Alabama Mom Laments How DHR Stole 2 Years of Daughter’s Life Over Cell Phone Dispute

[Created4]

It’s been over two years since our daughter was taken and never returned by Dekalb county DHR worker Ellen Morrow.

She was 15 years old at the time. She is now 18 years old.

Makayla and mom recent
Makayla with mom Laine – photo courtesy family
My daughter was an honor roll student and softball player in the 10th grade. We dreamed and worked hard towards getting a college scholarship so she could attend Auburn University because she always said that is what she wanted to do when she graduated.

She was a good girl. She has never been in trouble. She had not started dating yet. She was a normal child and DHR destroyed her and our dreams for her future over a cell phone dispute.

The reason that my family was torn apart, according to DHR, was that there was possible risk of neglect in the future if they did not remove her, evidenced by an argument that allegedly occurred the evening before.

Ellen Morrow
Ellen Morrow was the DHR social worker that allegedly took Makayla. Image from Facebook.
That is what it takes to destroy lives and families in Alabama. We are loving and fit parents who provided a safe healthy stable home for all our children yet Ellen Morrow and her supervisor Stacey McClendon from Dekalb County DHR saw an opportunity to further their career and put more money in their pockets and they took it. They and the court ripped my child apart like dogs.

I was forced to watch while my baby cried out for me to save her. As a mother this is what I felt and I had the constant thought of what must be going through her head and heart… ‘Mama, you promised you would always come and save me? Why won’t you save me?’ That was my thought when I went to bed and when I woke up each day. That is, when I could sleep.

Every single day and night I searched law books and the Internet praying to find a miracle to bring my baby girl back home to us.

I called and wrote everyone imaginable, from teachers to the President, begging for help thinking someone would see what horrible wrongs were happening and correct it. I thought if someone heard of the abuse that was being committed against me and my family that people would stand up and put an end to it.

Instead I found no solution and my comfort came from the Lord and prayer warriors such as my Granny Margaret Abbott, my friend Terri Lapoint, advocates who became friends and family Kenneth Paschal, Kristy Devine, and <3 Cindy Allen.

It was not DHR or the President who stayed up late nights with me praying for us or paying my phone bill and putting their own family’s safety at risk to help save mine.

It was these people that I’m so blessed to have met.

My daughter is now 18. While she was in foster care, she quit school, was unsupervised, and used for another government check. She was drugged, lied to and about, brainwashed, hypnotized, made to believe we did not care nor try for her.

She moved in with friends and became pregnant.

She recently got married.

My little girl grew up in two years. It is sick the amount of damage that these monsters have done and caused in that time.

God heard all the prayers and he faithfully answered. She is back in our lives and we are building our relationship and healing from all that’s been done to destroy us. I was told at my lowest that there were two things that DHR could not take from me: prayer and the mother and child bond that God himself gave us, and that was what kept me hanging on just a little longer when I was so tired and everyone was beating my knuckles and it hurt more to breathe than it would have to have laid down and died.

We have been used and abused by this evil system but I serve a powerful God and He said He would restore what had been taken seven fold.

He said he would take my pain and turn it into joy, my tears into laughter. He spoke to me and He said, ‘I will use this wrong for the good.’

DHR did not have my permission to use my family, to violate my God given or my Constitutional rights, nor my family’s.

Now I pray that God will use me to help prevent others from going through this abuse at the hands of our own Government and this group of unqualified people which it pays to abduct, and traffick human beings. I pray for the Lord to protect us all and put an end to this madness and corruption. Counting my many blessings.

Laine Norris

Full article here. Original Story here.

[Anti Federalist]

Knew that somewhere, somehow, these people sadly brought it on themselves by calling cops or some sort of "authority" figure into an internal family squabble.

Sure enough:

Makayla had been taken from her home the previous week in August of 2014 when she accused her mother of slapping her to a teacher at school. The incident was reported by the teacher but despite Makayla later recanting, the state didn’t believe her.

[Created4]

Knew that somewhere, somehow, these people sadly brought it on themselves by calling cops or some sort of "authority" figure into an internal family squabble.

Sure enough:

"These people"?? A rebellious 15 year old makes a mistake at school and somehow it is the fault of the family?? The parents did not bring this on.

[CPUd]

[jonhowe]

If anyone thinks this is isolated, it ISN'T. I finished an internship with a law practice in the Bronx in December which defends parents in "neglect" and "abuse" proceedings. Almost all are absolutely ridiculous by any objective standards. It's so common that cases which should be wrapped up in a day or two take MONTHS or YEARS to complete because there just isn't time enough in a day in court to get to them. It's a real mess, and a lot are based on a lot less than allegations of slapping. I had a client who was monitored by CPS for 16 months all because she referenced having carried a gun when she served in Iraq. She didnt even still have one, but she was reported for making a dangerous environment for her kids. "Neglect".

