Wheels of justice turn slowly as foster moms seek boys’ return
The drab little courtroom off the square in Wharton, with its blond wood, stoic flags and idle metal detector at the door, seemed like an alternative universe.
Two Houston foster mothers who entered Thursday with anticipation and profound concern for the little boys recently removed from their home were jolted back by a process puttering along at half speed.
The horrifying realities facing the boys seemed shrouded in jargon and legal formalities. A CPS supervisor in a shiny suit, and the county attorney paid to represent the agency, moved with an utter lack of urgency.
The judge, Eric Andell, at least seemed to grasp the seriousness of the case and noted he’d read about it in this column last week.
The foster mothers, Angela Sugarek and Carol Jeffery, who were by all accounts loving parents to 3-year-old “Dion” and 4-year-old “Darius,” saw their plans of adoption dashed when CPS relocated the boys last month, apparently because the foster mothers had reported alleged abuse by a teen halfsibling living elsewhere in foster care.
Sugarek and Jeffery had long suspected 15-year-old “Bobby” had molested the 3-year-old in the past because of the little one’s strange behavior before and after required visits. They say CPS dismissed their concerns because they hadn’t witnessed abuse with their own eyes. But the women say their suspicions were confirmed when the 3-year-old came back from a CPS-supervised adoption fair he’d attended with his brothers with an anal abrasion. Soon after the foster mothers reported it, CPS relocated the boys.
At the status hearing last week, the foster mothers hoped the judge would consider their motion. They asked to be heard in matter, and they made a formal request to adopt the boys. But a ruling was delayed because their attorney had filed the motion only the night before.
we get this case to trial, the better off we are,” the judge told the attorneys and court-appointed advocates. “Time is not our friend.”
In fact, time may be the enemy for two troubled little boys with a history of abuse.
After several foster homes each, they had finally found stable, nurturing parents in Sugarek and Jeffery, and, after six months in the couple’s North Lindale home, they seemed to be making great progress on everything from delayed speech to trust.
Then, they were torn away. With each passing day, the bonds fade, the progress erodes. Trial not due for months
Julie Ketterman, the couple’s attorney, pleaded for swift action to return the boys.
The CPS supervisor, Ramiro Hernandez, and others at the hearing apparently didn’t share her concern.
Sugarek and Jeffery were referred to as the “former” foster parents. Hernandez indicated that, despite the sexual assault allegation, the agency’s goal is still to keep the three boys together and find an adoptive home that will take all of them. Amy Rod, an attorney appointed to represent the unique best interests of each of the three boys, made no mention of her obvious conflict.
The Wharton County Attorney, G.A. “Trey” Maffett, representing CPS, said it would be a while before he could get around to reading the foster mothers’ petition to intervene, adding he’ll be out this week. He accused Ketterman of trying to “browbeat” the judge into a “media hearing,” an apparent reference to my presence in the courtroom.
Seconds later, the judge, who had tried to conduct a transparent hearing in the open courtroom, ordered the parties: “Into my chambers, now!”
When they emerged, the judge described the attorneys on both sides as “recalcitrant” and “hunkered down.” Ketterman told me later the judge indicated the foster mothers had standing in the case, but a tentative jury trial on that issue and their move to adopt the boys was set for August.
The foster mothers were crestfallen that a decision could be months away, but what happened next left them both confused and hopeful.
After the hearing, CPS program director Leshia Fisher approached the foster mothers for an interview.
I didn’t observe the conversation, and a CPS spokesman wouldn’t discuss it, but Ketterman filled me in afterward: Apparently, CPS had completed an investigation of the alleged abuse, and found nothing, but didn’t even bother to interview Sugarek and Jeffery. Fisher was concerned about the way the investigation was conducted, Ketterman said, and had started a fresh review.
“She’s looking into everything,” Ketterman said.
Shockingly, though, Ketterman said Fisher seemed unaware that the boys hadn’t been returned to Sugarek and Jeffery.
Fisher thought the children were removed only for a couple of days, during the investigation, and then returned, Ketterman said.
“She asked me, ‘They weren’t brought back?’ And I said, ‘No!’ ” Ketterman said.
She said Fisher also told her the agency immediately ceased the boys’ visitation with the 15-year-old and has not resumed it. ‘Covering up’ mistakes?
Ketterman said she believes the younger boys’ due process rights have been violated, but she’s holding off filing for sanctions against CPS and other parties until Fisher’s probe is complete. She didn’t hide her frustration.
“CPS at this point appears to be covering up either their inability to protect these kids or their unwillingness,” Ketterman said. “These very same CPS caseworkers are going to take kids away from moms, dads and grandmas for failure to protect. And they’re doing the same thing.”
She suggested that the wheels of justice might turn faster if the boys weren’t black: “If these were two little white boys, this would not be happening,” she said.
For their part, Sugarek and Jeffery came away thinking the boys they grew to love simply aren’t a priority to the agency charged with protecting them.
“We’re still worried about their well-being. I mean, simple, silly things,” said Sugarek, a middle school principal in the Heights. “Is (Dion) going to speech? We worked so hard to get his speech where it was. Is it now going backward? How’s his asthma?” Hope for happy ending
Jeffery, an elementary science teacher, was thinking about the long term: “If this is truly the time where kids’ brains are in a make-or-break situation, will they be able to recover and bounce back?”
The mistakes, delays and dangerous decisions in this case are maddening, and they further erode any confidence we might have in the broken Texas foster care system.
But it doesn’t have to end this way. Ketterman says that’s what she told Fisher.
“I said, ‘Here’s a story: CPSwas accountable,’” she said. “‘Yeah, they made some mistakes, but the boys are home and they’re doing the right thing.’ That could be the story.”
It’s the ending I pray I get to write. It’s the ending these two sweet, vulnerable little boys deserve. And soon.