One of the biggest crimes of child welfare is that federal funding starts when children are ripped out of their homes and placed in foster homes. Counties want that federal funding - apparently enough to destroy childhoods. Far from being child protection agencies, they run child exploitation agencies - a cash cow for financially ailing counties.

When a simple fix would work, why destroy the entire family?

I’m always reminded of a family that posted their caseworker report to the alt.support.child-protective-services newsgroup a few years back. Four children were ripped from their parents and placed in foster homes for a year, maybe more, because the parents needed to buy a new fan and a child safety gate for their indoor stairway. These items would have cost less than one hundred dollars, but social workers devastated that family and placed the children in foster homes costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

LEGISLATORS: How can you let this happen? I mention one isolated case, yet this needless family destruction is happening to thousands of families. Millions of dollars are being wasted in this country on foster care and so-called child welfare “services”.

Connecticut has come up with a partial solution - to provide what they call “flex funds” which social workers can apply for to help families with various needs such as rental payments and transportation.

More of this type of social work is needed.

SOCIAL WORKERS: Focus on helping families by providing what they need. Tearing families apart over trivial needs is cruel and inhumane, and will scar the children forever. It is not child protection to traumatize them needlessly. Be reasonable!

Source: Study: Problems Follow Foster Care - MIT Professor Says Those Taken From Families Are At Risk For Lives Of Crime, Unemployment, Teen Pregnancies By Charles Proctor for the Courant, published July 29, 2007.

Received in email:

Monday, July 30, 2007, WJR 760 AM Radio between 10 and 11 a.m. will, for the first time in Michigan (perhaps the nation) will allow the public to know what happens to parents and children with their tax dollars.

800-859-0957
Monday, July 30, 2007
10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

If you, or anyone you know (preferably in Michigan, but it does not have to be) has a story, now is the first opportunity for the public to know what goes on behind the scenes of Child Protective Services.

You do not have to provide you name, but try to keep your stories to a condensed 6 sentences, under 60 seconds. WJR is providing you with the freedom of speech and has opened the window of opportunity to redress governance.

Share your pain with the public and elected officials.

Even if you do not have a personal story, or do not know anyone who has had involvement with the state, call in and share your wisdom with the citizens of Michigan who deserve to be educated in the functioning of government.

Let’s let the general media know that we, as citizens, can no longer be silenced. The power of government is at the behest of us.

800-859-0957
Monday, July 30, 2007
10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Note from Linda: Michigan is one of the states I’ve received complaints about most. I encourage all Fight CPS readers to consider sharing your story with this radio show. Remember to keep it brief, as they said. Only sixty seconds - one minute - about six short sentences. Think first about what you can say that will make the most impact, then make your call.

Howard Hendrick, head of the Oklahoma DHS state agency, is under investigation for child neglect. His 13-year-old son was injured while they were burning brush at a lake house earlier this month.

According to an article on the Tulsa World website, an anonymous caller complained that the director didn’t act quickly enough to get medical help for his child. The director said the nearest hospital was 45 miles away, so they waited until the next morning.

Hendrick says he phoned a doctor immediately when the injury occurred. If the doctor recommended waiting, then that should end the case. Hendrick wouldn’t comment on how badly his son was injured but did say he is doing well. He also said, “I think he will fully recover.” To me that sounds like there’s some possibility he won’t. They have my sympathy … especially the injured child.

A comment on the Tulsa World article says, “I hope things turn out fairly for this family but I also hope the director sees how innocent families are treated poorly and lied to during the investigation process.” Honestly, I doubt that he’ll learn how DHS or CPS social workers treat poor folks. This case work will be under intense scrutiny and anyone working on it will be unwilling to lie and frame the man using false accusations. (Just my opinion on what will happen with the case.) I think it will be dismissed almost immediately. Yes, they got a report (probably anonymous) and he’s being investigated, but that doesn’t mean there were be an open DHS case against this man.

Source: DHS Director investigated after child injured - an Associated Press article published on the Tulsa World website.

