Nicole Rae Coppess,  Foster Caregiver and County Mental Health (CMH) employee, Here is a page from the internet.

Nicole is licensed for foster care by Newaygo County CPS.

Nicole works with other children that are in the care of Newaygo County Child Protection Services (CPS).

Nicole works with the children's therapists.

Alyssa and Amber were kidnapped by Newaygo County CPS based on their own lies and fraud and then placed with Nicole.

Don't you think there is a conflict of interests? 

Nicole stated in court that when Alyssa and Amber were placed in her care they were "wild animals." Did these girls regress when being unjustly moved from family and placed with a stranger? No. they were abused and emotionally traumatized at the hands of Newaygo County CPS. This was done based on their own lies and fraud and in the children's "best interest".

Nicole also stated that when the girls were going to daycare they would eat out of the garbage. HMMM. Weren't they in your care Nicole? Didn't you think that just maybe you should feed them before dropping them off at daycare?

Here is a picture I received from my daughter June 28, 2006. No one but my daughter knew I had this picture. I used this picture on my original webpage on purpose, just to see what kind of story would be told by Nicole during court.

When Erica gave me this picture, I was told that Alyssa snuck some pictures home with her when the children were returned Dec. 2005. Erica gave me this picture along with others this day. Erica also told me that Lacey Gonzales-Borstler (foster worker) called and wanted the pictures back. Lacey was told the pictures were destroyed. During court Nicole testified that she sent these pictures home with Alyssa and Amber in an album. If this were true then why would Lacey want them back? Was Nicole surprised to see this picture on my webpage? Oh I bet, after all they were made to believe it was destroyed.

Does it look like in this picture either of the children are happy and things have been done in their "best interest"?

This same date, June 28, 2006  we learned our daughter signed away her parental rights May 2006 and our granddaughters were up for adoption. We started our pursuit to adopt our granddaughters on this very day.

During this same time period Nicole had a chance to adopt these children but she didn't want to.

MS. GONZALEZ-BORSTLER: "They are in foster care with the same foster mother throughout this whole ordeal. She does not feel it's in their best interest for her to be the adoptive parent. She believes that those children need a two-parent family. I wish she would reconsider, but that's not going to happen." - court 8/09/2006

"The girls' foster mother, Nicole Coppess, said she is definitely considering adopting the Alyssa and Amber. She discussed concerns over being able to financially care for them. We discussed subsidy as she was unaware of this help. She was concerned about health insurance costs as well as day care expenses. She was also interested in knowing more about the other approved adoptive family that would be interested in the girls.

As Christmas is so close, she asked if we could hold off beginning visits until after the holidays, which will give her the chance to talk with her family members about moving forward with the adoption. This should coincide with hearing something from the Consent Office.

It is this workers opinion that Nicole will decide to pursue the adoption of Alyssa and Amber. If so, a home study will need to be completed and consent and subsidy requested. If she does decide not to adopt the girls, we will begin visitation with the other family as soon as we receive a go-ahead from the Consent Office." -adoption progress report 12/19/06

In December Nicole was only considering the adoption. It wasn't until some time after our court hearing on Jan 3, 2007 that Nicole actually decided she wanted to adopt. Nicole didn't sign the papers for background checks and the subsidy papers until Jan 31, 2007. We signed all our papers on the same day so it is a good possibility this is when the adoption application was also signed.

Nicole had plenty of time and opportunity to try and adopt between May 2006 and Jan 2007. What made her change her mind? Was it because she learned she would get paid to adopt the children in Dec. 2006?

Most recently I received some information from someone that has been following this case. Someone made a blog about this case  This person that contacted me replied to that person's blog. Here are a couple excerpts from that reply.

"Well, Nicole doesn’t seem to know what she wants. One minute she doesn’t want them, the next minute it’s well maybe, but how do I afford them? Then there is yet another reconsideration period on Nicole’s part. Oh, but wait. She finds out she will get an adoption subsidy to keep the girls and only when the court awards the Atwood’s does Nicole actually want the girls. Now if you really love the girls why not just go for it to begin with? What, Love isn’t greater than money?" 

"The Atwood’s were willing to allow contact between Nicole and the girls if they were allowed to adopt because they know how much it would mean to the girls. However, Nicole wants nothing more to do with the girls if the Atwood’s adoption goes through. How much love is that? What she wouldn’t be able to afford to see the girls without the adoption subsidy or, is she just so cold hearted that she doesn’t care how any of this affects the girls?" - Dope-or-grandchildren-grandpa-decided wrong.

I guess I couldn't have said it any better.

Is it appropriate for a social worker, to be more exact, an infant mental health provider to use scare tactics on children?

Let's go back to the period grandma and I were getting visitations with Alyssa and Amber. Between March 15, 2007 and April 3, 2007 grandma and I had 6 supervised visits with Alyssa and Amber at Newaygo County DHS. I'm not going to go into any details about those visits on this page but I will talk about the first unsupervised visit we had on April 5, 2007.

