I was at home in shorts when my Parole officer kicked in my door, he had the State Police Absconder Unit with him as if I had really done something horrible. He took me to the Ingham County Jail and lodged me there as a parole violator. When you are on parole in the State of Michigan, they can hold you 72 hours with no charges whatsoever, but when I asked what I was being arrested for, he said I had made terrorist threats at my daughters elementary school.
I hadn't even gotten out of the car!
Meanwhile at home...
When I was in jail, Child Protective Services pounced on my wife. They questioned her relentlessly, and then proceeded to use her naivete against her.
For example, her Mother liked to go to the bar and drink, however, she always rode home in a cab or with a friend, and never drank when she had our daughter around. CPS only heard the drinking part, and therefore her Mother was ineligible for visitation. My wife's Father smoked weed, but again, not around our daughters, but the fact that she told them he did cancelled him out for visitation.
So based on my wife being honest, she effectively made it so her own family would not be allowed to see our kids.
Trapped without any real legal reason
CPS also told my wife that she was going to be expected to attend classes for parenting, and provide urine drops for drugs. Keep in mind now that absolutely nothing happened other than some anonymous complaints that were really all coming from my Mother, they were using the "Incident" at the school as a catalyst to initiate an actual case against us, and it was working. They had no legal right to force my wife to do these things but because she signed the papers willingly, she consented to their authority, at least that is the way I understand what happened.
Worse of all, they told her she had to live at my Mothers house while she was doing all of this.
And in my world....
So while all of this was going on with my wife, I was sitting in jail for the 72 hours they were allowed to hold me without pressing charges because I was on parole. Sure enough, 7 O'clock at night a parole officer shows up and calls me down to dress out for release. He hands me some papers and tells me that if I want to get out of jail I need to sign them. When I read them I saw that it was a change in my parole order basically cutting me off from contacting anyone in my family. My wife, daughters, Mother, even my son was listed on it saying I could not contact them in any way.
It is a well known fact in criminal circles that it is easier to fight something from outside than in. I figured I would just sign the papers and then talk to the parole supervisor to get it fixed, after all nothing had even happened!
Keep in mind here that they never even processed me for a parole violation, believe me, in Michigan if there is even the slightest show that you broke any kind of law, they violate you. So ask yourself, why didn't they? Maybe because nothing happened and they knew it? Because that is exactly why they didn't violate me.
The night I got out
The parole officer, who was not even my P.O. by the way, took me to the parole office and the first thing I wanted to know was what was I supposed to do? I mean I was just handed a parole order basically saying I couldn't talk to anyone. I was in shorts and a T-Shirt from when they kicked in my door in late November (Remember this all started on Halloween when I went to my Mothers house) What was I supposed to do here? He left me standing outside in 20 degree weather while he went in to call his supervisor to ask her advice. He then came out and explained that my wife was staying at my Mothers house so I could go home.
I walked the 5 miles or so to my house in the cold and when I got there my roommate explained everything that my wife had done and was going through. I didn't know what to do at the time as it was like 9 at night, but I know I was highly upset about what was going on. I was going to go down to the parole office and get this whole thing straightened out first thing in the morning, that was for sure!
The parole supervisor
The next morning when I went to the parole office to get things straightened out, I was told that the parole office had to officially rescind the order. In other words, my parole officer was able to just sign a paper to get it in effect, but I had to go through the parole office main to get it changed.
I was now not able to contact basically anyone in my family, and it was going to get worse.
Team Decision Meeting
The next day I got a phone call telling me that I had to appear at the Department of Human Services for a Team Decision Meeting regarding my CPS case, I was told that if I did not appear, I would forfeit my rights as a parent at that time. What? Over not doing anything? Seriously?
The next day I showed up at 9 a.m. and the first thing I saw was my Mother talking to the workers in a huddle and making a point of ignoring me. As soon as they saw me they promptly left the room. About a half hour later they called me into an office and I sat at a table with around 15 women, and me. They told me that they had met with my wife and explained what was happening, and now it was my turn. They said that if I wanted her and the girls to be able to return home, I needed to leave the house. They suggested I check into a homeless shelter, and then gave me a bus pass for transportation. They thanked me for my time and excused me from the meeting.
I was in shock and did not understand what was going on or how to fix it. But again things were going to get worse...
Please Read...
I will be continuing this narrative until I finish telling what happened. I want to be clear, my wife and I did argue, and I was drinking and using drugs when this whole thing happened, but I did not use in front of the children. They were not physically or sexually abused, and the arguments they heard were not physical, or really more aggressive than what you might see on T.V.
I do not claim to have been a saint, however, The CPS agency was aggressive in how they dealt with our case and had a predetermined outcome planned when they began the case against us. My Mother planned on having custody, and that is exactly what happened.
You can read the first chapter of this story --HERE-- and the second --HERE--
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