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View Full Version : Has Child Protection Services lost its mind?


CormorantEnt
13th Jun 2009, 07:07 AM
Link (http://amiablyme.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/arkansas-mother-arrested-after-protecting-children-from-foster-care)


Suzanne McHenry from Arkansas, originally from the UK was Arrested Monday after signing over Temporary Guardianship to her in-laws.

Suzanne and husband Calvin received a visit from at 11am Thursday June 4th regarding their 4 month old little girl Bethany’s safety. What the McHenry’s did not know was that the other two children Amie age 5 and Lee age 3 were already being detained by Social Services on trickery when the Grandparents were asked to bring them in so that they could be observed and to “speak” to the Grandparents about the validity to the allegations.

During the time the Grandparents were being interrogated, the children were taken into another room out of the sight and ears of their Grandparents. Upon any conclusions of the so called interview, the Grandparents were told they would NOT be taking their little one’s home.

After the Family Services Assessor Rhonda Bohamon left the home of the McHenry’s stating that Bethany “appeared fine” they were then visited yet again by Social Services just hours later to “take the baby”. The Social worker stated to Suzanne “Supervisor said ‘take one take all’”.

Calvin McHenry stated they “might get their children back within 72 hours.. but need to hold the children until their investigation is complete” as this is what he was told by Social Services.

What the McHenry’s didn’t know was the Child Welfare Laws in their state.

They didn’t know that one the law state in Arkansas: 9-30-104.State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board (a)The State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board is created as an autonomous agency”; which for those of you who may not understand what that mean, it’s SELF GOVERNING and independent and subject to their own laws.

The McHenry’s, as with every other parent faced with such tragedy, believed the Social Workers would do as the laws state and would find the allegations “unfounded”. The McHenry’s were unaware of the policies and practices of Social Service. They were unaware of the Corporation they were dealing with.

On Friday June 5th, as ordered to appear in court they were faced with a decision to either give up temporary custody to Calvin’s parents (which they felt completely comfortable in doing) or face their children going into a Foster Home. So before court started all attorneys went into back chambers with the Judge to discuss the turn over in guardianship; it was granted and the children were now safe from Foster Care. However, Social Services WAS NOT HAPPY!

On Monday a police car showed up on the McHenrys doorstep stating they wanted to “ask some questions in regards to the children” both Suzanne and Calvin stated they would not without council, thus making the police officers angry where upon immediate handcuffs were slapped on Suzanne stating they had a warrant for her arrest.

No reason was given, no warrant was shown and the police refused to give out any information to either party as to court dates or reasons. It was also stated by Calvin that there was no Myranda rights given to his wife. The officer sweared expletives to Calvin when Calvin started asking him about his rights and the Constitution the officer only stated “Shut the **** Up..Don’t say another *****ing word!”

It wasn’t until the following day Calvin learned from Suzanne that there has been supposedly a warrant issued on May 22 for her arrest, prior to any inquiry by Social Services.

The case is still in it’s beginning stages but the McHenry’s are asking for any help they can get and would like to have any journalists to take on the challenge in helping them. Calvin McHenry said “I will be willing to open up my life and hand over any and all evidence a Journalist requests to prove our innocents and get my babies back”.

They can be reached through facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113480075624&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=113480075624&topic=9603

http://suzannemchenryfund.chipin.com/suzanne-mchenry-fund

UPDATE: I spoke with Calvin McHenry today June 10th and I was informed that a reporter from the Local TV WMCTV/(NBC) in his area has taken on his story.. It’s still not enough, he still needs to have the truth come out since he can not afford an attorney. ALSO, they are CHARGING HIS WIFE WITH A FELONY BATTERY CHARGE which is giving her a 25 to LIFE sentence!

UPDATE: June 12, 2009 The McHenry’s were contacted by an Attorney willing to take the case and has promised the McHenry’s he would take the case and “UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION”. This will be interesting to follow. More good news, Calvin McHenry stated this new attorney is aggressive and plans to take the case ALL THE WAY. He plans to get the Bail reduced immediately.

GREAT NEWS: Mr. McHenry stated the children were taken to the Hospital for an evaluation on their so-called "burn marks" and 3 doctors CONFIRMED the marks were that of A STAFF INFECTION!!!


I really do suspect foul play in the state of Arkansas against this family. I can't prove it; but the DA sounds to me like a Nifong-esque predator.

Doc Doofus
13th Jun 2009, 08:22 AM
It would be nice if there were more detail to this than just a chain e-mail from a sympathetic source. I went googling for more, and most of the results point back to this same email, usually with a plea for money. There is an article about this at WMC TV, but it says that the children were extracted because of cigarette burns on their arms.

davious
13th Jun 2009, 02:04 PM
The fact that they are accused of burning their kids with cigarette burns makes me somewhat hesitant to believe that they didn't do anything wrong. I went googling too, and I am sorry, but, either the kids have cigarette burns or they don't. I saw nothing to make me think its a total frame up, and my initial reaction is that they cigarette burning incidents probably did happen, which makes me rather unsympathetic to their cause. I simply have no tolerance for people who abuse children.

