A: Because they and their co-conspirators did not want to be uncloaked for interfering in the 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010 Electoral College, but, hey, what do I know?
Always remember, the President is elected through the Electoral College, not the Popular Vote, so be a part of this historic investigation and go vote, we need the data.
Tyler Technologies has finally decided to paid a ransom to obtain a decryption key and recover files encrypted in a recent ransomware attack.
Tyler Technologies, Inc. is the largest provider of software to the United States public sector. At the end of September, the company disclosed a ransomware attack and its customers reported finding suspicious logins and previously unseen remote access tools on their networks.
The ransomware attack took place on September 23, the threat actors breached the network of the company and deployed the malware.
Tyler notified law enforcement and hired a forensics firm to investigate the incident and determine the extent of the incident.
Immediately after the attack company representatives declared that the incident only impacted the internal network and phone systems.
Some reports circulating online speculate the company was infected with the RansomExx ransomware.
The RansomEXX is human-operated ransomware, this means that attackers manually infected the systems after gained access to the target network.
In June 2020, the same ransomware was employed in an attack on the Texas Department of Transportation, in September it infected the systems at the IPG Photonics high-performance laser developer.
According to BleepingComputer, which cited a source informed on the event, Tyler Technologies paid a ransom of an unspecified amount to receive the decryption key and recover encrypted files.
“When the ransomware encrypted Tyler Technologies’ files, they appended an extension similar to ‘.tylertech911-f1e1a2ac.'” reported BleepingComputer.
“To prove that the decryptor was valid, BleepingComputer was able to decrypt encrypted files [1, 2] uploaded to VirusTotal at the time of the ransomware attack.”
When decrypted, the Arin.txt file contained a list of IP ranges used by the company.
Experts pointed out that many school districts, court systems, and local and statement governments in the United States uses Tyler Technologies software, this means that the disclosure of data stolen during the ransomware attack could have serious consequences.
For this reason, the company decided to pay the ransom.
The FBI does not support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack. Paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back. It also encourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity.
For those of you who will not be able to watch and understand the entire discussion, allow me to sum it up for you.
Stealin' or rather Gerrymandering.
Yes, foreign interests are taking over the United States by dumbing down the people of the United States by publishing and uttering lies for the purposes of stealin' the children, land & vote.
If I have found this foreign corporation to be the wrong one promoting the bleachbitting and resegregation of the U.S. educational system, then, please, correct me in the comments, below.
I sent an email asking for their articles of incorporation, because I could not find any.
I will update if and when they respond.
Not once did one single person present how one measures race.
Not once did on single person #sayhisname as a working example of bleachbitting history.
Ben Carson knows better because he has a school and the constitution protected the industry of human trafficking, too, but none of the speakers want to talk about that.
Children and land are fungible under christian property law.
I believe this gentleman has elevated the concept of "Fat, Dumb & Happy" to an entirely new level.
If you think this is bad, just wait until we get into the "Elected Ones"...
Detroit resident Darrell Baker pleaded guilty today to bank fraud and money laundering arising out of a $590,000 Covid-19 fraud scheme, announced United States Attorney Matthew Schneider.
Joining in the announcement were Special Agent in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Inspector General Hannibal Mike Ware of the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General.
Darrell Baker, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud arising from his effort to obtain some $590,000 by defrauding a Pennsylvania financial institution in the issuance of a Payroll Protection Program Loan. Baker also pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering, the result of financial transactions he engaged in with the fraudulently obtained funds.
United States Attorney Schneider stated, “My office and our law enforcement partners have no tolerance for frauds affecting programs designed to help our economy survive the Covid-19 pandemic. We will prosecute such cases aggressively, and today’s guilty plea is an example of our commitment to holding accountable anyone fraudulently obtaining pandemic relief funds to line their own pockets.”
“Mr. Baker's scheme exploited a fund designed specifically to support Americans during this financially challenging time,” said Steven M. D’Antuono, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. “Thanks to the hard work of the FBI and all of the agencies involved in this investigation, monies set aside for hard working Americans who are not able to work during this pandemic is secure and available for the people that need it most, not for the fraudsters like Mr. Baker."
According to the plea agreement, Baker applied for and obtained a $590,000 Payroll Protection Program Loan on behalf of a purported business that he owns, called “Motorcity Solar Energy, Inc.” The Payroll Protection Program is a program managed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) that provides loans to help businesses keep their workforces employed during the Covid-19 crisis. The SBA will forgive the loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities. The Payroll Protection Act loans are funded from participating banks, in this case Customers Bank in Pennsylvania.
According to the plea documents, Baker submitted paperwork with his loan application representing that Motorcity Solar Energy Inc. had 68 employees and, in 2019 paid wages, tips, and other compensation totaling $2.8 million. All of these representations were in fact false. Motor City Solar Energy had no employees, no payroll expenses of any kind, and was not an operational business. Baker submitted these false statements as part of a scheme to intentionally defraud Customers Bank and the Payroll Protection Program.
The plea documents state that Baker managed to withdraw approximately $172,000 of the $590,000 loan he obtained before Baker’s own financial institution froze the remainder, which was ultimately returned to Customer’s Bank. Baker used the funds he did obtain to purchase four cashier’s checks, and used the four checks to purchase two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger, and a Hummer. The plea agreement requires Baker to forfeit these vehicles. As part of the plea agreement, Baker also agreed to the entry of a money judgment against him in the amount of $172,484.40, which represents the portion of the loan that Baker obtained before his fraud was uncovered and the balance of the loan frozen.
