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I want my son back!'
US Gov't took her baby and locked her away in a psychiatric hospital
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sandra Allen has not cuddled her eight-year-old son in her arms in the last four years. Neither has she been able to capture Kodak moments, push him in the backyard swing or cook his favourite meal.
Instead, for one hour each Thursday she sits across from him in a room and makes small talk, under the watchful eyes of a social worker.
Sandra Allen displays a poster with a photo of her son, Stephen Allen Jr, who was taken away from her by the Administration for Children's Services when he was four years old. (Photo: Ingrid Brown)
Allen is one of several Jamaicans in the United States whose children have been placed in foster care by the Administration for Children's Services (ACS).
And not even the intervention of the Jamaican Consulate or the Diaspora movement in New York has been able to help Allen get her son back after an eight-year-long battle in the courts.
"We only get one hour with him and he always asks why he can't come home and we have been told that when we leave he cries," an emotional Allen said to the Observer in hushed tones in the Hofstra University library in Long Island, New York, where she is a student.
She is confident her son will be returned one day, although that looks even dimmer with recent news that the court has ruled he be put up for adoption.
"By God's grace we know he is coming home... they could break him up into pieces but we know he is coming come," she said, with the first hint of a smile.
But the cruel reality of Allen's dilemma doesn't give her much to smile about. She's racked up US$80,000 in legal fees and was forced to represent herself in court after changing several lawyers. She's also facing foreclosure on her house and is now dealing with the stark realisation there is no more money for legal costs.
The Allen family's story reads like a plot from a captivating Lifetime movie and would be almost unbelievable were it not confirmed by the Jamaican consul in New York, social worker Jennifer Charmers and Patrick Beckford, head of the Diaspora Movement.
In 2001, the Jamaican migrant family of parents and two children were enjoying a good life, living in an upscale neighbourhood in Queens, New York. Allen worked at the Department of Finance, her husband Stephen was a pastor and their daughter attended private school.
But their American dream started to unravel in September 2001, two weeks after the couple's only son, Stephen Allen Jr, was born, and he accidentally fell from his sister's arms.
Allen said she scheduled a visit with his paediatrician, and decided to wait until later that day when her daughter and husband got home to take him to the doctor.
Initial checks, she said, revealed no injuries, but the doctor requested he be taken to the Long Island Jewish Hospital for further tests.
They were told the baby should stay overnight for observation and the next day ACS was called in. The police were also called in and the family was questioned separately about what happened.
Six days later, Allen said the baby was medically cleared but could not leave the hospital because of an ACS hold.
"We still didn't think anything of it, and so all of us just stayed there with him and I would breast-feed him and my husband would sing to him," she recalled.
Nine days later, they were allowed to take the baby home, while awaiting a court date.
Three months later, Allen said, they were asked to take a plea bargain on neglect charges, but refused.
"After that, the process became so frustrating," she told the Observer. "I had to bring in my paediatrician three times before he got a chance to testify."
In 2005, shortly before her husband - who had been honourably discharged from the US army - was scheduled to testify, he was deported on charges he had missed an immigration hearing.
Stephen Allen - who today is still puzzled as to why he was needed for an immigration hearing - told the Observer that within 45 days he was deported from the US without a chance to see a lawyer, landing in Montego Bay with only a pair of slippers and the clothes on his back, after living in the US for 35 years.
"I didn't even have an ID or money in my pocket and I didn't know anyone here because I left as a child," he told the Observer.
Security attaché in the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, Clifford Chambers, who deals with deportation issues, said he could find no record of Allen's deportation.
Left on her own, Sandra Allen received word that the court had arrived at a judgement for young Stephen to be removed from her home and placed in the MercyFirst Foster Care Agency.
From here the story reads like fiction.
While waiting in the hallway at the Queens Family Court for a hearing, Allen said she was praying with other persons when she was summoned by a policeman.
"I was taken to a room, handcuffed and locked in a holding area for over 40 minutes," she said.
She was told that the judge had ordered that she be sent to a psychiatric hospital for immediate evaluation
"No one knew where I was, they just took to me to the hospital," she said, adding, "I stayed for two weeks against my will."
That robbed her of the opportunity to be a real mother to her baby whom she had hoped would get his education at a private Christian school and attend church regularly.
