Best Interest of the State: AG Marcia Lance-Bumb, Oregon DHS, and the Case of "Baby B"*

June 14 Update: Shirley Vollmuller (sp) is apparently the DHS caseworker who threatened "Mother X" that if she has anything to do with anyone exposing DHS fraud and abuse, she will not get her son back. 

About the videotape, "Mother X" asked me to videotape her recent inspection by DHS to ensure that there was evidence of the condition of the premises where she intends to move her son in with her. Many false allegations were made against her in the past, so she felt the videotape was necessary evidence. "Mother X" was planning to give the tape to Judge Darling, and she told Shirley B that the tape was not for my MotherInterrupted TV Show, but only for Judge Darling to review.

However, since Shirley Vollmuller bolted out of the house--like the criminal she probably is--I have decided to use the footage I have of her in my show, explaining why the rest of the visit was not videotaped, and how she abused her power in reversing, for the second time, a court-ordered decision to transition a baby back to his mother.

*Request from MotherInterrupted: Please verify spelling for Shirley Vollmuller and send photo, so I can add her to the DHS Hall of Shame. Email to: MotherInterrupted Thank you.

June 13 Notice: Per mother's request, I have removed her name and her son's name from my Website. After Judge Darling ordered DHS to begin transitioning her baby home--against adamant opposition from DHS--the mother was told "you have to find new friends", and she was scolded for having contact with me (because I am exposing DHS fraud and abuse). I told the mother I will remove her name, and her son's name and photo, but will not remove the information regarding caseworkers. 

When I find out the last name of the Clackamas County DHS worker who threatened this mom, I will post it on my Website. Her first name is "Shirley". DHS routinely coerces women into giving up friends, their own family, in some cases their husband or partner--anyone who is a positive support to the mother in her fight to get her children back and to expose DHS. If this has happened to you, please file a grievance against the worker, and email MotherInterrupted. Do not let this go unnoticed.

Honorable Judge Deanne Darling
Clackamas County Juvenile Court
2123 Kaen Road
Oregon City, OR   97045

May 15, 2006

Judge Darling,

I’m writing to you regarding Baby B’s case, and to share some information about Children’s Protective Services, Oregon DHS and the Attorney General’s office.

I have been in your court many times, both as French interpreter, and as an independent advocate for children and families. I am also a former school teacher and college professor.

In addition to my other activities, I now run a cable TV show, MotherInterrupted. Recently, one of your former wards, Lee Lamb¹, now an aged out foster teen, appeared on my show. He said you were “like a mom” to him, and that you told DHS if they did not get their act together you would personally take charge of him. I intend to interview more and more children, teens, and former foster children who have been abused or exploited by Oregon DHS.

I am impressed by the way you speak to young people, by the strong and clear messages you give them about consequences for delinquent behavior. I wish my daughter had had a judge like you. In July of 2002, Multnomah County Referee Linda Hughes indicated to my daughter, who, subsequent to a family tragedy compounded by the usual mother-daughter conflicts and teenage rebellion, that it was ok to defy her own mother, ok to let her room get filthy, and finally, perfectly ok if she did not feel like going to school. None of that is ok, and in fact, is a very dangerous message for a teenager. 

While in state care, my daughter was put on Paxil, a drug she did not need to be on, and which caused her mental and physical health problems. Luckily, my daughter is home now, though the destructive effects of DHS never completely disappear². My daughter and I are still recovering from the trauma and abuse of state intervention, which delayed our working on the real issues, which are none of DHS', nor Referee Hughes', business.

The last time I was in your courtroom, before the "Mother X" hearing on May 4, was several months ago, when I was interpreting for a 17 year old French girl³, who, like my daughter, was attempting to use the system to subvert her mother’s authority. You told the girl that was between her and the French government, and refused to take her into custody.

