June 18, 2016

Vincent Davis: Good morning, this is Attorney Vincent Davis. You’re on the radio with Get Your Kids Back Now. The show is dedicated to keeping families together and to fighting the tyranny of CPS and DCFS social workers. A secondary purpose of the show is to educate parents and relatives or to at least show them where to go to get the necessary information for their fight. The final purpose of the show is to remind the people that change can be effectuated at the ballot box at the state and the federal levels. Let us unite, vote and elect those who will make the necessary changes.

Good morning. Today, we’re going to be talking about a topic that I get a lot of calls on and it’s what to do when the social worker shows up at your home. This is taking place at countless counties and states throughout the country so I want to give you some tips. The first tip is if you are phoned or contacted in person by a CPS of DCFS social worker and told that there is an allegation made against you, inquire the social worker the exact nature of the complaint filed against you. Furthermore, request them to give you the actual state statute or local ordinance code that you have allegedly violated, write it down. If you are surprised at your door and don’t have a pen and a paper, politely ask their forgiveness while you gather writing material, excuse yourself for a minute, “a minute”, calmly close and quietly lock the door try not to be obvious and get something to write on, return and take precise notes.

In a lot of situations I’ve heard that social workers will not give you the information for what you’re being charged with. And I think that’s an investigative technique that they use and they can ask you open-ended questions, you can talk to them, et cetera, but they are reluctant to give you the information that you’re seeking. So be worry of that although my tip is to get that information from the social worker, note that a lot of social workers won’t give you that. Now if they don’t give you the information, please don’t get upset, don’t get frustrated, keep calm and that takes us to step two. Ask the social worker and/or the police officers to identify themselves. Jot down their names, their badge numbers if they have it and ask for their business cards and write down any information that they give you about themselves, for example, their telephone numbers, what office or precinct they’re from. So remember at this point you already have pen and paper.

The next thing you should do is if you have advanced notice or suspect that you were being investigated and expect a home visit you might be able to document the front door or in-home conversation with a video/audio recorder. It is not unlawful to conceal the camera or recorder so that the social worker or police officer is unaware of the taping but you have to let them know in California that you are taping or audio recording parents. Many parents use such devices to protect children from abuse from babysitters. This type of recording on your own property is never illegal no matter what you were told by the social worker or the police. In California, it is illegal to record telephone calls without the consent of all parties to the conversation, and that’s California Penal Code Section 632 that said if you were to videotape yourself while talking on the phone so that your side of the conversation was recorded that might be useful to remember exactly what you said.

The next step, number four, if the CPS or DCFS social worker asked to come in to your home, politely inform them that you’d rather not have them in. If they insist, coerce or threaten you with some consequence for keeping them out, stay in your ground. If they persist and ask the social worker or the police officer that they have a warrant or court order that gives them the authority to enter your home against your will. Now, I’ve heard in many cases that a lot of social workers just barge in or police officers just barge in. They cannot do that without a court order or warrant. If they do they are subject being sued for civil rights violation under state and federal law pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution which is unreasonable search and seizure.

Now, most people have phones that take pictures and record video. I suggest that you have that so that the social worker or the police officer knows what you’re doing and you’re trying to document what’s happening. If they persist and they enter your home without a warrant you should probably call an attorney right away. Now, under the circumstances they may tell that you don’t or that they don’t need a warrant under the circumstances. Tell them again that you will be glad to cooperate and allow them to enter your home if they possess a warrant or court order signed by a judge or magistrate. If a police officer demands that you step out of the way and insists of entering your home, it would be advisable to step aside where you might end up arrested. The abuse of this police authority can be addressed at a later time without you ending up in a jail cell.

So the question I get a lot is when can the police legally enter my home without a warrant or a court order? Under very limited circumstances which the law refers to as “exigent circumstances” such as in a hot pursuit of the criminal or in an emergency, police officers are legally permitted to enter a home without a warrant but these instances are usually rare. An example of a hot pursuit and the legal authority to enter a private residence sometimes seen by million people watching a television police pursuit as commonly seen here in Southern California with a person crashes the car and then brakes into a close by him or apartment. The officers can’t enter that home without a warrant. An emergency would involve the immediate need to rescue someone from serious bodily harm. An officer hearing screaming please or help or gunshots coming from inside of the home would reasonably perceive an emergency and would be justified in entering the home without a warrant.

