I’m going to give you a suggestion and hope with all my heart that you will act on this. Please print out this article and send it to your county’s District Attorney with a suggestion that he investigates your local CPS agency.

Prosecutor alleges ‘pattern of misconduct’ at DSHS

I could not be more excited! This article shows how the Stevens County prosecutor, Tim Rasmussen, spent months investigating CPS in North-East Washington state. He uncovered multiple incidents of severe corruption including:

1. Social workers giving a morphine drip to a baby that was not originally drug addicted.

2. Social workers subjecting children to sexual forensic exams when there were no allegations of molestation or abuse of any kind.

3. Social workers removing multiple children from their homes on very trivial and questionable charges.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Tim Rasmussen! Thank you for taking the time to investigate the complaints of traumatized parents. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul.

Do you know how many years I’ve been waiting for this to start happening?

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Thanks to dear Marina, one of the moderators at our FightCPS Message Board Forum, for posting the link to this article. You truly brightened my day!

By Debra Braxton

1. Rely on God for inspiration. Write down things to check as God speaks. I continually tell God, “Thank you, I’ll check into that.”

3. Every state has a DSHS website. Have people search this, for knowledge is power. Records Request forms are there. Use them.

4. DSHS has both an Internet website and an Intranet website.
Google: DSHS Internet website; Then Google: DSHS Intranet website

5. Get CPS to provide a copy of their Policy and Operations Manual. They can print this out for the parent and it is free. I’m waiting on mine.

6. I bought a book called “Washington Court Rules” for the state. There are Washington Court Rules for the Federal side of the dependency case. Now this book will have a different title for each state of course. Find the dependency section and challenge CPS on this and your Pro bono attorney who works against you. It’s amazing how some attorneys dummy up when it comes to people like me and I surprise them with what I know. I am a paralegal student who wants to fight them long after the case is over.

7. DSHS falls under Administrative Law and everyone from Children’s Administration “CPS” from lowly case worker, supervisor, area administrator, regional manager, to assistant secretary at the DSHS Headquarters is liable for the shared decision making process they claim to use. So one mistake of one worker affects all, do you see?

8. Think outside the box to solve issues. Be unconventional. They won’t expect it and will be caught off guard.

9. Communicate in paper to all persons connected to the case and insist the people write back. I use emails and fax machines. Save this. It is ammunition later on and is considered a legal document.

10. Go to a law library located in County Superior Courts, or at a university that teaches law. Find the state’s rules book and look up juvenile court rules. Civil court rules and federal court rules as well. Also the website for the state legislature.

11. Go over the records repeatedly because God will tell you as he told me, “See this paper, the CPS didn’t do a recommendation properly.”

12. Whatever is discovered, put it in writing either as a letter or as a declaration. This way all parties of the court including the judge will be held accountable and the case may proceed to appeals court and this information could help the group of appeals judges with their decision.

CPS caseworkers in Washington apparently failed to follow up on fifteen reports of child abuse, but when a neighbor told police a teenage foster child was locked in the closet, the girl was finally rescued from what appears to be a horrific foster care abuse situation. Detectives said the first fifteen complaints weren’t acted on because the foster parent moved from apartment to apartment, and they couldn’t find her, yet at the same time this woman collected foster parent benefits for housing the young girl.

My theory is different. I believe that cases of child abuse in foster homes are ignored because CPS doesn’t get any money for taking children from one foster home and putting them in another. They only get an increase in funding when they take a child from their natural families, then place them in a foster home. Therefore foster child abuse isn’t a priority for busy CPS caseworkers.

Fight CPS hopes to shed light on the problem of abuse in foster homes. Statistics have shown that child abuse of all types is about ten times more likely to happen in a foster home than in a natural family home.

The child, who is now sixteen, lived with foster parent Chornice Lewis, 33, for ten years. Acquaintances said Lewis was very polite and made a good impression on them.

Police allege that if the foster child caused any problems, Lewis put the child’s hand on a hot stove. And if she didn’t listen she had to stand next to her foster parent’s bed all night long. If she slept, a 10-lb weight was dropped on her feet. And once, when she wasn’t packing properly, an insulin needle was plunged into her eye, so the girl is now blind in one eye.

According to a KOMOTV.Com article, Cheryl Stephani, an employee of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, said “We missed it. . . . As a child welfare system. It’s all of us, the courts, the department, the children’s administration. We should hold each other accountable; we need to hold each other accountable.”

Holding CPS caseworkers accountable = Good Idea. When?

Source: Mother accused of abusing foster daughter for years by Bryan Johnson, for KOMOTV.Com, published June 26, 2007.