Dollars for drug trials

CENTER THAT REPORTED GODBOLDO TO CPS HAS $$$ TIES WITH DRUG COS.

Other organizations, individuals in case connected in possible conflicts of interest 

By Diane Bukowski

August 7, 2011 

The New Oakland Child-Adolescent & Family Center, which reported Maryanne Godboldo to Child Protective Services for taking her 13-year-old daughter off the controversial drug Risperdal, has had paid connections with pharmaceutical companies since at least 2004.

Kimberly Smith, LMSW, head of New Oakland's pharmaceutical research division

According to the Center’s website, Kimberly Smith, LMSW, of China, Michigan, has been Director of Pharmaceutical Research for all its facilities since 2004. It says she also provides “clinical support and supervision” for the Clinton Township facility. Additionally she heads the Center’s Office of Recipient Rights.

“Presently, Kimberly is coordinating Adult and Pediatric CNS [Central Nervous System] Clinical Trials for a number of pharmaceutical companies and has been for the last ten years,” says the site.

The center, a private facility, is headquartered in Livonia and has sites in Centerline, Clarkston, Clinton Township, Davisburg, and West Bloomfield.

VOD contacted Ms. Smith at her office Aug. 4. She admitted that she is paid by the drug companies she works with, and that trials she is paid to conduct are among those carried out at New Oakland’s facilities. She refused to give further information on specific drug trials, saying that information is “private.”

“We must sign a confidentiality agreement with the company,” she said. She claimed reports are only published after the FDA approves a drug.

National Institues of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Md.

That statement is only partially true, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, on their site at http://ClinicalTrials.gov.

The site indicates, “The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA or US Public Law 110-85) was passed on September 27, 2007. The law requires mandatory registration and results reporting for certain clinical trials of drugs, biologics, and devices.” (For further information click on http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/fdaaa.html.)

A clinical trial of Depakote, sponsored by Abbott Laboratories, for which New Oakland recruited participants, was listed on the site while it was still ongoing with the following details:

 “Clinical Trial: An Outpatient Study of the Effectiveness and Safety of Depakote ER in the Treatment of Mania/Bipolar Disorder in Children and Adolescents. . . .New Oakland Child/Adoles. and Family Center, Clinton Township, Michigan, United States; Recruiting: Kimberly Smith MSW, 586-412-5321 ext. 310, ksmith@newoakland.org, Ismail Sendi, M.D. Principal Investigator.”

Ms. Smith said that parents are required to complete a detailed form when their child participates in such a study, but said she did not have a blank copy of the form she could send to VOD. A sample consent form for a drug research study can be viewed by clicking on http://www.niams.nih.gov/Funding/Clinical_Research/invest_form.asp

Drug companies’ payment of medical professionals both to recommend, market and prescribe  their products is a national scandal, according to many sources. (Click on VOD post http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/07/u-s-johnson-johnson-wrongly-marketed-risperdal-to-kids/.  )

But even beyond the New Oakland Center’s drug connections, those involved in seizing Ariana Godboldo-Hakim are connected to each other in a tangled web, getting big bucks for children they take from families, and for medical treatment, including drugs, that are given to the children.

DHS head Maura Corrigan with Govr. Ricktator Snyder

Government officials including Judge Lynne Pierce, Department of Human Services chief Maura Corrigan, and others also have their ties. (See chart for condensed info.) As Supreme Court Justice, Corrigan was a member of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care and also of the ultra-right wing Federalist Society. (Click on Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care to read its executive summary.) She is now head of the Michigan Department of Human Services, and recently partnered with Governor Rick(tator) Synder to advocate speedy adoptions of foster care children. Many believe this may lead to speedier termination of parental rights as well.

Children's Center

Maryanne Godboldo first took her daughter to The Children’s Center, located at 79 W. Alexandrine in Detroit, when she began experiencing adverse reactions to the immunizations she received in September, 2009. Unknown to her at the time, the Children’s Center is one of six partners in Behavioral Health Professionals, Inc (BHPI), a non-profit based in Michigan. 

The others are Development Centers, Inc., Hegira Programs, Inc., Neighborhood Services Organization (NSO), New Center Community Mental Health Services, Northeast Guidance Center, Southwest Counseling and Development Services, and The Guidance Center. 

BHPI is the parent organization for ConsumerLink and CareLink, which network with insurance companies and refer children to the various partners and other organizations.  

Amber Kozlowski, a “social worker/hospital liaison,” testified Aug. 5 that she was responsible for Ariana’s admission to Hawthorn Center on March 25. There, her prosthesis was removed in violation of her disability rights, she was re-medicated with Risperdal and other drugs, and allegedly became the victim of sexual abuse, as stated in a police report filed by her family. 

Kozlowski said she works for NSO directly and contracts with ConsumerLink for the hospital liaison part of her job. NSO’s board of directors includes executives from various health and insurance agencies, including the Detroit Medical Center, Pro Care Health Plan, and the Health Alliance Plan. 

But that’s not all about Children’s Center, which is primarily funded by the Department of Human Services. It has its own foster care/adoption division, and is funded at the rate of $34 per day for foster care provision, according to state budget documents. Such funds, which are also funneled to numerous other private foster care agencies in the state, originate with the federal government. 

Lauren Phillips, atty. at Dykema Gossett, Judge Lynne Pierce's daughter

The Children’s Center also receives substantial grants from Ford Motor Company, and three Ford family members sit on its board. Judge Lynne Pierce’s daughter Lauren Phillips is an attorney with Dykema Gossett, and the Judge has frequented the firm’s offices for various events, including a Women Lawyers of Michigan luncheon this past March.

Dykema-Gossett counts Ford among its top clients. Dykema Gossett also has a separate Family Law practice, run by Attorney Joanne Lax, which assists clients with adoptions.

When such matters become thorny, according to their website, “In the sensitive area of family law, many of the services our clients require fall outside the realm of legal counsel. In these cases, we can recommend a network of highly experienced counseling agencies and professionals to provide the appropriate assistance and advice.”

Atty. Joanne Lax

Lax also specializes in Health Care Law at the firm. According to its website, “Joanne represents health systems, hospitals, prepaid in-patient health plans, nursing homes, homes for the aged, assisted living facilities, hospices and home health agencies” regarding various matters.

These include state and federal regulatory compliance, and litigation and hearings in numerous areas such as licensure and certification, Medicare/Medicaid and provider enrollment, human subject research and clinical trials, medical records access and retention, and patient rights and biomedical ethics, including those involving recipient rights and minors and legally incapacitated individuals.

Wayne Co. Exec. Robert Ficano (r) with Pierce husband Raymond Andary at Carribean Getaway

Pierce’s husband Raymond Andary is also an attorney, although his practice is dissimilar to their daughter’s. However, he recently participated in a 2011 March of Dimes Caribbean Getaway July 20, which raised money to support children with serious illnesses. The March of Dimes this year gave a grant to the Northeast Guidance Center, one of BHPI’s six partners.

In the video below, Gov. Snyder and DHS Director Maura Corrigan swear in new DHS workers, most for CPS, as they pledge to speed up adoption process, imperiling rights of biological parents. 

Maryanne Godboldo with sister Penny (center front), Mubarak Hakim (center rear), and supporters at court hearing Aug. 3, 2011

 “First Ms. Parks took a stand, and now it is Ms. Godboldo.” (Charles Wright)

“I am not going to let Missy and Massa take our children.”  (Maryanne Godboldo)

By Diane Bukowski

Aug. 6, 2011

DETROIT – Testimony in the Ariana Godboldo-Hakim custody trial so far has painted a vivid picture of a loving family traumatized and torn apart by a web of inter-connected private institutions and state agencies. Many have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, while others are paid per head for treatment of children and adolescents on Medicaid, and removal of children from their homes.