P.S. - Speaking as someone who lives 75 miles from the nearest hospital - if my children were injured and the local clinic was closed, I could phone our local ambulance service. They check out injuries and provide transportation if needed, the entire way to the hospital. 45 miles is nothing - when a child is badly injured, he should be seen as quickly as possible. I’m sure the director of Oklahoma DHS had a good car and could have easily made the drive to town. This is not meant as a criticism of the parents’ judgment in this matter. I don’t know all the circumstances and have no intention to condemn anyone.

I really don’t like to read stories like this.

Last Friday a couple felt compelled to leave a hospital in Michigan with their newborn infant because CPS social workers in Saginaw asked Lucas County CPS social workers to interview them.

If I remember right, CPS in Michigan is called FIA - the Family Independence Agency - or have they changed their name again?

My feelings are always so divided when I read about things like this. I scanned the article for clues to what led this couple to make this life-changing decision.

The results so far: The couple and baby are on the run. CPS now has legal custody of the baby according to a Toledo police sergeant, William Wauford, though before they left CPS had tried to get a court order and failed. And there are warrants out for the arrest of Fredrick and Margaret Badenhoop.

Why my feelings are divided:

I never advise parents to run with their children because I know, over the years, that in most cases where this happened, the parents were apprehended and the children ended up in foster homes anyhow. Plus I have a policy of never advising a parent to do something illegal, or something that would get them in worse trouble with the law. I believe that staying firm and fighting CPS in a court of law is a better choice. But this may be one of those cases where it wouldn’t have worked to do so. At the end of the article it says, “Child Protective Services had taken at least one other child from Margaret Badenhoop.”

According to a law passed in 1996, the Adoptions and Safe Families Act (ASFA), if anyone has had their rights to another child terminated, CPS can take future babies without benefits of any kind of service plan or visitations. This can lead to incredibly cruel and heartrending scenes in hospitals where CPS worker have walked in and pulled infants from the arms of loving mothers, for no reason except that another child was already taken.

I swear I cannot help but hate social workers who allow themselves to be the agents of such cruelty. Why on earth would anyone want the bad karma associated with someone who would do such a deed?

I don’t know what the issues are with the Badenhoops, or what their motivation was, but I do know that their problems are severe and they need all the prayers we can give them and their child.

I really, really don’t like it when things like this happen. My heart hurts so much for the people involved.

Source: Parents take their baby, flee hospital, face charges by Lania Coleman for The Saginaw News published on July 23, 2007.

Today I worked on improving the new Fight CPS Squidoo Lens. I wrote more text and added a place where you can add links to your favorite family rights site, your MySpace, family rights Yahoo groups, or whatever else you have going on here on the web.

Fight CPS is also at MySpace.

If you need help with a CPS case, the best way to get feedback is to log onto the message board here at Fight CPS.

At Fern’s request, this section is here for you to tell us what you believe the acronym “CPS” really means.

Feel free to use your creativity, powers of intuition, and sense of humor (or outrage) to tell us what “CPS” stands for.

Fern’s contribution was: CPS= Creating Permanent Sinecures.

(Thanks Fern, for requesting this.)

A nineteen-year-old soldier, Michael Vick, was arrested at the airport in Texas upon arriving home fom Iraq. His father, James Vick, 44, was arrested in May and is still in custody. Apparently two girls who used to live with the Vick family as foster children say the men sexually assaulted them, and law enforcement authorities believe them.

The sexual assaults allegedly took place at various times in 2003 and 2004. The girls were only eight and nine years old at that time.

This family must have been heavily invested in the foster care industry, as the authorities say they’re now interviewing more than fifty other foster children who lived with the family since the mid 1990’s.

Source: East Texas Soldier & Father Arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault Of Foster Children, published July 19, 2007, Palestine, Texas.

Carole Deleon is getting off easy after pleading guilty to criminal mistreatment of a little boy she adopted out of foster care, then starved to death. She also mistreated at least one other foster child.

Tyler was starved, bruised, had teeth knocked out, drugged with various medications, and denied water. He died on his seventh birthday.

