On November 18, 1983, Rehab and her husband, Ahmed Amer, as well as their son Mohammed-Ali, welcomed twins Samier and Suehier into the world.   The family of five was set on fulfilling the American Dream. However, that dream would take a drastic turn in the wrong direction when the family falls victim to cracks in the justice system. This would result in the destruction of their happy and loving family.
 
From his birth, Rehab and Ahmed realized that their son, Samier, was very different than his twin sister, Suehier.  He cried at the slightest touch, was difficult to feed, maintained a stiff posture, and a look of extreme pain that rarely left his face. In order to get him to eat, the couple had to feed their son through a dropper, as he was unable to be nursed and often refused a bottle.  Samier was taken to see a physician on numerous occasions, yet his parents were told he was just “fussy.”  The family was determined to do whatever was possible to ensure that Samier was both healthy and growing, as they sought to do with all of their children. As the twins grew older, it became apparent to the Amers, their pediatrician, and a specialist that the twins needed corrective footwear to straighten out their legs and feet.  Both children had to wear corrective shoes during the day and bars at night, which they did for over a year.  However, medical experts had overlooked an underlying cause for Samier’s continued discomfort and other symptoms that would only be discovered many years after his death.

In 1985, Samier Amer died after falling in the bathtub and fracturing his skull.  Rehab, his mother, was charged with his death and was later acquitted by jury on August 13, 1986.  The family was initially told by a court judge that their children would be returned to them, but Michigan’s Welfare Department refused to return the children to the grief stricken family.  The family had lost their parental rights and their children were taken from them by the State after Samier’s death.  Rehab Amer gave birth to her fourth child, Zinabe, four months after her acquittal only to have her kidnapped from the hospital by social services, without a court order, at one day old.  The State rejected the Amer’s extended family members and members of the Muslim community as potential foster parents, placing their Muslim children Mohammed-Ali, Suehier and Zinabe with Christian foster parents.   The devastated parents were allowed only monitored visits with their children at the Judson Foster Care Facility, where they would later come to find their children were being abused and brainwashed.  Soon after, their visitation rights were terminated, and the Amers began a journey of legal battles that would take two decades to clear them of their son’s death, however it would be too late to reconcile the destroyed family.  ​

Family Photo Album:
Cries From the Grave

Beloved son Samier, born on November 18, 1983.  It would take nearly two decades for his cries from the grave to be heard. ​
The twins, Samier and Suehier, sitting together. 
The happy family before the tragic death of beloved son Samier.
The children were unjustly treated in the Foster Care System. These pictures show children, Mohammed-Ali and Suehier, at the Judson Foster Care Center during supervised visits, showing the devastating abuse the children endured while in foster care.  They were covered with bruises and cigarette burns and would tell their parents in front of the social worker that their foster mother had done this to them. However, the foster care worker would call the children "liars."  These pictures were used to bring this to the attention of the Department of Social Services.  An investigator was assigned to this matter and proved that the Amer kids were indeed abused by their foster mother.  Despite this, Rehab and Ahmed were threatened by the Department of Health Services that if they continued pressing this issue, their kids would be relocated to a foster care facility in Grand Rapids and would never be able to see them again.  They told the Amers to be happy that their children were "still alive."  No one cared for the kids, no one heard their cries or protected them from the abuse they endured while in foster care. 
 
After Rehab's acquittal, Judge Martin Maher, the probate judge, had ordered for the State to work with them within the following three months to return the Amer Children to their parents.  Guardian Ad Litem, William Ladd was present at Rehab's acquittal and outraged by the verdict.  He vowed that it would be “over his dead body” before the children would be returned to their parents, their extended family or the Muslim community. His intentions were fueled by discrimination, as he approached the Amers' attorney, Mr. Lawrence Strauss, and told him that their children would never be placed with anyone from the Muslim community or their relatives.  He also said to the  attorney, in what he intended to be a put down, “How about placing the kids with Black Muslims,” for which we have Attorney Strauss’s affidavit.  Rehab and Ahmed began to voice their concerns about their children’s abuse while in foster care, however, he was not interested in what was truly in the children’s best interest and did not protect the children by removing them from those foster care parents.         

The Wayne County Department of Social Services referred the Amers to Dr. Ralph Epstein, a State Appointed Psychologist, in 1987.  Even before they met with Dr. Epstein, William Ladd requested Dr. Epstein to issue a report stating that they were not fit parents and that their kids should not be returned to them.  According to Dr. Epstein’s testimony, he revealed that he was harassed by Ladd and that foster care workers asked the DHS workers to put pressure on him to give a negative report about their parenting ability.  Dr. Epstein had never shared any of that information with the Amers, even after meeting with him for two years, until he gave his testimony.  Ladd had also asked Dr. Epstein to share his testimony with him about his findings before the trial and threatened to stop him from testifying if his findings gave us a positive report.  Dr. Epstein delivered his testimony and talked about it in the media in an interview by FOX2 News, Detroit, in 1995.  The Amers attorney, Marian Faupel, took the case to court with the newly discovered evidence to indicate that Samier had a temporary brittle bone disease.  Judge Amy Hathaway found that the evidence was overwhelming that the Amers' son was not abused and certainly not murdered.  The attorney made the crucial point to the judge that it was not in the best interest for the Amer children to grow believing that their brother was murdered by their mother.  Ladd countered this by claiming their two oldest children had endured extensive therapy after their parental rights were terminated.  He added that to try to tell them otherwise would cause them greater harm because it would instill the idea that the system could not be trusted.  This angered the judge and the court room, except for Ladd and Judy Hartsfield, the Attorney General.  They did not serve in the best interest of the children; rather, they prosecuted the children. 

