USA Today Reports How Florida Takes Children Away from their Parents and Puts Them with Pedophiles in Foster Care

As we have reported many times over the years here at Health Impact News, the U.S. Foster Care System is the #1 pipeline to child sex trafficking. Numerous studies over the past several years have confirmed that children do far better when left in their homes, even troubled homes where parents may have drug issues and other problems, than when they are placed in foster care. Investigative reporters at USA Today have done an excellent job in showing just how corrupt the child welfare and foster care system is in Florida, documenting hundreds of cases where children were removed from their homes and then put into foster care settings where they were sexually abused. Several stories are highlighted in their report, including the case of longtime Florida foster father Rick Hazel, who they say repeatedly raped a child in his care, taking videos of the molestation and hiding a camera in the bathroom to watch her shower. More than 70 children allegedly passed through his home. When deputies arrested him in 2019, the Hazels were the longest-tenured foster parents in St. Augustine. More than 70 kids had passed through their home. In addition to the rape victim, the family members of two other foster children came forward with concerns of abuse or neglect. But following Hazel’s arrest, no one – not caseworkers, not child abuse investigators, not law enforcement – talked to all of the other children who had lived in the home to see if they had seen or suffered abuse. Those children were all adopted or moved on to new homes. Until contacted by reporters, the adults in their lives had no idea they had spent time with a man who ultimately was convicted of child sex abuse. Rick and Shirley Hazel were considered model foster parents. They took in children of all ages and races, including kids with autism, and adopted three of them. They were active at church and the foster parent association, meeting with biological parents on nights and weekends to make visits easier. “Wonderful human beings, blessed, doing God’s work,” one social worker commented in their file. “One of the very best places a child could be,” wrote another. As they gained a rapport with workers in the system, St. Johns County sent the Hazels more and more kids, even when their home reached – and surpassed – the state-mandated capacity of five total children. The stream of kids finally ended in 2019, when a 13-year-old told detectives that her foster-turned-adoptive father had “raped me like I was his wife.”

Florida ABC News Covers Widespread Medical Kidnappings Due to Child Abuse Pediatricians

As year 2020 gets underway, we are seeing more and more mainstream media sources covering medical kidnapping stories, especially when Child Abuse Pediatricians are involved. One of the latest investigative reports comes from the Tampa ABC News I-Team Investigations. Katie LaGrone, reporting with ABC Action News, writes: "A Florida lawmaker believes the state’s medical experts on child abuse need more checks and balances after an I-team investigation revealed several pediatricians have made questionable calls against parents who appeared to have done everything right. 'Any position of authority that isn’t checked by something is concerning,' said Florida Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani of Orlando. Eskamani was responding to our investigation that found several cases where child abuse pediatricians, who were hired to be the state’s experts on abuse, wrongly accused Florida parents of child abuse."

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."

Florida Illegally Separating Children of U.S. Citizens from their Parents – Where’s the Outcry?

Young children torn from their parents, sleeping in a different bed every night. Families torn apart needlessly - and illegally -- over and over again. But this time it's not the U.S.-Mexico border. This time it's Florida. Who says it's illegal? A report commissioned by the state itself. Why is it happening? In part, because caseworkers are terrified of "media consequences" if they leave a child in her or his own home and something goes wrong.

Florida Mom Seeks 2nd Opinion on Dying Newborn After Car Accident – Loses Custody of All Three Children and Baby Dies in State Care

When an 8 month pregnant mother arrived at the hospital after a car accident, her baby was clearly in trouble. Doctors allegedly seemed to be more concerned about Johnna Furman's broken wrist than the emergency facing her unborn baby. Her baby needed to be born quickly, but the delay of a necessary c-section resulted in life threatening lack of oxygen to the baby in the womb. Baby Gabriel was born with brain damage and other serious medical conditions allegedly arising from this lack of oxygen. Throughout his first week and a half of life, doctors at the University of Florida Shands Hospital told Johnna that her baby would not survive. She refused to accept that answer. When she tried to transfer care of her baby to a local children's hospital for a second opinion, doctors from Shands Hospital reported her to Child Protective Services. While doctors blamed the mother, Johnna says that it was their medical malpractice that resulted in brain damage to her baby, ultimately leading to his death, and that the hospital is covering up what they did by blaming her. Child Protective Services seized her baby and her other 2 children 11 days after the car accident. Evidence that would have proven her innocence was not heard by the Florida judge, who is known for approving over 30,000 adoptions, and her parental rights were terminated less than a year later. She had another baby the following year, but Florida seized custody of that baby, too. In a video that Johnna recorded to talk about her case, she said: "My family's gone. I can never have another child. I don't understand how this is supposed to be the American dream, that justice doesn't matter. The truth doesn't matter."