Judge Lynne Pierce (r) with daughter Lauren Phillips, an attorney with Dykema Gossett, a firm which defends large corporations and health care institutions

Presiding over the jury trial is Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Lynne A. Pierce. She and her family have ties to some of these agencies and are active with organizations that sponsor foster care and adoption, frequently the ultimate fate for children taken by the state’s Child Protective Services (CPS) system. (See chart and story below for more information.)

 CPS, aided by an army of Detroit police carrying assault weapons and manning tanks and helicopters, seized Ariana Godboldo, 13, from her home on Blaine near Linwood on Mar. 24 as her mother Maryanne Godboldo sought to protect her. 

“First Ms. Parks took a stand, and now it is Ms. Godboldo,” VOD reader Charles Wright commented on the case.  

Rosa Parks after arrest for sitting in "whites only" section of bus in Montgomery, Alabama

Godboldo has garnered world-wide support for her defense of her daughter from CPS and their insistence that she take the dangerous psychotropic medication Risperdal. She has also received support from a large community that has questioned the safety of immunizations. Godboldo says Ariana had a severe reaction to multiple immunizations in 2009, causing her initial problems that led her to seek medical help at the places that referred her to CPS.

The Godboldo-Hakim custody trial began Aug. 2, with assistant state attorney general Deborah Carley as prosecutor. Wayne County is the only county in Michigan where the State Attorney General prosecutes child custody cases. 

So far, employees of the New Oakland Child-Adolescent & Family Center, the Children’s Center, the Department of Human Services, and the Detroit police have testified for the prosecution. The health workers said they referred Godboldo to CPS because “the mother was not compliant with prescribed medications” (Lisa Kalinsky of New Oakland). 

Deborah Carley

In her opening statement, Assistant Attorney General Deborah Carley said Ariana has mental health conditions and requires treatment for delusions, depression, aggression, and visual and auditory hallucinations, but that Godboldo has refused to help her. ** See reference at bottom.

In the most recent developments Aug. 5, Carley called Ariana’s parents Maryanne Godboldo and Mubarak Hakim to the stand over vehement objections by their attorneys Adam Shakoor, Wanda Evans, and Roger Farinha. Godboldo faces criminal charges over the March 24 stand-off with police. 

Renowned Detroit attorney Adam Shakoor

“You are making a travesty of these proceedings,” Shakoor told Judge Pierce when she ruled in favor of Carley. “I do not believe [the prosecutor] can parade Ms. Godboldo in front of the jury and make her look foolish when she has to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights [not to incriminate herself] after every question related to March 24.”

Pierce would not limit questions to events prior to the police stand-off. Carley put both parents through grueling testimony. However, both managed to tell the story of their lifelong love and support for their daughter calmly, despite the prosecutor’s clearly hostile demeanor. 

Carley hammered away at Godboldo over issues involving her employment, child support from Hakim, details of Ariana’s birth and resulting physical disability, and statements she allegedly made to CPS worker Mia Wenk likening CPS to a plantation. She demanded that Godboldo produce extensive medical and school records for Ariana although Godboldo had not been expecting to testify. 

But Godboldo remained serene and dignified. Tears welled up only briefly in her eyes when Carley repeatedly questioned her on the details of the amputation of Ariana’s leg after her birth. Godboldo said the leg was infected due to a doctor’s mistake, while Carley insisted it was a congenital defect. 

Carley also demanded to know why Ariana was named differently in the hospital. Godboldo responded that the hospital would not discharge her until she named her baby, although she had not yet made up her mind. She said she later legally changed Ariana’s name before the child’s first birthday, so the birth certificate could read accordingly. 

“Her name is ARIANA GABRIELLA GODBOLDO-HAKIM,” she testified firmly, and later corrected Carley’s mispronunciation of the child’s first name. 

Ariana and Penny Godboldo join dancers performing "Testify" at rally at Hartford Memorial Church

“I have not worked since before my daughter was born,” Godboldo told the jury. “My daughter needed all my attention. She is an amputee below the right knee and was hurt many times in school. She was bruised and pushed down the stairs by other little children who don’t understand disabilities.” She also said that some of the schools she went to were not adequately equipped for disabled children. 

Godboldo said she also cares for her 98-year-old mother, who lives with her. Previously, she was a concert dancer who studied in New York and later worked with her sister Penny Godboldo’s dance troupe. 

She said she had a mutual agreement with Ariana’s father, both financial and emotional, for the support of their child. Carley demanded to know exact weekly cash details from Ariana’s first year of life onward and why he didn’t have health insurance for Ariana.

Godboldo said Hakim, who is a self-employed vendor and musician, has given both cash, in-kind and emotional support “regularly” throughout their daughter’s life, and that the two are in constant consultation over her care. She said Hakim drove her to her daughter’s early well-baby appointments, visits Ariana three to four times a week, has taught her to play the drums, and spent hours of time with her. 

She said Ariana is covered by Medicaid. Godboldo later told this reporter that she has NEVER received cash assistance from the state, despite the prosecutor’s obvious attempts to paint her as a lazy “welfare mom.” 

Carley demanded that Godboldo produce records of her daughter’s immunizations from years back, records of her injuries in school, and educational records from from kindergarten until the third grade, when Godboldo began home-schooling her, as she is legally permitted to do. 

She kept demanding to know why Godboldo hadn’t put her in public schools instead of sending her to private and charter schools. 

New Oakland facility, Livonia, Michigan

When Godboldo described Ariana’s reactions to vaccinations she received prior to entering the sixth grade at a Montessori school, Carley demanded to know the names of the doctors who had diagnosed her. Godboldo identified them, and explained calmly that her child received chelation therapy from a holistic practitioner who is also a medical doctor, who diagnosed her with encephalitis.
Godboldo said the chelation therapy “helped immensely.” 

She said when she took her daughter first to New Oakland Child-Adolescent Family Center that she told them she did not favor giving psychotropic drugs to children, but they insisted on prescribing Risperdal. She said she would try it (per court records, the consent form she signed gave her the right to take the child off the drug at any time). She said New Oakland also wanted to hospitalize Ariana for mental illness, but she refused. 

Godboldo said she thoroughly researched Risperdal online, and when Ariana got worse, the doctor who had diagnosed her with encephalitis said she was suffering from the side effects of the drug.. The doctor weaned Ariana off the drug over a six-month period. Godboldo said she had just finished when the police showed up at the door to take her child. 

Carley then questioned Godboldo about alleged statements she made to Wenk about plantations. 

Mother's child being sold away from her at slave auction

“Don’t you know our history?” Godboldo asked Carley, who is white. “Don’t you know we were slaves on the plantation? That’s what it felt like. I am not a slave. I am not going to let Missy and Massa take our children. This is all about racism and power control.” 

Every one of the mental health practitioners who have testified so far have been white. Mia Wenk, the CPS worker who called the police, is of indeterminate racial heritage, but lives in a 98 percent white community, as does Judge Lynne Pierce, also white. The police officers who first came to Godboldo’s door to take her child were white. A worker who accompanied Wenk during the seizure, who was Black but never got out of the car, testified that two police cars passed by after Wenk called 911, but said she did not summon them over. It wasn’t until a third car came an hour later that Wenk flagged them down. 

Carley then questioned Godboldo about the events of Mar. 24. To most questions, she read a written statement given to her by her attorneys invoking the Fifth Amendment per her constitutional rights. 

Godboldo did say she purchased a gun prior to her daughter’s birth, after she was robbed in front of her home while she was five months pregnant. She said she kept it secured in a closet that Ariana could not access. She said the gun was registered and that she had forgotten she had it. 

