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May 2008

NEW JERSEY

McGreeveys Reach Deal on Custody of Daughter

By The Associated Press

5-9-08 -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey and his estranged wife settled child custody matters on Thursday as they moved closer to dissolving their marriage, their lawyers said. . . . The deal for custody of their 6-year-old daughter came on the third day of negotiations, which included some closed-door testimony before state Superior Court Judge Karen M. Cassidy, who was trying to avoid a divorce trial. . . . The couple and their lawyers are scheduled to return to the Union County Courthouse on Monday to begin settlement talks on remaining issues, including alimony and child support. . . . Should those succeed, the final issue would be Dina Matos McGreevey’s claim of marriage fraud. . . . Mr. McGreevey left the courthouse Thursday evening escorted by two uniformed sheriff’s officers. Speaking of the custody agreement for his daughter, Mr. McGreevey said, “She’ll get a large amount of time to spend with her parents.” . . . Lawyers for both Mr. McGreevey and his wife said they could not disclose terms of the custody agreement because it was confidential. . . . “It was an amicable settlement,” said John N. Post, lawyer for Ms. Matos McGreevey. “The judge was very, very helpful to both sides.” . . . Asked about the financial and fraud issues that remain, Mr. Post said, “Hopefully, we’ll be able to settle those issues also.”

April 2008

In The Best Interest Of The Child

By Betty Freauf, NewsWithViews.com

 4-30-08 -- When we first began to hear the phrase “In the Best Interest of the Child” we thought it was a noble concept that protected the vulnerable children by removing them from abusive or negligent parents; yet it also has led to levels of intervention unimaginable a few decades ago and suddenly many people were being accused of child abuse. Child Protective Services (CPS), because of something a child may have said to a teacher or written in an essay, which may even have been misconstrued, was kidnapping children at schools. . . . Because of draconian actions by the child protectors, many felt they were overstepping their boundaries, so the Oregon legislature passed legislation creating a Citizen Review Board, which was to become watchdogs over social workers who were determining who were unsuitable parents. I volunteered in the mid-1980s to become an unpaid member. A number of boards were set up in each county. . . . Our Constitution gave government no jurisdiction over family life and I felt constitutionally it was the county sheriff’s duty to investigate the crime of abuse because he was the “elected” official and the public could hold him responsible. I contacted our local sheriff and he was more than happy to take responsibility but this never happened. Instead, the social workers would contact the sheriff, or the local city police, and they would accompany the social workers to a home to supervise arrests of often times innocent people and take traumatized, screaming children to be “interrogated” and then to some “licensed” foster care home where it was not unusual for the child to be abused again. Bleeding-heart liberals who believed everything the media printed about this so-called epidemic felt the children would be safe in foster care because they were “licensed.”

TEXAS

Attorneys Worry How Changes Will Affect Polygamist Children

Click2Houston.com

4-25-08 -- Some people have voiced their opposition to sending children taken from the polygamist sect in west Texas to foster homes, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday. . . . Three Houston-area facilities are expecting the children to arrive at any moment. . . . One attorney said some of the children are being ripped away from their families a second time by separating them from their siblings. . . . Betty Luke said her 7-year old client is being placed with her sister in Waco, far away from their brothers, who are being placed at a Brazoria County facility. . ..  "It just seems to make better sense to me to place those two children, who are going to be placed together anyway, in the Houston area, closer to their brothers, closer to their attorney," she said.

CALIFORNIA

Sexual exploitation of minors racks up billions

By Barbara Grady, Oakland Tribune

4-24-08 -- The economic rule of supply and demand drives the market for everything from toothpaste to sports cars. . . . It also drives the sexual exploitation of minors. . . . If adults weren't interested in paying $120 or $200 to have sex with a child or teenager, girls and boys would not be peddled on the street by pimps. . . . "It's basic supply and demand,'' said Norma Hotaling, founder and executive director of San Francisco-based SAGE, or Standing Against Global Exploitation. Sexual exploitation is a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide, she said, "paid one dollar at a time by men who have decided to use their money, use their family's income, to buy a human being. . . . "They use these girls like sewers.'' . . . Girls as young as 11 or 12 are increasingly being sold for sex on Oakland streets in what one law enforcement officer called "an epidemic.'' . ..  Sexual assault of a minor is a felony, punishable by long prison sentences. Hotaling said most of the johns she sees seem surprised to learn that buying sex from a minor is sexual assault. . ..  Under contract with the San Francisco Police Department, SAGE runs a class for men arrested on a first offense of soliciting prostitution, from minors or adults. Police call it the "john school.'' . ..  "I teach a class of about 60 men every other month,'' Hotaling said. "I look out at that class and see men of all types.''  . . . They are rich and not so rich, in distinguished professions and in manual labor, young and old, from the suburbs and the city.

