"Kids For Cash" Horror- A Lesson from Maura Corrigan

Maura Corrigan promoting judicial advocacy for adoption as an extrajudicial activity

I do not understand why the "Kids for Cash" scandal is considered a "horror".  Michigan former State Supreme Court Chief Justice now Director for the Department of Human Services, Maura Corrigan advocated fiercely for extrajudicial activism in child welfare.  She encouraged judges to partner with child welfare organizations to promote revenue-maximization of the child welfare system.  She went so far as to publicly advocate for Bill Johnson, Superintendent of Michigan Children's Institute, the man who has the power of a Caesar for adoption decisions, while the matter was pending before her Court.Fostering the Future: Safety, Permanence and Well-Being for Children in Foster Care

"Kids For Cash" Horror- A Lesson in Prosecuting Public Trust Corruption

Legal Intelligencer: Ciavarella prosecutors kept it simple
The Legal Intelligencer/The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - COMMENTARY - February 21, 2011

The racketeering trial of former Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Mark A. Ciavarella startled many observers by proceeding at what seemed like warp speed. The dispatch with which federal prosecutors made their case against the judge in the "kids-for-cash" trial stands in vivid contrast to the glacial pace of other political corruption trials, like that of former Democratic state Sen. Vince Fumo and the Bonusgate trials. The cases are unrelated, but the contrasts among them may provide lessons for prosecutors, defense counsel and citizens. The Ciavarella trial climaxed Friday when a federal jury returned guilty verdicts on racketeering charges and 12 of 39 total counts. Mr. Fumo's trial, by contrast, required five months to complete. (Jurors convicted him on 137 counts.) In the most high-profile Bonusgate case, former state Rep. Mike Veon, of Beaver County, was convicted in June on 14 of 59 counts after nearly six weeks of testimony. Another Bonusgate defendant, state Rep. Sean Ramaley, was acquitted on all counts in the first trial stemming from the attorney general's probe of alleged improper payments to legislative aides for political work. Mr. Ramaley's trial required only four days of testimony. The Bonusgate cases, unlike the prosecutions of Mr. Fumo and Judge Ciavarella, were tried in state courts by the state attorney general, not in federal court by U.S. attorneys. Prosecutors in the Ciavarella case, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod, pursued a strategy of keeping the case straightforward -- emphasizing allegations that payments were made by the owners of two private juvenile detention facilities and de-emphasizing the process of sending minors to the facilities. Mr. Zubrod's decision had the effect of avoiding mini-trials on individual cases handled by Mr. Ciavarella.


Mr. Fumo's trial, in contrast, was a wide-ranging examination of every aspect of the former senator's office management, with forays into his personal life and even home improvement. More to the point, many of the main counts against Mr. Fumo included honest services fraud, which has been criticized as being vague, and at best remains elusive, especially to non-lawyers who serve on juries. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of convicted Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling, said that honest services fraud could only be alleged in cases of bribery and kickbacks. Bribery and kickbacks are certainly at the heart of the case against Mr. Ciavarella. And he is charged with honest services fraud. Because he can point to money changing hands, Mr. Zubrod had the advantage of trying his case after the U.S. Supreme Court in the Skilling case focused on the honest-services fraud statute. Mr. Fumo's prosecutors, led by Robert Zauzmer, tried their defendant in the absence of direction from the Skilling court. They therefore had to draw a picture of an office where there was no proper line drawn between personal services to the former senator and work in the interest of constituents. Mr. Zauzmer's case at the end of the day was convincing to a jury that returned guilty verdicts on all 137 counts. In the Fumo case, it seems, the slow building up of a mountain of evidence and allegations seemed to overwhelm Mr. Fumo's basic argument that he did nothing that ran afoul of state Senate rules. At the end of the day, jurors are looking for credibility. Credibility was what Mr. Fumo was lacking, particularly after he told jurors on the stand that he received a $1 million gift to help pay off a divorce settlement. Credibility may have been forfeited -- at least in part -- by Mr. Ciavarella when he admitted to three instances of filing false tax returns last week in a Scranton courtroom.

