Where Is Christmas Hope in the Shadow of CPS Darkness?

Christmas is an especially hard day for families who have been separated by Child Protective Services and family courts. How can Christmas possibly be "merry" when that which means the most - the children, or in some cases the elderly parents - are not there? The laughter and wonder of Christmas is missing, and their hearts have been shattered. My heart has been very heavy this Christmas as I carry so many hurting families in my heart. It is hard to see hope and remember joy when there is so much evil in the world, but as I woke up this morning, I was reminded that Hope didn't come two thousand years ago as a blazing warrior on a white horse bringing victory. He came as a tiny baby. Yet He represented in human form all the love and promises and hope of God. I am reminded that, even in the midst of deep sorrow and desperation, the true message of Christmas is that "Hope" has been born. This season is a timeless marker that, no matter how dark and hopeless it may seem, there is still a light that shines in the darkness.

“Family First Act” Has a “Presents for Pimps” Loophole to Allow Sex Trafficking to Continue in Foster Care Group Homes

It’s always cause for celebration when a place that institutionalizes children is forced to close. The residential treatment portion of Hawthorne-Cedar Knolls, an institution in Westchester County, north of New York City, is scheduled to shut down. But don’t celebrate too much. A new federal law actually makes it easier to keep such institutions going, and set up new ones. The shutdown of the residential treatment portion of Hawthorne-Cedar Knolls won’t happen because the agency that runs it, the Jewish Board Family and Children’s Services, had a crisis of conscience. It will happen because the pressure from upset neighbors and state regulators became too much. What was upsetting them? Oh, just the usual: violence and sex trafficking. Unfortunately, the new “Family First Act” comes complete with a “presents for pimps” loophole, that will encourage more tragedies like the one at Hawthorne-Cedar Knolls.

Doctor in South Carolina Claims Mom’s IQ Too Low to Take Care of Handicapped Daughter Who Was Sexually Abused by a Nurse in Foster Care

Kaya Jackson never abused or neglected her children. It all boils down to the fact that the government agency known as Child Protective Services has decided that she doesn't have enough intelligence to care for one of her children. Though a judge ruled months ago that Kaya didn't need to have a neuropsychological evaluation, another judge since then approved the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) request for the test. Now a doctor says that her IQ is too low to care for a special needs child, even though she has taken many classes and learned what she needs to know to care for her daughter. Unsupervised visits had begun in October, and Egypt was supposed to be returned home by February at the latest. This new development unravels the progress that has happened over the last 4 years as Kaya has fought to bring her family back together again. She has jumped through every hoop that DSS has placed before her. Every time that she meets another demand, social workers have managed to get a judge to approve yet another demand.

Massachusetts Seeks to Disbar and Silence Attorney Fighting to Expose Corruption in Senior Medical Kidnappings

Attorneys and guardians have plundered the estate of Marvin Siegel, a retired attorney from Boxford, Massachusetts. At the same time they have gone through the courts to isolate him from his children and essentially imprison him in his own home. His youngest daughter Lisa Belanger followed in his footsteps in becoming an attorney, inspired by her father's principles of fighting for what is right. She says: "He taught me to not be silent when wrongs are being done to others." She and her sister Devora Kaiser were shocked to see the strong arm of the state in keeping them away from their beloved father when he was captured from his family in 2011. Marvin Siegel's daughters had no idea how deeply the corruption in the guardianship issue runs, but they have had a front row seat to see the conflicts of interests, sweetheart deals, drugging of senior citizens, and raping of their estates that are standard fare in some probate courts, such as the one their family has had the misfortune of being subjected to. In our last update on their story in July 2018, we reported that attorney Marsha Kazarosian retaliated against Lisa Belanger and her efforts to free her father by filing with the Bar Association to have her disbarred. The latest developments seem to paint a picture of the deck stacked against the attorney who is simply fighting with all she has for the God-given human right to have a relationship with her father, without government interference. Meanwhile, Lisa and her sister were notified on Monday, December 10, that their father has been hospitalized. He has pneumonia, but Lisa Belanger is forbidden to see her father by Marsha Kazarosian and the new court-appointed guardian for Marvin Siegel, Brian Bixby, who was recommended by Kazarosian.

