By Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
The court hearing Friday was to sentence 23-year-old Thomas Jerome Martin to prison for beating 3-year-old Valeeya Brazile to death.
But it turned into a public trial of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, and Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage found the agency guilty.
In a searing condemnation of CPS, the judge recounted repeated failures to save the little girl from months of beatings that eventually killed her and sent her mother and Martin, the mother's live-in boyfriend, off to prison.
"There is not the slightest evidence in this case that the protection or safety of Valeeya or her brother was ever a priority, or even a significant concern, for the agency or the caseworker charged with their protection," Savage said before he sentenced Martin to prison for the maximum 29 years to life.
Valeeya, a smiling little girl who loved pancakes and was proud of the fact that she could recognize the letter "V," was killed Feb. 5, 2008, in a Fair Oaks apartment. The child had been living with Martin, her 6-year-old brother and her mother, Mia Holmes, who is now serving 12 years.
Martin denies killing Valeeya, and as the judge and three of Valeeya's relatives spoke, he sat quietly at the defense table, yawning, shaking his head and cracking his knuckles.
Savage said the jury that convicted Martin of second-degree murder was the only official body that did anything on Valeeya's behalf.
"The evidence in this case of repeated, systematic, purposeful and brutally inflicted trauma by Mr. Martin on Valeeya is mountainous and undeniable," Savage said. "There is no doubt that this defendant routinely and unmercifully battered this absolutely defenseless 3-year-old, eventually beating her with enough force to end her life.
"And, unlike many others involved in this case, the jury was not fooled, did not shrug and did not shirk their responsibility."
Ann Edwards, director of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees CPS, said in a statement issued Friday that Valeeya's murder "is tragic and we all mourn her loss.
"Although we cannot comment on the specifics of this case due to confidentiality laws, CPS has made significant practice improvements since 2008."
Valeeya's murder was among a series of high-profile deaths involving children whose families had been known to CPS. The mounting death toll, reported in a series of Bee stories, triggered numerous outside reviews.
Lynn Frank, Edwards' predecessor in the top job, resigned in 2009 as a scathing grand jury report was about to be released.
This month, the county announced that CPS Director Laura Coulthard was resigning under unexplained circumstances.
While CPS advocates say the agency has improved, despite budget cuts, Savage said the agency was more concerned with helping the mother than protecting Valeeya and her brother.
Savage said the social worker's "personal policy" to announce all visits contributed to CPS never discovering that Martin was living in the apartment – or using it as a haven for his marijuana-dealing business.
"With that ludicrous practice in place, the worker showed the ultimate disrespect to the one person she should have been duty bound to protect: Valeeya Brazile," Savage said.
The judge noted that in 2006, when Valeeya was 2 and sitting unrestrained in her mother's car, Holmes tried to run over a boyfriend.
"That behavior was so outrageous that CPS was given the responsibility of providing 'protection' for Valeeya and her sibling," Savage said. "At least, that's what the agency title implied.
"Based on that car assault alone, rational adults might have appropriately concluded that Mia had forever forfeited her right to act as a caretaker for Valeeya or any other child, for that manner."
Instead, CPS returned the children to Holmes after only four months. The social worker assigned to the case, Alexis Hince, protected Holmes' interests over that of the children, Savage said.
"How in the world could such a thing happen while CPS watched … ?" he asked.
"The case worker in this case testified, 'My job was to help her to get her children back, not to take her children away from her, so my job was to work with her in that goal so she didn't have to be worried she was going to lose her kids.'
"Heaven forbid that Mia Holmes would have had to have a moment's worry about losing her kids."
A 2009 Bee investigation found Hince was one of at least 68 individuals out of 969 CPS workers at the time with a criminal record. Savage said Hince made it clear that CPS knew of her convictions for welfare fraud – one while she worked at the agency. However, the judge said, Hince testified her convictions did not become a problem for her until they were reported in The Bee.
A CPS spokeswoman said Hince has not worked for the county since May 2009.
"It should go without saying that having criminals monitor criminals, especially when children are involved, begs for calamity," Savage said.
Martin sat impassively as the judge, a no-nonsense former prosecutor becoming known for his withering comments at sentencings, described how Martin had wasted his life serving as a baby sitter for Holmes, who was 20 years his senior.
"The defendant, 19 years old and unemployed, spent every day of his life devoted to playing video games, selling marijuana and becoming intoxicated," he said. "He completely escaped the notice of CPS, even though he lived in Mia's apartment every day for months on end."
Courtroom seats filled quickly Friday as five sheriff's detectives filed in and were seated among relatives for both Martin and Valeeya. Before the judge's calm, systematic deconstruction of CPS, Deputy District Attorney Rick Miller brought forward three of Valeeya's relatives to express their anger at Martin.
