Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Fairfax County CPS SocialWorker accused of Fabricating Child Abuse allegations.



On Aug 27, 3:46 pm, Greegor wrote:
> Please archive.
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.child-protective-services/...
>
> cindyjohns...@... Aug 26, 11:48 am
>
> Newsgroups: alt.support.child-protective-services
> From: cindyjohns...@...
> Subject: Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating,
> Child .ual Abuse allegations.
>
> Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating, Child .ual
> Abuse allegations.
>
> http://virginiachildabuse.com/
>
> http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html
>
> NEWS RELEASE
> Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007
>
> A complaint has been filed with the Department of FamilyServicesfor
> the dismissal of CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss
> Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of FamilyServices. Also
> filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms.
> Traore has been involved in.
>
> Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children
> aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & .ual abuse allegations against
> their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick
> off
> a criminal and civil campaign against the father.
>
> When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews,
> Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record
> subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore. In a recovered audio
> tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by
> suggesting
> to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to
> her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area,
> those
> are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the
> interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and
> daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the
> children).
>
> Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective
> order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she
> "knew
> or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least
> questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into
> making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by
> this reporter. Read More... How Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker
> fabricated child abuse.
>
> In an audio tape obtained from the CPS,Socialworker Ms Traore is
> heard coaching and asking leading questions
>
> http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html
>
> Is Gerry Connolly Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors a
> Child Abuser? Is he a .ual Abuser. Did he .ually Abuse his
> Daughter Caitlin Connolly?
>
> According to Fairfax County Child ProtectiveServicesSocialWorker
> Ms. Shannon Traore who investigated several people for child abuse,
> She has found by a preponderance of evidence among many that the
> Chairman of the Board of Supervisor Mr. Gerry Connolly to have
> .ually abused his daughter Caitlin Connolly. Her boss Elizebeth
> Spell at CPS seems to agree with her.
>
> Why would she find Gerry or for that matter any other prominent
> citizens to be child abusers? How did the Child ProtectiveServices
> come to this conclusion? Is thisSocialworker a sick pervert, Is she
> out of her mind? How is it possible for a prominent and outstanding
> citizen of Fairfax county, a loving father of Caitlin Connolly to be
> found to have .ually abused his own daughter. Well, Gerry Connolly
> had touched his daughter's genitals and her bikini area in the bath
> tub when she was three years old while giving her a bath. And those
> are bad touches... And our chairman becomes a pervert and a
> pedophile..Parents should not be doing bad touches.... and according
> to CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore those people are guilty of
> .ually abusing their children. Parents are not allowed to touch
> their children in their genital area while giving them a bath. By this
> definition thisSocialworker becomes the thought police finding
> anyone in Fairfax County to be .ual Abusers. Her target mostly are
> fathers in child custody situations.
>
> Please listen to the following audio recording before reading
> further :
>
> Interview of a 5 year old girl by CPS worker Ms. Shannon Traore
>
> Interview of a 7 Year old girl by the CPS Ms. Shannon Traore.
>
> Continuation...... 5 year old interview by Ms. Traore.
>
> picture1 -socialworker Ms. Traore used this picture as evidence to
> prevent a parent from having contact with his daughter. This is the
> most dammning evidence of physical abuse of the child that she could
> get. - She was preventing anyone from accessing this photo as
> evidence.
>
> Picture 2 - This is the next damming picture of physical abuse.
>
> SocialWorker refused to talk with Credible Witnesses who have seen
> the children on the day that she claims the children were abused.
>
> see affidavit of Paul Thomas and affidavit of Lasantha Weidende a
> professional with security clearance.
>
> Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating, Child .ual
> Abuse allegations.
>
> NEWS RELEASE
> Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007
>
> A complaint has been filed with the Department of FamilyServicesfor
> the dismissal of CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss
> Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of FamilyServices. Also
> filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms.
> Traore has been involved in.
>
> Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children
> aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & .ual abuse allegations against
> their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick off
> a criminal and civil campaign against the father.
>
> When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews,
> Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record
> subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore. In a recovered audio
> tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by suggesting
> to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to
> her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area, those
> are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the
> interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and
> daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the
> children).
>
> Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective
> order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she "knew
> or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least
> questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into
> making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by
> this reporter. Read More... How Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker
> fabricated child abuse.
>
> In an audio tape obtained from the CPS,Socialworker Ms Traore is
> heard coaching and asking leading questions
>
> How Child Protectiveservicesworks
> National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road
> (Suite 202) / Alexandria, Va., 22314 / i...@nccpr.org /www.nccpr.org
>
> CPS False Accusations
>
> KIDJACKED - How CPS Seizes control of a child , by use of force.
>
> Nazi Germany or America? Our granddaughter - age 2 =BD years old was
> kidnapped and abducted by C.P.S. workers
>
> Parent's Worst Nightmare - This is Child Protection?
>
> "Most of the time, I was taking their kids away for no good reason" --
> A New York City CPS worker
>
> ( Amy Pagnozzi, "HRA Insider: I Took Kids From Parents For No Good
> Reason," New York Post, February 4, 1991, p.7 )
>
> COVER- Saving Sarah: Satan worship, . abuse, and Dr. Martin Stein
>
> Published October 16, 2003 in issue #0241 of The Hook
>
> By COURTENEY STUART STU...@READTHEHOOK.COM
>
> The little girl's memories were vivid and horrifying: being .d by
> her father at age two, watching her father and stepmother bury animals
> alive in satanic rituals, and seeing babies boiling in a cauldron
> while adults stirred the pot. But were they true?
>
> The Albemarle County Department ofSocialServicesbelieved enough of
> them to rule against her father and put his name in the central
> registry of child abusers. While the child was clearly tortured by
> those memories, she wasn't the only one in pain. Today, that little
> girl's father, Tom Manuel, and his wife, Kathleen, know firsthand what
> hell is like, but it's not because they worship Satan. They say the
> instrument of their suffering resides right here on earth and goes by
> the name Dr. Martin Stein.
>
> The trouble starts
>
> Tom Manuel remembers exactly when his nightmare began: three days
> before he was due to pick up his then-12-year-old daughter, Sarah, for
> Christmas vacation. With no warning, Tom and his new wife, Kathleen,
> received a letter from his ex-wife's attorney denying them all
> visitation with Sarah. For months, Tom and Kathleen-- whose son, Jack,
> was then just seven months old-- fought to learn why his visits had
> been terminated. In April 1994, they got a terrifying answer: Sarah
> had memories of the couple participating in grotesque satanic rituals.
> Even worse, she claimed her father had .ually abused her from her
> earliest years.
>
> Three-year-old Sarah, years before the trouble started.
>
> Things hadn't always been bad between Sarah and her father, however.
>
> Tom and Sarah's mother divorced when Sarah was four, but for two years
> all three continued to reside in Charlottesville. Tom and Sarah, by
> both of their accounts, continued to enjoy a close relationship and
> did so for several years after the divorce, even after Sarah and her
> mother moved out of town.
>
> Sarah, now a woman finishing college in northern Virginia, says the
> serious problems began after her mother remarried.
>
> Sarah became depressed and her mother sought psychiatric treatment for
> her. At age 10, Sarah was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder
> and soon after was hospitalized for an emotional disturbance. Though
> her mother divorced her second husband, Sarah's troubles weren't
> over.
>
> When Sarah was released from inpatient treatment at Dominion Hospital
> in Falls Church, her mother, Susan Jones, switched her daughter's
> treatment to Martin Stein, a well known psychiatrist who, according to
> the Virginia Board of Medicine's records, has a medical degree from
> Yale.
>
> Things quickly went ...
>
> read more =BB

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1281689,00.html

Fran Lyon false allegation MSbP unborn child to be taken at birth

GMTV Tomorrow 30th August

Virginia USA audio of caseworker coaching and leading interview
Please archive.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.child-protective-services/...

cindyjohns...@gmail.com Aug 26, 11:48 am

Newsgroups: alt.support.child-protective-services
From: cindyjohns...@gmail.com
Subject: Fairfax County CPS Social Worker accused of Fabricating,
Child Sexual Abuse allegations.

Fairfax County CPS Social Worker accused of Fabricating, Child Sexual
Abuse allegations.

http://virginiachildabuse.com/

http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html

NEWS RELEASE
Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007

A complaint has been filed with the Department of Family Services for
the dismissal of CPS social worker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss
Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of Family Services. Also
filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms.
Traore has been involved in.

Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children
aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & sexual abuse allegations against
their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick
off
a criminal and civil campaign against the father.

When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews,
Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record
subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore. In a recovered audio
tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by
suggesting
to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to
her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area,
those
are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the
interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and
daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the
children).

Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective
order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she
"knew
or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least
questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into
making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by
this reporter. Read More... How Fairfax County CPS Social Worker
fabricated child abuse.

In an audio tape obtained from the CPS, Social worker Ms Traore is
heard coaching and asking leading questions

http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html

Is Gerry Connolly Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors a
Child Abuser? Is he a Sexual Abuser. Did he Sexually Abuse his
Daughter Caitlin Connolly?

According to Fairfax County Child Protective Services Social Worker
Ms. Shannon Traore who investigated several people for child abuse,
She has found by a preponderance of evidence among many that the
Chairman of the Board of Supervisor Mr. Gerry Connolly to have
sexually abused his daughter Caitlin Connolly. Her boss Elizebeth
Spell at CPS seems to agree with her.

Why would she find Gerry or for that matter any other prominent
citizens to be child abusers? How did the Child Protective Services
come to this conclusion? Is this Social worker a sick pervert, Is she
out of her mind? How is it possible for a prominent and outstanding
citizen of Fairfax county, a loving father of Caitlin Connolly to be
found to have sexually abused his own daughter. Well, Gerry Connolly
had touched his daughter's genitals and her bikini area in the bath
tub when she was three years old while giving her a bath. And those
are bad touches... And our chairman becomes a pervert and a
pedophile..Parents should not be doing bad touches.... and according
to CPS social worker Ms. Shannon Traore those people are guilty of
sexually abusing their children. Parents are not allowed to touch
their children in their genital area while giving them a bath. By this
definition this Social worker becomes the thought police finding
anyone in Fairfax County to be Sexual Abusers. Her target mostly are
fathers in child custody situations.

Please listen to the following audio recording before reading
further :

Interview of a 5 year old girl by CPS worker Ms. Shannon Traore

Interview of a 7 Year old girl by the CPS Ms. Shannon Traore.

Continuation...... 5 year old interview by Ms. Traore.

picture1 - social worker Ms. Traore used this picture as evidence to
prevent a parent from having contact with his daughter. This is the
most dammning evidence of physical abuse of the child that she could
get. - She was preventing anyone from accessing this photo as
evidence.

Picture 2 - This is the next damming picture of physical abuse.

Social Worker refused to talk with Credible Witnesses who have seen
the children on the day that she claims the children were abused.

see affidavit of Paul Thomas and affidavit of Lasantha Weidende a
professional with security clearance.

Fairfax County CPS Social Worker accused of Fabricating, Child Sexual
Abuse allegations.

NEWS RELEASE
Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007

A complaint has been filed with the Department of Family Services for
the dismissal of CPS social worker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss
Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of Family Services. Also
filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms.
Traore has been involved in.

Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children
aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & sexual abuse allegations against
their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick off
a criminal and civil campaign against the father.

When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews,
Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record
subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore. In a recovered audio
tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by suggesting
to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to
her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area, those
are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the
interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and
daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the
children).

Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective
order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she "knew
or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least
questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into
making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by
this reporter. Read More... How Fairfax County CPS Social Worker
fabricated child abuse.

In an audio tape obtained from the CPS, Social worker Ms Traore is
heard coaching and asking leading questions

How Child Protective services works
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road
(Suite 202) / Alexandria, Va., 22314 / i...@nccpr.org / www.nccpr.org

CPS False Accusations

KIDJACKED - How CPS Seizes control of a child , by use of force.

Nazi Germany or America? Our granddaughter - age 2 ½ years old was
kidnapped and abducted by C.P.S. workers

Parent's Worst Nightmare - This is Child Protection?

"Most of the time, I was taking their kids away for no good reason" --
A New York City CPS worker

( Amy Pagnozzi, "HRA Insider: I Took Kids From Parents For No Good
Reason," New York Post, February 4, 1991, p.7 )

COVER- Saving Sarah: Satan worship, sex abuse, and Dr. Martin Stein

Published October 16, 2003 in issue #0241 of The Hook

By COURTENEY STUART STU...@READTHEHOOK.COM

The little girl's memories were vivid and horrifying: being raped by
her father at age two, watching her father and stepmother bury animals
alive in satanic rituals, and seeing babies boiling in a cauldron
while adults stirred the pot. But were they true?

The Albemarle County Department of Social Services believed enough of
them to rule against her father and put his name in the central
registry of child abusers. While the child was clearly tortured by
those memories, she wasn't the only one in pain. Today, that little
girl's father, Tom Manuel, and his wife, Kathleen, know firsthand what
hell is like, but it's not because they worship Satan. They say the
instrument of their suffering resides right here on earth and goes by
the name Dr. Martin Stein.

The trouble starts

Tom Manuel remembers exactly when his nightmare began: three days
before he was due to pick up his then-12-year-old daughter, Sarah, for
Christmas vacation. With no warning, Tom and his new wife, Kathleen,
received a letter from his ex-wife's attorney denying them all
visitation with Sarah. For months, Tom and Kathleen-- whose son, Jack,
was then just seven months old-- fought to learn why his visits had
been terminated. In April 1994, they got a terrifying answer: Sarah
had memories of the couple participating in grotesque satanic rituals.
Even worse, she claimed her father had sexually abused her from her
earliest years.

