Strip-searched students can sue

CINCINNATI – A federal appeals panel ruled Friday that staffers at an Ohio vocational school can be sued by high school nursing students who were strip-searched after a reported theft. The three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected immunity for the school officials, standing by an earlier conclusion that the 2006 search was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back last year after ruling in a similar case that school officials violated an Arizona teen’s rights in a strip search for a prescription-strength drug but that the officials weren’t financially liable. The appeals court in Cincinnati said officials of the Vern Riffe Career Technology Center in Piketon, in southern Ohio, should have known the search was unreasonable for reasons including lack of individual suspects and that the issue was missing money, not health or safety. The court said it had rejected such wide-scale searches in 2005 in a case where a school strip-searched about 25 students because of missing prom money. “Our circuit’s clearly established law on this issue put the school and its employees on notice that this search was unconstitutional,” Judge Boyce F. Martin wrote. The case involves 11 Piketon students who are seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars each in damages for rights violations and emotional distress. The court said students “had a legitimate expectation of privacy in their bodies, the plaintiffs did not consent, the searches were highly intrusive, the searches were undertaken to find monetary items, the defendants searched an entire class of students, and the defendants lacked individualized suspicion.” The search failed to recover the missing $60 and other items, records show.

Eric Rucker answers discipline board

By Steve Fry—Topeka Capitol Journal


Published May 13, 2010

          The disciplinary hearing of Eric Rucker, who was former Attorney General Phill Kline's chief of staff, ended Thursday after less than a day as the disciplinary administrator and Rucker's attorney argued over what sanction he should receive from the Kansas Supreme Court. Rucker, who testified he gave "truthful and accurate answers" to the justices when arguing a case before them in 2005, was the only witness called. He testified for about two hours.
          The hearing panel, headed by chairwoman Patricia Dengler, will write a report with recommended findings, which will be filed with the Supreme Court. The justices will hear oral arguments by the two sides, and the court will issue its ruling. When the hearing resumed after a lunch break, Stanton Hazlett, state disciplinary administrator, told the panel more witnesses wouldn't be called. Several witnesses, including former assistant attorney general Stephen Maxwell, were told they wouldn't be needed.  
          Maxwell, who was in the Kline administration, is subpoenaed to testify in the disciplinary hearing of Kline in November. An indefinite postponement of a related ethics case against Maxwell has been granted. Rucker agreed to testify in the Kline disciplinary hearing if called, the stipulations agreed to by Rucker and the disciplinary administrator's office said. Hazlett told the panel that disciplinary administrators on Thursday learned for the first time that Rucker hadn't signed a motion to clarify his remarks to the Supreme Court on Sept. 8, 2005; that the motion to clarify was Kline's idea; and that Kline insisted the motion be filed. During the Supreme Court appearance, Rucker told the justices the attorney general's office also was conducting an investigation of live births in Kansas by underage girls and of infants fathered by underage boys. Following his appearance before the Supreme Court, Kline, Rucker and a third member of the attorney general's office discussed filing the motion to clarify Rucker's remarks. On Thursday, Rucker couldn't recall what he said during the discussions. "I was disappointed that a motion was going to be filed," Rucker said, adding his answers to the justices were honest. "I was not pleased this motion was going to be filed." Rucker said he and Kline disagreed on whether the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was a mandatory reporter of suspected sexual abuse of a child. Kline said KDHE was, and Rucker said it wasn't, Rucker testified. Caleb Stegall, Rucker's attorney, said Rucker, who was a lawyer for 28 years before he recently retired and had never had a disciplinary action brought him before, violated the letter of the rules and not the spirit, which amounted to "hyper technical" violations. Stegall urged the panel to recommend that Rucker receive an informal admonition, the least severe disciplinary action. Hazlett disagreed, saying Rucker acted negligently and the incident occurred under his watch. The violations weren't "hyper technical," and it was Rucker's responsibility that his statements to the Supreme Court were accurate. Hazlett said Rucker should receive a published censure, the third-lowest disciplinary action and one step below a suspension for a set amount of time. "This case began with multiple allegations by the disciplinary administrator that my client lied," Stegall told the panel during opening remarks. "Not a single allegation from the original complaint remains." Rucker had contended he was innocent of any wrongdoing. The original allegations against Rucker were that he violated rules prohibiting making a false statement to a tribunal, offered evidence he knew to be false, and engaged in misconduct, including conduct involving dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. Allegations against Kline include misconduct, trial publicity, rules dealing with prosecutorial responsibilities, the safekeeping of property, conflict of interest, lack of candor toward a court and lack of truthfulness in statements to others. The complaint alleges that Kline lied to the Kansas Supreme Court, misled a Johnson County grand jury investigating an abortion provider and discussed an ongoing case on "The O'Reilly Factor," a conservative talk show. Kline's hearing before the disciplinary panel is to start Nov. 15.

