On May 25, 2003, Jeremiah Tobias Shaw was born in Spokane, Washington, to Micah Shaw. He weighed 8 pounds, 9.6 ounces. His Apgar scores were 7 & 9 (the highest score a baby can receive is 10). His mother had worked hard through the entire pregnancy to earn money to buy all new baby clothes and supplies for Jeremiah. She didn't want him to have anything second hand. She was so happy and excited to finally meet her baby boy.

Two hours after Jeremiah's birth, Sheila Thorne, a CPS worker in the DCFS office of Spokane, burst into Micah's hospital room, flung papers at Micah, and informed her that Jeremiah was being taken into custody because Micah's urine sample had been tested (without permission) and had shown 'traces of opiates'. Ms. Thorne yelled and screamed at Micah, telling her "if you don’t just shut up and do whatever the hell CPS tells you to, you'll never see this baby again!" To the stunned protests of Micah and her mother, Dawn, Ms. Thorne continued with her tirade, "You saying that you don't know what this is about isn't going to help you in court, you know. The sooner you admit you're guilty, the better off you'll be. Just shut up and do what we tell you to do, or you'll never see this baby again." She repeated her threats at least once more before leaving the room. The nurses simply sat by, saying nothing to this verbal abuse of a patient.

This was the beginning of our family's descent into the Hell that CPS created out of their imagining and with the help of their psychic social workers (social wreckers, anyone?).

My name is Dawn Shaw, and I am Jeremiah's grandmother, and Micah's mother. I inadvertently angered a Social Wrecker named Sharon Ostheimer in the Winter of 2002, by making private arrangement to send my 13 year old son to live with friends, rather than put him into foster care. At the time, I didn't know that CPS receives enormous amounts of money from the Federal Government for each child they put into Foster Care. I only knew that I had called CPS looking for help with my son, and they hadn't been much help at all.

Micah has 4 younger siblings who have also been affected by the horrors of CPS involvement with our family. Although no one had made allegations or reports about our family to CPS, our three youngest children, then ages 4 years, 2 years, and 15 months (still nursing, had never been away from her mother) were placed into foster care for 5 months based upon the court order that was entered in regarding Micah and Jeremiah in June of 2003. Our little ones were returned to us on October 29, 2003. God bless Judge Bastine for having the intelligence to see through the machinations of CPS.

Micah's next court date, for a review hearing, is set for Thursday, February 19, 2004, at 1:30 p.m., in the Juvenile Court Building of Spokane County. Jeremiah was 8 months old as of January 25, 2004. He has been in foster care for the duration of his short stay here on Earth, deprived of his mother and his other family connections.

Although 'reasonable efforts' have not been made, in defiance of Federal Law, CPS will be asking the court to begin TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) based solely upon the length of time Jeremiah has been in their system. It is URGENT that the Social Wreckers, their Attorney, David Turplesmith of the Attorney General's office, and the Area Director of CPS, Tim Nelson, know that this case is being monitored by outsiders. YOU can help by calling these people's offices and leaving messages to the effect that Jeremiah Shaw should be released from their system and allowed to return home to his family. You might ask them why a gifted, 17 year old child, with no history of drug or alcohol abuse, no history of violence and no history of emotional or mental difficulties, is being abused by an Agency pledged to protect children? How many Federal $$$ do they receive for each child they adopt out?

Tim Nelson, Area Director of CPS - (509) 363-4624 (direct line) or (509) 363-3385 (secretary's line)

Pam Eshbach, MSW - (509) 363-3401

David Turplesmith, Asst. Attorney General - (509) 456-6390

Micah has completed every requirement of the Reunification Plan set forth by CPS, except one - they demand that she relocates to a 'structured living program'. This is a requirement that she has been unable to fulfill, due to her age (she was 16 when she had Jeremiah, and only one program available accepts girls under 18), and her lack of drug or alcohol involvement, which has prevented her from taking a bed space in a drug program. Her lack of involvement with drugs and alcohol has been a major sticking point for CPS, as they have repeatedly accused her of this problem but have absolutely no proof to offer the court. They've also made the assertion that any child living in our home will be 'irreparably damaged, emotionally, mentally, and physically', although in 17 years of parenting, our children have never been injured beyond normal childhood occurrences. We have the medical records to prove it, too. I'll list their Plan here, and you can see what Micah has accomplished.

