I do believe this is the first time the Court has revoked the legal powers of MCI.
Out of respect of the people involved, I will not publish the MCI appeal at this time, but I will be using a few choice demonstratives when commenting on the legal arguments.
Daniel Beaton, the Assistant Attorney General who always represents Bill Johnson, is a rather nice man but can lie his ass off in a courtroom. He is good. That is why Bill Johnson always wins. But this time is a different story.
The grandmother applied to for adoption and was denied but applied for legal guardianship and was approved upon appeal. Brilliant.
Bill Johnson went to the Court of Appeals and was thrown out.
Now, he goes to his buddy Maura Corrigan's (former Chief Justice of Michigan Supreme Court and current Director of Department of Human Services) old stomping grounds, the Michigan Supreme Court to cry the blues about the beginning of the end of his omnipotent reign.
Bill Johnson wants to cry the blues that he was not party to the case and had his guardianship stripped.
First of all, the state was just released from federal monitoring of relative preference placements, so Bill is violating a federal settlement agreement.
Second, there is no law which states that a person who has guardianship must adopt.
Third, Bill Johnson completely ignored the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children. He overrode the decision of another state governor.
Bill Johnson is the legal guardian for more than 7,000 children. How can he possibly know what the best interests of the children are without third party knowledge?
Michigan Children's Institute is a 3 man circus that is an absolute waste of taxpayers dollars. It is about time judges of Michigan's bench start making decisions. Let the people who actually care for kids be the guardians and tell Bill to go far away.
Bill Johnson is one of the last paleo-conservatives of chattel law. I expect him to be denied his petition for leave to appeal.
(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.
Public Act 220 of 1935 authorizes the MCI superintendent to consent to the adoption, marriage, or emancipation of any child who has been committed to the MCI, according to applicable law. Under the bill, the superintendent's designee would have the same authority. In addition, the superintendent or his or her designee would be authorized to consent to the guardianship of any child committed to the MCI, as provided in Section 19c of the juvenile code (the section that Senate Bill 893 would amend). A child for whom a guardian was appointed under Section 19c would cease to be a ward of the State.
The Adoption Code requires each parent to give consent to the adoption of a child, unless the rights of the parent have been terminated, the child has been released for the purpose of adoption to a child placing agency or the DHS, or other circumstances exist.
Consent must be given by the authorized representative of the DHS or of a child placing agency to whom the child has been released or permanently committed by an order of the family court.
Under the bill, consent could be given by the authorized representative of the DHS or his or her designee.
Under Section 19c of the juvenile code, if a child remains in placement following the termination of parental rights to the child, the family court must conduct review hearings and permanency planning hearings. The court may appoint a guardian for the child, if it determines that doing so is in the child's best interest. The court may not appoint a guardian without the MCI superintendent's written consent. Under the bill, the court could not appoint a guardian without the written consent of the superintendent or his or her designee.
The code requires the MCI superintendent to consult with the child's lawyer guardian ad litem when considering whether to grant consent. Under the bill, that requirement also would apply to the superintendent's designee.
These are the three primary sponsors of a package of bills that would glorify legislating from the bench, but would crazy glue the lid on Medicaid fraud in Michigan's Child Welfare.
With amazing speed the Three Fraudketeers fast tracked these bills through the Senate in 56 days. There were no announcements that the bills were even to be on the agenda of the Committee on Families and Human Services because the day they were introduced, they were referred.
In 28 days, the Committee summaries were completed by a fiscal analysts: David Fosdick who found the bills to have no fiscal impact on State or local government. This finding alone should automatically set off the fraud alarm system because the entire purpose of these bills is to get the state to become eligible for increases in federal recovery funding. Obviously, David Fosdick has not climbed very high on the intelligence food ladder because the Three Fraudketeers made him their prey to publish such blatant lies.
The purpose of the bills is to get the kids out of the custody of the state and into permanent placements. The feds want this and so do we. Since the state is very slowly, I mean at a squamulose, slithering, laggering pace, the state is..., hell, the only reform in child welfare is to make sure it does not change, so I guess fraud reform can be considered as legitimate in child welfare reform.
So, instead of providing services to reduce the rate by which children must enter care, or instead of designing legislation to regulate child welfare to end fraud, the Three Fraudketeers came up with a solution to convince the obtuse Senatorial leadership that it is impossible for the state to come into federal grant compliance, in no way, shape or form.
Of course, one may ask: "Why have these Three Fraudketeers come together, now?"Let me tell you:
I filed the Quo Warranto. In the State Court of Appeals, an action regarding a public official may be filed there, so I did. I found that the State Court Rules were written with a significant procedural error when it was propped up in the 1980's; there is no ex-parte procedure. If there is no ex-parte procedure, then it becomes impossible to execute an application in the nature of information for quo warranto. I knew this but the Court did not, so I began my litmus test to see how far the Courts would go to cover up Medicaid fraud in child welfare and filed the action.
The Michigan Judiciary blew me away with the lengths it would go to cover up Medicaid fraud in child welfare. Presiding Judge Michael J. Kelly, let's just say he knows me pretty well, decided, without finding of fact and conclusion of law, it would not be in his personal best interests to allow a gal her due process...again.
But, right before that I was honored with a wonderful birthday present. The Michigan Supreme Court Adopted amended Court Rules and a new Court Rule, all due to my lil' ol' quo warranto. See, there is a Fourth Fraudketeer, and she goes by the name of Maura Corrigan.
Basically, the Michigan Supreme Court came up with a federal revenue-maximization scheme to expedite adoptions of child wards of the state and to exterminate all evidence of Medicaid fraud in child welfare. Superintendent Bill Johnson, according to the Court Rules, is no longer the legal guardian of over 7,000 children who decides to grant consent to adoption, he now "approves of the appointment of a guardian."
The state continues to refuse to contractual debarment, license revocation, fines, sanctions, refer violations of law to the Attorney General and continues to allow double-billing, false billing, phantom billing, kiddy kickbacks, etc. Even though the Federal Funding Percentage for the state is 50%, when it could be 70%, it is still fiscally beneficial to state and local governments to continue its practice of fraud in child welfare. Accountability and transparency will remain strangers to the child welfare system as Bill Johnson and his newly crowned accomplice in fraud, Bruce Hoffman, will be cranking out adoptions, because once a child is adopted, there is no way to go back and find the evidence of fraud in the service files.
And that is how the Three Fraudketeers and Corrigan, got together to ram these bills down the throats of Michigan's unsagacious senate.
Michigan Children's Institute need to be dismantled. I am hoping someone will send me the complaint so I can post it. I sincerely hope Bill Johnson was named as a defendant.
What really has alluded me in logic of Children's Rights settlement with Michigan is there is no where to be found in any of the court proceedings, mention of MCI or Bill Johnson. Situations of children under state care are absolutely horrific and no one is really telling it like it is.
As an original source, I can attest that what is in this complaint is completely true, not having read it. Why, one may ask? Because I live with the irreparable harm every single day.
Even though the case highlights the lack of mental health assistance of these children, more needs to be done to expose and end the fraud schemes created to maximize revenue at the expense of all children of Bill Johnson.
If DHS falsified records for adoption, then you can bet your bottom dollar DHS lied about removals, placements, cost reimbursements and its federal audits.
Child welfare offices in Ingham and Clinton counties are among several public and private agencies named in a lawsuit expected to be filed Thursday alleging social workers lied to adoptive parents of special needs children about their kids’ disabilities and denied them funding available for parents of disabled children.
Eight families with 17 adopted children and two biological children said Wednesday they are planning to sue the Department of Human Services, alleging deceit and violation of federal law going back 20 years. They are seeking more than $13 million in back Social Security assistance and other damages, said David Kallman, the Lansing attorney representing the families.
“The parents in this case were assured that the children they were adopting were physically and mentally healthy,” Kallman said in a statement. “DHS workers knew and documented that this was not the case. As a result, these families were, and continue to be, irreparably harmed.”
