Who has Jurisdiction?
I just wanna go home!
Our family came to Colorado last February on vacation because we had friends here and we felt we deserved a vacation after the last couple of years we had. We have a son who is three who is medically fragile - born with spina bifida, as well as a five year old little girl and a two-year-old little boy.
The three-year-old got sick so we took him to the hospital, then our youngest son also became ill, they both had the Roto virus. The hospital called DHS and told them we brought our son to Colorado unprepared. CPS then decided to make us stay here. We lost the house we were buying and our new car that only had a thirty-day tag.
They set us up in an apartment that cost us almost $1000. a month and had only two bedrooms, but they won't pay for it. Later they put my sons health at risk by forcing me to send him to live with a relative to Ohio. After we lost the apartment because we were unable to pay the rent, my husband took the other two children to Ohio. Three weeks later the state took custody of the children, four months later Colorado DHS came to Ohio and expedited them back to Colorado and placed them in foster care.
The judge in Ohio tried to get them to transfer the case to Ohio since that is where we made our home but the judge in Colorado refused to transfer the case.
Then over thanksgiving my children were abused and several abuse complaints were even made against the foster parent by the visitation worker. Not one complaint was investigated.
After giving up custody of my eldest son willingly – in order to save his health - three months later they tried to terminate my parental rights. They failed to terminate my rights but the state granted permanent custody to my family.
We are still fighting for my oldest daughter and our youngest son. Since we have had the children in foster care they are trying to get my husband on charges of violating a custody order when they did not have custody until three weeks after they were residence of Ohio and no longer living with the jurisdiction of Colorado.
My daughter was sexually abused by an ex-family friend, the state is aware of this and informed us that he will get away with it because they waited too long to investigate the allegations.
Now the state is trying to accuse my husband of sexual abuse. Even though he has passed the lie detector and completed all the testing they requested they still won't allow him to see his children - even under supervision.
I have a tape of DHS questioning of my daughter, it clearly shows they coerced her statements. After she said that nothing happened, they continued to pick at her, until she finally gave them what they wanted.
The judge ordered family reunification, but Kids Crossing won't get on the ball and do as ordered by the court.
Please help I miss my children and I have not seen my oldest son in 8-months, he has been very ill and I have not been able to be there for him. His brother and sister miss him terribly, they have not seen or spoken to each other in almost a year.
Labels: family court, foster care, medical, TPR
posted by Annette M. Hall @ 3/25/2007 11:21:00 AM
3 Comments:
My daughter was approved as a foster parent in January 2006, and almost immediately was granted the care of a brother and sister who had been in the system most of their lives. Their birth mother is drug addicted and learning disabled, they have 2 different fathers.
The children came into my daughters home in extreme trauma and with many learning and development issues. My daughter, who is on her way to her Masters in Child Psychology, has worked tirelessly with her community to bring the children to where they are today - well adjusted, almost where they should be developmentally, etc. The little boy was particularly in trouble when he came into our family - aged 3, not potty trained, delayed (almost no) speech, etc.
It became clear fairly quickly that these 2 precious kids had landed in a place that was good for them, and my daughter expressed her interest in adoption. Biological mother relinquished parental rights late last year, and the father of the little girl was a no-response for claiming any rights so his rights were formally severed this week. Just a month and a half ago, however, it came to light that the little boy had a different bio-father than the little girl. A man living in a different state, he was DNA tested and it was recently proven that he is the bio-dad.
Even tho he's known for more than 3 years that he could have a son out there, now that DHS is looking to have the kids adopted into a stable and loving home where they have thrived for more than a year, he is attempting to "claim his rights". We're not really sure what that means, since he hasn't made any attempt to find anything out about the child, or to see him, or even to show up in court to fight for him - he sent a lawyer.
I totally understand the rights of parents who want their kids and work hard to be decent parents - all parents make mistakes, but when the "mistake" is to totally ignore their existence (in the case of the bio-dad) until it looks like the state may pay you to take the child, or (in the case of the bio-mom) put the children in harm's way on a regular daily basis, people must come together on behalf of THE CHILDREN.
My biggest fear at this point is that the bio-dad will file something in court in his home state that will attempt to establish jurisdictional control over this young boy. DHS has been involved practically the whole time both kids have been alive, but as far as I am able to ascertain, there's no court order anywhere that specifically says the court in the DHS state has jurisdiction.
Has anyone involved here ever had this particular situation?
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