The video and newspaper articles below expose North Carolina's pitiful, terrible Foster Care System. It also exposes how North Carolina Law Enforcement Officials don't seem to really care if Adults have sex with Children (Statutory Rape).
Many, many children, especially Minority children in North Carolina's Foster Care System are being Sexually Abused and raped by their Foster Parents or Adoptive Parents but somehow no one appears to be the least bit concerned.
Not even Gov. Bev Perdue!
Her silence on this issue is puzzling. After all she is a mother.
Governor Bev Perdue is in fact very much aware of this horrible crisis affecting our state's children however she has never addressed it. At least not publicly.
Why?
North Carolina's Corrupt Foster Care System is one of the largest vehicles for bringing in Federal funds. These funds are then used to help balance the state's budget or whatever (Waste, Shopping, Wooing Health Care Insurance Execs, etc.,).
That's right! North Carolina Lawmakers and North Carolina DSS Management Staff use Federal dollars intended for Foster Care children anyway they want to, even decorating offices at $25,000 a pop!
In the mean time more and more Foster Care Children, especially Minority children remain in Foster homes where they are beaten, burned or sexually abused. Often becoming pregnant at young ages.
Sadly enough the babies of those young girls will also end up in North Carolina's corrupt Foster Care System, continuing the cycle of Poverty and Sexual Abuse.
What's even more sad is that each time I publish a post on my blog about North Carolina's corrupt Foster Care/ DSS/ Law Enforcement Systems, the state and local (Charlotte) officials become extremely angry with me.
I have suffered extreme retaliation by North Carolina state and local (Charlotte) officials for revealing this heinous criminal activity against Children.
Instead of North Carolina Lawmakers and local (Charlotte) Officials putting their heads together to help Reform the state's DSS/ Foster Care/ Law Enforcement Systems, surprisingly they are trying to shut me up!
Can you believe it?
The majority of North Carolina's Lawmakers and local (Charlotte), elected officials are registered Democrats.
So am I! Yet...they are fighting against me just because I really do care about the welfare of Children.
Is it any wonder as to why the Republicans have labeled North Carolina's Democratic Leadership Corrupt?
Well now everyone knows that Children, especially Foster Care Children are NOT at the top of North Carolina's list of priorities.
This is a shame and a disgrace before God.
After Amber Alert, Incest charge
A Mooresville man who sparked an Amber Alert when he disappeared with his 12-year-old pregnant adopted daughter and her 11-year-old sister now faces rape and incest charges.
Mathew Charles Hess, 40, had already been charged with misdemeanor child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile after, authorities say, he took his two adoptive daughters to Tennessee despite the condition of the daughter who was nine months pregnant.
Now he faces additional charges in Lincoln County - indecent liberties with a child, first-degree rape and felony incest between near relatives. Details of the charges were unavailable. Authorities haven't said whether they believe Hess is the father of the older daughter's baby.
Hess and his wife, who is the girls' biological mother, are separated, authorities said. The girls were living with Mathew Hess in Lincoln County when the older girl became pregnant.
The Observer published the girls' names when they were the subject of a large-scale search, but is not naming them now because authorities say at least one was a victim of a sex-related crime.
Authorities believe Hess drove away with his daughters on Sept. 24 after leaving a note for his wife saying he was taking them to school. The girls' mother called authorities soon after, when the pregnant daughter didn't show up for a doctor's appointment.
Last week when the pregnant girl missed an important medical procedure, authorities issued a nationwide Amber Alert.
A motorist in Tennessee who saw the alert on an interstate sign recognized the family's faded green Ford Explorer and called the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Wednesday. Less than half an hour later, the search was over. Social services took temporary custody of the girls.
Two members of the Iredell Sheriff's Office's warrant squad drove to Tennessee on Friday and brought Hess back to North Carolina. His first court date for the Iredell County charges is Nov. 16 in Statesville.
Now, he's in Iredell jail under a $12,000 bond. He's also deemed a flight risk because of the charges in Lincoln County.
