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, January 7, 2012
Nurse arrested for alleged child abuse - Indiana
LINTON, Ind (WTHI) - A Bloomington, Indiana woman arrested on charges of child abuse.
Linton Indiana police arrested 52 year old Susan R. Johnson Wednesday.
Johnson, a home healthcare nurse, allegedly abused a disabled Linton, Indiana child under her care. According to police reports the child's parent's contacted police when they suspected child abuse and neglect by a healthcare nurse.
Police allege that Johnson caused both physical harm resulting in injury and neglect by not giving medication when perscribed.
Johnson is being held in the Greene County jail on $4,000 dollars cash only with no 10 percent.
Source http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/nurse-arrested-for-alleged-child-abuse
Linton Indiana police arrested 52 year old Susan R. Johnson Wednesday.
Johnson, a home healthcare nurse, allegedly abused a disabled Linton, Indiana child under her care. According to police reports the child's parent's contacted police when they suspected child abuse and neglect by a healthcare nurse.
Police allege that Johnson caused both physical harm resulting in injury and neglect by not giving medication when perscribed.
Johnson is being held in the Greene County jail on $4,000 dollars cash only with no 10 percent.
Source http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/nurse-arrested-for-alleged-child-abuse
N.J. Assembly panel approves bill to broaden how DYFS investigators define child abuse
By Susan K. Livio/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON — After the deaths last year of two girls whose parents were not deemed a threat by the Division of Youth and Family Services, an Assembly panel approved a bill Thursday that would broaden how investigators define child abuse in New Jersey.
The measure (A-4109/S1570), which was unanimously approved by the Assembly Human Services Committee, must be approved by the full Assembly no later than Tuesday morning, when the two-year legislative session draws to a close. The Senate has already approved it.
Under the proposed bill, agency investigators could choose among three findings when determining whether there is a valid abuse complaint instead of the current two, which some say limits the ability to protect children.
The proposed measure would allow investigators to "substantiate" a claim if there was sufficient evidence, consider it "unfounded" if no safety risk was detected, or select a new third option — "not substantiated." That would apply if there was not enough evidence to support a complaint, but investigators suspected the child was still "placed at substantial risk of harm."
The families of both children had been investigated for abuse and neglect, but a number of times DYFS workers considered the concerns "unfounded."
Since 2004, the term "unfounded" has held two meanings — no evidence of abuse, or some evidence but not enough to make a solid case. The state dropped the "unsubstantiated with concerns" category out of concern that investigators were not gathering enough facts to make a valid decision.
"Hopefully this legislation will help investigators capture a sizeable portion of abuse cases that might otherwise fall through the cracks," said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), the committee chairwoman who was a sponsor of the bill.
Jesse Moskowitz, a retired assistant director of DYFS, said passage of the measure by the panel "represents an acknowledgement that a well-intended but flawed change six years ago required correction and clarification in order to accurately classify child abuse or neglect findings."
Support for the bill is not unanimous.
"They should be focusing on clarifying policy and improving quality of investigations so that they make good determinations, not feel comfortable with an inconclusive category," Judith Meltzer, a court-appointed monitor who is overseeing an overhaul of the state’s child welfare system, said afterward.
A representative from the Communications Workers of America Local 1038, representing 3,000 DYFS employees, testified in support the bill, but at the same time asked the committee to look into an increasing number of caseloads investigators are handling but the agency is hiding.
The representative, Cataherine Donatos, said the agency was trying to conceal the number of cases out of concern that the judge who ordered the overhaul would find the state out of compliance and order sanctions.
She said that in one DYFS office, 27 workers who investigate child abuse exceeded the court-imposed limit of 12 cases a month, with some juggling 15 to 21 cases.
She added that some cases were transferred to other professionals on paper, but that that staffers were still doing the work and that those who did not find a way to lower casesloads were disciplined.
Donatos said that after the union filed a grievance, the agency transferred six workers and hired a supervisor.
A spokeswoman for DYFS, Leida Arce, said transferring cases to other staff when the workload increased was "a common practice" because everyone is trained in investigations.
