General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
Haitian immigrant Mother thinks 6 year old Daughter is possessed by evil spirits.
Mother resolves to rid Daughter of them. With a voodoo ritual.
Mother allegedly pours rum on the floor in a circle surrounding Daughter and then pours some more on Daughter’s head and then … sets fire to Daughter.
When Daughter is engulfed in flames, Grandmother puts the fire out with water.
Then Mother and Grandmother simply bathe and put Daughter to bed, without any medical treatment.
Not until the next day, at a relative’s urging, does Mother take Daughter to a hospital.
Daughter has second and third degree burns over twenty-five percent of her body.
Mother is charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Mother denies her guilt and tells police the incident was an accident caused by Daughter startling her while she was boiling rice.
Mother also denies awareness of Daughter’s burns.
Mother blames Grandmother for putting Daughter to bed without medical treatment.
Grandmother is charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Daughter, still in the hospital in a medically induced coma, is now in child protective custody.
Daughter told her foster caregiver what happened.
Neighbors reportedly heard Mother and Grandmother yelling at Daughter to remain down on her knees for hours on end on various occasions.
It does not appear that any of the neighbors ever called the child abuse hotline or the police to intervene on Daughter’s behalf.
According to a lawsuit filed by a Florida teenager’s mother, the athletic boy died of a heart attack … brought on by prescription psychiatric medications.
Allegedly, too many of them, including one to alleviate side effects of the others.
The boy’s psychiatrist reportedly prescribed sixteen different drugs for the boy over the course of a year.
The same doctor also allegedly prescribed a number of medications for a foster child … who subsequently committed suicide.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is investigating.
According to DCF, substantial numbers of children in the child welfare system, even those ranging in age from infants to 6 years old are on psychotropic drugs, that is, mind-altering drugs.
According to reports, one third of teens in the child welfare system are on at least one psychiatric medication.
Further, in all or nearly all of the cases of children in the child welfare system on these medications, neither the children’s parents nor a judge had consented to the treatment of the children with psychotropic pharmaceuticals - a prerequisite under the law.
In the case that is the subject of the lawsuit, it is also alleged that there was insufficient monitoring of children on these strong medications.
Food for thought … for any parent of a child from a broken - or intact - family.
Read more in this Miami Herald article: Lawsuit links psychiatric drugs to Tamarac child’s death.
A child welfare agency is breathing down their necks, threatening to remove their children.
They aren’t beating or starving their children.
Or leaving them unattended.
Why then?
The agency calls it medical neglect.
In one recent high profile case, hardly the first such case, the family refuses conventional medical treatment for religious reasons.
The child has cancer. A kind with an excellent prognosis with chemotherapy.
But the family’s religion frowns upon such treatment, preferring alternative, natural treatments.
And the boy and his mother go on the run … for a time.
When the boy’s condition worsens, they give in to the necessity of conventional treatment.
And the boy is allowed to stay with his parents.
In a second, lower profile case, a 14 year old child is obese, on the magnitude of 555 pounds.
To avoid a court hearing, this mother and son also go on the run.
And the mother is arrested for custodial interference.
Of course, it isn’t healthy for a child - or adult - to weigh over 500 pounds.
But is the child neglected? Should the child be removed from his or her family?
Are you following your pediatrician’s recommendations?
To the letter?
Is your child’s other parent keeping track?
Read more in this NewsWeek article: What Makes a Parent Negligent?
Minnesota Boy removed from parents’ home and placed in foster care on a child welfare agency petition alleging that Boy needed protection or services.
Over two years later, still no resolution to Boy’s case.
Boy’s parents have had only supervised visitation with Boy since case began two years ago.
Why?
Boy’s parents’ first child died a death that was ruled a homicide.
But neither parent was ever charged in the death.
No one was charged in the death.
Reportedly because there was insufficient evidence as to which parent, or whether both parents acting together, were the aggressor. Or whether a third party was involved.
At a trial to terminate Boy’s parents’ parental rights, the court did in fact terminate their rights.
