This information is provided courtesy of Vincent W. Davis, Attorney at Law and posted herein with permission. See below post for more information.
10 Things You Should do if CPS or DCFS is Investigating You
1: Take any accusations seriously.
No matter how absurd or unbelievable the CPS/DCFS social worker’s claim(s) may seem, please understand that the social worker is dead serious, and most likely presumes – no… most likely BELIEVES that you are guilty as accused. Even if the social worker doesn’t admit that s/he is at your home to take your children, often times that IS EXACTLY why they are there. It is our experience, over 20+ years, that the majority of CPS social workers develop a cynical view of life and assume that you are UTTERLY GUILTY until YOU PROVE that you are not: the opposite of the way the “justice system” is supposed to operate.
2: Ask what the accusations and charges are.
Most typically, the CPS/DCFS social worker wants to keep you from knowing exactly what you have been accused of — sort of keeping themselves on a “general fishing expedition” — but it is required by state and federal law to tell you the exact details of the accusations at first contact with you. Be wary! Do not settle for the vague and general charges called “neglect” or “abuse.” Neglect and abuse are broad categories – not the legally-required “details” of the accusations or charges! You are entitled to know the “details & specifics” of what you are accused of committing.
3: Say as little as possible. In fact – BE QUIET!
In criminal law it is ALWAYS strongly suggested that you talk to NO ONE but your attorney. Think about it. Virtually ALL CHARGES that CPS or DCFS levels against you are CRIMINAL CHARGES. And while CPS or DCFS is there ONLY to take your kids, the police can and often will show up later for the parents! In fact, open your mouth and tell the CPS investigator just enough to “make their case” and you can start packing an overnight case as the police will be called by CPS who will be at your door to take you away.
Sure, it is totally natural that innocent parents who have nothing to hide will want to explain everything to a CPS social worker because such parents would assume that ANY reasonable person would see that there is nothing wrong going on. But CPS and DCFS social workers are commonly ANYTHING BUT reasonable. They become entrenched in a culture that is uniformly cynical about ALL PARENTS. Frankly, you are presumed guilty by the majority of CPS and DCFS agents. The exhausted, over-worked social worker who just fought the crowded freeways to make it to your home is there on a mission. That mission is most often to find evidence to support what the social worker already believes to be true – that you abused your child just as the neighbor, relative or anonymous tipster claimed.
If you don’t talk to them –just as you are always told to never voluntarily talk with the police if they are accusing you of a crime– you take their power away. They will not be able to use your own admissions, statements, and your very words against you. For example” “Have you ever spanked your toddler?” Do you really think there is a good answer to that question? The majority of CPS and DCFS social workers abhor most any form of parental punishment.
4: The minute you become aware that your family is being investigated, YOU MUST find an attorney who has experience in fighting CPS or DCFS.
An attorney EXPERIENCED in CPS and DCFS cases and courts is mandatory! Juvenile Dependency courts are worlds unto themselves. Your most seasoned and experienced lawyers when first stepping foot into a Juvenile Dependency courtroom are totally dumb struct as if they stepped into It’s a Small World at Disneyland. Most lawyers –even experienced Family Law attorneys– who are not experienced with CPS/DCFS mistakenly think that it is their job (as it would be in any other court setting) to find out what CPS or DCFS wants and then communicate all the details to their clients. Shockingly, doing exactly that often leads to total disaster and the loss of your children.
5: Be courteous and polite to CPS social workers & investigators.
Let’s face it, when a “government investigator” –without any advanced notice– knocks insistently on your door, well-dressed, looking all official with a county badge; exuding the authority of the government; is well-prepared, PRIMED and READY to level accusations of child abuse or neglect against you: most people would be SHOCKED! If you’re human you’d also be scared too. As government is getting bigger and bigger every year they are getting more and more powerful and intrusive in the lives of ordinary citizens. We are all a bit nervous and threatened by the power of the state as we witness weekly examples of government power wielded unfairly on Investigative TV News programs and in the lives of our own families and friends.
What could your reaction possibly be to a surprise home-visit from a government agent? No one appreciates surprise visits by any one! Perhaps the dishes are unwashed; maybe you haven’t cleaned house for a day or two; say that there are a collection of beer bottles on the coffee table from the football game the day before; could be that you’re not dressed in appropriate attire as you would be IF EXPECTING guests… So when you are surprised and ACCUSED TO YOUR FACE of child neglect or child abuse it might be natural that you are shocked, defensive, upset, angry and a little hostile. As Homer Simpson would say: “Do’ah!”
Guess what? An angry demeanor toward the CPS social worker or DCFS investigator is considered evidence of your guilt. Your perfectly natural, upset and angry reaction to being accused of harming your child will very OFTEN BE USED as evidence of your violent and abusive personality.
