Petition 13: the Nardone Petition

The Summary of the Nardone Petition was taken off of  a Democrat non-believers blog, but I just happen to have a copy. Enjoy!

Petition 13: the Nardone Petition

See Also:

• 2010 Petition #7
• Chairman Ingbretson's November 15, 2011 letter to DCYF Director Maggie Bishop

Hope Nardone appeared before the old Ad-Hoc Redress Caucus in 2010. She told a harrowing story involving her two adopted children. She adopted two siblings from the former Soviet Republic of Belarus, or actually Kazakhstan. (I distinctly remember her saying it was Belarus in 2010, but maybe I just mixed up one oddly-named former Soviet Republic with another.) Her daughter is doing well, but her son is doing very badly indeed— in large part, she tells us, because of decisions made by the family-law system.

PETITION 13

PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCE

TO: The Honorable House of Representatives

FROM: Petitioner Representative Daniel C. Itse, Rockingham 9

DATE: September 20, 2011

SUBJECT: Grievance of Hope Nardone

Your Petitioner Representative Itse on behalf of Hope Nardone hereinafter presents the following summary of her grievance and invokes the constitutional authority and duty of the Honorable House of Representatives pursuant to Articles 31 and 32 to bring about redress:

Grievances involving the members of the Division of Children, Youth, and Families including Kristen Neil and Kate Emerson for the following:

1. Making false statements to the Social Security Administration in order to receive mental illness financial benefits for a minor while refusing mental health services.
2. Alleging abuse/neglect because a parent sought mental health help for a minor.
3. Failing to disclose unsafe/aggressive behaviors including sexual assault to the court and to the parent, including that Derry police were pressing charges.
4. Omission of same from DCYF documentation.
5. Practicing medicine by refusal to comply with physician orders.
6. Refusing to transport and refusing to use Safe Passages transportation to bring a minor to family visits and physician ordered appointments.
7. Violating HIPAA practice of medicine involving slandering of the parent.
8. Withholding exculpatory evidence.
9. Failing to comply with Brentwood Family Court's court-ordered family visits.
10. Refusing to allow visitation hours during times that would allow the parent to return to work.

Wherefore, your Petitioner prays that the House of Representatives consider this proposed remedy:

Amend the laws of the State as follows:

1. Define the precise guidelines for the following terms for all State and medical/health providers regarding "in the best interest of the child" and "good faith reporting" in order to protect children and families from malicious reporting bias.
2. Remove State agency worker immunity regarding criminal penalties for failing to act in the best interest of the child/family or acting outside the scope of his or her practice to acquire a child into state custody.
3. Modify ex-parte hearings to protect a parent's/family's right to speak on a child's behalf and to defend themselves against allegations of abuse/neglect and to prevent psychological injury to the child.
4. Specify a time frame in which exculpatory evidence must be presented by the State.
5. Create rules of evidence requiring discovery and acceptance of all evidence which may clear a parent/family and return the child.
6. Require documentation beyond reasonable doubt showing attempts to locate and place the child with the grandparents or other family members prior to placing a child into foster care.

Respectfully submitted by Petitioner Representative Itse on Behalf of Hope Nardone.

It took six months for Ms. Nardone's hearing to take place. The committee chair says she had "issues" which prevented her from appearing. When she finally showed up on April 3, 2011, she was half an hour late because she was unable to find a parking place. (I have a free taxpayer-funded parking place, but I have had problems finding parking myself.) But she gave a good presentation once she got there.

Her son is now in an institutional setting in Massachusetts, apparently in a state-run facility, and she assured us that he is being well cared for. But she still has many grievances against the State of New Hampshire.

She provided the following narrative, and I have redacted the children's names from the original text. The daughter was born circa 1998 and is now 14 years old. The son was born circa 2001.

The "Anna Philbrook Hopsital" is the Anna Philbook Center, which is a division of the state-owned New Hampshire Hospital. Kazakhstan is actually on the southeast border of Russia, but ironically Belarus is on the southwest border. The D.J. Bakie School is the grade school in Kingston, NH where Ms. Nardone and her children live. The somewhat similarly named Ernest P. Barka Elementary School is a few miles away in Derry, NH. 

Kristen Neil does exist and her name was spelled correctly, although she is missing from the current staff directory.  At least, she is missing under the surname of "Neil." (Just about all the names in this petition seem to be correct.) According to an April 19, 2003 Portsmouth Herald story, she was an assessment child protective worker, who decides (within 60 days) what services the child needs, and she has the power to remove the child if the family situation is unsafe:

• "I meet them, let them know what the complaint is and set up an appointment with the members of the household," [Kristen] Neil said. "We see the child, siblings, parents, and grandparents to determine the family dynamic. We talk with the schools, day care, therapists, and physicians. I want to find out what services the child is receiving, what they need - but always with the goal of working to keep the family intact if possible."
  

As recently as April 2008, Neil worked as the State Liaison Officer for Child Abuse and Neglect. Kate Emerson also exists, although she is probably "Katie" with an "i" and she too has vanished from the current staff directory.