Another "Kids for Cash" Settlement Ignores Medicaid Fraud

This is the first, well publicized case of child welfare fraud.

What has never been addressed in the "Kids for Cash" scandal is the fact there was also substantial Mediaid fraud and the fact that the State Attorney General has turned a blind eye for years.

There must be a court dertmination before federal funding is approved in child welfare cases.  This matter only addresses the civil aspect of damages to the parties involved.

States Medicaid Fraud Control Unit must desisgn mechanisms which allows them to go after Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

As it stands, it seems like no one is going to go for recovery.

I would like to commend the members of the law firm who have bodly stood up to take on advocating justice for these children.

I only wish I could find a team of Michigan attorneys to do the same thing here.

Judge OKs $4.75M settlement by 'kids for cash' center owner

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $4.75 million settlement between a businessman at the center of a Pennsylvania juvenile justice scandal and youths sent to his detention centers by a corrupt judge.

Robert Powell was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the scandal that became known as "kids for cash," a kickback scheme that led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles.

Powell testified he was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan in return for their support of his two private juvenile facilities.

The settlement agreement, approved Monday, covers at least 2,400 juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella between January 2003 and May 2008.

Prosecutors said Ciavarella ordered youths to detention for a wide range of relatively minor infractions, thus helping to fill the beds of Powell's PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.

Ciavarella and Conahan are serving lengthy prison terms in connection with the scandal.

Plaintiffs have until Oct. 5 to submit a claim.

The plaintiffs previously reached a $2.5 million settlement with PA Child Care, Western PA Child Care and another company. The builder of the facilities, Robert K. Mericle, who paid the judges more than $2 million, agreed in 2011 to pay more than $17 million to the juveniles and their families.

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Kids-for-cash accomplice wants part of pension returned

BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER (STAFF WRITER)

Published: October 24, 2011

WILKES-BARRE - Sandra M. Brulo,

A former Luzerne County official on probation for altering a juvenile court file connected to the kids-for-cash scandal, wants $96,359.21 in pension contributions returned.

The county retirement board, which meets today, legally has to return her pension contributions, but the refund will be without interest because of her criminal record, officials said. Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said Brulo will lose more than $50,000 in interest.

After Brulo's arrest in February 2009, she was suspended without pay from her $78,159-a-year job as deputy director of forensic services for juvenile probation. She was able to resign without being fired, and officials approved a final payment of almost $12,000 for unused sick, personal and vacation time. But the retirement board in May 2009 rejected her request for a county pension of $1,733.11 a month.

Last June, a federal judge placed Brulo on probation for two years. Brulo pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for altering a court record to shield herself from liability in civil rights actions filed by hundreds of former juvenile defendants who claim they were wrongly imprisoned in two judges' scheme to generate kickbacks from a for-profit detention center.

Prosecutors said Brulo altered a record after she was named as a defendant in a class-action civil-rights suit filed by former juvenile defendants who claim they were illegally imprisoned by former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. Brulo altered the record to indicate she had recommended probation for a juvenile when she had actually recommended detention in that case.

The state Supreme Court subsequently expunged the records of thousands of juveniles after finding that Ciavarella had taken $2.8 million from the builder and co-owner of a for-profit detention center, failed to ensure juveniles' right to counsel and pressured probation officials to recommend detention for juveniles.
Ciavarella was found guilty in February of racketeering and conspiracy in federal court and is serving a prison sentence of 28 years. His co-defendant, former judge Michael T. Conahan, pleaded guilty and is serving 17½ years.

Kids For Cash Mom Will Get More Justice

Wait until you see what I consider as justice. I'm on a mission.

Sandy Fonzo, please contact me. Call Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and leave a message.

