NY NY - Patrick Alford, 7, Brooklyn, 22 Jan 2010 - #1

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~ Respectfully snipped and bolded by me ~
Texas Mist said:
'Missing' kid's ma is jailed

Foster-home fight

By IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON, KIRSTEN FLEMING and LEONARD GREENE
Last Updated: 10:35 AM, January 29, 2010
Posted: 4:06 AM, January 29, 2010

A Family Court judge is convinced a Staten Island woman knows the whereabouts of her missing 7-year-old son -- and is keeping her in jail until she delivers some details.
......
The judge meanwhile, sent the mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, 23, to Rikers Island -- even though Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said investigators don't believe she's involved in the boy's disappearance.

...

During a hearing yesterday, a court officer testified he heard Rodriguez tell a relative during a previous hearing that another relative has the boy.

"Blanca's got him," she said, according to the officer.

Later, an Administration for Children's Services caseworker testified that Rodriguez's aunt, Blanca Toledo, passed her a note during a supervised visit with Patrick and his little sister, Jaleen, that said Rodriguez was planning to abduct the children.

"Watch them," the yellow Post-it note read. "Mommy trying to take them. Caution."


more here

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/missing_kid_ma_is_jailed_TurnHTzGRxrwULgrQByl8L
Click to expand...

Riddle me this: if BT previously passed the social worker a note, telling her that her sister had plans to abduct the children, WHY would BT now be hiding the boy? That makes no sense to me on any level. :waitasec:

Also, I'm very confused about how the Judge would have more info than the investigators on the ground performing the search? Obviously, the judge has more info about the situation that required the children to be removed from the home. But I am surprised that he would lock this woman up when the investigators do NOT think she is hiding Patrick.

Weird :waitasec::waitasec:,

Salem
 
Salem said:
~ Respectfully snipped and bolded by me ~

Riddle me this: if BT previously passed the social worker a note, telling her that her sister had plans to abduct the children, WHY would BT now be hiding the boy? That makes no sense to me on any level. :waitasec:

Also, I'm very confused about how the Judge would have more info than the investigators on the ground performing the search? Obviously, the judge has more info about the situation that required the children to be removed from the home. But I am surprised that he would lock this woman up when the investigators do NOT think she is hiding Patrick.

Weird :waitasec::waitasec:,

Salem
Click to expand...

It's beyond weird, it's corrupt. This shows how much power Family Court has.
They think she has him, so she's going to Rikers Island until she produces him.
The state is covering it's arse. Blame mom even though he was lost on their watch and LE said she wasn't involved. It's now gone from him threatening to run away to his bio family threatening to kidnap him.

Why wouldn't they want his sister too ? And how did they know foster mom would be taking him (and only him) with her to dump the trash ?

Even if she did take him, shouldn't she be arrested first ?
She's in jail because of the opinion of child welfare workers and a family court judge.
 
Salem said:
~ Respectfully snipped and bolded by me ~

Riddle me this: if BT previously passed the social worker a note, telling her that her sister had plans to abduct the children, WHY would BT now be hiding the boy? That makes no sense to me on any level. :waitasec:

Also, I'm very confused about how the Judge would have more info than the investigators on the ground performing the search? Obviously, the judge has more info about the situation that required the children to be removed from the home. But I am surprised that he would lock this woman up when the investigators do NOT think she is hiding Patrick.

Weird :waitasec::waitasec:,

Salem
Click to expand...

She was overheard at a previous hearing saying he was with Blanca ?
She's had a previous court date since he went missing ? And since when is overhearing something evidence enough to send someone to jail without a trial.
 
I know I don't have what the judge had in front of him. But this sounds like a knee jerk reaction to me. And now suddenly the claim is the kids were taken away due to neglect? I thought it was because mom was incarcerated for a time. Unless I hear more, I'm more suspicious of the foster mom at this point. Who's to say she didn't make up the story about kid going out to the trash chute with her to explain if and when his body is found in a landfill and also explain why the kid isn't around anymore. Ooops it was an accident, he must have fallen in. When was the last verifiable sighting of this kid? He could have been gone before he was reported missing.
 
Salem said:
~ Respectfully snipped and bolded by me ~

Riddle me this: if BT previously passed the social worker a note, telling her that her sister had plans to abduct the children, WHY would BT now be hiding the boy? That makes no sense to me on any level. :waitasec:

Also, I'm very confused about how the Judge would have more info than the investigators on the ground performing the search? Obviously, the judge has more info about the situation that required the children to be removed from the home. But I am surprised that he would lock this woman up when the investigators do NOT think she is hiding Patrick.

Weird :waitasec::waitasec:,

Salem
Click to expand...