Sexual exploitation charges in Rowan
A 52-year-old China Grove man has been arrested in connection with the discovery of child pornography, Rowan County authorities say.
The Rowan County Sheriff's Office said Mitchell Perry Wright has been charged with five counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, and with three counts of secretly peeping into a room with a female.
Deputies say the arrest followed a joint investigation by the sheriff's office and state and federal authorities into possible possession of child pornography by a China Grove resident. They say that during a search of a resident in the 700 block of Mount Moriah Church Road in China Grove, they discovered images of a 9-year-old child that had been obtained by a secret recording device.
Deputies say they believe Wright operated a recording camera in his bathroom.
The family of the child has been contacted, and deputies say the investigation is continuing.
More on rape charge revealed in teacher's court appearance
A search warrant reveals more details about allegations against a CMS middle school teacher accused of raping a 15-year-old girl.
Ernest Nichols, 44, of Huntersville, made his first appearance in court Friday. He is charged with rape, second-degree sex offense, crime against nature, indecent liberties with a child and kidnapping. He's being held in the Mecklenburg County jail on more than $800,000 bond. A bond hearing for Nichols was set for Oct.14.
The alleged crimes occurred at Nichols' home on Willow Grove Way and involved a girl who was a friend of the family, not one of Nichols' students. Huntersville police have said the reported attacks took place over about six months, from last November until this spring.
A search warrant revealed the 15-year-old told police she visited the Nichols' family on several occasions. During those visits, she said, Ernest Nichols befriended her, made sexual advances and had nonconsensual sex with her.
The girl also told police she believes Nichols impersonated his son on Myspace.com and Facebook.com. She told police she also exchanged text messages with Nichols.
According to the warrant, the victim's mother called police to report the alleged assaults.
Failed by system, dead at 15
Tiffany Wright stood alone in the dark, waiting for her school bus.
It was just before 6 a.m., and her foster grandmother had walked back home to get Tiffany's water bottle.
Tiffany, 15, was eight months pregnant but determined to stay on track in school. She wanted to be a lawyer. And after just a few weeks at Hawthorne High, she had impressed teachers as smart and ambitious, despite a difficult childhood.
At 5:51, Tiffany sent a text.
"Wheres the bus?"
One stop away, replied her friend, already on the bus.
At 5:55, as the bus lumbered toward Tiffany's stop, people began calling police to report gunshots.
A school bus dispatcher radioed Tiffany's bus driver: Change course - something's happening ahead.
Tiffany lay dead in the road, shot in the head, that morning, Monday, Sept. 14. Her baby girl was delivered at the hospital and lived a week, but died Sunday.
Nobody's charged in the killings, but police call Tiffany's adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell, a "person of interest."
In the months before she died, local agencies took steps aimed at stabilizing her home life and keeping her safe. But her story exposes failures in the system that was supposed to protect her.
Among the missteps:
•In February, a Mecklenburg court clerk appointed Mitchell as Tiffany's temporary guardian - even though he was a felon who served time in federal prison. He was also tried in 2006 for murder, but found not guilty. And last year, he was accused of domestic violence, though the case was dismissed.
•In July, social workers told police that Mitchell, 36, might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany, but police didn't question him about it for seven weeks, and didn't charge him with the rape until after Tiffany was killed.
•This month, Mecklenburg social services failed to cut off communication between Tiffany, who was in foster care, and Mitchell, said a source close to the investigation.
On the day of Tiffany's killing, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police jailed Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a child, naming Tiffany as the victim.
Police defend their work, saying they followed the industry's best practices - which takes time. Police didn't feel a need to rush, they say, because they believed Tiffany was secure, hidden in a foster home with no threat to her safety.
Police say it's hard to prove statutory rape: Of the 262 reports of statutory rape police received over three years, only 16 percent - 42 cases - were accepted by prosecutors.
Experts say statutory rape cases are complicated because they involve victims ages 13, 14 or 15 who often consider themselves voluntary participants in sex with someone at least six years older. So victims can be reluctant to help police.
But child advocates say in cases like Tiffany's, police should act more aggressively. An immediate arrest sends a signal to a suspect and can persuade them to stay away from victims.