A social worker investing an allegation of child abuse or neglect especially from an anonymous tip would rarely be exempt from the legal requirement to have a warrant. So I want to repeat that because this happens time and time again. A social worker investigating allegations of child abuse or neglect especially from an anonymous tip would rarely be exempt from the legal requirement to have a warrant or court order so that the police or the social worker enter your home without a warrant or court order and without you inviting them you should definitely speak to an attorney or perhaps call my office.

The fifth thing that you should know is that the same legal rights protect you should an officer of the court says that as a CPS or DCF social worker or police officer attempt to convince or coerce you to do anything against your will. For example, you should not assume that you have to drive to and show up at the offices of the county social worker nor should be coerced to bring your children to the CPS or DCFS offices to be interviewed without being served a legal court order to do so. Only a judge or a magistrate presented with evidence that you have committed a crime can issue an order that you are obligated to obey or comply with. Unfortunately or mistakenly complied with such orders as they seemed mandatory, all the while the CPS workers are building a case against you with your help and your willing cooperation. If such requests are being made to you, it might be time to seek legal counsel at it is likely that the social workers are in fact building a case against you.

Just this week a woman called from — I believe she was in Riverside County, California and things were getting out of hand in an investigation against her with the police and with the social workers. And here was the scenario. The social workers came to her door with two police officers. As it turns out, neither the social workers or the police officers had a warrant or court order. However, in the conversations that occurred before the social workers and the police officers entered a home, the mother was made to feel as if she was compelled to let them in their house. Now at this point with the social workers and the police officers standing at the door, they did not hear any screaming please or help, any gunshots so there was nothing to justify an emergency under the law and under the Fourth Amendment.

They stood at the door and they repeatedly asked to come in into the home. And apparently, the mother repeatedly denied them access to the home. Finally, one of the officers took it upon himself to open the screen door and to barge his way right into the door. At this point, the second officer and the social worker followed the first officer into the screen into the home. Now, there’s not much a woman can do when two officers barge into your home or barge into your home. There weren’t any guns and they have badges so there’s nothing at this point that the mother can do. As the officers searched the home, the social worker and the mother sat in the living room couch and discussed the case and the allegations that were made allegedly the mother. Now, as it turns out, the allegation that was made against the mother was one of drug abuse. Someone had called in anonymously and made allegations that the mother could not take care of the children because of her alleged drug abuse.

The children were not at home at the time that the social worker and the police came but the mother informed me that the social worker basically demanded that she bring the children to the office the next day demanded that the mother take a drug test on the spot and allegedly the social worker also required the children to be taken to a hospital to be examined for physical and/or sexual abuse. Now, the mother complied with all of the requests. Eventually, the children were interviewed by the social worker and apparently there was no information given that would support that the mother was a risk to these children or endanger of being a risk to these children. The case was eventually transferred to another social worker and for a period of more than 30 days this family was investigated for alleged child abuse at no time that the social worker obtained a court order or warrant to do anything.

So the woman has consulted with me and she asked me were her rights violated, were her children’s rights violated. And in my humble opinion I told her yes so now in the process of making a claim against the county and the police for civil rights violations and that will probably end up turning into a lawsuit against the county social workers and the police officers. So somebody, if a social worker ever tells you that you have to do something, you do not. The social worker may tell you that if you don’t cooperate that she will inform the judge. And that’s probably true, probably will inform the judge but it’s better than you talking or allowing the social worker to do something in giving the social worker to gather evidence or to make up evidence or to twist evidence against you.

So my advice in most situation is don’t talk to the social worker, don’t cooperate with the social worker; they’re only building a case against you. If they had the evidence to take your children away from you, you would not have your children; only you talking to them can they gather this evidence. And by the way, social workers are professional information gatherers. They’re investigators. Please do not think that at anytime you will able to outwit, outsmart or outtalk a social worker; it’s not going to happen. Right now I’m going to take a break from this list and I’m going to take our first call, it’s area code 562 ending in 48.

Male: Good morning.

Vincent Davis: Good morning. How are you?

Male: I’m doing well, sir. Thank you. This is Daniel.

Vincent Davis: Hi, Daniel.

Male: And I want to thank you for my case getting closed yesterday. Thank you to guys. My daughter is home. My case is close. But I just like to say that whole thing about the social worker in the very beginning took my daughter and I told her, “I don’t want to really talk to you. You should have proper counsel here.” She told me, “You’re not being arrest, Mr. Quest. We’re only gathering information.” And the whole thing got twisted out of proportion from there.

