Two cases in Kern and Orange Counties raise questions about the proceduresof California's Child Protective Services.

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/news...0-fe81479be370


We Just Want Them to be Safe

Two cases in Kern and Orange Counties raise questions about the
procedures of California's Child Protective Services.

For two months, Cynthia Miller of Tehachapi had been trying to get
custody of her two grandchildren from Kern County Child Protective
Services. When she finally did, on March 12, she was horrified by what
she saw.

Miller told the March 20 Tehachapi News that her two-year old
granddaughter was covered by bruises, her head had been shaved, and she
had a bright red mark on her head. When a doctor with the Department of
Human Services carried out a subsequent examination of the children,
Miller could not describe the state of her younger, two-month old
granddaughter. “When the doctor took off her diaper, I thought the
supervisor was going to throw up,” said Miller.

Child Protective Services had taken the girls from their parents,
Heather Ann Mang (or Yeck-Kempton) and Sonny Wright, on Jan. 23. The
parents had taken their daughter to the Tehachapi Hospital emergency
room and the examining doctor alleged abuse. The older girl “had a
spiral fracture of her leg after she fell down. There were no marks on
her body at all. It was an accident, pure and simple,” said Miller. The
parents said the girl had caught her foot on a strip of carpet and,
falling, twisted her leg while holding onto a hanging blanket.

According to a police report, Mang admitted to lying about Wright to
police because she feared a previous domestic violence charge could be
used against him. Wright is not the two-year old’s father.

Child Protective Services placed the children with a Bakersfield foster
family in whose custody the abuse discovered by Miller allegedly
occurred. “We just want them to be safe and they’re obviously not safe
with CPS,” Wright said.

A subsequent medical examination indicated no sexual abuse of the girls
though it determined that all the bruising could not be accidental;
Bakersfield police are investigating the alleged abuse. Kern County
Child Protective Services said that the state, not they, had certified
the foster family.

On March 23, juvenile court dropped all charges against Wright and Mang.
The couple may file a civil case against Child Protective Services and
the emergency room doctor who reported them. “We don’t want this to
happen to anybody else. Nobody, no child, should have to go through
this,” said Wright.

Seven years ago, Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick claims, Orange County social
workers intentionally fabricated evidence to get a court order to remove
her two children from her custody, according to a press release from San
Diego attorney, Shawn McMillan, who represented Fogarty-Hardwick. She
alleged that Orange County social workers did not provide the court with
evidence that would have exonerated her and filed false reports to keep
her children from her.

Fogarty-Hardwick filed two civil suits for civil rights violations
against the social workers and the Orange County social services agency.
In the first case, the jury found against Fogarty-Hardwick’s claims. But
in the second suit, the jury, on March 23, decided 10-2 that the county
agency’s policies, practices, or procedures violated Fogarty-Hardwick’s
rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S.
Constitution. These policies included detaining the children without
making a finding of imminent danger or serious physical injury,
interviewing them without a parent present, holding them without cause,
fabricating evidence, and failing to train employees properly about
parents’ constitutional rights.

The jury awarded Fogarty-Hardwick $4.9 million in damages.

The jury awarded Fogarty-Hardwick $4.9 million in damages.

And it still won't cover the damages.

On Mar 27, 3:33 pm, "Dan Sullivan" wrote:
The jury awarded Fogarty-Hardwick $4.9 million in damages.

And it still won't cover the damages.


Nothing can cover those damages Dan, the removal of children causes
severe harm as we know and should ,as the courts have said, only occur
as a last resort.