Massachusetts News--March, 2000

The District Attorney’s office on Cape Code will not comment on the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl, Tarri Peterson, while in DSS custody.

First Assistant District Attorney Michael O’Keefe told Massachusetts News he would not comment except to say it is still under investigation by the State Police although the charges were first made public early last year.

The girl is one of six children who were snatched by the DSS from their Cape Cod home almost five years ago.

The children were taken after the mother refused to file a false claim of violence against her husband. Many other parents on Cape Cod tell Massachusetts News that the DSS office has also threatened to take their children away if they did not file false reports of domestic violence.

The Petersons are still trying to be reunited with their children.

Tarri, who is now 15 years old, says she was raped by three men and had an abortion while in DSS custody. She ran away from a DSS lockup in the summer of 1999 but was recaptured last fall. 

Her parents are also especially concerned about their son, Troy, who went through great trauma when he was literally dragged from his family by the town’s policemen. He is now 13 years old. They "fear for his life." He has been in 28 foster homes and 3 mental hospitals. DSS claims he has ADHD and post traumatic stress syndrome. He is on the following drugs: Depakote, Zoloft, Clonidine, Prazadone, Disperidol and Buspar. He tried to commit suicide. He was abused at Arbor Hospital and taken to Children’s Hospital on May 27, 1999. He is now at another, unknown institution. His parents are not allowed to talk with his doctors.

The oldest child, Deanna, is now 18 years old. The three youngest are Tom, Cory and Cameron who are 11, 8, and 6.

Relatives Are Rebuffed 

Several caring people, including relatives, have filed motions in Barnstable Juvenile Court asking for guardianship of Tarri, according to Nev Moore of Justice for Families. She says that Judge Carol Smith either refuses to hear the motions or delays the issue. 

"The point is to get Tarri out of DSS custody, where she never needed to be in the first place and where she endured physical abuses that are common practice to kids in DSS ‘protective’ custody," Moore tells Massachusetts News.

"By delaying the matter, the purpose of resolving it in the best interests of the child is defeated. The Tarri Peterson case is very typical of DSS intervention. It is a typical chronology of legal and administrative incompetence which results in families and, more to the point, children suffering needlessly. Tarri is bogged down in a quagmire of bureaucracy in which no one in the system who created the situation wants to be responsible for resolving it. The way we ‘protected’ Tarri was to lock her up and beat her up, so she could develop into an adult who is disillusioned and unable to trust anyone, particularly those in authority," says Moore. 

A complaint with the "Commission on Judicial Conduct" has been filed against Justice Smith by Eric Bliecken, former Republican candidate for U.S. Congress. 

He wrote, "Judge Smith presided over a courtroom in which she denied admission to the parties in the case. She intentionally refused to consider and rule on properly filed motions. She denied medical professionals access to their patients and refused to consider their reports or allow their testimony. She suppressed known evidence of criminal abuse and battery. She allowed non-parties to be admitted to a closed hearing and to influence or dictate her rulings. 

"The case of Tarri Peterson and her family has received an enormous amount of media attention and will likely continue to do so. The irregularities in my guardianship case are a small part of this outrageous story. The nexus of this travesty lies squarely with Judge Smith. Judicial Canons, attorney ethics, due process, the rules of the Juvenile Court and the Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the United States apparently have no bearing on her judicial actions and inactions in and out of the courtroom." 

Punish Those Who Help Runaways 

The reaction of State Senator Rauschenbach and other officialdom to the situation has not been to investigate what has been done to the Peterson family but to attack those who have tried to help them. 

The Senator has filed a bill which would make it illegal for anyone to harbor a child who runs away from DSS. 

The legislation was recommended by Assistant District Attorney O’Keefe, in an Oct. 22 letter to the Senator. O’Keefe was responding to the incident which occurred last summer where concerned citizens, including Bleicken, gave aid and comfort to Tarri Peterson. She had run away from DSS custody claiming she suffered severe abuse in a state contracted facility where she was placed. The plight of Tarri and her siblings was featured in the January issue of Massachusetts News. 

While Tarri was on the run from DSS, Bleicken attempted to put Tarri into the federal witness protection program after having her checked out by a doctor and psychologist. He also assisted her in writing letters to her court appointed lawyer in an effort to have the court look at her plight. 

