Cornell Squires with Tamikia McGruder and her baby Atjamino, kidnapped by CPS. Mother was afforded a one-hour visit with her baby at the Children’s Center May 23, 2014.
Police report filed on foster mother’s reckless driving after visit at Children’s Center May 23 — VOD ID’S HER AS ANJELA ANTONAZZO FREEMAN
Tamikia McGruder informed caseworker on earlier visit of evident abuse and neglect of baby by foster family; nothing done
Mother told by caseworker baby would be removed from foster household; nothing in writing, no removal yet
By Diane Bukowski
June 10, 2014
A mother’s pride and joy: Tamikia and Atjamino.
DETROIT — Tamikia McGruder visited her baby Atjamino at the Children’s Center for one hour May 23, then again was forced to relinquish the infant to foster mother Anjela Antonazzo Freeman of the metro Detroit area, and apparently also of Florida.
Freeman promptly endangered the baby’s life, driving recklessly at high speeds away from the Center in her brand new black van, then passing three vehicles waiting at a red light on Woodward. She raced around all three to the left, in the oncoming lane of traffic, and turned right in front of them onto Woodward while the light was still red. She left no time even to see if there was oncoming traffic on Woodward.
This reporter, who was going in the same direction in her car, observed the incident first-hand, and promptly filed a police report of “child endangerment” at Woodward and W. Grand Blvd.
A caseworker from the Hamilton Avenue office of the state’s Child Protective Services division took Atjamino from her grandmother Doras Davis two months after a judge ordered her placement there. Davis said the worker produced no new court order.
- Children’s Center of Wayne County at 79 W. Alexandrine in Detroit.
Since the May 23 visit, McGruder said, her caseworker at the Children’s Center, Megan Haddad, has told her Atjamino will be taken from the foster home and placed with her paternal aunt instead. She has been given nothing in writing, including any court order, and still wants Atjamino back home with her and the baby’s father, Arthur Simmons, Jr.
“I raised holy hell with them the other day,” McGruder said. “I told them they had no court order to take my baby from her grandmother and give her to that couple. On an earlier visit, I reported that my baby had a severe rash in her vaginal area and chest, and it looked to me like her anus was wider,” McGruder told VOD. “I also told them the foster mother had brought dirty baby bottles with her and about other uncleanliness.”
The cell-phone photo McGruder took of her baby’s genital area is literally horrifying, showing a very broad reddened patch on one side of the vagina and a darker patch on the other side, with what appear to be welts and bruises as well, and a reddened vaginal opening. The baby’s anus did indeed appear to be distended. VOD has a copy of the photo but is not publishing it due to its sensitive nature. It will be turned over to McGruder’s attorney for admission at the next court hearing.
When this reporter showed Haddad the photo from her camera, Haddad refused even to look at it or to address the issue. McGruder said the Children’s Center refused to act on the matter when she discovered her baby’s condition and asked that Atjamino be taken to Children’s Hospital for an examination.
McGruder said her inspection of the infant on the May 23 visit showed no abnormalities, to her relief. A supervisor at the Children’s Center allowed this reporter and Cornell Squires of We the People for the People to attend the visit that day.
- Tamikia shows Mother’s Day card, sent by her oldest daughter with all six children’s names included.
With Squires’ assistance, McGruder is pursuing legal recourse to have the baby returned, as her court-appointed attorney and the baby’s father’s attorney begged Referee Mona Youssef to do during a recent hearing, as a minimum request. Youssef refused to do so, instead postponing any further movement on the case until a hearing July 24, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Juvenile Hall on E. Forest and the 1-75 service drive.
Youssef wanted both parents to undergo psychiatric examinations, although there had been no previous orders for them to do so.
“I went for two evaluations since then,” McGruder said. “They both said there was nothing wrong with me. They wondered why I was even there, since no doctor had referred me.”
- Parents Tamikia McGruder and Arthur Simmons, Jr.
Both the baby’s father, Arthur Simmons, Jr, and McGruder report they are in constant turmoil worrying about Atjamino and their five other children. All of them were placed in separate foster homes or agencies beginning May 30, 2013, pursuant to a court order rubber-stamped with a judge’s signature and without a hearing in front of that judge.
Since that time, their 12-year-old son, taking the notorious drug Risperdal, tried to hang himself with a phone cord, according to medical records. He also reported sexual abuse in the home of his single foster father. CPS did nothing about that incident and ignored it in their family treatment plans, despite the fact that the mother filed a police report about the sexual abuse.
