My story begins when in august of 2009 my daughter (who was then 9yo, had finally after a couple of years of putting up with abuse from my ex) felt comfortable and safe to tell me about it. At that time when I found out, she pointed out to me bruising around her neck where she had been strangled by him. The night prior. He had not been home when she told me so I made the choice to let him know he was to no longer come home, the very next day was school for my daughter and unbeknownst to me, she went with a bruise on her arm caused by hurting herself which she explained to myself and officials later was because she was thinking of all the terrible things my ex had done to her and that she had not come forward sooner, when the teacher saw the bruise on her arm he asked her what happened and she told him she had caused it, he then sent her to the nurses office which upon seeing the bruise it prompted her to inspect my daughters visible body for any other bruising, which is when she found the slight bruising around her neck. This of course raised questions as to who had made the bruises to which she responded my stepfather, so the nurse then called the police, dcf, and then myself to investigate further.

I was at work that day and thankfully when they called the emergency line at my work they were able to locate me to be able to get to the school promptly. When I had got there, I was greeted by the nurse police officer and Bridgeport DCF  Social WorkerArmindo Rodriguez. At that moment they questioned me as to what happened and I advised them I had just asked my ex to not come home and that there was no possibility of him coming back, Armindo Rodriguez  Bridgeport DCF  Social Worker had then advised me that if we feared for our safety that I was to get a restraining order against my ex, which later proved to be very necessary because he did not go quietly, he and I have a daughter in common (whom he didn’t advise at all)and he was upset. Throughout the whole process dealing with having relationship problems and then also finding out that over the course of 2 years while being in CT he had,  been secretly abusing my daughter by hitting her (threatening if she told the same would happen to her sister and myself)

I started a friendship with my current fiancé, he had helped me make the right choices and gave me the strength to confront my ex, he then continued to protect us from potential harm,from a dangerous man. When my ex was breaking through the restraining order and stalking me, at that time he lived 45 minutes away so being committed to helping us was definately first on his agenda even though he had severe heart problems which limited his complete ability to help. The danger that my children and myself were in. During this time so called DCF to protect my daughter, didn’t petition the courts for any arrest, or even case against my ex, in fact it was only open to observe myself in our home, which I was unaware of at the time because after several failed attempts at calling Armindo Rodriguez and leaving messages about him coming to visit and to also make him aware that my ex was giving us problems,

I had then gotten a letter in the mail stating the case was to be closed.. Approximately 1 month from the end of that case, in November 2009, my daughter was displaying erratic behavior, which included lying and stealing, and she had stolen my at that time friend, now fiancé’s iPod that we had brought in to listen to some of his music( he had previously been a producer in the music industry) and brought it to school with her. When I noticed the iPod was missing, I went to her school and checked her backpack while she was in music class, her teacher was present at that time and also stated she was not to have brought any of the things she had in her backpack, including the iPod at the time and I was to make sure she didn’t bring such things to class with her in the future. I then left with the iPod and waited for her to come home to confront her about the missing iPod, she denied knowing anything about the iPod and went on for 3 days like this, maintaining the lie(I wanted to see how long it would go on for and apparently it would have continued for who knows how long). On the third day, I revealed that I had retrieved the iPod from her backpack at school and it was even at that point that she denied knowing how it got there, I had explained to her that this was wring and I proceeded to do exactly what had happened to myself and a lot of other children growing up when their parents found out they had stolen, and it made me and those other children not ever steal again. I didn’t believe in physical punishment at all but at that point her behavior was starting to get out of control and I was frustrated with it, She ended up coming clean and we talked about her behavior and why it was bad to lie and steal.

A couple of days later, my friend was watching the kids while I was at work, and he discovered at bedtime that my daughter had unknowingly took  the housephone into her bedroom she shared with her sister, and proceeded to call my brother whom is 7 years younger than I with no children, and tell him that mom spanked me, my friend found her talking to my brother and told him she was supposed to be in bed and that to call her in the morning, my brother refused and wanted to know why my friend was getting involved with my daughter, he then replied, because her behavior was getting out of control and I was overwhelmed period. He then advised my brother again to call back in the morning and speak with me about it, and hung the phone up, when my brother tried to call back he didn’t answer, so the next thing he did was call the local authorities and have them sent to my home with my friend there I was still at work, I received a text message from him stating” I needed to come home now because the police were there”. The police barged into my home without my consent, and proceeded to question my friend and daughter until emergency dcf workers got there which was 2 hours later. This was November 22 2009 the case was opened and I was looked at as though I had been beating my child all along, I got a different case worker on this case, Astrid Reyes From Bridgeport DCF   , she over the next very long 11 months oversaw the. Courts and evaluation of our family situation, I fully cooperated in the investigation and we came to the end with stating the Judge” she saw we improved as a family and would no longer be required to participate in any more dcf programs”, even though dcf so wanted us to stay in their ordered “counseling” this was October 2010 that the case was closed and things were going fine. Starting in Jan 2011, my now fiancé was experiencing more severe difficulties with his health and we were in the hospital, I became overwhelmed and took some medical leave from work for my own sanity starting Feb 4, 2011 and from that date on I have been the sole caregiver for all 3 of my children with little help from my fiancé due to his severe health problems, even raising his voice to the kids would weaken him.

