Court revokes Michigan Children's Institute guardianship

Bill Johnson, Superintendent of MCI

Bill Johnson, Superintendent of the infamous Michigan Children's Institute, has filed an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court because the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the paternal grandmother of four children was granted guardianship as his guardianship was revoked.

I do believe this is the first time the Court has revoked the legal powers of MCI.

Out of respect of the people involved, I will not publish the MCI appeal at this time, but I will be using a few choice demonstratives when commenting on the legal arguments.

Daniel Beaton, the Assistant Attorney General who always represents Bill Johnson, is a rather nice man but can lie his ass off in a courtroom.  He is good.  That is why Bill Johnson always wins.  But this time is a different story.

The grandmother applied to for adoption and was denied but applied for legal guardianship and was approved upon appeal.  Brilliant.

Bill Johnson went to the Court of Appeals and was thrown out.

Now, he goes to his buddy Maura Corrigan's (former Chief Justice of Michigan Supreme Court and current Director of Department of Human Services) old stomping grounds, the Michigan Supreme Court to cry the blues about the beginning of the end of his omnipotent reign.

Bill Johnson wants to cry the blues that he was not party to the case and had his guardianship stripped.

First of all, the state was just released from federal monitoring of relative preference placements, so Bill is violating a federal settlement agreement.  

Second, there is no law which states that a person who has guardianship must adopt.

Third, Bill Johnson completely ignored the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.  He overrode the decision of another state governor.

Bill Johnson is the legal guardian for more than 7,000 children.  How can he possibly know what the best interests of the children are without third party knowledge?  

Michigan Children's Institute is a 3 man circus that is an absolute waste of taxpayers dollars.  It is about time judges of Michigan's bench and start making decisions.  Let the people who actually care for kids be the guardians and tell Bill to go far away.

Bill Johnson is one of the last paleo-conservatives of chattel law.  I expect him to be denied his petition for leave to appeal.

Michigan Court of Appeals Overturns Wayne County Judge’s Decision to Terminate Parental Rights

Regarding In the Matter of Clarmont, Minors; a respondent appealed as of right termination of her parental rights under MCL 712A.19b(3)(c)(i), (g), and (j). The Court of Appeals opinion is dated February 19, 2013. The lower court is the Wayne County Juvenile Division.

First, the respondent had an expected prison release date within a span of only five months. In establishing grounds for termination, the petitioner wholly relied upon the respondent’s criminal history and substance abuse (which occurred before the commencement of the child protection hearings); the fact that she was imprisoned; and also the difficulties she would face after her release date.

However, In re Mason held that imprisonment with a possible release date in less than two years plus the respondent having a criminal history are not alone sufficient grounds for termination under MCL 712A.19b(3)(c)(i), (g), and (j) except under specific circumstances not implicated in this case. In Mason, the Court found significant factors like the respondent maintaining contact with his children through the exchange of cards through the mail; the respondent also engaged in prison services; and he lined up housing and employment for after  his release from imprisonment.

In the instant case, the respondent was required to have a relative sponsor in the state to acquire an interstate compact and transfer of her probation to Michigan. Due to this, the respondent had not yet arranged housing that would enable her to care for her children. Furthermore, an unknown factor was whether respondent would be able to find post-release employment and housing.

Yet, similar to Mason, the respondent completed all available prison services including parenting classes. Moreover, the respondent sent monthly letters to her children. A corrections officer even testified that the respondent did not exhibit any serious behavioral issues in prison—and that she earned all available good time. Notably, the respondent had a nonviolent criminal history that was not directly related to her parenting ability as well. Only limited evidence was introduced by the petitioner pertaining to the respondent’s parenting ability prior to incarceration. Moreover, the caseworker admitted to not evaluating the respondent’s current parenting skills either.

The Court of Appeals found the termination premature under Mason. The trial court clearly erred in finding statutory grounds for termination. Therefore, the case was reversed and remanded.

Also, the Court stated the children should be temporary wards of the court while reunification or termination efforts are ongoing with more information required concerning the respondent’s ability to provide proper care to her children in a reasonable time after her release from prison. Additionally, the Court noted that separation related to the imprisonment weakened the child/parent bond, and that the children would benefit from permanence. Therefore, the lower court did not clearly err in its best-interest determination.

With nearly one hundred years of combined experience, the attorneys of Kronzek and Cronkright, PLLC, aggressively protect the parental rights of clients all across the lower peninsula of Michigan, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Port Huron, Flint, Detroit, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, and more.

Michigan Children's Institute Sued For Fraud?

