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Case dismissed with prejudice, but DHS doesn't care

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lucbren

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Oregon

in 1997, my husband was accused of sex abuse 3. In Feb. 1998, his case was "dismissed with prejudice" due to NO evidence....all before going to trial. In 2001, the investigating officer discovered my husband was in the criminal justice program at the local college, and that my husband was interning at Parole and Probation. The Inv.Officer gave a copy of the 3 year old police report to the P&P supervisor. The supervisor requested a copy of the polygraph in order for me to remain with the P&P offices.

We are currently in the process of being foster care parents and adoptive parents through the state of Oregon...DHS. Yesterday, Aug. 29, 2005, we received a phone call from our case manager and her supervisor...who all told us that they discovered my husband was investigated for a crime, but that was all they could find. They have told us that we must give them a copy of the police report, or they won't even move forward with the foster care/adoption. We have asked our lawyer(the one who represented my husband) for advice, but she tells us there is nothing she can do...sometimes these things get leaked and we are at the mercy of the State. So...we have told DHS that we will sit with them and look at the info we still have (a couple pages of the police report...a report from the private investigator who found another man who could have/ should have been investigated too., and a letter of the dismissal. DHS restated that all they want is the police report. THey have already become rude with us and told us that they don't want to give sex offenders their children. I can't believe this. He was dismissed with prejudice 8 years ago. There was no evidence. He was innocent, only DHS is deeming my husband "guilty" and say they have the right to deny us for just the thought that it might have happened. Do we have any rights????
 


stephenk

Senior Member
Not really. your husband doesn't have to be convicted in order to be denied as a foster parent. dismissed with prejudice doesn't mean your husband is innocent, it just means there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. was the victim of the abuse a relative or a stranger?
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
Having a case dismissed with prejudice only means that that specific charge can't be tried again, it doesn't mean your husband is innocent or that his record is expunged. If he falsely reported this history depending on the questions asked and the facts, it can open up a can of worms as you have discovered. This sort of thing is a part of the background check and goes above and beyond in the afore mentioned situations. All they want is the facts, not your view of the facts. You should have a copy of the police report and have checked it for accuracy, and added amendments if needed. This should be no surprise if your husband is studying criminal justice.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
As a foster parent myself, I can tell you that social services agencies are pretty firm on two things:

(1) There is no legal RIGHT to be a foster parent. They do not have to prove you are unfit, YOU have to prove that you are fit.

and,

(2) If there is even an allegation of abuse or neglect that is sufficient to discontinue the application.

The fact that they are willing to sit down with you about the issue is positive. If the investigation was ultimately determined to be unfounded (i.e. it never happened) then you might stand a chance of becoming foster parents. However, the fact that it went to court and had to be dismissed there indicates that the report and investigation presented sufficient cause to believe he was guilty of the crime - even if it could not be sustained in court. An unproven case still might mean he committed the act ... it just couldn't meet the level of proof needed in court.

If there is even a chance he could have committed the crimes he was accused of, they will almost certainly deny the application.

As a closed case you might be able to obtain a copy of the report (IF it still exists after this many years, and, IF that state permits its release). If a copy IS obtained, then you can only hope that it contains the information that exonerates you. If it was dismissed in court for lack of evidence or because a witness went sideways, then you might want to try to get a copy of the court transcripts.

This may well be a very uphill battle.


rmet4nzkx said:
You should have a copy of the police report and have checked it for accuracy, and added amendments if needed. This should be no surprise if your husband is studying criminal justice.
As an FYI, even on the chance that they can get a copy of the old report, there is NO obligation for the police to add an addendum or even a rebuttal from the alleged suspect to the case file.


- Carl
 
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rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
CdwJava said:
As a foster parent myself, I can tell you that social services agencies are pretty firm on two things:

(1) There is no legal RIGHT to be a foster parent. They do not have to prove you are unfit, YOU have to prove that you are fit.

and,

(2) If there is even an allegation of abuse or neglect that is sufficient to discontinue the application.

The fact that they are willing to sit down with you about the issue is positive. If the investigation was ultimately determined to be unfounded (i.e. it never happened) then you might stand a chance of becoming foster parents. However, the fact that it went to court and had to be dismissed there indicates that the report and investigation presented sufficient cause to believe he was guilty of the crime - even if it could not be sustained in court. An unproven case still might mean he committed the act ... it just couldn't meet the level of proof needed in court.

If there is even a chance he could have committed the crimes he was accused of, they will almost certainly deny the application.

As a closed case you might be able to obtain a copy of the report (IF it still exists after this many years, and, IF that state permits its release). If a copy IS obtained, then you can only hope that it contains the information that exonerates you. If it was dismissed in court for lack of evidence or because a witness went sideways, then you might want to try to get a copy of the court transcripts.

This may well be a very uphill battle.



As an FYI, even on the chance that they can get a copy of the old report, there is NO obligation for the police to add an addendum or even a rebuttal from the alleged suspect to the case file.


- Carl
It sounded as if OP had copies of the PD report.
There was a high profile case of sexual abuse where the accused died before trial, thus he could not be found guilty. It caused problems in civil court.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
rmet4nzkx said:
It sounded as if OP had copies of the PD report.
There was a high profile case of sexual abuse where the accused died before trial, thus he could not be found guilty. It caused problems in civil court.
I think she wrote that they had a "couple pages" of the report.

We've had a couple of local cases here where the VICTIM has died before court thus making the cases untenable.

- Carl
 

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