A grandma desperate to adopt her grandson fought the state and lost to Medicaid fraud

A grandma desperate to adopt her grandson fought the state and lost

(WXYZ) - Michigan families are being torn apart and critics blame the privatization of the foster care system. Actually, I do not blame privatization, I blame the lack of: contractual debarment; sanctions; license revocation; referral mechanism to the attorney general; prosecution; grievance rights; recovery and penalties to name a few off the top of my head. Families desperate to care for loved ones say they are spending thousands of dollars to fight a hostile bureaucracy to get children out of state hands. The bureaucracy is not really hostile, it is the fraud protection policies.  A simple indicator that a child welfare case is riddled with all forms of violations of the false claims act is when a privatized agency teams up with Bill Johnson, Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute to quickly proceed to adoption.

A grandmother has done everything she can to get her grandson and she says she has been sharing her story because she doesn’t want anyone else to face this kind of pain. Roxanne Gant adores her grandson.  Now, Heather, I know you are a fan.  Call me.  Let's do lunch.  I will give you a story, complete with court documents, federal, state and county audits and a whole array of fraudulently generated billing complete with a story.

“He’s a little sweetheart. He’s blond, very loveable,” says Gant.  In our line of exposing the industry for what it is, we call these kids "baby dolls" because they fetch the highest prices in adoption.  Yes, some of these private agencies sell kids.

When she learned Bradley was taken from his parents and put in foster care, she came forward immediately.

“Right away. That day I said, I want, I want Bradley,” says Gant.

But Gant says she was met with strong resistance.

“They got the ball in their court. They can do what they want and they did,” says Gant.  Christmas is coming and the majority of case workers like to go shopping and buy presents for co-workers to celebrate getting their adoption bonus money.

Gant is talking about the private agency the state contracts to handle foster care and adoption cases. By law, extended family members must be given first consideration when placing a child taken from their parents.  Also by law, the state is suppose to have competitive bidding,  comparable price setting and a reporting policy to the attorney general for antitrust violations.

“Both federal and state law require that the agency and the court give priority to relatives seeking placement of children in foster care,” says attorney Vivek Sankaran, who heads the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy and is an expert on child welfare law.  Both federal and state law require reporting of Medicaid fraud to the Attorney General and I am an expert on child welfare law.

“All too often what happens is that systemic road blocks are created - license, home study, requirements, criminal background checks take time because bureaucracy is taking too long to get them done, the child is living somewhere else,” says Sankran.  The "bureaucracy" was designed under the leadership of Maura Corrigan when she was over SCAO.  This "bureaucracy" should be properly identified as a revenue-maximization scheme.

That is what happened to Gant. Fed up, she got a lawyer and has spent $15,000 fighting for Bradley. The private agency finally approved her to adopt—another child. But Gant didn't want just any child.

“I just want Bradley,” she says.

She went to the State Office of the Children’s Ombudsman (OCO). It investigated her complaints and issued a report. It says both the private agency and the Department of Human Services violated a half-dozen policies. Did you know they are big Bill Johnson fans over at the OCO?  Bill Johnson never does anything wrong because he is omnipotent!

“It was so blatant they didn’t even try to hide it,” says Gant.  And why should they?  No one is going to do anything about it, especially not Maura "Cash Cow" Corrigan.

The OCO report says the agency referred Bradley to a couple for adoption months before a court terminated his parents’ rights, “…and had fully intended to implement that plan despite policy requiring first consideration be given to relatives.” 


“They already made up their minds. The Ombudsman’s Office told me that promises had been made,” says Gant.” There was nothing I could do.”  And Bill Johnson never looses in court because ole Danny boy will lie through his teeth to cover up the state's dirty secrets.

Attorney Elizabeth Warner represents families in these kinds of disputes. She says this is exactly why private adoption agencies should have no part of the foster care system.

When the state takes a child from a parent and places the child in foster care, private agencies are supposed to make every effort to reunify the child with their parents— they are not supposed to adopt them out.  Yes they are.  That is how they can keep people working.

Warner says what the agency did in Bradley’s case may be more than a policy violation.

“It’s a crime,” she says. "It’s a misdemeanor, people can be prosecuted for it. People who are doing that should lose their job. And somebody ought to be calling Bill Schuette at the AG’s Office.” Never happen.  The Maura will put the kabash on that so fast it will make your head spin.  Trust me.

