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Thursday, February 14, 2008
9:25:18 PM EST
WEED OUT THE REST, DCS
Child-porn arrest rocks DCF
The DCF's spokesman was fired after his arrest on charges of forcing children to perform lewd acts for the purpose of creating pornography.
Posted on Sat, Feb. 02, 2008
BY GARY FINEOUT AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER
gfineout@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE -- A top employee in the state Department of Children & Families was arrested Friday on child pornography charges, involving at least one child who is in or has been in DCF care, agency officials said.
Al Zimmerman, 40, the agency's press secretary and an employee since 2005, was charged with eight counts of using a child in a sexual performance, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years per count, according to a joint statement issued by state and local law enforcement officials.
Zimmerman, a former television reporter, turned himself in to police in Lakeland, said DCF officials, who added that Zimmerman was immediately fired. Authorities planned to book him into the Hillsborough County Jail because Tampa police helped conduct the investigation along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the CyberCrime Unit of the state Attorney General's office.
Investigators determined that at least two victims between the ages of 16 and 17 were solicited by Zimmerman to perform lewd acts, which Zimmerman used to create child pornography, police said.
Late Friday, DCF's communications director Eric Geraghty -- Zimmerman's boss -- said one of the two children had been within the agency's care.
''We can confirm that at least one child was from within the foster care system,'' she said.
Senior DCF staff was briefed about the investigation, said George Sheldon, the agency's deputy secretary and a longtime confidant of DCF chief Bob Butterworth. At 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. Friday, others in the administration were alerted via e-mail, and told that Zimmerman was being fired immediately.
''I can assure you I will not tolerate the integrity of this department being compromised by the actions of one individual,'' Butterworth told The Miami Herald. ``Mr. Zimmerman has been terminated.''
The allegations were as untimely as they were lurid.
Butterworth and his staff have been making headway at reforming an agency whose problems, over decades, have come to be viewed as all but intractable. Lawmakers had noticed some of the progress. But DCF is facing serious challenges as the Legislature begins to formulate a spending plan with shrinking revenues.
''We are shocked,'' Butterworth said. ``We really feel as if he has betrayed us.''
Zimmerman had an accomplished career as a television newsman before moving into public relations a few years ago, working for a television station in Texas and Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay before accepting a spokesman position with DCF in Wildwood. When the DCF press secretary position became vacant a year or so later, Zimmerman went to work in Tallahassee, earning an annual salary of $75,000.
At a staff meeting of regional administrators and other top managers Friday afternoon, news of the arrest left employees stunned, Sheldon said.
''There was silence; no one asked questions,'' Sheldon said.
Likeable and easygoing, Zimmerman had made friends not only with senior DCF staffers but with top officials at the governor's office and in state government.
''You do feel like you know someone so well,'' Sheldon said. ``It hits so close. You kind of say, What did I miss? Should I have seen something I didn't see?''
Both Butterworth and his deputy added that Zimmerman has not been convicted of any crime, and they encouraged employees Friday to wait for the state's judicial process to runits course before making conclusions.
''I had asked staff not to jump to conclusion, or to listen to rumors, until all the facts came out,'' Sheldon said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/403387.html Written by mamaws3angels
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Friday, December 14, 2007
1:31:58 PM EST
I SURE HAVE NEGLECTED MY JOURNAL!
I was filling out a site where it asked for my web page and when I entered it and came to my page, I was amazed that I had not made an entry since July!!! So much has gone on and some things I choose not to put in my journol, due to fragile subject matter.
One thing is certain, though, my grandchildren still need me. I have guardianship of the oldest boy due to so much conflict with his Mom and step-dad, but, praise the Lord, my daughter is divorcing the dirt bag! This has helped my grandson so much he "wants to go home to "Mommy!" This is wonderful. He still has so many issues, but is in counseling and so is my daughter. For some reason he doesn't like school. My daughter is seriously thinking about home-schooling him and she will be good at it, I just hope the other 2 will not let this influence them, they are on the honor roll and love school!