Vincent Davis: How did the social worker make you feel when she was initially questioning you?

Male: I felt really bad. I had a feeling something was going to happen. I was only trying to cooperate. She asked if I did drugs. I told her I do not drink alcohol or do any kind of drugs. And again I was trying to cooperate. Later I read the report and everything got completely twisted around from what I said. And she said, “If you don’t cooperate we’re going to take your daughter and have you arrested.” And so, you know, she goes, “You don’t need an attorney. We’re just questioning you, just words.” I said, “Okay. Well, that seems reasonable.” I was honest with her. She asked me if I did drugs, I told her no. My daughter’s mom is a substance abuser, that’s what they were investigating that I’m a non-offending parent. And so they just figured because she does the drugs, I do drugs. Her mom and I were not together. I had broke up with her about five, six months previous this.

But again I was trying to cooperate with her and everything that I said was twisted around and they go on assumption. They assume things. They start putting things together and more that you talk the more they twist it. I kind of noticed but I was trying to cooperate, I was trying to keep my daughter, you know, she was with me and I was trying to keep her with me. And the social worker who’s talking about alleged allegations against me and I’m thinking what the heck I have done, I’m not doing anything wrong but they took her and it’s just in a real rough road. I said, “Look at my drug test.” They asked me to drug test. I said, “I’ll drug test right now.” But they can actually go drug test and that would be it, but no — they said no, it won’t work that way. You got to call in, give the last letter of your — the first letter of your last name comes up then you go drug test, which humiliating. I did that for five times. Never had a dirty test, never had anything come up but to go sit there for an hour and a half away to take that thing was extremely humiliating and then taking it was humiliating.

And so after that, you know, I did a little homework and did these classes and I think it kind of made them angry that I jumped into it real quick and got the classes because then it added more stuff; individual counseling, 730 evaluation and, you know, you just — sometimes if someone is taking advantage of you just by trying to cooperate with the whole thing then just drag it out for a long time. And my daughter was set up to be adopted out. They told me, “You’re not going to get your daughter back.” They had her two hours away one way. I made 178 trips to visit my daughter and I did everything, all the mandates before I was asked, you know. So I just thank you, thank God I found you, Vincent. My mom actually found you, thank you guys for all helping me. Case closed, two words that I’m still like — I feel like I won the lottery or something. I appreciate you guys and I’m kind of like happy it’s over, it hasn’t set in yet.

Vincent Davis: Well, Daniel, thank you for those compliments, I appreciate it. But I want to ask you a couple questions for these listeners, okay?

Dd: Sure.

Vincent Davis: Tell us how long it took you to get your child back.

Dd: It took 27 months. She was actually with the foster care for 13 months. When this first happened my mom and my sister signed up for my daughter to come to their place live scan, fingerprinted but the social workers just kept dragging out. “Oh, she’s safer, she is. You’re going to be getting her home pretty soon.” It just took a long time. When she was in the foster care, she always had a rash real bad, not being changed the diapers and she was always sick. These are people that could not have children and did not have children so they had no experience everything. They were experiencing was on the internet. And so they took my daughter from me, I’m father of four. They gave her to these perfect strangers and she had all these rashes going on. And I found out later because they didn’t change her diapers enough. They didn’t pay to take care of my daughter and they didn’t want to spend their money.

I went one time to pick my daughter up for visit and, you know, she needed diaper change and so I got to change her diaper. And they told me, “Oh, no.” This is 10:00 that I went over there. And they said, “She just had a diaper changed at 9:30.” And I said, “Well, she’s not on a time schedule. When she goes, she goes.” And the lady looked at me where I kind of stupid and she ran over to the diaper box and pointed, “See, it says good for 12 hours.” And I said, “You want to sit down a dirty diaper for 12 hours?” And I changed my daughter and they could see that she needed to be changed but that didn’t make any difference. Many times I picked her up and her diaper was wet. I checked her all the time and I make sure she’s clean. She’s probably cleaning out so we’ll pass all that but I just couldn’t believe that they would — how they found these people, how they would just give my daughter to them and say, “They’re going to be able to adopt her.”

