Hospital visit turns into CPS/Police investigation

[DaddyD3]

I am going through a rough time right now and it sucks. I'll start of what happened. I was calming my 2 month old down before she was eating, walking back and forth, and careless me turns right around and her head hits two grooves in the door frame. I rushed her to the hospital and call my fiancé to tell her what happened. They patch her up and then she gets x Rays and here's where it all gets doomed. They supposedly found old healing posterior rib fractures, they said only two because they look like a fuzz ball. They never showed us the X-rays or anything to point out the location they were talking about. Me and my fiancé now have supervised prevention plan until further notice. CPS guy comes out to the house to take pictures of the incident and tells us the prevention plan. Then I get a call from crimes against children to talk to them. They're telling me the measurements don't add up which is bull crap. I asked her what could of happened then and she said I have no idea. That ends and now I guess we are waiting for the court date. I finally hired an attorney.

Most posterior rib fractures are labeled child abuse, but neither of us are monsters like that! They're also trying to get into my fiancée head to go against me but she fully has my back. She had gestational diabetes while she was pregnant, rarely drank milk, and smoked. I was looking up healing infantile tickets but I don't know how to bring that up because all they want to judge for is child abuse. This is a very sickening time and I have no idea what to expect. I don't know if they're going to give me restrictions and tear our family apart and I don't know if I'm going to go to criminal court for all this crap. It's a very hard time and if anyone can give any advice or what to do or know a story of a similar situation I would appreciate it.

Neither one of us are monsters and this whole process is tearing us apart!

[*Lady Liberty]

I am sorry that this is happening to you and your family. Welcome to the site.

I would look around, especially in the legal threads. There are things you can do to help your attorney. First and foremost, record and document everything. If you can get an email address, so there is record of everything that is said, the better.

Make a timeline of the events that have happened so far.

Review you state law, administrative code, and CPS handbook. Get very familiar with what is to be expected so you can point out what CPS fails to do. You are building a case against them.

Know your Constitutional Rights.

http://www.parentsinaction.net/english/ ... Rights.htm

[LindaJM]

Welcome to the site . . . sorry I missed this posting when you first wrote here, a few days back. Seems like I started to read it, and maybe the computer had to be shut down so it was lost to me. ...or I just got distracted and busy with another matter.

I'm so glad to read that you hired a lawyer. The "crimes against children" person could have just been testing you to hear your reaction.

With a good lawyer you should get copies of that x-ray and an opportunity to defend yourself in court. I'm hoping this will end well.

Please keep in touch so we will know what happened. It is so helpful for people months down the line who have similar cases, to learn about what happened in your situation.

[DaddyD3]

Right now my attorney said the detective is handing what evidence they have over to the prosecutor to see if we go to the grand jury or not... I'm really scared! And what should I be looking for in Kentucky CPS handbook and laws?

[*Lady Liberty]

You want to know everything about the process. You should become familiar with those laws and the handbook. Go through step by step, anything that they have not done by the book, you point out. This will help preserve your rights. If you don't speak out, the courts will never preserve them for you.

You want to know about the timelines and make sure they are adhering to them. That they adhere to every notice they were supposed to give, etc.

I would also recommend you speak to the mother's doctor and to the baby's doctor. Get your medical files and scour through it for anything. Is this something that could have happened in delivery?

Smoking and bone fractures: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/1 ... 3.full.pdf

It seems to be well known that Smoking causes bone deterioration and fractures in adults, it seems to be legit that it would do the same to a developing baby:
More Broken Bones
Ingredients in cigarette smoke disrupt the natural cycle of bone health. Your body is less able to form healthy new bone tissue, and it breaks down existing bone tissue more rapidly. Over time, smoking leads to a thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density. This causes bones to become weak and brittle. Compared to non-smokers, smokers have a higher risk of bone fractures, and their broken bones take longer to heal.

[DaddyD3]

My girl had gestational diabetes, smoked during pregnancy, never drank milk, and just took her prenatals. They had to induce her because her water fluid levels were too low. I was thinking healing infantile rickets, but how do I express that? And they said her healing rib fractures were only like 7-14 days old, I don't know how they can tell that. Should I be worried that it's being presented to a prosecutor? I live in Louisville, Ky and I don't know how harsh they handle these cases.

[DaddyD3]

I also got her to admit that she physically and verbally abused me (the baby's mother) on a recording. This has ripped us apart and I feel like I need to protecy myself if worse comes to worse. I just don't how they have the hard evidence to point 100 percent accurate fingers.

[*Lady Liberty]

I would assume they are going to come at you hard. Both of you. That is why you will need to become air tight. You two are a team. You need to realize if one of you falls you both fall, the cost is your child. There are no winners when it comes to CPS.

