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Worst nightmares
Sex abuse accusation still shadows family
FLUSHING TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, February 26, 2006
By Ron Fonger
rfonger@... • 810.766.6317
QUICK TAKE
In one horrible night, Bryon and Kristy Vamos lost their baby
daughter to drowning and their 3-year-old son to authorities
suspecting abuse in the family. Their son is home now, but their
ordeal may not be over.


Any parent's fear

When Bryon and Kristy Vamos were faced with a petition to terminate
their parental rights over abuse accusations, they hired an attorney,
voluntarily took parenting classes like those family court judges
sometimes require and complied with visitation restrictions they
disagreed with. Here are some of the tips an advocacy group gives in
case of wrongful accusations of child abuse:
Don't speak to anyone about your case without speaking to an
attorney.


Don't contact the alleged victim, their family or prosecution
witnesses.


Seek an attorney experienced specifically in false child abuse cases.


Don't turn to drugs or alcohol.


Document everything. Every time you talk to social services, document
what was said and ask the person you spoke with to confirm or deny
contents.


Find and document opinions in court records - for example, "the child
did not want to return home" - from social workers.


Defend your character. Get affidavits from friends, co-workers and
clergy.


Source: National Association of State VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse
Laws) Organizations


Timeline
SEPT. 1: JAMIE VAMOS DROWNS IN HER FAMILY'S SWIMMING POOL. HER
BROTHER, JOEY, IS TAKEN FROM HOME WITHIN 24 HOURS AFTER DOCTORS AND
POLICE SAY THEY SEE EVIDENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE IN EXAMINING JAMIE.


DEC. 16: THE OAKLAND COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER CONTRADICTS THOSE
SUSPICIONS, SAYING THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE. HE RULES
JAMIE'S CAUSE OF DEATH AN ACCIDENTAL DROWNING.


DEC. 20: GENESEE CIRCUIT JUDGE JOHN A. GADOLA RETURNS JOEY TO HIS
PARENTS BUT DELAYS DISMISSING THE PETITION TO TERMINATE THEIR
PARENTAL RIGHTS. GADOLA SAYS HE WANTS AN EXPLANATION FOR THE
DIFFERENCE IN OPINION BETWEEN HURLEY MEDICAL CENTER AND OAKLAND
COUNTY OFFICIALS.


FEB. 7: GADOLA DISMISSES THE PETITION TO TAKE JOEY FROM HIS PARENTS,
SAYS THE SYSTEM ULTIMATELY WORKED.



FLUSHING TWP. - Three-year-old Joey Vamos runs across his living room
floor, jumps onto the couch near his father and curls up to suck his
thumb.

Being back home with mom and dad Kristy and Bryon Vamos seems to feel
just right to the blond-haired preschooler, whom a Genesee Circuit
Court judge returned to his parents just before Christmas.

That was almost four months after his younger sister, Jamie, drowned
in the family's swimming pool. Joey was taken from his parents that
same night amid suspicions of abuse in the home.

In a township where there hasn't been a homicide since 1997, the
death of little Jamie Vamos on a warm Sept. 1 evening devastated a
family and created a buzz, fueled by rumors and a social worker's
petition that claimed the 18-month-old girl might have been sexually
abused before she died.

"We were told point blank that our daughter had been raped and
murdered," said Kristy Vamos.

"I think it affected the whole neighborhood," said Marcy Smith, who
lives not far down W. Carpenter Road from the Vamoses. "It was really
emotional for everybody. It was like it didn't even happen because it
was so unbelievable."

It's not over yet.

Although county Prosecutor David Leyton decided last week not to file
criminal charges in the abuse case township police brought to him,
Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said his department - which helped the
township in the investigation - remains willing to listen to anyone
with information about the case.

"We have a baby we believe was abused," Pickell said last week. "If
new evidence surfaces, we'll continue to investigate. ... We can't
just walk away from it."

===

Jamie's father was apparently the last person to see her alive.

She and Joey were with him

outdoors when he said he went into the front yard to get a ball for
the three to play with just after 7 p.m.

When he came back, he couldn't find his daughter. In a frantic
search, he looked under the solar cover of the above-ground pool
before moving on to other danger spots like a nearby pond.

Only when the Vamoses and another couple who had just arrived
searched the pool a second time did they find Jamie. About 20 minutes
had passed. She wasn't breathing.

At about 7:30, county records show, paramedics were sent to the home
after a 911 call.

Neither Bryon Vamos nor paramedics could restart Jamie's heart.

By 7:50, Jamie arrived at Hurley Medical Center by ambulance, and
later that night, a doctor told Bryon and Kristy Vamos that Jamie's
body showed signs of sexual abuse.

