Grandchildren of CCN publisher spend holidays in county hands

December 2, 2013
Gwen' shoes are so small she is forced to walk on the heels.

Gwen’s shoes are so small she is forced to walk on the heels tucked down.

By JOSH FRIEDMAN and DANIEL BLACKBURN

In the midst of a CalCoastNews investigation into alleged abuses of power by a county agency, three grandchildren of the news agency’s co-founder and publisher have been removed from their family and forced to spend Thanksgiving in foster homes.

Karen Velie’s grandchildren, 10-year-old Gwen, 8-year-old Brenden, and 7-year-old Kaleb, were seized July 18 by child protective services. The youngsters have been kept by San Luis Obispo County Child Welfare Services in foster care ever since. All three of the children have suffered varied states of depression since being taken from their family, Child Welfare officials have reported.

Efforts by the family to recover the children have been thus far unsuccessful.

The county’s involvement stems from an incident that started when Velie’s middle child, Cristin Powers, mother of Gwen, Brenden and Kaleb, returned home to find her roommates having an argument. Police were called. Though no report was filed because no crime was committed, Child Welfare removed the three grandchildren because the house was “dirty,” according to Child Welfare.

Powers and Velie hoped to work through the system to regain custody of the children. Initially, Velie’s attorney, Gerald Carrasco, suggested not pointing out inaccuracies in the CWS workers’ report, because resisting, he said, could result in the children being in foster care for months. Velie said the attorney believed the children would be reunited with their family in a few weeks.

At a hearing shortly after the children were taken, a judge said Velie’s was a family in crisis because of the death of another daughter, and ordered CWS to work on reunification.

Since then, CWS Case Worker Heather Zickuhr has arbitrarily cited a series of issues to justify continuing the children’s custody.

Though CWS workers claim they are working on reuniting Powers with her children, they assert it will take time because of a diagnosis made by an outside agency that Powers is “bipolar.” That diagnosis was made without any in-person evaluation by employees of the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO), a county nonprofit which works closely with Child Welfare.

The children at the SLO Children's Museum in June, after building their rendition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The children at the SLO Children’s Museum in June, after building their rendition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Because of the “diagnosis,” Powers has been prohibited from seeing her children for more than one hour a week.

A private counselor subsequently concluded that Powers is not bipolar.

Nevertheless, Child Welfare continues to prohibit more visitations, because Powers admitted that she is “depressed” following recent family deaths of her grandmother, uncle and her sister, and the loss of her children.

Child Welfare now has banned Velie, who was acting as a temporary guardian for her grandchildren, from seeing or speaking with the children following a DUI arrest.

At the time Child Welfare took custody of Velie’s grandchildren, CalCoastNews also was investigating alleged misconduct by Child Welfare workers on behalf of CAPSLO.

Former CAPSLO employee Estella Bonds said the agency’s homeless services director, Dee Torres, often contacted Child Welfare to report child abuse, sometimes doing so in a retaliatory manner. Some of those contacts resulted in permanent separations of families and eventual adoptions, Bonds said.

A November 2012 letter signed by “Concerned Employees” of the county’s Department of Social Services to County Administrator Dan Buckshi asked him to investigate the job performances of Assistant Director Tracey Schiro and Department Administrator Natalie Walter. The letter alleged Child Welfare workers were not acting in the best interest of children, instead motivated in its practices by an agency with which it works — CAPSLO.

“Social workers are trained to assess families, be objective and ethical,” the letter reads. “These skills and training are disregarded by the assistant director as she believes her personal assessments or information received by a partner agency [CAPSLO] take precedence to the social worker assessment and opinion.”

Social Services Department Director Lee Collins told CalCoastNews last week he does not condone illegal acts against families “for any reason.”

“We do not do anything illegal to protect CAPSLO,” Collins said.

Earlier this year, CalCoastNews published a series of reports on financial misconduct and alleged theft of donations by CAPSLO Homeless Services Director Dee Torres. Torres is engaged to San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill. Hill has told numerous people that he intends to put CalCoastNews out of business. Hill has also threatened individuals and businesses that advertise on the news site.

