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Felony child endangerment charge for dirty house?

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N Lee

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA


The fire department was called to my brother's house by my sister-in-law to check on a small house fire that had already been extinguished. The firefighter noted that there were no smoke alarms and that the house was cluttered and dirty. My brother is on permanent disability and, yes, they are poor.

Next thing they knew they were both arrested and charged with 3 felony counts of child endangerment because there were three children. The kids were picked up by Child Protective Services and sent to foster care. Each parent plead to 1 misdemeanor count of child endangerment, mainly because they couldn't make the $100K bail and were offered time served, plus 52 weeks of parenting classes.

They returned home and cleaned up and repaired the home to CPS' satisfaction. However, the children have not yet been returned to them and they have also been unable to visit them because the criminal court judge has blocked it, although the family court has no problem with visitation. It has been a month now and there is a trial set in family court for this week.

My questions are:

Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

If the kids are not returned to their parents, what are chances of my husband getting temporary custody (assuming we are fit) as we live out of state? There is no family member in California who is able to take them, my husband and I are willing and able and the parents are all for it, but CPS thinks that the distance would be detrimental to family reunification.

Any thoughts?

A Concerned Auntie
 
Last edited:


CJane

Senior Member
The house HAD to be more than 'cluttered and dirty'. What caused the fire? Were the children home when the fire started? When was the fire department called? How old are the children?

Not having smoke detectors is a big deal - especially since they're available free from almost every fire station on the planet. Did they have a working fire extinguisher? How did they extinguish the fire? Were any of the children injured in the fire?
 

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