CPS made a visit this week and I am almost certain the school made a referral due to the days the oldest grandson has missed, so many days due to illnesses and just not wanting to go. We have even taken him to school and he gets out of the car and starts walking home. I know this interprets to his being stubborn and a total lack of respect for authority, and you're right, but he is also depressed, anti-social, withdrawn, and we are at a loss as to how to best help him. He says some of the kids "bully" him by kicking him, etc., I am concerned they discovered his problem with incontinence of his bowels. He had an EGD with biopsies and a Colonoscopy, but no news from any findings. We had an evaluation on the 12th by a psychologist the school got and we haven't heard what his report is yet. I just hope it gives an accurate view about how he really is and not put him in a "box". He is complex and difficult at times, but has so much potential. He likes skateboarding, music, art, science, but sometimes has low self-esteem, and he truly is trying to use coping skills when things don't go his way or whenever there is a conflict. I feel sorry for him being so young and seemingly having so many "burdens". He almost never seems to have fun or to enjoy things to the point of laughing unless I try to get him to by my acting silly and goofy, then we have a good time! I try to let go of the past but it's so hard to do, knowing all that has happened that contributes to his complex personality! His Mom doesn't have a problem with forgetting, sometimes I think she doesn't have a clue about all she has done to contribute to his behavior. Espcially where men are concerned (she already has a "boyfriend" living with them and she isn't divorced yet and her ex has only been gone about 6 weeks!!!! I don't get it. I don't even try any more. I keep trying to get him to come back and stay with me for a while, but I understand it's "boring" here, we don't have as much drama going on like there is at Mom's and I read where people who are Bi-Polar can't stand "order", so they are good together in that respect! God, could you take it from here?
Written by mamaws3angels
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Saturday, July 14, 2007
10:59:28 AM EDT
I SURE PLAN TO BE THERE, FRONT AND CENTER!!!
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Welcome to the Home Site of the DCRally2007
AUGUST 18, 2007
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We are individuals , families, organizations, businesses and churches united nationwide. We represent varied cultures, religions and ethnicities. We are parents, mothers and fathers. We are children. We are grandparents, aunts and uncles. We are veterans. We are lay people. We are professionals. We are America. |
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We meet in Washington DC , to peacefully exercise our first amendment right to assemble and to respectfully petition our government for a redress of grievances. Our grievances relate to governmental interference with and the destruction of our nation's family structure. DCRally2007 will take place at the historic site of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
DCRally2007 commemorates the 44th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. DCRally2007 is the extension of the Civil Rights Movement. DCRally2007 addresses the state's failure to recognize and protect our Fundamental Rights. It's time for our Federal Congress to recognize and protect our Fundamental Rights.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states condone and allow the abduction of children from their homes and the placing of children into the adoption market. The states have opened this door and allow illegal step-parent adoptions without the knowledge and/or consent of fit and loving parents. This outrage is breaking the hearts of good, fit, loving parents and America's children.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states under the color of law utilize destructive and unnecessarily punitive methods for child support collection and refuse to adopt shared parenting legislation for fit and loving parents. Children are alienated from loving and fit parents. The net result is a squandering of precious federal and state tax revenue, hostile and dysfunctional men and women who have contempt for the system and children who exhibit every social ill imaginable.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states in fact, profit financially from the child support collection procedures they implement. Hence, states have an incentive to maintain an adversarial environment and a ‘winner take all' agenda whereby one party is empowered and one party is disenfranchised and forced to pay into the state's collection mechanism. The states are manufacturing ‘dead beats' and are turning fit and loving parents into felons often times making it impossible to gain meaningful employment.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states while ignoring Fundamental Rights are wrongfully affecting corporate America and costing America untold billions of dollars annually in lost productivity. Anxiety, depression, anger, pre-occupation, physical illness, absenteeism, and much more are the result of the policies and procedures utilized by the states and the result is dysfunctional citizens, less product and higher prices.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states are destroying families and relationships and allowing their respective state agencies to medicate our children senselessly without regard for long-term effects and without the permission of fit and loving parents.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states have usurped the parental responsibility to discipline children and inculcate moral values. The result is parents are wrongfully punished. Children are drugged, running out of control and becoming self-destructive. Our society as a whole is suffering.
DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because when paternity fraud takes place, the states refuse to recognize it as fraud, continue to collect child support from parents with no biological connection to a child and further refuse to spend the necessary time and resources to locate the biological parent. |
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DCRally2007 is coming to Washington DC; because the states treat America's veterans with disrespect and contempt in matters relating to familial issues. Veterans are the backbone of America; however the states continuously ignore with calloused indifference the fundamental rights of veterans and their families.
