How we got to this point with Aunt Martha's

Good day, I hope that you read this and get back to me as soon as you can. My name is Mahdee Muhammad and my wife and I were blessed about 18 months ago to change our minds about something that a lot of families are faced with. That is to take care in a child whose mother can no longer, or in our case didn’t want to take care of their child any more. My 2nd cousin Joyce Washington was placed in my mother’s house in Park Forest after going from my aunt and sister’s house after she could no longer live with them. Well just like other houses Joyce was in, she caused confusion and my mother put her out. My wife and I had been taking care of her son Zion (who is not a ward of the state) for about four months at this point Joyce case worker at that time was Ms. Tureen. Ms. Tureen asked my wife and me if we wanted to let Joyce move in with us since there was not an open in another house. Joyce did not want to go to a shelter because of her past dealing in one. We had to say no to this, because our daughter was in eight grade at this point, and we could not have Joyce bring her ways into our house. So after this my mother agreed to let Joyce stay with her until something better came around for her. Well, a room was open in one of Aunt Martha’s group home in Chicago Heights. This home was for mothers who had kids or was about to have a child. Joyce did not fit any of these; however this was a better placement for her then a shelter. Aunt Martha’s set up an Informal Arrangement Form with a lot of promise that were never following through. My wife and I were not upset about this our family was Zion family. The love that we feel for our kids is also felt for Zion, even if he did not come from us. So we never looked at the state or Aunt Martha’s for any help with Zion. As the summer came Joyce was getting use to living her life without Zion. She told my wife and me that she did not want Zion to live the life that she had and knew that it would be better to live with us. So she wanted to give us full custody of Zion. We drew up a child custody and agreement in July of 2007, signed and notarized it. We had a few problems; Joyce wanted to take summer trips with us and asked us to buy her new things. During the fall my wife and I wanted to put Zion on our insurance, so we took the forms that we had to the office and was told that they were not legal. So I made some calls and found out what we had to do to make this agreement legal. So, Joyce and her GAL met with my wife and I in court to give us legal guardianship of Zion on October, 2, 2007. On this court date we were not able to get full guardianship because Joyce had some guy sign the birth certificate and she could not get in touch with him. So at this point, we met this guy and told him that we needed him to sign his rights away. He had no problem with this. We had to set another date to come back to court on November 30, 2007. Now this is when things changed. We found out that the people we had been talking to at Aunt Martha were not the ones in charge. The person who ran the group home was out sick and she informed me that Joyce Washington should never have been placed in that home since she did not have her child and did not seem to want the child. I was also told that once we gain full guardianship of Zion, Joyce would have to be placed in another home and she knew this. So, we did not see Joyce from this date till our next court date on November 30, 2007. Joyce came to court with someone who said that she was her educator advisor (this is the person that I’m making the request for investigation on). When the case was called the judge checked to make sure that all the paper work was signed and in order. The judge asked were all parties still in agreement with the order and this is when Joyce said that she had changed her mind. Now this took my wife and me for a loop. And so the Judge ordered for a GAL for Zion and set the matter for another court date. So our next date was in February 2008 and another date was set for April 2008. On March 7, 2008, Joyce had not visited her son for some time and she came to our house on this date. My wife and I talked to her about some things that she needed to do like get her GED, go to college, get a job, dress better and stop giving Zion food out of her mouth. Well during this Joyce said she felt when she held her son he would touch her in a sexual matter. My wife and I asked her to get out of her house! She would not leave and became angry and violent. I asked my wife to call the police and Joyce ran out of our house. She made a call to someone as she walked down the street. When the police arrived, the officer took a statement from my wife and told us he knew someone that worked at the group home and he would go talk to Joyce. The officer came back to our house and told us that he was told that I had attacked Joyce and took her head and banged it on the wooden floor in our house over and over. I later asked Joyce why did she lie to the police, she told me that she did not tell the police this (I believe that her advisor told her to do this). Joyce came to court with her adviser on April 29th, 2008 and told the judge that she feared her life and wanted her visits with Zion to be at the group home (Joyce needed to have this in order to meet the rules of DCF). Her adviser gave Joyce legal advice and fought for her rights as if she was her GAL. Her adviser made a statement to me in court that she knew why I had to take anger management classes and that I had an anger problem. I told her that I had a problem with how she was handling herself and what she was doing. Illinois. I talked to a supervisor about these issues and I told them that I was going to give them one week before I took this matter up with the State of Illinois. I don’t know what this woman has done or not done; all that I know is that things have been said and done by this person who is far as I know is just Joyce’s adviser not her legal adviser. This person made remarks to me that I felt should not have been made. This person has helped Joyce make false statements. I know that the job of Aunt Martha’s is to take care of Joyce and help her in any way that they feel she needs help; however, if someone has been helping this child lie or break the law then they need to be dealt with. I have been told to drop this and just let it go. I have been told that most people are going to look at me as some ANGRY BLACK MAN. I am angry! I’m sick of hearing on the news about some person who has killed their kids after they have said they did not want the child, or state taken the child away. In these stories it’s always some case worker who cares more about the bottom line than the child. Aunt Martha’s gets about 4,000 a mouth for Joyce Washington and they would get this for about two more years until she turns 21, then what? It’s too late for me to help Joyce, however; if this adviser is doing what I think she is she does not and should not mess up another young woman’s life. If she is not doing this, then she just needs to do her job better, because what she said to me in court was uncalled for and very unprofessional and she has the job of educating and helping young women.