Okay. My daughter is black. They said 95% of the black children that are born that have substance in their system, they get adopted out. So you have 95% chance adopting this child. And I had to listen to the foster mom for my daughter, her daughter and her baby and she’s mommy and after 13 months when I finally picked her up and she was going to have a real fit. I said, “Excuse me, you are not her mom.” I never said anything to that point. I did report it to my attorney at the time, the social worker, the county prosecutor and they said, “I will look into it. Everything was just ignored.” So I thank God she’s back home now and I thank God that I found you guys because it’s just a rollercoaster, real mess.

Vincent Davis: Daniel, initially when they took the child from you it took you 20 — how many months to get the child back?

Dd: Twenty-seven months.

Vincent Davis: Okay. When did you call our office to represent you?

Dd: Last November. I had another attorney represent…

Vincent Davis: So how many months?

Dd: Let’s see. Nine or six month — about 21 months I believe.

Vincent Davis: So you were represented by someone else for 21 months?

Dd: Yeah, outside attorney, yes. What I know now and what I read from you guys and heard different stories, she should have been brought home right away, you know. And this guy was just — he kind of just — he told me, “Well, we don’t want to interrupt anything. We’re doing good here. I think you are just getting a paycheck.” I don’t think he was really concerned about myself and my daughter. I just feel that I have more experience and knowledge now because of you but I had no knowledge of different things before. And apparently he didn’t need to do this family law but this is special to you, the juvenile dependency, so.

Vincent Davis: And how long did it take us to get your child back for you?

Dd: Right away the first quarter apparently. We walked in there and, you know, they started talking. DCSF was not [0:25:52 inaudible] my daughter came home after I finished all the mandates, did everything they asked me to. You guys got that stuff. My daughter came home full time with me. I was so relieved.

Vincent Davis: Well, Daniel, I appreciate you calling. I appreciate the compliments. Take good care of your daughter and thank you for calling this morning.

Dd: I will. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Vincent Davis: Bye-bye. Okay. Right now I’m going to take another call or that’s been on hold for a while, area code 619 ending in 59. Good morning.

Female: Good morning.

Vincent Davis: How are you today?

Female: I’m not doing too good.

Vincent Davis: Did you want to ask a question or share us story or both?

Female: I wanted to ask a question and share a story.

Vincent Davis: Hold on. There’s a lot of background noise. I don’t know if you have a TV or a radio on.

Female: Yeah. Okay. My question is — can you hear me now?

Vincent Davis: Perfectly.

Female: Okay. My question is I had a CPS case maybe like 20 years ago and I do not reunify with my children but they were with family. They’re like 26, 23, you know. I have them back in my life and everything. And I have two children, a nine year old and a five year old who I’m going to be taking care about myself for nine years. The grandmother, the father’s mother, she did not like me at all. She does not help me with my children. She does not do anything for them. I was homeless and at first she did get the kids from me. She had them for four days and then she called and reported that I basically abandoned my kids there and I’m on drugs. I haven’t been on drugs since 2004. I told her my story and that’s the reason why she knew that I did drugs.

While the CPS worker who came to my house, all came to my cousin’s house when she kind of talked to me, it was like early in the morning. She says she thinks I’m on drugs. That’s why I’ve been sick for five months. It looked like I was really sick. I was like I’m sick or on drugs but I’m not on drugs and she just took my kids anyway. She didn’t do an investigation. She didn’t do anything. She just snatched my kids away from me because of my child’s history. And then she said she’s not recommending that I get a reunification services. And I’m like what is the basis you all taking them because there’s no abuse or neglect. And she said that they are just trying to [0:28:58 inaudible] her and I don’t do drugs and then never seen me do drugs. So I have my children. So I don’t know what to do because they’re not trying to give me any sources.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Well, let me ask you. Have you gone to court yet?

Female: I missed my court date. The date of my court, I missed it. I went to court; they told me that I was already done and she told me it will be 10:00. When I went at 9:30 they said it was already done at 8:00. So I left and I thought, how come you guys having a court date without me there? How would you do it without me there?” She said that it was [0:29:35 inaudible] I missed it. I said, “Well, I’m there at 9:30.” And they told me that the court was over.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Let’s back up for second. What county are you in?

Female: In San Diego.

Vincent Davis: In San Diego.

Female: Uh-hmm.

Vincent Davis: And what courthouse were you going to?

Female: The Superior Court on Meadow Lark Drive.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So you’re going to the main juvenile court.

Female: Yes.

Vincent Davis: So what courtroom are you assigned to?

Female: Courtroom 2 I believe.

