Blogs by Deborah K. Frontiera
Fighting CPS
2/23/2014 12:31:44 PM
The purpose of this blog is to provide updates on some of the cases I reported in my book (Fighting CPS: Guilty Until Proven Innocent of Child Protective Services Charges ISBN 9-780-9800061-6-2) that had not been resolved when the book went to press, and to report other cases where CPS is not working up to par. I’d also like to hear about cases in which Child Protective Services did the right thing so those cases can serve as examples of what should be done. Occasionally, I will report helpful tips and web sites with advice on fighting CPS. To comment on this blog, or to tell your story, email Deborah Frontiera at frontiera.fightingcps.deborah.gmail.com
The next post will be on Mar. 10, 2014.
PART 1 OF 2
Another Houston injustice appeared in the Houston Chronicle beginning Dec. 6, 2013. I’ve been following it now for quite a while, thanks to columnist Lisa Falkenberg. (See credit at the end of this post.) It involved a twelve-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her mother’s live-in boyfriend. CPS placed the girl in protective custody in May of 2013 after her mother apparently abandoned her—a time when I can actually agree with their decision to remove the child from the home.
In spite of such abuse, this courageous girl, with unusual maturity, choose to take responsibility for the life she carried and wanted to keep her baby. She had a healthy baby girl in November. Her foster mother and the foster mother’s sister-in-law supported her in her choice to keep her baby and were prepared to help her learn to be a mother, stay in school, etc. She had even decided to breast feed and was taking care of her baby in the hospital when CPS swooped in to take her baby away—simply because she was a minor in foster care and in spite of the fact that the baby was healthy, the girl had a support system in place, etc.
The girl’s lawyer actually rushed to the hospital and stood between CPS and the baby to try to prevent the baby’s removal until they settled on a placement “appropriate” to CPS (why the arrangement in place wasn’t good enough for them is anyone’s guess) that would allow the girl to have contact with her child and build toward reunification. Even the child advocate assigned to the case favored keeping girl-mother and child together.
Step in State District Judge John Philips (who has been known for unfair decisions concerning CPS cases in the past) who denied the mother any contact with her child! The only thing that seemed to matter to the court was that the girl was only twelve and “from a bad family.” Her attorney stated that, of course the young mother did not think she could parent the child totally by herself, that she knew she needed foster parents to help her, but she just wanted her baby to be part of that family.
Here I must quote briefly from The Chronicle: Judge Philips “went on a tirade about how the agency didn’t follow procedures and how the Rosharon family wasn’t licensed. In fact, plenty of ‘safety placements’ are with friends and neighbors who aren’t licensed. [We were never licensed the entire 13 months we had our grandson!] Then Philips revealed perhaps his truest motivation in the case: ‘I get calls from people that say, ‘We’re approved foster parents. We’re waiting for a child. Why can’t we have a child? . . . Well, I can tell you why, because CPS steps in and makes moves like these that are unauthorized, and they’re not part of the procedure.’ The comment led to attorneys filing a motion to have Judge Philips removed from the case because of apparent bias.”
The motion took the case down the hall to Judge Devlin—Philips’ old law partner and campaign treasurer! But Devlin at least heard the lawyers out in another hearing. Things got messier, though, as Philips appointed a different attorney to the girl—not letting her have her choice of attorney! The attorney assigned was Katie Flynn, “a frequent appointee in Philips’ court. This year alone, Flynn has been paid $156,852 in court appointments and is handling about 100 active cases in juvenile and family courts, county records show.”
So, as Falkenberg so accurately put it, this young girl has become a victim a second time of the system that was supposed to protect her! The young girl was essentially forced to consent to having the State of Texas take custody of her child, a one-month-old baby girl who had never been abused or neglected. (Houston Chronicle, Dec. 6, 2013, pg. B-1 and 7)
This case certainly seems to support the “theory” that CPS and the courts are in bed together for the purpose of getting more state and federal money, regardless of what happens to children. More on this case in the next post!
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