Deleon was originally charged with murder, but a plea bargain has reduced her sentence to what will probably be only six years.

Florence Moyle’s nephew, Steven, also lived with Deleon. They believe Deleon should have been tried for murder, and Steven was willing to testify. Moyle is planning protests outside the Stevens County Courthouse and a Seattle law firm is preparing a lawsuit against the state of Washington.

Six months before Tyler’s death there was a CPS report stating that “the children in the Deleon home were at high risk for future abuse and neglect” yet the caseworkers left Tyler and four other children there, and placed a three-month-old baby in her home. This is another case of CPS choosing to ignore evidence of abuse in a foster home.

Source: DeLeon faces sentencing Friday, published July 20, 2007.

A foster child confided in her teenage cousins about sexual abuse she endured. The abuser was a man paid by the government to take care of her: foster parent Ronald Lee Pence, 49, of Prunedale, California.

Child abusers, especially sexual predators, have an open invitation to get close to children by becoming foster parents. As foster parents, they have daily round-the-clock access to the children of others, and can victimize them at will. To add to this sick situation, many CPS workers seem to ignore reports of foster parent abuse of foster children, as it will not increase county funding when a child is removed from a foster home. The county gets more federal funding only when they remove children from natural family homes and place them in foster care.

In this case the foster parent also pleaded guilty to dissuading a witness as when the girl said she wanted to tell her mother and the police about the abuse, he tried to talk her out of it. Pence will be sentenced on August 29. In the meantime, they’ve let this predator go free. He’s out on bail.

Source: Guilty plea in Prunedale molestation

It always astounds me when people come onto this site, say I’m not doing the right thing, and suggest some other thing I should be doing to help change the CPS system.

For example, today I checked the comments for this site and found a comment from Darrin who thinks I should be tracking down a man I’ve never met, whose name I don’t know, to get more information before posting something about a news article.

Sorry, Darrin. I don’t have time. Do it yourself if you think it needs to be done.

Then I came across Carla’s message about creating a new child protection system. Great idea, but again, I don’t have time. I think Carla should do it because after all, it is her idea.

This reminds me that not long ago John told me I should focus my efforts on getting more funding for foster children. Yeah, right… like I would ever do that! Foster parents already get lots more than welfare recipients, and they keep complaining. Don’t get me started on that one! If John thinks that’s the answer to all CPS problems, then John should do something about it.

We all are led by our hearts, to do what we think is right.

Back in October 2000, my heart told me to start this site. I’ve been struggling with this site for almost seven years now, and with trying to help people going through one of the most emotionally devastating events of their lives. And every time I hear about CPS injustice tearing a family apart, it takes a toll on me. I’m constantly upset by things I read on this site - for example what RJ just wrote about his infant being taken by a CPS agent at the hospital because his fiancé mentioned that she’d been depressed when she was 13 or 14. What teenager hasn’t? Why does that mean a firstborn child should be taken from its loving mother? This stuff really haunts me and grabs at my heart.

Many times it isn’t easy for me to bear - which is why I’ve left the message board here in the loving hands of other advocates and activists who want to help counsel people going through CPS hell. That is what their hearts tell them to do, and I’m so grateful for anyone doing anything to help change this inhumane system of cruelty to families. I don’t need or want to be the center of attention here. I’m only doing what my heart led me to do seven years ago, and I know it isn’t right to stop doing it yet. So here I am, still, after all these years.

Which brings me to the point of this article, which is that we all should listen to our hearts and our consciences, and take whatever actions we feel appropriate for the highest good of all involved. If your heart tells you to advocate for families one-on-one, then do it. Don’t expect me to - as that’s not what my heart tells me to do. You do your thing and I’ll do my thing. And hopefully if we all work on doing our heart-inspired tasks, together we can make huge changes in the world.

One person can’t do it all. Don’t even try… this problem is way too big for that. But do your own small part, just as I’m doing my own small part. And don’t think that this site is the ultimate family rights site. If your heart is telling you to create another one, there’s a reason for that! Maybe it is the right thing to do! Don’t hold back. Everyone has talents and capacities that can be drawn upon to help fight CPS and make this world a safer, healthier place for families. Do your own small part and don’t worry about what others are doing, and don’t be like Darrin, Carla and John, and try to tell others what they should be doing. That’s not helpful at all.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you. And I want to tell you what I’ve been doing lately.