Mother in 'kids for cash' scandal says she got justice

The mother who made national headlines when she confronted a former Pennsylvania judge, sentenced for a scheme to make millions off unjustly incarcerating young people, said Sunday she feels that she got justice.

"It's justice in the sense that he is going to pay for what we've been dealing with for the last eight years," Sandy Fonzo told CNN's Don Lemon.

Sandy Fonzo says her 17-year-old son, Edward Kenzakowski,

killed himself after serving months in detention.

"True justice I don't think there could ever be. He'll never live the sentence that I'll live with for the rest of my life -- can't bring my son back," she said.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison and ordered to pay about $1 million in restitution last week for his part in the so-called kids for cash scandal.

Ciavarella was found guilty in February of 12 of 39 racketeering and fraud charges for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from friends who owned detention centers to which he sent juveniles.

The case made national headlines when Ciavarella was confronted by Fonzo outside a courtroom after his conviction.

Fonzo's 17-year-old son, Edward Kenzakowski, spent months in detention after Ciavarella sentenced him for possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to Fonzo, her son, who had no prior record, was never able to recover and eventually took his own life.

"He was never the same," she told Lemon. "He went in a young boy, a young, spirited boy, and came out a pent-up, angry man and it just escalated."

She said in February she came to the courthouse believing Ciavarella would be taken straight to jail. But when she found out he was going home and would not be sentenced until later, she was shocked and angered, and began shouting at Ciavarella.

Fonzo's confrontation was captured by television cameras.

"Do you remember me?" Fonzo screamed lunging toward Ciavarella, "Do you remember my son?" she screamed again. "He's gone," she cried, "He shot himself in the heart, you scumbag!"

This is done all the time, all across the country. Just ask Maura Corrigan, the queen of judicial activism.  Looks like Ciavarella should never have taken the advice of Corrigan!

Former Pennsylvania judge found guilty in kids-for-cash scheme

PHILADELPHIA | Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:20pm EST

(Reuters) - A federal jury on Friday found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty in a so-called kids-for-cash scheme, in which he took money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit detention centers.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was accused of taking $2.8 million in bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers owned by friends.

The jury in Scranton found him guilty of racketeering, money-laundering conspiracy, fraud and filing false income tax returns.

The jury found him not guilty, however, of seven counts of extortion and 10 counts of bribery.

The former judge faces a maximum sentence of 157 years in prison. The jury also ruled he must forfeit $997,600.

"The jury did its job," said U.S. Attorney Peter Smith afterward in a news conference broadcast on local radio.

In trial testimony, Ciavarella, who presided over the Luzerne County Juvenile Court, denied he accepted money but did admit hiding funds from the Internal Revenue Service.

Ciavarella, 60, was a judge for 14 years.

Prosecutors said he took kickbacks from Robert Mericle, the builder of the PA Child Care detention center near Wilkes Barre, and from Robert Powell, a co-owner of the center.

According to prosecutors, Ciavarella threatened to send juveniles somewhere else if he did not get cash from the men.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said following the verdict that the court system during the time of Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, was a "criminal enterprise."

The other judge, Conahan, pleaded guilty last year to one count of racketeering conspiracy. He has not been sentenced.

In 2009, both judges were offered plea agreements that would have resulted in 87 months in prison.

But those offers were subsequently nullified by U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik, who deemed them insufficient. Kosik presided over the Ciavarella case.

Let the American Chattel System Reanimate!

The Zombie public policy of children as chattel has been brought back to life through Medicaid funding.

Without public scrutiny, we are doomed to relive the latter part of the 19th century.

Privatization will kill us without regulation.

#Time2AuditGod
States Find Cash Cow: It Is Impoverished Kids in Foster Care, Hooray!