On appeal, the intermediate level appellate court reversed the termination due to insufficient evidence.
The Boy’s parents are now seeking his immediate return from foster care.
But the file has to come back from the appeals court first.
Then there is the hair-splitting question of whether the child protection investigation remains open, despite the reversal and closing of the termination of parental rights case.
Arguably an end run around the appeals court. Arguably not.
Read more in this St Cloud [MN] Times article: Custody of boy remains in limbo.
A new medical specialty emerges: child abuse pediatrics.
A physican can now study a concentrated curriculum and become board-certified in child abuse.
Unfortunately, there is much need for forensic experts in physical and sexual abuse of children.
Could the burn (or other inury) have been an accident?
Was the child sexually abused?
Forensic child abuse pediatrics holds the answers to these and many other equally disturbing questions.
Many suspected cases of child abuse are not borne out by forensics. They are likely either accidents or injuries resulting from unusual medical conditions.
These specialists will hold the keys to criminal prosecutions, removal of children from their homes, and child custody and timesharing decisions.
Read more in this New York Times article: The Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse?
Sometimes people become foster parents when they are in search of children to adopt.
But, sometimes, they just want to help other families get through a difficult time and then reunite.
One Utah couple is in the latter category.
They actually mentor the parents whose children are in their foster care.
Some of their former foster kids, and their parents, visit them years later.
This couple has fostered thirty-two children over ten years.
In the part of Utah they live in, there are 356 foster families … for 630 children in foster care.
More than half of foster children are eventually reunited with their parents or placed with extended family members.
May is National Foster Care Month.
Read more in this Utah Standard-Examiner article: Layton couple’s goal as foster parents: Get parents and children back together.
Mother, Grandparents and 3 year old Child go to mall.
Mother and Child become separated from Grandparents.
Mother and Child leave mall.
Amber Alert goes out.
Grandparents have legal custody of Child.
Mother is only allowed supervised visitation with Child.
Warrants for Mother’s arrest for kidnapping are issued.
Mother is suspected to have abducted Child to Georgia.
Child is not believed to be in danger of violence from Mother.
But Child is still missing.
Read more in this Mooresville [NC] Tribune article: Warrants issued for mother of missing 3-year-old.
In one North Carolina county, the number of children in foster care has gone down, pretty dramatically, over the last several years.
How did they accomplish it?
The child welfare agency there has been experimenting with several preventative, early intervention programs, using government and charitable funds grants.
Each program or service has a different focus, such as:
Between 2002 and 2009, the number of children in foster care in this North Carolina county shrank from 573 to 396.
Read more in this [Greensboro, NC] News & Record article: Editorial: Keeping families whole.
Canadian Husband and Wife separate and later divorce.
Wife gets custody of their three Boys, who are all close with each other.
About 10 years after Husband and Wife’s separation, Boys choose to move in with Husband. Boys are about 10, 12 and 17 years old at that time.
Boys allege that Wife is physically and verbally abusive toward them.
Wife insists Husband has alienated the Boys from her. For what it’s worth, a social worker agrees.
The oldest boy reaches 18 years of age.
The trial court orders the two younger boys into treatment for parental alienation.
The boys reportedly resist the “treatment”. Sometimes referred to as “deprogramming”.
The two younger boys are placed in foster care.
Psychiatrist concludes the boys have no psychiatric disorder, recommends suspending treatment for alienation, and recommends resuming contact between the younger boys, their older brother and Husband.
Court disregards psychiatrist’s professional opinion, orders that younger boys continue treatment for alienation and continues to bar contact with older brother and Husband.
Five months later, the two younger boys remain in foster care.
With case in limbo and contact between brothers still prohibited, older brother decides to seek custody of his younger brothers.
The court holds that the older brother has standing.
Predictably, Wife appeals.
Read more in this Toronto Star article: Custody battle ‘beyond tragic’.
Today, mothers celebrate Mother’s Day with their children.
A foster mother and adoptive mother is among them.
