Parents finally prevail after social service agents state-nap their child

Drake Pardo, center, surrounded by his mother, Ashley, and father, Daniel

A Texas judge has signed an agreement to dismiss a case brought by Child Protective Services against a family accused of giving their 4-year-old son unnecessary medical care, based on the allegations of a doctor the family had fired.

Judge Tracy Gray signed an order Thursday dismissing the CPS case against Ashley and Daniel Pardo, the parents of Drake.

It's been just over five months since the family's "nightmare battle with the agency began," according to the Texas Home School Coalition.

On June 20, CPS agents removed 4-year-old Drake from his family's home, refusing to disclose any allegations.

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CPS eventually made repeated claims that the parents had given Drake unnecessary medical care.

"Throughout the case, it became clear that all medical care Drake had ever received had been prescribed by his attending physicians, none of whom CPS had ever spoken to before deciding to remove him from his home," the Texas Home School Coalition said.

The CPS story was inconsistent. At one point, agents claimed at a hearing that their removal of Drake from his parents home was justified because the family "might seek medical care in the future which CPS believed might be unnecessary."

At the hearing, a judge imposed a gag order on the Pardos barring them from speaking about the case.

Since then, however, 32 legislators and organizations have signed briefs with the Supreme Court of Texas requesting immediate intervention to protect the family. The Texas solicitor general filed a brief supporting the family and calling the gag order "plainly unconstitutional," the family's supporters said.

On Oct. 24, the Supreme Court of Texas stepped in and ordered that Drake be immediately returned home because CPS had failed to prove any danger to Drake.

The CPS agents, however, continued to try to interfere, demanding a "family plan" that would control the parents' actions and care for their children.

The demands included "invasive therapies" based on the assumption that the family "suffered from mental health issues."

Finally, CPS agreed to drop the case.

"With no evidence against the family, an entire state watching their every move, and a reprimand from the Supreme Court of Texas, CPS finally decided to call it quits. CPS agreed to the dismissal of the case if Daniel and Ashley will jointly make medical decisions for Drake, something the couple has always done anyway," the Texas Home School Coalition, or THSC, said.

It warned of the impact of the the state agency's actions.

"The Pardo family was dragged through court on baseless accusations for five months. It took more than $120,000 and countless hours from an entire team of experts to defend the family against CPS’s abusive actions," said THSC.

According to a report in The Texan, the dispute developed when a doctor who had been advising the family about Drake's lifelong health issues allegedly refused to visit him while he was in the hospital.

The family "fired him and chose to see another doctor in the same hospital," the Texas reported. "The doctor who was fired brought a concern to the hospital’s child abuse pediatrician that the Pardos were doctor-shopping.

"Subsequently, the child abuse pediatrician brought the complaints to CPS and said that she wanted Drake to be admitted to the hospital on Monday, June 10 to be evaluated so that they could determine if the parents were seeking unnecessary help or not. The CPS caseworker assigned to the case attempted to visit the family at their home on Friday, June 7, but missed them while they were out and left a business card on the door. Later that day, Ashley called the caseworker, who arranged to meet with them on the following Monday, but did not tell them what accusations were being made against them or that the child abuse pediatrician wanted to evaluate Drake."

Tim Lambert, president of Texas Home School Coalition, told The Texan it's a "total travesty that this case ever came to this point."

"I think it is indicative of where this case was that the Texas Supreme Court ordered the child to be sent home and CPS decided to dismiss the case," he said.