12-Year-Old Boy Testifies Before Congress On Being Forcibly Drugged in Foster Care
By Daily Mail ReporterDecember 2, 2011
A 12-year-old boy has bravely told how he was medicated into a near-stupor as he was passed between foster care homes.
The seventh grader, known only as Ke’onte, told Congress that being given the mind-altering drugs was ‘the worst thing anyone could do to foster kids’.
He revealed that he could barely eat while on the medication and was so exhausted ‘it felt like I would collapse wherever I was in the house’.
Ke'onte, 12, tells Congress that he was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD and given four different medications that left him in a 'stupor'
Ke’onte’s plight came to light as a Government Accountability Office report was released that found the federal government had not done enough to oversee the treatment of foster children with powerful drugs.
The study found cared-for children were up to 13 times more likely to be prescribed anti-psychotics and anti-depressants than other children.
Ke’onte, who was adopted in 2009, said he had tantrums as a foster child and was inaccurately diagnosed as bipolar and having ADHD.
‘I’ve been in the mental hospital three times during foster care, and every time I had to get on more meds or new meds to add to the ones I was already taking,’ he said.
Medicated: The Government study found children in foster care were 13 times more likely to be on anti-pyschotics and anti-depressants than other children
He was on four different types of medication during his four years in six foster care and the drugs made him feel irritable, gave him stomach aches and affected his appetite, reports ABC.
‘I remember having a bowl of spaghetti and had three bites and then I was done,’ he said.
He has since been taken off the medication and given therapy, and is thriving.
He plays clarinet in the school band, competes in cross-country and has had roles in the school play.
He said: ‘In therapy, you talk about the deepest thing and it hurts, but you can deal with it better the next time.
‘I’m not only more focused in school… I’m not going to the office anymore for bad behavior and I’m happy.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069119/Keonte-12-tells-Congress-drugged-4-years-foster-care.html
*****************************************************************************
By CHRISTINA CARON | ABC News – Mon, Nov 28, 2011A psychologist accused of hypnotizing a woman into believing she possessed multiple personalities and participated in satanic rituals may be sued by several others who say they were also told they had been a part of a satanic cult, according to a Missouri attorney.
Lisa Nasseff, 41, of Saint Paul, Minn., is suing her former therapist, Mark Schwartz, and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Mo., where she received 15 months of treatment for anorexia, according to the complaint.
Instead of improving, the lawsuit alleges Nasseff suffered "great physical pain and suffering and anguish" during her time at the facility, and asserts that she will continue to suffer.
"She was hospitalized multiple times," Nasseff's lawyer, Kenneth Vuylsteke, told ABCNews.com. "One time she tried to commit suicide … she's done much better now that she's been away from there."
The complaint alleges Nasseff's therapist, Mark Schwartz, "carelessly and negligently hypnotized [Nasseff]" while she was under the influence of "various psychotropic medications" to treat depression and anxiety. The hypnosis allegedly created false memories, including the belief that she was "a member of a satanic cult and that she was involved in or perpetrated various criminal and horrific acts of abuse."
One of those acts included "sacrificing her sister's baby on the altar of Satan," according to Vuylsteke.
Nasseff "was in a highly vulnerable physical and mental state due to her pre-existing eating disorder," according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges Schwartz "persuaded and convinced [Nasseff] to become increasingly isolated from her family and friends by leading her to believe said persons were involved in a satanic cult and that they had been and would continue to sexually abuse her and force her to engage in criminal acts and horrific abuse of others."
But then other women receiving treatment at the facility began to realize their stories were very similar to one another's, Vuylsteke said.
"She got together with other women who had been through this with her at Castlewood. And they said, 'How can we all have been members of cults and not know it -- two years ago, three years ago? We all got brainwashed? It can't be right."
Now "multiple individuals" are speaking out about Castlewood, and backing Nasseff's account of what took place there, Vuylsteke added.
"We've got other cases we're looking at right now," Vuylsteke told ABCNews.com, adding the alleged victims' stories, all involving women, look "remarkably similar."
