Government Corruption in Allegan: 2010

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Review Hearing

Well, yesterday we had another review/permanency planning hearing which again was a total waste of time and money. The original purpose of this hearing was to review how we were adjusting to my oldest son living at home. However, since he chose to live with his dad instead...it became about how everyone was adjusting. It was confirmed that my oldest daughter has finished her counseling, that my younger two children are just about finished and my oldest son has completed the counseling per his plea agreement. It was also discussed that everyone has participated/cooperated in everything that the court ordered. However, because my ex-husband and I apparently don't agree to the legal custody change and the visitation arrangements regarding my oldest son (which was news to me), the court decided to keep this case open in a hopes to help us resolve our issues and come to an agreement. Apparently, what my ex-husband, my oldest son and I discussed and agreed to regarding visitation and changing of the legal custody is no longer valid. I still requested that they close the case because we have completed everything that has been asked and it is not the duty of this court to help my ex-husband and I to come to an agreement. The court ordered the CPS worker to work for the next 3 months as a mediator between my ex-husband and I to see if an agreement can be reached. The fact is that my ex-husband is extremely selfish and puts his own needs and wants before his children and that has not changed in the fourteen years that I have known him which makes it completely impossible to come to an agreement on anything. So, another hearing has been scheduled for the end of December to find out whether an agreement has been reached. In addition, my son has completed that everything that the court required of him. The judge does believe that my son could still use some counseling to help him with the issues regarding the legal custody and visitation. However, the insurance that he has through his step-mother apparently has run out. He has used up his annual allotment of counseling sessions. So, unless someone within Allegan County can find a way to help my ex-husband financially to allow my son to continue counseling the case will be closed within a couple of weeks.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Central Registry of Neglect

The Administrative Hearing that I had requested to present my argument in front of an Administrative Law Judge why my name should be expunged from the Central Registry of Neglect was finally held on September 6, 2010 after having been adjourned twice this summer by Wendi Menifee from Allegan County DHS. However, Ms. Menifee nor anyone else from Allegan County DHS did not show up for this hearing. After waiting 50 minutes, the Administrative Law Judge accepted my exhibits into evidence and ordered that Allegan County remove my name from the Central Registry of Neglect. However, off the record...the Administrative Law Judge states that Allegan County DHS can and will probably dispute the order. According to the law, they have 60 days to present a valid reason as to why they did not appear on this date. Yesterday, I received notice in the mail from Wendi Menifee stating that my name was removed from the Central Registry of Neglect on August 30, 2010. It was so nice of Allegan County to inform me of this AFTER taking 1/2 day off of work to attend the hearing not to mention the preparation time that I put into for this hearing.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Court of Appeals - Unpublished Decision

I have attached the Court of Appeals Unpublished Decision. There is a link at the bottom of the web page that will open up in a PDF document for your reading pleasure.

Update 3

It has been awhile since I have updated...I apologize. My son was allowed to visit over his spring break as long as he spent the nights at one of my relative's houses. The visit was nice but under a lot of stress because his father was arrested 24 hours prior to the visit for failure to pay child support which resulted in myself having to drive the entire trip (12 hours) to pick my son up and then driving to return him the entire trip. My son had answered the door and was quite upset over seeing his father under those conditions. However, his father was able to make arrangements with the court that allowed him to be out of jail by the time my son was due to return from the visit. In April, I was informed by the DHS/CPS worker that in order for my son to returned to me full-time that I would have to have a place on my own and he would have to have his own room. I moved into a trailer park in May with three bedrooms. My two daughters would share a room, my oldest son would have a room to himself and my youngest son would share a room with me. There was another hearing on May 10, 2010 in which DHS/CPS requested that the court order me to have see a counselor to assist me in developing a "safety plan" for the family when my oldest son comes for visits and for when he returns home. She also requested that some weekend visits occur before the court orders that my son can return to live with me to give everyone time to adjust. The weekend visits were difficult to get scheduled due to my son's father being difficult about meeting halfway. He either didn't have the money, their family had plans, he didn't have a vehicle, etc. For what was supposed to be the extended visit over Memorial Day, I ended up driving the entire trip (12 hours) to pick my son up on Friday after work and driving the entire trip again to return him on Sunday. When my son was due to come for his next visit on June 11, 2010...we had similar issues except this time it was because the DHS/CPS worker made the pick-up and drop-off schedule without taking into consideration my work schedule and based it around what was convenient for my son's father. However, my son's father and I actually were able to finally work on an agreement which allowed my son to be here for two weeks. On July 6, 2010, there was a permanency planning hearing. At that time, DHS/CPS requested that the two week on and two week off visits between my home and his father's home continue until the middle of August in which my son will finally be returned to me. YEAHHHHH!!!!