"The cases may be difficult to win, but they're not difficult to charge," says Brett Loftis of Charlotte's Council for Children's Rights.
UNCC criminologist Paul Friday says: "Often, nothing is done in these kinds of cases because they're based on improper assumptions about the rationality of someone that age. But the minors are often unaware of disease, birth control and they can be exploited by someone."
Adopted by foster mother
Tiffany first entered the child welfare system as a toddler in Buffalo, N.Y., when her mother lost custody.
She was adopted at 4 by her foster mother, Alma Wright, an older woman with eight grown children, who was excited about raising another child.
One of Wright's grown sons was Royce Mitchell, a star quarterback in high school who'd gone on to play for a semi-pro team in Buffalo. But Mitchell also was indicted in 1999 as part of a drug trafficking ring and went to federal prison.
While he was in prison, authorities also charged Mitchell with an earlier murder, but a jury found him not guilty.
In 2004, Alma and Tiffany left Buffalo for North Carolina, settling near Kings Mountain. Tiffany made friends easily at school and church. She ran track at Bessemer City High School.
In 2007, Mitchell was released from prison and followed his mother to North Carolina.
But last fall, Alma Wright got sick. Friends at church helped out with Tiffany, inviting her for dinners and weekends. Tiffany spent time with Mitchell and his wife, too.
Alma Wright died Jan. 25, and Tiffany moved in with the Mitchells in Charlotte.
On Jan. 30, Royce Mitchell asked a Mecklenburg court to appoint him and his wife as Tiffany's guardians.
On his application, he wrote: "We are seeking guardianship because we were requested to do so by Mrs. Alma Wright before she died."
He wanted to transfer Tiffany to West Mecklenburg High School.
The court set a hearing for Feb. 5 and appointed a child advocate to study the situation and look after Tiffany's best interests in court.
There's no transcript of what happened in court, and the clerk who handled Tiffany's case declined to discuss his decision.
Frederick Benson, a Mecklenburg assistant clerk of superior court, appointed Mitchell the temporary guardian of Tiffany's welfare.
It's unclear if Benson, a lawyer, knew about Mitchell's criminal background. Court clerks are not required to perform background checks in guardianship cases, says Clerk of Superior Court Martha Curran. It's up to each clerk to decide what checks are necessary, and they often rely on court-appointed child advocates to advise them in such cases.
Tiffany's advocate, lawyer Martha Efird, declined to discuss her actions in the case.
It was in the weeks surrounding the Feb. 5 court hearing that Tiffany got pregnant, if hospital estimates are accurate.
But friends say Tiffany, who started at West Mecklenburg High in February, wouldn't realize for four or five months that she was pregnant.
On Feb. 27, clerk of court Benson ordered DSS to conduct a "home study" of the Mitchell household. Officials won't release their findings.
But Mitchell didn't keep custody long, according to several of Tiffany's friends in King's Mountain.
In late March, Mitchell left Tiffany at a group home called With Friends in Gastonia, according to Marlene Jefferies and Cruceta Jeffeirs, two adult family friends who watched Tiffany grow up.
The group home wouldn't confirm that. But the friends say the home reported to social services that Tiffany was abandoned. And she was soon back in foster care.
On March 31, Jeffeirs, a Shelby pastor, wrote a letter to Benson seeking custody of Tiffany: "My desire is to see Tiffany accomplish all the goals that she has set for herself and I believe she can do that in a stable environment with lots of guidance and love."
DSS officials in Gaston and Mecklenburg won't discuss Tiffany's case or answer questions about what steps they took to protect her.
But friends and family say Tiffany was eventually placed in the care of foster parent Susan Barber, in a townhome off Mallard Creek Road in Derita.
By July, it was clear Tiffany was pregnant, friends say.
Barber tried to shield Tiffany from talking to those she believed might be bad influences, according to Tiffany's cousin Brittany Page. But a source close to the investigation said Tiffany and Mitchell continued communicating.
Despite repeated attempts, Barber could not be reached.
