Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Discuss all aspects of suing CPS and its affiliates for the injustice done to your family.

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Glenn75052
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Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby Glenn75052 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 7:52 am

Let me explain from the beginning.

Within the 2013, an anonymous call was made to cps and reported a female and her granddaughter. The next day my mother asked me, a male, to go pick up my nephew and son from school because mom and dad had to go do stuff. I agreed. I get to the school and pick up my son, and then spend the next 15 minutes looking for my nephew and starting to panic. A teacher finally walks up and tells me that he is in the office. I go to the office to find out he is in a room alone with a cps investigator. She asked the children to leave the room, and proceeds to question me about my niece. I answer her question, "if she is not at school, I do not know, but if it were me and she was sick, I would have taken her to the hospital". She starts to get rude and demanding 'which hospital?', at which point I ask her if the report was about me, and if so who is the witness against me. She answered 'No, it is about a female dragging a little girl to the school', and that even if it were about me that she did not have to tell me who made the complaint and that it was an anonymous tip. My nephew is not the child in question he is a boy not a little girl, and he is autistic. I ask to see her certificate to interview autistic children and she said she did not need one. I told her since this is not about me I was leaving and not to bother me about it because I was not the person in question. At which point she threatened to call the police if I did not cooperate. I asked her again is this dam issue about me or not, she said it could be. At which point I informed her if this is about my ex calling you again and pretending to be someone else then drop the dam issue involving me. I told her to screw off and I was leaving. If it was concern for the child, she could have verified with the school as to where the girl in question was. She was less then 100 yards away from the front desk. She could have verified who had called her in sick that day and they would have told her it is her father and provided her the information on contacting him. Instead, since my ex had already called cps on me 3 different time and I have been cleared all 3 times. And the last time I used her calling cps on me in court and called the cps agents in to show their findings cps has been after me. The cps officer then proceeded to call 911 and report the issue of male sexually abusing a little girl. (911 tapes)
I am walking out to the car and it takes a bit, because we walk to the car and I have to buckle them in. I go and get them a snack from Mc Donald's and we go home. As we arrive on the property I get the kids out of the car and start to walk to the door to be met with the cps investigator and a police officer at which point I tell the officer to remove him-self and the cps agent from the property and that I have nothing to say to them. The officer can only see that I have two male children with me as I pass them on the walkway leading to the door. I walk into the house and close the door. I get the children feed, and start to get them drinks, and then the officer starts pounding, not knocking, on the door. I turn the handle to the door and the officer pushed it open and almost hit me in the face, if my foot was not behind the door, it would have broken my nose. He then stuck his foot in the door and started to demand answers. I asked him for the court order that allowed him to cross the threshold of the house and detain me at the door and refused to provide it. I tell him to call and get a search warrant if he did not already have one he spends the next 40 minutes questioning me and forcing me to cooperate with the cps investigator and demanding that I produce the girl not in my custody. I finally asked my eldest nephew to grab the phone for me and he brought it to me, at which point I called 911 and requested for a senior officer to my location to deescalate the situation, because I have an officer that is in violation of my rights and does not have a search warrant, and question the officer again to produce the search warrant. The 911 tapes can prove the conversation. Along with a tapping which is the officer pushing up against the door to try to force his way into my house, which is the door hitting the phone, and my foot. Along with me asking for a warrant on the tapes, you can hear the officer ask as to which hospital the girl is at and the phone number of my brother, at which point I respond and tell him to remove his foot from the door for me to get the information for him, and he refuses (911 tape). 911 reports the senior officer is at my location and is going to disconnect, I tell her I do not see the officer and he has yet to come talk with me, 911 ends the call. The senior officer gets there and instead of telling the officer to back down he nods to the officer at the door and force their way into my house, at which point I call 911 again because not only the first officer, and the senior officer the but a 1st officer's partner, the 3rd officer force their way into my home. I call 911, and on the tapes you can hear me and the officer threaten to arrest me if I was on the phone to 911, after they broke into my house. (911 tapes) At which point my parent arrive back at the house and 2 of the officer exit the house but the 1st officer refuses to leave the property and demands to search the house. He is called out 3 different times by the acting senior officer to 'leave the house', and finally told 'fruit of the poisonous tree' before the 1st officer leaves the house. Not to mention that the officer demanded to let the cps agent in, forced coercion, and not legal for the cps agent to enter the property.