The present environment for the American family and all those individuals within is beyond dismal. It is a deep abyss. The states of this nation ignore and trample upon Fundamental Rights with impunity. Yet, Fundamental Rights are God given and Fundamental Rights are recognized by the United States Supreme Court and are guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Accordingly, |
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AMERICAN CITIZENS OF ALL RACES, COLORS AND CREEDS ARE COMING TOGETHER AND DECLARING:
THE STATE GOVERNMENTS HAVE COME INTO OUR HOUSEHOLDS AND WE WANT THEM OUT. WE ARE DEMANDING THAT THE GOVERNMENT LEAVE OUR HOMES. IT IS TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNIZE AND RESPECT AND PROTECT OUR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.
"GOVERNMENT HAS COME INTO OUR HOUSEHOLDS AND WE WANT THEM OUT"
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Written by mamaws3angels
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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
5:39:21 PM EDT
SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
Current Issue
Purchase This Issue
The New American Magazine :: That Freedom Shall Not Perish
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Victims of false allegations: Neil (right) and Heidi Howard review with their lawyer Gregory Hession the documents that the Department of Social Services used as a basis to take their children. The documents allege that the Howards had the messiest home one social worker had ever seen — failing to mention that their kitchen was in the midst of being remodeled. | |
The nightmare started when nine-year-old Tevania Tranberg fainted momentarily for no apparent reason when she and her family were at a Trader Joe’s store near their Brookline, Massachusetts apartment. The father, Steven Bennett, went with Tevania in an ambulance to nearby Children’s Hospital to get her emergency care, and hopefully discover the source of her brief collapse. They were joined shortly by the mother, Heidi Tranberg, and Tevania’s four siblings, including 12-day-old Evanna.
At around 10:00 at night, after seven hours in the hospital and many tests, they discovered that Tevania had a low calcium condition. A resident also did some neurological tests and suggested that the situation was not that serious.
Another resident, Catherine James, M.D., then told the family not to listen to the first resident. Not knowing which doctor to believe, the parents asked for a second opinion. Big mistake. Dr. James snapped that she was going to get a restraining order and turned on her heels to go see the legal department. She returned and explained that her request was denied, and the family asked if they could go. At the family’s request, Dr. James prepared a discharge summary, in which she told the parents to get the child to her pediatrician within 48 hours and to watch for any further signs of problems. They took the paper, waited for a ride for half an hour, and left the hospital about 11:30 p.m. That night.
Unbeknownst to the parents, Dr. James called the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) immediately after they left. DSS told the police and the court that the parents had “fled the hospital,” based on Dr. James’ report, even though she had told them that they were free to leave. Dr. James later admitted to the court investigator that she had never said the parents “fled” the hospital and that “DSS was wrong.” The SWAT Team Swings Into Action
The next day, the father immediately obtained an appointment with their pediatrician, and both parents were attentive to Tevania’s condition. Thirty-six hours after they left the hospital, several carloads of armed police removed the children to the police station, where half a dozen DSS agents took them, without a warrant or an explanation. Later, the police log showed that DSS had lied to the police by claiming that there had been “injuries from child abuse,” as well as sexual abuse to the children. There was no mention of low calcium, since that might not have seemed quite as urgent.
Families can no longer feel safe, because a state child protective services agency, often generically referred to as “CPS,” may decide to swoop in and take their children into captivity at any time, for any arbitrary reason. Once the children are in their system, it is difficult or impossible to get them back. It usually does not matter if the condition that led to removal is resolved, because there is money to be made in warehousing children — lots of it.
Before I got involved as counsel, Steve Bennett and Heidi Tranberg’s court-appointed counsels told them to waive a temporary custody hearing.
What the lawyers didn’t tell them was that such a waiver means they have no legal means to get the children home for at least a year, if not two. When I came on the case, the damage was done, and every request to return the children is met with a smug, “They waived their hearing. We have custody.”
The Bennett/Tranberg’s five children, including the 12-day-old baby, have been gone since February 23, 2007, with no return in sight. Some calcium supplements were all the children needed. However, the Massachusetts DSS decided to lock four of the five children under 24-hour armed guard for five weeks in the hospital, all courtesy of the taxpayers. For calcium pills.