On the morning of April 6 2011, while getting ready for school, my daughter took my iPhone with the intention of giving it to a boy she liked at school who doesn’t really like her but she thought he would like her if she gave him my iPhone, once I realized it was gone I went to her school to go get it, I confronted her and thoroughly embarrassed her in front of her class about taking it and told her we would be discussing her punishment once we got home, once she got home I began asking her to take a moment to do so and her sister asked what happened, my fiancé said she stole mom’s iPhone…..her sister then out of instinct from seeing her own father abuse my daughter using physical discipline, picked up the back scratcher and proceed ti hit my daughter on the hands, (which left no marks) we immediately told her to stop and proceeded to start telling her about what her punishment should be, we discussed with her that instead of just doing the dishes she would have to clean the entire kitchen, which to me seemed like an appropriate punishment that fit the crime right? Wrong, well apparently my daughter thought it not and continued to scoff at the idea of doing her time so my fiancé, seeing this offered to give some advice to her and speak with her about her actions, during that time, I was in the kitchen, holding the baby with my other daughter sitting at the table listening, while talking to my daughter he was also helping her put away the silverware which included him putting away a plastic mixing spoon approximately 8 in in length, so while holding the spoon and also talking to my daughter scolding her for her behavior and being just one of the uncountable times she had acted like this and not learned from her mistakes, he would tap her hands to get her attention when she would look as though she wasn’t paying attention, during those times my other daughter who was still sitting at the table and trying to egg my fiancé on to just hit her with the stick, we again told her that it was not appropriate to do so and for her to go into her bedroom until I was ready to discuss the situation with her, so all the while my daughter in getting angry because my fiancé had pointed out that even a 5 year old knew the difference between right and wrong and to not repeat bad behavior, so she then stated that she would just run away because she obviously couldn’t follow rules and wanted to be somewhere she thought wouldn’t present her with any rules or responsibilities, which she thought was her friend’s home, so we spoke with her about that and explained that no matter where she went she would have rules and responsibilities, but she obviously didn’t understand this because the next day, my daughter, while getting ready for school, secretly packed a few things to bring to her friend’s house ( who lived 1 block from her school and was in her class) once at school, she then discussed running away to one of her two friends’ houses and while she was talking to them, her teacher Ms. Heather Coombs, overheard part of the conversation and asked what was going on, my daughter started to tell her that she was angry at her stepfather because he was yelling (scolding) at her and hitting her with a spoon, before she could go into the story of what exactly happened, her teacher interrupted her by mentioning that she too was abused by her biological father and didn’t give my daughter a chance to speak again, and directly proceeded to contact DCF about the matter, in which DCF WORKER From Bridgeport Peggy Jaques came and interviewed both of my children without my consent at the school at which case I was not notified of such process until it already happened and the next thing I knew my suck fiancé was being told by police that met us in front of our home and blocked my car so that I could not leave and advised that he was being arrested for battery and breach of peace, I had to do some real convincing on my fiancés behalf to keep him out of jail and to keep him stress free, at that time the 2nd DCF Social Worker From Bridgeport Elisangela Silva came and told me that all three children were being taken on a 96 hour hold as ordered by Yolanda Chapman-Smith program manager From the Bridgeport DCF office. And handed me a sheet of paper advising that there were no resources available for the children at this time, but this isn’t something they hadn’t asked me because the paper was photo copied from the original and it stated falsely that child presented with multiple bruises, which was not true, they had to bring her to the emergency room and the medical report stated my daughter had no signs of abuse or neglect what-so-ever, and that she presented as a normal 11 year old. While my children were in the care of a foster home, as reported from my daughter, both foster parents were neglecting my then 5mo son by leaving him to cry and not letting her pick him up like I had let her in the past, and them denying him proper nourishment by feeding him only 2 oz nurser bottles every 3 hours when I specifically told Peggy Jaques Social worker from Bridgeport DCF that he required 5 oz bottles every 3 hours, also when I got my children back on Monday afternoon, I had learned the whole time my son had been teething, and this was also a source of distress he was experiencing, but was not attended to properly.The foster homes 3 year old son was