KENTUCKY

Judge: Teen can attend St. X over dad’s objection

By Andrew Wolfson

4-14-08 -- Fourteen-year-old Michael Ryan may attend St. Xavier High School, despite the objections of his atheist father, an Oldham County family court judge has ruled. . . . In a decision made public today, Judge Tim Feeley said he was persuaded that it is in Michael’s best interest to attend St. X, in part because that’s where he wants to go. . . . Michael’s parents are divorced, and his mother, Susan Bisig, wanted him to go to the Catholic high school in Louisville.. . . “The court cannot compel David Ryan to send his child to a religious school” and “likewise this court cannot prohibit Susan Bisig from sending her child to a religious school,” Feeley wrote in an eight-page ruling. . . . “What this court must do is make custody decisions considering the best interest of the child,” Feeley said. “The clear best interest of this child is supported by the mother’s position.”

Trading Nude Photos Via Mobile Phone Now Part Of Teen Dating, Experts Say

Associated Press

4-14-08 -- Forget about passing notes in study hall; some teens are now using their cell phones to flirt and send nude pictures of themselves. . . . The instant text, picture and video messages have become part of some teens' courtship behavior, police and school officials said. . . . The messages often spread quickly and sometimes find their way to public Web sites. . . . "I've seen everything from your basic striptease to sexual acts being performed," said Reynoldsburg police Detective Brian Marvin, a member of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force of Central Ohio. "You name it, they will do it at their home under this perceived anonymity." . . . Westerville Central High School senior Jerome Ray said he's received such unsolicited messages, including one from a classmate while he was sitting with his girlfriend. . . . "A lot more girls are aggressive," said Ray, 18. "Some girls are crazy and they are putting themselves out there."

MISSOURI

House endorses bill barring lawyers from yelling at kids in court

By Chris Blank, The Associated Press

04-06-08 -- Lawyers couldn't yell at child witnesses under legislation endorsed by the House on Wednesday. . . . Supporters say the bill is designed to help make child witnesses more comfortable by giving them additional protections and regulating attorneys' behavior. It would apply to anyone younger than 18. . . . It was approved 100-48 and now goes to the Senate. House leaders had to end debate and force a vote even though the bill was placed on a list of "consent bills" that cannot be amended and are unlikely to generate significant debate. . . . Rep. Bob Dixon said that court can be intimidating even for adults, and that there needed to be special considerations for children. . . . "We want to make sure the courtroom is a fair place so that the child can tell what happened to them," said Dixon, R-Springfield.

ARKANSAS

Toddlers Can No Longer Marry in Ark.

By Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press Writer

04-03-08 -- Arkansas' marriage-age crisis is over. A law that mistakenly allowed anyone — even toddlers — to marry with parental permission was repealed by a measure signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mike Beebe, ending months of embarrassment for the state and confusion for county clerks. . . . Lawmakers didn't realize until after the end of last year's regular session that a law they approved, intended to establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, instead removed the minimum age to marry entirely. An extraneous "not" in the bill allowed anyone who was not pregnant to marry at any age with permission. . . . The bill read: "In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."