I would think that the smoking would do more damage than a lack of Vitamin D, but that is a easy test, test her blood level. If she is severely vitamin D deficient then that would be possible.

[DaddyD3]

Could either of us get major jail time as well? If it goes to a grand jury.

[*Lady Liberty]

It depends on what evidence they have. Criminal is possible. But they favor family courts because it doesn't have the same guidelines, it is easier for them to find you "guilty" than they would in criminal. Criminal while it sounds more horrific sometimes is better because the standard of proof is higher, you are granted due process at every stage, and hearsay is not allowed.

Again, start researching. Do not leave your fate entirely up to someone else. Guard yourself as much as you can. You can start to work on your Declaration of Facts, Your Objections and Corrections, etc. You will want to have a list of placement options for your daughter in case she is taken.

Prevention Plans are just ways for them to come in and out and build a case in the meantime.... You need to be doing the same.

Take your daughter to the doctor and have them do a vitamin D test now, because if they take her you will have no authority to get that done. Explain to the doctor that the X-Rays came back with fractures, see if they can test for a cause and get a diagnosis on the record now. Bring in that study I posted earlier and see if there is any other studies from the States. I would do this immediately.

You know your life, if there is anything out of place, CPS will find it and exploit it with a magnifying glass. Whatever weaknesses you might have, head them off by countering it now. Get Affidavits now to support your parenting. Find some support networks, church, mommy/daddy groups, whatever you can with a tiny one and mingle so people can see you are good parents.

[DaddyD3]

We have supervised visitation right now and now my ex fiancé's mother won't let me come see my child. It's pretty sad. I don't know what to expect anymore. I haven't seen her in over a week, her mother ignores my mom texts and mine. Also, should I provide the recording I took where my ex agreed she physically abused me and verbally if criminal charges may happen? I need to protect my rights I feel like and everything has gone down hill. Do character affidavits work? Or are they just hear say? I'm scared I may be criminally punished for something I never did.

[*Lady Liberty]

You guys are going to have to find a way to find common ground, that is the baby. Put all else aside. I recorded my ex (he initiated the report) at all times. But ultimately your goal should be a unified front with the two of you. You know her best, and I would get her away from her mom so you and her can sit down and talk about the extreme dangers of pitting against each other. NO ONE WILL WIN that way.

[tonymoo]

This isn't any advice for your situation. I just wanted to share an incident that happened to us about 20 years ago with our 2nd child.

My 4 month old daughter, who had never moved around much, wiggled off the changing table, even while strapped, while wife bent over to grab a diaper. Daughter hit her head on the hard kitchen floor. Between the thud and the immediate crying that just sounded wrong, we knew it wasn't good so we drove her to the nearest hospital which happened to be a public hospital in NYC.

After a couple of hours, it was determined she had a skull fracture but that no treatment was needed - take her home and watch for...

But before we left our ER resident brought the head ER doc over and had me explain (wife had gone home to pickup older child) in detail what had happened and the head doc asked very detailed questions about every aspect of what I said. Then I took my daughter home. We never heard from anybody about this again.

A few weeks later I told a friend of mine who was an ER doc in another NYC hospital about it and asked if she thought the resident suspected child abuse. She told me the exact opposite and shocked me. She said in her hospital, the docs were told not to spend the time investigating and that a skull fracture in an infant should automatically be reported to ACS (NYC's CPS). My friend assumed that our resident got the ER head involved in order to get permission to not report us.

I can only imagine the situation had they reported and then ACS started questioning every bump and scratch on our active 7 year old.

[finallyfree]

We have supervised visitation right now and now my ex fiancé's mother won't let me come see my child. It's pretty sad. I don't know what to expect anymore. I haven't seen her in over a week, her mother ignores my mom texts and mine. Also, should I provide the recording I took where my ex agreed she physically abused me and verbally if criminal charges may happen? I need to protect my rights I feel like and everything has gone down hill. Do character affidavits work? Or are they just hear say? I'm scared I may be criminally punished for something I never did.

So have you received a notice that you are being investigated by CPS, and that you and/or the child's mom is the subject of the investigation? I would assume so but you didn't mention it and it is required. This is something that you should know as part of the CPS process. Get a hold of whatever information you can regarding that (cps website, state/county regulations, etc.). There are also certain timeframes usually associated with each step.

You mention potential criminal prosecution. As you likely know by now is that there are two courts which can get involved, Family and/or Criminal. Have you been charged with a crime? It appears that there could be criminal charges based on your mentioning things like grand jury, etc. If this is the case, in my opinion, this is what you need to focus your energy on as I would assume your attorney has already explained to you.

