Massachusetts Prosecutors Withheld Exculpatory Evidence in Shaken Baby Case

In the Boston Globe, columnist Yvonne Abraham writes about how prosecutors in the Middlesex County, Mass., district attorney’s office withheld exculpatory evidence in the Shaken Baby Syndrome case against Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy. These prosecutors didn’t just rely on bad science; they actively suppressed evidence that not only should have informed that their theories about these cases were flawed, but was ultimately the evidence that led to the accused getting freed. A just system would sanction them. If they aren’t punished, there’s little disincentive to do it again, or for other prosecutors who might be tempted to shortchange a suspect’s rights.

South Carolina Mother Arrested For Child Abuse After Questioning Doctors and Losing her Children

Danielle and William Headley's four boys were seized by South Carolina Child Protective Services in July, following frustration by the parents over the care that their youngest son, Jack, now 4, was receiving at Greenville Memorial Hospital. A Child Abuse Specialist has accused Danielle of Munchausen by Proxy, and last week, Danielle was arrested on charges of Child Abuse and Neglect. The family is devastated and maintains that Danielle is innocent of any wrong-doing. It has been over 100 days since any family member has been permitted to see the children.

Houston Couple Gagged and Told to Fire CPS-fighting Attorney in Order to See Medically-Kidnapped Child

Earlier this year, in May of 2015, we reported on the story of the Giwa family in Houston, who had their 19 month old son medically kidnapped by Texas CPS. Randy Wallace of Fox News Houston broke the story. Ahmed Giwa, the father of 19-month old Ali, contacted Health Impact News and MedicalKidnap.com at that time about publishing their full story. This was the last statement we received from him by email in May 2015: "Currently waiting for the Police outside the hospital where they have our son because CPS said they should not allow us in. Let us schedule next week outside Monday please. The Police (are) here now." Multiple attempts to contact Ahmed and follow up after this email was received were unsuccessful, and we suspected that a gag order had been placed on the parents in an attempt to stop the media and the public from learning any more about their story. Both Ahmed and his wife Olubunmi have now contacted Health Impact News, and they want the world to know their story. Not only were they issued a gag order and told not to talk to the media, they were told they had to fire their attorney if they wanted to see their son again. The family had retained the services of Attorney Julie Ketterman in Houston, who has a history of fighting back against CPS and standing up for family rights. She has publicly stated: "CPS profits every time they place a child outside the home for adoption. It has stopped being a resource for families in need and has instead turned into an adoption mill." Will the people of Houston and Texas continue to allow these gross abuses of Constitutional rights to continue in their state?

Medical Kidnapping in San Bernardino California: Innocent Mom Goes To Jail?

September 4, 2013, a San Bernardino County social worker instructed the mother of two-year-old Melina to “pack up her daughters stuff…she belongs to the county now.” Heavenly Ramos of Upland California, the mother of Melina, had her daughter removed from her home based on allegations that she had 5 bone fractures, all with different levels of healing, throughout her body. Christopher McCown, who had been with Heavenly and little Melina since she was two months old, raced home after a 2 hour interrogation by CPS, but he was moments too late. In tears, Heavenly recalls him saying, “I didn’t even get to say good bye…they took her and I couldn’t even tell her how much I love her.” Eleven months after that day, CPS removed their other child, newborn son Jacob, hours after his birth. The couple now has no children left at home.

Indiana Parents Who Lost Daughter and Had Lives Destroyed by CPS Awarded $31 Million

The Indiana Department of Child Services has been ordered to pay $31 million to a family accused of abuse in the death of their daughter. In 2005, Jessica Salyer, 14, died from prescription errors. A year and a half later, her parents Roman and Lynnette Finnegan, were arrested on neglect charges -- accused of beating Salyer to death. Investigators said there were signs of blunt force trauma to Salyer's head and multiple signs of internal bleeding. However, experts testified that the internal bleeding was caused by Salyer's heart medication and that the trauma to the head was a result of an autopsy. The Pulaski County prosecutor dropped the charges in November 2007, and a judge dismissed the case with prejudice. However, DCS would not clear the allegations from the family's file. Over the span of 10 years, attorneys for the Finnegan's said DCS made their life "a living hell." Two of their children were placed in foster care for nine months. They also exhumed Jessica's body after she had been buried. After the arrest and accusations, Roman Finnegan lost his job. The family also lost their home and possessions.