Sentencing is set for January 14, 2021, before United States District Judge Laurie J. Michaelson,
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John K. Neal. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the FBI and the SBA-OIG. .
There are thousands more until we get to the tiny human lab rats....
#maytheheavensfall
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has agreed to pay the U.S. $10 million to settle claims that it improperly charged NIH-funded research grants for time spent by researchers on non-grant related activities such as developing, preparing, and writing new grant applications, teaching, and engaging in other administrative activities, the Department of Justice announced today.
“The NIH has finite resources to support important research across the nation,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “Today’s settlement demonstrates our commitment to protect those resources by ensuring that NIH grants funds are used for the purposes for which they were intended."
“Federal grant recipients must use the grant funds they receive on tasks that specifically relate to the funded project. Those that improperly charge the government for costs unrelated to the project must be held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice have a duty to protect government resources and ensure they are used appropriately.”
“Taxpayers funds for medical research are finite and the need for scientific advances is great; therefore, it’s critical that these resources are used as intended,” said Special Agent in Charge Maureen R. Dixon, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. “Working with our law enforcement partners, our investigators will continue to protect these resources so that they are spent appropriately.”
TSRI is a non-profit biomedical research institute with campuses located in Jupiter, Florida and La Jolla, California. TSRI receives millions of dollars in funding from NIH through hundreds of grants each year. The settlement resolves allegations that between 2008 and 2016, TSRI failed to have a system in place for its faculty to properly account for time spent on activities that cannot be charged directly to NIH-funded projects or are unrelated to the research activities of the NIH-funded project. Consequently, the U.S. contended that TSRI improperly charged time spent by faculty on developing, preparing, and writing new grant applications directly to existing NIH-funded projects, rather than allocating such charges as indirect costs. The U.S. also alleged that TSRI improperly charged NIH-funded projects for time spent by its faculty on other activities unrelated to the funded projects, such as teaching, TSRI committee work, and other administrative tasks.
The settlement resolves allegations originally brought in a lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act by Thomas Burris, Ph.D, a former TSRI employee. The act permits private parties to sue on behalf of the government for false claims for government funds and to receive a share of any recovery. Dr. Burris will receive $1.75 million.
The settlement was the result of a coordinated effort by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The case is captioned U.S. ex rel. Burris v. The Scripps Research Institute, Case No. 1:15-CV-01443 (D. Md.). The claims resolved by the settlements are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.
For a history of the nonprofits that will be dissolved, or have already been dissolved and they just do not care, you can search, here.
If you can terminate parental rights of an individual, where, corporations are individuals, too, well, in the spirit of a fuchsia laced transposable model, you can terminate the parental rights to keep and bear the arms of the State of Michigan.
Always remember, children and land are fungible under chattel law and it all started in Detroit.
Ten Michigan organizations with similar-sounding names to large nonprofits like the American Cancer Society and United Way are fraudulent and should be dissolved, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Friday.
The department recently submitted a complaint to dissolve 10 organizations created in 2018 by Ian Richard Hosang in Ingham County Circuit Court. The Attorney General’s office claims none of Hosang’s organizations are legitimate charities, as they don’t solicit contributions, distribute charity or provide educational services.
With names like the American Cancer Foundation of Grand Rapids, American Cancer Society of Michigan, United Way of Detroit and American Red Cross of Michigan, prospective donors might be misled into thinking they were donating to a well-known charity organization, Nessel said.
“Anyone who chooses to donate – no matter how large or small the contribution – should not have to sift through fraudulent entities before finding a reputable one to support,” she said.
The department reports Hosang and other individuals connected to the entities in question, Claudia Stephen and Lincoln Palsey, are not Michigan residents. None of the entities are registered with the Attorney General’s Charitable Trust Division.
Hosang has also registered organizations with similar names to the United Way, American Red Cross and American Cancer Society in California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia, New York, Florida and Maryland, according to the Attorney General’s office.
The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs initially referred two of his Michigan organizations, ACS of Michigan and ACS of Detroit, to the Attorney General’s office in January after learning the entities were not connected to the national organization.
LANSING — Alma G. Stallworth, a longtime state House representative from Detroit who founded the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, died Tuesday at age 87.
A trailblazer who was the longtime chair of the House Public Utilities Committee in the days before Michigan term limits, Stallworth played a key role in creating legislation that regulates and deregulates electric and telephone companies and other utilities in Michigan.
Alma Stallworth
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Stallworth was first elected to the state House in 1970, serving first through 1974, then without interruption from 1983 through 1996. She served a final term from 2003 through 2004. She also served on the board of Detroit Public Schools after a 2005 appointment.
Stallworth's two sons, Thomas and Keith, also served in the Michigan Legislature.
Thomas F. Stallworth III said on Facebook Tuesday that her death came less than a year after the death of his father.
"Mom has joined Dad, her partner of 65 years, in the arms of the Lord after living long full lives," he said. "We have truly been blessed to have them and I will rejoice in continuing to hear their voices in all that I do."