These parents are not accused of substance abuse, physical abuse or sexual abuse, or anything which would raise a caution. They live in an expensive, spacious apartment in a swanky Boston suburb, and are self-employed professionals. The children are receiving no benefit from being in DSS custody that would be an improvement over their own home. However, when the parents ask DSS why their children can’t come home, they get no answers, other than the continual refrain, “Because we have custody.”
The parents wake up each morning, sick at heart, wondering how to cope with another day of worry about the well-being of their children and how their children will bear up under the stewardship of parents who are not their own. The experience of these parents is not unusual. When children are taken this way, they are often permanently traumatized.
My experience as a lawyer defending parents against false allegations of abuse has thrust me into a world of arbitrary state power and lies, and parents with crushed hopes. The child protection business generates so much money, and employs so many social workers, therapists, lawyers, and other professionals, that it has to continue to obtain fresh meat every day for its gaping maw in order to feed all those who prey on the system.
In the tiny state of Massachusetts, more than 70,000 calls are made every year to the state child-abuse hot line. Thousands of social workers oversee more than 40,000 cases per year, and the state keeps nearly 10,000 children in custody at any one time. Most of these children are heavily drugged, placed in special education classes, and given therapy. When you add up the cost of all of these services in Massachusetts alone, it amounts to billions of dollars per year, which the state can leverage to obtain prodigious quantities of federal reimbursement.
Written by mamaws3angels
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5:02:42 PM EDT
THE CONTINUATION...............
Anything to Take Children
No aspect of life is too remote, and no angle is too obscure for the state to investigate in its fanatic desire to get children away from parents. Neil Howard and his wife Heidi lost their three children to the Massachusetts DSS in October of 1999, when DSS alleged that their home was too messy. Neil had gutted the kitchen, and the new cabinets and flooring were in boxes waiting to be installed in the next few days.
Their severely brain-damaged baby, Faith, was about to come home from the hospital, and DSS took upon itself to send a visiting nurse to their home prior to the child returning. The nurse took a look at the kitchen project, and noted that the home was “the messiest she had ever seen,” without mentioning the remodeling. Things went downhill from there, with DSS interviewing the children, who made vague “disclosures” like the father tapped the son on the head with a book once.
But that was enough to get DSS to swing into action. First, they demanded that Heidi throw her husband out and get a domestic-abuse restraining order against him, even though she told the judge that there was no abuse and DSS was making her do it. After Heidi decided to defy the agency and remove the order, two DSS agents walked into their home without permission, got the police to arrest Neil for violation of the non-existent restraining order, and took the distraught Heidi to a locked hospital psych ward, after promising her she could come right back. Then, of course, they took their two boys, eight-year-old Christopher and four-year-old Ethan, into captivity. For two years.
As happened to the Bennett/Tranberg family, the Howards’ court-appointed lawyers told them to waive their custody hearing, without explaining the consequences. When I later began to represent them, much damage had been done that could not be fixed.
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They’re waiting to come home: Four daughters of Heidi Tranberg (back) enjoy a family outing in Lexington, Massachusetts, prior to being taken into captivity by children’s social services because a doctor had reported the parents for not immediately following her advice after one child was found to have low calcium levels. | |
Poor little Faith died in the hospital on her first birthday, alone because the parents were prohibited from visiting her. The gracious DSS personnel gave custody of Faith back to the parents after that. The two boys, Chris and Ethan, were kept at foster homes, where Ethan was consistently abused. While in custody, Ethan suffered a broken arm, bruises in many places, wounds on his face, and other medical problems. His day care reported that the bruises were covered up by makeup. Despite all this being reported to DSS, it was all swept under the rug.
In order to provide a pretext for continuing to hold the boys, the DSS bored in on Ethan, who had a pervasive developmental disorder, and worked him over. Therapists hired by the agency elicited patently false and absurd “disclosures” from Ethan, like his daddy cut off his “peewee” with scissors. After continual badgering by another therapist, Chris also made some equally fatuous disclosures.
Meanwhile, Heidi had another baby named Jessica, and DSS wanted her, too. The Howards decided to not turn over the child, so DSS used high-tech GPS and a helicopter to locate her and take her from the arms of the Howards’ pastor, with whom she was staying. The judge also threatened to put me in jail for refusing to disclose Jessica’s whereabouts.