6: Never invite any CPS or DCFS social worker or investigator into your home unless he or she has a warrant or court order.
If a County CPS/DCFS social worker requests that you invite them into your home politely refuse. If he or she insists or suggests that not allowing entry will work against you or will ensure that your children are taken away from you HOLD YOUR GROUND. Politely ask to see their warrant or court order to come into your home. It the CPS social worker or investigator claims to have a warrant, insist on seeing it: in fact they owe you a copy! Why? Would a Social worker lie? YES. Police and government agents often suggest they have a warrant or outright lie and claim to have a warrant when they do not. It makes their task of finding needed evidence against you so much easier! If the CPS/DCFS government agent cannot produce a warrant, firmly but politely tell them that they will have to remain outside until a warrant is presented. They will be annoyed. But you will be far better off – legally. If the agent says it is an EMERGENCY call their bluff. Insist that they explain how it is an emergency and what constitutes an emergency. Typically, in so-called “emergency situations,” the police and the CPS social workers come together and even then it is not necessarily an emergency but a working relationship that some CPS agents have with associates on the police force.
Do not even open the door to allow the CPS agent look into your home to see your children: they can see something that creates an “emergency situation” even if it is not true.
Be FIRM. You should not waiver nor give in to thinking: “What’s the harm?” There is no compromise here: no exception. If you invite a County CPS investigator or a Los Angeles DCFS social worker into your home, you have just waived your Federally-protected fourth amendment constitutional protection. Just like a police detective intent on hauling you to the police station for questioning would love for you to willingly invite them into your home, a CPS social worker who is openly or secretly intent on taking your children from you WILL FIND SOMETHING IN YOUR HOME TO JUSTIFY THE REMOVAL OF YOUR KIDS.
This happens every day all over America and even more often in Southern California where CPS and DCFS agents are the most ruthless social workers anywhere. The bar for removal is “whatever it needs to be” as far as the social worker is concerned. A legal prescription in your bathroom cabinet, a beer bottle on the coffee table, a kitchen knife not in the drawer, a broken window, a back door without a deadbolt, a missing smoke detector, a swimming pool without its own secondary safety fence: whatever might be necessary to fill out the paperwork to justify removal. If this particular social worker set out to take your child, allowing them innocently into your house will ensure that your child is taken from you. You now have a year or a lifetime of HELL before you.
7: Demand that CPS tape any interrogation of your child.
Subjective reports of what a child said or did not say is hardly ever adequate. Ask that any interrogation be recorded. You could produce your own recorder (as a back-up) just in case the CPS or DCFS investigator “loses” their tape between the interrogation and a subsequent court hearing where you might have “wished” that you had such a tape.
8: If you are accused of physical abuse, immediately have your doctor give your child a thorough physical exam.
Ask your doctor to write a letter stating that there are no bruises or injuries observed, nor any other health-related issues that would raise any concern or suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Obviously go to a doctor whom you trust. If a CPS or DCFS social worker suggests a doctor for you, or suggests that they know where you can see a doctor at NO CHARGE (as attractive as that may be), NEVER visit with a doctor recommended by CPS. What you may not know is that these doctors are a regular part of the CPS system and they are commonly called as expert-testimony witnesses by CPS as a witness against the parents. They are paid handsomely for their testimony.
9: Create a list of relatives and friends who are willing and able to care for your children if CPS takes them.
If your children are removed from your home, or the court is demanding that your children must soon leave your home for some period of time it is always better that your children are taken in by relatives or friends. Are you aware that children placed in foster care are sometimes abused or mistreated by people working the foster care system for a “pay check?” There is the flip side to that where some truly loving foster parents sometimes become smitten with your kids and start their own campaign with the court and petition for adoption! Having your kids in foster care is simply adding one more level of stress and complexity to your plate.
10: Never admit guilt, even if pressured by a CPS social worker to do so in exchange for leniency or getting your kids back.
If you are innocent of neglect or abuse why would you buckle to the pressure of a CPS agent’s demands to have you admit to false accusations? If you are accused or charged with neglect because someone has informed the county CPS system that you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, the social worker who is investigating those accusations may have good-reason to be concerned for your kids’ safety.
Even if you privately agree that maybe you drink too often or too much that does not mean that you have to incriminate yourself in this investigation. Bite your tongue. Admit NOTHING! Even if you recognize that you have a problem that needs to be addressed this is not your DOCTOR; this is not your PRIEST; this is not your LAWYER. Wrong person! Wrong time! This person is not here to HEP YOU. This person is here to collect evidence to support the accusations made against you and to TAKE YOUR KIDS. Period.
Do not admit guilt. Instead, work with your doctor, pastor or even your private CPS defense attorney to find the professional help you might need need (and professional help that the courts will recognize – no sense paying twice because a treatment program is not court-approved). By NOT ADMITTING GUILT, you can then honestly work on any issues you have and work with the court to keep your kids under your roof or to get your kids returned to you when appropriate.
