A county's fumbling, a family's nightmare

That is, until Arapahoe County snatched the 8-year-old from his home after an abuse allegation that social workers dragged their feet investigating.

The ordeal began while Josh was playing outside one day before dinner in April. A neighbor knocked on the door to tell his dad that police had come to take Josh away.

The strawberry-blond kid with pale blue eyes was born in 1999 after Michael and Melanie Raykin tried for 15 years to conceive. Michael, a courier, and Melanie, a hairstylist, work extra hours to send Josh to Denver's Montclair Academy and give their boy advantages they never had as kids in the former U.S.S.R.

I suspect this did not just start with the Demo takeover of CO in 2006. But certainly that did not help matters, considering some of the lousy legislation they have pushed through. So unless the voters there make some changes, this kind of abuse could get worse.

What is with the state taking a child from a home they think is abusive and putting them with foster families who are not fit to care for them?? Absolute lunacy.

Despite all this “vigilance” by state authorities, we still read horrible stories all the time about children ending up dead or injured because they were not taken away even though there were clear signs of abuse before. The system is just mixed up in too many cases but I fear there is no solution.

The work done by child protective services is difficult, but it’s also work that requires good judgment and not zealotry. That these actions were taken because the word of “two young neices” and the boy had never even been interviewed might be hard to believe, but such avoidable mistakes are often in the news.

There seem to be far too zealots doing this work, as the recent FLDS case also illustrates all too well, zealots who spring into action on the thinnest of evidence when a little more thought and investigation could have avoided another pointless tragic situation.

This tactic is also used in divorce proceedings to separate mothers from their children too.

I know of which I speak since it happened to me in Connecticut 18 years ago. No investigation was ever conducted. Not before my children were taken nor after the fact.

My bitter, abusive ex told DFS that he did not want custody of the children but he would prefer that they be split up and placed in foster homes instead of remaining with me. My children were separated from me for quite some time while I fought tooth and nail to get them back. Since these cases are tried in juvenile courts all proceeding are closed. Nice racket the states have going for them.

My teenage sons were placed in a foster home together while my five year old daughter was placed in the home of a very cruel lesbian. The boys found pinholes in the bathroom floor of the foster home they were placed in. The home was in New Fairfield, CT and the family, the Pugners, were eventually found to have been perverts that watched all foster children in their care through these secret holes.

I lost everything, my children, my job and then my home. If it wasn't for two kind law professors at UConn/Storrs who helped me, my children would have been lost forever in the system. After all these years it still brings tears to my eyes and I have only recently been able to speak in public of the horrors we all endured. Now I help other people going through the same thing.

The DFS workers told me that I fit none of their profiles. When that happens they try to break you down to make you fit into their agenda. They were not really after the boys, they just wanted my daughter. If anyone who reads this thinks the states don't have an agenda you are mistaken and extremely naive. The DFS case workers themselves receive monetary bonuses along with other incentives for all children removed from homes. If they can get your parental rights removed in juvenile court the caseworkers receive even more monetary rewards. Children are used as pawns by the states and the state will never admit when they make a mistake.

We did sue and won a nice sum of money but that can never make up for what was done to my family. Sorry, taxpayers of the state of CT but you reap what you sow.

The first thing you do is get the toughest lawyer you can afford. That does not mean the most expensive, but the one with a fire in their belly who has a problem with the way this is done, and who wants to fight.

Ask around, you'd be surprised at who has had a wild eyed accusation thrown at them.

Then you tell them you'll see them in court. get their witnesses ready, and that you are never going to back down until your name is cleared and you have your kids back.

Stick to your guns, the social serpents will try to have you go to a bunch of counseling and classes which will cost you, sometimes more than money, because they can be seen as admission there was a "problem". Speak with your attorney about that, and do not communicate directly with the Social serpents any more than you have to, that is what your attorney is for.

You will be emotionally distraught (a weakness in any negotiation), the lawyer can keep the poker face necessary to keep 'em guessing.

Any violence, threat of violence, personal attacks, harrassment, outward signs of anger, etc., can and WILL be used against you by these people.

If you cannot keep your cool, (and d@mned few can), LAWYER UP!

Melanie says social workers kept pushing her to say her husband molested their son, insinuating that such an admission would set Josh free. They suggested that Josh having once kissed his cousins on the lips — as is the norm in his parents' culture — was a sign that he had been molested. As social workers saw it, Michael's habit of buying his son toys and taking him to the movies was "grooming" to cover up sexual abuse.

Makes you wonder how many people on sex offender registries after being convicted of child molestation were actually caught up in nets like this one.

Stories like this scare the hell out of me. How many accounts of overzealous CPS workers get no publicity? Who knows how many families have been destroyed by these people.

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