9 Year Old Begs to go Home

[jjenny]

Reading this again, This is a case where people want it to seem simple and yet it is not. To me it looks like the foster parents were trying to end run this fathers rights.

He was originally sentenced to 15 years. Per the law, that means termination of his parental rights. But his sentence was later cut down to 7.5 years. That doesn't qualify for termination of parental rights.
Adoptive parents didn't do anything wrong here.
The reason he got the child back is that his sentence was cut down from 15 to 7.5 years. Which I still find ridiculous, as the child did not know him, and he has a criminal record.
How is this in the best interest of the child?

 

[Soulmagent]

He was originally sentenced to 15 years. Per the law, that means termination of his parental rights. But his sentence was later cut down to 7.5 years. That doesn't qualify for termination of parental rights.
Adoptive parents didn't do anything wrong here.
The reason he got the child back is that his sentence was cut down from 15 to 7.5 years. Which I still find ridiculous, as the child did not know him, and he has a criminal record.
How is this in the best interest of the child?

it isnt ,and it has never been.

 

[prima.facie]

Really I don't care about his record if it has nothing to do with violence against his child.

That is all that matters here. There are a lot of people that make bad choices and yet love their kids and take care of them well.

His parents crimes don't interest me unless they were living with the child .

his record means nothing? his lifelong criminal activity means nothing?
love has nothing to do with this. what environment would he be raising his child in? one with criminals, drugs and illegal firearms. we have already heard she is living in filth. his family is nothing but criminals, drug users, sex offenders/rapist/pedophiles etc. that girl is now surrounded by very bad people including her biodad.

In 1998 John McCaul Sr. -- John’s father and Sonya’s biological grandfather -- was accused of raping and sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl. His own granddaughter, no less. http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/not-so-stranger-danger

she is NOW possibly forced to be around that man ^^^ what is the assurance he will never be near sonya??

and bad choices? lol that is all he does is make bad choices. how can he take good care of a child when he has shown to be incapable of making ANY good choices.

just because he is blood doesnt mean she should be with him. we should all care about her wellbeing first. i cant even fathom how her being with that man who is a lifelong criminal would be in her best interest.

i actually FEAR for this child because she is in major danger, IMO.

 

[Yoda]

JMO. Whether she is biological, cloned, or made with pixie dust, the only thing that should matter is the current and future physical, emotional, and mental security of this little girl. The ONLY thing! Not bio family or adoptive family's wants. She is Nine years old. Please someone help this little girl.

 

[gxm]

Really I don't care about his record if it has nothing to do with violence against his child.

That is all that matters here. There are a lot of people that make bad choices and yet love their kids and take care of them well.

His parents crimes don't interest me unless they were living with the child .

Did you miss item number 12? BBM

12. 2004-2005 - Dad is part owner of a strip club which was shut down after raids found it employed underage girls (one of whom was later found murdered), and seven pounds of marijuana, a gun and various distribution paraphernalia at the club.

There is no way this lifelong criminal should be raising any child, especially not a little girl.

 

[gxm]

If J. M. loved his daughter, he would have left her with the people who raised her, the ones she calls Mom and Dad.

 

[jjenny]

DCF is on the bio dad's side. Why doesn't that surprise me?
Does this agency know what it's doing?
I hope they are actually making the visits to his home they are claiming to be making.
Child complained his home is dirty.
Isn't he at least required to keep a clean home?

 

[MyBelle]

The same grandma who lost custody of one of those grandkids recently due to a founded allegation of neglect? The same grandma who lost custody of a son due to admitted abandonment and neglect?

I have no idea. I wasn't aware the grandmother had custody of any of the father's other children.

Last I checked, the father is the biological dad of four children and was never been accused of child abuse. He was falsely accused of abandonment. At some point allegations have to be proved.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

He was originally sentenced to 15 years. Per the law, that means termination of his parental rights. But his sentence was later cut down to 7.5 years. That doesn't qualify for termination of parental rights.
Adoptive parents didn't do anything wrong here.
The reason he got the child back is that his sentence was cut down from 15 to 7.5 years. Which I still find ridiculous, as the child did not know him, and he has a criminal record.
How is this in the best interest of the child?