Three-year-old Sarah, years before the trouble started.

Things hadn't always been bad between Sarah and her father, however.

Tom and Sarah's mother divorced when Sarah was four, but for two years
all three continued to reside in Charlottesville. Tom and Sarah, by
both of their accounts, continued to enjoy a close relationship and
did so for several years after the divorce, even after Sarah and her
mother moved out of town.

Sarah, now a woman finishing college in northern Virginia, says the
serious problems began after her mother remarried.

Sarah became depressed and her mother sought psychiatric treatment for
her. At age 10, Sarah was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder
and soon after was hospitalized for an emotional disturbance. Though
her mother divorced her second husband, Sarah's troubles weren't
over.

When Sarah was released from inpatient treatment at Dominion Hospital
in Falls Church, her mother, Susan Jones, switched her daughter's
treatment to Martin Stein, a well known psychiatrist who, according to
the Virginia Board of Medicine's records, has a medical degree from
Yale.

Things quickly went from bad to worse.

According to Sarah, Stein told Susan that Sarah's problems were
serious. But he could help.

After diagnosing Sarah with progressively more serious disorders--
depression, anxiety, separation anxiety, epilepsy, and finally
Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity
Disorder)-- he placed Sarah in his treatment program, with sessions
conducted in a space attached to his office. Sarah says the goal of
the program was to elicit repressed memories of incest and abuse.

"He was really grotesque about what he would talk about," she says.
Sarah claims that Stein showed her and the other patients pictures of
adults engaging in explicit acts of oral and anal sex, animals
copulating, and in one instance, a woman having sex with a dog.

Although she was only 11, she says that didn't stop Stein from
behaving inappropriately with her. "He was obsessed with me," she
says. "He was constantly touching me, massaging me, and talking about
my breasts." Though she says he never attempted to have sex with her,
on one occasion, she says, he placed his hand on her developing
chest.

Anyone who thinks her claims sound farfetched need look no further
than the Sunday, September 28, edition of The Washington Post. In an
extensive cover story, Stein's impact on several families is described
in horrifying detail.

In one case, Stein was separately treating several members of one
family-- a clear breach of ethics, according to the Post and a report
by the Virginia Board of Medicine.

After years of taking heavy doses of multiple drugs, one of his
patients, 49-year-old Anita Kratzke, was found dead in her bed.
According to the Post story, Stein signed the death certificate
without an autopsy, preventing any investigation into the cause of her
death. Her husband, Robert Kratzke, has permanent brain damage and has
had to relinquish his high-paying government job as an engineer.
Doctors now attribute his problems to years of heavy and inappropriate
medication prescribed by Stein. The Kratzkes' youngest son, Chris,
just seven when he began treatment with Stein, lost years of his
childhood to hospitalizations and alleged over-medication. All of this
was reported by the Washington Post and is verified by the medical
board report.

According to the Board of Medicine's report, Stein's treatment of at
least 10 patients was "contrary to sound medical advice." A layman
might put it more bluntly.

In addition to the Kratzke case, the Board reported that Stein
prescribed the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin to several
patients, including a heroin addict. He prescribed 30 different
medications to another patient without considering possible drug
interactions, failed to keep "complete and accurate records," and
encouraged that patient to sell her home and allow him to oversee her
considerable financial holdings.

Stein had sexual relations with that adult female patient and used
"hypnosis, suggestion, massage, and psychotropic medicines to evoke
memories of childhood abuse. Said memories are not corroborated and
have, in at least one instance, been disproved by objective evidence,"
the report reads.

The latter behavior corresponds closely to Sarah's description of
Stein's "program." Over the course of two years, Sarah was placed in
the program, often "from morning until night." During that time, Stein
also prescribed heavy medication for her, she says. Sarah and her
father report that under hypnosis and the simultaneous influence of as
many as 10 or 12 different prescription medicines-- including Ritalin,
Ativan, Valium, Lithium, and an epilepsy drug, Tegretol-- Sarah's
"memories" emerged.

Her mother, now living in northern Virginia, and who declined to be
interviewed for this story, was also being treated by Stein, Sarah
says, and believed in his treatment methods.

"He had my mom totally convinced of it," she says.

A loving father

While Sarah was miles away and under Stein's care, Tom and Kathleen
were getting information, little by little, about her situation. The
stress, Tom recalls as he recounts his experience, became nearly
unbearable. One afternoon, after hearing a new accusation-- that he
and Kathleen had been burying animals in their yard-- they arrived
home to find that a large hole had been dug and then filled in.

"We were shaking," says Kathleen, who explains they worried that
someone was trying to frame them. Though an explanation was
forthcoming-- the cable company had been digging on their property--
their fear didn't subside. And Sarah's accusations became ever more
bizarre.

"At one point, she said that I had worn a nursing bra and made her
nurse from me," Tom says.

In addition to recalling witnessing her grandmother having sex with
cats, Sarah said Tom and Kathleen's 1993 wedding had been a satanic
ritual, with a fire, and cult members dancing and pointing at her
while singing, "Roses are red, violets are corny, I look at you and I
get horny."

There had been a fire at their wedding, Kathleen says, but they took
the idea from a midsummer celebration at Ash Lawn in which
participants burned small bundles of straw as a symbol of putting
cares and worries behind them and starting fresh-- not quite an homage
to Lucifer.

"It was obvious to us and everyone else we knew that these allegations
couldn't be true," Kathleen says.

Unfortunately, several people believed Sarah's accusations.

"State of abject terror"

As Tom and Kathleen continued to fight for visitation, Dr. Stein took
Sarah's claims to the authorities: Albemarle County's Child Protective
Services.

The case was assigned to a social worker named Carol Goodpasture, who
went to Fairfax to interview Sarah and Susan. Though Sarah says she
refused to talk during two initial visits, the third time she broke
down.

Under hypnosis, and in front of Goodpasture and Albemarle County
Detective James Bunch, Tom says Sarah repeated her ghastly claims
against him. Goodpasture labeled Sarah's case a "'founded' Level 1
disposition of sexual abuse," the most serious type.

In a May 10, 1994, letter, Goodpasture informed Tom that his and
Sarah's names had been entered into the Virginia Department of Social
Services' "Central Registry" where they would remain on file for "the
longest retention time," 18 years. The letter says this listing is not
meant to be a "punitive measure," but "serves simply as a tracking
system and is strictly confidential."

Sarah's father, Goodpasture wrote, could appeal the decision.

Convinced that it would be only a matter of time before his name was
cleared, he offered to take a polygraph, or lie detector, test.

"You'll take drugs to pass it," Goodpasture allegedly replied. When
Tom offered to simultaneously take a drug test and the polygraph, he
says, Goodpasture's response was equally quick: "You'll train to pass
it." At his lawyer's behest, Tom withdrew his offer to submit to the
test.

"I couldn't win," he explains.

Goodpasture's supervisor, Judy Randle, says no one at the agency can
comment specifically on the case, citing confidentiality.

And though Tom agreed to have his CPS records released to The Hook,
the agency declined to turn them over by press time because the
request was being reviewed by the County attorney's office.

Randle did agree to speak generally, however. A CPS case worker,
Randle says, must perform "collateral interviews" with anyone relevant
to a child in question. That would include psychiatrists, teachers,
spouses, and anyone else who might have information material to the
case. Failure to perform such necessary interviews before labeling a
disposition "founded" would constitute negligence, Randle says, and
would negate the offending case worker's immunity at trial.

Tom says the investigation was not thorough. Kathleen says if
Goodpasture had conducted such interviews in their case, they would
have raised at least reasonable doubt.

"A lot of [Sarah's] claims would be difficult to prove or disprove,"
says Kathleen, but some, such as the couple's supposedly "satanic"
wedding, could easily have been checked.

"It was a beautiful ceremony," says Keith Stevens, a guitar teacher
who once worked with Kathleen, a piano teacher. Stevens, who performed
the music at the Manuels' wedding, recalls nearly 100 people gathering
at a friend's Earlysville home for the ceremony, which was performed
by a minister from Unity Church, a Christian denomination.

CPS did, however, investigate one of Sarah's allegations.

In the course of her interview with Goodpasture, Sarah alleged that
her father had also molested her first cousin, Ashley, one year older
than Sarah, and who lived in Chesapeake.

According to Ashley and her mother, a Chesapeake social worker
suddenly appeared at Ashley's middle school accompanied by a police
officer and took the eighth grader out of class without her parents'
knowledge or consent.

Despite interrogation from the social worker, which occurred in May
1994, Ashley held fast to her answer: Her uncle had never touched her
in any inappropriate way.

"They kept pushing and pushing for the answer they wanted to hear,"
said Ashley when she spoke about the situation a year later in
testimony before the Virginia General Assembly. Her mother, Tom's
older sister, Kim Nozzarella, also spoke.

"I was very angry to find that in America my child could be removed
from class and then be interrogated and coerced by strangers for
alleged abuse that did not even presumably occur in my home,"
Nozzarella told lawmakers. "I feel that my rights as well as those of
my daughter were violated."

Other family efforts to clear their name included making contact with
a weekly Charlottesville newspaper, which-- circa 1995, when Sarah was
still making her abuse claims-- chose not to publish the story.

Today, Kim Nozzarella says it's been terrible to watch her younger
brother, whom she describes as a "gentle, docile man," suffer over
these past 10 years. And she says she's still outraged by the methods
Child Protective Services used in gathering information against him.

Indeed, CPS does have broad discretion, and-- as Tom points out-- its
officers have immunity from prosecution-- unless, as Randle says,
negligence can be proven.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, sponsored by then-Iowa
Senator Walter Mondale in 1974, gives public agencies broad
discretion.

"They can come into your house and take your children away without a
warrant," says Tom. "You'd have to go to court to get them back."

Tom says Detective Bunch told him he could be arrested at any time
because there was enough "evidence" to indict him.

"We were in a state of abject terror," says Kathleen. "We were
sleeping in our clothes."

The arrest never came.

Battle for a child

As their fears of immediate prosecution abated, Tom and Kathleen
focused their energy on re-establishing visitation with Sarah. It
would not be an easy battle.

"We were in court every couple of weeks at times," says Kathleen.

In the spring of 1995, a year and a half after Tom's last visit with
his daughter, a judge ordered psychiatric evaluations of Tom, Susan,
and Sarah.

Harrisonburg-based clinical psychologist Mario Dennis performed the
evaluation. He spoke to The Hook with Tom's consent.

"Some of the allegations were so fantastic that they-- even if true--
would have been difficult to believe," says Dennis. Most importantly,
he adds, "There was simply no evidence of any psychological
disturbance that would correlate with the allegations against him."

Sarah, age 10, with Tom and Kathleen.

Though Tom says all three were eventually given a clean bill of mental
health, it was clear to him the problems were far from over.

This time, postage stamps were the clue. Tom had sent Sarah two
cards-- one for Valentine's Day, and one for her birthday in mid-
March. Kathleen had purchased stamps with a picture of a hand signing
"I love you" in American Sign Language. "They thought we were sending
more Satanic messages," Tom says incredulously.

October 1995 found Tom at his wits' end. "We were emotionally and
financially drained," he says, noting that he and his wife had spent
$60,000 on legal bills in just two years.

On October 11, recalls Tom, "I prayed to God for Sarah and said,
'She's in your hands now.'"

The very next night, the phone rang.

"Sarah called," he remembers, smiling. "Both of us were crying. She'd
been trying to say, 'None of this ever happened,' but Stein had been
threatening her with more hospitalizations."

Sarah still remembers those threats.

"When I would say, 'My dad never touched me,' Stein would tell me that
if I couldn't remember, I'd be put into a hospital where I'd be raped
every day," she says. When she tested Stein's resolve by refusing to
"remember," she says he followed through on the threat and put her in
a hospital isolation unit for 48 hours.

Uphill battle

After Sarah's call, Tom and Kathleen hoped that the nightmare would
soon be behind them. In 1995, the couple filed a complaint against
Stein with the Virginia Board of Medicine, but it languished until
1998, when the Board finally dismissed it without any action against
the psychiatrist. Tom still wonders what would have happened if they'd
treated his complaint differently.

"Nine of the 10 people in the recent complaint started treatment with
Stein after 1995," he points out.

As it was, Stein was free to continue practicing. And his influence on
Sarah's mother and her relatives ran deep-- they still believed that
Tom had victimized his daughter.

The tide was turning for Tom, however. With Sarah's testimony
absolving Tom-- and the recommendation of a court-appointed guardian,
a lawyer working solely for the child-- Judge Jannene Shannon restored
Tom's visitation with his daughter in December 1995.

Susan quickly appealed the decision.

Out of money, Tom decided to handle his defense in the appeal himself.
For more than a year, starting in October 1996, he was a man
obsessed.

"I'd get up every morning," he recalls, "and figure out 'What motion
can I file today?'"

In addition to handling the appeal, Tom and Kathleen filed a third-
party malpractice suit against Dr. Stein in October 1997. Although he
was planning to represent himself in that case as well, Tom says, the
constant trips to Fairfax courts, the costs of hiring expert
witnesses, and the fact that such a case had never been won in
Virginia led him to drop the suit.

As for the custody appeal, he stayed on task.

An engineer by trade, Tom set to work learning the law, and his hard
work paid off. In December 1997, exactly four years after the ordeal
began, he won the appeal and was able to start rebuilding his
relationship with his daughter. Sarah was nearly 17.

Hope for the future

Although her past is unlike most young women's, Sarah says she is
living a "normal" life. Now 22, she's finishing her degree in
sociology and is engaged to be married. But getting to this place has
been-- and continues to be-- difficult.