"They put my son in a Spanish-speaking foster home when he never spoke a word of Spanish," an emotional Allen said. "I even heard that he has been in six foster homes in one year."
She struggled to get visitation rights, which were eventually granted 10 months later.
"I didn't get to see my child from January to November 30th," she said.
But these visits weren't guaranteed, as Allen said she would show up at MercyFirst only to be told sometimes that she could not see her son that day.
During a visit in January 2007, Allen said she noticed a swelling to Stephen's head. The boy, she said, was in pain, very sleepy and heavily medicated.
She reported it to the police and a few days later received news that Stephen was in intensive care suffering from a fractured skull and broken collarbone.
Allen said she has since filed a negligence suit against MercyFirst as well as one for wrongful detention at the psychiatric hospital.
As a consequence of missing work while in the psychiatric hospital, Allen said she was demoted at work. This was in addition to being stuck with a US$34,000 bill from the psychiatric hospital.
But those, she said, are not her biggest concerns. She wants her son back.
"They took my child to live in the Projects and I find that to be an offence because we are not on welfare and we work to provide a decent life for our family," she said.
She is also questioning the court's decision to have him removed from the family's private insurance and placed on public insurance after she found out the severity of his injuries when she received X-ray bills from her employee medical insurance.
Allen is also questioning what must be done to get her son back since she has complied with every demand.
"The only thing I have not done is agree to see their psychiatrist, and I will not, because they are trying to prove that I am mentally unstable, and because I have sued them, who is to say they won't be biased," she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Allen is also fighting to get back his son, whom he has not seen in four years.
He also intends to file a suit for wrongful deportation, given that he is a US veteran, honourably discharged after five years of service.
Mr Allen claims he was shuttled from one jail to another when he tried to contact an attorney.
"All they told me is, I missed an immigration court date for 2003," he said.
Having his son by his side might have made his troubles more bearable, but Allen said he has not even been able to get a recent photo of him since the taking of photos is prohibited at visits.
"I need my son because it is very devastating," he said. "Sometimes I wake up and wonder if I am in a dream and wonder how did this happen."
US Gov't took her baby and locked her away in a psychiatric hospital
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sandra Allen has not cuddled her eight-year-old son in her arms in the last four years. Neither has she been able to capture Kodak moments, push him in the backyard swing or cook his favourite meal.
Instead, for one hour each Thursday she sits across from him in a room and makes small talk, under the watchful eyes of a social worker.
Sandra Allen displays a poster with a photo of her son, Stephen Allen Jr, who was taken away from her by the Administration for Children's Services when he was four years old. (Photo: Ingrid Brown) Allen is one of several Jamaicans in the United States whose children have been placed in foster care by the Administration for Children's Services (ACS).
And not even the intervention of the Jamaican Consulate or the Diaspora movement in New York has been able to help Allen get her son back after an eight-year-long battle in the courts.
"We only get one hour with him and he always asks why he can't come home and we have been told that when we leave he cries," an emotional Allen said to the Observer in hushed tones in the Hofstra University library in Long Island, New York, where she is a student.
She is confident her son will be returned one day, although that looks even dimmer with recent news that the court has ruled he be put up for adoption.
"By God's grace we know he is coming home... they could break him up into pieces but we know he is coming come," she said, with the first hint of a smile.
But the cruel reality of Allen's dilemma doesn't give her much to smile about. She's racked up US$80,000 in legal fees and was forced to represent herself in court after changing several lawyers. She's also facing foreclosure on her house and is now dealing with the stark realisation there is no more money for legal costs.
The Allen family's story reads like a plot from a captivating Lifetime movie and would be almost unbelievable were it not confirmed by the Jamaican consul in New York, social worker Jennifer Charmers and Patrick Beckford, head of the Diaspora Movement.
In 2001, the Jamaican migrant family of parents and two children were enjoying a good life, living in an upscale neighbourhood in Queens, New York. Allen worked at the Department of Finance, her husband Stephen was a pastor and their daughter attended private school.
But their American dream started to unravel in September 2001, two weeks after the couple's only son, Stephen Allen Jr, was born, and he accidentally fell from his sister's arms.