The individual responsible for adoption fraud in Michigan is none other than the Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute, Bill Johnson.

Michigan Children's Institute need to be dismantled.  I am hoping someone will send me the complaint so I can post it.  I sincerely hope Bill Johnson was named as a defendant.

What really has alluded me in logic of Children's Rights settlement with Michigan is there is no where to be found in any of the court proceedings, mention of MCI or Bill Johnson.  Situations of children under state care are absolutely horrific and no one is really telling it like it is.

As an original source, I can attest that what is in this complaint is completely true, not having read it.  Why, one may ask?  Because I live with the irreparable harm every single day.

Even though the case highlights the lack of mental health assistance of these children, more needs to be done to expose and end the fraud schemes created to maximize revenue at the expense of all children of Bill Johnson.

If DHS falsified records for adoption, then you can bet your bottom dollar DHS lied about removals, placements, cost reimbursements and its federal audits.

DHS Director Maura Corrigan is a brilliant and refined liar.

8 families in Ingham, Clinton counties expected to sue DHS for adoption fraud

Child welfare offices in Ingham and Clinton counties are among several public and private agencies named in a lawsuit expected to be filed Thursday alleging social workers lied to adoptive parents of special needs children about their kids’ disabilities and denied them funding available for parents of disabled children.

Eight families with 17 adopted children and two biological children said Wednesday they are planning to sue the Department of Human Services, alleging deceit and violation of federal law going back 20 years. They are seeking more than $13 million in back Social Security assistance and other damages, said David Kallman, the Lansing attorney representing the families.

“The parents in this case were assured that the children they were adopting were physically and mentally healthy,” Kallman said in a statement. “DHS workers knew and documented that this was not the case. As a result, these families were, and continue to be, irreparably harmed.”

Some of the parents specifically stated they would not be willing to adopt children with significant mental, emotional or physical disabilities, according to the complaint.

The suit names Gov. Rick Snyder, DHS Director Maura Corrigan and several other DHS officials.

DHS spokesman Dave Akerly released the following statement today.

“DHS has already prevailed in the majority of cases referenced by this attorney at the administrative level, and Michigan courts on review have repeatedly ruled in DHS’ favor in most of these cases. Because DHS takes all issues of child safety seriously, the state Attorney General’s office — on behalf of DHS — met with Mr. Kallman regarding his allegations this past August. Subsequently, the Attorney General’s Office has requested information from Mr. Kallman to assist with this matter, thus far to no avail."

Ingham County DHS could not be reached for comment. Clinton County DHS referred questions to the state.

Kallman alleges adoption agencies and social workers in seven cases covered up or lied about the level of abuse and neglect the children endured before being removed from their birth parents. Kallman also accuses DHS of denying all eight families access to Social Security funds through an adoption assistance program called Title IV-E, designed to support families who adopt children with special needs.

“These families love their kids,” Kallman said. “They want to care for their kids. But one family, for example, is literally destitute. They’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for help and psychologists, things that state should have been paying for.”

Supporting documents for the lawsuit include disturbing descriptions of the conditions in which the children allegedly lived and the abuse they suffered prior to their placement in the foster care system.

In the Ingham County case, for example, the complaint alleges workers documented extreme neglect of three siblings in 1994, including an infant sleeping beneath bags of garbage, dead rodents throughout the home and children walking around in nothing but urine-soaked diapers.

“Mushrooms grew in the toilet and nails stuck up from the bathroom floor,” according to the documents. “They sucked spoiled milk from bottles. While the workers were there, the garbage in the crib moved and an infant was discovered in the crib.”

Despite the conditions in the home, the workers left the children with their birth parents for another six months, according to the lawsuit, then falsified documents to cover up the children’s history of abuse and neglect before they were adopted.

The lawsuit alleges the abuse caused severe emotional and behavioral disorders in the children, including violence disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome and reactive attachment disorder — which is a rare but severe psychiatric illness often caused by abuse that limits a child’s ability to bond with others or to feel empathy. The children all displayed signs of sexual abuse. One of the children was deemed “legally incapacitated” as a teenager and will never be able to care for herself, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit is another hit for DHS, which is still under federal oversight following a lawsuit by a group called Children’s Rights. That lawsuit accused the state of neglecting children in its child welfare system, including failure to adequately assess and treat psychological, behavioral and emotional issues.

Michigan Quo Warranto Petition Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Is privatizing foster care bad for kids and costing you more money?

Am I the only one screaming for federal intervention?

Is privatizing foster care bad for kids and costing you more money?

Ask Bill Johnson.