Even more devastating was the fact that Ladd had admitted in court that he had never spoke or met with the children.  Although he was bound by law to work with the parents and in the best interest of the children, he never informed the children of their rights and ignored their religion and ethnicity and he got away with it.  Daughter Zinabe was born four months after Rehab's acquittal, and the very next day, Social Services kidnapped her from the hospital and placed her in a foster home.  Judge Maher was removed from the case and replaced by Judge Gladys Barsamian, who referred to the Amers as "killers." The Amers' attorneys had objected her reference as "killers," however, she requested to review the case and issue another court date.  The State had offered the Amers to sign a Parent Agency Agreement Plan, that states in order for them to get their kids back, Rehab would have to go to therapy and admit that she had killed her son.  Judge Barsamian made it a court order to follow the State's plan, and the only way the court and the state would return the kids was if she had admitted guilt.  Rehab and her husband refused to sign it.

They had filed so many motions to return their parental rights and protect their children, however, Judge Hathaway could not reopen their case because in 1996, the State claimed their kids were adopted, even though the documentation necessary was illegal.  The Amers were prevented from seeing the final adoption documentation by Ladd and Hartsfield, and still to this day have not seen them.  They were able to see their children for the first time after 13 years of legal battles.  The adoptive parents showed us the Amers the adoption documents, however, those were not the final documents and they informed them there were no other.  They had struggled for thirteen years to make it to a dead end.  Their children’s identities had been replaced, they received no answers from attorneys and were devastated by the injustice that had destroyed their family.   

​The kids are adults now, and have been brainwashed to reject the fact that the devastation that broke their family was a result of injustices.  The children have said that there were saved from their parents through the State's removal.  As loving parents, they fought to bring the cries of their son, Samier, from the grave to reveal the truth of the injustice that they have endured.  Their mission is to make sure this tragedy does not happen to other innocent families and children, and so that their son's tears and the tears of anyone who suffers this injustice does not continue to be unheard. 12 years later in order to bring relief to their brainwashed kids especially their twin daughter Suehier, as Rehab recalls the painful tears of her twin daughter when stated that she will never get on with her life till she herself dies and meet her twin brother Samier in heaven and asks him what happened, at this time distraught heart broken Mom wanted to comfort her daughter not knowing what else she can do to convince her kids that she didn't kill nor abused her twin, and to have accept the facts that their brother was tested for brittle bone disease and evidence were overwhelming accepted by the court and because of the State claimed the court had no jurisdiction to reopen the case because of the Amer children's were adopted.  Now Rehab had setup  a plan to push forward to bring relief to her kids, and discussed to have her twin son Samier's remains to be exhumed after 17 years of burial, it taken a Miracle from above to have Samier's Remains preserved date of Sept. 17th 2002 God had revealed what had taken place on Wednesday of Nov. 21 of 1985.  Rehab with her husband Ahmed taken their newly discovered evidence back to court and with the Grace of God 22 years later Judge Edward A. Thomas ordered Wayne County to Amend Samier's death Certificate to indicate what God had witnessed that Samier's Fall and death was Accidental Not Homicide.  With all what the Amer family have gone through, you would think that finally justice will be served and relief would come to the Amer family, little that they knew that no matter what Rehab and Ahmed have done to get their kids to accept the truth and to get on with their lives with connecting back with them, Rehab's heart shattered took her of her shattered heartaches and moved forward to make sure no other families with having their children torn from them Unjustly and be brainwashed against their families, she began to write down what had taken place in her family's case and authored a State Amer bill that took 5 years to get it to pass to state law knowing hb 4118 Proposed Amer Act signed to law on Dec. 14th 2010 ensuring the best interest of the children's placements are within their own fit familiar surrounding in order to protect the children's God giving Rights to their own innocence, Identities, Families ties and religious and cultural background.   Now Rehab and Ahmed Amer's Humble Mission continues by taken Amer State Law to the National Level, Hon. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell Introduced H.R. 4990 Rehab and Ahmed Amer Foster Care Improvement Act 2018 back to Congress, as it needs Nationwide Representatives support to get it to pass to National Law to further ensure families of all faiths God giving Rights to their Innocence Children's Voiceless Voices are Heard and not Forgotten as of the Amer Children's.  Rehab became the Voice of Justice and Hope for the Voiceless and a Nationwide advocates for Children's & Families. By the Grace of God since the passing of the Amer law Rehab Advocates for children's, families by her presence at court hearings ensuring the children's best interest are being met when it comes to their placements within their fit familiar surroundings. So far Rehab by the grace of God to have gone through over 3 decades none stop fighting for her family's injustice as well of other and to see through and witness that her cries as well of her children's and of her beloved twin boy Angel Samier's cries from the grave have not gone in vain.  Rehab's advocacy has reunited more than  30 families with them children's on the National level.  Rehab with her strong steadfast faith and of the love and support of her family her mission continues with the hope of making a long overdue dream is a reality by the Establishment of the AMER Foundation Facility to ensure No Innocent Cry goes unheard, unloved, unseen and forgotten. The Voiceless are the Future Leaders of Humanity. Help us help Them! God bless and thank you for visiting the AMER website.!!