Some of the parents specifically stated they would not be willing to adopt children with significant mental, emotional or physical disabilities, according to the complaint.
The suit names Gov. Rick Snyder, DHS Director Maura Corrigan and several other DHS officials.
DHS spokesman Dave Akerly released the following statement today.
“DHS has already prevailed in the majority of cases referenced by this attorney at the administrative level, and Michigan courts on review have repeatedly ruled in DHS’ favor in most of these cases. Because DHS takes all issues of child safety seriously, the state Attorney General’s office — on behalf of DHS — met with Mr. Kallman regarding his allegations this past August. Subsequently, the Attorney General’s Office has requested information from Mr. Kallman to assist with this matter, thus far to no avail."
Ingham County DHS could not be reached for comment. Clinton County DHS referred questions to the state.
Kallman alleges adoption agencies and social workers in seven cases covered up or lied about the level of abuse and neglect the children endured before being removed from their birth parents. Kallman also accuses DHS of denying all eight families access to Social Security funds through an adoption assistance program called Title IV-E, designed to support families who adopt children with special needs.
“These families love their kids,” Kallman said. “They want to care for their kids. But one family, for example, is literally destitute. They’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for help and psychologists, things that state should have been paying for.”
Supporting documents for the lawsuit include disturbing descriptions of the conditions in which the children allegedly lived and the abuse they suffered prior to their placement in the foster care system.
In the Ingham County case, for example, the complaint alleges workers documented extreme neglect of three siblings in 1994, including an infant sleeping beneath bags of garbage, dead rodents throughout the home and children walking around in nothing but urine-soaked diapers.
“Mushrooms grew in the toilet and nails stuck up from the bathroom floor,” according to the documents. “They sucked spoiled milk from bottles. While the workers were there, the garbage in the crib moved and an infant was discovered in the crib.”
Despite the conditions in the home, the workers left the children with their birth parents for another six months, according to the lawsuit, then falsified documents to cover up the children’s history of abuse and neglect before they were adopted.
The lawsuit alleges the abuse caused severe emotional and behavioral disorders in the children, including violence disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome and reactive attachment disorder — which is a rare but severe psychiatric illness often caused by abuse that limits a child’s ability to bond with others or to feel empathy. The children all displayed signs of sexual abuse. One of the children was deemed “legally incapacitated” as a teenager and will never be able to care for herself, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit is another hit for DHS, which is still under federal oversight following a lawsuit by a group called Children’s Rights. That lawsuit accused the state of neglecting children in its child welfare system, including failure to adequately assess and treat psychological, behavioral and emotional issues.
(WXYZ) - We do stories on kids abused in the foster care system. Action news has uncovered cases of foster kids who are loved and cared for by family members, but are still taken away. It’s a heart-wrenching saga of children stranded in the system.
The Martins were Jake’s foster parents when their niece couldn’t care for the little boy.
Action News was there the gut-wrenching day little Jake was taken from the only family he has ever known—that was likely last time they would see him.
Renee Neal’s step grandson Immanuel has been in her care since he was born. Now, he’s gone.
“I just hope he’s not feeling anything like I feel,” she says.
Neal will likely never see him again.
Richard McNeil had hoped to adopt his great grandsons. But the state took them away.
“I can’t put it into words. Take a mother who just had a baby taken away from her. It’s the same feeling,” says McNeil.
Records show the state admits all these children were loved and well cared for, but in each case the state decided the kids would be better off with someone else. The man who makes those decisions is Bill Johnson. He heads the Michigan Children’s Institute. By law, he could not speak about specific cases when we interviewed him last year after the state took Jake
“…those obviously are people who you lived with, who cared for you and we are going to care for you here,” says Johnson, explaining what new foster parents would tell foster kids. “It’s sad, you’re going to miss them, and the child will adjust.”
But some believe it’s too much power for just one man. Cases like these are examples of his power. In Jake’s case Johnson removed him because Cheryl Martin, his great aunt and former foster mom, had a run in with the law because she was drunk in public. She has since quit drinking. Cheryl and her husband Rob Martin loaned money to a woman who later accused Rob of assault. He was charged though the woman’s own daughter told the court her mother has made the same accusations of others she owes money.
