How to rescue a baby.

Please indulge a great war story. Yes, the results were great, but there was a lot of adrenalin along the way.

I represent Grandma who has placement of 2 of 3 older children in dependency. The baby was born Wednesday, and I left the office after midnight that night with paperwork and strategy prepared for the next morning. I was up before five to get to the courthouse to file a non-parent custody action and to present an agreed temporary custody order to the court at the 8:30 ex parte calendar. Trouble was the caseworker and the deputy were scheduled to be at the hospital to pick up the baby between 8 and 8:30. I presumed the CPS had not filed a dependency and thus needed the cop for a law enforcement pickup without an order. We had to figure out a way to keep mom unavailable if they came before we could get before the judge.

We had grandma's fiancé fax mom's agreement to the custody order to her attorney's office across from the courthouse (without his prior approval). Fortunately they came at 8:00, we got the proposed order and headed to the clerk's office. We were first in line at ex parte, but we got a call at 8:20 that they could see from the window the CPS and cop were arriving. I prayed. The fiancé ended up taking mom to his car until we called back. At 8:31 we got the order and called fiancé who told the cop.

Since CPS hadn't filed a dependency and thus had no pickup order, they were using the sleazy method (I like the prior poster's explanation that the cop was pimping for the CPS) of having the cop come along. The law is very clear what decision the cop must make but they usually just stand there and let the CPS do the deciding.

Well, the cop refused to even let me tell him we had an order. All I could say was that I was "putting him on notice ..." before he handed the phone back to fiancé. I was ticked off and ran next door to the sheriff's office with a certified copy of the order. Fortunately there was a good supervisor on duty, and after about a half hour, the CPS and cop left without the baby. Our order trumped their absence of an order. The hospital also released the child that afternoon. I had to do some legal analysis with the hospital and mention the word liability with the administrator.

Oh, the CPS had already filed a motion to be heard a week after the baby's birth to have the other two kids removed from grandma. Since we were not a party, we submitted statements through mom's attorney. At the hearing, the judge chewed out the caseworker and didn't remove the child. CPS is now not objecting to mom nursing the baby and may now be willing to come to an agreement regarding all the children. Praise the Lord.