Alma Stallworth was known for her work improving foster care in Michigan and fighting child abuse. She served as president of the metro Detroit affiliate of the National Black Child Development Institute and as a board member of the Federation of Girls Homes and the Children's Aid Society of Michigan, according to her legislative biography.
The Black Caucus Foundation works on policy issues and diversity training, among other areas, and has fellowship and internship programs for students.
In 1988, Stallworth was part of an official delegation that observed the German elections uniting east and west Berlin.
"Alma helped pave the way for Black legislators and her legacy lives on through them, including her own sons," said House Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills.
"We owe her a debt of gratitude for her years of public service. I offer my deepest condolences to Alma’s many loved ones and admirers.”
Michael Steele knows the heavens shall fall quite soon because it all started in Detroit.
Micheal was mean to my Sweetie.
At least we know now that Kellyanne Conway was a very busy, busy, busy co-conspirator of the coup against the United States because her husband George is on the Lincoln Project.
I do not believe it is just me, but I am very sure that if one takes just a few moments in time, to look up who is the Resident Agent to the Lincoln Project, it shall be found that it is a Corporate Shape Shifter exactly like the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which leads me to believe that this is the work of JonesDay, but hey, what do I know?
I know I would love to sit down and do a few brews with Ronald Steslow, the only formally associated name to the Lincoln Project, because it seems an LLC nor INC is anywhere to be found.
Domain Name: lincolnproject.us
Registry Domain ID: DE15161B918174D959CEF99BF4BCB62A7-NSR
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: whois.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2019-12-13T15:58:48Z
Creation Date: 2019-12-05T18:33:17Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2020-12-05T18:33:17Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: CB5E8E45BD02D4AD4AC8B276E8138C496-NSR
Registrant Name: Ronald Steslow
Registrant Organization: TUSK Digital
Registrant Street: 718 7th Street NW
Registrant Street:
Registrant Street:
Registrant City: Washington
Registrant State/Province: District of Columbia
Registrant Postal Code: 20001
Registrant Country: us
Registrant Phone: +1.2026448484
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Registrant Application Purpose: P2
Registrant Nexus Category: C21
Registry Admin ID: CF076AD2B873A4EF0B57012BCC22138B9-NSR
Admin Name: Ronald Steslow
Admin Organization: TUSK Digital
Admin Street: 718 7th Street NW
Admin Street:
Admin Street:
Admin City: Washington
Admin State/Province: District of Columbia
Admin Postal Code: 20001
Admin Country: us
Admin Phone: +1.2026448484
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Admin Application Purpose: P2
Admin Nexus Category: C21
Registry Tech ID: C8AC487ADBDBC4B3483EB55A51423597E-NSR
Tech Name: Ronald Steslow
Tech Organization: TUSK Digital
Tech Street: 718 7th Street NW
Tech Street:
Tech Street:
Tech City: Washington
Tech State/Province: District of Columbia
Tech Postal Code: 20001
Tech Country: us
Tech Phone: +1.2026448484
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Tech Application Purpose: P2
Tech Nexus Category: C21
Name Server: dns4.p05.nsone.net
Name Server: dns3.p05.nsone.net
Name Server: dns2.p05.nsone.net
Name Server: dns1.p05.nsone.net
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Lincoln Project
Coverage dates: 11/05/2019 to 06/30/2020
TOTAL RECEIPTS$19,408,755.48
TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS$19,408,755.48
Total individual contributions$19,408,530.48
Itemized individual contributions$10,265,291.77
Unitemized individual contributions$9,143,238.71
Party committee contributions$0.00
Other committee contributions$225.00
Of course, that malodorous stench of trafficking tiny humans was overpowering because the largest donor, with, what I shall assume are reoccurring payments, is Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital which just so happens to administer the children's trust of the Lone Pine Foundation, which seems to be funding Trump's permanent campaign.
The University of Michigan School of Education (UM-SOE) has long been engaged with Detroit and Detroit-area schools not only because of proximity to Michigan’s largest city, but also because of our core commitments to under-served and under-resourced communities. Countless SOE faculty and students provide instruction, conduct research, develop curricular materials, and build resources to improve the educational outcomes of Detroit’s school children.
In fall 2010, UM-SOE embarked on a new partnership with Teach For America (TFA) that has deepened our connections with Detroit and its teachers. TFA is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates (and others) who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. In fall 2010 TFA established a corps in the Detroit region.
There is another Stephen of GO BLUE infamy, Stephen Ross, the largest donor, as of late, to the Trump Campaign and you all know he hails from University of Michigan, where that money was stolen from the trusts of the children of Detroit.
I shall assume there was a limitation obstacle in the number of cell spaces to be less than $1,000,000,000, for what I shall assume to be an impossible thought to fathom of a nonprofit for children of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) to hold more than a trillion dollars.
What if that number which is not properly reported was well over $10,000,000,000?
I could continue but I have a blog with a search function.
WASHINGTON — Former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele became the latest anti-Trump Republican to join the Lincoln Project, a political action committee led by Republicans working to defeat President Donald Trump and elect Democrat Joe Biden.
Coinciding with the start of the Republican National Convention, the Lincoln Project announced the addition of Steele, who served as RNC chairman from 2009 to 2011, as a new senior advisor Monday.
