Everyday, services and programs that are intended to protect children fail, allowing abusers to continue hurting the most vulnerable in our communities. We continue with Part 2 of this deep dive into Allegan County.
Read Part 1 here.
To begin, I can’t make these things up.
The Deputy I am going to speak about, is in fact, the head of the VICTIMS SERVICES UNIT in Allegan County, Michigan!
As I stated before, I genuinely feel like I had completely failed my Tiny Best Friend. Though this wasn’t a one-man-show, this was a team effort. I’d like to start with Detective Mxyzptlk, though not his real name, just as easy to pronounce.
The Mandated Report was made in good faith, though that faith was terribly broken. To refrain from being too longwinded, I’ll site some specific areas you can look up if interested: Child Protection Law Act of 1975, CPS Process in Michigan, Police Negligence and/or Misconduct.
The Mandatory Report was sent to the Allegan County Sheriff’s Department nearest the scene. The investigating deputy went to the grandmother’s house and proceeded to interview the suspected abuser, as well as the person later identified as the reason this whole situation took place…but not the child involved.
The deputy gave his reason, “the child was a minor” and this was deemed good enough.
The grandmother lied and stated she never laid a hand on the child, and that she was simply having a conversation, at her level, on why this behavior wasn’t acceptable. The deputy signs off that there was no abuse here and completes his report. (Case Number: 2020-00007546, Reporting Officer ID: 397)
The next thing my family knows, an Ex Parte Motion was filed and signed off by Judge Roberts A. Kengis, and the girls were taken away from their father, grandparents, and their guilt-ridden uncle. This Motion stated that the father had a family member purposely file a false report. In the rules of law, a preliminary hearing should have been conducted within 21 days of an objection being filed, that hearing never happened, and I was never allowed to defend my actions.
Oh, and this motion, stating that a father had lost his rights, arrived on my birthday…. I haven’t wanted to acknowledge my birthday ever since.
The months that followed were pure agony. My intent to protect this child from harm had in fact made everything worse.
There was another investigation into this same issue, conducted a month later by the actual CPS. How this all came about confuses me.
Much more information was disclosed this time around, due to actual questions being asked. The reason this 7-year-old girl was “screaming bloody murder” was because another uncle of hers, on her mother’s side, had poked this young girl in her privates (her bottom) with the extension hose of the vacuum he was using. My Tiny Best Friend explained to her mother that it was her private area, to the response of “it was just a joke and just a hose.” The child was told that her feeling of being violated were unwarranted, and if someone touches you inappropriately, that it’s just to be funny.
The matter of the inappropriate touching was never investigated further. And for telling on her grandmother, she’s received plenty of slaps for her disobedience (That’s another story).
There was supposed to be a silver lining to all of this; a CPS mandated safety plan. This plan stated that the grandmother was not to do any physical disciplining of the grandchildren, rather, just taking reinforcers away. The grandmother signed this safety plan, and it was filed with the CPS Report stating that there wasn’t a preponderance of evidence, though it would be filed under high risk.
I personally don’t understand how proof of lying to an investigating officer in a child abuse case (“I never laid a hand on her”), was never questioned.
I don’t understand how sexual assault on a child isn’t investigated further.
I really had no understanding of how Allegan County worked in general. I would soon however receive a crash course.
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