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Rafael Sierra smiles as he watches the face of his girlfriend, Maria Martinez, with their newborn son. It's a July afternoon and sunlight pours into their hospital room at Bayshore Medical Center in Pasadena. It's the couple's second son in as many years. Rafael hasn't slept in almost two days, too anxious from the delivery. He sits by a window to fall asleep.

Maria rests in the hospital bed, holding her baby. She's glad the big day is over and her son was born without complications. During the last couple months, Maria had checked in at Bayshore several times for intense stomach pains. She had been a little worried. But now, Maria can relax.

Rafael had left the couple's first son at his mother and stepfather's house, though he would rather have his boy with him. The relationship between Rafael and his mother has deteriorated in recent years, especially since he started dating Maria, who, at 26, was almost eight years younger than Rafael. When Maria became pregnant with the couple's first child, it certainly didn't help. But sitting with his family, Rafael is convinced life's conflicts are behind him.

Then they hear a knock on the door. Wale Babalola, an investigator with Child Protective Services, stands outside. He has some things he wants to talk about.

When Maria checked in at Bayshore on May 7 for stomach pains, a urine sample came back positive for marijuana and cocaine. A hospital social worker had contacted CPS, which dispatched Babalola.

During the investigation, someone told Babalola that Maria used drugs at least twice a week, including the night before going into labor. Babalola had another urine test result from July 17, four days before Maria gave birth. Positive again for cocaine and marijuana.

Rafael's head spins. He goes into a separate room with Babalola. Rafael tells the investigator that he has never witnessed Maria taking drugs. He never thought she was stoned or high or whatever he wanted to call it.

"I wouldn't put my baby in harm's way like that," Maria says.

Rafael wants the children for himself. Nobody is accusing him of doing anything wrong, he argues. Babalola tells him that won't work. Not as long as he's living with Maria.

An emergency custody hearing is scheduled for July 24, the day after Maria checks out of the hospital. The judge rules that there is enough evidence to extend the investigation and orders Maria to give a hair follicle sample for a more accurate drug test.

Maria never brings her newborn home. Instead, the baby goes to Rafael's mother and stepfather's home, where the couple's first son remains. They can't afford it, but Maria and Rafael persuade an attorney to take the case.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get my babies back," Maria says.

Maria and Rafael have now entered the CPS system. A threat to children was presented, investigated and a decision made. Maria's case isn't hopeless. Her rights to the children were not immediately terminated, and if she and Rafael can prove capable of being good parents in the months ahead, they might get their children back.

But Maria and Rafael don't know they're about to enter the system at the worst possible time. During a two-year, statewide reform, the system has stacked the deck against itself. Caseworkers are overworked and quitting in droves. CPS is taking on more cases than it can handle, with children in state custody staying nights on cots and in cribs at a CPS office in Houston. In July, Maria and Rafael prepare to do anything to get back the kids, but the system that guards their fate is spinning wildly out of control.
_____________________

Bad things happened for Child Protective Services in 2004. A string of child deaths revealed a system incapable of caring for the children it was supposed to protect.

On Christmas Day 2003, the body of four-year-old Jovonie Ochoa was taken to a San Antonio hospital. The boy was dead. He weighed 16 pounds and was covered in bruises.

About two months before the boy died, Jovonie's mother left him with his grandparents, who then duct-taped and tied the boy to his bed, beat him and left him to starve. Jovonie died covered in bed sores, his brain bleeding from the beatings.

In the months that followed Jovonie's death, investigators discovered that three complaints were filed to CPS against Jovonie's mother in 2002. A CPS employee had attempted to contact the mother but couldn't find her, and Jovonie's case was closed.

Then, in April 2004, again in San Antonio, CPS reunited two-year-old Diamond Alexander-Washington with her mother. About eight weeks later, the little girl peed in her pants. The mother beat Diamond with a vacuum cleaner hose until she was dead.

During those final eight weeks, Diamond's mother went to jail for two weeks and police were called to her apartment twice, all unknown to Diamond's caseworker. Shortly before Diamond's death, her CPS caseworker left for vacation. When the cases were handed over to coworkers, Diamond was ignored.

Politicians responded to the amount of press given to these deaths. A judge in San Antonio's juvenile court urged Governor Rick Perry to do something. Lawmakers promised reform.

