Julie Phillips' Story

In May of 2001, all ten of my children were snatched away by CPS. My baby was only 5 days old when she was wrenched from my arms. The allegations were that my house was too dirty, that I wasn't caring properly for my 2 handicapped children, and that my oldest son had sexually fondled some of his siblings. First of all, when CPS entered my home, I had just been home from the hospital after the birth of my baby 1 full day, and I was sitting in a wheelchair because of a birthing injury that left me totally helpless. Now, what would your house look like after you'd been gone for 4 days and there were 9 children to mess up the house? I'd say you'd have dirty dishes and laundry piled up, right? I had a very difficult pregnancy, and hadn't been able to keep up very well, anyway, before the baby was born. 

About my handicapped children: I was caring for them the best I could during my pregnancy, and had reached out for help. We had just recently moved from the state of Washington, where I had all kinds of help for my girls. I had 196 hours of respite care per month plus all kinds of therapy, special ed, early intervention, and etc. When we moved to Indiana I sought out the same programs, being federally funded I assumed the programs were the same all over the U.S. But when I checked into the programs here in Indiana, there was a 3 to 6 YEAR waiting list for help and respite care, because there was not enough funding. So I struggled on with no help. My older children were a great help, and so was my wonderful husband, but we had a lot on our plates at the time.

( What I feel is very interesting is that now it is costing the state of Indiana over $20,000 per month to keep our family apart. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to give us the help we needed in the home instead of ripping our family apart?)

As far as the fondling by my oldest son: We knew he had messed with the girls, but we were dealing with it the best we knew how. I had taken him to our family doctor and gotten a referral for counseling and help for him. Because of my difficult pregnancy, I wasn't able to get him to that counseling before the baby was born. Also he was on a waiting list to go to a home for at-risk children. But because we had not turned him into the POLICE, we were considered negligent and not able to protect our children from sexual molest.

Well, even after our son was hauled away (he's now is Boy's School), CPS would not let the other children come home. They were on an all-out witchhunt, because their philosophy is that because our son did what he did, then my husband and I HAD to have molested him. So began the counseling, psychiatric testing, parenting classes, more counseling, sex perpetrator's counseling, polygraph tests, and on and on. Unbeknowns to us, all this "stuff" was just a way for CPS to dig up dirt on us. We participated in it all, desperately trying to work towards reunification.

It never worked for us. We got down and licked their boots until our tongues were raw, but it all worked against us. The more we cooperated, the worse our situation got. We were accused of sexually molesting our son because we bathed him when he was older. (Anyone get sexual pleasure from washing a dirty, stinky bottom?) I was accused because I nursed my babies in the presence of my other children, and pumped my milk for my handicapped child because she was totally tube fed and I was giving her the best nutrition to keep her alive. My son one time walked in on me while I was bathing, so I was accused of molesting him. And this goes on and on. 

I'm not saying our family was perfect, but anything that we were doing "wrong" could have been corrected with the children still in the home. We could have sent our son to another location while he got therapy or something if need be, but why did our family have to be ripped apart? We believe our son is bipolar, thus explaining his hypersexuality, but we didn't know about these symptoms until he was already gone. (He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 10, but now that we look back, we feel it was more that just ADHD.)

Because we wouldn't cooperate with the "system" and say that we are pedophiles and sex addicts, our parental rights have been severed. (We are in appeal right now, however.) All our visitation rights were removed well over a year ago, and our attorney told us that the judge did that to punish us for not "cooperating." Even though we don't get any kind of contact with our children, we still have to pay child support. We have had to file for bankruptcy because of the financial strain CPS has put on us. 

We have been fighting for over 2 years now to get our children returned, but because the "system" thinks we are so evil and uncooperative, we have lost. However, through all of this my husband and I have not been criminally charged with any molest, neglect or abuse. In family court you are guilty until proven innocent, and it is awfully hard to prove your innocence in this corrupt system. Perhaps if we were tried in criminal court, we could get our children back, because there wouldn't be enough evidence to get us charged! Yet we face so much heartache. I cry every day and feel that I'm losing my mind because I can't have my babies. I am a mother, and I will fight until there is no life left in me to get my precious babies returned. 
Thanks for listening. 

Pertinent information.
Case is in Clinton County, Indiana
Case worker Karen Surber

If you need anything else or any more details, feel free to contact me. Julie Phillips at phillipsfamily12@yahoo.com