Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I have a problem. Child protective services had taken my eldest daughters children away from her for child endangerment and for drug abuse. The state of Texas gave my youngest child custody as well as that she adopted the two children. When school was out of this year my youngest daughter gave permission that the biological mother could have them and see them but that she had to bring the children back to her in August of this year. Needless to say my the biological mother stated to my youngest daughter that she was not bringing the children back to her and that there was nothing that she could do. We called Killeen Police Department and she filed a complaint about the matter. Plus she had sent two certified letters to the biological mother's last known residence. They came back. Anyway Killeen, Police department said that they were not going to do anything about this matter because my youngest daughter gave the biological mother permission to have them. Kidnapping is kidnapping. Killeen police department stated for my daughter to get a lawyer and say that she violated a court order. Now my youngest daughter lost her job over this situation and cannot afford a lawyer. We have called the district attorney in Bell County and they advise up to go to the police department and speck to a supervisor, which we did but no supervisor came. That advised us to call this Sgt. Johnson at the Killeen Police department which we did and left numerous messages for that person but to no avail. We called the FBI up and they stated for us to call the Bell county District Attorney, which we did because there was nothing that they could do for us considering that the children are still in the state of Texas. What do we do now? The children ages 13 and 14 and are neither still not attending school nor have they been taken out of where my youngest daughter enrolled them. This matter has been going on since August. What advice can you give us in order to get the children back safe and sound. Oh yes I have called legal aid up and they stated to me that she needs to make an application over the phone on Wednesday between the hours of 9 to 12 and 1 to 3. Something needs to happen because we feel that these children welfare are in danger. I can not afford your fee.


Asked on 10/31/11, 10:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

That is criminal, and If the adoption order has been produced, so that everyone understands what tge situation is, I really don't understand what the issue is. Yes, you could file a lawsuit to enforce the adoption order, but ultimately, this is a criminal act and should be treated as one. I have three ideas that at least have the potential to help here, depending on what cooperation you find at each place.

1) It is illegal for the kids not to be in school. Schools tend to be concerned about kIds who suddenly aren't in school anymore, not just for the obvious reasons, but because their funding is directly related to how many kids are in school each day. Have your daughter speak with someone at the school until she finds someone who seems to care what's going on. That may be the kids' teachers, or it may be a counselor, principal, or truant officer. Killeen ISD actually has their own police department--maybe you can get them interested, since this has resulted in the kids not going to school. Here's a link for them:

https://www.killeenisd.org/frontPageV2/

2) Try talking to CPS about this. If nothing else, they should be concerned about the fact that a woman they deemed unfit to care for these very kids now has unsupervised possession of them, and at a minimum, doesn't have them in school.

3) Call the media--local newspaper, TV station, whatever. Make sure you have your information carefully documented about names and positions of whoever you've talked to, along with dates and responses. Sometimes media pressure can radically change agencies' views on situations like this.

I wish you luck.

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Answered on 10/31/11, 10:38 am


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