A false claims attorney should jump on this...and if you need any assistance, let me know.
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| In a family photo, Lindsey Sandy, now 16, of Des Moines, holds her daughter, Elli, who is 1. Elli has been out of Sandy's care since June, when a dispute with her family over her parenting erupted |
Teen mother fights in court to get tot back from sisters
When 16-year-old Lindsey Sandy needed help caring for her 1-year-old daughter, Elli, she accepted an offer from one of her older sisters for a summer break baby-sitting stint. Then her sister refused to give Elli back.
Lindsey's panic grew when both of her older sisters teamed up to hide the baby from her, then used a long list of allegations about the teen mom's behavior and parenting skills to persuade a probate court judge to immediately strip her of custody.
Two child welfare watchdogs and a lawyer for the Des Moines teen believe she has been dealt injustices each step of the way - by a sheriff's deputy who declined to return Elli when Lindsey reported her as kidnapped, by a social worker with a conflict of interests, by her two sisters, and by a long court battle that accentuates the probate court's inadequacies in handling child welfare matters.
"This is a tragic case in many ways," said Jerry Foxhoven, director of the Joan & Lyle Middleton Center for Children's Rights at Drake University, who keeps a close eye on children's legal cases in Iowa. "It's a comedy of error. I use the word 'comedy' lightly because it's a tragedy of error. A lot of things went wrong and the combination of them is falling on this 16-year-old."
Foxhoven said he is particularly concerned about Elli's prolonged separation from her mother, noting that for a toddler, two months is "a very, very long time."
The two sisters, Amanda Carter, 19, of Cedar Falls, and Whitney Sandy of Indianola, testified that they think Lindsey isn't capable of keeping her daughter safe, largely because she stayed in a relationship with a boy with whom she'd had three physical disputes.
Foxhoven pointed out that the Iowa Department of Human Services had earlier received allegations against Lindsey, but Polk and Warren county DHS investigators closed both cases without finding any evidence of abuse or neglect, according to court testimony.
"DHS determined that there are not sufficient safety concerns to remove this child," Foxhoven said.
Lindsey Sandy's lawyer, Robb Goedicke of Clive, said Whitney Sandy's petition for guardianship "was wrought with speculative claims, if not outright false statements."
Testimony, however, has established these facts: Lindsey smoked marijuana at a high school homecoming event in fall 2009; she was with another teen who was charged with shoplifting in April; her school attendance last year was sporadic; she lives with her mother, who drinks alcohol and is in a relationship with a man with a criminal record; Lindsey has allowed teen friends to baby-sit Elli overnight if a parent was home; and she continued to date a boy after he knocked her cell phone out of her hand, pushed her, and made threats against her, Elli and her sister.
Goedicke said: "The bottom line here is: Yes, Lindsey is young, she has made some mistakes and she needs guidance. But none of that rises to a level of guardianship."
Foxhoven agreed that none of those reasons are enough to warrant removing a child from a parent.
State law gives preference to the parent of a minor child above all others, as long as the parent is "qualified and suitable." Only "concrete evidence of a disruptive effect on the child" should prevent reunification with a parent, the Iowa Court of Appeals stated in a 1997 guardianship case.
"That standard has been difficult to meet," the ruling says.
Goedicke said in court Friday that five professionals - including a DHS investigator, a child-care provider and a teen parenting skills provider - testified that Elli is on track developmentally and that Lindsey is a capable mother who can make decisions to keep Ellli safe.
Lindsey is set to graduate from high school early, she has a job and has worked consistent hours since early June, and she has stopped seeing the troubled boy and now has a restraining order against him, her lawyer said.
But two other lawyers believe Whitney Sandy should continue to be the baby's guardian.(That's what they are paid to do.) Elli's court-appointed guardian ad litem, West Des Moines lawyer Samantha Gronewald, made that recommendation Friday, based on Lindsey's "unstable home environment," she said. (And that is what GALs are paid to do.) And Elli's father, Bradley David Hansen, 20, who is in prison on a probation violation, has agreed to the guardianship, his lawyer said Friday. (Who had no legal representation at the time and did what the paid attorneys told him to do in fear of having his parental rights terminated.)
Meanwhile, questions remain about the night that a Warren County sheriff's deputy left 15-month-old Elli with a woman who had no legal right to her, and about the DHS social worker who intervened in the matter even though she wasn't assigned to Elli's case.
Neither DHS social workers nor law enforcement officials have the authority to remove a child from a parent's care and give custody to someone else. By state law, only a judge can order transfer of custody.(True, but they still do not need a court order. Indigent individuals do not have the financial resources to hire attorneys to challenge due process violations. Even if one can access the funding to hire legal representation, there are very few, if any attorneys who are knowledgeable or willing to jeopardize their legal career taking on child welfare cases.)
According to court testimony, Lindsey Sandy's sister, Amanda Carter, volunteered to care for Elli starting June 6, partly because Lindsey had just started a job at a grocery store.
On June 21, when Lindsey tried to make arrangements to pick up Elli, Amanda declined, according to court testimony.
Sheriff's records state Deputy Steve Funk searched for Amanda at the Lacona home of her stepfather, Jeff Sandy, but Amanda had already departed with Elli.
"Jeff explained to me that Lindsey places the child in unhealthy situations and that DHS is currently preparing to remove the child," the deputy wrote in his report.