The reason he got the child back is that the adoptive parents falsely accused him of abandonment. The cut in his sentence did not qualify for termination of parental rights.

The child doesn't know him because of the actions of the people who refused to return her. People with criminal records are reunited with their children when released from prison. They are allowed to maintain contact with their children while in prison. Parents have rights but then so do children. She has been denied her family including the relationship with three half-siblings because of the actions of the family in Tennessee.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

it isnt ,and it has never been.

Actually it is. The GAL represents the child's best interests.

Perhaps the home isn't as luxurious as the one of the foster family and she doesn't have a pony tethered in the back yard but she still wants to stay with her biological family. Imagine that! A child ripped from the only parent she had known as an infant and years later wants to live with him. I guess in her eyes, her father isn't the monster being portrayed by the "social media mob."

Hillary Duke, a court-appointed guardian assigned to look after Sonya's interests, said the girl has been doing well in Nebraska and that it would be "detrimental" for her to return to Tennessee to live. She said Sonya doesn't want to move back but would like to visit.

Duke accused the Hodgin family of orchestrating a social media mob to sway public opinion. She suggested the judge put a restraining order on the family and their supporters to keep them from posting pictures of the girl. She said the public battle has made Sonya unsafe.

The judge didn't address that request.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...n-judge-rules-year-old-stay-nebraska/9182089/

 

[MyBelle]

Did you miss item number 12? BBM

12. 2004-2005 - Dad is part owner of a strip club which was shut down after raids found it employed underage girls (one of whom was later found murdered), and seven pounds of marijuana, a gun and various distribution paraphernalia at the club.

There is no way this lifelong criminal should be raising any child, especially not a little girl.

So, parents who have prison records do not have parental rights? Complete strangers should be able to strip children from their families and lives forever because the parents have engaged in previous crimes?

The Court, the GAL, and child protective services are all in violation of the law because they feel the best interest of the child in this case is best served by her biological father?

I'm not following this line of reasoning at all and thankfully, the courts do not, either.

JMO

 

[jjenny]

Once he was sentenced to 15 years he lost his parental rights per law.
He cut a deal because he had information about another crime and got his sentenced reduced.
So, that is the reason his parental rights were not terminated.

"Under state law, rights were automatically terminated. No one incarcerated for more than 10 years can have rights to a child who is less than 8 years old."
http://www.kltv.com/story/25537745/tn-girl-taken-from-adoptive-parents

 

[jjenny]

Actually it is. The GAL represents the child's best interests.

Perhaps the home isn't as luxurious as the one of the foster family and she doesn't have a pony tethered in the back yard but she still wants to stay with her biological family. Imagine that! A child ripped from the only parent she had known as an infant and years later wants to live with him. I guess in her eyes, her father isn't the monster being portrayed by the "social media mob."

Hillary Duke, a court-appointed guardian assigned to look after Sonya's interests, said the girl has been doing well in Nebraska and that it would be "detrimental" for her to return to Tennessee to live. She said Sonya doesn't want to move back but would like to visit.

Duke accused the Hodgin family of orchestrating a social media mob to sway public opinion. She suggested the judge put a restraining order on the family and their supporters to keep them from posting pictures of the girl. She said the public battle has made Sonya unsafe.

The judge didn't address that request.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...n-judge-rules-year-old-stay-nebraska/9182089/

Her father committed a crime and was placed into prison. Where do you suppose the child should have been while the father was serving his time in prison? With biological grandpa?
As for what GAL says, I value that at close to zero. I don't put much value in what DCF claims. Especially considering that in the phone call, this child actually asks her adoptive parents to come and get her.

