Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

If you're a volunteer class action lawsuit coordinator for your state, start a thread here and in the message area for your state. We need fifty coordinators... one for each state. If there's already one for your state you can volunteer to help or just post that you want your case considered for inclusion in the lawsuit.

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family_man
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Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby family_man » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:02 am

Texas TFPS faces a class action lawsuit alleging mistreatment in group foster homes.
Texas foster care children spend too long in poorly supervised facilities that make them prey to further abuse, and the state agency in charge should be forced to revamp the entire system, an advocacy group says in a lawsuit filed today.

The class-action suit, filed in federal court in Corpus Christi, lists the initials of nine child plaintiffs currently in the Texas foster care system, including "D.I.," a 9-year-old from Houston who was sexually abused in a state-approved foster home.

“This class action lawsuit is the collective cry of Texas’ forgotten children, now demanding to be remembered,” says the lawsuit filed by the New York-based advocacy group, Children’s Rights.

The lawsuit on behalf of 12,000 Texas foster care children names Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Thomas Suehs and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein as defendants.

It asks the court to force the state to revamp its system because the group says the system currently fails foster children.


This is what happens when too many children are displaced from their families and there's nowhere to put them. Wouldn't it be better to provide services to families to help keep them together?

Here's a copy of the article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7495690.html

Here's a copy of the lawsuit:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/51807603/2011-03-29-TX-Complaint-Final
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

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family_man
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby family_man » Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:42 pm

... And here is Richard Wexler's commentary on the Texas lawsuit filed by Childrens' Rights:

The Texas child welfare system is every bit as bad as CR says it is in its Complaint. Indeed, we cited many of the same problems in our own report on Texas child welfare in 2005. But, of course, the lawsuit won’t solve the problems, and might even make the Texas system worse.


That’s because, as always, CR ignores the elephant in the room: the urgent need to reduce the number of children taken from their parents needlessly in the first place. CR actually has thwarted efforts to reduce wrongful removal in other states, including Georgia Tennessee, and, most recently, Oklahoma.


And its recent settlements actually are worse than those it negotiated in previous years. Most notorious is Michigan, where the settlement has made the child welfare system worse. Among other things, the settlement has led to the expulsion of nearly 1,800 children from the homes of grandparents and other relatives. It’s also led to a foster care worker / child abuse investigator hiring binge – funded by cutting prevention and family preservation.


Texas tried that back in 2005. The result: The same lousy system, only bigger. More hiring only works when it’s part of a comprehensive reform plan that emphasizes safe, proven programs to keep families together.


As always with a CR suit, there is a deafening silence on the issue of keeping children safely out of foster care in the first place.


Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

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LindaJM
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby LindaJM » Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:29 pm

Go, Texas!!

I'm putting a copy of this thread in the Texas section of the board.
Sample Document Library

Please keep in mind that none of us are lawyers and we can't give legal advice. We are simply telling you what we would do in a similar situation. It is to your advantage to get a lawyer.

"Evil flourishes when good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke ... so try to do something to change the system ...

livelovelaugh
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby livelovelaugh » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:49 pm

I want to become active I the class action law suit against Texas. I don't know where to start. My rights as a grandmother and my daughters rights ad. A parent have been totally violated over and over. I am sick from the abuse and total disreguard for my daughter to even be given a review before a judge. I'm sick and tired and want to at least feel that I have done something that is heard. Help me please!

TrinainTexas
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby TrinainTexas » Sun Jul 10, 2011 8:46 am

I want to tell everyone in the state of Texas that when your case is closed no matter the outcome, request a copy of your report!!
I did and when reading it, I found CPS falsified information. They lied about where I was born and raised, to the color of my living room, to saying a 35 year old man was observed wearing a diaper in my home (which was ok). The 'lie" list is long.
CPS falsifies state documents. They slander parents and CPS does not do their jobs properly nor with ethics.

EagleESBD
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby EagleESBD » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:12 am

Ok here is a review of The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Calabretta v. Floyd, 9th Cir. (1999)

“involves whether a social worker and a police officer were entitled to qualified immunity, for a coerced entry into a home to investigate suspected child abuse, interrogation of a child, and strip search of a child, conducted without a search warrant and without a special exigency.”The court did not agree that the social worker and the police officer had “qualified immunity” and said, “the facts in this case are noteworthy for the absence of emergency.” No one was in distress. “The police officer was there to back up the social worker’s insistence on entry against the mother’s will, not because he perceived any imminent danger of harm.” And he should have known better. Furthermore, “had the information beenmore alarming, had the social worker or police officer been alarmed, had there been reason to fear imminent harmto a child, this would be a different case, one to which we have no occasion to speak. A reasonable
official would understand that they could not enter the home without consent or a search warrant.”