Government stakes claim to every newborn's DNA
'We now are considered guinea pigs, instead of human beings with rights'

By Bob Unruh, © 2008 WorldNetDaily

04-03-08 -- An Orwellian plan that has state and federal governments staking claim to the ownership of every newborn's DNA in perpetuity is advancing under the radar of most privacy rights activists, but would turn the United States' citizenry into a huge pool of subjects for involuntary scientific experimentation, according to one organization alarmed over the issue. . . . "We now are considered guinea pigs, as opposed to human beings with rights," Twila Brase, president of the the Citizens' Council on Health Care, a Minnesota-based organization familiar with the progress in that state. . . . She warned ultimately, such DNA databases could spark the next wave of demands for eugenics, the concept of improving the human race through the control of various inherited traits. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, advocated eugenics to cull people she considered unfit from the population. . . . In 1921, she said eugenics is "the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems," and she later lamented "the ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all." . . . Lawmakers in Minnesota recently endorsed a proposal that would exempt stockpiles of DNA information already collected from every newborn from any sort of consent requirements. That means researchers could utilize the DNA of more than 780,000 Minnesota children for any sort of research project whatsover, Brase said. . . . "The Senate just voted to strip citizens of parental rights, privacy rights, patient rights and DNA property rights. They voted to make every citizen a research subject of the state government, starting at birth," she said. "They voted to let the government create genetic profiles of every citizen without their consent." . . . The result will be that every newborn's DNA will be collected at birth, "warehoused in a state genomic biobank, and given away to genetic researchers without parent consent – or in adulthood, without the individual's consent. Already, the health department reports that 42, 210 children have been subjected to genetic research without their consent," Brase told WND. . . . She said although her organization works with Minnesota issues, similar laws or rules and regulations already are in use across the nation. . . . The National Conference of State Legislatures, in fact, lists for all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia the various statutes or regulatory provisions under which newborns' DNA is being collected.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Lawyer testifies that DC's child welfare agency in crisis

(AP) - 04-02-08 -- A children's rights lawyer says D.C.'s child welfare agency is in crisis after thousands of new reports flooded the agency in recent months. . . . Marcia Robinson Lowry is the executive director of Children's Rights. The advocacy group has been involved in a federal lawsuit against the city's Child and Family Services Agency dating back nearly two decades. . . . Lowry testified in court Tuesday that the surge in calls has created a dangerous situation that might prompt legal action to send the child welfare agency back into court receivership. . . . A spokeswoman for the agency says calls have increased 600 percent since Banita Jacks was arrested in January after her four daughters were found dead inside her southeast Washington home.

MARYLAND   

Judicial system failed slain children, friends say

by Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner

04-02-08 -- Friends blame the judicial system for failing to keep a suicidal father away, but lawyers and activists fault Maryland’s domestic violence law as stacked against children and abused wives. . . . “The threat of murder, how can you overlook that?” asked Dan Sander, a friend of Mark Castillo, who was charged with killing his three children. . . . “It is the responsibility of the courts to protect the children — and they failed.” . . . In January 2007, Montgomery Circuit Judge Joseph Dugan denied wife Amy Castillo’s request for a protective order, because psychological analyses by court-appointed therapists showed that Mark Castillo posed no threat to his children, despite his threat to kill his children, his bipolar and narcissistic personality disorders and suicide attempts. . . . The investigation of Mark Castillo, charged Monday with drowning his sons, Anthony, 6, and Austin, 4, and daughter Athena, 2, prevents judges from commenting, Dugan’s spokesman said. . . . Another Montgomery judge, Michael Mason, denied Amy Castillo’s request to halt her husband’s visitations. . . . But lawyers and activists said the law’s at fault, not judges. . . . Maryland requires a higher standard of evidence in custody battles and abuse hearings than most states, said Patrick Dragga, a family lawyer who supports lowering the standard to help victims. . . . “A protective order gives women a false sense of security,” said Prince George’s Circuit Judge Vincent Femia, who favors abolishing them.

KENTUCKY  

Ex-state agency lawyer pleads guilty in Ohio child-sex sting

Associated Press

04-02-08 -- A former children's services lawyer accused in an Internet child-sex sting pleaded guilty Tuesday to two charges. . . . Barry Mentser, 48, of New Albany, pleaded to importuning and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, his attorney and a prosecutor said. Authorities dropped a charge related to spreading material harmful to juveniles. . . . Mentser was arrested Oct. 31 in the Ohio Statehouse basement in a sting set up by a Hamilton Township police detective who had posed online as a 15-year-old girl. . . . Mentser's attorney, Charles Rittgers, said he could face a sentence ranging up to 18 months in prison. . . . "He's taken responsibility for what he did, and he's ready to try to move on and deal with this the best he can," Rittgers said, adding that Mentser, who has been free on bond, had no prior criminal record.