I have never heard back from cps on the issue on my parents that they included me in. I have looked for the police reports for the last 3 months from all 3 officers that broke into my house and nothing has appeared. I have filed the correct paperwork against the officer just to have it returned to my on some grounds of it not being signed correctly.

Do I have a case against the case worker and the cops that forced their way into my home?

The information that I have found so far is as follows.

42 U.S.C. § 1983 – Civil action for deprivation of rights
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

Memo to all cps workers can be found here.
http://www.tdcaa.com/node/3382
Key point in memo is the very first paragraph before the "I. INTRODUCTION"

"On July 28, 2008, a federal appeals court with authority over Texas handed down a decision in a case that will be referred to as “the Gates case.” The decision is binding on Texas and because it involves federal constitutional rights, supersedes anything to the contrary in Texas law, or DFPS policy or practice."

I have the right to face my accuser, at this point the cps officer for filing a lie with 911 on public record and slandering me. or am I wrong? I have a few days left to file the tort claim. Of intent to sue.

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family_man
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby family_man » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:35 am

Yes, I believe you have the right to sue CPS and the police officer for illegal entry into your home.

Please read the following commentary:

http://www.cppp.org/files/4/409_Gates_Final.pdf

After reading this, I think you may have a stronger case if you sue in federal court, rather than state court.

Under state law, case workers have "official immunity" from claims involving their case decisions.

If a parent makes a claim against CPS caseworkers under state law because of an investigation or removal decision, caseworkers are protected if they acted in good faith. The test for good faith is whether a reasonably prudent caseworker, under the same or similar circumstances, could have believed they needed to act in the same way.


CPS could claim that the the caseworker's actions were performed in "good faith" because she believed at the time that you were harboring your niece, who had been abused in some way, and that other reasonably prudent workers would have acted in the same way.

Under federal law, case workers have "qualified immunity" from their actions UNLESS all of the following are true:

(1) Taken in the light most favorable to the parent, the alleged facts show that the caseworker’s conduct violated statutory or constitutional law;
(2) The law was clearly established at the time of the caseworker’s actions; and
(3) The caseworker’s conduct was objectively unreasonable in light of the established law.


The 3rd district court ruled that Gates could not sue CPS because item (2) had not been met, but now it is (by the Gates decision). In your case, CPS and the police action violated your 4th amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. Under Gates, CPS may enter the home only with permission granted by a responsible adult, a search warrant signed by a judge, or to protect a child from immediate danger. Since the purpose of the visit was to interview a child, not to protect her from immediate danger, CPS and the police had no grounds to forcibly enter your home. Furthermore, you have the evidence to prove that it was unwarranted.

Texas CPS is supposed to go over the Gates decision and 4th amendment rights in the training course it administers to all new hires. There can be no reason the case worker can claim ignorance of the law. See the following links from the Texas CPS Handbook:

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/handbooks/CPS/Files/CPS_pg_2350.asp#CPS_2351
http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/handbooks/CPS/Files/CPS_pg_1200.asp#CPS_1221

Suing CPS won't be an easy road. More and more whistle-blowers like yourself, who expose abuses of government power, face ruthless retaliation. However, only through the actions of courageous people like yourself can your rights be defended for all of us. I hope you do go ahead with your suit and are successful.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

Glenn75052
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby Glenn75052 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:26 am

Thank you for the information, that is all I am asking for. I am in no way asking for legal advice, just information on how I would need to pursue the issue. I am not an attorney and not familiar with what steps that are need or required to be taken. I am not asking for legal advice just the normal steps on that need to be followed on as much as filing the paperwork with the correct court.

Again thank you for your information and I understand it is not legal advice.

But if there is an attorney or anyone know of an attorney out there that is in the d/fw area I would really appreciate the contact info if you would be willing to leave, that is if you think I have a case against cps and the others involved in the issue, and would be willing to take the case. A website or e-mail address or other way of contact. Your choice.

Thanks.

