CRIMINAL NEGLECT: Documented Cases of Abuse Left Unresolved for Eight Months by Michigan CPS Agents
Shane Trejo
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A memorandum obtained by Big League Politics has shown that Child Protective Services (CPS) agents in the state of Michigan are regularly breaking the law that requires abuse claims to be investigated within thirty days, which some cases of reported abuse ultimately languishing for as long as eight months.
The Michigan auditor general found during a multi-year investigation that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) was regularly violating the law and putting vulnerable kids at risk.
MDHHS officials did not start 17 percent of investigations within the 24 hours mandated by Michigan state law, and they did not complete the investigations within the mandated time frame in 30 percent of cases. In cases that CPS agents were derelict, the average delay was 44 days with others having to wait eight months for their abuse investigation to be completed.
The CPS budget for fiscal year 2020 is $208,558,500, according to the memorandum, which indicates that the organization is not underfunded. The criminal neglect from these unaccountable bureaucrats may be due to more than just incompetence.
Other abuses discovered during the AG review include refusal to conduct central registry clearances for 70 percent of investigations, no criminal history checks conducted in over 50 percent of cases, failure to conduct complete CPS history checks for families and household residents in 40 percent of investigations, improper harm assessment in 35 percent of cases, the omission of at least 257 perpetrators of child abuse and/or neglect from the central registry, failure to alert individuals that they had been added to the Central Registry, and many others.
The memorandum noted that MDHHS agreed that CPS had been guilty of the plethora of abuses, but ultimately refuse to change the culture of malfeasance that plagues the agency.
Big League Politics reported last week on how the disreputable behavior of Michigan CPS agents ultimately resulted in a daughter being raped by her father:
After one anonymous CPS victim received a divorce from her husband, he began calling CPS regularly and spreading rumor and innuendo against her to the office. As a result, she was investigated constantly by CPS while her concerns about her ex-husband were shrugged off by officials.
When the woman shared her concerns that her daughter was being “groomed” for abuse by her ex-husband, the CPS worker sided with her ex-husband and actually brought him into her home during one bizarre and heinously unprofessional instance.
She eventually lost custody of all three of her children, two teenage boys and one teenage daughter, based what she calls lies made up by her ex-husband after a medical incident at school involving one of her boys. CPS recommended that the ex-husband take full custody of her kids as a result.
Stricken with grief, the woman had to check herself into a mental hospital after her concerns regarding her daughter’s “grooming” were never investigated. CPS workers refused to return her calls, and then her worst fears were realized. The two boys reportedly found evidence that their own father was repeatedly raping their sister and submitted it into police affidavits.
Even with litigation that is pending against the ex-husband for allegedly raping his daughter, the woman has still not been able to regain full custody of her daughter. CPS continues to stand in her way, and refuses to give a case to a judge to grant her full custody. CPS has offered to pay for therapy sessions for the two boys and their sister to deal with the trauma of the ordeal, but has not specified on how the agency will pay.
When investigators in the Michigan Capitol reached out to CPS officials for comment on this case, most were tight-lipped out of fear. Only two were willing to speak anonymously.
“We f**ked up and there’s nothing we can do,” one CPS worker said.
Another agent confirmed that the details of the anonymous woman’s story were in fact correct, but would not issue any further comment due to fear of bureaucratic retaliation and losing their employment.
The memorandum lists House Bill 4707, House Bill 4708, and House Bill 4709 as legislation currently active in Lansing that will begin to reform the out-of-control CPS and DHHS agencies in the state of Michigan. All three pieces of legislation have passed the Michigan House in overwhelming action, and await further action in the Senate Families, Seniors And Veterans Committee.
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