Under Carley’s questioning, Hakim remained similarly composed. 

Mubarak Hakim, Ariana's father

He estimated that he has given Godboldo $75 to $100 a week out of his income, which varies, and that they are not under the jurisdiction of the Friend of the Court. He explained his work as a licensed street vendor and musician. 

Then Carley delved into his early criminal record, which consisted of one conviction for armed robbery when he was 17. He detailed two other offenses for which he only paid fines or served probation, both more than 10 years ago. 

“Ariana is very intelligent,” he said. “She was at the top of her class in school. She loved to read and write. She would bring her homework home and I would help her with it. I agreed with her mother’s decision to home school her, she was the captain of the ship and I trusted her. She kept me well-informed of what was happening with her. I’ve been there with her from day one, when she was born. I was there when she was born.” 

He said police brought Ariana to Children’s Hospital after the March 24 stand-off, he went in to see her, that she was with her aunt Penny Godboldo and was calm. He said CPS told him to leave, which he did, thinking she had to go for some testing. He said, however, that when he came back, she was gone and it took the family two days to discover she had been sent to the Hawthorn psychiatric hospital in Northville without his or any relative’s consent. This was despite the fact that CHM has its own pediatric psychiatric division and consultants. (Click on http://www.childrensdmc.org/pediatric-psychiatry-and-psychology for further information.)

Hakim said he visited her every day at Hawthorn. 

Prior to the parents’ testimony, details of how that hospitalization occurred came out in the testimony of  Amber Kozlowski. She said she is employed by the Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO) as a “social worker/hospital liaison.” She said she has a master’s degree in social work, but she is not listed on the state’s website as a licensed social worker. 

Kozlowski admitted Ariana to state psychiatric hospital, Hawthorn in Northville

She said she works for NSO, and is a hospital liaison for Consumer Link. (See story below for connections among the organizations.) 

Kozlowski testified that although she is not a psychiatrist or medical doctor, she authorized Ariana’s hospitalization at Hawthorn, after the hospital first rejected her attempts several times. 

She said she met with Ariana at CHM for “15 minutes,” and with “the DHS worker and the hospital social worker” for the rest of the hour she was there. She said she viewed only the medical records compiled at CHM. 

“She [Ariana] wouldn’t speak with me verbally,” Kozlowski said. “She appeared a little agitated, a little paranoid. She was moaning and covering her head with the blankets and looking at the wall around her.” 

She said she visited Ariana about four times at Hawthorn, during which she continued to refuse to speak to her and was “paranoid” and “aggressive.” 

“I came with the hospital social worker to her bedroom, and she lunged forward at me and attempted to hit and kick me. She grabbed her wheelchair and spun it around towards me and spit at me.” She claimed Ariana yelled and shouted curse words at her. 

On cross-exam by Godboldo’s co-counsel Wanda Evans, Kozlowski said she was not supervised by a psychiatrist or doctor when she authorized Ariana’s admission to Hawthorn. She said she did not speak to any of Ariana’s relatives. She admitted that it might be reasonable that a child who had just been taken from her home by force might appear upset. 

She said she never saw a psychiatric evaluation of Ariana, or a court document ordering her admission to a psychiatric institution. 

“Are you familiar with the Mental Health Code?” Evans asked her. “You do know that a parent has the right to take a child off psychotropic medications. You do know that in the case of a child with a disability, the disability is the first priority in her treatment?” 

(Ed. note: When Ariana was admitted to Hawthorn, they took away her prosthetis, which she had worn all her life, and put her in a wheelchair. They also re-medicated her with Risperdal and three other medications until her attorneys obtained a court order to take her off the drugs. Judge Lynne Pierce later vacated that order, although she would not vacate the original order, not even viewed or signed by a judge, which led to police taking Ariana.  

During Ariana’s six-week stay at Hawthorn, the staff there took her to CHM for treatment of an STD. Godboldo filed a police complaint that Ariana was sexually abused at the hospital because no STD was present during CHM’s initial physical exam of her child. To this date, the state Department of Community Health has refused to provide records of complaints against Hawthorn, a state hospital not required to keep them on site as are private hospitals, despite VOD’s submission of a Freedom of Information Act request.)

Thal and Julian Wendrow

**Click on Deborah Carley and other Oakland County Prosecutors sued for improper removal of autistic teen from home to read about 2007 case where prosecutors falsely alleged sexual abuse of autistic teen by father, using “facilitated communication,” where facilitator holds individual’s hand or arm as they type messages on a keyboard. (Carley previously worked for Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Gorcyca until her dismissal by current Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.) The parents, Thal and Julian Wendrow earlier won a $1.8 million settlement against West Bloomfield Township and its police, who arrested the father. All charges against him were later dismissed. The Detroit Free Press ran a six-part series on the false allegations.

From Communications Workers of America (CWA), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)

Aug 7, 2011

Company Refuses to Bargain Seriously, Verizon Proposals Would Take Workers Back Decades

CWA, IBEW, SEIU all active in strike

Washington, D.C. — More than 45,000 workers are on strike today at Verizon Communications. Bargaining continues. Since bargaining began on June 22, Verizon has refused to move from a long list of concession demands. As the contract expired, nearly 100 concessionary company proposals remained on the table.

As a result, CWA and IBEW have decided to take the unprecedented step of striking until Verizon stops its Wisconsin-style tactics and starts bargaining seriously.

Even at the 11th hour, as contracts were set to expire, Verizon continued to seek to strip away 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle class workers and their families. 

Verizon strikers: Photo/peoplesworld.org

CWA and IBEW members are prepared to return to work when management demonstrates the willingness to begin bargaining seriously for a fair agreement. If not, CWA and IBEW members and allies will continue the fight.

Verizon financials

• 2011 annualized revenues are $108 billion and annualized net profits are $6 billion.
• Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.
• Verizon’s top five executives received compensation of $258 million over the past four years.

The contract covers 45,000 members of CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from New England to Virginia.

STATEMENT BY CWA

Aug 6, 2011

Washington, D.C. — Following is a statement by Candice Johnson, CWA Communications Director, on contract negotiations between CWA and Verizon. The current contract expires at midnight tonight:

“Negotiations between the Communications Workers of America and Verizon Communications are not moving forward. Contracts covering 45,000 Verizon workers are set to expire at midnight tonight.

Over months of negotiations, there has been no real bargaining by Verizon management. In fact, every major concession demand — more than 100 in all – remains on the table.

Even at the 11th hour, with contracts set to expire, Verizon continues to seek to strip away 50 years of contract gains. Following the game plan of Wisconsin, Verizon is trying to destroy the collective bargaining process by refusing to engage seriously on the issues.

In the few hours left before contract expiration, Verizon can show that it’s serious about bargaining. If not, CWA members and our allies throughout the union movement are ready for the fight.”

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

Verizon is sitting on big assets – it has $100 billion in revenue and net profits of $6 billion. Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend. Verizon’s executive compensation is sky-high, and Chairman Ivan Seidenberg is paid 300 times what an average worker earns. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years.

The contract covers 35,000 CWA represented workers and 10,000 IBEW-represented workers.

Read updates at www.cwa-union.org/verizon

Media Inquiries

Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, 202-434-1347 (office), 202-415-6566 (cell), cjohnson@cwa-union.org, and Robert Master, CWA District 1, 212-344-2515 (office), 917-657-6483 (cell), rmaster@cwa-union.org

The Underbelly of the Proposed Verizon Strike: Why Customers Should Care 

By Bruce Kushnick, Chairman, Teletruth http://www.teletruth.org 

Executive Director, New Networks Institute, http://www.newnetworks.com

The Verizon Communications Workers of America (CWA) members are correct in worrying about the future. In the last two decades, there’s been over a 50% decrease in the number of employees-per-line, while there’s been a 100% increase in the Bell companies revenues. And construction in Verizon is down over 53% in the last three years.