Florida Dad Wrongfully Convicted for Shaking Baby and Served 20+ Years of a 70 Year Sentence Featured on CNN

On February 17, 2018, CNN aired a Special Report titled "Broken Bones, Shattered Lives" which featured the story of James Duncan, who was convicted of child abuse for shaking his son who was an infant at the time. He has served over 20 years of a 70 year conviction for a crime he claims never happened. A Florida appeals court has agreed to re-try the case. CNN's Jean Casarez interviewed James' ex-wife and two sons (now adults) for the report, and they all maintain that James is innocent. Jean Casarez also interviewed Dr. David Ayoub, a radiologist and expert on infantile rickets who stated: "It's a bad diagnosis." He said he believes Kody had infantile rickets, a disease of early life in which bones do not mineralize properly. Ayoub said it led Kody to develop metabolic bone disease, causing his bones to be very fragile. When Jean Casarez asked Dr. Ayoub how many parents he thought might be incarcerated today wrongfully on charges of Child Abuse for shaking their child, he replied "In the tens of thousands."

Teen Girls Abused in State Care in Michigan Seized Again in Florida After Insurance Refuses to Cover Treatment

A battle to get insurance to cover necessary medical care for teenage sisters with bulimia nervosa has ended up with those teens being taken by Child Protective Services in Florida. Their mother is asking how it can be that an insurance company is able to direct CPS to remove children from their homes. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has accused Laura Dalton of "medical neglect," but the evidence provided to Health Impact News demonstrates that she is a dedicated mother who has been working tirelessly to secure the proper treatment for her daughters. In fact, one of the twins was seized from the hospital, where her mother had taken her the week before due to her dangerously low blood pressure and pulse. The twins have suffered eating disorders after they were put into foster care in Michigan, where they were allegedly abused. They were healthy girls prior to that time, but as a penalty for allegedly smoking marijuana one time, they were removed from their home, and that is when their real problems began. Both girls almost died in state care in Michigan, before their mother was able to get them back home. Once home, their mother looked for help for their eating disorders, and eventually found treatment options for them in Florida. Statistics show that children who have been in foster care are 7 times more likely to develop bulimia and other eating disorders. Foster children are more likely to develop PTSD than veterans of war. But now, after being recommended for a treatment plan that has showed great promise for the girls, their insurance will not cover it, and the mom has been reported to CPS for medical neglect. One of the twins was immediately seized from the hospital, as the family's nightmare has begun all over again.

Mother Blamed for Baby’s Vaccine Injuries – Baby Adopted Out as Parents Face Jail

In December 2013, in the State of Florida, Ms. Rebecca Wood gave birth to Javoni, a seven-pound baby boy with mild infant jaundice. Doctors assured her that jaundice was relatively common in newborns and told her that he would recover from the condition in a few days. Although his health initially improved, his health deteriorated significantly within hours of receiving a series of several vaccinations just eight weeks later. He became very ill and he had constant diarrhea. Despite his mother following all of the pediatrician’s advice, instead of improving as one would expect, Javoni’s health continued to deteriorate. Doctors diagnosed him with various medical conditions, including metabolic bone disease. After x-rays showed several previous broken bones, the parents were investigated by DCF (Department of Children’s Families) for alleged abuse. There has been clear evidence throughout this case to support Javoni’s parents. His parents have obtained written reports from at least four separate experts, stating that Javoni not only suffered from rickets but also from a metabolic bone disease and had a family history of these conditions. Despite this evidence, it appears that Child Protective Services have chosen to ignore the evidence and are adopting out this young baby to strangers. If this is not bad enough, his parents have since been charged with neglect and abuse and are now facing the very real possibility of going to jail as a result

7 Florida Children Taken from Parents Due to Poverty and Disability Come Home After 3 Years

More than three years ago, a Filipino-American father living in Florida made a promise to his children: "I will never stop fighting for you to come home." Though there were times that Freddie Verzosa and his wife Tracey thought that it would never happen, all of the "7 Angels" have been reunited with their parents. The family is rejoicing and extremely thankful that, after all this time, they can finally all be together again. The six older children were taken from their home by Florida Children and Families (DCF) on July 9, 2014, based on the family's financial situation and allegations that Tracey, who has a mild intellectual disability, wasn't capable of taking care of her children while her husband worked. When their youngest baby Taylor was born, DCF showed up at the hospital to seize the 2 day old breastfeeding newborn from her mother's breast, simply because they already had an open case on the family. Their heartbreaking story captured international attention. The family's Facebook page quickly grew to almost 8,000 followers. Their story struck a chord with people all over the world who do not believe that the government should be able to tear a loving family apart because of poverty or a disability. There were never any allegations that the Verzosa parents ever harmed their children. Some within DCS told them that "love wasn't enough" for them to parent their own children.

South Florida Police Assault Business Owner Who Refuses to Give His Name to CPS

A South Florida business owner recently received a visit from a CPS social worker and police officer at his place of business. A former disgruntled employee had allegedly called a child abuse hotline to complain that the business owner was abusing his children by "doing drugs, narcotics, in front of his children." The social worker and police officer were apparently trying to get access to the man's children to take custody of them. The business owner asked the officer if he had a warrant, and if he was under arrest. When the officer answered "no" to both questions, he stated that they did not have permission to enter his private business (a Call Center), and that he was not going to answer any questions. He offered to let them talk to his attorney. They refused, and forced their way into his business anyway. When back up police arrived, they assaulted the man and threw him to floor inside his own place of business, handcuffed him, and took him away. They probably did not realize that this business owner also maintains Facebook Page called "South Florida Copwatch" which documents police abuse of power. The entire incident was captured on video, and posted to his Facebook page.