Mother sues state for racketeering

[Brent]

 This is from Will Gaston, whose daughter was stolen from him years
ago, at the instigation of city officials who wanted his property.
See //www.avoiceforchildren.com

 
July 2, 2004
 Mother sues state for racketeering
 She says officials kidnapped her children
 By Diane Bukowski
 The Michigan Citizen

 
 DETROIT - Starletta Banks has not seen her three children, Darius,
now 11, Danielle, now 7, and Darren, now 5, since the year 2000, but
she says she is determined to have them come home again to her loving
arms.

 "It's been devastating," said Banks. "It's been hard holding jobs and
eating and sleeping. You can't even imagine the Christmases and
birthdays I've spent. When we get them back, whenever that is, it will
be Christmas because I've gone on buying presents for them all this
time."
 
 Banks says her children were essentially kidnapped by Governor
Jennifer Granholm, Attorney General Mike Cox, and various judges,
administrators and doctors to be used as "cash cows" for the benefit
of the state's child foster care system. That system is largely farmed
out to private non-profit agencies who receive federal funds for each
child. She says the alleged kidnappers have profited because they sit
on the boards of agencies in that system.

 On June 6, Banks filed suit in U.S. District Court under federal
racketeering and civil rights statutes, demanding her children's
return, and calling for an immediate investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice into the alleged misuse of federal funds by the
State of Michigan in hers and thousands of other foster care cases.

 "I'm going to fight them with everything I've got, until my children
are returned to me, and I want other families to join me," said Banks,
who, so far, is representing herself in the case. Banks resides with
her mother and father Barbara and Leo Banks, who are supporting her
suit. The suit was inspired by a similar action in Los Angeles County
that opened an investigation into 30,000 foster care cases there.

 "Plaintiff was severely damaged and her family destroyed by the
kidnap under color of law of her three children," reads Banks'
complaint. "Defendants used the Michigan state foster care system as a
'child for profit' machine, with eighty percent of their caseload
contracted out to private agencies who are paid federal monies by the
case. . . Defendants sat on the boards of agencies that received
federal monies for the 'care and custody' of children, while actively
participating in, or making judicial decisions on cases involving
child custody or termination of parental rights including plaintiff's
case."

 Banks' parental rights to her children were terminated by Wayne
County Juvenile Court Judge Patricia Campbell in October, 2000, after
a series of events that began two years earlier when Banks took
Danielle, then an infant, to Henry Ford Hospital after she fell out of
bed. (See "Attorney General Seeks to Take Children," Michigan Citizen
Mar. 12-18, 2000.)

 The baby sustained a skull fracture, but the hospital contended at
the time that other X-rays showed evidence of old rib fractures.
Subsequent studies, however, showed no such old fractures. The family
now believes that Danielle's X-rays were initially mixed up with those
of another infant.

 At the time, the court took temporary custody of Banks' two children.
Her third child was born later and also taken based solely on the
accident with Danielle. The children were assigned to Orchard's
Children's Services, where workers eventually recommended that they be
returned to Banks after she successfully completed a parenting course
at Black Family Development.

 The workers said the children had been traumatized by their removal
from their mother, repeatedly cried and asked for her, and were scared
of being left alone.

 However, after an Orchard's worker withdrew the recommendation for
return, Campbell terminated Banks' rights, despite the fact that no
charges of abuse or neglect had ever been brought against her. Banks'
parents were later appointed as guardians, but that status was
terminated in 2001 and the children were returned to foster care.

 Banks appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled against
her in July of 2002. The State Supreme Court has since refused to hear
the case.

 Banks contends that numerous state officials who participated in the
termination of her parental rights also are members of non-profits
connected with the foster care system, creating a blatant conflict of
interest. They are cited as individual defendants in her case.

 They include appeals court judge Kathleen Jansen, one of the three
judges who denied her appeal, who sits on the Macomb County Child
Abuse Neglect Information Council, and Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth
Weaver, who chairs the "Governor's Task Force on Children's Justice
and Family Independence Agency."

 Although she was not the attending physician, Dr. Annamaria Church
testified against Banks on behalf of Henry Ford Hospital. Besides
heading the pediatric residency program at the DeVos Children's
Hospital in Grand Rapids, she is also involved with the state's
non-profit Children's Trust Fund, which doles out $70 million annually
in funding to various non-profit child welfare agencies including
foster care programs.

 "My lawsuit showed every foster care case was tainted because
officials in Los Angeles County failed to disclose their conflicts of
interest," said Dr. Shirley Moore, National Director of Legislative
Affairs for the American Family Rights Association.

 In response to Moore's actions, as well as an American Civil
Liberties Union lawsuit and an expose by the Los Angeles Daily News, a
judge ordered a review of foster care placements in that county.

 "Up to half of the 75,000 children in the systems and adoptive homes
were needlessly placed in a system that is often more dangerous than
their own homes because the county receives $30,000 to $150,000 in
state and federal revenues for each placement," wrote the Daily News.

 Moore said the situation in Michigan is far worse, because officials
at all levels up to the state are involved, and there is no recourse
here except federal court.

 Press representatives for Governor Granholm and the state's Human
Services Department would not comment on Banks' action due to the
pending litigation, and the attorney general's representative would
not comment due to "attorney-client privilege." An attorney for Dr.
Annamaria Church had not returned a call for comment by press time.

 http://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&

  ----- Original Message -----  From: Leonard Henderson
  To: Newshawks
  Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 8:46 AM
  Subject: [OFR] Mother sues state for racketeering

 
   July 2, 2005
  Mother sues state for racketeering
  She says officials kidnapped her children
  By Diane Bukowski
  The Michigan Citizen
  The truth about how the system operates is laid bare for all to see.

  http://familyrights.us/news/archive/2005/july/mother_sues_state.htm

  Please forward widely