Arrow Financial Services LLC, Debt Collectors sued for illegal practices

          Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that a debt collector used unfair tactics and deceptive practices to collect money from consumers. Madigan's lawsuit names Arrow Financial Services, LLC, of Niles, Illinois. Madigan sued another collection agency, Leading Edge Recovery Solutions, earlier this month. Arrow is a debt buyer and attempts to collect monies ranging from approximately $100 to over $10,000 per debt from consumers nationwide. Since 1999, Madigan's Consumer Fraud Bureau has received 669 consumer complaints against Arrow. Madigan's lawsuit charges Arrow with multiple violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. The suit specifically alleges that Arrow attempts to collect on time-barred debts over ten years old, attempts to collect on debts that have been discharged in bankruptcy or that have been settled, engages in abusive practices in an attempt to collect, such as using profanity, attempts to obtain payment without proof of debt, refuses or fails to provide proof of debt, illegally contacts consumers' family members and workplace, and withdraws money without authorization from consumers' bank accounts. . Madigan's suit contains a number of specific examples of consumer complaints concerning Arrow's conduct. For example, according to Madigan's lawsuit, Arrow allegedly contacted one Franklin Park, Ill., consumer through the mail, informing him that he owes approximately $600 on a Montgomery Ward account that he had cancelled ten years ago. Soon thereafter, the consumer allegedly began receivingcalls and notices regarding the debt approximately once a week for several months at a time. When the consumer explained to Arrow that he had cancelled the credit card ten years ago and did not owe any debt, Arrow responded that if he once owned the credit card, then he was obliged to pay for the debt. The consumer disputed the debt and asked for written proof. In response, Arrow threatened to sue the consumer and never provided any evidence of the debt allegedly owed. Arrow's conduct has come to the attention of other state enforcement offices. In November 2005, the Minnesota Department of Commerce imposed against Arrow Financial ServAs part of this process, Arrow was required to implement a compliance program to:



(1) designate a compliance officer in charge of all regulatory compliance matters,

(2) implement a training program for all Arrow debt collectors, which includes the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Minnesota debt collection laws,

(3) require Arrow debt collectors to sign a statement in which they acknowledge training completion, which includes debt collection law, and

(4) establish written policies and procedures for screening debt collector applicants and conduct criminal background checks.



"Consumers should not be harassed or intimidated by unscrupulous debt collectors. We are focused on protecting Illinois consumers and others affected by businesses that use unfair and deceptive debt collection tactics," Madigan said. Madigan's lawsuit asks the court to prohibit Arrow from engaging in deceptive debt collection activities and further violating Illinois' consumer protection laws. The lawsuit seeks a civil penalty of $50,000 and additional penalties of $50,000 for each violation found to have been committed with intent to defraud. Finally, Madigan's lawsuit asks the court to order Arrow to pay restitution to consumers and to pay all costs for prosecution and investigation of this case.

SRS was told of Newton boy's possible abuse

NORTH NEWTON — More than two months before a 19-month-old boy died with fractures and extensive bruising, the state child welfare agency received a report from a neighbor who heard a man yelling at the boy followed by the child screaming.


          The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services then found no indication that the child had been physically or emotionally harmed, an SRS report says. SRS did not inform local law enforcement agencies of the report, which is upsetting and frustrating, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said Tuesday. "We would have knocked on the door" of the North Newton duplex long before an emergency crew found the child not breathing Saturday afternoon, Walton said. "Any report like that we always investigate," Walton said. On Tuesday afternoon, Harvey County authorities charged Chad Carr, 26, with two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of child abuse for injuries to the 19-month-old, Walton said. Carr has been described as the boyfriend of the toddler's mother. More charges could be filed, Walton said. Authorities have yet to make a final determination on charges because full autopsy results are not yet available, he said. Authorities have yet to release the child's name. The toddler had older and newer injuries, authorities said. His injuries included a broken left collar bone and broken right lower leg and bruising from "head to toe," according to authorities.
          According to an SRS finding dated Jan. 21, a copy of which Walton received Tuesday, the state agency found that the neighbor's report "does not indicate harm to the child. There is nothing to indicate that the child is being physically harmed... . No indication the ... yelling at the child is impairing or endangering the child socially or intellectually, to the point that it is causing the child to deteriorate and not be able to function on a daily basis."It concludes that "no further ... action is needed."So there was no further investigation by SRS, Walton said. He said the local SRS office told him Tuesday that it did not know of the report. It appears that the SRS finding came within about a day of SRS receiving the initial report of possible abuse, Walton said. He said he didn't know the extent to which SRS looked into the matter before making its finding. SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce confirmed that the hotline number that the neighbor called months before the baby's death is an SRS number that starts the child abuse and neglect investigation process. But Ponce said she could not comment on the North Newton case.
Neighbor's concern

