falsley accused

What is the name of your state? nh, my girlfriend and i have been together for over a year, not really living together but still together, she has two children from a previous relation, and a new born from me, last week the 10 month old injured his lower leg in his crib and now has a cast on his foot, the doctor does not believe us that he could have gotten his foot stuck between the slats of his crib and tossed and turned enough to create this fracture, we also think that maybe his two year old sister may have pulled on his leg, she goes in to see him in the morning and always tries to reach for him to hug and hold, right now we are being ask questions from the police and social worker, i have no problem with that, but we did not abuse him, they have given our son to my mother at night and her brother and girlfriend during the day, when the police talk to the mother they try to get her to say that i did it (boyfriend), and today i have to talk to them and i know they will try to get me to say she did it, what rights do we have , next week they are making her take a lie detector test, she is a young girl on state aide with two different faters, so they automatically look at us as child abusers, we are not.
please help if you can. we dont want to loose our children,

i dont really have any legal advice, but what i can say is if you really are innocent and you really love the children...it should show...i mean i think they would be able to see that. you just have to tell them how much you love them and that youd never hurt them....and put up a hell of a fight if they try to take them away. i think for the most part though it is your girlfriend who would have to pursue it because..i think you said your not the father of the 10 month old? correct me if im wrong. but either way you should be there to support her in her efforts.

he is not my biological son, but he his my son, my baby,
what gets me is that when the police and social worker were done questioning my girlfriend, they felt that they could not leave him there with her, and that i can not go over there when she is alone with the older child, third child is still in the hospital, born premature, they looked over at my mother, not blood relation to the child at all and never having met her or the brothers girlfriend, and asked if they would be able to take the baby.
how do they know that they did not have a past as injuring their child. if they so concerned about the safety of the children why didnt they take the other child away also.
the system is so screwed up. i know a person that has hurt their child serveral times and never once has anything been done.
and we have called social services more than one.
they say if we dont see the child being hurt than we cant prove anything. he we didnt do anything and were being harrased
thanks for listening
joeyboy

You both need lawyers. Like yesterday.

definately

GET A LAWYER!

You all are in serious danger from the "Child Protective Services" if they have already gone this far.

You need to each get lawyer NOW, and don't talk to anyone without your lawyers!

falsely accused

thank you all for you help. i have spoken to the police yesterday, i called and set up the appointment. all seemed to go fine with them. they respected the fact that i asked for the meeting and came in on my own. they still are going to do a lie detector test on my girlfriend and i said ill take one to. nothing to hide.
the cop was very respectful. listened to everything. and said he felt comfortable with all we spoke about. and even said he had enough respect for me, that he wanted to shake my hand.
(hopefully this is not just a front.) as far as getting a lawyer, the money is not there, but my girlfriend is on state aide so i am hoping she will get some help. the baby is still with my mother,
my mom is trying to find out is this type of injury has been reported before. i want this to be over, this is not good for a family to be broken apart. his sister really misses her brother.

uuhh, just so you know - the cops are not there to respect you or be your friends. They're around to catch people who break the law. So they can - and will - say anything that makes you comfortable.

You REALLY need to find the money for a lawyer, 'cause CPS will eat you up and spit you out otherwise.

Legal aid??

I totally agree with stealth - you NEED lawyers, whether you can afford them or not.

The cops will do anything to make you feel comfortable, so you will be more likely to incriminate yourself.

In most states, the lie detector test is not allowable in court, so it sounds like they are already jerking you around.

Get a lawyer - you can't afford not to. (You could face 10, 20, 40 years in prison, $10,000+ in fines, etc. - Makes the lawyer fees seem cheap by comparison.)

Is a spiral fracture the type of injury your son has? A spiral fracture is a particular type of injury that almost always is associated with abuse--it is not a clean break like what would happen if a child fell. Spiral fractures are jagged and an x-ray shows that the limb that is affected would have a 'twisted' look to the bone. I am a mother of a child that was abused by his biofather. Child had what is known as spiral fracture to his left femur. This type of break is almost always indicative of an abuse-type injury in a child (esp. under age 1). The biofather of my child seemed like 'dad of the year' to all (including me) and when I arrived at hospital his story was the child was rolling off couch and he grabbed his leg to stop him from falling. Broken bones in children under age 1 are rare--however spiral fractures are extremely rare and always suspect because the type of injury. I am going to take a guess that this is the type of break your son has since police and protective services acted so quickly. Although, they did not remove your other child from your care, so maybe it was not a spiral fracture? If you don't know, you need to find out exactly the extent of your child's injury--including the exact name of the type of break. Has any other testing for abuse been done to your child? Once the broken leg was diagnosed in my child, and the biofather's story suspect, further testing was done. They checked the child's retina's for hemorrages (damage and blood the naked eye cannot see)--and found their existence. This is due to a child being shaken and/or thrown or dropped onto a surface (Shaken baby syndrome). From there cat scans, mri's followed. I was completely shocked--as was everyone--including doctors who knew the biofather before his abuse came to light. After confronted and questioned with the evidense--the biofather admitted to the abuse. He was convicted of Felony child abuse. My advice to you is this--your child is hurt, and the cause must be discovered--be it a bizarre accident or abuse. Take lie-detector tests (not admissable in court, but protective services can accept the findings, and makes them more at ease). If you and your spouse (as well as anyone else who was alone with your child) pass the tests-- proceed from there. Demand your child be thoroughly examined (retinal eye exam, even cat scanned) to absolutely rule out any other injury. A 2 year old sibling is not strong enough to do this type injury. Was the break fresh--breaks can be 'dated'--was it immediately brought to a docor's attention? You must completely comply with everything authorities recommend--if the break is not 'fresh' --give a list of names of anyone who was alone with child. Does the child have regular doctors he has seen in the past? A pediatrician?-I would immediately write to every doctor or hospital and request (must be in writing) a copy of your child's medical record (including the latest from orthopedic surgeon (who set the leg). You and your spouse may wish to hire separate lawyers--if it is a spiral fracture, especially if the break is no fault of your own. I don't know all the details of your case. But knowing what I have been through--I would not just completely tell myself that I know blindly that a spouse (or anyone else that you may have trusted with your child) could not have abused.