It may surprise some people like the three I just mentioned, but I don’t spend all my time working on this website. I hold down a part-time job in my community, and I own two small businesses that are barely profitable… but they keep me busy. I live in an extremely low-budget cabin in the Klamath National Forest, which I rent. I’m not a lawyer and currently don’t work in the legal profession at all. I have a boyfriend I dearly love who expects me to spend a huge part of my time with him. I’m a 55-year-old woman (boyfriend is 56) and I still have one child at home, plus four adult children. My youngest is almost 18 and so soon, for the first time in 35 years, I’ll have no minor children to take care of. Also I have no grandchildren which considering the work I do on this site, could be a divine blessing and protection.

For the last few days my home has been threatened by a forest fire. I live in far-northern California, in a small town called Happy Camp. I came home from my birthday trip to the coast on Saturday night to find that there was a forest fire blazing on the hill next to the forested hill I live on. One of my part-time small businesses is the Happy Camp News site which I’m grateful to say, is in the process of being sold so I won’t have to keep working on it. But this week I’ve been posting articles about the fire, doing interviews, etc. plus I had to remove all my valuables from my home and pack everything, because it seemed that evacuation was imminent. At this point the fire is less intense, however that could change again. So all this stuff is going on, plus I’m still going to work where our workload tripled because of the huge numbers of fire fighters present in our town at this time.

Then I came in here and saw messages from Darrin and Carla, and well, this article is the end result. I don’t need anyone telling me what to do with my time, or saying I’m not doing enough by providing this site, some simple legal information, and a message board for people to connect on. This is what my heart leads me to do, and I’m doing it.

I know that most of the people who come to this site appreciate what I’ve done here. I’m sorry I’m not able to do one-on-one counseling and legal help, but I really don’t have the time or stamina, and like I said, hearing the sad stories affects my heart, and it is nearly more than I can bear at times. I’m a very sensitive person and I love you all.

I don’t want you to stop writing about your heartaches here - because I want the people that matter to come here and read these things. I want CPS workers to stop by and read what we think of their tactics for destroying families. I want foster parents to know that many of the children they are hostage-holding for the government are taken unfairly from innocent parents. I want legislators to come here and realize the CPS system is horrible, unjust, and inhumane. I want them to know that they must be the ones to take the lead, by writing laws to end this system of cruelty in our country. I want lawyers to know that if they aren’t defending their CPS clients actively and aggressively, they are doing a disservice, and are (in my opinion) frauds to be taking on clients they can’t or won’t defend properly. I want them to have the heart to do what must be done in court to safeguard family rights.

Enough said. Thanks for reading, and I’ll post more sometime when I’ve got more time on my hands for publicizing the details of all the injustice CPS does to harm children and families. That seems to be my lifework, which my heart draws me to. I’m here for you as much as I can be, and wherever else I am, you know I’m totally on your side, hoping for all good things to happen in your lives.

The featured topic of the July 23, 2007 issue of The New American magazine is “Families Separated By The State.” Attorney Greg Hession has a feature article in this magazine, titled, “This Is Child Protection?”

The magazine is available for sale for only $2.95 - 2007 New American Back Issues - though you can read Hession’s article online: This Is Child Protection?.

Hession writes about the terror of a government child-snatching home invasion, the snitch network, the court process, statistical evidence, and what can be done about it. He concludes, “Change will likely come only when its cruelties have been exposed, and the public reaffirms that raising children is the responsibility of families, not the state.”

I have been working to expose CPS cruelty for eighteen years now. With the advent of the internet, the word is getting out much better than before. Every one of you who builds a website, or starts a new MySpace or Squidoo Lens, or other similar type of page explaining what CPS does to families, or who goes onto a parenting message board and tells people the truth about CPS, is helping to get the word out. Please keep up the good effort. Write letters to the editors of newspapers. Write to your state and federal legislators. Keep the heat on CPS and the cruel system of family abuse. That’s one of the best ways of seeking change.

