An affluent doctor's DCFS case highlights the corruption low-income families face in the child welfare system.
Beverly Hills doctor Susan Spell filed a $750 million lawsuit against Los Angeles County to regain custody of her four children, who were wrongfully removed from her care without a warrant or court order.
Spell claims DCFS (Dept. of Children & Family Services) social workers lied under oath and falsified evidence to justify removing her four children from her care. DCFS then placed the children with their father who has a documented history of domestic violence.
The county settled the suit for $150,000 in March 2018. Spell believes the fact that the county was willing to settle for $150,000 for her not to take them to court, implies that they (DCFS) knew they intentionally did something wrong.
False Allegations are Common in DCFS Cases and Dependency Court
DCFS will use any minor infraction to say parents are abusing their kids. They will exaggerate any minor incident to make it look far worse than it really is. It’s also common for DCFS to completely falsify evidence.
Parents are helpless when it comes to fighting false allegations from DCFS. Judges side with DCFS. And court appointed attorneys do not defend the parents.
Most of the cases in dependency court are comprised of low-income families. They do not have the resources to fight for their rights.
Wider Implications for the General Public
Spell’s case demonstrates how difficult it is for lower-income families to fight against DCFS. And DCFS takes full advantage of this situation.
If an affluent Beverly Hills doctor with private representation and the best resources available has a difficult time fighting DCFS; you can imagine how much more difficult it is for low-come families to fight for custody of their children.
Low-income families must rely on court appointed attorney’s because they don’t have resources to hire a private attorney.
The court appointed attorneys are useless. They are not on the parents’ side. They work for the court. In fact, nobody in dependency court is on the parent's side. This includes corrupt family court judges.
Most families don’t have a chance once their case goes to court. DCFS knows from the start that they are going to take the kids. Yet they demand the parent’s go through months and months of testing and programs, only to be told that their parental rights are terminated.
Parental rights are often terminated even if the parents did everything the court asked them to do. Even if the parents were completely innocent of the charges to begin with.
DCFS does not want to give parents their kids back. The motive for taking the kids is a perverse cash incentive. A cash incentive is involved for every child placed in the system. The more kids that are placed in the system, the more money DCFS receives.
This is a corrupt system where kids are being used as pawns. Kids are nothing but “merchandise” to child welfare workers. The more kids they have, the greater the reward.
What happened to the original purpose of Child Protective Services; which is to protect children?
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