Tag Archives: StopDHR Corruption

Killer Caseworker to Be Released from Prison

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We are Robert Raskin and Kathleen Raskin, and as parents and grandparents ourselves, we know that every parent’s worst fear is that something will happen to their child. For one Maine mother, the pain of losing a child has increased exponentially because her daughter’s killer is being released from prison. Little five-year-old Logan Marr was suffocated by Sally Ann Schofield, who was a former child services state worker who was acting as the girl’s foster mother at the time of her death. Schofield is now being placed on probation, and one condition of this is she is not to be around children under the age of 16. Unfortunately for Logan’s family, this comes many years too late.

 

A Fatal Mistake

Unfortunately, Logan did not like her foster mother, and she reacted to this by throwing tantrums, which Schofield did her best to escalate. On the day of Logan’s death, which was January 31, 2001, the girl, who was five, resisted being put in a high chair that is meant for infants. Schofield reacted to this by putting the child in the basement and using approximately 40 feet of duct tape to bind the child to the chair and to bind her mouth shut. When she checked on the girl over an hour later, she was dead from suffocation. Before calling emergency services, she hid the tape and concocted a story about the child falling from the high chair, which the evidence at the scene did not support.

 

Schofield’s Sentence

At the trial, the jury recommended that Schofield be charged with murder, but the judge did not agree and convicted her of the lesser charge of manslaughter instead because he believed that the experienced caseworker, who should have known better, did not intend to kill the child. Schofield was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The lead prosecutor in the case was quoted as saying, “I haven’t seen one iota of acceptance or responsibility on the part of that woman.” Schofield was convicted and went to prison in 2002, and her release date is April 25th of this year, so in total the killer foster mom served just 15 years.

 

Schofield’s Release

In January of this year Logan’s mother, Christy Darling, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. This same month she received a letter notifying her that Schofield will be released from prison in April. She says her daughter’s killer’s sentence was not nearly enough, and many agree. Darling is working to keep her daughter’s memory alive, and her death served as a catalyst for transforming the Maine foster care system. Since the girl was killed, the number of children who have been removed from their homes in the state has dropped by 30 percent, the number of foster children placed in group homes has dropped to just 10 percent, and the number of children in foster care has been cut in half. This is Robert Raskin and Kathleen Raskin, and we encourage you to check back with us so you can stay up-to-date on the latest DHR corruption news.

DCF Worker Charged with Falsifying Reports

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This month Vanessa Arias, 33, a former employee of the nonprofit Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, which is a subcontractor of the Florida DCF, was arrested after an investigation determined that she documented a welfare check that never happened. According to DCF records, she was fired in January. We are Kathey Raskin and Robert Raskin, and we are committed to bringing these cases to light so families and other concerned citizens can be made aware of the shortcomings within the systems that are set up to protect children.

 

A Tragic Case of Neglect

There were five children living in the household in question, and one girl reported to the police that her mother had been staying in the house sporadically, leaving the children to fend for themselves when she was not there. The girl told the police that she had been caring for her younger siblings and getting them ready for school every day on schedule, but the children had been using a single wax candle as their only source of light or heat. Between 2005 and 2014, 140 people died from fires in the state of Florida alone, making this a very risky situation for children.

 

What Arias’s Report Said

At the time of her false report, the disgraced DCF worker reported that the children were free from any visible signs of abuse or neglect, and all of their basic needs were being met. Within a week the Kissimmee Police Department visited the home in response to yet another report of neglect. It was during this visit that they determined Arias had not only not visited the home at all, she had not returned more than a dozen calls from the children who were depending on her for help.

 

The Case Against Arias

After her arrest, Arias was booked into Osceola County Jail, and her bond was set at $2,000, which she has since posted. Her trial is still pending as of this report, but the Office of the State Attorney, 9th Circuit, has said that they will prosecute.  In response to the charge that the worker knowingly stated erroneous information, DCF released a statement that said, “The department has no tolerance for any individual compromising their integrity and, thereby, potentially jeopardizing the safety of a child.” In this case law enforcement was called in, but how often does this same thing happen when the case goes unreported? We are Robert Raskin and Kathey Raskin, and we, like many others, demand answers.

The Types of CPS Reports and Understanding Your Situation

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If you’ve found yourself at this blog, the chances are that you are involved in allegations against you from CPS or another like entity in your location. As a parent, you may not experience anything more heart-wrenching than to have your children taken from you without due process. You’d be surprised about how much that these types of cases have in common. There are typically three types of CPS reports, and knowing your situation could help you understand what courses of action to take in order to improve the outcome.

Child Neglect or Abuse

Not all CPS reports are unfounded. There are people out there who abuse unlawful substances and/or intentionally hurt, abuse, or molest their children. Child Protective Services is called because of bruises beyond what normal children naturally occur or because of evidence of malnutrition. These instances are what CPS should be trying to stop. However, if you’re doing your research on this specific topic, it’s unlikely that you abuse your children and are probably finding an overwhelming amount of corruption in the system because of money and greed. It’s more pertinent to the topic at hand to discuss the other two types of situations.

Being Victimized by a Personal Vendetta

It’s not uncommon for individuals to use children in order to get back at someone for real or perceived injustices against them. CPS is then used as a weapon in order to exact their own personal brand of revenge. Why a parent would exploit their kids in this way is beyond me, but I have witnessed it first-hand.

Imagine an ex-spouse is only granted custody of their child on weekends because they’re unemployed and the other parent is more well-equipped to be a provider. Let’s also say that on one such weekend, that individual takes their child and promptly files a restraining order against the custodial parent, claiming that they’re physically abusive. In this particular case, the court granted the restraining order, did not send the child back to the custodial parent, and began a lengthy court case based on zero evidence, costing the first parent an exorbitant amount of lawyer fees, etc. This all happened out of the spite of the first individual. Lengthy court battles can be costly, and for families that can’t afford legal fees, such circumstances can be simply detrimental, especially to the well-being of the child.

Flat-Out Corruption in the System

Because of the loopholes in the “Adoption and Safe Families Act” (1974), it’s not uncommon for some social workers to be motivated by financial incentives to make allegations against families. They, along with the corrupt judges on their side, receive financial kickbacks for every child that is adopted out of foster care, so the more children that are put into the system, the more money they receive. This flaw in the system is what Nancy Schaefer spent her political career trying to fight, and it’s what unjustly victimizes many families across the country.

With this type of case, you may find that a social worker is being overzealous about normal parenting struggles and blowing circumstances out of proportion in order to make you look bad. Last year, CPS in Florida took an eleven-year-old from his parents because he was playing outside, waiting for his parents to come home since he had forgotten his house key. He was alone for only 90 minutes, but the parents were arrested for negligence despite there being no minimum age for supervision to be required and had to be subjected to parenting classes, forced to pay for day care, and to admit they were wrong for letting their child play outside. Let’s also note that the boy was in the yard within view of the home.

Battling corruption in the system is even more difficult than proving that you’re being victimized by someone’s personal vendetta. That’s why it’s important to continue to raise awareness about the problems in the system.