“I’m not denying that I made mistakes, but we learn from our mistakes and move on. We don’t get our children taken away,” says Rob Martin.
The state gave Jake to a couple who planned to adopt him, but Action News has learned that just three months later they changed their mind because Jake was having trouble adjusting. Now, he is with yet another foster family.
“It’s so hard, I miss him so much,” says Cheryl Martin, crying.
“Whether it’s Christmas or birthday, there is no easy date,” says Rob Martin.
In Immanuel’s case, Renee Neal and the boy’s grandpa were his foster parents. When they divorced, Immanuel stayed with Renee. Records show the state had granted Neal the right to adopt Immanuel. Records say it would be in Immanuel’s “best interest” to remain in Neal’s care.
“I was the only person who had an application in to adopt Immanuel,” she says.
But Renee says when she complained about a social worker not getting Immanuel services the worker accused Neal of interfering with Immanuel’s visitation with his grandpa—and recommended the adoption be revoked.
“…the only thing I had throughout the whole process was my word against the workers and they won,” says Neal.
Now, Immanuel’s grandpa is adopting the little boy and Neal has no right to see the seven-year old ever again.
“It’s like a death,” she says, crying.
Richard McNeil was the foster parent of his two great nephews. He was trying to adopt them when the state removed the boys based on a single accusation.
“I would rather have state police come to my home and do an actual investigation like it’s supposed to be done, not some half-baked investigation all slanted one-sided…” he says.
The boys were taken when a nurse’s aide accused McNeil’s ex-wife of slapping the oldest one. At the time, they were visiting a friend at a nursing home.
“…being accused of this is devastating to me,” says Anne McNeil, Richard’s ex-wife. “I don’t sleep.”
The McNeil’s say their nephew has attention deficit disorder. sometimes they hold is face to talk to him. They believe that is what the aide saw. The aide did not return our calls.
“What they did is not right. they say, oh the boy’s will bounce back. yeah, right, sure,” says Richard McNeil.
“I try to think about it as if I was to have a conversation with this child 20 years down the road,” says Johnson. “Would I be able to say that the decision I made was something I could defend to the child?”
Johnson decides 2700 of these cases a year—but says only about 10 percent are complex. It’s difficult to challenge Johnson. You need money for a lawyer to appeal him in court and the chances of succeeding are slim.
“It has been very rare that I have reversed him,” say Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth Kelly.
Kelly has presided over hundreds of adoption cases. She says although she often has disagreed with Johnson, the law limits her ability to reverse his decisions.
“…it’s a very high legal standard,” says Kelly.
“…you have power that is concentrated in the department of human services within specific branch to make life altering decisions for children,” says Vivek Sankaran, assistant professor at the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at U-M. He also represents parents who appeal Johnson’s decisions.
“They’re relying on often one-sided information from a specific case worker without hearing, kind of getting the wealth and breadth of information from different parties…”
Sankaran says Michigan is unique in giving one person final say in adoptions. Most states rely on the courts to decide those cases and he believes Michigan should as well.
“…not because judges are perfect, but because we’ve created open processes,” says Sankaran. “We don’t have that type of openness right now in Michigan.”
In written responses the state says it works hard to get foster kids in good homes and that adoptions increased 10 percent last year—the highest number of adoptions ever in one year. The Martins and Richard McNeil have taken their cases to court. Renee Neal does not have the money to appeal.
HARRISBURG — State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, a West Philadelphia Democrat who took office after a March special election, will resign after being charged with perjury, theft, tampering with public records, and related crimes Wednesday.
Johnson-Harrell used her nonprofit to enrich herself, stealing more than $500,000 from the organization to spend on real estate, vacations, luxury clothing — and her bid for the legislature, State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a morning news conference in Harrisburg.
“There will be a guilty plea that will be worked out, and you will see the details of that soon," Shapiro said.