[Anti Federalist]

"These people"?? A rebellious 15 year old makes a mistake at school and somehow it is the fault of the family?? The parents did not bring this on.

Yes, they did...or the daughter did, to be accurate.

She called cops, or in this case an 'authority", that then in turn called cops.

If I've said just one thing over the last ten years it is this: DO NOT CALL COPS. FOR ANYTHING. EVER.

Now, you misunderstand me if you think I'm saying they "deserved" this.

But there is a very simple and very brutal, cause and effect system in place here.

[Anti Federalist]

If anyone thinks this is isolated, it ISN'T. I finished an internship with a law practice in the Bronx in December which defends parents in "neglect" and "abuse" proceedings. Almost all are absolutely ridiculous by any objective standards. It's so common that cases which should be wrapped up in a day or two take MONTHS or YEARS to complete because there just isn't time enough in a day in court to get to them. It's a real mess, and a lot are based on a lot less than allegations of slapping. I had a client who was monitored by CPS for 16 months all because she referenced having carried a gun when she served in Iraq. She didnt even still have one, but she was reported for making a dangerous environment for her kids. "Neglect".

Referenced to whom?

In what setting did she say this?

[Created4]

If I've said just one thing over the last ten years it is this: DO NOT CALL COPS. FOR ANYTHING. EVER.

Find and dandy. But you can NOT control what other people do who are out to get you. We have published stories of children being taken because a neighbor did not like the fact that the next door kids were outside without shoes and called CPS, or a grandmother who called paramedics because her daughter (in another state across the country no less!) chose an unassisted home delivery and successfully gave birth to twins, without going to the hospital. The parents turned the paramedics away (whom they did not call for), but the paramedics are mandatory reporters so they reported the family to CPS who proceeded to take the children away.

In this story (also common), it is allegedly a rebellious teenager who just does not want to live under her parents rules.

So you can go to the rooftop and shot out "DO NOT CALL THE COPS" as loud as you want, but it won't change how this system operates. Child Protective Services and the modern day Foster Care system is one big legal child trafficking business to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars and hundreds of thousands government jobs.

[Anti Federalist]

Find and dandy. But you can NOT control what other people do who are out to get you. We have published stories of children being taken because a neighbor did not like the fact that the next door kids were outside without shoes and called CPS, or a grandmother who called paramedics because her daughter (in another state across the country no less!) chose an unassisted home delivery and successfully gave birth to twins, without going to the hospital. The parents turned the paramedics away (whom they did not call for), but the paramedics are mandatory reporters so they reported the family to CPS who proceeded to take the children away.

In this story (also common), it is allegedly a rebellious teenager who just does not want to live under her parents rules.

So you can go to the rooftop and shot out "DO NOT CALL THE COPS" as loud as you want, but it won't change how this system operates. Child Protective Services and the modern day Foster Care system is one big legal child trafficking business to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars and hundreds of thousands government jobs.

I agree, and I am not arguing with you...I am well aware of how this system works and the injustices and tragedies it brings about every day.

Rule number one to keep yourself out of that system?

DO NOT CALL COPS.

Ever.

[Created4]

Rule number one to keep yourself out of that system?

DO NOT CALL COPS.

Ever.

In the stories we cover, the cops are almost never called by the victims. It is almost always CPS that gets called by someone who does not like the family, or by "mandatory reporters" such as doctors who will report parents for not following their medical advice. If the parents do not willingly give up their children to CPS, or let CPS into their home, THEN the cops are called, who all to often willingly oblige to kidnap the children, even without a warrant.

So I would say:

Rule #1 to keep people out of the system: Do NOT call CPS if you do not like how your neighbor or family member is raising their child. Talk to the parents first. If they need help, help them! That's what good neighbors and family members used to do, before we expected government to take care of all our problems.

[phill4paul]

In the stories we cover, the cops are almost never called by the victims. It is almost always CPS that gets called by someone who does not like the family, or by "mandatory reporters" such as doctors who will report parents for not following their medical advice. If the parents do not willingly give up their children to CPS, or let CPS into their home, THEN the cops are called, who all to often willingly oblige to kidnap the children, even without a warrant.

So I would say:

Rule #1 to keep people out of the system: Do NOT call CPS if you do not like how your neighbor or family member is raising their child. Talk to the parents first. If they need help, help them! That's what good neighbors and family members used to do, before we expected government to take care of all our problems.

Just another form of "SWATTING." Don't like someone. Call the CPS on them. They have no recourse. And you get the satisfaction of $#@!ing someones life up.

