The prosecutor scratched the charges because my client was not guilty of the crime. This wasn’t one of those maybe-she-did-it-but-we-can’t-prove-it cases. The sum of information available about what happened should have made it obvious to anyone with half a brain that my client did nothing wrong. She did not assault her daughter.
My client’s innocence notwithstanding, some of the folks over at Arizona Child Protective Services, either lacking half a brain or bored with nothing to do, decided to meddle. “We just want to get your client’s side of things,” they said. I found out about the meeting exactly one business day before it was set to happen.
I don’t represent people in dependencies. I attended the meeting with CPS because I never trust the government to respect my clients’ rights. The handful of lawyers I asked about CPS matters said it was unusual for attorneys to go to those meetings, but my innocent client in a den of wolves less than a day after her criminal case went away seemed like a recipe for a set-up. I wanted to be there to make sure they didn’t put words in her mouth that might resurrect the criminal case.
The meeting was conducted by a woman who proclaimed herself the “facilitator.” She used the term “facilitator” with the kind of frequency I commonly encounter when a person using a word doesn’t quite know what it means and thinks repeating it will make him or her appear smart. She also said things like “matter-of-factly” and “irregardlessly.”
My client, my client’s mother, the assigned CPS caseworker, and I were all in attendance. We each filled out little name cards. The back of the cards featured a list of ground rules. The last one was “no blaming or shaming.” The hearing had very specific rules and a set order. Every document, every meeting, every location, and every concept seemed to have an acronym. This was a TDM where a TCN might issue, attended by the CFT at CPS.
The facilitator, who at times did a fair job of pretending to be impartial, generally undertook the role of grand inquisitress with zeal that would make Mike Nifong blush. When she first started attacking my client, no one seemed to notice my comment that it sounded an awful lot to me like some prohibited “blaming or shaming” was taking place. I don’t think the facilitator thought the back of the name cards applied to her.
My client, a wonderful person I believe to be an excellent mother, explained all she had done for her daughter. She had a steady job, a safe home, and clearly cared about both of her children. I was impressed when she explained the lengths she went to in order to get services for that daughter. Her description of the bureaucratic runaround she got dealing with insurance was met with disbelief by the facilitator and the case worker though. They couldn’t imagine anyone would have trouble dealing with the health care system. When I told them I’ve struggled assisting clients to get similar services set up, it was obvious they thought I was lying. Not their flawless, well-oiled machine!
The facilitator clearly didn’t listen to anything my client said. My client said she’d do anything for her kids, and the facilitator responded with “so you’re unwilling and unable to care for them?” “No,” my client said, “I will do anything.” The caseworker and facilitator stared at my client like she just said “take my kids, I don’t care and won’t do anything to help them.” It was like watching two different conversations.
When it suited the facilitator’s preconceptions, she mixed up the facts. She exaggerated the length of CPS’s involvement, the amount of time it took my client to get services for her daughter, the number of days of notice they’d given, and the severity of the alleged conduct underlying the scratched criminal charges. She was wholly incapable of wrapping her head around the fact my client did not assault her daughter. The caseworker claimed she saw choke marks on my client’s daughter, which the facilitator agreed proved my client assaulted her. I found that very strange considering that the alleged assault was supposedly just three punches.
The facilitator kept telling me, “we have a lower standard here.” Neither she nor the caseworker read the police reports. They didn’t interview the other adult who witnessed what happened. They didn’t talk to the prosecutor. They thought lower standard meant no standard. They assumed my client was guilty and that the charges were dropped for some reason having nothing to do with innocence. They wouldn’t listen to anything to the contrary.
When my client admitted she was open to getting help dealing with her daughter’s issues, the facilitator said CPS couldn’t do anything she couldn’t do herself. I asked the facilitator why CPS would need to take the kids if my client could do everything they could, and I got the kind of reaction I used to get when I said a familiar word more than once to my dog; a look hinting at partial understanding, head cocked to one side.
I’ve never been in a room with people who resented me more. Over and over again, they said the same thing: “maybe we could have done X, but you said you had a lawyer.” It was always followed by a spiteful glance. The caseworker claimed she didn’t interview the person who witnessed what happened between my client and her daughter because my client hired a lawyer. To be clear, my client and the witness are two different people. I guess hiring a lawyer stops CPS from figuring out what happened.
After what I can honestly say was the most farcical proceeding I’ve ever witnessed, the facilitator and caseworker decided to take both of my client’s children away. In a meeting they said lawyers never attended (and which most lawyers told me they never attended), CPS decided to take not just the child involved in the criminal case, but the child who had nothing to do with anything. It was based almost entirely on an incident that occurred in front of an independent witness CPS didn’t interview and that was described in a police report CPS didn’t read. I explained the facts and made arguments, but they just didn’t care.
