The Child Protection eNewsletter

Appeals court says CPS improperly removed children from polygamist sect's ranch… 

Delivering a rebuke to Texas child-welfare officials, an Austin appeals court ruled that state workers improperly removed children from a West Texas polygamist sect's ranch—and ordered that many of the children be returned to their parents' custody.  Read More

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which includes Child Protective Services, failed to prove that children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch were in imminent danger and needed to be separated from parents for their protection, the 3rd Court of Appeals ruled.

The appellate court also ruled that District Judge Barbara Walther abused her discretion by failing to return the children during mid-April child-custody hearings.  "Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal," the appeals court said in its ruling.

The appeal was filed by 38 mothers from the ranch, and Thursday's decision related only to their children—about 130 of the more than 440 children placed into state custody and sent to live in foster homes across Texas.  But lawyers with Austin-based Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which filed the appeal on the mothers' behalf, predicted the ruling will apply to all or most of the children in foster care.

"The arguments in the opinion, and the logic of it, is going to apply to the vast majority out there," lawyer Robert Doggett said.  "This opinion obviously has great weight ... so it's going to impact all of those custody cases."  The ruling is available online at Read More

There was no indication when families might be reunited.  The ruling, which directed Walther to rescind orders placing the 130 children into state custody, did not include a deadline.

In addition, the state is weighing whether to appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court.  Any appeal would likely include a request to delay implementation of the 3rd Court's opinion until the high court rules.

"We will work with the Office of Attorney General to determine the state's next steps in this case," the Department of Family and Protective Services said in a statement published on its Web site.

In San Angelo, about 40 miles north of Eldorado, hearings detailing what ranch parents must do to regain custody of their children were suspended after Thursday's ruling.  The hearings began Monday.  See  vol6_iss39.

In other news…  

Prosecutors trying to prove that a woman appeared in a sex tape with R. Kelly when she was underage—over her protestations that she didn't—have turned to one of her childhood friends, the friend's father and two relatives.  Read More  The R&B superstar is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl who may have been as young as 13.  His attorneys have said Kelly is not on the tape and the alleged victim, now 23, denies she's the person in the video.  To try to make their case, prosecutors put Simha Jamison, 24, on the stand.  She said she and the alleged victim were best friends for about 10 years, until their junior year in high school, and that she recognizes her friend as the one in the tape.  When prosecutors asked Jamison if she recognized the man in the tape, she leaned forward in the witness stand, peeked around the corner of the judge's bench and identified Kelly.  She testified that she and her friend visited Kelly at his recording studio and at a Chicago basketball court dozens of times, starting when they were around the age of 12.  An aunt and an uncle of the alleged victim also identified the female on the tape as their niece on Wednesday.

A Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page.  Read More  When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl.  Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, "F*** that, I am keeping them up," according to a criminal complaint filed in Lacrosse County Circuit Court.  Phillips told cops that he posted the photos last week "because he was venting."  The cell phone camera photos had been taken by the girl, who provided them to Phillips.  Along with the child porn count, Phillips was charged with defamation and sexual exploitation of a child.  Without stiff penalties in cases like these, teens like Phillips can take down the photos then repost them elsewhere.  Read More "If you can't get a kid to stop, it's like trying to catch a river in your hand," said Parry Aftab, an Internet privacy and security lawyer and volunteer for WiredSafety.  "They are letting him know how serious this is."

Guatemala's attorney general said he has annulled 15 pending adoptions to U.S. couples after finding evidence of fraud or other irregularities.  Read More  Attorney General Baudilio Portillo suspended all of Guatemala's 2,286 pending adoption cases in early May to investigate them.  So far officials have looked into 160 cases.  Of those, 145 have been cleared to move forward and 15 have been annulled.  The babies whose cases have been annulled will be put in foster homes until a judge locates their parents.  If their parents aren't found, they will be put up for adoption again.  Guatemala has been plagued by allegations of adoption fraud, including claims that babies are stolen from their birth parents or even sold by poor birth mothers.  vol6_iss38  A new law that went into effect in January is aimed at cleaning up the system by creating an independent council to oversee adoptions.

As Tupelo, Mississippi Humane Society volunteers worked to rescue 200 dogs and cats from disgusting conditions in a house near New Albany, Mississippi, sheriff's deputies worked to investigate the murder of a two-year-old there and the possible abuse of her eight siblings.  Read More  Ramon and Janet Barreto's two-year-old daughter died at the hospital from blunt force trauma to her head.  The possibility of sexual abuse of the children is also under investigation.  The children are now in state custody.  "I don't have words to explain," Sheriff Tommy Wilhite said.  "Imagine 185 dogs, 25 cats, and nine kids in a three bedroom trailer.  Pretty bad situation."  Wilhite said one of the children, a three-year-old, only weighed 20 pounds.  That child and two others didn't make any sounds at all to communicate.  Of the Barreto's nine children, seven are adopted.  It appears all the adopted children are from Guatemala.  "ICE agents are working to determine how they got across the border legally," Wilhite said.  What may not be legal is how five of the children were adopted.  Officials said paperwork was missing, and investigators are trying to determine if the children were stolen.

Public pressure has forced a Sydney gallery to cancel the opening night of an exhibition featuring photographs of naked 12 and 13 year olds just before the doors were due to open.  Read More  The exhibition, by Australian photographer Bill Henson, was scheduled to open at 6pm (AEST) today at Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Paddington, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.  However, a note on the door advised patrons the official opening would not go ahead.  A gallery spokeswoman told AAP the exhibition would proceed, but public criticism of tonight's event forced organizers to cancel the official opening.  "The opening itself is cancelled.  We won't be having the normal opening night," she said.  "Just with the ongoing controversy tonight we decided it would be better to cancel it."  Local Area Commander Allan Sicard described some of the photos as depicting the 13-year-old girl "in a sexual content."  Read More  "Police are investigating this matter and it is likely that we will proceed to prosecution on the offense of publishing an indecent article under the Crimes Act," Sicard said.

A New York woman has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in an adoption scam involving 11 disabled children she kept like prisoners in her Port St. Lucie, Florida home.  Read More  Judith Leekin admitted she used false names to adopt the children and sent officials phony school report cards to qualify for the adoption subsidies.  The 63-year-old also admitted restraining the children with plastic ties, preventing them from getting out of bed and not sending them to school.  All the children were found near starvation, and had never been to a doctor or dentist.  See  vol5_iss49  and  vol5_iss48.  Leekin faces a potential up to eight years in prison.  She will also forfeit more than one million dollars in subsidies collected over nearly two decades.

An investigation is under way at a New Britain, Connecticut middle school after students said two eighth-graders engaged in a sexual act inside a classroom.  Read More  The students said that not only did other classmates watch the alleged act, but one recorded it on a cell-phone camera.  A substitute teacher was present at the act, according to students.  An automated phone message from school administrators went out to parents Wednesday night.  Parent Sonia Rodriguez said she received the message and was shocked.  "Supposedly it's … on the Internet, on YouTube—that's more concerning," Rodriguez said.

*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"