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Family Raped by ACS

December 9, 2014 permalink

A lawsuit says battered drug addict Joanna Bernal went to New York's Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for help with her family of three children. Instead of helping, worker George Alejandro kept her sedated with prescription drugs and got her pregnant. He tried to induce an abortion, but the baby survived. In a later encounter with ACS, psychologist Juanita Guerra tried to hypnotize the grandmother. When she refused, Gurrra had the children placed in an abusive foster home.

Are these accusations the truth or the delusions of a woman on drugs? Borrowing a phrase from their own jargon, the accusations are "consistent with social work practice".

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Suit reveals wild abuse claims against Children’s Services

Joana Bernal
Joana Bernal

A family desperately seeking help from the city Administration for Children’s Services endured years of abuse from the agency’s workers — including a counselor who impregnated one member and a cruel hypnotist who wouldn’t take no for an answer, a new lawsuit charges.

Queens mom of three Joanna Bernal was battered and drug-addled when she sought help from ACS-contracted counselor George Alejandro, the $20 million suit says. But instead of aiding Bernal, Alejandro allegedly kept her sedated with prescription meds and exploited her sexually.

“George is a very, very bad man,” Joanna’s sister Diana told The Post. “He abused her. He got her pregnant. Then he tried to take the baby out of her.”

When Bernal became pregnant, the court papers say, Alejandro told her she needed to abort the child and took her to a hotel to “to rip the baby from her insides.”

She bled so heavily afterward that Alejandro got nervous and rushed her to Jamaica Hospital, the suit charges. Doctors were able to save her and she gave birth to a healthy girl.

Alejandro denied to The Post on Sunday that he fathered the child and that he attempted to abort it himself.

“No way. I’m a Christian,” he said. “I don’t know if you know what that means. We believe in pro-life.”

Years later, the family sought help once again from another ACS contractor, psychologist Juanita Guerra, who tried to force the grandmother into a hypnotism, the suit claims.

She resisted, and Guerra moved to take the children out of the home in retaliation, according to the lawsuit. The kids were transferred to a foster home, where one was sexually abused by another child in the home, the suit says.

Guerra did not respond to a request for comment.

ACS said it is “committed to protecting” the city’s children, and “will review this matter.”

Source: New York Post

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