OHIO  

Kids' Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Child-Sex Case

New York Lawyer, By The Associated Press

04-02-08 -- A former children's services lawyer accused in an Internet child-sex sting pleaded guilty Tuesday to two charges. . . . Barry Mentser, 48, of New Albany, pleaded to importuning and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, his attorney and a prosecutor said. Authorities dropped a charge related to spreading material harmful to juveniles. . . . Mentser was arrested Oct. 31 in the Ohio Statehouse basement in a sting set up by a Hamilton Township police detective who had posed online as a 15-year-old girl. . . . Mentser's attorney, Charles Rittgers, said he could face a sentence ranging up to 18 months in prison. . . . "He's taken responsibility for what he did, and he's ready to try to move on and deal with this the best he can," Rittgers said, adding that Mentser, who has been free on bond, had no prior criminal record.

March 2008

MICHIGAN

Part one: How to wreck a boy's life

Experts say an Oakland County detective ran roughshod over a 13-year-old in a sexual abuse case against his parents

By Brian Dickerson • Free Press Columnist

03-17-08 -- In the fading twilight of a Tuesday in early December, a 13-year-old boy sat alone in a West Bloomfield police interrogation room, sobbing as he cradled his head in his hands and rocked from side to side. . . . For nearly an hour, Detective Joseph Brousseau had grilled the boy about accusations that he and his autistic sister had been sexually molested by their father. . . . No, the boy insisted, he'd seen nothing to support the detective's lurid suspicions. Three times, he offered to take a lie detector test. . . . But Brousseau hammered away, challenging the boy's honesty, his manliness, his loyalty to his disabled sister. . . . Again and again, the detective told the boy his body language betrayed the burden of a terrible secret. . . . "What if I told you that one of those videotapes confiscated from your parents' house had you in it?" the detective asked suddenly. . . . The 13-year-old straightened. "Was it me doing something sexually?" . . . "I don't think I'd be bringing it up if it wasn't," Brousseau answered. "That's what I'm trying to tell you -- it's going to come out." . . . If it were merely what it purported to be -- the disclosure of a deviant father's treachery -- the videotaped exchange would be excruciating enough to watch. . . . But the truth is a good deal uglier than that. . . . Charges have been dropped. In fact, prosecutors now concede, much of what Brousseau told the boy during his Dec. 4 interrogation was a fabrication. . . . There were no videotapes depicting the boy in sexual situations with his father or sister. There was no new crime lab evidence confirming his sister's allegations, despite Brousseau's repeated assertions to the contrary.

NEW YORK  

N.Y. High Court Finds Adopted-Out Child Has No Claim to Jell-O Fortune

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

03-14-08 -- The daughter of an heir to the Jell-O fortune, who spent 14 years looking for her birth mother, is not entitled to a multimillion-dollar share of two disputed trusts, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. . . . In a separate ruling Thursday involving two joined cases, Matter of Adult Home at Erie Station, 21, and Regional Economic Community Action Program v. Bernaski, 22, the state's highest court ruled that an Orange County city improperly denied tax exemptions to a home for the elderly and a social work organization devoted to the poor. . . . In the disputed trusts decision, Matter of the Accounting by Fleet Bank, 27, the court reversed the Appellate Division, 4th Department, finding that the law in effect at the time of the execution of the trusts, in 1926 and 1963, does not imply the right for an adopted-out child to share in a class gift. . . . The unanimous court also found that public policy precludes office manager Elizabeth McNabb, 52, from receiving shares of two trusts created to benefit her birth mother's "descendants" and "living children." . . . Citing the court's own 1985 decision Matter of Best, 66 NY2d 151, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote, "As the Court noted, the finality of judicial decrees would be compromised if adopted-out children were included in such class gifts 'because there would always lurk the possibility, no matter how remote, that a secret out-of-wedlock child had been adopted out of the family by a biological parent or ancestor of a class of beneficiaries.'"

CALIFORNIA  

Anti-war judge rejects foster teen's bid to join military

By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer

03-10-08 -- Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military, and watching "Full Metal Jacket" last year really sold him on becoming a Marine. . . . But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus. . . . In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military. . . . "The judge said she didn't support the Iraq war for any reason why we're over there," said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office. . . . "She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.' She said she didn't want him to fight in it." . . . Sage, 17, said he begged for Mackel's permission.