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LindaJM
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby LindaJM » Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:02 pm

Attorneys in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with an interest in fighting CPS: Paul Stuckle, Anthony Green, Reginald Ibe, Emily and Matt Dunn, Elizabeth Nielsen, Christina J. Whipple.

I don't know or recommend any of these lawyers ... but I found their names on our lawyers page here at FightCPS.

Do a due-diligence search of their websites and interview some of them. I hope someone would like to take on a case like yours.
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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 ...

Glenn75052
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby Glenn75052 » Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:36 pm

I have gone through the pages there and have been told by most of them that since it is not a defense case they will not handle the issue, have spent the last few days calling them. I was hoping to find someone that is willing to help me and actually prosecute and someone that is knowledgeable enough to do it. I am under the impression by one attorney that I can not sue them because there was no physical damages and because of that I have no case. I though that the aggravation, breaking the law, and violations of the constitution were enough to press charges against them. If I am wrong please inform me. I thought the humiliation of having 3 officers break into my house in front of my child and nephew was enough to take them to court. Not to mention the slander of the agent, and the proof of malice. On top of mental anguish of being questioned and detained and being unable to get my nephew something to drink when he asked for it because I was being detained at the door (911 recording). And the hour that the officer could have used to get a search warrant instead of breaking in. Then there is the acting senior officer backing the other officers and having no idea why he was called out there (Father questioned each officer as to why they were there).
If there is something I am missing please tell me. If I am not looking at this correctly please tell me. If there is something else that I am missing please tell me. And if there is an attorney that thinks the case is strong enough feel free to message me and I will reply. I am in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area.

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family_man
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby family_man » Fri Jul 19, 2013 2:33 pm

The attorney you contacted who said you can't sue because you didn't suffer any "damage" may be right. I'm not sure what outcome you'd like to see from such a suit. If you're asking for a monetary award, how would come up with a dollar figure for that? If you'd like to see the case worker reprimanded in some way, would that really be worth a court case? If they had taken your children into custody or unlawfully obtained evidence against you, it would be different, but they didn't.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

Glenn75052
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby Glenn75052 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 6:13 pm

Here is my problem with that way of thinking and I maybe wrong in this. That means any cop for no reason can go into any home they want, and as long as they do not take anything they are fine, or if they do find something they can take it and then claim probable cause allowed the entry to the house. Is that not one of the reasons as why we fought the Revolutionary War against the British for going in to anyone's house on the idea of looking for something that they might use to convict the person of a crime without any evidence? Is that not why we have the 4th amendment? And slander, is a crime, not to mention filing a false report to cps and does that not include the cps officer that changed it form the original complaint of female and female to male and female? Or am I wrong in thinking that governmental agents should not lie about someone to force coercion. A lie even by governmental agents are slander. And slander is a crime, and one that is bad for me because now the police have been informed that I am a child abuse and molester by the claim of the lies of the cps agent. And you do not think they keep information like that? Do I not have a right to have that information sealed because it is slander against me and presents me in a false light to the cops? And anyone looking in public records? Or just because there was no physical damage I do not have a case?

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family_man
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby family_man » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:10 pm

Well this is how I see it (which also could be off-base): I think without question the police and CPS overstepped their authority in entering your home. But you can't go into a lawsuit against them without knowing what you want the court to do about it.

You fear that you now have some kind of police record, and you want that removed or sealed. Fine. This would be one action a court could order. But first you have to verify that in fact you do have such a record. I sort of doubt that you do. You weren't arrested or accused of a crime. The first thing you should do is search available public records to see whether you can find anything about yourself. If you can't, then you can't claim that your reputation has been damaged by this incident. You weren't even listed as an alleged perpetrator of child abuse or neglect, so your name won't be on the child abuse registry (which is another problem a court could remedy).

You say you suffered emotiona trauma from your experience. A court would want to see evidence of that from a psychiatrist, and also want to know how that trauma impairs your ability to earn a living, to be able to assign a monetary value to your injury. If you can't do that, the court won't award you damages. And I also believe that slander is a crime only if it causes the other person some sort of tangible harm. You would have to demonstrate to the court what that harm is.

