CPS strikes again! Will your baby be next?? (UPDATE! 2/12/04)Oct 31 '02 (Updated Feb 12 '04) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line It's legal kidnapping and it's wrong. Children's Services office in Chattanooga, TN is obviously corrupted. UPDATED at the bottom. This is a copy of a letter I wrote on behalf of a very good friend of mine. PLEASE take the time to read it and help us out, if you can. If you have any ideas on other people I can send it to (I have covered about everyone in Virginia, Indiana and Tennessee), PLEASE let me know! I can no longer stand by while a family is ripped apart. :*( ~~~~~~ To whom it may concern: Hello. I am writing this letter to help a very special friend of mine. A huge injustice is being done to her and her family, I need all of the help I can get to help her correct it. Who am I? My name is Lisa and I have been a friend of Michelle's for several years. I am sending this letter to as many people possible, so let me give you a little information about myself so that you may understand why I sent this letter to you. I am the wife of a member of the United States Navy. My husband is active duty and is currently on deployment. He has been gone for almost 4 months now and Michelle has been a great source of comfort and support for me. We are currently living in Virginia, although we are residents of the state of Indiana. Michelle lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I can no longer stand back and watch what is happening to Michelle and her family and do nothing. While nothing may get accomplished with this letter, I am hoping one or all of you will step forward and help. A little over a year ago Kelly, Michelle's daughter, took Kiera, Michelle's granddaughter, to the emergency room of a local hospital. At the time Kiera was 9 months old. She had fallen off of her mother's bed while her mother got up to shut off the light. Kelly, being the good mother that she is, took Kiera to the hospital to have her checked out. While there were no signs or symptoms that anything might be wrong, she decided she would rather be safe than sorry. She took her to the hospital, where she received X-rays and a clean bill of health. She was fine. Kelly was informed, however, that the local Child Protection Agency would have to be contacted due to Kiera's age, but that since she was fine there should be no problem. Kelly took Kiera to the Emergency room of the hospital where she had spent her high school internship and knew doctors and nurses in there who treated Kiera. Imagine Kelly's surprise when CPS showed up 3-4 days later and told Kelly that they wanted Kiera taken to a doctor of theirs and she was removed from her custody. The social worker informed Kelly that their doctor said that Kiera had a skull fracture, so she was placed in her grandmother's care. Kelly and Michelle were not allowed to see these X-rays and they were, according to CPS, not available to the family. Kelly and her ex-boyfriend, Kiera's father, both volunteered to take lie detector tests as to whether they had been abusing Kiera. Kelly was also instructed that if she wanted her daughter back she would have to take parenting classes and counseling. She has done both and the social worker was given the certificates proving this was done. Kiera's father was taken to jail shortly afterward due to unrelated charges, so he was not involved in the classes and such. Mike and Michelle, Mike is her husband, filed to become foster parents of Kiera so that she could come and stay with them. They were approved and Kiera was placed in their home with instructions that Kelly was NOT allowed to visit. Period. Michelle admits that she broke this order. Kelly is STILL her daughter and a member of the family. She was not left with Kiera alone and didn't take her anywhere. She just came over to visit since her visitation was only for an hour every other Friday under the supervision of the social worker. Michelle was assaulted and her home attempted to be broken into by Kiera's father during this time. He threatened to burn down their home. After discussion with the caseworker, she was placed back into a foster home for Kiera's safety, as well as for the reason that Michelle could not follow the judge's court order to keep Kelly from her home. Also this family could not allow the father to visit in her home if the court so ordered his visitation of his child in the future of which the judge had warned Michelle that this may be required of her. Kelly was ordered to pay child support as well. In June of 2002, Michelle was told by the social worker that Kiera would be brought home to her. The father had been sent to prison. The social worker told Michelle and Kelly, who were sharing the visitation visits, that there shouldn't be a problem with Kelly getting Kiera back in the long run. She was still holding down the same job she had had for about three years, so she could support her daughter. Kelly was making progress with her classes on parenting and domestic violence and a home study was done of Michelle's home and she was approved for Kiera's return to her. After the social worker had a meeting with adoption people and supervisors, she was told that she could not return Kiera to her family. The supervisors at this meeting never opened the case file or looked at any paperwork concerning Kelly's progress. The reason the social worker wanted to return her before July was so that Kiera by law could not be adopted by strangers and felt that her family's home was safe for her to be in. In the state of Tennessee a child in foster care for a one-year period becomes eligible for adoption by the foster parents. The worker told Michelle that the supervisors and