"The chair behind the Resolute Desk has always been bigger than any political party," Steele, a regular contributor on MSNBC and a Trump critic, said in a statement. "Sadly, we have witnessed its occupant devolve into preying upon Digital fears and resentments with narcissism that nurtures only chaos and confusion."
More:George Conway, other conservatives, launch Lincoln Project super PAC to 'defeat Trump'
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele makes his remarks during a Republican National Committee Winter Meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Jan. 14, 2011.
He added: "Leadership is needed now more than ever and I am proudly committed to resetting the course of our nation, standing once again for the future of my Party; and working with The Lincoln Project to help restore the purpose for sitting in that chair."
Steele's addition comes on the same day the Biden campaign announced the endorsements of 27 former GOP members of Congress, including former Arizona U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, in support of Biden.
Last week's Democratic National Convention included several Republicans who back the former vice president including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, onetime gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Cindy McCain, widow of the late Sen. John McCain.
Since launching in December, the Lincoln Project has produced some of the harshest critiques of the Trump administration, particularly over the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in online videos that have gone viral and television commercials.
Lincoln Project founders include conservative attorney George Conway; former adviser to Sen. John McCain Steve Schmidt; former Kasich adviser John Weaver; former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Horn; and conservative pundit Rick Wilson.
Conway and his wife Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump advisor who works in the White House, announced Sunday they would be stepping away from their political roles to focus on their children. The Conways’ 15-year-old daughter, Claudia, has described an increasingly volatile situation at home on her public social media channels, tweeting Saturday that she is seeking legal emancipation from her parents.
Before becoming the first African American RNC chairman, Steele served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2017. Steele unsuccessfully ran for U.S. senator in Maryland as a Republican in 2006. Today he's a political strategist and frequent guest on MSNBC.
"I believe, like the majority of patriots, the office of the Presidency embodies who we are as Americans," Steele said. "It represents the heart of our compassion, the dreams of those who built this country both freed and enslaved, the eyes of those today that see both hope and despair, and the wisdom of each of us to make a meaningful difference."
Montgomery, Alabama – On Monday, August 17, 2020, Walter James, III, a 49-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, and former Montgomery Public Schools employee, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr., FBI Special Agent in Charge James Jewell, and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
According to court documents, while he was employed by the Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) system, James held himself out to be the owner of a consulting company, "ED-ONE Professional Development Services." He then collaborated with others at his high school and the MPS central office to submit fraudulent invoices for consulting or professional development services. The invoices listed vague descriptions of the types of services that the vendor supposedly rendered. For example, the invoices would include descriptions such as “books & materials,” “consulting,” or “three-day workshop.” However, James did not provide any professional development services or products of any kind to MPS, nor did any of the purported consulting companies on the corresponding invoices that James submitted for payment. As a result of this scheme, the submission of false invoices from August 2016 to April 2019 gave rise to a loss of more than $250,000.00 to MPS.
James was charged with wire fraud on March 3, 2020. His sentencing hearing will be scheduled in the next few months and he is facing up to 20 years in prison and a significant fine. He will also be subject to an order of restitution for the stolen money.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the Alabama Ethics Commission, and the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorneys Thomas Govan and Jonathan Ross are prosecuting the case.
He is my Maltese K-Nig-Hit because he contracts with himself, to advise himself, to do the job he is getting paid to do as a school superintendent.
He is lots of fun.
He gets shy around my camera and runs away.
I wanted to see how he makes pretty pictures on shiny paper with all that predictive modeling crap, but I think he thinks I, the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed, is not worthy of engaging in such discourse!
So, I went ahead and went diving for those pearls of wisdom, all by myself.
Now, I guess, considering that this was supposed to be a livestream, but it went badly and he is not going to redo it, I could ask about the promulgation of a flu shot, without any parental input.
Oh, wait!
I just did.
So, in providing in person education to their specifically targeted population they so passionately purveyed in the public square, I would like to know how these students, who are from traumatizing histories of the Michigan Child Welfare System, are supposed to be reinstitutionalized in what seems the most restrictive environment?
I told you to get rid of that corporal punisher Neocia Butler.
You only brought her on so you can check the Medicaid cost reimbursement box to show your investors that you are going to make that revenue maximization level with those phantom programs and services.
The school has become a living socioeconomic petri dish.
No, seriously, you know they have some dirty ass longitudinal data cost reimbursements going on in one or another of their tiny humans trusts.
You need to treat your staff better.
I just adore this school and I bet if everyone took a few moments out of their inextricably busy life, you should experience the joy with me.
This is the Judge who ruled upon the physical bondage of the youth to Children's Villages.
