Givemestrength
Member
Pennsylvania
My minor son was accused of SA. CPS started an investigation first for failure to protect as the other child was a child in my home. They did a forensic interview of the alleged victim Feb 2021. At the interview the DA said charges would be filed against my son and to expect police contact within the next few days, never told us what was alleged. March 2021 CPS tried to do an interview of my son, saying they had permission from the police but I didn't let it happen. They stated they were not sure if police were going to press charges because I brought up that we have not had contact yet. I also brought up that the DA said it was going to be sent to police out of our jurisdiction and questioned that too. The worker said it was corrected and sent to state police. I got a letter the end of March 2021 saying the investigation of CPS end was closed saying that it was invalidated against my son as he is not a caretaker of the children. Validated against me because I didn't allow access to my home or children. I appealed within the 45 days because I could prove I did both. I also argued that I had no obligation to cooperate with their investigation and not cooperating is not a sign of guilt. I was able to get that decision changed to invalidate. Next thing I know CPS is at my door again for the same thing and I ask why since I got a closing letter in the mail. The worker states they opened a new investigation for continued concerns. This went on till the end of May 2021. At that point I thought everything was over. The deputy director that did my appeal said everything was done and closed.
March of 2022 I have an officer show up at my doorstep asking to talk with my son for an investigation. I questioned the officer why this has taken so long and he said he had a lot of big cases and is just now getting to it. Something to the fact he is the only investigator ect. The officer could not elaborate on the allegations either to me. He filed charges in May 2022. The charges paperwork we got in the mail was the first incite to what was alleged.
For reasons out of our control my son did not have his adjudication hearing till Feb 2023. The judge asked what took so long to the officer on the stand. The officer said the case was sent to the wrong police and he ended up getting it when he went to the child interview center for something unrelated. This is not what he told me or what CPS told me. The judge moved on from that issue. My son was found not guilty citing lack of evidence and inconsistent testimony from the alleged victim. The only thing they had against my son was the girls word in her forensic interview. They had no physical evidence, never had her go to a doctor. Her testimony differed quite a bit from the forensic interview and when she was cross examined she really slipped up.
April 2023 CPS calls me and ask me to interview my son again saying the have an investigation open on him for all of this stuff. I decline saying the judge has already decided. 2 days later I get a letter in the mail informing us of yet another CPS investigation that was opened in Feb 2021 and still open on my son. Mind you they tried to interview him back in March of 2021 without notifying him he was being investigated. We always thought it was just the adults in the house being investigated for failure to protect. The letter also threatened dependency action. I assumed it was a threat to take my kids since my son had just went though dependency action. After a lot of push back from me riding up the Deputy Director of DHS butt and contacting the regional office who then got involved and forced the Deputy Director to do a grievance the investigation was closed in May 2023. The reason for the unfounded decision in the closing letter was because of the juvenile court decision.
I made a request for all the case file though the county and through Harrisburg. I was able to get the files for the failure to protect investigation against me and my son and the SA investigation against my son from the county. But I was unable to get the files for the continued concerns investigation, reason being that they were destroyed because it was past the time they keep them because of the invalidated decision. I only received the records from the failure to protect investigation from Harrisburg. The other two cases were destroyed on their end because of the time it has been since the investigation and the determination. I questioned harrisburgh about the file on my son as they were still investigating it the month prior. The lady on the phone said they have to go off of the date it was opened, early February 2021, and that it being June 2023 it was well past the 60 days they had to make a decision.
I found out through the case file from Harrisburg that my fiancé was also investigated in the failure to protect but he was never notified by the county. He was found validated for abuse and was never notified to appeal as I was able to. I even inquired to the Deputy Director during my appeal in 2021 why it was only against me. She didn't answer me and just moved on. I contacted her again and she said she would look in to it and get a letter out to my fiancé right away. But again he was well past his 45 days to appeal the decision. He is now on the child abuse registry for not cooperating with their investigation, but that is a lie as I was able to prove on my end.
