Thursday, March 31, 2011

LK's Look-A-Likes: Maura Corrigan

Just another classic from the makers of Legally Kidnapped.

LK's Look-A-Likes


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This is something that I noticed yesterday after posting this link...
http://michiganlawyerblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/bills-would-streamline-adoption-process-for-foster-care-children/

Maura D. Corrigan (born June 14, 1948[1][2]) is the Incumbent Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. She was also a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, serving from 1998-2011. 



Ursula the Sea Witch - Repulsive, rotund sea witch with tentacles featured in the Disney motion picture The Little Mermaid (1989) and the cartoon series THE LITTLE MERMAID/CBS/1992-94.

Note: They could be twins, eh?

Update: My buddy Robert sent us another.

Check it out.


http://fixcas.com/parody/MacKinnon.htm

LK's Look-A-Likes Part 3: Minnesota Representative and foster parent Michelle Bachmann looks like...

Another classic from the makers of Legally Kidnapped.

LK's Look-A-Likes Part 3: Minnesota Representative and foster parent Michelle Bachmann looks like...


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I know, I know. How can I pick on the potential Tea Party candidate for the Presidency of the United States? Especially after all the wonderful things she does for children.

Here's why.


Michele Bachmann’s 23 foster kids

But onto the big event. Who does Ms Bachmann look like?


None other than Alfred E. Numan.

Michele Bachmann’s 23 foster kids

Michele Bachmann’s 23 foster kids


By bachmannstupidoverdrive
WARNING: This post is pure rumor. We try to avoid posting things that aren’t well substantiated (we have the celebrity press if you like that kind of thing), but there’s nothing online that seems reliable enough to us. The joy of being a blog instead of a real newspaper is that we don’t have an editor to kill the story on this basis. Instead, you get a BIG FAT WARNING: This is unsubstantiated and you should use your judgment on the sources.

That said, Dump Bachmann’s got a post up about Bachmann’s foster kids. In essencecommenters to their site allege that the kids were used as baby-sitters for Bachmann’s five biological children.Wonkette had this allegation in 2006 as well, but anonymously. They linked to this MSP City Pages profile of Bachmann, which doesn’t really address the issue, although it has unrelated dirt about Bachmann’s unkindness to her lesbian stepsister. We’ve also seen passing references on the City Pages site suggesting that she sent the foster kids to public school but homeschooled her bio kids, presumably to protect them from independent thought.
We’d be delighted if someone in the real media could track down this story.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Ponca City Mom Says DHS Worker Struck Son With Car

Ponca City Mom Says DHS Worker Struck Son With Car

Posted: Mar 30, 2011 3:13 PMUpdated: Mar 30, 2011 7:51 PM
Amanda Boyd says DHS launched an investigation against her after a DHS worker struck her 23-month-old son with a car.Amanda Boyd says DHS launched an investigation against her after a DHS worker struck her 23-month-old son with a car.
Amanda Boyd said her 23-month-old son, Dylan, has a lot of cuts and bruises, a tire mark across his right thigh, and seizures because of the accident.Amanda Boyd said her 23-month-old son, Dylan, has a lot of cuts and bruises, a tire mark across his right thigh, and seizures because of the accident.
Click image to enlarge

Adrianna Iwasinski, News 9
PONCA CITY, Oklahoma -- A Ponca City woman said she became the target of a Department of Human Services investigation after a DHS worker struck her toddler with a car.
Amanda Boyd's 23-month-old son has a lot of cuts and bruises, a tire mark across his right thigh, and seizures. She blames them all on an accident that happened a week ago.
Boyd said she was in the shower when her son somehow opened the front door, wandered out into the street, and was struck by a car.
"This is the first time he had ever done it and my heart just dropped when I noticed he was outside," said Boyd.
Deanna Westerman was driving by and saw little Dylan toddle off the curb and into the street where he was hit by a car.
"I screamed ‘Don't do it!' And sure enough he stepped off and the car struck him on his right side," said Westerman.
But Boyd said she's not just upset about the accident; she's angry about what happened after her toddler was hit. She said the woman behind the wheel was a DHS worker who not only showed little compassion for hitting her child, but threatened Boyd.
"This lady came over and made a statement ‘That once this mom finds out who I work for she's not going to want to come after me,'" Westerman said.
"She's made several statements that if we go after her then she's gonna cause problems for us and we're not going to like what happens," said Boyd. "I'm not concerned about where you work. I'm concerned about my child's life, why he's not of any importance to you."
Boyd said what makes her even angrier is the fact that DHS is now investigating her. She said she is contemplating filing a lawsuit as a result.
"Accidents happen. I could forgive that. But to not show any remorse and now this?" Boyd said.
But DHS spokesperson Sheree Powell said the investigation is standard protocol.
"Any time a young child wanders into the street and gets hit by a car, regardless of whether or not the child is hurt, it should generate a referral to the child abuse hotline. This could be a case of lack of supervision by the parent or possible parental neglect. OKDHS takes these allegations seriously and would take appropriate action to ensure the safety of the child," said Powell in a statement.
Witnesses claim the driver may have been using a cell phone at the time of the accident, but the police report does not make any mention of it and did not find anyone at fault for the accident.
The woman who hit Boyd's son told News 9 she could not comment about the incident at this time.