A three-year-old girl in Oregon is suffering from permanent brain damage inflicted by her foster parent, a man who became frustrated with her crying when she was only three months old. He punched her and cracked her skull, and she’ll never recover. In May 2007 a federal lawsuit awarded her $960,000 which will be paid by the taxpayers of Oregon.

Source: Caseworkers intended to help the baby, but they waited too long
The state child welfare agency struggles to protect kids, even as it settles the case of an infant whose foster father left her with permanent brain damage by Brent Walth for The Oregonian, published July 3, 2007.

…

A Fight CPS reader requests letters:

It is my hope that your readers will express their outrage, regardless of where they live, and write a letter to the editor of the Oregonian…. They request a letter of no more than 150 words, and the writer’s name, address, and phone number need to be included. (Should they need to edit, verify writer, etc.)
Thank you,
Lucy Brackett

From the article by Brent Walth:

“The baby girl lived in a house littered with dirty diapers and slept on sheets soaked in her own urine. Her older brothers — both toddlers — showed signs that they often went hungry. The adults in charge struggled to make ends meet and care for the three children. The children might have been candidates for state foster care. Except this was a foster home, and caseworkers wanted to get the neglected children out of the house.”

The foster parents were practically children themselves!

“N.E. was born in September 2003 to a mother who tested positive for methamphetamine use. State officials quickly took the baby into custody and placed her with foster parents, Melissa Kavanaugh and Terence Chi Hui. Kavanaugh and Hui — then 21 and 23 — had no experience as parents, but the state had recently certified them as foster parents after they completed required training.”

Terence Chi Hui, who was working as a computer network consultant with AT&T Wireless, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted assault and was sentenced to 72 months in prison.

Thanks to Lucy Brackett for sending this to me via email.

Children are better off when left in troubled homes, and not detained in state custody foster homes.

Joseph Doyle Jr., an economics professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management did a study on foster children compared to children living in troubled homes, funded by the National Science Foundation. He used the analytic tools of applied economics to discover that “…children on the margin of foster care placement have better employment, delinquency, and teen motherhood outcomes when they remain at home.”

PLEASE, social workers, legislators, everyone. LISTEN. Most kids are better off when left in their natural family homes. If you care about children, if you want them to have good lives and turn out to be happy, productive citizens, don’t take them away from non-abusive parents.

Doyle’s study tracked more than 15,000 children in Illinois from 1990 to 2002. He chose Illinois because they provided the statistics he needed. He screened out extreme cases of abuse and concentrated only on children whose cases could have gone either way (remaining in their family homes, or going to foster homes).

A July 3, 2007 USA Today article by Wendy Koch states, “Studies . . . show that the 500,000 children in U.S. foster care are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, commit crimes, abuse drugs and become teen parents. . . . His research has shown that this holds true even when foster kids are compared with other disadvantaged youth.”

In conclusion, Doyle wrote: “With the child welfare system affecting so many children who appear to be at high risk of poor life outcomes, it would be useful to know whether abused children benefit from being removed from their families. The analysis here uses the effective randomization of abuse investigators, who differ somewhat in their tendency to have children placed in foster care, to estimate causal effects of placement on longer-term outcomes. Children assigned to investigators with higher removal rates are more likely to be placed in foster care themselves, and they are found to have higher delinquency rates, along with some evidence of higher teen birth rates and lower earnings.”

Thank you, Joseph Doyle Jr., for doing this study.

Sources:

Joseph Doyle Jr. - click on his research link and you’ll see a link to the paper he wrote about his study.

Kids Gain More From Family Than Foster Care - from the MIT News Office

Study: Troubled homes better than foster care - by Wendy Koch, for USA Today

From Lisa’s blog at MySpace:

“NOW HIRING!
The Children’s Protection Services is now hiring.
In order to qualify for employment you must …”

…go to BellasMom’s blog at MySpace to see the rest. Please leave her a message letting her know you saw it on FightCPS.Com

Thanks to Lisa and Kathy for sending this to me.