If you are a child in foster care, things are probably not going your way. You’re not living with your parents, and a state agency is in charge of you. You’re probably very poor, and maybe you are disabled. You sure don’t look like a funding bonanza for your state, but guess what, you might be! An op-ed by University of Baltimore law professor Daniel Hatcher in the Baltimore Sun this week points out that some states, including Maryland, are using private contractors to take foster kids’ Social Security (SSI) benefits as a way to make some extra bucks. Well that is just about the worst thing we’ve ever heard. Let’s theft-splore.

Hatcher has written extensively about foster care and the relationship of these children to the state. He writes:

Read more at http://wonkette.com/578551/states-find-cash-cow-it-is-impoverished-kids-in-foster-care-hooray#p2mG2E8Y7T54ooHO.99

Our state foster care agencies are apparently so underfunded that they are taking resources from abused and neglected children. The agencies are taking control over foster children’s Social Security benefits (when the children are disabled or have deceased parents) and using the children’s funds to repay foster care costs. In other words, Maryland is requiring the children to pay for their own care… This even though Maryland is rightly already legally obligated under state and federal law to provide and pay for foster care services.

Okay, that is very repellent, Maryland. And although the issue has been in litigation, it doesn’t exactly seem to be illegal, although folks like Daniel Hatcher are working on it. Also repellent: Maryland paid Maximus, Inc., a health and human services contractor, to figure out how to maximize the revenue the state could squeeze out of these vulnerable kids. Because “revenue maximization” is a service that Maximus happily provides.

On a sales document summarizing its services, Maximus says if a state hires the company to implement what it unironically calls an “SSI Advocacy” project, the company will ensure “an increased SSI eligibility rate among foster care population increasing revenue to off [sic] the costs of foster care placement,” plus the following awesome financial benefits:

• Enhanced revenue for the State to help offset cost of care for children placed in out of home settings
• [Reduction of] State’s TANF caseload
• $5.00 generated for every $1.00 spent on implementation of an SSI Advocacy Project

Foster children and poor families are a huge money-maker, who knew? Maximus runs these SSI Advocacy projects in seven states: Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. The company receives a cut of whatever money it saves a state, by whatever means, whether that means advising state to take benefit money from impoverished kids in foster care, consulting with them on how to improperly bill Medicaid, or suggesting they make sure eligible Americans don’t actually sign up for anything. Not surprisingly, the company has run into trouble in many states.

Wisconsin, in particular, stands out. According to PR Watch, Maximus has served as a “revenue maximization consultant” to the state since the 1990s. In 1997, Wisconsin enacted its Wisconsin Works (W-2) welfare program and began privatizing its welfare system, outsourcing programs that had previously been run by state agencies to private contractors, including Maximus. What could go wrong? Oh, nothing, just some improper billing. In 2000, Maximus billed Wisconsin $500,000 for work that had nothing to do with W-2 and instead paid for parties and entertainment. Oops. In 2013, it turned out that Maximus was also responsible for advising Wisconsin to overbill the federal government by millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursement funds. Instead of firing the company, Wisconsin in 2011 awarded Maximus a $21 million contract to run Wisconsin’s foster care system until 2016. Nice one, Wisconsin.

Outsourcing welfare programs to private corporations with a profit motive really works well! Because they’re only dealing with the lives of very poor and vulnerable people, so no one will really care if they screw around with the money unless the state gets in trouble for it. Poor people don’t have any political power! Especially poor kids! Are you surprised to learn that Maximus has a political action committee? Of course you aren’t. PR Watch writes:

Maximus ladles on the campaign contributions and lobbying dollars, contributing $5,000 toward Governor Scott Walker’s recall election campaign. Maximus also paid $100,000 a year for exclusive access to Republican governors through the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee, a secretive group recently exposed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the New York Times.

Maryland, at least, is on the right track. The Maryland legislature is considering a bill to protect children in foster care. The bill would require the foster care agency to serve kids in a fiduciary capacity, meaning they’d have to act in the kids’ best interest, and to reserve at least some of the kids’ federal benefit money for their current unmet needs, and also for their future needs when they age out of the foster care system. The bill also would require foster care agencies to teach kids about money management. We would have thought that “acting in kids’ best interest” would actually be the mission statement of a foster care agency, but okay, Maryland, it’s a start.