Chelleypie
15th Jun 2009, 01:46 PM
The writer cannot even spell 'staph' correctly...

As a 'veteran' of the Louisiana system, I can tell you that OCS (that's what we call them) has varying degrees of 'give a damn'. I've been a nanny to 4 kids who were adopted out of foster care for more than a year now; and we had a friend who's cousin was in OCS custody living with us (through OCS) for a few months.

My boss was reported three times in the last 9 months: twice by the private Catholic school for incidents her (somewhat disturbed) son reported; once by a beauty shop owner who was fed information by a neighbor about her daughter. The first allegation was investigated half to death. Everyone and their mother was called, and eventually it was declared a non-incident: they decided that the little boy made it up. The second time it was barely investigated, the third allegation was not even really investigated: a social worker came by the house and told her what happened, her family was interviewed, and it was declared unfounded.

Now, the teenager in state care was another story. Her caseworker did one interview for the home study and essentially dropped out of sight thereafter. The girl was pregnant, the social worker didn't even show up for the birth of the baby a few weeks ago, which is required of them.

I don't know how Arkansas works. But here, they won't take a kid unless there's hard evidence to support doing so. It took them 3 years to remove The Peas (three of my boss's kids, they're a sibling set) from their abusive parents. Never mind that when the oldest was 9 months old their birthfather held their birthmother at knifepoint and cut her throat and nearly beat her to death, they didn't see a good cause to remove at that time.

So I don't buy that these people are innocent. The link you gave is a blog that looks like it's 'out to get' foster care in whatever way it can. YES, the system is enormously flawed. But no well-trained OCS/CPS worker would mistake a staph infection for cigarette burns.
Staph Infection on Skin (http://toppayingideas.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/what-is-staph-infection.jpg)
Cigarette Burn on Skin (http://www.cpdt.org.uk/tab02/images/fig2_10.jpg)
There's a huge difference there. So no, I don't believe a word of this story, and consequently, I don't think CPS has lost their collective mind.

Nvenya
15th Jun 2009, 03:07 PM
Here is the news report (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m65FUIfH6M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flegallykidnapped.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fpolice-state-2009-mother-of-three.html&feature=player_embedded)

Not sure how they would have a hard time determining the child was burned or if she has a staph infection. Seems fishy to me, but I'm not sure which side is to blame. There's just not enough information.

davious
15th Jun 2009, 04:48 PM
It seems to me that cigarette burns would leave a distinctive looking burn mark, not something that looks more like chicken pox or the measles. And Chelleypie is correct, no well trained OCS/CPS should ever confuse the two. It sounds more like excuse making from the not-so-innocent looking parents.

wristband
17th Jun 2009, 10:05 AM
:!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: The teenager in state care was another story. Her caseworker did one interview for the home study and essentially dropped out of sight thereafter. The girl was pregnant, the social worker didn't even show up for the birth of the baby a few weeks ago, which is required of them.

Xunixeon
17th Jun 2009, 12:25 PM
They also take away kids with disabilities from their parents even if they wrongly think that they're abused. At one time, I was extremely angry and I took off my clothes, and the woman thought that I was abused by Dad. That is why Dad ran away from my family and was rarely seen again.

The law enforcement as well as Child Care Services have problems with dealing with Asperger's as well as other forms of autism and congenital mental disorders.

Now with the parents, they should make their case clearer since there were evidence that they have burn-like marks which would have resulted from cigarettes. There are some people that are stupid enough to claim that they're innocent when they did something wrong.

Chelleypie
19th Jun 2009, 12:52 AM
:!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: The teenager in state care was another story. Her caseworker did one interview for the home study and essentially dropped out of sight thereafter. The girl was pregnant, the social worker didn't even show up for the birth of the baby a few weeks ago, which is required of them.

Can I ask what the point in quoting me was, please, I'm puzzled.

Yes, most child welfare agencies have difficulty with mental illness - please see my previous post. At first, OCS wouldn't believe for a second that he was suffering from oppositional defiance, PTSD, ADHD and possibly reactive attachment disorder - they thought that mom was abusive and just using the mental issues as an excuse. Psychologist said otherwise, and that's what finally got the allegations dropped.

Organic mental illness and trauma are neither well accepted by child welfare agencies - mental illness because it's heavily stigmatized, trauma because 'kids are resilient'.

I maintain that all CPS/OCS/child welfare workers are well-versed in what cigarette burns look like, since that's the most commonly inflicted abuse injury. Even blistered over, they DO NOT LOOK LIKE STAPH. See the photos I provided - they don't look a thing alike. I think the parents burnt the kids and got caught, and now have found doctors to say that they're staph. In a city the size of Little Rock, you can indeed find 3 doctors corrupt enough to say whatever you want them to so that they can have a cut of your lawsuit settlement.