However, after much discussion with my son....he asked to remain with his father. He expressed that he had missed out on too much of his father's life in the past five years and realizes that his father will not make the effort to stay in contact or visit as I will. It was a difficult decision for me but I decided to let him live with his father.

On July 29, 2010, the Court of Appeals found in favor of Allegan's rulings. The next step is to take the case to the Michigan Supreme Court which I am not in the position to do financially. However, a professor from the University of Michigan has offered to take the case pro bono. So, I gratefully accepted. According to him, there are several cases in Michigan in which the non-custodial parent is admitting to guilt in neglect/abuse cases and the courts are taking jurisdiction of the children from the custodial parent and enforcing the custodial parent to submit to service plans, counseling, etc. even when the custodial parent has not been found guilty of neglect/abuse as in my case. This professor is working to change this for families all over and get a ruling that will put an end to this corruption. He is drafting an Application to the Michigan Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court will decide whether they will look at the argument and hear the case. There is a 1-2% chance that they will consider the case which is very low. However, this professor believes that due to the interest in cases very similar to mine within the past year and a half that I have a good chance.

I am not sure where allowing my son to live with his father leaves me regarding the case in Allegan. There is another hearing in October. I continue to take one day at a time.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Letter to Congress to fight cps

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Allegan County is Beautiful -

Update 2

There was a review hearing on February 15 which was a waste of time....nothing really changed. The judge keeps stating that the goal is to reunify the family; however, I have a hard time believing. There is another review hearing on May 10. My children's father canceled a visit in January and a visit in February. We have not been able to reschedule these visits. He continues to allow us to only speak with my son once a week. My attorney submitted the brief for the State Appellate Court to review. We are waiting for a response from the other parties...they have 28 days. Then, the State Appellate Court will decide whether a hearing will be held. If and when the hearing is held, it could take up to a year for them to make a decision. I finally received a response to my request that my record be expunged...I was denied. So, now I have to request a hearing with an administrative judge. At the beginning of the year, I put my home up for sale because I can no longer afford it with the legal fees that we have incurred. There is a possibility that it is sold and we are awaiting approval from the banks since it will be a short sale. My children and I are living with a relative while my husband is living closer to his work. The children that remain in my care have switched schools and that has been difficult for them with losing their home and friends. They are constantly asking when their brother will come home. I have attempted to get them involved in extra curricular activities to help take their minds off what they have lost. We all continue to take one day at a time. When/if this is ever over...we have a long road to get back to where we once were as a family financially and emotionally. I don't know that our lives will be ever the normal that we once knew.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Update

9/28/09 - Judge Micheal buck dismissed our motion to remove Christopher Burnett (court-appointed attorney for my son). I was barred by armed officials from entering the plea negotiations for my son. Although my attorney objected, Judge Michael Buck allowed my son to plead guilty to Criminal Charges under coercion of his father. During a meeting following the plea, Judith Zoch (the father's court-appointed attorney attempted to verbally abuse me. Visitation and phone calls were officially set up by the court. The children and I can speak with my oldest son every Thursday for 20 minutes at 6:00 p.m. and visitation will occur every other Saturday in Chesterton, IN from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. The children are to have their sibling visitation for the first three hours and my oldest son and I can visit for the last three hours while the two younger children visit with their father. My oldest daughter refuses to have anything to do with her father, so she will spend the last three hours with my husband.

The children and I did get to visit with my oldest son for a couple of hours that afternoon. My oldest son had a horrible looking rash so I called my mother and requested that she bring some topical cream for it. During the time my oldest son and I were alone, he confided that he was very depressed because he hadn't been able to talk with me for the past few weeks. He expressed that he had been very confused because Christopher Burnett (court-appointed attorney) and his father kept pressuring him to take the plea agreement that was offered. He expressed that he wished he could have talked to me...he believed that I had his best interests at heart. He then asked me if "my court stuff" is over yet and I told him no. He said, "Mom, don't take a plea like I did....because you didn't do anything wrong".

9/29/09 - my children's father called and said that he had brought my son to the doctor and my son had strep throat.