During this visit there was a good period of time all the girls did was talk about coming back home. They were happy knowing that grandma and I were going to be adopting them and they couldn't wait to get back home. We didn't go to our home this day as we ran out of time.

The first overnight visit Alyssa and Amber had with us was April 9, 2007. We met Nicole, her boyfriend, Alyssa and Amber at Gene's Market.  Alyssa had no problem getting into our vehicle, but Amber on the other hand was crying and throwing a fit. This was quite a turn around from the previous unsupervised visit. Grandma and I later learned the reason for this fit. Amber finally got into our vehicle, yet she was still sobbing a little bit when Alyssa said, "Amber, be quiet nothing bad is going to happen to you." It didn't take long after that comment for Amber to change her demeanor and started talking and laughing. When we arrived home we had the girls take off their shoes and coats and showed them which bedroom was theirs. Amber was shown her bedroom and immediately walked over to the fax machine, she saw the phone there and commented, "If anything bad happens here I'm suppose to call 991."

Did Nicole scare Amber and make her think something bad was going to happen to her at grandma and grandpa's home? OH, you bet she did. Well it didn't work, long.....!!!!!

(Later in court proceedings Nicole was asked about this incident. Nicole testified she was teaching safety. Evidently this safety teaching didn't start until Amber was to come to our home. Amber wasn't taught this when she started going to daycare and such.)

It wasn't much later this same evening Amber started complaining her arm hurt. She showed us her arm and it had a band-aid on it. I took off the band-aid and low and behold what did I see? Amber has ringworm. We were not informed about this earlier, nor was any medication provided. Was Nicole trying to hide this from us? I think so because a few days later Nicole provided us with this schedule.

Imagine that,  put cream under her arm - NO  bandaid. Then why did Amber have a band-aid on when she came over to our home earlier?

Now it's time to get Alyssa and Amber ready for bed. Nicole didn't provide the children with anything but the clothes on their backs so, grandma got each of the girls a long t-shirt to wear to bed. Grandma gave Alyssa hers and Alyssa said, "I can't do that I'll get in trouble."

Alyssa didn't have a problem sleeping, she went to bed and fell asleep. While Amber was being tucked in, she asked grandma if she could sleep with her. Grandma told her no, you have your own bed and room. This is when Amber stated something real shocking. Amber told us, Nicole tells me there are monster in my room and I sleeps with her. Amazing is all I can say...

Now I will talk about the night of April 13, 2007.We get Alyssa and Amber for the whole weekend. We picked the girls up at Gene's as before. Shortly after we got home grandma gave Amber a complimented on the pants she was wearing. This was when Alyssa told us those aren't Amber's pants but the daycares. Alyssa told us Nicole sent Amber to daycare with pants that were to tight and they were hurting her, so the daycare gave Amber different pants to wear.

A couple minutes later Amber was complaining that her eye hurt. Grandma asked Amber why and Amber stated, "Nicole gave me my own makeup and I got some in my eye."

Later this same evening grandma and Amber were talking in Amber's bedroom. I came in to ask Amber a couple question because of a conversation Lacey Gonzales-Borstler and I had earlier in the day. During the conversation I had with Lacey, she asked if the children sleep with us. This was when she was told no, that is unacceptable, the children have their own beds and rooms.

So, here are the questions I asked Amber. My first question was,   "Does Nicole's boyfriend spend the night with Nicole?" Amber replied, "Yes." I asked Amber, "Does Nicole's boyfriend sleep with Nicole?" Amber replied. "Yes."  My final question for Amber was. "Do you sleep with Nicole and her boyfriend?" Amber replied, "I already told you YES, but I don't do it anymore." I was shocked, here Lacey asked me if the children sleep with us, and all along it seems Amber had slept with Nicole and evidently at times with Nicole and her boyfriend.

Did Nicole take a page out of the CPS handbook of  false accusations? Let me explain, but first I need to give some background.

When grandma and I were getting visitations with Alyssa and Amber at DHS, grandma made Nicole some cookies and this note was enclosed inside a card that was left with Char Anderson (CPS supervisor) for Nicole.

Nicole, 

We would like to thank you, for

taking such great care of our

Granddaughters. 

We have no intentions of cutting

you out of their lives when we get

them back. These two girls have gone

through enough and the last thing they

need are more emotional problems. 

We would love to meet with you some

day and personally thank you.

Please call us at 231-834-0067. 

Thank You,   

Tim and Barbara Atwood

Grandma and I had never met nor seen Nicole prior to starting the overnight visitations. Each and every time when we picked up and dropped of the children, Nicole's boyfriend was with her.

During the court hearing August 2, 2007 Nicole tried to make the court believe we were following her around or stalking her. She was saying how afraid she was. The first example she used was during the overnight visitations. .

Whenever we are heading directly home from Gene's there are only 2 routes we take to leave Grant as shown in this picture.