To understand the problems that faced the agency, legislators asked how the system works.

First, a complaint is filed to the agency, which is routed through the state office in Austin. If someone decides the call warrants further attention, the case is given to a CPS investigator.

The investigator must complete the case within 30 days. If the investigator closes the case, he can still refer the child to other programs funded by Harris County Children's Protective Services such as "Pal," which gets foster children ready for independent adult life.

Write Your Comment show comments (10)

  1. They will never get their children back! No matter what they do! CPS will adopt the children out for the adoption bonuses that they receive. Caseworkers are over worked because CPS lies and falsifies documents as to be able to steal your baby/child/children!

    I was told by a Case worker during a meeting with her that she needed my white baby (my granddaughter)! I immediately starting researching, and seeking out other familes.

    They did get my white baby! No, they did not get to keep her, nor did they get to adopt her out, not that they didn't try!

    Overworked is just the way they portray the system as to get more money. If they worked at keeping the children with the families rather than taking them they wouldn't have so many children in the system. If they helped the ones that really needed help instead of taking the ones that are loved and in loving homes, there would not be so many cases. Nor would CPS make as much money.

    I hope and pray that the children are in a good foster home. As my granddaughter almost died in a foster parents care.

    We complained, but CPS didn't care! They don't get paid to move a child from one home to another. CPS claimed that my daugher tested positive for marijuana and opiates at the birth of my granddaughter. It was an outright lie! CPS will not release any records to you either, why is that? Because they lie and falsify documentation as to be able to keep your child or children.

    My granddaughters Peditrician snuck up to the hospital and got the records for me. My daughter and son in law just got their daughter back at the end of September. The case is set to be thrown out in January.

    We were only able to do this because Channel 13 got involved and got my daughter a visitation with her daughter after being told twice in one week that "they forgot the baby". How do you forget a 3 month old baby?

    They didn't forget - they were hiding her from us. They did not want us to see how sick she was. Not only did CPS not get her medical care but they refused it!

    It is a Government Funded child stealing ring!!!!! This must be stopped!!!!!

    Comment by Debbie — November 8, 2007 @ 11:25AM

  2. My son-in-law and daughter just went through the same thing
    because of false alegations and manufactured evidence on CPS's part.

    Maria and Rafael most likly will never have custody of there children becuase
    CPS is in the market of stealing babies legaly for profit and bonuses.

    CPS is totaly out of control.

    Comment by BERT — November 8, 2007 @ 12:56PM

  3. One more thing to add - if you need a good attorney in Houston for cases such as this one his name is Chris Branson. He specializes in CPS cases. Most of the other ones take your money and do nothing.

    Comment by Debbie — November 8, 2007 @ 01:01PM

  4. The Fremont County Colorado DHS removed my 3 children from my husband and me over a year ago and gave them to my lesbian mother and her 'partner'. I do have an attorney, but he isn't doing much. I don't want my kids raised in a lesbian household. I was and I have severe depression and anxiety! I was also physically abused by some of my mother's many 'lovers'. Also the judge involved in this case is a known lesbian and there are many lesbians in this county.
    The Social Services caseworkers didn’t even let me see my kids for Easter or take them to church, when I have NEVER been accused of abusing them! My case is based on the fact that my son, who was 2 at the time, was left outside for a mere 30 seconds, and a neighbor called The Fremont County CO Department. of Human Services. It took them 6 months (with plenty of 'help' from my mother and her partner) to invent a case against us. In April of 2007, my attorney has informed my husband and I that the children's Guardian Ad Litem had hired a private investigator who had supposedly seen my husband drinking. Is this even legal? This is pushing the boundaries of government spying to a new level! One of our caseworkers also reported, that she had seen my husband drinking at the bowling alley (he bowls every Monday night). Our case is only a dependency/neglect based entirely on hearsay and false allegations. I feel that the government is taking this way too far.
    On Sunday July 29, 2007 my husband and I got back from visiting our kids at my mother's house. My oldest daughter informed us that Karen Moffitt, our caseworker was over to visit at my mother's house She brought her grandchildren over and were riding horses. My understanding is that caseworkers, social workers, etc. are NEVER allowed to have a social relationship with anybody involved in their case! I am currently attending the University of Phoenix in CO Springs, and have had an ethics in human services class a while back. I specifically remember that rule! This is a major conflict of interest! I did write to the State Department of Social Services in Denver and they referred my letter back to the Fremont County DHS. They supposedly did an investigation and questioned Karen Moffitt, but found nothing wrong because our case is closed. I know for a fact that she influenced the DHS ruling for my mother and her partner to have custody of our children because she phoned my mother during non-business hours and visited their house on a frequent basis while the case was open.
    I am pleading for somebody in our Legislature to investigate the Department of Human Services. If you are really against child abuse, you should be against the DHS abuse of children and their families. DHS is all about money and it seems most people who approve of their Gestapo tactics and family destruction are somehow benefiting from the system. My husband and I completed our court ordered service plans last August and we still didn’t get our children back!