On one side of the courtroom, where Martin's grandmother and other family members were seated, rumblings of discontent began, and two of the five bailiffs present to keep the peace escorted two men out into the hallway, one of them shouting.
Olga Smith, the little girl's aunt, told Martin he was a "monster."
"I don't know what that little baby could have done to you to make you want to torture her on a daily basis," she said, "to make you want to throw her, to make you want to throw her in the air, to feel her heartbeat, punch her in the stomach, man, and on top of her little head.
"I don't know what would make you want do that. What could she have done to you?"
Eventually, Smith's emotions boiled over and she shouted profanities at Martin, something that often will result in expulsion from court.
The judge did not move to stop her, and Martin feigned boredom.
"It makes you angry," prosecutor Miller told The Bee. "Anybody who looks at this just gets angry."
The entire hearing took just over 30 minutes, and bailiffs escorted the emotional relatives out in groups.
Smith stopped one bailiff and told him, "Go hug that judge for me."
As she left the courtroom, with Martin still seated at the defense table, Smith called out one last message:
"Bye, monster."
Source http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/20/3849750/sacramento-judge-eviscerates-defendant.html
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Funeral Set for 4 year old girl
August 20, 2011 6:53 PM
Ashley Gaston
The Funeral has been set for a 4 year old girl who Investigators say died at the hands of her mothers boyfriend. Breonna Nichole Loftin died Wednesday night. Her funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at Eastgate United Pentecostal Church, 290 South Street, Vidor with burial to follow at Restlawn Memorial Park in Vidor under the direction of Broussard’s, 530 W. Monroe, Kountze. A gathering of her family and friends will be Monday evening, August 22, 2011, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Broussard’s.
HARDIN COUNTY - A judge has set bond at more than $1 million each for a mother and boyfriend charged with Injury to a Child in connection with the death of the woman's 4-year-old daughter.
Read the complete affidavit for Jason Delacerda
Read the complete affidavit for Amanda Guidry
State District Court Judge Steve Thomas arraigned Amanda Nichole Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Wade Delacerda, 34, Friday afternoon on 1st Degree Felony Charges of Injury to a Child.
He set Delacerda's bond at $2 million and Guidry's at $1.5 million.
The judge appointed attorney Sonny Cribbs to represent Delacerda and Jimmy Hamm to represent Guidry.
Investigators say the child suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, for months.
The Hardin County Sheriff's Office and Child Protective Services are investigating the death of the child in what Sheriff Ed Cain and CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam tell KFDM News is "one of the worst child abuse cases" they've ever seen.
District Attorney David Sheffield says additional charges could be filed in the case.
KFDM News has obtained a Probable Cause Affidavit for the arrest of Delacerda and Guidry.
According to the Affidavit, Delacerda admitted making the 4-year-old stand barefoot on water caps.
Investigators spoke with two male juveniles who said they saw him make the girl stand on the bottle caps and observed Delacerda strike the child in the head and torso several times. The juveniles also said they saw him kick the girl several times on her body. Investigators say Delacerda admitted to those actions.
The Affidavit states Guidry told investigators that she observed Delacerda throw the child across the room on one occasion.
The court document indicates he admitted spilling hot coffee on her foot and thigh and causing burns, and he admitted spanking the child so hard with a wooden paddle that he caused injury to her buttocks.
Guedry, according to the document, admits she knew her daughter was being abused and failed to seek medical attention or to report the actions to law enforcement.
The Affidavit states the child suffered a number of injuries that include, numerous broken ribs in various stages of healing, abrasions to her left temple, a bruise in the middle of her forehead, a burn mark on her left chest, a burn to her inner right upper thigh, a burn to the top of her foot, bruising to her vaginal area, severe burns to both buttocks, bruising to her left shoulder, and an old fracture on her left leg.
A neighbor told KFDM News they saw the girl outside only a couple of times. The last time was about two months ago. They told us she was never allowed outside. The neighbor said the mother and boyfriend always had an excuse about why she couldn't come outside to play.
The girl weighed 32 pounds.
"That child suffered months and months of physical abuse, sexual abuse and also neglect," Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services told KFDM News.
Funeral arrangements for the girl are pending with Broussard's Mortuary in Koutze.
Late Thursday afternoon deputies arrested the mother, Amanda Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, 34, and jailed them on 1st Degree Felony charges of Injury to a Child. If convicted they could face up to life in prison.
Sheriff Cain says the boyfriend called 911 Wednesday night and an ambulance took the child to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth. She died at about midnight. Sheriff's deputies and Child Protective Services began investigating and visited the couple's mobile home off Highway 69 in Kountze. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse. A preliminary autopsy shows the four-year-old girl died of blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy report lists the preliminary manner of death as homicide. Toxicology results are pending.
