Much of our dealings with the FOC are through our FOC caseworkers. If they can’t take care of things it goes to court, likely with the new local referee Shermak taking the place of the judge, but whose recommendation during the court proceeding would then be signed off on by a judge to give her recommended order the authority of a court order. If one disagrees with the referee’s recommendation/ ruling they could request an appeal called a de novo. This hearing would be held in front of the judge assigned to the FOC case.
The FOC has no actual court authority on there own. They make a recommendation to the courts that is typically signed off on by a judge and then this would have court order authority. Both FOC and CPS have no direct authority to do things like change a court order or not enforce an existing court order, without the judge signing off on a new court order.
The reason this is important is because Ionia County has a habit of doing this, ie the case worker will tell parents they are not enforcing a court order for someones parenting time. I have had times when I had to deal with other CPS jurisdictions while also dealing with Ionia and the other CPS jurisdictions were surprised when they heard about what Ionia County was doing, as they would do things they did not have the authority to do. While being targeted by Ionia County CPS workers working with then FOC caseworker Presley, the CPS worker would tell the other parents to deny me parenting time and the FOC worker would tell them the FOC was not enforcing my parenting time so they were free to deny me parenting time without being held accountable for violating the court order.
When the outside of Ionia CPS jurisdictions became aware of this they were very clear that no FOC worker had the authority to modify or choose not to enforce a court order. Yet Ionia County FOC has done this to me multiple times due to being targeted for harassment by Ionia County CPS workers. As the non-Ionia CPS workers were informing me they did not have the authority to do this I was being denied parenting time by the other parents of my children that were being told by the Ionia County FOC worker and Ionia County CPS worker to deny me parenting time. The issue with this is that the Ionia County CPS workers were making false accusations, saying witnesses told them different stories then they told anyone before or after them, basically it was all speculation and them trying to make things to be more then they were and use this against me to deny me parenting time.
They would do this with no proof when it was not justified by anything real. When I would go to court I would have to prove that the CPS worker was misleading people about the truth, sometimes knowingly lying (including in court), or that there was no grounding or justification in reality, and the court would dismiss it. But dealing with corrupt CPS workers in Ionia and the FOC worker backing them up to the other parents with no true justification, I would be denied parenting time with my children for a month or so at a time for no reason before being able to get a court date.
Instead of them having to prove they were valid and justified to begin with, I had to prove they were never valid or justified in doing it to get it back to normal. The FOC court would allow the Ionia County CPS workers to make any claim they wanted to without proof and act as if it was already proven and known to be true. I even had a time when I had already presented proof to the FOC case worker before the court date, the CPS worker Arianne still lied in court, and the FOC referee said she was going to rule based on what the CPS worker was saying despite the fact that my case worker already had the proof before the court date that the CPS worker Arianne was lying. I ended up getting additional proof, including statements from other CPS workers outside of Ionia that verified I was the one telling the truth and the Ionia COunty CPS worker Arianne Slaughter was knowingly lying.
This is completely backwards versus how the court system is supposed to work. You are supposed to be assumed innocent of any accusation until you are proven guilty. Instead, Ionia COunty CPS workers woud make things up often basing them on there own opinions rather then reality, and they would sanction you as if you were known to be guilty until you literally rove that you are not guilty and that there accusations are not true.
Of course they would never apologize, admit they made a mistake, or anything. They would simply try again when they got another chance and once again I would have to go without seeing my kids for another month or so. With Ionia County CPS and FOC workers never being held accountable for abusing there power and doing illegal things, etc, they are free to do it over and over. How many times should someone have to deal with corrupt Ionia County CPS and FOC workers that are not held accountable and being allowed to do illegal things that harm our children and us?
They often find ways to bypass what is supposed to be their limitation of power; sometimes for good, and sometimes not. One example would be CPS telling one parent to deny parenting time to the other parent. CPS has no authority but the FOC is an extension of the courts that do have the authority. If the FOC worker tells that parent that the FOC will not enforce the other parents parenting time, then it streamlines a path to one parent being able to violate a court order. Even though the FOC worker does not have the authority to modify or choose not to enforce a court order, if the FOC referee backs them up they could make a recommended order to the judge that would likely be signed off on if justification existed.
In the past this has been known to be an abuse of power issue when local Ionia County CPS workers were targeting certain people/ parents at the expense of the child(ren) involved. More details on Ionia County CPS corruption and abuse of authority by specific Ionia County CPS workers is available on the Ionia County CPS page.
The previous Ionia County FOC worker “Preseley” that recently quit working for Ionia County FOC was known to work with Ionia County CPS workers Ashley Gesselman and Arianne Slaughter to target certain people/ parents at the expense of the children involved, doing things that were clear abuses of power along the way. They would basically side with certain parents, let them get away with anything, and then target the other side with ridiculous requests that were not justified and deny them parenting time.
It would often turn into such a mess that a court date was required to straighten it out. At the court date the proof was against being able to justify what they had been doing, as it had been the whole time, and so it would get dismissed. By this time one parent may have missed a month or so of parenting time. I have had the Ionia COunty CPS worker even tell the other parent they could block my communication with my children while I was being denied parenting time for no real reason. This is something that is specifically not allowed per FOC policy.
Since the parent was told by CPS and FOC worker to deny the other parent parenting time that parent was said to have been acting with good intent and hence no make up parenting time would even be ordered, apologies made, nothing. I have personally dealt with this numerous times in Ionia County.
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