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Posts Tagged ‘Child Protective Services’

Alleged Killers, the Foster Parents of Victim 3 Year Old Serenity Gandara, Captured in Mexico

March 9th, 2012 2 comments

We first reported about the death of 3 year old Serenity Gandara of Bakersfield, California, nearly two years ago. Her foster parents, Alberto and Carla Garcia, were named as suspects in her death and charged with first degree murder. But they were on the run, somewhere in Mexico, so there has been no trial. The US FBI finally caught up with them in Mexico last week and is now working to extradite them to California to stand trial.

Quoted from Serenity Gandara’s Grandmother Speaks Out Against CPS and Foster Parent Abuses, Advocates Grandparents’ Rights:

The Kern County medical examiner has reported that Bakersfield foster child Serenity Gandara, a 3-year-old girl living in the home of relatives, was found dead on the living room floor of the home on July 18, 2010. Blunt-force trauma injuries are named as the cause of death.

Grandmothers Maria Garcia and Renee Maese both state that other relatives wanted to care for Serenity and her abandoned brother Isaiah. Isaiah is still alive, but was found with injuries consistent with ongoing physical child abuse. Kern County CPS refused to place the kids with other relatives, preferring to leave them with Albert and Carla Garcia despite child abuse complaints by multiple relatives including both grandmothers.

Any child’s death is disturbing. But what is particularly vexing about this case is that Kern County CPS had evidence and warnings from other family members that Serenity and her older brother were in danger. Instead of moving the children to a safer home with capable relatives, they colluded with the foster parents to prevent other family members, such as grandmother Renee Masse, from having access to the kids. That put a stop to the complaints over their care, but is probably also a significant part of why Serenity died and her brother was abandoned in the home with her dead body.

In my view, Kern County CPS, some of the social workers, and the US Federal Government should be on trial as co-defendants with Alberto and Carla Garcia for the wrongful death of Serenity Gandara. All too often, CPS agencies rip children out of homes in which they are not in any real danger and place the kids in even worse homes. The social workers and government didn’t inflict the killing blow in this case, but they set up the situation that resulted in the child’s death.

Federal Title IV grants reward local governments for these abuses. It’s game of “seize a child, earn your paycheck” in which it doesn’t matter if the child is being hurt, what matters is that “services were provided” so US taxpayers’ funds will be forked over the the local government for reimbursement. The US government has completely failed to institute any effective oversight for abuses by state and local governments that it is funding. As a result, it is blindly financing child abuse and violation of civil and family rights that were significant factors in the death of Serenity Gandara.

These problems go back decades, they result in widespread violations of civil rights and deaths of children, and despite that, Uncle Sam has done nothing to solve it. Instead, it just keeps forking over more money to the same abusive government agencies that are the problem. Social workers are given immunity, victims are pummeled to ruin so they can’t sue their abusers in government, and the Feds pay for it. In my view, the US government is funding terrorism against American families that does far more damage to its victims than that caused by the terrorists the Feds have the US military fighting all around the world. I hope that Serenity’s sad ending will help more Americans understand that their government has become a deadly big problem and reform is badly needed.

More on Serenity Gandara’s Death

Foster parents arrested in Mexico for Bakersfield toddler’s death

Couple accused in toddler’s death found in Mexico

Serenity Gandara’s Grandmother Speaks Out Against CPS and Foster Parent Abuses, Advocates Grandparents’ Rights

Ben Vonderheide Exposes Pennsylvania’s Abusive Child Profiteering Racket

September 7th, 2010 6 comments

Rob’s recent comment pointing out the Ben Vonderheide case in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania made me curious. After all, it’s not often that you see the government actually prosecute somebody for making malicious false reports to the police to terrorize a father and block access to a child. On the surface, it looks like the government got it right in this case. Dig deeper, however, and you find that Ben Vonderheide is a poster case for government-backed terrorism against a parent who has been repeatedly abused by the government. The government is now using his son, Quinta Xavier Vonderheide, as a pawn in its vindictive battle to hide its crimes against the state’s children and families and attack those who attempt to expose them.

Alienating Ex Convicted of Lying to Police Gets Sole Custody

Quinta’s mother is Vonderheide’s ex-girlfriend Wendy Flanders. She has systematically alienated her son from his father and engaged in access blocking, denigration, defamation, and false police reports to destroy the child’s relationship with his father. She is unable to accept that their son should have time with both his parents and is willing to break the law, scheme, manipulate, and conspire to ensure that he will never see his father again. As is typical, family law courts reward such behaviors unless a parent can afford to bring contempt of court charges against the abuser.

