Macomb County Trafficker Of Tiny Humans Prosecutor Eric Smith, et al, Finally Indicted

What has yet to be unsealed is the trafficking of tiny humans in Michigan.

Yes, Eric Smith, Prosecutor for Macomb County, Michigan runs Termination of Parental Rights cases.

These are cases where his team of tiny human traffickers run some fake ass cases to cover up their activities of Child Protective Services legally kidnapping children of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) in an act of acquisition of goods, for a foreign nation, to process through some fake ass Foster Care billing for services phantom services, kiddy kickbacks, double, and treble billing to Targeted Case Management of Medicaid, to run through some fake ass Child Welfare NGOs, as they use kids as lab rats in some seriously nefarious phamaceutical and epigenetic experiments, just so they can fund their campaigns, to stay in office, to procure more dumb ass, fake family services, so they can go to the strip club to do lines off the ass of a kid who aged out foster care.

Yes, I said that.

I spied with mine eyes, the lies, of what they do to tiny humans.

#maytheheavenfall

Macomb County also has been running Child Support fraud schemes under Title IV-D, putting fathers in jail, solely for the reasons of hailing from the population of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).

Heck, I remember working on the case when Macomb County was running an auto theft ring, driving up with tow trucks, towing SUVs out of hotel parking lots in the middle of the night, selling them in Ohio.

The case is out there, look it up.

I did not get into the money laundering through those god forsaken Foster Care and Adoption dens of atrocious inequities.

I have seen these people double bill in Wayne and Macomb Counties.....because they like to borrow the revenue maximizations fraud schemes.

Praise the lord.

Mirs News (Subscription service. The article should be out later.)

Macomb Prosecutor, 3 Others Charged With Felonies

Eric Smith

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric SMITH, assistant prosecutor Derek MILLER and two other individuals have been charged with a litany of felony crimes, including embezzlement, misconduct in office and conducting a criminal enterprise.

Michigan Attorney General Dana NESSEL announced today that Smith faces 10 charges, including official misconduct in office and tampering with evidence in a civil proceeding as well as five counts of embezzlement by a public official. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted as charged.

Benjamin LISTON, retired Macomb County assistant prosecutor and former chief of operations, and Miller, a former state representative, each face official misconduct in office charge while Liston also is charged with embezzlement. Liston faces up to 20 years in prison and Miller up to five years if they are convicted as charged.

Business executive William WEBER is charged with forgery, larceny by conversion, aiding and abetting Smith's embezzlement and receiving and concealing stolen property. He faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted as charged.

Nessel’s office today sought arrest warrants for the four men following a year-long public integrity investigation involving the Attorney General's Public Integrity Unit, the Michigan State Police and other agencies.

"It is my conclusion today, that the following individuals not only violated the bare minimum standards of integrity, they corrupted the justice system and trampled upon the public trust while doing so," Nessel said.

Southfield's 46th District Court Judge Cynthia ARYANT was appointed by the State Court Administrator to sign the warrants after Macomb County 41B District Court judges recused themselves.

Due to the public health emergency and the state’s stay-at-home order, Nessel issued a video today discussing the situation.

Listen to Dana present her transposable model in the Termination of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for breaching oath of office to protect the children's trust, called posterity.

#maytheheavensfall

Smith Et Al Felony Complain... by Eric L. VanDussen on Scribd

Macomb County, Michigan Traffickers of Tiny Humans

CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings - Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney

The Michigan Department of Human Services (formerly the Family Independence Agency) is the agency charged with the responsibility for investigating allegations of child abuse or neglect. The Juvenile Division of the Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is the legal consultant to the DHS. This means that an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney will represent the DHS at all stages of a child protective proceeding.

A child abuse/neglect proceeding begins with the filing of a petition with the Circuit Court Family Division in the County where the abused or neglected child “is found”. A petition is a complaint or other written allegation that a parent, guardian, non-parent adult, or legal custodian has harmed or failed to properly care for a child. The purposes of a petition are to frame the issues for the court and to provide notice of the allegations to a respondent (usually a parent). Typically, a DHS Children’s Protective Services worker prepares and files a petition with the court. However, prosecutors, school officials, the Children’s Ombudsman of Michigan, guardians, custodians, and foster parents may file petitions.

If a petition is filed and requests placement of the child outside the parental/custodial home, the court must hold a preliminary hearing to decide whether to authorize the filing of the petition and continue the child’s placement outside of the home. The preliminary hearing must commence no later than 24 hours after the child has been taken into protective custody. In cases in which the child has been severely physically injured or sexually abused, the preliminary hearing must commence no later than 24 hours after the DHS submits a petition.

If the court authorizes the petition at the preliminary hearing, the matter will be scheduled for a pretrial before a judge or referee. At that pretrial the respondent will have the opportunity to admit to the allegations, or a portion of the allegations in the petition, or deny the validity of the allegations contained in the petition. If a respondent admits to the allegations contained in the petition, the child will be made a temporary court ward. If the respondent or respondents deny the allegations contained in the petition the matter will be scheduled for a bench trial before a judge or referee, or a jury trial before a judge.

If a respondent admits to the petition, or if a referee, judge or jury found after trial that the petitioner proved at least one of the allegations by a preponderance of the evidence, the child is made a temporary court ward. The matter must then proceed to an initial dispositional hearing. The purpose of the hearing is to determine what measures the court will take with respect to a child properly within its jurisdiction and, when applicable against any adult. Generally the court orders regarding a plan for reunification is based upon the recommendations of a DHS Foster Care Specialist. Prior to the dispositional hearing the Foster Care Specialist will have met with the respondents, conducted a family history, and drafted a parent agency agreement which lists all the services the DHS believes will assist the family in reunification.

Following the initial disposition the court will schedule periodic dispositional review hearings. The purpose of these review hearings is to monitor a respondent’s progress in complying with and completing the court ordered remedial measures. The respondent, respondent’s attorney, the Foster Care Specialist, an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Foster Parents, and any professional involved in the treatment plan may participate in a review hearing. Dispositional review hearings must be conducted every 90 days. The court may order additional reviews sooner than every 90 days if the court deems it necessary.

Permanency planning hearings are conducted to review the progress being made toward returning home a child in foster care, or to show why the child should not be made a permanent court ward. A court must hold a permanency planning hearing no later than one year after an original petition was filed. The permanency planning hearing is conducted in the same manner as the review hearing described above. However, at the conclusion of the permanency planning hearing the court must order the child returned home unless it determines that the return would cause a substantial risk of harm to the life, physical health, or the mental well-being of the child. If returned home, the child may be dismissed as a court ward, or may continue as a court ward to monitor the adjustment to the home environment. If the court determines at a permanency planning hearing that the child should not be returned home, it must order the DHS to initiate proceedings to terminate parental rights.