 

[Donjeta]

JMO If you want your kids to believe that you give a s*** about them, you put your life in order and don't do any stupid stuff that could put you in prison and unable to take care of them for years.

It means absolutely nothing to say you're a good parent if you're incarcerated and out of their lives for much of your child's childhood.

 

[LietKynes]

Especially considering that in the phone call, this child actually asks her adoptive parents to come and get her.

Snipped and Bolded by me

Sounds like she was thriving where she was....
What a sad case; it always seems like the children suffer the most in these custody battles -- more than any of the adults involved, since a child still has maturing to do and doesn't have the objectivity that an adult has.

I was adopted as a baby after my biological parent(s) abandoned me ; my adoptive parents ARE my parents --- there is no one else I would consider "mom and dad". It would have crushed me to be taken from them at 9 years of age !

There are always two sides to every story, but in Sonya's case , she appeared to be happy. She wouldn't have asked her adoptive parents to come and get her if she had been unhappy with the Hodgin's.
:moo:

 

[TripleA]

I can't see either of these families being the best situation, but it is what it is at this point.

I know a woman who schemed and lied and did anything necessary to adopt an 18 month old baby. That baby is my now 19-year-old Goddaughter who is sitting across the living room from me completely estranged from her adoptive family. The woman who adopted her was not only a liar and manipulator, but she was also an abusive adoptive parent who IMO never really bonded with my Goddaughter. Her husband signed the adoption papers but never really wanted a child so he was absent most of her life. It was supposed to be an open adoption but my "friend" lied to the bio-mom and said that my Goddaughter wanted nothing to do with her and she lied to my Goddaughter and told her that her bio-mom didn't want to know anything about her anymore. Those lies cost my Goddaughter many years of contact with her bio-family. At 14 yo I introduced her to her bio-sister and it was amazing. No matter how dysfunctional her bio-family may be, and they are all dysfunctional, she connected with her sister on a level that she never did with anyone else. I don't think that blood ties are the end-all-be-all, I have two non-bio children of my own, but I think that in most cases blood does run much deeper than adoptive parents, step-parents and foster parents want to believe.

I think that the best scenario at this point is for the foster family to retain physical temporary custody and for the courts to force them to allow supervised visitation, and then non-supervised visitation with the bio-family. Permanent custody could then be determined down the road a bit after home visits, psych evals, and after this little girl has time to know her bio-family. Family holiday gatherings should be spent with both families. Neither of these families is perfect, but this little girl has the right to know both while she is still a minor and then once she is an adult she can choose to have one, both, or neither in her life.

Being poor and uneducated does not strip your rights as a parent and having money and being educated does not give you the right to steal a child even if you do not like the situation that the child is in. Blood ties are more important than material gratifications. If there is no proof of abuse then the courts have no right to keep her from her family.

My heart goes out to this little girl caught in the middle.

 

[jjenny]

It's not about being poor and un-educated. It's about a convicted felon who couldn't take care of his child because he was in prison. Who should have lost his parental rights but didn't because of a technicality-he knew about another crime and got his sentence reduced.
That convicted felon can then show up, after serving his time in prison, and get his child back?
I found his appeal that was denied. He was sentenced to 15 years because he was considered an armed career criminal. So his sentence was correct. Being sentenced to 15 years meant he lost his parental rights. He managed to get this sentence reduced because he had information about another crime and made a deal.

"Finding that McCaul’s prior convictions subjected him to enhanced sentencing as an

armed career criminal, the district court1 sentenced him to the statutory minimum of

15 years in prison. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1); U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4."

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca8/07-1292/071292u-2011-02-25.html

 

[MyBelle]

Once he was sentenced to 15 years he lost his parental rights per law.
He cut a deal because he had information about another crime and got his sentenced reduced.
So, that is the reason his parental rights were not terminated.