I am a child snatching piece of crap...

Brought to you by the makers of Legally Kidnapped...

I am a child snatching piece of crap...







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... who is making Child Abuse Propaganda video's for New York's ACS, that nobody is watching, in a desperate attempt to repair their public image after a few recent high profile failure to protect cases, by making themselves look like the Champions of Children...


And embedding is disabled by request. Therefore, you will have to watch these NY ACS Child Abuse Propaganda Video's on YouTube. I assume they are going to be played on a screen at some child abuse propaganda month event, although I could be wrong.


Hold on to your lunch!!!

I Am A Child Protective Specialist #1 

I Am A Child Protective Specialist #2 

And here's their YouTube channel.http://www.youtube.com/user/childservices

What a joke.



Could not have said it better myself!

How Appropriate for My 1000 Post: Where's the Melanin?

For my 1000 post, I came across this delicious piece of oxymoronic politics.  Here you have an ultra conservative political action committee discussing on how they are going to make society do what they want to do.

Could someone translate what this man is saying into English?!?  I have no idea of what this man, Emmet McGroatry, is talking about.  He must be friend of Bachmann.

Better yet, ask this PAC why they support Child Protective Services, a social health care program when they are against social health care programs.

Where's the melanin in the room?


Detroit mother jailed after standoff to be released

Detroit mother jailed after standoff to be released


Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Detroit— The bond was reduced today for a woman charged with using a gun to hold off police when Child Protective Services workers came to take her daughter in a dispute over the 13-year-old's medication.

36th District Judge Paula Humphries lessened the bond for Maryanne Godboldo, 56, to a $200,000 personal bond from $500,000 cash, meaning no money will be posted and she likely will be released today.


Defense lawyers called the original bond "enormous" and "excessive."

Humphries said today she believes Godboldo isn't a threat to the public despite a police report saying Godboldo fired a shot while officers entered her home Thursday on the front porch of her west-side home.

Godboldo has been in the Wayne County Jail since surrendering Friday morning on the front porch of the home after a 10-hour standoff.

Her daughter, Ariana, was initially turned over to a relative by Detroit police, but was later taken into state custody from a hospital where her physical condition she was being evaluated after the standoff. She has been allowed visits at a state-run facility for juveniles from her father, Mubuarak Hakim, and an aunt, Penny Godboldo, a professor of dance at Marygrove College.

"She's OK," Hakim said Tuesday. "I'm not OK with it, though, and we are working at bringing her home, bringing them both home."

Godboldo's lawyers, who claim the state had no authority to take the girl, have requested an April 6 hearing on her custody in Wayne County Juvenile Court. A preliminary examination of criminal charges against Godboldo will be April 8 in the city's 36th District Court.

The standoff started Thursday afternoon, when protective services workers came to Godboldo's home armed with a warrant to take the girl. The dispute is over a medical and mental health treatment plan that had called for psychotropic drugs the mother felt were doing more harm than good. Godboldo has said her daughter's physical and mental problems are a bad reaction to immunizations the formerly homeschooled teen took so she could be enrolled in a regular middle school.

Godboldo's lawyer, Wanda Evans, has said the medical treatment plan was voluntarily developed between the mother and specialists at the Children's Center, an organization that helps "at-risk children." The court had no prior involvement with the family and granted no authority to social workers to countermand a parent's right to make medical decisions, Evans said.

The incident has attracted widespread interest since the standoff began Thursday afternoon. Ministers and civil rights advocates rushed to the home that was surrounded by police. One of the people who helped police talk Godboldo out of her house was Wayne County Circuit Judge Deborah Thomas, a former polio sufferer and advocate for the disabled. Ariana has had only one foot since birth. Thomas has said her examination of the warrant CPS workers presented to Godboldo revealed that it contained "defects."

A broad spectrum of activists, conservatives, liberals, and anti-immunization, parental and civil rights groups are expected to come from around the nation to attend a 9 a.m. event Saturday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, 18700 James Couzens Freeway, to support Godboldo.

"We are going to have an extremely interesting collection of Americans who believe in the sanctity of family, conservatives and liberals, coming together for this mother," said one of the event's organizers, Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality. "We have received word that people are coming from the holistic health community and even representatives of the Tea Party in West Michigan."