Study finds 1 in 4 US teens has a STD

By Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer

03-07-08 -- At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study that startled some adolescent-health experts. . . . Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens' own sense of invulnerabilty. Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention. . ..  Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases. . . . Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing — 40 percent had an STD. . . . "This is pretty shocking," said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New York. . . . "To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing," but teen girls — and boys too — need to be informed about how to protect themselves if they do have sex, Alderman said.

GEORGIA

Government Concedes Vaccines May Have Injured Ga. Girl; Impact on Autism Claims Unclear

Marilynn Marchione, The Associated Press

03-07-08 -- Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine injury fund. . . . Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably make the case an exception -- not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims. . . . The government "has not conceded that vaccines cause autism," said Linda Renzi, the lawyer representing federal officials, who have consistently maintained that childhood shots are safe. . . . However, parents and advocates for autistic children see the case as a victory that may help certain others. Although the science on this is very limited, the girl's disorder may be more common in autistic children than in healthy ones. . . . "It's a beginning," said Kevin Conway, a Boston lawyer representing more than 1,200 families with vaccine injury claims. "Each case is going to have to be proved on its individual merits. But it shows to me that the government has conceded that it's biologically plausible for a vaccine to cause these injuries. They've never done it before."

IDAHO

Ammon Elementary Student Invents 'Diabetic Dress'

Reporter: Kristi Henderson

03-07-08 -- An 11-year-old Ammon Elementary student turned a school project into a mission to help her little sister live a more normal life. . . . Kailey Caldwell designed a diabetic dress and recently placed third in the Invention Convention in Boise. . . . Whitlee Caldwell is just like any other 5-year-old, enjoying reading a story with her mom and big sister. . . . But a year ago, Whitlee was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She now uses an insulin pump, and for a little girl, the device came with a major drawback. . . . Kailey Caldwell, Diabetic Dress Inventor: "They have a little belt with a pack on them that you can wear with skirts and pants, but when you try and wear them with a dress it makes a bulge and it doesn't feel very comfortable and you still have to lift your dress up to give yourself insulin."

NEW JERSEY

N.J. considers unsealing adoption records

By Adrienne Lu, Inquirer Trenton Bureau

03-07-08 -- Robert Hafetz spent most of his life wanting to know who his birth parents were. . . . Hafetz, who was adopted as an infant in New Jersey and now lives in Warrington, Bucks County, started searching four years ago and discovered his birth mother had died in 1977. In the process, the 57-year-old met two half-brothers, who have welcomed him into their family. . . . He says that having access to original birth certificates would help other adoptees answer the nagging questions of identity that haunt some from the time they are children. . . . But some parents don't want to be found. Philip Foley of South Jersey and his wife, who asked not to be named, are among those fighting to keep birth records sealed by New Jersey. . . . Foley testified on his wife's behalf against opening up records before a Senate committee in January, telling lawmakers how she gave up her daughter for adoption after being raped as a teenager. . . . "I was free from him, free from what was growing on me," she says of the act of giving up the infant. . . . About 11 years ago, the daughter initiated contact with Foley's wife, they said. Foley's wife says she made it clear she wanted no part of the woman's life. But after that, they said, the woman contacted various members of Foley's family, revealing a secret Foley's wife feared could destroy her family. The woman has continued to contact the family periodically since, Foley said. . . . "It's like enduring what I endured back then and it's just horrible," she said. . . . Nationwide, the number of states opening up access to records for adoptees is small, but growing. In New Jersey, a bill to open records sponsored by Sens. Joseph Vitale (D., Middlesex) and Diane Allen (R., Burlington), has cleared the Senate and is moving to the Assembly.

CALIFORNIA

Court's homeschool ban creating 'panic'

Ruling, if unchanged, could be used against tens of thousands

By Bob Unruh, © 2008 WorldNetDaily

03-05-08 -- A ruling from an appeals court in California that a homeschooling family must enroll their children in a public school or "legally qualified" private school is alarming because of the way the court opted to order those results, according to a team of legislative analysts who have worked on homeschooling issues in California for decades. . . . The ruling, when it was released several days ago, sent ripples of shock through the homeschooling community. . . . WND has reported on the order handed down to Phillip and Mary Long over the education being provided to two of their eight children. . . . The decision from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles granted a special petition brought by lawyers appointed to represent the two youngest children after the family's homeschooling was brought to the attention of child advocates. The lawyers appointed by the state were unhappy with a lower court's ruling that allowed the family to continue homeschooling, and specifically challenged that on appeal. . . . Roy Hanson, chief of the Private and Home Educators of California, said the circumstances of the Long family left the court with the option of handling such a ruling for their particular circumstances in a juvenile court setting.

