Is the Arizona Human Trafficking Council Preventing Child Trafficking, or Facilitating it?

Spotlight on the Arizona Citizen Volunteer DCS Oversight Group

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

Episode 5 of The Medical Kidnap Show aired on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 out of Phoenix on Sunday night, November 3, 2019.

Our guest for this show was Lori Ford, the head of the DCS Oversight Group, which is a group of volunteers who attend meetings regarding Department of Children Services issues in Arizona.

The group also has “court watchers” who attend Dependency Court hearings as parent advocates and to observe how these parents are being treated in Dependency Court.

Lori stated that the group did NOT want to become a non-profit 501 c3 corporation as they do not want to come under the “thumb of the government.”

When asked why the members of the group provided their services to families and others free of charge, she replied:

The reason that we do this, is it’s so important. This is the future of our country, the future of our nation. And family means everything to all of us.

So that’s why we do it. We see so many rights being violated in this dependency court system.

Arizona Human Trafficking Council Meeting

This past week (Tuesday, October 29, 2019), the Arizona Human Trafficking Council conducted a meeting that was open to the public, and Lori Ford and other members of the DCS Oversight Group attended.

Lori addressed the Council, pointing out that while the Council had exposed websites that trafficked kids, such as BackPage.com, which was shut down by the FBI last year, that the Council had not addressed another website in Arizona that trafficks kids, the DCS .gov website: “Children’s Heart Gallery.”

The intent of this government taxpayer-funded website is to recruit adoptive parents, but it exposes these children to predators, by publishing photos and descriptions of children currently living in foster care.

Statistics bear out the fact that the majority of children trafficked in the U.S. today come out of our foster care system.

There are no precautions to enter this website. You don’t need to register – it’s just open to the world.

When asked if these children on the DCS website were from parents who had voluntarily given up their children for adoption, Lori replied:

The children who are on this Heart Gallery, which is part of the DCS website, are children that are in DCS custody. They’re foster kids, they’re kids in group homes.

This is a forced adoption, a forced re-homing if you will, website, of children who are in DCS custody.

They’re pimping out kids online.

And yet, if a parent who is fighting the system to get their children back posts pictures of their children online while in foster care, Arizona Dependency Court judges routinely order them to take down their photos, and have even threatened MedicalKidnap.com for posting pictures that parents have supplied of their own children, putting pressure on the parents to make Health Impact News take down their stories and photos.

Arizona Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen was indicted on human trafficking charges recently.

Another question that Lori asked the Arizona Human Trafficking Council in her public comments was why wasn’t the Council addressing the Paul Petersen case and his adoption fraud?

Paul Petersen is currently facing federal criminal charges in three states, Arizona, Utah, and Arkansas, for illegally bringing pregnant women and children from the Marshall Islands into the U.S. illegally, and charging up to $40,000.00 per child to adopt them out.

Lori pointed out that the Attorney General in Arizona was not even charging Petersen with “human trafficking” but the other two state Attorney Generals are.

Lori also mentioned the fact that every one of these alleged illegal adoptions that Paul Petersen arranged had to be signed off by a judge, so who is going to hold these judges accountable? She mentioned one case from years ago, where a Dependency Court judge refused to sign off on one of Petersen’s adoptions because it was illegal, but the case was appealed and Judge Ann Timmer over-ruled the Dependency Court judge’s decision.

And her reasoning for the over-ruling was: “It’s in the best interest of the child.”

Judge Ann Timmer was an Appellate Court judge at the time, but now she sits on the Arizona Supreme Court.

Our question is: Now, what is going to happen to those judges, every single judge signed off on those adoption papers for these Marhallese children that were human trafficked over here.

Do Victims of Human Trafficking Get Any Help from the Arizona Human Trafficking Council?

When asked just what the Arizona Human Trafficking Council has actually accomplished, Lori replied:

I don’t know of anything they have accomplished, to tell you the truth…. It’s a Council where there are presenters that talk about human trafficking… they talk about human trafficking.

From what I have seen from this Council, I don’t believe they do anything to prevent human trafficking.

During the Arizona Human Trafficking Council meetings, there are opportunities for Public Comments. During these times, parents and advocates who are alleged victims or working with these victims of human trafficking get an opportunity to address the Council.

At the past meeting last week, there was a person who made a public comment who was not a parent or advocate, but a business owner in Arizona, who was concerned about one of his co-workers.

DeWitt Hoopes, President and CEO of Beatrice Companies, made a public comment to the Arizona Human Trafficking Commission.

Health Impact News has obtained a copy of Mr. Hoopes comments that he read to the Council on October 29, 2019:

My name is DeWitt Hoopes, President and CEO of Beatrice Companies, a food and technology business.

Eugene Hoopes Sr. or Gene Hoopes was my paternal grandfathers father, and he was the charter founding member of the American Legion, and a well known figure in Prescott, Arizona, and then DeWitt Page who was my paternal grandmothers father, and one of the original founders of General Motors in its early years.

