KFNX Talk Radio in Phoenix Airs the First Medical Kidnap Show Despite Pressure Not to Air It

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

The first episode of the new Medical Kidnap Show aired last night (October 3, 2019) on KFNX Talk Radio 1100 in Phoenix.

The show can be watched below from the Medical Kidnap YouTube channel, or it can be downloaded as a podcast.

Just prior to the show, the station manager was pressured to not air it, as he received accusations of us publishing “fake news” on this topic.

Fortunately, he did not give in to this pressure and allowed the show to air.

The MedicalKidnap.com website was started in 2014 due to the volume of stories we were discovering of families losing their children to Child Protective Services in Arizona. Arizona has the highest rate of removing children from their parents in the U.S.

We discussed some of these stories on the show, and explained what exactly “medical kidnapping” means.

Maria Hoffman: Director of the Arizona Legislative Office of Family Advocacy

Image from Arizona State University website. (Page has now been removed apparently.)

The first guest to appear on the Medical Kidnap show was Steve Isham, who is a life-long resident of Arizona, and has worked for years as an advocate for children and families.

We discussed the role of Maria Hoffman in Arizona, who is the “Director of the Arizona Legislative Office of Family Advocacy.”

Hoffman is not an elected official, but a contractor for the State of Arizona who reports directly to the President of the Senate. It is reported that all lawmakers in Arizona, whether in the House or the Senate, are told to not deal with any of their constituents’ concerns about their children being removed from their home and placed into State custody, but to refer all of these matters to her only.

If a parent or anyone else tries to contact Hoffman about a case, we have been told that she refuses to discuss the case and uses threats and intimidation to try and silence anyone questioning a child welfare case.

To our knowledge, Maria Hoffman has never been investigated and exposed in the local media in Arizona.

Details about Maria Hoffman and how she came into this consultant position are sketchy, but Health Impact News has been able to find a few details about her.

Tumbleweed – Home for Runaway Teens

In 1975, Hoffman was one of the founders of “Tumbleweed,” a Phoenix shelter for runaway teens. [1]

By 1979, it housed up to nine females and four males in a 55-year-old inner city house. It had six full-time and five part-time staff, and housed 250 youth and counseled an additional 300 in 1978.

Tumbleweed received funding from “YDB, LEAA, the City of Phoenix and the United Way.” [2]

Funding to start Tumbleweed was “with tremendous support” from the Soroptimists. [3]

The Soroptimist International of Phoenix Collection, which was donated to the Arizona Historical Foundation on November 6, 2009, and was then donated to the Arizona Historical Society in 2012 where it currently resides, states this about the Phoenix Soroptimists:

Soroptimist International of Phoenix is currently one of the largest Soroptomist clubs in the world.

Its members represent the downtown and central Phoenix communities of executive and professional women.

The club was chartered in 1936, and membership is by invitation.

Each member is “classified” according to the principal activity of the company, institution for which she works or spends occupational time.

It is a charitable organization which focuses on numerous service projects to benefit women and children. Its program areas are economic and social development, health, education, environment, human rights/status of women, and international goodwill and understanding.

The club was a co-founder and principal supporter of Girls Ranch and Tumbleweed.

Over the decades club membership has included Arizona leaders, such as Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justices Lorna Lockwood and Ruth McGregor; Secretary of State and Governor Rose Mofford; Secretary of State Betsy Bayless, and other prominent Phoenix professional women such as Jana Bommersbach, Dorothy McLaughlin, Anne Lindeman, and Margaret Rockwell.

So the group behind the founding of Tumbleweed was a group of rich and powerful people where membership is by invitation only.

Executive Director Arizona Council of Centers for Children and Adolescents

By 1990, Maria Hoffman had attained the position of Executive Director Arizona Council of Centers for Children and Adolescents in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1990, the Arizona Supreme Court appointed her to a task force that apparently created her current position as Director of the Arizona Legislative Office of Family Advocacy.

In 1999, the Arizona Council of Centers for Children and Adults (ACCCA) merged with the Arizona Association of Behavioral Health Programs to form the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers and the Arizona Foundation for Human Service Providers. (Source)

Steve Isham has allegedly known Ms. Hoffman since 1968, and provides additional details about her.

Listen to the show and the interview with Steve Isham to learn more:

The Medical Kidnap Show is scheduled to air every Thursday night at 9 p.m. local Phoenix time on KFNX radio, and is also live-streamed on the Medical Kidnap Facebook Page.

The shows are archived on the Medical Kidnap YouTube channel, and are also available as podcasts.

Here is the Medical Kidnap Show page.

If you would like to listen to the Medical Kidnap Show over the radio in your city, contact the station where you listen to talk radio and request that they contact us.