Hon. Mary Ellen Brennan Presiding Judge of the Family Division Presiding Judge, Oakland County Family Court Division Presiding Judge, Oakland County Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court Elected to the Oakland County Circuit Court on November 4th, 2008 Senior member of the Oakland County Family Court Bench Graduate - James Madison College of Michigan State University Graduate - Wayne State University Law School Judicial Staff Attorney, 44th District Court 2002-2008 Assistant City Attorney, City of Royal Oak 1998-2002 Assistant General Counsel, Meadowbrook Insurance Group 1996-1998 Assistant Prosecutor, Oakland County 1990-1996 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-ellen-brennan-71709454
Hon. Mary Ellen T. Brennan is the presiding judge of the Oakland County Juvenile Drug Court (Family Division). She was a judicial staff attorney for the 44th District Court from 2002 to 2008 and was elected to the Oakland County Circuit Court in 2008. Prior to that, Judge Brennan was an assistant city attorney for the City of Royal Oak, assistant general counsel of an insurance firm, and an Oakland County assistant prosecutor. She is a former board member of CARE House of Oakland County, an organization that offers prevention programming, forensic interviewing for victims of sexual abuse and assault, therapy as needed for victims, family-support services, and a court-appointed special advocate program for children involved with the court. Judge Brennan is also a former board member of the RESTORE Foundation, a group that raises funds for the adult and juvenile therapeutic drug treatment courts through private, tax-deductible donations. She is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School.
Slavery was never abolished because it was renamed gerrymandering and it was privatized through foreign Public Private Partnerships as tiny human asset forfeiture operations.
A 15-year-old in Michigan was incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic after a judge ruled that not completing her schoolwork violated her probation. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” said the girl’s mother.
PONTIAC, Mich. — One afternoon in mid-June, Charisse* drove up to the checkpoint at the Children’s Village juvenile detention center in suburban Detroit, desperate to be near her daughter. It had been a month since she had last seen her, when a judge found the girl had violated probation and sent her to the facility during the pandemic.
The girl, Grace, hadn’t broken the law again. The 15-year-old wasn’t in trouble for fighting with her mother or stealing, the issues that had gotten her placed on probation in the first place.
She was incarcerated in May for violating her probation by not completing her online coursework when her school in Beverly Hills switched to remote learning.
Because of the confidentiality of juvenile court cases, it’s impossible to determine how unusual Grace’s situation is. But attorneys and advocates in Michigan and elsewhere say they are unaware of any other case involving the detention of a child for failing to meet academic requirements after schools closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The decision, they say, flies in the face of recommendations from the legal and education communities that have urged leniency and a prioritization of children’s health and safety amid the crisis. The case may also reflect, some experts and Grace’s mother believe, systemic racial bias. Grace is Black in a predominantly white community and in a county where a disproportionate percentage of Black youth are involved with the juvenile justice system.
Across the country, teachers, parents and students have struggled with the upheaval caused by monthslong school closures. School districts have documented tens of thousands of students who failed to log in or complete their schoolwork: 15,000 high school students in Los Angeles, one-third of the students in Minneapolis Public Schools and about a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students.
Students with special needs are especially vulnerable without the face-to-face guidance from teachers, social workers and others. Grace, who has ADHD, said she felt unmotivated and overwhelmed when online learning began April 15, about a month after schools closed. Without much live instruction or structure, she got easily distracted and had difficulty keeping herself on track, she said.
“Who can even be a good student right now?” said Ricky Watson Jr., executive director of the National Juvenile Justice Network. “Unless there is an urgent need, I don’t understand why you would be sending a kid to any facility right now and taking them away from their families with all that we are dealing with right now.”
In many places, juvenile courts have attempted to keep children out of detention except in the most serious cases, and they have worked to release those who were already there, experts say. A survey of juvenile justice agencies in 30 states found that the number of youths in secure detention fell by 24% in March, largely due to a steep decline in placements.
In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in March that temporarily suspended the confinement of juveniles who violate probation unless directed by a court order and encouraged eliminating any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a “substantial and immediate safety risk to others.” Acting on Whitmer’s order, which was extended until late May, the Michigan Supreme Court told juvenile court judges to determine which juveniles could be returned home.
Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, the presiding judge of the Oakland County Family Court Division, declined through a court administrator to comment on Grace’s case. In her ruling, she found Grace “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school” and called Grace a “threat to (the) community,” citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation.
“She hasn’t fulfilled the expectation with regard to school performance,” Brennan said as she sentenced Grace. “I told her she was on thin ice and I told her that I was going to hold her to the letter, to the order, of the probation.”
That June afternoon, a month after the sentencing, Charisse left Children’s Village without seeing Grace, but she did pick up a shopping bag of clothes and toiletries she had delivered days earlier. She said officials had rejected them because they violated facility rules: underwear that wasn’t briefs; face wipes that contained alcohol; a pair of jeans deemed too tight.
Charisse counts each day they’re apart, and that was day No. 33. Another month has since passed, and there could still be months to go before they are at home together again.
Driving home, Charisse had to pull over soon after she turned onto the road leading away from the complex. She sat in a parking lot, sobbing.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” she said. She shook her head as tears dampened the disposable blue face mask pulled down to her chin.
“Every day I go to bed thinking, and wake up thinking, ‘How is this a better situation for her?’”
It has always been just the two of them, Charisse and Grace.
Told by doctors that she would be unable to have children, Charisse, a consultant to nonprofit organizations, was shocked when she became pregnant at 44. She has raised Grace on her own after the girl’s father did not want to be involved, she said.
They did everything together: winter sports throughout Michigan, rounds of golf, going to the opera, singing to Tony Bennett on road trips. They even appeared in a “Pure Michigan” tourism ad. As a child, Grace wanted so much to be like her mother that she asked to be called Charisse No. 2.
When Grace hit her preteen years, however, their relationship became rocky. They argued about Grace keeping her room clean and doing schoolwork and regularly battled over her use of the phone, social media and other technology.
