Problems With Recording Device at Washington D.C. CPS Office

I'm going to make public where I was using the recording device that suddenly quit working on me while I was recording. Because I, for one, think it's interesting

I went to Radio Shack in Crystal City and bought a recording device. It wasn't from a friend. I thought I'd write this out, because I knew it was brand new and there was nothing wrong with it.

I bought it before I visited the D.C. CPS. I hadn't heard from them, and had asked my case to be transfered a long time ago. Not a word. I figured Washington D.C. CPS was going to be better than Wenatchee, but I didn't want to assume, and since I didn't have a witness going with me, I figured I'd get the truth on indisputable record, just in case someone tried to tamper with things here as well. My fault has always been to be too trusting.

So before I went there in person again, I was taking a hidden recording device with me.

After I bought it, I went to the cafe to figure it out and read the directions on how to operate the thing. I hooked it up to my laptop and it came up but I didn't have the right application to open it up. I was there for maybe 2 hours, trying to figure things out. Then I befriended a worker at Radioshack who was helping me. I was there at opening time and by lunch, I was buying the guy from Radioshack lunch, to thank him for helping me. But by lunchtime we'd still not figured it out.

So then he took it back to the store and we were trying to work on it there. I noticed a woman come in while we were working on it, looking over at us, and she said she was looking for a recording device. She went to the display and was checking things out and reading the backs and then looking over at us now and then. It could have been coincidence but I had my eye on her.

Then we went back to the cafe and tried it out again and everything worked fine except the application. Finally, he said let's try it on their computer. So we did, and it worked, and I kept it. I wasn't going to keep it if it didn't work. So I am not the only one who knows that recorder worked perfectly, and started and stopped appropriately.

I then took Metro to L'Enfant station and got out and walked over to CPS. I was told Hester wasn't there yet and her supervisor, Michelle Farr, was in a meeting.

I had decided to get the recording device after I left another message at Washington D.C. CPS, with Hester. I noted her supervisor was Michelle Farr. Then, one day later, I was at work and a table of guys came in. One seemed to be mocking me in a way, but I don't know for sure. I just had a bad enough vibe about him that I looked at his credit card receipt for his name, which I usually don't do. I have a feeling about him. So I looked, and his last name was "Farr", which stood out to me, since I'd just heard the supervisor for the woman I was working with at CPS's last name was "Farr". I also found out, later, that Hester was still in the hospital for something, so someone else was probably picking up her messages.

Could be a total coincidence, but maybe not. There was a remote chance it was not a coincidence, and I couldn't take chances anymore, with being screwed over by anyone in a government position. This was my son's life and my life. So after this, I knew I wasn't going to proceed, just in case, without a recording device. CPS and enough people had already lied about me, and about what I'd said and they'd said, and their word was usually taken over mine. So I would make sure there was no argument.

When I got to the D.C. CPS, I had to wait at least 20 minutes, I was told, so I went to the next door Starbucks.

I got back to CPS and had to use the restroom and then was ushered in by a social worker, Ellen Walker. There was a man with her, and she told me it was their General Counsel, Joe Tostino (or something like that. I wrote it down somewhere). She said he was going to sit in on our meeting.

At that, I remembered I needed to turn on my recorder. So I told her, a little too quickly, that I needed to use the restroom again. I had JUST USED the restroom and they knew it. I told her I'd been to Starbucks and had a lot of coffee but I knew it sounded fishy. So I left and then when I went back in, the General Counsel was gone.

Walker said he was just next door and "happened" to be around the corner and she invited him in, but at the same time, they had my file out and she said they'd already discussed my case. She proceeded to tell me they couldn't do anything about tranferring my case to them and that everything was up to Wenatchee and Wenatchee had to do it. I got all of this recorded.

I asked her if I could fax my release of information so they could send the order from the judge over and she said no. She said where was my order and I didn't know because I haven't received half of the mail I was supposed to receive from Wenatchee CPS.