Source http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/assembly_panel_approves_bill_t_2.html
TRENTON — After the deaths last year of two girls whose parents were not deemed a threat by the Division of Youth and Family Services, an Assembly panel approved a bill Thursday that would broaden how investigators define child abuse in New Jersey.
The measure (A-4109/S1570), which was unanimously approved by the Assembly Human Services Committee, must be approved by the full Assembly no later than Tuesday morning, when the two-year legislative session draws to a close. The Senate has already approved it.
Under the proposed bill, agency investigators could choose among three findings when determining whether there is a valid abuse complaint instead of the current two, which some say limits the ability to protect children.
The proposed measure would allow investigators to "substantiate" a claim if there was sufficient evidence, consider it "unfounded" if no safety risk was detected, or select a new third option — "not substantiated." That would apply if there was not enough evidence to support a complaint, but investigators suspected the child was still "placed at substantial risk of harm."
The families of both children had been investigated for abuse and neglect, but a number of times DYFS workers considered the concerns "unfounded."
Since 2004, the term "unfounded" has held two meanings — no evidence of abuse, or some evidence but not enough to make a solid case. The state dropped the "unsubstantiated with concerns" category out of concern that investigators were not gathering enough facts to make a valid decision.
"Hopefully this legislation will help investigators capture a sizeable portion of abuse cases that might otherwise fall through the cracks," said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), the committee chairwoman who was a sponsor of the bill.
Jesse Moskowitz, a retired assistant director of DYFS, said passage of the measure by the panel "represents an acknowledgement that a well-intended but flawed change six years ago required correction and clarification in order to accurately classify child abuse or neglect findings."
Support for the bill is not unanimous.
"They should be focusing on clarifying policy and improving quality of investigations so that they make good determinations, not feel comfortable with an inconclusive category," Judith Meltzer, a court-appointed monitor who is overseeing an overhaul of the state’s child welfare system, said afterward.
A representative from the Communications Workers of America Local 1038, representing 3,000 DYFS employees, testified in support the bill, but at the same time asked the committee to look into an increasing number of caseloads investigators are handling but the agency is hiding.
The representative, Cataherine Donatos, said the agency was trying to conceal the number of cases out of concern that the judge who ordered the overhaul would find the state out of compliance and order sanctions.
She said that in one DYFS office, 27 workers who investigate child abuse exceeded the court-imposed limit of 12 cases a month, with some juggling 15 to 21 cases.
She added that some cases were transferred to other professionals on paper, but that that staffers were still doing the work and that those who did not find a way to lower casesloads were disciplined.
Donatos said that after the union filed a grievance, the agency transferred six workers and hired a supervisor.
A spokeswoman for DYFS, Leida Arce, said transferring cases to other staff when the workload increased was "a common practice" because everyone is trained in investigations.
Source http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/assembly_panel_approves_bill_t_2.html
Foster mother gets life for torture, murder - California
MARTINEZ, Calif. -- A judge Friday morning sentenced Antioch woman Shemeeka Davis to life in prison for torturing and abusing her two foster children and for murdering one of them.
Shemeeka Davis, 41, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the torture and murder of 15-year-old Jazzmin Davis and to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the torture of her twin brother, who survived years of abuse.
Davis, the aunt of Jazzmin and her brother, wept loudly throughout today's hearing and as the sentence was handed down.
"I'd like to say that I'm very sorry," she said between sobs. "This was never my intention ... and I wish I could change everything."
On Sept. 2, 2008, Jazzmin's naked, gaunt and scarred body was found on the floor inside the Antioch home where for years, the only mother she had known abused her and her brother.
Police said that when she died, the teen was 5 foot 7 feet tall and weighed about 78 pounds.
A coroner's report found that she died from a combination of repeated physical abuse and malnutrition, Deputy District Attorney Satish Jallepalli said.
Jazzmin's twin brother was also found to be scarred and severely malnourished, but survived and testified during Davis' trial last summer.
At the end of the trial last June, a jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder, torture and felony child abuse charges and found her legally sane at the time she committed the crimes, despite her dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.
Defense attorney Betty Barker argued throughout the trial that Davis suffers from severe mental illnesses, including psychotic delusions, which prevented her from forming the intent to torture the twins.