(WXYZ) - A grandma has been fighting the state to get her grandkids out of foster care for years. A great aunt has been trying to do the same for her niece. But both have been met with strong resistance—and it may be a matter of money.

The state pays private agencies to handle most foster care adoptions. By law, they are supposed to make placing foster children with extended family members a priority. But 7 Action News has found some cases where relatives say the agencies may be putting profits ahead of policy – and this can cut kids off from family forever. 

When Lori Scribner found out her grandchildren were put in foster care after the state declared their parents unfit, she came forward to claim them. 

“I have been telling them I want them all along,” says Scribner. 

But she also was told that she needed a bigger home for her four grandkids. So she bought a five-bedroom ranch with a pool. 

“That’s one of the things they love most is swimming,” says Scribner. 

Then she was told she had to earn more money. The registered nurse came out of semi-retirement and went back to work full-time.

“So I could support the kids. I understood that,” Scribner says. 

Scribner also says she has spent $50,000 in legal fees and other costs fighting for her grandkids. But she still faces the prospect of never seeing them again. 

“There was nothing I could do that they would let them come,” she says. 

Micky Gordon says she’s been fighting a system that seems set on breaking family bonds. The Department of Human Services (DHS), and the private agency it contracts, approved another couple to adopt her great niece who’s in foster care. 

“I feel like I have been living under a bully mentality," says Gordon, who is a social worker in Oklahoma, and is very familiar with foster care. She and her husband have foster-parented dozens of kids and adopted two of them. 

“My credentials are impeccable,” insists Gordon, who says she has spent about $30,000 in legal fees fighting to adopt her niece and has no plans to stop. 

“I’m not going away. She’s coming home to her family,” says Gordon.

The law is on their side.

“Both federal and state law require that the agency and the court give priority to relatives seeking placement of children in foster care,” says attorney Vivek Sankaran, who heads the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy and is an expert on child welfare law.

Sankaran says, “Systemic road blocks are created, license, home-study requirements, criminal background checks take time. By the time these checks are done, the child is living somewhere else.”

Scribner and Micky suspect this is about more than just bureaucratic red tape

“I think a lot of it has to do with these agencies earning money,” says Scribner.

DHS contracts with private agencies to handle foster care adoptions. But DHS wouldn’t talk to 7 Action News because Scribner’s and Gordon’s cases are being litigated.

The private agencies also wouldn’t talk about their cases, citing adoption confidentiality laws. But they did tell us that a child’s welfare is their top priority.

Scribner and Gordon aren’t buying it. They point to the current contract between DHS and the private agencies. The agencies get between $5,400 and $11,500 per adoption. The faster they get a child adopted, the more money the agency receives.

“We’re moving way too fast into adoption, close that deal, show me the money,” says Gordon.

Gordon and Scribner have something in common that would mean less money for the agencies. Both live in other states. For out-of-state adoptions, private agencies in Michigan get $3,500 tops.

“The whole system is set up to give the children away, and pay other people to take care of them when family is right there,” says Scribner.

In fact, the state would have saved more than $330,000 had the private agencies placed the children in Scribner’s and Gordon’s cases with them.

The state gives foster and adoptive parents $14.24 a day to care for a child until they turn 18-years-old. Scribner and Gordon say they told the agencies they didn’t want the subsidy, they just want their loved ones.

“I told the adoption worker with the agency, look, we’re not asking for your money,” says Gordon.

A recent study put together by a former county DHS director shows that it costs more for the state to pay private agencies to manage foster care than to have the state do it.

The report shows that for a state case worker to manage 18 foster care cases, it costs about $174,590 a year. That’s compared to about $297,087 for a private agency worker to handle the same case load.

Meanwhile Scribner and Gordon are not giving up.

“There are days you just sit and cry because you don’t know what’s happening,” says Scribner. “You don’t know anything about the kids and the more that they stonewall you, the more you think something must be wrong.”

In Scribner’s case, court records show the private agency had their recruited couple apply to adopt her grandkids—while, at the same time, they were telling Scriber that

the children were not available for adoption.

“The only thing they will tell you is you can’t have them,” says Scribner.

DHS admitted in court records that Scribner is a “loving, caring, nurturing and suitable care-giver,” but that the kids should be adopted by the agencies recruited couple since the children had already bonded with them.

Attorney Sankaran says he has seen agencies drag out the placement process and then argue it’s in the best interest of the child to stay with the recruited family.

By the time these checks are done, the child is living somewhere else and then bonding and things of that nature are brought up as the reason to keep kids away from family,” says Sankaran.

Bonding was the key reason in both Scribner’s and Gordon’s cases for not letting them have their loved ones.