Detroiter who stole to feed 5 grandkids is facing prison

How far would you go to protect your children?

Detroiter who stole to feed 5 grandkids is facing prison




Her mentally ill son was in prison.
Her daughter was battling drug addiction.
And her five grandchildren were in danger of being sent to foster care.
So Mary Alice Austin of Detroit, who said she needed money to raise the grandkids, paid someone to pose as her son so she could continue receiving his disability benefits, court records show.
During the 20 years her son was in prison, Austin, 67, received nearly $120,000 in Social Security benefits, records show. Now, she may be headed to prison after pleading guilty to the fraud. She is to be sentenced Friday.
U.S. census figures show nearly 88,000 grandparents in metro Detroit are living with their grandchildren -- 40% of those are the primary caregiver.
Often, grandparents step in when their own children are lost to drugs, crime or mental illness. Then they may fear losing their grandkids, too, experts said.
Austin's lawyer and grandchildren are pleading for mercy.
"My grandmother has been in my life since I was born. If she hadn't (been), no telling what would of happened to me or my siblings," one grandson wrote to the judge.

Detroiter stole from U.S. to feed her grandkids

In the last decade, Juanita Bridgewater has seen hundreds of scared and frustrated grandparents at her support group meetings, struggling to cope with the hardships of raising their grandchildren because their own children can't.
They have health and financial issues. They are embarrassed their own kids failed as parents. And more than anything, Bridgewater said, they're scared of losing their grandkids -- either to the streets or foster care.
"They do not want that grandchild to go to the system," said Bridgewater, chair and founder of the 10-year-old Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Committee in Detroit. "That's what I hear from my grandparents. And they will go to whatever lengths there are to keep their grandchildren."
One 67-year-old Detroit grandmother resorted to fraud, court documents show.
On Friday, Mary Alice Austin will be sentenced for unlawfully accepting her son's Social Security checks, pretending to care for him even though he was in prison for 20 years for armed robbery and drug offenses. Under a plea deal, she faces 10 to 16 months in prison.
Court documents show Austin paid someone to pose as her mentally disabled son to get his government checks.
Austin, who was raising her five grandchildren, stole nearly $120,000 during two decades -- about $6,000 a year.
Austin's family members and attorney say she was just trying to survive.
The government maintains she broke the law, using deception and trickery.
This is her story, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Widowed at 50

Austin was thrust into the role of caretaker early. She was born in Mississippi and moved to Detroit at a young age.
At 16, her parents divorced, and she became the primary caretaker of her siblings because her mother was disabled.
Austin had three children of her own, and was widowed at 50. She became a grandmother of five and eventually became their primary caretaker.
A daughter with a drug addiction and mental heath issues couldn't care for her four children. Her son, who had one child, had been on disability benefits since age 13. He was sent to prison after being convicted in 1990 on charges of armed robbery and substance abuse.
In 1993, Austin got a job as a nursing assistant at numerous nursing homes, where she made between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.
It wasn't enough to raise five kids. But she did have some extra money: her son's Social Security checks, which continued to come because she never reported he was in prison.
Instead, she pretended he lived with her and that she took care of him. Austin signed a Social Security Administration document in 1996 stating her son still lived with her.
In 2002, she paid someone to pose as her son at a Social Security office. The impersonator also underwent two medical exams that were mandated by the government to make sure the son was still eligible for benefits. Austin was present for the exams.
The scheme worked. Austin received $119,100 in Social Security checks from 1990 to 2009.
"Although Ms. Austin regrettably continued to accept her son's Social Security checks unlawfully, she did not use the money to live beyond her means or to live a lavish lifestyle," Austin's lawyer, Natasha Webster, wrote in court documents.
Leniency sought
Webster is pleading for leniency on behalf of her client. She has asked U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts to sentence Austin to home confinement rather than prison.
"Significantly, she has accepted responsibility for her actions," Webster wrote. Austin's two grandsons also have written the judge letters.
One, age 12, writes: "We didn't have much but what we did have she made it work ... I'm just asking you don't take my grandmom away from us."
But Austin must pay a price for her crimes, including "some period of incarceration," Assistant U.S. Attorney Blondell Morey argued in court documents.
"There is little need in this case to deter or protect the public from a 67-year-old grandmother," Morey wrote in a March 23 filing. "However, defendant must be punished for a crime that earned her over $100,000 and took place over 20 years."
Morey also pointed out that Austin has a criminal record, including a conviction for welfare fraud, which happened during the Social Security scheme.
"This was not a crime of opportunity, but one committed over two decades," Morey wrote. "Her most egregious acts were hiring, on three separate occasions, someone to impersonate her son to the Social Security Administration."
Had the government not caught her, he wrote, the crime would have continued.