Dr. Cauble is (apparently) Dr. Steven Cauble, a child psychiatrist with offices in Concord and Hanover. Although Ms. Nardone described him as "totally incompetent," Dr. Cauble is an Assistant Professor at the Dartmouth Medical School. I am not sure who Dr. Warner is: there is a child psychiatrist named in Concord named Dr. Diana Weiner, and "Weiner" is certainly a name which could be confused with "Warner." Dr. Eric Mart also turns up in a 2012 Petition, the Dow Petition. The Salem Visitation Center is not directly DCYF—affiliated: it is part of a local community-based behavioral health center.

During the fall of 2005 I adopted my children from the SW border of Russia, known as Kazakhstan. Upon speaking English, my daughter began disclosing the very abusive past that both of my children had suffered while in Kazakhstan. Both of my children received outpatient psychiatry and counseling for their past. My son demonstrated repeated aggressive and unsafe behaviors and was lEA'd (involuntary emergency admission) from the hospital ER to Anna Philbrook Hospital in 11/06. Less than a week later Anna Philbrook Hospital discharged my son with the diagnosis of reactive attachment disorder. I asked the inpatient psychiatrist Dr Cauble what needs to be done for this diagnosis and Dr Cauble replied that I didn't need to do anything and to just take my son home and everything would be fine. During the end of 2/07 my son was lEA'd again to Anna Philbrook Hospital after his repeated aggressive and unsafe behaviors and said that he heard a man's voice calling him and his family's names. My son told the Exeter Hospital ER doctor that he feels scared whenever he hears voices. My son was transported from Exeter Hospital either by a sheriff car or ambulance to Anna Philbrook Hospital. Upon the first few days of my son's arrival to Philbrook Hospital, Dr Cauble requested that I change my son's involuntary status to a voluntary status due to my son verbalizing fear about judges. I agreed that my son should not have to see the judge if he were that afraid to do so. My son's status was then changed from involuntary emergency admission to "voluntary admission." Immediately after this change in admission status I would arrive at Anna Philbrook Hospital and would wait to visit my son, from 30 minutes to a few hours. The Anna Philbrook Hospital staff would speak to me in a demeaning tone "Go home. He doesn't want your visit." (nurse Amy did this on various occasions) Other times the Anna Philbrook Hospital staff would make statements in front of my son and daughter and me which empowered my son to detach further from his family and resulted in my son refusing his family (See next paragraph as these same statements were made in front of our family advocate also). When I called my son he would yell "I don't want to talk to you!" and would hang up the phone. My son continued to refuse weekly visits and phonecalls. After approximately 4 weeks of my son's refusal see/speak to his family, I called my friend Kathy Howe who told me to get a family advocate and gave me Maxine Small's phone number. Maxine Small agreed to attend our family visits, starting near 3/23/07. While other families in the waiting area waited 5 minutes or less for their child to visit with them, our family waited between 30-45 minutes for my son to arrive to visit us. Amy the nurse stated in a very judgmental tone "He didn't want to visit you. I had to talk him into it." Amy also stated in front of Maxine and me and my son [son's name redacted] and my daughter[son's name redacted]: "[son's name redacted] you don't have to visit with your family. You don't have to have to be punished by having your television shut off or your games taken away just because your family calls or wants to visit. You can end the visit anytime you want to." Maxine Small reported Philbrook Hospital staff nurse Amy to Dr Cauble and to his team as well as to the legal department of the NH Hospital, informing all that Amy appeared very judgemental of [son's name redacted]'s family and was inappropriate and unprofessional in what was supposed to be impartial behavior. At Maxine's suggestion I speaker phoned the phonecalls I made to my son [son's name redacted] due to my son's continued refusal of family visits and phonecalls and on most occasions Rita Fortin and Maxine Small (and on some occasions Dr Rick Silverman, [son's name redacted] outpatient therapist) listened to the phonecalls. On many occasions I was also accompanied to the Philbrook Hospital by Maxine Small and sometimes by Rita Fortin (a family friend from Church) to visit my son with others present. Because [son's name redacted] contracted pneumonia during 3/07, Philbrook Hospital changed their plan to discharge him from the hospital. Dr Cauble's team suggested that I allow the Philbrook Hospital staff to take my son off of psychotropic medications in order to have my son's medications changed. I agreed to this. My son was taken off of his medications but the staff then refused to put him back on any medications. Around this same time, Jennifer Pomykato (Bakie School Spec Ed Dept) requested to know why my son wasn't present with me. I informed Jennifer Pomykato that my son was in the hospital for behavioral/emotional issues. Jennifer Pomykato instructed me to contact NH DCYF and said that if I didn't do this, that she would. I contacted NH DCYF and asked what voluntary services were. I met with Kate Emerson, a college student who worked for NH DCYF as a CPSW and with Kristen Neil, also a CPSW 1 or 2. I asked Kristen Neil if DCYF could help me with financial funding or loans for: Evergreen Center in Colorado for a two week attachment therapy program for our family, or for New England Attachment Institute in Worcester for 2-3x weekly attachment therapy or for 3x weekly neurofeedback sessions to help my son's attachment jssues. Kristen Neil informed me that NH DCYF doesn't help with any financial funding or with loans at all. Kristen Neil stated that DCYF could offer me an emergency pager number and 2 hours of someone coming to our home to visit[son's name redacted] daily. This definitely was not going to