Fortunately, she has found a counselor whom she trusts.

"I was having a lot of problems with flashbacks," she says.

She's also burdened with guilt about the suffering her family has been
through. "I feel terrible about it," she says. "He's been through so
much with this too," she says of her father.

Tom and Kathleen, however, don't hold her responsible.

Nine-year-old Sarah (middle right) says of her cousin Ashley
Nozzarella (middle left), "I was really close to her as a kid. I'd
really like to be close to her again." Also pictured: Sarah's cousins
Chris Nozzarella (top) and Jennifer Nozzarella (bottom) holding Andrew
Long.

"She was a child," says Kathleen, "and she was no match for Stein."
Their relationship with Sarah, all three agree, grows stronger every
day.

The same cannot be said for Tom and Kathleen's relationship with
Sarah's mother, Susan, with whom they have had no contact for years.
Sarah says that despite the revelations about Stein, Susan still
believes that Tom did something untoward.

Tom, having battled colon cancer for the past 14 months, would like to
put the whole situation behind him. A week after the Post story
appeared, Tom sent a letter to Susan's father, who had supported Susan
in the custody dispute. In it, Tom requests "healing for Sarah's
sake."

"There will come a day when Sarah gets married," he wrote. "Sarah
deserves the support of both sides of her family, and I hope and pray
that you and your family members will be supportive and respectful of
those wishes and at a minimum be civil towards her and my family."

Tom also sent a letter to Stein.

"I do not call you a doctor, because as a doctor you are called to
first do no harm," Tom wrote. "You have caused harm to many, if not
all, of your patients... I pray that you seek the help you need, not
from a doctor like you but from one who follows sound medical
principles."

It's unlikely that Stein will practice medicine again.

"The conduct that was described in that report is horrendous,
inexcusable," says Bob Nebiker, director of the Virginia Department of
Health Professions, the umbrella organization of the Virginia Board of
Medicine.

A September 28 cover story in The Washington Post detailed Stein's
alleged misdeeds.

Last October 11, Stein's license was suspended for one year following
the Board's findings. However, Nebiker insists that there was no
harsher penalty available at the time.

"It was the same effect as revocation," says Nebiker. "In either case,
the physician could apply to have his license reinstated after one
year." That policy has now been modified to distinguish clearly
between suspension and revocation, Nebiker says.

Through his attorney, Rockville, Maryland-based Geoffrey Gavett, Stein
declined all comment on the allegations.

Nebiker says there is no record at this time of an application from
Stein for reinstatement of his medical license.

And though Fairfax County police opened an investigation into the
death of Stein's patient Anita Kratzke, that case has been closed,
according to Fairfax police spokesperson Courtney Young. "That's a
civil matter now," she says. The Washington Post reported that Fairfax
detective Robert Murphy told Kratzke's husband, Robert, in an email,
"I believe the only way we could have known the truth was with an
autopsy, which Dr. Stein thwarted when he signed the death
certificate."

Sarah says she'd like to see Stein punished. "I think he's a danger to
other people," she says. "Losing his license isn't enough."

Vengeance, however, doesn't seem to run in the Manuel family. Like her
father, Sarah would like to put the past behind her and to see her
family heal.

"I'm really okay," she says.

Sarah, age 2.

"It was obvious to us and everyone else we knew that these allegations
couldn't be true," says Kathleen Manuel.
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Many of these "Case Workers" OFTEN were (or see) THEMSELVES as having
been somehow "victimized" as children, distrusts ALL parents, and
exacts RETRIBUTION on YOU!
There is a desperate need to codify a NEW CLINICAL condition of
"Old Dysfunctional Hippie Disorder" (ODHD)

Your every past word, deed, and thought are scrutinized under the New
Age microscope. She will fabricate conjectures to cast you in the
worst possible light.

You think quietly to yourself "I must have gotten the worst SOCIOPATH
in their whole office". But after a while you learn that THEY ARE ALL
THAT WAY in every Child Protective Service office across the nation
and around the world. Child "Protective" Services People fit the
Profile of a Sociopath

If you maintain a HIGH MORAL or ETHICAL STANDARD of any kind, or if
you are a Christian- you can expect SPECIAL ATTENTION for your
standards- because they do not believe in ABSOLUTE right and wrong.
This is not about any ABUSE of children by parents,
it's a POLITICALLY MOTIVATED Cultural War

While you are going through all this, you are so shocked, terrified,
confused, bewildered, and disoriented- it doesn't occur to you that
these people are running a SCAM on you under the

COLOR OF LAW

They will try to keep you "confused" and "off balance" as long as
possible. They strive to maintain themselves as the "god" over your
life by "keeping you busy" complying with their absurd demands, seeing
their "counselors", and attending their compelled useless "classes"
IMPLYING that it "might" help get your kids back, or THREATENING you
with permanent termination if you don't obey their every capricious
whim.

They set these "meetings" up to require you to miss work. They DO NOT
CARE if you lose your job.

In fact, it appears they WANT you to lose your job to make you
DESTITUTE so YOU CAN'T AFFORD to fight them and "NEED" MORE OF THEIR
"SERVICES"! They seem to especially enjoy setting meetings up to
conflict WITH EACH OTHER and find you "non-compliant" for FAILING to
be at BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.

They operate through fear, threats, and intimidation.

You are afraid to go talk with a lawyer about what they are doing to
you, because "it might make them mad".

THEY ARE COUNTING on your "faith in the system" and your DISBELIEF
that the flagrant injustice you are experiencing is anything but "just
a misunderstanding".
These people COULDN'T be doing what it
LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE DOING!

AT NO TIME, do they want it to occur to you that you have American
Constitutional Rights and DO NOT "HAVE" TO PUT UP WITH their Nazi
behavior. If the thought DOES CROSS YOUR MIND to even ASK- "What about
my Rights?", you will be met with nasty, foul, sickening threats.

By the time you start "wising up", the trap has already snapped shut
and you THINK you have to "play their game" to resolve the
situation.

Then by the time you realize that you are going to LOSE your kids,
your job, your house, and probably your marriage over this mind-
boggling fraud, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO OR DON'T DO, the process is
complete.

If they have your kids, you might continue trying to "comply" with
their insane, impossible conditions (which they keep adding) for up to
2 years.

People end up "plea bargaining", admitting "guilt" when they are
completely innocent- because THEY TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO, TO GET
YOUR KIDS BACK.

Of course, once you admit guilt, YOU ARE TOAST

Very, very few parents ever "win" this game.

The few who do win, mortgaged their home, cashed in all the College
savings, got SECOND JOBS, borrowed money from all their relatives and
LUCKILY hired a lawyer who HATES THE CPS and fights to WIN, not plea
bargain. They might get their kids back, after the CPS has ruined
them.

Bankruptcy and Divorces often follow. Few people recover from the
ungodly trauma and Legal Abuse a CPS investigation puts them through.
Those of us who have been through a malicious False Allegation are
often called "paranoid" by people who have never been through it (who
have "faith in the system" and DISBELIEVE YOU). But we aren't deluded
or irrational. We WERE persecuted.

As a newspaper editor remarked when I was discussing my case with
him-

"It isn't paranoia if THEY REALLY ARE out to get you".

This industry, it's agenda, and methods are an INTOLERABLE ABUSE of
American Citizens, and a deliberate AFFRONT to American Constitutional
Rights, Basic Human Rights, and even the United Nation Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women
submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
-- William H. Borah

If they haven't attacked your family yet, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND our
brochure "Family Survival Information- When your local Children's
Protective Service takes an interest in YOUR FAMILY".
Be forewarned and ready to stand up for your Constitutional Rights.
Your Constitutional Rights are your ONLY defense against these
terrorists. When your Constitutional RIGHTS are gone, so is America.
And we are very nearly there.

"Nothing is more dangerous than the idea that some public officials
are above the law. If they are, then we don't have law -- and we won't
have freedom much longer either." --Thomas Sowell

Headlines
State of the County 2007

Chairman Connolly's Inauguration Speech

Chairman Connolly's Testimony Before Governor Kaine's

Transportation Listening Tour

Chairman Connolly & Delegate Scott's 8 Point Transportation Plan

Chairman Connolly's Inauguration Speech as President of the Virginia
Association of Counties

Testimony Before State Senate Subcommittee on Land Use &
Transportation

Testimony Before Federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission

9/11 Memorial Speech - Given 9/11/05

Chairman Connolly's
Electronic Newsletter

Chairman Connolly's Transportation Plan

Safe Teen Driving Initiative

Board's Environmental Plan

Chairman Connolly's Biography

About Our Office

Upcoming Events & Current Issues

Newcomers' Page

Serving on a Board, Authority, or Commission

Transportation Links

Must Have Numbers

Constituent Feedback Form

This Website has been designed by members of AFRA ( American Family
Rights Association )


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

ave you posted the audio on YouTube yet?
They spread faster than any caseworker can suppress them.

On Aug 26, 11:48 am, cindyjohns...@gmail.com wrote:

> Fairfax County CPS Social Worker accused of Fabricating, Child Sexual
> Abuse allegations.

> http://virginiachildabuse.com/

> http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html

> NEWS RELEASE
> Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007

> A complaint has been filed with the Department of Family Services for
> the dismissal of CPS social worker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss
> Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of Family Services. Also
> filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms.
> Traore has been involved in.

> Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children
> aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & sexual abuse allegations against
> their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick off
> a criminal and civil campaign against the father.

> When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews,
> Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record
> subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore. In a recovered audio
> tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by suggesting
> to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to
> her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area, those
> are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the
> interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and
> daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the
> children).

> Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective
> order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she "knew
> or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least
> questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into
> making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by
> this reporter. Read More... How Fairfax County CPS Social Worker
> fabricated child abuse.

> In an audio tape obtained from the CPS, Social worker Ms Traore is
> heard coaching and asking leading questions