Velie’s problems started in July when her 24-year-old daughter suffered a seizure in a bathroom and inhaled water. She was discovered and taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where she lay in a coma.

Velie, Powers and the three children stayed in a hotel near the hospital for nearly a week. On July 18, an organ-donor network dispatched a jet to transport Velie’s youngest daughter to be pronounced brain-dead at a hospital in the Bay Area, and her organs were then donated.

Powers returned home, and that was when Child Welfare took her children.

“Yes, I agree the house was dirty,” Powers said. “We had been out of town. But my children need to be returned. They need their family. They need love.”

Velie was named as the appropriate person to care for the children after they were removed from their home. But Child Welfare officials decided that a DUI arrest would preclude Velie from caring for, or having any contact with, her grandchildren.

Over the last four and a half months, Child Welfare and foster parents have denied Velie’s grandchildren proper health care and daily necessities, according to Child Welfare workers, the foster parents, and the children themselves.

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Kaleb in a shirt several sizes too small that he wore to school.

More than a year ago, Kaleb was discovered to have brain pressure because bone plates in his head fused too early. He underwent skull reconstruction surgery prior to entering foster care and frequently suffers from headaches. For 10 days upon entering foster care, Child Welfare refused to allow Kaleb access to his headache medicine. Kaleb suffered intense headaches.

Child Welfare workers did not provide Kaleb his medication until he was taken to his physician and had the prescription refilled, said Child Welfare’s Zickuhr.

Brenden is lactose intolerant, but his foster parents regularly serve him cow’s milk, Brenden said. Photos and videos show Brenden has developed dark circles under his eyes and blotches on his face since entry into foster care.

Brenden cried during his last visit with his mother. That day, the children had not eaten between early morning and 5:30 p.m. The children told their mother that the foster parents took them to the dentist during the lunch hour and did not provide them food.

Videos and photos of the children taken over the past month show the children with matted dirty hair and filthy, poorly-fitting clothes. Powers said the children are bullied at school because they are unkempt.

Gwen wears shoes so small she walks on the heels tucked down. Other children tease her with a new version of “cooties” they call “Gwen’s touch.”

Shortly after the children entered foster care, it was agreed they would be placed with Velie until reunited with their mother. In early August, Child Welfare released Gwen to Velie’s custody, with plans to place the other two children with Velie within days.

The following night, Velie taught a bridge class and Gwen stayed with a babysitter. Velie left the bridge class and en route home was arrested by a San Luis Obispo police officer despite the fact that her blood alcohol was under .08.

The next morning, and even before the police department posted a report of the arrest, Child Welfare’s Zickuhr demanded that Velie bring Gwen back to social services, suggesting Velie would lose her driver’s license. That has not happened. California law does not restrict driving privileges unless blood alcohol levels are over .08.

Nevertheless, Child Welfare reclaimed custody of Gwen, and maintained custody of Brenden and Kaleb.

Gwen cried when forced to re-enter foster care, Velie said. “She begged me to run with her.”

Since Velie’s arrest, both Zickuhr and Case Worker Denise Waters have prohibited her from visiting the children. They have cited the DUI arrest, her occupation as a journalist, and her “personality” as reasons for barring her from visiting her grandchildren. Zickhur and Waters also said that Velie could not see her grandchildren because she told one of them that she was “getting an attorney” to bring the three home, according to reporters who listened into phone calls with CWS employees.

The case workers have also prohibited Powers from explaining to her children why they cannot see their grandmother. The children have come to believe that their grandmother does not want to see them, and they question why their family does not want them anymore, Powers said.

Brenden with dark circles under his eyes ratted hair and stained pants, shortly after leaving school.

Brenden with dark circles under his eyes matted hair and stained pants, shortly after leaving school.

The Child Welfare employee also chastised Velie for telling the children she had moved into a three-bedroom house where she wanted them to live along with their mother. The supervisor said Velie should have told the children she did not have a place to live, and that the Child Welfare workers were “doing what is best for them.”

Child Welfare policy requires children to be reunited with family if they are not in danger, and the agency is required to allow phone calls. The children are usually only permitted one monthly call and, even then, the brief calls are monitored.

Shortly after they entered foster care, Child Welfare workers noted that Velie’s grandchildren “behaved unusually well” for foster kids. Now, after more than four months in foster care, one of the boys has reverted to infant behavior after begging to be reunited with his family, Waters said in a phone message to Powers.

Waters blamed the children’s deteriorating mental health on the one-hour-a-week visit with their mother, and said that was a reason to extend their time in foster care.

At one hearing, Powers’ attorney Mary Ann Foster told the court that Child Welfare workers were not letting Powers visit with the children more than one hour a week. The judge asked Zickuhr why this was occurring. She said the foster parents were too busy to drive.

The judge said that Velie could pick the children up to increase visitation while they work to reunify the children with their family.

The following day, Waters said the judge did not enter the change in writing in his ruling and she was not going to comply.

 


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I can only hope that there are no county supervisor fingerprints on this despicable action…


CWS outsourcing parenting and education to CAPSLO. Now that is very, very sad. What a pathetic state of affairs. If this case was referred to CAPSLO as a lower level case, then why are the children in placement like a higher level case?

This is embarrasing.


The opening statement on the San Luis Obispo County Child welfare Services website..


“The Department’s first concern is to help the parents find ways to keep their child safely in his or her OWN home with services and/or supervision when possible and appropriate.”


I guess a DIRTY home is more serious than their first concern!


I am amazed at the restraint Karen showed waiting FOUR MONTHS after the children were taken before she went public. I know she and Cristin were trying to work through the system but if I had been in her position I would have been posting and trying to rally support after 4 days.


The question keeps arising as to why CAPSLO is involved at all. A brief google search of CWS San Luis Obispo CAPSLO comes up with a number of documents that show the direct relationship that exists between these two organizations. It appears that when CWS comes in contact with children they think are at risk they decide how serious the problem is and the less serious cases are sent to CAPSLO for “education” and parenting classes. Of the several levels of seriousness only the top level seems to be handled only by CWS.


CWS is outsourcing to CAPSLO. Depending how the Powers case was handled it is easy to see how CAPSLO could have gotten involved. Given all of the reporting Karen has done on CAPSLO it isn’t suprising to see that they would have made things as hard as possible-as is the case. And even if CAPSLO wasn’t directly involved, though their long distance mental evaluation disputes that, the staff of both organizations seem to have a close relationship.


I hope this is settled soon. The children are suffering! This is a nightmare for the whole family, especially on top of the losses they have had. I don’t know any of these people personally but the whole case seems to be very flimsy. When a family becomes homeless are the children immediately taken and put in foster care? That doesn’t seem to be the case since we keep hearing about the number of homeless children in the county. Seems like a double standard!


Nice work, Blue Sky. So it appears that first CWS referred the family to CAPSLO, then CAPSLO took the opportunity to mess with Ms. Velie by messing with her daughter. That, at least, makes sense. However, it also puts the kibosh on speculation that the entire episode is a conspiracy to retaliate against Ms. Velie because the family was in crisis before anyone at CAPSLO had an opportunity to exploit the situation. The police were at the house before the CWS emergency response worker, most likely not a moustache twirling villain, arrived and saw Ms. Velie dealing with a sad situation.


Correct. No one has said that the home wasn’t dirty or possibly unsanitary at the time. I arrived at the home that day in an attempt to pick up the children and take them to my home after hearing that the house was dirty and that CWS had been called and that Karen was held up with her dying daughter and couldn’t get there as fast as I could. . I arrived less than minutes behind CWS and I talked with the police who were there.


They would not allow me to enter the house so I never saw the inside but they told me that what would happen is that CWS would most likely remove the children until the home was cleaned up. The police said that the children are then usually returned immediately (3-7 days max) with an agreement that CWS will check on the home to be certain that it remains clean over a period of time. The police also said that CWS would not be able to release the children to me that day but that they always will release them to a relative. All 3 children were outside when I arrived. They were all clean as usual and their only concern is that they were sad that their auntie Autumn (they were close to Autumn) ” had to go to God and that they wouldn’t see her anymore”. They didn’t yet realize what CWS was going to do.


