The Credibility of the State Office of Administrative Hearings is at Stake

As you may recall from previous posts, Administrative Reviews are the means by which license holder's are able to challenge deficiencies given to them by childcare licensing representatives. You may also recall that these informal hearings are complete shams as the person who hears your case is a childcare licensing representative that works in the same office as the person whose deficiencies you are challenging. You cannot question any accusers, or any supposed evidence that the State has against you. I can't state enough times that the entire system is loaded with conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, the Texas Administrative Code states that license holders can request for Administrative Reviews and it is mandatory for the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) to schedule the Administrative Reviews within 10 days of the request and must schedule the Administrative Reviews within 30 days of being scheduled. Adrienne Driggers and the Department  ignored our requests for these administrative reviews by waiting to schedule them until well after Adrienne Driggers had already closed the daycare and placed Marla on the Central Registry.

This was the elephant in the room that we presented in our hearing. It's importance cannot be overstated as the Texas Administrative Code clearly states in Title 40, Part 19, Chapter 745, Subchapter M, Division 1, Rule §745.8803 that the Department cannot implement any decision or action that is the subject of the review until license holders due process rights concerning the decision or action are exhausted. Adrienne Driggers and the Department did not allow the Administrative Reviews to occur as mandated by the Texas Administrative Code and therefore illegally closed Marla's daycare and placed her on the Central Registry.

These facts alone should force Melissa Ricard, the presiding judge of the State Office of Administrative Hearings to rule in our favor. There was much more than particular code that should get her to rule in our favor as we proved in court that Childcare Licensing Representatives: Monica Martinez and Christina Cantu deliberately falsified deficiencies. We also proved, through emails and the documentation that they tried to withhold from us 3 months earlier, that Adrienne Driggers violated Marla's Constitutional Rights and had clearly abused her power in closing Marla's daycare and placing her on the Central Registry.  Let me state this loud and clear: We proved that Adrienne Driggers violated the law. I will be providing this proof on another post that I will present to you soon.

As of today (11/29/2015), The Honorable Judge Melissa Ricard has yet to make her decision as to whether or not Marla should get her license back and should be removed from the Central Registry. You will see when I present to you what occurred at the hearing that there was no doubt that Marla should never have had her license to operate taken away from her nor should she have been placed on the Central Registry, but as I have stated throughout this blog, the entire system is corrupt.

She could surprise us and follow the law by ruling in our favor but we are suspicious as she is a State employee and shares an office on the same floor with the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing. Her office is just a few feet away from DFPS! A statement that she made and an action that she took during the hearing left us with some suspicion as to whether or not she will rule according to the Texas Administrative Code which would be in our favor of course or if she will rule in the Departments favor simply because they, like her, are State of Texas employees.

It has been my premise all along that the system is broken and corrupt. If she rules in their favor it would only legitimize all that I have said. Should this occur one could expect for the media and certain Civil Rights Organizations to get involved. The U.S. Department of Justice would have no choice but to get involved as well. Should the judge rule against us Adrienne Driggers, the Department of Family and Protective Service, the Texas Attorney General's Office, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings might as well shred the United States Constitution.

If she does what is right and rules in our favor she will be hailed a hero for taking a stand against abuse of power, the targeting of minority business owners, and for standing up for the United States Constitution. The credibility of the State Office of Administrative Hearings is in the balance. Will it show itself to be like the kangaroo court system that the Administrative Reviews are known to be or will it show itself to be a legitimate court that is impartial as it purports to be? We will find out soon.

Established Standards by The Department of Family and Protective Services

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder proved to be a strange ally. I was constantly reliving what these corrupt people did to our family and the children in our care. I had many sleepless nights just thinking about what they did to us. Because of that all of the crooked things that they did stayed fresh on my mind. As you may have realized by now, I am a very analytical person. One of the things that I kept thinking of was how Adrienne Driggers and the Department was able to close our daycare but allow other daycares, where bad things really did happen, to continue to operate.  What I realized was that there are no guidelines or triggers that the DFPS uses to impose adverse actions which include closing a children's daycare or placing someone on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. All of the punishments that they impose are subjective. So one would think.

When you read of horrible incidents that occur at daycares where the Department allows for those daycares to continue to operate what the Department has done is establish a standard or precedent of the actions that are acceptable to the Department.  My strategy to defeat the State (DFPS and the Attorney General's Office) was multifaceted. One facet that I utilized was the questioning of the credibility of a Department that would allow for certain incidents that occurred at daycares throughout the State to go unpunished , particularly the district controlled by Adrienne Driggers to help prove how she targeted our daycare.