Wisconsin, though? Man, we wish those kids could go be in foster care somewhere else.

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Meet Judge Daniel Cahill: Kansas Has A "Kids For Cash" Scheme Going On

Recently, one of my fans posed this question to me:

Kansas 29th District Court Judge
Daniel Cahill,
Presiding over child welfare cases

How can a judge sit on a contractors panel ???

With the swiftness of godspeed, I retorted,

Just ask Maura Corrigan!

Just in case you are not familiar with the "Kids For Cash" scandal where former Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr. was busted sending kids to his buddy's, Robert Mercie, the builder of PA Child Care private juvenile detention facility,  for any reason he could conjure up, like, not liking the way a kid looked, and, in return, where he took kiddie kickbacks, well, I though I would remind you.

Now, why would I bring up such an horrific memory of children being tortured for profit in the privatized child welfare, well, it is because I want the world to remember the legacy of Madame Maura Corrigan (said, always in a high British accent).

See, "The Madame" was the one who put together that Pew Foster Care Research Group which promoted the act of judicial lobbying, whereby judges would sit on the boards of child welfare organizations to "maximize their revenues".

Kansas pushed a bill against judicial lobbying, but, of course, it was crushed.

Kansas Bill Against Judicial Lobbying by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Taken from the embedded document, below, my fan raised serious concerns with the veracity of the quote:

"Cahill’s dedication to children and families runs deep. Each December he serves on the judges’ panel at the KVC Resource Family Conference and explains to foster and adoptive families the whys and hows behind some of his decisions."

"He has NEVER ruled in favor of a single solitary NATURAL parent." stated my fan.

"There is no money in it.", I said.

Kansas Judges Giving Personal Endorsements To Private Child Welfare Contractors Cahill by Beverly Tran on Scribd

So, that leaves us to identify, or rather unearth, as judges are typically not mandated to disclose campaign finances and personal business ventures, his financial activities.

Well, according to State of Kansas Secretary of State, Governmental Ethics Commission, Cahill has not filed any reports on his campaign finance since 2008.

But hey, what does the Office of the Governor know....or care?

09/23/2008	CAHILL DANIEL	12342 Donahoo RD  Kansas City 66109	DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
07/24/2008	CAHILL DANIEL	12342 Donahoo RD  Kansas City 66109	DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
03/09/2016	CAHILL DANIEL  APPOINTMENT OF TREASURER		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
03/02/2016	CAHILL DANIEL  FAILURE TO FILE NOTIFICATION		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
11/10/2009	CAHILL DANIEL  MATERIAL ERROR OR OMISSION		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
10/27/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
10/27/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
10/27/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE AMENDMENT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
09/03/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  MATERIAL ERROR OR OMISSION		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
07/28/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
07/28/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE AMENDMENT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
02/08/2008	CAHILL DANIEL  APPOINTMENT OF TREASURER		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
10/25/2004	CAHILL DANIEL  TERMINATION STATEMENT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
10/01/2004	CAHILL DANIEL  MATERIAL ERROR OR OMISSION		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
07/26/2004	CAHILL DANIEL  CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29
05/13/2004	CAHILL DANIEL  APPOINTMENT OF TREASURER		DISTRICT COURT JUDGE / 29

Stay tuned because I smell a Kansas "Kids For Cash" fraud scheme of someone trying to slime his way into a federal appointment....which shall never happen.

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Kansas Privatized To Disenfranchise "The Poors": Calling For Phyllis Gilmore To Step Down For Covering Up Child Welfare Fraud

For those of you who have not been following the child welfare saga in the State of Kansas, allow me to provide you with a synoptical overview.