[jonhowe]

Referenced to whom?

In what setting did she say this?

A person at the school she was unaware was a busy body school psychologist.

The woman was on the PTA at both this school and her older kid's school, by the way.

[Anti Federalist]

A person at the school she was unaware was a busy body school psychologist.

The woman was on the PTA at both this school and her older kid's school, by the way.

Jesus...it never ends...I hope you were able to do some good for this family.

[Anti Federalist]

In the stories we cover, the cops are almost never called by the victims. It is almost always CPS that gets called by someone who does not like the family, or by "mandatory reporters" such as doctors who will report parents for not following their medical advice. If the parents do not willingly give up their children to CPS, or let CPS into their home, THEN the cops are called, who all to often willingly oblige to kidnap the children, even without a warrant.

So I would say:

Rule #1 to keep people out of the system: Do NOT call CPS if you do not like how your neighbor or family member is raising their child. Talk to the parents first. If they need help, help them! That's what good neighbors and family members used to do, before we expected government to take care of all our problems.

Yes, keep in mind when I say "do not call cops" I mean any government "authority" figure.

Now, some people, as Phill noted, are just malignant $#@!s, that would call CPS or cops or DHS simply to take the joy they get from ruining somebody's life, or as Jon noted, are spies, snoops and busybodies.

Little you can do about that other than keeping family business as private as possible (yes that means not posting every second of your day on FedBook).

But those who are well meaning but misguided, yes, talk to the family first, think twice before doing anything (is this really any of your business?), help if you can, but for the love of god do not call an "authority" into it.

[jonhowe]

Jesus...it never ends...I hope you were able to do some good for this family.

We got ACS out of their life after years of monitoring and threats. However, she is still on a state register which prevents her from working with children or as a home health aid until both kids turn 28; that's 17 years away. EVEN THOUGH she was found not to have been "negligent". Hopefully the intern after me takes up the long and tedious process of getting her off THAT list.


Just for more horror for those unaware: when they come for your kids, they don't just disrupt your family. They call your friends, neighbors, employers, they leave notes on your door saying they've come (matters a lot in dense apartment buildings), they force you to go to therapy or "services" multiple times a day, etc. And if you don't "comply with services", it hurts your chances of being found non negligent. That's right, current acts help determine your liability for past, unrelated acts. We urge our clients to cooperate not because it's right, but because it's practical. If you DO NOT COMPLY, YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR KIDS.

And my supervisors told me this is WAY better than it was just a few years ago, where being in the presence of "domestic abuse" was considered per se neglect. So if a mom's boyfriend (or brother, or sister, or parent, etc) hits her, that made her "neglectful" if her kids were in the room. Luckily, that's not AS common an occurrence now.

[Created4]

And my supervisors told me this is WAY better than it was just a few years ago, where being in the presence of "domestic abuse" was considered per se neglect. So if a mom's boyfriend (or brother, or sister, or parent, etc) hits her, that made her "neglectful" if her kids were in the room. Luckily, that's not AS common an occurrence now.

What state are you in? That is certainly not the case in many states, where the situation goes from bad to worse.

Most people just simply do not understand that there is absolutely no due process of law when these kids are taken, and the fight to get them back will usually destroy the career of the parent who is forced to work full time in just trying to get their children back.

This is all about money, and HUGE money. The only way to stop this is to defund it. But that would kill hundreds of thousands of government jobs, so it won't happen too easily.

[jonhowe]

What state are you in? That is certainly not the case in many states, where the situation goes from bad to worse.

Most people just simply do not understand that there is absolutely no due process of law when these kids are taken, and the fight to get them back will usually destroy the career of the parent who is forced to work full time in just trying to get their children back.

This is all about money, and HUGE money. The only way to stop this is to defund it. But that would kill hundreds of thousands of government jobs, so it won't happen too easily.

New York. Many things have gotten worse (it moves with the news cycle; a kid gets beaten to death by his parents, and they start snatching en mass), and that decision RE domestic violence was made by a Court of Appeals Judge, not the legislature. There is a definite push against removal and for pre-removal services here in NY ever since the private defense institutions (Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Legal Aid, etc) started handling neglect and abuse cases. They have the ability/time to appeal things and get some judicial victories like the one discussed above. The problem is that this push is mainly found among public defense lawyers/students/clients; most other people are just clueless.

[Created4]

New York. Many things have gotten worse (it moves with the news cycle; a kid gets beaten to death by his parents, and they start snatching en mass), and that decision RE domestic violence was made by a Court of Appeals Judge, not the legislature. There is a definite push against removal and for pre-removal services here in NY ever since the private defense institutions (Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Legal Aid, etc) started handling neglect and abuse cases. They have the ability/time to appeal things and get some judicial victories like the one discussed above. The problem is that this push is mainly found among public defense lawyers/students/clients; most other people are just clueless.

There are huge opportunities for good attorneys in this area, especially with civil rights lawsuits. Are you familiar with Shawn McMillan in California?

California Attorney Shawn McMillan on Why He Fights CPS: “They’re Stealing Kids”

[jonhowe]

There are huge opportunities for good attorneys in this area, especially with civil rights lawsuits. Are you familiar with Shawn McMillan in California?

California Attorney Shawn McMillan on Why He Fights CPS: “They’re Stealing Kids”

I am now, thank you.

I am seriously considering entering this field instead of/as well as criminal defense after the internship I had. There scales are just tipped so hard against the families once it gets to court, it's insane. And there field is relatively young, and there's good caselaw to be made. I'll be doing a combined criminal/family law defense internship starting next month til the end of the year to explore further.

[Created4]

I am now, thank you.

I am seriously considering entering this field instead of/as well as criminal defense after the internship I had. There scales are just tipped so hard against the families once it gets to court, it's insane. And there field is relatively young, and there's good caselaw to be made. I'll be doing a combined criminal/family law defense internship starting next month til the end of the year to explore further.

In addition to civil rights cases like this, which few attorneys are doing - but the few who are are becoming wealthy from it - at least in California - there is also a big emphasis now in defending Shake Baby Syndrome (SBS) cases, as many courts have overturned convictions on these. The Innocence Project, for example, will take on these cases right now in all 50 states. Judges are waking up to the fact that the whole "science" of SBS is bogus, and if the defendants did not have representation from doctors who now oppose this, they are retrying the cases.

See:

University of Michigan Law School Awarded $250K to Learn How to Defend Shaken Baby Syndrome Cases

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Opens the Legal Door to Retry All Shaken Baby Syndrome Convictions

[jonhowe]

In addition to civil rights cases like this, which few attorneys are doing - but the few who are are becoming wealthy from it - at least in California - there is also a big emphasis now in defending Shake Baby Syndrome (SBS) cases, as many courts have overturned convictions on these. The Innocence Project, for example, will take on these cases right now in all 50 states. Judges are waking up to the fact that the whole "science" of SBS is bogus, and if the defendants did not have representation from doctors who now oppose this, they are retrying the cases.

See:

University of Michigan Law School Awarded $250K to Learn How to Defend Shaken Baby Syndrome Cases

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Opens the Legal Door to Retry All Shaken Baby Syndrome Convictions

I'm actually in law school at Cardozo, where the innocence project is based. That was the primary factor in choosing the school. That, and the full ride.

The real crazy thing about all this is that "neglect" and "abuse" cases where they take your kids away are not criminal cases. You dont get all the rights and preferences a criminal defendant does. The burden is not on the state to prove you did what they allege, but on you to prove you did not AND wont ever in the future.
I followed a case my supervisor had where a mother had 3 kids, 1 died of (what later were PROVEN in court to be) natural causes. The other 2 were taken on suspicion of abuse. Separately, she was charged with murder. She had a trial and was acquitted thanks to the overwhelming medical evidence. But her kids were still in foster care 2 years later as she fought her "abuse" (family law, not criminal) case in Family Court.

It's like suing someone for wrongful death after they were acquitted, except in this case it's the government doing it, and they have your kids.

[Created4]

I'm actually in law school at Cardozo, where the innocence project is based. That was the primary factor in choosing the school. That, and the full ride.

The real crazy thing about all this is that "neglect" and "abuse" cases where they take your kids away are not criminal cases. You dont get all the rights and preferences a criminal defendant does. The burden is not on the state to prove you did what they allege, but on you to prove you did not AND wont ever in the future.
I followed a case my supervisor had where a mother had 3 kids, 1 died of (what later were PROVEN in court to be) natural causes. The other 2 were taken on suspicion of abuse. Separately, she was charged with murder. She had a trial and was acquitted thanks to the overwhelming medical evidence. But her kids were still in foster care 2 years later as she fought her "abuse" (family law, not criminal) case in Family Court.

It's like suing someone for wrongful death after they were acquitted, except in this case it's the government doing it, and they have your kids.

You have stated quite succinctly what the problem is, which is that family law and family court are unconstitutional. No kids should ever be taken away from their parents if neither the parents nor the children want it. They are incarcerating the victims, instead of the alleged criminals, and the reason this unconstitutional system prevails, is because of massive funding which keeps the wheels turning.

Does the State Ever Have a “Right” to Remove Children from a Home?