Given that the State used a child walking out of our building as the reason for closing our daycare I will start by mentioning Just Kids Learning Center located in San Antonio, Texas. The location of this daycare is key as San Antonio is the city in which Adrienne Driggers office is located. At this daycare two toddlers left the building and crossed a major road. This daycare had 5 TIMES the amount of deficiencies as Marla's daycare yet did not receive any punishment whatsoever from Adrienne Driggers and her Department. Provided is a link to the incident. We are not stating that the daycare was dangerous and should be closed but merely that two children did leave the daycare and Adrienne Driggers Child Care Licensing Department did not close the daycare nor put their Director on the Texas DFPS Central Registry.

Just Kids Learning Center - Two Toddlers Leave Daycare

The next daycare that I'll mention is Tutor Time Daycare located in Austin Texas. Austin is not only the State's Capitol, it is also the home to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Attorney General's Office. At Tutor Time an 18 month old child left the daycare and wandered off to a six-lane road. Again we are not saying that the daycare should have been closed but merely pointing out that the daycare was not closed nor their Director placed on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. Please read the following article from the Austin Statesman regarding the incident:

Austin Statesman - Toddler found along busy northwest Austin road

The following article highlights a very important fact when fighting Child Care Licensing. This article points out that Childcare Licensing (DFPS) is provided other remedies, besides the revocation and closing of the daycare, by the Texas Legislature within the Texas Administrative Code in dealing with daycares that the Department feels need to make corrections to ensure the safety of the children. In this article taken from the Victoria Advocate, Bearly Beginnings a children's daycare in Victoria Texas, is placed on Corrective Action. Corrective Action is where the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) gives the daycare a certain amount of time to make corrections to ensure the safety of the children rather than close the daycare and have the children uprooted and discarded into the community without trained care. Please keep in mind that my wife's daycare had a mere 13 deficiencies compared to Bearly Beginnings which had 72. At this daycare, the children were being hit and being denied food by the staff.

Victoria Advocate - State investigating Victoria daycare center after abuse allegations

The next story comes from the television station KENS5 located in San Antonio Texas. This story highlights how Childcare Licensing allowed daycares to continue operating despite having large amounts of deficiencies.  Keep in mind that Adrienne Driggers Department of Family and Protective Services and the Attorney General's Office attempted to state that my wife's daycare posed a danger to children despite having only 13 deficiencies. This story mentions the following daycares: Step-2-Step daycare (99 deficiencies), Little Friends Daycare Center (129 deficiencies), and Montessori Earth School (253 deficiencies). It must be taken with a grain of salt that Childcare Licensing, which falls under the Department of Family and Protective Services, is prone to falsify deficiencies. For this reason, the number of deficiencies is not an accurate measure of a daycares ability to care for children.

KENS5.COM - I-Team: San Antonio daycares caught breaking the rules

The saddest story of all that highlights the Department's lack of credibility in closing a daycare and having it's Director placed on the Central Registry is the story of Jordan Arredondo. Jordan Arredondo was killed when a television fell on top of him at Mary Bethune Daycare in Corpus Christi Texas the same city where we were operating that led to the creation of this blog. The Department ruled that Bethune Daycare was negligent in the death of Jordan Arredondo but did not close the daycare nor place the Director on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. One cannot help but wonder, given the Department's penchant for punishing Hispanic operated daycares more harshly than Non-Hispanic operated daycares, the value that they placed on the death of a Hispanic child. I think of a quote from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where Tom Sawyer fabricates a story of an accident on a boat that killed a Black man. A lady responds to the story of the Black man's death by stating: "Well it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt." Please note the length of time that the Department dragged it's feet in it's investigation of the young Jordan's death. CPS (Child Protective Services) is used interchangeably with the Department of Family and Protective Services but it is merely a branch within DFPS as is Childcare Licensing. It is not surprising that I have been told from many people that the tactics that Childcare Licensing uses are used by Child Protective Services but it is as they say a whole 'nother story.

KRISTV.COM - Child Passes Away After TV Fell on Him

KRISTV.COM - CPS Still Investigating Death from Day Care Accident

The overriding question that must be answered is "does my daycare deserve any more punishment than the daycares presented in this post?" Odds are that the answer is resounding "NO". Why? Because the State through it's allowing the aforementioned daycares to continue to operate established a standard of acceptable behaviors and incidences.