“I am saddened and dismayed by the nature of the allegations brought against me today. I vigorously dispute many of these allegations, which generally pertain to before I took office and I intend to accept responsibility for any actions that were inappropriate,” Johnson-Harrell said in a statement through her attorney.
Paying bills and spending lavishly
Prosecutors said Johnson-Harrell used the nonprofit, Motivations Education & Consultation Associates (MECA), which she established more than a decade ago to assist poor people struggling with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness, for profligate spending and personal gain.
Over several years, Johnson-Harrell tried to systematically cover up her crimes through an elaborate, years-long scheme involving several properties in Philadelphia and false financial statements, Shapiro said.
Among Johnson-Harrell’s steps to obscure her financial situation and avoid paying taxes or debts were inflating her tax bills, hiding the charity’s money through false record-keeping, not reporting the money she was taking from MECA as income, and reporting her real salary as lower than it was, prosecutors said.
“MECA’s actual mission was to serve as a cash account for Johnson-Harrell’s own personal use,” Shapiro said.
Among the funds used was $12,500 Johnson-Harrell allegedly transferred from MECA to the Friends of Movita campaign committee during her run for legislature earlier this year and told the campaign to record as a $15,000 personal loan she was making to the committee.
Then, toward the end of the campaign, as it was running out of money, Johnson deposited a $30,000 bank check she’d taken out after transferring MECA funds to her own account into the Friends of Movita account, withdrew half in cash, and left the rest for the campaign as an unreported loan, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
Johnson-Harrell also funneled $12,000 in MECA funds to Friends of Movita during a previous unsuccessful run for the same seat in 2015 and 2016, authorities said.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who has known Johnson-Harrell for many years, said she was surprised by the criminal charges.
“I’ve only seen her doing a great job. I’m sorry to hear it. No win in that, because she loves her community and served it well,” Blackwell said. “Things happen, but I’m hoping for the best, but we’ll just have to see what happens.”
With MECA funds, Johnson-Harrell spent $16,000 on vacations in 2017, including a two-week vacation with a relative to a resort in Acapulco in April and a second trip to Mexico in November. She also dropped $5,500 on four fox fur coats weeks after she filed for bankruptcy in 2018, according to prosecutors. She allegedly spent $13,000 in total on online shopping, including on designer clothing.
Johnson-Harrell was spending the organization’s money as homes MECA ran for disadvantaged Philadelphians — partly funded by Medicaid and Social Security disability checks for residents — were falling into uninhabitable squalor, Shapiro said.
The attorney general’s investigation was sparked by Johnson-Harrell’s closure of one of the homes in 2018 after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services threatened to shut it down.
Even after it was shuttered, prosecutors say, Johnson-Harrell continued taking monthly rent payments from MECA for the property, which she owned, for the rest of the year, totaling $50,000.
“When her personal checking account was low, she simply refilled it with money from MECA’s account,” Shapiro said.
In 2017, Johnson-Harrell used some of the charity’s money to twice donate to Larry Krasner’s campaign for district attorney, giving $2,500 in total and making each donation immediately after transferring money from MECA to her personal account. She also gave $500 to then-candidate Joe Khan, who Krasner beat in the primary. She would become a supervisor in the Victim/Witness Services Unit of Krasner’s District Attorney’s Office the following year.
She also used the money to pay the City of Philadelphia with checks labeled “taxes,” as well as overdue gas bills, back taxes to the IRS, an overdue water bill, tuition for her grandchildren’s private school, and past-due car payments. She paid $7,979 in restitution for a 2014 criminal conviction for not paying unemployment compensation taxes.
As Johnson-Harrell filed for bankruptcy in 2018, contending with the foreclosure of some of her properties, prosecutors say she obscured and misrepresented her money and assets, claiming she earned tens of thousands of dollars less than she did.
Johnson-Harrell moved tens of thousands of dollars out of her bank by check, making the money invisible in bank statements, while claiming that she had only about $1,000 a month to pay toward her debts, prosecutors said.
She also overstated her expenses in tax returns and lied on her financial disclosure statement when she worked for Krasner’s office and when she ran for the House, according to the affidavit.