the adoption people felt that perhaps Mike was racist and that Kiera was classified as a black child and that she wouldn't be exposed to her background if she was placed with Mike and Michelle. Now they were deciding fitness of family based on skin color? It was brought up that Kiera was in contact with her paternal family when she was with Michelle and Mike and that there is also another grandchild who is of mixed races. At a court date in July, the family was denied their custody petition and they immediately filed an appeal. Now Kiera had been in a foster home for over a year making it possible for her to be adopted by strangers. In the mean time, the judge didn't give Kelly Kiera back, but he did give Michelle weekend visitation every other weekend. The caseworker would pick Kiera up at the day care on Friday morning and take her to Michelle, since Michelle didn't know the name of the foster family or the day care she went to. The caseworker would pick Kiera up from Michelle on Monday mornings and return her to the day care. In August, after the caseworker dropped Kiera off for visitation, there was a knock at Michelle's door. It was the police. The foster family had reported that Michelle had kidnapped Kiera from her daycare, even though it was her weekend to have Kiera. They had tried to get the social worker to stop the visitations and they were told that only a judge could order that. They felt that it "confused" Kiera to go and visit them because she was calling Kelly mommy when they had Kiera calling THEM mommy and daddy. Apparently the foster family has a contact on the inside that gave Michelle's name and address so that they could call the police on her, knowing full and well that it was her visitation weekend and the case worker had delivered Kiera to Michelle for visitation. The police officer told Michelle that the foster father was demanding that Michelle return Kiera and he would meet with her and he would decide if Kiera could spend the weekend with her or not. The police officer refused his request and the social workers that were not known to the family decided not to remove her during visitation and then left. After this situation was worked out, which the case worker had no idea how they had gotten the information or that they were even going to report Michelle to the police, they went back to court again. During this court visit the foster family was ordered not to interfere in visitation again. The foster father himself stood up in court and said that a woman fitting Michelle's description had taken Kiera from her daycare. Michelle wondered how this man who she had never seen before knew what her description was? The supervisors of the caseworker had decided to terminate Kelly's rights so that the foster family could adopt Kiera. Michelle had filed for custody, and even though she was approved via home visits twice, she was denied. The paternal grandmother had also filed for custody and all were denied. Michelle had filed an appeal and has a court date on that appeal on Nov. 4th 2002 While all of this was going on, Kelly went to the original hospital and obtained a copy of Kiera's X-rays. When she got them she was stunned. They have Kiera's name on them, but they are not believed to be Kiera's. It says that the child in this x-ray is over 1 year old, closer to 2 years old. Kiera was 9 months old when this took place, so there was no WAY they could be Kiera's films. Also, the little girl was wearing flowered shaped earrings, which Kiera had posts in her ears as she had just had her ears pierced. The little girl's head in the films was bigger than Kiera's head is NOW, much less over a year ago. Michelle has tried to contact people outside for help. The most she got was when she contacted the Controller's office of Tennessee. I guess the Controller's office contacted the Human Services Department in Nashville and told them to do an internal investigation to see what Michelle was talking about. An internal investigation? So, they get to investigate themselves now? What is that going to prove? Did they REALLY think they were just going to come forward and say yes, we're guilty? We screwed up and the only way we could find to fix it was to steal Kiera from her family and let the foster family adopt her because they're friends of ours? I think not. The supervisor of the social worker, XXXXXXXXX, called Michelle in for a meeting that Michelle's lawyer attended. She tried to make it appear that Kelly was very unstable to her. She said that she had to write a report to Nashville on why Michelle had filed the complaint. The very person Michelle was complaining about was doing her own investigation of herself! She tried to say that the social worker had misled Michelle on this case and that the state stood behind the decision that they would pursue termination of Kelly's parental rights. I am now going to copy and paste two emails I received from Michelle within the last couple weeks or so. Included are the current happenings in this "case". In the one email Michelle is referring to a 2nd special "meeting" that the supervisor, XXXXXXXXX, requested with just Michelle, the foster family and herself. Kelly was not allowed at this meeting and she wanted no attorneys present. Michelle, and Kelly as well, have their own attorneys. Kiera also has her own Guardian Ad Litem after a year without one, appointed by the courts. This email was sent from Michelle on October 11, 2002. "Kiera was supposed to be here at 9:30am. Well I had to take Kaitlyn to the eye dr and drop her off at 8:45am. I did. I was home by 9am. No Kiera. I call and call..no social worker.. finally she calls around 10:30 and says don't I have her??? NO I DON'T. She says well she has to go to a meeting with the supervisors.... well I called my lawyer.. and let her know..as we were talking..this was now 12:30... the worker showed up with her. Ok..fine.. now she is here. THEN.. she gives me a bag..stapled shut..with a note.. from Walmart. It says that Kiera has ringworm and we need to give her some medicine. I look in the bag. 2 prescriptions..2 different dr's..