Sharon Smith: Whereabouts Unknown

Editor’s note: This story is true to the best of my knowledge. After handing me this letter on April fourth, 2006, Sharon Smith fled from Alaska with her son, fearing for her life and the safety of her child, a six-year old, happy, healthy, well-adjusted boy. Although her parenting skills had never been questioned, after she became a political activist on part of her sister, the Office of Children’s Services began making allegations that she was an unfit mother. She asked me to publish her letter into a story, but I offer it to you now, in her own words. Only her name and that of her sister have been changed for their protection.

On May 1, 2002, my twin sister, Susan Smith and I had conducted an informal investigation within the community of Wasilla and Palmer, Alaska into the illegal seizure of Alaskan children after Susan’s beautiful five week old baby girl was kidnapped a second time by Social Worker Sharon Chambers of State of Alaska Office of Children Services. She was accompanied by an armed Alaska State Trooper named Wooten of Palmer, Alaska. Neither presented us with a search warrant, court order or other proof of probable cause. When Ms. Chambers said she was there to take the baby, she was asked why. She answered she had “received more calls”. Trooper Wooten stated at the time that he did not see any reason to take the baby, that he was simply following OCS orders and suggested Susan call him as a witness in court.

On 5/3/02, we appeared in court, discovering there was only one witness; an alleged pediatrician (Dr. Karen Denny-Impson) who had been instructed by Chambers to seize the infant at birth from the Anchorage Providence Hospital. At that time, Judge Eric Smith of Palmer Superior Court returned custody to Susan within two days after it was determined that Chambers had lied when she stated Obstetrics and Gynecology had advised her to seize the newborn. OBGYN testified they did not say seize the newborn and did not see any problems with Susan that would render her unfit to parent a baby.

In his ruling, Judge Smith stated that Chambers had “over-reacted”, and took further note that she was visibly upset over losing a case. At this point, it should be added that both Chambers and Denny-Impson were inexperienced case workers. Both in their first year of practice, Dr. Denny-Impson was only a massage therapist called upon the Attorney General as an Expert Witness Pediatrician during open court even though she was unable to diagnose Lactose Intolerance and Thrush found in at least four of the cases she had brought to court under the guise of unfit parenting skills. Her justification in each case was, “I’m afraid this baby is going to die if I leave it in its mother’s care.”

During Susan’s second hearing on May third, we were all shocked to hear Dr. Denny-Impson’s allegation that thirty-eight year old Susan was incapable of changing a diaper. We had both been in classes for the mentally gifted since grade school, graduating with a 4.0 grade average a year ahead of our peers. We had both been baby sitting and changing diapers since age eleven. Susan has never sustained a head injury, or used drugs or alcohol. I am witness to the fact that Susan demonstrated her ability to change a diaper in the presence of Dr. Denny-Impson while in her office on 4/28/02, three days before OCS kidnapped my niece from her home.

This ridiculous diaper-changing allegation is what made us suspicious of OCS and prompted us to dig a little deeper into their policies. We didn’t have to go very far. OCS is very blatant in their techniques, using the same arguments in conjunction with all the biological parents they bring up on charges. Alaskan law states that a child can not be removed from the biological parents unless there is evidence of a mental illness so severe, the patient can not recover within a year of seeking treatment. OCS receives these diagnosis from psychologists in their employ. Their target is low-income, state funding dependent recipients. In Susan’s case, she was a single mother who had initially decided to give her child up for adoption when she first discovered she was pregnant. However, during the last two months of her pregnancy, she refused to sign the papers relinquishing her rights to the unborn child. It was then that Chambers began her pressure on Susan to give up her child.

When a ten hour psychiatric evaluation paid by the Social Services came back negative as to her parenting skills, Susan submitted herself to four other psychologists from four different agencies, including private practice. None of them were accepted by OCS. Susan then sought the evaluation of an ex-OCS-hired psychologist, Dr. Washington Brown, who told her he refused to do this for OCS anymore as he had been forced to falsify records and is no longer willing to risk his career.

Other cases included, during my investigation of foster parenting fraud, one in which the husband and wife were in a car accident without the child with them. OCS immediately removed the child, declaring the accident a suicide pact. When a mother’s new puppy soiled the rug, the babysitter called OCS. The children were seized, with the conditions reported as unsanitary and the case worker refusing to make a second visit to see if the house had been cleaned. After a car accident, a single mother began having seizures. Even though the seizures cleared once she was put on medication, her children were still removed. A Native American man who was proud of his heritage, speaking highly of his people and teaching his children traditional dance while playing the Native drum, was told he was unbalanced and narcissistic, and that he was too much in love with himself to be an adequate parent. A single mother who lost one child in a house fire, had her others removed by OCS who determined she failed to protect her children, even though it was determined arson was not at play.

Alaskan children are being ripped out of their biological parents’ arms without Search Warrants or probable cause. Their cases are built on false allegations and are usually not given an opportunity to face their accusers. These biological parents are not being jailed or institutionalized for criminal behavior, nor are they being evaluated to see if they are fit to stand trial. OCS is labeling people then adopting their children out to foster parents they hire with federal monies.

The U.S. Government is unknowingly approximately 45 million dollars a year to an alleged non-profit organization known as State of Alaska Office of Children’s Services, formerly known as Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) to house and feed orphans. What the federal government doesn’t know is OCS has become a very illegal adoption agency, still operating under a non-profit status and still receiving federal funding and private donations fraudulently. The other thing the federal government doesn’t know is these children are not orphans!