"Under state law, rights were automatically terminated. No one incarcerated for more than 10 years can have rights to a child who is less than 8 years old."
http://www.kltv.com/story/25537745/tn-girl-taken-from-adoptive-parents

He was not governed under Tennessee law, he was a resident of the State of Nebraska and served 7.5 years in federal prison.

The legal reason his parental rights were not terminated is because the adoptive parents did not use his arrest as the reason for termination, they used the false accusation of adoption. The Judge made an error and was reversed.

JMO

 

[Moggie]

Here is a complete, detailed timeline of the case and dad's record:

1. 5-25-84 - (Age 13) Dad is arrested for one count of something that is sealed.
2. 6-27-84 - Dad is arrested for two counts of something that is sealed.
3. Dad pleads guilty to the 5-25-84 charge and the June charges are dropped. He is sentenced to 6 months probation at home.
4. 9-8-86 - (Age 15) Dad is arrested, pleads guilty and is sent to jail for 14 months. He is released just after turning 17.
5. 5-16-88 - (Age 17) - Dad is arrested again 4 months after being released from detention. He is charged with three counts of burglary. He pled guilty to one of the counts in exchange for having the other two dropped, and was sentenced to 1-2 years in prison. He is released from his second stint in prison at the age of 18, after spending 10 months in jail for burglary.
6. 7-89 through 1-90 - (Ages 18-19)- Dad is on probation.
7. 6-25-90 to 6-27-90- (Age 19) Dad goes on a 2 day robbery spree, robbing four convenience stores and two innocent, random individual targets. He was convicted of three of the robberies. He spends 6 years in prison. [At 2348 26 June 90 Ms. Brown [manager of the store] observed suspects 1 [John McCaul] and 2 [John’s buddy] heading for the front door of the store about to enter. Suspect 1 (taller stick-up man) had a shotgun protruding from a grey colored “suit”-type jacket or coat. Ms. Brown attempted to hold doors closed to prevent entry, but was unsuccessful. Suspect 1 [John McCaul] pushed Ms. Brown to the end of the counter, telling Suspect 2 “get the money [illegible]”-and ordering Ms. Nickie [store clerk] to “hit the floor”. … After retrieving the below items from the cash register both suspects started for the door. Suspect #1 [John McCaul]-as an after thought grabbed two cartons of Marlboro Reds prior to exit; fleeing on foot …http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/johns-shotgun-in-the-dark]
8. 7-28-97 - (Age 26) Dad is released from prison.
9. 8-97 - Dad meets Jeff Hoover, two weeks after Dad is released from prison. Hoover tells dad he had to “whack a couple of people” a month before. Indeed, Hoover murdered two people in a drug deal gone wrong. Dad says nothing to LE about this information and continues to hang out with Hoover. He does not warn his brother and his brother’s family, with whom he is living, that Hoover is dangerous. Hoover borrowed and used Dad’s brother’s gun for the murders, however, so the brother probably wouldn’t have been too alarmed by the info.
10. In 2001 (Age 30) John was arrested for 3rd degree assault (a misdemeanor), then again the next week for “assault by mutual consent.” He appears to have been setting up fight clubs.
11. 1997-2006 - (Ages 26-35) the Dad makes statements indicating he was involved in drug trafficking and drug running with the Hell’s Angels during this time period. But, as he states when asked directly about what crimes he committed during this time period, “The only thing I was charged for was gun crimes”.
12. 2004-2005 - Dad is part owner of a strip club which was shut down after raids found it employed underage girls (one of whom was later found murdered), and seven pounds of marijuana, a gun and various distribution paraphernalia at the club.
13. 6-04 - Dad is cited for speeding but fails to appear on his ticket.
14. 7-04 - The child, “S”, is born.
15. 4-05 - The mother requests and receives a restraining order against Dad.
16. 2005 - The child’s mother gives up her parental rights and Dad is awarded custody of the child.
17. 2005 - Dad hires a caregiver to care for the child.
18. 7-05 - The caregiver takes the child to TN with Dad’s permission.
19. 9-27-05 - The caregivers alert LE to having child and adsk what to do. Later that same month, Dad sends two friends to try to get her back. LE and DCS is called. The men are prevented from taking the child.