The bio mother was locked up for contempt not for kidnapping. The court had reason to believe she knew where the child was but refused to disclose it; hence contempt or disobeying an order of a court.

I think the mother and the aunt each accuse the other for being pathological liars, so it is possible the aunt would want to 'frame' the mother by passing the note.

These people are all crazy. Maybe little Patrick is much better off with a loving foster family. BTW, did you notice that the news is now saying the kids were taken for neglect? It was originally reported that she was going to jail for petty larceny.
 
webrocket said:
The bio mother was locked up for contempt not for kidnapping. The court had reason to believe she knew where the child was but refused to disclose it; hence contempt or disobeying an order of a court.

I think the mother and the aunt each accuse the other for being pathological liars, so it is possible the aunt would want to 'frame' the mother by passing the note.

These people are all crazy. Maybe little Patrick is much better off with a loving foster family. BTW, did you notice that the news is now saying the kids were taken for neglect? It was originally reported that she was going to jail for petty larceny.
Click to expand...

She was found in contempt for not following the judge's order to produce him.
How can she produce him if she doesn't have him ?
Reason to believe isn't sufficient to deny a person their constitutional right to be free. There has to be evidence, not a court officer 'overhearing' something that he might have misunderstood or a post it note from an aunt.
There has to be due process,it's not right to put someone in jail indefinitely without a trial.
Hear-say and a post it note wouldn't even be admissable in 'real' court. Mom would have also been able to call witnesses (like LE) to defend herself before being locked up without being convicted of a crime.
The foster mom lost him and was the last person to see him, why don't they order her to produce him ?

Personally, I don't believe a court officer overheard her say that and I don't believe the post it note story either.
What better way to not only shift the blame from the state, but to keep the bio mom quiet to avoid public scrutiny. Put her in jail, where she won't be heard.
How can they be trusted to put him in a loving foster home when he disappeared from the first one they chose ?
His mother knew where he was for 7 years, he's in a 'loving' foster home for 3 weeks and they're searching swamps for him.

If they're claiming neglect, it could very well have to do with her being arrested. She couldn't care for him when she was in jail, therefore he'd be neglected.
They should have let her choose a family member for him to stay with.

I hope, for his sake that someone who loves him took him.
 
I saw this while I was reading about Patrick. Not to go off topic, but this is another example of the poor choices being made by the state of NY.
The alleged druggie was foster mom's 45 year old daughter Sheila is facing manslaughter, assault and child endangerment charges. Law enforcement sources have said she admitted to smoking crack, using heroin and drinking before loading the van with kids.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/201...oster_teens_ma_to_sue_city.html#ixzz0e3xssmNn
A Queens woman is set to sue the city because her 15-year-old daughter died in foster care - riding in an uninsured minivan with no seat belt and an alleged druggie at the wheel.

The vehicle slammed into oncoming traffic in Queens, killing Katherine and 5-year-old Melissa Elhmer-Mirra.

I do think mom has a lot of nerve though, considering her daughter had been in foster care most of her life and she was the one who put her there.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/01/21/2010-01-21_dead_foster_teens_ma_to_sue_city.html
 
this story brings back some memories for me about 6 yrs ago

I had a 7yr old foster son. I had him for about 3 weeks, they had made no head way to do a visit with his mom

well, he got mad and told me he was going to runaway if he didnt get to see his mom.

so right when he said it, i picked up the phone and called dcs and went over the caseworkers head, and told them what the boy said and he wanted to see his mom today !!!!

poor j came into the kitchen and looked at me i was crazy, he told me i would not know whether to go left or right out the front door, the caseworker didnt know that so that visit was set up that day

no matter what the bio parents have done or didnt do, the kids still worry about them, If the child was not harmed by the bio parents visits should be set up as soon as possible.

6 years later, j is doing great went home about 12 months later and still comes to see us about one weekend a month
 
RJA00 said:
this story brings back some memories for me about 6 yrs ago

I had a 7yr old foster son. I had him for about 3 weeks, they had made no head way to do a visit with his mom

well, he got mad and told me he was going to runaway if he didnt get to see his mom.

so right when he said it, i picked up the phone and called dcs and went over the caseworkers head, and told them what the boy said and he wanted to see his mom today !!!!

poor j came into the kitchen and looked at me i was crazy, he told me i would not know whether to go left or right out the front door, the caseworker didnt know that so that visit was set up that day

no matter what the bio parents have done or didnt do, the kids still worry about them, If the child was not harmed by the bio parents visits should be set up as soon as possible.

6 years later, j is doing great went home about 12 months later and still comes to see us about one weekend a month
Click to expand...