    Comment by Susan — November 9, 2007 @ 11:25AM

  5. Having worked at the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services, I have a different spin on the extensive problems that plague the agency. From my perspective, I the continued dedication and training the caseworkers display and receive over the course of their careers, ever how brief, is impressive (and no, I did not work for the agency as a caseworker; however, I was allowed to sit in on and to evaluate, to some degree, some of the extensive training the agency puts all new caseworkers through before such workers are ever assigned their first cases).

    The problem is not with the caseworkers, per se, but with the caseworker turnover rate. No privately owned and operated business in the world, let alone this state, would survive the unyielding turnover rate this agency continually experiences. How many Boards of Directors, Executives, and Managers would survive without federal bailout? Who is accountable and how is this accountability measured?

    This agency is filled with retirees who have either returned to their previous positions or to lower-level positions designed specifically for their aging comfort. They no longer care about protecting the unprotected. They care about protecting the good-old-boy network and their comfortable set up—one retirement check plus one paycheck plus no accountability is pretty sweet. They’ve earned their place, and no one is going to take it away from them. This, not dedication or concern for our children and our elderly, is why the turnover rate is proportionate to years of service. What is the turnover rate for returning retirees? What about for upper management? And, while I’m at it, why does the agency need 47 attorneys at the state level, not by region or county? These attorneys are there to protect the agency and its valued management staff, neither of which are there to protect the unprotected. This responsibility, after all, is why the agency so desperately needs qualified caseworkers.

    And this is why the agency (at least from my perspective) conducts criminal background checks and central registry checks on applicants before they’re even been brought in to interview (a simple way to weed out undesirables before unnecessarily wasting time).

    Never mind the civil rights of such caseworker-wannabes.

    Never mind that, regardless of the findings, such applicants are never notified of the pre-employment/pre-consideration background checks, whether interviewed or not, which I thought would constitute disparate treatment, but I guess that’s only if the EEOC ever found out.

    Never mind that such applicants are never notified of the results, are never given a chance to review, without charge, the accuracy of such results, and, therefore, are unable to dispute the validity of any unfavorable findings. (Obviously my interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act differs greatly from the very tenured upper management powers that be).

    And never mind that pre-consideration Central Registry checks are conducted on applicants—in conjunction with criminal backgrounds—in order to determine if an applicant is or ever has been involved in an adult and/or child abuse/neglect investigation.

    After all, the turnover rate is so high that certain steps, legal or otherwise, have been taken in order to minimize the initial effort required to actually interview and evaluate the merits and qualifications of potential caseworkers; because, after all, any new hires “clean” enough to pass the pre-consideration application review process, patient enough to endure the intensive and, in my experience, demeaning and substandard training required, and smart enough to pass the intensive proficiency exams are also likely to be intelligent enough to realize their inevitable futility in an impenetrable good-old-boys network and, accordingly, wisely and justly abandon ship, further perpetuating both the solidarity and sustainability of the “network.”

    In my experience, those who make up the “network” are public servants who have previously agreed to lie, cover up, or otherwise aid in one or more illegal activities that is or was perpetuated by one or more of its members. For example, I have records from open records to prove that there are no records pertaining to the investigation that was supposedly being conducted during my three-month paid administrative leave. In contrast, the former Houston CPS Region Director, Randy Joiner, only received two weeks paid administrative leave during the recent internal investigation conducted on him. It pays to be a member of the “network” because he got a much sweeter deal in the long run.

