Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Thursday, July 22, 2010
'Foster mom pushed child before death' Bond Set at $10,000 for Foster Mother Charged with Open Murder
Bond Set at $10,000 for Foster Mother Charged with Open Murder
5-Year-Old Emily Meno died after suffering a traumatic brain injury
Lisa LaPlante/Lindsay KusFOX 17 News Reporters
4:18 PM EDT, July 21, 2010
KENT COUNTY - Bond was set this afternoon at $10,000 for Joy Heaven, the foster mother charged with murder while committing child abuse, in the death of a 5 year old girl last weekend.
Heaven appeared very emotional as a judge read the charges. The Kent County Sheriff's Department was called to the hospital to investigate the circumstances of injuries sustained by Emily Meno on Friday, July 16th. Emily passed away on July 17th. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was a severe bleeding of the brain.
According to a court affidavit, on July 15th, paramedics were called to Heaven's home in Gaines Township for a child who would not wake up. Heaven first told paramedics that she believed that Emily had suffered an epileptic seizure. She was placed on life support for two days. July 17th, she was removed from life support and died.
After the autopsy results came back, the affidavit says Heaven admitted around 8 p.m. on the night of July 15, she was "frustrated with Emily for wetting her pants and being in her way," so she shoved Emily "really hard." The force threw Emily so hard, her feet went through the air, and landed on her head in the kitchen. Emily was unconscious for a few seconds, but woke up. Heaven told investigators she sent Emily to bed. After 10 p.m., Emily woke up and vomitted, then passed out. That's when Heaven called 911. The Medical Examiner, Dr. Stephen Cohle, said the autopsy supports the explanation given by Heaven.
Emily and her twin sister were under the foster care of Joy Heaven, a 30 year old single woman who received the girls through Bethany Christian Services.
Bethany Christians Services, based in Grand Rapids, would not comment on the specific case but said they are in shock and devastated by the situation.
BCS issued the license to the foster parent with the approval of the state and does an extensive background and screening.
"I don't believe it," said Betty Meno, the child's biological grandmother. She says she met the foster mother a couple of times when the girls would come to visit, but that they didnt' live with her for very long.
"I personally didn't think they should have been in foster care," said Meno. Betty says the girls were taken away because their mother had a low IQ, but wouldn't get into details.
The twins went through many challenges. Tiffany suffers seizures and was autistic. Their older sister died in car crash back in 2008. The twins bounced around from foster care home to foster care home.
"They had a hard life, but they were happy somtimes," said Betty Meno. Emily was said to love the toy "Clifford" and the color purple. She had big eyes and cury hair.
Her obit says she was attending Wellerwood Preschool in Grand Rapds and was getting ready to start kindergarten in the fall.
Her funeral will be held on Thursday at Rockford Springs Community Church.
Family members dont' know what to think of the situation but take comfort knowing the little girl who had a tough go on her short life is in a better place.
"She is in Heaven with Jesus and her older sister and shes' not hurting and she's not crying but I am going to miss her," said Meno.
Copyright © 2010, FOX 17 - West Michigan's FOX
http://www.fox17online.com/news/landing/fox17-5-year-old-killed,0,5055594.story
The Underground World of CPS
The Underground World of CPS
by Heather Hoover, published on July 21, 2010 at 4:43AM
Storyline: Child Protective Services (CPS)
Community Tags: child protective services children cps department of health and human services family family court politics sacramento county
It is amazing to me all the road blocks that Sacramento County CPS puts up to make it nearly impossible for a parent to assert their rights and fight for what is rightfully theirs--their children. In the past four years I have seen, heard, and experienced things that would ignite fear and furor in Americans…if only they knew about it. However, these actions of which I speak are closely guarded under the cloak of confidentiality that hides Juvenile Dependency Court and involuntary child custody proceedings from the public. At first guess, you assume that this so-called “confidentiality” is in place to protect the children in these cases. However, it doesn’t take long for a person to realize the protection is not for the children but rather the protection of CPS and their corrupt policies and actions.