I bring up this particular hearing because of an outrageous incident that occurred involving assistant attorney general Marcia Lance-Bumb, who was also on the case involving the French girl, and who apparently recognized me as an advocate, and cable TV producer. During a meeting between the French girl and her attorney, Steven Rosenbaum, Ms. Lance-Bumb tried four times to disrupt the meeting, pretending that I was some kind of terrorist. The Interpreter Services personnel know, and the judges know this too, and I want you to know, that when I come to court to interpret, I am not acting as an advocate, but as an unbiased third party, whose job it is only to interpret. This is the oath I take as a courtroom interpreter, and I stand by it, always. Lance-Bumb’s behavior that day was unwarranted, rude and obnoxious, hardly befitting someone working in the attorney general’s office. Ask Steve Rosenbaum if you want to hear about how the attorney general behaved that day, repeatedly bursting in and trying to interrupt his meeting with his client and her interpreter.

I now work as a freelance interpreter for private agencies, and anyone I have ever worked for can tell you I am competent and professional. Lance-Bumb’s attack on my character was unwarranted, and apparently motivated by her personal disgust for the way I have exposed her incompetence and her complete disregard for the best interest of any child in Oregon.

I assure you I am not the “terrorist” I have been made out to be by Marcia Lance-Bumb and her DHS cohorts. I advocate non-violent means for fighting CPS and DHS abuse of power.  (The fact that I never clobbered any of the workers or attorneys who participated in the attempted destruction of my family, and the medical abuse and corruption of my own daughter should tell you I am not a violent person). 

My opposition to the taking of children from their homes by CPS, based on shabby, and often deliberately false information, is not founded just on personal experience, or even on my experience as an advocate for children and families in Oregon. I have researched the topic extensively. I would like to refer you to “Memoirs of a Baby Stealer: Lessons I’ve Learned as a Foster Mom”⁴, “Profane Justice” ⁵, “Wounded Innocents⁶,” to name just a few of the books written on CPS. If you read some of this literature, you will learn that for every child taken, not just in Oregon, but in all 50 states, an average of 21 service providers are drawing some kind of income. And you will find that children are 10 to 28 times more likely to be abused or neglected in foster care than by their real parents.

The “best interest of the child” is a buzz-word that is tossed around the juvenile courts whenever DHS has no good reason for taking a child into foster care. It seems that just by saying the magic words “best interest”, most judges will rule in favor of DHS.

“Parental fitness” is another overused concept that is conveniently used to justify taking children. This parental fitness smacks of eugenics. See Darwin, Adorno, Francis Galton⁷. Look at Hitler’s plan to eliminate those less fit, both physically and morally, and you will see the roots of CPS and the idea of eliminating “unfit” parents. Of course, any parent can be made out by a clever psychologist to be “less fit” than some chosen adoptive parent. I believe most of these adoptive parents have no idea where their adoptive children come from, who the real parents are, or what means DHS used to get the children. I intend to change that, by educating adoptive parents and urging them to do their part to help end the child abuse industry. 

The most commonly used tool in the taking and keeping of children in state custody is now the psychological evaluation. For any real or perceived disorder, such as anger management, post-traumatic stress, paranoia, personality disorder—which in many cases is the result, not the cause, of a child being taken from the parent, DHS can convince a judge to keep a child in state care, even though no crime, or neglect of the child, has been founded.  

Regarding personality testing, which is often used by DHS against parents, please see “The Cult of Personality”⁸, which explains how so-called personality tests, like the MMPI and others, are being debunked as having no more reliability than astrology or tea leaf readings. 

The psychology industry⁹  now works hand in glove with Children’s Services to fast track children for the adoption industry. 

The immediate purpose of my letter to you today is to advocate the reunification of "Baby B" with his natural mother, "Mother X". 

On April 30, Deborah had her visit with her infant son at my house. There were six of us present, including the SSA. Brynden was very clingy with her mother, as is normal for a child that age who has been taken from his or her mom. It was clear he was very happy to see his mother and refused to leave her sight during the visit. Deborah did age-appropriate activities with her son, including providing toys for him to explore, take apart and put back together. It is clear that in spite of the trauma he has been put through by DHS, he is a very bright 15 month old. 

Since bringing her baby son Brynden to my home for her visit, Deborah has had her visits cut off. When Kathy, the worker, expressed her disagreement with this decision, stating the baby was in good hands and in no danger while in my home¹⁰, she was apparently threatened with dismissal. It appears that anyone who expresses a contrary opinion where DHS is concerned is punished: parents have their children kept in isolation from them. Workers who side with a parent are fired.