Vincent Davis: No, it can’t be two. Two is not a dependency courtroom. Generally, at that building they have several courtrooms. They’re juvenile delinquency cases and juvenile dependency cases. So you have a dependency case. So in that building I think it’s Department 5, Department 9 and Department 10 are the juvenile dependency courtrooms.

Female: It was 10 or 2.

Vincent Davis: 9 and 10 are outside in the patio area.

Female: Okay. It was down, obviously in down there. If you come in and you make a left and it’s towards the end.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So when is your next court date?

Female: I do not know. I have been calling the social worker all week; she has not called me back. She didn’t give me [0:31:07 inaudible] for my children or anything. Well, she gave me one with nothing on it; there was nothing on it.

Vincent Davis: Hold on a second. When was the first court date that you went to?

Female: The first court date was like a month ago. I haven’t shown up [0:31:24 inaudible].

Vincent Davis: Hold on. What you need to…

Female: I’m supposed to have the court date but [0:31:27 inaudible].

Vincent Davis: What you need to do is you need to go the clerk’s office which is in that building on the second floor with your ID and ask them when your next court date is.

Female: I was trying to get a special hearing or something because they’re saying they’re going on my path and if they’re going on my path I completed everything that they wanted me to do but then they just took my kids, you know. So they’re going on my path. I said, I completed everything that you all set to do and you still took my children.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Well, ma’am, we can help you get them back but I want you to do something, okay?

Female: Uh-hmm.

Vincent Davis: I want you to call the clerk’s office on the second floor of that building. I want you to get a copy of all the minute orders for this recent case and then I want you to fax or email them to me. You can call my office to get the information. And then I want you to call and make an appointment to speak to me on the phone, okay?

Female: Okay.

Vincent Davis: If you have a pen and a piece of paper right now.

Female: Yeah, hold on. Let me just get it. Okay.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So my telephone number is 888-888-6582.

Female: 6582. So 888…

Vincent Davis: 888-888-6582.

Female: And also I want to say that the social worker that came out to see me, when she came out of that door over there where I was and then when she says that I was high and she wants the police to come and test me, I waited for three hours for the police to come and my dad [0:33:45 inaudible] she called her all kind of names for three hours. So I believe when I’ve read — her phrase was read I believe that’s the only reason why she took my children because she had no reason, you know.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Well, ma’am, I want to help you…

Female: Well, [0:34:00 inaudible] without the case.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Ma’am, if we find out we can help you, we will help you get your children back and we will help you sue the social worker for what she’s done to you, okay?

Female: Okay.

Vincent Davis: I expect to hear from you on Monday.

Female: Okay. Thank you.

Vincent Davis: Thank you very much.

Female: Bye-bye.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Well, right now I’m going to take another call, area code 818, ending in 07. Good morning, you’re on with Attorney Vincent Davis.

Male: Good morning. I have a question/story I want to share. My situation with CPS is actually in the beginning stages. Me and my wife had a dispute on Friday night, argument back and forth. I was the one that called the cops. They came. There’s no markings on me; she has no markings on her too. There’s no damage in the house. There’s no damage to any property and there’s no damage or hit marks on my kids. Everything is fine. They even make sure that they were okay and everything was fine. And again it was an argument me and wife. Alcohol was involved. No drugs at all. And the next day, the following day which was yesterday — I’m sorry, the dispute was Thursday night and yesterday that’s when a CPS worker given me a call and I was the barber shop, my wife was at home. So my wife ended up calling me telling me that the CPS worker was threatening to take away my kids and arrest my wife if I didn’t get home in a timely manner. So I got out and left. I came home. I spoke to the CPS worker. I was unaware at the time that you could actually refuse it from entering your home. She made it seemed though it was urgent that she entered and interviewed us which if I had nothing to hide which we don’t we let her in. I also read that it was calling me back to cooperate.

So we sit down. No arguments are going on between me and the CPS worker. She could visually see that I have no marks on me. She can visually see that. My wife has no marks on her. She read the report and the report said that there were bruises on my arm and even the CPS worker was confused as to why there were no bruises on her arm. And she made that comment, “Well, hey, you know, this is what the report said the cop said and I’m just going with it.” And I said, “Okay. Can I ask you, can you agree me that there are no marks on me?” She agreed. She did speak to my wife about what happened. She spoke to me about what happened. We gave her everything that we possibly could; again, we’re not hiding anything. She asked to speak to the kids. My son is six and my younger one is three. They did mention that we argue and I stressed to her we’re going on 10 years in our relationship, eight as a couple and two married, there’s got to be argument. But she insisted that in a perfect world there will not be, which I find it hard to believe.