While she is celebrating Mother’s Day, she also celebrates the selflessness of the birth mothers of her adopted children.
And she wishes those birth mothers a Happy Mother’s Day as well.
Read more in this Examiner editorial: Happy Mother’s Day to my children’s birthmoms and this Woonsocket Call article: There’s plenty of love to go around on Mother’s Day.
There’s an epidemic sweeping parts of Florida, maybe more. It’s not swine flu.
It’s domestic violence.
One of the areas in which it is most pervasive is Orange County, in central Florida. Ironically, Disney territory.
Not only poor areas. But also areas near the University of Central Florida.
The police, sheriff’s office, the Department of Children and Family Services and Harbor House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, are joining forces to take aim at the problem.
Drop in centers to educate victims on their options are planned for domestic violence hotspots throughout the county, based on what is being called a “domestic abuse map”.
Mapped hotspots correspond to transient communities.
Last year, 5000 incidents of family violence were reported in Orange County.
As of the year 2000, the county’s population was under 900,000.
Shelters and related facilities in Orange County are already strained to capacity.
Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Domestic-abuse map points the way for help and the portal About’s Central Florida Statistics.
A 2 year old central Florida Child was slowly beaten to death … allegedly by her adoptive Mother.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) believes that Mother must have been mentally ill, although never diagnosed.
Mother was arrested on first degree murder and child abuse and neglect.
DCF’s investigation into the Child’s death revealed that her maternal grandmother was aware of Mother’s sometimes abusive behavior toward Child but did nothing.
DCF concluded that Mother and her husband were a threat to any child in their custody.
Mother and her husband have five other adopted children under the age of eight.
The other children were placed in foster care.
So much for the preadoption home study …
Read more in this Ocala Star-Banner article: DCF report documents tot’s severe beating, troubled mom.
A disturbing case …
Pennsylvania man’s home is burned down … with him in it.
Neighbor-witness accuses seven year old Boy.
Police interrogate Boy - and eventually secure confession.
But Boy is too young to prosecute under Pennsylvania law.
So child welfare agency (Agency) wins custody of the Boy on an emergency basis … reportedly without any allegations of abuse or neglect.
The Agency commits Boy to a residential juvenile treatment center.
Boy is moved from facility to facility over time.
Five years later, Boy is in a facility in Texas.
Prior to Agency’s involvement, Boy was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder. Nothing else.
Agency has not acted to terminate Mother’s parental rights in all this time, but neither has Mother enjoyed normal parental rights and access to Boy.
The Agency’s on-paper goal remains reunification, although Mother has been able to see Boy only once since his confinement due to the distance involved.
Agency has the power to confine Boy until he is 21 years old.
Mother and Grandmother are attempting to have Boy evaluated by an independent psychologist, in the hopes that it will cast doubt on the Agency’s assessment of Boy and lead to his freedom and return home.
Read more in this [Wilkes-Barre, PA] Times Leader article: Juvenile arsonist or victim?
Numerous illegal immigrants work in a food processing company in Missouri.
Immigration authorities conduct a raid there.
136 illegal immigrants are taken into custody.
One Mother is sentenced to jail, with deportation likely to follow.
American couple seeks to adopt Mother’s Baby.
Missouri Court terminates Mother’s parental rights to Baby based on abandonment of Baby.
The Court finds that Mother hasn’t contributed to the Baby’s support or tried to visit with Baby … while in jail.
Although Mother may have received two letters from the Court and the adoptive parents’ attorney, Mother doesn’t read English and does not have an attorney for her custody claim.
Mother has not known where Baby is.
Every time Mother has gone to Court, Mother has tried to find out about Baby.
Terminations of parental rights of mothers like Mother are occurring with increasing frequency, with babies like Baby being adopted by Americans.
Read more in this New York Times article: After Losing Freedom, Some Immigrants Face Loss of Custody of Their Children.
Mother is late for court.
Mother asks for visitation with her Daughter.
Judge denies her request for visitation.
And lectures Mother about being on time for court.