The SA case files I was able to get from the county had a lot of concerning things in them. First off it says the investigation was closed because a decision was not made in the allotted time frame. This is not the reason given on the closing letter. In one area the case worker and the supervisor signed off to close it in April 2021 but the administrator and legal review did not sign off till May 2023. There is an email that was sent from someone in the agency the day the investigation was opened to inform the police of a pending forensic interview. This was the notice that was sent to the wrong police. This email was addressed to a lot of people including the judge the presided over my sons trial! There is also the official 24 hour police notice that was sent that states "per regulation, we will send notification of the report of suspected abuse to the alleged perpetrator within 48 hours of the receipt of the report, unless you notify us that by sending the notification it will interfere with the criminal investigation." There is no documentation for that request until a month later, march 2021. It came in the form of an email from the DA requesting delayed notice. It also says resending to the correct jurisdiction, but did not have the case file attached like it did with the first police department. Case notes say they had contact with the DA and the correct police in march of 2021, both requesting CPS not to interview my son. However the worker still tried to interview him even saying she got permission!
What can I do about all of this? I want to hold everyone responsible that I can. There are numerous things that seem highly wrong with all of this to me. I know CPS violated numerous things in CPSL. From what I understand of the juvenile law there isn't a set time for a hearing but best practices are 30 - 60 days after charges are filed. How can CPS investigate someone and not tell them, in the case of my son and my fiancé? They tried to question my son when there was a pending police investigation and not tell him. He didn't find out the accusations against him till discovery when we were able to watch the forensic interview, November 2022. How can CPS open a new investigation with the reason of continued concerns? It seems like harassment, why would they just not open a case from the previous investigation? Seems like they were not able to open a case legally so they just opened a new investigation to keep coming to my house. How can the police take so long to investigate? Why did it take so long from the time charges were filed till my son was able to have his day in court? Why would the judge be addressed in all the emails between CPS, the DA and the police? Wouldn't that create bias? This is the short version of things too. Ill be happy to clarify things in detail if it helps.
My minor son was accused of SA. CPS started an investigation first for failure to protect as the other child was a child in my home. They did a forensic interview of the alleged victim Feb 2021. At the interview the DA said charges would be filed against my son and to expect police contact within the next few days, never told us what was alleged. March 2021 CPS tried to do an interview of my son, saying they had permission from the police but I didn't let it happen. They stated they were not sure if police were going to press charges because I brought up that we have not had contact yet. I also brought up that the DA said it was going to be sent to police out of our jurisdiction and questioned that too. The worker said it was corrected and sent to state police. I got a letter the end of March 2021 saying the investigation of CPS end was closed saying that it was invalidated against my son as he is not a caretaker of the children. Validated against me because I didn't allow access to my home or children. I appealed within the 45 days because I could prove I did both. I also argued that I had no obligation to cooperate with their investigation and not cooperating is not a sign of guilt. I was able to get that decision changed to invalidate. Next thing I know CPS is at my door again for the same thing and I ask why since I got a closing letter in the mail. The worker states they opened a new investigation for continued concerns. This went on till the end of May 2021. At that point I thought everything was over. The deputy director that did my appeal said everything was done and closed.
March of 2022 I have an officer show up at my doorstep asking to talk with my son for an investigation. I questioned the officer why this has taken so long and he said he had a lot of big cases and is just now getting to it. Something to the fact he is the only investigator ect. The officer could not elaborate on the allegations either to me. He filed charges in May 2022. The charges paperwork we got in the mail was the first incite to what was alleged.
For reasons out of our control my son did not have his adjudication hearing till Feb 2023. The judge asked what took so long to the officer on the stand. The officer said the case was sent to the wrong police and he ended up getting it when he went to the child interview center for something unrelated. This is not what he told me or what CPS told me. The judge moved on from that issue. My son was found not guilty citing lack of evidence and inconsistent testimony from the alleged victim. The only thing they had against my son was the girls word in her forensic interview. They had no physical evidence, never had her go to a doctor. Her testimony differed quite a bit from the forensic interview and when she was cross examined she really slipped up.
