Civil Rights Action Filed for Young Boy Held Illegally for Two Years in New York City Foster Care Sy

PRESS RELEASE

Lawsuit seeks damages for boy and mother kept apart after legal custody lapsed; charges City holds over 2,000 children illegally each year.

A federal civil rights lawsuit is to be filed today in U.S. District Court charging that the New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) violated federal and state rights of a young boy and his mother by illegally holding the five-year-old boy in foster care for 2 1/2 years and denying his mother any opportunity to be heard in her persistent efforts to reunite with her son.

The lawsuit, entitled Jeremy M. v. Giuliani, cites ACS patterns and practices of "lapsed" placements and deliberate indifference to official policies and laws regarding legal custody of children in foster case for both the named plaintiff, Jeremy (a pseudonym), and for a significant number of other children. According to ACS's own recent data, despite recent improvements in such practices, there were 2,525 children being held in foster care without any legal basis at the end of 1999.

Jeremy M. v. Giuliani is to be filed by Children's Rights, the national advocacy organization for children, Miriam M. Robinson of the law firm of Liddle and Robinson, representing the boy, Jeremy, and by attorney Michael S. Popkin representing the boy's mother, Joanne. Defendants in the suit include Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Nicholas Scoppetta, Commissioner of ACS, and the Seamen's Society for Children and Families.

The civil rights of Jeremy and his mother, Joanne (a pseudonym), were violated, the lawsuit states, under federal and state law. Federal rights violated under the First, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution include Jeremy's fundamental liberty interest in not being confined in government custody; Jeremy's and Joanne's fundamental liberty interest in their custodial relationship, and their right to family integrity and privacy under the First and Ninth Amendments to the Constitution.

As a result of ACS's actions and their false imprisonment of Jeremy, the lawsuit states that the boy and his mother Joanne suffered physical injury, and severe emotional, psychological and psychiatric injuries and damages. Damages of $3 million are sought for the boy Jeremy and $1.5 million for his mother Joanne.

"This little boy was shuffled through three foster homes, when all this time he had a mother eager to raise him," stated his attorney Ira Lustbader, of Children's Rights, a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in government custody. "Although ACS is legally obligated to help reunite families, for two-and-a-half years the agency refused to let him go home even though the city had no legal custody. This child didn't really know who his mother was, which had a devastating impact on him."

"What is outrageous about this case is that the city took the child into custody and forgot about him." said Michael Popkin, the attorney representing Joanne. "This is shameful and shocking. Thousands of children are never reviewed and parents are deprived of their children without court approval. There is no mechanism to review what is in the children's best interest and it is an extreme violation of the parents' and children's rights."

Jeremy and Joanne

Jeremy entered foster care in February1995 shortly after his birth because of his mother's involvement with drugs. His mother's primary goal was to raise her son, and she immediately entered a drug treatment program in which Jeremy could come to live with her, if she made progress. Although she progressed and became completely drug free, mother and son remained separated by ACS.

On July 21, 1997, ACS's legal custody of Jeremy expired or "lapsed," ending its legal right to retain Jeremy. The agency never notified Joanne of this fact. Jeremy was, instead, placed in three different foster homes, in at least one of which it is likely he was abused and neglected.

Although ACS's stated goal in this case was to return Jeremy to his mother, ACS limited Joanne's contact with her son to one supervised visit every two weeks for most of his time in foster care. Joanne visited Jeremy as often as she could, completed parenting classes, and obtained adequate housing.

In October 1998, Joanne gave birth to a daughter, for whom she has been providing fully adequate care, which ACS has known.

In early 1999, Joanne was finally allowed to see Jeremy unsupervised for one hour once each week. Despite the fact that Joanne was drug-free, had appropriate family housing, maintained regular and positive visits with her son, and requested repeatedly that he be returned to her, she was still denied unsupervised weekend visits, and the child's return.

In mid-1999, Joanne was asked to sign a voluntary agreement to place her son Jeremy in ACS custody, in recognition of the fact that the city did not have legal custody, a fact which ACS did not reveal to Joanne. Instead, she was told Jeremy could only continue receiving services if she signed away her custody. Even though she was later threatened with a possible neglect petition concerning her daughter, Joanne refused. ACS finally conceded it had no basis for a neglect proceeding with regard to either child and that it had no legal right to keep Jeremy in foster care. After a transition period, on December 1, 1999, Jeremy was reunited with his mother.

Aubrey Featherstone, ACS Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Family Permanency at the time of the Plaintiff's custody lapse, has stated on the record that having valid legal authority for foster children's placements was only a fiscal matter, and had no real bearing on the children's well being..."because the legal authority is just a document."

Jeremy and Joanne have filed this lawsuit because of the damage they have suffered being unnecessarily and legally separated. At the same time they were undergoing these deprivations and violations of their rights, ACS was keeping thousands of other children in custody without any legal basis, in "lapsed placements" in which custody orders have expired and court approval to continue foster care has not even been obtained, a problem that continues to this day.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.