-----------------------------------------------------


Re: Virginia USA audio of caseworker coaching and leading interview

On Aug 27, 3:46 pm, Greegor  wrote: > Please archive. > > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.child-protective-services/... > > cindyjohns...@gmail.com    Aug 26, 11:48 am > > Newsgroups: alt.support.child-protective-services > From: cindyjohns...@gmail.com > Subject: Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating, > Child Sexual Abuse allegations. > > Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating, Child Sexual > Abuse allegations. > > http://virginiachildabuse.com/ > > http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html > > NEWS RELEASE > Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007 > > A complaint has been filed with the Department of FamilyServicesfor > the dismissal of CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss > Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of FamilyServices. Also > filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms. > Traore has been involved in. > >  Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children > aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & sexual abuse allegations against > their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick > off > a criminal and civil campaign against the father. > >  When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews, > Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record > subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore.  In a recovered audio > tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by > suggesting > to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to > her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area, > those > are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the > interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and > daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the > children). > > Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective > order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she > "knew > or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least > questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into > making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by > this reporter. Read More...  How Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker > fabricated child abuse. > > In an audio tape obtained from the CPS,Socialworker Ms Traore is > heard coaching and asking leading questions > > http://virginiachildabuse.com/jerry.html > > Is Gerry Connolly Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors a > Child Abuser?  Is he a Sexual Abuser. Did he Sexually Abuse his > Daughter Caitlin Connolly? > >   According to Fairfax County Child ProtectiveServicesSocialWorker > Ms. Shannon Traore who investigated several people for child abuse, > She has found by a preponderance of evidence among many that the > Chairman of the Board of Supervisor Mr. Gerry Connolly to have > sexually abused his daughter Caitlin Connolly. Her boss Elizebeth > Spell at CPS seems to agree with her. > > Why would she find Gerry or for that matter any other prominent > citizens to be child abusers? How did the Child ProtectiveServices > come to this conclusion? Is thisSocialworker a sick pervert, Is she > out of her mind? How is it possible for a prominent and outstanding > citizen of Fairfax county, a loving father of Caitlin Connolly to be > found to have sexually abused his own daughter.   Well, Gerry Connolly > had touched his daughter's genitals and her bikini area in the bath > tub when she was three years old while giving her a bath. And those > are bad touches... And our chairman becomes a pervert and a > pedophile..Parents should not be doing bad touches.... and according > to CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore those people are guilty of > sexually abusing their children. Parents are not allowed to touch > their children in their genital area while giving them a bath. By this > definition thisSocialworker becomes the thought police finding > anyone in Fairfax County to be Sexual Abusers. Her target mostly are > fathers in child custody situations. > > Please listen to the following audio recording before reading > further : > > Interview of a 5 year old girl by CPS worker Ms. Shannon Traore > > Interview of a 7 Year old girl  by the CPS Ms.  Shannon Traore. > > Continuation...... 5 year old interview by Ms. Traore. > > picture1 -socialworker Ms. Traore used this picture as evidence to > prevent a parent from having contact with his daughter. This is the > most dammning evidence of physical abuse of the child that she could > get. - She was preventing anyone from accessing this photo as > evidence. > > Picture 2 - This is the next damming picture of physical abuse. > > SocialWorker refused to talk with Credible Witnesses who have seen > the children on the day that she claims the children were abused. > > see affidavit of Paul Thomas   and affidavit of Lasantha Weidende a > professional with security clearance. > > Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker accused of Fabricating, Child Sexual > Abuse allegations. > > NEWS RELEASE > Fairfax VA. Wednesday, July 03, 2007 > > A complaint has been filed with the Department of FamilyServicesfor > the dismissal of CPSsocialworker Ms. Shannon Traore and her boss > Elizabeth Spell of the Fairfax Department of FamilyServices. Also > filed was a request to investigate all cases of abuse in which Ms. > Traore has been involved in. > >  Ms. Traore has been caught on audio tape leading two young children > aged 5 & 7 years to state physical & sexual abuse allegations against > their father. Using those coached testimony Ms. Traore helped kick off > a criminal and civil campaign against the father. > >  When asked what happened to the tapes from the coached interviews, > Ms. Traore claims there were audio failure. Well, Did she record > subsequent interviews? No. claims Ms. Traore.  In a recovered audio > tape interview Ms Traore starts off the second interview by suggesting > to the child to think of the reasons why she does not like going to > her dads, and how if has her dad touched her in the bikini area, those > are bad touches, The child repeatedly states to Ms. Traore during the > interview that it was in the bath tub when she was 3 years of age and > daddy was giving the a bath. ( Dad was the sole custodian of the > children). > > Ms. Traore of Fairfax County, Virginia filed a Temporary protective > order in November of 2006 used in a Juvenile court case that she "knew > or reasonably should have known were false or at the very least > questionable" and that the report would mislead a Judge Clayton into > making a decision in the case, according to court records obtained by > this reporter. Read More...  How Fairfax County CPSSocialWorker > fabricated child abuse. > >  In an audio tape obtained from the CPS,Socialworker Ms Traore is > heard coaching and asking leading questions > > How Child Protectiveservicesworks > National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road > (Suite 202) / Alexandria, Va., 22314 / i...@nccpr.org /www.nccpr.org > > CPS False Accusations > > KIDJACKED - How CPS Seizes control of a child , by use of force. > > Nazi Germany or America? Our granddaughter - age 2 ½ years old was > kidnapped and abducted by C.P.S. workers > > Parent's Worst Nightmare - This is Child Protection? > > "Most of the time, I was taking their kids away for no good reason" -- > A New York City CPS worker > > ( Amy Pagnozzi, "HRA Insider: I Took Kids From Parents For No Good > Reason," New York Post, February 4, 1991, p.7 ) > > COVER- Saving Sarah: Satan worship, sex abuse, and Dr. Martin Stein > > Published October 16, 2003 in issue #0241 of The Hook > > By COURTENEY STUART STU...@READTHEHOOK.COM > > The little girl's memories were vivid and horrifying: being raped by > her father at age two, watching her father and stepmother bury animals > alive in satanic rituals, and seeing babies boiling in a cauldron > while adults stirred the pot. But were they true? > > The Albemarle County Department ofSocialServicesbelieved enough of > them to rule against her father and put his name in the central > registry of child abusers. While the child was clearly tortured by > those memories, she wasn't the only one in pain. Today, that little > girl's father, Tom Manuel, and his wife, Kathleen, know firsthand what > hell is like, but it's not because they worship Satan. They say the > instrument of their suffering resides right here on earth and goes by > the name Dr. Martin Stein. > > The trouble starts > > Tom Manuel remembers exactly when his nightmare began:  three days > before he was due to pick up his then-12-year-old daughter, Sarah, for > Christmas vacation. With no warning, Tom and his new wife, Kathleen, > received a letter from his ex-wife's attorney denying them all > visitation with Sarah. For months, Tom and Kathleen-- whose son, Jack, > was then just seven months old-- fought to learn why his visits had > been terminated. In April 1994, they got a terrifying answer: Sarah > had memories of the couple participating in grotesque satanic rituals. > Even worse, she claimed her father had sexually abused her from her > earliest years. > > Three-year-old Sarah, years before the trouble started. > > Things hadn't always been bad between Sarah and her father, however. > > Tom and Sarah's mother divorced when Sarah was four, but for two years > all three continued to reside in Charlottesville. Tom and Sarah, by > both of their accounts, continued to enjoy a close relationship and > did so for several years after the divorce, even after Sarah and her > mother moved out of town. > > Sarah, now a woman finishing college in northern Virginia, says the > serious problems began after her mother remarried. > > Sarah became depressed and her mother sought psychiatric treatment for > her. At age 10, Sarah was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder > and soon after was hospitalized for an emotional disturbance. Though > her mother divorced her second husband, Sarah's troubles weren't > over. > > When Sarah was released from inpatient treatment at Dominion Hospital > in Falls Church, her mother, Susan Jones, switched her daughter's > treatment to Martin Stein, a well known psychiatrist who, according to > the Virginia Board of Medicine's records, has a medical degree from > Yale. > > Things quickly went ... > > read more »  http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1281689,00.html  Fran Lyon false allegation MSbP unborn child to be taken at birth  GMTV Tomorrow 30th August
date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:25:38 -0700 author: unknown

1.Shannon Traore
Shannon L Traore
Shannon Lee Traore
Shannon L Tyler
Shannon Lee Tyler
34
Manassas, VA
Fairfax, VA
Herndon, VA
Oakton, VA
Easton, MD
Salisbury, MD
Ibrahima Lee Traore
Get More Details

Shannon Lee Traore
Shannon L Tyler
Fairfax, VA
Manassas, VA
Age 34.intelius.com
intelius.com
Jane Lee Tyler
Jaime L Tyler
George E Tyler
Ibrahima Lee Traore














Crime and Punishment: Child Protective Services Busted!


Also see: Fairfax County Social Worker Shannon Traore AKA Shannon Tyler fabricate child abuse...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Albo Must Go

Albo Must Go.........

Delegate Dave Albo (R)Fairfax and chairman of the House Courts of Justice CommitteeRecently, Del. Dave Albo, Chair of the Courts of Justice Committee, was interviewed regarding a dispute over a Circuit Court Judgeship in the mostly Republican jurisdiction of Virginia Beach. In that article he was quoted as follows:Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax and chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, said that "we pretty much let the local delegation decide" about the appointment of local judges."Portsmouth judge's reappointment could be in jeopardy," Virginia Pilot, Jan. 17, 2007We at Albo Must Go found this statement interesting. It was only two years ago that Del. Dave Albo personally intervened in the appointment of a Circuit Court judge in the City of Alexandria, overrulled the local delegation and tried to put his friend on the bench. What did Del. Dave Albo say back then?"We believe it's our prerogative to select who we want, in spite of the local delegation's wishes," said Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), a member of the House Courts of Justice Committee, which takes part in selecting judges.He wasinstrumental in choosing Fairfax lawyer Timothy Battle to be the House Republicans' nominee."House, Senate Part Ways on Court Seat," Washington Post, Metro, B6, March 6, 2004.Not one Democrat who is complaining now ever stood up when we were the minority and said that the system they used was unfair," said Del. David B. Albo(R-Fairfax), who has consistently said that it is his party's responsibility to have direct influence on judicial nominations, particularly in districts such as Alexandria that have Democratic majorities."Warner Makes New Pick for Circuit Court," Washington Post, Metro, B1 (June 8, 2004)Del. Dave Albo loves to wields power for the sake of maximizing his own power - not doing things in the best interest of the people. Whether it means voting to inflict political payback by keeping a well-respected moderate Republican education expert off William & Mary's Board of Trustees for endorsing a Democrat (retired Republican Delegate Jim Dillard) or keeping a labor community leader out of a cabinet appointment, Del. Dave Albo rationalizes abusing his own power to maximize he and the Republican Party's own partisan ends.Why doesn't the press ever mention this blatant hypocrisy in their reporting?Posted by George Mason at 1/19/2007 05:02:00 PM

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Criminal Justice and the Family Court System, If Any -

The Criminal Justice and the Family Court System, If Any

What passes for a system of criminal justice in this country is positively scary. We've all see the stories in which a guy is on death row, or serving life for rape or murder, and DNA evidence proves that he absolutely didn't do it. It makes you wonder how many other innocents are behind bars. If you've seen the system at work, you wonder a lot.

Some time back I wrote a column about Bruce McLaughlin, now in the Loudoun County jail after being convicted of sexually molesting his children. He got thirteen years, which is fine by me -- if he did it.

Briefly, he confessed to extramarital affairs to his wife, who thereafter suddenly discovered the abuse of his four children. Criminal charges followed. Medical evidence being lacking, the conviction rested heavily on transcripts of interviews, by Child Protective Services, of the children -- who said he did it. Well, sort of said he did it. Who actually said he didn't do it. Or said mommy said he did it.

I read the transcripts from CPS shortly after the original trial. They stank. As I said at the time, reporters aren't good at much, but they know a con job when they see it. Everybody tries to con journalists. You come to recognize tendentious, the coached, the craftedly deceptive testimony. Which the transcripts were.

Over and over, the transcripts of the interrogation of the children contain passages like this one:

Stribling [one of the interrogators]: "Is that something you remember?"

Nicholas [McLaughlin's son]: "I think."

Leigh [a cop]: "Do you remember it today?

Nicholas: "Huh?"

Leigh: When you're telling me right now, do you remember that happening?"

Nicholas: "Not really."

Or this. Leigh: "Let me see what else you have here. He had played with my penis. Tell me about that, do you remember that?"

Nicholas: "No. My mom told me that."

(Italics) His mom told him? (close italics) Coached, maybe?

Over and over, the kids say they don't remember being sodomized. Then, after insistence and leading by the questioners, with a suspicious consistency they say they do remember. Their testimony reeks of coaching. One, pushed, said McLaughlin had white pubic hair. No.

Curious about all of this, I got one of McLlaughlin's representatives to send me a transcript they made comparing an actual audio recording of the interviews to the transcrips the jury saw. At one point in it one of the kids twice says the children , ". . . came forward . . ." meaning told adults about the abuse.

Kids don't say, "I came forward." It's adult language. Interestingly, the phrase is omitted in the transcript that the jury saw. Don't let anybody tell you railroads are dead.

Now, why would CPS produce a deceptive transcript? Because child protective services tend to become highly adversarial. Just as defense attorneys and prosecutors become zealots, just as equal-opportunity watchdogs fill with people who see discrimination everywhere, those in CPS come to have a prosecutorial attitude. It isn't deliberate. They don't say to each other, "Let's imprison an innocent man." They merely find what the expect to find.

A conclusion: "The interviews with the children are flawed. They show evidence of suggestion on the part of McLaughlin's wife. They are not properly documented. They are loaded with leading questions ("Let me tell you what I think you're telling me . . .). There are many indications, especially in the interview with Nicholas, that, in fact, nothing is really remembered."

The foregoing paragraph isn't mine. It is from the decision of Michele Anne Gillette of the Virginia Department of Social Services who heard McLaughlin's appeal. She changed the finding from "Founded" to "Unfounded." She did it on the grounds that I noticed long ago, that she saw without difficulty, that you would notice if you read the transcripts. The word "fabricated" appears in her analysis.

It's nuts. A jury, listening to a prosecutor working for the state, found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet the same state, as the Department of Social Services, determined the charges, by a preponderance of the evidence, to be unfounded. A preponderance of the evidence doesn't constitute a reasonable doubt?

Why is McLaughlin in jail?

This could happen to me or you, gang. McLaughlin is a middle-class lawyer with an ugly divorce. False allegations of abuse of children are a tool of divorce law. In this case Mrs. McLaughlin ran away to New Zealand with the children (in violation of a court order), which makes investigation difficult. It could be any of us. This is how criminal justice works.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Psychologist charged with assault, child abuse at a Silver Spring Clinic in Washington

The president of Washington Assessment and Therapy Services was charged last month with assault and child abuse for allegedly striking a 12-year-old boy being treated at a Silver Spring clinic.

Several calls to Ronald D. Wynne, 71, a psychologist who lives in Kensington, were not returned. Other WATS employees referred questions to Wynne.

Police charged Wynne on May 24 with assault and child abuse after they were called that afternoon to search for a child missing from the WATS center at 8737 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

While one officer arrived at the center, another officer radioed that the boy had flagged him down.

The boy told police that he had been in the clinic hiding from his therapist when Wynne found and grabbed him, according to the charging documents.

Wynne pulled the boy into his office and pinned him to a chair by his wrists, police said.

The boy yelled, ‘‘Get off me [expletive]” followed by a string of other curse words.

‘‘I’m your [expletive]?” Wynne replied and struck the boy on the right side of the head several times, according to the charging documents.

The boy kicked Wynne and left the building where he flagged down the officer, charging documents said.

WATS has a staff of more than 100, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and counselors to provide mental health services, according to the company’s Web site. It has offices in Germantown and Lanham, as well as Silver Spring.

WATS was one of the mental health clinics contracted by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services to provide mental health treatment to young people, said HHS spokeswoman Mary Anderson. Its contract expired on Dec. 31 and was not renewed because WATS had not met all of the requirements on staffing, she said. The county paid WATS $58,800 for the counseling provided in 2005.

The Maryland Board of Psychologists received an anonymous call recently about the incident, but had not received a formal complaint, said the board’s investigator, Pat English.

‘‘We will be investigating, I can guarantee that,” English said.

The state board, which oversees mental health professionals in Maryland, has not taken any formal action against Wynne before, English said. Formal action could include suspension or revocation of a license to practice in the state.

English declined to say if any other complaints had been filed against Wynne. ‘‘If there had been complaints, that would be confidential,” she said.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Virginia's Inbred Judiciary

Virginia's Inbred Judiciary

How can this happen? Why do judges in Virginia issue court orders that can make an innocent-enough person feel like the victim of a “hate crime” when some sensibly administered justice would have sufficed? This can happen to people in Virginia because the judicial selection and re-selection process is deformed and has created a judiciary that is inbred which is producing even greater deformity as judicial rulings deteriorate and as judicial respect--for the dignity and the resources of litigants--declines.

