Louisiana Voice

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has come under severe criticisms lately following a couple of cases – one in Baton Rouge and another in north Louisiana – involving infants.

In one case that that has received considerable scrutiny involves the death of a two-year-old toddler from “acute fentanyl toxicity” after ingesting some pills he found on his mother’s bed.

It marked the third time the child had overdosed on drugs. He had been revived twice before but medical personnel were unable to revive him last April.

Compounding the tragedy was the fact that DCFS had, on the previous two occasions, flagged risks to the boy’s life but each time he was allowed to return to his mother’s home.

Contrast that with another case in which a woman, Leah Newell, who was seven months’ pregnant, was involved in an auto accident in Natchitoches Parish on May 6. Her two younger children were with her when a City of Natchitoches truck driver pulled out of a side road and struck her vehicle on the driver’s side.

An ambulance rushed Newell and her two children to the Natchitoches Parish Hospital ER. “That’s where a nightmare would begin for our family,” Newell wrote LouisianaVoice.

At the ER, a hospital social worker was told (falsely, Newell insists) by her sister-in-law and mother-in-law that she was at fault because she was abusing illegal drugs.

On the basis of that information, “The social worker told me that she was a nurse and needed a urinalysis to check on the fetus,” Newell said. “Although I was never given paperwork with results, the social worker claimed I had tested positive for amphetamines. I don’t do and have never done drugs,” she said.

She said she subsequently discovered evidence that proved the tests were never done in the ER. “The social worker who lied and claimed she was a nurse also lied and never drug tested me and then lied about me failing,” she said. 

“The social worker obtained permission from my mother-in-law to test the two youngest children for drugs, and the results came back negative. I had to undergo an emergency C-section to save my unborn child, and when the social worker insisted that the child be drug tested, that test also came back negative.

“My husband and I were drug tested a second time about a week after the accident and were negative for drugs. After a month, DCFS secured a removal order for the three younger children, who were temporarily placed with their paternal grandparents.”

Newell said she and her husband cooperated with DCFS in the belief that their children would come back home. “After six months, in December 2019, our children were finally placed back in their home with us,” she said.

“My husband and I went back to court in June 2020 after DCFS claimed the case would be closed because we had cooperated completely. The DCFS case worker, along with her supervisor and the court appointed CASA volunteer all submitted reports saying the children were happy and healthy and could remain at home. To everyone’s surprise, four days later, during the hearing, the judge ordered the children be removed again and placed back with the paternal grandparents. The judge said there were safety concerns but wouldn’t elaborate. And in a weird twist, moved the case from Natchitoches Parish to Sabine Parish.”

She said that since that day, “DCFS and the family court system in Natchitoches Parish continue to violate our constitutional rights, especially the fundamental right to be parents. The law requires a hearing within 72 hours after the removal of the children, but our hearing happened 9 days after the removal. The subsequent court dates never occurred within the time frame of the law, but we believed that if they cooperated, our children would come home again.”

In May 2021, during a case review hearing, the same Natchitoches judge ruled that the paternal grandparents would be granted custody, although no guardianship motions had been filed. “The court notified neither my husband nor me of this change in placement,” she said.

“Regardless, in July 2021, the judge granted guardianship to the paternal grandparents without even holding a trial. The judge would not grant the parents any visitation until September 2021, when two supervised temporary visits were allowed.”

A permanent plan was not established until late October 2021. The visitation plan granted the parents only two phone calls as week and four hours a month with supervision required.

Despite neither of us ever being charged of any crimes of abuse or neglect, despite DCFS not having a valid complaint for the investigation that led to the 2nd removal (with the DA confirming this in court records), despite three years of court ordered drug testing (urine, hair, and salvia) for both parents which was always negative, despite both of us taking parenting class twice, anger management, substance abuse classes, attending NA meetings, mandatory enrollment in daycare, paying child support and sending groceries and clothing, and begging for visits and phone calls with our children, we are still are being punished by having our parental rights completely ignored.

Despite guardianship being a temporary custody placement, this judge has said on court records that this guardianship would permanently be “a parental visitation-only case until subject children reach majority,” according to the court order. Guardianship is addressed in Louisiana’s Children Code Articles 718-724.1.

“We had their rights violated by the Natchitoches Parish 10th Judicial Court District and by Judge Lala Brittain Sylvester,” Newell said. “We continue fighting in court to bring our babies home, but this judge dismisses us every time. There is no evidence or proof or even any allegations of mistreatment of these children by us. Yet, for the last three years, we have had our family ripped apart because of lies, rumors, misguided DCFS investigations, and a biased judge. 

“There is no justice in Louisiana and certainly no justice in America anymore.”