She even attempted to change his name to Quinta Xavier Flanders, a common stunt for alienating parents who alter their children’s names to remove all mention of the hated ex.

This is nothing new for Flanders as she is a serial parental alienator. She has engaged in this child abuse not only involving Quinta, but also regarding her daughter Bryna Elizabeth Flanders-Harris and that girl’s father John Harris. In that case, she used false allegations of child sexual abuse among other methods. There are also reports that she attempted similar family terrorism against another previous ex, a Mr. Caruso who is no longer alive to defend himself and his child Emily from the sociopathic Flanders.
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Serenity Gandara’s Grandmother Speaks Out Against CPS and Foster Parent Abuses, Advocates Grandparents’ Rights

August 24th, 2010 18 comments

Renee Maese, grandmother of deceased foster child Serenity Gandara, has decided what she can best do to honor her granddaughter’s memory is to fight against the abusive CPS and foster care system in California. Each year, dozens of children die in California foster care homes from child abuse. Serenity was one of these children. Her foster parents, Albert and Carla Garcia, are more than a month later still missing and wanted by police for murder and child endangerment.

Maese explains that the 3 year old girl’s death on July 18, 2010, has motivated her to work to change the system to protect children and families:

I will be the first to admit, if it wasn’t for Serenity dying, I probably would be doing my everyday life things, but now I’m advocating for Serenity. Deceased children no longer have a voice, but being her Grandmother, I will speak for her and fight for her justice.

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Autopsy Shows Foster Girl Serenity Gandara Died of Blunt-force Trauma

August 2nd, 2010 No comments

The medical examiner has reported that Bakersfield foster child Serenity Gandara, a 3-year-old girl living in the home of relatives, was found dead on the living room floor of the home. Blunt-force trauma injuries are the cause of death. The foster parents, Albert and Carla Garcia, are being sought by the government for murder and felony abandonment.

Grandmothers Maria Garcia and Renee Maese both state that other relatives wanted to care for Serenity and her abandoned brother Isaiah. Isaiah is still alive, but was found with injuries appearing to demonstrate a pattern of ongoing physical child abuse. Kern County CPS refused to place the kids with other relatives, preferring to leave them with Albert and Carla Garcia despite child abuse complaints by Maria Garcia.

After Maria Garcia complained to the CPS social worker that they ignored her reports, CPS took away another child in her care apparently as retaliation. The child was returned after local media started asking questions. It is common for CPS agencies in the United States to use children as pawns to punish those who question their actions.
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Bakersfield Foster Child Death Linked to CPS Negligence

July 23rd, 2010 No comments

In Bakersfield, California, family members allege that the dead 3-year-old girl Serenity Julia Gandara and her still-alive 4-year-old brother Isaiah were suspected child abuse victims prior to Serenity’s death.

Their 1-year-old sister Juliana wasn’t in the home as she has been staying with other relatives. But CPS showed up to take her away from her aunt and uncle for several hours before they returned her. CPS would not reveal why they took the child. The maternal grandmother, Maria Garcia, suggested that the CPS taking of the 1-year-old baby was in retaliation for her reporting to the media that she had previously complained about child abuse regarding Serenity and Isaiah yet CPS did nothing to protect the children.

Grandmother of murdered foster child said CPS wrongly took sibling

Meantime, there are serious accusations against Child Protective Services. Serenity’s maternal grandmother, Maria Garcia, said CPS retaliated against her after she criticized a social worker for allegedly ignoring reports that Serenity and her brother, 4-year-old Isaiah, were being abused at their foster home.

“You needed to take care of thing when I told you what happened with my kids the other kids. You never listen to me,” Maria Garcia said she told the social worker.

The paternal grandmother, Renee Maese, said that other family members wanted to adopt the two kids, but CPS sided with foster parents Albert and Carla Garcia who are now wanted for murder and felony child abandonment and are believed to be in hiding in Mexico.
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Cole Stuart’s Review of Baskerville’s “Taken Into Custody”

June 18th, 2010 8 comments

For anyone who hasn’t read Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family, I just finished it and highly recommend it. Many are familiar with Professor Stephen Baskerville’s basic theories and some have read excerpts from the book. Published in 2007, this book is a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the enormity of the problems endemic to the current tyrannical status of the judicial system as a whole, not merely family court. It is an extraordinary work.