By the time Grace turned 13, the arguments had escalated to the point that Charisse turned to the police for help several times when Grace yelled at or pushed her. She said she didn’t know about other social services to call instead. In one incident, they argued over Grace taking her mother’s iPhone charger; when police arrived, they discovered she had taken an iPad from her middle school without permission. At her mother’s request, Grace entered a court diversion program in 2018 for “incorrigibility” and agreed to participate in counseling and not use electronic devices. She was released from the program early, her mother said.
While there was periodic family conflict, Grace has always had strong friendships and is active in her school and community, her mother said. She has helped run programs at church, played saxophone in the school band and composed music, and regularly participated in service projects.
The incident that led to her current situation happened Nov. 6, when someone called the police after hearing Charisse crying “Help me!” and honking her car’s horn. Grace, upset she couldn’t go to a friend’s house, had reached inside the car to try to get her mother’s phone and had bitten her mother’s finger and pulled her hair, according to the police report.
Police released Grace to a family friend to let the two cool down and referred the case to Oakland County court, where an assault charge was filed against her.
Weeks later, she picked up another charge, for larceny, after she was caught on surveillance video stealing another student’s cellphone from a school locker room.
“After I was caught, I felt instant remorse and guilt. I wanted to take back everything I had done,” Grace wrote in a statement to police. She said she had questioned herself even as she took the phone but wanted one after her mother took hers away.
The other student’s mother, who declined to comment for this story, told police she wanted to press charges, although the phone had been returned to her son soon after Grace took it. “My sincere hope is that any punitive action taken in this case be grounded in the goal of providing this student with opportunities for growth, change and future success,” she wrote in a statement to police.
In the months following the two incidents, Grace and her mother participated in individual and family therapy and Grace stayed out of trouble.
Charisse told a court caseworker assigned to the case that other than being irritable and getting “cabin fever” from being shut at home during the pandemic, “nothing significant” had taken place between the mother and daughter. There was no police contact after the November incidents, records show.
The April 21 juvenile court hearing on the larceny and assault charges against Grace was conducted via Zoom since the courts had shut down, with everyone calling in from their homes. Grace connected from her bedroom, her mother from their living room.
It had the familiar awkwardness of many online meetings: dropped audio; a dog barking in the background; participants swivelling in their chairs; the prosecutor losing his connection. (This hearing and others in the case were recorded, and a ProPublica reporter watched them at the Oakland County courthouse last month.)
Ashley Bishop, a youth and family caseworker for the court, told the judge she thought Grace would be best served by getting mental health and anger management treatment in a residential facility. The prosecutor, Justin Chmielewski, said he agreed. Grace’s court-appointed attorney, Elliot Parnes, said little but asked that she be given probation because she had committed no new offenses and because of the risk of COVID-19 in congregate facilities.
Parnes and Bishop declined to comment for this story and Chmielewski did not respond to calls.
Throughout the hearing, Grace took her glasses off to brush away tears and wiped her nose with her sleeve. She shook her head, which the judge later criticized as a sign of disagreement but which Grace told ProPublica signaled her disappointment in her past behavior. She raised her hand a couple times and asked, in a small voice, “Can I just say something please?”
“My mom and I do get into a lot of arguments, but with each one I learn something and try to analyze why it happened,” she said. “My mom and I are working each day to better ourselves and our relationship, and I think that the removal from my home would be an intrusion on our progress.”
Brennan admonished Grace for the fights with her mother, her thefts at school and behaving in a way that required police to come to their home. “Police,” she said. “Most people go through their entire youth without having the cops have to come to their house because they can’t get themselves together.”
But, citing the pandemic, Brennan decided not to remove Grace from her home and instead sentenced her to “intensive probation.” The terms of the probation included a GPS tether, regular check-ins with a court caseworker, counseling, no phone and the use of the school laptop for educational purposes only. Grace also was required to do her schoolwork.
“I hope that she upholds her end of the bargain,” Brennan said at the end of the hearing.
Schools across the country weren’t prepared for the abrupt turn to remote learning. Grace’s school, Groves High School, in one of the most well-regarded districts in the state, was no different.
In mid-March, thinking the closures might last for only a month, the district initially offered optional online activities and then recessed for an already-scheduled weeklong spring break. Soon after, Whitmer announced that schools would end face-to-face instruction for the rest of the year. The Birmingham Public Schools superintendent asked families for patience as schools moved to an online curriculum in mid-April and promised flexibility in their support. Officials said student work would be evaluated as credit/no-credit.
The initial days of remote school coincided with the start of Grace’s probation. Charisse was concerned that her daughter, who was a high school sophomore and had nearly perfect attendance, would have trouble without in-person support from teachers. Grace gets distracted easily and abandons her work, symptoms of her ADHD and a mood disorder, records show. Her Individualized Education Plan, which spelled out the school supports she should receive, required teachers to periodically check in to make sure she was on task and clarify the material, and it allowed her extra time to complete assignments and tests. When remote learning began, she did not get those supports, her mother said.
Days after the court hearing, on April 24, Grace’s new caseworker, Rachel Giroux, made notes in her file that she was doing well: Grace had called to check in at 8:57 a.m.; she reported no issues at home and was getting ready to log in to do her schoolwork.