Verizon customers are treated badly too

However, there’s an another dark side of this discussion that no one wants to talk about — How customers are being affected by staff cuts and slashes in construction budgets. Everyone knows that service has been declining and prices have been increasing, but the real scam is that instead of reinvesting in the networks and staff, Verizon is using the profits to fund excessive executive compensation and pay for massive overseas losses from bad investments.

Some customer examples?

When I called Verizon to pay my phonebill over the telephone, I was told that it would cost an additional $2.50 to use a credit card because Verizon was using another company to take credit card orders. With $67 billion in annual revenues, 227,000 employees, as well as a global presence that extends to the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, you would think that Verizon could take its own credit card payments over the phone.

When a customer’s phone service died last year, he found out that even though we live in a 24-7 world of the Internet, Verizon is closed on Sundays. —- And let’s not talk about the hassles once he wanted service restored. See: http://www.teletruth.org/About/newsletter/SexliesVerizon.htm

When a customer called his Internet Service Provider in New York City to order DSL, she was told that there wasn’t enough copper in her building to give her service. To read about the issues surrounding DSL and broadband see: http://www.newnetworks.com/PRISPPETITIONS.html

Verizon prices too high not because of workers but because of profits

And you would think that a strike of workers at Verizon would cost customers more money — “They’ll just raise our rates to pay for keeping staff”. The slap in the face is that even though there’s been over a 50% cut in the employees per-line since Verizon formed in 1984, the prices of services have continually increased. In fact, phone rates have nothing/little to do with the actual cost of service because of a number of regulatory-bam-boozles known as “Deregulation”.

Ironically, this “deregulation’ was granted because Verizon promised to upgrade everyone’s home and office to a fiber-optic service. In Pennsylvania, Verizon charged customers hundreds of dollars for fiber-optic upgrades they will never receive. Half of the state should have been rewired by 2004, including rural and suburban and urban areas equally. See: http://www.newnetworks.com/Libertybellstolen.htm Continue reading →

ARTICLES FROM CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL at http://www.cchrint.org/tag/risperdal/

Claim: J&J Wrongly Marketed Antipsychotic Drug Risperdal to Kids

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

BNET – August 3, 2011
by Jim Edwards

The FDA told Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in 1997 that its request to market the antipsychotic drug Risperdal for children was “without any justification.” In the following years, J&J’s army of pharmaceutical sales reps made 100,000 sales calls on child and adolescent psychiatrists, justifying this by “qualifying” the docs if they had as few as one adult patient exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, according to a lawsuit.

It was a distinction only a lawyer can love, and now the Massachusetts attorney general is using it against J&J and its Janssen unit, alleging that J&J’s promotion of Risperdal for children was misleading.

Mass epidemic of psychotropic drugs given to children

J&J had initially asked the FDA to approve the drug for use in children, and the FDA eventually allowed limited use in the over-10s in the 2006 and 2007. But in 1997, without clinical evidence to back its request, the FDA frowned on use of the drug for children. In a latter the J&J, the FDA wrote:

To permit the inclusion of the proposed vague references to the safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients and the nonspecific cautionary advice about how to prescribe Risperdal for the unspecified target indications would serve only to promote the use of this drug in pediatric patients without any justification.

“Promote use of this drug in pediatric patients” is exactly what J&J then did, according to the suit:

From January 1994 through September 2006, Janssen sales representatives directly promoted Risperdal to thousands of child and adolescent psychiatrists and pediatricians even though Risperdal was not approved to treat any pediatric conditions until October 2006.

Doctors were paid $1,000 to attend J&J’s pediatric “advisory board” meetings held at posh resorts, and eventually Risperdal reached a 50 percent share of pediatric antispychotic category, the suit alleges.

Kids grew breasts, docs went to the Four Seasons

This success came at some price to the children receiving the drug, as Risperdal’s side effects include weight gain, diabetes and “galactarhea,” the premature production of breast milk in both boys and girls. One of J&J’s sales reps made this internal sales call note on that issue:

An August 2, 2001 call note (000000244279 ) reports on a sales call with a Braintree doctor: “. . . . She is using Risperdal with great success in kids ala Biederman. She did mention galactarhea so I told her how Biederman is using Dostinex. She is going to get more info on this dopamine agonist. She is going to attend the 4 Seasons event.”

Dr. Joseph Biederman, the new Josef Mengel

The Biederman name is familiar to anyone following the Risperdal saga, of course. Joseph Biederman was the Harvard medical school doctor who was paid by J&J to churn out reams of studies promoting Risperdal in kids. He became infamous when he suggested in a deposition that he was one pay-scale below God.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/drug-business/claim-j-j-wrongly-marketed-antipsychotic-drug-risperdal-to-kids/9344

For more information on Joseph Biederman – http://www.cchrint.org/2011/07/22/pharma-funded-psychiatrists-behind-bogus-child-bi-polar-epidemic-disciplined-for-conflicts-of-interest/

Attorney General Alleges Jansen Illegally Marketed Antipsychotic Drug – to kids and the elderly

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Coakley alleges Janssen illegally marketed drug

By Jessica M. Karmasek – LegalNewsLine.com

August 2, 2011

BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Drug manufacturer Ortho-McNeil-Janssen is being sued by Attorney General Martha Coakley for illegally marketing Risperdal, an atypical antipsychotic medication.

Massachusetts Atty. General Martha Coakley

Coakley’s lawsuit alleges that Janssen promoted the drug to treat elderly dementia and a number of uses in children and adolescents when these uses had not been shown to be safe and effective and had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The complaint, filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court, further alleges that Janssen failed to disclose serious risks associated with Risperdal’s use, including the risk of excessive weight gain, diabetes and, for elderly dementia patients, an increased risk of death.

“Manufacturers should not promote uses of their pharmaceutical products that have not been established to be safe and effective,” Coakley said in a statement Monday.

J & J's Janssen Pharmaceuticals tests and markets drugs including Risperdal world-wide

“Janssen put profits ahead of patient safety by promoting Risperdal for uses that had not been approved and by failing to disclose serious risks associated with Risperdal’s use.”

According to the attorney general’s lawsuit, Janssen’s unfair and deceptive practices included:

* Omitting and/or concealing material facts regarding Risperdal’s efficacy and safety in its communications with Massachusetts health care providers and consumers;

* Concealing, omitting or minimizing the side effects and risks associated with Risperdal’s use;

* Promoting Risperdal to treat elderly dementia without disclosing to prescribers the serious risks associated with Risperdal’s use in dementia patients, including an increased risk of death;

* Promoting Risperdal to treat elderly dementia without disclosing to prescribers that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration had rejected the company’s request to market Risperdal for this use because of unaddressed safety concerns;

* Promoting Risperdal’s use as safe and effective to treat conduct disorder and other conditions in children for more than a decade before receiving FDA approval to market Risperdal to treat any conditions in children;

* Making misleading and deceptive statements to prescribers about Risperdal’s safety, particularly with respect to weight gain and the risk of developing diabetes;

* Paying physicians to participate in sham consulting programs that were, in fact, thinly disguised marketing programs touting unapproved uses; and

* Targeting its sales and marketing efforts to prescribers who rarely, if ever, prescribe Risperdal for its FDA-approved uses, primarily the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder.

According to the attorney general’s complaint, Janssen’s illegal marketing and sales tactics helped the company generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales in the state.