As the school year approached, Tiffany prepared to change schools again, this time to Hawthorne High in Charlotte, which offers a special program for pregnant students.
Delayed investigation
On July 27, social workers reported to police that Royce Mitchell might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany.
It took eight days for a detective to look at the case, and three days more for it to be officially assigned to Teresa Johnson, a detective with CMPD's youth crime and domestic violence unit.
Another 12 days passed before Johnson interviewed Tiffany.
It's unclear when detective Johnson discovered Mitchell's background, but it wasn't enough to ramp up the investigation. Investigators say they believed Tiffany was safe in a foster home and faced no threats from Mitchell.
Police say their performance in the case followed procedure and met standards.
Police interview alleged victims immediately if the crime has occurred within the previous 72 hours, so they can gather evidence that may remain. But in cases like Tiffany's - where months had elapsed since the alleged offense - police try to arrange just one interview when children and teen victims of abuse are involved.
Police acknowledge that strategy takes time but minimizes trauma and reduces the chances that young victims might be led into inaccurate testimony by repeated questioning.
Police also let such victims decide when they want to be interviewed at the county's child-victim center called Pat's Place. There, specially trained interviewers talk to victims, while social workers, psychologists, police and others watch from another room.
Tiffany chose an Aug. 19 interview. She didn't say much during the formal interview. But later that day, Johnson won her trust and obtained enough information to move forward with the investigation.
No response from Mitchell
The next day, Aug. 20, the detective made her first call to Mitchell to ask him about the charge, she says. Johnson left a message and gave him a few days to call back.
When Mitchell didn't respond, she made calls over the next two weeks to social workers and a Federal Probation Officer to ask Mitchell to come talk to police.
Police say they didn't immediately arrest him because they believed they could get better information if he talked voluntarily.
On Sept. 9, a federal probation official told Johnson that Mitchell was not coming in.
On Sept. 10, a team of social workers, police and other agencies held a standard follow-up meeting to discuss how to proceed in Tiffany's case.
On Friday, Sept. 11, detective Johnson phoned Mitchell's wife and left a message. She asked her to call back to discuss Tiffany, Johnson says, but didn't give details of the rape allegation.
That Monday, Tiffany was shot and killed.
As emergency vehicles rolled to the scene, Tiffany's school bus was diverted from its normal route. But the students could see flashing lights. Tiffany's friends on the bus, Cimone Black and Tamia Corpening, began to worry.
"I kept texting her phone...," Cimone said. Then she started calling, but all she got was voice mail.
The bus continued on to Hawthorne. For Tamia, the hourlong ride was excruciating.
Nobody said a word.
Statutory Rape Law is clear, so enforce it
The repulsive death of Tiffany Wright has shed light on another repulsive fact about our community: We don't take the statutory rape of children nearly as seriously as we should.
Tiffany, the Charlotte 15-year-old shot dead at her bus stop this month, was eight months pregnant. Social workers had told police they thought she might have been raped by her 36-year-old adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell. Police did not talk to Mitchell for seven weeks, and charged him with statutory rape only after Tiffany was dead.
The lack of a timely statutory rape prosecution in Tiffany's case was not unusual. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have investigated 312 potential statutory rapes since 2006 (as of Aug. 31). The district attorney's office has prosecuted 49 of those, or less than 16 percent.
Police choose not to take about a third of cases to the DA, either because they consider them unfounded or because they're still investigating. Of the 65 percent of cases they do present to the DA, the vast majority are not prosecuted. Whether that's because the DA's office doesn't take the crime seriously enough or because police bring the DA insufficient evidence depends on whom you ask.
The bottom line, though, is that these statistics suggest that authorities don't view statutory rape as a crime unless the victim or the parent demand that they do. That's unacceptable.
Let's be clear: there's no such thing as consensual sex with a 14-year-old. Young teens are not capable of making rational decisions about intercourse. The law defines statutory rape as intercourse or a sexual act with a person age 13, 14 or 15 when the perpetrator is at least four years older. Period. The law says nothing about consent.
