Centre Daily Times
By Corey Williams
May 22, 2011

This May 12, 2011 photo shows Maryanne Godboldo in Detroit. Godboldo is locked in a battle with Michigan's Department of Human Services over her right to determine whether her physically impaired daughter should continue taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, since she claims the girl has responded better to holistic treatment. AP Photo

DETROIT — Frustration over her physically impaired daughter’s medical care led Maryanne Godboldo to lash out at what she considered state interference and into a 12-hour standoff when Detroit police came to take the girl away.

When it ended, the unemployed mother was in handcuffs; her daughter placed in a psychiatric hospital for children.

Godboldo now is locked in a bitter battle with Michigan’s Department of Human Services over her right to determine whether the girl should continue taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal and the government’s responsibility to look after the child’s welfare.

Godboldo doesn’t trust doctors much – she blames some of the girl’s past medical problems on possible physician negligence and complications from childhood immunizations, but did not name the doctors or release her daughter’s medical records to The Associated Press. She claims the girl has responded better to holistic treatment that does not include Risperdal.

But the state is not budging on its assertion that without the proper medication, Ariana is at risk.

“Our mandate is to go into court and prove there is medical neglect,” said Human Services Director Maura Corrigan, who declined to speak directly about Godboldo’s case due to the ongoing court proceedings.

“Is there harm to the child? That’s what we are trying to assess,” Corrigan told the AP in a recent interview.

A defiant Godboldo still believes she was right to defy police, despite five days in jail and criminal charges, including discharge of a firearm, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and resisting officers.

“I was in my home. Why should I come out? They were invading my home,” Godboldo said.

Citing the charges, Godboldo declined to say if she fired a gun when police arrived at her home March 24. But officers said a gun and about 43 rounds of live ammunition were in the house, and a spent shell casing was found after the standoff, according to court records. Ariana also was in the house.

“I would always be concerned with a parent who has a gun and is using it when a child is present because accidents happen,” said Oakland County Probate Court Judge Linda Hallmark, who isn’t connected to the case but handles child custody issues. “If a parent feels the child is going to be removed and there isn’t a basis for it, there are legal avenues that the parent needs to follow.”

Ariana already had her share of medical troubles when Godboldo started giving her Risperdal more than a year ago at a doctor’s suggestion. She had lost her right leg below the knee as an infant and wears a prosthesis. Godboldo claims she also developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, before entering 6th grade.

She said her daughter complained often of being dizzy and had a hoarse voice, became more clingy and fearful, and avoided playing outside.

“It happened slowly at first, but it was enough to know when your child makes a change,” Godboldo said.

She sought help at a Detroit area center. Staff there put Ariana on a treatment plan that included Risperdal, said Allison Folmar, one of Godboldo’s attorneys.

Child Protective Services in its petition wrote that Ariana was diagnosed with “psychosis NOS,” or “not otherwise specified,” Folmar said.

“They are saying ‘it’s something going on in her head, but we don’t know what it is,’” the attorney added.

But Godboldo balked at a suggestion that her daughter be placed in a mental hospital. She took the girl’s treatment to another center. She also decided to wean her from Risperdal, which sometimes is used to treat schizophrenia.

“Ariana has some issues. She requires one-on-one attention,” said Folmar, describing how the girl at times appears unresponsive. But “she writes. She reads.”

Risperdal often is used to contain behaviors like aggression and even treat autism, said Derek H. Suite, a board certified psychiatrist and president and chief executive of Full Circle Health in the Bronx, N.Y. Risperdal use has shown dramatic reductions in psychotic symptoms, but there can be side-effects, he added.

“Sometimes kids can have neurological problems … muscular tics,” Suite said. “These drugs can slow you down.”

After Godboldo’s confrontation with police, Ariana spent about a month in a children’s psychiatric facility. She now is living with Godboldo’s sister, Penny. A judge has ordered that other adult relatives be present when Godboldo visits with her daughter.

But “to this day, there is not one court order saying give her the medication,” Folmar said. “No one has recommended giving the child the medication.”

It’s not unusual for parents and the state to be at odds over what’s best.

Two Idaho parents lost a civil lawsuit last year when a judge ruled their rights were not violated by an officer who took custody of their infant daughter so a doctor could check for signs of meningitis. Dale and Leilani Neumann of Wisconsin were convicted of reckless homicide following the 2008 death of their 11-year-old daughter, whose undiagnosed diabetes was treated with prayer instead of conventional medicine.

Godboldo said the state was not involved in the care of her daughter until she pursued a more holistic treatment. When asked by the AP what that entailed, she replied: “God’s medication.”