great post, Felicia. So sorry for what you and your child have had to endure.

yes they are saying it is a spiral fracture, and a fresh break. they did do a full body x-ray before he left the hospital. no other problems were found. all his visits to the doctors were all regular checkups, no cuts or bruses, no diaper rashes, all normal.
i will be taking a lie detector test, and so will the mother. at this point right now they are waiting for consultations with another doctor about the xrays. and also the case worker that was assigned to the case is off for 2 weeks, so it was given to another worker.
i am looking into finding a lawer. this is getting very hard, for all, especially for my son.

Some advice

As a previous child protective investigator for five years (now on the other side of the fence) I can tell you that what Felicia says is quite true. A spiral fracture is quite rare and basically is an "abuse fracture" because of the nature of the injury. You must first understand a child's bones. I don't know if you have ever heard the term "green stick fracture" but it is also in children's cases that this type of fracture is seen - children have quite strong and 'flexible' bones that are actually quite resistant to breakage - hence green stick because like a tree branch that is "green" (try breaking one and see what happens) - you don't get a clean break - it takes EFFORT. Anyway, I investigated a couple of cases involving spiral and they were both determined to be abuse. I went back to the home on one case to take pictures of the crib (I also had stepped in after the initial investigator 'opened' the case) and they had burned the crib. Yet it was allegedly the "crib" that was the cause as they argued. Why did they destroy evidence that allegedly would have supported their argument? Children are innocent and unless older and quite verbal might not suggest "abuse" was done to them - especially if it was a "matter of course in their day" because they don't have anything to compare their life to. Also, given that your child was "sheltered" I am going to presume that they held a hearing and awarded the temporary custody to your mother. In Florida (Lee County) at the shelter hearing (which must be held within 24 hours of "removing" the child) a lawyer is appointed to represent you if you cannot afford one. Here they have rotating lawyers that always work "child welfare system". I think the questions going through ones mind are: How could a child purposefully cause themself this type of injury? That's just it - no child will continue a behavior that is exacting them severe pain. If they were they would be screaming and crying like crazy and where was the caregiver when this child was screaming his head off because he was "breaking his leg". No one - even adults - continue behaviors that hurt them (unless of course they are mentally deficient in some manner and engage in behaviors typical of that disorder. Someone has a lot of questions to answer in my opinion. I would worry a great deal if I were you - CPS has LOTS of powers - when I did my job I had more powers than the police - and that concerned even me. Now that I'm on the other side of the fence and after much radical restructuring of the dept. I get no special treatment - this new Judge doesn't even know I used to be a CPI - but enough about my nightmare...if I were you I would look into your state laws about the admissability of lie detectors. Even if inadmissable - as here - they use them with sexual abusers (if they can "nicely" get them to agree - as you two have). While not valid in criminal court it would most certainly be accepted in CPS court. Get help now.

The scary part is that CPS workers actually think they have more power then the police. But the only power they really have over you is that you haven’t learned, studied & imbedded your parental rights into your head. Never stipulate, let the judge decide. It just boggles their mind when you start quoting state/federal codes and items out of their own procedure manuals. Like a dog, don’t let them smell fear on you.
Go to www.cpswatch.com you need the resource section, top of the page. You also need to find a forensic medical doctor to review the case. Who knows, the child could have some kind of rare bone disorder such as Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Though I will admit, with that type of fracture, it doesn’t sound good for either of you right now.
Okay, enough of the support. One of you needs to take birth control to a more permanent level immediately. You both need to attend college or some type of trade school so that you can support these kids. Heck, with such a low income you two can probably obtain the same education for free that the rest of us end up spending 10's of thousands for. You love this woman, her kids you call your own, then marry her & make it legal. We all know you haven’t because it would cut off her welfare benefits. Rude, YUP, but you know it’s true as you even made a statement in your post about it. The question is, how are YOU going to FIX IT? Now, don't mumble & make up excuses, you can do this I know you can Joey!!!!!
KAT

all good advice here....i hope joeys nextpost is an update...maybe including him getting a lawyer instead of "looking into it" the children are theones who have to be suffering the most in all this mess...it is in the parents hands to get something done...or they can keep poking along and make it cps choice.