Citing company documents, Coakley’s lawsuit notes that these illegal tactics helped make Risperdal a market leader in both the children and adolescent and elderly market segments.

 http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/233450-coakley-alleges-janssen-illegally-marketed-drug

 Pharma-Funded Psychiatrists Behind Bogus Child ‘Bi-Polar’ Epidemic- Disciplined for Conflicts of Interest

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Alliance for Human Research Protect

Harvard Psychiatrists Disciplined for Conflicts of Interest

Alliance for Human Research Protection – July 21, 2011

 by Vera Sherav

Psychiatrist Joseph Biederman was funded millions by Pharma while promoting child “bipolar” disorder

Pharma ad for personnel in Moscow, Russia

The primary promoters–inventors, one might say– of diagnosing children with “bipolar” disorder, who for over a decade, aggressively promoted the biopolar diagnosis and use of antipsychotics in children, were disciplined by Harvard University and its affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

An investigation, prompted by Sen. Charles Grassely, was conducted by Harvard University-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. It concluded (earlier this month) that psychiatrist Joseph Biederman and two of his proteges, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens -each of who failed to disclose millions of dollars they had each received from the makers of antipsychotics, the drugs they promoted for the treatment of bipolar in children–had indeed violated the University’s/ and hospital’s conflict of interest reporting  standards.

Thomas Spencer

They have also taken millions of dollarrom the drug companies.”The companies that paid them millions include: Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb.The Senator brought public attention–and to Harvard University administrators’ attention–the financial conflicts of interest, “Out of concern about the relationship between this money and their research.”Indeed, documents uncovered during litigation confirmed that the research was scientifically corrupt and commercially-driven. The New York Times reported that Dr. Biederman promised Johnson a& Johnson that a study (yet to be conducted) in preschool children who would be given the company’s antipsychotic, Risperdal (risperidone) “will support the safety and effectiveness of Risperdal in this age group.”“The psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, outlined plans to test Johnson & Johnson’s drugs in presentations to company executives. One slide referred to a proposed trial in preschool children of risperidone, an antipsychotic drug made by the drug company. The trial, the slide stated, “will support the safety and effectiveness of risperidone in this age group.”Dr. Biederman was the lead author of a trial published last year concluding that treatment with risperidone improved symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in bipolar children.

”The three wrote a mea culpa letter stating “we want to offer our sincere apologies…” acknowledging “our mistakes…”However, no mention was made anywhere about the profound consequences of these psychiatritsts’ commercially-driven clinical recommendations. No mention about the corruption of the scientific literature, about clinical practice that deviated from the Hippocratic Oath, “First, do no harm,” nor was any mention made about the harm suffered by children whose doctors were misled about the safety and efficacy of highly toxic drugs.Child psychiatrists and pediatricians throughout the US were guided by these exceedingly influential Harvard psychiatrists.As Sen. Chuck Grassley noted in 2008 in the Congressional Record, “they are some of the top psychiatrists in the country, and their research is some of the most important in the field.

Another of Biederman’s Harvard ignoble disciples was Jeff Bostic, who is also at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was named in a 2009 lawsuit joined by the US Department of Justice alleging Forest Laboratories promoted its antidepressants for pediatric use without FDA approval and paid kickbacks to docs to encourage prescriptions. He received $750,000 in payments for giving talks on using these drugs in children.

Strangely, the National Institute for Mental Health, which had awarded thse psychiatrists millions of dollars at taxpayers expense. It appears that NIMH officials did not see fit to even conduct an investigation into the corruption of science and violation of federal regulations. This demonstrates a lack of professional and moral integrity at the NIMH whose administrators think nothing about the misappropriation of public money for commercially-driven, junk research.

http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/828/9/ Continue reading →

Since this march in downtown Detroit June 26, 2010, initiated by Jewel Allison of New York City (shown with her daughter Honesti) there have been no mass protests regarding Aiyana Jones' murder by Detroit police in Detroit, although there is international outrage.

August 4, 2011
 
 
 Ms. Mildred Gaddis
WCHB
Detroit MI
 
Dear Ms. Gaddis:
 
I attempted, but failed, to rise above and beyond, me, and my group’s claim, that WCHB has unfairly protected the wrong-doing of the Detroit Police Department’s involvement in the death of Aiyana Jones, by calling into your show this morning to contribute monies to sponsor one youngster to attend the August 28, 2011 tribute and monument dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, DC.  Maybe, I should not have made this pledge, because you refused the donation.
 

When will Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream be realized?

I will, on Malcolm, bet that if Dr. King were alive today, that he would be front and center in the campaign to express his outrage and distain for those who killed little Aiyana.  Dr. King would be just as upset that due process has not been had in Aiyana’s death because no one or entity has been charged with anything.
 
Who knows the ‘why’ – those in leadership capacities – including those at WCHB, have opted to stay in their closets, versus, on the daily, demanding out loud – justice for Aiyana Jones.  I do know, however, that this community will be stuck in their tracks for doing nothing in this regard.  No festival, new building or grand ball will revive Detroit, because Detroit has chose to “move on” versus dealing with an issue that is central to the fundamental soul of our essence which is freedom from a rogue and brutal state force.
 

Youth at March for Peace, Freedom and Justice in Detroit Aug. 28, 2010, carried Aiyana's sign

The Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee will support the MLK Jr. Tribute, and will do so by attending.  We will also abandon our boycott against WCHB, because we think that a lot of the programming on WCHB is important.  Thus, we want people to continue listening to WCHB.  However, we will, instead, ask the people to ‘not’ support the sponsors who purchase ads on WCHB due to WCHB helping to silence justice of Aiyana Jones.
 
Most sincerely, 
Roland Lawrence
Chairman
Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee

The JAJC Committee flew this sky banner over the city on May 16, 2011, the anniversary of Aiyana's murder by cop

Gary Webb (1955-2004) Hero journalist Targeted Individual; shot twice in head, alleged suicide

Deborah DuPre

By Deborah Dupre

Human Rights Examiner

August 3, 2011 – Journalist hero, the late Gary Webb was further vindicated Wednesday with news parallelling Fast and Furious and California’s prison snitch or be tortured policy. Several tons of cocaine were brought into the United States by U.S. federal agents allowing [CIA] asset [the] Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic the haul, reportedly in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court.

“The latest allegations are part of the defense of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, who was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in Chicago,” according to El Paso Times.

Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, authorized by the CIA to traffick drugs in the U.S.

It took a Chicago court holding a status hearing today to order the U.S.  government to respond to Zambada-Niebla’s motion containing the allegations by Sept. 11.

Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, son of Ismael “El Mayo,” is a top leaders of the Sinaloa drug-trafficking organization.

In April, Zambada claimed to have been working with the U.S. government for years according to pleadings filed in federal court in Chicago.

“Zambada Niebla’s allegation of U.S. government complicity in his narco-trafficking activities is laid out in a two-page court pleading filed in late March with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. The pleading asserts that Zambada Niebla was working with ‘public authority’ “on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration (‘DEA’); and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (‘FBI’); and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’).”

(VOD ed.: Click on Zambada motion citing public authority in drug trafficking, Zambada immunity agreement, and Zambada ruling 8 3 11 to read relevant documents.)

Niebla is also connected to the Gulfstream II jet that wrecked on September 4, 2007 with four tons of cocaine on board. (Also see video about this incident in You Tube post at top.)

N987SA CIA rendition plane

European investigators linked the wrecked plane’s tail number, N987SA, to CIA “rendition” operations. 

