Monday, January 4, 2016

Bulletin: Jamel Billups and Jacqueline Rosario; Pennsylvania; Law suit brought to clear their name: "Billups’ daughter suffered a childhood stroke and congenital rickets on Oct. 19, 2009, according to the couple’s court documents. Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Child Safety Team incorrectly diagnosed the child as being a victim of child abuse. The child’s original injuries were described as severe head trauma (occipital and cerebral fractures and subdural and subarachnoid hematoma), detached retinas and rib fractures. She had no external signs of trauma and no skull fractures, but she had other signs consistent with suffering a stroke, according to court documents. Dr. Kathryn Crowell, then co-director of the Child Safety Team at Hershey Medical Center, testified at a December 2009 dependency hearing that the child suffered abuse, according to court documents. At Billups’ criminal trial a year later she said that when “I realized that I had been inaccurate in describing the rib fractures I tried to rectify the situation. I met with the hospital attorney, and he submitted a letter to the lawyers and the court that corrected that statement”. The attorney said later that the letter was written, but was never sent because of an oversight." (Must Read. HL);


"A man acquitted 5 years ago of shaking a baby is in federal court seeking damages of more than $75,000 from Franklin County and employees of the state’s former Department of Public Welfare. Jamel Billups and Jacqueline Rosario, formerly of Chambersburg and now of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., are trying to clear their names.........A Franklin County Court jury in December 2010 found Billups, then 32, innocent of abusing his 3-month-old daughter. The jury heard six days of medical testimony before clearing Billups of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to federal court documents, county Children and Youth Services followed up after Billups’ acquittal. They encouraged a state official to reconsider her decision to erase the report from ChildLine. The county also threatened to send police to his home to remove his children if Billups did not agree to a safety plan where he could not be alone with his children and where his home would be subject to unannounced visits from county employees.........Billups’ daughter suffered a childhood stroke and congenital rickets on Oct. 19, 2009, according to the couple’s court documents. Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Child Safety Team incorrectly diagnosed the child as being a victim of child abuse. The child’s original injuries were described as severe head trauma (occipital and cerebral fractures and subdural and subarachnoid hematoma), detached retinas and rib fractures. She had no external signs of trauma and no skull fractures, but she had other signs consistent with suffering a stroke, according to court documents. Dr. Kathryn Crowell, then co-director of the Child Safety Team at Hershey Medical Center, testified at a December 2009 dependency hearing that the child suffered abuse, according to court documents. At Billups’ criminal trial a year later she said that when “I realized that I had been inaccurate in describing the rib fractures I tried to rectify the situation. I met with the hospital attorney, and he submitted a letter to the lawyers and the court that corrected that statement”. The attorney said later that the letter was written, but was never sent because of an oversight.
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/story/news/local/2016/01/01/cleared-child-abuseman-sues-county-state/78150436/