Upon the filing of a supplemental petition, the court will schedule a termination trial. If the child is already a court ward the respondent has no right to a jury trial. In certain cases of severe physical abuse, or sexual abuse the DHS may request termination of parental rights in an initial petition. Once a court finds by clear and convincing evidence after trial that a legal basis for termination exists, the court must terminate parental rights unless termination is clearly not in the best interest of the child. Parental rights to a child include the rights to custody, control, services, earnings, and inheritance. If all parental rights to a child are terminated, the child will be placed in the permanent custody of the court for purposes of placement and where appropriate, adoption. Termination of parental rights does not extinguish an obligation to pay child support.


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SCOTUS Enters The Realms Of Parental Rights

This is Dana Nessel.

This is about Parental Rights.

Supreme Court to take on LGBTQ foster care case

In this June 26, 2015, file photo, a crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S. On Friday, Aug. 16, 2019, the Justice Department brief filed telling the Supreme Court that federal law allows firing workers for being transgender. The brief is related to a group of three cases that the high court will hear in its upcoming term related to LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace. 

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear a case next term involving the city of Philadelphia’s decision to no longer work with foster care agencies that refuse to place children with married, same-sex couples.

Catholic Social Services sued Philadelphia after officials said the Human Services Department no longer would certify foster care agencies that do not comply with the city’s anti-discrimination policy, effectively shutting off public funds to the social services arm of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia’s city solicitor stood by the decision to end the partnership with Catholic Social Services (CSS) over anti-discrimination violations, which were reported in an investigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Unfortunately, CSS refused to consider qualified same-sex couples to become foster parents — even when these couples would be a safe, loving family for the child — and in doing so, CSS defied the City’s nondiscrimination policy,” City Solicitor Marcel S. Pratt said Monday in a written statement.

Groups advocating for religious liberty for child placement agencies welcomed the high court’s announcement. The archdiocese cheered the decision, having placed children in homes as an extension of its religious ministry since the late 18th century.

“There’s no reason to single out and punish adoption providers who are motivated by their sincerely held religious beliefs that the best home for a child includes a mother and father,” said Keisha Russell, counsel at First Liberty Institute, the law firm representing the plaintiffs. “When the government decides whose faith is or is not acceptable, we all lose.”

The Supreme Court’s announcement comes almost a year after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by foster parents for CSS, ruling that the city had acted to end discrimination against LGBTQ parents, not out of anti-religious bigotry.

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The Battle Of Parental Rights - The Michigan Child Welfare System - St. Vincent & Bethany Christian Trafficking Tiny Humans - DOJ Intervenes In Illinois

This has nothing to do with sex.

This is about parental rights.

People fail to understand that the States Attorney General possesses the parental right, under commerce, in this particular situation, trafficking tiny humans.

This is about chattel law because we are dealing with land, and children are attached to the land, which uncloaks another layer in the residuals of the peculiar institution.

For some, this is about human asset management.

One side wants degenderfication for investments, the other side wants to conserve their hierarchic human property ownership structure of chattels.

Children are attached to the land as immovable chattels, but the soul is the movable chattel, better understood as the birth certificate, the identity, the one thing necessary for billing to Medicaid.

If St. Vincent and Bethany Christian lose their ability to acquire goods, their institutions would not be eligible to meet their contractual obligations with DHS and ICE, in warehousing, transportation and distribution of all those border babies.

I bet "The Boys" over there at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops got The Saddy Faces right now because another federal judge has made another ruling, allowing the DOJ to file a Statement of Interest in a similar subject matter case.

This is about the children's trusts.

Justice Department Files Statement of Interest in Indiana Lawsuit Brought by Former Teacher Against Archdiocese

The Justice Department today filed a Statement of Interest explaining that the First Amendment protects the right of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis to interpret and apply Catholic doctrine. The lawsuit was brought against the Archdiocese by a former teacher who was fired from a Catholic high school within the diocese because he was in a same-sex marriage in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage. The Archdiocese indicated that the school had to terminate the teacher, or the school would forfeit its Catholic identity, which would have led to several repercussions for the school.

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of religious institutions and people to decide what their beliefs are, to teach their faith, and to associate with others who share their faith,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “The First Amendment rightly protects the free exercise of religion.” 

“If the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses stand for anything, it is that secular courts cannot entangle themselves in questions of religious law,” said United States Attorney Josh Minkler.   

This case stems from a directive issued by the Archdiocese to Cathedral High School, a Catholic school in Indianapolis. The Archdiocese told Cathedral that the school’s continued employment of a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage in contradiction to Catholic teachings on marriage would result in Cathedral’s forfeiture of its Catholic identity. After much deliberation, the school terminated the teacher. The teacher then filed suit against the Archdiocese, claiming the directive to Cathedral interfered with his employment and his contractual relationship with the school.  

The government explains in the Statement of Interest that the First Amendment prevents courts from impairing the constitutional rights of religious institutions. The former teacher’s lawsuit attempts to penalize the Archdiocese for determining that schools within its diocese cannot employ teachers in public, same-sex marriages, and simultaneously identify as Catholic. Supreme Court precedent clearly holds that the First Amendment protects the Archdiocese’s right to this form of expressive association, and courts cannot interfere with that right.

The Statement of Interest also makes clear that courts cannot second-guess how religious institutions interpret and apply their own religious laws. Supreme Court precedent explains that the First Amendment forbids courts from engaging in “quintessentially religious controversies.” Instead, as the Statement of Interest explains, “the legitimacy of the Archdiocese’s decision as a matter of Catholic law” is committed exclusively “to the judgment of the Archdiocese.”   

In July 2018, the Department of Justice announced the formation of the Religious Liberty Task Force. The Task Force brings together Department components to coordinate their work on religious liberty litigation and policy, and to implement the Attorney General’s 2017 Religious Liberty Guidance.

DOJ Payne-Elliott - Statement of Interest in Indiana Lawsuit Brought by Former Teacher Against Illinois Ar... by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Here is another federal judge who had an issue with indefinite holding of children in state facilities.

Indentured servitude is traditionally contracted in seven year incrementswith 90 day dispositional cycles.

Dana is slated to be placed in a similar, strategic, legal position, as the DOJ has just done, if she just so happens to file an enjoinder with Statement of Interest in previous federal cases in dealing with the Brothers of St. Vincent and the Daughters of Charity, or something wily creative to that effect.