(pediatricians working out of the same office though)..filled at Walgreens?? not at Walmart? It was a Walmart prescription bag by the way.. then I look at the medicines..one has the name ripped off completely..??? the other is made out to a Kevin XXXXXXX???? Who ever that is..the family that has her is named XXXX. The foster mother is a nurse. She doesn't know that you don't put someone else prescriptions in a bag and tell someone to give them to a 2 year old child???? You ask the grandmother ME to give her medicine belonging to someone else??? and you're a NURSE? How do I know what's in these bottles if they don't have Kiera's name on them? I called the dr.'s office.. I'm thinking maybe the foster mother works in that office. The dr. is going to call me himself. I'm going to find out if Kiera is his patient..well then why doesn't the prescription say HER name???and if that foster mother works there..what kind of office hires nurses that would be that irresponsible??? I'm furious r ight now. I do believe that is illegal to give medicine that is someone else's isn't it? The foster family DID know we had visitation last week..and chose to ignore it. They don't want us to see Kiera. They asked the social worker not to let us see her.. it isn't up to them..or the worker..thats the courts decision.. still they persist. They DO have an inside person at childrens services. How else did the social worker supervisor know that they were going out of town?? During our visitation??. I have to go the meeting with the supervisor and the foster family at 4:30. I called my lawyer and she knows about the medicine and all that.. she said to still go..and see what they want. I can barely contain myself. I'm going to sit across from these people in about 2 hours and I want to strangle them. I'm so angry. They also have tried to get me to say that the worker put me up to calling a lawyer and contacting the comptrollers office.. I couldn't possibly be smart enough to know to do that on my own. Remember me??? I'm the one who researched who to email.. When did I ever tell you guys in this whole year that the social worker was TELLING ME what to do? Can you see anyone TELLING ME what to do??? Can you imagine that they really believe that they think I am not smart enough to be told no you cant see your grand daughter anymore and I'm going to say..oh ok.. and do nothing." Michelle sent this next email on October 12, 2002. The supervisor sided with them. She told them how they could go get a lawyer and go behind my back and file for custody in a totally different court. She said it would cost them a lot of money but it would cost me even more??? Why would she say that? She walked them out outside to a different door than me. Said some not so nice things about Kelly to them.. pretended not to even know Kellys name.. I had to tell her. The foster family said they didn't know if they could let me see her without them being there cause they don't know if I'm emotionally stable. Now where would they get such an idea? I get unsupervised visitation for 3 days at a time. Now they under the impression I'm not emotionally stable? Why? So I blurt out no we don't KIDNAP CHILDREN..and I don't beat them either. It was a waste of time. Then the foster mother lied and said oh I heard you had a problem with Kieras medicine.. I said yeah..its not Kieras. She said yes it is. I said why isn't her name on it then? She said oh it is.. NO THE HELL ITS NOT. Then the supervisor TOLD me to give her the medicine. Treated me like they were the family and I was the foster parent. Something is seriously wrong here. This was supposed to be a meeting held by the supervisor that we were supposed to go there and say that who ever gets custody of Kiera that we would agree to let the other family continue to see Kiera. At least that's what I was told when she called me and asked me to go to her office.eeting. The foster family said I wasn't stable enough for visitation?? She also reminded them that there were no adoption laws in Tennessee. So anything they said to me they wouldn't have to keep their word now would they? She did ask if maybe perhaps I'd be willing to give up my pursuit of custody if the foster family agreed to let me see her still. She thinks I'm stupid. She treats me like I am dumb and she has obviously made up her mind that she considers Kiera a black child and she should be placed with a black family. Can someone PLEASE tell me how something like this could happen? Kelly took her daughter in because she was concerned and nothing was found to be wrong, yet her daughter is taken away and they are trying to terminate her parental rights with no evidence at all. She took the counseling and did the parenting classes. She was told in June that that wasn't good enough. They wanted her to take domestic violence classes. She did. She was told that she couldn't have Kiera back because they didn't believe her job and home to be stable yet she has lived in the same apartment for over a year and had the same job for well over 3 years. HOW can something like this happen? Even the caseworker has tried to help this family and is being prevented from doing so. How many people have lost their children because the foster family had an inside contact and they fixed things so they couldn't get their child back? We need your help, please. Please