Blogs by Deborah K. Frontiera
Fighting CPS
3/9/2014 2:05:28 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. 24, 2014.
PART 2 OF 2
The fight of a twelve-year-old girl to be able to have her baby in her family is finally resolved. Thuy Le, the girl’s attorney of choice, continued the fight to reunite mother and child in spite of being kicked out of the court room (so a more state-minded attorney might continue to remove her from her baby’s life permanently) Judge Devlin (buddy of Judge Philips) at least requested that administrative Judge Olen Underwood assign the case to yet another court. This young girl has been supported by foster parents, teachers and administrators in Pearland ISD where she is a student, and many other friends of the foster family involved.
“As a result of Philips’ improper appointment of Flynn and another attorney for the baby, Le argues that [the mother] was ‘denied her right to be represented by an attorney of her choosing and the attorney of record.” Le also stated that the mother didn’t fully understand what she had agreed to in the previous hearings. Le continues to handle this case for free (thanks and blessings to this lawyer). The court system then tried to block Le from seeing and making copies of the case file. Le had to sit in the court room, laboriously copying the entire case file by hand!
The state has the burden of showing that this young girl is a danger to her baby, and so far there is no evidence of that in any court papers. A Dec. 13, 2014, report related that a glimmer of hope in the sad story came when former state appellate Justice Michol O’Connor joined Le as co-counsel. O’Connor is a former Harris County prosecutor and former assistant U.S. attorney who stated, “When the judges are not behaving properly, then the whole system breaks down. It’s a case in which a lawyer working pro-bono and her client are being abused by the judicial system.”
A follow-up on Dec. 17, report stated that Visiting Judge Eric Andell granted the young mother full access to her child, who was returned to the Rosesharon foster family (after being placed in a foster home in another county nearly an hour drive away). Now the young mother can kiss her baby as much as she wants, after being criticized by an agency staff person in Nov. for “kissing her baby too much”. Attorney Le was able to help work out a plan in which the young mother will be with her original foster mother and the baby will be with the Rosharon home—sister-in-law of the girl’s foster mother, who has passed a background check and is in the process of becoming a licensed foster family.
The lawyers in the case contended that the state never had the right to show up at the hospital and remove the child in the first place because there was never any evidence of abuse or neglect. The new judge in the case agreed. There are still many issues in this case and there will be many future hearings, but for now, young mother and baby are able to be together as much as both foster parents deem appropriate.
Yet another hearing took place in February. In this report, it was stated that the court appointed lawyer for the baby waved his arms around lobbing insults at O’Connor and Le. Judge Eric Andell did not try to control the antics in his court room. Instead, he accused the young girl’s lawyers of dragging out the case instead of coming to a compromise. What the young girl’s lawyers really wanted was to clear her name so that once she is an adult (and might decide to have more children) this court case could not come back to haunt her.
In the end, the judge called a recess and asked the parties to work it out, during which they finally did what they should have done in the first place. The young girl will be able to raise her baby in a foster family that will look out for both mother and child.
Cheer for the good guys here! If only things were resolved this way more often, but without lawyers and judges acting like kindergartners on a playground.
(Houston Chronicle, Dec. 11, 2013, pg. B-1 and 2; Dec. 13, 2013, pg. 1 and 8; and Dec. 17, 2013, pgs. B-1 and 5, and Feb. 21, 2014, pg. B-1 and 4)
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