Arizona Rancher Says Four Foster Children Removed from his Home UPDATED

“A militant leader on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge told OPB his involvement in the occupation has resulted in the loss of his four foster children.

Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and his wife Jeanette were foster care parents for troubled boys. Finicum estimates that over the past decade, more than 50 boys came through their ranch near Chino Valley, Arizona. The boys often landed there from mental hospitals, drug rehabs and group homes for emotionally distressed youth.

“My ranch has been a great tool for these boys,” Finicum said. “It has done a lot of good.”

Jeanette Finicum cared for the four children while her husband traveled between the refuge in southeastern Oregon and Utah, as part of a press tour in support of the militants’ occupation.

Finicum said a social worker removed the last of his foster children from the ranch beginning Jan. 4, with the last child transferred out of his home on Jan. 9.

“They didn’t go out at the same time,” Finicum said. “One was there for a year, one of the boys was there six months, another eight months, and a month. I don’t know where they ended up.”

The removals coincided with Finicum’s involvement in the occupation of the refuge, outside of Burns. He blamed the removals on “pressure from the feds.”

“They were ripped from my wife,” Finicum said. “We are very successful (foster parents). Our track records are good, it’s been a good relationship. (Federal authorities) must have gotten to the governor, who told the state to get them out of there.”

Finicum said he is licensed and has a care contract with Catholic Charities Community Services in Arizona. While his license has not been revoked, Finicum said he would no longer receive referrals to care for foster children.

That represents an enormous loss of income for the Finicums. According to a 2010 tax filing, Catholic Charities paid the family $115,343 to foster children in 2009. That year, foster parents were compensated between $22.31 and $37.49 per child, per day, meaning if the Finicums were paid at the maximum rate, they cared for, on average, eight children per day in 2009.

“That was my main source of income,” Finicum said. “My ranch, well, the cows just cover the costs of the ranch. If this means rice and beans for the next few years, so be it. We’re going to stay the course.”

Since then, Catholic Charities has increased payments for foster care significantly, but it does not itemize the dollar amount the Finicums were paid in subsequent years.

Catholic Charities could not be reached for comment.

Another militant at the refuge, Blaine Cooper, said in a video that Child Protective Services took his children out of his home, but that claim could not be independently verified.

It’s unclear who was caring for Cooper’s children.

“I hope people are seeing the sacrifices we’re making here,” Finicum said. “I want to show what my government is doing. You need to understand the cost being paid by many people.”  ”

Militant Says Foster Children Were Pulled From His Home

[OPB 1/17/16 by John Sepulvado and Amelia Templeton]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: He was killed by the FBI.

“Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was killed in a shootout Tuesday while traveling from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to John Day for a public meeting, sources have told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

It was one day before his 56th birthday, which his wife had traveled from Arizona to celebrate.

Finicum, 55, gave reporters the first tours of the occupied grounds at the refuge. He frequently represented Ammon Bundy, the occupation’s most public face, at news conferences.

Finicum gained the nickname “Tarp Man” from some media outlets early in the occupation after he did a series of interviews one frigid evening with a blue tarp over his head. With a gun in his lap, Finicum said he’d rather die than be arrested.

Finicum rode in support of Cliven Bundy at the 2014 Nevada standoff where the Bundys challenged federal land managers, he said in an interview with the St. George News in Utah.

Finicum was a rancher in Northern Arizona, along the Utah border. He was involved in his own dispute with federal land management authorities over a grazing permit he has held since 2009. Finicum’s allotment, nearly 17,000 acres, was primarily administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. His 2014 grazing fee was $1,126, which he paid in advance.

The dispute centered on when Finicum was permitted to graze. The permit allowed 161 cattle to graze from October through May, but the BLM said Finicum was found grazing his cattle on the land in August, outside of the authorized period.”

The agency issued Finicum a notice of trespass, then in October a notice of proposed decision that he was “in willful trespass.” Finicum had not gone to the local BLM office to resolve the dispute, the agency said, and he had accumulated about $12,000 in related fees. The case was handled administratively, and the BLM has not tried to impound his cattle.

A BLM official and Finicum agreed he’d previously had a good relationship with the bureau, according to the St. George News’ report. But Finicum told the online news site the 2014 Bundy incident caused him to do “a lot of soul-searching” — and ultimately to stop paying his own grazing fees to the federal agency.

Finicum and his wife, Jeanette, have 11 children, according to his blog One Cowboy’s Stand for Freedom.

He is also a therapeutic foster parent with Catholic Charities Community Services.

Finicum told Oregon Public Broadcasting that four foster children were pulled from his home due to his involvement in the Malheur occupation. He said more than 50 boys had stayed at one time at the family’s ranch, mostly from mental hospitals, drug hospitals and drug rehabs.

Finicum told OPB the foster-care payments comprised a large share of his income. A 2010 tax filing showed Catholic Charities paid the family $115,343 in 2009, the public-broadcasting station reporter.

Finicum filed for bankruptcy in Arizona in 2002, public records show.

He wrote a novel called “Only by Blood and Suffering: Regaining Lost Freedom,”which is for sale on Amazon.

Arianna Finicum Brown, 26, one of Finicum’s daughters, said Tuesday that she hadn’t been concerned for her father’s safety during his time at the wildlife refuge.

“I talked to him, and he said they were telling people to go if they weren’t there for the right reasons, they didn’t want anyone there who could make everything go bad,” she said. “He had no plans to be violent. My dad was a really good guy.”

Although one of her sisters had been worried during the occupation, Brown said that as of Tuesday afternoon she was sure the standoff would end peacefully.

By Tuesday evening, however, the family members who were updating Finicum’s Facebook page were asking for their followers’ prayers.

That message followed another earlier post from Tuesday as Finicum’s wife, Jeanette, bid farewell to the refuge.

“I had a wonderful time in Oregon with wonderful, dedicated, hard working people,” she wrote in the post at noon on Tuesday. “I have so much respect for everyone there who loves our Country so much to put ALL on the line.””

Robert ‘LaVoy’ Finicum, killed in Oregon shooting, was Arizona foster parent and rancher [Oregon Live 1/27/16 by Carli Brosseau]