In an interview with The Eagle on Tuesday, Jessica Link, the woman who lives in the duplex next to the toddler's home, said she could easily hear the man next door yelling and cursing at the boy while his mother was gone, beginning late last year after the family moved in."I would just hear him say, 'Shut up!' "At first the boy would cry, "like a kid does," she said, and then the man would yell at the toddler for crying. What unsettled her was that the boy would begin to scream "like there was something wrong," said Link, 21. Link noticed that the yelling and screaming occurred when the mother's car wasn't in the driveway. She said she never heard the woman yell at the child. The mother was at a baby shower in Wichita on Saturday when authorities say Carr made the 911 call to report that the boy was not breathing. Months ago, Link thought about knocking on her neighbor's door but didn't want to have a confrontation, she said. And at the time, she didn't think it was necessary to call police, she said. Link had a refrigerator magnet with a toll-free SRS number to call to report child abuse. She called the number a couple of times in January and left messages saying that she could hear possible abuse and wanted to report it, she said. A couple of days later, someone from the hotline called back, and Link gave her name and address and her neighbors' address and told about the yelling and screaming next door, she said. She didn't know her neighbors' names. She said she thought she gave enough information for SRS to follow up. "I felt the claim was strong enough, and I gave their address," she said. Link said she wished she had been home Saturday afternoon before emergency dispatchers received the 911 call about the toddler. "Maybe I would have heard something going on," she said. When she learned from investigators that the boy had died, she said, "My first thought was it could have been prevented." If she had it to do over, she said, she would have called police instead of the SRS number. Link wasn't the only person who brought forward concerns about the toddler's welfare.Grandmother told after Link told her landlord, Ruth Megli, about the yelling and screaming, Megli said she agonized about what to do. "I kept thinking of the baby and I thought ... somebody has to speak for that kid," Megli said. So months ago, Megli went to the boy's maternal grandmother's workplace and told her about the concerns, Megli said in an interview Tuesday. Megli said she remembers telling the grandmother what Link had told her and something like: "We don't need any of these abuse cases in (North) Newton like they have in Wichita." Since the boy and his mother moved into the duplex in early December, Megli saw the boy several times. "He was just as sweet as he could be," she said. "I can't believe anybody would do that." Only a couple of days before the boy died, Megli saw him at the front door of his duplex, in his mother's arms. "He looked fine," she said. She saw him only from the neck up and didn't see any injuries. "He wasn't crying. He didn't seem to be in any discomfort." "If I would have known then what I know now," she said, she would have reported her concerns directly to authorities. The death of a child is everyone's loss, Megli said. "We're all grieving this," she said. "You think what he could have been, what he could have become." By Tuesday, next to the curb outside the duplex, someone had propped a small cross with the boy's name and a teddy bear. The cross had a message imprinted in the wood. "We love you," it said.

Grandmother: Adopted boy was terror

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - Torry Hansen was so eager to become a mother that she adopted an older child from a foreign country, two factors that scare off many prospective parents. Her bigger fears came later. Torry's mother, Nancy Hansen, said the 7-year-old's violent episodes — which culminated in a threat to burn the family's home to the ground — terrified them into a shocking solution: The boy they renamed Justin was put on a plane by himself and sent back to Russia.Now, outraged officials in that country are calling for a halt to adoptions by Americans, and Tennessee authorities are investigating the family. However, Nancy Hansen told The Associated Press that the motives of her daughter — a 33-year-old, unmarried nurse — were sincere. "The intent of my daughter was to have a family and the intent of my whole family was to love that child," she said Friday. The family was told the boy, whose Russian name is Artyom Savelyev, was healthy in September when he was brought from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East to his new home in the heart of Tennessee horse country. The skinny boy seemed happy, but the behavioral problems began soon after, Hansen said."The Russian orphanage officials completely lied to her because they wanted to get rid of him," she said. Hansen chronicled a list of problems: hitting, screaming and spitting at his mother and threatening to kill family members. Hansen said his eruptions were often sparked when he was denied something he wanted, like toys or video games. "He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she said. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible." Hansen said she thought that with their love, they could help him. "I was wrong," she said. Not prepared?
Adoption experts say many families are blinded by their desire to adopt and don't always understand what the orphans have sometimes endured — especially older children who may have been neglected or abandoned. "They're not prepared to appreciate, psychologically, the kinds of conditions these kids have been exposed to and the effect it has had on them," said Joseph LaBarbera, a clinical psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