Sheriff Cain said the mother and boyfriend voluntarily came to the Sheriff's Office for questioning Thursday afternoon and were arrested following the questioning.
Shari Pulliam with CPS says investigators with her agency are shaken up after seeing what Pulliam calls abuse the girl suffered. Investigators believe it went on for nearly six months. The Sheriff and Pulliam say it's one of the worst cases of abuse they've ever seen. Pulliam says nearly every one of the girl's ribs was shattered.
"Old fractures and new fractures," said Pulliam. "Almost every rib on this child was fractured. The child had a skull fracture, multiple cigarette burns to the chest. Large burn on her foot and both buttocks."
Cain said the girl had "numerous bruises and burns, basically from head to toe." The Sheriff said she was the victim of severe abuse going on the last several months. According to Cain, his office is consulting with the Hardin County District Attorney's Office and other charges might be filed in the case.
"I've never seen anything this bad," said Sheriff Cain. "Doctors agree and they're saying it's pretty bad. I can't believe it went on this long without anyone bringing it to our attention."
Cain said it hurts him to see children who are abused.
"Any time there's a child involved, they are totally helpless. An adult can help themselves but children like this, they can't help themselves. It's a serious case. It's sad, it's tragic. This child has suffered a lot."
Pulliam says the girl would have turned five in December. According to Pulliam, the girl was malnourished. She weighed only 32 pounds. Pulliam says that's a definite sign of abuse. She says no calls were made to indicate any abuse was going on in the home.
Source http://www.kfdm.com/articles/year-44378-old-funeral.html<>
Ashley Gaston
The Funeral has been set for a 4 year old girl who Investigators say died at the hands of her mothers boyfriend. Breonna Nichole Loftin died Wednesday night. Her funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at Eastgate United Pentecostal Church, 290 South Street, Vidor with burial to follow at Restlawn Memorial Park in Vidor under the direction of Broussard’s, 530 W. Monroe, Kountze. A gathering of her family and friends will be Monday evening, August 22, 2011, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Broussard’s.
HARDIN COUNTY - A judge has set bond at more than $1 million each for a mother and boyfriend charged with Injury to a Child in connection with the death of the woman's 4-year-old daughter.
Read the complete affidavit for Jason Delacerda
Read the complete affidavit for Amanda Guidry
State District Court Judge Steve Thomas arraigned Amanda Nichole Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Wade Delacerda, 34, Friday afternoon on 1st Degree Felony Charges of Injury to a Child.
He set Delacerda's bond at $2 million and Guidry's at $1.5 million.
The judge appointed attorney Sonny Cribbs to represent Delacerda and Jimmy Hamm to represent Guidry.
Investigators say the child suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, for months.
The Hardin County Sheriff's Office and Child Protective Services are investigating the death of the child in what Sheriff Ed Cain and CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam tell KFDM News is "one of the worst child abuse cases" they've ever seen.
District Attorney David Sheffield says additional charges could be filed in the case.
KFDM News has obtained a Probable Cause Affidavit for the arrest of Delacerda and Guidry.
According to the Affidavit, Delacerda admitted making the 4-year-old stand barefoot on water caps.
Investigators spoke with two male juveniles who said they saw him make the girl stand on the bottle caps and observed Delacerda strike the child in the head and torso several times. The juveniles also said they saw him kick the girl several times on her body. Investigators say Delacerda admitted to those actions.
The Affidavit states Guidry told investigators that she observed Delacerda throw the child across the room on one occasion.
The court document indicates he admitted spilling hot coffee on her foot and thigh and causing burns, and he admitted spanking the child so hard with a wooden paddle that he caused injury to her buttocks.
Guedry, according to the document, admits she knew her daughter was being abused and failed to seek medical attention or to report the actions to law enforcement.
The Affidavit states the child suffered a number of injuries that include, numerous broken ribs in various stages of healing, abrasions to her left temple, a bruise in the middle of her forehead, a burn mark on her left chest, a burn to her inner right upper thigh, a burn to the top of her foot, bruising to her vaginal area, severe burns to both buttocks, bruising to her left shoulder, and an old fracture on her left leg.
A neighbor told KFDM News they saw the girl outside only a couple of times. The last time was about two months ago. They told us she was never allowed outside. The neighbor said the mother and boyfriend always had an excuse about why she couldn't come outside to play.
The girl weighed 32 pounds.
"That child suffered months and months of physical abuse, sexual abuse and also neglect," Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services told KFDM News.
Funeral arrangements for the girl are pending with Broussard's Mortuary in Koutze.
Late Thursday afternoon deputies arrested the mother, Amanda Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, 34, and jailed them on 1st Degree Felony charges of Injury to a Child. If convicted they could face up to life in prison.
