A father we will call “Jeff” was living in his parents’ home in Connecticut with his 18-month old son. (The Massachusetts mother was the subject of neglect charges, and there was no disagreement between her and Jeff.)

At this point, an anonymous Massachusetts DSS employee telephoned the father in Connecticut and fraudulently stated there was an urgent need for him to bring the child to the grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. When he did so, two Massachusetts DSS employees and five police officers took the child into DSS custody, only against the mother. DSS apparently employed this ruse to get around the difficulty of snatching an out-of-state child.

The complexities of the case dragged onto the present time. The father took the appropriate steps to establish his paternity, but the DSS and DOR so fouled up the process that it did not become legal until 2003. In the mean time, the DSS decided on its own to terminate the father’s parental rights and put the child into foster care, pending adoption.

Here’s what the DSS found wrong with the father:

This father was persistent and lucky. He was able to find legal representation, and he persisted with this case to the Massachusetts appellate court, which found in his favor. The battle is not over. The appellate court decision returns the child to the care of DSS for further determinations as to his fate.

Attorneys who frequently oppose the DSS tell us that they often require drug screenings for people with no history of drug abuse, domestic violence evaluation and treatment for those with no history of domestic violence, and compliance with elaborate, expensive and time-consuming parenting courses, etc. For poor people, the requirements are usually just too high. DSS sets these people up for failure, then takes their kids.

Eventually, Fathers & Families will have to take up the battle against the abuses of DSS.

To read a copy of the decision, click here: Adoption of Leland