IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
DOUGLAS COUNTY
Re. The dependency of Oliver Garrett Motion for: Mod. Of Visitation;
3rd Request for Public Defender;
Motion for New Trial;
Motion for Discovery
This motion is brought before the mother, Cameo Garrett, appearing Pro Se (not by choice, as I’ve requested a public defender and been denied one).
I am requesting modification of visitation on behalf of myself and my son, Oliver Garrett. I speak to the right of my son, where no one else does, to see his mother more than 4 hours a week. I also speak to the right of the parent to have a chance to continue the bond.
It is not possible to continue and facilitate bonding between mother and child with 4 hours a week. The state has also not been able to show sufficient cause for withholding this child-parental right to visitation and bond.
I am not charged with any crime. I have not been accused of crime of abuse or neglect by the state. The state has not even been able to prove that I, as they write, “may have a severe mental illness”. There is no evidence before this court which would suggest this mother endangers her child through physical and emotional contact.
I have not ever been charged and convicted of any crime of violence or anything to suggest the necessity of a door guard either. However, I am one of very few parents that has a security guard present for each and every visit, which I feel is harassment and another attempt by the state to create further prejudice and discrimination against me.
My son is very thin for his height and has lost ground in his percentiles. He refuses to eat anything which requires a spoon unless I am feeding him by hand. He knows how to feed himself but he refuses to do so unless I am holding the spoon and putting it in his mouth. He wants the contact of his mother and this is also evidence of trauma inflicted by the state, in separating a child at such a critical time in his development, from his loving mother, without sufficient cause (see attached 15 witness statements). I am regularly cutting his fingernails and toenails which his foster parents don’t tend to and allow to grow until they snag and tear off on their own. I have also had to document and report abuse, which has shown up in a pattern of bruises on my son’s legs which are not caused by playing but are clearly from fingertips pressing into his legs. The first time I noticed, he had 9 bruises, all small and circular, such as would be caused by fingers, on his right leg and 2 on his left leg. The next time, on a Monday, he was bruise-free, but only 2 days later, my son had 10 small bruises on his right leg and 3 on his left leg. After this, the bruising on his leg was minimal but I found three small bruises, close together, under his sock on his right leg. It is as if someone is holding my son’s legs down too hard and causing bruises. Never, in my care, did my son show this pattern of bruising and there is no excuse for it.
Not only that, my son has shown clear signs of distress over not wanting his diaper to be changed, crying out “No make a mess! No make a mess!” as if he is worried if he “makes a mess” with a BM he will be punished and harmed. The other concerning behavior is when he began screaming over and over “clean! Clean!” and was almost hysterical because his nose was running. I had been wiping it clean for him but he just began to scream. My aunt Holly is a clean freak and obsessive-compulsive in her cleaning. My entire family knows this and wouldn’t deny it. Holly cannot go to another family member’s house without trying to clean THEIR house. The other concerning thing about Holly is her mood swings which her own children and husband notice and make apology for.
I feel my son has been on the receiving end of my aunt’s extremes and he is showing signs of distress.
My son has also stated very clearly, in the last three visits, that he does NOT want to leave the room. He says he wants to stay in that tiny boring room, with me, rather than go back to Holly and Pablo. My son still prefers me to my aunt and uncle, even after the time that passed without visitation, and this is evidence enough that I was a very good mother and still am and I knew my son would not, could not forget this. We did not just have a normal relationship, my son and I enjoyed an extraordinary connection and bond and this was evidenced by the people who knew us best and saw us most often. These individuals all agreed to let me take a statement from them. I went from house to house with my laptop and explained it would be used for court and to just say whatever they wanted to that was honest.
They all say the same things. There is not one different version of the story. And these are the people who saw me and my son every single day up until our departure from the U.S., legally, to Canada.
Even those who did not see me every day, but who were licensed mental health professionals and called in to evaluate me, refused to send me to a psych ward as the doctors I was trying to sue wanted. The state has repeatedly claimed there was only one mental health professional who evaluated me and decided there was nothing wrong. It wasn’t just ONE opinion, it was TWO. The hospital had TWO professionals come in and they BOTH refused to go along with what the doctors at ER wanted. They did tell me they were getting abnormally severe pressure from these same doctors to commit me. The state has omitted the fact that it was not just one mental health professional who decided I was okay, but TWO.
My own family never saw me and my son prior my son’s removal, except for my grandparents at least once a month. My mother and father visited only one time, for my son’s 1st birthday. Not one member of the Baird family, living in Cashmere and Wenatchee, came to visit me and my son although they were invited to.
As for CPS and state workers, I plainly invited them to come out to our house and/or to watch and observe me and my son interacting in public as we were out of the house more than we were indoors. The state did not do this.
The so-called medical professionals who made complaints never once saw me and my son outside of office visits or ER. My son was documented, prior to our departure for Canada, as being very happy and healthy and well-adjusted. The only people to say anything negative were the same medical professionals who knew I was going to Seattle to find a lawyer for medical malpractice, and these same doctors refused to do even one diagnostic (X-ray, CT, or MRI) to confirm whether or not my claims of injury and/or pain were real or not. They simply made assumptions and didn’t even use diagnostics to prove themselves right. When they tried to use mental health professionals to justify themselves, they failed. It was only when they engaged people they knew at CPS, CASA and Children’s Home Society, where many of the medical professionals have wives sitting on Board, that they succeeded in doing anything at all.
It is wrong to keep my son from engaging more regularly with me when he has stated his own desires clearly. I find it very disturbing that CPS decided to cut off our phone visitation when my son began calling for ‘Mommy” and “mama” over the phone all the time. The state has demonstrated they are more interested in making their “case” and justifying their actions, than in the best interests of my son. This hurts no one more than it hurts my son.