After Godboldo refused to attend a meeting with Child Protective Services, officers arrived at her home to remove Ariana. Godboldo claimed they never showed her a court order.

Detroit police declined to comment about the case “because of the litigation involved,” Sgt. Eren Stephens said in an email.

When Godboldo refused to allow police in, the officers tried to force their way through a side door but backed off after hearing a gun shot, court documents said.

“Maryann did not shoot at police and she did not fire a gun with any intention of scaring the police,” Folmar said. “But even if she did fire a so-called warning shot, right now the question is of self-defense.”

Read article here:  http://www.centredaily.com/2011/05/22/2728095/mother-battles-michigan-over-daughters.html

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Livingston Daily
By Gina Damron
May 8, 2011

Maryanne Godboldo’s supporters will gather today for a reunion party at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.

They’re celebrating the fact that Godboldo’s 13-year-old daughter — at the center of a struggle between her parents and the state over her medical care — was released Friday from a medical facility in Northville into her aunt’s care.

Godboldo, who has garnered significant community support, says she has the right to determine her daughter’s care and had been weaning her off a prescribed psychotropic drug in favor of holistic treatments.

But in an order to take the child into protective custody in March, Child Protective Services accused Godboldo of being in denial about her daughter’s mental health.

The state also accused her of neglecting the girl by not giving her the psychotropic drug.

With police assistance, state workers came to take the girl, but Godboldo has said she wasn’t going to allow that.

She is accused of firing a gun, triggering an hours-long standoff, and is facing criminal charges.

Last month, authorities determined there was no emergency need for the girl to be medicated.

On the order of a Wayne County juvenile court judge, doctors for the family and of a facility where the girl was taken after the standoff have come up with a treatment plan that can be implemented now that the girl is in family custody.

The trial in the case is set to begin in June.

“We still have a long way to go,” read an e-mail Saturday from the Justice 4 Maryanne Action Committee. But now that the girl is back with family, “we have much cause to celebrate.”

A love of dance

Godboldo, 56, said she and the girl’s father, Mubarak Hakim, met at a Detroit restaurant in the 1990s. Hakim, she said, was a jazz musician.

The two began to date and, in 1998, they had a baby girl.

“It was wonderful,” Godboldo said. “It was absolutely delightful.”

The girl’s right leg had to be amputated below the knee when she was 3 days old, but Godboldo said her daughter became athletic, frequented social occasions with her aunt and loved to dance.

She got that from her mom.

Godboldo was a young girl when she and her sister, Penny, started taking dance classes on Saturdays. They learned ballet, modern dance and tap.

Godboldo said she grew up on the city’s west side, born to parents who moved to Detroit from the South. She was the youngest girl and 11th in a line of 12 children.

In the early 1980s, Godboldo and her sister went to New York to study dance. Godboldo later went back to pursue dance and landed with a jazz dance company. Her father died in the late ’80s and, in 1993, she came home to take care of her mother. But dance was always within reach, and her sister hooked her back in. The art has been a release for Godboldo.

“It’s relaxing,” she said. “It rejuvenates you.”

A treatment plan

Dr. Margaret Betts, the family’s physician and friend, said Godboldo’s daughter used to be active — she danced, was in choir, took horseback riding lessons.

But a series of immunizations in 2009, Godboldo has said, changed her.

Now she seems shy, Betts said.

According to the order to take the girl, she was diagnosed with an unspecified psychosis and was placed on medication.

In a petition filed by CPS, allegations were made that the girl became aggressive after Godboldo stopped the medication, and her behavior was unpredictable.

Betts, who believes in alternative medicine, questioned the original diagnosis and said more tests will be done.

The new treatment plan includes resuming an alternative regimen, while consulting with a psychiatrist, neurologist and other medical specialists.

Betts said alternative medicine may not work for everyone, but “it should be the starting point for most.”

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a 2008 survey of Americans showed that in 2007, more than 38% of adults and nearly 12% of children were using some form of complementary and alternative medicine.

The organization is a federal government agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine, which the agency defines as “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.”

According to the survey, some diseases or conditions for which complementary or alternative medicine were used most frequently included back or neck pain, colds, anxiety or stress, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and insomnia.

Betts said parents have the right to determine what is best for their children.

“As guardian and parent, that is our responsibility,” she said. “No one knows you better.”

Read article here: http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/C4/20110508/NEWS01/105080569/Maryanne-Godboldo-s-daughter-released-parents-state-wrangle-over-her-medical-care?odyssey=nav|head

For more information on alternatives, click here: http://www.cchrint.org/alternatives/

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NaturalNews.com

by Monica G. Young

Click image to watch video: Drugging our Children—Side Effects

The story of the Detroit mother, Maryanne Godboldo, undergoing a police siege on her home after refusing to give her daughter a psychotropic drug has set off a national outcry. Many facts not only vindicate her defiance but point the finger squarely at the correct villains: the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries.