These children are our children stolen from our wombs, birthing beds, homes and relative’s homes, our children’s schools and even the court steps. They are taken away from us violently by OCS, using police force and threats. Not once has OCS presented to the deprived parent, a search warrant or legal court order naming the person to be seized or the charge. The allegations presented in Family Court are usually made by state employees, only. The court does not allow the parents to present witnesses or the children to testify on their behalf. Family Court doesn’t even take into consideration the desires of older children, which is in direct violation with Alaskan law which states children thirteen years of age or older are allowed to choose which parent they wish to live with. The Alaska Family Court, following the directions of OCS and their attorneys, always rule the children must be placed into foster homes for two years and then adopted out to strangers. Rarely do Blood Relatives get a chance to house or adopt their Kin, which violates another AK statute “the Blood Relative Law” which gives preference to Blood Relatives over foster parents for placement.

On November first, 2002, at six months of age, my niece was released from OCS custody to live with her biological father. Two months later, OCS stole the baby back from Hawaii using an old court order (dated May 3, 2002) after her biological mother visited her. The father’s parenting skills were not in question, and he had no contracts with OCS, thereby was under no obligations to restrict visitations with his daughter. Alaska Judge Smith determined he could not order the dad to sign a contract with OCS but that the child would not be released until he did. This contract, in essence, would have made the biological father a foster dad, while OCS still “owned” the child. In this manner, federal funds could still be obtained by Alaska and OCS could continue to dictate everything that occurred in her life. They stated that if he signed the contract, the father was not to allow Susan visits with her daughter and he was to call the Hawaii police whenever Susan entered the community in which her child lived. The father refused to sign the agreement.

Upon the child’s return to Alaska, OCS placed her in the same foster home she had been placed in at five weeks old. Susan objected, pointing out that a pediatrician’s record indicated there had been a possibility of sexual abuse during the time of the initial care. The case worker, Michael Decker, refuted any knowledge of abuse coming from the foster parent home, yet three months after the baby’s placement, the older foster children in the same home made a report to Social Services that they were being sexually abused.

Susan next demanded that Judge Smith charge her with a crime or release her daughter, tho which Smith answered, “as far as I know you have not committed a crime,” yet still he refused the right for Susan’s child to live with her. There were never any allegations against Susan or the father of abuse or neglect, yet all visitations ended by OCS on February 18, 2003 upon her return to Alaska. No one in my family has been granted visitation rights in the three years following this incident and we don’t even know if Susan’s child is still alive. Susan has received pictures of her daughter only twice in four years.

Susan’s child was taken at birth, then at five weeks, then again at ten months old for no legal reason. OCS has rejected twenty three family members in three different states for placement and will contest our adopting the baby, standing on no legal ground and for no apparent reason other than that the State of Alaska and OCS will lose federal funding and will not receive the “Adoption Incentive Payment” as provided by USCS Sec. 673b, which applies to “special needs”. Susan’s daughter was declared a special needs child at one year old when the documented medical evidence reported she cries all day, screams all night and was terrified of men. She was placed on medication. Special needs children receive even more federal funding; i.e., social security disability checks.

OCS fails to protect the interests of the children placed in their care. A recent investigation by Alaskan State Troopers into complaints surrounding one foster care home, led to a thirty page report on what is known as the Kelley compound, in Wasilla, Alaska . The compound was described as a torture camp where the Kelleys had committed horrific acts of every kind of abuse against five foster children they had adopted from the OCS illegal adoption ring. All the children had been beaten, raped, tortured, starved and had been forced to sleep outside on the ground until the grandfather placed junk vans in the yard for the children to sleep in. As punishment, the older boy was thrown into a lake repeatedly until he passed out and afterwards was chained and shackled to an iron ball or sometimes to a tree. He was also forced to sleep naked in a coffin for long periods of time. One boy had burned his arm in a campfire the children used to keep warm. Without proper medical treatment, the injury became infected. The investigating trooper reported maggots growing in his open burn wound.

The children were home-schooled and had no contact with the outside world. OCS was not required to check up on them once they had been adopted. The trooper reported the Kelleys had hanging on the walls inside the house where the adults lived, OCS paycheck stubs displaying monies paid them by OCS and the State of Alaska to torture other people’s children. Not one picture of a child was on display.

The “Kelley” girls are now in separate Alaskan mental institution wards after they both attempted to commit suicide upon hearing the judge’s verdict. The Kelley parents were charged with only three of the 103 charges first filed against them by the Alaskan State Troopers. The D.A. stated they lacked enough evidence to convict the Kelleys. The OCS did not appear in court to protect the children’s interests nor to testify against the Kelleys or aid in convicting them. Although they lost their foster children, the Kelleys walked free.

The biological grandparents, the Buchanons, have been striving since to receive custody of the five children. OCS, to date, has refused to grant it, even though it had initially been the grandparents who had provided a loving home when the parents could not.

Keeping Susan Smith’s daughter, the Buchanons’ grandchildren and all other illegally abducted Alaskan children in abusive foster/ adoptive homes all their lives is not in their best interests; they are definitely not orphans and they need to be returned to their biological families’ homes now to be protected from further harm at the hands of the State of Alaska Office of Children Services and their employees/agents.

These blatant violations of Alaskan’s civil rights are made legal by corrupt legislators passing laws designed to enslave and abridge our rights, and by judges who are trained and agree to rule in the State’s favor, upholding illegal laws. The police do their bidding and the Attorney General covers it up. We, the people, never had a chance.