9/30/09 - Laura Mikrut (Children's Protective Services) stated that she wasn't able to perform a home visit on the children's father due to the Interstate Compact Agreement between Michigan and Indiana. In the Updated Services Plan and the Risk Assessments on the children's father and I, Laura Mikrut (Children's Protective Services) assessed my husband and I at a high risk because when she came to see the children in July, my husband didn't acknowledge her. I filed a complaint against Laura Mikrut and Marni Casterton (Children's Protective Services) for failure to properly assess our home and failure to comply with performing a home visit on the children's father.

10/1/09 - my oldest son said that he had missed five days of school so far, His father had taken him back to the doctor and he was diagnosed with Poison Sumac. He was hoping he would look better in the morning so that he could go back to school. His father hadn't bothered to pick up any homework from school for him to get caught up on and he was worried that he was getting behind. His father also doesn't have enough money to get the prescription filled to treat the Poison Sumac so he probably won't be able to go anyway.

10/6/09 - the children's father e-mailed me and said that he wouldn't be able to meet on the 9th as the court ordered due to lack of finances, but he would be able to meet on the 17th. He also stated that he would not be able to meet twice a month as the order states.
10/14/09 - Laura Mikrut (Children's Protective Services) stated that her supervisor (Kendra Spanjer) and her decided to not change the Risk Assessment for my husband and I since a new assessment will have be issued due to my oldest son not being in the home.

10/16/09 - Kendra Spanjer (Children's Protective Services) confirmed that she was refusing to redo the Risk Assessment that was done in July on my husband and I because I was refusing to cooperate with Children's Protective Services. I pointed out that I didn't refuse anything. She still did not see any benefit to waste time amending the Risk Assessment.

10/19/09 - I sent a complaint to the Sue Bailey-Carment (Director at the Department of Human Services) requesting an immediate suspension and investigation of Laura Mikrut and Kendra Spanjer.

10/21/09 - Settlement Hearing

Judge Michael Buck, Emily Hills (Prosecuting Attorney), Judith Zock (Court-appointed attorney for children's father), Christopher Burnett (Court-Appointed Attorney for oldest son), Christopher Antkoviak (Court-Appointed Attorney for the other three children) conspired to have the children's father plead guilty to neglect in an attempt to obtain jurisdiction of all four children versus allowing me to have my trial on October 26th, 27th and 28th as planned because they have no evidence that I neglect/abused my children in anyway. The forensic interviews of the children state that I was unaware of what was going on. Several of their "witnesses" that the prosecution called to testify stated that the prosecution contacted them prior to the Settlement Hearing and questioned what these witnesses would testify to as evidence of my neglect. These witnesses stated that they told the prosecution that I was a good mother and that they(the prosecution) should leave my family alone. Emily Hills threatened that I should take the plea agreement they were offering because my name is already on the Central Registry of Abuse/Neglect. I refused to take the plea that was offered which resulted in the conspiracy of convincing the children's father to agree to plea guilty of neglect. My attorney objected to this on my behalf but they canceled my trial anyway.

Laura Mikrut (Children's Protective Services) gave me a Service Agreement to look over and sign. I requested that I have some time for my attorney and I to review. She said that I could have until the 27th at the next hearing.

10/27/09 - Plea Hearing

Judge Michael Buck took the children's father's plea of neglect under advisement and set a date for another hearing to determine whether he will indeed accept this plea. Emily Hills (prosecuting attorney) and my attorney were given opportunity to prepare briefs as to why/why not this plea should be accepted and submit for review to each other and the judge prior to the next hearing.

11/5/09 - received a copy of the Central Registry Clearance Request stating that I had been listed on the Central Registry of Neglect/Abuse on April 20, 2009 by Marni Casterton.

12/1/09 - Judge Michael Buck accepted the plea of neglect by the children's father and took jurisdiction of all four children. He ordered that my husband and I undergo psychiatric evaluations and that my other two children obtain counseling services. I will have to submit to their requirements even though as Judge Buck stated in the hearing on record that "the mother and step father have done nothing wrong". I don't get my trial to prove my innocence.

12/30/09 - sent a letter to Sue Bailey-Carmen (Director of Human Services) requesting an update on the investigation that I requested regarding Laura Mikrut and Kendra Spanjer (Children's Protective Services).

I also mailed in a request that my name by expunged from the Central Registry of Neglect/Abuse.