enough to protect our family though, as [son's name redacted] wasn't sleeping and was up with repeated attempts to harm his family on average of 6-10 times each night. I wasn't able to sleep each night and I had to stop working as a result of staying up each night to protect our family. I informed Kristen Neil that 2 hours of someone coming to our home each day wasn't enough to keep us safe and requested that we'd need more services for [son's name redacted] situation, but Kristen Neil told me that was the maximum amount of intensive services she could offer, that I could accept or decline NH DCYF's voluntary offer and mentioned that if I didn't take [son's name redacted] home from the hospital upon his discharge that NH DCYF would take [son's name redacted] involuntarily and would charge me with abuse/neglect! I realized that DCYF wasn't going to offer any services that would be sufficient to help our family, and I didn't like the way that Kristen Neil treated me, so I didn't sign any paperwork and I decided not to take any of DCYF's voluntary services. There was an Anna Philbrook Hospital discharge meeting during 5/07 in which I requested that my son receive IEP testing. Jennifer Pomykato (special needs director) from Bakie School was present, as was DCYF's Kristen Neil. I told Atty Werme (my attorney) that I didn't know why DCYF was at [son's name redacted] discharge meeting. (It was years later that I discovered that DCYF had used my signature without my knowledge or consent to receive my son's medical file and to be part of his discharge.) During the discharge meeting, my son's outpatient therapists (Dr Rick Silverman and Dr Greg Thompson) both teleconferenced in for the discharge meeting and they stated that my son needed approximately a 6 month residential placement that would help him to be safe at home. Both therapists (Drs Silverman and Thompson) reported that they felt that my son was not able to behave safely at home until after he received additional treatment for unsafe behaviors. But DCYF's Kristen Neil disagreed with both of [son's name redacted] outpatient providers and stated that there shouldn't be any more placements for [son's name redacted] who had multiple placements in Kazakhstan and had two hospitalizations. Kristen Neil stated in a demeaning tone that I could "take or leave the offer of voluntary services" as she walked out of the discharge meeting. During the meeting, Dr Warner stated that [son's name redacted] had shown no signs of having reactive attachment disorder. Family advocate Maxine Small asked both Drs Cauble and Warner how much experience they each had with reactive attachment disorder. Dr Cauble and Dr Warner reluctantly stated they had little to no experience with reactive attachment disorder. A future discharge plan was mentioned but by the time I received any discharge plan, it was mailed weeks after goals were to have been completed. NH DCYF claimed that I had refused to follow the discharge plan for my son! One of the "goals" on my son's discharge plan was that I MUST TAKE NH DCYF's "voluntary services." Another surprise was that Jennifer Pomykato was erroneously listed as "principal" on the discharge plan that she supposedly signed and dated during 6/07, yet special education director Jennifer Pomkato wrote that she had no Philbrook contact since the 5/07 discharge meeting. Another surprise was that during my son's inpatient stay, Dr Cauble called me and told me that I "HAD to become the birth mother, even after Dr Cauble learned what harm the birth mother caused my kids. I had prearranged for my son's late afternoon discharge on 6-26-07 (his 6th birthday) a week or two prior when speaking with the Anna Philbrook social worker, Carol Kilminster. My son was to have a birthday party and then see Dr Thompson later on the evening of his hospital discharge. But instead on 6/26/07 I received a call from NH DCYF's Kristen Neil, who in a demeaning fashion, informed me that NH DCYF had already taken my son into their custody in the AM via an Ex-Parte hearing. Kristen Neil accused me of putting my son on psychotropic medications and informed me that my son has no mental illness whatsoever and claimed she had a team of doctors who would stand behind her. She also accused me of "tethering" my son. I asked her what she meant. Kristen said I walked my son on a leash. I told her that I had a Walmart store child safety backpack harness on my son the day he repeatedly ran out into busy parking lots. Kristen said it was abuse because my then 5 yr old son "didn't want to wear it." Kristen Neil told me I could have one hour to visit my son today and that I could not tell him anything about the situation. Although my son had an prescheduled outpatient therapy appointment with Dr Greg Thompson on 6/26/07, my daughter (who had severe post traumatic stress disorder) needed to take that appointment as DCYF had taken her brother which upset her and scared her very much, and she had a lot of difficulty coping with the fact that her brother was suddenly not coming back home and he was suddenly in foster care. I called the Anna Philbrook Hospital and informed the Philbrook staff that my daughter had to see the psychiatrist due to being so upset that her brother was taken into state custody and therefore we'd see my son afterwards or the next day if her appointment was long.. Early AM on 6/27/07: my son had already been discharged from Anna Philbrook and was already in foster care when my daughter and I arrived to Anna Philbrook Hospital with his birthday presents. We then drove to the Salem DCYF office, who promised they'd deliver my son's birthday presents "immediately". During the first week of July 2007 I went to Brentwood Family Court. Judge David LaFrancois stated there was cause for adjudication. DCYF had alleged parental abuse/neglect for making up my son's behaviors, for "tethering" my son, for taking my son out on 3 off campus visits and for my intention to have my son treated for reactive attachment disorder and for post traumatic stress disorder, which DCYF claimed would emotionally cripple my son to receive mental illness treatment. (These were the