Robert Jonker is the judge who halted the rules, promulgated from the law.

Robert Jonker

Federal judge halts Michigan's new gay adoption rulesRobert James Jonker (born March 9, 1960) is the Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
Born in Holland, Michigan, Jonker received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College in 1982 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1985. He was a law clerk for Judge John F. Feikens of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, from 1985 to 1987. He was in private practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1987 to 2007.
On March 19, 2007, Jonker was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan vacated by Gordon Jay Quist. Jonker was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 9, 2007, and received his commission on July 16, 2007. He became Chief Judge in 2015.

Here is a bit of background on the christian legal battles of marriage.

Here is a fun little rubric to play with during the course of this uncloaking:

If two individuals are of the same "sex" (not broaching definitive legal measurement tools for the distinctions of phenotype and genotype), what is the citizenship of the adopted child?

Better yet, what is the race of the child, considering they like to lump and dump in crappy predictive modeling variables of race, since we still use race classifications, one of those pesky residuals of the peculiar institution. 

It is called "Right of the Womb".

This is about the re-animation of the peculiar institution while battling for their stake in those economic redevelopment funds, because they are going broke from stealin' the children, land and votes.

Gerrymandering.

Federal judge halts Michigan's new gay adoption rules

A Grand Rapids federal judge has halted a new state policy that bans state contracts with foster and adoption agencies that refuse to work with gay couples.

The state’s settlement and comments made by Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel about the policy prior to taking office show “that the state’s new position targets St. Vincent’s religious beliefs,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker wrote in his Thursday opinion.

The opinion comes none too soon for St. Vincent, whose contract for adoption services with the state expires on Monday.

Dana Nessel

"One of the reasons we needed urgent relief was because the contract was ending on Monday," said Nick Reaves, a lawyer for the adoption agency. "This ruling basically protects St. Vincent’s and stops the state from taking adverse action, such as not renewing the contract.”

"If they cannot come to an agreement that allows for a quick process of the decommissioning of Line 5 then I will act," Attorney General Dana Nessel said in an interview on the sidelines of the Mackinac Policy Conference. "I'm not prepared to wait much longer on that." (Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

In his opinion, Jonker said Nessel "is at the very heart of the case" in part because of comments she made on the campaign trail in which she described supporters of the state’s prior policy as “hate mongers” and said she “could not justify using the state’s money” to defend “a law whose only purpose is discriminatory animus.”

Shortly after taking office, Nessel agreed to change state policy so contracts with agencies that refused to work with gay couples would be terminated.

"All of this supports a strong inference that St. Vincent was targeted based on its religious belief, and that it was defendant Nessel who targeted it," wrote Jonker, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush.

“Under the attorney general’s current interpretation of Michigan law and the parties’ contracts, St. Vincent must choose between its traditional religious belief, and the privilege of continuing to place children with foster and adoptive parents of all types," Jonker wrote.


Nessel tweeted late Thursday in response to the development: "Now and forever I will fight to support the constitutional precepts of separation of church and state and equal protection under the law for all Michigan residents and all Americans."

The lawsuit filed on behalf of St. Vincent, an adoptive mother and a former foster child revolves around a March settlement between Nessel and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan regarding two gay couples who had sued the state when they were rejected by agencies with religious objections to same-sex couples. The agencies were St. Vincent and Bethany Christian Services.

The judge's opinion failed to note that some of those comments were made by Nessel in her capacity as a private citizen and others were taken out of context, said Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan.

Jonker's decision to issue a preliminary injunction was disappointing and appeared to ignore counter arguments made by the state and the ACLU in amicus briefings, he said.

Adoption agencies essentially become state actors when they contract with the state and allowing them to invoke religious reasons for failing to serve a group of people is akin to a "violation of church and state," he said. The decision essentially "provides a license for discrimination," Kaplan said.

"The ones who lose as a result of this are the children, the children who need these loving, stable homes," Kaplan said.

A spokeswoman for Nessel's office said the department is reviewing the decision. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services referred comment to the attorney general's office.

The settlement required the state Department of Health and Human Services to maintain non-discriminatory provisions in foster care and adoption agency contracts by ending state contracts with agencies if they discriminate against same-sex couples.

In its April filing, St. Vincent argued the new policy violated the group’s First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion and free speech, the group's 14th Amendment rights to equal protection and those rights guaranteed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The agency is represented by a religious liberty group, Becket Law.

The judge's ruling Thursday shows "discriminatory actions taken by the state in this case really have no role in the foster care and adoption context," Reaves said. "And when the state takes these actions, it actually makes it harder to find a home for kids in need.”

The case revolves not around whether same-sex couples can be great parents, Jonker wrote, but around “whether St. Vincent may continue to do this work and still profess and promote the traditional Catholic belief that marriage as ordained by God is for one man and one woman.”

Without state contacts, St. Vincent would be forced to close its doors, the agency argued. Further, other adoption agencies are available to gay couples seeking a child.

As of mid-February, St. Vincent and Bethany were responsible for nearly 10% of the more than 13,000 children under state supervision.

Agencies already can refer couples to different adoption agencies for various reasons, including geography, waitlists or a family's search for a specific type of child. But under the new policy, "the only justification for a referral that is now impermissible is a religious objection to same-sex marriage," the lawsuit said.

In the past, St. Vincent had referred gay couples to other adoption agencies because it believes an evaluation recommending the couples for state licensure “would conflict with (its) religious beliefs.”

The state has investigated St. Vincent for compliance with the new policy but "were waiting for the lawsuit to play out before they take the next step," Reaves said. The rulingfurther prevents the state from acting on the new policy during the duration of the case, he said.

The Legislature in 2015 passed a law that protected faith-based agencies that declined to provide services based on religion. Nessel’s office argued the law applied only to “private action” and not to “state-contracted services.”

Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette had defended the state against the ACLU lawsuit when it was filed in 2017, but Nessel’s office sought a settlement instead.

The Michigan Catholic Conference, a lead advocate for the 2015 law, praised the judge's Thursday decision, saying: "it's encouraging to see that Dana Nessel's animosity toward Catholics has now been recognized in federal court."

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Will States AG Finally Go After Christianity & Its History Of Trafficking Tiny Humans - Welcome To The World Of Foster Care & Adoption - Happy Residuals of the Peculiar Institution Month!

This is not just about nasty priests.

This is about trafficking tiny humans in the name of the lord.

This is about chattel law.

This is about christian law.

