Lost in Michigan

[forthefuture]

I have been back and forth with cps for 11 years. Ever since I met my ex husband. Only to find out in the past 6 months that his entire family works for one system or another. My ex husband's sister turned in child abuse that happened in my ex husbands care and turned it on me and my family. I now have zero relationship with the two mutual children my ex and I had together and my husband is now facing charges. I have fought hard just to have a relationship with the two children but now have given up. There was no family court involvement and I called the Michigan OCO to do an investigation. I have all transcripts and reports. Problem I have no idea what to do next. I want to let the state and federal courts know what has happened because what is happening and has happened is wrong. I cannot find an attorney that will work for payments or probono. Any thoughts or ideas? Should I look out of state for attorneys or do they have to be in Michigan?

[family_man]

This is my understanding of the situation after reading your post. Please correct anything I got wrong.

1) After your divorce, your ex-husband was awarded custody of your 2 children you had with him.

2) Your ex remained in Michigan, while you moved to another state.

3) After a visit you had with your children, a relative of your ex reported to Michigan CPS that you had abused them, even through they were in your ex's care at the time.

4) Michigan CPS has requested that your ex sign a safety plan which denies contact between you and your children.

5) Your ex has signed the plan, and now you have no contact at all with your children.

6) There has been no judicial modification of access and no protection order.

How long have you been denied contact? Safety plans are supposed to remain in effect only for the duration of the investigation. These are supposed to finish in about 2 months, but can drag on longer. If this investigation determines that no abuse occurred, then your ex will be required to resume visits as usual. If he doesn't, you can file suit in Michigan to require them. If the investigation concludes that abuse did occur and you did it, they will likely require your ex to obtain a protection order prohibiting further contact. You could then file suit in Michigan to have this order revoked. If the investigation concludes that abuse did occur and your ex did it, you might be able to file suit in Michigan to change custody to yourself.

My guess is that the investigation is now closed, but Michigan CPS simply forget to tell your ex about it, or your ex isn't telling you about it. Since you are a party to the investigation, you have a right to find out its status. Call Michigan CPS, and don't stop asking questions until you get a definite answer about the status of the investigation. If it is closed, you still have a right to visitation.