Anna Nicole Smith's Toddler Daughter Declared Her Sole Heir

New York Lawyer

03-05-08 -- (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's daughter will inherit her late mother's estate. . . . A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday not only made 18-month-old Dannielynn Hope the sole heir, but also set up a trust in the girl's name. . . . Her father, Larry Birkhead, and Smith's executor, Howard K. Stern, will be co-trustees. . . . Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted a petition filed by Stern, who wanted to clarify Smith's intentions toward her daughter. Smith drafted a will in 2001 — five years before the child was born — that left her estate to her then only child, Daniel. However, it said the assets in Daniel's trust should be shared equally if she had future children.

RHODE ISLAND

Lawyers spar over class-action DCYF case

By Edward Fitzpatrick, Journal Staff Writer

03-05-08 -- In sharply worded legal briefs, opposing lawyers are arguing about whether a federal judge should dismiss a sweeping class-action lawsuit that alleges widespread abuse of children in state foster care. . . . Among other issues, lawyers from the attorney general’s office and the Department of Children, Youth & Families are challenging whether three adults should be allowed to pursue the lawsuit on behalf of seven foster children. . . . “It is clear from the testimony of the self-proclaimed ‘next friends’ that they have no personal knowledge regarding the named children’s current placement, treatment and services and, therefore, they cannot speak to whether or not their decision to involuntarily subject those children to the jurisdiction of this court is in the child’s best interest,” defense lawyers say in a memo of law filed Feb. 15 in U.S. District Court. . . . Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston filed the suit with backing from Children’s Rights, a nonprofit New York City organization with experience in child-welfare class actions, and they are seeking class-action status on behalf of the 3,000 children in state custody, aiming for an overhaul of Rhode Island’s child-welfare system.

NEW YORK  

Appeals Court Faults Removal of Obese Child From Parents

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal 

03-03-08 -- Though not "ideal," a couple's efforts to control the weight of their obese daughter were made in good faith and did not justify a county agency's repeated removal of the girl from her parents' custody, an upstate New York appeals court ruled Thursday. . . . The custody case, Matter of Brittany T., 502131, concerned attempts by the Chemung County Department of Social Services to intervene in the upbringing of an obese girl. The matter began in 2003, when the agency filed petitions alleging the parents were neglecting their then-9-year-old daughter. . . . According to Thursday's ruling, Brittany T.'s weight eventually exceeded 250 pounds, and she had several health problems associated with obesity, such as gallstones, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance. The girl "undoubtedly has an eating disorder," the court noted Thursday. . . . The county petitions argued that the parents, identified in court papers as Shawna T. and Robert T., were failing to take steps to control their daughter's weight and also to ensure she was attending school. A finding of neglect and order of supervision in August 2003 established a series of conditions the parents were to follow to reduce Brittany T.'s weight.

Judge won't make ACS return girl to woman accused of suffering mental woe

By Jess Wisloski, Daily News Staff Writer

03-03-08 -- A judge rejected a desperate bid last week by a Queens mom to get back from city custody the 6-year-old daughter she lost after being accused of suffering from a rare mental disorder. . . .  Some six months after the Administration for Children's Services took custody of Amber James, her family members finally got their day in Queens Supreme Court last Thursday - an uncommon venue for a custody case. . . . But the ruling by Justice Peter O'Donoghue to keep Amber in foster care for now was heartbreaking for the girl's mother, Vanessa James, 41. . . . "Judge! If you leave my daughter in the care of ACS, she will die!" the distraught mom wailed in the courtroom. "They will kill her!" . . . Amber was taken from her family because a doctor feared Vanessa James suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy - a rare disorder in which a person believes a child is sick, or actually makes the child sick, to get attention. . . . Since the city took custody in August, Amber has been hospitalized for evaluation twice at mental health clinics. She has also been hospitalized three times for pneumonia, according to court records. And, she has been diagnosed with asthma.

