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In Pennsylvania it is against the law to have an incestuous relationship. In New Jersey, believe it or not, it is not.
So when Maggie Henderson, whose sister and her sister’s biological father had a baby boy together, filed a complaint with the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) in 1996 to ask them to remove her nephew, "Tommy" (not his real name), from what she considered a dangerous and abusive situation, she was surprised at the response.
"I was trying to protect my nephew, who was about a year old at the time," said Henderson, a soft-spoken 24-year-old, who lived in Dennisville when this was happening. Today she lives in Middle Township.
What she got in response, she said, was a wall of silence, secrecy and arrogance.
"They hide behind their ‘confidentiality wall’ and their ‘we’re protecting the children’ fence," the determined young woman stated.
Henderson said her sister’s biological father, William Martin Vineyard Jr., is a pedophile (his arrest record confirms this) and said she was molested by Vineyard twice (once at 4 years old and again at 11).
Henderson’s story is also about her quest to rescue "Tommy" from the dangers posed by living with a convicted pedophile (there were other victims besides Henderson and her sister) who also happens to be his father and grandfather.
A natural ally in this campaign to save "Tommy," she thought, would be the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, whose mandated purpose is to protect children. To her surprise and horror, it was not.
"I couldn’t believe they treated me like a crank," she said and then continued with her story.
"My sister and I were both under the supervision of DYFS after the second incident of molestation by this man and my sister ended up living with him from the time she was 15 years old and DYFS knew it," said Henderson.
DYFS denies, through correspondence written by Director Charles Venti, placing the sister with him and maintains she was placed with "other relatives," meaning other than her mother from whom she had been removed. But DYFS did know he was a convicted pedophile, Henderson maintains.
This newspaper has obtained Vineyard’s criminal record, which shows arrests for sexual assault dating back to 1986.
As a result of her complaints, DYFS in both Cumberland and Cape May counties investigated the matter. Henderson synopsized the results of that investigation in a June 7, 2001 letter to Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. It states in part, "My sister has been living with her father as a wife since 1991, when she was 15. Despite Mr. Vineyard’s extensive record of sexual assault, the Division of Youth and Family Services felt placing my sister in his care was appropriate."
She goes on to tell the acting governor that the relationship was consensual and that at the age of 18, her sister became pregnant.
She then goes on to explain her pleas to DYFS which, she says, fell on deaf ears.
"In September of 2000, at the completion of their investigation, I received a letter from Betty Musso and Jill Clark of Cumberland County DYFS that stated that ‘the family does not require further services from our agency,’ despite Mr. Vineyard’s four felony convictions for sexual abuse, and proof of the incestuous relationship between himself and my sister (his daughter)," she wrote to DiFrancesco.
She also told him of the numerous governmental and social agencies she had contacted only to be totally ignored. These included: Family Court, Cumberland County Prosecutor Art Marchand, Cumberland County Human Services; CARA, Cape May County DYFS representative Michelle Stone, Cumberland County DYFS Director David Mallory, and the state attorney general’s office.
Of these she received a reply only from Kristi Golden of the attorney general’s office, who referred her to the Department of Human Services, under which DYFS falls.
This newspaper contacted all of the agencies Henderson named but no one was able to offer a reason as to why her letters were not answered, or they did not return messages seeking an explanation.
DiFrancesco did respond to Henderson and directed DYFS Director Venti to look into it.
In a letter from Venti dated July 27, 2001, in which he acknowledges her numerous complaints "between 1991 and the present," he writes in part, "The Cumberland staff of the Division responded to each of the referrals you made. Each allegation was investigated."
He then mentions one of the investigators, Jill Clark, and Henderson’s cooperation. He continues, "Following our investigation, including the psychological evaluations we had completed on Mr. Vineyard and your sister, we did not find that "Tommy" was abused or neglected."
Said an outraged Henderson: "They (DYFS) have a catch-all category they call ‘emotional abuse or neglect.’ What is more emotionally abusive than to be living with your father who is also your grandfather and a pedophile? This was ‘emotional abuse’ with DYFS’s blessing. My nephew suffered for six years because they thought it was OK for my sister to sleep with whoever she wanted to because she was an adult."
But there was at least one public official in New Jersey listening – Sen. Jim Cafiero, who received a letter from Henderson dated June 5, 2001, and who got in touch with her by June 7, 2001.
After learning all of the facts Cafiero drafted and submitted legislation (S-2479) that would make incest illegal in New Jersey and would carry heavy penalties for violation of its provisions.
"I wasn’t even a Republican," said Henderson. "But Sen. Cafiero was the one person who showed real concern and went to work immediately to do something about the situation in New Jersey."
New Jersey is in the minority with regard to the legality of incest. In Pennsylvania, incest is a felony. Vineyard moved there with his daughter and "Tommy," who is now 6 years old, presumably to get away from the persistent Henderson.
But the relocation did not dissuade the dogged 24-year-old, and when she learned where they were, she contacted Pennsylvania authorities, who were not as tolerant as their New Jersey peers.