As a recap, on March 24 a Children’s Protective Services (CPS) case worker petitioned to remove Maryanne Godboldo’s 13-year-old daughter from her care and place her in state custody. Only two weeks on the assignment (scarcely knowing the girl), the case worker claimed the mother was medically neglecting her child by taking her off Risperdal – a highly toxic antipsychotic drug.

A police SWAT team, accompanied by the case worker, was promptly dispatched to the home – complete with assault weapons, an armored carrier and helicopter. Despite police breaking down her door, the mother refused to give up her daughter and allegedly fired a warning shot. After a 12-hour standoff, the woman surrendered.

This mother – a teacher, dancer and respected figure in Detroit’s art circles – was then jailed and arraigned on multiple felony charges. Maryanne was since released from jail but faces criminal charges. The child was essentially kidnapped by the police and CPS and placed in a juvenile psychiatric facility.

State officials since confirmed there was no need for her to take the drug and a judge has announced a plan to get the teen out of the facility and into her aunt’s home.

The mother says her daughter’s troubles began in September 2009 with a bad reaction to immunizations. Upon seeking help for the girl at a Detroit Children’s Center, a psychiatrist prescribed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal – without any diagnosis and despite no history of mental problems.

Maryanne at first complied, but after months of worsening symptoms and severe side effects she consulted with a holistic doctor who advised weaning her daughter off the drug. The child’s aunt confirms, “There were absolutely no mental issues with her until she had the immunizations and even more with the Risperdal. It’s been hell ever since.” The girl’s father, Mubuarak Hakim, reports, “Maryanne’s decision to wean her from that was making a difference, making her better, helping her to be a happy kid again.”

Court documents show Maryanne was within her legal rights in halting the drug. On June 3, 2010 she signed an informed consent on behalf of her child, stating, “It has been explained to me that I have the right to withdraw this consent at any time and can stop taking the medication at any time.” The document was also signed by the psychiatrist who prescribed the drug – reportedly the same one who later complained to child welfare workers when she stopped administering the drug.

It’s no wonder a mom would go to such lengths to protect her child from psychotropic drugs. Reported Risperdal “side” effects include abdominl pain, vomiting, sore throat, agitation, aggression, anxiety, chest pain, nasal inflammation, dizziness, drowsiness, insomnia, dry skin, difficulty urinating, heavy menstruation, tremor, weight gain, lethargic feelings, joint pain, respiratory infection, tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements of face and limbs), liver failure, stroke, blood clots, hemorrhaging and suicidal thoughts.

Follow the money

It is not uncommon for Children’s Protective Services – an agency ostensibly dedicated to protecting children – to coerce parents to give their kids dangerous psychiatric drugs, often three or four drugs at a time.

CPS’s funding comes from the state and federal grants (as is the case with the Children’s Center which originally put Maryanne’s daughter on the drug). And one of the most powerful and high-rolling government lobbying forces in the U.S. is the pharmaceutical industry.

In reporting on the Godboldo story, the Voice of Detroit talked to Starletta Banks who filed suit in 2005 when her three children were snatched by CPS. Banks says, “The sole reasons that children are being stolen from their families and homes are the financial incentives associated with each child and circumstance. There is federal grant money given to states and child placement agencies to create situations that do not exist to generate these funds. The state of Michigan is financially broke, thus surviving on the backs of our children.”

Big Pharma’s stronghold over Michigan is evidenced by it being the only state with an immunity law for drug makers. Per Michigan State Representative, Vicki Barnett, “Michigan is the only state in the nation that gives drug companies total immunity when their products harm or kill consumers.”

Ironically, the same week Michigan officials busted a mother’s door down for taking her child off Risperdal, a South Carolina jury found the drug’s manufacturer (Johnson & Johnson) guilty of deceiving doctors about its side effects and effectiveness. “It was all about the money,” says the South Carolina state attorney. At least ten other states have similar Risperdal lawsuits pending trial in federal courts.

But it is not only Michigan parents or those involved with child protection who have been marginalized by psychiatric influence. Millions of parents across the country, in every economic strata and race, have been misled into believing that they must defer to mental health “experts”. Yet these psychiatric drug pushers sacrifice children’s health and futures for the sake of profit.

About the author:
Monica G. Young is a human rights investigator and educational writer with a purpose to expose the truth about the pharmaceutical and psychiatric industries and safeguard human liberty. She encourages non-drug alternative approaches based on healthy lifestyles and human decency.   She supports the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and like-minded groups.

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