When legislative sessions close leaving judicial vacancies, circuit court chief judges must appoint district-level (juvenile district and general district) judges to fill the vacant posts. Circuit chiefs are also responsible for choosing lawyers to serve as substitute judges. Substitute judges and sitting district-level judges are more likely to be appointed or elevated by the legislature and the governor, when legislators are unable to agree, to a permanent seat either on district court or circuit court, if already a substitute judge, and circuit court, if already a district judge, juvenile or general, than non-insider status candidates. Judges for the appeals court and justices for the supreme court are generally recruited from the circuit bench, possibly even landing some of those judge-appointed substitute judges and judge-appointed district-level judges on Virginia’s highest courts. I have never completely understood how some of these promotions, or elevations, are decided.

Furthermore, I have noticed, when a judge advances to another court in mid-term, his or her interview is postponed, that is, delayed by the length of the term associated with that particular court: 8 years for circuit court, 8 for appeals and 12 for supreme. With the Judicial Performance Evaluation (JPE) program now cancelled by decision of the 2009 legislative session, “interviews,” known officially as “Judicial Interviews of Incumbents,” is the only screening mechanism in place, acting to protect citizen-consumers of legal services from defective judges. The event is annual and it really is Virginia’s ultimate oversight agency for the judiciary because even “Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission” board members must submit to “interviews.” But, and especially since most members of the general public do not go to “interviews,” it is mostly a “rubber-stamp affair.” Citizens, tragically, are skipping “interviews” because it is such a poorly promoted event, and sitting judges, apparently, are skipping “interviews” because jurists promoted before the end of their term slip through such a poorly designed system for screening them.




Incompetent Legislature


...
The General Assembly’s Courts of Justice Committee, under the tutelage of Mr. Albo, is derelict in its duty to appoint and re-appoint good people to the bench because: it has dumped a constitutional responsibility into the laps of circuit court judges (and the governor in those cases when legislators fail to fill judge vacancies at the circuit, appeals, and supreme court levels by close of session of the general assembly), it has junked the Judicial Performance Evaluation program, and it has routinely “qualified” candidates other judges handpicked for confirmation by the entire general assembly in “rubber-stamp affairs” known as “Judicial Interviews of Incumbents.” Though Mr. Albo this winter stated, “[S]omething we need to improve, is that it's too difficult [for members of the general public] to find out when judges are up for appointment and when [citizens] can speak," and, “[U]nless anyone comes to complain, judges usually get re-appointed,” he took no action to ameliorate the situation. Since telling a reporter for The Post 12 months ago exactly the 2008 selection process had been a “total disaster,” Mr. Albo has done an excellent job of showing the problem his back.

A referendum on retention election of state judges by the voters, if successful, would restore a reasonable and intelligent judiciary, improve judicial respect for the dignity and resources of litigants, and increase the likelihood of sensible court orders. Retention election would control for the ever-growing risk of killer-rulings that can make an innocent-enough citizen feel like the target of a “hate crime” because retention election interrupts judge-inbreeding. Retention election would eliminate legislator-commitment to not getting along at judge appointment time and cutting out public input, which encourage judge-inbreeding, because retention election removes the state legislature from any involvement in re-selection and gives the voters the final word on who gets to remain a judge.

The blind and sheltered re-appointment and confirmation of judges, many of whom were handpicked by other judges, simply is not creating a reasonable, intelligent and empathetic judiciary in Virginia. How can it? A judicial candidate, who was probably chosen by another judge, is “qualified” for re-appointment--without performance data, without public testimony, and without professional criteria to determine qualification--in a quiet “rubber-stamp affair,” that is, a candidate is subjected to a silly (Come see for yourself!) interview, lasting no more than 5 or 10 minutes, by a tiny panel of (trial) lawyer-legislators, then almost always breezes right through confirmation by an entire state legislature in yet another “rubber-stamp affair” that, like the silly interview, is nothing more than another formality.

If you agree the process is not “dumb, disgusting, and outright dangerous,” if you believe there is no emergency, you should stop reading now, click out and pray you never find yourself inside a court of law of this commonwealth. If, however, you find my information a wee bit disturbing then please let me know. I urge you also to tell your legislators--the delegate and the senator in your district--and maybe Mr. Rubin too. Send them your idea for a smarter, sounder, and safer judge re-appointment system in Virginia if you don’t like mine.

I propose amending the state constitution to allow the voters to decide in general elections whether to retain judges. I think we need a question on the ballot in November that will address the issue of inserting retention elections into the Virginia judge re-appointment, or re-selection, process. I hope you do too. I know that together we can stop the blind and sheltered re-appointment and confirmation of judges in Virginia and put sensible justice back into our courtrooms.




Public Input
...

You might be asking, What is a “retention” election? Let me clarify with some help from Mr. Litten who wrote in “Let the People Judge the Judges: Reforming Virginia's Judicial Selection Process”:

…The new judge then serves a trial period at the end of which the voting public, through the use of an uncontested “yes/no” retention election, decide whether or not he or she should continue service. If retained the judge goes on to serve a full term and is subject to retention elections at the end of each term.

And,

…Retention elections insert democratic principles into the [judicial selection] process by allowing the ultimate authority in this country, the people, to hold judges accountable while still avoiding the serious problems found in contested elections, such as possible conflicts of interest when contributors to a judge’s campaign appear before the judge in court. “In retention elections, judges run against their records, rather than against opposing candidates, which means that incumbents are at risk of losing their seats only if voters deem their records unacceptable.” Holding retention elections serves “to remind judges that they are judges, not legislators, and that their conduct in office is important. Elections allow citizens to evaluate the judges” while still freeing judicial candidates “from traditional partisan politics and fundraising” and “judicial decisions are more impartial because judges are in a secure environment to decide the cases in a neutral and fair manner.”

Mr. Litten explains that “judicial decisions are more impartial because judges are in a secure environment to decide the cases in a neutral and fair manner” when freed from fundraising, traditional partisan politics, and lawyer-legislators who confirm them and also appear before them in court. I agree. In our current system, it is understandable state judges can be less preoccupied and less concerned with how the public might measure their loyalty to “Black Letter Law” or the “Canons of Judicial Conduct” than how their decisions might play out in “House Room C” at interview time.

Judge Garland L. Bigley was fired, in 2006. She had boldly told her interviewers, “Yes, I sanction lawyers.” Chairman Albo and the other lawyer-legislators were unimpressed. The judge had given, as an example, the lawyer who inconvenienced a lot of people--people like you and me--by not showing up for trial. So she sanctioned him, she said. The legislature disqualifies, or does not confirm, one judge a year, roughly. I was sorry to see Judge Bigley go. The people of the 11th Judicial District had lost a good judge, I thought.

“[L]egislators can and do set their own criteria for determining whether a judge belongs in office,” we learn from Mr. Litten. We learn formal written judicial selection criteria do not exist in Virginia. I highly recommend his article.

The people of Virginia should demand from Richmond more separation between the legislative branch and the judicial branch in matters pertaining to the hiring and the firing of state judges and should see as normal, and urgent, more involvement of the electorate in the judge re-selection (re-appointment) process. It’s really a two-part issue: judge selection and judge re-selection (re-appointment). Retention election addresses the second half of this issue and is the first step toward a true Missouri Plan for Virginia. But Mr. Rubin says we must first amend (definition) the constitution to allow for the public input in judge re-selection (re-appointment) via retention elections.
...
The Question

I ask for your support in getting on the 2009 November ballot the following question:

“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to change the method of re-appointing state judges from confirmation by the legislature to retention election by the voters?

_ YES

_ NO”

Please show your support, or even lack thereof, by sending your comment, your vote, to:

YES.Judge.Retention.Election@gmail.com,

Or,

NO.Judge.Retention.Election@gmail.com.

And please share your viewpoint with your legislators (senator and delegate) when you share it with me. Why not also forward a copy to Counselor and Senior Advisor to the Governor Mark E. Rubin? Information on Mr. Rubin can be found below in my recent email message for him and his answer for me (which also prefaces this post).





Continue reading at NowPublic.com: Mommy Go Bye Bye | NowPublic News Coverage http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/mommy-go-bye-bye#ixzz1OgSGS2Rk

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Kimberly Baucom: CPS's Guard DOG Fairfax County's Chief White Collar Child Abuser








Kimberly Baucom: CPS's Guard DOG Fairfax County's Chief White Collar Child Abuser
Kimberley Baucomb - Fairfax County CPS's White Collar Child Abuser.
Address:
12000 Government Center Pkwy. Suite 549
Fairfax, VA 22035-0064

4-2421 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
kimberly.baucom@fairfaxcounty.gov


This Woman needs to be removed from the Assistant Attorney Position. She is one sick perverted woman who falsifies documents, falsifies in court, aids and abets crooked social workers in stealing children from poor and minority mothers and fathers. She should not be in a government position that is paid for by tax payer's money. Please complain to get her booted out.

Please contact Fairfax County Supervisors and have this woman removed... She should be put on the National Child Abuser List and should be prevented from coming in contact with any Child in the U.S.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/mailform.aspx?ref=1015 - Here is the link to send an email complaining about Fairfax County CPS's abusive practices and about removing Kimberly Baucom.

MASS CPS CORRUPTION

MASS CPS CORRUPTION CONT

GREGORY HESSON ON CPS CORRUPTION

GREGORY HESSON CPS CORRUPTION CONTINUED

CHILDREN KILLED BY CPS

FAMILY COURTS WANT YOUR CHILDREN

ORGANIZED CHILD ABUSE

PARENTS ABUSED BY CPS

CPS IS A FRAUD

CPS ABUSE EXPOSED INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR
Posted by Bernice Wilson at 8:27 AM 2 comments:
Bernice Wilson said...
Kimberley Baucomb changed her name from Kimberly King.. She used to work for the prosecutor's office. Now she has moved to the Fairfax Child Protective Services. This woman is as crooked as the agency she works for. Fairfax County Child Protective Services - or should I say Fairfax County Child Abusing Services.

May 17, 2009 8:31 AM
Nitheesh said...
Hey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!



Child Care Services

March 25, 2011 12:19 AM

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

Complaint against Judge Gaylord Finch - Ghost written by Robert Machen (supposedly)

Complaint against Judge Gaylord Finch -- supposedly ghost written and distributed by Robert Machen


Complaint against Judge Gaylord Finch -- supposedly ghost written and distributed by Robert Machen



Pursuant to Virginia Code of Professional Responsibilities, and as a lawyer with a private practice in Fairfax County, Virginia, it becomes incumbent upon me to bring to the tribunal various misconducts of Judge Gaylord Finch Jr of Fairfax circuit court.

I am sure you understand why it has also becomes necessary to protect my identity against any retaliatory actions by Judges and fellow lawyers of the Bar.

By this letter, the members of the undersigned organizations are interested in the administration of Justice and the outcome of this issue.

The focus of this letter is to call your attention in particular to the Jagannathan case (Case Nos: JJ352762-01-01; JJ352771-01-01 on appeal from the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Chancery Nos: 182927; 182928. in Fairfax Circuit Court.)

Judge Gaylord Finch of Circuit Court Fairfax has clearly abdicated his judicial responsibilities in direct violations of the canons of judicial conduct and has indulged in a two-year judicial activism, extortion, racketeering and judicial bullying under color of law with attorney Robert Machen.

The intent also appears to cover up serious fraud by Robert Machen under the banner of litigation.

Judge Gaylord Finch has been fully aware that The Virginia State Bar had previously disciplined attorney Mr. Robert Machen, reprimanding him twice and suspending his license for falsifying documents. He has had district committee sanctions against him.

Three Judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Honorable Judge Thomas D. Thorne, Judge Dickson L. Foster, Judge Robert K. Woltz had found by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Machen engaged in conduct for personal advantage, involving deceit that reflects adversely on his fitness to practice law and found him guilty under DR1-102(A)(4) of code of professional responsibility.

The Organization – Citizen for Legal Reform had reported Mr. Machen has engaged in conduct which tends to undermine the administration of justice and to bring legal businesses into disrepute;

Judge Finch’s actions have set a stage for a possible Department of Justice investigation. It is my understanding that U.S Senator John Warner had written to the DOJ at the request of his constituent.

I hereby request that the County also initiate an independent investigation into the actions of Judge Gaylord Finch.

An independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable to justice in the commonwealth of Virginia. Judges should participate in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing high standards of judicial conduct and shall personally observe those standards so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary will be preserved.

It is not, however, my job to police Virginia’s jaundiced family court judiciary, but, incredibly, it seems that not a soul, not since Landmark v. Virginia in 1978, NOT ONE SOUL, in our Common-wealth is willing to assume that duty and responsibility for the Common-good of our children to reel in Judge Gaylord Finch. I know some who are nicknaming Virginia’s judicial oversight (or is it “overlook”?) board by referring to it as the Judiciary Integral to Racketeering and Corruption, JIRC for short. I know of at least one article that recently appeared titled “Virginia Gangsters in Judicial Robes” I know many who are seeing the chronic shortsightedness in the handling by our Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission in Richmond of citizen complaints against judges and substitute judges as just more shameful justice, or justice that is not reasoned, but knee-jerk, and just is a Sham.

My condemnation of the catastrophic state which the Fairfax county Circuit Court Civil Justice system has reached under Judge Gaylord Finch to permit this kind of harassment of a pro se Litigant by Lawyers racketeering with a Judge is only dwarfed by my condemnation of a significant portion of the Fairfax Judiciary and the legal community looking the other way.

As lawyers, we must be unfailingly ethical and strive to avoid situations that might raise ethical questions as to the administration of Justice. We also have an obligation to report Judicial misconduct to a tribunal.

