TTSOML #135: FBI, "Fair" Hearing & "Offers" From "The Department"

The first fair hearing I requested, from "the department" was after I and my son were being forced out of medical care. The actual issue was over the fact I refused to give them his social security number, but that was just an excuse to kick us out. Before we were being forced out of medical care, they had no issue with not having his number.

Wenatchee CPS knew what my "income" was. They were giving me the checks each month, and they knew I didn't have other funds. They knew that by allowing me to pay out of pocket (sometimes by borrwoing money) to go to medical appointments, I would rely on them to reiumburse me or I wouldn't have enough money for things like rent. I had to be reiumbursed by them, as they promised and did the first time and said they'd continue to do. If I wasn't reimbursed, I had no money to pay my rent with, or for gas to go BACK to Seattle for medical appointments. They were pressuring me to find a doctor in Wenatchee again.

So, when I turned in my statement for reimbursement, or told Tina over the phone, she told me her supervisor instructed her to say to me that they wouldn't do it. They had already TOLD me to go, and that I had to go to medical appointments as my only "requirement" to keeping TANF. I wasn't physically well, and I was permitted an exemption to work, but my obligation was to go to medical appointments. If I didn't go to Seattle, I would lose TANF. And yet they refused to reimburse me the 30 or 45 cents to the mile for my gas. They tried to get me to go with a state chaperone, basically, another driver. I said it was easier to go on our own and I was within my rights to do this. They kept asking me if I went anywhere else when I went to Seattle.

I think Wenatchee was worried that I would not only get diagnostics to back up my claims of a traumatic childbirth, but that I was checking out attorneys in Seattle as well. They knew I was planning to get a lawyer from Seattle and not Wenatchee. So it seemed to me that someone was trying to block my ability to go to Seattle altogether.

Another possibility, is that someone in government told them not to allow me to go to Seattle because I might take off for Canda with my son. I had already told people, before my son was born, that I was looking into living in another country.

And Wenatchee doctors, as soon as they found out I got an X-ray which proved fractures, in Seattle, which I broadcasted loudly, made their first complaint to CPS. I can't remember what it was but it was something very stupid. It was thrown out because the accusation was false, but not before social services and Tina Thornton offered me a "deal":

Leave Washington state.

Hmmm. If I left Washington state, how would I sue the Washington doctors and hospital and get my Seattle attorney?

They said to me, well, you're not guilty, but considering all of the problems you're having with Wenatchee medical professionals, we'd like to offer you and your son a one-way bus ticket out of the state.

I kid you not.

And I found out, it was ER doctors from the CWH hospital who made the first complaint, from the same hospital I knew I could sue for defamation, refusal of standard of care for migraine, and traumatic delivery and then cover up of this. Wenatchee social services had a little pow-wow with these doctors and then they offered us this nifty deal.

"The department" was offering me and my son a ONE-WAY bus ticket out of the state. Which makes it seem like the reason they didn't want me to go to Seattle was probably because they were doing the doctors a favor. It might not have been that they didn't want to "lose" me and my son to another location, if they were wanting us to go to another state.

I said to Tina, "I've never heard of this before. Does CPS usually do this?" The offer also came directly from CPS, but through Tina Thornton. I wouldn't take their "offer" and that's when they tried to kick my son and I off of all benefits and refused to reimburse the mileage to Seattle.

I guess this is a lot of info leading up to the fair hearing, but it's important.

The next thing that happened, is that because "the department" didn't reimburse me, I was going to be late on rent. My landlord, who was probably already pissed that I told Serve Wenatchee I'd caught them trying to enter my apartment without cause (I was taking a nap and they didn't think I was there because I didn't answer when they knocked), told me I would receive an eviction notice if I didn't pay. I told her I was waiting for the state to reimburse me.

I called my social worker and she refused to answer my calls. I left several messages. I also left messages with Debbie Schoemer, because I found out the order was going from Debbie to Donna Titleman, to Tina Thornton. Debbie was the head of the whole Wenatchee CPS. Who knows if Debbie got her orders from Spokane. But they knew I was going to fail in paying my rent, with a baby, on account of them, and they refused to get back to me for over 14 days. At the very last minute, I didn't tell them, but I got the money from my grandparents. My grandparents couldn't believe what they were doing to me (something my entire family seems to have forgotten).

But I wanted to know what Wenatchee CPS's reaction was going to be. So I had been asking them for emergency assistance, and first I was told I could only get this if I received an eviction notice. I didn't have one. They were just going to allow me to have an eviction notice on my record instead of paying the money for medical mileage. Then, no one got back to me until they thought I was already past rent. On that day, or after that day, Tina called me. I wanted to see what the Wenatchee social service response would be. So I didn't tell her I had the money. I told her I had a notice. She said if I had an eviction notice, I could not receive emergency assistance, because it was MY fault for not paying rent and that I should have set my money aside for this. So they lied and said they'd do emergency assistance if I got an eviction, then hoped I'd get one, and then were telling me I wasn't getting help as they'd promised. I suppose they could have been hoping I'd have no place to go and that this was grounds for taking my son away from me, since they didn't have any other reason to do so. Which would have immediately prevented me from getting a case filed for my son as well.