It is legal to procure and purvey children for profit which is why it has taken the U.S. so long to understand that you can not keep stealin' children and selling them.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a foreign corporation which leads me to inquire on the jurisdiction for prosecution.

There are child placing agency contracts of the residential institutions where the children are used as pharmaceutical lab rats.

These christian facilities allow genetic experiments on children who are placed under the custody of the state in foster care.

Children are raped, nightly, for years, where there screams are medicated into a level of palliative care for the purposes of billing Medicaid at higher rates and the nuns will tell you to "Pray to God".

These christian child welfare organizations will generate fraudulent reports to submit to the court to keep children in care for the purposes of hitting that benchmark to proceed with termination of parental rights so they can sell, oops, I mean market the child for adoption.

These men and women of god are the ones who go into far away lands, to "save the savages" by setting up missionary human baby plantations to import the kids back into the U.S. for adoption, and re-homing, and other trafficking networks.

Glory be to these ministers of the cloth who have allowed children to wander in the world with no education, destroyed as compassionate humans, tortured, with only a life of selling their bodies for their daily bread, yet have billed for it under Title I, for death is too good a gift to be granted in judgement.

Praise the lord for salvaging the souls of these children whose only crime was to be born in poverty, for their entire legacy has been seized through fraudulent filings of asset forfeiture, where the child is issued a new identity, complete with a fictitious legacy worth absolutely nothing but a shortened life expectancy.

These are the community leaders who preach a life of holiness as they turn their heads while children slit their writs in hopes of never waking up the next morning, to be beaten, drugged, and raped again, when the sun sets.

Slavery was never abolished because of the exception, which is why the States Attorney General do not know how to proceed.

Moral turpitude is a concept to be equally applied to these men and women of the cloth, but in this instance, we can only hope for prosecution of war crimes.

Foster care and adoption are that exemption and it is legal, devoid of any civil rights.

The most horrific part of this investigation which is about to unfold is that it has been going on since the beginning of this great nation, and not one person has grieved about this besides me.

The Roman Catholic Church is the child trafficking network, it is global and people like Cory Booker are furiously working to maintain the status quo of human ownership by pushing his new concept of selling children in Baby Bonds.

There are individuals who are willing to lay down their lives to protect this system of chattel because it is the foundation of the christianity.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been able to secure vast swaths of U.S. land from the industry of trafficking tiny humans.

The State of Michigan and its counties enter into these contracts, fully aware of what is going on.

Just check the Children's Ombudsman or my archives.

No one did anything to save these children but they made sure the parents were destroyed while the "Elected Ones" did nothing but turn a blind eye while cashing their campaign contributions.

The heavens shall fall, bringing down the entire U.S. child welfare system, starting with Michigan.

On a mission...

As bishops gather, prosecutors step up scrutiny of church

Detroit – Hundreds of boxes. Millions of records. From Michigan to New Mexico this month, attorneys general are sifting through files on clergy sex abuse, seized through search warrants and subpoenas at dozens of archdioceses.

They’re looking to prosecute, and not just priests. If the boxes lining the hallways of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s offices contain enough evidence, she said, she is considering using state racketeering laws usually reserved for organized crime. Prosecutors in Michigan are even volunteering on weekends to get through all the documents as quickly as possible.

For decades, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church were largely left to police their own. But now, as American bishops gather for a conference to confront the reignited sex-abuse crisis this week, they’re facing the most scrutiny ever from secular law enforcement.

A nationwide Associated Press query of more than 20 state and federal prosecutors last week found they are looking for legal means to hold higher ups in the church accountable for sex abuse. They have raided diocesan offices, subpoenaed files, set up victim tip lines and launched sweeping investigations into decades-old allegations. Thousands of people have called hotlines nationwide, and five priests have recently been arrested.

“Some of the things I’ve seen in the files makes your blood boil, to be honest with you,” Nessel said.

“When you’re investigating gangs or the Mafia, we would call some of this conduct a criminal enterprise.”

If a prosecutor applies racketeering laws, also known as RICO, against church leaders, bishops and other church officials could face criminal consequences for enabling predator priests, experts say. Such a move by Michigan or one of the other law enforcement agencies would mark the first known time that actions by a diocese or church leader were branded a criminal enterprise akin to organized crime.

“That would be an important step because it would set the standard for pursuing justice in these cases,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and CEO of CHILD USA, a Philadelphia-based think tank that tracks statute of limitations reforms.

Monsignor G. Michael Bugarin, who handles sex abuse accusations for the Detroit Archdiocese, said they too are committed to ending abuse and cover-ups. Bugarin said they cooperate with law enforcement, and that won’t change if the attorney general is considering organized crime charges.

“The law is the law, so I think we just have to respect what the current law is,” he said.

Some defenders of the church bristle at the notion of increased legal action, saying the Catholic institution is being singled out by overzealous prosecutors. A spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did not respond to requests for an interview Monday. The church has said it is already taking steps to address clergy abuse.

Seventeen years after U.S. bishops passed a “zero tolerance” policy against sexually abusive priests, they will consider new measures for accountability over abuse at their gathering this week in Baltimore. The meeting follows a global order issued by Pope Francis last month requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities.

The meeting also follows a grand jury report that documented decades of clergy abuse and cover-ups in Pennsylvania, which thrust the Catholic Church’s sex assault scandal back into the mainstream last fall and spurred prosecutors across the U.S. to launch investigations of their hometown dioceses.

Since then, many states have launched telephone hotlines or online questionnaires for confidential complaints including Virginia, Nebraska and California.

Pennsylvania has been flooded with calls, some 1,800 from victims and families over the last three years. In Iowa, 11 people who identified themselves as victims and their relatives came forward in the hotline and questionnaire’s first three days. New Jersey and Michigan’s tip lines have received about 500 calls each, while Illinois has received nearly 400 calls and emails, including 160 from survivors.

In contrast, Delaware’s attorney general tip line has had four calls since November, 2018, a spokesperson said. Officials in Vermont say they cannot comment because the investigation is ongoing, but that they are aware of dozens of victims of alleged criminal misconduct.

While priests have been prosecuted in the past, top law enforcement scrutiny of church authorities has been relatively rare. In 2012, Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese in Missouri was the first and only American prelate convicted for his role in aiding a priest, when he was found guilty of failing to report child pornography on a cleric’s laptop to authorities.

AP reached out to attorneys general in 18 states, federal prosecutors in three jurisdictions and the U.S. Justice Department to learn more about the new round of investigations. Some of the accused priests in Pennsylvania had ties to other states, prompting those attorneys general, such as New Mexico, for example, to take a fresh look.

