Complaint Review: Texas Department Of Family And Protective Services

I am recently married, and have four children of my own. Three of which have lived with me since they were very young. The fourth lives with her mother. (this is my third marriage) My new wife has a beautiful three year old and we just celebrated the birth of our first child together.

A few months back (5 months ago) my step daughter had a siezure in the middle of the night. We called an ambulance and rushed her to the hospital. Of course CPS was called. That did not bother us at all, as our main concern was the well-being of our daughter. The next day CPS and a police investigator came to the hospital and questioned my wife and myself. After this they informed us that they were going to remove all of the children from the home pending an investigation. Reluctantly we agreed because we both new neither of us could ever injure a child. They gave my ex wife temporary custody of my three children and custody of my step daughter to her grandparents. (Her father has never been a part of her life up til this point) Before the 30 day temporary "safety plan" had expired Alexandria's father filed for custody. Of course, since my wife and I were under CPS investigation, he got temporary custody pending a final hearing.

The "official dignosis" which we got from CPS was shaken baby syndrome. Therefore, no further tests were run on Alexandria to see what caused the siezures. She was put on medication to control siezures because she continued to have siezures while hospitalized. So the biggest tragedy here is that she could have a significant medical problem that is going undiagnosed because of CPS.

My wife and I chose to hire an attorney so I resigned from my job so that I could cash in my 401K plan. We hired an attorney who specialized in CPS cases because we were being constantly harassed and accusations were being made without any investigation. My wife and I chose to get out of town for a bit since she was pregnant and her health was beginning to decline due to all of the stress. The police broke in to our home, without a search warrant. Luckily they were not very bright and took pictures of themselves and then left their camera behind.

After the 30 days and the temporary hearing, their "safety plan" had expired. The CPS investigator told my attorney that the case was going to be closed. My wife and I went back home, and back to our lives with the three other children as best we could. I returned to my job and in December I had an opportunity to relocate with my employer. It was a promotion to a new territory for us and my wife and I thought it was a great way to get away from all of the heartache back home. Since my wife was only granted visitation twice a month for one day for four hours, we agreed that she would fly back for every visitation until she was to far into her pregnancy to be able to.

We relocated and moved on thinking that this nightmare was behind us and were waiting for the final custody hearing hoping and praying that we would ger Alexandria back. Just this week I began receiving phone calls from family and some of my tennants back in Texas stating that CPS was "looking for us". Why would they be looking? In fact, they still had both my wife and my cell phone numbers as well as the contact information for my atorney. I called this new investigator back and he informed me that the former investigator was no longer with CPS. He said that he needed me to come in for an interview. I explained to him that I no longer lived in Texas but that if possible I would be more than happy to answer any questions via telephone. I did, and he then stated that he needed to get the same from my wife. I told him that I would immediately call her and have her call in to get this over with once and for all.

The next day CPS shows up to our doorstep at our new home. The investigator stated that they received a complaint from Texas stating that I was under indictment and that we had violated a Safety Plan and had been running from CPS to avoid prosecution. She stated that she had to perfom an investigation because Texas had made it seem like there was an immediate danger to my children. Now, I am NOT under indictment, there is no warrant for my arrest, and we did not violate any plan. In fact my wife and I have been more than cooperative with CPS from the beginning of this. I have been very polite and accommodating with every interview they have wanted to perform. They have had our contact information from the very first interview and obviously have our attorney's contact information.

So now, even though we were told the investigation in Texas was closed back in November they are apparently still keeping it open. My family is now starting over because of these false accusations from Texas with a bran new investigation in another state. Our children are having to re-live this hellish nightmare over and over again. Alexandria is with her grandparents and with a "father" who has never been there before. At what point do our civil rights as United States Citizens kick in? At what point does the "State" have to move on? They have interviewed my children, they have interviewed my wife and myself. We do not abuse our children in any way, shape or form. My children are spoiled if anything. My wife just had a baby and this is starting all over again. I am afraid this is going to push her to a breaking point and in to depression. How can an agency that is designed to help families do this?

Jt
Albuquerque, New Mexico
U.S.A.