Another son also visited Children’s Hospital with reports that he was constantly fighting in school. According to Ms. McGruder, that son, since then, has ben disciplined by Wolverine Center staff for a minor incident, by being forbidden to see his family for one month.
“He has been hurting himself, banging his head against the wall because he can’t see us,” McGruder said.
- Two of the couple’s sons during visit at Hamilton DHS office.
She also reported that CPS workers Samantha Burks and Sherrie Howard, as well as Children’s Center worker Haddad, have prevented the children’s paternal grandmother and paternal aunt from participating in weekly family visits. The workers claim only the father and mother are allowed during the visits.
All of the couple’s children except the baby are being given psychotropic drugs with side effects including suicide attempts, depression, aggression, and gynecomastia while in foster care. To add to that horror, a recent “Family Treatment Plan” drawn up by CPS indicates that the baby will also be evaluated for mental health issues.
McGruder said she emailed Pres. Barack Obama at the White House and received the following response, dated May 20, 2014 from the Department Of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families Division.
Dear Ms. McGruder:
This is a response to your email to Pres. Barack Obama regarding your safety concerns for your children while they are in the custody of the child welfare system and your desire to regain custody of your children. Your correspondence was forwarded to the Children’s Bureau located within the administration for Children and Families. The Children’s Bureau is the federal agency responsible for helping states to improve the safety and well-being of the nation’s children and youth. I appreciate that this must be a very difficult situation for you and your family.
The circumstance you described in your correspondence relates to a matter over which the state has legal jurisdiction, through their family courts and agencies. Although the federal government does not have equal authority to intervene in child welfare and individual family law matters such as custody and visitation arrangements, we can provide the following information that may be of assistance. Because your children are currently in state care you may find it helpful to discuss this case with Nancy Rostoni, the State of Michigan’s foster care program manager at Nancy Rostoni, Michigan DHS Bureau of Child Welfare, Children’s Service Administration. Her email is rostonin@michigan.gov.”
Pres. Barack Obama’s daughters lead happy lives; why shouldn’t the rest of the country’s children do the same?
McGruder said she has spoken with an individual in Rostoni’s office, who said she was “appalled” at her report of her son’s suicide attempt and the other issues, and would have someone get back with her by June 13, 2014.
Meanwhile, she said, she wants Referee Youssef and the chief judge of the court to have an emergency hearing on her children’s condition and their need to be returned to the arms of their mother and father before they experience any more harm in state custody.
VOD ID’S FOSTER “MOTHER”WHO ENDANGERED ATJAMINO
Anjela Antanazzo Freeman of Michigan and Florida has “No comment”
By Diane Bukowski
June 10, 2014
- Anjela Antanazzo Freeman
DETROIT – Anjela Antanazzo Freeman is the full name of the woman who took Atjamino McGruder, now six months old, from the hands of CPS worker Willie Campbell on Feb. 25, 2014, after he seized the baby from her grandmother Doras Davis. He did not have a court order to remove the child from Davis’ custody, but there does exist a court order placing the infant in Davis’ custody.
VOD located Freeman’s photo online. Tamikia McGruder verified her identity on viewing the photo. VOD also called a phone number listed for her on-line, saying a reporter was calling. VOD asked her if she is the foster mother of Atjamino McGruder. Instead of answering “No,” she said “No comment.”
On-line sources indicate she was born in June, 1975.
UDM School of Law downtown Detroit campus.
On the website “Linked-In,” where her photo was discovered, Freeman says she has a Juris Doctor, meaning she is a lawyer, and claims to have a law practice. She is not however listed on the Michigan Bar Association’s website as a member.
She claims to have graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2012, and says she previously attained a “Bachelor of Music” from the University of Miami in 1997. Prior to that, she attended Kimball High School, location not noted.
She also says she was a “Broker/Associate” with the ReMax Property Centre from 2002 until 2006. She is not, however, currently listed on the Michigan website as a licensed real estate broker or salesperson. Another on-line source says she worked at Volusia, Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens, and St. John’s Episcopal Church as well.
Online sources indicate numerous addresses for her including Ormond Beach, FL, Daytona Beach, FL, Madison Heights, MI, and Royal Oak, MI.
VOD is further researching her background and any connections to CPS personnel.
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