Sheriff Cain says the boyfriend called 911 Wednesday night and an ambulance took the child to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth. She died at about midnight. Sheriff's deputies and Child Protective Services began investigating and visited the couple's mobile home off Highway 69 in Kountze. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse. A preliminary autopsy shows the four-year-old girl died of blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy report lists the preliminary manner of death as homicide. Toxicology results are pending.
Sheriff Cain said the mother and boyfriend voluntarily came to the Sheriff's Office for questioning Thursday afternoon and were arrested following the questioning.
Shari Pulliam with CPS says investigators with her agency are shaken up after seeing what Pulliam calls abuse the girl suffered. Investigators believe it went on for nearly six months. The Sheriff and Pulliam say it's one of the worst cases of abuse they've ever seen. Pulliam says nearly every one of the girl's ribs was shattered.
"Old fractures and new fractures," said Pulliam. "Almost every rib on this child was fractured. The child had a skull fracture, multiple cigarette burns to the chest. Large burn on her foot and both buttocks."
Cain said the girl had "numerous bruises and burns, basically from head to toe." The Sheriff said she was the victim of severe abuse going on the last several months. According to Cain, his office is consulting with the Hardin County District Attorney's Office and other charges might be filed in the case.
"I've never seen anything this bad," said Sheriff Cain. "Doctors agree and they're saying it's pretty bad. I can't believe it went on this long without anyone bringing it to our attention."
Cain said it hurts him to see children who are abused.
"Any time there's a child involved, they are totally helpless. An adult can help themselves but children like this, they can't help themselves. It's a serious case. It's sad, it's tragic. This child has suffered a lot."
Pulliam says the girl would have turned five in December. According to Pulliam, the girl was malnourished. She weighed only 32 pounds. Pulliam says that's a definite sign of abuse. She says no calls were made to indicate any abuse was going on in the home.
Source http://www.kfdm.com/articles/year-44378-old-funeral.html<>
No Cause for Marijuana Case, but Enough for Child Neglect
By MOSI SECRET
Published: August 17, 2011
The police found about 10 grams of marijuana, or about a third of an ounce, when they searched Penelope Harris’s apartment in the Bronx last year. The amount was below the legal threshold for even a misdemeanor, and prosecutors declined to charge her. But Ms. Harris, a mother whose son and niece were home when she was briefly in custody, could hardly rest easy.
The police had reported her arrest to the state’s child welfare hot line, and city caseworkers quickly arrived and took the children away.
Her son, then 10, spent more than a week in foster care. Her niece, who was 8 and living with her as a foster child, was placed in another home and not returned by the foster care agency for more than a year. Ms. Harris, 31, had to weather a lengthy child neglect inquiry, though she had no criminal record and had never before been investigated by the child welfare authorities, Ms. Harris and her lawyer said.
“I felt like less of a parent, like I had failed my children,” Ms. Harris said. “It tore me up.”
Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been caught with small amounts of marijuana, or who have simply admitted to using it, have become ensnared in civil child neglect cases in recent years, though they did not face even the least of criminal charges, according to city records and defense lawyers. A small number of parents in these cases have even lost custody of their children.
New York City’s child welfare agency said that it was pursuing these cases for appropriate reasons, and that marijuana use by parents could often hint at other serious problems in the way they cared for their children.
As states and localities around the country loosen penalties for marijuana, for both recreational and medical uses, they are increasingly grappling with how to handle its presence in homes with children. California, where the medical marijuana movement has flourished, now requires that child welfare officials demonstrate actual harm to a child from marijuana use in order to bring neglect cases, and defense lawyers there say the authorities are now bringing fewer of them.
But in New York, the child welfare agency has not shied from these cases. For these parents, the child welfare system has become an alternate system of justice, with legal standards on marijuana that appear to be tougher than those of criminal courts or, to some extent, of society at large. In interviews, lawyers from the three legal services groups that the city hires to defend parents said they saw hundreds of marijuana cases each year, most involving recreational users.
The lawyers said they currently had more than a dozen cases on their dockets involving parents who had never faced neglect allegations and whose children were placed in foster care because of marijuana allegations.
Lauren Shapiro, director of the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, which defends most parents facing neglect charges in Family Court in Brooklyn, said more than 90 percent of the cases alleging drug use that her lawyers handle involve marijuana, as opposed to other drugs.
“There is not the same use of crack cocaine as there used to be, so they are filing these cases instead,” Ms. Shapiro said.
Marijuana is the most common illicit drug in New York City: 730,000 people, or 12 percent of people age 12 and older, use the drug at least once annually, according to city health data.
Over all, the rate of marijuana use among whites is twice as high as among blacks and Hispanics in the city, the data show, but defense lawyers said these cases were rarely if ever filed against white parents.
Michael Fagan, a spokesman for the Administration for Children’s Services, said the defense lawyers were offering a simplistic portrayal of these cases.