Before Pennsylvania’s attorney general got involved, cases against predator priests were largely the purview of local police and prosecutors, or private attorneys bringing lawsuits and civil claims. Although Pennsylvania’s attorney general office says prosecutors have spoken with their counterparts from almost every state, most attorneys general in the U.S. have not taken public action.

In Kentucky, Attorney General Andy Beshear wanted to investigate but lacked jurisdiction. He worked to change state law, but the bill failed to make it through the legislature.

Attorneys general who are investigating are using a range of tools. Michigan executed search warrants, which means police show up and raid the offices. Delaware, West Virginia and Nebraska have issued subpoenas, which is a less assertive approach, making a legal request for the records. New Jersey officials have started to make arrests, while Washington D.C.’s attorney general is weighing civil charges.

Asked whether the office would consider charges under Iowa’s far-reaching RICO statute, Attorney General spokesman Lynn Hicks said that nothing is off the table but that it’s premature to say. And in Virginia, spokesman Michael K. Kelly said they are using “every tool, authority, and resource” to investigate not only priests, but also “whether leadership in the dioceses may have covered up or abetted any such crimes.”

Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller said that he took action late last month after his office met with abuse survivors, including some whose stories have never become public.

Tim Lennon, who grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, said he was among the survivors who corresponded with Miller’s office and in recent months sent over new material about priests accused of abuse.

“The priest who had raped and abused me when I was 12 had gotten caught at three parishes before they moved him to my parish. The bishop knew and kept moving him along,” said Lennon, the president of the board of directors for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who now lives in Arizona.

Statute of limitation rules differ, and are being tested, in different states. In Michigan, for example, the clock stops if a priest moved out of state for a period.

New York, California and Florida refused to comment, citing ongoing investigations.

In recent years, civil lawsuits have used racketeering laws leading to large settlements. Delaware-based attorney Stephen Neuberger, who has successfully sued the church on behalf of clergy abuse victims, said questions inevitably arise about church authorities covering up and facilitating for accused priests. He said organized crime statutes seem appropriate.

“It’s not piling on,” he said. “In fact I think it’s long overdue.”

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"The Boys" v. "The Girls": Michigan Attorney General Nessel Arrests 6 Priest - Bill Schuette Sends A Spokestoken - No One Talked About The Industry Of Trafficking Tiny Humans - Happy Foster Care Month!

At this time, I do not have much to say.

Psych!

Dana has a 1-800 number, a hashtag and a Church Militant Spokestoken.

Yes, I said that because I told you they were going to do it.

Duh.

These priest are sacrificial because this the residuals of the peculiar institution, not the last 100 years that is being spun in the promotion of Bill Schuette *Smooches*.

Yes, this 50 some odd years old victim took a substantial amount of time to thank law enforcement and focus on the media telling the truth and the victim telling their stories.

You can tell the operatives by their lack of passion, neuro-linquistic patterns of absolute disdain for "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) whose children have been Legally Kidnapped from their arms, who may or may not have survived in foster care.

Egads! That sounds like they are attempting to rewrite history by rewriting my fairy tale.

Naughty, naughty.

I am the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed and no matter how hard you try to spin my testimonial to the heavens, you can never terminate my right to bear witness because I have been doing this for a few decades, and now, the heavens shall fall.

Whacha gonna do, wipe PACER and Congressional Testimony?

Please, I archive like I footnote.

Oh, I should not give them any more ideas.

They are really good at bleaching national archives, you know.

How about the privatized state contracts with these christian child placing agencies which are very crafty in maximizing revenues with state Medicaid, Title I, IV, V, IX, XIX, etc. to allow children under the care of the State of Michigan to be drugged, raped, beaten, tortured and used for lab rats, if they do not kill themselves or run away to the freedom of a life on the streets in trap houses of the Detroit Land Bank Authority?

What about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and their foster care and adoption contracts?

Not one word on foster care and adoption, but then again, we are waiting on Nancy Edmunds to see if she is going to continue covering the trafficking of tiny humans in Michigan, or, if something else will happen that will force me to go pop popcorn.

The Ricky Holland and that other case with the two boys who did not die are back open through the Auditor General, which may just have to follow GAGAS and report material violations for further investigation in dealing with federal funding.

I am quite sure there are games going on in the Michigan Children's Institute and the Michigan Children Trust because no one wants to talk about human trafficking and the Archdioceses, and the entire christian community.

Is Dana setting up Michigan to go into federal receivership?

If she is a "Legal Genius" (trademark pending) she will be too busy preparing for the legal tsunami that is going to put her, and her rogue ass crew, in the annals of history.

How her tale is to be told, is up to her.

Until then, I await for Michigan to address its industry of trafficking tiny humans, and the drugging, beating, rapes, suicides, successful and unsuccessful, pregnancies, and snatching of the babies in foster care and adoption.

It still goes on today, but I am so glad a grown man found it so important to talk about the children who live with this every single day, with no help, nothing but turning back to that child welfare system that destroyed their childhoods.

This includes Flint and the other cities victim to the Michigan Emergency Manager Law.

Where is Betsy DeVos?

Five Michigan Catholic priests charged with sex abuse crimes against children

(FOX 2) - Five Catholic priests have been charged with sexual abuse charges amid a probe by the attorney general's clergy abuse investigative team and a sixth has had his educational license suspended.

Five priests were charged this week with a total of 21 charges, including two priests from the Detroit Archdiocese, two from Lansing, and one from Kalamazoo. The victims range in ages 5 to 26 years old and include four boys and one girl.

State Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the update on the state's investigation into clergy abuse within Michigan's seven Catholic dioceses. You can watch live on FOX 2's Facebook page or fox2detroit.com/live.

Members of the attorney general's clergy abuse investigative team has been reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents seized from from the state's dioceses last October. The clergy abuse hotline has received more than 450 tips since the beginning of the year.

One of the priests is even accused of performing oral sex on a child during confession.

Below are the preists charged:

Timothy Michael Crowley, 69, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Washtenaw County with four felony counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and four felony counts of CSC 2 - a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Crowley, who was a priest in various parishes, including St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.

Neil Kalina, 63, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Macomb County with one felony count of CSC 4, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring. Kalina, who was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, was arrested Thursday in Littlerock, California.

Vincent DeLorenzo, 80, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Genesee County with three felony counts of CSC 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and three felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. DeLorenzo, who was a priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Burton, was arrested Thursday in Marion County, Florida.