Chief Judge McWeeny, your judicial and constitutional responsibilities make it your duty to take the appropriate judicial decisions that require the removal of all interference with justice and with the institutions of the State, in such a way as to permit, to all citizens of Virginia, the effective exercise of the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is this condition, which will make possible the true, changes which our people desire; it will be in the true interests of our justice system.

The Family Court system of Virginia has been subject to the implacable tutelage of a class of opportunists and gold diggers who have come to constitute a veritable parallel justice system, one that is located outside all constitutional, legal norms, ethics and statutes that has brought out the National Counsel of Judges and the majority of sensitive positions in other courts. Ignorant of the very notions of impartiality and objectivity, their harmful actions have come to substitute the idea of fairness to families with that of disrespect for the courts and the constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Meanwhile, the class of bought divorce attorneys does a brisk trade with its bar allegiances, imposing a sprit of dependence and submission, running against all ideas of change and creative adaptation, and zealously identifying itself with the judiciary currently in power. Their objective is to systematize the conflation of the judiciary and the State, corrupting the institution of family. This behavior, which breeds discord and confrontation, constitutes in reality the true danger of order, security and stability of our families.

The daily practice of our profession has allowed us to appreciate the true reality lived by Judges and this has incited us to forego the duty of silent reserve to which we are held. In a situation where all the possibilities of dialogue, however stormy or unstable, have been shut down, silence can no longer be an option, and the cry of our consciences rings out like a necessity which I can ignore no longer, even if it is our prisons which should paradoxically be the place for us to find dignity, freedom and a clear conscience.

Speaking from experience, Decent hard working fairfax families have been subjected to routine abuse, interference and harassment by our court system, Honest and ethical lawyers in Fairfax, Virginia no longer have any elbow room to perform their duties against judicial activism by Judges like Gaylord Finch. Treated with arrogance and working in a milieu of intimidation and coercion that shackles our will and prevents us from voicing our true convections. Our dignity is insulted daily and our negative image in the hearts of public opinion is mixed with fear, arbitrariness and injustice, to the point that the sole fact of belonging to our profession is degrading in the eyes of the oppressed and people of honor.

It is time you, Judge McWeeny take the appropriate action.

Yours truly,

Chip


A MATTER OF JUSTICE COALITION
JAIL FOR JUDGES ( VIRGINIA JAIL INITIATIVE)
FAMILY RESOLUTION COUNCIL
Center for Judicial Accountability ( CJA)
Committee for Judicial Ethics
Children’s Legal Foundation
Citizens Justice Institute
Constitution Society Citizens for Legal Responsibilility
Americans for Legal Reform
Corruption Crusaders
FATHERS UNITED FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND THE WOMEN’S COALITION
Americans for the Enforcement of Judicial Ethics ( AEJE)
American Family Advocacy Center
Children’s Rights Advocacy
Alienated Parents Association
FATHERS FOR VIRGINIAMOTHERS AGAINST UNJUST LAW
Center for Judicial Accountability ( CJA)

Enclosures: CounterIntelligence Division David Szady Letter to Senator Warner / 08-10-05
DOJ letter to Senator Warner / 07-28-05
Senator Warner to RJ /08-16-2005
Assistant Attorney General Michael Favale reply / 03-03-05
Senator Warner to RJ /06-29-2005
Senator Janet Howell to RJ / 03-14-05
DOJ Michael Battle to Senator Warner / 07-28-05
Senator Warner to RJ / 04-15-05
Governor Mark Warner’s letter to RJ /05-09-05
DOJ Priscillia Jones to RJ /03-14-05

Copies to:
Honorable Judge Gayle Carr
Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
4110 Chain Bridge Road Fairfax, VA 22030

The Honorable John W. Warner
United States Senator

David W. Szady Assistant Director
5309 Commonwealth Centre Pkwy.Suite 401, Midlothian, VA 23112
Counterintelligence DivisionU.S Department of Justice

Michael A. Battle
Director
U.S Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington D.C 20530

The Honorable Judith Jagdmann
Office of Attorney General
900 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219

The Honorable Janet Howell
Senator
P.O Box 2608, Reston, VA 20195-8283

The Honorable Michael Favale
Assistant Attorney General
900 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219

Christopher A. Wray
Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington D.C 20530

Dan Eggen
National Staff Writer - Justice Department
Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20071

Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Persecution and Prosecution of Reverend Moon

The Persecution and Prosecution of Reverend Moon
by Candadai Seshachari
This book review of Inquisition is reprinted, with permission, from Weber Studies: An Interdisciplinary Humanities Journal, Fall 92 (Weber State University, Ogden, Utah). Dr. Seshachari is the Interim Dean, College of Arts and Humanities at Weber State University.
Imagine this scenario: A hard-hitting, highly respected journalist, the only reporter ever to have won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Peabody Award, sees an irresistible opportunity to do a woof-and-warp expose on an alien church. The leader of this church has been tried for federal tax evasion and duly sentenced to 18 months in jail. This church has been publicly ridiculed and openly attacked in the American press. U.S. Senator Robert Dole and Congressman Donald Frazer have vociferously accused the church of brainwashing religious-minded Americans with lies and blasphemies.
The reporter hires himself on the staff of a newspaper that is owned by the much-aligned church to "get an inside track on one of the most controversial religious organizations in the United States." In time, he earns the trust of its leaders, secures access to its inner echelons of power, and gains access to confidential records. The stage is now unabashedly set for an explosive account that could conceivably blow the church off the American soil!
Now the players: the church, the Unification Church; the leader, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon; the newspaper, The Washington Times; the would-be exposer, the redoubtable Carlton Sherwood. Sherwood had hoped to undermine the Unification Church by mining the very stuff of "juicy sex scandals." He thought he would surely confront in Moon "a Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggart clone running loose."
Clean slate
Result of investigation? "Zero." And what about all the grizzly stories of kidnapped kids who were forced to disavow their parents and religions? "In a word: bunk," to quote Carlton Sherwood again. What Sherwood found instead was a church that was puritanical to its core, a church that did not suffer even ordinary moral lapses by its members one that was simple, straightforward, and amazingly charitable. He uncovered a horrifying story of government's hate and intolerance toward everyday, ordinary Americans who had chosen to exercise their religious freedom by following the tenets of the Reverend Moon.
Sherwood's investigation showed that the CIA, FBI, INS, SEC, FTC, and a host of other federal agencies including a dozen senate, state, and congressional committees had single-mindedly hounded Moon and his Church. It was tantamount to nothing short of a government-backed inquisition. Sherwood's discovery and abhorrence at what he found are best stated in his own words:
"The Unification Church, its leaders and followers were and continue to be the victims of the worst kind of religious prejudice and racial bigotry this country has witnessed in over a century. Moreover, virtually every institution we as Americans hold sacred the Congress, the courts, law enforcement agencies, the press, even the U.S. Constitution itself was prostituted in a malicious, oftentimes brutal manner, as part of a determined effort to wipe out this small but expanding religious movement."
Inquisition is a thoroughly researched story of the persecution and prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The charge against Moon was that he had used nearly $8,000 of church money for his everyday use, something that mainstream churches have historically done. Sherwood details how certain members of the jury were "Mooney" haters and how some others were manipulated. He narrates other grueling tales of iniquities and injustices that were heaped on the Reverend Moon in the name of law and justice. But the significance of the book lies elsewhere.
Telling indictment
Inquisition is a telling indictment of the racial intolerance and religious bigotry that, like some bloody scourge, defiles the national American character. Our national history is often told in terms of blood and violence that are directly related to intolerance and bigotry. From Anne Hutchinson to Joseph Smith, Jr., to Sun Myung Moon to the nine Buddhist monks who were recently slaughtered in Arizona, we hear episodes in our history of the persecution of those whose beliefs are different from ours. The Quakers and Shakers and the Hare Krisnas are self-effacing symbols of our national urge to brutalize those who are not part of the mainstream. Of course, all of this began with the early Puritans those who fled persecution in turn became ruthless persecutors themselves. Also, Native Americans have paid a heavy price, to the point of becoming exterminated, for the mere fact that they were and are different. Religiously and racially.
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon paid the price for being different on both scores in spite of all the guarantees enshrined in the First Amendment. Perhaps what makes Inquisition more than worthwhile reading is that it brings to the fore the idea that there is something in our national character that makes us recoil at wanton, arbitrary, and mindless violence and hate. We celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr., precisely because he exposed our everyday hatreds and pettinesses. We revere Lincoln because he made us confront our racism.
The Los Angeles racial riots are a testimony to our intolerance of color and race as much as their aftermath is a challenge to our ability to live together. In some basic ways, American society is a fragile society where the best is held in tension with the worst, and the sublime is held in check by the profane. And there is always hope witness the unending barrage of laws guaranteeing fairness and equality that roll out of our legislatures the hope that our idealism will be the harbinger of a better America that is racially and religiously more tolerant.

That hope is at the heart of Carlton Sherwood's Inquisition. It is also at the heart of the price that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon has paid.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Shannon Traore aka Shannon Tyler - How this white collar child abuser from Fairfax CPS manufactured sexual abuse allegations.

STICKS AND BONES - CPS Abuses in Fairfax County revealed.

STICKS AND BONES

Alice and Miguel Velasquez couldn't explain the bump on their daughter's rib cage to themselves or to their doctor. How, then, could they explain it to Alexandria's Child Protective Services?

by
Sarah Godfrey


On Feb. 3, 2000, Alice and Miguel Velasquez took their daughter Liliana for a routine well-baby visit at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. They were concerned about a lump on the left side of their 4-month-old's rib cage.

Alice, 22, an Army medical-lab technician, had discovered a slight protrusion while handling Liliana a few days earlier. The lump was not visible to the eye but could be felt by running a hand across the child's ribs. She thought of calling Liliana's pediatrician, but the child didn't seem to be in pain when the spot was touched.

Alice's husband, Miguel, 30, a flooring contractor from El Salvador, wasn't home at the time, so she called her grandmother in Indiana to ask for advice. "Liliana is just fine," the older woman assured her. When Miguel returned, he also felt the lump. Unconvinced that it was nothing, he told his wife that they should definitely show it to the doctor when Liliana went for her checkup.

When the couple brought the lump to the attention of the intern who examined Liliana, they say, he dismissed their worries at first. "He said it was probably a calcium deposit, and that she appeared happy and healthy," says Alice. Still, she pressed him. With a history of spinal disorders such as scoliosis and spina bifida in her family, Alice wanted to be sure that the bump wasn't an early indicator of one. "I was hoping if an X-ray caught the signs early, that it could be corrected."

When the couple persisted in their concern, the intern brought in staff pediatrician Dr. Paul Reed, who consented to X-rays for Liliana. Radiologist Donald Flemming performed the X-rays and detected five rib fractures in various stages of healing, as well as three additional suspected rib fractures.

The extent of the baby's injuries prompted Reed to immediately contact Capt. Barbara Craig, a doctor and the director of the Armed Forces Center for Child Protection, as well as Child Protective Services (CPS) in Alexandria, Va., where the Velasquezes were living. Social workers immediately came to the hospital to interview Miguel and Alice.

Liliana was transferred from Bethesda and kept overnight at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The next evening, after the social workers obtained a court order, Liliana was taken into city custody and placed in a foster home.

The Velasquezes claim they had no idea what had happened to cause their daughter's injuries, and were adamant that they had done nothing to cause them. They never imagined that for the next year and a half they would be faced with the impossible task of convincing the city that their daughter's injuries were caused by a rare bone disease they had never even heard of.

Nor could the Velasquezes foresee that another family's experience with Alexandria social services would affect their battle to regain custody of their daughter after the disease was identified. Alice and Miguel had no idea that they would be seen as an opportunity for a city agency under scrutiny to redeem itself.

"While we were going through all of this, the Katelyn Frazier case happened," says Alice. "That made everything a lot harder."

Doctors who discover injuries that appear to be nonaccidental in children are required to notify the proper authorities, usually the jurisdiction's child-welfare agency and/or law enforcement officials. Any doctor who fails to make such a report can face steep fines and possibly imprisonment, depending on state statutes.

Once social workers become involved, they, too, must adhere to specific regulations, in their case dictating how they investigate reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. Virginia receives more than 33,000 reports of possible abuse or neglect each year; its city and county social workers are required to investigate each and every one.

The social workers must decide whether long-term intervention is warranted and whether the child should be taken into protective custody. The investigation process includes talking with the parents—and child, if the child is old enough—face to face, making home visits, and checking for past reports of abuse against any adult members of the household. If social workers find that a report of abuse is founded, they devise a long-term foster-care plan with the family and continue to monitor both parents and child. Parents must meet certain conditions before they are able to regain custody. Usually, they are required to take parenting classes and undergo individual therapy. If they are cooperative and complete the requirements, the family can be reunited.

On its Web site, the Virginia Department of Social Services, which oversees local jurisdictions, states its goal as reuniting families: "Even if the child must be temporarily removed for safety, the goal is to return the child to the home as soon as possible."

Miguel and Alice Velasquez agree that in the beginning stages of their involvement with the social safety net, both the military doctors and the Alexandria social workers who placed their daughter in foster care were doing their jobs correctly. "I've worked in a hospital," says Alice. "If I'd found a child with even one rib fracture, I would've acted the same way."

Two high-profile local cases of child abuse, however, have shifted the goals of child-welfare agencies in both Alexandria and the District of Columbia. Area social-service agencies' traditional emphasis on family reunification has come into question following the deaths of two little girls who might still be alive had they not been returned to their birth mothers.

