A custody case involving five children in Kernersville is putting a spotlight on the Forsyth County Department of Social Services and a District Court judge. The children have been placed in foster care for 19 months, even though DSS officials say they support returning two of them to their parents. But the other three – U.S. citizens whose biological father has a criminal past – may be deported to Mexico as soon as this week.
The case is complicated and there are few good options for the children. Bertrand Gutiérrez and Michael Hewlett have reported on the story for the Winston-Salem Journal. In an interview with WFDD's Emily McCord, they help break down the situation and report that there are many unanswered questions about how this situation is being managed.
Interview Highlights:
On what is known about the parents:
Gutiérrez: What we know is that neither parent is going to be nominated for parent of the year. We found there really isn't an easy decision about where to place the children. Why this is all started in the first place [is] the mother beat and spanked her children so much that it left bruises for days on the children. She did report herself to DSS, which should be noted. With their father, we have records of assault... assault on the mother in the past. That charge was still lingering in 2014 when he showed up for a hearing. He was arrested, was convicted, and was deported. That's why he's in Mexico.
On how the judge determines custody in cases like this:
Hewlett: Judges, DSS officials, usually don't talk about specific cases, so we just talked in general 'what factors do you take into consideration?' and she said, essentially, that she takes the past of both parents into consideration but there's a little more scrutiny of the parent whom the children were removed from than the 'non-offending parent'.
On the unaswered questions about the case:
Hewlett: From our investiation, within a week or so, we've been able to find out a lot of information that the DSS didn't even consider. In the DSS report, for example, there's no mention of the convictions that the father faced in Texas.
Gutiérrez: Apparently the father does not want to keep the children where he lives. Arrangements have been made for the children to live with a woman in Mexico, but this woman is not a relative and she's not necessarily in a safe situation. Back in 2013, we found out she was kidnapped by the children's uncle. He knows where the woman lives. That's part of the mother's concern.
The terrible decision she has to make now is does she give up the fight for the three who have been ordered to go to Mexico in order to get two? Or does she continue to fight for all five, but by doing that, risk keeping them in foster care?
The Winston-Salem Journal will return to this subject in next week's Sunday paper to report on allegations by one of the foster mothers, Carol Pope, that the judge improperly handled the case.
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