They are also aware, as are other medical professionals, that I wish to pursue a medical malpractice claim on behalf of my son and I am unable to do this when he is not in my proper guardianship. This is also wrong and deprives my son of the compensation he deserves for his suffering and damages. There are several lawyers who are interested in taking my son’s case if he is back in my care, but they cannot do anything at this point. I have already lost out on my own statutes because of my own difficulty trying to deal with this traumatic forced separation from my son. But my son still has the chance to be compensated for everything he’s been through, and he should be and no one should stand in the way of this 3 year old rights.
To deprive me and my son of more regular visitation, without evidence that I am a danger or harm to my son, is a violation of my and my son’s rights.
It is impossible for me and my son to re-establish the permanency of bond without further visitation.
I have complied with UA’s and there is no evidence of improper drug use. The only one I missed was on the same day I was distraught to find more bruises on my son’s legs and decided to report this to police, and took photos of my own. I am still waiting for the release of photos taken by police, which I was told were took the second time I went in to make a complaint.
I do not, and never have, used drugs improperly.
I have also attempted to go for a psych eval but wasn’t able to when I asked my ex-fiance to leave and he left with some of my clothing and money I could have used to travel with. I have still been in touch with the psychologist in Maryland and have arranged for another date for visitation, which I’m able to keep because some friends said I could stay with them and my flight would be paid for. The psych eval is really irrelevant in light of the prejudice and slander against me and the evidence I have that shows TWO mental health professionals cleared me of having any “severe mental illness” which should separate me from my son. They were very well aware that I had a 3 year old. I also have these witness statements in support of me and my son’s rights. Any “evidence” collected by the state in form of Wenatchee medical professionals’ statements is hardly “evidence” when I am able to prove they lied and tried to cover up injuries to save themselves from a lawsuit. Besides which, none of these doctors were regular providers but only saw me when or if I had to go to ER or when I was trying to get diagnostics. I could not have a PCP if the PCP was refusing to do proper diagnostics of injuries for me and my son and that is why we were without a normal PCP—because, quite frankly, we were refused reasonable standard of care, which is NOT “normal”.
I have also already gone in for a “drug and alcohol dependency evaluation”. I paid for it out of my own pocket and there is no law to prevent me from doing this. My ex testified on my behalf as to the fact that I did NOT use drugs and only had to use painkillers for injuries I had which were real. I am due to take medical records into the woman I talked to, to show her when and at what times I was injured and how my use of painkillers naturally followed serious injuries alone, or migraine when my migraines were not treated successfully by other methods.
My son has been the one to suffer from the actions of the court and the state. I have collected, in the last few weeks, enough evidence to request New Trial but I cannot try to find a job for myself and act as my own attorney and I again state I need a public defender to help me bring this clear and compelling evidence to light. This evidence proves I was lied about by members of the state and also the same medical professionals who first began “reporting” me. It is proof of bad faith, retaliation, and an attempt to conceal a medical malpractice claim which I had been trying to bring on behalf of myself and my son for injuries sustained at childbirth, for which I now have evidence did not exist prior to childbirth.
I was defamed as being “drug seeking” when this evidence shows clearly that I had severe injuries for which I needed painkillers. I was accused of being “delusional” for claiming I’d had a traumatic childbirth and that injuries from this prevented my ability to travel so often on the bus; I have evidence that I do, and did, indeed, have the injuries I claimed to have.
I am asking for three things, Your Honor:
1. Public Defender. I cannot handle my own legal affairs and work at the same time. I had to quit an opportunity for a new position because of this case and the amount of time trying to get evidence for my right to New Trial and modification of visitation.
2. Modification of Visitation. My son and I should have the right to see one another each and every day, at least Monday through Friday, for at least 2 hours per visit, and with some variety, not always having to stay in the same very small rooms. We should be able to have our visitations at a McDonalds or the park, in public places.
3. New Trial. I am asking that the docket be noted for a specific hearing for New Trial based on new evidence I have collected, which I need help from a public defender with, to organize and argue for properly. I have more than enough evidence to clear my name and prove this removal was improper and illegal from the start and that all attempts after have been aimed at protecting the interests of those who improperly removed my son, and not in the best interests of my son.
4. Discovery. The state and CASA worker refuse to give me discovery I need, or that my PD would need, prior to these hearings. I’ve not received anything from them prior to this hearing. The discovery I need includes all of my son’s medical records which have been made since he was out of my care. I need release of his records in order to prove his health and height/weight percentiles were higher in my care and that his health has been compromised. I also request all visitation notes from the monitor, any statements made by CASA workers in advance of hearings, and I request any and all notes made by the AG and CPS workers with regard to my son and me. Before my son was ever removed from me I had filled out a request for release of information from The Department of Social and Health Services because I was having difficulties with them and experiencing harassment and prejudice (not to mention, I believed, retaliation for winning a Fair Hearing against them for discrimination of disabilities).
Thank you Your Honor, please let me know if I may bring Orders before you to sign, and if not, please honor my request for my right to have a Public Defender. I might add, the fact that I was able to collect this evidence myself, which warrants New Trial, is evidence in itself that I did not receive an adequate or reasonable defense. My own PD should have done this in the beginning but he/they refused to believe me, that I and my son WERE actually injured and doctors were covering this up and claiming I was “delusional” and “drug-seeking” instead.
Sincerely,
Cameo L. Garrett Date: May 19,2009
CC: AG, CPS
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