But by the start of the following week, Grace told Giroux she felt overwhelmed. She had forgotten to plug in her computer and her alarm didn’t go off, so she overslept. She felt anxious about the probation requirements. Charisse, feeling overwhelmed as well, confided in the caseworker that Grace had been staying up late to make food and going on the internet, then sleeping in. She said she was setting up a schedule for Grace and putting a desk in the living room where she could watch her work.
“Worker told mother that child is not going to be perfect and that teenagers aren’t always easy to work with but you have to give them the opportunity to change,” according to the case progress notes. “Child needs time to adjust to this new normal of being on probation and doing work from home.”
Five days later, after calling Charisse and learning that Grace had fallen back to sleep after her morning caseworker check-in, Giroux filed a violation of probation against her for not doing her schoolwork.
Giroux told the prosecutor she planned to ask the judge to detain Grace because she “clearly doesn’t want to abide by the rules in the community,” according to the case notes.
Grace has said in court and in answers to questions from ProPublica that she was trying to do what was asked of her. She had checked in with her caseworker every day and complied with the other requirements of intensive probation, including staying at home and obeying all laws. She had told her special education teacher that she needed one-on-one help and began receiving daily tutoring the day after the probation violation was filed.
Giroux filed the violation of probation before confirming whether Grace was meeting her academic requirements. She emailed Grace’s teacher three days later, asking, “Is there a certain percentage of a class she is supposed to be completing a day/week?”
Grace’s teacher, Katherine Tarpeh, responded in an email to Giroux that the teenager was “not out of alignment with most of my other students.”
“Let me be clear that this is no one’s fault because we did not see this unprecedented global pandemic coming,” she wrote. Grace, she wrote, “has a strong desire to do well.” She “is trying to get to the other side of a steep learning curve mountain and we have a plan for her to get there.”
Giroux declined to comment. Tarpeh told a reporter she was not allowed to discuss Grace’s case.
The May 14 hearing to decide whether Grace had violated her probation, and what would happen if she had, took place at the Oakland County courthouse when the Family Division was hearing only “essential emergency matters.”
Grace’s case was the only one heard in person in the courthouse that day.
Crop of a court document describing Grace's sentence.
On May 14, Judge Mary Ellen Brennan found that Grace was in violation of probation for not submitting schoolwork and ordered that she be detained at Children’s Village in Oakland County, Michigan. (Records provided by Grace’s Family)
Grace’s attorney, concerned about his health, participated by Zoom, though he told the judge it was difficult to represent her without being there. He told the judge he decided not to request a postponement because the family was worried she would detain Grace if they waited for a later court date.
The prosecution called Giroux, the caseworker, as its only witness. In response to questions from Grace’s attorney, she acknowledged she did not know what type of educational disabilities Grace had and did not answer a question about what accommodations those disabilities might require. Her assessment that Grace hadn’t done her schoolwork was based on a comment her mother made to her teacher, which Charisse testified she said in a moment of frustration and was untrue.
Grace’s special education teacher, Tarpeh, could have provided more information and planned to testify but had to leave the hearing to teach a class, according to the prosecutor.
Grace and her mother testified that she was handling her schoolwork more responsibly — and that she had permission to turn in her assignments at her own pace, as long as she finished by the end of the semester. And, Charisse said, Grace was behaving and not causing her any physical harm.
The transition to virtual school had been difficult, Grace testified, but she said she was making progress. “I just needed time to adjust to the schedule that my mom had prepared for me,” she said.
Brennan was unconvinced. Grace’s probation, she told her, was “zero tolerance, for lack of a better term.”
She sent her to detention. Grace was taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
From March 16, when Michigan courts began limiting operations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, to June 29, at least 24 delinquency cases involving youth in Oakland County court resulted in placements to juvenile facilities. Of those, more than half involved young people who are Black, like Grace.
Those numbers, obtained by ProPublica from the Oakland County Circuit Court, reflect long-standing racial disparities in the state and county’s juvenile justice system. From January 2016 through June 2020, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to the Oakland court. Of those, 42% involved Black youth even though only about 15% of the county’s youth are Black.
A report released last month, which found inadequate legal representation for juveniles in Michigan, noted that research has shown a disproportionate number of youth of color are incarcerated in Michigan overall. Black youth in the state are incarcerated more than four times as often as their white peers, according to an analysis of federal government data by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that addresses racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
“It is clear that kids of color are disproportionately involved and impacted by the system across the board,” said Jason Smith of the nonprofit Michigan Center for Youth Justice, which works to reduce the confinement of youth. “They are more likely to be arrested, less likely to be offered any kind of diversion, more likely to be removed out of the home and placed in some sort of confinement situation.”
In Grace’s case, too, she was sent to a facility at a time when the governor had encouraged courts to send children home.
At the county-run Children’s Village, which has space for 216 youth in secure and residential settings, the population was down to 80 last week, according to the facility manager. There have been no COVID-19 cases in the youth population and four workers have tested positive from contacts outside Children’s Village, she said.
During March and April, 97 juveniles were released from Children’s Village by court order, said Pamela Monville, the Oakland County deputy court administrator. “We understood the orders and the concerns to stop the spread,” she said. Judges, caseworkers and attorneys worked together to determine “who could go back to the community,” she added.