• Complete a drug and alcohol assessment and treatment program. Micah finished this with every BA/UA showing negative. She was discharged successfully from the TASC program in December of 2003.

• Complete a Psychological Exam by a CPS approved provider. Our family paid out of pocket for Micah to have a Psychological Exam and Testing performed by a wonderful doctor, E. Clay Jorgensen. CPS hates this man, because he is honest and ethical. He has a wonderful reputation with the courts, and is held in high esteem by the Public Defenders office, also.

• Participate in a 'Hands on Parenting' program. Notice the wording on this. "A" is singular. When Micah successfully completed the 'hands-on parenting' program offered by the YWCA, CPS sent her to another program, the worst in Spokane County. The Children's Ark is run by Paul and Janet Mann, and is located in a beautifully restored home in Browne's Addition. The problem is that their program has only helped ONE family reunite in over FIVE years of 'providing services'. Nice track record, huh? The Public Defenders hate this program. They say that when CPS sends a client there, they know CPS is setting the client up to fail. Nice… And all done with our public tax money. Oh, yes. The Children's Ark is funded with public monies.

• Continue with one-on-one counseling. I just love this requirement. I put Micah into counseling in December 2002, as I was worried about the stress she was under due to the emotional problems of her younger brother, and that she had recently discovered she was pregnant. Interestingly enough, CPS used this fact to convince the court that Micah had 'mental health issues'. Nothing quite like having it both ways. Micah was with a wonderful counselor, Shawn Horn, at Spokane Community Mental Health. Shawn is now with the offices of Deborah Brown (of Brown and Associates). Following Shawn's departure from SCMH, another counselor there saw Micah briefly, but upon becoming involved with the Children's Ark, Micah was informed by their staff that she could not receive counseling from any source but the Ark. Since her discharge from the Ark, Micah has returned to counseling with Shawn Horn, again following court orders to remain in counseling. CPS is now telling the court that Micah has changed providers "a number of times". Only because CPS' program of choice forced Micah to change to their counselor. Something else CPS won't mention is that the staff and counselor at The Children's Ark routinely told Micah she was lying and in denial, because Micah insisted on telling them the truth, which is that we did nothing to incur the wrath of CPS. Apparently The Children's Ark is big on communist-style "re-education", but not too hot on actually reading a client's file to find out the truth.

• Micah was required to re-enroll in public school. We had been homeschooling Micah for several years. CPS made noises that this was not sufficient, although home schooling is legal in Washington State. When Micah was tested by School District 81 for grade placement purposes, the lowest grade placement score was 14.6 grade! That is halfway through your sophomore year in COLLEGE. Her highest placement score was 18.3 -- hello? Micah plays three instruments and has participated in the Math Olympics and other extracurricular activities for many years through District 81. Of course, Micah has re-enrolled in school (they placed her in 11^th grade because of her age. Why did they bother testing her?) but CPS is downplaying her excellent grades. See, their contention all along has been that our family home is so "unsafe", "unhealthy" and "entirely unsuitable" for children that any child living here would be damaged. Fascinating.

•The court order demands that Micah move into a 'structured residential program', where she will be placed on Welfare (and the monies funneled back into the State's coffers). Micah has been on the waiting list of the only program she is eligible for since June 2003. CPS wants to terminate Jeremiah's connection to Micah based upon the fact that Micah cannot force a program to accept her, nor can she create her own program to enable her to complete this requirement. This requirement is NOT something that she can accomplish by dint of will - only by the cooperation of an outside party. CPS says her inability to complete this requirement constitutes an act of will, and should be punished by TPR.

That's it, folks. She's done what she's supposed to do, and CPS still won't return her son. Can you see why I'm so steamed over this? I've watched this system rape my beautiful daughter, and the courts have allowed, nay, enabled the rape of a young girl. I hold Judge Kathleen O'Connor responsible for not taking the time to read the files and allowing herself to be conned by CPS, Public Defender Larry Anderson for failing to adequately defend my daughter against un-provable slanders, Attorney Dale Raugust for taking my daughter's case on, pro bono, then selling her down the river, after stabbing her in the back… The list is pretty long, and seems to be getting longer.

Please call on Micah's behalf, just to let CPS know they are being watched. Jeremiah needs his mother and his family.

Files to support each statement in this page are available to approved parties upon request.