Patrick Casey, 55, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Wayne County with one felony count of CSC 3, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Casey, who was a priest at St. Theodore of Canterbury Parish in Westland, was arrested Thursday in Oak Park, Michigan.

Jacob Vellian, 84, Kalamazoo Diocese, was charged with two counts of Rape, a maximum sentence of life in prison. Vellian was a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Benton Harbor, and now lives in Kerala, India. Nessel said they are working on extraditing him from India.

Nessel said nearly all the charges came as a result of calls to the tip line. She said they are only 5 or 10 percent through the information they've received and anticipate many more arrests in the future.

"We want to make certain that we are taking dangerous predators off the streets," she said.

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Michigan Attorney General Dana & Her Volunteers Cover Up Christian Trafficking Tiny Humans Operations In Her Office

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is using her staff, of whom I shall assume are Assistant Attorneys General, because there is no point of reference for the public, or rather the defense, to validate the chain of custody of the records.

Dana, are these #perkinscoiesucks?

I only say this because I know about an extremely large file up there in her office that has lots, and lots of documentation that goes beyond the purview of the sexual abuse of clergy in the Catholic Church, a foreign corporation.

That extremely large file up there in her office that has lots and lots of documentation on the contractual fraud with the agents of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that hire privatized child welfare NGOs who allowed foster children to be drugged, raped, tortured and used and lab rats, if they did not die, seasoned with lots and lots of fraudulent Medicaid cost reimbursements that her office ignored.

Are these "volunteers" volunteering to selectively sequester the rapes of children in state, private contracted foster care residential facilities, group homes and foster care placements that billed Medicaid to silence the screams of these children with pharmaceutical testing and psychological experiments in child welfare to cover up what was going on in the State Attorney General's Office?

Are these "volunteers" cherrypicking the crimes against humanity which transpired in Wayne County, Lincoln Hall of Justice, the only County in the State where the Attorney General prosecutes child abuse and neglect cases?

Will Dana and her volunteers be going after Jennifer Granholm and the dirt she did when it comes to the rapes, murders, suicides, attempted suicides, torture and massive fraud that went on while she was Assistant Attorney General prosecuting child abuse and neglect cases in Wayne County?

How about calling some of the parents who sued the Michigan Attorney General for covering up the drugging of the screams of children being raped, nightly, in these so called Catholic Charities?

Will Dana and her volunteers be going after Bill Schuette and Cinnaire, in all the fraudulent real estate transactions from Medicaid fraud in child welfare through these christian, privatized, Child Placing Agencies or are they preparing to skirt by another scathingly distractionary Auditory General report?

Perhaps, Dana and her "volunteers" will be filtering the exfiltration of fraudulent Medicaid payments of cloaking the drugging, rapes, and tortures of foster children in these christian institutions like United Methodists, trafficking tiny humans into Michigan from other countries?

I bet Dana and her "volunteers" are doing what Maura Corrigan did in SCAO right before that U.S. HHS OIG Single Audit, considering the fact that the world awaits for Nancy Edmunds to have one of those Epiphanies and realizes that nothing has been done in the over 10 years of court monitoring of the State Child Welfare System, well, people have gotten lots of more money in privatized contracts, but that is not the issues in this situation....or is it?

If Michigan Department of Health and Human Services goes into federal receivership, it would behoove Dana and her "volunteers" to sift through the documents and pull out any self-incriminating evidence of public corruption, you know.

How about the Michigan Children's Trust which launders money overseas and into political campaigns of the DNC and RNC?

Did you get some of that Medicaid fraud in child welfare money in your campaign, Dana?

I bet you did, Dana.

We will never know because these are "volunteers" volunteering, where we have no idea who they are or what their training is.

This is a photo of an inherent conflict of interest and I, accordingly, enter it, formally, into the record  because my blog is evidence of war crimes against humanity, and in this particular instance, I am referencing forced migration through Child Protective Services.

These children who are never mentioned as victims of drugging, rape and torture in foster care and adoption are tossed to the streets, with no educational or medical records, because "volunteers" volunteered to destroy evidence.

Then again, the Michigan Attorney General contemporaneously advises and advocates, so this is nothing new.

I probably should never have commented on this situation because St. Vincent and Bethany Christian can now call all the evidence produced in prosecution to be contaminated, but hey, what do I know?

I know she should have had Starletta Banks run this op and ask her to tell you what it means for a parent to sacrifice everything to stop the trafficking of tiny humans, which originated from the Office of Attorney General.

Feel free to verify what I have just stated through PACER, Michigan Courts, or my blog.

"Who are these 'volunteers' volunteering?"

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Clueless In Michigan: More Trafficking Tiny Humans Lawsuits - Will St. Vincent Sarah & Bethany Christian Move To Enjoin To Nancy Edmunds' Court?

If St. Vincent and Bethany Christian can sue Michigan over new gay adoption rules, well, by golly, Michigan can sue St. Vincent and Bethany Christian, and all the other Foster Care & Adoption Agencies for Trafficking Tiny Humans.

It is only logical considering the fact that they are the ones who are trafficking tiny humans.

I wonder if the Michigan GiGi Interlopers, DHHS Robert Gordon and Garlin Gilchrist, will show up, or at least publicly admit that child trafficking is foster care and adoption.

Oh, wait.

I forgot.

Nancy Edmunds is supposed to decide if Michigan is all better when it comes to its child welfare system.

Perhaps, St. Vincent and Bethany Christian can enjoin in the Dwayne B. v. Granholm (now Gretchen Whitmore) action.

Probably not.

Trafficking tiny humans through foster care and adoption is how St. Vincent and Bethany Christian maximizes their revenues.

As for the LBQRSTUV adoption issue, it is just a legal property ownership argument under the law of chattels.

Welcome to Foster Care & Adoption in Michigan, oops, I mean, human trafficking.

Happy Child Abuse Propaganda Month!

Adoption agency sues state over new gay adoption rules

Michigan DHHS Director Robert Gordon,
& Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist - Clueless in Michigan

An adoptive mother, a former foster child, and a Michigan faith-based adoption agency are challenging a recent state settlement that bans state contracts with foster and adoption agencies that refuse to work with gay couples.

St. Vincent Catholic Charities, former foster child Shamber Flore, and Melissa Buck, a mother of five special needs kids adopted through St. Vincent, filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging the new rules violated the group’s First Amendment rights. The agency is represented by religious liberty group, Becket Law.

