Family wants answers from officials Police, school mishandled boy

Family wants answers from officials
Police, school mishandled boy, they say

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/p...710140314/1002

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

ST. CLAIR- After a year of controversy and at least four separate
investigations, a city family still is looking for an official
acknowledgement that it wrongly was deprived "the companionship" of a
teenage son.

"What we want is the truth," said Dr. David Touchton, the teen's
maternal grandfather. "We're all responsible for our actions. My
grandson didn't learn that lesson easily. They (officials) won't learn
it either if there are no consequences for their actions."


Touchton accused St. Clair police officers and St. Clair High School
personnel of numerous misdemeanors and misjudgments, most of them dating
to a five-day span in May 2006. In scathing letters, he also accused
officials with the city of St. Clair, East China schools and the St.
Clair County Sheriff Department of glossing over improprieties with
"damage control and spin doctoring."
He also said the earliest of the four investigations - by Child
Protective Services - reached far different conclusions and raised
questions about the actions of police and school personnel.

Touchton, who is a lawyer as well as a podiatrist, has filed formal
appeals on the family's behalf with the city and school district. Family
members are expected to address council members at their meeting Monday
night.

In the months since the city and school district completed their
investigations, the family has made extensive use of the Freedom of
Information Act to obtain public records related to the situation.
Touchton said he believes the documents and other evidence reveal
numerous errors and omissions made by investigators.

He described the inquiries by the city and school district as coverups
and also criticized the sheriff's department for "the willingness ... to
simply acquiesce and give credence to a false report by accepting the
city's investigation at face value and failing to perform an independent
evaluation."

No violations found
Officials who oversaw the investigations deny covering up anything.

"The public information speaks for itself," said Scott Adkins, St.
Clair's city superintendent. "There were no violations of law. Two
procedural matters were identified and dealt with."

Two police officers

received reprimands for those procedural errors. "The officers were
counseled, and this matter was closed," Adkins said.

Dr. Rod Green, the East China schools superintendent, said the school
board is reviewing a thick packet of information provided by Touchton.
"The board will make a decision sometime before the end of the month,"
he said.

Sheriff Dan Lane said he sympathizes with the family, but he also stands
by his review of the case.

"We were asked (by the city) if the two officers had violated any state
law," he said. "I don't think they did. They made some misjudgments, and
we noted that."

Joseph Wolak, an investigator with Child Protective Services who also
looked into the incident, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Youngster runs away
A chronology provided by the family begins in March 2006, when
Touchton's 16-year-old grandson, then a junior at St. Clair High School,
began dating a 17-year-old senior.

"This all began with an incorrigible and immature youngster who wanted
to be with his girlfriend all night because her mother encouraged her
boyfriends to do so," Touchton said. "This mother would give him access
to money and prescription drugs, and there were no rules for him when he
was with her."

When the boy's parents intervened, he said, the girlfriend's mother -
then a hairstylist in St. Clair - portrayed them as abusive and used a
network of influential friends to influence police and school personnel.

"(She) initiated a campaign of using her friends to set up a false claim
of child abuse against these parents, which spread from her beauty shop
out through the community," Touchton wrote in a letter to St. Clair's mayor.

He said she also convinced his grandson he was a victim of "mental
abuse" by parents with a strong sense of discipline.

"(The boy) was enticed to run away for three days when he was 16 years
old, and this mother hid him from his parents and police with these
people's help during this time," Touchton added.

Among the family's numerous accusations:

# After the boy ran away from home on May 21, 2006, the girlfriend's
mother hid him at a Kimball Township motel and lied about it to police
who were handling the family's missing-person's report.

# When the boy showed up at school on May 23, neither police nor school
personnel notified the family. Nor was the family called when the boy
was allowed to spend the night with a friend, whose father happens to be
a school teacher.

Allegations of abuse
The next day, a police officer picked the boy up at school and reunited
him with his parents and brothers. It wasn't a happy ending.

Someone from the community - it's unclear who, but it was not a police
officer or a school official - notified Child Protective Services about
potential abuse. The call led to an in-depth investigation by Wolak, who
visited the home and interviewed numerous individuals, including the
girlfriend and her mother.

The results of Wolak's inquiry are confidential, but according to
Touchton: "Mr. Wolak found no evidence of abuse or neglect."

What he found instead, the grandfather said, were indications the
girlfriend's mother "was interfering with the parenting" of the boy and
convincing him he was a victim of mental abuse.

Touchton said Wolak also expressed "confusion" about the official
response to the matter.

If teachers, counselors or police officers suspected abuse, the
grandfather said, they had a legal requirement to report it to Child
Protective Services. If they did not suspect abuse, he added, they had
an obligation to reunite the boy with his parents.

Leaves for Florida
From the family's perspective, a bad situation grew worse on July 17,
2006, when the young man turned 17 and legally became an adult.

According to Touchton, his grandson left his house through an open
window and traveled to Florida with his girlfriend and her mother.

Family members said they tried to file another missing-person's report
with St. Clair police, but were not allowed to do so. They instead filed
reports with the FBI and the Michigan State Police.

In Florida, where a young person is not legally an adult until age 18,
police went to a home in Jacksonville to pick up the boy and return him
to his parents' custody. Touchton said the family later learned police
were told the young man was not present when, in fact, he was hiding in
a back room.

When he returned to Michigan, the grandson lived with his girlfriend's
mother in her apartment and began his senior year at the high school,
Touchton said. His girlfriend was by then attending Michigan State
University in East Lansing.

Touchton said his grandson gradually became disillusioned with the
girlfriend's mother, a process that quickened last spring when she asked
him to legally change his name to hers.

"I think she wanted to be his mother," Touchton said.

He also said the girlfriend's mother has sold her business in St. Clair
and moved to Florida.

Family is back together
Although it took several months, the young man has been reunited with
his family. Touchton said his grandson also provided details and
information that prove investigative incompetence.

"We're strong in our facts," the grandfather said Friday. "We're firm in
our beliefs."

A Sept. 10 letter to school board members called for an apology and
cited "a mother's loss of her son due to political injustice."

An apology also was sought in a strongly worded appeal to Mayor Bill
Cedar Jr.

"A great injustice occurred a year ago leading to heartache and tragedy
to the family and their loss of companionship of their son for over a
year," Touchton wrote in the Oct. 8 letter. "Your police department and
you as City Council members were a large part of the cause of this
heartache due to your indifference and, to a great extent, your arrogance."

Mike Connell can be reached at (810) 989-6259 or






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...