II asked Polmueller if he knew what Munchausen by Proxy was? He answered yes, a mother who makes their child sick and then pursues treatment for them. I asked if Ms. Frederick was Munchausen by Proxy? He answered "no." I asked, could it be possible that she has Munchausen by Proxy? Again he answered no, citing he was the expert and he knows more about it than me. I asked if it is possible for someone to induce emotional symptoms into a person? He answered yes, they can do things to induce them. I asked if it is a possibility that Ms. Frederick is Munchausen? He answered, anything is possible.

Because Judge Carpenter had a criminal trial scheduled for the following week, he was undecided when he would have available days to schedule additional hearings. On or about April 11,2000, I received a notice of April 7, 2000 scheduling our next hearing for April 20, 2000.

In closing the April 6, 2000 hearing, Mr. Carpenter openly and on the record directed a statement to me as follows: "Mr. Kearns I am beginning to grasp what had been going on here. I can see that the doctors were not listening to you. I see the system has not treated you fairly. I know you have no respect for the system and you probably don't have any respect for me either".

During the interim period between custody hearings, an incident had occurred on April 9th, where Stephanie was beat up in a bath tub by her mother, half-sister, and half-sister's husband. The beating took place just before I was to pick Stephanie up that Sunday evening. When I picked Stephanie up, I noticed she was wearing a baseball cap and was talking as if something was in her mouth. I then realized her mouth was swelled. I also noticed Stephanie was walking with a limp. Because Stephanie acted differently, I asked her what was wrong? She answered, they beat me up in Grandma's bathtub because I threw a hissy fit when they wouldn't allow me to have another biscuit. Steph said Aaron broke the door in and they threw her down in the bath tub. She told me she hit her back on the foot stool in the tub and her back and leg hurts. She said her half-sister held her down in the tub while her mother punched her in the mouth, face, knees, and back areas. Steph then showed me the cut inside her mouth. While the melee was playing out, Steph said Grandma Frederick watched over them and cursed at her. Steph told me her mother and half-sister had picked on her the entire weekend and said she was aware they were trying to create an incident to cause her to fight back. When I asked Steph if she wanted to visit her cousins that evening, she answered "no, I am wearing the hat because I don't have hair on the top of my head."

On Monday, April 10th, I went to the custody office and asked for help, since CYS could not be trusted. Janice Meadows told me she would do something. At around 11:00 a.m., CYS caseworker, Shannon Kelly, and Kay Engelbret came to my home to question Steph about the incident. Once again Stephanie gave them an exact recount of the beating. Accordingly, Ms. Engelbret told Stephanie we (CYS) will have to change your situation so this never happens to you again. As a temporary solution, Ms. Engelbret told me that Stephanie would need to he placed in protective custody. She told me that this is normally done by putting a child in a foster home. She deduced that Steph would never accept that. Then she suggested the possibility of placing Steph with distant relatives on either side of the family. Since we had none, she suggested that Ms. Mears wanted Stephanie psychologically re-evaluated, thus Engelbret recommended putting Stephanie in protective custody in Aloysious Hall at Conemaugh Memorial in Johnstown, Pa.. When I suggested Pittsburgh, Engelbret balked, citing that was to far away. At that point, I reluctantly agreed to allow CYS to place Stephanie in Conemaugh. Ms. Engelbret then suggested for me to take Stephanie to a physician for a physical examination.

By 1:00 p.m. Monday, Ms. Engelbret called me at my home and asked if I had made the doctor's appointment for Stephanie. I told her yes, I had made one with Dr. Marianne Hanlon who was Steph's family doctor. I informed Ms. Engelbret that Dr. Hanlon was not available that day so a doctor's assistant would be doing the examination.

