mike terpening knowingly admits allegations against victim were unfounded, except by mike

June 24, 2012

Michael Terpening knows Resident A did not molest sisterLaura Adams, at the tail end of December 2011, quotes Michael Terpening accusing one of his victims as being a child molester.

But what did Mike Terpening really know? The message to the left comes from a Facebook exchange with former Terpening Follower, Jen and it sheds important light on the allegations the Defendant makes against one of his victims..

If "we" refers to the Earth Services, House Next Door program Terpening operated in Barry County Terpening means the program would be obligated to report allegations of sexual abuse of a child to the Department of Human Services (DHS). By law they would be required to investigate and determine if the allegations could be substantiated. DHS would also make referrals to law enforcement where appropriate.

It is important to keep in mind DHS is mandated to conduct investigations of allegations of abuse. A DHS investigation has a lower standard of proof than is required in a criminal prosecution and child abuse investigations often do not lead to criminal charges.

Terpening's statement, "we reported it and they did nothing" seems to best suggest the report was made while the young man, known as Resident A in the DHS report closing the Terpening group home, was court placed at the group home. If Resident A was at the group home when these allegations were reported to DHS the group home would have known the outcome of any investigation. The outcome would have become part of Resident A's DHS file.

If Terpening's statement, alternately, refers to the information being reported at any time after Terpening was ordered suspended from the Earth Services, the House Next Door program (the day after allegations were made by Resident A) Terpening would have no legal right to the information and would not have been privy to the outcome of the confidential DHS child abuse report.

The final possibility would be a report was made to DHS and, "we reported and they did nothing" means a report was made while the young man was placed at Earth Services and the DHS investigation could not substantiate the allegations by their less than "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard to place the young man into the Child Abuse Registry. In other words Resident A may have been accused and found innocent of any such charges, which if he admitted to staff he abused a child would be wildly unusual.

We do know there is no record of conviction for any  sex crime existing in Michigan for Resident A, and contrary to popular belief juvenile criminal records are public records in Michigan.

What this analysis tells is is Michael Terpening, in his own words, knows Resident A is not a child molester. This writer cannot help but wonder if the most likely scenario is Michael Terpening simply made up the allegations  as part of his campaign publicly humiliate Resident A into silence, after all he accused this writer of being involved in a child sex ring.

What cannot be in doubt is Resident A is not a child molester. Thanks to Terpening's own words we now know it was either made up or Resident A was absolved by a far lower standard of proof if allegations were reported to DHS.