'Flabbergasted.' More Than 70 Children Are Missing From Foster Care

Lawmakers are expressing outrage after learning more than 70 foster children are missing in Kansas

Kansas GOP Gubernatorial Candidate, Mark Hutton &
Kansas DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore

Then, the Kansas Republican gubernatorial candidate, Mark Hutton, had to stand up and do the job of Kansas current Governor Sam Brownback to call for the resignation of Department of Children and Family Secretary, Phyllis Gilmore, because, well, she thinks missing foster kids is normal and, one can only assume, but in this instance, I am just going to call it out that Brownbach was too busy prepping for his U.S. Senate confirmation hearings for his nomination to the position of U.S. State Department Ambassador At-Large for the Office of International Religious Freedom.

Then, Phyllis Gilmore puts out a damage control opinion to make it look like a politically partisan attack on her leadership.

This is a quote from her damage control piece:

The statistics are not new. An estimated 92 percent of youth who run away from foster care are 12 and older. In some cases, they may have a history of running away. Often, they are running to get back to their family and friends. None of these factors negate the urgency in locating them. That’s why DCF has strict policies and procedures in place that require our foster care contractors to notify law enforcement within two hours that the teens’ whereabouts are unknown.

But wait, it gets better.

Kansas Candidate Targets Child Welfare After Grandson Dies

A Democratic candidate for Kansas governor whose 3-year-old grandson's body was found encased in concrete has joined the push to reform the state's child welfare agency.

Kansas Democratic Gubernatorial 

Candidate Carl Brewer

Former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer said his family filed multiple requests with the Kansas Department of Children and Families to check on his grandson, Evan Brewer, before the toddler's remains were found last month, The Kansas City Star reports.

His grandson was encased in a cement wall.

I saw some of the raw, personal videos, of his family trying to find his grandson.

I believe it was a bipartisan effort, Phyllis.

But wait, it gets even better.

Then you have Senator Pat Roberts, a supporter and long time friend of KVS, one of only 2, state, privately contracted child welfare provider, who has his political campaigns funded through KVS.

The following was taken from an advocate in Kansas:

A little look into KVC.always follow the money... My flow chart is getting full folks but we will start with ONE example of each major KVC player otherwise the internet would run out of space if I listed it all. So moving right along:

William H. Dunn, who donated $500.00 to Pat Roberts, who's daughter, Anne M. Roberts is CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER KVC HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC. 

Ok moving right along now, KVC Kansas foster care contractor is FEDERAL grant sub-recipient.

(AKA Kansas's Leading Child trafficking agency)

William H. Dunn, KVC vice chair (finance)

KVC new $10 million dollar building @ 21350 W. 153rd street Olathe Kansas by contract awarded to JE Dunn Construction.

JE Dunn Construction, William H. Dunn, Chairman at JE Dunn Construction Group, Inc.

We will get to The Mayor of Olathe Kansas Michael Copeland who is on the board of DIRECTORS of KVC shortly.

But, wait!  It keeps going.

Then, you have former Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who was tapped to be the Vice Chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity running as another Republican Gubernatorial Candidate for Kansas promoting federal campaign fundraising while using his federal position to advance his state campaign.

Kobach left the his office of Secretary of State in complete and utter chaos, but allow me to explain.

The majority of Kansas residences have no idea how to look up their state representatives because the state website provides an external look up, which, in most instances, leaves one in complete confusion.

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not note that the state representatives are reduced to using their campaign websites and emails, sometimes personal emails, because they were never provided with state sanctioned emails or websites.

From a cursory look into the current candidates for state representatives running for office, they hail from KVC, using KVC funding to campaign, with some of them not even registering as official candidates.

The people of Kansas, or rather "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) have so many barriers to representation in the state's rampant public corruption of its political process that the people, rather, "The Poors" are disenfranchised, intentionally, through privatization.

But wait, I will leave you with this.

Meet Judge Daniel Cahill: Kansas Has A "Kids For Cash" Scheme Going On

The KVC funding fraud and the judicial system money laundering issues are entirely another barrel of rotten worms as Judge Daniel Cahill is seriously trying to tap into DOJ Juvenile Justice grants in child welfare.