“Drug use itself is not child abuse or neglect, but it can put children in danger of neglect or abuse,” Mr. Fagan said. “We think the argument that use of cocaine, heroin or marijuana by a parent of young children should not be looked into or should simply be ignored is just plain wrong.”
Mr. Fagan said most of the cases involved additional forms of neglect, like a child who is not going to school or who has been left unattended.
“In other times, we find that admitted marijuana use masks other substance abuse,” Mr. Fagan said.
But lawyers for parents countered that the agency often brought neglect charges based solely on recreational marijuana use, then searched later for other grounds to bolster cases.
“In some cases, there are other allegations, but we think they are add-ons,” said Susan Jacobs, executive director of the Center for Family Representation, which works in Manhattan and Queens. “The reason the person is being brought into Family Court is the marijuana use.”
Ms. Jacobs cited the case of a former client, Jose Gunnell, 23, of Harlem, who lost custody of his 1-year-old daughter in March after an employee at a homeless shelter where he was staying found a $5 bag of marijuana in his room during an inspection.
Mr. Gunnell said in an interview that he stopped smoking marijuana in 2010 but that he used it again in March after having an infected tooth pulled. “The wound wouldn’t close,” he said. “I was getting hungry, but I couldn’t eat. I bought weed.”
The neglect petition that the Administration for Children’s Services filed against Mr. Gunnell shows that he admitted to smoking marijuana to develop an appetite.
The agency’s petition also said that his daughter did not always have adequate clothing, that shelter workers once smelled alcohol on Mr. Gunnell’s breath and that his room was dirty and had an odor.
The agency would not comment on Mr. Gunnell’s case or on others described by defense lawyers, citing confidentiality rules.
Ms. Jacobs acknowledged that the Administration for Children’s Services might at times correctly determine that marijuana use was one of many serious problems in a family, but she contended that those were only a minority of the cases.
State law makes possession of as much as 25 grams of marijuana — enough for 20 or 30 marijuana cigarettes — a violation similar to a traffic offense, punishable by a fine of up to $100. The Administration for Children’s Services does not track the number of parents facing marijuana allegations. It compiles statistics only on the total number of neglect cases for drugs and alcohol, rather than for individual drugs. There were 4,891 such cases in 2010.
State law considers a child neglected if his or her well-being is threatened by a parent who “repeatedly misuses” a drug. But the law does not distinguish marijuana from heroin or other drugs. The law says that if parents have “substantial impairment of judgment,” then there is a presumption of neglect, but it does not refer to quantities of drugs.
Furthermore, the law does not require child welfare authorities to catch parents while they are high or with drugs in their possession. Simply admitting past use to a caseworker is grounds for a neglect case.
In marijuana cases, as in all others, caseworkers have the obligation to remove children who they believe are in imminent danger, but they can recommend that the agency file neglect charges against the parents without removing the children. They can also close cases for unsubstantiated allegations.
Neglect findings, while sometimes allowing parents to keep their children, can have serious repercussions. They prohibit parents from taking jobs around children, like driving a school bus or working in day care, or from being foster care parents or adopting. And they make it easier for Family Court judges to later remove children from their homes.
The findings stay on parents’ records with the Statewide Central Register until their youngest child turns 28.
The policy of the Administration for Children’s Services to pursue marijuana cases is not widely known. But when told of it, some lawmakers said the agency was overstepping its authority.
“I would hope that A.C.S., knowing what a wide-net strategy the N.Y.P.D. is using, would treat marijuana arrests with a grain of salt,” said Brad Lander, a Democratic city councilman from Brooklyn. “A neglect charge should not be leveled.”
Ms. Harris, the woman briefly held in custody in the Bronx, said the police had searched her apartment because they believed drugs were being sold there, an allegation that she denied. She said the small bags of marijuana the police found belonged to her boyfriend and were for his personal use. She tested negative for drugs after she was released.
The Administration for Children’s Services filed neglect charges about a week after Bronx prosecutors declined to press charges. Ms. Harris was represented by the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to Bronx residents.
In a hearing the next day, the agency agreed to return Ms. Harris’s son on the condition that her boyfriend not return to the home, that she enroll in therapy and submit to random drug screenings, and that caseworkers could make announced and unannounced visits to her home. Ms. Harris’s case was closed in April without a finding of neglect.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/parents-minor-marijuana-arrests-lead-to-child-neglect-cases.html?_r=1&src=recg&pagewanted=all
Published: August 17, 2011
The police found about 10 grams of marijuana, or about a third of an ounce, when they searched Penelope Harris’s apartment in the Bronx last year. The amount was below the legal threshold for even a misdemeanor, and prosecutors declined to charge her. But Ms. Harris, a mother whose son and niece were home when she was briefly in custody, could hardly rest easy.