Niebla’s claim that he smuggled drugs from Mexico into the U.S. as an asset for the U.S. government adds further weight to evidence confirming that the CIA and U.S. banking giants are the top players in the transnational drug trade worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Targeted Individual: Investigative journalist Gary Webb (1955-2004)

The CIA and U.S. banking drug dealing referenced allegations has been made by, among others, Pulitzer Prize journalist Gary Webb, who supposedly committed suicide in 2004, found with two gunshot wounds to the head. (See:  Stanton, Sam. “Reporter’s suicide confirmed by coroner,” The Sacramento Bee; Dec. 15. 2004. Retrieved Jul. 20, 2006)

Webb had revealed that the CIA was aware of cocaine transactions and large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by Contra personnel. (See Gary Webb in embedded Youtube on page left)

In his 20,000 word, three-part investigative series titled “Dark Alliance,” Webb alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and drug profits were funding the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras.

He had charged that the Reagan administration shielded inner-city drug dealers from prosecution to raise money for the Contras, especially after Congress passed the Boland Amendment that prohibited direct Contra funding.

As a growing number of Targeted Individuals do now, Webb experienced workplace mobbing. He was blacklisted out of his work as a reporter.

As Targeted Individuals consistently report today, Webb had complained of both death threats and multi-stalkers: “government people” stalking his home.

Criticized and black-listed from the mainstream journalism community, Webb’s reportage has been vindicated after many of his U.S. federal agency drug trafficking findings were validated.

Only after his death did the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune defend his “Dark Alliance” series.

These latest revelations of U.S. officials’ systematic drug dealing further vindicates Webb, now honored as a journalist hero, as the video about him reflects.

“Investigative reporting is being squeezed out of the picture, I think intentionally,” Webb stated on camera.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Targeted dead journalist further vindicated: Feds’ tons of drug-traffick – National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/targeted-dead-journalist-further-vindicated-feds-tons-of-drugs-for-u-s?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1U3pe3Lwh

RELEASE; BROADCASTER TAVIS SMILEY AND PRINCETON PROFESSOR CORNEL WEST EMBARK ON THE POVERTY TOUR

Jul 14, 2011

            16-city national tour hopes to raise awareness about the plight of the poor

Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West

LOS ANGELES (July 20, 2011) – Broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West, hosts of the nationally syndicated public radio program Smiley & West from Public Radio International (PRI), announced The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight Wednesday evening.

 The 16-city bus tour will highlight the plight of the poor of all races, colors, and creeds so they will not be forgotten, ignored or rendered invisible during this difficult and dangerous time of economic deprivation and political cowardice.

Lac Coutre Oreilles Indian Reservation

Smiley & West will be on the road August 6-12, 2011, starting with a gathering of the nation’s often forgotten Native Americans on the Lac Coutre Oreilles Indian Reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin.  The Poverty Tour will also stop in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C, and wrap in Memphis with a town hall conversation and a visit to the historic Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, while in town for a march with poor sanitation workers.  Smiley & West will meet with some of the 1968 sanitation workers. 

The tour will also stop on the Southside of Chicago for another town hall event on August 7 at the Faith Community of St. Sabina, and on August 8 in Detroit, Michigan at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center Erma Henderson Auditorium. All town hall meetings are produced by High Quality Speakers Bureau (HQSB) and are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Homeless in downtown Detroit line up for food; Detroit has one of the highest poverty rates in the country

“We are taking Smiley & West into America’s communities,” Smiley said. “We want those people who are struggling in this current economy to know that they are not alone and not forgotten.”

 Smiley & West will meet America’s unemployed, victims of bank foreclosures, senior citizens, students, homeless veterans, educators and young families struggling to survive.  They will also meet with organizers, activists, social entrepreneurs and others who are using creative solutions to address America’s biggest challenges: jobs, food, energy, housing, health care and education.

 “We hope to speak truths about the suffering of everyday people, so that poor and working folks are empowered by the legacy of Brother Martin,” added Cornel West, one of America’s leading public intellectuals. 

Many of the stories gathered from this tour will be heard weekly on the radio program Smiley & West, and be featured on Tavis Smiley on PBS.  For an opportunity to meet Smiley and West while on tour, visit www.smileyandwest.com where you can also download a daily podcast.

 Following the tour, the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) will release a white paper examining the “new poor” in America, and how the face of poverty in America is changing.  Recent data suggests that many of the new poor in America are the former middle class.

 “With all the talk about deficit reduction, somebody has to tell the truth about poverty in America and the impact the outcome of this debate will have on the nation’s poor,” said Smiley.

 The Poverty Tour is sponsored in part by the AARP Foundation and the National Education Association (NEA).

 For additional information, please visit: www.smileyandwest.com.

Espinoza family with supporters outside Family Court July 27: (l to r) Luis III, 13, father Luis with Leonardo, 3, Cornell Squires, Gavino, 9, mother Cecilia, Pedro, 12, and Mabel Love

Grandmother seized daughter illegally, CPS upheld action weeks later, targeting a poor family in favor of the well-to-do grandmother 

By Diane Bukowski 

Aug. 2, 2011

DETROIT – In yet another extra-legal seizure of a child, the family of Luis and Cecilia Espinoza of southwest Detroit is fighting to have their only daughter Genoveva, 6, returned home, and to prevent her four young brothers from being taken by the state. 

Arnetta Grable, co-founder of the Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality, lost her son Lamar to a Detroit police officer's bullets; she came to court to support keep the Espinozas from losing their children

They protested outside the Lincoln Hall of Justice July 27 prior to a pre-trial hearing on their case, with their young sons and supporters from community organizations including Cornell Squires, Mabel Love, and Arnetta Grable. 

Cecilia Espinoza explained what happened. 

“It was Father’s Day, June 19, and me and my mom went to the cemetery to visit my father,” Ms. Espinoza said. “My husband was home with the children cooking dinner, and Genoveva was playing. When we got back, we found she had hit herself in the eye while hiding under her bed. My son had already pulled her out but she went back in. She does that a lot and gets stuck.” 

Ms. Espinoza said Genoveva claimed that she, her mother, gave her the black eye. 

“My mother said ‘no, we just got home,’” Espinoza recounted. “But she asked to take her home with her for a few days and we said OK. After that, she would come and visit us but wouldn’t bring Genoveva. She said Genoveva didn’t want to come home. She brought her one time and we only saw her for five minutes. Then we went to a picnic on Belle Isle July 7 with the family, and Genoveva said she wanted to come home with me and started to get in our car. But my mom grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let her come. Genoveva was wrapping her fingers in my hair and hanging on to me and crying.” 

Home of grandmother Consuelo Meade in Warren, who took Genoveva from parents

Consuelo Meade, the grandmother, is 83, well-to-do, and lives in an expensive condominium in Warren, according to Ms.Espinoza. She said her mother paid an overdue $5,000 tax bill for the Espinoza’s home, and seemed to think that entitled her to take the child. The Espinozas live in a poor section of Detroit. 

Ms. Espinoza makes $214 a week at a pizza restaurant, and her husband Luis works on cars to help support the family. 

“My mom showed me pictures of Genoveva’s black eye, and said I hit her, this is where I beat her. She told me, ‘Your daughter is not going home.’” 

Warren Police HQ; Warren police force is predominantly white

She said she and two friends went to the Warren police to lodge a complaint and obtain their assistance in regaining her daughter, but the police were hostile and threatened to arrest her instead. 

She said her mother then consulted with a friend who is a DHS worker, Monica Schmit, who told her to file a CPS complaint. 

She said a CPS worker, Shanitra Bowman, came to their home on short notice July 12, spoke with her and her son, and viewed the home. She said she also visited her children’s school, Bennett Elementary, talked with the principal, and took pictures of her sons without her consent. She said Bowman tried to get her to sign consent papers after the fact, but she refused to so. 

Ms. Espinoza said she and her husband went to a “Permanency Planning Conference” at CPS on July 18 with the worker and explained what happened, but CPS filed for an order to take temporary custody of Genoveva on July 21. 