Jallepalli agreed that Davis is mentally ill, but argued that she chose to keep hurting the children and covered up the abuse because she knew it was wrong -- skipping the twins' doctor's appointments and keeping them home from school.
She had taken custody of the twins - who were born to a crack-addicted mother - shortly after they were born, raising them in addition to her three biological children.
A week before Jazzmin died, Davis was granted legal guardianship of the twins.
But Jallepalli said during Davis' trial that there was a clear difference in how she treated her niece and nephew.
The twins were not allowed to eat with her biological children and were not given the same food, if any at all, he said.
Davis would also lock the pair in a closet for long periods of time, forcing them to urinate and defecate on the floor.
When the twins were about 9 years old, Davis began beating them with belts.
Jallepalli said during the trial that over the years, Davis used electrical cords, a wooden rod and a belt with an attached padlock to beat the children and sometimes burned them with an iron.
As the beatings escalated, Davis stopped taking her nephew to doctor appointments to be treated for sickle cell anemia. In the year before Jazzmin's death, she also kept the teen home from school and even kept her from leaving the house, Jallepalli said.
Social workers who monitored the twins' care throughout their lives never noticed or reported the abuse, attorneys said.
The San Francisco Human Services Agency, which was in charge of overseeing the twins' care, agreed last year to a $4 million settlement with Jazzmin's brother.
The Antioch Unified School District agreed to settle with the teen for $750,000 and has implemented changes to its attendance policy.
Before handing down the sentence in Contra Costa County Superior Court today, Judge Susanne Fenstermache heard emotional statements from several of Davis' family members, who requested leniency.
"I've known her all my life, and I know that she's not a monster ... we will continue to pray for her and support her," said one man, Davis' cousin.
Jallepalli read two letters from other family members of the twins addressed to the court, including an aunt who wrote, "I can't begin to imagine how my niece felt during that last attack ... please have no mercy for sentencing."
The prosecutor also read entries from Jazzmin's journal in the months leading up to her death in which she wrote how much she loved her foster mother and wanted to make her happy.
In a later entry, Jazzmin described being "in big trouble" for failing to clean the bathroom.
"I'm going to lose all my privileges and end up in the same position I started in ... I'm so confused ... someone help," she wrote. Before handing down the sentence, the judge told Davis that she didn't consider her a monster.
"This is a sad day for everyone," Fenstermache said. "I know you wish you could undo this ... but it's been done."
Davis will be 69 years old when she becomes eligible for parole, attorneys said.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8493857
Shemeeka Davis, 41, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the torture and murder of 15-year-old Jazzmin Davis and to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the torture of her twin brother, who survived years of abuse.
Davis, the aunt of Jazzmin and her brother, wept loudly throughout today's hearing and as the sentence was handed down.
"I'd like to say that I'm very sorry," she said between sobs. "This was never my intention ... and I wish I could change everything."
On Sept. 2, 2008, Jazzmin's naked, gaunt and scarred body was found on the floor inside the Antioch home where for years, the only mother she had known abused her and her brother.
Police said that when she died, the teen was 5 foot 7 feet tall and weighed about 78 pounds.
A coroner's report found that she died from a combination of repeated physical abuse and malnutrition, Deputy District Attorney Satish Jallepalli said.
Jazzmin's twin brother was also found to be scarred and severely malnourished, but survived and testified during Davis' trial last summer.
At the end of the trial last June, a jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder, torture and felony child abuse charges and found her legally sane at the time she committed the crimes, despite her dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.
Defense attorney Betty Barker argued throughout the trial that Davis suffers from severe mental illnesses, including psychotic delusions, which prevented her from forming the intent to torture the twins.
Jallepalli agreed that Davis is mentally ill, but argued that she chose to keep hurting the children and covered up the abuse because she knew it was wrong -- skipping the twins' doctor's appointments and keeping them home from school.
She had taken custody of the twins - who were born to a crack-addicted mother - shortly after they were born, raising them in addition to her three biological children.
A week before Jazzmin died, Davis was granted legal guardianship of the twins.
But Jallepalli said during Davis' trial that there was a clear difference in how she treated her niece and nephew.
The twins were not allowed to eat with her biological children and were not given the same food, if any at all, he said.