The police had reported her arrest to the state’s child welfare hot line, and city caseworkers quickly arrived and took the children away.
Her son, then 10, spent more than a week in foster care. Her niece, who was 8 and living with her as a foster child, was placed in another home and not returned by the foster care agency for more than a year. Ms. Harris, 31, had to weather a lengthy child neglect inquiry, though she had no criminal record and had never before been investigated by the child welfare authorities, Ms. Harris and her lawyer said.
“I felt like less of a parent, like I had failed my children,” Ms. Harris said. “It tore me up.”
Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been caught with small amounts of marijuana, or who have simply admitted to using it, have become ensnared in civil child neglect cases in recent years, though they did not face even the least of criminal charges, according to city records and defense lawyers. A small number of parents in these cases have even lost custody of their children.
New York City’s child welfare agency said that it was pursuing these cases for appropriate reasons, and that marijuana use by parents could often hint at other serious problems in the way they cared for their children.
As states and localities around the country loosen penalties for marijuana, for both recreational and medical uses, they are increasingly grappling with how to handle its presence in homes with children. California, where the medical marijuana movement has flourished, now requires that child welfare officials demonstrate actual harm to a child from marijuana use in order to bring neglect cases, and defense lawyers there say the authorities are now bringing fewer of them.
But in New York, the child welfare agency has not shied from these cases. For these parents, the child welfare system has become an alternate system of justice, with legal standards on marijuana that appear to be tougher than those of criminal courts or, to some extent, of society at large. In interviews, lawyers from the three legal services groups that the city hires to defend parents said they saw hundreds of marijuana cases each year, most involving recreational users.
The lawyers said they currently had more than a dozen cases on their dockets involving parents who had never faced neglect allegations and whose children were placed in foster care because of marijuana allegations.
Lauren Shapiro, director of the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, which defends most parents facing neglect charges in Family Court in Brooklyn, said more than 90 percent of the cases alleging drug use that her lawyers handle involve marijuana, as opposed to other drugs.
“There is not the same use of crack cocaine as there used to be, so they are filing these cases instead,” Ms. Shapiro said.
Marijuana is the most common illicit drug in New York City: 730,000 people, or 12 percent of people age 12 and older, use the drug at least once annually, according to city health data.
Over all, the rate of marijuana use among whites is twice as high as among blacks and Hispanics in the city, the data show, but defense lawyers said these cases were rarely if ever filed against white parents.
Michael Fagan, a spokesman for the Administration for Children’s Services, said the defense lawyers were offering a simplistic portrayal of these cases.
“Drug use itself is not child abuse or neglect, but it can put children in danger of neglect or abuse,” Mr. Fagan said. “We think the argument that use of cocaine, heroin or marijuana by a parent of young children should not be looked into or should simply be ignored is just plain wrong.”
Mr. Fagan said most of the cases involved additional forms of neglect, like a child who is not going to school or who has been left unattended.
“In other times, we find that admitted marijuana use masks other substance abuse,” Mr. Fagan said.
But lawyers for parents countered that the agency often brought neglect charges based solely on recreational marijuana use, then searched later for other grounds to bolster cases.
“In some cases, there are other allegations, but we think they are add-ons,” said Susan Jacobs, executive director of the Center for Family Representation, which works in Manhattan and Queens. “The reason the person is being brought into Family Court is the marijuana use.”
Ms. Jacobs cited the case of a former client, Jose Gunnell, 23, of Harlem, who lost custody of his 1-year-old daughter in March after an employee at a homeless shelter where he was staying found a $5 bag of marijuana in his room during an inspection.
Mr. Gunnell said in an interview that he stopped smoking marijuana in 2010 but that he used it again in March after having an infected tooth pulled. “The wound wouldn’t close,” he said. “I was getting hungry, but I couldn’t eat. I bought weed.”
The neglect petition that the Administration for Children’s Services filed against Mr. Gunnell shows that he admitted to smoking marijuana to develop an appetite.
The agency’s petition also said that his daughter did not always have adequate clothing, that shelter workers once smelled alcohol on Mr. Gunnell’s breath and that his room was dirty and had an odor.
The agency would not comment on Mr. Gunnell’s case or on others described by defense lawyers, citing confidentiality rules.
Ms. Jacobs acknowledged that the Administration for Children’s Services might at times correctly determine that marijuana use was one of many serious problems in a family, but she contended that those were only a minority of the cases.
State law makes possession of as much as 25 grams of marijuana — enough for 20 or 30 marijuana cigarettes — a violation similar to a traffic offense, punishable by a fine of up to $100. The Administration for Children’s Services does not track the number of parents facing marijuana allegations. It compiles statistics only on the total number of neglect cases for drugs and alcohol, rather than for individual drugs. There were 4,891 such cases in 2010.