In my case, I specifically told the CPS worker that she had to get a warrant if she wanted to gain access to my home. She responded by contacting my Company Commander (military) and had a "No-contact" military restraining order against my wife for 72 hrs forcing me to live for 3 days in the barracks. Meanwhile, the caseworker then coerced my wife into letting her gain access. My wife did on the reasoning that since I stood up for my right and was removed from the home, that if she stood up for those same rights our son would be removed from the home. The CPS worker successfully coerced compliance.

According to the above mentioned case:
Contrary to the assumption of hundreds of social workers, the Ninth Circuit held that the Fourth Amendment applies just as much
to a child abuse investigation as it does to any criminal or other governmental investigation. Social workers are not exempt from the
requirements of the Fourth Amendment when they act alone. They are not exempt from its rules if they are accompanied by a police
officer. And police officers are not exempt from the requirement even if all they do is get the front door open for the social worker;
this would be intimidation, coercion and threatening. The general rule is that unreasonable searches and seizures are banned. But the
second part of the rule is the most important in this context. All warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable.

If a police officer says, “If you don’t let us in your home we will break down your door” –a parent who then opens the door has
not given free and voluntary consent. If a social worker says, “if you don’t let me in the home I will take your children away” –a
parent who then opens the door has not given free and voluntary consent. If a social worker says, “I will get a warrant from the judge
or I will call the police if you do not let me in” negate consent. ANY type of communication, which conveys the idea to the parent that
they have no realistic alternative, but to allow entry negates any claim that the entry was lawfully gained through the channel of
consent. CPS’ policy clearly tells the social worker that they can threaten parents even if the parents assert their 4th Amendment
rights.

I'm looking for anybody else who allowed a CPS worker into your home when you didn't want to because of false promises, lies, or the use of threats to please respond. We must defend our 4th Amendment rights, CPS is not immuned from breaking the law!

Sarah79
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby Sarah79 » Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:07 pm

Did you all know that Alex Jones of InfoWars regularly and boldly talks about how evil the Texas CPS system is. He has had alot of hurting families on his program to talk about it. There is a broadcast program in his archives on his prisonplanet website dated 5/18/12 all about Texas CPS I think it would be good for you all to listen to.

fatherofthree
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby fatherofthree » Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:45 pm

Good for the law suit. Money talks, and some areas in TX need law suits to get them in shape. I've been to some foster homes that are great. Good people, ect. Then I have been to many only in it for the buck. Bunking the kids in the rooms, ect. I investigated one and they were shut down. They then go file all their appeals because they are now loosing thousands each month. Unfortunately there are more like that. Fortunately when you do a good investigation, they don't get their permit back. Very sad indeed!
DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney and am not providing legal advice.

FreedomNow
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby FreedomNow » Tue Mar 12, 2013 4:22 pm

I am interested in assisting y'all in whatever way I can. :-)

Free the kids
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Re: Class action lawsuit against Texas CPS

Postby Free the kids » Wed Jul 27, 2016 5:21 pm

I'm onboard for a lawsuit against CPS. They are too quick to remove children from their parents. Parents when they win their case move on and forget about it because they are happy to get their kids back. Meanwhile children are left mentally traumatized and suffer abuse while in CPS care. CPS needs to start being accountable for their actions when they lie on their reports. They need to be prosecuted for perjury and when a child is hurt in their care they need to be prosecuted. Maybe then they will start checking the foster care homes better, or at least make sure that removal of children from their home is their best option. My 10 month old grand baby had a bruise on his cheek our last visit, the case worker treated it as no big deal. If that happens to a Parent it is classified as abuse. Anyone can make an accusation true or false. If a parent doesn't cooperate then they are considered guilty until proving innocence. I have known of caseworkers that are single with no children which have no clue about what it takes to raise children, yet they determine what is in a child's best interest. The children are our future, we need to stand up and fight to protect their rights. The government and it's assigned agencies must be held accountable.


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