Halfway through a trial, after much of the DSS wrongdoing had been exposed on the witness stand, the three remaining children came home. What started with a bang, ended with a whimper, as most of these cases do. The family will never forget their experience, and they mourn Faith each year onher birthday.
No Checks and Balances
How does this happen? Virtually no checks and balances are in place to ensure that these rogue agencies are accountable. Courts are supposed to perform that function, but rarely dare to defy the plans of child protective services. Although laws in every state comply with the federal requirement that CPS use “reasonable efforts” to keep children with families before taking them, CPS rarely does so.
In my 12 years of doing CPS cases, I have seen enough mockery of the law and harm to families to dissuade even the most hardened believer in the effectiveness of government intervention and to convince any honest person that such a system is incapable of reform.
Fraud is never far away in child protection practice. Kay and Slade Henson were persecuted by CPS in Wisconsin when Kay spanked her disobedient 10-year-old boy with her hand. As a result, Walworth County Department of Health and Social Services took her four school-aged children from their school, and their two toddlers at home. Reports indicated that someone else re-spanked the 10-year-old, in order to exaggerate the damage. After some complicated legal machinations, Kay was jailed for four months.
Kay stood up and spoke out on the abuses perpetrated on their family by Walworth County CPS. She brought a film producer, Suzanne Shell, to Walworth County so she could investigate and document the case in March of 2003. Shell uncovered tampered evidence in Kay’s criminal file, which she filmed. Shortly thereafter, as she was quietly interviewing Kay in a hallway of the courthouse, she was assaulted by deputies, falsely arrested, and her tape confiscated — all of which was captured on videotape. I represented Mrs. Shell in a lawsuit in federal court, where she won a settlement against the county for its officers’ brutal treatment of her based on the video evidence.
Although the six children were returned home in 60 days, they exhibited signs of sexual abuse, which had never been an issue prior to their abduction by CPS. Slade and Kay remain vigilant against further attacks on their family.
The System Attacks Its Own
Many families who try to help children in the system get ground up by it themselves. Kevin Cross, a Baptist minister living in semi-rural Wales, Massachusetts, and his wife Linda have adopted seven children through state social services in several states, including Massachusetts. Records show that they are an exceptionally loving, nurturing family to their multi-cultural adopted brood and their two biological children, and that myriads of social workers had praised their parenting over the years.
Continuing their commitment to helping children, they took in a Russian foster child, who had some behavioral difficulties stemming from early mistreatment. While hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, the child accused Kevin of hitting him. The hospital immediately called the Massachusetts DSS, which concluded that the troubled young man was telling the truth, even though all the other nine children in the home were interviewed separately and denied that there had been any abuse, as did the parents. To CPS agents, disclosures are almost always true, no matter how implausible.
A social-worker intern at the hospital where the foster son was taken told DSS that the parents were “overwhelmed with the care of their nine children and day-to-day tasks.” However, this intern had never met the family and never been to the home. She also noted that the family home-schooled their children and that the father was (horrors!) a Christian minister.
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A unified front: Kevin and Linda Cross and family with their attorney Gregory Hession (left). Though the parents received many accolades from social service workers in the past, one child’s allegation of abuse would have resulted in all the children being abducted by child protective services if the children hadn’t supported the parents 100 percent. | |
When a DSS investigator demanded to again interview all the children, I got involved. We arranged all nine children and the parents in a circle around the living room, and when the DSS social worker came in, she was greeted by the silent stare of all 12 of us. After just a few minutes, she could tell there was strength in numbers, and she departed, never to be seen again. Although their children were not removed from the home, it was a terribly unnerving experience. “We truly felt like we were in a communist country,” sighed Linda.
All of these stories are true, and happened to families who never expected the club of the state to come crashing down on their heads. The feelings of heartache that these parents experienced can never be fully expressed by mere description in an article. Nor can the sense of disillusionment and betrayal by a system that they thought they could trust.
A lawyer who fights these agencies, rather than simply giving up his clients’ rights (as their previous attorneys often did), is a lonely figure. The one thing that continues to supply me with energy and hope is the knowledge that I can save some families from losing their children, and can help reunite other families that have already been torn apart, for no reason other than the state decreed it be done.
For more on Child Protective Services and the need to preserve families, click here.