Gene's Market is the red X, the red and green solid lines are the 2 routes we take leaving Grant. We take these routes 50/50 when going home from Gene's. When picking up and dropping off our granddaughters for the first 2 visits we left first and headed East as we always do. The last overnight visit we left Gene's first when picking up the children and took the same Eastern direction. Nicole left Gene's first after we dropped Alyssa and Amber off and headed East the same direction we always go. So of course we had to follow her. This particular time we left Grant the green way as illustrated in the picture. Evidently Nicole needed gas so she turned off the green route as illustrated with the broken red line. I'm not sure which gas station she went to but all the gas stations in Grant are on M37. The green X would be where the Wesco station is located. Because we followed her to leave Grant, which isn't that great of a distance, she used this as one of the examples of use following her.  She also said in court we went a different way this time. OK, questions, how would she know exactly which route we took before when we were leaving Grant unless, she was following us? If she needed gas why didn't she just leave Gene's and take M37 instead of going East like we always do?

The evening of April 17, 2007 grandma and I went to get a few things from Gene's. I needed some gas before leaving town so we stopped off at the Wesco, which is where I get my gas 99.9% of the time. While pumping the gas I noticed Nicole was in the store. This is talked about more below. Nicole's boyfriend was there.

She used a couple other example to try to relate to the court we were stalking her. We went to Genes a few weeks later, on a Sunday afternoon to get a few things and she happened to be there. All the times we had been to Gene's prior to getting visitations with Alyssa and Amber we had never seen her there. Whenever we go to Grant it is because we need something. Sometime when we go to Grant it is to go to the post office. The normal route we take just happens to be past the day care. Nicole evidently saw us a time or two when we went past it.

 Those are all examples she used to make the court think we are stalking her and how afraid she is. Now it is ludicrous to believe we travel 8 miles to Grant on the slim chance sNicole might just be there. As I said earlier, Nicole tried to convey to the court how afraid she was. Most of the time her boyfriend is with her. The judge asked Nicole if we ever called or threatened her. Of course she had to say no. Yup I guess it is really frightening to have someone be nothing but pleasant with you. Do you think the court went along with her false claim? Do you think Nicole is paranoid?

Could this be in part a reason why Judge Thomas put in his opinion he believes Nicole should have a psychological evaluation?

Is this what is going to rub off on the girls. Is this all she can teach the girls? Be fearful and paranoid and to lie? No good factors such as trust and love?

Has Nicole had a hand in these children's emotional problems? You bet she has. I already mention some things earlier but now let me speak more about the night we happened to be at Wesco, the night the COA reversed the trial court. OH, BTW I did watch the surveillance tape from that night.

When Nicole and the children went to the store she wasn't holding on to the children. Nicole knew we were there so when they were leaving the store, Nicole had the children put one of their hands in her right hand to keep them from coming over to see us. The children were behind her. When they were almost to our vehicle Alyssa got loose and started walking toward us. Nicole grabbed Alyssa and while pulling Alyssa and Amber, Nicole told her to get to the car. While the children were being pulled to the car they were both looking at us. You should have seen the expression on both of these children's faces. You could see the pain on their faces and in their eyes. How would you feel if  this were you? You knew this was the day you were to be going home for good and it didn't happen.

"Alyssa and Amber continue to do very well in their current foster home placement with Nicole Coppess. Nicole said that Alyssa's first reaction to hearing that they did not have to move to their grandparents' home was, "Yeah, can I go tell my sister." Nicole states that they were both very excited and happy". -Adoption Progress Report 5/19/2007

Some more fiction Suzanne used? This was put in the adoption progress report after the COA reversed the trial court and Alyssa and Amber didn't come home for good on April 17, 2007 as the girls thought they were going to be doing. If the above  BOLD statements were true. Why was it this same evening when we saw the girls at Wesco, as Nicole was pulling Alyssa and Amber away from us and to her vehicle, did they both have this unforgettable look of pain in their faces and eyes? Why did it take 3 month's for the girls to get over what happened that evening and calm back down? Why did Alyssa have a melt down June 26, 2007? Exactly, these children were traumatized once more because of what was happening to them because they didn't come home with grandma and grandpa.

So yes Nicole has had her hand in emotionally traumatizing these children. And for what, money?

Sometime in August 2007 I received an email with a couple pictures in it. I'm still not sure who took the pictures.

As you notice I hid the identity of the other children. Amber isn't wearing her glasses. Wouldn't that be neglect?

It is a known fact that when children grow up they will look for their biological families. I wonder how much love Alyssa and Amber will feel towards you Nicole, when they learn the truth.

I recently received this picture from someone, whether this is appropriate or not here it is..

Is it true what I heard that Nicole's boyfriend has complained to his ex-wife about Nicole smoking and drinking all the time? And I thought Nicole testified she very seldom drinks? I wonder which Bacardi Silver flavor is her favorite.