Tarri was subsequently recaptured by DSS and placed for a few months in a mental facility in Fall River. Since then, DSS says in a court document she was being moved to a "specialized mentor foster home." DSS also says in the document, "It is the department’s contention that Mr. Bleicken is potentially dangerous and is a threat to Tarri’s well being."

Clearly stating the intention of his proposed legislation is to punish people like Bleicken, O’Keefe wrote in his letter to Senator Rauschenbach, "Those individuals or groups who think of themselves as ‘protectors’ of children who they feel are being abused by the Department of Social Services have the ability presently to harbor DSS runaways without any legal consequences." 

Shooting the Messenger

Bleicken countered O’Keefe’s letter by writing to Rauschenbach explaining the circumstances leading up to Tarri’s escape from DSS – something he says O’Keefe neglected to do in his letter. Bleicken wrote in part, "This is a ‘shoot the messenger’ approach designed to keep these embarrassing stories from the public eye. Keep in mind that we only know about Tarri because she escaped."

Bleicken wrote that the proposed legislation was shortsighted from the state’s point of view for two reasons: Americans will always be outraged at a "Gestapo like agency" that acts without oversight, especially where children are involved. "So this law becomes an invitation for a full blown interstate and international underground railroad."

Secondly, he wrote that the last thing DSS wants is due process, which is what DSS may face if the law passes. He pointed out that prosecuting a case against people like himself who helped harbor a runaway would enable a jury to hear the facts of the child’s ordeal.

"It is ironic that Mr. O’Keefe would like to prosecute me. Why has he not charged Tarri’s rapists or those who repeatedly batter her in the Key Shelter?

"Senator, you can pass Mr. O’Keefe’s bill, but I respectfully suggest that your time would be better served if you take steps to investigate what is going on inside DSS and their contracted facilities and introduce oversight and control into a situation which is clearly out of control," he wrote.

O’Keefe told Massachusetts News Bleicken did not have any legal authority to do what he did. When asked if Bleicken did not act within the law as currently written, O’Keefe answered, "It’s subject to debate whether or not he could be charged under a licensing statute for running a day care center. We want the law to be abundantly clear in the area of parental kidnapping, that’s why we filed the legislation." 

O’Keefe said the appropriate remedy for anyone is to petition the court if they believe a child is being mistreated. "We have a legal system for the custody of minor children." said O’Keefe, "And we want the legal system to be the only system that dictates where and under what circumstances a child will live, not just anybody off the street. We are not going to tolerate vigilantes trying to address the problems the court should be addressing." When asked, he said the DA investigates DSS like it investigates any other people, that the law applies equally.

State Senator Rauschenbach told Massachusetts News he did not know the specific circumstances that led to the District Attorney’s letter but said it had been felt there were some issues raised in Tarri’s case which were worthy of note regarding taking runaways. He said he does not recollect seeing Bleicken’s letter to him but will look for it.

Rauschenbach said there may be times where a child is taken in on the run where there is no alleged abuse they are fleeing from. "If there is no abuse and the child runs away [and is taken in,] is that custodial interference or not?" he said. "The measure is not a fait accompli. It raises the matter to a point where it’s reasonable to discuss it. All views will be rolled into the legislative record." 

When asked if he was looking into DSS abuses the Senator said only that issues surrounding DSS are an "enormously controversial arena." 

DSS Refuses to Talk

Tom and Donna Peterson, the parents of Tarri, told Massachusetts News they have not heard anything yet about the status of the investigation of the treatment of their children who are in DSS custody. 

Since Tarri was recaptured by DSS last September, Eric Bleicken wrote several letters to the Attorney General’s office alleging Medicaid fraud on the part of DSS. "The critical issue is that Tarri’s physical and emotional well being are in severe danger. But it is not unimportant that many thousands of dollars are being squandered for her ‘care’ where this extreme level of care is demonstrably unnecessary where professional evidence has been made available to the court and its officials," he wrote.

Bleicken also has been petitioning the court since November to allow Tarri’s aunt and uncle to become her guardian or to become her guardian himself. 

DSS has been opposing Bleicken’s petitions and motions, but when Bleicken attempted to obtain Tarri’s file from DSS according to the law, DSS and the court said DSS was not a party to the case and need not comply. 

Bleicken, who is considering filing a federal civil rights complaint, told Massachusetts News, "The bottom line is, this is the epitome of a Kangaroo Court."
 

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