At this stage, he declined to say exactly how many women are claiming false memory implantation.
"All I can tell you is it's several. We're in the process of evaluating them right now," he said.
Schwartz, the therapist who treated Nasseff at Castlewood and still serves as the facility's clinical co-director, denied ever hypnotizing Nasseff.
"We don't use hypnosis," said Schwartz, who told ABCNews.com he has not yet retained a lawyer. "It's usually exposure therapy where the person is exposed to the memories of their trauma in various ways in order to move beyond it … A person is avoiding the memories and the feelings [associated with those memories] so you have them begin to talk about it in a safe way, that's not re-victimizing."
He also said he had never discussed satanic cults with Nasseff, and she had never told him she committed any criminal acts.
"I don't know anything about all that," he said.
He did confirm she had been given anti-depressants and that they had discussed "sexual trauma," but "the details I don't even remember."
"She reported abuse history, we dealt with it, she got a lot better, and now she's suing us," he said.
"Emotionally it hurts. You give everything you have to these clients and you really care about them. When they file a lawsuit it really stings."
On the Castlewood website, it states the treatment center's staff specializes in several areas, including hypnosis.
Castlewood Treatment Center did not respond to an interview request from ABCNews.com, but the executive director of the facility, Nancy Albers, told Courthouse News Service, "We strongly believe that all of these claims are without merit and we intend to defend these claims vigorously."
Implanted Memories at Castlewood?
According to the complaint, Nasseff stayed at Castlewood for about eight months, beginning in July of 2007. She later returned to the clinic in Mary of 2009 for an additional seven months of treatment before leaving the facility in December that same year.
In October of 2010, Schwartz allegedly contacted Nasseff, according to the lawsuit, and "told her if she did not return to Castlewood Treatment Center for additional psychological counseling and treatment she would most assuredly die from her eating disorder."
One year later, in October 2011, the complaint alleges Schwartz left Nasseff a telephone message saying her lawsuit would expose her multiple rapes, and her "membership in a satanic cult" as well as the individuals who were also members.
When asked about that phone call, Schwartz told ABCNews.com he had called Nasseff to say, "I'm worried about this because you told me a lot of information that is very, very confidential. When you file a lawsuit it all comes out, and it's a lot of secrets that you told me."
"It was really just concern," he said. "When people go to a therapist they expect confidentiality and privacy. It just breaks my heart that … she said a lot of horrible things that are going to come out."
The lawsuit claims Nasseff was "singled out and targeted" based, in part, on her "ability to pay for long-term continuous inpatient services."
She is now seeking $650,000 for the "medical, counseling and therapy treatment expenses" she incurred as a result of the alleged treatment, and $350,000 for non-economic costs, Vuylsteke said.
Vulnerable Patients Susceptible to Implanted Memories
Nasseff's lawyer, Vuylsteke, admitted he was skeptical when he first heard about Nasseff's case.
But then he met her in person.
"Lisa … is a highly intelligent individual," he said. "When I spoke with her I understood then what happened and what she had to work through to come to the realization that all of this was implanted."
He was further convinced after speaking with Bill Smoler, a prominent attorney from Madison, Wis., who is well-regarded among false memory experts. In January Smoler won a $1 million verdict for the parents of a girl who accused them of abuse after receiving inpatient therapy, and will be joining Nasseff's case as co-counsel, Vuylsteke said.
There's no credible scientific evidence that the human brain can store "repressed memories," according to University of California at Irvine professor Elizabeth Loftus, one of the country's foremost experts on false memory.
But psychologists have demonstrated it's possible to implant memories.
"In my research we plant false memories in the minds of people in order to study the process," she said. "There have been hundreds of cases … where people have gone into therapy and were led to believe they were molested."
It's a problem that emerged in the '80s and '90s, according to the False Memory Foundation, an organization founded in 1992 after a spate of cases where adults claimed to have uncovered "repressed memories" of childhood sexual abuse during therapy sessions. The revelations, however, weren't true.