Pedophilia Crimes Against Children Inside and Outside the Church – Time to Acknowledge the Child Sex Trafficking Problem

Earlier this year Health Impact News investigative reporter John P. Thomas began a series of articles on child sex trafficking within the Roman Catholic Church. Other Christians who are not part of the Catholic Church might be tempted to believe that such horrible crimes could never happen in their particular church or denomination. However, the Star Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas has recently published a series of articles covering an 8-month investigation in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches across the U.S. showing that sexual abuse against children has been rampant and covered up for years. Churches, both Catholic and non-Catholic Christian churches, are a huge part of the child sex trafficking problem in the U.S. These religious institutions receive significant government funding for foster care and adoption services, which we have reported for years now is a Child Trafficking multi-billion dollar business employing hundreds of thousands of people. Church-sponsored organizations, most also receiving significant government funds, are necessary for the State to continue taking children away from parents and putting them into the lucrative foster care and adoption system. As we have investigated the problem of child sex trafficking, we have discovered that the problem reaches to the most elite members of society, and that they depend upon the public not understanding what is happening, or minimizing it and excusing most reports as "Conspiracy theories." In response to this problem, we recently covered the meeting earlier this year in Westminster, London by The International Tribunal for Natural Justice (ITNJ), as the court convened over a 3-day period to launch their Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Human Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse. Therefore, in the third installment of John P. Thomas' investigative reports into child sex trafficking, we seek to help the public understand the full scope of this horrific problem. This problem will continue to exist until enough people in the public wake up and decide something needs to be done to stop these horrible crimes against our most vulnerable citizens: children.

Arizona Adoptive Mother Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Scalding Young Foster Girl Who was Part of Pedophile Ring

The Arizona woman convicted of scalding a little girl placed in her care by Child Protective Services has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by 15 years probation. Samantha Osteraas could have received up to a 30 year sentence at her hearing on December 3, 2018, but Superior Court Judge James Marner of Pima County felt that Osteraas "deserved some leniency," according to the Arizona Daily Star. A group of concerned citizens called the AZ DCS Oversight Group says that they tried to submit a Victim Impact Statement to the court, but were refused. The judge's clerk threatened to throw the group representative out of the courtroom if the document was distributed, but the group had already given it to various media representatives before giving it to the clerk. Osteraas was found guilty in October of reckless child abuse for waiting for several hours before calling 911 after then 5 year old Devani was scalded in the bathtub. Devani suffered 3rd degree burns to more than 70% of her body and had to be placed into a medically induced coma. She lost all 10 of her toes and has undergone 29 surgeries since the crime against her almost 2 years ago. During the trial, Devani, now 7, testified that Osteraas held her down in the bathtub with a pink towel.

Child Abuse Pediatrician Testimony Rips a South Carolina Family Apart

One doctor says that the ONLY way a child's injuries could happen is by "brute force." Other doctors can look at the same data and say that that the injuries could have been caused by an accident, metabolic disorder, nutritional deficiency, infection, or other non-abusive mechanism. When these two perspectives collide, then justice demands that we examine other evidence. Is there a history of violence? Is there other evidence of abuse? Has anyone witnessed abuse? What about the perspective of those who know the accused - is abuse consistent with the character of the person who is accused? All too often, parents lose their children to Child Protective Services, often permanently, and others have gone to prison based on the testimony of one particular kind of doctor - a Child Abuse Pediatrician (CAP) - even though there is no other evidence that the parents have abused their child. Robbie and Jennifer Ray of South Carolina are facing just such a scenario. Dr. Susan Lamb, CAP at Palmetto Health Children's Hospital, says that the only possible explanation for the couple's twins' injuries is child abuse, even though other doctors and their families disagree. Jennifer Ray told Health Impact News: "If there is no evidence to prove physical abuse, then you need to second guess the diagnosis [made by the child abuse doctor]."