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California AB 2475 To Strip Immunity from Custody Evaluators

May 5th, 2010 47 comments

California Assembly Representative Jim Beall is back with another attempt to shut down destructive use of child custody evaluations. This new Assembly Bill 2475 has grown out of his failure in 2009 to pass his Assembly Bill 612 that wrongly aimed to ban discussion of parental alienation in family law courts. This time around, AB 2475 is on more solid ground as it aims to strip quasi-judicial immunity from private family court appointed experts such as psychological and custody evaluators. This would provide a legal fallback for civil suits for egregious cases of misconduct by these professionals.

Failed AB 612 from 2009

Last year, Jim Beall wanted to outlaw the discussion of parental alienation in family law cases. We and many other organizations that support shared parenting and protecting children from abuse and neglect vehemently opposed the AB 612 legislation he introduced. AB 612 was nothing but whitewashing of emotional child abuse to enable abusers to get away with hurting children and in many cases rewarding them for doing so. That bill, AB 612, was gutted by legislators who understood that parental alienation is a real phenomenon. Beall later withdrew the bill.
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CPS Reform Advocate Nancy Schaefer Murdered

April 2nd, 2010 12 comments
CPS adversary Nancy Schaefer

Schaefer opposed CPS abuse and corruption

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is reporting that former Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband Bruce Schaefer were found dead in their home from gunshot wounds on Friday, March 26, 2010. They are reporting it is being investigated as a murder-suicide due to claims Bruce Schaefer was distraught over suffering from cancer. Yet their family denies he was ill. There are many skeptics who discount that theory and instead believe that it is more likely Schaefer was murdered for political or criminal reasons and her husband was framed for the crime and also murdered to prevent him from defending himself and potentially revealing evidence that could implicate the real perpetrators.
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John Van Doorn Runs for San Diego County Supervisor in 2010

February 24th, 2010 6 comments

John Van Doorn has announced he is running for San Diego County Supervisor in 2010. We believe he deserves strong consideration for your vote in the June 2010 primaries.

The corruption and abuse within the County of San Diego government threatens the well-being of the citizens and particularly children and parents of the county. Bill Horn, the incumbent candidate, has participated in hiding and continuing these abuses. Despite two decades of San Diego Grand Jury reports detailing how San Diego CPS has wrongly removed children from families, fabricated evidence, perjured, and acted in a malicious fashion against many parents and children, Bill Horn has not lifted a finger to correct these problems despite being a member of the County Board of Supervisors during this long era of egregious CPS misconduct.
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Sleepy, Unfocused, Poor Attention, ADHD? DMAE Might Help

February 1st, 2010 No comments

I’ve been a fan of the nutritional supplement DMAE (dimethylaminoethanol or dimethylethanolamine) for some time. Some women swear by it for reducing wrinkles and age spots, especially when applied in cream form. However, I believe this nutrient has a much wider and more important use than skin care. That use is boosting brain function in people experiencing problems with sleep, focus, and attention.

When I started taking DMAE years ago, I noticed about an hour reduction in the number of hours of sleep I needed each day to feel rested. I also noticed improved ability to concentrate. As with any supplement, your results may vary due to many factors including diet, weight, biochemistry, genetics, dosages, and perhaps random chance. That said, if you’ve got concerns about excessive sleepiness, trouble focusing, and problems maintaining attention, it’s my opinion that DMAE is worth a look as it is an inexpensive dietary supplement with a long track record.

DMAE Bitartrate (dimethylaminoethanol), 150 mg 200 capsules

DMAE is especially worth consideration by parents who are being threatened by schools, CPS, and courts with removal of child custody because of their children’s problems with educational achievement due to problems with attention, focus, and hyperactivity. These kids are often diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Mainstream doctors prescribe Ritalin for this condition, but sadly this drug has killed hundreds of children while safe alternatives such as DMAE are widely ignored. Furthermore, problems with attention and school performance can often be traced back to social problems like the impact of bad parenting and child abuse endemic to divorces. You may be a fine parent, but your child could be stressed out from custody exchange conflicts and mommy-bashing or daddy-bashing from the other parent who is far from fine. The result may be a misbehaving child who seems hyperactive and gets categorized as an ADHD case to be medicated.
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