Gregory A. Hession practices constitutional and family law in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Copyright © 2006 The John Birch Society
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Sunday, July 8, 2007
12:12:21 PM EDT
"IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD?"
July 7, 2007, 3:42PM
Foster child says she had sex with her caseworker
© 2007 The Associated Press
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — A 37-year-old former caseworker for Child Protective Services has been charged with having sex multiple times with a teenage girl he supervised.
Fredrick Shavers remained jailed Saturday, facing six charges that he had sex with the girl over a two-year period. Police said the girl, now 17, told them she was 15 when the relationship began and that they sometimes had sex in front of her infant son.
"We have a mountain of evidence to prove this occurred," Grand Prairie police Sgt. Alan Patton said.
Shavers posted $300,000 bail Saturday on three sexual assault charges in Dallas County but remained held on three of the same charges in Tarrant County, according to the Dallas County jail.
Shavers has declined comment, and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Authorities said the girl told police she and Shavers had sex when he picked her up for court appearances or visits with her infant son. The sex typically occurred in Shavers' car, police said.
Shavers resigned from CPS in April after 13 years on the job. He has supervised about 600 children whose names have now been turned over to police.
"We hope that the criminal justice system will be able to determine whether the allegations are true," said Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman. "These allegations describe behavior that will not be tolerated."
The girl entered foster care in 2003 after she was molested and became pregnant, police said. Her first encounter with Shavers happened in January 2005, a month after he became her caseworker, police said.
According to affidavits, Shavers kissed her before a court appearance and then took her to a lake in Rockwall County, where "they had sexual intercourse in his vehicle for the first time."
Shavers had been investigated by CPS before, including one incident in which a 12-year-old girl said he kissed her. State investigators could not confirm the allegation, but gave Shavers a warning, according to CPS officials.
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Information from The Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com
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Wednesday, June 13, 2007
10:00:45 AM EDT
Hearing SOCIAL WORKER PROBABLY DECIDED THIS WASN'T A
CASE THAT COULD END IN ADOPTION-SO SHE DROPPED IT
This is a DCS scenario that is common.. DCS social worker did not think a report of possible molestation/rape warranted further investigation. I am one who believes there are too many false reports called into CPS, but I also believe that there certainly should be guidelines as to which ones are definite priorites and I would think this one should be at the very top! What goes through a social worker's mind(most are not college educated in the social worker field and some are not even licensed)when she decides a possible sexual abuse case does not warrant further investigation? Probably that "DCS has no right to place the child into foster care, if the incident did not happen in the home, and if they can't place the child into foster care, then DCS won't benefit at all with this case. Let the parents call the police and let them handle it." That's probably what she thought. What about "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, VIOLA MILLER?" Of course, DCS will categorically deny such a claim and they ALWAYS do what is in the best interest of the child, right? ABSOLUTELY NOT! This time, like so many others, they got caught with their pants down.
When is someone, capable of bringing about change for the better in CPS/DCS, reform, going to come forward and cry "FOUL"?
June 12, 2007
Convicted child rapist Jeremy Duffer’s list of abuse victims could be longer
than the young boy he was found guilty in a trial last week of molesting.
Documents contained in Duffer’s criminal court file and obtained by The City
Paper show the convicted child rapist admitted in an interrogation with
Metro Police to molesting at least two more victims.
According to court records, Duffer told police the alleged molestations
happened in 2004 — the year after the Tennessee Department of Children Services
was first alerted to Duffer’s behavior concerning the boy he was eventually
convicted of having a two-year-long sexual relationship with.
The confession by Duffer — documented by narratives in police reports in the
case — were never used in open court during Duffer’s trial.
DCS officials have admitted to receiving a phoned-in tip in June 2003 about
Duffer’s suspicious behavior with the boy he was eventually convicted of
molesting — then a 13-year-old. The 2003 complaint, made by Christopher Hand, a
patron of the game store where Duffer worked — sat untouched for over a year
until the fall of 2004, after Duffer’s rape victim finally told authorities
about his former relationship with Duffer.
Reports written by detectives who solicited Duffer’s statement in the case
where he was convicted last week show that when Duffer confessed to police to
having a sexual relationship with the boy who eventually came forward, he
also told detectives that he had had sexual contact with two additional boys.
