Please note: This article does not go into detail about the nightmare
Josh, Brenda, and Naomi Burns have been living for the past 13 months. For the
whole story, please visit their website at www.TornFamily.com
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| Josh, Brenda, and Naomi Burns |
The last year has been a real eye-opener as I've watched my
friends, Josh and Brenda Burns, fight to keep their family together following
an allegation of child abuse leveled against the couple by Dr. Bethany Mohr,
director of the child protection team at University of Michigan C.S. Mott
Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Josh was convicted and began
serving a one-year sentence in the county jail on March 19, 2015.
I would like to share some of the most valuable lessons I've
learned by witnessing this horror story. If you have small children or
grandchildren, or if someone you care about does, please share this
information. It could make all the difference.
Stay away from
hospitals that have child abuse specialists on staff. If you take your
child to a hospital that has a child abuse specialist on staff, you are running
a major risk unless your child ails
from something that could not in any way be considered abuse, such as
meningitis or pneumonia. For instance, if your child gets a cut that needs
stitches or breaks a bone, you are putting your entire family in jeopardy by
visiting one of these hospitals. If someone at the hospital decides that your
child may have been abused, the specialist will be called in, and most likely,
Child Protective Services (CPS) will be called next. You can kiss your life
goodbye if that happens. If you don’t have at least $100,000 to fight back
(with no guarantee of success), you are out of luck. In case you were unaware,
CPS is a branch of the Department of Human Services (DHS).
“The road to hell is
paved with good intentions.” This quote has been going through my head
recently because it makes me think about DHS and CPS. The concept of rescuing
children who are truly in danger is an honorable one, to be sure. However, since
I have been involved with Torn Family, I have heard more and more stories about
CPS stealing children from perfectly sound homes and NOT helping children who
are truly in need. One recent case in point is the two kids in Detroit who were
found in a freezer. Their mother has been charged with their murders. CPS was
called twice to their home, and still, these children were abused and murdered.
I also know of a woman who has called CPS on her own sister because the younger
woman has substance problems and neglects her children as a result. CPS has
never responded to those calls. Look up medical kidnapping to find out more
about CPS stealing children from perfectly good parents.
Sometimes, innocent
people are found guilty. Child abuse is horrific and one incident is one
too many. It is my sincere hope that all who intentionally injure society’s
most vulnerable – children – be appropriately punished. I will be the first to
admit that, in the past, I never really thought twice if someone was found
guilty of Shaken Baby Syndrome or something else. I, like a lot of folks,
assumed that the judge and jury were correct. Not anymore. I just witnessed
Josh’s criminal trial in which one doctor, Bethany Mohr, claimed child abuse
while all the other expert witnesses said that Naomi’s injuries could have been
caused by any number of things, including her very traumatic birth. There was
reasonable doubt THROUGH THE ROOF, and yet the jury was more swayed by the
emotional displays of the prosecutor than they were by the solid defense
evidence.
What was once
considered a solid diagnosis is now being called “junk science.” Norman
Guthkelch, a pediatric neurosurgeon, first coined “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS)
in 1971, after he decided that proof for such abuse could be determined if the
victim displayed a triad of symptoms: subdural hemorrhage, retinal bleeding,
and brain swelling. For the last several years, however, members of the medical
community have been revisiting and debunking the science behind this diagnosis.
Now sometimes referred to as “abusive head trauma” or AHT, it may seem as
though some in the medical community are trying to hang on to this diagnosis
simply by changing the name, since there is great controversy surrounding SBS.
The new film, The Syndrome, by producer Meryl Goldsmith and her
cousin, investigative reporter Susan Goldsmith, focuses on a team of doctors
who “expose the junk science behind an unprecedented criminal justice crisis.”
As mentioned previously, sometimes innocent people are found guilty. Many – but
still too few – have been exonerated of child abuse/murder charges thanks to
the hard work of those fighting for justice. There are “innocence projects” all
over the country that aim to expose injustices and gain exonerations for those
wrongfully convicted. For more information, visit The National Registry of
Exonerations at https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx
The nightmare that
Josh and Brenda Burns have been going through is not an isolated incident.
Unfortunately, children being removed from their homes for no good reason isn't
rare or unusual. All one has to do is look at the news headlines. The
government agencies responsible for breaking up families seem to act with
impunity, and they also seem to have certain ideas about which children they’d
be better off stealing. Remember the two kids whose mother has been charged
with their murder after their bodies were discovered in freezer? CPS apparently didn't
care about those poor children. Why not? There’s a money trail here, and
further serious investigation is imperative.
The secret list of
DHS. Did you know that DHS maintains a secret list of people who've been
accused of child abuse? In Michigan alone, there are 275,000 names on this
child abuse registry. One of those names is Brenda Burns! Since Josh was
charged with child abuse, she was charged with failure to protect for leaving
Naomi with him for the hour she was out getting her hair cut. She will be
unable to get employment in her given field, nursing, as long as her name is on
this list, and it is next to impossible to have it removed. Furthermore, DHS is
supposed to notify the person in question within 30 days when they put said
person’s name on this secret list. The person then has six months to appeal.
Brenda found out that her name had been added to this child abuse registry nine months after the fact and after a
jury had found her innocent of any abuse or neglect!
Passionate people
really can make a difference. I have no idea what someone with no support
system would do if they had to engage in a legal battle the magnitude of Josh
and Brenda Burns’s. Right off the bat, their legal team estimated that it would
cost at least $100,000 to defend them and no less than six months. Those
estimates were actually on the low side. Josh and Brenda fortunately have good
friends who, in turn, rallied their
good friends. The outpouring of support for this family has been so tremendous
that it has garnered not only local media attention, but national as well.
Brenda and her lawyer, Elizabeth Warner, will tell their story to four million
viewers on the Dr. Phil show on April
29, 2015. Currently, Josh is working on his appeal from jail with lawyers who
specialize in these types of cases. It is unlikely, however, that it will be
heard before he completes his sentence.
When Josh is finally a free man, he has vowed, as have his
supporters, to fight for justice for families caught in similar predicaments. To
join the fight or for more information about the Burns family’s ongoing
nightmare, please visit www.TornFamily.com.
Please donate to help them, if you are
able. Any amount is greatly appreciated. Instructions for donating can be found
on the website.
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