Naysayers have repeatedly asked why Michael Nash, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s juvenile courts, insisted on opening Family Dependency Court to responsible reporters—despite a raft of vociferous objections and various legal challenges.
A new story by the LA Times’ Garrett Therolf demonstrates precisely why Nash felt it was essential to shine a light into into these formerly secretive proceedings.
Here’s how the story opens:
The mother acknowledged she unleashed a bitter torrent of accusations against the social workers who took her children last year, calling incessantly to claim they were being abused in foster care.
But what the workers did in return has drawn a stern rebuke from a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Amy Pellman, a jurist with deep experience in the county’s child welfare system, said they misused their power by retaliating and harassing the family.
After she affirmed a referee’s decision to return the children to their mother, Pellman declared that the workers acted out of “bad blood” to unravel the family’s progress and place the children at risk of being retaken by the county. “They told me they hate me just as much as I hate them,” the mother said in an interview.
The mother, who spoke on the condition that her family not be identified in The Times out of fear that such a disclosure might prompt increased scrutiny, said she never felt more broken. “Every time there’s a knock on the door, my heart skips a beat,” she said. “It can go wrong so easily. I still carry the scars.”
Therolf describes how the mom and dad had struggled with chronic homelessness for years but how, also, they “had strengths.” He reports, however, that when the parents started to right themselves enough that they were able to get their kids back, the social workers in charge of their case appeared to actively sabotage the parents’ healthy efforts.
For instance, according to Therolf, the mean girl workers did the following:
.….maliciously contacted [the family’s] landlord to say the mother and eight children were violating lease restrictions against so many living in the single-bedroom apartment. They were soon evicted.
The workers also contacted the school of one girl to say she no longer lived within its boundaries. The school initiated expulsion proceedings.
The family eventually won a special waiver to allow the girl to remain in the school. They also narrowly avoided sinking back into homelessness by using a savings account for one child’s braces to pay a deposit for a new apartment set at the high cost of $4,000 because of the mother’s poor credit.
The list goes on from there.
Judge Amy Pellham, who “has two decades of experience in child welfare,” rebuked the two social workers in a hearing scheduled to discuss sanctions against the county for the but decided she could legally do nothing more than that.
Any sanctioning of the social workers would have to come from the Department of Children and Family Services and/or from the county. DCFS told the Therolff that it has launched an investigation into the matter, but reportedly it is unlikely the investigation will come to anything.
Therolf reports that there is one person the County is prepared to slam with sanctions
So far, however, the more visible reaction has been against Pellman. County lawyers who represent the department have moved to disqualify her from taking new cases.
At Pellman’s May 17 hearing to consider sanctions, Deputy County Counsel Anthony Peck argued that the judge was biased, and he suggested she take a recess to read the case file more fully.
In other words, County Counsel’s solution to social workers alleged abusive behavior, is to try to make the judge who has tried to stop the behavior sit down and shut up.
So the County Counsel attorneys have “papered her,” as they say in legal vernacular.
And if a watchful reporter hadn’t been present in the courtroom on the day of the hearing on the matter, you and I would never have known about any of it.
Photo of Amy Pellman being sworn in as Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court by Judge Michael Nash, from Southwestern Law School’s Southwestern Reporter.
Thank You! Judge Amy Pellman for taking a stand against DCFS. They do this kind of thing on a daily bases and no one cares except the family and the children they are doing it to. This system, “Child Protective Services”, was put into place to protect children from abuse and yet it has now become the number one abuser of children. Why one asks? Three simple words….. POWER, MONEY, EGO! Judge Amy Pellman you are a true American who gives us all hope that Justice and Truth can still be found in our Dependency Court System That Abuses The Rights of Parents Every Day. One more thing you should know about me. I have never had my children taken from me. I have been a licensed foster parent in the state of Colorado, and I use to work for The Division of Child and Family Services in the State of Nevada as a Family Support Worker. So I know first hand what goes on within the system. I left my position because of health issues (cancer) I am better now thank you. I have moved to CA. I plan on helping families and children because I believe the CPS system has gotten out of control and that most children that are in this system should never have been taken from their parents, that by removing them this way they the system have caused them more harm. I believe that Children should be taken from parents when there is real abuse to a child, however most reported cases of abuse and neglect are reported by angry friends, neighbors, and family members not because there is abuse going on but because they want to hurt a parent for what ever reason they have but the ones being hurt by this is the children and this system needs to be fixed. Don’t take my word for it please, do some research on it and then when you see that what I have said is true get involved for the children and help to change this horrible injustice that is happening all across America. Also google Nancy Schaffer a US senator from Georgia who investigated CPS read her report. Sadly she is dead now. murdered just before her report was to go main stream…. Stop the destruction of families…… Reform CPS NOW!