The actions of CPS thrive in a underground world where warrant-less search of a home and seizure of a child is common practice. A world where due process rights violations occur on a daily basis. A world where a child can be removed from the home, detained, and placed into protective custody simply because there is a potential for abuse. Even if there is no history of abuse, sign of abuse, a witness to the abuse, or admittance of abuse. Within this hidden system the parent's and the children's rights are concealed and when a parent finally realizes their rights it’s too late and their child is gone forever. This well run factory shuffles families in and out daily in robotic fashion without real care or concern for children, parents, or extended family members.
Court-appointed attorneys argue cases with the judge, come to an agreement, call in the parties involved (children, parents, others that have the ability to intervene such as a Native American Tribe), and then call the case. Parents are forced to make split-second decisions without informed consent and sometimes the court-appointed attorneys will make decisions and motions without the parents' knowledge. These court-appointed attorneys will out-right refuse their clients requests and/or motions. This is clearly ineffective assistance of counsel which should afford you the right to a Marsden hearing. However, that right is usually denied too. If a Marsden hearing is actually had, the judge can choose NOT to release your attorney, NOT appoint you another attorney, and can even choose NOT to allow you to represent yourself if you so choose. In essence your stuck with an attorney that refuses to represent you in your best interest.
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/33240/The_Underground_World_of_CPS
by Heather Hoover, published on July 21, 2010 at 4:43AM
Storyline: Child Protective Services (CPS)
Community Tags: child protective services children cps department of health and human services family family court politics sacramento county
It is amazing to me all the road blocks that Sacramento County CPS puts up to make it nearly impossible for a parent to assert their rights and fight for what is rightfully theirs--their children. In the past four years I have seen, heard, and experienced things that would ignite fear and furor in Americans…if only they knew about it. However, these actions of which I speak are closely guarded under the cloak of confidentiality that hides Juvenile Dependency Court and involuntary child custody proceedings from the public. At first guess, you assume that this so-called “confidentiality” is in place to protect the children in these cases. However, it doesn’t take long for a person to realize the protection is not for the children but rather the protection of CPS and their corrupt policies and actions.
The actions of CPS thrive in a underground world where warrant-less search of a home and seizure of a child is common practice. A world where due process rights violations occur on a daily basis. A world where a child can be removed from the home, detained, and placed into protective custody simply because there is a potential for abuse. Even if there is no history of abuse, sign of abuse, a witness to the abuse, or admittance of abuse. Within this hidden system the parent's and the children's rights are concealed and when a parent finally realizes their rights it’s too late and their child is gone forever. This well run factory shuffles families in and out daily in robotic fashion without real care or concern for children, parents, or extended family members.
Court-appointed attorneys argue cases with the judge, come to an agreement, call in the parties involved (children, parents, others that have the ability to intervene such as a Native American Tribe), and then call the case. Parents are forced to make split-second decisions without informed consent and sometimes the court-appointed attorneys will make decisions and motions without the parents' knowledge. These court-appointed attorneys will out-right refuse their clients requests and/or motions. This is clearly ineffective assistance of counsel which should afford you the right to a Marsden hearing. However, that right is usually denied too. If a Marsden hearing is actually had, the judge can choose NOT to release your attorney, NOT appoint you another attorney, and can even choose NOT to allow you to represent yourself if you so choose. In essence your stuck with an attorney that refuses to represent you in your best interest.
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/33240/The_Underground_World_of_CPS
Mothers, Men, and Child Protective Services Involvement
Mothers, Men, and Child Protective Services Involvement
Lawrence M. Berger
University of Wisconsin-Madison, lmberger@wisc.edu
Christina Paxson
Princeton University
Jane Waldfogel
Columbia University
Abstract
This study used data on 2,297 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine whether Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement varies by maternal relationship status. Families were categorized according to whether the mother was living with a (male) partner or spouse, was involved in a dating relationship, or was not romantically involved. Families in which the mother was romantically involved were further delineated by whether her partner was the biological father of none, some, or all of the children in her household. Results indicated that families in which the mother was living with a man who was not the biological father of all children and those in which she was not romantically involved were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS than those in which she was living with the biological father of all resident children. These findings withstood the inclusion of detailed controls for the mother's characteristics and behaviors and (in two-parent families) her partner's characteristics and behaviors, suggesting that they are not fully explained by observable social selection factors.