The victim or her parents not wanting to press charges is no excuse for authorities not to do so. It's similar, in some respects, to domestic violence: a man should face charges if he beats his wife, regardless of his wife's desire to press them.
Clearly, these cases are complicated. If the victim is not interested in pressing charges, police may have a hard time getting evidence. The victim might not talk, and authorities might not be able to secure DNA evidence because they might not know about the crime promptly.
Still, they could press charges more often and build a case. That also would send a signal to other potential perpetrators and show young girls that they don't have to accept being a victim.
But child advocates say a lack of evidence is only part of the problem. Some authorities, they say, consciously or not dismiss the rape of a black or Hispanic child as a cultural phenomenon - as if it's OK if the girl is a minority.
That's offensive in the extreme, and if it's happening, criminal justice leaders of this community, including Police Chief Rodney Monroe and District Attorney Peter Gilchrist need to make sure it stops.
They, and the elected officials who control their purse strings, need to identify policies and attitudes that work against keeping children safe, and change them.
DSS Mishandled, Misused Funding Allocated Specifically For Foster Care Children
Mecklenburg County leaders are promising reforms after a financial audit found widespread problems in the Department of Social Services, including unauthorized use of county credit cards.
A separate report also revealed the county may launch another investigation into whether DSS workers misspent money.
In March, officials said they suspended two workers suspected of taking $110,000 from a charity that solicits money to buy holiday gifts for kids. In a report to the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners this week, administrators said they had turned over the findings of an internal probe to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
“This shows DSS has serious internal control and cash management problems that (County Manager) Harry Jones and (DSS Director) Mary Wilson need to fix,” commissioner Bill James said.
DSS is one of the county's largest agencies with more than 1,200 employees and a roughly $180 million budget.
Wilson, who took over DSS in July 2008, told commissioners that she ordered the audit after learning this year about accounting irregularities in the charity program.
The county paid $93,000 to Cherry, Bakaert & Holland, which studied records from July 1, 2007 through March 31 of this year.
Among the findings:
DSS workers used two credit card accounts without proper authorization from the county finance director or commissioners.
In 99 percent of financial transactions studied for one program, there were missing receipts, purchases for unauthorized products, a lack of supervisor approval or other problems.
DSS issued checks without two different authorized signatures, a violation of a state statute.
Harry Jones, the county manager, said the county has already implemented new procedures in response to the audit.
“I am very disturbed by the findings,” he said in the report to commissioners. “I can assure this Board and the public that we have fixed and strengthened our fiscal controls ... We also will pursue aggressively any evidence of suspected misappropriation to the appropriate conclusion.”
The report says that DSS will no longer be able to write checks and that all checks will be processed and written by the county finance department. Administrators, the report says, will review DSS financial policies to ensure they match county rules.
The audit focused on a voucher program in which DSS provided financial assistance to help foster parents or caretakers buy needed items for foster children. The program operated on a $167,500 a year budget before officials discontinued it this year.
Wilson said in January she reviewed expenditures for the effort and found some “transactions seemed high in terms of dollars” and often there were no receipts.
Now, officials are working with auditors to determine whether to conduct a more extensive review. The review would try to determine whether workers violated fiscal policies.
The audit also studied transactions involving the Giving Tree program, which takes public donations to buy gifts for foster children and other DSS clients.
Among the well-known supporters of the program is Project Joy, the holiday fund drive initiated by Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson.
In March, the county said it found multiple checks from November 2008 through January 2009 were made out to an employee who helps with Giving Tree. Other checks were authorized payable to the relative of another DSS employee. The relative is not a DSS worker.
Wednesday, the county said one of the workers suspected of taking money remains on paid administrative leave. The other is on extended family leave.
An internal agency audit found two instances of possible misappropriation. “Other instances of concealment were found, but misappropriation could not be determined due to poor record keeping,” a report says.
County officials are working with police to obtain receipts from vendors, but a spokesman said Wednesday there is no criminal investigation at this time.
The Giving Tree program has been suspended.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Whitehouse.gov, Huffington Post, Washington Post, MSNBC, North Carolina General Assembly, Charmeck.org, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps
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