No DHS action was pending at that time, records show. Testimony showed two DHS investigators found no reason for a judge to remove Elli from Lindsey Sandy's care. One reached that conclusion June 17, just five days earlier.
Funk tracked the baby to the Indianola home of Whitney Sandy, Lindsey's half-sister, records show.
There, Amanda told him "a DHS worker advised her that if the police attempted to remove Elli, to refuse and instruct the police to contact DHS," he wrote in his report.
Whitney Sandy then called Sadie Hockett, a cousin who is related to Whitney but not Lindsey, and handed the phone to the deputy. Although Hockett works for DHS in Union County, she was never assigned to any case involving Elli, according to court testimony.
"I spoke to the DHS worker that is currently handling the case," Funk wrote. "She attempted to tell Lindsey that she could have her child at 9 a.m. on Tuesday."
Lindsey Sandy was "enraged," the deputy wrote in his report.
Both Lindsey and her mother, Kendra Sandy of Des Moines, then expressed a wish to pursue kidnapping charges, Funk wrote in his report. He referred them to the county attorney.
"It was explained to all parties that in order to prevent this from occurring in the future, a court order must be issued," the deputy wrote.
The next morning, a relative of the social worker, West Des Moines lawyer Debra Hockett-Clark, asked a probate judge to grant immediate guardianship to Whitney Sandy. Klotz agreed. All this was done without Lindsey's knowledge or ability to challenge the request.(It's called ex-parte proceedings. In child welfare proceedings, the parent is never allowed to face their accuser, challenge the allegations, or examine the evidence. Someone needs to file a state attorney grievance on Debra Hockett-Clark.)
Funk testified that sheriff's department protocol is to reunify children with the custodial parent, but he didn't in this case because of what he believed to be DHS's recommendation. (Sounds like the Sheriff's Department needs some policies and training in this area. If there was none in place, there may be liability issues.)
He also had a brief phone conversation with a DHS on-call assessor who concluded he had the situation under control, according to court testimony and DHS officials.
In an interview with The Des Moines Register, Warren County Sheriff James Lee said: "My understanding is that DHS asked that the child remain where she was. It sounds like there was a complaint that the mother wasn't caring for the child properly and she did turn the child over to her sister. She just wanted it back sooner." (Sheriff Lee, the child is not an 'it'. We are dealing with human beings here. The use of this neutered pronoun suggests you lack concern for the civil rights of individuals involved in child welfare disputes.)
Lee said in retrospect, the case might have been handled differently, but "the child was in good care." (The care was not in question, it was the custody. You did not investigate the legal custody issue. You neglected to execute the duties of the position of Sheriff. I hope the taxpayers remember this come time for your re-election.)
DHS officials declined to answer several questions about the agency's actions in the matter, but spokesman Roger Munns said: "Our worker clearly disclosed her position and did not misrepresent herself in any way on the night in question." (Proper protocol is not to respond to specific questions and to make a public statement denying the allegations as there are pending civil claims.)
Richard Wexler, a national child welfare advocate and frequent critic of DHS, said: "If either overtly or by implication she used her DHS connections and/or status to interfere, DHS needs to investigate immediately and, if the allegations are true, the cousin should be fired."
The morning of June 22, Lindsey went to Whitney's home at 9 a.m. to pick up the baby as the sheriff's deputy had instructed. No one was home. Lindsey and her mother spent a frantic day searching for Elli. Sheriff's officials were poised to post an Amber Alert, Kendra Sandy said. Whitney Sandy eventually told her half-sister she would return her baby in the parking lot of a Hy-Vee grocery store at 2:15 p.m. Instead, a process server climbed out of a van with notice that a probate judge had granted Whitney temporary custody, court records show.
Lindsey's sisters said during the hearing they sought the court order for her own good and to assure the well-being of their niece.
"My intentions are not to keep her baby," Whitney testified. "I want her to get better and be able to spend time with (Elli) alone. I guess just prove that's she's not going to have (her ex-boyfriend) around."
On Friday, Whitney's lawyer asked Lindsey if she thinks her sisters are "against her" or angry with her.
"No," Lindsey answered.
Asked why she thinks Whitney filed for guardianship, Lindsey answered: "Because I was making bad choices."
Goedicke said one problem the case highlights is that probate court isn't designed to handle child welfare matters as well as juvenile court. (Iowa juvenile court does not have a very good track record, either.)
If DHS staff had sought a court order to remove Elli, the case would have been handled in juvenile court. State statutes require speedy resolution in those proceedings, especially for infants. Family services to help parents quickly kick in, and professionals ensure frequent and significant visits with children removed from the home, Goedicke said.
Lindsey Sandy has had very limited access to her daughter, he said. "There is a familial rift in this case, and my client's visitation with her daughter is governed by a family member which she may or may not get along with," he said.
An employee of Lutheran Services had helped Lindsey with parenting skills since Elli was born, but that service stopped coming when Lindsey lost custody, testimony showed.
Foxhoven said: "By instigating these guardianship proceedings, the relatives have not only delayed reunification of this family, but have also stopped services to the mother."
Wexler expressed similar thoughts, saying: "A far better option is providing teen mothers the help and support they need to raise their children - and in this case, as I said, the sisters should be offering that help themselves."
And, she is now on the central registry.
Let's thank the two sisters, Amanda Carter, 19, of Cedar Falls, and Whitney Sandy of Indianola, for their outstanding contribution to the national debt!
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