diagnoses that my son's outpatient providers felt my son had). The family visits were supposed to have begun on 7/3/07 but didn't start until mid July with a DCYF appointed parent aid named Diane. During our first supervised visits my son had bruises on his arms, forearms, hands and several scabs too. My son told us that he "sucked his skin" bruised and picked his skin open. My son's front teeth were also noted to be chipped. My son stated that his teeth got chipped because he "was eating acorns in the foster family's backyard". I contacted NH DCYF about concerns regarding the bruises on my son's skin and the pick marks and my son's chipped front teeth. Kate Emerson stated that my son's self mutilating behavior was "normal anxiety." And it was during a supervised family visit some 20+ days after my son's B-day that I learned DCYF never gave my son his presents and so I contacted DCYF's Kate Emerson who then claimed that DCYF "forgot" to give [son's name redacted] his birthday presents from his family. My son stated in anger "you guys forgot my birthday but the hospital didn't and they threw me a big birthday party." My son whispered that he "wasn't supposed to tell me that." By the time my son received his birthday presents from us the damage had already been done: my son was very angry at his family for "forgetting his birthday." Diane the parent aid spoke about court and his mental illness in front of my son and had called over her coworker and discussed our case with her friend. Diane also refused to use a child safety car seat for my 6 yr old son, and encouraged my son to open the car door locks from inside the car (knowing that my son had attempted to exit our moving vehicle on several occasions) etc. so I terminated Diane for inappropriate behaviors. DCYF claimed they couldn't find another parent aid. Often DCYF failed to inform me that my son was going to be a no show until after the visit time had commenced, and usually after I contacted my attorney Paula Werme re: my son was a no show again. DCYF was never held in contempt of court for failure to bring my son to his 3x weekly court ordered family visits. NH DCYF's Kate Emerson's very vague verbal status reports of my son in foster care that my son was "being a good kid", "doing just fine", "nothing to report" and "No signs of mental illness and no behavioral problems" were not accurate. On 8-23-2007 I played the last verbal report from Kate Emerson that stated that there was nothing to report. Hours later I received emergency calls from the foster mother requesting my help and telling me that my son had attempted to strangle her 3 yr old son with his shoelace and had beaten her dogs severely and one dog died a few hours later as a result of the beating by my son. The foster mother also reported that my son had been bullying her dogs and her son from the moment he arrived and had been striking her child, and that my son had bruised her face and had cut her in the neck with a sharp object (and my son later stated he cut the foster mother's neck with a piece of broken lightbulb). My daughter unfortunately had heard this conversation as she listened from the other side of the closed bathroom door and had overheard the foster mother's statements, which upset her very much, and this happened on her 9th birthday. The foster mother told me that DCYF wasn't answering their emergency pager# and my son needed to be hospitalized ASAP, so my daughter and I arrived to Parkland Med Ctr to have my son admitted to the hospital. I signed the hospital admission and consent. My son was lEA'd to Anna Philbrook Hospital for the 3rd time after being in the ER on 8/23/12 as the foster mother stated to ER staff, to me and to my daughter that my son had told her that he was trying to harm his family and burn down our house and that "hurting his mother and sister made him feel strong and powerful." My daughter took a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter (and upon following court ordered visitation that she be present and my son was again a "no-show". My daughter required hospitalization. She stopped eating and said that she wanted to die and stated that her brother's behaviors and DCYF's actions caused her nervous breakdown. My daughter refused to go to the hospital because "DCYF steals kids when they go into the hospital and then the kids can't come back home." My daughter remained in hospital for a few weeks. I went from visiting my daughter in the hospital in MA to visiting my son at the Salem NH Visitation Center. If I was more than 5 minutes late the visits at Salem Visitation Ctr would be canceled out. In order to protect my daughter I didn't tell DCYF that my daughter was in the hospital. Instead I drove back and forth to visit both of my children. DCYF went to the Brentwood Family Court for another Ex parte hearing and claimed that I supposedly refused to have my son treated for mental illness at Anna Philbrook Hospital and NH DCYF gained full guardianship of my son for 90 days. NH DCYF failed to tell the Brentwood Family Court that I allowed treatment of my son at Anna Philbrook Hospital/NH Hospital by any doctor except for Dr Cauble. DCYF had Dr Cauble as my son's inpatient psychiatrist and only allowed 1 hour supervised visits per day with my son during this Anna Philbrook Hospital stay. However other families were allowed several hours of visits per day. I brought up the fact that this was discrimination yet nothing was done about it. There were also many times that I showed up to Anna Philbrook to visit my son and was told by Philbrook staff that my son was "off campus" or "on a day pass." This would happen frequently and the hospital staff refused to tell me if my son was OK or where he was. My son was back in the foster home a week or two prior yet nobody told me this for several days. I repeatedly showed up to visit my son who wasn't at the hospital. I would leave the hospital with stress induced asthma attacks & episodes of chest pain that required a stress test evaluation. Around this time, NH DCYF told the family court that they arranged for McLean Hospital to do psychiatric testing on my son. I called and