"They were just exploding at that time," said False Memory Foundation co-founder Pamela Freyd, adding that the cases often involved inpatients participating in both hypnosis and support groups while on medication.
Chris Barden, a psychologist and attorney based in Minnesota was at the helm of many of those cases.
"During the 1990s I conducted more lawsuits against 'recovered memory' therapists than, I believe, any other lawyer in the world … for a total near 300 in over 30 states," he told ABCNews.com. "I won all but one of them."
The False Memory Foundation website states false memories "can result from the influence of external factors, such as the opinion of an authority figure or information repeated in the culture. An individual with an internal desire to please, to get better or to conform can easily be affected by such influences."
For intelligent, creative people with imaginations, Freyd said, "it may be easier for them to conjure up the kinds of images that develop in this kind of environment." But anyone seeking therapy is already in a vulnerable position, she added, and susceptible to persuasion.
"You believe the person you are seeing is an expert who will help you return to normal, you are going to try to do what this expert says needs to be done," said Freyd. "And if an expert says you need to recover memories, people who want to get better or be sure they're doing what the doctor says will work in that direction."
Steven Lynn, a memory expert and professor of psychology at Binghamton University in New York, told ABCNews.com it's possible to implant "all kinds of things."
"There's research showing you can implant memories of witnessing a demonic possession," he said.
Schwartz denied having implanted Nasseff's memories, but he did say he practices exposure therapy, which is typically used as treatment for people who have PTSD, according to Lynn.
"The idea is that you present the person with imagined themes that have occurred in the past that tend to bring forth anxiety and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder," Lynn said. "So by repeating exposure to the theme people learn how to not be so afraid of the situation they were formerly fearful of."
Exposure therapy can yield positive results in the right setting. But if someone has not actually been exposed to the traumatic event they're asked to re-imagine, exposure therapy can have a much different effect, Loftus said.
‘I remember having a bowl of spaghetti and had three bites and then I was done,’ he said.
He has since been taken off the medication and given therapy, and is thriving.
He plays clarinet in the school band, competes in cross-country and has had roles in the school play.
He said: ‘In therapy, you talk about the deepest thing and it hurts, but you can deal with it better the next time.
‘I’m not only more focused in school… I’m not going to the office anymore for bad behavior and I’m happy.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069119/Keonte-12-tells-Congress-drugged-4-years-foster-care.html
*****************************************************************************
PEOPLE SAY I'M CRAZY 2 TALK ABOUT SATANIC MIND CONTROL BY PSYCHO SHRINKS: news.yahoo.com/therapist-brai…
Therapist 'Brainwashed' Woman Into Believing She Was In Satanic Cult, Attorney Says
By CHRISTINA CARON | ABC News – Mon, Nov 28, 2011Related Content
Therapist 'Brainwashed' Woman Into Believing She Was In Satanic Cult, Attorney Says …
Lisa Nasseff, 41, of Saint Paul, Minn., is suing her former therapist, Mark Schwartz, and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Mo., where she received 15 months of treatment for anorexia, according to the complaint.
Instead of improving, the lawsuit alleges Nasseff suffered "great physical pain and suffering and anguish" during her time at the facility, and asserts that she will continue to suffer.
"She was hospitalized multiple times," Nasseff's lawyer, Kenneth Vuylsteke, told ABCNews.com. "One time she tried to commit suicide … she's done much better now that she's been away from there."
The complaint alleges Nasseff's therapist, Mark Schwartz, "carelessly and negligently hypnotized [Nasseff]" while she was under the influence of "various psychotropic medications" to treat depression and anxiety. The hypnosis allegedly created false memories, including the belief that she was "a member of a satanic cult and that she was involved in or perpetrated various criminal and horrific acts of abuse."
One of those acts included "sacrificing her sister's baby on the altar of Satan," according to Vuylsteke.
