Complaint Review: Riverside County CPS

I fell victim to the political bureaucracy of Riverside County CPS.  Their social workers came knocking at my door on May 20, 2004... 4 days after a domestic dispute I had with my husband, whom I was separated from since before the birth of our son in January 2004.  My baby boy was only 4 months old. After extensive questioning about the incident and insisting that I needed to go to a shelter immediately, when I declined their suggestion to leave my home, They accused me of 'failure to protect' for not having a full restraining order against my husband, and pushed their way into my home and took my baby right out of my arms and handed me a piece of paper that didnt even have his name written properly and a court date for three days later.  

The police then restrained me and said to calm down, just take 2 weeks to get your life together, and you can get him back.  You will have a visit with him in 3 days, dont worry!!!!  I was immediately ordered to submit to drug testing and counseling and to apply for a restraining order.  So I did,  and my visit never came....in fact no one seemed to have any idea where to find my son.  I called every day for 2 weeks, and reported my baby missing.  Still they seemed to have no idea where he had been taken.  

It took me 2 months to track down the foster home he had been placed in on my own, and finally spoke to the person in charge of his case to arrange my visit.  By the time I saw him, he was severely neglected and very sick, yet I was forced to allow him to return to the foster home in Beaumont, or face criminal charges.  Turned out there were 7 other children in that home in the same condition.  I had the place investigated and shut down....yet still my son was not returned to me.  I fought for two years as they continued to drag it out and fill reports with false hearsay evidence.  

Took it to appeals court upon their decision to terminate my parental rights and won the reversal.  When returned to superior court to retry my case, they would not let me in the courtroom, and the judge completely ignored appeals court decision, and continued with an adoption hearing.  I was forced to choose a family to adopt him or loose him to some anonymous family and never see or hear from him again.   He is 9 now, and I havent seen him since he was 2 because that family decided they didnt want contact with me.  They changed his name, and completely ignored our post adoption contact agreement.  Now riverside county is charging me $9,000 in child support arrears for the time my son was in foster care!  I am still fighting to set the record straight, and take the power back.  I can only hope and wait for the day we will be reunited, and he can learn the truth.  All so that social worker could earn a $6,000 bonus for pushing a case to adoption.