By mistakenly thinking that admitting guilt to a social worker is justified is often a fast trip to jail – removing many of the options that you need right now to get your life in order. In any potentially-criminal situation NEVER voluntarily do anything until you contact an attorney: preferably a compassionate and understanding attorney who works with parents, kids and the Juvenile Dependency Courts on a daily basis. They will offer you frank advice that will be better than unnecessarily sitting locked behind bars. CPS social workers and investigators are not above lying to you to encourage you to confess or admit to something that you might not even be guilty of – just to get you arrested and your kids in their control.
FOR MORE INFORMATION REGARDING LEGAL ADVICE CONTACT ATTORNEY VINCENT W. DAVIS AT: 888-506-6810
Re-posting or re-blogging this post is prohibited without express permission from its author, Vincent W. Davis. For permission requests, please contact Sharon Joyce-Burns at: selfhelp_donnellyjustice@live.com and I will forward your request. In the meantime, if you would like to share this post kindly use a direct link to this address. .
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Reblogged this on cps: child predator services.
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Dear Mr Davis;
For the past several month’s
My daughter and I have been writing about the cps case brought against her at the whim of her enraged vengeful ex. The father of her six yr old daughter.
My daughter’s name is Caroll Ann Coleman. She has two children. Her son Joshua who is now 15, and a daughter now six.
Caroll was widowed in 2004 after seventeen yrs of marriage. Her husband Frank was killed in a car accident near Creston Ca. where they built their home.
Joshua was four yrs old at the time.
Frank Coleman was an iron worker and he and Caroll were a well known couple in that community as well as here in Fresno. When Frank passed there came a man who sought to rob and steal from Caroll. Herbert Paul Bethel, who lived in Clovis Ca. He got word of Frank’s death and waisted no time attempting to go after what he wanted.
He is no stranger to this type of crime and has a long history of bilking helpless victim’s out of everything they own. Most of his victims are women but I have known of some men as well. His victim’s are women who are recently widowed or divorced and in a temporary emotional state. He at first gains their confidence and quickly begins to use all kinds of forceful tactics to persuade his victim to turn over their property and posessions. When they refuse, he does whatever it takes to make them submit, until they are left destitute!
I personally have met two of these women and I know he has an ex wife from 30 some yrs ago who also left a statement on Donnelly’s blog.
Mr Bethel is violent and very dangerous. My daughter suffered severe beatings and emotional battering at the hands of this man. Caroll found a way to escape when quite unexpectantly, she became pregnant. I use the word escape because that’s litterally what she had to do. She was drugged daily and at times she was locked in a dark room with no way out. She was frequently beaten in front of his eemployee’s who were too afraid to report him. They were all meth addicts ( as is Paul Bethel himself), most of them on parole.Paul was also abusive to Joshua, Joshua was made to pick up trash from Paul’s property, a brush covered field, while wearing a motorcycle chain around his little neck. He was little then.
When Caroll realized this she began to hide the lithium Paul was forcing her to take. She was able to get away after he had paid another woman to put penicillin in Carroll’s drink and almost killed her. There are hospital record’s. Caroll is severely allergic to penicillin.
Caroll rented a nice apartment and supported herself very wellduring her entire pregnancy and paid all expences.
When the baby, Anna Stasha was born, Caroll had ccomplications and hired a nanny. Paul broke in and beat Caroll so severely that the nanny thought he had killed her and called police. He was arrested and convicted.
The story goes on to the point that Caroll was evicted from three different homes because of Paul’s violence. Finally she picked up her children and moved back to Creston.
There Paul sent a relative who is a San Luis Obispo social worker to take the baby. She came twice but did nothing finding no extrigent circumstances.
Day’s later while Caroll and the children were in Fresno to collect the rest of her belongings, this same social worker came to the home where Caroll was visiting, with the swat team. Men and women who pointed lasers at Caroll and the children in the back yard while they played with the dog’s. The woman Alicia Dozier came from two counties away and stated there was a warrant for Carroll’s arrest. When the swat leader asked for the warrant, there wasn’t one. The woman said she was there to take her child. Caroll asked which child and her answer was only Anna Stasha.
Caroll knowing this was a mistake thought the situation could easily be cleared up quickly but was concerned because Stasha was hysterical and told Joshua to go with her to calm her.
There was no real order and Bethel wrote in his own words how he paid Alicia Dozier to go and get his daughter.
Caroll was victimized first by Bethel then again by the system who withheld her evidence from the court, who discarded favorable reports from the visiting supervisor, lied and changed record’s. There is so much information and I have kept all notes on dates and police report numbers.