http://cmx.sagepub.com/content/14/3/263.short
Lawrence M. Berger
University of Wisconsin-Madison, lmberger@wisc.edu
Christina Paxson
Princeton University
Jane Waldfogel
Columbia University
Abstract
This study used data on 2,297 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine whether Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement varies by maternal relationship status. Families were categorized according to whether the mother was living with a (male) partner or spouse, was involved in a dating relationship, or was not romantically involved. Families in which the mother was romantically involved were further delineated by whether her partner was the biological father of none, some, or all of the children in her household. Results indicated that families in which the mother was living with a man who was not the biological father of all children and those in which she was not romantically involved were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS than those in which she was living with the biological father of all resident children. These findings withstood the inclusion of detailed controls for the mother's characteristics and behaviors and (in two-parent families) her partner's characteristics and behaviors, suggesting that they are not fully explained by observable social selection factors.
http://cmx.sagepub.com/content/14/3/263.short
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Trainwreck -- The Story of a 3 Year Old's Torture
This story is very descriptive...(sorry!)I would advise you not to let children watch it, as it is very sad, and in some parts gross.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZMRmYeiKEs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZMRmYeiKEs
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Advocacy group urges R.I. to reduce institutional custody in child-welfare system
Advocacy group urges R.I. to reduce institutional custody in child-welfare system
Wexler said that Rhode Island should look to Maine as a model for how a state can transform its child-welfare system to keep more children in their homes and improve home-based services. NH should take lesson's from Maine also. They're no better than Rhode Island. Services are NOT given to at-risk families. Every child is supposedly in imminent danger and kidnapped from their homes immediately. I believe NH is worse than Rhode Island. They both need to get their act together. Traumatizing our next generation is NOT the answer! unhappygrammy
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 21, 2010
By Lynn Arditi
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island must dramatically reduce its reliance on group homes and other institutional care for children and improve its home-based services to prevent traumatizing children by removing them from their homes, the leader of a national advocacy group said at a State House news conference Tuesday.
Removing children from their homes is an “extremely toxic intervention that needs to be used sparingly and in small doses,” the group’s executive director, Richard Wexler, said. “Rhode Island has been using it in mega-doses.”
Rhode Island removes children from their homes at a rate nearly 80 percent above the national average and places a higher share of its children in state care — nearly 40 percent — in group homes and residential-care facilities, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. The national average was 16.7 percent in 2006, according to the latest available data.
State welfare officials responded that the Department of Children, Youth and Families has “undertaken major system changes” to reduce the number of children removed from their homes and placed in residential facilities. The DCYF is “helping them address their needs in their own homes and community, keeping children with parents whenever possible,” the agency’s deputy director, Jorge Garcia, said in an e-mail Tuesday evening that summarized remarks from DCYF Director Patricia Martinez.
Though agency officials did not contradict the report’s data, the DCYF deputy director said that the numbers show that the state welfare agency is heading in the right direction. The DCYF has reduced the population of juveniles in group homes, residential facilities and independent-living arrangements in fiscal 2010 to 743, down from 1,012 in fiscal 2007. (The numbers do not include children in foster homes.) Out-of-state placements, he said, have fallen to 65, compared with 178 in fiscal 2006.
In the report, “State of Denial: Why Rhode Island’s child welfare system is so dismal and how to make it better,” Wexler compares Rhode Island with other states and national averages which offer a dimmer view of the system and provides recommendations for reforms.
Wexler, a former news reporter and author of “Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of the War Against Child Abuse,” helped found the Alexandria, Va.-based advocacy group. He has been widely quoted about child-welfare policy by national media outlets, including The New York Times and PBS “Frontline.”
Wexler said that Rhode Island should look to Maine as a model for how a state can transform its child-welfare system to keep more children in their homes and improve home-based services. Wexler was joined by Mary Callahan, of Maine, who became a foster parent after her own children went off to college. She helped lead a drive over the last 10 years to reform Maine’s child-welfare system.