wrote to NH DCYF informing them that my son had MD ordered neurology evaluations that he must attend. I informed DCYF that they were harming the entire Nardone Family each time they failed to bring my son to his 3x weekly family visits. Even after being informed that they were harming our entire family by refusing to bring my son to his 3x weekly family visits, NH DCYF still failed to bring my son to his 3x weekly family visits on many occasions and also failed to bring my son to ALL 3 of his MD ordered rescheduled neurology evaluations! NH DCYF sent me a letter that mentioned that their community nurse "didn't feel it was necessary" to bring my son to his MD ordered evaluations, and therefore NH DCYF wasn't taking my son to these neurology evaluation appointments. A new neurology referral was required because of the constant missed appointments. I also requested weekend visitation so that I could return to work and spend time with my son, but NH DCYF refused to grant the weekend visits that the parent aid already got her supervisor to approve of. Months went by and still the McLean Hospital psychiatric testing wasn't done.... My son had started first grade 9-07 at Barka School. Weeks later, family advocate Maxine Small and I met with the school team. Maxine Small had to ask Kristen Neil NH DCYF worker to stop laughing at me and to stop acting unprofessionally. Kristen Neil laughed because I stated that I wanted to know about my son's absences and about any behavioral incidences. The school informed me that my son had 2 behavioral incidents and described these incidents in a very downplayed and vague manner. An hour or two after the school meeting had ended I handed the Barka School Principal a note requesting details of all incidents and received multiple behavioral incidents IE: that my son smashed another child in the mouth (splitting the child's lip), had put his hands around the neck of another child and shook the child (stating he was "tickling" that child), and shoved a pencil sharpener into the mouth of another child, etc. DCYF falsely stated that the school had to call the police on me during a meeting with the principal, yet that meeting was friendly and resulted in my obtaining his business card and shaking his hand before I left the building after the principal had informed me that DCYF had gained full 90 guardianship when DCYF told me and my attorney that they only had gained "medical guardianship (and no police were ever involved or had to be called!)....My son got suspended from first grade after beating the pulp out of another student. DCYF requested that the court regard these behaviors as "irrelevant" to the case and not include them. Prior to my 10/1/07 munchausen testing by Dr Eric Mart (that was negative for munchausen's, NH DCYF sent Barka School a fax that I had Munchausen's disease. My son missed his family visits consecutively from his hospital discharge of 9/07 through 11/04/07. DCYF was never held in contempt of court for failure to bring my son to his 3x weekly court ordered visits. Family Advocate Maxine Small and I located the DCYF affiliated supervised visitation center in Salem NH as an option for visitation and Atty Werme and Maxine Small and I worked diligently to urge DCYF to start using their own affiliated Salem Visitation Center to resume our family visits. Eventually I was given 1 hour per week (which was a lot shorter than the 3 x weekly court ordered visits of at least 2 hours visit. DCYF gave me the phone number of my son's after school program during last week of 10-07. I called my son daily but learned that my son was a no show for his afterschool program 10-29-07. I called the school the next day and was told that my son had the stomach flu. Atty Werme called DCYF's attorney Didier Matel and Didier informed Atty Werme that my son was not in school or the afterschool program due to a stomach virus/vomiting. However a few years later I read in the DCYF case file that my son was being adjudicated approximately 10-29-07 as the Derry NH Police were pressing charges against my son. Nobody ever told me or my attorney about this and my 6 yr old son must have wondered why his mommy didn't show up to be there for him at court. I would have been there for my son if only NH DCYF had informed me or my atty of this matter as they should have! Throughout 2007, NH DCYF refused to transport my son to his MD ordered neurology evaluations and for his special needs testing. NH DCYF and CASA filed a motion for a restraining order to prevent me from having my son undergo testing as they claimed it "Wasn't in his best interest." This delayed my son's testing by several months. My son's special needs testing showed cognitive processing issues and an idiosyncratic perception of reality as well as bodily mutilation theme and attention issues and reading and spelling issues and issues with gender identification issues. However, NH DCYF claimed on their 6 month case review of 1/08 that my son was "at or above grade level and not in need of an IEP" and "adjusting well in foster care/making friends in school" (and also stated "no relatives available" and that I supposedly dropped off my son to Philbrook Hospital stating I couldn't take care of him). And my son's Anna Philbrook Hospital School file from 2/07-6/07 was reported to have been "shredded/destroyed" as of 9/07, when Maxine Small and I requested his school file from Tricia Lynn Mosher, Anna Philbrook School principal. Stilhio testing arranged yet for [son's name redacted] at McLean Hospital by NH DCYF as they stated in NH Family Court to Judge LaFrancois... During the first week of 11/07 my son was transferred to LifeShare on ISO services (individual service option with 24/7 behavior medication and supervision). This level of foster care was much higher than what my son received in the prior foster home, yet NH DCYF still contended that my son was not a threat to himself nor to the community. Maxine Small met with me during a supervised family visit at the DCYF office prior to my son's transfer to the ISO home. After the visit Maxine Small asked Kate Emerson with Katherine Grondine present what [son's