CHILDREN REMOVED FROM HOMES BY USE OF A RUBBER STAMP – JUDGE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THE CASE OR RULE ON IT – FOR DECADES!!!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Families torn apart illegally? Heather Catallo investigates

Posted: 05/09/2012
By: Heather Catallo By: Heather Catallo

(WXYZ) – When protective services take children from their parents, state law says a judge must first personally review the case and sign off. But that was not happening in one of Michigan’s busiest courts.

It’s called “rubber stamping,” and last August 7 Action News first exposed how court staff were literally stamping a judge’s name onto orders that allowed the state to take kids from their parents.

After our investigations – the rubber stamping stopped – but no one has ever been held accountable — not the judge, not the chief judge or child protective services.

“Why was this allowed to happen in your court,” Catallo asked Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Leslie Kim Smith.

Smith is the presiding judge at the James Lincoln Hall of Justice, the county’s juvenile court. It was her name that had been stamped on removal orders. And legal experts tell us, that stamp allowed children to be taken from their parents illegally.

Here’s a look at how the practice called “rubber stamping” came to light.
“I knew the system was broken, but I didn’t know it was this broken, where anyone, literally anyone could come and take your child,” said Maryanne Godboldo.

Godboldo’s case made international news after she was accused of firing a gun after police officers and child protective services came to take her daughter in March of 2011.

They showed up at her door after Godboldo told two local agencies that she was working with her doctor to wean her daughter off the controversial anti-psychotic medication Risperdal.

Godboldo’s lawyers say those agencies reported her to CPS. And after that happened, a caseworker used a rubber stamped court order that a judge later called invalid to take then 13-year-old Ariana from her mother.

Under Michigan law, unless it’s an emergency, where a child is in imminent danger,Child Protective Services workers are supposed to request a hearing in front of a judge – where the parents accused of neglect or abuse can tell their side of the story before a child is removed from the home. But court insiders tell us that wasn’t happening in Wayne County.

Testimony under oath in the Godboldo case revealed that caseworkers routinely took their petitions to probation officers inside the court, who would then stamp Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s name onto the removal orders.

“It is completely illegal,” said Joshua Kay a professor with the University of Michigan Law School’s Child Advocacy Law Clinic.

“What does that mean for the children of Wayne County,” asked Catallo.

“What it means is that they are in greater danger of being removed from their homes unnecessarily,” said Kay. He added, under Michigan law, a judge must personally review a child removal order.

“I think it’s important to emphasize the tremendous impact of a decision to remove a child. It is one of the most wrenching things that can happen in a child’s life, in the life of a family, and it changes people’s lives forever,” said Kay.

Last August, the day after the 7 Action News Investigators confirmed that the rubber stamping had been going on – the court stopped doing it.
After we exposed the practice, the State Supreme Court Administrator’s Office, or SCAO, sent a memo to all the family courts in the state, recommending they review their procedures.

An SCAO official also told Wayne County’s Chief Judge that the rubber stamping must stop. The court is now using an iPad for their on-call judge to review after-hours child removal orders electronically.

But we knew there was more to the story—how many children had been taken illegally? How long had rubber stamping been going on?
Some court insiders tell us, it’s been happening for decades. But those are questions no one seems to want to answer.

Last fall, we asked the court in writing for all their records on removal orders going back to 2009. But they won’t provide them. And guess what? The court doesn’t have to because it’s not subject to public information laws.

After Judge Leslie Kim Smith and her boss Chief Judge Virgil Smith denied our many requests for information, we caught up with the juvenile court judge on her way into work.

Judge Smith tried to pass us off to the court’s lawyer – the same one who denied our earlier requests for information on child removal records.

“We’d like to talk to you – it was your name on those removal orders that was rubber stamped,” said Catallo.

“Alright, well you need to talk to Liz Kocab, who’s the general counsel for the court,” said Judge Smith.

“But it was your name on those removal orders – why was this allowed to happen in your court,” asked Catallo.

“I understand,” said the Judge.

“Are you going to talk to us or not,” asked Catallo.

“Have a good day,” said the Judge.

We also asked the state’s Department of Human Services, which oversees protective services, for the same information. They wanted to charge us $32,742 for the public records request.