I occasionally appear in front of some bad judges in criminal matters, but I’ve never encountered anything like that. In what might be the most frustrating decision of all, they decided they couldn’t place the children with the other adult who witnessed what happened because “she failed to protect the child” during the alleged abuse. That’s the same alleged abuse that by all accounts but one never happened, and which CPS never properly researched
As my client cried her eyes out, the facilitator handed her a pamphlet entitled “Icebreakers” to help her prepare for when she next gets to see her children. The facilitator described CPS’s programs to my client as if she expected my client to give her a hug and thank her. The facilitator and caseworker then decided that my client’s visitation should be at the discretion of CPS; no set hours, just left to the discretion of some bureaucrats. I was disgusted.
My client is now in the hands of a very capable lawyer who does dependencies. Personally, I’m still in shock. I can’t believe what I saw. I can’t believe CPS can take kids based on nothing, can’t believe the facilitator and the caseworker could do something like that to a family, and can’t believe that any human being could be so willing to make a life-changing decision so callously. It’s the kind of thing I’m going to have nightmares about for years to come.
You didn’t mention it explicitly, but it sounds like the meeting took place at the client’s home, or possibly CPS.
In retrospect, it seems a good idea to only hold such a meeting in a venue where a video recording is taken. Like your office!
This has become my response to all instances of too much government largesse or improper actions by actors under the color of authority:
“Tall trees, short ropes”
It’s even worse when there are clear signs of abuse – cigarette burns, bruises, and a two year old kid saying he’d been sodomized, and CPS does nothing.
I never could figure that one out.
Mike, I completely agree. The whole time thoughts kept popping into my head about previous clients who didn’t care or actively tried to harm their children and either got CPS to leave them alone or ended up with in-home dependencies.
I’ve had similar issues with CPS. I have a theory about CPS and similar agencies. If you stick a CPS worker into a given geographical area, that CPS worker is going to take away at least X number of kids per year. I’m guessing CPS workers, like almost all government bureaucracies, are evaluated based on comparisons to surrounding CPS offices. I’m sure some baseline expectation, written or unwritten, exists that in a given population a worker should be expected to have X number of cases per year that requires removal of a child from a home. Maybe I’m completely in left field on this but I feel compelled to figure out why some clients lose temporary custody of their children for seemingly no good reason.
SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE THE FREAKS WE ARE DEALING WITH IN WRONG CO MN. I MEAN THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY HAVE A SAYING. IN THE BEST INTREST OF THE CHILD. AND THAT COULDNT BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH. ITS IN THE BEST INTREST OF CPS AND THE COURTS. NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE WELFARE OF THE CHILD. BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH PRESERVING CPS-S AND THE JUDGES JOBS. PLUS EVERY KID THEY SNATCH FROM A FAMILY THEY GET$4000 TO$6000! UNREAL SO THE BOTTOM LINE IS ITS ALL ABOUT THEIR JOB SECURITY. AND HOW MUTCH THEY CAN GET FROM THE FEDRAL GOV. WHAT IDIOTS. THEY KIDNAPPED OUR 2 GIRLS 9 YRS AGO FOR NO REASON SO AS FAR AS I AM COCERNED THESE FREAKS CAN AND WILL BURN IN HELL!@#$%
Family Team Meeting. I think CPS nationwide employs same.
Attorneys are often told Not to attend. CPS does not like attorneys.
I worked on a few cases similar to the one you described. That is; nothing happened. There was no crime, no abuse, no neglect -yet CPS does not care.
It seems that their goal is to get as many people into the system as possible.
Now, there is more. Even though nothing happened, if a CPS worker thinks something did happen, and it seems that many CPS workers are schooled to think that there is abuse everywhere, the parents’ names will still be put on a state child abuse registry. No trial. No opportunity to be heard and at least in California, the names stay on the list for life.
I bet if you hadn’t seen this with your own eyes that you would never have believed it.
The Constitution thrown right out the window.
I couldn’t help but to comment more. Concerning that “Facilitator” you mentioned; in my state, CPS facilitaors must have a Masters in Social Work. I have met same (presumably with Master’s degrees) who have been as insipid and as ‘uneducated’ as the very one you had encountered.
I too nearly lost my cool when encountering said individials. It’s their arrogance and the lack of liability (the immunity they possess)that enable them to do the things they do.
I do hope your former client prevailed. I have a feeling she may have thanks to your diligence and concern.
CPS is a bloody nightmare. Although statutes and protocol exist, CPS does not follow same. They make it up as they go along and unless there is an attorney present to call them ontheir actions, they steamroll families, often destroying said families entirely.
I actually had one CPS worker say to me that she did not need to abide by the 4th Amendment as she was a state employee……………….
There have actually been Federal Court decisions reminding CPS that, “hello”, you must abide by the 4th Amendment.
Absolutely incredible.
Does this kind of abuse happen often?
Has no one ever ended such kangaroo proceeding by taking out a handgun and killing his/her tormentors? If not, why not?
I SURE WISH SOMEBODY WOULD TAKE A HANDGUN TO THE CPS FREAKS WE ARE DEALING WITH. CARE TO DO IT FOR US? WE LIVE IN MN.
I’f u have possession of ur kids + cps request u to bring to office. I strongly advise not 2. With or without a lawyer screw the report they’ll write what they want anyway don’t let them in house either. Let them break the doors down + viedo tape it. Protect ur kids and rights! I’m not a lawyer just a victim