I'm really glad you put his best interests first and made DCS do their job.
I also appreciate that you did yours as a foster mother, IMO more and more foster parents are going into it with the intention of adopting. Foster care isn't supposed to be permanent, DCS is supposed to try to reunify the family.
I know that some kids can't be returned to their parents, and in that case I feel it's better to allow the foster parents to adopt if they've bonded with the child than to move them again.
I don't like it when foster parents turn it into a custody case and do whatever they can to sabotage the bio parents chances of getting their child back.

That last sentence bothers me because I don't understand why a child is taken from a parent that hasn't harmed him/her in the first place.
 
CHICANA said:
I'm really glad you put his best interests first and made DCS do their job.
I also appreciate that you did yours as a foster mother, IMO more and more foster parents are going into it with the intention of adopting. Foster care isn't supposed to be permanent, DCS is supposed to try to reunify the family.
I know that some kids can't be returned to their parents, and in that case I feel it's better to allow the foster parents to adopt if they've bonded with the child than to move them again.
I don't like it when foster parents turn it into a custody case and do whatever they can to sabotage the bio parents chances of getting their child back.

That last sentence bothers me because I don't understand why a child is taken from a parent that hasn't harmed him/her in the first place.
Click to expand...

i guess i meant not all drug users harm there child, but sometimes when he state jumps it does scare them to sobriety real fast

yes, i bent over backward for all my foster kids parents even my son bio mom. the ones that wanted the help i helped
I became sponser, best friend. 2 am calls just to talk
i learned a lot

i never tried to be better then the bio parents, I did not judge them just tried to help them
 
webrocket said:
The bio mother was locked up for contempt not for kidnapping. The court had reason to believe she knew where the child was but refused to disclose it; hence contempt or disobeying an order of a court.

I think the mother and the aunt each accuse the other for being pathological liars, so it is possible the aunt would want to 'frame' the mother by passing the note.

These people are all crazy. Maybe little Patrick is much better off with a loving foster family. BTW, did you notice that the news is now saying the kids were taken for neglect? It was originally reported that she was going to jail for petty larceny.
Click to expand...

webrocket - why do say these people are all crazy? I don't understand.

If the sister did pass a note to the social worker, than I can not see the sister now hiding the child. That is illogical. Obviously, the sister was concerned about the child and wanting to do the right thing.

Also, I would tend to trust LE's ability to read a perp to a great extend. While I understand that LE is not infallible, they generally have a good idea about most situations - most, not all. If LE thought the mom had Patrick, then I could understand the judge's actions - but without LE backup, I am really confused as to why this judge would lock this mother up.

AND I just can not understand how you lose a child taking the trash out, especially if you didn't even go outside - heck, they didn't even have to go to a different floor. AND they were not on the ground floor where Patrick could have slipped out the door. If he took the stairs - it would have been possible to catch him before he got out and if he took the elevator, it would have been possible to race down the stairs. The whole story is very hinky in my opinion.

JMO of course,

Salem
 
dang...I keep checking on here to see if he's been found safe yet. :frown:
 
DeepThinker said:
dang...I keep checking on here to see if he's been found safe yet. :frown:
Click to expand...

me too
I'm actually surprised - thought for sure he'd be home the first night or by the second day
 
I think the foster mom's lying about something and just maybe Patrick was threatening to run away b/c she isn't such a nice person?

Maybe she's lying just to cover her butt for not properly supervising him ... but I do think she's trying to cover up something.

As to the mother & aunt ... I can't make any sense of those two right now.

Any which way it falls, some adults failed Patrick tremendously and I hope he is found safe and placed with a family that actually cares about him.
 
A Brooklyn mom jailed in the disappearance of her 7-year-old son still denies she spirited him away from a foster home - but coughed up some addresses where he might be hiding.


The day after he disappeared, Rodriguez knocked on the door of the foster home - even though she supposedly didn't know where he lived, ACS caseworker Carlene Anderson testified Friday.
Rodriguez had also asked her son in a phone call what public transportation he took while staying with the foster family.
"The mother was trying to find out how they traveled," the caseworker said.
 
RJA00 said:
i guess i meant not all drug users harm there child, but sometimes when he state jumps it does scare them to sobriety real fast

yes, i bent over backward for all my foster kids parents even my son bio mom. the ones that wanted the help i helped
I became sponser, best friend. 2 am calls just to talk
i learned a lot

i never tried to be better then the bio parents, I did not judge them just tried to help them
Click to expand...

You're amazing, and if all foster parents were like you there would be a lot more success stories.
 
darlin gal said:
A Brooklyn mom jailed in the disappearance of her 7-year-old son still denies she spirited him away from a foster home - but coughed up some addresses where he might be hiding.