Following one of our first stories a year ago about child removals, DHS Director Maura Corrigan refused to speak to us on camera.

The day after our investigation aired, Corrigan wrote an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press. The headline: “Removing children from families always follows legal procedures.”

Now that that’s been proven to be false – we asked a DHS spokesman if they have been trying to determine how many children may have been wrongly taken from homes with invalid court orders.

“We did not review all court orders, as that is not proper procedure on our end. Instead, in recent months we have focused our attention squarely on addressing structural deficiencies within the system. The goal here is to go at the root cause, and not the symptom. To that end, we have worked with Senator Rick Jones and the State Court Administrators Office, which has resulted in Senate Bill 320, one that requires a written order for removal and clearly addresses after hours procedure. That bill has now passed the House Judiciary Committee and sits currently before the full house. We testified in clear support of this bill,” said DHS spokesman David Akerly.
“This system is destroying the future of America. And if something is not done about it, we won’t have a future,” said Godboldo.

Maryanne Godboldo is now suing the state, Wayne County, and Detroit police for illegally taking her child.

As for her criminal case for allegedly firing a gun — a judge threw it out—because he said the removal order used to take her daughter was not valid, and he said there was no evidence presented that she fired the shot.

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/removal-order#ixzz2gL0m7lZK

What does this all mean? It means that the very system that is suppose to protect our children and our families is the number one enemy of both.

But then again, when we look at our federal government, we realize that the same applies to them. Which means we have lots and lots of fighting to do!

Kathleen Raskin and Rob Raskin are two people who call for a massive overhaul of Child Protective Services throughout all 50 states.

7 thoughts on “CHILDREN REMOVED FROM HOMES BY USE OF A RUBBER STAMP – JUDGE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THE CASE OR RULE ON IT – FOR DECADES!!!

  1. My daughter is being kept from me for almost a year now. The mom filed an emergency custody of my kid after i took her to my house to spend the night after the mom had not allowed me to take her . They say im a risk because i abducted my own child. My civil rights have been violated and im now suffering from legal abuse syndrome. The mom also lives with a half brother that had molested her for years while the whole family knew and did nothing. So now i not with my child because of the court and my child is living with a person who raped her own mom for years, and with the family that knew about it. While im being potrayed as a bad guy who abducts his own child. I did nothing illegal but the whole reason i can’t see my daughter is based off of false accusations. There is no justice being done, and everyone seems to act like this is what is in the best interest of my child. Please help me email me, i want the media involved with my case and for this to open people’s eyes so that this doesn’t keep happening to people, especially a father who really just want’s to have a healthy relationship with his daughter.

  2. Kathleen will you please contact me , I need help ASAP and I have no one to help me or my 2 innocent swee little girls . Please I’m begging . I need to know who to contact about the things happening to my children and myself . My human civil rights are being violated and I can’t seem to find the right person to help me. Thank you so much for your time.

  3. I have been in a 4-year battle with Alabama DHR since my son married a drug-addicted daughter of a DHR Supervisor. To keep me from temporary custody of the infant gdaughter when my son and his wife fought, a restriction order was put out by this girl’s mother on our entire family. We were never around the house where the fight took place and have never voiced any opinions on it to anyone as we were not present. Here four years later (after I fought hard and got DHR to dismiss my case, I have been under continuous open, illegal CANs and they presently have the gson I have had custody of since 2004 in the home of his father where he is in imminent danger. The judge has pulled the 2004 files and reads nothing about the facts (only what DHR wants her to see about false charges) and accordingly Alabama Law I had the right to remove this child custody case to the 10th Circuit Court by Alabama 30-3-5 which gives me the right to remove it from family court; but the judge has denied the petition for removal of this from her case. According to Alabama Rulse and Regulations the intake officer did none of the responsibilities he has. I am actually not listed as a legal custodian and was not advised for over a month that this was going on behind my back. My court-apptd attorney has been unreachable due to family deaths and his own surgery. This is to be finalized at trial on 3/24/14 and I don’t even know how to file anything to even delay or stop this case which is entirely based on false statements and the judge has noted that and denied the Petition for Custody by my son, but she still is going to have trial. I don’t know why. If there are any unanswered complaints against me that I do not know about, what do I do while waiting for 3/24/14? Petition said lack of supervision which was proved untrue.

