What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY
I work as a babysitter (among other jobs) and have over 30 years experience. I was working through an agency Labor Day weekend and found myself working for a family with "problem children". The second time I was there, one of the children hit me in front of the mother and she acted like this was normal behavior. After the parents left, I told the agency I would not return to this home because the children were dangerous and uncontrollable. About 2 hours in, after numerous things happened, the boy hit me in the face and scratched my eye, grabbed my glasses and tried to break them. I put them in their room, called both parents (who had turned off their phones), left a message for the father to please come home and notified my agency of what happened. 15 minutes later the Mother texted me and asked if everything was OK (not a normal thing, really), and I asked if she heard the message I left. She said no, I told her that the boy had hurt me and that they needed to come home. The Mother sent texts as they were returning which state,"Ok, we'll be there in 15 minutes", etc. A few minutes later a police car (first of 3) came roaring up the driveway. I was standing in the doorway holding an ice pack to my eye. The Sergeant jumped out of the car like a Pit Bull on bath salts, shined a spotlight at me and yelled for me to show him my hands. He then asked where the children were, I took him into their bedroom, he continued to yell at me and told me not to leave. He told me I wasn't injured and that I was faking it. The second officer arrived who was calm and objective and took all of the information. I told her the series of events and showed her my eye. The parents arrived and the mother was screaming that I was mentally unstable, etc. A third officer was stationed to protect me from her.
I was detained for an hour and a half at the house. During this time, my Manager sent texts and we talked by phone; she was crying hysterically that this woman said she was going to sue the agency and was making outrageous allegations against me. I asked the police what was going on and all I was told was that she said I had abandoned the children among other things. Obviously, they all knew upon arrival that this wasn't true. They read the text messages and listened to the voicemail I left. Eventually the Sergeant came out and apologized in front of the other 2 officers, told me I did nothing wrong, said that everything I said checked out and that he would be writing a lengthy report exonerating me of all claims she made (at that point I did not know what they were). The woman continued to call the agency during this time demanding I be fired and continued to do so after she was told to stop by the sergeant. The sergeant eventually talked to my manager and told her that the couple had no grounds to sue. My manager said I needed to get the police report for the owner of the agency.
(The sobriety of this couple was never questioned and should have been). To sum it up, this woman tried to get me arrested and fired for making them come home from a party.
The next day my eye was obviously injured. I was concerned that the Pit Bull hadn't believed me so I went to the police station to have it documented. A different Sargeant came out with the report in hand, asked me "what in the hell kind of **** storm happenned at this house??" and told me he didn't need to document the injury as it was stated in the report. He then proceeded to read me the lengthy report; all of the events were stated with the findings that I didn't do anything. But, it was pretty ugly; the woman apparently stated I beat the children and that an investigation found no marks. The police didn't even ask me if I hit them. The sergeant offered me his sympathies, asked me if my eye was OK and told me I could have a report for my agency as soon as it was ready.
3 weeks went by and I could not get the report. I spoke with the records clerk a few days in and we joked about what the report said but she said it could not be released until it was approved. My agency was asking for it daily. I called the female officer twice and she did not return my calls. Finally, I FOIL requested it because I needed to work. I was sent a redacted version with nothing but my name; the report could have been about anyone. Worst of all, the narrative had been completely changed. Bodily injury - removed, allegations of child abuse -removed. It went from a 1500 word report to 20 words. This report does nothing to protect me or my agency. I called the records clerk and told her I need the first report we had discussed for my agency. She said I could only have the approved copy.
At that point I started making calls. No police agency in the state has jurisdiction over the XXX Police. I was told to contact an elected official. I called the XXX and was given an administrative assistant who didn't want to hear any of it; she said she'd pass along my concerns to the Police Chief. Shortly thereafter,XX calls and leaves me a message that "Were not going to change the report for you and that this is all the information you get." I saved that message. I have contacted the XXX Board, the Mayor and the local paper, all with no response.
I found out who the Sergeant is who read me the report(I couldn't read it because of my eye) and went to talk to him today but he was busy. I will try again tomorrow. Whoever whitewashed that report clearly doesn't know that both of us saw the original version. I can't think of any ethical reason that the report was changed. I did nothing wrong and don't know what to do about this. I never wanted to sue anybody, I just want to work.