The lawsuit is filed against Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, Children's Services Agency Director Herman McCall, Attorney General Dana Nessel, the federal Health and Human Services department and its secretary, Alex Azar.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an injunction on the settlement's provisions that would require the state to stop contracting with agencies that, because of their religious beliefs, refuse to work with same-sex couples.

Nessel's office declined to comment until officials had a chance to review the lawsuit. 

In a Monday statement announcing the lawsuit, Buck, of Holt, said her family still relies on the support of St. Vincent “in every step of our journey together as a family" and could have problems should the family look to adopt siblings of their adopted children through St. Vincent in the future.

“We are hopeful that the courts will step in, do the right thing and allow faith-based agencies to continue to help vulnerable families like mine,” Buck said.

In March, Nessel reached a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and two gay couples who had sued the state when they were rejected by agencies with religious objections to same-sex couples. The agencies were St. Vincent Catholic Charities and Bethany Christian Services.

The settlement required the state Department of Health and Human Services to maintain non-discriminatory provisions in foster care and adoption agency contracts by ending state contracts with agencies if they discriminate against same-sex couples.

Because the settlement was between the state attorney general's department and the ACLU, St. Vincent as an intervenor in the lawsuit had no option but to file a separate action, said Nick Reaves, a lawyer for Becket.

Without the state contract, St. Vincent would be forced to close its doors and the settlement could have a similar effect on "any other organization that shares their religious beliefs," Reaves said. He added that he is not aware of any contracts being dropped so far in light of the March settlement.

“Faith-based agencies like St. Vincent consistently do the best work because of their faith, and we need more agencies like them helping children — not fewer,” Becket President Mark Rienzi said in a statement.

Catholic agencies make up a small portion of the 58 private agencies that contract with the state for adoption and foster care services, proving "there really isn't any access problem" for gay couples seeking an agency through which they can adopt, Reaves said.

For example, in Ingham County, 17 other adoption agencies besides St. Vincent are available to parents seeking to adopt, he said.

Agencies already can refer couples to different adoption agencies for various reasons, including geography, wait lists or a family's search for a specific type of child.

Further, a same-sex couple still can adopt a child within St. Vincent after receiving a home study and becoming a certified pre-adoptive home through a different agency, St. Vincent said in its lawsuit.

Nessel’s office maintained a 2015 law passed by the Republican-led Legislature only protected faith-based agencies that declined to provide services based on religion when it came to “private action.” The protection did not carry over into state-contracted services, she argued.

Such a conclusion is in "serious tension" with previous interpretations of the law and the language of the law itself, Reaves said.

Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette had defended the state against the ACLU lawsuit when it was filed in 2017. But even before taking office Jan. 1, Nessel had signaled she would not continue to support Schuette's position on the lawsuit.

As of mid-February, St. Vincent and Bethany were responsible for nearly 10% of the more than 13,000 children under state supervision.

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TEFRA: The Latest Medicaid Fraud In Child Welfare Trust Fund Battle - Who Will Control The Industry of Trafficking Tiny Humans - Nessel v. Engler

Today, I was tip toeing through the FinCEN trying to figure the next, latest and greatest stealin' op of the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) when I found a lovely growth of financial intel called the cross border transfer from the originator to the beneficiary, and said to myself,

"Hey, Self! You know what that sounds like? It sounds like one of those trafficking tiny humans mechanisms."

"Well, golly geeze, who would have ever thought about transposing international financial law enforcement models over to the privatized industry of trafficking tiny humans?"

"Me, Silly!"

So, there you have it, I found TEFRA:

Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982

TEFRA, as it is called, has lots and lots of asset forfeiture models for civil debt and liquidity for child support, disabled children, children and their families living in poverty, the elderly, and the lot.

That is when I figured out that this was the introduction to that "targeted population" era.

TEFRA talks about the transfer of bonds from the originator to the beneficiary in the form of trusts, children's trust funds.

It was at this point I said, "Corporate Parental Rights!"

I found the originator of the Public Private Partnership they are repurposing for civil asset forfeiture in the transfer of the grant to the right of the incapacitated person, having a diffusion of lumping children, disabled and elderly, into the category of not being legally capable to represent themselves in legal matters, therefore must be put under a Guardian Ad Litem for one of these privatized, foreign corporations to take legal custody of the trust, being the Medicaid funding, and any other inheritances, because the corporate parent becomes the beneficiary.

The rebranding of child welfare.

I know, I need to do a LK production on this.

This is why there is a push to become gender neutral.

Gender neutral in law allows for easier transfers of funds under chattel law.

Chattel law is heirarchial when it comes to gender in property ownership.

Think of it like this, instead of a marriage, you have a corporate partnership, with newly defined corporate parental rights through TEFRA in mergers and acquisitions, or rather, adoption.

Yes, it still exists today, but I see the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) taking this into maritime law, because we are dealing with foreign corporations in partnership with our federal, state and local governments.

partnership by on Scribd

Yes, the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) are rolling out the 2019 Stealin' Model for Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

Behold, the first thing that popped up when I did a basic term search on TEFRA:

https://humanservices.arkansas.gov/about-dhs/dms/tefra

https://afmc.org/individuals/arkansans-on-medicaid/beneficiary-education/tefra-webinar-feb2019/

These are Medicaid funded private children's trusts models, which have no gender, under TEFRA.

This is being diffused across the nation as corporate parental rights, where the corporation is the beneficiary and the state is the orignator to the trust.

I tell ya, these "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) are awfully clever when it comes to stealin'.

The following is the Michigan private, foreign, children's trust funds for wagering.

This is all about the children's trust funds because they get that Medicaid money and leverage it, not providing crap to the people who need it, for the purposes of maximizing revenues.

Seriously.

So, now that we know the purpose of the LBQRSTUV #coloredrevolution propaganda; they want in on the children's trust funds and they are privatizing the justice system for "The Poors" by rebranding child welfare, through databases and technologies, to implement their Targeted Case Management programs under the new Families First Act, through TEFRA.

This is about the christian chattel law model being outdated, when it comes to parental rights, under the legal property ownership concepts in gender, only.

There is nothing in Ecclessiastical law which recognizes same sex marriages, as the many subjects of wifery are still on the books under the Mann Act and Immigration and Naturalization Act.

It has nothing to do with one's genotype or phenotype, it has to do with the beneficiary of the trust, the ownership of the intellectual property.

Corporations have no gender; ergo, do not produce its goods, but acquire, through the transfer of parental rights from the host, the new name for mother.

The LBQRSTUV narrative is just a cover for the genetic research industry of manufacturing tiny humans, because humans are being produced outside a human host and it not very easy to assign gender to parental protein strands.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a foreign corporation, has a corner on the market when it comes to the child welfare industry.

