PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Parents’ Medical Rights Group, a Lehigh Valley nonprofit residents formed to draw attention to the wrongful claims of abuse, sent the following statement on Friday: “While we are pleased to see movement towards making the community safer, allowing years of widespread harm to children and families is unacceptable. PMRG will continue to pursue and support accountability in all areas that contributed to the irreparable damage. We encourage all those in leadership roles to stop staying silent and to start using your voice, as these children and families did, to protect our community from ever having this widespread harm happen again. No More Silence.”
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STORY: "LVHN (Lehigh Valley Health Network) doctor at center of child abuse misdiagnosis controversy retires," by Reporter Grayson Golter, published by The Morning Call, one March 22, 2024. (Graysen Golter covers general news in Lehigh County. He is from McKinney, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a journalism degree in 2020. Previously reporting and photographing for the Port Aransas South Jetty in Port Aransas, Texas, Golter also has interned for 60 Minutes in New York City and KXAN News in Austin, TX.)
PHOTO CAPTION: "Families and others gather to speak Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, at Lehigh County Government Center in Allentown. Families claim they have been affected by misdiagnoses in Lehigh County, experienced loss of their children to CYS, lengthy court battles, job loss, financial ruin, falsely labelled abusers, incarceration, and ongoing trauma."
GIST: "The doctor whom dozens of people have sued over alleged child abuse misdiagnoses will retire from Lehigh Valley Health Network at the end of the month.
Debra Esernio-Jenssen, who has been working part time at LVHN, will retire March 31, according to a statement from the health network Friday. The statement, provided by spokesperson Jamie Stover, didn’t give any further explanation.
Esernio-Jenssen previously moved to part-time responsibilities after leaving her role as the head of the LVHN’s John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center in September.
The month prior, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley released a report that highlighted the alleged trend of child abuse misdiagnoses, although LVHN said at the time that it had been searching for a new doctor to lead the center months before the report’s release.
In a Friday statement, Pinsley said, “As Dr. Jenssen steps into retirement, it’s a pivotal moment for us to embrace change, enhancing how the county protects our families and children. This is an opportunity to innovate and strengthen our community’s health and safety protocols.”
Parents’ Medical Rights Group, a Lehigh Valley nonprofit residents formed to draw attention to the wrongful claims of abuse, sent the following statement on Friday: “While we are pleased to see movement towards making the community safer, allowing years of widespread harm to children and families is unacceptable. PMRG will continue to pursue and support accountability in all areas that contributed to the irreparable damage. We encourage all those in leadership roles to stop staying silent and to start using your voice, as these children and families did, to protect our community from ever having this widespread harm happen again. No More Silence.”
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
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