Hey, gotta keep funding those political campaigns and making those mortgage payments!

And this is just the beginning of the unraveling of why Kansas has:

• A 'Kids For Cash' scheme going on; 
• Human trafficking; 
• More than 70 kids missing from foster care with some willing to commit suicide rather than go back into care; 
• Kids being snatched from home with no substantiation of abuse and billed for months;
• Contemporaneous billing of Medicaid and private health insurers for phantom child welfare services;
• No civil rights protections from the State Attorney General because child welfare has been privatized;
• No referral to the State Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit; and,

Last, but not least, taxation without representation, because everything has been privatized in the legislature so that voting rights can continue to be stripped, to silent "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) who call for the ousting of DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore.

(On a side note, Kansas also has one of those Detroit Land Bank Authority issues going on, but I am going to save that one for later #DOJ #FBI)

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Starved to Death in Michigan Foster Care

Investigators: Starved to Death in State Care
Contributor: Ann Mullen
Email: amullen@wxyz.com




(WXYZ) - For several months, the Action News Investigators dug deep into Michigan’s tragically-flawed foster care system. During our investigation, we uncovered the heartbreaking story of a 10-year-old boy who starved to death while a facility banked cash to care for him.

We began telling Johnny’s story over the last two days here on WXYZ.com. In that time, the response has been overwhelming and your comments confirm that Michigan’s children need a better foster care system.

Johnny’s mother, Elena Andron, dedicated her life to caring for her wheelchair-bound son. All she wanted was a little help.

The state’s answer was to put him in a foster care facility. One year later, Johnny starved to death.

“He was a big part of my life. He was my life,” Andron told Action News Investigator Heather Catallo.

The state is quick to take kids from parents and put them in foster care, especially poor parents. The state makes it very hard to get them back. Experts say the state has a financial incentive to keep kids away from their families.

Johnny, who was nine at the time, could not walk, talk or feed himself. He had cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

“He was a lot of work, like any single mother, it was kind of hard,” says Andron.

Things got even tougher when she lost her factory job.

She turned to the Michigan Department of Human Services, a decision she will regret for the rest of her life.

The foster care facility where the state sent Johnny failed to feed him enough food. Andron says she watched her son waste away as she begged for help.

“I just wanted to carry him out of there, just pick him up and take him, and just take him home,” she says.

If only it was that simple.

Bill Mitchell knows how difficult it can be to get your kids out the state’s hands. He had to fight all the way to the Michigan State Supreme Court to get his three boys back.

“They’re my kids. I’m not going to give up on my kids,” says Mitchell.

Why did Mitchell and Andron have to fight so hard to try to get their children back? Some say it’s because the state gets a lot of cash for foster kids.

“Termination of parent rights is very high in Michigan,” says Warner. “But it’s also very high nationwide and it happened because of some laws that were passed by the federal government and encouraged states to terminate parental rights more often than they used to and promise to send them money if they would terminate rights and have the children adopted.”

According to the state’s own figures, the federal government gave Michigan about $110 million last year for foster care. That’s compared to the $26 million in programs that help parents keep their kids. Foster facilities also have an incentive to keep kids away from their parents. In Andron’s case, the foster home got about $12,000 a month from the state for Johnny.

“You’re getting paid, you’re getting a lot of money,” says attorney Arnold Reed, who represents Andron in a lawsuit against the foster care facility and several other state-contracted groups.

Reed says the foster facility profited big time off of Johnny.

“There is no shortage of money, plus you’re getting a stipend, you’re getting a clothes stipend and you’re getting a stipend for food,” says Reed.

But not enough of that food made it to Johnny.

“He started deteriorating so quick I could not believe my eyes,” says Andron. “He had gotten so weak to where he was just shaking constantly.”

