Out of town yesterday to have yet another hearing in the "I am my own grandpa" case.
The grandfather/father has finally been convicted and sentenced to what amounts to life in prison. I expect that he will never get out. I don't think that he has any appealable issues and he certainly did not, in his statement at sentencing, indicate any remorse or even any understanding that having sex with his step granddaughter of 12 is a bad thing.
The GAL in the Protective Services case (my client) has held out and insisted that the grandmother not have unfettered access to the girl (her granddaughter) nor the girls two children (her great grand children).
For a reason no one other than the case workers are able to understand the Child protective Services wants (great)grandma to have a lot of access and originally want to place the girl and her children back with grandma. Right now the girl's two brothers live with grandma, something we could not prevent.
Of course, I cannot understand the Prosecutors position either, as the grandmother lied to the cops about the whereabouts of the grandfather and helped him fake the original DNA samples. Why she is not in prison or at least on probation, is also beyond me.
Well any way the girl will probably be approved for a Planned Permanent Living Arrangement. That is a special plan to place a child under the age of 18 out on their own with a lot of support from the system. Done with older children when it doesn't appear that living in a foster home until they turn 18 will work out. Although to be fair these foster parents seem to be very good.
The grandmother was requesting more time (actually unlimited time at her own convenience)with the great grand children, something she did not get. The judge said that to increase the great grandmother's visitation the girls GAL, Children's Protective Services (CPS), and the girl will all have to agree. Any one of the three has veto power to any change in the visitation.
I am not happy with my cross of the grandmother. I did not push as hard as I might have. She is participating in counseling because she too is a "victim" according to CPS. No mention of what her responsibilities were to the girl. This is particularly important since the girl's mother had accused the step grandfather/father of just the same thing about 20 or so years ago and the grandmother had refused to believe it and threw her out of the house. An interesting point with CPS, since they also believe that the girl's mother was lying. (Yeah, read studies of these creeps and see who gets caught the first time, not often).
I was concerned about how the grand mother would respond and if she would collapse on the stand and garner sympathy weeping that she tried, but just couldn't protect the girl. Now that I think about it I think that I should have taken that chance.
Well I'm hoping to get another chance, at her and make up for my mistake. One thing I've learned is that it really doesn't matter how skillful you are, it only matters if you win or lose. So far we have pushed CPS away from placing the girl and her children back with the grand/great mother and I think because of that the girl has gotten more and more strong and has a better understand of what kind of person the grand/great mother really is.
1 comment:
Honestly I think the best thing for these kids is for an adult to support them, believe them, validate the idea that what happened was both wrong and not their fault. It's a shame that there weren't more of you, but as your last sentence says, don't underestimate what you've done.
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