help us get Kiera back. This is VERY wrong. Children's Services office in Chattanooga is obviously corrupted. The social worker that tried to help Kelly and Michelle may now have her job taken away and the supervisors are investigating themselves. Something is VERY wrong in this case and this should not be allowed to happen. As of today Oct. 29 2002 the police detective who was investigating this case of abuse closed the case. She said that she did not find any evidence that there was ever ANY abuse. Both parents passed lie detector tests. Kiera's father has been denied all visitations and has seen his daughter only a few times in the last year. On January 10th the termination hearing is scheduled to be held in Judge Suzanne Baileys court in the Juvenile court building in Hamilton County Chattanooga, TN. I told Michelle that I was writing this letter on her behalf and she gave me permission to give her name and phone number so that she can be contacted. PLEASE! This is a huge injustice and should be taken very seriously. The next child stolen could be your own. Think about that next time you take them to the doctor to make sure that they're all right. You try to do the right thing and your child is stolen from you and given to a family that happens to know the right people. It's wrong and it must stop! Thank you for your time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For privacy reasons last names were, for the most part, removed, as were phone numbers. If you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section of this Epinion, or else send them to mmshealy@aol.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE!! Michelle's appeal was denied for custody of her granddaughter earlier in December. Of course they appealed again. How could they not? Their granddaughter belongs with her family! The hearing is set on January 10th, the same day as her daughter's parental rights termination hearing. January is going to be a big month for the family. They have some witnesses for them, so they're hoping and praying that it will help in a big way. I'm sorry that I am being rather vague, but do to the seriousness of the situation, and the importance of the upcoming hearing, I am doing so on purpose, and I hope you understand. I will update again on January 10th, or so, hopefully with good news. I am hoping to not be as vague then. When I can spill the whole update, I will, believe me. Right now, though, the family comes first. I wanted to let you know all of the information that I could, though, so you know what is going on. They're still being jacked around and this is getting more asinine than you could ever imagine. :( ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update 2/11 Well, after waiting 5 long weeks the judge finally made her decision this morning. Kelly's parental rights were terminated. They were supposed to have visitation again this weekend and it has been cancelled. This is so WRONG! It makes me SO ANGRY!! A child that is loved and was taken in to be checked out to make sure she was ok and she was ripped away from her family and put with strangers. Due to some attorney issues there may or may not be an appeal. Kelly would have to find a new attorney, and trying to find one that will take the case on has proven difficult. Thanks for following along with us. I have received many emails and you all have been great. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update 6/8/2003 I received an update from Kiera's grandmother this morning. I am just going to copy and paste it here for you to read. "update on Kiera: June 8th 2003 Well we haven't seen Kiera since Feb. 3 2003. We miss her dearly. We have had some people/friends check on her well being for us. We can only go on others say so that she is doing fine and is healthy. My daughter has finally got another attorney who is working on filing the written part of the appeal but it may well be Sept 2003 before she gets into court. I had a court date for visitation reinstatement on May 6th. Only it was really May 5th and I wasn't notified. My attorney sent me the wrong date. The judge refused to hear the case at all. I now learn from my daughters attorney that I have a custody appeal on June 16th. My attorney has yet to notify me of this. I learned of it by accident. Yes we've tried to obtain another attorney. I'm still paying this one I have. The new attorney would be wonderful but we do not have the 7500.00 he wants up front for a retainer fee. We have tried contacting a reporter. She has interviewed my daughter and is going to get with me soon also. We're hoping to have a feature article published and establish a defense fund for Kiera. We're running out of options and time is slipping by. Kiera is going to be 3 in October. She has been gone for 2 years next month. We have since filed a complaint with Civil Rights in Atlanta. Hoping they will help us. The complaint is still in process with no answers yet. The case worker resigned her job. She is willing to assist us in court. We learned that the new worker on the case lied at the termination hearing and said she had met with my daughter for 2 hours and that she had refused any type of future counseling. This never happened and this worker mailed the paperwork she claims to have given my daughter. We've filed a complaint about this worker with the head of the legal counsel in Nashville but again we've not heard back from these people. We've contacted Children's Rights in NYC. We've also contacted various attorneys who worked on something called the Brian A law. This was a law enacted several years ago pertaining to what Children's Services is required to do in regard to foster care children. We have a person