At 3:30 p.m., I had taken Steph to Hanlon's office for an examination only to find my wife sitting there to greet Stephanie. While sitting there, Ms. Frederick was summoned to answer the telephone. A few minutes later, Ms. Frederick announced to the entire waiting room that Kay Engelbret of CYS wanted to talk with me on the phone. When I took the phone, Ms. Engelbret disclosed to me that my wife will be transporting Stephanie to Conemaugh immediately after Stephanie is examined. I told her Stephanie is scared stiff of her mother and you are going to allow her to take her to Conemaugh? Realizing how bizarre and insincere this sounded, Ms. Engelbret said, I will call you back in a few minutes. A few minutes later, she called me again and advised me that Shannon Kelly will be meeting us in the doctor's office by 4:00 p.m., and she and Ms. Frederick will take Steph to Conemaugh together.

At approximately 4 00 p.m., Stephanie and I were called into the examination room. Ironically, Dr. Hanlon began to question Steph as to what had taken place in the bathtub. Again Stephanie recited the entire incident and Dr. Hanlon asked Stephanie what was hurting her. Stephanie told her that her back and side hurt. Before commencing her examination, Dr. Hanlon told me that she was going to call Ms. Frederick and Shannon Kelly into the room while doing the examination of Stephanie. Meanwhile, I asked Dr. Hanlon to go out into the hall to talk. I explained to her that Stephanie was going to Conemaugh immediately following her examination and I can't do that to her or be a part of it. As I was leaving the office, I sent Ms. Kelly and Ms. Frederick back to the examination room. Ms. Kelly told me that she would be in contact with me later that evening.

That evening at 10:30 p.m., I had called Conemaugh and was put in touch with Shannon Kelly. Ms. Kelly told me that Stephanie was doing fine and I may call her office in the morning to pick up instructions to get to Conemaugh and a telephone number to call for visitation arrangements. When I called Conemaugh on the morning of April 11th, I was met with a hostile attitude by staff members. I was told that my visitation would be arranged around my wife's visitation schedule since she had the priority over visitation time. I was requested to make telephone calls each day for available times that I may visit Stephanie. Needless to say, I thought this to be highly irregular since Stephanie was in CYS protective custody and Ms. Frederick was the alleged named perpetrator of child abuse. Stunning me further, I asked the nurse if I may talk with the doctor before Stephanie is evaluated. I told the nurse that I am concerned that Stephanie's evaluation would be strictly based on other doctor's reports and there needs to be parental input as to Stephanie's condition. The nurse told me that the doctors are too busy to talk with me and if I have anything to say I should sign up for family therapy.

Adding insult to injury, I called Conemaugh on April 12th, for my visitation time and found myself being informed by a nurse that Stephanie is being given additional medications, namely Depakote, to control her impulsiveness. This was done without my knowledge or consent. After two weeks at Conemaugh, Stephanie was released from the mental hospital, into the custody of her mother who drove her home alone.

On April 20, 2000, we had our third custody hearing. The witnesses to testify that day were Mr. David Kearns, Mr. Eugene Frederick, Mr. Robert G. Kearns, Jr., CYS caseworker Shannon Kelly, CYS supervisor Kay Engelbret and Mrs. Eileen Delozier- Ms. Frederick's sister.

Mr. Eugene Frederick was brought to the witness stand as a substitute for Ms. Frederick's mother, Lucille Frederick, to whom I subpoenaed to testify concerning the bathtub incident. Judge Carpenter accepted Ms. Frederick's excuse that her mother was too frail to testify and would not bear up to my questioning. Consequently, Carpenter allowed Mr. Frederick to substitute.

IIn summary, Mr. Frederick began his testimony stating that he knew little about the incident in the bathtub. He said he was not in a good vantage point in Grandma Frederick's house to witness the event but would tell the court what he actually saw or heard. Forty-five minutes later, he was testifying to a detailed and complete blow by blow account of what had taken place that day. Basically, he described and blamed the entire incident on Stephanie's mental illness. Of course, he and the Frederick family were just the victims and innocent by-standers.


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