She said that there was a count for neglect and abuse on my children. I don’t see how. I asked how and she just again said that because we’re arguing back and forth and that was enough to pull a case. Now, to bring up the whole picture and to get a more accurate answer, we have had issues in the past, me and my wife, where she did call the cops on me. There was no argument as far as — I’m sorry, there was no contact between me touching her or her touching me. The whole deal was I have a — well, I had a rifle at that time and I currently do have a shotgun, there was no threat on that made. However, I took my gun and I left. My wife was pissed off years ago when this first originally happened; she called and basically told them that we were going arguing and that I had a gun and I left. It was a pretty big deal at that time that CPS got involved. I had move out to my mother’s house. We ended up sticking it out together. She ended up moving with me to my mother’s house. CPS came. They checked everything, my son, they checked his back. They asked if my firearm is legally registered and it is. They checked our living conditions which is understandable. Everything turned out fine. He recommended closing the case on a count that we see a therapist, a family therapist. We did so. We did a session or two which was recommended at that time and that was that case.

Now going back to the present case, she had brought that up as well that there was a CPS working it all. There was a call before and that she recommended me and my wife having a drug test today actually. We haven’t received the information yet because we had a late conversation with her up until 9:00. She left our house and she said she was going to send the information [0:40:08 inaudible] to see the drug test and that is where we’ll stand. She said she offers her call log for the previous call. And as soon as the drug test comes back and the information is back from the call log, she’ll meet us on Monday and find out what the result will be.

Vincent Davis: Where are the children right now?

Male: Oh, I’m sorry about that. What she recommended was a clean-up period and, you know, I’m not pretty sure what that means but let me elaborate on what she explained to me because I was confused. Since I was the one that made the call, they asked that my wife leave the residence for a period of two days or they recommended that my children stay with the family member that are obviously outside the house so they don’t want the kids to get, you know, they don’t want the kids involved at all. So I had asked, I said, “Is this by law? What is this? She said, “Well, it’s a voluntary safe plan.” So anyone wanted to ask questions. We’re not in the situation daily so we don’t know. So we asked, you know, “Can my wife still see them during the day?” She said, “Yes, whatever you want.” I said, “Well, what if my wife wants to come home and get toothpaste or to get a change of clothes?” “Yeah, that’s fine, she can do that.”

So I was confused on she couldn’t stay there but she could still them. Now, the kids, my wife, just so we don’t push any buttons and do anything incorrectly we don’t want to get our family involved as far as our relatives, brothers, mother, sisters. And so what we did is we got a hotel for my kids and my wife to stay down the street so we have documentation that she did in fact stay outside the house. So my kids were with me. I actually dropped them off right now at the hotel with my wife where they could see her.

Vincent Davis: Did you sign anything?

Male: I did unfortunately. After I wrote that, I should’ve known.

Vincent Davis: And do you have a copy of it?

Male: I took a picture of it. I also should say that…

Vincent Davis: Okay. I want to…

Male: Go ahead. Sorry, go ahead.

Vincent Davis: I want you to text it to me.

Male: Okay.

Vincent Davis: If you have a pen, I’ll give you my number.

Male: Yeah. Give me one second, I am — okay. I have it right here. Okay. I’m ready.

Vincent Davis: 310-308…

Male: 310-308, okay.

Vincent Davis: 7758.

Male: 7758. 310-308-7758, okay, sending now. And then on top of that I had mentioned it because she didn’t mention it. I mentioned that I’m Native American as well as my two sons. My son is registered the oldest and the youngest is impasses to be registered. We are state recognized, not federally recognized. So she maybe — she asked me to fill out a form I should say because I understand the constitution won’t apply completely to me if my kids were removed from my home for any reason that they would actually battle it out with the tribe. So that’s one of the forms I did sign as well.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So I just got your text.

Male: That’s the front page. I’m sending you the back.

Vincent Davis: Okay. I’m trying to enlarge it here.

Male: Yeah. They gave us the safety thread of 10 which is [0:44:27 inaudible].

Vincent Davis: If you were at safety thread of 10 you would not have your children.

Male: I don’t understand as well.

Vincent Davis: Yeah. So I’m looking for the part on here that says that you can stop the safety plan at anytime.