name redacted] understood about the new foster home. Kate Emerson answered that[son's name redacted] thought his mother finally wanted him home and that his mother was going to take him home. Had I known this I could have told my son that I love him but wasn't allowed to take him home... .1 can only wonder what my son thought when I gave him new clothes and he was then brought to the ISO home. Maybe this is why my son started referring to me as "Hope" "She", "her" and called me "Tammy" and told me that he didn't know his family anymore I attended weekly supervised family visits with my son at Life Share until approximately 3/08. My son, who had requested to visit his own Church on many prior occasions during 2007-2008 while in foster care finally got the chance to ride with his family to Church on Sundays starting approximately 3/08. During our first unsupervised family visit Maxine Small accompanied us to Church and ****** scratched her arms in the car. During 4/08 my son caused a facial injury by a remorseless hard thrust of his head into my jaw which resulted in jaw issues and hearing loss in my right ear, headaches and ringing in my ears. During 11/07 NH DCYF told the judge that McLean couldn't test [son's name redacted]. DCYF never told the Judge that they had never made [son's name redacted] appointment or sent the court orders to McLean Hospital, or that NH DCYF had only approved McLean Hospital as a MEDICAL provider and not a psychiatric provider for the psychiatric testing. Approximately 4/08, Dr Jacobs' test results for [son's name redacted] were submitted to Judge LaFrancois. The results showed learning needs, attention issues, cognitive processing issues, issues with violence and stated that neurofeedback may be helpful for my son's treatment. During 4/08 Atty Werme contacted me and said that NH DCYF finally handed over the long awaited Anna Philbrook Hospital records that DCYF claimed was proof of my son's supposedly normal and healthy behaviors. I read those records for the first time in 4/08 and at that moment learned that my son had sexually assaulted a female patient "GS" while inpatient during 6/07 at Anna Philbrook Hospital and that my son had several boundary issues and had kicked and punched and hit and spat in the faces of the Philbrook Hospital staff on various. I did know about the incident in which my son smeared poop on the wall of his hospital room, however Dr Warner had told me "that it looked like poop but that she was not able to determine if it was in fact poop".... The Philbrook Hospital day sheets logged approximately 30 incidences of day time/ night time incontinence, which contradicted Dr Cauble's statement that my son was "incontinent during the first few days only" and not after that. Dr Cauble also claimed my son got all 100's on his hospital school work, but his 2/07-6/07 Anna Philbrook Hospital school file was shredded as of 9/07! During 5/08 I was informed that NH DCYF had just called my son's primary doctor and stated that NH DCYF believed I had munchausen's disease. [son's name redacted] neurologist (Dr Alvarez Altalef) also called to tell me that DCYF requested to know if the neurology evaluations and diagnostic testing was necessary, and the neurologist stated yes it was medically necessary. DCYF then incorrectly declared that Dr Alvarez had stated that [son's name redacted] testing wasn't medically necessary! (Dr Alvarez wrote a letter to state that the testing was medically necessary and was my right as a parent for [son's name redacted] to have his medical testing done). On 6-26-08, my son's 7th b-day, DCYF informed me that the judge had dismissed all abuse/neglect allegations. My son returned home and had even greater difficulty acting safely as his 3 auditory and visual hallucinations told him not to be safe: He broke the plexiglass from the window and made sharps that he tried to poke his sister's eye out with and he kneed his sister in the face and headbutted her on various occasions, attempted to strangle her on other occasions. Locks were placed on the cabinets and steel plates blocked the electrical and we ate off of paper plates and plastic utensils to remain safe as my son had pulled a carving knife on his sister, etc. Upon return from DCYF custody 6/26/08, my son was so VERY DETACHED from us that he couldn't sit with his family, and had temper tantrums when receiving hugs/kisses from family. My son was determined to have fetal alcohol syndrome, generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, severe reactive attachment disorder, cognitive processing issues and a partial chromosome mutation, and ? bipolar disorder. My son was placed in a residential treatment center after attempting to strangle our Aunt's cat and attempting to harm our Aunt physically. He placed knives and scissors in furniture with verbal intent and attempts to use them on family and stole his Aunt's heart medications. After approximately a year of intense residential therapy my son was still threatening to use knives on our family upon his return and stated that our family would be in the hospital and may be dead as a result. The residential treatment center said that neurofeedback may help my son but it's an out of pocket bill for this treatment. The subpoenaed NH Medicaid records from 2007/2008 indicated that there had been no billed treatment for my son's mental illness. This would explain why my son's mental status had deteriorated so much. I'd already been extremely financially depleted at the hands of the state of NH, and I couldn't afford the neurofeedback treatment for my son. The only way for my son to get the help he needed for his cognitive issues and for his attachment issues, and the only way to keep him safe at that point, and to keep my daughter and the rest of our family safe from my son's behaviors, was to give up my parental rights as I had no money to pay for any more treatments or services for my son. From 6/08-8/08: The weeks following my son's return home I received a letter from NH appeals court that my son was "not a child in need of services and was determined to be a "juvenile delinquent." CHINS services *, were denied! And, NH DCYF filed a motion requesting the judge to reconsider his determination of my son's guardianship decision as DCYF still claimed that my son was a healthy normal child not a threat to self/others. Judge LaFrancois didn't change his ruling for [son's name redacted] to return home under my custody, but Judge LaFrancois did allow NH DHHS' lawsuit for over $30,000.00 for my son's foster care costs, although my son should never have been placed in foster care to begin (including that DCYF never asked family/friends to take my son), and despite the fact that all allegations had been dismissed. NH DHHS failed to deduct my son's social security mental disability monies or Title IV monies received for my son's foster care from the lawsuit for [son's name redacted] foster care costs, until after my attorney reminded them that the social security monies were to be used for food, shelter, clothing and treatment....