Mom sees social services win as help for others
Seal Beach mother wins case against county, hopes to help families in
system.
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/santaana/article_1701451.php
The threat came first: "If you don't submit to me, you'll never see your
kids again."
Then the Orange County social worker produced a document, telling her
she must sign it.
Suddenly, Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick was faced with the social services
version of a Solomonic choice: Sign a paper that says you're a bad
parent, or lose your children. Fogarty-Hardwick refused to sign it that
day in 2000 and the very worst happened: Her two daughters, then ages 6
and 9, were placed in the Orangewood Children's home and then in foster
care.
"That's when I thought, 'OK, this is a nightmare,'" Fogarty-Hardwick
said. "This is America."
But last week, after a painful seven-year battle with the Orange County
Social Services Department, the Seal Beach mother won a second major
victory, coming after a record-setting $4.9 million jury verdict against
the county.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer handed down a permanent injunction
against the agency, ruling that it must have "articulable evidence" to
suspect that a child has been abused or neglected by a parent before
making any allegations in court.
And in what many parental advocates say is even more significant, Bauer
also ordered the social services department to stop requiring a parent
to sign what's called an "agency-parent temporary agreement" unless the
agency has some reasonable evidence to suggest the parents are hurting
their children.
Those rulings won't help Fogarty-Hardwick, who had been wrongfully
accused of telling her daughters that their father was trying to take
them away from her. She already feels vindicated by the jury's ruling
that her parental rights had been violated by the county. But she hopes
it will do something to protect other parents she heard from during her
trial.
"This is an abuse-of-power case, when someone has incredible power and
they exercise it over you," Fogarty-Hardwick said. "If they become part
of the problem, how can they help? And if no one is there to hold them
accountable, how will anyone know there's a problem?"
The outcome of Fogarty-Hardwick's case shocked lawyers who specialize in
these lawsuits, and it set the parental-rights community buzzing.
Parents rarely bring cases against social services departments, because
of protracted legal battles and governmental immunity laws. The cases
also are hard to prove because most of the agencies' decisions are made
in secret as a result of confidentiality laws.
Jan Saalfield, a Marin County lawyer who has specialized in child
dependency appeals for 16 years, said she has never seen a ruling like
the one Bauer made last week.
"This gives the appearance that the court is quite concerned that this
is not just a singular event and says it won't be repeated in the
future," Saalfield said. "The court is showing substantial concern that
this could happen again."
Michael Riley, chief deputy director of the Social Services Agency,
disagreed, saying the judge's ruling simply orders the department do to
what it has always done, "which is follow the law."
"The whole idea of the premise made by the plaintiff that we remove
children in a cavalier fashion is completely unfounded," Riley said.
Citing confidentiality laws, Riley said he couldn't comment on specifics
of the case. But he denied that his social workers did anything wrong.
The agency always has evidence before making an allegation, and Orange
County has one of the lowest removal rates in the state, he said. Of the
34,293 child abuse reports the department received in 2006, only 1,900
children were removed from their homes, he said.
The county is appealing the jury's decision, including the additional
$6,000 in punitive damages against the two social workers on
Fogarty-Hardwick's case.
During the 16-day trial earlier this year, the county's lawyers told the
jury that Fogarty-Hardwick was a former Miss California and called her
the "Nordstrom mom" in an attempt to turn the jury against her. That
didn't work, as jury members later told Fogarty-Hardwick's lawyers. The
county also allowed the social worker that threatened her to testify,
and the jury came to believe, as Fogarty-Hardwick's lawsuit claimed,
that she and a supervisor had "intentionally misinformed" a judge who
then handed down the order to take the children.
After her daughters were put in foster care in 2000, Fogarty-Hardwick
decided to give her ex-husband full custody, hoping to protect her
daughters. She was then allowed two monitored visits per month for two
years, but finally won 50-50 custody in 2006.
Today, Fogarty-Hardwick isn't bitter, nor is she anti-social services.
She says with a laugh that she knew the social worker in question was so
bad because her first one had been so good.
But she admits that this "unfortunate adventure" has been devastating to
her, her parents and their extended family. Her only hope now is that
the appeal also goes her way – a process that will take several years –
and that other parents won't have to experience what she endured.
"You just try to find good out of something horrible," she said. "We
have a wonderful decision that could help a lot of people and must be
preserved."
Contact the writer: 714-285-2862 or
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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