Male: Well, she made it clear that we weren’t supposed to live in the same house together.

Vincent Davis: Now, one of the things I want to mention to you should give you a warning to be fair. If you don’t do what this lady says she could take your children away from you and started juvenile dependency court case. Okay?

Male: Okay.

Vincent Davis: If you do what she says she could still take your kids away from you and started juvenile dependency court case.

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So there’s no guarantee. I don’t know enough about your situation right now to tell you what you should do and what you shouldn’t do but I am going to tell you what I generally and you have to take this with a grain of salt what I generally advise people. And I generally advise people not to cooperate with the social worker, not to do what they say because all they’re doing is gathering evidence against you.

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: I recommend that people don’t talk to social workers because anything you say is going to be either taking down and used against you or twisted and used against you. And in some cases I’ve seen, you know, social workers basically not be truthful. I don’t know if you know this but in downtown Los Angeles right now there are five social workers being criminally prosecuted for writing false reports to the court.

Male: Wow.

Vincent Davis: So this is in my opinion the culture of doing things for a lot of social workers, not all social workers. There are good social workers. Unfortunately, there are social workers that are not good and the problem becomes how do you know who you’re dealing with. You don’t know. Has you or your wife enrolled in any domestic violence counseling?

Male: No, just the therapy that we were pointed to.

Vincent Davis: I’m sorry, you said just the therapy that you were what?

Male: We were asked to do as a part of the previous incident that I mentioned.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So are you doing that therapy?

Male: Oh, that was years ago. That was over with.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Did the social worker advise you to do some therapy?

Male: Yeah, he did and we actually went through it. We did like one or two sessions of it and then that was it.

Vincent Davis: Okay. How long — because I have to blow this up, the picture you sent me. How long is this plan supposed to last?

Male: Over the weekend and so it would be over on Monday.

Vincent Davis: Okay. Well, the basic limited things that you’ve told me I would say go ahead and comply with this until Monday. You do not have to take a drug test. I mean you can if you want to but you do not have to.

Male: Okay.

Vincent Davis: Your wife doesn’t have to take one. And I guess — what else was she asking you to do?

Male: Again, for how my wife [0:48:37 inaudible] I take a drug test. And I wanted to ask you, under what circumstances would an individual be asked to take a drug test?

Vincent Davis: You know, I get the feeling sometimes that the social workers asked everyone to take a drug test or almost everyone. And I’m going to give you my opinion why. You see this whole system in my opinion is a moneymaking opportunity for the counties in California or in every state. You see the people paying for this is the federal government and the more services like drug test that they push upon you the more they’re going to make from the federal government through a budgetary process. You know, many years ago before I was an attorney I was sort of a public accountant and I worked at a firm that was at that time called Haskins & Sells. It was an international accounting firm. It then became Deloitte Haskins & Sells, now it’s just Deloitte.

But to make a long story short when I was there Los Angeles County was one of our biggest clients and there’s this whole area about governmental county. It’s a very specialized area of the county. But one of the things I learned and I see this now is governmental entities are in business not only to help people, they’re in business to make money. And if they’re not servicing you and pushing these services on you, they’re not making money. So they may want to physically examine your children with the doctor. They may want to have your kids examined to see if there was any sexual abuse. There’s a big law suit I think going on in San Diego where anytime a child is detained from the parent no matter what the allegation, they were given sexual abuse on screening exams which, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever had one but they’re very intrusive as you might imagine. So they’re just, you know, in my opinion — and this is my humble opinion, they’re [0:51:02 inaudible] these services to make money. There’s a lot of background noise from you.

Male: Oh, sorry about that, go ahead.

Vincent Davis: They’re giving you all of these services and they do it under the banner protecting children but what’s really happening is they’re making money.

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: So if you want to consult with me any further about it, just give me a call or text me if you have any questions and I’ll try to help you out but my advice right now from what you’ve told me, just comply with the plan of the mom staying at the house until the 28th. Now, this lady may end up filing a juvenile case against you and trying to take the children away from you. If that happens, what you should do is call or text me immediately, okay?

Male: Yeah. Okay.

Vincent Davis: Alrighty. Well, good luck to you, sir.

Male: One more…

Vincent Davis: Yes.

Male: One more question and obviously these are all just individuals talking online but I did [0:52:17 inaudible] a firm site, a law firm site that refusing a drug test could actually look pretty bad on you.