The LBQRSTUV community wants in on the skins because the Pro Lifers have been running the show.

Nothing more.  Nothing less.  It is about the children's trust funds in the trafficking of tiny humans, which is why we are circling in on the use of policy of a private, foreign corporation.

Since all this started in Michigan, this boils down to nothing but a battle between "The Boys" v. "The Girls" on who controls the rebranding of parental rights in child welfare.

Child welfare is chattel law under the Vatican, "Virgin of the Sea", so I see this as a simple battle of corporate privateers taking over the industry, with these very same questions lingering in SCOTUS in DACA/DAPA actions.

Who owns the child, under what jurisdiction, under what laws, under what authority, under what rights?

This is going to be very nasty because people do not like it when you snatch their money, but now comes another group that wants in on the Medicaid fraud in child welfare gaming system.

Nessel does not want to talk about trafficking tiny humans in Michigan, but is willing to confront the John Engler, but not on this subject matter.

We should ask Nessel why she does not want to talk about trafficking tiny humans in Michigan.

Oh, wait....I forgot.

Michigan is still under federal oversight of its child welfare system.

What a situation!

This is what I call an inherently contemporaneous conflict of interests because she cannot advise and advocate at the same time in child welfare, remember?

Michigan will no longer fund adoption agencies that discriminate against gays

Michigan will no longer financially support adoption and foster care agencies that refuse to work with same-sex couples and LGBTQ individuals because of religious beliefs under the terms of a settlement of a lawsuit negotiated by Attorney General Dana Nessel.

The settlement, which was announced Friday, sets up a battle with the Republican-led Legislature, which passed a law in 2015 that allows adoptions agencies to refuse to work with members of the LGBTQ community.

The terms of the settlement require that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services agrees to maintain nondiscriminatory provisions in its foster care and adoption agency contracts. It also calls for the department to enforce the nondiscrimination provisions by terminating contracts with agencies that either discriminate against same-sex couples or LGBTQ individuals who would otherwise qualify to become foster or adoptive parents or that refer them to other agencies.

In exchange for the policy, the plaintiffs in the case — Kristy and Dana Dumont of Lansing and Erin and Rebecca Busk-Sutton of Detroit — have agreed to dismiss their claims and pay their own attorney fees and costs.

“We are so happy that for same-sex couples in Michigan who are interested in fostering or adopting, opening their hearts and homes to a child no longer comes with the risk of being subjected to the discrimination we experienced," the Dumonts said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the case on behalf of the couples. "We are hopeful that this will mean more families for children, especially those who have been waiting years for a family to adopt them. And we can’t wait to welcome one of those children into our family.”

In 2015, Republicans in the Michigan Legislature, voting mostly along party lines, passed a controversial bill that allows adoption and foster care agencies to cite religious convictions when refusing to work with same-sex couples who want to adopt  or foster a child.

The two couples filed a lawsuit in 2017 challenging the MDHHS contract with taxpayer-funded and state-contracted foster care and adoption agencies that refused to work with same-sex couples.

More: Nessel's quest for AG's office began on steps of U.S. Supreme Court

More: AG Dana Nessel to reconsider LGBTQ rights protections

The couples said they approached St. Vincent Catholic Charities and Bethany Christian Services to adopt children the agencies had accepted through referrals from MDHHS.  They said the agencies refused to work with them.

It is not found in chattel law.

The state contracts with 59 private adoption and foster care agencies across the state and while the MDHHS wasn't able to say specifically how many don't work with same-sex couples or LGBTQ individuals, 20 of the agencies are affiliated with religious organizations.

After the settlement was announced Friday, the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Lansing-based advocacy agency that serves as the official voice of the Catholic Church in Michigan, tweeted, "The settlement announced today by the Attorney General in the Dumont/Lyon case does nothing to protect the thousands of children in foster care looking for loving homes. As such, it is highly unlikely this is the last chapter of the story."

Lori Windham, an attorney with Becket, a Washington D.C.-based law firm that works on religious freedom cases, said the settlement violates Michigan law that protects religious adoption agencies.

"The Michigan AG and the ACLU are trying to stop the state from working with faith-based adoption agencies," she said in a statement. "The result of that will be tragic. Thousands of children will be kept from finding the loving homes they deserve."

Nessel, the first lesbian to be elected to statewide office in Michigan, is most well-known for her representation of a Madison Heights same-sex couple, a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and led to the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

During her campaign for attorney general, standing up for the rights of the LGBTQ community was a major theme.

“Discrimination in the provision of foster care case management and adoption services is illegal, no matter the rationale,” Nessel said in a statement. “Limiting the opportunity for a child to be adopted or fostered by a loving home not only goes against the state’s goal of finding a home for every child, it is a direct violation of the contract every child-placing agency enters into with the state.”

The ACLU said the settlement was a victory for the 12,000 children in foster care in Michigan.

“Our children need every family that is willing and able to provide them with a loving home," said Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project. "When agencies choose to accept taxpayer dollars to provide public child welfare services, they must put the needs of the children first.”

But the settlement is sure to spark a backlash from Republicans in the Legislature, who argued that businesses, including adoption and foster care agencies, shouldn't be forced to conduct business in a way that violated their moral and religious beliefs.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, blasted Nessel and the settlement.

“Dana Nessel has shown us that she cares little for the Constitution and even less for the vulnerable population of children in need of forever homes," he said.

"Nessel’s actions make it clear that she sought the office of attorney general to further her own personal political agenda."

He claimed that faith-based adoption agencies will have to stop operating in Michigan because of the lack of taxpayer-funded support.

State Rep. James Lower, R-Cedar Lake, said the decision proves that the Legislature was right when it passed a bill late last year that would allow lawmakers to intervene in any case brought against the state. One of the reasons behind the bill was fear that Nessel would try to undo laws passed by Republicans. That bill was vetoed by former Gov. Rick Snyder.

"I’m just disappointed. This proves our point that the attorney general is unwilling to defend the laws in this state," he said, adding that he's sure the GOP caucus will talk about how to move beyond this one settlement. "We can still request to become a party to cases, but I think this one is over."

Lower wasn't in the Legislature when the original bill passed in 2015, but he said he would have supported it.

"It made sense — the situation puts these agencies in a tough situation because they have been able to refer couples to another agency that is willing to work with same-sex couples," he said. "But now, they'll have to choose to either not to help the kids or violate their religious beliefs."

DNA & RNA have no gender when it comes to corporate parental rights.



ThermoFisher

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