A Bad Turn

[gideonmacleish]

For those of you reading this, read the WHOLE story before judging it:

On Monday night we went out of town to a holiday parade. A friend is on the police force there and was marching in the parade. Before heading home, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner.

When we left the restaurant, my wife and I took the youngest two in our car. The oldest three chose to ride with friends (the grandparents of the police officer). As we were buckling in the youngest in their car seats, I asked my wife if the middle daughter (age 5) went with our friends. She assured us she had.

As wer were about 2/3 of the way home, our friends flashed their lights to stop us. The middle daughter, it turned out, had been left behind, and the police had her. I raced back to pick her up. Of course, they had notified CPS, as they are required to do.

When we asked the older children what happened, we discovered how this horrible mistake had happened. As they were heading to the car (the friends didn't know she had chosen to ride with them), the 8 year old told our five year old to take her soda back to us, knowing the friends don't like drinks in the car. It was very busy, and the five year old looked for us but couldn't find us. She didn't know where either of our cars were parked, which were on the opposite side of the restaurant. We left, each of us believing the other had her. An understandable but VERY frightening mistake.

Because we're in the CPS system, though, we were visited by the caseworker. She said that because of this allegation she must do a home visit and interview the children.

Because of the situation involved, I am willing to allow them to interview the children, as long as it is in a room with a one way mirror where I can observe the interview without the children seeing me present. I am also insisting that the questions asked in the interview be limited to the allegations and instructing them that the interview will be terminated if they deviate from the scope of the investigation. I am further insisting on a complete audiotape of all interviews.

As for the home visit, I am repeatedly asserting my rights. If they MUST conduct a home visit, then a warrant will not be a problem for them to obtain, but it will strictly limit the parameters of their search. I have asked for a face to face meeting with the case worker and her supervisor. I will ask what they hope to observe in a home visit and demand IN WRITING a list detailing what they will search and limiting their search to those items. This list will be signed by all parties present, and I will insist that it explicitly state that anything beyond the items listed in the document is inadmissable in a court of law. If they refuse to accept these terms, then I will force them to obtain a warrant.

The good news about all of this is that they ARE negotiating with us. I believe my hardline stance from the outset has helped us tremendously.

[AllForThisSite]

Accidents like that do happen and it happens to the best of us. 11 years ago something like your situation happened to us as well. We had just moved in with my MIL on a temporary basis because our home was being remodeled; we'd been staying there about 3 days when I'd asked her to babysit for me one morning. My son was 4 months old during that time and she wasn't used to having a baby in the house or having to look after one. I had told her when she came in from work that my son was asleep in his crib and I'd changed him and given him a bottle so he would fine for a while. I leave, she gets in the shower, and her sister called her to ask her if she would take her to pay her light bill. She left the house and got to the end of the road when she looked in the rearview mirror and saw an empty carseat when she realized she'd left my son asleep in his crib. lol. She turned around and floored it back to house to find him sleeping sound in his crib. She said she felt so bad about it and apologized to me for forgetting about him. It's been almost 12 years and it comes up now and then and we pick at her about it lol. But your situation here....parents are going to make mistakes and considering all the commotion of getting people into the vehicles and who's riding with whom and who's doing what I could understand perfectly how things can get crossed and somebody gets forgotten. But the way it sounds is like you happen to live in a town where people just like to call CPS at the drop of hat and don't give a damn to wait around for a logical explanation.

[gideonmacleish]

Let's not forget that Jesus Christ's own parents lost him once...and he was an ONLY child!

[DesertSkye]

can you ask legal aid if they will have an att sit in for your children

Also and I know this is still ALOT of money but less way less than most retainers

Get the name of a guardian at litem ATTORNEY...find one that mailnly does divorce proceedings and not CPS ones
call some attorneys and ask if they can recoomend one like that thats how we got the name of ours

call and ask if you can hire her/him privately just to sit on on this one interview

we did and all she asked for was $500 and that we didn't have to pay it yet not until an interview is actually set up

SHE WAS VERY PROTECTIVE of the CHILDRENS rights
said she will not allow them to be questioned without each other and because she is aware of cps tactics she is restricting the questions CPS can ask

as well as telling the kids they don't have to answer anything they don't want to and not letting CPS ask them the same quesitons over and over in a different way

AND you can give your kids a TAPE RECORDER to take in with them
its their right
if you can't get an attorney like this
at least give them the tape recorder
and tell them they do not have to answer ANYTHING THEY DON"T WANT TO

Oh Gideon I am just so sad to hear this
OMY GOODNESS
are you in texas?
Please let me know if you are I know the name of an attorney who really will come against CPS

not that one guy this is someone else
I am going to post it now under a GOOD TEXAS ATT heading