Broken families

Austin is part of a growing issue in the U.S. -- grandparents caring for grandchildren, statistics show.
Currently, about 7 million children live with a grandparent, up from 4.5 million in 2000, according to U.S. census figures.
In metro Detroit, about 88,000 grandparents live with their grandchildren, up slightly from nearly 85,000 in 2000.
Broken families in America are causing some serious hardships for grandparents -- even great-grandparents -- who are struggling to fulfill their new parenting duties, Bridgewater said.
"There are a lot of them," Bridgewater said of grandparent caregivers. "And the pressure is on them."
At her monthly support group meetings, which draw about 30 people, Bridgewater said she has heard countless sad stories.
"Sometimes, grandparents come because they just want to talk, and know that they are not in this by themselves," she said.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Justices Grapple With Issue of Right to Lawyers in Child Support Cases

Justices Grapple With Issue of Right to Lawyers in Child Support Cases




WASHINGTON — Members of the Supreme Court appeared frustrated Wednesday during an argument about whether poor people facing jail time for failing to pay child support are entitled to court-appointed lawyers. It seemed that there were procedural and practical problems with almost every potential ruling.
“It’s a little difficult to write the opinion if you are to prevail,” JusticeAnthony M. Kennedy told a lawyer arguing that lawyers are not always required.
Justice Kennedy mused about what such an opinion might say. “There’s no absolute right,” he said. “But there might be in some other case, depending. We don’t give much help to the system that way.”
On the other hand, Justice Kennedy told the lawyer on the other side, “there are thousands of these hearings around the country.” A blanket ruling requiring the appointment of lawyers would mean, he said, that “we’re going to change the entire landscape of domestic relations proceedings.”
The case involved a South Carolina man, Michael D. Turner, who was repeatedly held in civil contempt and jailed for as much as a year at a time for not paying child support.
The point of civil contempt is coercion rather than punishment, and judges like to say that people held in such circumstances hold the keys to their own jail cells. All they have to do to be released is comply with the court’s order.
But Mr. Turner said he was too poor to pay what he owed, which turned his incarceration into pure punishment. He said a lawyer could have helped him convince the judge that jailing him in the circumstances was impermissible.
In a series of decisions starting with Gideon v. Wainwright in 1963, the Supreme Court has held that poor people facing the loss of liberty for crimes must be provided with lawyers. But those decisions were rooted in the text of the Sixth Amendment, which concerns only criminal proceedings.
A majority of states do provide lawyers to people in Mr. Turner’s situation, as a matter of state law. The question in the case argued Wednesday, Turner v. Rogers, No. 10-10, was whether court-appointed lawyers are required in civil contempt cases as a matter of the due process protections of the federal Constitution.
Seth P. Waxman, a lawyer for Mr. Turner, urged the justices to adopt a bright-line rule that anyone facing the loss of liberty should have a lawyer in light of what the Supreme Court has called “the awesome prospect of incarceration.”
Some of the justices seemed concerned about how broadly such a ruling might sweep. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for instance, asked about “alimony and palimony.”
Mr. Waxman said contempt proceedings in such cases would be covered.
Stephanos Bibas, a lawyer for the woman who had sought child support from Mr. Turner, Rebecca L. Rogers, added that a ruling for Mr. Turner would also apply to “tens of thousands of immigration and extradition cases.”
“We’re talking about reformulating rules in a huge number of states that probably affect hundreds of thousands of cases,” Mr. Bibas said.
Mr. Bibas cautioned the justices against disrupting the informality and effectiveness of child support proceedings in which neither side, he said, tends to be represented by a lawyer.
He added that requiring states to provide lawyers might cause them to decide not to pursue deadbeat parents at all. New Jersey, he said, had stopped trying to enforce child support orders through civil contempt after its Supreme Court recognized a right to counsel.
Justice Ginsburg questioned the wisdom of that financial calculation, noting that it costs money to lock people up, too.
The federal government urged the justices to take a middle ground. Appointing counsel, the government said in its brief, is “a sufficient, but not a necessary, means of satisfying due process in this case.”
It would also be enough, the brief said, to give someone facing jail in Mr. Turner’s circumstances “a meaningful opportunity to establish his present inability to pay, such as asking him to complete an understandable form seeking his financial information or asking him questions on the topic as necessary at a hearing.”
At the argument on Wednesday, Justice Elena Kagan told a lawyer for the government, Leondra R. Kruger, that the proposal was “remarkably anemic.”
“Apparently, your idea of the procedure is just to give the person a form,” Justice Kagan said.
Ms. Kruger responded that the government’s proposal also called for notice to the person facing jail, a hearing and a judicial finding that the person is indeed capable of paying.
Justice Antonin Scalia said he was frustrated by the government’s proposal for a different reason. The court, he said, had agreed to answer just the question of whether a lawyer must be appointed and not what other procedures might satisfy due process
.