Hearing is rescheduled.
Mother is accused of burning the word “wimp” into the flesh of Daughter’s neck.
Mother is charged with twenty counts of child abuse and malicious wounding.
Daughter is in child protective custody.
Mother is out on bail.
Read more in this [Wheeling, WV] WTRF TV 7 news article: “Wimp” Burn Suspect Denied Visitation with Daughter, Late for Court.
I have posted more than once recently about the impact of the recession on noncustodial parents struggling with child support obligations.
Their situations are tough, but parents will not lose custody of or access to their children due to unemployment.
Millions of American grandparents raise their grandchildren, because their children are unable to do so.
If they can’t support their grandchildren, though, they may well lose custody and/or guardianship of them.
In this recession-weakened economy, older workers who lose their jobs are having an especially difficult time replacing them … sometimes eventually giving up.
In addition to the stresses of prolonged unemployment that one might expect, those raising grandchildren bear the additional fear that they will be taken away from them and placed in foster care with strangers.
What assistance there is for grandparent-custodians is rapidly being depleted by those in need because of the weak economy.
Many grandparent caregivers could simply become foster parents to their grandchildren. That would provide them with greater financial assistance from the government for raising their grandchildren.
But it would also put the grandchildren “into the system” and subject them all to monitoring and intrusions.
Read more in this Wall Street Journal article: ‘Grandfamilies’ Come Under Pressure.
Mother and Father have two young children, the oldest autistic with special needs.
After the parents separate, the Father fails to return the children from a weekend visit.
Eight months ago. The divorce isn’t even final yet.
Father keeps changing attorneys or missing court, so Mother is unable to communicate amicably about their children.
Law enforcement authorities view the disappearance of the children as a family matter, for family court and, apparently, do little.
Until Father tries to cross the border to Canada with their kids. Twice. Unsuccessfully.
The first time Father doesn’t have required papers. The second time the customs agent follows a hunch.
At that point, a felony warrant is finally issued.
A good samaritan reports a man and two children walking in 20 degree weather in Pennsylvania … with no coats or jackets on.
That leads to Father’s arrest and the children are taken into protective custody.
Read more in this Salt Lake City Deseret News article: Mother’s 8-month ordeal ends with father’s arrest.
Mother is sentenced to ten year prison term for robbery conviction.
Mother, believing she has no other option, reluctantly relinquishes her parental rights to her 4 year old Daughter.
Woman adopts Daughter. Woman allegedly abuses Daughter. More than once.
Now, Woman faces multiple charges of child neglect, aggravated kidnapping and assault.
The child welfare agency (DCS) has taken Daughter into protective custody and is seeking a permanent placement for Daughter.
And Mother, since released from prison, would like to get custody of Daughter restored to her.
DSC indicates that it will consider Mother’s request as well as Daughter’s wishes.
It is unclear whether Mother stands in any better position as any other applicant for custody.
Read more in this WTVF TV 5 news article: Mother Wants Custody Of Her Biological Daughter.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania courts already have teams of professionals assigned to every child who is abandoned, abused or neglected. Lawyer, caseworker, judge, etc.
But there is one specialist missing that the County feels is needed.
In Pennsylvania, that specialist is a unique, trained volunteer called a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).
A CASA concentrates on a relative handful of children and follows each assigned child closely. The CASA investigates in-depth and reports to the court as to what rulings he or she believes are in the child’s best interests.
One judge describes a CASA as “an extra pair of eyes and ears for the court”.
In Lancaster County, CASA volunteers stand ready to work. But like many volunteer chapters, they lack one thing - funding.
CASAs can also be appointed in family court cases.
In Florida, CASAs are called Guardians ad Litem.
Read more in this Lancaster [PA] New Era article: ‘An extra pair of eyes and ears’.
Separated, unmarried Russian couple owe debts.
Couple has, among other children, a one and one-half year old Son.
Couple has a history of “mistreating” their children.
Father needs to travel to obtain funds to help pay off debts.