(Even prior to the onset of my son's Social Security monies and consistently through to the time he was returned to me 6/08 I had been providing my son's clothes, many educational materials, his medical insurance and medical treatment copays (DCYF never told me that they had my son on NH State insurance while he was in DCYF custody, so I carried my son on our family COBRA insurance). From 6/08-2010: My son had many hospitalizations and a residential placement of a year for experiencing multiple visual and auditory hallucinations with homicidal thoughts that he attempted to act upon. My daughter states she understands why [son's name redacted] can never come home, however she has suffered greatly because [son's name redacted] is not coming home, and this has resulted in her requiring further hospitalizations and for ongoing behavioral issues. My daughter has struggled to cope with the damage that DCYF has caused her and her brother and our entire family. Her experience with the State of NH taking her brother and shattering our family has had a great negative impact on her self esteem, her grades, her well being and her level of functioning in everyday life. I too have experienced a great negative impact because of NH DCYF and having to endure the family court system and being separated from my son while watching my son's emotional state worsen over the period of a year while he was in the hands of the State of NH. And there are many nights that I wonder if "GS" from Anna Philbrook Hospital is OK, as I am deeply concerned of her well being and outcome because of what she experienced during her stay at Anna Philbrook Hospital. If her parents were never informed of my son having sexually assaulted "GS" then there's it's highly probable that "GS" never received help for being the victim of a sexual assault. If only DCYF had followed their mission statement to help families: then [son's name redacted] could have received attachment therapy (Attachment therapy including neurofeedback was what I had asked DCYF to help me with during my meeting with them during 4/07, and attachment therapy/neurofeedback was also the same option that Dr Jacobs' recommended during the spring of 2008 and neurofeedback/attachment therapy was also the option that Cornerstones had recommended in 2009/2010 at which point I could not afford this option as NH DCYF had caused such great financial devastation) and from a place like Crotched Mountain. Instead we became another NH DCYF statistic and another one of the many devastated and broken families, who were dis-serviced at the hands of NH DCYF, as DCYF had taken my son into DCYF custody claiming future harm to my son if he were to receive mental illness treatment, yet DCYF already knew that my son was determined by our Government's Social Security Dept as mentally ill and mentally disabled, and they knew of his behaviors in Philbrook Hospital, yet DCYF failed to get my son treatment for his mental illness and instead claimed that my son had no mental illness while being financial beneficiary of my son's mental illness disability monies! In the partially itemized foster care bill, I noted that over $1000 was costs from Safe Passages whom NH DCYF used on a regular basis to transport my son to/from his afterschool program. DCYF had REFUSED for Safe Passages to transport my son to his family visits and to medical appointments, stating that Safe Passages wasn't an option as [son's name redacted] should never be transported by strangers. DCYF also failed to notify SS that [son's name redacted] returned home. As an addition to this summary, I hereby request to know why the Derry Police were pressing charges on my son during the time he was in DCYF custody and who the judge was that presided over this matter. I also request proof that NH DCYF/NH DHHS followed proper Protocol for sexual assault at Anna Philbrook Hospital, by informing all parents of the children involved including steps to prevent further trauma to the victim by proof that my son was kept supervised and at a distance at all times from "GS". I request proof that the State of NH got my son and "GS" the proper help for this same situation. ^request that Children in the NH System be allowed to have rights while in NH state custody. And I request that this Declaration of Rights of the child in NH State Custody bill be called "[son's name redacted] Law" should it pass into law. Furthermore, I request that there be no immunity for any state worker who falsifies, twists or omits factual information in order to gain custody of a child or to remove that child from his/her home. Furthermore I request that any state worker face kidnapping charges for removal of a child from his/her home via false allegations. I'm concerned that the same issues that were brought to the court's attention in the Eric L vs Bird from the 1990's remain in DHHS/DCYF's poor practice that results in trauma and devastation to children and families is still happening today. Open courts oversight of a QA/QI and Ethics committee above DHHS and a complete restructure of DHHS and DCYF is necessary to correct these ongoing issues. DHHS/DCYF policies and procedures must be made into law with severe penalties if not strictly followed.

