Thread: Woman's Children Removed Even After Police Find No Evidence

LINCOLN, Neb. - A single mother with four children is fighting to get her children back after the state Division of Children and Families' workers said she abused or neglected her kids. Police investigators said they don't have any evidence she committed a crime.

At Misty Valenzuela's house, the beds are made and her children's dolls are lined up in a row. Since March 9, Valenzuela's children have been in her mother's temporary custody under state order.

"I've never been away from my kids ever, so this is very hard," Valenzuela said.
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Since her divorce three years ago, Valenzuela said she's been the sole provider for her children. Valenzuela said that what she calls her nightmare started in December when she got a call from administrators at McPhee Elementary School in Lincoln. Authorities reported bruises on her son's wrist.

Valenzuela said she could understand how it could happen because her son is autistic and sometimes hard to control.

"The teachers hold his wrist so he doesn't run away. He's got behavior problems and he's hard to deal with at times, and I've went through tons of different baby sitters because nobody wants to take care of him," Valenzuela said.

Lincoln police detectives and the Nebraska Division of Children and Family investigators came to her house, Valenzuela said.

"Looked at the house and made sure there was food and they had beds clothes, and everything was fine," she said.

Lincoln police officers went to McPhee to talk with Valenzuela's children and the staff at the school. They said they didn't have enough evidence of a crime and made a finding that the was case inactive, records show.

"It means we're unable to prove a crime has occurred -- we've not established probable cause to make an arrest," said Sgt. Mark Unvert with Lincoln police's family crimes unit.

Unvert said detectives didn't have a case against Valenzuela, but the Division of Children and Families did.

"Police are looking for it from criminal investigation. The department is looking for it from child abuse and neglect," said the department's Todd Landry.

Landry said he wouldn't talk specifically about Valenzuela's case, but he said his agency did its own investigation and determined that Valenzuela abused or neglected her children. The agency put her name on Nebraska's child abuse registry.

"The purpose of the registry is for the protection of children and vulnerable adults," Landry said.

Valenzuela said she has never mistreated her children. A search found no criminal record for Valenzuela.

"I'm guilty until they prove me innocent and I don't think that's fair," she said.

She said she has lost her job as a nurse's aide, because she's listed on the child abuse registry.

"If your name is on there, you can't work with children, you can't do any health care," she said.

Valenzuela is fighting to get her name off the child abuse registry, and she said that she counts the hours until she can bring her children back home.

Landry said Valenzuela can appeal to get her name off the child abuse registry by filing an expungement request. Valenzuela said she's going to do that.

Landry said that if a request is denied, Valenzuela can ask for an administrative review, and if administrators rule against her, she can appeal to the district court.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24784449/

This is a pet peeve of mine. Every day we read about children who social services ignore and they die. At the same time, thousands of lives are destroyed by pulling kids with no cause. I want to know HOW THE HELL SOCIAL SERVICES CAN PUT YOU ON AN OFFENDER LIST WITHOUT CHARGING AND CONVICTING YOU OF A CRIME? She even has to go through 2 bureaucratic processes before a judge even hears the case. When any agency is allowed to bypass due process, are we really a free society? With this and illegal immigration, my fear is we are no longer a nation of laws.

This is truly scary and tragic. My son is autistic and one of the things he does is he bites his forearms when he is excited. He doesn't break the skin, but he does leave bruises on the upper part of his arm. Looks like someone grabbed him (except there are no bruises on the other side of his arm). Teachers of autistic kids know what is "normal" behaviour (for lack of a better word) in each of their charges. Some pull their hair, some bang their heads against walls, etc. As parents, we do the best we can to prevent them from hurting themselves.

How CPS can do this to autistic children, while ignoring legitimate child abuse is, I suspect, laziness and should be criminal. Autistic kids are "easier" to target. Imagine the horror an autistic child goes through when taken from his/her safe haven of mom and home!

Convicted without due process.