Callahan said that one of the surprising things she learned being a foster parent was that many of the children were removed from their homes unnecessarily. Her first foster child had been removed from her home “over a spanking,” she said. She was then sent to live with a foster mother who “molested, starved and emotionally abused” her.
Poverty is the main reason, Callahan said, why her foster children had been removed from their homes and placed in her care. And most birth parents are so “terrified of retaliation” from child-welfare officials that they don’t speak out, she said.
Wexler said he decided to focus on Rhode Island because the state is likely heading toward a negotiated settlement of a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed in 2007 by the New York-based nonprofit Children’s Rights and Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston. Although Wexler has criticized the Children’s Rights group for its approach, the possibility of a negotiated settlement, he said, would provide an opportunity for the state to tackle some longstanding problems.
The NCCPR’s recommendations for improving Rhode Island’s system include:
•Reduce the overall rate of institutionalization of children to no more than the national average within three years; in six years, reduce it to 10 percent of all the children in state care by building a comprehensive system of home-based services.
•Change the financial incentives for residential programs to discourage providers from keeping children in programs to fill beds and maintain per diem payments.
•Move children placed in out-of-state residential programs back to Rhode Island so that they can be more closely monitored.
•Seek assistance from groups such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Child Welfare Strategy Group, which has helped reform systems in other states.
larditi@projo.com
http://www.projo.com/news/content/CHILD_WELFARE_REFORMS_RECOMMENDE_07-21-10_3IJ_v69.1fc5dbc.html
Wexler said that Rhode Island should look to Maine as a model for how a state can transform its child-welfare system to keep more children in their homes and improve home-based services. NH should take lesson's from Maine also. They're no better than Rhode Island. Services are NOT given to at-risk families. Every child is supposedly in imminent danger and kidnapped from their homes immediately. I believe NH is worse than Rhode Island. They both need to get their act together. Traumatizing our next generation is NOT the answer! unhappygrammy
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 21, 2010
By Lynn Arditi
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island must dramatically reduce its reliance on group homes and other institutional care for children and improve its home-based services to prevent traumatizing children by removing them from their homes, the leader of a national advocacy group said at a State House news conference Tuesday.
Removing children from their homes is an “extremely toxic intervention that needs to be used sparingly and in small doses,” the group’s executive director, Richard Wexler, said. “Rhode Island has been using it in mega-doses.”
Rhode Island removes children from their homes at a rate nearly 80 percent above the national average and places a higher share of its children in state care — nearly 40 percent — in group homes and residential-care facilities, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. The national average was 16.7 percent in 2006, according to the latest available data.
State welfare officials responded that the Department of Children, Youth and Families has “undertaken major system changes” to reduce the number of children removed from their homes and placed in residential facilities. The DCYF is “helping them address their needs in their own homes and community, keeping children with parents whenever possible,” the agency’s deputy director, Jorge Garcia, said in an e-mail Tuesday evening that summarized remarks from DCYF Director Patricia Martinez.
Though agency officials did not contradict the report’s data, the DCYF deputy director said that the numbers show that the state welfare agency is heading in the right direction. The DCYF has reduced the population of juveniles in group homes, residential facilities and independent-living arrangements in fiscal 2010 to 743, down from 1,012 in fiscal 2007. (The numbers do not include children in foster homes.) Out-of-state placements, he said, have fallen to 65, compared with 178 in fiscal 2006.
In the report, “State of Denial: Why Rhode Island’s child welfare system is so dismal and how to make it better,” Wexler compares Rhode Island with other states and national averages which offer a dimmer view of the system and provides recommendations for reforms.
Wexler, a former news reporter and author of “Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of the War Against Child Abuse,” helped found the Alexandria, Va.-based advocacy group. He has been widely quoted about child-welfare policy by national media outlets, including The New York Times and PBS “Frontline.”
Wexler said that Rhode Island should look to Maine as a model for how a state can transform its child-welfare system to keep more children in their homes and improve home-based services. Wexler was joined by Mary Callahan, of Maine, who became a foster parent after her own children went off to college. She helped lead a drive over the last 10 years to reform Maine’s child-welfare system.