Allen said she scheduled a visit with his paediatrician, and decided to wait until later that day when her daughter and husband got home to take him to the doctor.
Initial checks, she said, revealed no injuries, but the doctor requested he be taken to the Long Island Jewish Hospital for further tests.
They were told the baby should stay overnight for observation and the next day ACS was called in. The police were also called in and the family was questioned separately about what happened.
Six days later, Allen said the baby was medically cleared but could not leave the hospital because of an ACS hold.
"We still didn't think anything of it, and so all of us just stayed there with him and I would breast-feed him and my husband would sing to him," she recalled.
Nine days later, they were allowed to take the baby home, while awaiting a court date.
Three months later, Allen said, they were asked to take a plea bargain on neglect charges, but refused.
"After that, the process became so frustrating," she told the Observer. "I had to bring in my paediatrician three times before he got a chance to testify."
In 2005, shortly before her husband - who had been honourably discharged from the US army - was scheduled to testify, he was deported on charges he had missed an immigration hearing.
Stephen Allen - who today is still puzzled as to why he was needed for an immigration hearing - told the Observer that within 45 days he was deported from the US without a chance to see a lawyer, landing in Montego Bay with only a pair of slippers and the clothes on his back, after living in the US for 35 years.
"I didn't even have an ID or money in my pocket and I didn't know anyone here because I left as a child," he told the Observer.
Security attaché in the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, Clifford Chambers, who deals with deportation issues, said he could find no record of Allen's deportation.
Left on her own, Sandra Allen received word that the court had arrived at a judgement for young Stephen to be removed from her home and placed in the MercyFirst Foster Care Agency.
From here the story reads like fiction.
While waiting in the hallway at the Queens Family Court for a hearing, Allen said she was praying with other persons when she was summoned by a policeman.
"I was taken to a room, handcuffed and locked in a holding area for over 40 minutes," she said.
She was told that the judge had ordered that she be sent to a psychiatric hospital for immediate evaluation
"No one knew where I was, they just took to me to the hospital," she said, adding, "I stayed for two weeks against my will."
That robbed her of the opportunity to be a real mother to her baby whom she had hoped would get his education at a private Christian school and attend church regularly.
"They put my son in a Spanish-speaking foster home when he never spoke a word of Spanish," an emotional Allen said. "I even heard that he has been in six foster homes in one year."
She struggled to get visitation rights, which were eventually granted 10 months later.
"I didn't get to see my child from January to November 30th," she said.
But these visits weren't guaranteed, as Allen said she would show up at MercyFirst only to be told sometimes that she could not see her son that day.
During a visit in January 2007, Allen said she noticed a swelling to Stephen's head. The boy, she said, was in pain, very sleepy and heavily medicated.
She reported it to the police and a few days later received news that Stephen was in intensive care suffering from a fractured skull and broken collarbone.
Allen said she has since filed a negligence suit against MercyFirst as well as one for wrongful detention at the psychiatric hospital.
As a consequence of missing work while in the psychiatric hospital, Allen said she was demoted at work. This was in addition to being stuck with a US$34,000 bill from the psychiatric hospital.
But those, she said, are not her biggest concerns. She wants her son back.
"They took my child to live in the Projects and I find that to be an offence because we are not on welfare and we work to provide a decent life for our family," she said.
She is also questioning the court's decision to have him removed from the family's private insurance and placed on public insurance after she found out the severity of his injuries when she received X-ray bills from her employee medical insurance.
Allen is also questioning what must be done to get her son back since she has complied with every demand.
"The only thing I have not done is agree to see their psychiatrist, and I will not, because they are trying to prove that I am mentally unstable, and because I have sued them, who is to say they won't be biased," she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Allen is also fighting to get back his son, whom he has not seen in four years.
He also intends to file a suit for wrongful deportation, given that he is a US veteran, honourably discharged after five years of service.
Mr Allen claims he was shuttled from one jail to another when he tried to contact an attorney.
"All they told me is, I missed an immigration court date for 2003," he said.
Having his son by his side might have made his troubles more bearable, but Allen said he has not even been able to get a recent photo of him since the taking of photos is prohibited at visits.
"I need my son because it is very devastating," he said. "Sometimes I wake up and wonder if I am in a dream and wonder how did this happen."
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