Vincent Davis: Yeah, I told you that it could. But here’s the thing. The type of drug test that you take for the family court and family services in Los Angeles County — because county to county is just different, it’s not 100% reliable. So there is such a thing called a false positive. There is such a thing called a false negative. So Google knows all and what you should do is you should Google the type of test that you are going to take and it will tell you — there’ll be articles about the scientific nature of taking certain types of drug test. Now, there’s different types of drug test. There’s a urinalysis. And I read an article recently there are several different type of urinalysis drug testing and there’s blood and I’ve read that there’s several different types of blood testing. And there’s hair, hair follicle testing. There’s several different types.

If you were to say, “Hey, I want to take a drug test,” and it comes back up with a false positive because of just nature of the test or human error. Now, you got to remember what’s going on of these drug collection facilities and the type of people working there and it’s very busy and chaotic sometimes. What if somebody makes a mistake or the test is mistaken and it comes back and says you use Methamphetamine? You’re going to be in a world of hurt trying to explain that away with the social worker and the judge. Now, the flip side is you don’t take the test. That means they have no evidence against you. See, this is still, you know, lost till apply; they need evidence. The fact that you don’t take a drug test is not evidence that you are a drug abuser. Do you understand that?

Male: I understand that, yeah.

Vincent Davis: Okay. So if an attorney told you on a website that you should take the drug test, that’s the attorney’s opinion, okay?

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: Okay. I’m telling you my opinion and I can tell you this. I’ve been doing this, I’ve been an attorney this year, this December, 30 years. I’ve done literally thousands, me and my firm, thousands of these cases and we represent people not only in Los Angeles, we represent people Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, Orange. We represent people in Shasta County, Humboldt County. Do you know where that is?

Male: Yes.

Vincent Davis: That is the Oregon border. We represent people in — I can’t even think of all the counties that we’re represented people in. Martin, San Joaquin. So I mean I have a lot of experience so what I’m telling you is not, you know, just out of mind but I mean that’s basically the experience that I have. Now, that doesn’t mean another attorney will tell you something different. Okay?

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: It’s like going to a doctor, you know. One doctor is going to tell you you need that operation, and the other doctor is going to tell you you don’t need it. So I mean you have to do your research. You have to talk to people and you have to finally make a decision that you and your family — that’s best for you and your family.

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: And I’ve been involved in many — I have a case right now where my client had a false positive. Oh, this is great. Listen to the story and we’re running out of time. So I have a client in Orange County. She’s testing clean for weeks. She takes one test and it comes back positive. She continues testing for weeks. She’s clean. So we got this one positive. And the social worker, bless her heart, says in the report to the judge, “I think this was a mistake and I’m not going to recommend taking the kids away from her.” Well, fortunately the judge has gone along with this so far but unfortunately there’s a minor’s attorney, the ones who take the kid from her. Okay?

Male: Wow.

Vincent Davis: Guest what the social worker did. The social worker gave my client to give to me what I will describe as a secret memo in that county about all the problems with the drug testing facility and the drug testing test that they actually do in that county. Now, by the way, I’ve been doing cases in Orange County for years. I’ve never heard or seen of this memo. So the workers are actually trained that these tests are inherently unreliable. But they never tell anybody that. They never tell the judges that. But this worker, bless her heart, she felt so bad for my client. She decided to disclose it. And of course the minor’s attorney had backed off because now she sees something she didn’t know before this case in this particular minor’s attorney who was against my client has been around probably 20 years.

Male: Yeah.

Vincent Davis: Sir, I’m running out of time and I’ve got to wrap up the show. If you have any questions, give us a call at the office. You have my personal cell number, call or text me and we’ll try to help you out, okay?

Male: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Vincent Davis: Thank you.

Male: Bye-bye.

Vincent Davis: Interesting call. Hope I can help him out. Hope things turn out for him with his investigation and hopefully doesn’t catch a case in juvenile dependency court. I didn’t get to finish the list of things to do when the social worker comes to your door. I’ll pick that up next week. Don’t forget next week every Saturday at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM we have our show, Get Your Kids Back Now. I’ll explain the secrets on how to win your case against DCFS and CPS workers all around the state of California. If you are a listener and you want to call in and either listen or ask a question or share a story, the number is 646-668-8791. 646-668-8791 and don’t forget that you can listen to past shows and get the transcripts on our website talkradioexperts.com. Thank you.