who works on the Brian A research team assisting us also. An update on the evidence as well.. I was finally able to obtain with the help of a police detective the lie detector tests my daughter and boyfriend took. They both passed. They never hurt their baby. She fell off the bed plain and simple. We've also just recently obtained the Dr's deposition. He examined Kieras x-rays. He said that it WAS POSSIBLE that Kiera fell as stated. He said he could not find child abuse. How this continues on for 2 years you ask? We'd love to know the answer ourselves. Just wanted to let you all know where the case now stands. Thank you for your support and concern. Someday I hope to tell you that my Shortcake is home with her mother and her family where she belongs. Mother's Day was especially hard for my daughter this year. She really misses her baby. I miss my Shortcake. Michelle Shealy" ~~~~~~ If ANYONE can help with this case, or has ideas of who to contact that we haven't already, PLEASE contact me so that I can pass on the information to Kiera's family. Kiera never should have been taken from her mother and this case has been a pack of lies from the people that are supposed to help her. Instead, they have stolen her. :*( UPDATE 12/30/03 Michelle forwarded me this info and asked me to add it as an update for her. "Dec 30 2003- We still do not have Kiera nor have we seen her since Feb of this year. There has been some progress. Its been very slow though. The termination conviction HAS BEEN OVERTURNED. This is very important. They said it was overturned because it was illegal that they held the termination without Kelly present. Yes they terminated her without having her there or telling her of the court date. Its going back before a judge to try to reinstate visitaiton. We don't know yet when that will be or where that will get us. The State of Tn is in trouble no doubt. They have fired the head of Childrens services and replaced him. He never did answer emails from me anyway. From the reports in the Times Free Press in Chattanooga this is what we can see happening with the state. It should directly affect our case..but we aren't sure when or how: State agrees to Children’s Services reform proposal By John Commins Nashville Bureau NASHVILLE — Tennessee avoided a contempt hearing in federal court this week in a classaction lawsuit after state officials on Monday agreed to draft and implement a reform plan for the Department of Children’s Services. Children’s Rights, an advocacy group for the approximately 10,300 children in state custody, agreed to settle the contempt motion in the "Brian A" class-action suit after a week of negotiations. "We have accomplished everything we sought through this motion," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children’s Rights. "But the fact remains that Tennessee has lost more than a year in implementing these reforms for abused and neglected children." Under the agreement, the state acknowledged that it was out of compliance with a 54-month reform plan agreed to in the July 2001 "Brian A" settlement, which addressed abuse and neglect in the state’s foster care system. Children’s Rights dropped its request for a court-appointed outside administrator for Children’s Services. Instead, the state will be allowed to create its own implementation plan, complete with specific, measurable goals and timetables, and submit it for review by March to a panel of court-appointed experts called the Technical Advisory Committee. The committee either can approve the state’s plan or reject it and submit its own plan to a federal judge in Nashville. If the state’s plan is approved, Children’s Services will have 12 months to put it in place. "Settling the contempt motion represents an important step forward for the state," said Viola Miller, who was appointed last week as commissioner of Children’s Services. "With the extra time negotiated as part of the agreement, I feel strongly that working with the Technical Advisory Committee we can comply with the settlement agreement and make some real progress toward addressing the issues raised in the Brian A case." The state also has agreed to extend by 15 months the 54-month implementation plan because "the state has been standing still for the last 15 months," Ms. Lowry said. "The state has now accepted responsibility for past failures and acknowledged that it must develop an implementation plan to improve the lives of children in foster care if it really wants to implement the settlement’s terms," Ms. Lowry said. On Nov. 17, Gov. Phil Bredesen fired Children’s Services Commissioner Michael Miller, who is no relation to Viola Miller, after two scathing reports detailed the department’s continued failure to monitor children in its custody. A state comptroller’s audit faulted the department for improperly administering psychiatric drugs, missing medical appointments and poorly tracking repeat juvenile offenders. The 81-page audit highlighted 22 areas of concern about the department’s foster care, child protective services, juvenile justice and administration divisions. In early November, the federal monitor in the Brian A agreement issued a 216-page report that found the department complied with only 24 of the 136 provisions of the settlement. E-mail John Commins at jcommins@timesfreepress.com This story was published Tuesday, December 30, 2003 and also this one.... Settlement Reached In Brian A. Contempt Motion posted December 29, 2003 Nashville – The State on Monday announced the settlement of a contempt motion stemming from a 2000 lawsuit alleging Tennessee failed to properly care for its foster children. As a result, attorneys for Children’s Rights Inc., will not pursue the motion scheduled