          I.F.F.O.C. has investigated these types of problems with adoptions, and has found out in most of these nightmares of adoptions between countries, the agencies , as well as, the countries involved, does not reveal the truth in the problems with the children that are adopted out, due to the Federal Title IV funds these governments and agencies receive, whereby, this would create a problem of distrust, and concealment by the agencies, of children problems, prior to the original adoption. Some of these problems from children's behavior problems included drug or alcohol related problems from the biological parents, or genetic problems, in which were concealed from the adoptive parents, so the adoption agency could make huge profits. The result is that the government, nor the agencies, did not monitor the adoption properly, prior to the completion of the adoption, or they would have noticed behavioral problems prior to completing the ICPC, (Interstate Compact Placement of Children), or just simply concealed intentionally just for profits. This is now getting attention because we, as Americans are seeing the other side of the sword when monies or Federal Title IV Funds are involved. These funds are over one hundred thousand dollars per child for each adoption. As the great Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of this story.” It is a shame when corporate greed hides the truth for profits. People do not realize that this lady involved was a nurse, who knew how to take care of people, and she was at her wits end, after she attempted to make every attempt to address, and / or correct the situation. She had to protect the rest of her family, and she made the best decision for the critical situation at hand. She did not endanger this child's health, safety, or welfare. These other countries are making huge profits off of these adopted children and this is another government way of black-marketing children for profits, in which now caught the attention of the public. Usually, the public only looks only at the first news segment and portrays a lady disposing a child. But for those who are more intellectual, we have noticed that there is more to this smoking mirror of images. That these children were sold for government profits, and that the truth that was hidden that these, or at least this child secret was hidden from the adoptive parents, that this child was a problem child, and now the rest of the world knows.

I.F.F.O.C. & K.C.E.A.J.

I.F.F.O.C. & K.C.E.A.J. investigates federal funds and researches problems, due to our government welfare and corporate greed, in which they use to administer corporate laws instead of constitutional laws. This is only to educate the public of problems within the system and hopefully I.F.F.O.C. can show the public the problems these funding sources create, and to possible find better solutions to assist us with these defective services, or visions about our courts, justice system, and agencies want the public to perceive. I.F.F.O.C. hopes this will enlighten the public to understand the smoking mirrors, and deceptive ways, our legal system has serious flaws, and our courts have became a financial institution for profits and greed.

Independent Federal Fund Oversight Committee
Kansas Citizens for Equal Access to Justice
President: Mr. David Martin Price
VP: Rosemary D. Price
3121 SE Fremont St.
Topeka, Kansas 66605
(785) 267-5132
iffocpresident@cox.net

Secretary: Carrie Neighbors
iffocsecretary@yahoo.com

Jersey Agencies ‘failed to protect children from abuse’

Jersey authorities failed to protect three children from physical, sexual and emotional abuse over a 12-year period, a review has found. The report, by the Jersey Child Protection Committee (JCPC), found there were serious failings in the quality of care from the authorities. It said there was no clear protection plan and important information was not shared between agencies. The health and social services minister has apologized to the family. The serious case review is the first of its kind in the island. It looked at the quality of service a child, known only as BA, and two siblings, received from various States departments between 1996 and 2008. It identified a number of failings in various agencies, including Children's Services, Health and Social Services and the Law Officer's Department. Independent chair of the JCPC Mike Taylor, said "Despite 12 years of engagement with this family, until latterly, there was no clear protection plan and no measurable improvement targets." Too much emphasis had been placed on the risk of sexual abuse and not enough attention paid to possible neglect and emotional abuse, the report also found. The children's mother was too often viewed as the client rather than the children, it said. "There was a failure of supervision and management to challenge the conclusions being reached," said Mr Taylor.


'Lack of action' Because important information was not shared between agencies that worked with the children appropriate action was not taken. "Any lack of action was not adequately challenged," Mr Taylor added. The report found the police had not passed on relevant information, the education department had not pursued their concerns fully and the health department had failed to carry out the right assessments. Advocate Timothy Hanson, the children's lawyer, said: "It reveals that there are many failings across a number of agencies, not merely in the past but currently". The report noted while significant failings had been identified, there had been major changes in policy and practice during the review period.

'Safe and in care' Mr Taylor said: "I hope this report will be used constructively to learn important lessons." Health and Social Service Minister Anne Pryke said: "I want to say sorry to these children and their family." All three children were now safe and in care, she told BBC Jersey. "The serious case review shows how things went wrong and my fellow ministers and I are determined to do all we possibly can to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."Some of the recommendations of the review have already been implemented," she added. Last year, the States of Jersey agreed to spend £3.2m improving child protection services.