Twenty-three-month-old Brianna Blackmond was killed on Jan. 6, 2000, two weeks after D.C. child-welfare workers restored legal custody to her mother, Charrisise Blackmond. Brianna had been taken away from her mother in June 1998 after a social worker discovered her and seven siblings living in filth and rummaging through trash trying to find food. She was immediately placed in foster care.

The events that led to Brianna's return to her mother were a series of egregious oversights. The social worker handling Brianna's case failed to complete her recommendation that Brianna not be returned in time for a court hearing. While both the social worker and the attorney representing the city were on vacation, a D.C. Superior Court judge approved a motion entered by Charrisise Blackmond's lawyer to return Brianna to her mother—without a hearing. No one made a home visit before the child was returned. Anyone who had would have discovered that Charrisise Blackmond and several of her children were illegal tenants in the public-housing unit inhabited by Angela O'Brien, the woman who would later kill Brianna with a blow to the head.

Three-year-old Katelyn Frazier was fatally injured two days after Christmas 2000 while in the custody of her mother, Pennee Frazier. Their Alexandria apartment was shared with Frazier's boyfriend, Asher Levin, and three siblings. Katelyn had spent the majority of her life in a foster home under the care of Lesley Dodson, who had sought to adopt the child. Dodson's hopes were dashed in September 2000, when a judge decided to return Katelyn to her birth mother. She had been back in her mother's care only three months when she was killed. Levin later confessed to beating the toddler to death.

Unlike the Brianna case, in which a child seemed to fall through the cracks of a beleaguered child welfare system, the Katelyn case received an enormous amount of attention from city social workers—even after the child was reunited with her mother. The Washington Post reported that Katelyn was the subject of more than 15 court hearings to determine her placement, and social workers visited Pennee Frazier's home more than 30 times during the three months she had her daughter back. But somehow they missed what neighbors and friends later reported: Shortly after returning to her mother's apartment, Katelyn began showing bruises and other obvious signs of abuse.

Katelyn's death outraged community members. Residents have demanded that CPS be held accountable for what many believe was a mishandling of the case.

"[Katelyn] was too young to insist that the Alexandria [Department of Human Services] do its job...which was to make sure that whoever was entrusted with the care of this very vulnerable child did the right thing by her," said one angered community resident in an opinion piece published in the Fairfax Journal.

In July 2001, the city announced it would implement changes outlined in a review of Alexandria CPS conducted by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). The report, which criticized the department's handling of the Frazier case, offered recommendations to improve the agency's case monitoring.

The city was effective in its damage control until it was discovered that the CWLA's report had been edited, with portions unflattering to CPS removed, before City Manager Phil Sunderland distributed it to city councilmembers in June.

With its social-service agencies under intensified scrutiny, Alexandria was probably the worst possible jurisdiction for a family lobbying for the return of a child.

Sources who work closely with Alexandria CPS say that although de-emphasizing family reunification is not a formal policy reform, they have anecdotal evidence that it's happening all over the city. One source describes the agency as being in "crackdown" mode and says that employees are overcompensating, keeping families apart, because they are "very scared" of making another mistake.

Because of legal constraints, most of the people involved in the removal of Liliana Velasquez from her parents' care were unable to comment on the case for this story. "We have stringent confidentiality rules that apply to social-services work—we can't even acknowledge that we have any case under our care or anything attendant to that. We can actually be charged with a misdemeanor if we do so," explains Meg O'Reagan, director of Alexandria's Department of Human Services. Her department oversees the city's Family Services Division,which includes CPS.

Attorneys George McAndrews, who represents the city, and Russell Hatchell, who represents Liliana's interests in court proceedings, also declined to comment.

"The Frazier case had caused us more problems than we might have had otherwise," says Dorothy Isaacs, an attorney who agreed to represent Alice and Miguel Velasquez pro bono in February 2001. "[The] Alexandria [Department of Human Services] is sensitive right now, and I can't say I blame them. They really screwed up with [the Katelyn Frazier] case."

During their initial interview at the naval hospital, Alice tried to defend her husband to CPS social workers Jackie Lusk and Johnny Simancas. She explained how Miguel cared for their daughter during the day while she was at work. She told them how he drove from their home to her office at the Pentagon and back again twice each day because she hadn't wanted to stop breast-feeding after she returned to work. "Their response to me was 'Whose side are you on?'" says Alice.

"They asked me how much my husband drank and if he had been drinking that night," says Alice. "I told them that we're Mormons—we don't even drink sodas with caffeine."

The Velasquezes were puzzled by the social workers' immediate fingering of Miguel. "My husband couldn't hurt a flea! If anything, he's the one afraid of me! They just had it in their minds from the very beginning that it was him," says Alice.

"I don't even remember the walk from the hospital to the car—I just remember standing in the street and hearing Liliana crying as the car drove away," recalls Alice, crying. "Even after I couldn't see the car any longer, I could still hear her. I sat down on the curb and threw up."

The couple drove home through a snowstorm to an empty apartment. After hours of crying and worrying, they finally fell asleep. Alice would wake up a few hours later: "I heard her cry, and I got up to feed her. But when I went to the crib she wasn't there. I would turn on the lights and look everywhere for her until I realized. This went on for weeks and weeks."

During the course of the investigation, Miguel and Alice were told that if they could provide a reasonable explanation for their daughter's fractures, she would be returned to them. They immediately came up with a list of things that could have possibly happened to cause Liliana's injuries, some of which later came back to haunt them during court proceedings.

Perhaps one of them had rolled on her as she slept in their bed? Or maybe they had pressed on her belly too hard while trying to ease gas and constipation? Maybe her visiting older half-sister had somehow hurt her while they were playing? Miguel offered: "Maybe I hugged her too tight because I love her so much."

Despite their efforts to explain the origin of their daughter's fractures, Miguel was arrested on Feb. 17, 2000, for criminal child abuse and neglect. He says it was his first arrest and that his experience in jail was "very bad": "They just treat you like you're nothing in that place."

The Velasquezes were now faced with not only civil custody hearings and the CPS foster-care requirements but the possibility of a criminal trial as well.

Miguel remained in jail for only a few hours, but after Alice posted bail and he was released, he received the worst blow: Although CPS had granted both Miguel and Alice visitation time with their daughter, as a standard condition of his bond, Miguel was prohibited from seeing Liliana, meaning he could be jailed again if he came into contact with her.

Liliana stayed in foster care for the entire month of February. Alice regained custody of her daughter in March, but Miguel still wasn't allowed to see her. He moved in with his father temporarily, hoping that his court-appointed criminal attorney, Mary McGuire, would soon be able to successfully petition for an amendment to his bond, allowing him to move back home and see his daughter.

But being away from his family proved too much for Miguel to bear. At the beginning of May, he began visiting Liliana and Alice. However, on May 5, someone anonymously tipped off CPS that Miguel was spending time with his daughter. On May 12, Simancas, along with the Fairfax County police, came to the Velasquez home to take away Liliana and arrest Miguel.

Miguel and Alice both describe the scene as something "out of a movie." The cops came into the house in the middle of the night and found Miguel hiding in a bedroom closet. Alice was again left alone. The next morning, for the second time, Alice bailed her husband out of jail.

"We haven't been perfect in this process—it was a mistake," says Alice. "But I knew that if I was in [Miguel's] position and [Miguel] told me that I couldn't see our daughter, that I would hate him. His only crime was missing and wanting to see his daughter."

On May 1, 2000, Miguel was indicted by a City of Alexandria grand jury on the charge of felony child abuse and neglect. The crime typically carries a penalty of two to 10 years' imprisonment. A trial date was set for June.

One evening in February 2000, a few weeks after Liliana was first taken away, Miguel and Alice decided to watch television as a distraction. After a quiet dinner, they sat on the couch and idly flipped through the channels. There was a commercial for the news program 20/20 that mentioned a segment on a disease with a funny name—osteogenesis imperfecta.

A friend at church had mentioned the disease to them just that Sunday. "Have you heard of this?" the friend had asked, handing them some literature on the disease, which is characterized by bones that break easily. The couple decided to watch the prograó. They tuned in at 10 o'clock and learned about the hallmarks of "OI," as it is called—a bluish tint to the whites of the eyes, excessive perspiration, hyperflexibility, and inexplicable bone fractures—sometimes even before a child is born.

Miguel and Alice sat on the couch in silence throughout the entire program, not speaking even to express relief.

"We couldn't believe it—it all made sense. Liliana always sweated a lot and had a bluish tint to her eyes. When she was a baby, Miguel and I would argue about whether her eyes were brown or blue, because the tint was so strong," says Alice. "Even people at church and other family members noticed it. Then there is my family history of spinal problems and my hyperflexibility," she says, bending her elbow back into an impossible position.

"OI is 'brittle-bones' disease," explains Dr. Jay Shapiro of Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute's Osteogenesis Imperfecta Clinic, which treats OI patients from around the world. "It's a disease where people are born with fragile bones—they can have fractures even while in the womb. Most continue to fracture throughout their lives. Some may have only three or four fractures over their lifetime and look fairly normal. Others, with more severe OI, can have growth problems and may be only 3 to 4 feet tall and have many fractures—20, 30, maybe even more."

There are an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 OI sufferers in the United States alone. In its mildest form, the disease may cause the bluish tint to the eyes, brittle teeth, and a slightly triangular face, but these indicators do not necessarily have to be present in a child with OI. Diagnosis is based on a combination of factors, including evaluation by doctors and geneticists, and, if necessary, lab testing. The disease may go undetected for years—or be misdiagnosed as child abuse.

Like OI, child abuse is often characterized by broken bones. Fractures in multiple stages of healing—especially rib fractures—are often present in both children with OI and children who are being battered. And, because these distinguishing characteristics are the same, children with OI are often suspected to be victims of abuse when they are first seen by doctors.

"You have a parent who walks in and presents exactly like someone who abuses their child," says Heller An Shapiro, director of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation. "They bring in a child with injuries—fractures, bruises, etc.—and when asked how the injuries occurred, say, 'I don't know.' Well, that is exactly how someone who is abusing their child would respond, so they fit the profile. I have empathy for social workers in this sort of situation who are trying to piece together what's going on."

And, Heller An Shapiro notes, the disease is unfamiliar to many doctors and social workers. "We've worked hard to educate doctors, emergency-room personnel, and social workers, but it's not something that people see often, and it is highly unlikely that it would be diagnosed in its mildest form. Most doctors can spot the more severe types of OI, where the child might be in a wheelchair or have visible deformities. But for a child who looks normal and happens to have OI, the disease is rarely identified right away."

Because the disease is indeed rare and most people are unaware of its existence, the Velasquezes had a difficult time getting authorities to take their claims seriously. After seeing the 20/20 segment, Alice gathered all of the information she could find about OI and presented it to caseworker Lusk, who she says blew it off. She also approached Capt. Craig, who she says told her, "Don't believe everything you see on the Internet."

The couple say that even their respective court-appointed civil attorneys didn't seem interested in the information. But McGuire, faced with a desperate client looking at a decade behind bars, finally agreed to push for an OI test for Liliana. In May 2000, a judge granted the test, to be paid for by the court.

Later that month, Liliana was examined by two physicians in the genetics department of Children's Hospital. She was given a painful skin biopsy, involving the removal of a plug of skin from her forearm about the size of a pencil eraser. "I had to hold her while they took the skin sample," says Alice. "She was just screaming and looking at me like 'Mommy, why are you letting them do this to me?' It was terrible."

The skin sample was sent to the University of Washington's Department of Pathology for analysis in its Collagen Diagnostic Laboratory. The doctors at Children's Hospital also decided to give Liliana another complete set of X-rays, to confirm the presence of the previously diagnosed fractures. These new X-rays showed only five rib fractures—the additional three suspected fractures were not confirmed.

The results of the skin test came back in September. Although such test results usually come back in three weeks, the lab had also performed other studies, including DNA work, along with the collagen skin test. Genetic counselor Melanie Pepin, who works at the lab, says that such additional tests are often conducted "especially with the question of nonaccidental injury." The results confirmed what her parents had suspected: Liliana had tested positive for OI Type I, a mild form of the disease.

The city's civil prosecutor attempted to discredit the test as experimental and unreliable, and argued that the diagnosis of OI didn't preclude the possibility that Miguel could have still abused his daughter. Capt. Craig became a key witness in both lines of argument.

Craig declined to comment for this article, citing confidentiality regulations affecting active-duty military personnel, but she has made her opinions on the case apparent throughout court proceedings. In a November 2000 e-mail to Alexandria Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Roger Canaff, she wrote, "Do I think these parents cannot be trusted? Yes. Do I think Liliana will be further abused in their care? Yes? Can I prove this in court? No. Does she have OI? Maybe—probably....Will a judge or jury buy any of this? They will probably have sympathy on the poor parents who will cry and lie in telling about their ordeal against the mean doctors in the military. The OI, if present, is an extremely mild case and may not have anything to do with her fractures."

The prosecution also pointed out that Liliana had not experienced any new fractures during her year in foster care. Jay Shapiro says that when a child is removed from a home and does not experience new fractures, it often means that the child does not have OI and was being abused.

"Let's say you have someone who brings a child into the ER [with fractures]," Shapiro says. "The ER calls Social Services and the child is taken away. The child has another fracture while on his or her own. Then you have someone who brings a child into ER with many fractures, the child is put in foster home, and the child doesn't fracture again. Usually you can say with some degree of certainty that the first case is OI and the second is child abuse."

Shapiro adds, however, that there are exceptions to the rule. "That type of evaluation is probably good 96 percent of the time. In a couple of cases it may not be so clear. That is the loophole, where you're not 100 percent sure."