So I said, why can't I just fill out a release form, authorizing Wenatchee to send a copy of the order and everything, to their offices. She said she couldn't. I asked if she could make a call first and she said no to that too.

So then I asked if the General Counsel guy would come back. He came back with his Blackberry out, pointed towards me, and another object underneath the Blackberry. He said the same thing to me. I said it didn't make sense that I couldn't fill out a request.

So, he left, after getting flustered and sounding a little mad, and said things just weren't done that way.

Both he and Walker told me to get mental health services now and get my own evaluation, and that it didn't have to be through the state. I told them I knew I had the right to an independent evaluation, and I wasn't going to use that card with a state agency when they had to use that card first. Basically, they have the right to an evaluation, and so do I. If I got a negative eval from the state, on my OWN, they could then "order" another one and have it match and claim to the judge I already had my own "choice" of professional picked out. My evaluation was going to be COUNTED as the one ordered by the state. But Walker and General Counsel for D.C. CPS were trying to get me to go there on my own, of my own volition. Then their GC also suggested I get legal aid through Catholic University of America, telling me they could help me. I said NO WAY.

I told them I wanted my psych eval out of the way, ASAP, so I could get my son back, and they said, even later, after they brough the ICPC guy in, that they would ask Wenatchee CPS for a home evalution and that would get the process started. I said why not ask them for the order for psych eval and they said Wenatchee would instruct them as to what services to provide to me.

This came after the General Counsel left. I eventually asked to speak to the ICPS specialist. So HE came in, and according to him, there was no reason why I couldn't make a call to Wenatchee to have the process started, as I'd already asked them to do, and when I said I wanted to fax a release of information request, he said I could do this too. The complete opposite of what Walker and the General Counsel told me. And suddenly she was agreeing with the ICPC guy. So I filled out the release, which was produced from her desk drawer, and they said to mark it for a home evaluation. So, after they explained why, I did. The ICPC guy, Eastern Indian, was MUCH more responsive and he took phone numbers and fax numbers as well. I explained the medical problems of my son and how I couldn't file a lawsuit on his behalf until he was out of Wenatchee clutches, and I think this may have had an impact on their understanding of what was going on over there.

Because really, they could have been told to stall or something, for any number of reasons. Walker also gave me the number for a non-religious legal aid place, before I met with the General Counsel, which sounds like a good organization.

When I left the meeting, I went to the bathroom to turn off the device. It wouldn't turn off. I pressed and pressed and pressed the stop button, which worked perfectly before, and it would not stop. It just kept rolling like it was frozen on one command. So finally, I just took the battery out to stop it, and found the information came back still, restored.

I have decided to write about this, because I realize CPS is CPS everywhere. I thought it might be totally different in D.C. but perhaps, if CPS in Wenatchee is in trouble and at liability, this extends to the entire organization which may be under the same umbrella. Hence, the appearance of General Counsel at my first meeting to get things going.

There are some good people within CPS. But there are also others, who, at this point, have an agenda, and I have to protect myself and my son, from that agenda.

I would say to CPS: Don't fuck with me and my son. Do the right thing, for once, and do not stall, and swallow your pride and return my son. You were wrong, period, and your continual cover up will only make you look worse in the end, the longer you try to screw me and my baby and tell everyone else you're trying to faciliate a "reunion". Do not fuck with me.

I thought I would add, I pressed other buttons besides the "stop" button. None of the buttons were responsive in any way until I took the battery outk, and after I put the battery back in, everything worked like normal again. Just for clarification. And I haven't had problems since.

What I like, is how you can burn so many CDs off the thing to preserve the evidence. Maybe I should post it to my blog for the public to hear. Hmmm...

Also, maybe it's a state thing, but maybe it's the Catholic thing again, because that General Counsel guy seemed to me to be Catholic. Not saying they're all mafia obviously, but I know who has had the most to lose.

I think there are a lot of people who are, MUST be, REAAAAaaaally counting on that mental illness diagnosis.

As to any argument about how it may be "illegal" to record conversations without permission, I say, it is necessary to combat far worse evils.