Parents fight state for 8-month-old son

October 15, 2007

A New Jersey family is hoping for a court hearing today to regain physical custody of their 8-month-old son, who is being detained now at Morristown Memorial Hospital on the order of the state Division of Youth and Family Services.

“The only thing the family appears guilty of is standing up to the heavy handed approach of the Sussex County office [of the agency],” said Mike Donnelly, a lawyer with the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Gabriel Stansfield was born to Doug and Sally Stansfield eight months ago with spina bifida. He was evaluated by several experts at his birth, including Dr. Catherine Mazzola at Morristown Memorial, and has had numerous maintenance visits to the family’s pediatrician with no complications, his parents told WND.

However, the family told WND, he was taken to the Morristown hospital a little more than a week ago because the tissue around the shunt installed to divert fluid from his brain had changed in texture, and they wanted to prevent any significant complications.

After five days in the hospital, doctors diagnosed Gabriel with a colon obstruction, and treated him for that. But while the baby still was in the hospital and with no notice to the family, a social worker from the Sussex office arrived on the family’s doorstep, demanding admittance to interview Gabriel’s six siblings, outside of the presence of their parents, regarding Gabriel.

Kevin Ryan, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, which runs the Division of Youth and Family Services

The news hit like a bombshell that the parents were being investigated by the state Department of Children and Families, run by Commissioner Kevin Ryan, on allegations of abusing Gabriel, who after treatment for the blockage was in good health and otherwise ready to be discharged.

First, Sally Stansfield dealt with the social worker.

“You can’t come into my house,” she said, so the social worker called a police officer, who arrived and told Mrs. Stansfield that she must allow the social worker in, and she didn’t need a warrant.

Sally Stansfield refused, based on HSLDA advice that such an intrusion was a violation of her civil rights. And after talking directly with Donnelly, the officer and social worker left.

The family then talked to hospital officials, who said not only had they been told “of the DYFS situation,” but they warned the state agency was planning to stop the parents from taking their son, even though medically he was being discharged. The parents immediately directed the hospital to prevent the physician they suspected of generating the complaint, Mazzola, from being involved in their son’s treatment in any fashion.

Hospital workers also informed the parents their parental rights had been terminated, which in New Jersey requires a court order.

Rob Seman, a spokesman for the hospital, declined to comment on the situation, and WND telephone calls to the state agency went unanswered.

“This is an egregious accusation,” Doug Stansfield told WND.

The parents, unable to believe a court order actually had been issued, went to the hospital Saturday to have Gabriel discharged, and took their lawyer, Janet Porro, with them. They asked for the discharge process to be done, and hospital workers again told them their rights were terminated.

The family’s lawyer asked to see the court order and the hospital failed to produce one, instead providing a copy of the state form that allows a child to be evaluated for three days.

Their lawyer noted the state law requires such documentation to be filed with a court on the first day there is any suspicion of abuse, and said the child can be held for three days for the state to prove the case.

“They knew because it was Saturday, we wouldn’t be able to challenge it in court right away,” Sally Stansfield said. “We could have caused a scene, but decided to wait until Monday [today].”

“We are gathering information to prepare for court,” Sally Stansfield told WND. “This is ridiculous. This never should have happened.”

Among the information they’ve assembled is Gabriel’s medical history. “We have a list of medical care we have provided over his eight months of life, [including] four visits to his pediatrician, two assessments for a government program, monthly physical therapy and two reviews from a neurosurgeon,” Sally Stansfield told WND.

Doug Stansfield said he believes Mazzola was miffed at the family for not following her exact requirements, which included multiple visits with her, and instead following the recommendations of their own pediatrician, who thought fewer visits to fewer specialists was within reason.

Donnelly told WND in addition to being advocates for homeschooling nationally and helping members with disputes with local education authorities, the HSLDA is committed to helping members defend 4th and 5th amendment rights in the context of social services investigations.

While non-homeschooling matters are not automatically addressed by the organization, “in circumstances where there is a clear violation … HSLDA may, as we have done in the past, choose to take the case in an effort to establish a legal precedent,” he said.

“Most social services agencies apply a one size fits all approach to investigating allegations regardless of what the allegations are. Even if the allegations have nothing to do with abuse, they often insist on interviewing children. Even if allegations have nothing to do with the safety of the home, these workers demand to come in. Why? In some cases because they blindly follow the policy protocol established by the agency, regardless of the circumstances. These ‘fishing expeditions’ are used by case workers to see if there is ‘anything else going on’ that they ‘should be concerned with’,” Donnelly said.

“In the case of the Stansfields, members of HSLDA, it appears that a conflict between the hospital specialist and the family has resulted in a heavy handed approach which may violate the family’s civil rights,” he said. “In Doe v. Heck, the 7th circuit court of appeals held that parents have a fundamental right to familial relations including a liberty interest in the care custody and control of their children.”

He said Gabriel has been cleared medically and should be returned to his family, “where he can receive loving care from his mother, father and siblings” instead of being detained in a hospital.

“The hospital has also continued to allow the offending specialist to treat Gabriel, even though the family has expressly forbade the doctor to be involved in Gabriel’s treatment as they are seeking a new specialist whom they can trust to work with them,” he said.

“No credible evidence of any kind has been provided showing that Gabriel is being neglected or at risk of harm in being released to his family who have been caring for him since his birth eight months ago,” he said.

In an e-mail request to friends for prayer support, Doug Stansfield said, “This isn’t over yet … We will most likely end up in court. This can happen to anyone. This case stems from Dr. Mazzola saying that we did not follow her medical protocol after he [Gabriel] was released from the hospital back in January.

“Admittedly, we did not. We spoke with our pediatrician about her protocol and he didn’t think we needed to follow it directly. Therefore, we have been taking Gabriel to see the pediatrician whenever he got sick.”

“For one doctor to have the power to unleash this fury on my family and cause the emotional trauma of having state troopers at my doorstep and to wonder whether or not the state was going to take them away!!!” he said. “A doctor that doesn’t know my family at all and has never met them or been to my house can make one phone call which will cause this much harassment is outrageous and shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

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