We've posted several times on this case before. But the incompetence and bumbling and back scratching never stops. I fail to see the "high hill" in this case. Seems pretty much like a stroll in the park to me. But of course, all the people at CPS who indulged this abuser custodial dad--who ultimately murdered his 9-year-old son--must be protected at all cost from any accountability for their actions. Is that why JUDGE ROBERT JONKER is solemnly evoking a "high hill" of proof in this case where no such thing exists? Why the hell is Judge Jonker shielding these idiots anyway?
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/07/still-more-background-on-custodial-dad.html
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/07/additional-information-on-custodial-dad.html
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/07/non-custodial-mother-of-boy-slain-by.html
Let's recap some of the details.
This mother ended her marriage to killer custodial dad ELMER BRAMAN back to 2000, after years of physical and mental abuse. But like a lot of abuser dads, Braman decided to use ongoing custody "battles" as a way to further torment the mother. By 2005, the mother was forced to hand her three sons over to the father (I have yet to see that Judge's name. Any of you judicial geniuses want to take credit?)
Daddy got custody despite the following history of complaints investigated--and denied--by CPS, beginning in 1998:
• The father abused the children, and struck one so hard blood vessels broke in the child's nose.
• The father threatened to kill the youngest son, who feared his father. The father and his live-in girlfriend pulled out the children's teeth before they were ready to come out on their own.
• The father threw one of the older sons off the porch and kicked him because the boy could not find his glasses.
• The father, believing that the same older son was afraid of the dark, left him miles away at night to find his way home. He did the same with other older son. The boys told CPS workers they were beaten on their bare bottoms, and pliers were put on their fingers
In 2006, the father was investigated for molesting a child. During that investigation, authorities learned the boys were disciplined with a cattle prod.
However, CPS denied that the children were being abused or neglected--though they completely failed to investigate, collect evidence, or reach a disposition on the allegation that the father used a cattle prod on his children.
The three boys were still living with their father in August 2007, when the older boys called their mother and said they were running away because of the cattle prod abuse. The mother called CPS workers in Saginaw, but was threatened with arrest for kidnapping if she picked them up.
She picked up her two older sons anyway, and brought them to Saginaw. At that point, Mom had been denied contact with the boys for two years. The next day, the boys told CPS workers about the use of a cattle prod. Daddy did not deny the abuse, and was arrested by Montcalm County sheriff's deputies. A CPS worker in Montcalm actually confirmed in an e-mail that there had been no investigation.
Shortly thereafter, Daddy pleaded guilty to abusing both teenage sons with a cattle prod, was convicted, and was facing jail time.
Just one problem: the 9-year-old son was still in Daddy's custody.
Then Daddy decided not to show up for sentencing. The mother continued to beg CPS to do something about getting the youngest boy out of his father's home. Naturally, they did nothing.
And then in October 2007, Daddy murdered the boy and the new step, before offing himself.
So show me where that "high hill" of proof is again?
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/10/judge_says_mother_has_high_hil.html
Judge says mother has 'high hill to climb' in lawsuit against state workers who did not remove son from father's home before murder-suicide
Published: Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 9:05 AM
John Agar The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Despite warnings that 9-year-old Nicholas "Elmer" Braman faced danger in his father's care, Children's Protective Services did not seek his removal.
But an attorney for the state said Tuesday that CPS workers' actions were not the cause of the boy's death when he, his father, Elmer Braman, and stepmother, Elaine Kaczor-Braman, died in an October 2007 murder-suicide at their Montcalm County home.
"The individual workers didn't do anything that put the decedent at any greater risk of harm than he was already in," Assistant Attorney General Mark Donnelly argued in U.S. District Court.
The boy's mother, Rebecca Jasinski of Saginaw, filed a lawsuit that faulted CPS workers who kept Elmer Braman in his father's home, even after the father was convicted of abusing two older sons. A month before the deaths, an assistant prosecutor, Misty Davis, told CPS that the father "literally 'shocked' his older boys with a cattle prod repeatedly. ... In my opinion, there is no justification for the youngest boy to remain in the care of this man."
District Judge Robert Jonker refused Donnelly's request to dismiss the lawsuit, but said the allegations could be difficult to prove.
"I think it's a really difficult case as a matter of law," he said. "The plaintiffs, in my view, have a high hill to climb here."
He said protective services workers, in "very volatile and difficult real-life situations," have to be able to make tough calls -- even make mistakes -- without having the threat of a lawsuit over them. But, he noted, it is hard to ignore the "terrible outcome."
Donnelly said CPS worker Sheri Tyler, who did not believe the boy to be at risk with his dad, was not required by law to file a petition for jurisdiction of the boy. Even if she filed a petition, it would be up to a judge whether to decline or accept jurisdiction, and then, the law does not require the child to be removed, Donnelly argued.
He also said the case should be dismissed because defendants have qualified immunity.
Attorney Gregory Wix, representing the victim's mother, said CPS should have known the boy was at higher risk after the father was convicted of abuse, and awaiting a jail term. The death, he said, exposed "a crack in the system, a hole in the system."
The Office of Children's Ombudsman said Montcalm County CPS should have acted "at the earliest point it became aware of Mr. Braman's egregious acts of abuse ... ."
E-mail the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com