Davis would also lock the pair in a closet for long periods of time, forcing them to urinate and defecate on the floor.
When the twins were about 9 years old, Davis began beating them with belts.
Jallepalli said during the trial that over the years, Davis used electrical cords, a wooden rod and a belt with an attached padlock to beat the children and sometimes burned them with an iron.
As the beatings escalated, Davis stopped taking her nephew to doctor appointments to be treated for sickle cell anemia. In the year before Jazzmin's death, she also kept the teen home from school and even kept her from leaving the house, Jallepalli said.
Social workers who monitored the twins' care throughout their lives never noticed or reported the abuse, attorneys said.
The San Francisco Human Services Agency, which was in charge of overseeing the twins' care, agreed last year to a $4 million settlement with Jazzmin's brother.
The Antioch Unified School District agreed to settle with the teen for $750,000 and has implemented changes to its attendance policy.
Before handing down the sentence in Contra Costa County Superior Court today, Judge Susanne Fenstermache heard emotional statements from several of Davis' family members, who requested leniency.
"I've known her all my life, and I know that she's not a monster ... we will continue to pray for her and support her," said one man, Davis' cousin.
Jallepalli read two letters from other family members of the twins addressed to the court, including an aunt who wrote, "I can't begin to imagine how my niece felt during that last attack ... please have no mercy for sentencing."
The prosecutor also read entries from Jazzmin's journal in the months leading up to her death in which she wrote how much she loved her foster mother and wanted to make her happy.
In a later entry, Jazzmin described being "in big trouble" for failing to clean the bathroom.
"I'm going to lose all my privileges and end up in the same position I started in ... I'm so confused ... someone help," she wrote. Before handing down the sentence, the judge told Davis that she didn't consider her a monster.
"This is a sad day for everyone," Fenstermache said. "I know you wish you could undo this ... but it's been done."
Davis will be 69 years old when she becomes eligible for parole, attorneys said.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8493857
Colorado appeals court allows abused siblings to sue social workers
By Felisa Cardona
Three siblings severely abused in the home of their biological mother and later in foster care can pursue their lawsuit against Adams County social workers who allegedly failed to protect them and deceived their adoptive parents about the extent of their problems, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
In the summer of 2002, the siblings — then ages 9, 6 and 3 — were adopted by a couple who only learned about the history of abuse on the eve of the adoption. The children were engaging in incestuous acts with each other, and one of them had to be removed from their home because she was suicidal.
The fallout of the abuse was so egregious that the adoptive parents installed alarms in the children's rooms to prevent them from abusing each other. The couple ended up divorcing, blaming the failure of the marriage on the stress caused by the children's emotional problems.
The names of the parents and siblings are being withheld by The Denver Post because the children are victims of sexual abuse and naming their adoptive parents would identify them.
The adoptive parents sued the Adams County Department of Social Services, asserting that social workers had a duty to fully disclose the background of the children. But the parents lost their case when a jury decided that the social workers were not "willful and wanton" in failing to inform them of the history of abuse.
Thursday's ruling allows lawyers for the children to proceed to trial with different claims — that the siblings' rights to be free from harm were violated by the workers entrusted to protect them.
"Evidence was presented at the first trial about the extraordinary challenges these children would face as a result of the defendants' conduct, and unfortunately it all seems to be coming to pass," said attorney Jordan Factor, who argued the case at the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Adams County argued that the social workers, Joan Forsmark, Cathy O'Donnell and Angela Lytle, were protected from the lawsuit by the state's governmental immunity law.
The court disagreed and concluded that Lytle, who as a division director of child welfare supervised O'Donnell and Forsmark, acted "recklessly."
"Lytle increased the children's vulnerability to the danger by not preparing the (adoptive parents) to deal with their extraordinary emotional needs, and by continuing to support the children's adoption as a sibling group, despite the revelations of incest, which distinguished them from the type of children the (adoptive parents) had indicated they were ready to adopt," the court's opinion reads. "This conduct put the children at substantial risk of serious, immediate, and proximate harm that was known to or suspected by Lytle at the time of the adoption. Such allegations show that Lytle acted recklessly in conscious disregard of that risk. And such conduct, when viewed in total, is conscience shocking."
