http://religionnewsblog.com/9852/kingston-clan
[Polygamy]
Mattingly Foster: A judge restricts interactions to four children
at once
The Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 7, 2005
Matt Canham
www.sltrib.com
'Peer parent' must attend visits of kids in abuse case
Supervised visits between plural wife Heidi Mattingly Foster and
eight of her 11 children by John Daniel Kingston have so
deteriorated that a social worker must act as a "baby sitter for
both the children and the adults," 3rd District Juvenile Court
Judge Andrew Valdez said Thursday.
Valdez ordered that a court-appointed "peer parent" must attend
the two-hour, once-a-week visits with Mattingly Foster, and those
visits now can involve only four children at a time.
The action came during a custody hearing for Mattingly Foster, who
is accused of, but not criminally charged with, neglecting and
abusing her children. Only her 6-month-old daughter remains in her
care.
After reviewing a new report filed by a Division of Child and
Family Services case worker, Valdez said in court that Mattingly
Foster whispers manipulative messages into her children's ears and
holds private conferences in the bathroom to turn them against
DCFS, their foster families and the court.
A court-appointed attorney for the children said some of them have
returned to their foster homes worried that they would be poisoned
if they eat the food.
Valdez also said that if a decision to reunite Mattingly Foster
with her children were based solely on these supervised visits,
"her chance of getting these kids returned to her is getting
slimmer and slimmer."
The family landed in court last February after a dispute between
their parents and their two oldest daughters over ear piercing.
Since then, Valdez has barred Kingston from seeing the children or
Mattingly Foster, one of some 14 plural wives who have borne more
than 100 of his children. He also has ordered Mattingly Foster to
stay away from Kingston or anyone else in The Order, the Davis
County Co-Operative Society founded by the polygamous Kingston
clan.
Thursday's hearing was cut short when her defense attorney, Russ
Pietryga, learned that one of Mattingly Foster's daughters has
been interviewed in a separate child abuse investigation.
Officials with the Attorney General's Office told Valdez the
criminal investigation had "little to nothing" to do with the
child welfare case involving Mattingly Foster or Kingston.
Pietryga argued that he had a right to make that determination on
his own and requested to view a videotaped interview with the
child.
Valdez agreed, but ultimately decided that Judge Fredrick Oddone
would view the tape to determine its relevance to the allegations
against Mattingly Foster.
After the hearing, Mattingly Foster said she knew nothing about
the criminal investigation and she called Valdez's description of
her supervised visits a "mischaracterization."
She said the visits generally have gone well, except for a special
Christmas Day gathering where Guardian ad Litem Kristen Brewer
asked Salt Lake City police to check on the visit.
"Brewer asked that they basically crash the visit," Mattingly
Foster said, displaying a police report that indicated Brewer was
concerned that she would kidnap her children.
"What I had asked for was extra patrolling for the area because I
believe there was a flight risk that day," Brewer said after the
hearing. She said a secrecy order from the court barred her from
elaborating.
The hearing is to continue on Wednesday with Mattingly Foster's
attorney presenting his defense on the child abuse allegations.
---
http://lastliberal.org
"God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the
miserable. They find not only sanctuary in his arms, but also a kind of
superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above
their betters." --- H. L. MENCKEN (1880-1956), Minority Report, 1956.
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