In addition, prosecutors say, she told a court she was selling a three-parcel property on Powelton Avenue. Instead, they said, set up a “straw purchase” in which she planned to have an acquaintance buy the property and eventually return the title to her.
‘Those elected to serve have to follow the law’
Johnson-Harrell, 53, was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Pennsylvania state legislature. Reducing gun violence has been her top issue as a lawmaker. Her father, brother, and 18-year-old son were all killed by gun violence.
She was elected to represent the 190th Legislative District in West Philadelphia after Vanessa Lowery Brown was convicted of bribery and other charges and resigned last December.
Johnson-Harrell’s arrest marks the 60th arrest of a public official by the attorney general’s office since 2017, Shapiro said.
“Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell remains a woman dedicated to ending gun violence in Philadelphia and focused on the well-being of all Philadelphians,” her lawyer, Jessica Natali, said in a statement. “This matter will be resolved with the attorney general’s office and ultimate disposition will be addressed in a court room at an appropriate time.”
Shapiro said Johnson-Harrell had turned tragedies into triumphs and used her experience to help others.
“It is not lost on me that Rep. Johnson-Harrell has faced serious struggles in her personal life,” Shapiro said, but, “Defrauding a non-profit, defrauding taxpayers, and then systematically lying over many years to cover it up is unjust, it’s unfair and it’s a crime.... She is going to spend time behind bars.”
House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody said the 190th District’s constituent service office would remain open to serve residents until a new representative is elected in 2020.
“These criminal charges are beyond disturbing. Representative Johnson-Harrell is taking responsibility for what she did and I expect her to resign very soon. She obviously cannot continue serving in elected office," Dermody said in a statement.
“I know her commitment to her constituents — especially to the goal of ending gun violence in Philadelphia — is heartfelt and sincere. ... But the fact is those elected to serve have to follow the law before they can make the law.”
What better way to prepare for the kick off of Child Abuse Propaganda Month than with a package of bills to cover up Medicaid fraud in child welfare, again!
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly and Michigan Department of Human Services Director Maura D. Corrigan have urged legislators to approve bills before both chambers that will streamline the adoption process for children in foster care. The passage of these bills could pave the way for expedited placement in qualified, permanent homes for more than 1,100 children. Currently, the only person authorized to approve adoptions for children in foster care is the Michigan Children’s Institute (MCI) superintendent. Since April 2010, the MCI superintendent has received 1,100 such cases for approval. Under the bills, the MCI superintendent, the legal guardian for children committed to MCI when parental rights have been terminated, may authorize a designee to provide written consent to the adoption, marriage, guardianship or emancipation of MCI wards. The designee would be allowed to authorize adoption requests where the child is already living in the recommended adoption home and a review by a caseworker and supervisor has determined there are no concerns about the placement. Kelly said her experience as a family court judge convinced her that the bills are needed. “No matter how good a job the MCI superintendent does, he or she is only one person, and it is simply unrealistic to expect one person to perform in-depth reviews of hundreds of these cases each year,” Kelly told legislators. While finding a permanent, loving home for children in foster care is a key mission for DHS, Corrigan was clear that the expedited process will not sacrifice due diligence in the examination of potential adoptive families. The department will be systematic, careful and considerate when determining who will be named as a designee, Corrigan told members of the Senate Families, Seniors and Human Services committee. “The best place for a child is in a stable, permanent home. That is our goal for each of the 4,150 children in foster care available for adoption. Joining a family should not be delayed because only one person in the entire state can authorize a child’s adoption or guardianship,” Corrigan said. Among the bills’ supporters is the Michigan Probate Judges Association. In a March 15 letter to Sen. Judith Emmons, Judge Dorene Allen, chief judge of the Midland County Probate Court and chair of the MPJA’s Juvenile and Adoption Issues Committee, wrote that the legislation “will facilitate the permanency of children in the abuse and neglect system, certainly a goal we can all agree upon.”