If allegations about Genoveva are upheld, CPS plans to seize the remaining Espinoza children, according to testimony at a probable cause hearing in front of Family Court referee Mona Youssef  July 27, regarding the order. 

Starletta Banks with photos of her thre children in 2005; Richard Karoub terminated her parental rights in 2000, but she has battled since then to have them returned to her loving arms.

Randy Rodner, the court-appointed attorney for Luis Espinoza, said that the four other children had earlier been dismissed from the petition. But assistant state attorney general Richard Karoub said they were not dismissed, only that a hearing was not held regarding them. He said if the petition is authorized by the court and the case goes to trial, then the other children will be included. 

Karoub is the assistant attorney general who terminated the parental rights of Starletta Banks in 2000. The young mother of three was featured in a series of articles by this reporter in the Michigan Citizen. Click on Starletta Banks stories to read about her case.  However, he also threw out a CPS case against Sylvia Young, who lost her three toddlers to a fire after DTE turned off their heat in February, 2010.

CPS had no compassion in this tragedy, but tried to try to take Young’s other four children afterwards, despite DTE’s clear culpability in the incident. Listen to Sylvia Young’s talk on what CPS put her through, among other issues, in video below.

 An earlier hearing July 21 in the Espinoza case was adjourned until an interpreter became available for Luis Espinoza, who is not as fluent in English as his wife. CPS procedures require a hearing within 24 hours of their request for a protective order. 

Bowman testified that she spoke with the parents and the grandmother, and met with Genoveva, who she said had no injuries at the time. Asst. State Attorney General Richard Karoub showed photos of Genoveva’s black eye, but they were not entered into evidence because there was no testimony available regarding when they were taken and how they were processed. 

Bowman said the child told her that it was her mother who struck her. She said that Ms. Meade told her she did not observe the incident because she was in the kitchen. She said Ms. Espinoza denied striking Genoveva in the eye, and said first that the child went under the bed out of defiance, and then that she was playing hide-and-seek. Bowman said both Mr. and Mrs. Espinoza agreed that Genoveva had a black eye. 

She was asked what in-home services she recommended to prevent removal of Genoveva or the other children, but did not give any. 

CPS rules regarding “reasonable efforts” to keep the child in the home say that federal and state law both require “judicial oversight” when a child is removed from the home, and a judicial determination that “reasonable efforts” have been made to keep the child in the home. In the Espinoza case, despite the family’s compliance with Bowman’s request to attend a Permanency Planning Conference, the Department filed a petition to remove Genoveva only three weeks after its inital contact with the family. State law limits the filing of such a petition only to situations involving dire circumstances as listed at keft,

According to attorney Dynah White, who represented the Espinozas in a hearing July 29 before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Sapala, the petition to remove Genoveva has a signature purporting to be that of Presiding Family Court Judge Leslie Kim Smith, but has no case number or petition number, and is not time stamped. It was allegedly filed July 20.

White represented the parents July 29 before Sapala, on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging the child was being illegally held, and a complaint for compensatory damages against Meade, Schmit, Meade’s sister Amelia Gutierrez, Bowman, her supervisor Carla Parham and the Michigan Department of Human Services. The parents had filed the actions pro per, with the assistance of community supporters. 

Sapala ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over the habeas corpus motion since the case was in Family Court, but that the complaint for compensatory damages could be re-filed as an original complaint in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Meanwhile, the Family Court hearing against the Espinozas is scheduled to resume Wed. Aug. 3 at 1:45 P.M. in front of referee Mona Youssef, at the Lincoln Hall of Justice, 1025 E. Forest at the I-75 service drive.

These children from Bennett Elementary attended a City Council meeting last month; Ceciia Espinoza said her son Pedro was supposed to go, but was too upset about the loss of his sister to attend.

Parents of Ariana, Maryanne Godboldo and Roger Hakim, leave court after earlier hearing

Probation officers routinely stamp Family Court judge’s signature 

By Diane Bukowski

Aug. 1, 2011

 DETROIT – Children are routinely being removed from their homes in Wayne County on the word of a state worker with a bachelor’s degree, and a Wayne County Family Court probation officer who stamps Presiding Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s signature on a court order without her authorization. The judge never even sees the order or accompanying documentation. 

Ariana Godboldo's home on Blaine, in a neighborhood that is 98.6 percent Black, where 31% of the residents live below the poverty level.

That was the testimony of Vikki Kapanowski, Juvenile Intake interim supervisor, on Aug. 1 in the Ariana Godboldo case. Detroit police, along with a Special Response Team including tanks, helicopters and assault weapons, removed the frightened 13-year-old child from her home March 24 as a result of such an order. 

Her mother faces criminal charges for resisting what she and her attorneys say was an illegal home invasion and seizure of the child.  

Attorneys for Maryanne Godboldo and Mubarak Hakim, Ariana’s parents, were outraged. 

Atty. Wanda Evans

“It was the intent of the legislature, to ensure the protection of families, to make sure that the judge has reviewed and signed the order on their own, not to leave that responsibility to a referee or probation officer, ” argued Wanda Evans, co-counsel for Ariana’s mother. 

Under state law, she said, probation officers must be officially sworn in as referees to function in that capacity, and referees can only make recommendations. Referees must also have law licenses. 

She referenced the state Probate Code, 712 A.10, which reads as follows: 

Attorney Adam Shakoor with Rosa Parks' long-time friend Elaine Steele

“It is the fundamental right of the parent to have custody of their child and raise their child,” co-counsel and well-known Detroit attorney Adam Shakoor chimed in. “This was an improper protective custody order, and everything that flows from it is void. To get to the point where the law allows the seizure of a child, the rights of the parent have to be protected. The court is left with no other option than to quash the order.” 

Kapanowski testified that one of three probation officers on her staff designated to do so reviews petitions for removal submitted by CPS workers. 

“Once they are convinced there are sufficient grounds, they issue protective orders,” Kapanowski said. “Then they are file stamped and stamped with the presiding judge’s signature.” 

Wenk home in Flushing, a suburb of Flint which is 94.6 % white and has a 4.7 % poverty level

She said a probation officer named Marcia Hurst stamped Wayne County Family Court Presiding Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s signature on the petition to remove Ariana Godboldo March 24. Although the order provided 30 days for execution, Wenk went to Godboldo’s home on Blaine immediately and called 911 to summon police. 

Kapanowski also testified that her staff members have not been sworn in to function as referees and have no law licenses.  

In the Godboldo case, the worker, Mia Wenk, had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, three weeks on the case and one year on the job with a brief period of on-the-job training.  State regulations provide that a probation officer “may” have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. 

Asst. state AG Deborah Carley

Assistant state attorney general Deborah Carley argued several times that unproven allegations that Maryanne Godboldo fired a shot at the police were sufficient to override any flaws in the court order, and cited an unpublished Court of Appeals decision. She said the probation officer was designated as a referee, ignoring Kapanowski’s testimony to the contrary. 

Attorney Roger Farinha, who represents Ariana’s father, angrily denounced her references to the gunshot. 

“If the attorney general can argue such an issue, than I can argue that nothing shows that they can medically treat a child,” Farinha said. “There is no doctor’s letter in the file. They can’t take a child and warehouse her to experiment on her.” 

Atty. Roger Farinha

The chief reason Wenk cited for Ariana Godboldo’s removal was her mother’s decision to take her off the psychotropic drug Risperdal, which many medical professionals have said is dangerous. The consent form Maryanne Godboldo signed when she agreed to have her child take the drug specified that she had the right to take her off it at any time. 

Family Court Judge Lynne A. Pierce struck Carly’s statements related to the alleged gunshot, but upheld her other arguments. 