Callahan said that one of the surprising things she learned being a foster parent was that many of the children were removed from their homes unnecessarily. Her first foster child had been removed from her home “over a spanking,” she said. She was then sent to live with a foster mother who “molested, starved and emotionally abused” her.
Poverty is the main reason, Callahan said, why her foster children had been removed from their homes and placed in her care. And most birth parents are so “terrified of retaliation” from child-welfare officials that they don’t speak out, she said.
Wexler said he decided to focus on Rhode Island because the state is likely heading toward a negotiated settlement of a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed in 2007 by the New York-based nonprofit Children’s Rights and Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston. Although Wexler has criticized the Children’s Rights group for its approach, the possibility of a negotiated settlement, he said, would provide an opportunity for the state to tackle some longstanding problems.
The NCCPR’s recommendations for improving Rhode Island’s system include:
•Reduce the overall rate of institutionalization of children to no more than the national average within three years; in six years, reduce it to 10 percent of all the children in state care by building a comprehensive system of home-based services.
•Change the financial incentives for residential programs to discourage providers from keeping children in programs to fill beds and maintain per diem payments.
•Move children placed in out-of-state residential programs back to Rhode Island so that they can be more closely monitored.
•Seek assistance from groups such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Child Welfare Strategy Group, which has helped reform systems in other states.
larditi@projo.com
http://www.projo.com/news/content/CHILD_WELFARE_REFORMS_RECOMMENDE_07-21-10_3IJ_v69.1fc5dbc.html
Re: Teghan Alyssa Skiba -- Deceased 7/19/10 Johnston Co. 4-year-old dies after being beaten, tortured
Re: Teghan Alyssa Skiba -- Deceased 7/19/10
by Snaz Today at 12:06 pm
Johnston Co. 4-year-old dies after being beaten, tortured
By Rachel Gallaher
Published: July 20, 2010
SMITHFIELD, N.C. - A four-year-old is dead after being beaten and tortured in Johnston County.
21-year-old Jonathon Richardson now faces first degree murder charges this afternoon.
Teghan Skiba was admitted to the hospital with cuts, bite marks and signs of sexual assault last Friday.
Earlier last night, she passed away at the UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill.
Police say the torture happened on Richardson's grandparent’s property in Smithfield, where he lived with his girlfriend and Teghan's mother, Helen Reyes.
The young girl was in the care of Richardson while her mother was away for military training.
Now Reyes is being investigated because she left the child in Richardson's care, although there's no word if charges will be filed or not.
"We've been meeting with the district attorney and looking at the totality of those involved in this case, what charges are appropriate and if anyone else will be charged," said Steve Bizzell, Johnston County Sheriff.
Richardson was in court yesterday morning for the felony child abuse charges.
http://www2.wnct.com/news/2010/jul/20/johnston-co-4-year-old-dies-after-being-beaten-tor-ar-305561/
by Snaz Today at 12:06 pm
Johnston Co. 4-year-old dies after being beaten, tortured
By Rachel Gallaher
Published: July 20, 2010
SMITHFIELD, N.C. - A four-year-old is dead after being beaten and tortured in Johnston County.
21-year-old Jonathon Richardson now faces first degree murder charges this afternoon.
Teghan Skiba was admitted to the hospital with cuts, bite marks and signs of sexual assault last Friday.
Earlier last night, she passed away at the UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill.
Police say the torture happened on Richardson's grandparent’s property in Smithfield, where he lived with his girlfriend and Teghan's mother, Helen Reyes.
The young girl was in the care of Richardson while her mother was away for military training.
Now Reyes is being investigated because she left the child in Richardson's care, although there's no word if charges will be filed or not.
"We've been meeting with the district attorney and looking at the totality of those involved in this case, what charges are appropriate and if anyone else will be charged," said Steve Bizzell, Johnston County Sheriff.
Richardson was in court yesterday morning for the felony child abuse charges.
http://www2.wnct.com/news/2010/jul/20/johnston-co-4-year-old-dies-after-being-beaten-tor-ar-305561/
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