State law considers a child neglected if his or her well-being is threatened by a parent who “repeatedly misuses” a drug. But the law does not distinguish marijuana from heroin or other drugs. The law says that if parents have “substantial impairment of judgment,” then there is a presumption of neglect, but it does not refer to quantities of drugs.
Furthermore, the law does not require child welfare authorities to catch parents while they are high or with drugs in their possession. Simply admitting past use to a caseworker is grounds for a neglect case.
In marijuana cases, as in all others, caseworkers have the obligation to remove children who they believe are in imminent danger, but they can recommend that the agency file neglect charges against the parents without removing the children. They can also close cases for unsubstantiated allegations.
Neglect findings, while sometimes allowing parents to keep their children, can have serious repercussions. They prohibit parents from taking jobs around children, like driving a school bus or working in day care, or from being foster care parents or adopting. And they make it easier for Family Court judges to later remove children from their homes.
The findings stay on parents’ records with the Statewide Central Register until their youngest child turns 28.
The policy of the Administration for Children’s Services to pursue marijuana cases is not widely known. But when told of it, some lawmakers said the agency was overstepping its authority.
“I would hope that A.C.S., knowing what a wide-net strategy the N.Y.P.D. is using, would treat marijuana arrests with a grain of salt,” said Brad Lander, a Democratic city councilman from Brooklyn. “A neglect charge should not be leveled.”
Ms. Harris, the woman briefly held in custody in the Bronx, said the police had searched her apartment because they believed drugs were being sold there, an allegation that she denied. She said the small bags of marijuana the police found belonged to her boyfriend and were for his personal use. She tested negative for drugs after she was released.
The Administration for Children’s Services filed neglect charges about a week after Bronx prosecutors declined to press charges. Ms. Harris was represented by the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to Bronx residents.
In a hearing the next day, the agency agreed to return Ms. Harris’s son on the condition that her boyfriend not return to the home, that she enroll in therapy and submit to random drug screenings, and that caseworkers could make announced and unannounced visits to her home. Ms. Harris’s case was closed in April without a finding of neglect.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/parents-minor-marijuana-arrests-lead-to-child-neglect-cases.html?_r=1&src=recg&pagewanted=all
Guatemalan Court Order Rattles Foreign Adoption Community
Adam Martin Aug 19, 2011
The story about a young, missing Guatemalan girl whose mother searched for her for five years and eventually found she had been adopted by a couple in Missouri has been floating around for a couple of years now. But the latest news is that the mother, Loyda Rodriguez Morales, has essentially won her case. CNN reported on Monday that the Guatemalan government had ordered the girl returned, and that because it was considered a case of human trafficking, would call Interpol to enforce the order if the adoptive parents didn't comply. According to Erin Seigal, a fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University who's been covering the case closely, that's an unprecedented move in the world of international adoptions.
And as Metafilter noted, the case has been "rocking the adoption world." On forums such as guatadopt.com, members have been debating the case for years. On Thursday, a screed from a user named LauraLyn blasted the way the Monahans had handled the case.
They were offered mediation, and this could have happened in Guatemala or in Liberty. Instead they dug in their heels to hold on to 'their daughter', refused communication, and forced a torturous court process. They claim to want 'to protect' 'Karen Abagail' from 'further trauma'. This is so hard to believe when they have traumatically turned the lives of so many people upside down to keep what does not belong to them. Perhaps other adopted children from Guatemala today are asking: Are my adoptive parents like the Monahans?
But another, Grey, was quick to defend the Monahans' right to privacy and due process.
They have been branded as complicit in fraud, without (to my eyes, at least) facts and evidence. They were faced with a very uncertain situation, and a clear threat (via email) that the little girl they were seeking to adopt could be harmed if they did not continue with the process. Labeling them as accomplices to human trafficking given the nature of their situation is more than unfair; it’s slander.
As an Aug. 12 report in the Houston Chronicle pointed out, "SURVIVORS Foundation, the human rights group representing the birth mother, does not allege the Monahans knew anything about a kidnapping."
On the site Poundpuplegacy, one commenter named Kerry pointed to the power imbalance between birth mother and the adoptive parents.
Let's pretend the mother whose child was kidnapped was a white American. Let's pretend the person who adopted through corrupt adoption facilitators were dark foreigners, and the adoption agency was not affiliated with any agency within the USA. What sort of media attention would this case get, then? What would public outcry sound like after more got news of the story?
Color and economics aside, this is a woman's issue. The adoption industry is slowly but surely pitting woman against woman and as far as I'm concerned educated women who know a thing or two about the plights of (other) women treated like sub-humans need to stand up and NOT TURN THEIR BACKS to the corruption that takes place within the child placement industry.