sick and nothing by The Bridgeport DCF office, or the foster parents was done to prevent my children from getting sick, at one point my daughter reported to me that their son was constantly standing over my son and coughing all over him and almost stepping on him. Some time went by after the return of my children on April 11,2011 at 4:30pm (Peggy Jaques DCF WORKER stated she was late because she had traffic but in reality the foster home was literally on the next block from me) and I never heard from Peggy Jaques or DCF again so I figured the case had been closed since nothing was against me and a protective order had been put into place against my fiancé against my daughter only, so he was no longer in the home. My fiancé had went into the hospital beginning April 9 2011, only having to check himself out of the hospital the day before to go to court the next day. He was not allowed by the courts to defend himself at all, and, we have been working with Marisol Mehjia with family services through the courts, victim advocates never contacted me about my daughter or anything. My fiancé was told to come back to court for an update on May 18 unfortunately he was still in the hospital and needed his sw fax over such paperwork to prove it, and the next court date will be the same July 20 2011 because he is to be in the hospital for an undetermined amount of time due to the seriousness of his health condition, since the order to remove my fiancé from our home and our consistent routine as a family was disrupted my daughter became distraught and felt hopeless for our family situation due to DCF exaggerating her story and causing our lives to be hell, she started to shut down and not listen at all, one week before Easter my daughter had a breakdown, locked herself in the bathroom(which made me have to break down the door) and drank a half a bottle of children’s ibuprofen, 911 was called and my daughter was brought into the emergency room to determine if she was ok physically, she was then evaluated further by the on call psychiatrist to see if she needed more intense care such as hospitalization which she did and our lives were once again disrupted for one of our religious holidays, we were not able to spend as a family, so once she came back home on that Tuesday, we were given prescriptions to control her “mood disorder” and “ADHD” but those papers magically disappeared after she voiced she didn’t want to be medicated, and a referral to the reach program which is a program for children with behavioral issues. On several occasions I attempted to contact the Dr who prescribed the drugs and we got no answers, even from the social worker at Holbrook Racheal Micheal, so once again, without meds she lost control again, this time swinging at me and becoming very physically abusive towards myself and her sister, so I ended up bringing her in again myself, which she then was (both times) referred to a mental facility by Chris Simpson this time to NY Presbyterian in White plains NY, and they determined this was not a mentally chemical problem but a thyroid related problem and to discontinue her meds immediately, which we had already done, she was released and the referral was made to either follow up with an endocrinologist or her primary physician, which we did but couldn’t get an appointment until June 3rd 2011 at 4:30pm only to find out that a day before the appointment they tell me that they don’t do appointment after 4pm in the summertime, and, that the hospital didn’t ever send over the results of the blood work they dis to determine that from what the Dr. had told me that she had an overactive large thyroid. So I was unable to make the appointment that day and to call back because their scheduling computers were down, but unfortunately I was unable to get through to do so and she ended up having an episode again in which she was brought in again on June 26th, 2011, I had looked into what my options were and was told by police I had to ask for assistance with a child that was out of control and they could come help me, but when I did this, they came and told me they couldn’t help me and if I wanted her to go to get medical attention, which in the past hadn’t helped in the first place but I was so aggravated with her behavior I felt that she needed to be looked after to make sure I wasn’t being held liable for an outburst again that may result in her injury or mine or one of my other children, while there, Chris treated her and acted like there were not any issues with her and that I was just making all of this up, I explained the situation to her and she said they had to keep her overnight to be seen and evaluated by the Dr. in the morning, what I didn’t know is that she was making false statements about what she and my daughter were talking about to DCF, and they basically stated that if I didn’t comply with allowing in home services that they wouldn’t allow me to discharge my daughter from the emergency room, And they did not have a warrant or order from a judge but they prevented me from leaving with security when I attempted to leave, 2 DCF workers were present at that time both Armindo Rodriguez and a ms Frank, and they blocked the doorway and prevented me from leaving the hospital with my daughter until I signed this form to allow in home service

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