To secure performance of Father’s promise to pay, Father deposits with creditor as collateral … Son.
Authorities forcibly rescue Son.
Couple may face action to terminate their parental rights to Son.
Son will go into child protective custody.
Read more in this Russia Today article: Father hands his baby son over for debts.
Hard times are pushing many into mental illness, reports an article in the Buffalo [NY] News.
The article talks about widespread stressors these days, such as: recession, the mortgage crisis, foreclosures, layoffs, business closings, credit crunch, gas prices and inflation, Ponzi schemes, devalued retirement savings, and snow and cold (well, at least that one doesn’t apply here in South Florida).
Of one couple’s three adult children, two are laid off and one is unemployed.
Anxiety is commonplace and - some people are slipping over the edge. Sometimes with killing sprees and suicides.
Experts recommend reaching out to others, trying to avoid the barrage of gloom and doom from media and others, and staying focused and anchored in the here and now.
The article barely mentions family law matters. Just one casual reference to a “recently divorced” man who was racking up debt after losing his job and was saddled with an alimony obligation on top of that.
But all of these stressors on individuals also affect their families and exes.
At best, they can inspire more frequent and heated arguments and disharmony into the family. At worst, they can incite domestic violence, child abuse, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency and more.
Read more in Hard times are pushing many into mental illness.
In the same spirit as that of the unified family court as it is implemented in Florida and certain other states, New Hampshire is on the verge of passing a bill that is on the cusp of criminal and family law.
The proposed legislation would introduce as a consideration for the judge presiding over bail hearings whether a defendant is a single parent whose child or children would have to go into foster care if that parent were confined prior to trial.
A disproportionate number of single mothers are reportedly confined before trial because they have insufficient resources to gain their freedom with bail.
Apparently, this bill could save the state of New Hampshire a nice chunk of change. To illustrate, in New Hampshire, a year’s incarceration and a year’s foster care each cost about $30,000, yielding a savings to the government of at least $60,000 per single mother freed on bail.
If passed, the proposed legislation would also spare some children temporary upheaval which is, ultimately, for nothing.
Read more in this Laconia [NH] Citizen article: Bill aims to cut down on confinement for single parents.
Mother allegedly leaves her 6 year old and 2 year old home alone at night.
To go looking for her boyfriend at a bar.
Mother is arrested.
Mother pleads guilty to child endangerment.
Just two weeks later, Mother allegedly leaves 6 year old and 2 year old home alone at night again.
To go to a liquor store.
Mother is arrested again, for driving under the inflence, traffic offenses and child endangerment.
Mother’s mother (Grandmother) is reportedly seeking an order of protection and trying to have Mother’s two children removed from her custody.
Grandmother reports that Mother is an alcoholic.
Grandmother advises that she will be seeking custody of the older child, whose father is deceased. The younger child’s father will be picking her up.
Mother is already on probation.
Read more in this Northwest [IL] Herald article: Police: Mom left children alone again.
Chinese Father. Israeli Mother. Son appears to be American. And home was United States.
Until Mother takes Son to Israel. And stays there. For three years.
Mother’s version of events:
Father raped her, and Son is the product of that rape. Father authorized passport and was aware of her plan to travel to Israel with Son.
2006 Court order under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction:
Son is to be returned to Father in the US.
Court order is found on Mother. Yet Mother claims not to have known about hearing.
Ironically, Mother is “caught” during a routine check having nothing to do with Son’s “missing” status.
Mother is arrested. Son is taken into protective custody.
Read more in this Israel Haaretz article: Woman stopped in routine check, held for ‘kidnapping’ child from U.S. dad.
Husband and Wife split up. Battle over custody of their 2 year old Daughter ensues.
Husband is awarded temporary primary residential custody of Daughter.
Husband’s 91 year old Grandmother owns a house.
Wife and Wife’s mother are in Grandmother’s house when Husband arrives to check on Grandmother.
Wife’s mother clubs Husband on the head with a baton, and Wife brandishes a gun at him.