  4. Please tell me what to do i believe judge carman bash is corrupted in hand with baldwin co. DHR in Robertsdale Al. i want to sue them fo everything .. they have my 13 year old girl .. no reason whatsoever that they can attest to not giving her back. they havdjudie lied and i have adjudicated this fact. .i am verry concerned i have already contacted DHR Comissioners office and notified them of certain lacking points. i want to know the proper channel that’s most effective.. THANK YOU 251-222-0627 ANNA

  5. Kathleen, my daughter has fought the court system for my four n half yr old grandson Chandler for nearly three years, she doesn’t n never has smoked cigarettes, or,doesn’t do any type of drugs n she is married now n they have a precious five n half mth old son n yet today the judge gave the paternal grandparents complete full custody of my grandson n.this has broken my daughter’s n mine n our families hearts, it truly has. Reason being is my daughter is such a very wonderful loving, caring,mommy n my lil grandson Chandler has asked his mommy n grandpa several many times, this very sad n heartbreaking question, especially considering it was coming from the mouth of my precious n innocent lil grandson,he asked his mommy,exactly this question, (“MOMMY ,I WUV U N I WANNA LIVE WITH U MOMMY N MY BABY BROTHER PWEEZ,PWEEZ,MOMMY WHY CANT I LIVE WITH U PWEEZ MOMMY ,PWEEZ,PWEEZ!!!”) MY DAUGHTERS EYES ARE SWELLED N RED FROM CRYING ALL DAY N MINE ARE TOO N THIS IS TEARING US TOTALLY APART CUZ WE LOVE N MISS MY GRANDSON SO VERY MUCH N WANT THIS BABY BOY BCK HOME WITH HIS MOMMY N BABY BROTHER WHERE HE BELONGS. GOD ,IM BEGGING U MRS.KATHLEEN PLEEZ HELP US ,TO BRING THIS CHILD HOME ,HE SHOULD OF NEVER ,EVER,OF BEEN TAKEN FROM HIS MOMMY N US ANY AT ALL ANYWAYS .MRS.KATHLEEN OUR WHOLE TOWN,JUDGES,GAURDIAN AD LITEM, DHR,AND ,CERTAIN OF OUR LAWYERS ARE VERY CROOKED N CORRUPT SO I PLEAD N BEG U KATHLEEN PLEEZ HELP MY DAUGHTER, AND GRANDSON CHANDLER BE BROUGHT BCK TOGETHER N REUNITED CUZ THEY HAVE SUCH A VERY STRONG BOND MRS.KAYHLEEN N THESE TWO LOVE N NEED ONE ANOTHER N MY DAUGHTER IS A GREAT MOM N DESERVES TO GET TO RAISE N LOVE HER TODDLER SON THE WAY ANY DECENT LOVING MOMMY SHOULD ALSO GET TO N HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO AS WELL .MY CELL #256-284’9955 MY ADDRESS IS:160 COUNTY ROAD 229 FLORENCE,ALABAMA 35633 GOD BLESS YOU FOR ALL TJE GOOD U DO TO HELP CHILDREN BE REUNITED WITH LOVED ONES THEIR WRONGFULLY TAKEN FROM N NOW I PLEAD N BEG FOR YOU TO HELP MY DAUGHTER N GRANDSON CHANDLER B REUNITED AS WAY THEY SHOULD BE IN JESUS NAME PLEASE HELP US N THEM MRS.KATHLEEN N MAY GOD TRULY BLESS YOU N I TRULY MEAN THAT .BUT ,WE EANNA SPEAK WITH U ON THE PHONE IF WE MAY N U ARE WILLING TO CALL MY CELL NUMBER N HEAR OUR UNFAIR STORY N PLEASE GUIDE IN RIGHT DIRECTION SP WERE ABLE TO HOPEFULLY N FINALLY
    BRING MY SWEET ADORABLE GRANDSON HOME ,PLEASE MRS. KATHLEEN. SINCERELY
    MISS T,MICHELLE JONES & MRS.KRISTIN N.HOFFMAN THANK U SO MUCH AGAIN !!!!

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