“During the suspect interview, Mr. Duffer mentioned two other boys that he
had sexually assaulted,” according to a Sept. 20, 2004, report filed by the
lead detective on the case, David Zoccola.
Duffer provided Zoccola with the names and the telephone numbers — which he
stored in his cell phone — of those two boys.
The report says that Duffer admitted to sexually fondling a young boy living
in the Hermitage area sometime in the spring of 2004, just a few months
before his arrest.
Metro police never learned that Duffer was suspected of being a danger to
children until the victim from Duffer’s trial came forward.
Following Duffer’s September 2004 arrest, police made a routine inquiry to
DCS to see if the state agency had any records pertaining to him. It was only
after that request did Metro Police receive a copy of the June 2003 DCS
report on Duffer, officially recorded but marked “screened out” of the
investigative process by a DCS supervisor.
DCS, through its spokesperson, has repeatedly defended its decision to
screen out the tip as having not relayed enough specific information to have the
agency believe that any child was in “imminent harm.”
“As we have said in the past, we believe this was handled completely
appropriately,” said Rob Johnson, DCS spokesman, who added that he could not comment
on any specific aspect of the complaint.
A copy of the page-long DCS report contained in Duffer’s court record shows
that the complaint against Duffer was “screened-out due to no allegation of
harm or imminent harm” on June 18, the same day it was recorded.
But in addition to the detailed complaint against Duffer — which noted that “
Jeremy and [the victim have been observed in the store’s office with the
door closed,” and that “referent overheard Jeremy Duffer make the comment, ‘
[The victim] was too tired to take his own clothes off so I took them off for
him’” — the complaint documents that the “referent has noticed during these
interactions Jeremy’s preference to the younger [males] at the store.”
Last week, Duffer was convicted of seven counts of rape of a child, four
counts of statutory rape and two counts of especially aggravated sexual
exploitation of a child, all as a result of his relationship with the victim named
in the June 2003 tip to DCS.
In an e-mail to The City Paper sent last week, the mother of that victim
castigated DCS for its lack of action on the tip provided by Hand — a tip she
believes could have prevented the continued abuse of her son.
“I still cannot make any sense of why DCS did not follow through on the
report Mr. Hand provided to the agency,” wrote the boy’s mother. “I was stunned
at their lack of action.”
She also wrote that “no one, and I mean no one, would call me back” after
she made repeated attempts at getting a satisfactory explanation from
officials at DCS.
But the victim’s mother was not the only one who felt outraged that the tip
was “screened-out” by DCS.
Hand himself, who testified during Duffer’s trial about the conversation he
overheard, but who was prevented from testifying about telling DCS about that
conversation, said he was so put off by the DCS response that he came to
believe that nobody, including the police, would be able to do anything more.
As it turns out, Metro police were able to do quite a bit, including
immediately arrest Duffer, but only after they were informed about the victim’s
allegations, which were first delivered to the Smyrna Police Department roughly
a year after Hand’s call to DCS.
After Zoccola was assigned the case, he immediately contacted DCS to find
out if Duffer’s name had ever come to their attention. In response, DCS
provided Zoccola with Duffer’s “screened-out” intake form the agency had received
the year before.
Zoccola contacted Hand, whose name and telephone number were listed on the
intake form.
“Mr. Hand states that he would be glad to talk with anyone concerned about
his actions and the information he gave or tried to give DCS,” Zoccola wrote
ina report he filed the day after he arrested Duffer. “He is upset at the
way this was handled by DCS and the lack of investigation.”