She agreed to make her son a temporary ward of the state. She was supposed to bring him home after a year - once she got back on track financially. But she says the state didn’t tell her that she would be put on a central registry for parents who abuse and neglect their kids. To get Johnny back she would have to fight to get off of the registry by attending parenting classes and meeting other requirements—something that Andron says was nearly impossible to do with a new job.

“They wanted me to go through some evaluations, which I did,” says Andron.

When she complained about Johnny losing weight, she says the state turned on her.

“They didn’t care. None of my complaints mattered,” says Andron.

The Department of Human Services did not like Andron’s complaints or her efforts to get her son back. They took her to court and asked that she not be allowed to see Johnny.

Andron says the first time she met her court-appointed lawyer was that day in court. She says the lawyer didn’t put up much of a fight. The judge sided with the state. The next time Andron heard about Johnny he was dead.

“I entrusted people with my son and I thought they were good people. They were licensed,” says Andron.

Johnny weighed 120 pounds when he went into foster care, she says. An autopsy report shows he was only 48 pounds when he died of malnutrition.

“I just cannot believe that someone can have that kind of a heart, to starve a child like that,” says Andron.

Bill Mitchell also fought the state. His boys were living with their mom when his children were taken. Mitchell tried to get the boys, but the state asked the court to terminate his parental rights too, primarily because of his finances.

“I have the right to choose where I want to work,” says Mitchell, who is an engineer and works at Walmart. The state held this against him. DHS also didn’t like that he couldn’t keep up the mortgage on the family home after the boys’ mom walked out.

“She was responsible for $300 of the thing and it was too much for me to maintain, you know, all by myself,” Mitchell says.

The state also said Mitchell didn’t try hard enough to get his kids back. But he says he changed his shift to work nights to make state scheduled visits with his sons and parenting classes.

“It wouldn’t have mattered what I said or what I did, they had already determined their course and now we were just going through the motions,” says Mitchell, who didn’t even get a court appointed lawyer until nine months and three hearings into the case.

The lower court sided with the state and terminated bill’s rights but he appealed and three long years later the Michigan Supreme Court sided with him.

“You shouldn’t have to go to this point,” says Mitchell.

The ruling says Mitchell’s finances should never have been held against him. Mitchell is set to get his kids back. But he says it’s all taken a toll.

“Birthdays, first time they discover something, first time they make a new friend, things that will never be returned to me,” he says.

“He’s one of the most outstanding parents ever to have been run through a termination preceding, and if it can happen to him, it can happen to anybody,” says attorney Elizabeth Warner.

“We’re spending a ton of money for putting these kids in foster care,” says Vivek Sankaran, an assistant professor at the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. “But for these children we are irreparably scaring them by damaging the bonds that they form with their families.”

Sankaran says only about nine percent of the 16,000 kids in foster care were sexually or physically abused. The majority were taken from their parents because of poverty-related neglect.

“Removal is too often thought of as the first option for protecting children and child welfare rather than working with families, engaging with them, providing them services in the home,” says Sankaran.

His organization, the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, helps parents on the front end—getting them the services they need so their kids are not taken. He says so far they have had 100 percent success.

“We need to create a culture where parents are willing to say, ‘I need help, help me, I need to become a better parent, here is what I need,'” says Sankaran.

That is exactly what Andron tried to do, but with heartbreaking results.

“I gave them my healthy child and to get him back in a casket. I feel like he’d still be a live today if he was home with me,” says Andron.

State officials would not speak on camera. But they told Action News that their top priority is to return kids to their birth parents. The state also says the number of kids in foster care is down by about 3,000 and fewer parents had their rights terminated last year.

As for the foster home that housed Johnny, the state shut it down.

We are working on an additional story for Friday night, on Action News at 11 p.m., about what some people go through as they try to adopt relatives who are in the Michigan foster care system.

Now, it's my turn...

Hey, Mike Cox, I smell Medicaid fraud.  Am I going to take this one or are you?