    So, before you attack the performance of caseworkers, please consider that most received their four-year degrees in Social Work, more than likely because they have a strong desire to serve the best interests of the public. All have chosen to be public servants and to protect the unprotected, and all have received stringent training and are duly certified in accordance with state law. Then, ask yourself what happens to the cases that are abandoned when the caseworkers come to their senses? (Hint: they get dumped on the caseworkers who haven’t . . . yet.)

    Attack, instead, our state legislature for allowing this corrupt, unethical system to continue. Attack the retirees that have returned to enjoy a paycheck with their retirement (note, not all returning retirees are coasting, some actually return to continue protecting the unprotected, but far too many retirees are only there because they feel they’ve earned it, whether by bribe or by merit).

    By all means, demand accountability. No privately owned and operated business would survive if its owner(s) and management weren’t held accountable for their actions.

    Demand investigations by our media. Are they afraid they won’t continue getting sound bites or interviews if they report negatively about the agency instead of reporting on the alleged perpetrators? That’s my guess.

    Comment by jml — November 9, 2007 @ 03:03PM

  6. At least Texas admits to having a problem with CPS. Here in corrupt backwards Colorado, it's a different situation. There is not a very high employee turnover here in this county. There are no retirees working at DHS that I am aware of. I do know for a fact that CPS workers here do not have to have a license or undergo any psychological testing for their job. Even corrections officers have to have a psych exam prior to getting hired at DOC. I suspect caseworkers are given kickbacks for stealing kids from loving 2 parent families who are NOT abusers or criminals, such as mine! Some of these childsavers don't even have children! Another thing, there is NO grievance policy posted ANYWHERE in the DHS office. This is WRONG! Normal businesses have grievance policies posted where the public can see them. We have a totally corrupt family court system here, involving an anti-family judge, the DHS attorney who has had his job way too long, the 'specialists' parents have to be sent to for counseling, drug testing, anger management,etc,corrupt guardian ad litems who are just whores of the court and always side with DHS, even the lawyer whom we are paying out of pocket provided NO real defense for us because he also works as a GAL for this county. We just want our children back! The feminazis our son lives with have him in counseling and say he is suffering with gender identity. He isn't even 5 years old yet! We desperately need some good legal help! I honestly believe that this case would have never gotten this far in any other city because of lack of evidence.

    Comment by Susan — November 11, 2007 @ 09:54AM

  7. The entire system is a JOKE and so is everyone who is a part of it. This joke of a department should be dismantled for good.

    JT
    www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
    "ONlien pRivacy when it Counts"

    Comment by John Thomas — November 13, 2007 @ 07:09AM

  8. I had a friend that got on with CPS several years ago and she barely made it through the training. She quit three months later.

    It's corrupt and racist and completely broken. But you won't hear that from anyone inside because all they had to do was apply for the job and do nothing beyond that. Besides maybe treating all the white people in the system like they owe them something and they don't belong and trying to pick fights with them EVERY SINGLE DAY.

    I'm not saying that all CPS workers are like this. I'm saying all but three, inluding the instructor, were just like that in my friend's training class and first months on the job.

    I like what somebody above said about scrapping the entire system, firing everyone, and starting over with new everything. Better pay, qualifications maybe. Yeah, that would be a good idea. Qualifications.

    Maybe somebody besides us regular folk will see that at some point.

    Comment by JayR — November 27, 2007 @ 11:43AM

  9. This part is from the article: McClure suggests that salaries must rise to keep caseworkers and investigators. The average starting salary is $28,740. McClure says that many workers leave CPS for jobs in teaching, where they can make about $10,000 more a year and have a summer vacation.

    Yes, raise the salaries, so they have to take more children to make more money to pay the child snatchers more money!!!!!!!!

    That's the answer. Kinda like that old commercial... I do more coke so I can work more hours, so I can make more money to do more coke.....

    It makes perfect sense to me!

    Note to the Editor: None of what I have had to say is against you.... I thank you for having the courage to write about AMERICAS DIRTY LITTLE SECRET!

    Comment by Debbie — December 7, 2007 @ 06:14PM

  10. Please research the 1998 State Legislative Responses to the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.

    Who wrote it and what his concerns were when he wrote it.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Comment by Debbie — December 7, 2007 @ 06:35PM

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