April 2023 CPS calls me and ask me to interview my son again saying the have an investigation open on him for all of this stuff. I decline saying the judge has already decided. 2 days later I get a letter in the mail informing us of yet another CPS investigation that was opened in Feb 2021 and still open on my son. Mind you they tried to interview him back in March of 2021 without notifying him he was being investigated. We always thought it was just the adults in the house being investigated for failure to protect. The letter also threatened dependency action. I assumed it was a threat to take my kids since my son had just went though dependency action. After a lot of push back from me riding up the Deputy Director of DHS butt and contacting the regional office who then got involved and forced the Deputy Director to do a grievance the investigation was closed in May 2023. The reason for the unfounded decision in the closing letter was because of the juvenile court decision.
I made a request for all the case file though the county and through Harrisburg. I was able to get the files for the failure to protect investigation against me and my son and the SA investigation against my son from the county. But I was unable to get the files for the continued concerns investigation, reason being that they were destroyed because it was past the time they keep them because of the invalidated decision. I only received the records from the failure to protect investigation from Harrisburg. The other two cases were destroyed on their end because of the time it has been since the investigation and the determination. I questioned harrisburgh about the file on my son as they were still investigating it the month prior. The lady on the phone said they have to go off of the date it was opened, early February 2021, and that it being June 2023 it was well past the 60 days they had to make a decision.
I found out through the case file from Harrisburg that my fiancé was also investigated in the failure to protect but he was never notified by the county. He was found validated for abuse and was never notified to appeal as I was able to. I even inquired to the Deputy Director during my appeal in 2021 why it was only against me. She didn't answer me and just moved on. I contacted her again and she said she would look in to it and get a letter out to my fiancé right away. But again he was well past his 45 days to appeal the decision. He is now on the child abuse registry for not cooperating with their investigation, but that is a lie as I was able to prove on my end.
The SA case files I was able to get from the county had a lot of concerning things in them. First off it says the investigation was closed because a decision was not made in the allotted time frame. This is not the reason given on the closing letter. In one area the case worker and the supervisor signed off to close it in April 2021 but the administrator and legal review did not sign off till May 2023. There is an email that was sent from someone in the agency the day the investigation was opened to inform the police of a pending forensic interview. This was the notice that was sent to the wrong police. This email was addressed to a lot of people including the judge the presided over my sons trial! There is also the official 24 hour police notice that was sent that states "per regulation, we will send notification of the report of suspected abuse to the alleged perpetrator within 48 hours of the receipt of the report, unless you notify us that by sending the notification it will interfere with the criminal investigation." There is no documentation for that request until a month later, march 2021. It came in the form of an email from the DA requesting delayed notice. It also says resending to the correct jurisdiction, but did not have the case file attached like it did with the first police department. Case notes say they had contact with the DA and the correct police in march of 2021, both requesting CPS not to interview my son. However the worker still tried to interview him even saying she got permission!
What can I do about all of this? I want to hold everyone responsible that I can. There are numerous things that seem highly wrong with all of this to me. I know CPS violated numerous things in CPSL. From what I understand of the juvenile law there isn't a set time for a hearing but best practices are 30 - 60 days after charges are filed. How can CPS investigate someone and not tell them, in the case of my son and my fiancé? They tried to question my son when there was a pending police investigation and not tell him. He didn't find out the accusations against him till discovery when we were able to watch the forensic interview, November 2022. How can CPS open a new investigation with the reason of continued concerns? It seems like harassment, why would they just not open a case from the previous investigation? Seems like they were not able to open a case legally so they just opened a new investigation to keep coming to my house. How can the police take so long to investigate? Why did it take so long from the time charges were filed till my son was able to have his day in court? Why would the judge be addressed in all the emails between CPS, the DA and the police? Wouldn't that create bias? This is the short version of things too. Ill be happy to clarify things in detail if it helps.