DHS claims that because Deborah now has a very good full-time job which does not allow her time off during the day to meet DHS’ supervising convenience, she doesn’t get visits. Are you allowing DHS to cut her visits off now because it is not convenient for the caseworker to “supervise” her and her son? 

Deborah, like many mothers I have advocated for, has a job supervising and caring for young children. Today, she is taking some autistic children to the Oregon zoo. Yet, DHS pretends she is a threat to her own child, and that she herself needs supervision, to parent her own child. I was treated the same way, however my daughter, who has always lived with me, except during her involuntary incarceration by foster care industry, was old enough to have some say and refused to participate in supervised visits with me. In the end, it was my daughter who got herself home.

Does it tell you something, Judge Darling, that DHS is now taking kids from mothers who hold jobs—sometimes with DHS!—taking care of other people’s children?

In addition to her arduous fight to get Brynden back, Deborah is studying child psychology and development issues, namely involved children who have suffered the trauma of being taken from their parents. She is anticipating, once Brynden is home, the need of extensive therapy for her son, as a result of DHS custody. Deborah is willing and able to provide the love the extra support her son will need.

I believe "Mother X" is clean and sober, and I consider myself part of her personal support team, to help her stay on track and not crumble under the stress of being repeatedly attacked and tortured by DHS. I do not use drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. I feel I can be a positive role model and support for moms like Deborah. 

You may share the contents of my letter with all the parties involved in the "Baby X" case, excluding, Nick Gambino, who, based on his violent behavior towards Deborah when she was pregnant was Brynden, gives me cause to fear for my safety.

The fact that DHS would rather give "Baby X" to a man they know to be abusive, and an active user of illegal substances, rather than return the baby to his mother, because of her unwillingness to yield to their threats, may be enough to tell you that they certainly do not have "Baby X"s “best interests” in mind. 

Neither does the attorney general, Marcia Lance-Bumb, who sat in your court before you entered, sniggering and whispering, as she often does in court, with DHS caseworker Galina Glothier. 

Deborah has paid an unfair price for a poor choice she made one night, when she took a drink of alcohol while on prescription medication. It’s time to stop punishing her, and stop punishing her child as well. It’s the children who suffer the most from the unnatural separation from their birth mom. 

"Mother X" is ready, willing and able to take full responsibility for all her son’s needs.  I hope you look carefully at "Baby X"’s case, and consider taking him out of DHS custody and returning him to his mother.

Susan Detlefsen
Advocate for Children and Families
French Interpreter
MotherInterrupted Producer 

1. Lee Lamb, former foster child, will appear on the MotherInterrupted Show, the week of June 6.
2. See http://home.att.net/~s.detlefsen/cpschronology.htm
3. November 17, 2005 dependency hearing. I don’t remember the girl’s name, but her attorney was Stephen Rosenbaum. Her mother claimed she had been coached by a boyfriend to make false allegations of sex abuse against the mother in order to avoid going home to France, and to stay in the States.
4. “Memoirs of a Baby Stealer: Lessons I’ve Learned as a Foster Mom”, Mary Callahan, Pinewoods Press, Maine, 2003.
5. “Profane Justice”, Suzanne Shell, Sage Wisdom Press, CO, 2001.
6. “Wounded Innocents”, Richard Wexler, Prometheus Books, NY, 1990.
7. See “The Cult of Personality”, Annie Murphy Paul, Simon & Schuster, Inc, NYC, 2005, pages 146-148.
8. Ibid. (The entire book is devoted to this topic.)
9. See “Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People”, Dr. Tana Dineen, Robert Davies, NY, 2001.
10. One year ago, around May 20, a man known to you in your community, Jesse Lott, was at my house for birthday party I held for Melissa Gaston, who, thanks to the internet, found her estranged father, Will Gaston, (whose courtroom outburst caused "Mother X"’s May 4 hearing to be reset). Ask Jesse and his wife Joy if they find my house “unfit” for children.

PS If anyone has any information regarding assistant attorney general Marcia Lance-Bumb, please email: motherinterrupted@motherinterrupted.us. Thank you.

Read "Mother X" Complaint Against Oregon DHS