Sunday, June 21, 2015

Child Protective Services in America, Corrupt or Misunderstood?






I wanted to take a moment and share some hard work being done by Matthew Virgin, Karen Stevens and their Taylor Paige Foundation.  I've known Mathew for a short time but he and Karen work tirelessly advocating for children and parental rights. Unfortunately in some cases, children have been taken away from Parents who truly love their children and care for them and have lost their rights due to false pretenses against them. In many cases these parents are at or below the poverty level and may not have the financial backing to obtain a lawyer and fall into the cracks and some  may lose their children forever. The work this man is doing is truly helping others against a system that sometimes is too big for its own good.  If you know someone or need help yourself, you may contact Matthew at the links below.

Greg Pollitt



Check out their links and the article below

Foundation Facebook can be found on the following link


 Website is 


An Article they were featured in is 


This is a community Service Announcement as voiced by their first two Ambassadors, that is being aired on channel 31 Melbourne Australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6FYzvhEWGo

Endorsement from Deadgar Winters Dark Coffin Classics a TV series in Wisconsin


And they were most recently featured in TTW.TV Magazine


If you wish to contribute to their foundation you can click on the paypal donation button on their website or you can donate on their GOFUNDME on the following link.


All Proceeds go to helping them with establishment costs and to helping the families that come to us with legal fees etc.

If you wish to help out their foundation in anyway please contact Mathew Virgin or his Fiance and Co-Founder Karen at taylorpaigefoundation@gmail.com

Matt and Karen

Founders



My testimony.

I have been advocating for victims Child Protective Services case, discrepancies for just over two years now. The following is a short testimony on several experiences I have had advocating and dealing with Child Protective Services in the United States.

Last year, when I sat on the board as a volunteer for an organization based in Texas but America wide, the founder approached me through a Facebook message and asked if I could please contact the Clarke Family in Dallas. They had been posting in several social media Facebook groups that a Child Protection Service case had been opened on them, because they refused to get their home school children immunized by their regular doctor. In retaliation, the Doctor called DCFS (Child Protective Services in Texas) on the Clark Family with false allegations of abuse.

I spoke to Mr. Clark and Mrs. Clark on the phone and they were quite beside themselves what to do because they had been given less than a week’s warning for a termination hearing. DCFS had not even opened a proper investigation and moved straight towards a removal. 

I consulted the Clark family with the best guidance I could give them using my personal experience, which included, taking the children to court with them, for the judge to be able to see the children were healthy and looked after, bettering the chances that the case would be closed.

A week later, the hearing arrived. I sat in anticipation praying for the best outcome for the Clark family and their children. That afternoon, after the hearing they rung me in tears and explained that the judge had ordered the case closed due to lack of evidence and false reporting on the case manager’s merit.

The case has remained closed to this day.



Another case I have advocated for was Holly Garcia in Missouri. She contacted me through one of the parental rights Facebook groups and explained to me that Child Protection Services had tried removal of her son earlier that year, whom had a medical condition. She won in court, but in retaliation, Child Protective Services had her sons disability checks stopped. 

She sent me a brief email outlining the situation and what had happened to her son and her family and they were now struggling because of this financial strain. I contacted a friend of mine in Missouri, Roi Chinn, who is running for Secretary of State on the independent ticket. I outlined the situation and explained that this family needed our help any way we could.

We both wrote letters to the Attorney General’s office, the Governor’s office and several other government entities. We did not get a response for about two weeks. Then Holly rung me excited and quite beside herself. She had received a phone call from the state capital inquiring what had happened and how they could help.

They restored her son’s disability check later that week and Holly was very grateful and appreciative of me and Roi, for reaching out and helping her without asking for anything in return. 

To this day, her son’s disability checks are still coming in regularly and the family is quite well.



Last year a friend of mine in Maryland, Chris Gannon, another family rights activist reached out to me as he had heard I successfully had helped several families, either get their case closed, or investigated. A woman by the name of Tammy in Tennessee had, had the neighbors call DCF in her local county on her, no less than 19 times, and each time DCF had closed the case. Her 19 daughter moved back in the residence with her, and her grandson.
The neighbors then called DCF on her for the 20th time. This time DCF took the “allegation” a bit more serious and moved towards removal of Tammy’s Grandchild. 

I spoke to Tammy on the phone and she outlined the situation to me, explain DCF had tried to remove her grandchild from the home, but the judge hadn’t ruled on it yet. The department was moving towards a removal on the grounds of medical neglect. This was because when they did their initial investigation they saw Doctor Reports of their grandchild had been choked on items that he had been playing with. The Doctors report reflected that this was a normal every day accident where the child had picked up something off the ground and placed it into his mouth as children do regularly.
Once again the department had no merit on opening this investigation on an anonymous tip. 

I spoke to Tammy on the phone and wrote several letters to government entities around her local area and also gave her guidance on her case. I explained that taking the Doctors reports into the hearing to present to the judge would be the best way to prove her case was opened without merit and to explain to the judge it was just a family who they had, had problems with before. I suggested they get letters of good standing from friends of theirs and the child’s doctor, to present as evidence to the court to show that they were being targeted and the only way to get to the family was through DCF.

Tammy followed my guidance and the day after the initial hearing, after she presented to the court her evidence, the Judge closed the case.
The case, as far as I know, is closed to this day.



A year and a half ago when I was still in Australia, I was contacted by a Lynn Lombadozzi, from Pennsylvania. She explained to me, she used to be a judges aid and at one point had worked for Child Protective Services in Pennsylvania. She had a falling out with one of the other employees in the office and in retaliation they opened a case on her.

I advocated for Lynn for several weeks and months and also was on an online radio show with her, helping her expose her story to the public. I wrote letters to District Attorneys and several other government figures and bodies in her county in Pennsylvania but got little or no response.
I spent a lot of time trying my hardest to help Lynn and give her as much guidance as I could, but unfortunately, she recently had to file a motion change of venue to get the case looked at by another judge in the state of New Jersey.

To my knowledge the case is still open and Lynn is struggling on a day to day basis to survive and keep going forward without her children, but unfortunately not every case can be closed as easy as some others, taking years to get investigations opened or closed on them.
It is hard when most people and families who are targeted by Child Protective Services cannot afford reliable and proper legal representation, as they barely qualify for legal aid, or a court appointed attorney. Court Appointed attorneys don’t always act in the best interest of the family and mostly act in the best interest of the court. That is why people like me are needed because we dedicate our lives and time researching and learning to help these families deal with this delicate subject.



The families mentioned in this document have given me permission to talk about their cases and I can provide contact details for each one, including current phone numbers and email addresses.

These are just a few of the thousands of stories and experiences I have had while helping people deal with Child Protective Services cases and discrepancies in their actions. 

Some use Child Protective Services as a weapon against each other, and some use it out of spite, to other families and the as in most cases, Child Protective Services uses the mere fact they can claim incentives of the Federal Government to achieve financial gain.

Matt Virgin

Family Rights activist 

Co-Founder of Taylor Paige Foundation

P.S

If I have worked your case or, you have witnessed my advocation for someone you know, please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section, as positive feedback is always appreciated










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