At the very least, the case seems to be a shocking reminder within the adoption community that while the end goal of adoption is to create loving families, it sometimes begins with tearing other families apart. Unsurprisingly, many comments focused on the benefit the child would have growing up in America, versus returning to Guatemala. Kerry's response was thoughtful: "Have we entered an era where those who support adoption believe no original mother living in a poor region is fit to parent her own child chosen by corrupt child brokers?"
Adoption has been a tumultuous issue for the U.S. and Guatemala over the last few years. Guatemala closed its doors to U.S. adoptions in 2008 because of rampant fraud. They were reopened in 2009, but not without controversy. According to an Aug. 6 Associated Press story, that's what happened with the girl, who was adopted under the name Karen Abigail López GarcÃa, but whose real name is Anyeli Liseth Hernandez Rodriguez, according to a website set up to help search for her. Her mother claims she was snatched from her arms in 2006. The court ordered the PGN, the Guatemalan equivalent of the attorney general's office, to work with the U.S. embassy on retrieving the girl, who has been living with Timothy and Jennifer Monahan in Missouri since 2007. The Monahans have two months from the July 29 order to return the girl, under the latest order from the Guatemalen court.
Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/08/guatemalan-court-order-rattles-foreign-adoption-community/41514/
The story about a young, missing Guatemalan girl whose mother searched for her for five years and eventually found she had been adopted by a couple in Missouri has been floating around for a couple of years now. But the latest news is that the mother, Loyda Rodriguez Morales, has essentially won her case. CNN reported on Monday that the Guatemalan government had ordered the girl returned, and that because it was considered a case of human trafficking, would call Interpol to enforce the order if the adoptive parents didn't comply. According to Erin Seigal, a fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University who's been covering the case closely, that's an unprecedented move in the world of international adoptions.
And as Metafilter noted, the case has been "rocking the adoption world." On forums such as guatadopt.com, members have been debating the case for years. On Thursday, a screed from a user named LauraLyn blasted the way the Monahans had handled the case.
They were offered mediation, and this could have happened in Guatemala or in Liberty. Instead they dug in their heels to hold on to 'their daughter', refused communication, and forced a torturous court process. They claim to want 'to protect' 'Karen Abagail' from 'further trauma'. This is so hard to believe when they have traumatically turned the lives of so many people upside down to keep what does not belong to them. Perhaps other adopted children from Guatemala today are asking: Are my adoptive parents like the Monahans?
But another, Grey, was quick to defend the Monahans' right to privacy and due process.
They have been branded as complicit in fraud, without (to my eyes, at least) facts and evidence. They were faced with a very uncertain situation, and a clear threat (via email) that the little girl they were seeking to adopt could be harmed if they did not continue with the process. Labeling them as accomplices to human trafficking given the nature of their situation is more than unfair; it’s slander.
As an Aug. 12 report in the Houston Chronicle pointed out, "SURVIVORS Foundation, the human rights group representing the birth mother, does not allege the Monahans knew anything about a kidnapping."
On the site Poundpuplegacy, one commenter named Kerry pointed to the power imbalance between birth mother and the adoptive parents.
Let's pretend the mother whose child was kidnapped was a white American. Let's pretend the person who adopted through corrupt adoption facilitators were dark foreigners, and the adoption agency was not affiliated with any agency within the USA. What sort of media attention would this case get, then? What would public outcry sound like after more got news of the story?
Color and economics aside, this is a woman's issue. The adoption industry is slowly but surely pitting woman against woman and as far as I'm concerned educated women who know a thing or two about the plights of (other) women treated like sub-humans need to stand up and NOT TURN THEIR BACKS to the corruption that takes place within the child placement industry.
At the very least, the case seems to be a shocking reminder within the adoption community that while the end goal of adoption is to create loving families, it sometimes begins with tearing other families apart. Unsurprisingly, many comments focused on the benefit the child would have growing up in America, versus returning to Guatemala. Kerry's response was thoughtful: "Have we entered an era where those who support adoption believe no original mother living in a poor region is fit to parent her own child chosen by corrupt child brokers?"
Adoption has been a tumultuous issue for the U.S. and Guatemala over the last few years. Guatemala closed its doors to U.S. adoptions in 2008 because of rampant fraud. They were reopened in 2009, but not without controversy. According to an Aug. 6 Associated Press story, that's what happened with the girl, who was adopted under the name Karen Abigail López GarcÃa, but whose real name is Anyeli Liseth Hernandez Rodriguez, according to a website set up to help search for her. Her mother claims she was snatched from her arms in 2006. The court ordered the PGN, the Guatemalan equivalent of the attorney general's office, to work with the U.S. embassy on retrieving the girl, who has been living with Timothy and Jennifer Monahan in Missouri since 2007. The Monahans have two months from the July 29 order to return the girl, under the latest order from the Guatemalen court.
Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/08/guatemalan-court-order-rattles-foreign-adoption-community/41514/
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