“Do you think the agency purposely delayed this process?” Catallo asked Gordon.

“It certainly does appear that way,” says Gordon 

To be clear, a judge has the final say, but rarely goes against a DHS recommendation. And children can be cut off from family forever. 

“I want the kids to know that we fought and we tried everything to get them that we could,” Scribner says through tears. 

After 7 Action News contacted DHS about Scribner’s and Gordon’s cases, Scribner got a letter.

It says DHS is now reconsidering their decision to deny Scribner adoption of her grandkids. The letter also says it is looking at new information and will issue a new decision in 30 days.

Gordon’s hearing to challenge DHS’s decision is still ongoing.

We’ll stay on these stories and tell you the outcome of both.

Beverly Tran Nominated As Michigan Child Welfare Advocate The Year

NOMINATE BEVERLY TRAN:

MICHIGAN'S

CHILD WELFARE 

ADVOCATE 

OF

THE

YEAR

Beverly Tran

It looks like we have another child abuse propaganda campaign going on over here!

That's right folks.  Since it looks like there is going to be a significant influx of kiddies into the foster care system beginning October 1, 2011, ole Maura Corrigan has revved up the campaign to justify Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

Jim Novell is giving out the awards to those who advocate for child welfare?  Well, it is only proper to nominate me.  Yes, that's right.  Jim and I are dear friends, going all the way back to 2001.

Since it is an obviously a minor oversight, I felt compelled to make this minor correction by pointing out that Jim forgot to include a category for community advocates, as commonly referred to by law.

More than likely, Jim and Maura did not include this category for there is only one person from the community who arduously advocates for child welfare.  Me.

I encourage each and everyone on my fans to nominate me.  It really does not matter which category you choose, just nominate me.   Let them know that Beverly Tran is on a mission...

Michigan Foster Care Review Board Child Welfare Awards

NOTE: Whenever it asks for address, always list my cyber address:  http://beverlytran.com  and you can take it from there.

Feel free to include my email: tranbeverly@gmail.com  and number: 313-312-5195

The Morbidity of Child Abuse Propaganda

The Wayne County Juvenile Court, the infamous Lincoln Hall of Justice, is changing its policies.  Isn't that sweet.  It is now saying "judge" must sign the orders for removal of a child.

I am quite sure Kelly Ramsey, Referee and Board Member of Child's Hope over there at University of Michigan Dearborn, who was removed from the bench and put behind the desk in the capacity of head honcha, far away from the purview of the public, is pretty pissed right now as she was the lead person who encouraged rubber stamping of judges and even referees.

What I find as a gross morbidity of child abuse propaganda is the entire concept of judicial oversight.   People have forgotten who was the top dog in Michigan of the courts.  Maura Corrigan.  And where is Maura now? Girlfriend did a lateral shift right over to the Michigan Department of Human Services to do damage control of the gross morbidity of child abuse propaganda which allows and encourages Medicaid fraud in child welfare.  Brilliant.

The grossest morbidity of all is found in the minds of the people who have not even considered what has happened to the children and original parents who have been victim to rubber stamping and generation of false reports to the courts.  Considering the fact the it is only in Wayne County that the Attorney General prosecutes these cases, you would think they would know better than to allow rubber stamping to go on in the court.  

Then, you know the Michigan Attorney General went on to fight these rubber stamps all the way up to the Supreme Court where Maura "Cash Cow" Corrigan presided over these cases.  You really do not have to guess how she ruled because most of them never saw the light of day.

The results of rubber stamping are termination of parental rights and Medicaid fraud.  The gross morbidity is that nothing will happen to anyone except the children.

I encourage everyone to contact Referee Kelly Ramsey and thank her for her dedicated work in promoting the gross morbidity of child abuse propaganda.... and make sure you tell her beverlytran.com sent you.

Child's Hope

The Child Abuse Prevention Council of Out Wayne County

19000 Hubbard Drive. Suite 264. Dearborn MI. 48126. 

P: 313-583-6401         F: 313-583-6402

office@childshope.org

Kelly... I'm on a mission...

The Action News Investigators broke the story about how Wayne County Juvenile Court rubber stamps orders that allow the state to take kids from parents. Now, the court is changing the policy so that a judge must sign the order before a child is taken away. The change came just one day after the highly-publicized Maryanne Godboldo case in which a judge scofffed at the order used to remove her child. LK: http://legallykidnapped.blogspot.com/#ixzz1WvIcVoze

  

 

How Not To Hide A Secret Love Child - Baby LK Report For May 29th 2011

Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry.