has “Lied to me at almost Every Level”

A federal judge in Texas appears to be getting fed up with Texas government officials who are delaying in abolishing the State's foster care and child protective services agency and establishing a new one. This week she started fining the state $50,000.00 a day for not implementing the reforms she ordered back in 2015 when she ruled that the Texas foster care system was unconstitutional. In her original ruling, Judge Jack wrote: "Texas’s PMC (Permanent Managing Conservatorship) children have been shuttled throughout a system where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication, and instability are the norm." Rather than comply with her ruling, however, the State of Texas wasted taxpayer funds in fighting against the injunction. Now, Judge Jack is apparently tired of waiting, and has announced fines of $50,000.00 a day which will double in the near future if the State does not comply with her orders. Earlier this week she said that she no longer finds the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services "credible" and that the state has "lied to me at almost every level." During the hearing, Jack scolded officials with DFPS who testified because they could not answer questions concerning the conditions in placements for foster care children.

$10M Lawsuit Filed in New York Against Motels that Allegedly Allowed Child Sex Trafficking of Foster Children

Andrew Denney and Gabrielle Fonrouge of the New York Post have reported on a $10 million lawsuit filed recently alleging that a 10-year-old foster girl was raped, tortured and beaten as she was sold for sex at two New York motels while staff turned a blind eye to what was happening. The young girl was trafficked through motels, according to the lawsuit, with the full knowledge of the motel staff who did nothing to try and stop this kind of sex trafficking of children. According to the NY Post article, 45% of all sexual exploitation in New York City happens in hotels. To understand the scope and depth of this problem of foster care children being sexually trafficked, go to an Internet search engine and search for law firms that specialize in representing foster care children who are sexually trafficked. You will have plenty to choose from. It is apparently a tragic booming business for attorneys. Here are a few:

Is the Arizona Human Trafficking Council Preventing Child Trafficking, or Facilitating it?

Episode 5 of The Medical Kidnap Show aired on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 out of Phoenix on Sunday night, November 3, 2019. Our guest for this show was Lori Ford, the head of the DCS Oversight Group, which is a group of volunteers who attend meetings regarding Department of Children Services issues in Arizona. The group also has "court watchers" who attend Dependency Court hearings as parent advocates and to observe how these parents are being treated in Dependency Court. When asked why the members of the group provided their services to families and others free of charge, she replied: "The reason that we do this, is it's so important. This is the future of our country, the future of our nation. And family means everything to all of us. So that's why we do it. We see so many rights being violated in this dependency court system." This past week (Tuesday, October 29, 2019), the Arizona Human Trafficking Council conducted a meeting that was open to the public, and Lori Ford and other members of the DCS Oversight Group attended. Lori addressed the Council, pointing out that while the Council had exposed websites that trafficked kids, such as BackPage.com, which was shut down by the FBI last year, that the Council had not addressed another website in Arizona that trafficks kids, the DCS .gov website: "Children's Heart Gallery." "The children who are on this Heart Gallery, which is part of the DCS website, are children that are in DCS custody. They're foster kids, they're kids in group homes. This is a forced adoption, a forced re-homing if you will, website, of children who are in DCS custody. They're pimping out kids online."

The Medical Kidnap Show on KFNX Talk Radio Phoenix is Now on Sunday Nights – Listen Online!

Starting Sunday, November 3, 2019, The Medical Kidnap Show will air on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 broadcast out of Phoenix at 9 p.m. local time (8 pm PST - 11 pm EST). This Sunday's show will look at the question: "Does Doug Ducey's and Cindy McCain's Arizona Human Trafficking Council actually stop human trafficking in Arizona, or contribute to it?"

Tampa Bay ABC Investigation Uncovers Medical Kidnapping of Seniors Throughout Florida with State Guardianships

The state of Florida, home to many seniors who have retired in that state, has had numerous investigations this year by local media outlets in the state's guardianship program that takes away the civil rights of senior adult patients, allowing them to seize their estates, and in at least one high-profile case, even issue a "do not resuscitate" order without involving the patient's family. Now one local media outlet out of Tampa Bay, ABC Action News WFTS, has conducted a three-month investigation that uncovered numerous examples of hospitals in Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach, Naples and other Florida cities paying private attorneys to file hundreds of court petitions to put patients into guardianship. An I-Team review of state court records found: Tampa Bay area hospitals, including those owned by Baycare, AdventHealth and HCA, went to court to put more than 100 patients into guardianship since 2017 alone. Tampa General Hospital filed five nearly identical court documents seeking guardianship for patients, describing each as having “disorganized thinking and poor cognition.” A hospital spokeswoman said TGH spent $28,000 on guardianship cases so far in just 2019. An attorney for Florida Hospital Altamonte requested guardianship for a patient because her “Kia Soul that was almost paid off… may be repossessed.” Nationwide, government guardians oversee an estimated 1.3 million adults and $50 billion of their assets.

Study: Children with Court-Appointed Special Advocates do WORSE Than Children Without Them

A new study has just been published in the journal Child Maltreatment: The Effect of CASA on Child Welfare Permanency Outcomes. "The present study is the largest and most rigorous study to date on the effects of being appointed a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) on permanency outcomes of children in foster care. Overall, children appointed a CASA have significantly lower odds than children without a CASA of achieving permanency. They have lower odds of being reunified, greater odds of being adopted (if not reunified), and lower odds of being placed in permanent kin guardianship (if not reunified or adopted) than children who are not appointed CASA." Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform writes that this is the second large-scale study done on the effectiveness of CASAs, the first one being published back in 2004: "Back in 2004, Youth Today revealed the results of the most comprehensive study done to that point concerning the most sacred cow in child welfare: Court-Appointed Special Advocates. CASAs are overwhelmingly white overwhelmingly middle-class amateurs sent into the homes of people who are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately of color.  The amateurs then tell judges what decisions to make and, to a frightening degree, the judges rubber-stamp the recommendations.  Though CASAs almost always mean well, their only real 'qualification' typically is their white, middle-class status. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, according to that 2004 study." Wexler goes on to say that it is time to defund the CASA program.

2-Year-Old Arizona Child Raped and Burned in Foster Care: Where is the Justice for Devani?

The Medical Kidnap Show Episode aired on KFNX radio 1100 in Phoenix Thursday October 24th. Host Rick Wood and show producer Brian Shilhavy welcomed guest Beth Breen on the show to talk about the Devani case, as Beth Breen was the contracted driver who transported young Devani from her foster home to visit her parents until David Frodsham, the foster father, was arrested for child pornography and child sex abuse. While David Frodsham has been convicted and is currently in prison for raping and sexually abusing Devani since she was 2 years old, and while Samantha Osteraas has also been convicted and is now in prison for scalding 80% of Devani's body to the point where she lost all of her toes, where is Devani today? Why is her family not allowed any access to her? Why has the lawsuit against the State and the State officials and agencies who are responsible for letting this happening been stagnant for over a year? Listen to the show as we discuss these issues, and where Brian Shilhavy says that there is one major action that can be taken today to put a serious dent into the corrupt foster care industry that continues to traffick these children.