The U.S. Department of Justices has entered into a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the makers of Risperdal, AstraZeneca and Janssen, for "illegally and wrongfully" marketing Risperdal and Seroquel with false research...on children.
Even though the U.S. Department of Justice has entered into a $520 million dollar false claims act settlement agreement, Michigan child protective services and the Attorney General do not really care because AstraZeneca has big financial stakes in Michigan politics!
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has filed a major false claims action against these pharmaceutical corporations for Medicaid fraud. Unfortunately, the Attorney General of Michigan cannot do so as there stands existing law prohibiting similar actions to recovery fraudulent payments.
So, as the story goes, Michigan Attorney General will prosecute this case, as Wayne County is the only county in Michigan where the Attorney General prosecutes child welfare cases, and contemporaneously defend the privately contracted child placing agency, Children's Center, instead of going after Medicaid fraud and protecting the rights of its youngest citizens.
Now, that's child abuse!
Beverly Tran
An Original Source
Mom charged in standoff celebrates teen's release
Doug Guthrie / / The Detroit News
Northville Township— A Detroit teenager was released from a state mental health facility to her family today, more than a month after authorities took her from her home after her mother stopped giving her prescribed psychotropic drugs.
Maryanne Godboldo leaped and thrust her hands into the air as she walked from the entrance of the Hawthorn Center to announce that state authorities had finally acceded to a judge's order to release her daughter, 13, to live with a relative.
"I am so excited to finally have my daughter back," said Godboldo, 56. The Detroit mother still faces criminal charges over a March 24 standoff with police who helped child welfare workers take Ariana Godboldo from her west side home. Authorities allege that Godboldo fired a shot at police.
Judge Lynne Pierce of Wayne County Circuit Court's Juvenile Division threatened last week to hold parties in contempt of court today unless they complied with her order to release the girl to an aunt.
Ariana was released to Penny Godboldo shortly before noon, and Maryanne Godboldo said she is excited to "begin her daughter's healing."
State authorities have accused the mother of medical neglect for halting the girl's treatment with the controversial anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, which is used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia. A trial over the neglect allegations and custody of the child is set to being in June before Pierce.
"Legally, they had no right to remove my daughter so I don't understand what this continuation is about, other than bullying," Maryanne Godboldo said.
The state had filed appeals of the judge's decisions. Pierce also ordered doctors from the state facility and Godboldo's own doctor, an internist who specializes in holistic medicine, to jointly draft a medical treatment plan for the girl.
Dr. Margaret Betts said she and Hawthorn Center's assistant clinical director, Dr. George Melos, completed their agreement last week.
"Dr. Melos had no objection to her medical release. Our planning was a collegial exercise and we thought she would be released last Friday," Betts said today outside Hawthorn Center. "I'm happy that we can now begin to investigate Ariana's problems and we don't have to use the pharmaceutical approach. We will give her medicine only when the effect is greater than the side effects. Risperdal is controversial because it has a black box warning. It is not indicated for children."
Betts said the plan calls for giving the girl time to rest after being kept five weeks in the state facility, and to adjust to living with her aunt.
Then, she said, tests will be done to determine the cause of Ariana's sometimes delusional behavior, which appears to have begun in 2009 after she took a catch-up cocktail of childhood immunizations to switch from homeschooling to a more traditional school. She said the state will help by providing psychiatric evaluations.
"Ariana's life has been turned upside down," Betts said. "Her traumatization began more than a year ago with what her family has said may be encephalitis as a reaction to immunization. She's been further traumatized by being taken and kept from her mother for more than a month, but now we can begin to find the cause of her problem and properly treat her."
Godboldo had signed an agreement almost a year ago to treat her daughter with Risperdal, after Detroit Police found the girl wandering naked in her neighborhood. But the written document, which is in the court's files, also advised the mother she had authority to halt the drug at any time.
State authorities said they acted when they received complaints from medical authorities that withholding the drug amounted to medical neglect.
Ron Scott, an organizer with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said she has become a nationwide symbol of individual resistance to overzealous state authority. The coalition has helped Godboldo since before her release on bond for charges of criminal assault and opposing police.
"This is not just a victory for Maryanne and Hakim (Mubarak, the girl's father)," Scott said. "It is a victory for all families who fight to make the right decisions for their children."
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