The day after he disappeared, Rodriguez knocked on the door of the foster home - even though she supposedly didn't know where he lived, ACS caseworker Carlene Anderson testified Friday.
Rodriguez had also asked her son in a phone call what public transportation he took while staying with the foster family.
"The mother was trying to find out how they traveled," the caseworker said.
Click to expand...

I wonder who was listening to that conversation. Was it one-sided and the foster mom only heard what Patrick said ? She could have asked him what he did that day, and he answered that they took the bus/subway/taxi to the park or wherever. The caseworker stated that the mom was trying to find out how they traveled, which is her opinion only. In real court that the caseworkers opinion wouldn't be interpreted as speculation, not fact.
She might not even have been the one to hear the conversation.
IMO, it's totally ridiculous that DCS isn't placing any blame on the foster mom when he disappeared under her supervision, or lack thereof.
 
Just another article on the bio family. BBM.

Jailed mother of missing seven-year-old tells police where to look

ACS, who removed the child from his mother's custody with a finding of neglect, thinks she was involved in his disappearance. ACS caseworker Carlene Anderson testified that Rodriguez both called and visited Alford's foster home, and that she questioned her son about the public transportation route he and his foster mother took to get to ACS offices. Anderson also testified that Blanca Toledo, Rodriguez' aunt, told her during a supervised visit that Rodriguez was planning to kidnap Alford.

[snip]

Police are searching public areas near Alford's foster home, as well as the homes of relatives in Florida and Baltimore. Rodriguez supplied the court with more places to search on Friday, but continues to insist that she doesn't know where he is. McElrath denied bail, at least until the next hearing on Monday.

Meanwhile, there's a small seven-year-old child out there somewhere. If you have any information, the NYPD are asking you to call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), log on to WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or text 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/01/jailed_mother_o.php
 
darlin gal said:
A Brooklyn mom jailed in the disappearance of her 7-year-old son still denies she spirited him away from a foster home - but coughed up some addresses where he might be hiding.


The day after he disappeared, Rodriguez knocked on the door of the foster home - even though she supposedly didn't know where he lived, ACS caseworker Carlene Anderson testified Friday.
Rodriguez had also asked her son in a phone call what public transportation he took while staying with the foster family.
"The mother was trying to find out how they traveled," the caseworker said.
Click to expand...


From the same article....

Relatives say they found the foster family's apartment by accident - while handing out missing posters - and that Rodriguez was not with them.

So it was hearsay on the part of the caseworker. Foster mom talked to her and she talked to the court.
I think she heard what she wanted to hear, they're supposed to do what's in the best interests of the child and the STATE. It's not in the State's best interests to have lost Patrick. Much better that his neglectful mother is at fault.
I think mom would have 'produced' him by now if she knew where he was. Riker's island doesn't sound pleasant.
To me it sounds like the entire case for mom being in jail is based on hearsay and opinion.
Mom could be guilty, but what I've seen doesn't support it.
Regardless, I think the court is out of line.
What if the judge ordered one of us to produce a child we didn't have ? And because it was impossible, we would sit in jail indefinitely for being in contempt of an order that we couldn't comply with.
They're shifting blame and ensuring she can't defend herself. The fact that she's in jail automatically makes her appear guilty to the public. MOO


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...d_offers_potential_locales.html#ixzz0eAKLBYPb
 
Was Patrick really in better hands ?
This is an old article(and long), but IMO things haven't changed.

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=2613

As a caseworker, I was in a unique position to advocate for children and parents when they most needed help. Many of the parents and children I encountered made deep impressions on me, and I established close connections with some of them.
Many of these families were harassed, their rights systematically violated by ACS. Their children were being swallowed up by an agency that too often operated on virtually unchecked authority, wielded arbitrarily. And I represented that agency.

To become a child protective caseworker, you do not need to have any experience working with children, or demonstrate that you actually want to work with children. No one even asks if you like children.
Once hired, caseworkers have six weeks of training, where they are taught how to conduct interviews, identify abuse and neglect, and carry out a removal.

----What the ACS supervisor states IMO, represents what is happening in Patrick's case....

Several months before I left the agency, an Emergency Children's Services supervisor who was resigning after more than 10 years blanketed the agency with a stunning email.
"ACS cares more about statistics than they do about children, forgetting that those statistics represent real children," he wrote. The supervisor had equally harsh words for protective caseworkers: "ACS workers cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for doing wrong removals by blaming them on their supervisors or managers or on agency policy."

BTW, I found the article on this blog.
http://cpscorruption.blogspot.com/
 
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