I would like to apologize now for the length of this document but I've felt like a lot of important documents showing my innocents have been destroyed by Judge Adele Ponce. I have been working with a number of associations who has instructed me to write this. These are some important facts about my case and how my case has been mishandled for the past two years. My divorce was finalized with 50/50 Custody on 3/6/2017, At this time I believed justice was on my side and finally felt like this ruling seemed like a first step at compromise and appeared to be a step in the right direction. This will be very detailed So for years I found myself fighting for my child time and time again, we would go back to court every year with Nick asking for full legal decision-making authority on these following dates, 7/6/2018, 10/28/2018, 7/17/2019, 2/27/2020. In February 2020 Nick Whiffen was denied his motion for full legal decision making. Within days, the situation started deteriorating and my world and life as I knew it was turned upside down. The Phoenix Police Department and Child Protective Services became involved. I have been accused of Abuse, Neglect, Substance abuse, and the inability to care for my child by The Department Of Child Safety. This is all due to claims made by my Ex-Husband Nick Whiffen. He had reported that at my home my son was witnessing drug use. Upon visiting with Officer Mchugh, Terrance I was asked if these allegations were true. He asked if I take any illegal drugs and I replied No. This is when I made sure to clarify that I take no illegal drugs but I do take prescription medications. The officer explained that the accusations being made by Nick were that I had been crushing pills up on my counter a few weeks past and then following that up by taking a straw and inhaling them. The officer explained that inhaling a crushed-up drug if prescribed by a doctor, was a little unusual but not unheard of and that it wasn't illegal. I expressed to the officer that this never happened and he then went on to ask if I had been selling my prescription drugs or any other substances. I told him no and to show him I had nothing to hide offered to get my medication bottle so he could count them and see they were all accounted for. He asked why Nick or my son would be saying this and I explained that I truly believed Nick is doing this out of pure hatred & spite, because of the way I walked out on him after finding out he was involved with another women. I then continued to explain to the officer why I believe my son has gone along with this allegations. My belief is Chase was just trying to make his father happy. Nick has alienated me for years and he is doing the same to our son. The last conversation I had with my son months ago ended with him saying he doesn’t understand why I don’t want to see him anymore or call him more often. I explained that this situation wasn't up to me and that the situation was complicated. That's when Chase said his dad has been telling him I can call and see him whenever I'd like and that I choose not to. I told him this wasn't true and His response to me was that I was lying. In past experiences Nick has a tendency of Interrogating Chase about who was around and what activities were done on my parenting time. I know this because I would receive messages and phone calls criticizing my parenting from Nick. Prior to this incident one of my son favorite things to do had been for us to go spend the weekends with his Aunt and my niece they were inseparable at one point. Since then he has talked to my niece twice explaining that Nick blocked her from his xbox account and has forbidden them to have any involvement because of court. This was explained on one of my supervised visits with Kindred Connections. I'm telling you this because I think it shows how far he can go to get the result he wants. I have also given provided text messages my son sent to his aunt prior to this incident messages before taken from my care of him talking to his aunt about and and my niece before this incident and when he would be in my care he would spend a lot of time with my niece and on several occasions assumed I had just dropped my son off with my sister on the weekends. He would constantly tell me I was a bad parent and threaten to one day take him. In our court order it specified that no parent should talk negatively about the other parent or criticize the other parent but it never stopped. When I would ask Chase why he talks to his dad about how we spend our time together he said his daddy scares him and can tell when he is lying. I explained he shouldn’t have to be scared or lie to his dad but that he can just say we had fun and leave it at that. Chase told me that this is all Nick wants to talk about on the hour drive home after our weekends. On a heart to heart that we had Chase told me sometimes he feels like his daddy only loves him when he’s bad mouthing me to his father. On several occasion he has cried to me saying his daddy doesn't love him. I have text messages from Nicks mother saying that she is worried because he is consumed with this thought that his daddy doesn't love him. He is always seeking approval from his dad. This has truly broken my heart as a mother knowing my child doesn't feel like he makes his dad proud. So I’ve always tried to show him he is special and tried to give him the extra encouragement he wasn’t receiving from his father. So I know with out a doubt that's how this played out. Nick was interrogating Chase about our visit on their way home. That weekend I had been dealing with a horrible cankor sore I have had issues all my life with cankor sores. I had gone to the store and purchased some BC powder this is usually used for headaches, but works wonders on abrasions in the mouth so I poured it out on the counter and used a straw to scoop up the BC powder to then apply it onto the sores. The next thing you know I have police investigating me and CPS removing my child from my care. I believe Nick jumped to conclusions when Chase told him he saw me with a powdered substance and a straw and took this chance to turn his threats into reality. I guess thinking back now this might have seemed weird to a child but felt no reason to hide it because I hadn’t done anything wrong. I was simply treating a cold sore with over the counter medication purchased from CVS. I could never have imagined a child could be taken from their mother over BC powder and a straw but when I realized what had happened and explained it to CPS they acted as if I was a criminal and they had already made up their mind about the type of person I was This was the last thing I believed would have transpired from this. I had been reading through the reports and read that my son had told CPS that I was taking Xanax and Oxycodone. The unusual thing about that statement was I hadn't taken Xanax since I had been married to Nick. DSC proceedings were initiated in the Juvenile courts, and the court placed my son with his father, giving me supervised parenting time. This is when I was presented with a DCS safety plan that recommended a 5-day safety plan that provided both myself and Nick time to get tested. I told DCS I had no problem with a hair follicle test. I explained that Nick had a past of using steroids from the day we met and I needed to be sure he was in no way continuing this. I was concerned for my sons safety and DCS assured me Nick would also be taking a hair follicle test to determine whether or not he was using Steroids. Upon looking