Wife informs Husband that she is taking custody of their daughter. Wife shoots Husband with a stun gun.
Police find Grandmother’s body in a trash bin in the garage at the house.
Possibly the only one not physically injured at the house is Daughter. She is taken into child protective custody.
Wife, Wife’s mother and Wife’s mother’s husband (found in a nearby car) are all arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy.
Read more in this San Francisco Chronicle article: 3 suspects arrested in slaying of woman, 91.
Husband and Wife have baby Daughter.
Marriage deteriorates. Divorce is filed.
Wife is killed in car accident. Divorce stops.
Wife’s will expresses Wife’s wishes that her mother, Daughter’s grandmother, raise Daughter if something were to happen to her.
But Daughter has a father, Husband.
Husband raises Daughter in North Dakota, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother. Both of his parents are very involved in caring for Daughter.
Now Husband dies in a car accident.
Husband did not leave a will.
Now all the grandparents want Daughter.
Wife’s mother, who lives in far off New England, somehow obtains temporary guardianship of Daughter.
Wife’s mother points to Husband’s father’s disability and Husband’s mother’s allowing her own youngsters to be raised by Husband’s father after their divorce. Husband’s father contends the disability limits heavy lifting and Husband’s mother explains that she only left the children with her ex for continuity.
Read more in this Worthington [MN] Daily Globe article: Grandparents fight for child custody.
Family court can be hard on grandparents these days.
But so can juvenile dependency court.
When a parent’s parental rights are terminated, a grandparent’s derivative grandparental rights are terminated too in many cases.
Sometimes even if the grandparents once had temporary custody of the grandchildren.
Arkansas grandparents hoping for some visitation with their grandchildren recently met with state lawmakers about their rights and desires.
State workers advised the grandparents how to file for visitation.
Read more in this [Little Rock, AR] KARK 4 News article: Grandparents Seek Visitation with Grandkids.
Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) places three youngsters aged five and under with a foster family.
A sexually aggressive teenager was already placed with the same foster family.
The youngsters were allegedly sexually abused by the teenager, and still DCF reportedly took no action to remove the youngsters from the home.
The complaint on behalf of the youngsters alleges that DCF demonstrated “deliberate indifference” toward the youngsters’ well-being and intentionally placed them in harm’s way, in violation of their constitutional rights.
DCF’s employee defendants asserted immunity as a defense, on the theory that they were acting within their duties and discretion as employees on behalf of the state.
Read more in this Florida Times-Union article: Foster home molestation case can proceed and this WFLX Fox 29 TV news article: Court allows suit over alleged sex abuse.
Pennsylvania couple divorce.
Mother gets custody of young girls.
Then Mother stops sending girls to school.
Mother loses custody of girls.
Girls go into foster care.
Mother abducts the girls outside of their school in mid-October.
And brings them here to South Florida.
To live on the beach in a dug-out pit of sand.
Mother contacts Father, who is estranged from the rest of the family, out of the blue, seeking money, and informs him that they are in Florida.
The older of the girls is found alone, abandoned, at a shopping mall, begging for food.
Mother and younger girl are found.
Mother is arrested and charged with kidnapping, interfering with child custody and other felony charges.
Read more in this Philadelphia Inquirer article: Abducted girls lived in Fla. sand pit; mother sought
Ohio Mother and Father have affair and conceive Baby.
Relationship apparently breaks up.
After Baby’s birth, Mother leaves Baby at a church in June without Father’s knowledge.
This abandonment does not comply with Ohio’s safe havens laws.
Mother is charged with child endangerment.
Baby, and Mother’s three other children, are all placed in foster care.
DNA test later determines paternity of Father in November.
Father and his family want Baby with them.
Court orders visitation with Baby at Father’s home.
Court adopts plan for Father to have custody of Baby before Christmas, with final hearing to take place in January.
Read more in this Mansfield [OH] News Journal article: Dad wins custody of baby left in Bellville and this WFMD News article: Mother Of Abandoned Baby Charged.
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