20 Year Old Autistic Girl in Michigan Medically Kidnapped Over Treatment Disagreement

Savannah Garcia, or Hannah, as she is known to those who love her, is a fun-loving young lady who is an important part of her community in Traverse City, Michigan. The 20 year old is a regular fixture at her neighborhood ballpark, where she cheers on her favorite players, and she is well-loved by all who know her. She loves her dog, her family and friends, stuffed animals, frappes, and her fiance. Even though she is autistic, she has been living in an apartment attended by a care team, and has been involved in making many of her own choices. Until September 4, 2015. That was the day that 2 doctors at Munson Medical Center filed a petition to remove Hannah's mother as her guardian and to name a person completely unknown to the family, Stephanie Strehl, as her guardian. She is now a prisoner being held against her will, and the will of her family, at Munson Medical Center. The guardian Stephanie Strehl has forbidden every single one of Hannah's friends to see her. Her family, including her brother and grandparents, aren't allowed to visit her. Her mother has been the only loved one permitted by the new guardian to visit her, for 3 hours per day. At the end of last week, Hannah's sister was granted the privilege of visiting her for up to 1 hour a day. She lives and attends medical school 5 hours round-trip away. Her attorney can see her, IF he notifies them 48 hours in advance, and then he is only allowed 30 minutes. When she goes to the bathroom or takes a shower, she isn't even allowed to shut the door. She isn't permitted to attend meetings where people other than her family are making decisions for her life and future. Therapies that were previously scheduled before her confinement at Munson have allegedly been cancelled, and her caregivers all dismissed. Even the right to receive mail, another right retained by convicted felons, has been taken away from Hannah since around September 21.

Child Protection Services is Out of Control – What Ordinary Citizens Can Do About It

Children yanked from loving homes over and over again for the flimsiest of reasons. Parents desperately seeking to bring them home as their rights are trampled, their homes overrun, their lives disrupted, their reputations smeared, their savings bankrupted. Foster care and adoptions ramrodded through the system despite willing extended family members to take them in. And worst, children are lost for years within the foster system, over-drugged, abused, even trafficked into horrible situations. All of these have been documented by MedicalKidnap.com, as well as many others. How has Child Protective Services fallen into what appears to be, in too many cases around the nation, legal kidnapping? Try $6.8 billion dollars – that’s billion with a “B” -- in federal funding that is projected for CPS fostering and adopting out children in 2015.

Kentucky Baby Medically Kidnapped Along with Siblings and Forced on to Formula

Cody and Ashley Miller of Kentucky took their sick 5-month old baby Easton to the Emergency Room of Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee late Saturday evening, September 26, 2015. When Vanderbilt made allegations of abuse against these concerned parents, they could barely comprehend what was happening. Ashley painfully recalled that moment when Shell Peters, the CPS worker (or DCBS in Kentucky) entered the hospital room with 2 officers, and uttered those 2 words: "We’re taking…" Ashley painfully recalls, "My world crumbled when I heard those 2 words. I was nursing Easton one moment, and then they walked in, and then I was balling my eyes out hysterically. He can’t be on formula – I’m breastfeeding!"

A Year After Emergency Room Visit, North Carolina Couple Still Fighting for Medically Kidnapped Newborn

In what is becoming an all-too-familiar scenario, a young couple living in Fayetteville, North Carolina, took their baby to the emergency room when he was not acting right, only to find themselves almost a year later still battling to try to bring their child home out of Child Protective Services custody.

Riverside County California Finds Child Pornography Ring in Foster Care but Does Nothing About it

John David Yoder was a licensed foster parent. He lived in a two-bedroom house with two adopted sons, a preteen boy for whom he was seeking guardianship, and a neighborhood teenager who had moved in after an argument with his parents. Someone called a child abuse hotline, reporting that a parent in Desert Hot Springs was molesting two boys. The caller said the man also kept pictures of boys posing in their underwear on his computer. To these social workers, these underwear pictures were concerning, but they were not concerning enough. Social workers classified the investigation as "inconclusive," then closed their inquiry, according to Riverside County court documents. Today, that same parent, John David Yoder, sits behind bars, a suspect in what officials have called one of the worst child pornography rings in Southern California in recent years. Yoder and three other suspects have been accused of victimizing as many as 15 children in Desert Hot Springs, including some of the boys that lived with him. Yoder was arrested in February as result of a separate investigation by law enforcement in Nevada. The charges he now faces are nearly identical to the allegations that were reported to the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services shortly before Christmas. If social workers had acted differently in December, the boys in Yoder's home could have been rescued six weeks earlier.