800K Children in the U.S. Missing Each Year – International Tribunal Exposes Pedophilia Problem – Victims Testify of Child Sex Trafficking and Satanic Ritual Abuse

800,000 children a year in the United States go missing, many of them being sexually trafficked through pedophilia networks where the children suffer unimaginable horrors such as Satanic ritual abuse. This number is comprised of documented cases of children gone missing, and does not include children who are born and bred into pedophilia networks and have no birth certificates, or undocumented immigrant children who come across the borders. Worldwide, the number is close to 8 million children missing and being sexually trafficked. Such is the scope of the problem that was reported earlier this year (2018) in Westminster, London by The International Tribunal for Natural Justice (ITNJ), as the court convened over a 3-day period to launch their Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Human Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse. The Judicial Commission is comprised of world leaders who have been involved in fighting child sex trafficking for years, and includes intelligence officers, politicians, legal scholars, and many others. The International Tribunal was formed because most of the world's government bodies today have been corrupted and no longer represent the people, but instead private corporate interests, and as such, justice is seldom found in most government judicial courts around the world today to stop such a heinous crime as child sex trafficking.

Philadelphia CPS Tries to Silence Grandmother Exposing Rape of Grandchild in DHS Foster Care

Child Protective Services, funded by American taxpayers, doesn't believe that they should be held accountable to the citizens who foot the bill. Repeatedly, we have seen efforts by various state CPS agencies around the country to silence parents who speak out about the abuse that they and their children suffer at the hands of social workers and courts as well as abuse that happens to their children in foster homes, group homes, and hospitals. CPS social workers and their attorneys sometimes request, and judges approve, gag orders demanding that families keep quiet about what they have seen. Not content with the violation of the parents' Constitutional First Amendment rights, social workers frequently retaliate against families members who talk, pushing for quicker termination of parental rights, denying visitation, or making up new fictitious allegations. The story we share today plays out in CPS cases every single day, all over the county. If Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) has their way, the story will disappear and no one will hear about it. Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR) asks for the help of our readers to make sure that the story doesn't disappear. On his blog, he asks the question: "There is a news story that Philadelphia’s child welfare agency desperately does not want the world to read. What do you think we should do about that?"

Murderers, Rapists, and Terrorists have More Rights to Due Process of the Law than Parents Accused of Child Abuse

It is clear that the effort to protect children from abuse has resulted in many non-abused children being taken away from innocent parents by Child Protective Services. Less than 16% of children are taken from their families for allegations of any kind of abuse, and only 17% of allegations against parents are even substantiated. In the name of protecting some children, many more children are traumatized and abused by the very system tasked with protecting them. Medical kidnapping and state-sanctioned seizure of children is more common than most people have realized. Yet parents whose children are taken find that they have less rights than criminals. The right to due process is conspicuously absent from almost all CPS cases. How is it possible that criminals who are charged with crimes such as murder, rape, and terrorism have more rights to due process of the law than parents who been accused, often anonymously, of child abuse? Imagine if there was proposed legislation regarding terrorism with the following provisions: Special anti-terrorism police could search any home without a warrant - and stripsearch any occupant - based solely on an anonymous telephone tip. Any occupant of the home could be detained for 24 hours to two weeks without so much as a hearing – and they’ll probably be detained far longer because, in the special anti-terrorism court set up by this legislation, all the judges are afraid to look soft on “terrorists.” At that first hearing the detainees may – or may not – get a lawyer just before the hearing begins, and they almost never get effective counsel. At almost every stage, the standard of proof is not “beyond a reasonable doubt” or even “clear and convincing” but merely “preponderance of the evidence,” the lowest standard in American jurisprudence, the same one used to determine which insurance company pays for a fender-bender. And in most states, all the hearings and all the records are secret. The reality is that this isn't fictional at all - except that it doesn't apply to alleged terrorists; it applies to families. These injustices are the experience of hundreds of thousands of parents all across the United States of America.