In ruling that the order was valid, and disallowing testimony on its legality in the upcoming jury trial, set for Aug. 2, Pierce also ignored Kapanowski’s testimony that her staff was not authorized to function as referees.

Family Court Judge Lynne A. Pierce

She said state law authorizes a referee to review and approve petitions for removal of children. 

“Based on CPS/DHS’s provision of a petition with allegations under MCR 3.963, and that the allegations were made to a referee and the fact that the statute allows non-judicial action, the court finds the written order stamped with the judge’s signature by the referee/probation officer authorized DHS to enter the premises.”

 That rule , MCR 3.963 (B) Court-Ordered Custody, reads in part:

(1) The court may issue a written order authorizing a child protective services worker, an officer, or other person deemed suitable by the court to immediately take a child into protective custody when, upon presentment of proofs as required by the court, the judge or referee has reasonable grounds to believe that conditions or surroundings under which the child is found are such as would endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the child and that remaining in the home would be contrary to the welfare of the child.” 

Part A of the section allows a child to be taken without a court order under extraordinary circumstances, but in this case, a court order was used as the pretext for Ariana’s removal. 

Pierce also ruled that an amended order to remove Ariana Godboldo would be the only one allowed into testimony at the trial, not the original order that led to her removal. 

Pierce home in Grosse Pointe Woods, which is 99.1 % white and has a poverty rate of 3.1%

Pierce would have had to reverse her own after-the-fact ruling in a subsequent show cause hearing if she had granted the defense motion to quash the original order. 

Pierce also refused to allow the hiring of Attorney Michael Bishai to represent Ariana Godboldo, in addition to current court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem Daniel McGuire. Bishai said he wanted to represent the child to safeguard her legal rights to remain with her family and not to be medicated against her will or their will. 

After Ariana was taken, she was placed in Hawthorne Psychiatric Hospital in Northville and medicated with Risperdal along with three other drugs until attorneys for her mother obtained a court order from Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt barring the forced medication. 

Pierce denied Bishai’s request to represent Ariana, but said he could act as co-counsel for her mother.

Davontae Sanford's family and supporters (mother Taminko Sanford at pastor's right) pray for his freedom outside Prosecutor Kym Worthy's courthouse last year. She has refused to withdraw charges against him although an investigator has now testified that another man, Vincent Smothers, confessed to the four homicides he was convicted of at the age of 14, in the case of a "classic false confession."

By The Associated Press

Published: Monday, July 25, 2011, 1:14 PM     Updated: Tuesday, July 26, 2011, 7:37 AM

A lawyer trying to overturn a teenager’s four murder convictions closed her case Monday with testimony from an investigator who said a Detroit hit man already in prison for killing eight people took responsibility for the same four slayings and “absolutely” wasn’t aided by a young accomplice.

Davontae Sanford at 14, four years ago.

Linda Borus, an investigator with the Michigan appellate defender office, was the last witness for Davontae Sanford in a long series of hearings. Sanford was just 14 in 2007 when he told police that he fatally shot four people in his Detroit neighborhood. He subsequently pleaded guilty to murder and won’t be eligible for parole until 2046.

For more than two years, attorney Kim McGinnis has been trying to get those guilty pleas thrown out. She says Sanford, a troubled kid who could barely read or write, simply was trying to please police. Her strongest piece of evidence may be the confession of self-described hit man Vincent Smothers.

Smothers, sent to prison last year for eight mostly drug-related murders, told police after his arrest that he committed the so-called Runyon Street killings. But by that time, spring 2008, Sanford had already pleaded guilty and was locked up.

Vincent Smothers said Davontae was not involving in Runyon Street killings

Borus testified Monday that she visited Smothers in prison last November. She said he explained how he was hired to kill certain people at a Runyon Street house to settle a feud between drug organizations. She said Smothers indicated he had help that day — but not from a teen.

“He said there was absolutely no connection between him and Mr. Sanford. He said (Sanford) had nothing to do with it. I don’t know what more I can say,” Borus testified.

But when she was finished, Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan said he would disregard Borus’ testimony, partly because it was similar to what Smothers had already told police.

“I don’t view it as critical,” said the judge, who must decide whether to grant Sanford, now 18, a new trial.

Black children in peril across U.S.

McGinnis has been trying to persuade Smothers to appear in court and testify for Sanford. But he has declined, fearing he would be a marked man in prison if forced to name an accomplice in the Runyon Street slayings.

Smothers has given permission to allow his former attorney, Gabi Silver, to testify about their private conversations about Runyon Street. But the judge has blocked it, saying it would be unfair to prosecutors who wouldn’t be able to cross-examine Smothers.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office won’t back away from Sanford’s convictions, although authorities acknowledge Smothers probably had a role in the fatal shootings. McGinnis believes a grant of immunity would force Smothers to testify, but prosecutors have declined to ask the judge to consider it.

That stance “only complicates matters,” Sullivan said.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, at school board meeting in 2010, is part of the school-to-prison pipeline for Black youth in Wayne County; she has testified against changing state laws that allow for juveniles to be sentenced to life without parole. The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that has this practice, which is condemned by the UN.

Spokeswoman Maria Miller said an immunity request won’t be coming.

“Sanford confessed, pleaded guilty, gave a factual basis for the crime under oath, and the claim is that he gave a false plea. The issues raised by Sanford can be decided without giving Smothers immunity. … The fact of the matter is Smothers is free to testify at any time,” Miller said.

The judge told both sides to put final arguments in writing. A decision about Sanford’s case is not expected for weeks.

VOD ed.: The latest information is that the judge told attorneys to put their arguments in writing by the end of August. In ordering the written arguments, Sullivan said Davontae’s attorney, Kim McGinnis, should explain gunpowder residue police found on Sanford’s clothing and how he knew details of the scene inside the house. Sullivan has also said that prosecutors should address Smothers’ confession as well as the recovery of a .45-caliber pistol used in the killings. The written arguments are due at the end of August. There is no date set for Sullivan’s ruling.

The Michigan Daily reported in 2004 on Judge Sullivan’s response to a lawsuit filed by University of Michigan Law School professor Paul Reingold, on behalf of parolable lifers.

“Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan said judges in the 1970s and 1980s believed a parolable life-sentence would offer more incentive for prisoner rehabilitation than a sentence for a set number of years. Since then, the Parole Board has changed its interpretation of a life sentence, Sullivan said.

“The Department of Corrections said if you say ‘life’ you mean ‘life,’ and that’s more serious,” he said. “The judges sentenced (prisoners before 1992) with an understanding that’s no longer correct,” he added.

Sullivan said the Parole Board should examine the specifics.

“Some people should be paroled, others should not,” he said. “If you kill someone and you don’t do well in prison, you shouldn’t be paroled. If you rehabilitate yourself, you should be reviewed for parole.”^[

Davontae Sanford’s family is hoping for a similarly just decision on their child’s case from Judge Sullivan, who appeared to have compassionate sentiments in 2004.

Worthy has brought no charges against cops who murdered 7-year-old Aiyana Jones on May 16, 2010, despite worldwide outrage.

It is hard to believe that he can ignore the testimony of the man who committed the murders for which Davontae cannot be paroled until 2046. And it is further hard to believe that Prosecutor Kym Worthy will not withdraw the charges against Davontae, since she has not filed ANY charges against Joseph Weekley and the other Detroit police officers who shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death in 2010.

The day after Davontae’s hearing in front of Judge Sullivan July 25, a 13-year-old child, Jimmell Cannon, was shot 8 times and nearly killed by Chicago police (see article below).  The people must rise to save the very lives and freedom of Black CHILDREN across the U.S.!

We can begin by monitoring Detroit police by clicking on: http://tunein.com/radio/Detroit-Police-s134289/