Advice please
I work as a babysitter (among other jobs) and have over 30 years experience. I was working through an agency Labor Day weekend and found myself working for a family with "problem children". The second time I was there, one of the children hit me in front of the mother and she acted like this was normal behavior. After the parents left, I told the agency I would not return to this home because the children were dangerous and uncontrollable. About 2 hours in, after numerous things happened, the boy hit me in the face and scratched my eye, grabbed my glasses and tried to break them. I put them in their room, called both parents (who had turned off their phones), left a message for the father to please come home and notified my agency of what happened. 15 minutes later the Mother texted me and asked if everything was OK (not a normal thing, really), and I asked if she heard the message I left. She said no, I told her that the boy had hurt me and that they needed to come home. The Mother sent texts as they were returning which state,"Ok, we'll be there in 15 minutes", etc. A few minutes later a police car (first of 3) came roaring up the driveway. I was standing in the doorway holding an ice pack to my eye. The Sergeant jumped out of the car like a Pit Bull on bath salts, shined a spotlight at me and yelled for me to show him my hands. He then asked where the children were, I took him into their bedroom, he continued to yell at me and told me not to leave. He told me I wasn't injured and that I was faking it. The second officer arrived who was calm and objective and took all of the information. I told her the series of events and showed her my eye. The parents arrived and the mother was screaming that I was mentally unstable, etc. A third officer was stationed to protect me from her.
I was detained for an hour and a half at the house. During this time, my Manager sent texts and we talked by phone; she was crying hysterically that this woman said she was going to sue the agency and was making outrageous allegations against me. I asked the police what was going on and all I was told was that she said I had abandoned the children among other things. Obviously, they all knew upon arrival that this wasn't true. They read the text messages and listened to the voicemail I left. Eventually the Sergeant came out and apologized in front of the other 2 officers, told me I did nothing wrong, said that everything I said checked out and that he would be writing a lengthy report exonerating me of all claims she made (at that point I did not know what they were). The woman continued to call the agency during this time demanding I be fired and continued to do so after she was told to stop by the sergeant. The sergeant eventually talked to my manager and told her that the couple had no grounds to sue. My manager said I needed to get the police report for the owner of the agency.
(The sobriety of this couple was never questioned and should have been). To sum it up, this woman tried to get me arrested and fired for making them come home from a party.
The next day my eye was obviously injured. I was concerned that the Pit Bull hadn't believed me so I went to the police station to have it documented. A different Sargeant came out with the report in hand, asked me "what in the hell kind of **** storm happenned at this house??" and told me he didn't need to document the injury as it was stated in the report. He then proceeded to read me the lengthy report; all of the events were stated with the findings that I didn't do anything. But, it was pretty ugly; the woman apparently stated I beat the children and that an investigation found no marks. The police didn't even ask me if I hit them. The sergeant offered me his sympathies, asked me if my eye was OK and told me I could have a report for my agency as soon as it was ready.
3 weeks went by and I could not get the report. I spoke with the records clerk a few days in and we joked about what the report said but she said it could not be released until it was approved. My agency was asking for it daily. I called the female officer twice and she did not return my calls. Finally, I FOIL requested it because I needed to work. I was sent a redacted version with nothing but my name; the report could have been about anyone. Worst of all, the narrative had been completely changed. Bodily injury - removed, allegations of child abuse -removed. It went from a 1500 word report to 20 words. This report does nothing to protect me or my agency. I called the records clerk and told her I need the first report we had discussed for my agency. She said I could only have the approved copy.
At that point I started making calls. No police agency in the state has jurisdiction over the XXX Police. I was told to contact an elected official. I called the XXX and was given an administrative assistant who didn't want to hear any of it; she said she'd pass along my concerns to the Police Chief. Shortly thereafter,XX calls and leaves me a message that "Were not going to change the report for you and that this is all the information you get." I saved that message. I have contacted the XXX Board, the Mayor and the local paper, all with no response.
I found out who the Sergeant is who read me the report(I couldn't read it because of my eye) and went to talk to him today but he was busy. I will try again tomorrow. Whoever whitewashed that report clearly doesn't know that both of us saw the original version. I can't think of any ethical reason that the report was changed. I did nothing wrong and don't know what to do about this. I never wanted to sue anybody, I just want to work.
Advice please
Last edited by a moderator:
