Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

My daughter was born addicted to methadone. The doctors all had full knowledge and I was in an at risk pregnancy program along with working w my obgyn and pain management to get off the methadone. I went from 60 to 20 mg before she was born. She was able to be weened off by 5 was old but I did panic and admitted to smoking a joint the day before I had her. Cps came to hospital and took custody and later closed investigation referring me to family services. My mother fought for them to re open the case and evicted us without cause so that I had to take her to a homeless shelter. Then when I was taken to court when she was five mos old my lawyer there recused himself bc my sister who was the complaintant had hired his sister which was a conflict of interest. So I had no lawyer at all that day. My uncle( mothers brother) had just been appointed district judge and had previously been mayor in my town. In short I lost custody that day and fought to get her back. Forty five min before I got her back and this was about four mos later, drug task force showed at my door telling me that my judge uncle had another judge sign the search warrant bc his house had been robbed of guns and jewelry the night before and he thought I had done it. He lives in a three story house w an elevator. So five men w task force came in my little apt and first told me I might have a gun under my little nothing robe and strip searched me then after tearing apart my house the lead guy reached up in a cabinet that was way up high and found a pinky fingernail Amt of pot. Cps sent a lab guy to swab me at the jail and I was totally clean except the methadone. Which I told the jail doctor to get me off of and I did in May of 2010. I would walk in the courtroom for court over the next two years and my uncle would already be in my judges chambers visiting and come out acting like he owned the courtroom and take a seat against me. My family are all wealthy doctors and lawyers and I embarrassed them bc I asked for and needed help w my addictions to opiates then cocaine. I never got another chance to get her back and fell into depression and thencocaine addiction. Finally my rights were terminated and my sister adopted her in 2012. She is seven now and my uncle finally had to resign as judge bc it came out that he had done a whole lot illegal while being judge. Plus it came out that he had done a lot of these things w the help of the judge who is now retired but had originally taken her from me. His reasoning had been that even though I had gone from 200 mg a day to 20 mg a day that I was still in his opinion on heroin effectively. And although I agreed to take her and stay w my sister and only be alone w her certain times and not take her outside f house alone along w the fact that I was getting ready for treatment I had scheduled to get off that last 20 MG. He left the final say to my sister who said she would take my daughter but not me. I appealed all of this but then again every lawyer I had court appointed or not told me they didn't want to work for me bc of their future cases w my uncle who was against me. They all felt it would hurt them in his eyes. So I never got a final visit either and lost my appeal. I have been clean now over four years and I don't know my rights or if I have any now after they took them and she has been adopted. My family acts like I should just get over it all and like I'm wasting my time even caring about the issue. My thoughts are if I'm going to act then now is the time since my uncles reputation and all he did illegally will be forgotten before too long and bc maybe even if I can't do anything for myself I can prevent this from happening to someone else or help someone else he took their kids from could maybe get them back. So do I have any chances of any of that and how would I get this to be brought out for public to be aware of without it being covered up or me disappearing because people have died already trying to expose this.


Asked on 11/12/16, 6:51 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Thomas Daley KoonsFuller PC

I am so very sorry all this happened to you and your baby. Worse, once your rights are terminated and the child is adopted, particularly 4 years later, there is no way to undo it all. At some point the legal system prefers permanence over perfection. For that reason, the legal would rather leave a bad decision standing than disrupt a child's life one more time. That's not always right or good; it just is.

Again, I'm very sorry for you.

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Answered on 11/14/16, 8:41 am
Thomas Daley KoonsFuller PC

http://donhaslam.com/6th-district-court-judge-eric-clifford-issues/

On the other hand, you might contact Attorney Haslam's office and see if they know any way to undo this based on the judge's bad behavior.

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Answered on 11/14/16, 8:49 am


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