As far as collecting and documenting information (recording conversations with child's mom, etc., again you should research what the laws are regarding that in your state. In NY it is single person consent so as long as at least one person (i.e., you) consents to recording, then it's legal. If that is the case in your state, prepare yourself so that you are able to record conversations. You obviously want to also keep a notebook to record all events forward and backward of when the alleged abuse took place. Try to stay organized and have a "to do" list so that you can prepare yourself as best you can. Pictures, videos, family/friends that know you and your child are all things to add to your file.

I hope the best for you and can completely empathize with what you are going through. Another thing that you should be doing is to take care of yourself as best you can. Your not going to be able to help your child if you don't take care of yourself. Physically as well as mentally. Also, stay connected to the folks here and you will find the strength to fight this. God bless.

[DaddyD3]

As of an update; CPS finally contacted me and said we have a meeting with a judge so CPS can file for petitions. I have no idea thus far what these petitions are, could they just be filing neglect or could they also be petitioning for criminal court? My attorney is not very good apparently because I haven't heard from her for a month, but hopefully she contacts me Monday because I left her a message. I really can't find information on what petitions can be filed, but is it better that it's going to family court first? I've never been criminally charged before and I don't understand if it goes to criminal court, that they have 100 percent burden of proof that I intentionally harmed my child (which I didn't). If anyone has any idea what all they could be petitioning for, that would be awesome. I assume there will be restrictions and visitations, but I am not a criminal.

[family_man]

I expect the petition is for CPS to be given temporary legal custody over the child. It won't be to file criminal charges. Only the DA prosecutor can do that.

[DaddyD3]

The child is already with her grandma. She's been with her for over a month. My ex said she talked to the CPS guy and he said he thought I would be going to criminal court but they're backed up. I don't think it's looking good

[family_man]

Just because the child is staying with her grandma doesn't mean the state has legal custody. It could be a "voluntary" placement.

[DaddyD3]

So worse has come to worst. They said I may be looking at 10-20 years in prison with the charges and they're putting it all on me. Also have a warrant out for my arrest. I don't know what to do anymore. It looks like the end of days for me. I feel hopeless.

[finallyfree]

It's not hopeless. Even if worst comes to worst, you can appeal. Take a deep breath and try to stay in the here and now. You can't do anything about the past and have no idea what is in the future. Rally all of your resources and try to remain calm as best you can. I'm not trying to tell you what to do but I will share what worked for me. I will keep you in my prayers and hope you stay connected to the folks here as well as your extended support group.

[DaddyD3]

I appreciate that. The thing that sucks about Kentucky is that they abolished bail bondsman so I can't get the money that they set, but hopefully they can reduce it. I have class c criminal assault and criminal abuse which carries 5-10 years a piece, but I have no prior criminal history. My attorney said with the charges I have she doesn't know if they will reduce the bail. I'm at a loss.

[LindaJM]

This seems excessive ... and have you ever seen those x-rays yet? I'd definitely get an expert to analyze them. Recently I had my feet x-rayed twice because I've had foot pain all year. The first x-rays supposedly showed a small fracture. Then I went to a specialist with a better x-ray machine and his x-rays showed no fractures at all.

I'm sorry you're going through this and will also be praying for you.

[DaddyD3]

My attorney is going to ask experts too. The funny thing is, she never showed signs of either of these. No unusual cry, never in a bad mood. She's been fine, she was never emitted. CPS said I could have sight and sound visitation, but in the criminal arraignment hearing the commonwealth state prosecutor said I can't have any contact with minors which is devastating, but she's going to motion that. My attorney is going to try and get it to probation or a diversion, but she said if it goes to jail I'm pretty much screwed. I don't know what to do. My child never had bruises on her chest or her head where they said supposedly she has a skull fracture, never showed any signs or symptoms of that either.

[DaddyD3]

If anyone has had any similar experience wiry foolish and crazy charges, did they get reduced? How did you fight it? I have a pre trial date in December and I don't know what to do. Have no one to talk to and the common wealth doesn't want me to have contact with minors til this is over, but CPS wants me to have supervised visitation. They've actually been very workable. Any advice would be great. I could be falsely convicted and miss see my kids grow up.

[finallyfree]

I am very sorry to hear what you are going through. I'm sure your devastated. My experience didn't have a criminal side to it so I can't provide much in the way of guidance there but my understanding is that when a situation contains both (criminal and Family Court) you should focus on the criminal. My thoughts and prayers go out to you. I would suggest educating yourself as best you can and do whatever you can to pull all your resources to bear on the issue at hand. Also, keep organized and document everything in a journal or whatever means best suits you.