With Henderson’s help, Pennsylvania authorities arrested Vineyard, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a prison term of five years and one-year probation upon release.
"Tommy" is now in the care of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and getting the help he needs.
While Henderson could not get DYFS to remove a child from the home of a convicted pedophile, they moved with lightening speed to remove the children of a mother who permitted a casual visit by a paroled felon who was also her son.
Mildred Bartee is a lifelong Wildwood resident who fits the DYFS profile of a child abuser. She is a single, black female in her 30s. (The other profile is of a white male in his 30s).
When her house burned to the ground and she had nowhere to live, DYFS did not take her children.
When she abused alcohol, DYFS did not take her children.
When she took up with rotten men and got into trouble with the police, DYFS did not take her children.
When she became addicted to drugs, DYFS did not take her children.
But when finally she was working two jobs, had found God and was struggling to correct past mistakes, DYFS took her children.
Bartee sat in her small Wildwood apartment surrounded by pictures of her children and religious artifacts. She pointed to a 10-inch statue of Jesus and with obvious pride in her voice, said, "That’s from my baby girl for Mother’s day. She bought it with her own money."
Her baby girl is 9 years old and her only daughter of her five children. Her oldest is 23-year-old Antonio.
When Antonio was an adolescent, according to Bartee, he would "not abide by her rules" and was "out of control." As a result, DYFS assumed custody and supervision of him. He moved with a foster father to another county and when he was 15 or 16, Bartee said, he sexually assaulted his 14-year-old girlfriend, and was sentenced to six years in jail, which he served.
A few months before he was due to be released, Bartee told her DYFS caseworker, Jean Palmer, that he would be coming for a visit.
According to Bartee, Palmer seemed supportive and encouraged her to help him to stay out of trouble. She also inquired of Bartee where her son was going to stay once he was released. His mother told her he was not living with her but that he might stay for an overnight visit.
"Never once did she tell me that he was going to fall under Megan’s Law. He was my son and the younger ones’ brother," she recalled.
Bartee said that just before he was to visit, Palmer and her supervisor, Diane Rhile, showed up at her door with a letter that informed her that her son was not allowed to have any contact with his brothers and sister. Rhile told her that if she wanted to keep her younger children she must not allow her oldest child to visit.
Neither Rhile nor Palmer returned phone messages seeking their sides of the story.
"How did they expect the boy to keep straight if he didn’t get no support from his family? So I told them, ‘Whatever.’ "
Her son did pay a visit in August 2000. The following October, the DYFS agents visited the siblings one day at school and interviewed them, asking them if they had seen Antonio and where, according to Bartee.
That very day, Palmer came with three police officers to her house to take away Bartee’s 8-year-old, 2-year-old and 14-year-old.
But the older child had taken a detour and was late in arriving home. Bartee said after a while the policemen began to grumble to Palmer.
"I heard the one detective tell (Palmer) ‘This is bull——, watching kids.’ He was real mad," said Bartee.
Because DYFS could find no place to place the children that night, the entire family went to Bartee’s cousin’s house, with DYFS approval. The next day the family was split up. The school-aged children were taken out of their school district and taken to new schools in Cumberland County. Her 9-year-old daughter was put into a foster home in Bridgeton with the 2-year-old.
"I told her take care of the baby. My little girl had to grow up fast," said Bartee.
Some time later the children were placed with other relatives but they have not been allowed to return to Bartee except for short supervised visits.
"I must always have someone present with me when my kids are visiting," Bartee said. One of the days this newspaper spoke with her was a visiting day and her sister was present whenever the children came into the room.
Bartee said she has attended the counseling and classes DYFS has insisted on, but what has helped her most is her relationship with God.
"I’ve been through a lot. Most of it was my own fault but it wasn’t all my fault like they want to make it out to be," she said.
She is working two jobs and hoping to be able to get her children back soon but she believes that DYFS wants to teach her a lesson by using her children.
As with the other people interviewed regarding DYFS, Bartee says she has never had the opportunity to present any testimony or evidence of her own in court.
"Whatever DYFS says the judge just says yes. They (the courts) should at least listen to the children, but nobody ever asks them," said Bartee.
DYFS spokesman Andy Williams, asked to comment on Bartee’s story, as well as those of others, said, "I can’t comment on any specific case."
He also had no answer for the seemingly high numbers of single black females and white males who dominate DYFS statistics. According to its 1997-98 report: "Black females and white males comprised the majority of perpetrators in both 1997 and 1998. More than 55 percent of all female perpetrators were black and more than 42 percent of all male perpetrators were white."
When Williams was asked why DYFS did not put these people in jail if they were child abusers, he responded: "We’re not the prosecutor. We don’t put people in jail. If conduct is that severe we give it to the prosecutor’s office."
According to Williams, that’s why parents were not afforded the same rights as any common criminal defendant. When he was reminded that DYFS takes people’s children away, he paused and replied, "That’s what we do."
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