Nasseff "was in a highly vulnerable physical and mental state due to her pre-existing eating disorder," according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges Schwartz "persuaded and convinced [Nasseff] to become increasingly isolated from her family and friends by leading her to believe said persons were involved in a satanic cult and that they had been and would continue to sexually abuse her and force her to engage in criminal acts and horrific abuse of others."
But then other women receiving treatment at the facility began to realize their stories were very similar to one another's, Vuylsteke said.
"She got together with other women who had been through this with her at Castlewood. And they said, 'How can we all have been members of cults and not know it -- two years ago, three years ago? We all got brainwashed? It can't be right."
Now "multiple individuals" are speaking out about Castlewood, and backing Nasseff's account of what took place there, Vuylsteke added.
"We've got other cases we're looking at right now," Vuylsteke told ABCNews.com, adding the alleged victims' stories, all involving women, look "remarkably similar."
At this stage, he declined to say exactly how many women are claiming false memory implantation.
"All I can tell you is it's several. We're in the process of evaluating them right now," he said.
Schwartz, the therapist who treated Nasseff at Castlewood and still serves as the facility's clinical co-director, denied ever hypnotizing Nasseff.
"We don't use hypnosis," said Schwartz, who told ABCNews.com he has not yet retained a lawyer. "It's usually exposure therapy where the person is exposed to the memories of their trauma in various ways in order to move beyond it … A person is avoiding the memories and the feelings [associated with those memories] so you have them begin to talk about it in a safe way, that's not re-victimizing."
He also said he had never discussed satanic cults with Nasseff, and she had never told him she committed any criminal acts.
"I don't know anything about all that," he said.
He did confirm she had been given anti-depressants and that they had discussed "sexual trauma," but "the details I don't even remember."
"She reported abuse history, we dealt with it, she got a lot better, and now she's suing us," he said.
"Emotionally it hurts. You give everything you have to these clients and you really care about them. When they file a lawsuit it really stings."
On the Castlewood website, it states the treatment center's staff specializes in several areas, including hypnosis.
Castlewood Treatment Center did not respond to an interview request from ABCNews.com, but the executive director of the facility, Nancy Albers, told Courthouse News Service, "We strongly believe that all of these claims are without merit and we intend to defend these claims vigorously."
Implanted Memories at Castlewood?
According to the complaint, Nasseff stayed at Castlewood for about eight months, beginning in July of 2007. She later returned to the clinic in Mary of 2009 for an additional seven months of treatment before leaving the facility in December that same year.
In October of 2010, Schwartz allegedly contacted Nasseff, according to the lawsuit, and "told her if she did not return to Castlewood Treatment Center for additional psychological counseling and treatment she would most assuredly die from her eating disorder."
One year later, in October 2011, the complaint alleges Schwartz left Nasseff a telephone message saying her lawsuit would expose her multiple rapes, and her "membership in a satanic cult" as well as the individuals who were also members.
When asked about that phone call, Schwartz told ABCNews.com he had called Nasseff to say, "I'm worried about this because you told me a lot of information that is very, very confidential. When you file a lawsuit it all comes out, and it's a lot of secrets that you told me."
"It was really just concern," he said. "When people go to a therapist they expect confidentiality and privacy. It just breaks my heart that … she said a lot of horrible things that are going to come out."
The lawsuit claims Nasseff was "singled out and targeted" based, in part, on her "ability to pay for long-term continuous inpatient services."
She is now seeking $650,000 for the "medical, counseling and therapy treatment expenses" she incurred as a result of the alleged treatment, and $350,000 for non-economic costs, Vuylsteke said.
Vulnerable Patients Susceptible to Implanted Memories
Nasseff's lawyer, Vuylsteke, admitted he was skeptical when he first heard about Nasseff's case.
But then he met her in person.
"Lisa … is a highly intelligent individual," he said. "When I spoke with her I understood then what happened and what she had to work through to come to the realization that all of this was implanted."
