Stepdad of kids in Calif. crash questions state
He says three children taken from him, wife never should have left their care in Texas
The stepfather of three Houston children who presumably plunged off a California cliff to their deaths last month joined with black community members on Monday in anguish over the children’s out-of-state adoption by a mother who was behind the wheel when the family perished.
“I’m going to be honest: Why did they let her take these kids out of the state of Texas?” stepfather Nathaniel Davis said before a prayer vigil held for the children. “It wasn’t right. They shouldn’t have taken the kids away from us like they did.”
Authorities in California are still investigating the March 26 incident that has gripped and horrified people across the nation. A car carrying a family of eight ran off a 100-foot cliff that day, and the bodies of Sarah and Jennifer Hart, both 39, and three of the couple’s adopted children were recovered soon after.
Three of the six children in the Harts’ care — and in the car that day — were Sierra, Jeremiah and Devonte, a group of siblings who were adopted from Harris County in 2009.
The discovery that the adoptive children were from Texas has prompted a renewed call for reform of the state’s foster system, which was ruled “broken” in 2015 by a U.S. district judge who demanded the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services overhaul how it oversees foster services for thousands of children in longterm care.
A total of 21 bills aimed at addressing issues with the foster system passed through the Texas Legislature in 2017.
But Monday outside the Harris County Family Law Center, the Coalition for the Preservation of the Black Family and about a dozen supporters argued that more needs to be done and that the state unnecessarily and unfairly separates black families in the foster system.
“We need to spend more time and more money strengthening the family … not on the court system that keeps them (apart) from those families,” said De-
loyd Parker, executive director of the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, which serves the Houston African-American community. “Right now we have misplaced priorities.”
Spokesmen with the state agency declined to comment on specifics of the case because of confidentiality reasons and reissued a statement sent when news organizations first reported that the Hart children were adopted out of Texas.
“In any adoption, we try to look at absolutely everything to ensure that it is a good match — that the child or children are getting a permanent and loving home,” the statement reads. “A typical adoption includes trial visits, and at least a six-month placement with the adoptive parents. During that time, for out-of-state adoptions, the child welfare agency in that state would be monitoring the family and reporting back to us, and we in turn report it to the judge overseeing the case. The judge reviews all the information on the adoptive parents and decides to approve, or deny, or ask for more information.”
Aunt’s request denied
The process to remove the Houston children from the custody of their biological mother began in 2006. Court records show that the mother had a history of drug abuse and that one of the children had suffered multiple bone fractures in her care. Her parental rights were terminated, according to the records.
An aunt, Houston resident Priscilla Celestine, sought custody of the children — Sierra, Devonte and Jeremiah and one other sibling, records show. A Houston-based appeals court denied her request in 2010 because she had let the boy’s biological mother see the children, in violation of a judicial order barring visitation.
According to the court records, the children lived with Celestine for about five months before they were placed in foster care. The Harts then adopted the three siblings in 2009 while they were living in Minnesota.
The Harts had previously adopted Abigail, Hannah and Markis — all siblings — from Colorado County in 2006. The Harts did not adopt the fourth Houston sibling removed from Celestine’s care. That fourth sibling is currently incarcerated and doesn’t know his siblings are dead, Davis said.
The stepfather said he and his wife — the Houston children’s biological mother — looked after the three siblings until they were put into the foster system.
While his wife struggled with drug abuse, she was a loving and good parent, Davis said.
“My wife, she always had been nice to our kids,” Davis said. “We’d never turn our back on those kids.”
Since the crash, a slew of allegations has surfaced about the Hart women’s treatment of their adopted wards in Minnesota, Washington and Oregon. Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to domestic assault in Minnesota.
An Alexandria, Minn., police report obtained last week shows that one of the daughters told authorities in 2008 one of her mothers bruised her with a belt, months before one of the adoptions was finalized.
And in March, neighbors in Woodland, Wash., contacted child welfare workers with concerns about the children not having enough food to eat. Washington authorities had visited the Harts’ home days before the crash.
California law enforcement officials are investigating whether the crash was intentional.
Sondera Malry, a member at large of the Association of Black Social Workers, said too many families have been wrongly separated through the foster system and that the Hart children are the latest to be placed in a worse situation than the one they left.
“This story is an age-old story,” Malry said. “We have been struggling with trying to keep our children with our families for many, many years. This is not new. But this is so tragic that these particular children were taken even out of the Harris County area, out of a system right here in Texas all the way into another state and then were brutally disregarded in terms of their life needs.”
“This should never have been,” she said.
‘This is genocide’
While interstate adoptions are still uncommon, roughly 300 to 400 foster children living in Texas are adopted each year from across state lines, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
“This is genocide,” said Pamela Muhammad, attorney for the Coalition for the Preservation of the Black Family. The Houston family was “shattered by callous and wanton disregard, under the pretext of … using the law as a tool to separate us from our loved ones.”
Muhammad said the coalition is committed to providing the black community tools to prevent the separation of families through the foster system.
“We’ve got to give them a fight because our children are worth it,” Muhammad said. “We are here in prayer, we’re praying for strength that we can fight this battle, and we’re praying for this family that has suffered this loss.