In 2006 and 2007 inves­tiga­tive reporter John Boel exposed much of the cor­rup­tion tak­ing place in the “child pro­tec­tion” sys­tem in Ken­tucky. His reports were broad­cast in the local media at that time, and includ­ed some amaz­ing inter­views with for­mer CPS whistle­blow­ers, doc­u­ment­ing the depth of the alleged cor­rup­tion with­in Ken­tucky CPS.

In a report aired orig­i­nal­ly on WLKY Tar­get 32 News, news anchors begin the sto­ry by explain­ing that the sta­tion had to go to court just to get per­mis­sion to air their inves­tiga­tive report, because the State of Ken­tucky attempt­ed to cen­sor their report from the public.

Reporter John Boel states that they were “being swamped with com­plaints” against CPS in Ken­tucky. He explains that his report gives an “in-depth look” into Ken­tucky CPS which exem­pli­fies what they were hear­ing from so many oth­er fam­i­lies who were com­ing to them.

Boel reports that chil­dren are often removed quick­ly with no evi­dence of parental wrong-doing, and that the State retal­i­ates against those who try to fight back.

Corrupt Kentucky Family Court

The inves­tiga­tive report shows a con­fi­den­tial video tape from an actu­al cus­tody tri­al that was record­ed in fam­i­ly court. Boel states:

While it may take weeks, months or years to take someone’s free­dom away in a cir­cuit court, it only takes 17 min­utes to take 3 …. chil­dren away in a fam­i­ly court.

The video footage then clear­ly shows that the moth­er in this case had no true rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fam­i­ly court. The case­work­er states that the chil­dren were tak­en into state cus­tody due to “edu­ca­tion­al and med­ical neglect.” No records were alleged­ly pro­vid­ed, only the opin­ion of the case­work­er. After 17 min­utes, the judge ter­mi­nates the mother’s right to her children.

State of Kentucky Retaliates Against Those Who Try to Fight Back – Including Attorneys

The moth­er alleged­ly appealed the rul­ing and fought back, which result­ed in the State remov­ing her oth­er 3 chil­dren, and 14 chil­dren from her extend­ed family.

Next, Boel inter­views an attor­ney who took this family’s case, attor­ney Bob Bish­op, and his wife Jen­nifer Bish­op. Jen­nifer explains how her hus­band was incred­u­lous that such abus­es in the sys­tem were happening.

She then explains that CPS came after them also, remov­ing their own adopt­ed daugh­ter from their home.

They said “if you don’t coop­er­ate with us, we’re going to take all your chil­dren, and charge you with emo­tion­al abuse.”

Corrupt State of Kentucky Makes Money from Adoptions

In his next inves­tiga­tive report, reporter John Boel explains that one of the moti­va­tions for the State to remove chil­dren from par­ents even when par­ents have done noth­ing to war­rant such a removal, is to receive fed­er­al reim­burse­ment funds for the adop­tion program.

In his fol­low up report in 2007, John Boel receives “con­fi­den­tial” fam­i­ly court tapes show­ing just how the sys­tem works, and how the actions of some case­work­ers even dis­turb some of their fel­low case­work­ers. Records sup­port­ing par­ents seem to “dis­ap­pear.” They also reveal con­flicts of inter­est between case work­ers and fos­ter par­ents who may be relat­ed to the case work­er plac­ing the child into the fos­ter home.

Watch these 3 reports here:

CPS Whistleblowers Speak out on Abuse in Kentucky CPS

In this 4th report, John Boel explains that CPS whistle­blow­ers reveal how Ken­tucky fam­i­lies are harassed, and CPS work­ers are pres­sured to boost State adop­tion numbers.

Watch these 3 reports here:
He starts out his report by inter­view­ing for­mer CPS social work­er Pat Moore, who was fired because she refused to ignore abus­es in a fos­ter home. She sued the State of Ken­tucky, and set­tled for $308,000.00. Moore alleged­ly refused to car­ry out an adop­tion for fos­ter par­ents because they had crim­i­nal records, and a con­vict­ed sex offend­er was alleged­ly vis­it­ing and car­ing for the fos­ter chil­dren. CPS tried to over-rule her deci­sion to oppose the adop­tion and push it through quickly.