The State's Fatal Flaw

It's no small task to battle the State of Texas. As you have read throughout this blog the system is setup against you.  There are conflicts of interest in every layer that you must go through when battling the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The Texas Legislature allows for "Administrative Reviews" to allow daycare operators to challenge deficiencies given by Childcare Licensing Representatives but the person that makes the determination as to whether or not the deficiencies were justified will always be a co-worker and very likely friend of the person whose deficiencies you are challenging. You can provide all the evidence in the world to support your position but they will always uphold the deficiencies.  I am being sarcastic when I state that the only time that you will have "equal" footing against the State is when you are able to present your case before an "impartial" judge is when you have a hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings. I stress on the word "impartial" because the judge that will hear your case is a State employee who will very likely take the position that the Department of Family and Protective Services does not commit the egregious behaviors that I have described in this blog and that any actions that they took was merely in the act of doing their job.

One would hope as we once did that the Texas Attorney General's Office would come to your rescue as it is their job to defend the Constitutional rights of the citizens of Texas. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen when it is a State Agency that you are having to defend your Constitutional Rights from! The Texas Attorney General's Office is not only going to take the position of the State Agency but will not even question the legitimacy of the State Agency's position. Just as it is the job of the Texas Attorney Generals Office to defend the Constitutional rights of it's citizens it is also given the responsibility of defending State Agencies in court. This creates a conflict of interest within the Texas Attorney Generals Office. The Texas Attorney General's Office will actively seek to deny your Constitutional Rights in these situations. As I stated in a previous post, Patricia Fernandez an attorney with the Attorney General's Office was well aware that Adrienne Driggers actions had led to the molestation of two children but did nothing to correct her behavior. They are not going to do what is morally correct.

What compounds the problem of fighting a system loaded with a never ending conflicts of interest is that the people in our American system that we turn to for help in these matters are attorneys who very likely are not familiar with the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Operations or the Texas Administrative Code. Because attorneys are not familiar with the rules and regulations that govern childcare centers, the Attorney General's Office is able to attack you even when you followed those same rules and regulations. They will attack you for following the rules and regulations because the presiding judge is very likely an attorney, and like your own attorney, will also not be familiar with the rules and regulations.

Before I continue, I must state that a huge impact on how I was going to wage war against the State of Texas was advice that I gave to my son Marco when he was in Karate. I gave him advice for each opponent that he faced each of which presented different obstacles that he had to overcome. As a Management major in college I had learned about SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). I applied this thinking to Marco's training and in turn applied the advice that I gave to him to our war against Adrienne Driggers and the State of Texas.

One day I was consumed with the thought of how all of the aforementioned were stacked up against us (the conflicts of interest, the Texas Attorney General's Office attacking you for following the rules and regulations, how whatever attorney that we hired would very likely be unfamiliar with the rules and regulations, and how the presiding judge would also not be familiar with the rules and regulations) and I suddenly remembered telling my son how everybody had a weakness and the solution occurred to me and it very well should have been in a huge neon light. The solution was in the very title Texas ATTORNEY General's office.

The hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings as to whether Adrienne Driggers was justified in ordering Marla's daycare to close and her being placed on the Central Registry was going to be dictated by the rules and regulations established in the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers. We knew the rules and regulations like the back of our hands while their attorneys were very likely going to be clueless about them. We were experts in the topic and they were just hired assassins who were going to throw mud at us in court but lack any substance in their arguments. Because we knew that the presiding judge would not be familiar with the rules and regulations I planned to educate her on the rules and regulations in explaining why our opponents were wrong. Adrienne Driggers was not going to prepare their attorneys as doing so would have been an acknowledgement that she did not have any justification for her actions. Like Lieutenant Colonel George Custer against the great Sioux and Cheyenne nations, Driggers with all of her arrogance, led the Attorney Generals Office into an ambush and massacre.

As great attorneys as they may have been they were in essence taking knives to a gun fight. Two more bits of advice that I gave to Marco that had an effect in my war with the State was if your opponent is unable to defend themselves from one of your attacks then keep attacking them with the same technique. The other thing that I will mention at this time (there will be more) is when Marco was facing a bully in one of his competitions. It was a child that was significantly taller and bigger than Marco. This child would bulldoze the other kids. What I told Marco was to test that child's defense. Go after him and see if he can take what he dishes out. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Marco charged after him and destroyed him. I would do the same to DFPS and the Attorney Generals Office. You see, DFPS and the Attorney General's Office, like that bully, are accustomed to bulldozing their opponents. They are not accustomed to being placed on the defensive. I very easily overwhelmed them. So if you as a Childcare Licensing operator are forced to face these people feel comfort in knowing that you have the upper hand. Not only are they not omnipotent but very easy to defeat.