February 2008

Planned Parenthood Web Site Promotes Porn, Misleads Teens

Family News in Focus

02-29-08 -- Nation's largest abortion provider is misleading young people. . . . Planned Parenthood's Teenwire.com Web site fields sex-related questions from teens. Unfortunately, the teens aren't getting straight answers — they're even being told viewing pornography is OK. . . . Planned Parenthood knows it’s illegal — the Web site states, “Federal law makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to view pornography.” But then it proceeds to tell teens that “many people enjoy using pornography.” . . . “It just kind of promoted this normalization of explicit content, of viewing pornography, and that’s … not a good message to be sending to teens," said Cris Clapp, spokeswoman for Enough is Enough. . . . She said pornography damages boys and girls alike. . . . “A lot of teen girls have been deeply impacted by pornography use," Clapp said. "A lot of them feel they can’t measure up.”

MISSOURI  

Bill would bar lawyers from shouting at child witnesses

The Associated Press

02-29-08 -- Missouri lawmakers are considering legislation designed to help child witnesses testify in court by granting them special privileges and restricting lawyers' behavior. . . . Rep. Bob Dixon said Wednesday that courts could be scary for adults who understood the process and that numerous states had worked to make children more comfortable. . . . "I think all of us would agree that children and adults are different, and we should take these differences into account when we put a child on the stand," he said.

PENNSYLVANIA

Student suspended 10 days for taking vitamins
'It was Alice in Wonderland does The Twilight Zone,' father says

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

02-29-08 -- The parents of a student in Pennsylvania's South Middleton School District are warning other parents after their workout-oriented son was suspended for 10 days and half the soccer season for taking vitamins at school. . ..  Calling it a zero tolerance policy run amok, Joseph Figueiredo told WND it was like, "'Alice in Wonderland' does the 'Twilight Zone.'" . ..  The controversy began when his son, Andrew, put himself on a physical training regimen that included taking several vitamins and supplements. . . . Andrew was aware of school rules regarding prescription medications, so before he launched the program he checked the student handbook. . . . "He took it upon himself to look in the student manual and read the drug policy and medication policy," he said. "But he did not see vitamins or dietary supplements and in his mind thought it was okay."

CALIFORNIA  

BigLaw Firm Fights for Child Prostitute in Suit Against
Her Pimps

New York Lawyer, By Evan Hill, The Recorder

02-27-08 -- Two attorneys from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton used a novel approach to win a settlement for a client who probably wouldn't have put an Am Law 100 firm high on her list of likely knights in shining armor — a former child prostitute. . . . Robert Gerber, a partner and chair of the firm's pro bono committee, and Nathaniel Bruno, an associate, sued the girl's former pimps under §52.5 of the California Civil Code, established in 2005 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  . ..  To their knowledge, the statute had never before been used to win a monetary settlement for a child prostitute. . . . The bill created the crime of trafficking a person for forced labor or services and enabled victims of trafficking to bring civil actions. . ..  The plaintiff, an 18-year-old woman, ran away from home three years ago and into the arms of a husband-wife pair of pimps whom she had met through her mother, also a prostitute, the complaint says. . . . The suit, brought in San Francisco Superior Court, accused the two of persuading the girl to have sex with them and teaching her the work of a prostitute: how to manipulate "johns," how much money to charge, and how to avoid being arrested. Her pimps charged $1,000 a night for her, according to the complaint.

CALIFORNIA

Is Ricky Really a Sex Offender?

California’s registry for life may soon include promiscuous kids

By Hanna Ingber Win

02-25-08 -- When Ricky was 16, he went to a teen club and met a girl named Amanda, who said she was the same age. They hit it off and were eventually having sex. At the time Ricky thought it was a pretty normal high school romance. . . . Two years later, Ricky is a registered sex offender, and his life is destroyed. . . . Amanda turned out to be 13. Ricky was arrested, tried as an adult, and pleaded guilty to the charge of lascivious acts with a child, which is a class D felony in Iowa. It is not disputed that the sex was consensual, but intercourse with a 13-year-old is illegal in Iowa. . . . Ricky was sentenced to two years probation and 10 years on the Iowa online sex offender registry. Ricky and his family have since moved to Oklahoma, where he will remain on the state’s public registry for life. . ..  Being labeled a sex offender has completely changed Ricky’s life, leading him to be kicked out of high school, thrown out of parks, taunted by neighbors, harassed by strangers, and unable to live within 2,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park. He is prohibited from going to the movies or mall with friends because it would require crossing state borders, which he cannot do without permission from his probation officer. One of Ricky’s neighbors called the cops on him, yelled and cursed at him, and videotaped him every time he stepped outside, Ricky said.