for a hearing Friday. As part of the settlement, the State: · Agreed to develop an implementation process for complying with the requirements of the “Brian A.” Settlement Agreement reached in July 2001; and · Extended the term of the agreement an additional 15 months. Department of Children’s Services (DCS) Commissioner Viola Miller and lawyers for the State hammered out the agreement with plaintiffs’ attorneys during a meeting in Baltimore last week and subsequent telephone conferences. Leading the talks were members of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), a group of nationally recognized experts in the field of children’s welfare. The TAC, convened under the authority of the original settlement agreement, will assist and guide DCS in implementing the plan. As part of his efforts to accelerate the State’s compliance with the Brian A. decision, Governor Phil Bredesen convened a meeting of the TAC earlier this month to ask them to play an elevated role in guiding the department’s compliance. “I’m very pleased with the progress made over the last week,” Bredesen said. “The national expertise of the TAC coupled with the new leadership Dr. Miller brings and the work being completed by the task force I named last month puts us well on our way to compliance, and more importantly, an improved Department of Children’s Services.” Bredesen continued by saying: “The TAC plays a vital role long-term in ensuring the State has strong national expertise and advice in guiding its implementation plan. We feel very fortunate to have a group of this stature involved so integrally in the process.” The parties have agreed to make full use of the TAC to facilitate development of the implementation plan. The State has three months to complete the implementation plan and submit it to the plaintiffs and the TAC. This period can be extended once by the TAC for an additional two months. An outline of implementation issues is being compiled by the working group Bredesen named in November. The group was charged with reviewing the settlement agreement and developing a clear framework and timetable to guarantee DCS meets the terms of the settlement agreement. That group has conducted a wide-ranging review of every requirement under the settlement agreement and is preparing a report for the governor’s and commissioner’s review. DCS Commissioner Viola Miller expressed her commitment to meeting the terms of the settlement agreement. “Settling the contempt motion represents an important step forward for the State,” Miller said. “With the extra time negotiated as part of the agreement, I feel strongly that working with the Technical Advisory Committee we can comply with the settlement agreement and make some real progress toward addressing the issues raised in the Brian A. case.” The Brian A. lawsuit was first brought in 2000. The case, which centered on problems with the way DCS handled foster care children, was settled in July 2001." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update 1/15/04 From Michelle: Well the happiness about the termination being overturned was shortlived. The same judge got it back in front of her and reinstated the termination. The attorney said that she felt the Judge was insulted that her judgement was being questioned..like it was an ego issue on her part. Kelly was not at this hearing either the whole reason it was appealed in the first place. So once again another appeal has to be filed. It took a year to get to this point now we are right back again at the beginning. Kelly is checking into some things and I am in contact with several government type people. Hoping for something to change. We never give up hope but they don't make it easy on this family. When it comes back again on the appeal then they will have to request either another court or another judge. We'll have to see what happens. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE 2/11/04 From Michelle: Kelly had another court date on Feb 9th. She was notified on Feb. 7th a Sat. by her current attorney. She went back in front of the same judge. This time the explanation given for not overturning the termination is because Kelly has not been in counseling for the last year. Well Kelly took ALL the counseling, testing, dr's visits and parenting classes, domestic violence counseling that they provided her with. She finished each thing they gave to her. Yet this was brought up? We have no idea what counseling they wanted her in. She didn't know and wasn't advised of this. Also this past year her ex has continued to bother her. She has stayed away from him. According to the court and or social worker because he continues to bother her that this proves she cannot protect Kiera from him. He has never hurt Kiera nor has Kiera been involved in anything concerning him. They questioned if she could protect her other daughter who also has nothing to do with this. She is filing another appeal. I think that we are trying to accept that its unlikely we'll see Kiera again. Or at least till she is older and comes looking for her mother. Meanwhile because of that.. Kelly will not leave Chattanooga and it keeps her in the line of fire from her jealous ex. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE 2/12/04 YOU can make a difference! Please voice your opinion to the people that CAN help if they choose to! Below are the email addresses of the officials of the state and county in question here! Let them know your outrage! Mayor of Hamilton County CountyMayor@mail.hamiltontn.gov Governor of phil.bredesen@state.tn.us First Lady of Tennessee andrea.conte@state.tn.us ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  |
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