Adams County Attorney Hal Warren declined to comment on the merits of the claims because the case is heading to trial.
Warren is reviewing the court's ruling to decide whether an appeal to the state Supreme Court is possible.
O'Donnell is still employed by the county. Forsmark has since retired. Lytle works for the Arapahoe County Department of Human Services.
The decision Thursday comes a month after a federal judge ruled that social workers in Denver were not immune from a lawsuit in the case of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, who was starved to death by his foster parents.
In that case, the judge noted the neglect of Chandler by social services was also "conscious-shocking" and that a complaint of child abuse made by a teacher's aide a month before his death was not thoroughly investigated by Denver Human Services.
Factor, one of the siblings' lawyers in the Adams County case, said he hopes the rulings will have an impact on the quality of care for children.
"Each circumstance is a little different, and this adds to the mix of circumstances in which the courts consistently say that children in the custody of the state of Colorado have a right to be kept safe from harm," he said. "It is a case that has an opportunity to do real justice."
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19685387
Three siblings severely abused in the home of their biological mother and later in foster care can pursue their lawsuit against Adams County social workers who allegedly failed to protect them and deceived their adoptive parents about the extent of their problems, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
In the summer of 2002, the siblings — then ages 9, 6 and 3 — were adopted by a couple who only learned about the history of abuse on the eve of the adoption. The children were engaging in incestuous acts with each other, and one of them had to be removed from their home because she was suicidal.
The fallout of the abuse was so egregious that the adoptive parents installed alarms in the children's rooms to prevent them from abusing each other. The couple ended up divorcing, blaming the failure of the marriage on the stress caused by the children's emotional problems.
The names of the parents and siblings are being withheld by The Denver Post because the children are victims of sexual abuse and naming their adoptive parents would identify them.
The adoptive parents sued the Adams County Department of Social Services, asserting that social workers had a duty to fully disclose the background of the children. But the parents lost their case when a jury decided that the social workers were not "willful and wanton" in failing to inform them of the history of abuse.
Thursday's ruling allows lawyers for the children to proceed to trial with different claims — that the siblings' rights to be free from harm were violated by the workers entrusted to protect them.
"Evidence was presented at the first trial about the extraordinary challenges these children would face as a result of the defendants' conduct, and unfortunately it all seems to be coming to pass," said attorney Jordan Factor, who argued the case at the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Adams County argued that the social workers, Joan Forsmark, Cathy O'Donnell and Angela Lytle, were protected from the lawsuit by the state's governmental immunity law.
The court disagreed and concluded that Lytle, who as a division director of child welfare supervised O'Donnell and Forsmark, acted "recklessly."
"Lytle increased the children's vulnerability to the danger by not preparing the (adoptive parents) to deal with their extraordinary emotional needs, and by continuing to support the children's adoption as a sibling group, despite the revelations of incest, which distinguished them from the type of children the (adoptive parents) had indicated they were ready to adopt," the court's opinion reads. "This conduct put the children at substantial risk of serious, immediate, and proximate harm that was known to or suspected by Lytle at the time of the adoption. Such allegations show that Lytle acted recklessly in conscious disregard of that risk. And such conduct, when viewed in total, is conscience shocking."
Adams County Attorney Hal Warren declined to comment on the merits of the claims because the case is heading to trial.
Warren is reviewing the court's ruling to decide whether an appeal to the state Supreme Court is possible.
O'Donnell is still employed by the county. Forsmark has since retired. Lytle works for the Arapahoe County Department of Human Services.
The decision Thursday comes a month after a federal judge ruled that social workers in Denver were not immune from a lawsuit in the case of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, who was starved to death by his foster parents.
In that case, the judge noted the neglect of Chandler by social services was also "conscious-shocking" and that a complaint of child abuse made by a teacher's aide a month before his death was not thoroughly investigated by Denver Human Services.
Factor, one of the siblings' lawyers in the Adams County case, said he hopes the rulings will have an impact on the quality of care for children.
"Each circumstance is a little different, and this adds to the mix of circumstances in which the courts consistently say that children in the custody of the state of Colorado have a right to be kept safe from harm," he said. "It is a case that has an opportunity to do real justice."
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19685387
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