This is my response:
It is amazing how Michigan allows the Supreme Court to make law from the bench to usurp, or rather, "transfer" judicial powers of the decision-making process to "designees" who are neither appointed or elected, to represent the State.
I have aggressively dissented with finding of fact and conclusion of law, only to be silently dismissed when addressing issues of false claims and violations of due process contained within thispackage of bills.
How is it one person, being the Michigan Children's Superintendent, Bill Johonson, can wield so much power? It is only within the later part of Director Ahmed's DHS administration and the current DHS administration of DirectorMaura Corriganthat letters of appointment of the Superintendent have been generated. Prior to this, nothing authorizing a civil servant to represent the State of Michigan in Court decision-making process existed.
How can the Michigan Children's Superintendent, Bill Johnson, go without public scrutiny when the State's foster care system is under federal court jurisdiction in dealing with the abuse and neglect of children who under the legal guardianship of this one, omnipotent man, Bill Johnson?
Why is is that not one case of Medicaid fraud in child welfare under the aegis of the Michigan Children's Superintendent, has been referred to the Office of Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for prosecution and recovery?
These bills not only streamline the adoption process; these bills cover up the pervasiveness of Medicaid fraud in Michigan's child welfare system, because, once a child is adopted, the service files verifying false claims are sealed from external examination.
The time has come to end Medicaid fraud in child welfare and so have I.
Sometimes it takes a heartbreaking story to make sure no one else lives through the same. This is a story about one of the 7,000 children who is under the care of one man.
Everyone, meet Bill Johnson, Superintendent of Michigan Children's Institute.
(WXYZ) - We’ve all heard the heartbreaking stories of children abused and neglected in foster homes. A local couple is asking why the state would take their foster child who is also their nephew, a little boy they so desperately love and had hoped to adopt.
Action News investigator Heather Catallo has a rare glimpse into the heart wrenching day the state took Jake away. read more
Let's see if the media is brave enough to do an indepth expose and even interview me.
Where is Bill Johnson? Perhaps Maura Corrigan took the Michigan Children's Institute and hid it the basement of the Department of Human Service organizational chart's proverbial root cellar.
See, Michigan DHS fails to disclose everything. From chain of commend to decision making authority, DHS will hide and shred. Yes, Michigan Department of Human Services shreds documents. The reason is to hide the dead bodies.
Yes, children have died under the legal authority of DHS, but that is never discussed in public. Too bad there is no way to calculate the number of children in foster care who have committed suicide or have attempted suicide. But I digress.
There is more to this complaint that what has been realized. This is classic Medicaid fraud. This is proof of false claims.
I would like everyone to take the time to read some to the details of this complaint and see, first hand, how Michigan treats the children in its care and cloaks the ones in authority who allow it to happen.
Bill Johnson, Bruce Hoffman and Mary Rossman of MCI need to be enjoined in this suit of law.
Steve Yager is just a piece of shit. What I mean by this is he takes the lives of humans, masticates any semblance of a person's dignity, digests a child's hope of peace, defecates the end results of foster care, wipes it all over his face and promulgates in public how wonderful the child welfare system is working. (Please note this is my personal perception of this man and would greatly appreciate if my descriptive of his character and job performance was delivered directly to him.)
All these individuals need to be criminally prosecuted but nothing will happen. HHS will come to another audit where they will applaud Michigan for continuing to cover up its fraud so well.
Children's Rights will have a guilt complex and punk out on pushing violations of the settlement agreement against Michigan. Instead, it will recommend releasing Michigan from federal monitoring.
And is all goes well, SCOTUS will make sure foster kids have no civil rights. That way everything stays the same.
The only reason the public does not have more of these cases is because there are relatively very few attorneys in the state who are willing to jeopardize their future career in law taking on one of such cases. Even though you will read gut wrenching horror stories of how Michigan treated these children, you will witness the state fight tooth and nail to dismiss the case.
I commend David A. Kallman for doing this. Federal Complaint vs Michigan DHS
The reason I am so moved by this filing is because it tells the story of what goes on in Michigan child welfare. It tells my story I live with every day.