20. 10-5-05 - DCS is granted custody of the child. Dad does not attend the hearing. The adoptive parents begin providing care for the child 5-6 days per week.
21. 10-05 - in mid-October 2005, Dad is arrested for firearms possession. He posts bond.
22. 12-5-05 - Dad receives a firearm in violation of the law prohibiting felons from owning firearms. He is released on $10,000 bond.
23. 12-13-05 - While out on bail–Dad was cited for not having valid license plates on his car. He failed to pay the fine or appear, and had a bench warrant issued for his arrest.
24. 12-05 - Two weeks later Dad is pulled over again - this time cited for driving without his license and having no valid registration. As part of his sentence his driver’s license was suspended.
25. 1-11-06 - Dad is cited again for driving without his license and having no registration, but now also for driving with a suspended license. He does not show up to court - again - and so once more a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
26. 1-24-06 - Dad was pulled over and cited for not having proper registration on his car. His license was further suspended. He spends two weeks in jail for failing to appear on his traffic ticket warrants.
27. 1-27-06 - One of the buddies that tried to get the child back from TN is granted a restraining order against Dad for harassment.
28. 2-28-06 - Dad is pulled over for speeding. In his car is found a gun and meth and drug paraphernalia.
29. 2-28-06 - Dad receives a firearm in violation of the law prohibiting felons from owning firearms.
30. 3-06 - Dad is pulled over for having improper lights and driving with a suspended license. He fails to appear again and is arrested again on a bench warrant. He spent two days in jail.
31. 4-3-06 - The child is placed in the adoptive parents’ home as foster parents.
32. 4-20-06 - Dad is pulled over for failure to stop and driving with a suspended license. He again fails to appear and a bench warrant is issued for his arrest.
33. 4-20-06 - Dad is indicted for receiving firearms in violation of the law prohibiting felons from owning firearms.
34. 7-3-06 - the adoptive parents petition the court to terminate the parents’ parental rights and adopt the child.
35. 8-06 - the paternal grandmother’s home is approved as a placement for the minor.
36. 10-4-06 - At hearing, the court in TN issues a finding that the child was dependent and neglected and continuing DCS’s legal custody of the child.
37. 10-5-06 - the paternal grandmother files a motion to intervene and seeks custody of the child.
38. Fall 2006 - (Age 35) Dad pleads guilty to weapons charges and is sentenced to 15 years.
39. 3-13-07 - Mom’s parental rights are terminated in TN.
40. 1-07 - Dad’s sentence is reduced to 7.5 years after he turns state’s evidence in the Hoover murder.
41. 6-13-08 - Dad is deposed by phone in connection with the request to terminate his parental rights.
42. 7-6-08 - Dad’s parental rights are terminated. He appeals.
43. 10-9-09 - the adoption is overturned.
44. 10-26-12 - (Age 41) Dad is released from prison with strict parole conditions.
45. 1-29-14 - The child is taken by DCS and given to Dad who she had not seen since she was an infant.

http://tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2009/sjm_112309.pdf

http://bringsonyahome.com/sonya-hodgin-story/

http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/category/john-mccaul


Here is the criminal and dependency court record for Dad’s parents (including the child’s grandma who was rejected as a placement by TN DCS and who has her own background with social services and the dad’s father who was accused of raping and molesting his own, six year old granddaughter) and his brothers. This is the child’s new family she is supposedly so happy reuniting with:

http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/the-family-that-felonies-together-stays-together

http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/not-so-stranger-danger

I think this info. that Gitana1 posted is relevant and informative. Thank you Gitana1

 

[LadyL]

Here is a website chronicling the bio dad's life of crime: http://houseofveritas.weebly.com/blog/category/john-mccaul

There are multiple links.

that site is awesome

the pie charts are brilliant