Juvenile justice experts and disability advocates decried the decision to remove Grace from her home, particularly when “the state gave clear directives that children, and all people, unless it was a dire emergency, were to be kept out of detention,” said Kristen Staley, co-director of the Midwest Juvenile Defender Center, which works to improve juvenile defense across eight states.
Terri Gilbert, a former supervisor for juvenile justice programming in Michigan and a high-profile advocate, said the system suffers from inconsistencies in treatment and sentencing, aggravated by a lack of public information.
“This is too harsh of a sentence for a kid who didn’t do their homework. … There is so much research that points to the fact that this is not the right response for this crime,” said Gilbert, a member of a governor-appointed committee that focuses on juvenile justice. “Teenage girls act out. They get mouthy. They get into fights with her mothers. They don’t want to get up until noon. This is normal stuff.”
Monville said Brennan, a judge since 2008, “made the decision she made based on what she heard and her experience on the bench.”
But officials at the Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, the state disabilities watchdog organization, said they were especially troubled that a student with special needs — one of the most vulnerable populations — was punished when students and teachers everywhere couldn’t adjust to online learning.
“It is inconceivable that, given the utterly unprecedented situation, a court would enforce expectations about what student participation in school means that was not tied to the reality of education during a pandemic,” said Kris Keranen, who oversees education for the group.
Charisse says the “greatest pain and devastation” of her life was watching Grace handcuffed in the courtroom. She got a letter in the mail a few days later:
Handwritten letter from Grace to her mother while detained.
In the first letter to her mother while in detention, Grace wrote, “I want to be a better person.” (Records provided by Grace’s Family)
“I want to change. I want to be a better person. Here I’ve realized how much you care and love me. I’m sorry I took that for granted. Please continue to send me pictures of me and you or just with anyone. I love you mommy and I miss you.”
On Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the end of slavery, Charisse sat alone at her kitchen table, the wall behind her covered with Grace’s childhood artwork. As the country faced a reckoning over systemic racism, the day had taken on increased recognition and Charisse lamented she and Grace couldn’t mark it together as they usually did, attending programs at church or at the Museum of African American History in Detroit.
Charisse made strawberry lemonade with fresh watermelon, a variation on the traditional red Juneteenth drink, and talked to Grace the only way she could, through a video call monitored by a Children’s Village case coordinator. The longest they had ever been separated before was when Grace attended a leadership sleepaway camp for six weeks over the summer.
“Juneteenth is all about freedom and you can’t even celebrate. What do you have? It has been taken away,” she said to her daughter.
Other than three recent visits, they have seen each other only on screen, including during a court status hearing in early June. On that day, Charisse watched as Grace walked into a room at Children’s Village handcuffed and with her ankles shackled, her mother said.
“For us and our culture, that for me was the knife stuck in my stomach and turning,” Charisse said. “That is our history, being shackled. And she didn’t deserve that.”
“I Can’t Breathe.” It Happens at Schools, Too.
Students in Illinois schools said “I can’t breathe” while being restrained at least 30 times over the time period we investigated, according to our analysis of the records. The practice of face-down restraint is still legal in Illinois.
At the hearing, both Grace and her mother pleaded with the judge to return her home. “I will be respectful and obedient to my mom and all other people with authority,” Grace said. “I beg for your mercy to return me home to my mom and my responsibilities.”
The judge, however, sided with the caseworker and prosecutor. They agreed that Grace should stay at the Children’s Village not as punishment, but to get treatment and services. She ordered her to remain there and set a hearing to review the case for Sept. 8. By then, it will be a week into the new school year.
On Juneteenth, Charisse and Grace spoke for their full allotted 45 minutes. Grace wore a light blue polo shirt her mother had dropped off a few days earlier. Her hair was pushed back with a Lululemon headband.
Their conversation began with the mundane: Charisse reminded Grace to use her deodorant, and Grace said she needed to get her glasses fixed. But it landed, inevitably, at the frustration they both feel.
“I want you to write in your journal,” Charisse told Grace. She urged her “not to get too comfortable” in detention. “I want you to do what you are supposed to do, but I don’t want you to feel like this is your new norm.”
Grace’s initial weeks in detention were “repetitive and depressing,” she recently told ProPublica in response to written questions.
Grace was required to stay in her locked room from 8:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. She couldn’t turn the lights on and off herself and she slept on a mattress on a concrete slab, she said. She passed the time by reading, drawing and watching some TV.
The local school district provided packets of material but no classes. She said that she has not yet worked with a teacher in person or online, and that she meets less regularly with a therapist at Children’s Village than she did at home.
She has since been transferred to a long-term treatment program at Children’s Village, where she has a bit more freedom. Still, she tells her mother, it’s difficult to think about what she’s missing. “Everyone is moving past me now and I’m just here,” she said during the Zoom call.
A Children’s Village case coordinator, listening, tried to be encouraging. “You are doing very well right now,” she said. “Whatever happens, it looks good. You are respectful, you are following the rules.”
Then she told them their time was up.
“Stay strong,” Grace told her mom.
“You stay strong, too,” her mother replied. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
ProPublica is using middle names for the teenager and her mother to protect their identities.
There are unspoken gag orders in child welfare, where, if a parent speaks out, parental rights will be terminated and the child put up for adoption.
