Child Starves as Foster Home Banks Cash

This is an outrage. Why are these foster parents or facilities continually effing up? It's a disgrace to social workers as well when some can't simply follow up on these families and see that the child's being neglected! No one's watching over these angels when they're having thousands of dollars spent on helping them!

(WXYZ) - All she wanted was help caring for her wheel-chair bound son Johnny. The state’s answer was to put him in a foster care facility. Johnny’s mom would have preferred to have someone help her at home, but the state offers limited home-care services. A year after Johnny was in foster care, the 10-year-old boy starved to death.

We have all heard the horrendous cases of kids who were abused and some who died in Michigan’s foster care system. Our story exposes the state’s financial incentive to keep kids in the foster care system. Federal law sets it up that way—the more kids in the state system, the more money the federal government gives Michigan.

The foster care facilities contracted with the state cash-in too. In Johnny’s case, the foster care facility got $12,000 a month to care for him. It is a heart-wrenching case that illuminates problems in the system, including how difficult it is to get your children out of foster care. Johnny’s mom fought to get him out of the system, but he died before she succeeded.

For several months, the Action News Investigators dug deep into Michigan's tragically-flawed foster care system. Along with Johnny's story, we also met a father who fought all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court to get his boys out of the system. The state’s main reason for terminating his parental rights was his finances. We all know people who are struggling in this economy—and as one attorney said, if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

The state is making some changes as a result of a class action lawsuit. A court-appointed monitor now oversees the Department of Human Services. Progress is underway, but some critics say more needs to be done to help parents keep their children rather than put them in a flawed foster care system.

You’ll see the first piece of our investigation Thursday night at 11 on Channel 7 Action News. Watch and let us know what you think of state's foster system and it's ability to care for the children of Michigan.

Couple Sentenced After Foster Child Dies In Unsafe Home

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP -- A couple previously convicted of child endangerment involving their foster daughter has been sentenced again after the girl's death.

David and Melody Smith were sentenced Wednesday on a child endangerment conviction after Malake Dancer, 11, died of natural causes in February.

Investigators said at the time that the Smith home was "unsanitary and dangerous." The couple had been convicted of child endangerment charges involving the girl in 2004.

The couple was sentenced to 18 months suspended sentence, five years probation, a $1,000 fine and must complete a four to six month course at a community-based corrections facility.

The judge also said the Smiths cannot have any more foster children or pets, "not even a goldfish."

Police Say Missing Boy Dead, Foster Parents Suspects

(CNN) -- Police say the foster parents of a missing 5-year-old California boy with cerebral palsy are suspects in what is now being called a homicide investigation.

Jennifer Campbell and Louis Ross, who are engaged, told police in Oakland, California, that Hasanni Campbell disappeared on August 10 while Ross was dropping him off at the shoe store where his fiance worked.

Police arrested the two as suspects, but released them this week pending further investigation, Lt. Jeff Thomason said.

"We had nothing to do with it. He's our little boy we want him and we want him home, and our main concern is finding him," a tearful Campbell told CNN affiliate KGO.

Campbell, Hasanni's biological aunt, was arrested Friday in the Union City BART station on suspicion of accessory to murder after the fact, Thomason said. Her fiancé, Ross, was arrested a short time later at the couple's Fremont home on suspicion of murder.

Campbell was released Monday and Ross Tuesday after the Alameda County District Attorney's Office concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge them, Deputy District Attorney Tom Rogers said.

"We will continue to review the case as police continue their investigation," Rogers said.

Thomason declined to explain why the case had become a homicide investigation less than a month after Hasanni's guardians reported him missing. No body has been found.

"There's a lot of evidence right now we feel we still need to keep close to the investigation," he said.

"Even though they're released, they're still suspects," he said. "They're the last people who saw Hasanni alive."

Police also have released surveillance video from Wal-Mart showing the couple and Hasanni together on August 6 -- the last independent sighting of Hasanni alive.

In an interview last month with HLN's Nancy Grace, Ross said he left Hasanni outside his BMW for two to five minutes while he went to get his fiance to open the back door of the store.

"By the time I got there, Jennifer is already out of the store, walking toward me, asking, 'Where is Hasanni?' And I say, 'What do you mean, where is Hasanni?' And I look around to the side, and he is no longer there."

Ross and Campbell have maintained their innocence and continued to cooperate with police, said John Burris, a lawyer who has been advising the couple since the boy's disappearance.

"They're both very emotional. It's been traumatic for her as she'd never been in custody before. She felt she'd been treated terribly, that they'd been duplicitous toward her after she'd been cooperating with the investigation," Burris said.

"Mr. Ross is quite emotional as well, though he seemed to be more worried about her," Burris said.

But police believe Hasanni was not near the store August 10, Thomason said.

The officer said the Wal-Mart surveillance footage from August 6 represents the last known sighting of Hasanni alive, independent of his foster parents' reports.

"It shows we have an independent source showing him alive," he said. "We don't believe he was ever in north Oakland on the 10th [of August]."