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
2:41:03 AM EDT
Hearing 4.9 MILLION AWARDED PARENT IN CPS CASE
NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT
FOGARTY-HARDWICK v. COUNTY OF ORANGE, ET AL. SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF ORANGE Case No. 01CC02379 (Trial before Hon. Ronald L. Bauer, Dept. CX103) On May 14, 2007, Orange County Superior Court Judge, Ronald Bauer (Dept. CX-103) issued an injunction against the Orange County Social Services Agency requiring the agency to obtain "reasonable and articulable evidence" prior to initiating dependency proceedings alleging abuse, neglect or abandonment of a child. The injunction follows on the heels of an earlier and unprecedented jury verdict of $4.9 million against Orange County and two of its social workers Marcia Vreeken and Helen Dwojak for violating the parental rights of Deanna Fogarty, as guaranteed under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. This case was brought by Deanna Fogarty against the County of Orange, Marcia Vreeken, Elaine Wilkins, and their supervisor Helen Dwojak to recover damages arising from Defendants alleged violations of Ms. Fogarty's constitutional rights to raise and associate with her children, free from governmental interference. On March 23, 2007, an Orange County Jury found against Orange County, social worker Marcia Vreeken, and social worker supervisor Helen Dwojak and awarded monetary damages of $4.9 million. A third social worker, Elaine Wilkins was found not liable. In addition to seeking damages, Ms. Fogarty also sought to enjoin the Orange County Social Services Agency from continuing its allegedly unlawful practice of making allegations of wrong doing against parents in dependency proceedings without supporting evidence. Lead trial attorney Shawn A. McMillan states: "Ms. Fogarty is very pleased with Judge Bauer's decision to issue the injunction. This is a very important issue to my client, and the court's decision today clearly demonstrates that sufficient evidence was presented to convince the court that the customs, policies and practices of the agency were unlawful. This injunction is expected to have incalculable and far reaching effects for a great many families presently experiencing the vagaries of the Social Service system in Orange County, and perhaps throughout the state. The injunction will force a change that is long overdue." An electronic copy of the permanent injunction are available at: Orange County CPS Injunction San Diego Lawyer Shawn A. McMillan, of the Law Offices of Shawn A. McMillan, was trial counsel in the case. For additional information, contact: Shawn A. McMillan, Esq. THE LAW OFFICES OF SHAWN A. McMILLAN, A.P.C. 4955 Via Lapiz San Diego, California 92122 Telephone: (858) 646-0069 Facsimile: (206) 600-4582 Website: www.mcmillan-law.com E-Mail: attyshawn @ netscape.net PRESS MATERIAL HOSTED BY WWW.FEARNOTLAW.COM">WWW.FEARNOTLAW.COM
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Sunday, April 1, 2007
6:56:29 AM EDT
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Welcome to the Home Site of the DCRally
AUGUST 18, 2007
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We are several organizations and churches united nationwide to peacefully protest governmental interference and the destruction of our nation's family structure for profit by each state. DCRally 2007 will take place at the historic site of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC . DCRally 2007 will commemorate the 44 th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. This movement is for state governments' failure to recognize our Fundamental Rights: |
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DCRally 2007 is coming to Washington DC because government is profiting from stealing children from their homes and selling them in the adoption market as if they were slaves:
DCRally 2007 is coming to Washington DC because government is profiting from the destructive methods used in child support collection and its refusal to entertain Shared parenting because it is profiting from child support collection procedures. Government is turning parents into felons making it impossible to gain employment.
DCRally 2007 is coming to Washington DC because governmental agencies are profiting from destroying households, families and relationships. Government is allowing the medicating of our children senselessly without regard for long term effects. They are making test subjects of our children for profit.
We are coming to Washington DC because government has taken our right to discipline our children out of the household and given social workers the ability to destroy families through falsification of documentation, stealing children and punishing parents. |
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We are coming to Washington DC because when paternity fraud takes place, government continues to collect child support from parents with no biological connection and refuses to spend resources on locating the correct parent simply because it is profitable.
Everyone wins except the family These are God given Fundamental Rights, Guaranteed by the United States Constitution yet violated by each state based on its greed to collect monetary incentives through its callous treatment of human beings.
Our goal is to raise the funds and provide transportation for every American whose family has been destroyed. Start involvement in your area because: |
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WE MUST COME TOGETHER
“GOVERNMENT HAS COME INTO OUR HOUSEHOLDS AND WE WANT THEM OUT” | | |
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Thursday, March 15, 2007
2:50:47 PM EDT
THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT THE HORROR STORIES!
THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT THE HORROR STORIES! :
LET ME SEE.........CHICKEN LITTLE, THE LITTLE BOY WHO CRIED "WOLF",NOAH, ME,,,,,,JUST A FEW EXAMPLES WHERE THE GENERAL POPULATION REFUSED TO BELIEVE THE MESSENGER. OF COURSE THERE IS THE PROVERBIAL "ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM", WHICH MAY BE A CLOSER MATCH TO THIS STORY AND THOSE OF MANY , MANY MORE.
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