He was further convinced after speaking with Bill Smoler, a prominent attorney from Madison, Wis., who is well-regarded among false memory experts. In January Smoler won a $1 million verdict for the parents of a girl who accused them of abuse after receiving inpatient therapy, and will be joining Nasseff's case as co-counsel, Vuylsteke said.
There's no credible scientific evidence that the human brain can store "repressed memories," according to University of California at Irvine professor Elizabeth Loftus, one of the country's foremost experts on false memory.
But psychologists have demonstrated it's possible to implant memories.
"In my research we plant false memories in the minds of people in order to study the process," she said. "There have been hundreds of cases … where people have gone into therapy and were led to believe they were molested."
It's a problem that emerged in the '80s and '90s, according to the False Memory Foundation, an organization founded in 1992 after a spate of cases where adults claimed to have uncovered "repressed memories" of childhood sexual abuse during therapy sessions. The revelations, however, weren't true.
"They were just exploding at that time," said False Memory Foundation co-founder Pamela Freyd, adding that the cases often involved inpatients participating in both hypnosis and support groups while on medication.
Chris Barden, a psychologist and attorney based in Minnesota was at the helm of many of those cases.
"During the 1990s I conducted more lawsuits against 'recovered memory' therapists than, I believe, any other lawyer in the world … for a total near 300 in over 30 states," he told ABCNews.com. "I won all but one of them."
The False Memory Foundation website states false memories "can result from the influence of external factors, such as the opinion of an authority figure or information repeated in the culture. An individual with an internal desire to please, to get better or to conform can easily be affected by such influences."
For intelligent, creative people with imaginations, Freyd said, "it may be easier for them to conjure up the kinds of images that develop in this kind of environment." But anyone seeking therapy is already in a vulnerable position, she added, and susceptible to persuasion.
"You believe the person you are seeing is an expert who will help you return to normal, you are going to try to do what this expert says needs to be done," said Freyd. "And if an expert says you need to recover memories, people who want to get better or be sure they're doing what the doctor says will work in that direction."
Steven Lynn, a memory expert and professor of psychology at Binghamton University in New York, told ABCNews.com it's possible to implant "all kinds of things."
"There's research showing you can implant memories of witnessing a demonic possession," he said.
Schwartz denied having implanted Nasseff's memories, but he did say he practices exposure therapy, which is typically used as treatment for people who have PTSD, according to Lynn.
"The idea is that you present the person with imagined themes that have occurred in the past that tend to bring forth anxiety and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder," Lynn said. "So by repeating exposure to the theme people learn how to not be so afraid of the situation they were formerly fearful of."
Exposure therapy can yield positive results in the right setting. But if someone has not actually been exposed to the traumatic event they're asked to re-imagine, exposure therapy can have a much different effect, Loftus said.
"If you take a group of women who have been raped and have them contemplate their legitimate rape experience then pretty soon many of them will be able to think about it without feeling as much emotion and pain," said Loftus. "But if you're exposing somebody to something that didn't happen then something completely different is going on."
********************************************************************************
As GOP contender Newt Gingrich rides an unexpected surge in the polls, he’s drawing a lot of criticism for his comments deriding poor children for not working and suggesting they should take up janitorial positions at their own schools.
Attacking poor Americans who need government aid is a favorite pastime for Gingrich — in nearly every speech he attacks President Obama for being a “food stamp president.” He took his routine even further this week when he claimed that food stamp recipients use their government aid to take trips to Hawaii:
It was a deeply ironic charge coming from a man whose own frequent vacations nearly destroyed his presidential campaign not so long ago. In June, Gingrich’s campaign staff quit en mass to protest his lengthy vacations with his wife and refusal to campaign seriously. Gingrich himself took a trip to Hawaii in August, ostensibly to campaign (in the most Democratic state in the nation).
Gingrich has even tried to turn his vacationing into an asset, claiming that he has a much better understanding of the European financial crisis thanks to a recent luxury cruise in Greece.
