Father describes hard lessons

Blogger Note:

This sounds all too familiar! It seems that every family that CPS touches, tells the same story. The only difference is in the names. The only good that ever comes of CPS involvement with a family is that they soon learn the truth about kangaroo courts and how our country is truly run. ? What Constitution ?
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Family dispute gone wrong leads to girls taken from home.

ELKHART — Victor Marquis remembers Sept. 13, 2007, as the day his disillusionment with his country began.

Marquis, a 47-year-old engineer whose two teenage daughters live with him, recalls that night in 2007 when they were taken away and mired in what he calls an unconstitutional system.

That night, Marquis says, the family was planning to attend an event that required wearing clothes that his older daughter, Victoria, resisted putting on.

Tensions between him and his now-ex-wife were already heading toward divorce, he says, and when 13-year-old Victoria refused to wear the outfit, Marquis became so angry he decided to spank the girl. His wife stepped in front of him to block him, he says, so he spanked his wife instead.

His then-wife ran downstairs and Marquis followed, he says, accidentally running into the girls’ stepmother and knocking her down some stairs.

Marquis says the woman was not injured and things calmed down, so he left to pick up his younger daughter. But when he returned, police were there.

The father was ultimately charged with felony domestic battery in front of a minor, which was reduced to a misdemeanor and led to a year’s probation.

But the incident also led to the girls being declared wards of the state, who spent almost 18 months in foster homes.

Marquis’ first attorney told him to agree with Child Protective Services that the children were in need of services and things would move more quickly; instead, he says, the situation became even more complicated.

Victoria, who is now 18, says one foster home had such a bad lice infestation that the girls suffered with the nits for six months. The other home, she says, housed other foster children who ate most of the available food, forcing the girls to appeal to a neighbor for sustenance.

Marquis says he attended individual and family therapy sessions, trying his best to comply with Department of Child Services wishes.

He attended anger management classes, he says, but they insisted that he admit to beating his wife.

“They wanted me to say, ‘I’m Victor Marquis, and I’m a batterer,’” he says. “I wasn’t a wife abuser. ... There were men in there who had beat their wives and still had their kids.”

The man running the program eventually testified that Marquis was in denial about what had happened, he says.

Even after he had hired a different attorney, Marquis says he wasn’t allowed to call his own witnesses, such as the girls’ mother, Sharon Marquis, to defend his parenting skills. Sharon had given him full custody long before the incident, she says, because of issues of her own.

Sharon Marquis and both girls say Victor has rarely lost his temper. But “I could have handled it differently, I admit,” he says now.

The judge stressed that it was against the law for him to tell anyone else about the case, he says, which added to the helplessness.

“They were feeling good about taking my kids away from me based on incorrect information, which I was never able to refute,” Marquis says.

“There’s no oversight,” he says, “and parents are minimized.”

Meanwhile, Victoria says that when she’d meet with her Court Appointed Special Advocate, what she told her was reported out of context in court.

She told the woman, “‘I miss my family,’” Victoria says. “‘My dad is a little crazy, but isn’t everybody a little crazy?’ She told the judge I said, ‘My dad is crazy.’ It was ridiculous. They didn’t really listen.”

The girls had to switch schools twice while living in the foster homes. Victoria says she’s less trusting — and more possessive of her things — than she used to be.

Her father is more bitter.

“This is not the country I grew up in,” Marquis says. “This is not the country I thought it was.”

Source http://www.wsbt.com/news/sbt-father-describes-hard-lessons-20120226,0,5201592.story

Children removed from home of ACLU director after dispute - South Dakota

Written by John Hult

The stepchildren of the director of the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union were placed in protective custody last week after a family dispute call at his address.

Robert Doody, 31, was asked to leave a closed child protection hearing Tuesday morning at the Minnehaha County Courthouse. A judge decided at the hearing to keep the children in protective custody during a Department of Social Services investigation.

The inquiry was sparked by a report of physical abuse given to the Department of Social Services by the biological father of two of the children. By law, Social Services can place children in protective custody for 10 days while it investigates claims against parents.

Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Aaron McGowan confirmed Tuesday that he was aware of allegations, but said no charges have been filed against the mother or stepfather.

“We’ll have to wait for the investigating agency’s report,” McGowan said.

Doody said the removal of his Native American stepchildren, as well as his absence from the courtroom, constitute violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The welfare act bars the foster care placement of Native children under most circumstances and gives Native parents additional rights during custody hearings.

“This is a disgrace. It goes to show that the state does not give due process to Indians or non-Indians,” Doody said after the hearing. “It’s a sham.”

Doody and the children’s maternal grandmother initially walked into the hearing Tuesday morning but were asked to leave, he said.

Doody denied any wrongdoing.

The only family members inside the courtroom were the children’s biological parents: Doody’s wife, Kimberly St. John, and their father, David Knorr.

After the hearing, Knorr said the judge determined that the children would remain in protective custody while the Social Services investigation proceeds. Doody and his wife objected to a placement in Knorr’s home.

The report appears on the Sioux Falls Police Department’s daily call log as a “family dispute” Friday morning, although Knorr said the incident in question took place Wednesday.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens confirmed only that the call came in as a Department of Social Services referral.

Doody has been the director of South Dakota’s chapter of the civil rights organization since 2008.

The organization has offered support to Native Americans suing the Department of Corrections and displaced voters on Indian reservations.

A spokesperson for the national ACLU declined to comment on the matter Tuesday.

“Robert Doody is an ACLU employee and as this is a personal matter,” Marsha Zeesman said.

Doody’s lawyer, Debra Voight, did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday night.

St. John is director of Mita Maske Ti Ki, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Source http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120222/NEWS/302210043/Children-removed-from-home-of-ACLU-director-after-dispute?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home