Telling lies is not a crime unless it's done under oath. Filing a knowingly false police report is a crime, since it ties up valuable police resources. But that's not what happened. Police routinely accompany CPS investigators, but it is for the protection of the investigator, not to illegally enter the home without a warrant. The police officer should have known better. But it would be very difficult to get a judge to divert scare funds from the police department budget into your pocket unless you suffered bonafide monetary losses.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

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family_man
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby family_man » Sat Jul 20, 2013 11:58 pm

There's one more thought I'd like to add.

If what happened to you is a wide-spread practice, not just an isolated incident, AND you were able to prove it was wide-spread through subpoenable police/CPS records, it would be a big deal, worthy of a class action law suit. IF this were the case (and it's a big if), it would be big news. This is the type of case the ACLU might be interested in taking up. A federal court would be able to order the Dallas Police Department, for example, to revise its policies and supervision of officers to prevent this type of 4th amendment violation from being so prevalent.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

fatherofthree
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby fatherofthree » Sun Aug 11, 2013 4:53 pm

A police officer can enter the home to check the welfare of the child. CPS is not supposed to enter in this manner unless invited in by the home owner. Based on what I read this sounds like it was out of control by all parties. I would assume that the police were wearing video so they should have a full recording of the entire incident. If you feel strongly you should file a complaint against the CPS worker and the police. Each entity does it different. The police will require a sworn affidavit. You can find out more by contacting that particular department. It would be good if they were out of line for them to receive proper training for CPS related calls as CPS does push the boundary's. A CPS investigation is confidential so they cannot tell you everything that you wanted to know if you were not involved in the case.

Just an edit but you could also file a request with the police for an open record of the call made to the police by the case worker to she what they said that got the police up in arms.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney and am not providing legal advice.

mistylea
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby mistylea » Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:19 pm