I am a father who lost custody of my 3 sons while in prison, and I tried to exhaustion to contact DCFS with no answers. So I have the opposite story that you reported on. It does how in either situation that DCFS is doing the wrong, an unlawful duties that any person who is “in charge” of deciding what is right for our children. I was never found to be unfit or lacking any parenting skills, the boys are with their mother and in addition to losing all custody they put a three stay away order on me. I was not allowed to be present in court. DCFS purposefully filed the wrong court orders to get me transported, and my “attorney’s” the LADL did absolutely nothing to see I was afforded my due process or equal rights.
That whole process, that Philip Browning in his own words is accountable, is a joke that is not very funny. This “clown” court that looks more like “let’s make a deal” with lives of our children used as the prizes. Fathers are the scapegoat and seemingly always the guilty party In a system that is designed to not punish parents it sure does destroy any semblance of what was once a family. DCFS does save some kids, but the system needs to put in some steps to verify that the family they are going to kill is worthy of their witch hunt. I am so utterly destraught by the acts of DCFS and the LADL, who by the way work against you, that it makes me want to throw-up. These unqualified attorneys and social workers have more immunity and loopholes to hide behind than the police that die to protect us. Where is the justice and the accountability for those “service” people who use their power to make a mockery of the justice system and family structure that parents have a right to protect.
Ghost Hunter
I am a mother whose children were placed in care over two years ago. When they were going to send my two boys home for a trial home placement,December 18 2012,my sons father lied to the judge,so they kept my children based on a false allegation. We are still waiting. I wish we had people in Missouri who would stand up for us. Meanwhile my children suffer.
I to am being punished by the system having my son removed from my custody placed with his abusive father for refusing to stay with him. He placed false allegations which I can prove yet social worker got the judge mentioned in this article to sign warrant to remove child from my custody putting him in imminent danger 1st court date judge ordered i see my son 3x or more a week yet I have only seen him 2Xs for 3hrs in tiny room where he has bruises and obvious signs of neglect I at minimum should have had 9 visits with him considering the minute order didn’t even match what the judge ordered. This system has failed my son and I and there’s no where to turn for help.
Yep they lied to pellman in my case and got her to sign off leaving my 10 year old son in the hands of outright criminals, and called my husband and self alcoholics…illicit drug users … and we have no charges… the people in care of my son controlled substance charges, yes plural like 4 of them dui’s mental health hold 11-25-02, because he could not handle the child in his care at this time, so he stabbed himself. the chils was only 10 days old. The woman who drives my son everywhere was convicted in 2005 of manslaughter, she killed someone drinking and driving… I attended a public hearing on 2-26-13 to ask for P. Brownings removal, keep on it, I am only one voice, if we had like 20 people speaking he would be fired!!!!
I thought we are alone suffering the abusive behavior of the Social Workers who supposed to be the one to protect the children and help the families to be reunited, but they do the opposite. They recommend my son to be detained in a lock facility where he was totally abused physically, mentally and emotionally. I put my son voluntarily to be place in a facility due to his medical condition with the assurance by the social workers that it is the right place for his condition. Therefore, I agree not knowing that it was the beginning of my son’s ordeal in the hand of abusive caretakers and my struggle to understand the social workers behavior towards me, pretending to be helping me and my son but at the end they just reported to the court a lot of FALSE AND CONCOCTED allegations against me, his mother. I put my son under the DCFS PROTECTIVE SERVICES but in the mind of the social workers they are protecting him enough by putting him in the hands to total strangers who don’t have the ability to understand his Syndrome that cause him to be hurt most of the time that I need the intervention of the police which commented that “this so extreme, you have to bring him to the emergency”, and this happens several time for 2 years of his stay in JBA.
I wish that the social workers will use their good conscience (if they have one)to change their method of handling the children whose family is already battling to find cure for the disabilities of their love ones not to inflict so much pain and suffering due to their POWER ORIENTED AND ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR.
I don’t want to whiny stories from biological parents who “lost” ther kids to the system. No, you fucked up and abused or neglected your kids and the state stepped in to save them. Can you really blame social workers for sometimes getting angry with you?! I have seen a lot working with CASA and social services to see there are some horrible parents out there and social workers are overworked and underpaid and they get stressed out too. It’s not right and it’s not ok desperate times call for desperate measures.
Kevin, DIAF. If you’re overworked, find a real job instead of mooching on state coffers performing legal kidnapping. The general public ought to be innocent until proven guilty and not live in your preferred 1984-style “you’re guilty if I say so – prove your innocence! Even if you prove it I may still punish you with separation from your children because I’m a power tripping maniac” demented concept of a just society.