What I ended up getting, which Tina and "the department" didn't know about, was a notice that I had to leave becaue of repairs to the house. There was bad molding and decay under the shower stall and constant leaks, which went down to the apartment below. So it had to be vacated for repairs which were going to take awhile and they wanted to sell it, is what Pam said. Pam told me people were coming over to look at the house because they were interested in buying it. A church organization was interested in purchasing the house and I believe it was Serve Wentachee, but I didn't get confirmation on that.

When I asked Tina what the emergency assistance was for, then, she said it wasn't for eviction but for having to leave a place through no fault of one's own. So right after Tina told me I couldn't get emergency assistance for an eviction, and explained this, I said, "Oh! Well good then! Because it just so happens that I got the rent from my grandparents at the last minute, but I WILL take that "emergency assistance" for the notice I received to vacate the house. They're selling the house, I told her." Tina didn't say anything for a long time. Then she blundered through a nasty attack, saying the funds were not for things like that. I reminded her she'd just told me that's exactly what they were for. She said, "I don't see a FOR SALE sign in front of that house!!!" She was so angry. I calmly explained to her that I would be more than happy to send her proof of the notice and that I would gladly take the emergency assistance for getting into a new place. She, and "the department", were NOT very happy.

As a sidenote, after I then had to battle these people in a fair hearing, Tina took a job with CPS. She'd already been working for them anyway, why not? I did manage to ask Tina if she was getting her orders from someone else. She hesitated and then said, "Yes." I asked who and she said, "Donna Titleman." Then, Titleman told me Debbie Schoemer, the director, was the one pressuring her to do these things. Debbie was formerly from Spokane and her supervisor, the next chain up, was this Barbara woman in Spokane.

Before I could receive the emergency assistance, they tried to kick us off of benefits for not providing a social security number. They hadn't made a big deal about it before, and now they did. They claimed I was not in compliance with providing information and my argument was that they hadn't been asking until recently, and when I finally responded, I told them the provided an exemption to giving out a social security number when the infant or child doesn't have one. No parent may be compelled to take a number for their child, not even the state, and it's not required to give it out unless it's being used. I had been coerced to take a number but I'd never used it for my son and I was trying to have it rescinded and had done research about our rights. There was case history which supported this. I felt I had a good defense so when they sent a letter, announcing we were going to be completely kicked off, I asked for fair hearing.

Fair Hearings are administrative hearings, before Judges, within a department of the state. They're all state employees. My case was assigned to one Judge, and then at an odd time, and after he'd made a small point in my favor, he was pulled off of my case. He didn't request to be pulled off, and I didn't. I did the research and found he and his wife were non-religious mainly, but went to a Unitarian church. When I called the clerk, she looked at the schedule and said it was very unusual, because no Judge is just removed from a case without cause, unless it's for time conflicts. She went over the time schedules and said it looked like he'd been the one to have my case and that there was no conflict until the supervisor put something else on his plate and gave my case to another Judge. Both the supervisor, I found out, the senior Judge, and this new Judge, were...GUESS?! Catholic.

I didn't even assume anything at first, until I had the first hearing with the new Judge and he was harsh with me and I knew instantly we were going to lose if we continued with him. He was doing things that didn't make sense. So I did my own research and found he was a Gonzaga graduate. Because so many of my problems came from members of the Catholic church, and because of the conspicuous transfer of my case into his hands, I asked for another Judge. I spoke with his supervisor and asked why he'd been transfered to my case. She was evasive and then acted very cheerful, and when I asked if she was also Catholic, instead of saying yes or no, she said she wasn't going to tell me, but that she believed in grace by faith alone, and she made a bunch of clearly Protestant references, which, anyone who knew my background, would know would make me think she wasn't Catholic.

I know I was still talking to Christa at this time, and telling her about my Judges and what "the department" was doing. Even though I had strong and serious reservations about her. After my childbirth, Christa said she was sorry about what happened to me and my son in childbirth but then I got a weird voicemail from her friend, Erin O'Neal, where she sounds like she's laughing about what happened even though she's saying, "I'm soooo sorry to hear about..." On this same answering machine, was a phone message from an FBI guy from Portland, whom I'd tried to talk to, and before speaking with him, I told Christa what his name was because she asked even though she knew I was trying to go through them again. I told her his first and last name combo sounded like the Midwest and I joked if he had a southern accent, I'd know he wasn't Catholic.

Then he called me, and spoke to me in such an accent. I called Christa back and said he wasn't Catholic, and told he he DID have this accent. Then, what was weird, is I randomly called for him later, and I was put through to him and he didn't know who it was. He didn't have an accent AT ALL. So why would he use a distinct accent, and the type of accent I only told CHRISTA would make me think he was a midwest-southern baptist guy? I called him on it and asked why he didn't have an accent anymore and he couldn't get off the phone fast enough. He practically hung up on me.