This lawsuit dated May 31, 2007 is against the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services. It alleges fraud, violation of kinship care rights, and loss of family love and support. It was filed by a former foster child and adoptive child.

Thanks to the person who sent this via email.

…

LAW FIRM, APC
Attorneys for Plaintiff: ELIZABETH J. BRUCE AKA ELIZABETH J. ALLDRIDGE

ELIZABETH J. BRUCE AKA ELIZABETH J. ALLDRIDGE,

Plaintiff,

vs.

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES, and DOES 1 through 20, Inclusive,

Defendants,

CASE NO.

TO ALL PARTIES HEREIN AND THEIR COUNSEL OF RECORD

Plaintiff, ELIZABETH J. BRUCE, aka, ELIZABETH J. ALLDRIDGE, alleges as follows:

1. Plaintiff, ELIZABETH J. BRUCE, aka, ELIZABETH J. ALLDRIDGE (Date of Birth: April 17, 1972) is currently a resident of Clark County, Nevada, who lawfully changed her last name on March 8, 2007, from Alldridge to Bruce as part of her divorce decree. At all times pertinent hereto Plaintiff was a dependent of the Juvenile Court, County of Los Angeles, pursuant to Welfare & Institutions Code §300(b) (and all predecessor statutes) and related California Regulations, subject to the control and authority of the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services and related divisions or departments, including but not limited to what was known as the Department of Adoptions (hereinafter referred to as “Defendant DPSS”), throughout all proceeds related to or stemming from Plaintiff’s foster care and adoption.

2. Defendant DPSS was at all times pertinent hereto a department of a public entity created and existing under the laws of the State of California, with authority over children such as plaintiff.

3. The true and complete names of DOES 1 through 20 whether individual, corporate, associate, or otherwise are unknown to plaintiff who therefore sues said defendants by such fictitious names. At this time plaintiff does not have knowledge of all aspects of the claims set forth herein. Plaintiff will seek leave of Court to amend this Complaint to identify each Doe defendant’s name and capacity when same have been ascertained.

4. At all times herein mentioned, each defendant was acting through authorized employees or other agents, and was the agent, authorized representative, employee, or otherwise acting on behalf of each of the remaining defendants. In doing the things hereinafter mentioned, each defendant was acting within the course and scope of his or her employment, representation, and authority with the knowledge and consent of each remaining defendant.

5. The conduct of each defendant as alleged herein combined, cooperated, and contributed to the conduct of each other defendant such as to cause the herein described incidents, injuries, and events.

6. Plaintiff’s first suspension of any claim against Defendant DPSS occurred in late February 2006 or most likely in early March 2006 during a face to face meeting with Ms. Betty Anderson, a former aid of Assemblyperson Karen Bass, 47th Assembly District. Plaintiff sought Ms. Anderson’s assistance to acquire her Los Angeles County Department of Social Services records related to her foster care and eventual adoption. Plaintiff sought these records as part of her effort to find her biological mother (her biological father Donald Bruce died on February 26, 1974), and to acquire all available medical information related to both biological parents not only for herself, but more particularly for her children (her eldest son has suffered his entire life from Hydrocephalus.) During Plaintiff’s meeting with Ms. Betty Anderson, the Court records she was able to acquire from the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court concerning her adoption (all prior attempts to acquire DPSS social worker records were refused and/or denied) were discussed and reviewed. Ms. Betty Anderson pointed out to Plaintiff that it appeared the 1975 signature of her biological mother relinquishing all custody and control of Plaintiff when compared to signatures from Plaintiff’s biological mother’s criminal records appeared to be the signatures of different individuals. At this moment Plaintiff for the first time suspected that there may have been some violation of Defendant DPSS’s duties. Up until this meeting with Ms. Betty Anderson, Plaintiff was not looking for and had no suspicion or knowledge whatsoever of any type of a claim or injury related to any conduct of Defendant DPSS, as her motivation for acquiring records from Defendant DPSS was to find her mother and to find out all potential medical information she could.

