TAMPA , FL- Second person fired in DCF scandal

[fx]

Second person fired in DCF scandal

A technician who cleaned out the ex-spokesman's computer admits a
sexual relationship.

By Kevin Graham, Times Staff Writer
Published February 13, 2008

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/13/Hillsborough/Second_person_fired_i.shtml

TAMPA - The Department of Children and Families has fired a second
employee connected to an unfolding investigation into the agency's
former spokesman, who was arrested Feb. 1 on child pornography charges.

Michael Hernandez, who worked for the DCF as a computer technician, told
investigators that he tossed former DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman's home
computer in a trash bin because Zimmerman, 40, told him he was afraid of
what police would find on them.

Hernandez, who told authorities he had a sexual relationship with
Zimmerman, also admitted to wiping clean and reformatting a DCF-issued
laptop that Zimmerman used for work, at Zimmerman's request, authorities
said.

DCF spokeswoman Erin Geraghty said Tuesday that Hernandez was fired Feb.
1, the same day authorities brought state charges of child pornography
against Zimmerman.

Geraghty said that Hernandez had worked for the DCF since 2001 and that
he had a clean personnel file. Investigators have not seized any of
Hernandez's DCF equipment and he has not been charged with a crime, she
said.

Zimmerman had been out on $120,000 bail after being arraigned on state
child pornography charges. Federal agents arrested him Monday on federal
charges of producing child pornography.

During a hearing in federal court Tuesday about whether to grant
Zimmerman bail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Murphy-Davis said
Zimmerman's home computer was apparently thrown into a trash bin behind
a downtown Tallahassee dentist office, and it has not been found.
Investigators are still working to see whether any files deleted from
Zimmerman's work laptop can be recovered.

Lt. Michael Baute of the Attorney General's Office said Hernandez told
investigators that he and Zimmerman had a sexual relationship.

If convicted on the federal charges, Zimmerman would get a mandatory
minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. If he's convicted on the eight
state charges against him, Zimmerman could get up to 120 years.

The federal case will be prosecuted before the state case.

Authorities said Zimmerman took nude photographs of at least two teen
boys, one who has been identified as a foster child in DCF care. He paid
them for the pictures he took, saying he planned to sell them to buyers
in Germany, England, Sweden and Scotland.

Investigators said thatZimmerman once offered $200 to one of the boys in
exchange for oral sex, but the boy refused. Both the victims authorities
have identified live in Tampa.

Zimmerman had been living with his parents in his hometown of Lakeland
since being released on bail on the state charges. Brian Albritton, one
of three finalist for the U.S. attorney job in the Middle District of
Florida, is Zimmerman's attorney. He said his client was on his parents'
back porch reading a book when he was taken into custody Monday.

Zimmerman's mother, Marilyn Zimmerman, testified at Tuesday's bail
hearing about how close she is with her son. She said he has always been
helpful to her and his father, and they welcomed the chance for him to
stay with them until his case is resolved.

When Murphy-Davis asked Marilyn Zimmerman whether she knew her son was
involved in the pornography business, she said she didn't.

"What you've got here is a deceptive and manipulative person,"
Murphy-Davis told the judge. "The person he has probably deceived the
most, he wants to go and live with her at this point."

Before denying Zimmerman's bail request, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark
Pizzo cited three times where Zimmerman failed to show up for court
hearings, including for a case in Texas.

"While working at DCF, Mr. Zimmerman was in fact living two lives,"
Pizzo said. "To do that, to me, is telling."

Kevin Graham can be reached at kgraham@sptimes.com or 813 226-3433.

[Last modified February 12, 2008, 22:57:10]








An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.

every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST

Currently Child Protective Services violates more Constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & Civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia

http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6

This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.

http://www.jbs.org/node/4632

Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc

HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN

http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html

Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News

http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close

The full study is available here.

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf

The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

 

[Middle Class Warrior]

fx wrote:
> Second person fired in DCF scandal
>
> A technician who cleaned out the ex-spokesman's computer admits a
> sexual relationship.
>
> By Kevin Graham, Times Staff Writer
> Published February 13, 2008
>
> http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/13/Hillsborough/Second_person_fired_i.shtml
>
> TAMPA - The Department of Children and Families has fired a second
> employee connected to an unfolding investigation into the agency's
> former spokesman, who was arrested Feb. 1 on child pornography charges.
>
> Michael Hernandez, who worked for the DCF as a computer technician, told
> investigators that he tossed former DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman's home
> computer in a trash bin because Zimmerman, 40, told him he was afraid of
> what police would find on them.
>
> Hernandez, who told authorities he had a sexual relationship with
> Zimmerman, also admitted to wiping clean and reformatting a DCF-issued
> laptop that Zimmerman used for work, at Zimmerman's request, authorities
> said.
>
> DCF spokeswoman Erin Geraghty said Tuesday that Hernandez was fired Feb.
> 1, the same day authorities brought state charges of child pornography
> against Zimmerman.
>

Another Gay Republican scandal? Will they ever stop?


--
McCain on the Iraq War
"Make it a hundred" years in Iraq and "that would be fine with me."
[Derry, New Hampshire Town Hall meeting, 1/3/08]
"Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war."
McCain on how long troops may remain in Iraq: “A thousand years. A
million years. Ten million years. It depends on the arrangement we have
with the Iraqi government.” [Associated Press, 1/04/08]
McCain on Bush tax cuts
"I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of
the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle
class Americans who most need tax relief (2001)."
"But when you look at the percentage of the tax cuts that—as the
previous tax cuts—that go to the wealthiest Americans, you will find
that the bulk of it, again, goes to wealthiest Americans. … A lot of
Americans now are paying a very large a—low and middle-income Americans
are paying a significantly larger amount of their income in taxes. I’d
like to see them get the bulk of the relief (2003)."
Promised to make the same Bush tax cuts he once opposed permanent
(2008).
McCain on Healthcare
John McCain supported President Bush's veto of health care for 10
million children.
McCain on evolution
"I believe in evolution."
McCain on Iran
"My greatest fear is the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon and give it
to a terrorist organization. And there is a real threat of them doing
that."
McCain on Chairman Mao
"Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's
totally black."
McCain of Family Values
"My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and
immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by
pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."
MCCain on the Keating 5 scandal
"The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group
of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it
conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the
wrong thing to do."
McCain on torture
"Waterboarding is a form of torture no matter how it is done and
should be a prohibited among U.S. military interrogation practices . . ."
McCain on economics
"I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do
about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."
McCain on the Clintons
"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her
father."
McCain on immigration reform
"F k you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room."
McCain on Aging
"I'm older than dirt, I've got more scars than Frankenstein, but I've
learned a few things along the way."
McCain on the Estate tax
"I am concerned that repeal of the estate tax would provide massive
benefits solely to the wealthiest and highest-income taxpayers in the
country. A Treasury Department study found that almost no estate tax has
been paid by lower- and middle-income taxpayers. But taxes have been
paid on the estates of people who were in the highest 20% of the income
distribution at the time of their death. It found that
91% of all estate taxes are paid by the estates of people whose annual
income exceeded $190,000 around the time of their death."
Cindy McCain on political payback
"Cindy recently admitted that she keeps a “grudge list".