******************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
Continuing his smears on poor, Newt falsely claims that people use food stamps to take vacations to Hawaii thkpr.gs/uZNxu3
Serial Vacationer Newt Gingrich Falsely Claims People Use Food Stamps To Go To Hawaii
Gingrich has mastered the art of wearing Hawaiian leis.
Attacking poor Americans who need government aid is a favorite pastime for Gingrich — in nearly every speech he attacks President Obama for being a “food stamp president.” He took his routine even further this week when he claimed that food stamp recipients use their government aid to take trips to Hawaii:
So more Americans now get food stamps therefore and we now give it away as cash,” Gingrich said of President Obama. “You don’t get food stamps. You get a credit card and the credit card can be used for anything. We’ve had people take their food stamp money and use it to go to Hawaii.”The completely bogus claim earned Gingrich a rare “pants on fire” from PolitiFact:
Can food stamps “be used for anything”? No. The food stamp program… known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP…has very precise rules about what can and cannot be paid for.The average monthly SNAP benefit is less than $134 per person — not nearly enough to cover the cost of an airline ticket to Hawaii. So the suggestion that families that are struggling to feed themselves blow their food budget on a lavish tropical vacation is absurd on its face. Fraud in the food stamp program actually reached an all-time low in 2009. Gingrich’s comments were so ridiculous they prompted PolitiFact to wonder “whether he was really intending to be serious.”
According to the Agriculture Department, which runs SNAP, households can use benefits to buy groceries or to buy seeds and plants which produce food…in general, SNAP funds cannot be used for restaurant meals. Other types of foods and beverages cannot be paid for with SNAP funds, including beer, wine or liquor; vitamins; food that will be eaten in the store; or hot foods. [...]
If the food stamp system bars beneficiaries from buying decorative gourds rather than pumpkins, you can be sure it also bars the purchase of airline tickets.
It was a deeply ironic charge coming from a man whose own frequent vacations nearly destroyed his presidential campaign not so long ago. In June, Gingrich’s campaign staff quit en mass to protest his lengthy vacations with his wife and refusal to campaign seriously. Gingrich himself took a trip to Hawaii in August, ostensibly to campaign (in the most Democratic state in the nation).
Gingrich has even tried to turn his vacationing into an asset, claiming that he has a much better understanding of the European financial crisis thanks to a recent luxury cruise in Greece.
******************************************************************************
Broome residents charged with felony welfare fraud
1:02 PM, Dec. 2, 2011 | 5 Comments
Broome County Security charged the following people recently with felony welfare fraud:
» Kevin Farrow, 45, Binghamton, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Charles Brown, 62, Binghamton, charged with fourth-degree welfare fraud and two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Deana Lamoree, 33, Binghamton, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Jeanna Boyton, 30, Binghamton, charged with first-degree offering a false instrument and second-degree forgery, felonies
» Kenneth Johnson, 42, Windsor, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies, and misdemeanor making a false written statement
» Jennifer Delanoy, 25, Conklin, charged with third-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Cheryl Ingraham, 43, Glen Aubrey, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Camille Casado, 20, Endicott, charged with third-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Duayaw Porter, 40, Binghamton, charged with third-degree welfare fraud, a felony.
» Dwight Burton, 34, Johnson City, charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a felony, and misdemeanor petit larceny
» Kevin Farrow, 45, Binghamton, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Charles Brown, 62, Binghamton, charged with fourth-degree welfare fraud and two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Deana Lamoree, 33, Binghamton, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Jeanna Boyton, 30, Binghamton, charged with first-degree offering a false instrument and second-degree forgery, felonies
» Kenneth Johnson, 42, Windsor, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies, and misdemeanor making a false written statement
» Jennifer Delanoy, 25, Conklin, charged with third-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Cheryl Ingraham, 43, Glen Aubrey, charged with fifth-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Camille Casado, 20, Endicott, charged with third-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, felonies
» Duayaw Porter, 40, Binghamton, charged with third-degree welfare fraud, a felony.
» Dwight Burton, 34, Johnson City, charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a felony, and misdemeanor petit larceny
No comments:
Post a Comment