On 10-23-2013 I received a call ( in response to a email I sent ) from Mr. Nobal Walker, the Hunt county District Attorney who is currently prosecuting the case of 3 cps case workers in Greenville Tx (Hunt County) who are being charged with tampering with evidence and oppression. He adviced me to file a complaint with your office. I am filing this complaint with the hope my case can be reopened, reviewed by someone with honest eyes. Someone outside this little group of people who work and has worked togather to lie and schyme up problems against the very people they were meant to help. Including myself. I would like to thank you in advance for taking the time out to read my complaint. And from here I can only pray and trust my God that his will be done from here. I will try and keep this as short and to the point as possible. There are some Facts, dates and names that I am unclear and unsure about due to the run around these people have gave and continue to give me. To date I have been refuse the opportunity to review my file and when I call the worker she hangs the phone up on me and my family. Only telling me my kids have been adopted and to move on. This is truly unbarable for my family and my future. In are about Nov, 2011 I allowed my 2 children Matthew and Chadsity Bennett to go see there dad for the weekend. Two days later I receive a phone call from Ms. Renolds ( one of the 3 women now being prosecuted on the news). She told me that she had in custody my 2 children. She only would tell me there had been some fight between my sister n law and my husband ( Chad Bennett) girlfriend and that a emergency removal had been made. I explained to her that I had full custody of both of my children and that we resided in Dallas county not Hunt. I informed her that Matthew was enrolled in School with me and that I wanted to come pick my babies up. She immediately became aggressive telling me that would not be at all possible until she had interviewed my kids alone and that it could take up to a couple of hours. I was panicked, not understanding all that was going on. Only knowing I need to get to my kids and comfort them. She cut me off and said she would be calling me later on in the day that it would not be nessecery for me to come pick them up yet, In tears I tried looking for answers a family friend who had knowledge in the law advised me to call and tell them I have a attorney and I wanted my kids released immediately. So I followed that instruction. To my surprise it worked at that point they had already questioned my kids for over 2 hours as if they were a witness to some war crime. Mrs. Renolds told me to come pick them up. I had my sister drive me to Greenville to pick my kids up. When I got there I was met by a investigator and Reynolds. They gave me my kids and I put them in the car with my sister. After they were safe in the car Mrs. Reynold demanded that I give her my attorneys number I told her that I didn't have a attorney appointed that I had just been given some advice. When that happened she became very mad and went removed my kids from the car and called the police on me to be removed from the building. I was shocked I never thought in America this was possible. I asked her what her alligations were for doing this she said I chocked my son and beat him with a brush. There was no marks on him as I would never ever hurt my baby. From that day I told her I would get my kids back and she would also lose her job. That week at court I informed the lawyer that the court appointed to me Jason Dunn , whose office is right next door to hers they have lunch togather at times and are friends. I informed him of what happened hoping for him to go get my kids from her. He said she was denying any argument that we had and that she had never released my kids to me I told him I had it all recorded on my cell phone that my sister was there as a witness and that the police was even called. He told me that he wasn't there to fight for me only to advice me that I would have to do whatever it was she was telling me to he said that sometimes you have to kiss there ass (excuse my language that was his words) because once they were in your life they would not stop he said the judge would order me to do whatever she was asking. He then showed me 3 pages of different classes I would have to do that would take up to a year and that I would have to do these things before I could even get them back.. I was then as I am now so confused what did I do in the first place to have the kids taken? So after being terrified of this very small county of people that oviously work togather, in which I didn't even live and neither did my kids. I signed this assessment plan he said that if I refused that the judge that day would revoke any right I ever would have for my kids. After this day my life was never ever the same. It took the case worker 3 months to even get one thing on this list set up for me to do. In the mean time they contacted section 8 and my apartments to tell them I no longer had my kids so there for I lost my house. I found myself living from house to house without my kids the only thing that ever meant anything to me. When I would go to visitation they would tell me I was late so I couldn't see them are they would switch dates and lie. All this because I was threating to show this recording I had of Ms. Reynolds to the court and just for the sake of truth I never even had this recording I wished I could of thought fast enough that day to press record. But in one of the visits she told me I had to start showing up 2 hours early because I was late before so I did just that and I waited 2 hours only to be told after waiting " oh I forgot to tell you your kids are on vacation, you wont be able to see them to day" I asked were they were in state are out of state she said it was none of my business. They refused to put my kids with any family that I had they found any little excuse not too. But with in one month my kids had been moved to 3 different foster homes. My last visit I had with my son he told me and his dad that the foster parants had been hitting him. I brung this to the case workers attention as this visit was being recorded and she told the judge to order us not to talk of this with our son. However she left him with this family and later I was told something bad happened they couldn't tell me what but that they had to be removed. I never received a court date and the lawyer hardly returned my call . But in fairness to my attorney I had no were to live then and no phone because cps had destroyed me from the inside out. Months went by I was told I had only 12 months to do all these things and rebuild my life that was only so rocky because cps destroyed it. Well on the 11th month I talked to the cps worker and she said its to late now your kids are being placed for adoption and you will never see them again and that's is exactly what has happened. Its been almost 2 years and I have never seen them again. Now these same women are being prosected for the world to see for lying and cheating other families. I can only pray that this is a small window of opportunity for me to one day be able to hug matthew and chadsity and tell them I never left them that I love them and it will all be ok. To ever can read this and feel my families pain please let this cause you to take action and help me to recover what this work from the devil has taken from me.

This could happen to you it can happen to any one. May God protect you and your kids to night when you go to kiss them goodnight I would give anything to be able to do this simply little thing.

MISTY BENNETT

together45
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Re: Need to know if I really have a case against cps.

Postby together45 » Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:45 pm

Hi, I am the grandmother to two beautiful granddaughters who CPS threatened my daughter into signing temporary custody over due to alleged allegations of abuse they had no evidence to base on. The CPS worker herself admitted that she could not initially file the reports as founded due to no evidence. After my daughter signed them over to her friends manipulating parents who had them for 10 months, those people submitted the supposed evidence to CPS 6 months after the sign over to have report status changed from unfounded to founded in order to secure the custody for themselves. My children and grandchildren have a great deal of tribal money coming in each month and I believe this motivated them. I recently found out that one of my granddaughters has been sexually abused by the 13 year old son of the this family and am currently writing documents to submit to congress for oversight of Title 25 which is supposed to protect indian children and families from this type of abuse occurring. All parties involved circumvented federal law of TItle 25 by not contacting the girls extended family members first, before considering placement with anyone else. I now have custody of them but this is a terrifying story to read of what happened to you. This abuse of family sanctity has got to stop! I am here as a friend or emotional support if you need me, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.


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