The family contends the hospital jumped to false conclusions and
documented some injuries that never existed.

Authorities immediately took Joey away from his parents, placing him
with Kristy Vamos' parents.

===

Bryon Vamos, 37, an auto service technician at a car dealership, and
wife Kristy, 35, a stay-at-home mom, say they're victims of a rush to
judgment that started soon after they found their daughter in the
pool they've since torn down.

They say the sheriff and Hurley botched the investigation with
inconsistency and errors.

But doctors at Hurley and investigators with the Sheriff's Department
said they saw signs of abuse when they examined Jamie, including an
unexplained 1/8-inch vaginal cut.

Before any autopsy and just hours after their daughter died, a police
investigator questioned both parents separately, grilling them about
what Hurley doctors described as severe rectal and vaginal bruising
and lacerations.

Police sent Bryon Vamos home that night in an orange prisoner's
jumpsuit, taking his clothes for DNA testing that ended up finding
nothing suspicious.

The couple were allowed limited visitation with their son - at first
just an hour a week under supervision of the Genesee County
Department of Human Services.

They celebrated Joey's Oct. 21 birthday in a cubicle in a state
office building.

===

As visitation with Joey was expanded just before Thanksgiving,
allowing for longer visits and supervision by Kristy's parents, the
tide began to turn.

On Dec. 16, Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic
concluded in Jamie's case there was "no physical evidence found to
substantiate the allegation of sexual abuse of this child."

Dragovic's office noted the vaginal cut in its report, but didn't
conclude abuse was the cause.

Four days later, Joey was returned home, without objections from the
county prosecutor's office, DHS or an attorney appointed to represent
Joey. The different medical opinions troubled Circuit Judge John A.
Gadola, but he said earlier this month that police, social workers
and doctors all did their part to be sure Joey is safe at home.

There remains one loose end for the Vamoses, though.

"All we had wanted was an apology," said Kristy Vamos, "but we have
never received (it)."

An apology seems unlikely, with Pickell saying he's keeping the case
cracked open and wants Bryon Vamos to take a lie-detector test.

Bryon Vamos said he agreed to take a lie-detector test, but not one
administered by the sheriff.

"It will be a cold day in hell before I submit myself to more abuse
from that department," he said.

===

Around the township, bits of the Vamos story have spread by word of
mouth, and many feel for the family that lost one child forever, then
another for months - all in the same 24 hours.

"To lose a child is bad enough, but then to be accused of all those
horrible things. ... I can't imagine," said Flushing resident Carol
Coe. "Our hearts just go out to them."

Coe and her husband, Bob, lost their 29-year-old daughter, Karen
Turk, five years ago in a car crash.

"For us, for months, it felt like we were looking at the world
through a gray cloud. The pain is just too deep," Carol Coe
said. "(The Vamoses) probably haven't even had a chance to grieve
their child."

Bryon Vamos implied as much in notes he prepared before an interview
last week with The Flint Journal.

"At the most important time for a family to be together," he
wrote, "our son (was) wrongfully taken from us."

Flushing Township Police Chief Douglas Kennedy said he is
sympathetic.

"Obviously, we felt for the family. We were very concerned about what
they were going through," he said. "We do have a job to do, but
certainly, we tried to place ourselves in their shoes as we conducted
the investigation."

Kennedy said every entity involved completed a separate probe - from
caseworkers to the crime lab. That's why it took so long before the
Vamoses regained custody of their son, he said.

"The last thing you want to do is investigate something real quickly
and overlook something," Kennedy said.

===

Hurley spokesman Larry Daly said the hospital was only playing its
part in the investigation when doctors notified the Department of
Human Services.

Daly said a hospital patient advocate may still talk to the Vamoses
to be sure they understand what doctors saw and why they documented
it.

The family says that won't undo suspicions in the community.

"Let's just say you find out who your real friends are at a time like
this," said Kristy Vamos.

"We got looks when we shopped ... someone gave me the finger when I
got the mail," she said. "It makes you feel like everybody is looking
at you.

"I even started taking cash out of the ATM and shopping in New
Lothrop" to avoid seeing people in Flushing. "We have spent a fortune
trying to prove our innocence."

Joey is still recovering from being away from home, his parents said.

He clings, wants his parents with him when he leaves home and is back
in diapers after having been potty trained.

Longtime family friend Karen Fras said others don't know the real
Bryon and Kristy - only the accusations.

"They are good, loving parents," she said. "When you know somebody as
long as we've known Bryon and Kristy and hear what happened to them,
it's like hearing a horror story. As if this family wasn't going
through enough."

***




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