My parents were also friends with the late Senator McCain as my stepfather is a retired colonel in the USAF, and met with Senator John McCain on many occasions.

I am addressing the Council today on behalf of my friend and business colleague Neal David Sutz, who has been trying for over two years to blow the whistle on child sex abuse and trafficking in our state among powerful business leaders and members of the Mormon Church.

These people are his former in-laws, as he married into the Mormon Church. They include David Benjamin Creamer who is currently on the U.S. Marshall’s 15 most wanted list as a fugitive for child sex crimes, and there are apparent connections to this family and Paul Petersen who was recently indicted for human trafficking via illegal adoptions from the Marshall Islands.

Neal has in his possession a video clip of a pornographic child video of his step-nephew Austin Creamer Bradford that he has attempted numerous times to provide to law enforcement here in Arizona, and he has been continuously stonewalled by Arizona officials who have not as yet investigated these alleged crimes. The little boy Austin was supposedly removed from his grandparents home by DCS, but nobody seems to know where he is today and whether or not he is continuing to be sexually abused.

Mr. Sutz currently has a $200 million lawsuit against these alleged perpetrators filed in Maricopa Superior Court, naming Damian Creamer and his Charter Schools, and others as defendants in what appears to be a massive cover-up, and attempt to silence Mr. Sutz by defaming him. The defendants have even hired Dominic Draye, the former Solicitor General of the State of Arizona as their lead counsel, so serious are these charges.

I appeal to the Governor’s office to immediately investigate these serious crimes of child sex trafficking occurring right here in our own State, and bring to justice the alleged perpetrators. Because Mr. Sutz’s own children are now in imminent danger of being trafficked as well.

Mr. Hoopes was apparently hoping to discuss his friend’s situation personally with Cindy McCain, given their families’ previous relationship, but Mrs. McCain abruptly left the meeting during the public comments, just prior to Lori Ford speaking, and never returned. Hence, she did not hear Lori or DeWitt’s comments, nor the comments of anyone else who followed.

To learn more about Neal Sutz’s case, see our previous coverage:

American Dad Escapes Arizona with Two Sons Only to Have them Medically Kidnapped in Switzerland

Arizona Dad Fighting for His Two Sons Sues Mormon Business Leader and Alleged Child Sex Abusers for $200 Million

Is the Mormon Church Behind a Worldwide Child Sex Trafficking Ring Operating out of Arizona?

Is Paul Petersen the Only Arizona Politician Trafficking Children? The Marshall Islands Scandal

When asked if the Council had ever addressed any concerns raised by her group, Lori Ford responded by relating how the Director of DCS had sent a letter to Cindy McCain and the Council denying all of the issues the DCS Oversight Group had addressed, and that this letter from Greg McKay was published on the Human Trafficking Council website, and to date is the only response the Council has given to the issues addressed.

Here is a copy of the letter, which Lori points out was not even signed by Greg McKay:

Health Impact News extends an invitation to former DCS Director Greg McKay, or anyone currently serving within DCS, to provide the data for the following claims Mr. McKay made in this letter.

1. You wrote: “The truth is, DCS has 27 layers of oversight, and deeply appreciates accountability and an interested community.” Could you please supply us with any reports regarding “oversight” from any of these 27 layers? What deficiencies or areas of improvement within DCS have been addressed in any of these reports, if they exist?
2. You admit that Arizona had the worst record in 2015 among all 50 states regarding Foster Care growth. Can you please supply a list of changes your department implemented that allegedly changed this ranking?
3. You state that DCS does not make money off of the Foster Care program. Can you please supply us a statement of accounts from a certified 3rd party showing all sources of revenue and expenditures for DCS?
4. Regarding your statement on runaways and missing children, can you supply statistics that support your claim, and can you supply statistics regarding how many foster children die each year?
5. You write: “Talk is cheap from those who misshape the narrative.” Indeed, talk, and writing letters like this one, are “cheap.” Please provide the data that support your claims, and please explain to us and the public why Maria Hoffman is employed at the taxpayer’s expense to handle all constituent complaints regarding DCS and child welfare, and why elected officials in the State Senate and House are not allowed to investigate complaints from their own constituents? Does Maria Hoffman’s position produce any reports or oversight?

Greg McKay was employed by the State of Arizona with taxpayer funds to oversee child safety, while members of the DCS Oversight Group are all volunteers spending their own time and resources to advocate for child safety, and one has to wonder how such work is based on “false statements and inaccurate data,” while it is Greg McKay who has a responsibility to provide the sources for the claims he has made while categorically dismissing all of the efforts of the DCS Oversight Group.

As to the Arizona Human Trafficking Council, the citizens of Arizona should be demanding an accounting of public funds being used to fund this group, especially given the fact that evidence points to the fact that Arizona is a hub for child trafficking. See:

Is Arizona a Hub of Child Sex Trafficking? Why does Arizona Take the Highest Percentage of Children from their Homes?

Listen to the entire interview with Lori Ford on the Medical Kidnap Show that was aired on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 in Phoenix: