During the dark ages of Michigan Child Welfare, (1996 c, - present) Medicaid fraud grew to become the destructive monster lurking in the shadows of a regulatory environment which is non-existent. .
In Wayne County, in the early years of Michigan's dark ages, there was an Assistant Attorney General by the name of Jennifer Granholm who would prosecute child abuse cases over at Lincoln Hall of Justice.
One day, Prosecutor Granholm successfully advocated for the termination of parental rights for a young lady by the name of Starletta Banks
Starletta Banks had her parental rights terminated because, according to Assistant Attorney General Granholm, she had caused her child to have broken bones.
X-Rays were presented to support the charges.
Starletta Banks strongly denied the claims that she hurt her child. She was so dedicated to prove she did not harm her child she realized the x-ray was that of a child much older than her child. She began to investigate.
Starletta Banks began to make daily visits to the clerk's office in the basement of the Lincoln Hall of Justice to pull case files of parents who had filed appeals to their own termination of parental rights.
What she found was stunning.
Every case contained the exact same evidence to support the termination of parental rights. It was the exact same x-ray used to terminate her parental rights and put her children up for adoption.
I saw the files, too, but I took my investigation a step further and discovered Michigan's horrific practice of Medicaid fraud in child welfare.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Granholm eventually became Governor and gloriously ruled over the apex of the dark ages in Michigan's child welfare where many children were repeatedly raped, tortured, attempted suicide multiple times, experienced numerous heart attacks and starved.
She knew about it. She did nothing about it.
Special Report: Shadow of Doubt
CALHOUN COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - An I-Team investigation uncovers the child abuse convictions of dozens of people in Michigan are now being called into question.
And the tragic death of a three-year-old little girl has opened up new conversations about whether innocent people are sitting in prisons for crimes they did not commit.
The calls to 9-1-1 her family made July 28, 2011 give a glimpse into the last hours of 3-year-old Baylee Stenman's life.
"And what happened," the operator asks. "She bumped her head," says the caller.
Now, four years later Leo Ackley is in prison for her murder. But there are new questions about his guilt.
"Just being here is embarrassing, the crime itself, obviously nobody wants to be labeled as that," Ackley told us by phone from jail.
Ackley, who was dating Baylee's mother at the time, is now serving a life sentence without parole. But his family says what he's accused of never made sense.
"Him being innocent, I never believed you could convict an innocent person and they have found a way to do so and apparently more than just my child," says Ackley's mother Linda Byrd.
Ackley's case is now in front of the Michigan Supreme Court which is deciding if he should get a new trial.
"Leo's case is almost a 100% classic shaken baby, abusive head trauma type case. No witnesses witnessed any abuse, all the evidence is established by medical testimony," says Ackley's attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
Calhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified at trial that Baylee died from severe head trauma and ruled she was murdered.
But Ackley's family and Rodenhouse have cast doubts on that determination, and asked another doctor to review the medical records who says the injuries most likely happened from an accidental fall.
Rodenhouse says this case is shining a spotlight in Michigan on shaken baby cases, also now called abusive head trauma cases.
Since the 1970's if a medical examiner saw a child had three injuries, swelling of the brain, bleeding on the surface of the brain and bleeding in the eyes, they automatically ruled the child was murdered.
"What we've learned is actually there are a lot of causes for those symptoms, both accidental and diseases. There's just a lot of questions now about how accurately we can diagnose shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma," says Caitlin Plummer with the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
The highly regarded Innocence Clinic in Ann Arbor has been advocating for Ackley and is now looking into a dozen other child abuse cases in Michigan including two more in Calhoun County.
But despite the uncertainty behind it, prosecutors and medical examiners are still using the shaken baby diagnosis to put people behind bars.
"Even if you didn't have any criminal record, or any history of abuse, if you were the last one with this baby, the baby collapses and the baby has these three symptoms, there's a very good chance you're going to be accused of abusing the baby," says Plummer.
"The only evidence they had, basically to me, was that I was the last one with him, and I took him to the hospital," says Sean Brown who was convicted of killing his own son in 2010.
The I-Team has confirmed Brown's conviction in Calhoun County is one the Innocence Clinic is looking into. Prosecutors claimed Brown shook his child causing severe head injuries.
"I would just hope that in my case, the truth comes out, that I'm an innocent person and I find out what happened to my son," says Brown.
Sources tell us the Innocence Clinic is also looking into the Calhoun County case of Tonia Miller, who was convicted in 2001 of killing her eleven-week-old daughter.
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert declined to interview with us on this issue because he said he had some of these types of cases currently being appealed.
But Kalamazoo prosecutor Jeff Getting says attitudes are changing.
"I suspect there's going to be a lot of litigation over this and rightfully so. The law evolved, medicine evolves, this isn't 1985 and we shouldn't ignore what we've learned since then," says Getting.
Dr. deJong is also the medical examiner for several other counties, including Kalamazoo.
Just last year in a case similar to Ackley's in Wexford County, deJong ruled 19- month old Kalla Fisher's head injuries showed she was murdered, her father David Ferris was arrested.
But the case was thrown out after other doctors reviewed the case. One of them was the Oakland County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. L.J. Dragovic, who wrote, "the leap to such a conclusion is a result of an incomplete and inadequate assessment… in this case."
"When you have a forensic pathologist that is just so stuck on their side and is unwilling to consider there is an alternate causation to these types of injuries it's really hard to hold them as being a true expert," says attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
"If this is what had to happen for prosecutors to stop doing this, then he'll accept it that he was the reason, that this all gets squashed. Nobody else can get accused or convicted or sent to prison," says Leo Ackley's mother Linda Byrd.
And the tragic death of a three-year-old little girl has opened up new conversations about whether innocent people are sitting in prisons for crimes they did not commit.
The calls to 9-1-1 her family made July 28, 2011 give a glimpse into the last hours of 3-year-old Baylee Stenman's life.
"And what happened," the operator asks. "She bumped her head," says the caller.
Now, four years later Leo Ackley is in prison for her murder. But there are new questions about his guilt.
"Just being here is embarrassing, the crime itself, obviously nobody wants to be labeled as that," Ackley told us by phone from jail.
Ackley, who was dating Baylee's mother at the time, is now serving a life sentence without parole. But his family says what he's accused of never made sense.
"Him being innocent, I never believed you could convict an innocent person and they have found a way to do so and apparently more than just my child," says Ackley's mother Linda Byrd.
Ackley's case is now in front of the Michigan Supreme Court which is deciding if he should get a new trial.
"Leo's case is almost a 100% classic shaken baby, abusive head trauma type case. No witnesses witnessed any abuse, all the evidence is established by medical testimony," says Ackley's attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
Calhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified at trial that Baylee died from severe head trauma and ruled she was murdered.
But Ackley's family and Rodenhouse have cast doubts on that determination, and asked another doctor to review the medical records who says the injuries most likely happened from an accidental fall.
Rodenhouse says this case is shining a spotlight in Michigan on shaken baby cases, also now called abusive head trauma cases.
Since the 1970's if a medical examiner saw a child had three injuries, swelling of the brain, bleeding on the surface of the brain and bleeding in the eyes, they automatically ruled the child was murdered.
"What we've learned is actually there are a lot of causes for those symptoms, both accidental and diseases. There's just a lot of questions now about how accurately we can diagnose shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma," says Caitlin Plummer with the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
The highly regarded Innocence Clinic in Ann Arbor has been advocating for Ackley and is now looking into a dozen other child abuse cases in Michigan including two more in Calhoun County.
But despite the uncertainty behind it, prosecutors and medical examiners are still using the shaken baby diagnosis to put people behind bars.
"Even if you didn't have any criminal record, or any history of abuse, if you were the last one with this baby, the baby collapses and the baby has these three symptoms, there's a very good chance you're going to be accused of abusing the baby," says Plummer.
"The only evidence they had, basically to me, was that I was the last one with him, and I took him to the hospital," says Sean Brown who was convicted of killing his own son in 2010.
The I-Team has confirmed Brown's conviction in Calhoun County is one the Innocence Clinic is looking into. Prosecutors claimed Brown shook his child causing severe head injuries.
"I would just hope that in my case, the truth comes out, that I'm an innocent person and I find out what happened to my son," says Brown.
Sources tell us the Innocence Clinic is also looking into the Calhoun County case of Tonia Miller, who was convicted in 2001 of killing her eleven-week-old daughter.
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert declined to interview with us on this issue because he said he had some of these types of cases currently being appealed.
But Kalamazoo prosecutor Jeff Getting says attitudes are changing.
"I suspect there's going to be a lot of litigation over this and rightfully so. The law evolved, medicine evolves, this isn't 1985 and we shouldn't ignore what we've learned since then," says Getting.
Dr. deJong is also the medical examiner for several other counties, including Kalamazoo.
Just last year in a case similar to Ackley's in Wexford County, deJong ruled 19- month old Kalla Fisher's head injuries showed she was murdered, her father David Ferris was arrested.
But the case was thrown out after other doctors reviewed the case. One of them was the Oakland County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. L.J. Dragovic, who wrote, "the leap to such a conclusion is a result of an incomplete and inadequate assessment… in this case."
"When you have a forensic pathologist that is just so stuck on their side and is unwilling to consider there is an alternate causation to these types of injuries it's really hard to hold them as being a true expert," says attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
"If this is what had to happen for prosecutors to stop doing this, then he'll accept it that he was the reason, that this all gets squashed. Nobody else can get accused or convicted or sent to prison," says Leo Ackley's mother Linda Byrd.
Dr. deJong, Calhoun County Medical Examiner sent this statement Tuesday: "I am not aware of "many" cases and convictions unraveling. Our approach to the investigation of the sudden and unexpected death of anyone, including children, is methodical and based upon national standards. I have never thought that abusive head trauma could be determined solely on what you describe as "the traditional three indicators of swelling of the brain, bleeding on the surface of the brain and bleeding in the eyes". These findings may exist in children with injuries inflicted by another, but they may also be found in accidental trauma. Differentiating accidental injuries and natural disease processes from inflicted injuries is significantly more complicated and involved than simple recognition of brain swelling, hemorrhage and retinal hemorrhage. Our practice has always been to complete thorough investigations in to the circumstances of the death, evaluate for natural diseases and injuries, consult experts in forensic neuropathology, and after evaluating all information available, determine the cause and manner of death. Efforts by reputable organizations to ascertain convictions are appropriate are valuable to our society."
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
No comments:
Post a Comment