7. On August 22, 2006, Plaintiff timely served by mail a Governmental Claim for Damages to Person or Property on Defendant DPSS pursuant to Government Code §911.2 (Exhibit A attached hereto). Defendant DPSS denied this claim in writing by mail on December 1, 2006. This suit is being filed within six (6) months of Defendant DPSS rejection of Plaintiff’s claim.

8. Plaintiff is the biological daughter of Brenda Joan Allen and Donald MacKenzie Bruce. In or about July 1973 Defendant DPSS initiated proceedings under Welfare and Institutions Code §300 et seq. (or their predecessor statutes), and eventually acquired physical and legal custody of Plaintiff. Defendant DPSS was under a mandatory duty to acquire either a Court ruling of involuntary relinquishment of custody by Plaintiff’s biological mother or acquire the signature of Plaintiff’s biological mother on a “RELINQUISHMENT (Out of County)” County of Los Angeles Department of Adoptions form before placing Plaintiff up for adoption. Defendant DPSS acquired neither. Plaintiff alleges on information and belief Defendant DPSS falsified, forged, or otherwise misrepresented the signature of Plaintiff’s biological mother Brenda Joan Allen on August 26, 1975, on a “Relinquishment (Out of County)” form in violation of its mandatory duties order to expedite adoption.

9. On September 26, 1975, Plaintiff was placed in the home of Harold Augustus Barlow and Carole Leah Barlow, potential adoptive parents pursuant to a Notice of Adoption. This placement by Defendant DPSS and eventual adoption of Plaintiff by the same adopting parents was in further violation of Defendant DPSS’s mandatory duties in that she was first required to be placed with family members of Plaintiff, who had priority rights to physical and legal custody of Plaintiff over her eventual adoptive parents. Plaintiff’s family was ready, able and willing to assume all physical and legal custody of Plaintiff, to provide for her in all aspects and to provide her with a loving home. Said family members of Plaintiff included, but were not limited to, her paternal grandmother and grandfather who sent Defendant DPSS and others letters repeatedly offering and in all aspects indicating their willingness to take care of their granddaughter in a loving home.

10. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant DPSS’s breach of the foregoing mandatory duties, Plaintiff was placed in foster care of Defendant DPSS and eventually given up for adoption to Harold Augustus Barlow and Carole Leah Barlow. Harold Augustus Barlow died before Plaintiff turned four (4) years of age, and throughout the remaining years of her minority Plaintiff was neglected, abused, and generally ignored by her only remaining foster mother Carole Leah Barlow. As a further direct and proximate result of Defendant DPSS’s breach of the foregoing mandatory duties, Plaintiff suffered personal injury, the loss of care, comfort, love and society of her biological family, suffered severe emotional and personal distress, and continues to suffer personal injury and distress associated with the loss of so many years of family love and support in addition to continuing to suffer the consequences of her life as an unwanted adoptive child.

11. The damages sought herein are in excess of the minimal jurisdictional limits of this Court.

WHEREFORE Plaintiff prays for judgment against Defendant DPSS, and DOES 1 through 20, as follows:

1. General damages in excess of the jurisdictional limits of this Court;

2. All medical, incidental expenses, and special damages according to proof;

3. Loss of earnings and earning capacity according to proof;

4. Costs of suit;

5. Pre-judgment and post-judgment interest; and

6. For such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

DATED: May 31, 2007 LAW FIRM, APC

BY: ____________________________

This is a reminder that Fight CPS supports the boycott against Wendy’s restaurants because they are promoting adoptions of children abducted by CPS agencies.

This is the place for prayer requests during July 2007.

Please refer to the most recent prayer requests page to leave your request.

This is the guestbook for July 2007.

If you want feedback on your case, register at the Fight CPS Message Forum where there are advocates and activists waiting to hear from you. Please note it may take 10 to 48 hours to get your message board account approved. We need to approve them all individually.

Note: This thread is closed to new comments. Please refer to the most recent guestbook thread to leave your message.