Boel inter­viewed her attor­ney, who stat­ed that he believed the moti­va­tion for CPS to approve adop­tions to con­vict­ed crim­i­nals was to receive fed­er­al funds avail­able for adoptions.

Adoption Business: Placing Orders for Babies that CPS Fills by Kidnapping

Next, Boel inter­views anoth­er CPS whistle­blow­er, but one who want­ed to keep her iden­ti­ty con­cealed because she was so afraid of retal­i­a­tion. The for­mer CPS work­er explains how CPS is all about sta­tis­tics, about how many chil­dren can be placed into adop­tion, since State and Fed­er­al reim­burse­ment funds are all tied into sta­tis­tics. She explains that CPS work­ers are encour­aged to put more chil­dren into adoption.

She even relates one sto­ry of how some­one who could not have chil­dren “placed an order” for a baby:

Some­one could not have a child and want­ed a child. So, with­in the com­mu­ni­ty this cer­tain per­son saw a fam­i­ly that was in dis­tress, was hav­ing a hard time, and relayed to (CPS) work­ers that they would like those chil­dren. And that is exact­ly what is happening….

Next, Boel inter­views a for­mer CPS super­vi­sor who also con­ceals her iden­ti­ty because she fears retal­i­a­tion. This per­son tells Boel that if an order for a child was delayed or denied, her super­vi­sors would come in and try to over­rule local decisions.

This one fam­i­ly was promised a child. And when it hap­pened that the child was going to be reuni­fied with the par­ents, they called our region­al office, and our region­al office came down on our coun­ty and they harassed the birth par­ents… because they did not agree with our decision.

Kentucky CPS Power: Take Away Children at Will

These CPS whistle­blow­ers also con­firmed that CPS can and does take away chil­dren sim­ply to retal­i­ate against peo­ple who try to fight or expose the system:

I can call in a report tomor­row, and I can make it seem very real, to the point that a fam­i­ly will be inves­ti­gat­ed. And who­ev­er gets it could come up with a sub­stan­ti­a­tion, of let’s say “neglect,” and it might not be true. But it doesn’t matter.

Watch this shock­ing report here:

Watch these 3 reports here:

Are Things Any Different in Kentucky Today?

We could find no evi­dence that John Boel’s inves­tiga­tive reports on Ken­tucky CPS back in 2005 through 2007 result­ed in any changes for the better.

Ear­li­er this year, Health Impact News report­ed on the sto­ry of the Maney fam­i­ly in Ken­tucky, which sug­gests it might be busi­ness as usu­al in Ken­tucky CPS.

Bren­da Maney of Rich­mond, Ken­tucky spoke to our reporters and told us her sto­ry, which is pub­lished here. Bren­da reports that a well-mean­ing friend called CPS in Ken­tucky to actu­al­ly help her through some dif­fi­cult times, but that instead of help­ing, CPS alleged­ly took her chil­dren away, even over the objec­tions of local police.

Bren­da is fac­ing a hear­ing on May 7, 2015 to per­ma­nent­ly remove her parental rights.

Sup­port­ers are encour­aged to call the gov­er­nor of Ken­tucky and leg­is­la­tors to advo­cate for the return of Bren­da Maney’s chil­dren. Gov­er­nor Steve Beshear may be reached at 502–564-2611, or con­tact­ed here.

The Sen­a­tor for Brenda’s dis­trict is Sen­a­tor Jared Car­pen­ter, who may be reached at 502–564-8100 Ext. 730, or con­tact­ed here.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rita Smart rep­re­sents her dis­trict. She may be reached at 502–564-8100 Ext. 607, or con­tact­ed here.

John Boel now works for a dif­fer­ent news sta­tion, WAVE3. He has told Health Impact News that he can only cov­er the sto­ries his news man­age­ment assigns to him, and he is not cur­rent­ly cov­er­ing any Ken­tucky CPS sto­ries. Con­tact his sta­tion and ask them to cov­er the Maney fam­i­ly sto­ry and their court case on May 7. WAVE3 can be con­tact­ed here.