Warner explains that it is illegal in Michigan to tell a couple they have been chosen to adopt a foster child and to place the child with them before the child's parents' rights have been terminated.  Naughty, naughty.  Now, they have been punished.

The private agency, D.A. Blodgett-St John’s in Grand Rapids declined to do an interview. But in an email said that their priority is to reunify foster kids with their parents… “and they “…strongly advocate for relative placements for children when safety can be assured.”  I have witnessed workers lie on the stand to keep kids in care longer because their supervisors threatened to fire them and take their kids.  Seriously.

But the Ombudsman’s report tells another story. D.A. Blodgett admitted fault to every violation, including not placing Bradley with his grandma. How was the agency punished? It wasn’t. 


The Ombudsman does not have that kind of authority.  They are very good at stripping court and case files from the public purview.

“They’re getting away with it,” says Gant.  And will again, again, and again...

The Department of Human Services oversees the private agencies it contracts. And Bill Johnson is the one.  DHS also wouldn’t talk to 7 Action News. Why did the agency deny Gant her grandson?  Money, money, money.

“The private agencies simply have an affiliation, a familiarity, a working relationship with their foster family, they recruited and they want to help those people get a child,” says Warner.

Warner claims private agencies have an allegiance first to their clients – the couples looking to adopt.  Again....money, money, money.

"They may say they are doing this for the children, but in reality you can tell when a case is being managed by an agency,” Warner says.

Warner and other experts told 7 Action News they have seen widespread problems with private adoption and foster care agencies. They say they don’t follow policy, stonewall families and manipulate cases to get the outcome they want.  One last time....money, money, money.  In order to stay in operation, the agencies must make more money to fund their child abuse propaganda campaigns.

“It’s some pretty blatant tactics to try and shut the doors to relatives who want to adopt,” says Warner.

One report says Michigan ranks sixth in the nation for placing children with relatives. DHS numbers show that for each year from 2006 through 2009, a little less than half of foster care children were adopted by extended family members. Despite those numbers, experts say too often, relatives are losing loved ones to the system.  The reason most of the kids do not go to relatives is because many of them have been drugged, beaten and raped.  If you send the kids to relatives, they will tell their story and there would be lawsuits.  If this every happened, the cases would expose the filing of false claims.

“They’re not just doing it to the grandparents or the aunts or uncles. That’s eventually going to mess up Bradley. He’s going to wonder why my family didn’t want me,” Gant says.  Do not fret, the state is too dense to realize technology is far more advanced than its ethical core.  Keep doing these interviews and stories.  The internet is permanent record.  Did you know Twitter is now preserved in the Library of Congress?  Maura Corrigan is a fraudfeaser.

Private agencies don’t have final say on foster care adoptions. His name is Bill Johnson.  They He makes a recommendation to DHS, which then reviews it and sends a decision to a judge. But experts say judges rarely go against DHS, and children can be cut off from family forever—that’s exactly what has happened to Bradley. Remember that Ombudsman report? Bradley has a half-sister Kelsi, who he also may never see again.

State child welfare policy says that private agencies are supposed to maintain sibling bonds. But the report says D.A. Blodgett also violated this policy when it denied Bradley visits with Kelsi, and even told the ombudsman, “the children do not know each other.”  Like the state every cared.

“Every time we get her, she asks about Bradley,” says Gant.

But Gant’s legal appeals are done. Bradely is gone – to the very couple the agency had referred him for adoption.  Bill Johnson always wins.  Gant finally broke the news to Kelsi.  

“She cried. I cried with her. You know, what else do you tell her?” says Gant. “I said some day, hopefully, they’ll tell him he’s adopted and he’ll come looking for us.”

7 Action News has been asking DHS Director Maura Corrigan for an interview for months. She eventually agreed and then cancelled citing adoption confidentiality laws. On November 9, she issued this statement:  This is a classic.  This is so funny and no one sees anything wrong with this secrecy.

Laws protecting family privacy prohibit DHS from discussing specific cases, but the department is committed to placing children in homes that best meet their needs. Relatives are always our first choice, as the law demands. And, in fact, children in out-of-home care are more often placed with relatives than with unrelated foster parents.

However, relative families are not always a willing, able, or appropriate choice for a child. Ultimately, this decision is made by the courts with the child’s well-being at the forefront.

DHS’s responsibility is to ensure the health and safety of children. That is our mission and our highest calling – and it applies to every single child in our care.