It’s now been 4 months and the details are more bizarre than you could imagine. More bizarre than what has even been reported. Nothing has been managed according to what generally occurs where this family is concerned, however no one believes (including Powers & Velie) that the PD had any ill intentions.


Yes, Bluesky – great work. I think your insights are important and offer the most likely explanation as to how this horrible situation evolved.


I honestly feel that this is definitely a terrible case of retaliation. The CWS does not remove children from a home due to lack of cleanliness. I feel that this situation has Dee and Adam written all over. Funny thing is that if it was looked into, Dee Torres, Geraldine, has had many reports made regarding her parenting, or there lack of. She is no where near one to even throw stones at glass houses, especially when she lives in one that she probably didn’t obtain honestly. She is sneaky, and underhanded. Karen just know that you have many many supporters around you and prayers are being said for your family. Someone step up and support her and help this family and these children.


Many years ago we did foster parenting for a couple of years. We felt a calling to help children in difficult situations, most of whom had never had the experiences that our kids did when they were growing up. Things like Disneyland, movies and even a safe, comfortable living arrangement where they could feel and act like kids. We only took kids who were difficult to place – teens, siblings and kids that needed special medical care. It was not a good experience and we soon came to the conclusion that DSS almost always made the worst possible decision for the children. So after only two years we stopped doing foster care because it was too frustrating.


We also used every penny of the stipend on the children feeling it was their money. In most cases we spent our own money in addition to what was provided for them. That was NOT the case with many of the other homes we got to see if we needed a respite or had to pick up kids. In most of the cases we saw Dickensian like situations where clearly the foster parents were doing this for the income and the kids were seeing the bare minimum of what the law required.


So it is not surprising at all that Karen is making these observations. Wherever these kids are is likely a home where the children are treated as a commodity. I’m not saying they are not cared for – just that they are a commodity. That situations such as what I described are often the rule than the exception is probably more a comment on our society – that there are not enough good foster homes around. But maybe, just maybe, it’s because the nightmare of having to deal with a hopeless, and I mean hopeless, bureaucracy like SLODSS is just not worth the hassle.


Just out in the new issue of The New Yorker –big story about abuse NATIONWIDE with Child Protective Services. Timing is everything, I guess. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/02/131202fa_fact_aviv


This story is beyond grotesque. Thinking of you and yours Karen and looking forward to hearing that it’s resolved in your favor in short order…….anything less is a travesty.


Where in the world are the 2 local TV stations and what is left of a newspaper on this issue. I don’t really know which side to believe on this as I don’t have any independent facts to make that decision. Although from the information provided it doesn’t appear to be passing the smell test, especially with the players that are involved. The past history of these two rivals needs to be looked into by someone and the ultimate truth needs to be revealed and the situation needs to come to some type of conclusion.

There are many questions that really need to be answered such as.

If you are arrested for DUI can your children be taken away from you? Is there any history of this kind of action on record for review?

If your house is dirty that mean your children can be taken away? Many disadvantaged people have disgusting homesites who maintain custody of their children.

Do the combination of the above 2 incidents justify breaking up a family?

I think this is an isolated case where there is much more going on than the normal or abnormal, depending on which way you want to look at it.

TIime will tell.


There is zero justification for removing kids for a “dirty” house. That is illegal. The only justification is IF the kids are in “Danger”. That has never been mentioned here.


When private persons do wrong in our society we have the government to help us. Who do we have when the government is the one doing wrong?. Other government departments? I fear a government that becomes so big and powerful that they become all powerful. So many government agencies have power over the people without oversight. CPS, APCB, IRS and many, many others can exert power over the people with no checks and balances. We as citizens need to make sure the government answers to the people, not the other way around. This is a great place to start! Get involved, write letters, make phone calls, demand action, otherwise it could be you next time!