NEW JERSEY

Children of Sperm Donors Have Rights, Too

By Maggie Gallagher

02-20-08 -- In New Jersey, the state Senate has twice voted to give adopted children access to their original birth certificates, that is, to the names of their biological mothers. Birth mothers would have one year to notify the state that they wish to remain anonymous. Even so, such birth mothers would be compelled by government to provide social, cultural and health information, or else their identities would be released regardless of their consent. . . . Recently, one southern New Jersey newspaper weighed in forcefully in the bill's favor: "This is not too much to ask from a birth mother ... The adoptee's right to this information is as important as protecting the privacy of the birth mother," the editors of the Courier-Post opine. . . . But why pick exclusively on birth mothers? If children have a right to know their own biological parents -- a claim recognized in international human rights law and one to which I am deeply sympathetic -- there is no good reason to limit this claim to the small number of women who accept the agonizing burden of giving life to children they cannot raise. . . . Far more children these days are deprived of knowledge of their origins by a totally difference process: artificial insemination. How can we possibly countenance placing burdens exclusively on women who give life and excuse totally the men whose sole contribution to their child was to "donate" into a little cup, usually for money? . . . And our laws are almost totally to blame for keeping children created by reproductive technologies in the dark about their origins. The common law remains the rule for children created by sexual acts: I cannot bargain away at the bar my child's right to the support and care of both his mother and father. The child retains the right to the support of both parents, no matter to what those parents have agreed. But if I go to a doctor or clinic for sperm, adult bargains are suddenly allowed by law to trump the child's natural right to know both his biological parents, wherever possible.

CALIFORNIA

Broken families, broken courts Day 3:
Big stakes, but little voice for kids

By Karen de Sá

02-13-08 -- The day an Alameda County Superior Court judge became his stand-in parent, 14-year-old Zairon Frazier felt more like a criminal than a survivor of child abuse. . . . His mother had whacked him with a belt. But inside Juvenile Dependency Court, it seemed like a different sort of punishment. A bank of attorneys argued his fate at a rapid clip. . . . "Obviously, whatever they were saying wasn't for my benefit," Zairon said. "I knew they were talking about me, but I didn't think anything I said or cared about mattered. If it was about me, why didn't they ask me?" . . . Youth advocates seeking to reform the long-overlooked dependency courts want answers to the same question. Too often, children removed from home following allegations of abuse and neglect are poorly served by lawyers paid to represent them. . . . Throughout California, attorneys do not include their clients in critical court proceedings foreshadowing their futures. The youths have little direct contact with their court-appointed lawyers before and after the hearings. And with the exception of dependency court in Los Angeles County, children rarely appear in court to express their views. When they do attend, like Zairon, they often leave discouraged.

FLORIDA

Second person fired in DCF scandal

A technician who cleaned out the ex-spokesman's computer admits a sexual relationship.

By Kevin Graham, Times Staff Writer

02-13-08 -- The Department of Children and Families has fired a second employee connected to an unfolding investigation into the agency's former spokesman, who was arrested Feb. 1 on child pornography charges. . . . Michael Hernandez, who worked for the DCF as a computer technician, told investigators that he tossed former DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman's home computer in a trash bin because Zimmerman, 40, told him he was afraid of what police would find on them. . . . Hernandez, who told authorities he had a sexual relationship with Zimmerman, also admitted to wiping clean and reformatting a DCF-issued laptop that Zimmerman used for work, at Zimmerman's request, authorities said. . . . DCF spokeswoman Erin Geraghty said Tuesday that Hernandez was fired Feb. 1, the same day authorities brought state charges of child pornography against Zimmerman.

TENNESSEE

Anna Mae Goes to China

Caught in a Lengthy Custody Struggle, She Starts New Life With Biological