Brickbat: Too Close for Comfort

An Indiana couple has sued the state Department of Child Services, saying a case manager lied in court so that a 6-year-old boy would be removed from their home and placed with the boy's biological father, with whom the case manager was having an affair. The suit said Sandra Sell lied in an affidavit claiming Jason and Myka Kelly had violated court orders and engaged in abuse and neglect of their children. All six of their children were taken from them. The boy, Myka Kelly's son, was placed with his father and the others put into foster care. DCS fired Sell four months later, after her affair with the boy's father was discovered. Sell was charged with felony official misconduct and obstruction of justice and misdemeanor falsifying child abuse or neglect information or records. She pleaded guilty to the obstruction of justice charge and was sentenced to 179 days probation. The children were returned to their parents.
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Foolish woman. The father coming out on top in a custody battle is bound to raise red flags.
She should've known that being involved with a man would render any or all of her judgments null and void.
So they took her guns too?
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The boy was with a parent either way.
He was only there by violating legally required process, and five other kids were not with either of their parents.
And that's five counts of actual child abuse. She ought to be in prison for decades.
In 1991 I was having lunch with a friend. There were a couple of women at the next table over discussing their work. It turns out that they worked for the County's Children and Youth Service (CYS). One woman was bragging to her friend about how she had a newborn taken away from her Mother because of a grudge she held from High School. My Friend about freaked. She asked me to come and meet her Boss. I went with her and her Boss was the senior Judge for the County. She told him what she heard and he asked if I would testify under oath to having heard them. I said that I would. In the end, I didn't have to testify. The Child was given back to her Mother, the County settled for mid six figures and the CYS worker was let go. The CYS worker promptly got the same job, in the next County over (people wonder why I hate Public Sector Unions). These people have too much power with no oversight. Judges "rubber stamp" everything that they recommend because they are afraid of the political fallout in the event CYS is right.
The funny thing is I've personally witnessed both sides of the story. I've known a CPS worker, and she's told me horror stories both of accused children and workers abusing their power (what's really fucked, is in the abuse of power cases. There was no mechanic for punishing or reporting minor abuses of power, even if the result was a child being seperated from her mother for half a decade (the mom was a bad mom, but she was a bad mom within acceptable ranges. She didn't beat her kid, starve them, or any of the horrifying things that actually justify seperation)
. Judges "rubber stamp" everything that they recommend because they are afraid of the political fallout in the event CYS is right.
Judges treat social workers like cops, as in their words are treated like the word of God, even though it's an open secret that both cops and social workers "testilie" in court.
The entire court system is built upon believing people who everyone knows is lying.
So an employee lied and manipulated the system for her own ends, but was both fired and prosecuted when caught. So what is the suit for? Should the agency be actively monitoring their employees personal lives to prevent this kind of thing?
The suit is to make the family whole for the wrongs committed by the agency and its employees.
And yes, the agency is responsible for everything it's employees do or fail to do related to their work. Yes, the agency should be taking active steps to identify and eliminate conflicts of interest such as this one. Do they even have a conflict of interest policy?
Do they require self-reporting of conflicts? Were they already aware of the relationship but willfully ignored the potential for conflict? The agency should also be taking active steps to confirm allegations used in court. Do they as a matter of practice perform any due diligence beyond taking a single employee's word for it. These are questions of fact for the jury to determine whether the agency had any such steps and whether they were reasonable.
The only thing I have more contempt for than a cop is a social worker.
I still think there's a lot of cops who actually want to protect and serve. Clearly there are way too many corrupt and just plain "respect my authority" cops that any cop must be considered suspect, but I'm gonna go with my rough belief that there's a lot who want to do the right thing.
Not so with social workers, with the possible exception of a few bright-eyed bleeding hearts in their rookie years.
Besides, it is a low IQ profession.
The same "bottom-of-the-barrel" state college that trains most of my state's idiot public school teachers also trains most of the state's social workers. Awesome.
There are only two groups of college graduates who scored lower on the SAT's going into college and the GRE coming out than teachers: social work majors and school administration majors. If your kid's 4th grade teacher seems less intelligent than your kid, chances are the principal is even stupider - and so is the social worker that investigates allegations of child abuse.
So an employee...was both fired and prosecuted when caught.
179 days of probation does not remotely reflect the magnitude of her (not sure of their pronouns) crime. I am sure there were no specific policies in place about lying to the court at the behest of one's boyfriend to help get his (not sure of their pronouns) biological son, but I think the custodial interference merits a couple of years in prison. And I don't think the taxpayers should have to pay to feed, clothe or house this sack of shit. There has to be some deterrence for the rest of these parasites.
She got a job the next county over and is likely up to the same tricks, because lying and manipulating is what cops and social workers do.
No qualified immunity? How do things like this happen? How could she know that what she did was wrong much less illegal? Was there another case where a social worker was bumping uglies with a parent and got the other parents children taken away and it was found to be improper?
The case was recently filed. It hasn't gotten to the stage yet when the court hears motions for dismissal.
"The traumatized children were eventually returned to their parents."