San Bernardino County

On May 24, 2014 an open children and family services (CFS) case was opened and I was being accused of child abuse to my 3 year old daughter via corporal punishment. My 3, 6, and 17 year old daughters were detained while we began going through the process of determining what happened and if there was truly any abuse. Upon admitting that I use spankings as a means of teaching and discipline for my children, I immediately enrolled and began taking parenting and anger management classes. During this process, my 3 and 6 year old daughters had forensic evaluations (physical and psychological) with the children’s assessment center. There was no abuse founded outside of the single mark that was left on my 4 year old’s back. After the allegations were substantiated as inappropriate discipline by cfs, I was offered services which included parent and child interactive therapy, and individual therapy. I completed both and also began having my 4 and 6 year old daughters in individual therapy. Around September 2014 my social worker Nakila Hill was taken off the case and Sonja Flowers was assigned. At first, Sonja seemed as though she was operating with the best interest of the children in mind. In December 2014 my daughter disclosed to me that when she visits her dads house that there is a young man, by the name of Denzel (21 years old black male with mental disorder) that sleeps in the room with her and Addison on the floor. I felt this was highly inappropriate and brought it to the attention of Sonja Flowers. Ms. Flowers said that she would get down to the bottom of it. A couple of weeks later Ms. Flowers disclosed to me that she asked dad about it and he denied that this was happening and Ms. Flowers also stated that she asked Aubriella about the situation and that Aubriella told her Denzel does not. I felt that Ms. Flowers was not being honest as Aubriella is the one who brought this to me attention. I asked Aubriella why she told Ms. Flowers that Denzel doesn’t sleep on in their room on the floor and Aubriella stated that Ms. Flowers didn’t ask her if Denzel sleeps on the floor, Aubriella tells me that Ms. Flowers asked her if Denzel sleeps in the bed with them and Aubriella told her no. I then questioned Ms. Flowers about her line of questioning and she got quite defensive and told me that is not what she asked Aubriella. I knew that Ms. Flowers was not being honest and I was not going to get any resolve and safety for my girls in this situation without going around Ms. Flowers. At Aubriella and Addisons next therapy session, I explained the situation to Aubriella’s therapist and she was alarmed by it and she questioned Aubriella about the situation (without me being present) and Aubriella disclosed that Denzel does sleep in their room on the floor. Ms. Sarah Diebold, the therapist, confirmed the allegation and moved to contact Sonja Flowers about it. Ms. Flowers contacted dad for a second time to question him about this issue and dad confirmed that Denzel does sleep on the floor in the girls room and that he wasn’t honest about it the first time he was asked. After having to challenge Ms. Flowers to take action in this situation, I noticed that Ms. Flowers was not coming out to the home anymore and would ignore my phone calls, requests from my therapist with Center for Healing in Rialto CA, and requests from Serenity group for authorization for the girls to begin individual therapy. Pretty much anything related to me Ms. Flowers was ignoring. Ms. Flowers had changed her attitude towards me and it began with this incident. We had a scheduled court hearing in Feburary, and prior to the hearing Ms. Flowers had told me she was going to request that the case be closed. I was able to get in touch with Ms. Flowers about 2 weeks prior to the court hearing and she informed me that she decided to keep the case open because all of the services were not completed. This was odd to me as my services had been completed and Ms. Flowers had previously told me that if dad didn’t finish his services that she can/would still request that it closes. In addition to her recommending that the case continue I asked her for a copy of the report which she provided. Upon reviewing the report I was very upset that the social worker was recommending the children be uprooted during the week, but she also made statements in the report that were not true. She stated in her report that I didn’t complete my services which was not true, she wrote the report on an angle in which is made it seem as though I was not doing my part which is totally untrue. Ms. Flowers also tried to play down the incident with dad have a 21 year old man sleeping in the room with two little girls and not being honest about it when questioned by Ms. Flowers. I could see based on the report and Ms. Flowers negative attitude toward me that she was turning this case into a custody battle as opposed to addressing the alleged abuse issue that we were in this system for. At the hearing I was opposed to the girls being uprooted from their home during the school week as recommended by Ms. Flowers and as a result, the February hearing was pushed to March so that we could attend mediation. During mediation I noticed that Ms. Flowers was having side bar conversations with dad and if you didn’t know who she was you would think she was actually representing dad as opposed to the best interest of the children. During the mediation Ms. Flowers attempted to contest my documentation from the therapist I was seeing stating that I completed my therapy. The mediator had to actually step in and tell Ms. Flowers that the letter from the therapist is sufficient to conclude that I completed the individual therapy. Ms. Flowers also got upset with me when I again brought up the fact that she lied about her line of questioning to Aubriella about the incident in which there was an adult male sleeping in the room with the girls. As a result of the hearing in March the judge order that the girls are with me Saturday-Wednesday and with dad Wednesday-Saturday. Also dad was ordered to keep the girls in the gymnastics, girl scouts, and in school. One week following the hearing there were already issues related to the girls getting to their activities and school. I contacted Ms. Flowers regarding these issues and she did nothing. I also contact Rosie Mayzum (Ms. Flowers Supervisor) regarding the issues and she stated she would speak with Ms. Flowers. As a result, I began to send Ms. Flowers a weekly updated of the children’s activities that were missed and or that they were late too, which was the reason why I disagreed to allow during the week change to begin with. Dad lives in the mountains and it wasn’t reasonable to believe that he could do all of this without it being an issue. At one point there was an altercation between dads wife and myself and I asked Ms. Flowers to refrain from allowing this person to make exchanges as it is causing undue stress on the girls and Ms. Flowers ignored my request. I have spoken to Greg Konklin (CFS Rancho Manager) to discuss my issues that were not being addressed and the fact that the department was in contempt of court for not following the orders of the court. In a 5 week period Aubriella was pulled from school early 4 times, and absent once (non of which was due to illness), Addison was pulled from preschool on Thursdays and Fridays, and they ended up dropping gymnastics due to the absenteeism and tardiness on dads part. All of these concerns were brought to the attention of the social worker (Sonja flowers), the supervisor (Rosie Mayzum), the manager (Greg Conklin). At every level I was shut down and told that they follow the minute order not the actual orders which is absolutely illegal. Greg was rude and disconnected. He didn’t seem to be interested in what I was trying to tell him, and as a result I contact Joyce Jones, deputy director in an attempt to get some resolve and compliance with my case. I spoke with Ms. Jones and informed her of my concerns and requested that I have a new worker assigned. Ms. Jones stated she would look into and get back to me. I waited a week and contact Ms. Jones’s office. After attempting to make contact with Ms. Jones for approx. 2 weeks I was finally able to get a hold of her and she basically took on the same attitude as all the other employees of this department. I told her that what was happening with this case was wrong and at the very least I want a new worker assigned to this case. Ms. Jones stated that she would consider it. I then proceeded to deal with the issues related to this false allegation before me.