"It is true that even if a child has OI there could be real abuse going on," says Heller An Shapiro. "It makes all of the factors difficult to assess—especially in Virginia, where they are so anxious about making a mistake that they may make accusations even when clearly that isn't the case."

"Having OI doesn't mean a child can't be abused, but there is absolutely nothing in Miguel's history that could lead anyone to think he could possibly abuse his child," says Isaacs.

The prosecution also argued that the test for OI can be unreliable. Although the collagen skin test can yield a false negative result, a positive test is foolproof, says Heller An Shapiro: "They got it wrong when they argued about the OI test, calling it experimental. [Liliana] got a positive test. If an OI test is positive, it's positive. The positive success rate is 100 percent. The negative result is less reliable—an 85 to 90 percent success rate. But if someone tests positive, there is no question."

Pepin agrees the test, which has been in use since the early '80s, does not yield positives: "The issue in terms of the test's sensitivity isn't if a positive test confirms OI—a positive result confirms the presence of OI."

In December 2000, Miguel's felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor in light of the new information pertaining to Liliana's OI. In January 2001, the Alexandria city attorney entered a nolle prosequi in the case—declining to prosecute for lack of evidence—after McGuire was successful in suppressing all of his pre-charge statements. His conversations with Reed, Craig, and even Lusk, prior to his arrest, were thrown out. Miguel says he wasn't read his Miranda rights before talking to doctors and social workers at Bethesda. Even though he wasn't being charged with a crime at the time, Miranda law applies to custodial investigations as well. All criminal charges against him were dismissed.

Miguel and Alice thought their daughter was finally coming home.

But the nolle prosequi in Miguel's criminal case had no bearing on either the civil custody proceedings or CPS's monitoring of the family. Instead of reinstating Liliana, the agency was able to keep her in the foster-care system on a technicality: It sustained an internal administrative finding against the parents—an action that affects civil custody.

McGuire had seen to it that all pertinent OI information went into Miguel's file in the criminal case. The court-appointed civil attorneys representing the couple at the time, however, had not done the same for the civil custody case.

"The administrative finding was sustained because they were supposed to submit the results of the OI test and didn't," says Isaacs. "Alice and Miguel rightfully thought that the OI finding was on record, so they didn't submit the doctors' reports. They said that Johnny Simancas told them that it was in the record. Because the parents were supposed to give additional info and didn't, the [administrative] finding was sustained."

CPS also argued that Miguel and Alice had failed to complete a key requirement of their foster-care plan—admitting their guilt.

"They said that they wanted us to stipulate our roles in her abuse and move beyond a victimization posture. We would have lied and said that we did it in a minute, just to get our child back, but it was a Catch-22," says Alice.

"They wanted us to say we were abusing our baby," says Miguel.

If the Velasquezes had admitted guilt, under the nolle prosequi, the misdemeanor case against Miguel could have been reopened, and the criminal charges could have been reinstated. If new evidence is introduced within one year in a nolle prosequi case, charges can be re-entered.

"In September, when the skin biopsy came back, if they would've apologized, I would've understood," says Alice.

"We want our names cleared," continues Alice. "Even when all of this is over, it will follow us. Whenever Liliana starts a new school, it's something that will be on record, something that everyone will know about. We just want an apology. We want them to admit they were wrong."

The Velasquezes believe that CPS focused on Miguel because of his race. "I think I was targeted because I am a Latino man," he says.

In addition to caring for Liliana, Miguel also has an older daughter, 7-year-old Cassandra, from a previous marriage. While married to his ex-wife, Roxanna Garay, and still living with Cassandra full time, he served as her primary caregiver. Cassandra has congenital heart disease, and Garay has testified that when her daughter's illness was at its most severe and she herself couldn't cope, it was her husband who stepped in and cared for the child.

"Miguel's ex-wife testified that he was a loving father—never abused her or their daughter," says Isaacs. "You know, I handle a lot of divorces, and the glowing testimony of an ex-spouse says a lot."

In a March 2000 hearing, Dr. Reed testified that Miguel had been "very flattened in his affect" and "emotionless" as Reed described Liliana's fractures to him.

"Miguel doesn't know what 'fractures' are," counters Alice. Miguel came to America from El Salvador in 1990, and although he speaks English quite well, she argues, medical terminology isn't something that even most native speakers are very familiar with, let alone someone who is still learning the nuances of the language.

"Miguel has language issues, and Alice isn't a lawyer, so there was some confusion," says Isaacs.

One statement that was brought out repeatedly by prosecutors during hearings was Craig's recollection that Miguel had confessed to lifting Liliana with one hand and "throwing" her to her mother "like a football" during his interview with her the day Liliana was brought to Bethesda.

"It's ridiculous. They don't even have football in Miguel's country—he would've never made that comparison!" says Alice.

Heller An Shapiro says that poor families of color are especially vulnerable to charges of child abuse, because social-service agencies often target such families. "That seems to be the profile that social workers and child-abuse experts have in mind. The other piece to that puzzle is young or inexperienced parents."

"There is no doubt in my mind that it is a class issue, but I wouldn't be surprised by racial motivations, either," says Isaacs. "People who can afford counsel, who are familiar with the legal system, and who know when to keep their mouths closed to avoid incriminating themselves—they're treated differently."

In addition to the agony of being separated from their daughter, Miguel and Alice also faced fears that Liliana was being neglected in her foster home. "[CPS] didn't think we were good parents, but they allowed her to be treated poorly in foster care," says Alice.

According to INOVA Alexandria Hospital records, Liliana was hospitalized seven times while under the care of foster mother Willie Mae Gray. Liliana was seen at INOVA Alexandria on May 26, May 27, July 5, Aug. 3, Nov. 12, Dec. 14, and, finally, on Dec. 19, 2000. Usually, she was brought in for malnutrition and diarrhea. Her parents were not notified by social workers of Liliana's trips to the emergency room.

But Alice had begun to notice worrisome changes in her daughter's demeanor. Whenever Liliana was brought to the CPS offices for visitation, she was always "dirty and exhausted," says her mother. Liliana's long hair was often matted to her head and was falling out in small patches. She usually wasn't dressed properly for the weather, adds Alice.

"She was always dirty. She stunk, had terrible diaper rash to the point of open, bloody lesions. I later found out she had several vaginal infections because she was not being cleaned properly," says Alice.

Alice and Miguel found out that their daughter was a frequent visitor to the emergency room only after she contracted pneumonia in December 2000 and was retained for nine days. A hospital employee told Alice that Liliana was a "frequent" visitor, and urged her to seek out a copy of her daughter's medical file. She was able to obtain the records and was shocked at what she found.

Alice became desperate to transfer her daughter from Gray's care and into another foster home. She frantically tried to contact her court-appointed civil attorney, to no avail: "He wouldn't return my calls."

It was at this point that Alice began contacting the media: "Fox 5, Eyewitness News—everybody but Jerry Springer." She was successful in gaining public attention. Both Channel 9 and the Spanish-language cable channel Univision planned spots profiling the family, which were aired in March 2001. The increase in visibility also brought them to Isaacs, whose firm was recommended to the family by an acquaintance.

"People treated us a lot differently after they found out our story was going to be on TV," says Alice. Liliana was placed in another foster home at the end of February. The family believes that Isaacs' involvement and the media attention they received were instrumental in their daughter's transfer.

Previously, CPS intervened in illnesses and injuries of children in foster care only if a caseworker reported a child as possibly being abused or neglected. But in June 2001, the city announced a "new-eyes approach" that requires investigation into any injuries sustained by a child in foster care. Currently the Velasquezes have physical, but not legal, custody of their daughter. Although she was finally returned to her parents' home in July 2001, the city still effectively has control over all decisions regarding her health, education, and welfare.

The Velasquezes moved to Maryland in late 2001. Alice, who remained on active duty during most of their ordeal, had left the Army that September. Because the couple could no longer pay Alexandria rent without military assistance, the decided to search for an apartment in the more affordable suburbs of Prince George's County. "Of course, that was another whole big issue," says Alice. "They tried to say that we were running away."

Although the Velasquezes moved only 20 minutes from their former home, because they left Virginia, they unknowingly invoked the Interstate Compact to Protect Children (ICPC). This legislation was designed to protect children placed across state lines for foster care and adoption, to ensure that they couldn't slip through the cracks. Under the ICPC, any adopted or foster child remains in the legal custody of the state for six months after any out-of-state move.

After completing all of Alexandria CPS's requirements, Miguel and Alice were devastated to learn that the agency would remain a part of their lives for an additional half-year. The ICPC monitoring period will expire in March, at which time they expect to regain full legal custody of their daughter.

In the meantime, the Velasquezes are attempting to move on with their lives. They are ecstatic to have Liliana back home, and they have a new addition to their family: baby Tahlia, born in October 2001. They are in the process of saving money to have Tahlia tested for OI. Currently, Alice is staying home with both children, and Miguel is supporting the family with contract construction work.

Miguel and Alice must constantly try to protect Liliana from activities that may cause additional fractures, while still trying to ensure that she has as normal a childhood as possible. "We watch her very carefully," says Alice. "We don't let her climb stairs or play on the playground by herself, and we have to watch her when she's around other kids. We also have a list from her doctor of activities she will never be able to do—like horseback riding and gymnastics."

Alice is writing a book about their experiences, not only to help her and her husband process it all, but also so that their daughter will have a record of the ordeal. "I don't want her to hate us. I want her, when she's old enough, to understand exactly what happened—to know how much we love her and that we never gave up on her. We never stopped fighting."

Miguel and Alice communicate with other parents of children with OI who have had similar experiences. At first, they sought out other families and support groups for counsel. Now, they say, they are beginning to give guidance themselves. "It's so incredibly sad. I've done a lot of research on OI, and other families, in almost every single case, have their child taken away, and it is sometimes years before the child is tested," says Alice.

"There was one family where the father served five years in prison before his child tested positive for OI," Alice continues. "After five years in jail, the father is scared to death to touch the kid, the mother is alienated from her husband after spending years wondering if he really did it, and the child doesn't really know his parents. You can't even tell that they're a family anymore. When I think about it, we're one of the lucky ones."

It is easy to see why Alice and Miguel feel lucky, despite their travails, upon seeing Liliana in action. The now-2-year-old girl is beautiful and bright. Although, like many toddlers she is initially reluctant around new people, once she warms up, she is lively. She runs around the house laughing and tries to draw on anything that will stand still. She talks and talks and talks to no one in particular and loves to give demonstrations of her many toys.

While Alice recounts the story of the fight for Liliana, Miguel tries to occupy his daughter in the living room. He plies her with ice cream, Powerpuff Girls cartoons, and games of peek-a-boo. Then he takes her for a quick bath and puts her in pink pajamas. Inevitably, however, the toddler decides she wants to be where the action is.

Liliana comes back into the room, crying with no tears, and climbs into her mother's lap. "Aww, was Daddy trying to make you go to sleep? Oh no, what a mean daddy!" says Alice playfully. Liliana mimics her mother and manages a garbled "mean daddy" of her own. Alice falls over in peals of laughter, stopping only when she notices Miguel grimacing. "Please, Alice," he says. "Don't teach her to say that." CP

Copyright © 2002 Washington Free Weekly Inc.

The 'experts' who made parents into criminals

The 'experts' who made parents into criminals

Allison Pearson, Evening Standard

"The greatest medical scandal of our times," is what Dr James Le Fanu calls it. He is referring to Shaken Baby Syndrome. Thousands of parents have been wrongly accused of abusing their children because the medical profession, in its arrogance, has taken a certain set of symptoms to be evidence of severe battering, rather than accepting an explanation that a child may have simply fallen.

Paul and Joanne, a lovely London couple I know, recently lived through the hell of being accused of harming their baby daughter. Taking the baby to casualty after she rolled off a sofa, they found themselves in a Kafkaesque nightmare, with every protestation of innocence treated as further proof of guilt.

"Denial is highly indicative of abuse," says one smug paediatrician cited by Dr Le Fanu. In other words, unless parents confess, they must have done it.

For years, doctors have insisted that severe injuries, such as haemorrhages in the eye, could not be caused by the trivial accidents parents claimed had taken place. The drawback to this position was obvious: no one had ever pushed an infant off the sitting-room sofa in an experiment to see what damage would result.

Instead of proceeding with caution, however, "experts" gave damning evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome to the Family Court, while bewildered parents, numb with shock and grief, saw their children removed to foster homes. Some of the accused were jailed.

Paul and Joanne were not trusted to take their daughter home. Only the promise that they would never be alone with her - that there would always be a third person present - saved their ninemonthold from being taken to the fearful place we call "care". Any protest was impossible because, if the family went public, the court would seize the child.

In a bitter irony, this family was going through hell in one part of our city at the same time that medical and social services were failing to notice that Victoria Climbie was being tortured in another.

How much easier and more satisfying to torment an innocent middle-class family, who had taken their child to hospital in good faith, than to confront some evil brutes who went to every length to keep the little girl in their charge from proper treatment and diagnosis.

Well, now it has become clear that there is no such thing as Shaken Baby Syndrome. A pathologist has proved that in 18 independently witnessed accidents, trivial falls produced exactly those injuries which were meant to be consistent with violent abuse. And what do we hear from the experts? A thunderous silence. And from the secretive and draconian Family Court? An apologetic cough.

The Shaken Baby Scandal could be the source of some of the most grotesque miscarriages of justice this country has seen. There is an urgent need for a public inquiry. Each case will need to be re-examined. The jailed must be freed.

Then decent, loving people like Paul and Joanne, who live in fear of their toddler falling off her tricycle lest the cuts and bruises be deemed to have a sinister origin, can be taken off the legal blacklist.

At long last, the cries of shaken parents can be heard.