This has gone on for three yrs now. Paul Bethel has relatives on the native american council who influenced the cps worker here in Fresno, Alicia Dozier, she’s the one who kept saying that important documents were not in Caroll’s file after we personally delivered them to her office and her supervisor’s office three times. Document’s that were never submitted in court. Funny thing just day’s after the last hearing she no longer works for Fresno. Likewise, the worker from San Luis, The one that Paul paid, Alicia Dozier,dissapeared right after the kids were taken.
To summarize the court let a career criminal have custody of my granddaughter. She had never lived with Paul and he never showed much interest in Stasha. Caroll tried to let Stasha have her father in her life but his visits were brief and infrequent. When he did come to Carroll’s home he was more interested in knocking Caroll around in front of the kids.
Now the cps says Caroll can file for custody and made a visitation order. Paul refuses tolet Caroll see the baby, he is violating the court order and no one will enforce the order. Paul has many connections across the states and overseas, as well as Mexico. He had warned Caroll not to file for custody. No legitimate court would give him custody.
The whole case is based on bogus allegations from Paul that were never proven. Caroll was never allowed to prove her innocence. All the lawyer’s with the exception of the public defender that Caroll fired, conflicted. One woman cried when she told Caroll she knew she was innocent and was so sorry for what had been done to her but the orders were coming from higher up. She said she was not big enough tofight the case without loosing hher job., then she told the judge some off the wall reason for conflicting out. There were 13 of them. Cps tried to say Caroll fired them all that’s just absolutely not true. I was there at every hearing.
My granddaughter is not safe in Bethel’s home. Drug addicts and violence are the norm there. Is she witnessing Paul terrorizing his current drug addicted girlfriend who lost all of her children. Paul’s ex wife is still hiding from his violence and warned in her blog that Stasha is not safe there.
Please pass this along if you cannot assist. This is a very serious situation!
Thank you for your patience,
Sharon Valenzuela
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Reblogged this on The Real Mommies and Daddies of the Real America.
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Our son molested 2 of his 3 younger siblings. We got him treatment… eventually therapy was not enough, so we had him admitted into an inpatient treatment program. Didn’t help. They released him without successfully helping him. We failed to collect him from the facility for fear that our other three children would not be safe with him in our home. DCFS took him into custody & WE had a psychological evaluation administered. It proved that he was STILL fantasizing about the abuse that he had inflicted on his siblings, proved that he was still a danger to them & proved that he should NOT be released into our home due to the nature of HIS problems.
He was not sexual abused. He was not abused in ANY way.
DCFS, through this entire process, had threatened to take our other three children into custody. After thier investigation, they could find NO reason to remove our other three children from our home.
Recently, our Case Worker–after a few months of complying with the State & us being cooperative– has decided to turn the tables on us. She is now claiming that the psychologist’s report is incomplete & biased. Our son has been scheduled for another evaluation with another psychologist. Now, keep in mind, the psychologist WE brought him to is well-known, well-respected AND used all the time by the very same agency that’s saying her report is biased & incomplete!
Our Case Worker is now trying to paint us as uncaring & ‘disconnected.’ She even accused me of being ‘not motherly enough’ the last time she visited our home (To which everyone who knows me says is utterly false!!!). I tried speaking to her supervisor (and, yes, I did record the phonecall) & had some pretty serious AND unfounded accusations thrown my way! Yes, we have an attorney. .. but we can’t afford to fight the State. We don’t have that kind of money!
Now, in retaliation to my complaints about the Case Worker, our visitation schedule has been changed so that it’s impossible for us to ever get there on time with our other three children’s schedule, the location has changed from one we are accustomed to & convenient to us to a new venue that is inconvenient.
They have also increased the visit times per month, without our knowledge & consent (we signed a case plan) which puts a hardship on our family & strains our already busy schedule.
They are doing anything they possibly can to skip steps, outlined by the psychologist, for our son’s treatment. On the psychologist’s report, she even states that skipping ANY of these steps will be to the detriment of our son AND our family!!
We want our son to get the necessary treatment to help him get better AND we want our other three children to be safe.
DCFS’ interests, apparently, do NOT mirror our own. How can we fight this? There has to be a way to stop these DCFS employees from abusing their power!
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My wife and I suspect this to be a child trafficing situation,and my wife and I suspect that there has false evidence has been created by the investigator and her suppervisor.My wife and I know that the ivestgator has talked about our case to numerous indevigales at noumerous times during the invesigation.The invstigator was parking two blocks away from our house stalking us,even at the grocery store.the ivestigator created false information and sladered my wife and my names,not only did the investigator make up false acusatsioms about my wife and I she also did not tell my wife and I why she was there she also ignored,and refused to investigate the acusations about my brother in law,and sister in law whick invoved drug use and neglect on my brother in law and his wife.
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