(continued)
The nursing notes were relayed by phone to DSS social worker Ann Kochis, according to the notes.
According to the notes, DSS told the hospital to issue a “51A Neglect Report” against Ross. The hospital informed DSS that they were unable to establish neglect in such a short time, yet, they filed the 51A anyway with DSS social worker Kay Durepo.
“51A form sent to DSS per their request. DSS aware that we are unable to establish neglect in such a short period of time. Form sent regardless,” the nursing records state.
DSS Social Worker Ann Kochis and Area Director Ellen Patashnic at the DSS East Springfield Office refused to comment for MassNews, directing all questions to public affairs in Boston.
Attorney Greg Hession, who is helping to get Ross’ baby back, told MassNews that in order for DSS to take the baby, the law requires either “serious abuse and neglect,” such as broken bones, wounds and starvation, or “the likelihood of future serious abuse and neglect.” He added that DSS “would have had to make reasonable efforts to keep the child with the mother.”
Attorney Alan Goodman told MassNews, “The only abuse that has taken place in this whole situation has been the abuse of Diana Ross, the mother, by this bureaucracy called DSS that is out of control. DSS appears to be an agency bent on breaking up families under the guise of child protection.”
Many observers point to the adoption bonuses that DSS receives from the federal government if takes a child from its parents and adopts it out to foster parents.
Seized in 1999
Ross’ two boys, Kyle and Damien, were seized in December 1999, after Kyle wandered outside the house. Ross, a single mother, had previously clashed with DSS over similar incidents.
Kyle was born in September 1995 and Damien in September 1997.
DSS placed Damien with a gay couple and Kyle was placed with Linda McNeil and her boyfriend, Eddie Finklea Jr., who kept a Rottweiler in the backyard.
“Kyle told me he loved me and wanted to come home,” said Ross. “DSS told him he was never going home. I promised Kyle I would get him home.
“He told me he got hurt in the foster home. He had bruises on his bottom and legs and burns he said were from a flatiron. DSS told me the burns were from a heater. Kyle told me the people at the foster home locked him crying in the bedroom, while they partied with drugs and alcohol.”
In a shocking story that made headlines, Kyle was attacked and killed by the Rottweiler in June of this year after he wandered into the dog’s unlocked pen.
Ross’ mother, Sandra Daneault, told MassNews that she remembers after they got the news, Diana was distraught and tearfully apologized to a photo of Kyle that she could not get him home like she had promised him.
With the help of Attorney Alan Goodman, Ross, who was pregnant, filed suit against the dog’s owner and has taken preliminary steps to sue the Department of Social Services for wrongful death and emotional distress on behalf of her son.
In an apparent retaliation, Ross’ infant son Aaron was seized from her by DSS at the hospital the day after he was born and just two months after the tragic death of Kyle.