Ms. Nardone's former attorney Paula Werme also showed up at the hearing and provided us with a statement, dated March 15, 2012. Attorney Werme also represented serial petitioner David Johnson at one time. The Nardone childrens' names have been redacted again:

Thursday, March 15, 2012 To: The New Hampshire Redress of Grievance Committee Re: Hope Nardone Narrative for her Petition for Redress of Grievances I have been asked by Representative Itse to comment on Hope Nardone's narra­tive for her Petition for Redress of Grievances, specifically to opine on what, if anything that DCYF or the Court did that was illegal or outrageous. It is a tall order. Reading through Hope's narrative, I also realize that some legal things are missing, so I'll try to fill in the committee. First, you need to know that the allegations by Hope's daughter [son's name redacted] about their birth mother in Kazakhstan, if true, mean that she and her brother [son's name redacted] are two of the most horribly traumatized children in the state. That is one thing that DCYF and we agree upon. I have no reason to doubt [son's name redacted]'s account of events there. Hope, as a single parent going over there to adopt them could not possibly know what she was get­ting herself into given that the information about her children's trauma was kept from her pre-adoption. Her circumstances are not of her making. That said, once she returned to this country, it seems as if a perfect storm of events led to the events in her narrative. At the center of this perfect storm is Dr. Cauble. He may be a good psychiatrist for routine matters involving children, but his utter lack of experience with Reactive Attachment Disorder, the events at Philbrook Center, and the subsequent behavior of DCYF were appalling. Had he been a competent psy­chiatrist, none of this would have happened. In addition, it is not well known, but Phil-brook, when it was in existence, was not designed for long term therapy of seriously mentally ill children. It was designed to stabilize children and get them back out into the world. Had Dr. Cauble correctly diagnosed [son's name redacted], there was no program at the facility that could have adequate addressed his needs. Hope did do some research on Reac­tive Attachment Disorder, and did ask DCYF during her interview for voluntary services about financial assistance to get [son's name redacted] into appropriate therapy at a time when it might have done him some good. But by then, Dr. Cauble's incompetence— his telling DCYF that there was nothing wrong with [son's name redacted]— had kicked in, and even if DCYF could have assisted Ms. Nardone, they were not about to do so. I do believe that DCYF filed their petition in good faith based on what Dr. Cauble was telling them. However, subsequent events— [son's name redacted]'s serious misbehavior in foster care, and DCYF's continued prosecution of the case when it was clear that [son's name redacted] had serious psychiatric problems, AND the fact that they attempted at every step to hide [son's name redacted]'s more serious behaviors from the mother and me during that time crossed the line from advocating for child protection to unethical behavior. They should have dropped the petition when [son's name redacted] attacked the foster mother, her child, and killed the foster parent's dog so that Hope could obtain appropriate psychiatric services for [son's name redacted]. They did not. I should mention that from the very beginning of the case, I informed the Court that since [son's name redacted]'s mental health or lack thereof and the mother's belief that he was seri­ously mentally ill WAS the issue, we were entitled from a due process standpoint to ob­tain independent psychiatric assessments for purposes of defending Hope. Despite the fact that the court reluctantly agreed that we were entitled to these, DCYF repeatedly did not physically deliver [son's name redacted] for assessments. I can't remember if we had to go to court to force their compliance with this, but I do remember that it was problematic, and the case took months, if not close to a year to litigate because of this. This is just an­other example of how DCYF has a mentality of "win at all costs." Winning at the ex­pense of the well being of the child is wrong. In the criminal realm, a prosecutor is ethically REQUIRED to SEEK JUSTICE. If he becomes aware that a defendant is innocent of a crime, he is required to stop the prosecution and withdraw the case. This is not so in the world of child protection. It is NOT a violation of the attorney rules for a prosecutor to continue to prosecute a case that clearly has no basis in fact. Is it ethically wrong? Of course. But it not grounds for discipline. It permits the culture of "win at all costs" to pervade DCYF, and is one of the reasons parents are so upset with the child protection system. In the end, we did win the case for Hope. I can't recall if it was DCYF or the HHS office that then filed attempting to get Hope to pay for almost a year of foster care for [son's name redacted]— the vast majority of it in an ISO home because of his behavior. I won that mo­tion and the Court ruled in Hope's favor not because it was wrong to make her pay for a year of foster needless foster care, but because no one had bothered to have her sign the "acknowledgment of consequences to parental rights" form that all parents are sup­posed to acknowledge at the beginning of a case.. I have a problem with forcing parents brought before a court to sign an acknowledgment in the first place. Being brought be­fore a court against one's will and being told by the court that you HAVE to sign a form is absolutely wrong. That, however, is not an issue in this case. It is just another prob­lem with the child protection system. Hope and her family were horribly harmed by the events of that year [son's name redacted] was in foster care and we were litigating this. My understanding of Reactive Attachment Disorder is that in severe cases, early intervention is the key to successful treatment. [son's name redacted] of course did not get treatment during that year, and his separation from his fam­ily and lack of therapy at a young age is probably the reason Hope was forced to volun­tarily terminate her parental rights to protect her daughter and herself from a very dan­gerous child. My heart breaks especially for her daughter. She has lost the connection she had with her only biological relative. At this point in her life, she doesn't realize how important it is that her mother chose to protect her, or how heartbreaking the decision must have been. But at the heart of it, we know that the year that [son's name redacted] was in foster care, the year that DCYF was denying that he had any psychiatric problems, the year that he had minimal contact with his mother and sister very probably meant that treat­ment would be unsuccessful. Unfortunately, there is a known progression of diagnoses for children who have this disease. As adults, they become sociopaths. Respectfully submitted, Paula J. Werme, Esq.