The Smack-Down of Texas CPS - With Homework!

Terri Langford at the Houston Chronicle reports:  Judge comes down on Texas CPS in twins case.
[I don't usually copy articles in their entirety; snippets here are not in the same order as in the original, with emphasis added.  Please go to the link to read!]

Rushed casework by Texas Child Protective Services resulted in a rare if not unprecedented legal sanction against the agency Friday for trying to take premature infant twins from their parents without proving it was justified.

Not only did state District Judge Michael Schneider rule against CPS for what he termed a "groundless cause of action," he ordered that $32,000 of the Spring family's attorney fees be paid by the agency.

And as if to drive his point home, he ordered the caseworker and her supervisor to write the court a report proving they understand the state's child removal statutes within 30 days.

Homework!

The article continues:

"The offensive conduct by (CPS) has significantly interfered with the legitimate exercise of the traditional core functions of this court," Schneider wrote in a 13-page order filed on Friday.

. . . The Millers cooperated [with the CPS investigation], but also contacted an attorney to advise them of the process. Five days later, they were notified that CPS had requested — and been granted — legal custody of all three children on an emergency basis.

Neither the Millers nor their attorney, Dennis Slate, were notified of the custody hearing. Nor was Judge Schneider informed that the agency made a voluntary agreement with the family, which could have changed his mind about granting legal custody to CPS so quickly.

. . . Schneider also declined to discuss the case. In his order, however, the judge zeroed in on a lack of disclosure by CPS' parent agency, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

"TDFPS has acted in bad faith based on the following … waiting hours after illegally obtaining the temporary emergency order before informing the Millers that the order had been obtained," Schneider wrote. "The court finds it especially egregious and indicative of bad faith that TDFPS waited until 5 p.m. … after the close of business of the courts and the District Clerk's office." 

You mean CPS withholds information from parents, attorneys and the court? No kidding? And they are sneaky, too?


Here's the story:

Darcy and Tye Miller had been taking their twin girls, born last December, almost weekly to their pediatrician because of concerns about their weight. At birth, one weighed less than 5 pounds and the other 6 pounds.

When their older child's bronchitis was passed to one of the girls, Darcy Miller brought her to Methodist Willowbrook. When the baby didn't get better, the hospital referred the family to Texas Children's Hospital.

After a Jan. 27 chest X-ray at Texas Children's revealed several healing rib fractures, doctors confronted Darcy Miller and asked if she knew how they got there.

When she said she didn't, doctors asked the family to bring in the infant's twin sister and the older brother. Before their father arrived with the other children, CPS had been called.

"To me, it wasn't until they called CPS that a red flag went up in my head," said Darcy Miller, a teacher. "They made it sound like they wanted to do the other X-rays to make sure they (other children) were OK."
. . .
After finding fractures in the same place as the other twin, CPS asked the Millers to voluntarily place all three of their children with in-laws while the investigation was conducted.

But the Millers fought back. And the attorney appointed by the court to represent the girls, Evan Glick, sided with the family.

"I completely agree with what Judge Schneider did," said Glick. "I think CPS … just rushed this. They breached their own agreement (with the Millers)."

The children's parents also hired an expert witness, Dr. Charles Hyman.

Glick said "reasonable medical evidence" offered to the court by Hyman showed the fractures could have been caused by lifting the children.

He surmised that because there was no evidence of internal bleeding or bruising and it could not be determined when the micro-fractures occurred, there had been no abuse.

And has anyone considered that these fractures may have occurred during birth? I've heard of hips and shoulders being displaced - what about ribs? I, a mere layman, found two sources ( Here and here ) discussing "Birth-related mid-posterior rib fractures" with a quick Google action. In fact, the second one, a letter to the editor by P W Barry and M D Hocking in Archives of Disease in Childhood, dating back to 1993, clearly states "Fractures heal at variable rates and timing injuries from the radiographic appearances can be difficult. . . When healing rib fractures are found unexpectedly in infancy, inquiries into the birth history should be made. They are not all due to NAI [NonAccidental Injury, otherwise known as "abuse". ]

It should be noted that Texas Children's Hospital seems to have its own in-house office of CPS. (And isn't that the same hospital that housed Landon Weber and took him away from his family?  Isn't this the same hospital that treated Emma Routh?  Is the same caseworker from CPS involved in all three of these horrendous cases?)




h/t: the vile Bill Medvecky (who probably saw it first at the Legally Kidnapped blog)