through court DCS records I realized Nick had never had to drug test as they had told me he would be. They only had him give a urine sample and that would never show steroid use. So instead of the caseworkers pushing and bullying him as they did me he was let off the hook with no consequences. They spoke about my unwillingness to do as they asked but had no expectations and nothing to say about the man who truly created this mess and continuously lied on and off the stand. When I was asked to start my drug testing I hesitated due to having COPD and the Pandemic but my fear of losing my child outweighed my fear of becoming ill. The dependency action was dismissed and jurisdiction over the parties and child was returned to the family court. In my pretrial statement for the Evidentiary hearing scheduled for 7/11/2020. I asked if the court is to deem supervised parenting time appropriate, that Chase's maternal grandmother or maternal aunt were both available to assist. We asked that the judge choose a supervisor due to Nick's unwillingness to work with me. I asked for the supervised parenting time if imposed to be lifted after 30 days of clean drug tests showing no opioid use. I had already been taking random weekly drug tests imposed by DCS since the first hair follicle test on 4/7/2020. In several minute entry's written by the judge and statements from Nick it continues to refer to positive drug test that have and were confirmed only positive for amphetamine due to her properly prescribed Adderall medication I had been asked in late March to complete my first drug test but when I arrived at PSI testing facility. I was met by a note taped to the door stating they would be temporarily closed due to CDC recommendations. This sign stated PSI would be closed from March to April 14th, 2020. I provided Nick the DCS case manager with a text containing all the details and pictures of the information on the door at PSI from there I was instructed to wait for further instructions. On 4/7/2020 complete a hair follicle drug test at another facility and on 4/14/2020 started my random drug testing where within 4/14/2020 and the hearing on 7/11/2020 I had completed 9 weeks of testing. Those test showed positive for Amphetamine, and Methamphetamine but were cleared of Methamphetamine use per confirmation test done after presumptive positive reading. This was the result of my D-AMPHETAMINE SALT COMBO 30MG TABLETS (ADDERALL). I provided DCS with a list of all my prescriptions taken in the past 6 months. So the courts are fully aware of all legitmate prescriptions prescribed by my physician. The Adderall is prescription and I began taking this when I was 13 years old for my ADHD. This greatly improved my ability to retain information and stay focused on the activities at school. It was actually noted in my IEP plan that since I began taking this medication the teachers had noticed a tremendous improvement in my short-term memory loss and an enormous improvement in my listening retention and organization skills. So I have religiously taken my medication since sixth grade. Judge Adele Ponce and Nick Whiffen have continued to allege that I'm continuing to test positive for methamphetamine with the knowledge that my presumptively positive tests have been retested and confirmed negative for methamphetamine this has been done for each test that has read positive for methamphetamine since 4/7/2020. Now on the Now it has been brought to my attention that every time I order confirmations on a positive test that this is the sole reasoning for taking my son due to medication registering in my blood as Amphetamine and showing a fake positive for Methamphetamine. So even though these results are typical with this type of medication and confirmations coming to the same conclusion I'm continuing to have serious implications for this exact reason. You would think this could be easily fixed but I continue to be given the same drug test and have the same result time and time again. So for four months, I continued without fail to drug test once a week despite all I followed all instructions but at the following conference/hearing on 6/16/2020 CPS informed the courts I was not compliant with the substance abuse testing but I had just completed my hair follicle test on 4/7/2020 and then one woman even went as far as to attack my character by stating she knows what a drug addict looks like and that's definitely me. What happened to my 6th Amendment right I'm pretty sure I'm presumed innocent until proven guilty this is a fundamental element of a due process that was not followed. CPS was able to determine the source of the methamphetamine and show it was in fact a fake positive. testimony given by Nick Gilham was one-sided and had no truth to it he also attacked my character when stating that I seem to struggle Intellectually. He goes on to explain that I have difficulty understanding processes and following guidelines set out for me. I don't believe my learning disabilities should have anything to do with my ability to parent my child and feel this could be a reason why the judge is insisting on keeping my son from me. The report by Nick Gilham goes on to say there is no severe condition that threatens Chase's safety and so CPS closed the case on 8/25/2020 and I was instructed by Rose Zlotkowski (CPS caseworker) that my rights would be reinstated. So with this knowledge, why are the courts continuing to keep me from my son. At this point, I have lost all confidence in the Judiciary system and feel my case has been improperly handled. I wouldn't be having my parental rights reinstated. not following through with my substance abuse evaluation with Terro's Health but this wasn't accurate either and CPS was sent the integrated service plan from our assessment together stating that I had depression issues but no substance abuse issues. This assessment explains that the assessment diagnosis is an adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and improved depressed mood from losing a child this was performed one a month prior to Now CPS closed the case against me on 8/25/2020 and sent a letter that states As of today, your DCS case is closed. There are no safety plans in place. Any family court orders are still enforced. As a parent, it is your sole responsibility to ensure your child continues to be safe. At this point, I thought this nightmare was behind me but to my surprise when we I have been questioning our laws and the systems that are supposed to be in place to keep our children safe. I'm truly speechless at how easy it was for my Ex-Husband to actually take my child out of spite could he was able literally legally re he would always call criticize my parenting. know hate is an ugly word but also reported that I spend my night's dumpster diving with my son and that my son is not fed when in my care. So when The only medication they could be referring to is Asprin/Bc Powder. This is a substance made for pain that I use on my canker sores In the month of Oct 2021 after two years of consistent weekly drug testing and Confirmations confirming the positive tests are for amphetamine and this is due to legally prescribed prescription (Adderall) All past drug tests dating back to 4/2020 to our present date have been confirmed negative for methamphetamine I learned that Judge Ponce added I was given your name by two employers within the family court and told I needed to tell my story to someone with the proper authority. My hopes from this is to find justice for myself and for my son.
