NEWS RELEASE
"Children’s Protective Services won its latest round in its battle against Katie Wernecke and her family, according to Peter H. Johnston, president of the Texas Center for Family Rights, "but we’re not going to stand idly by while a government agency deprives a helpless family of its rights."
Judge Carl Lewis of the Nueces County Juvenile Court today granted custody of 13-year-old Katie and ruled against letting the youthful cancer victim remain with her family. She has been in their custody for 12 days, but, as of this morning, had not received any medical treatment.
"This is a case where the medical profession has used the muscle of CPS to enforce its will, Johnston said. "They have clearly violated Texas law and are putting this young girl through needless mental torment."
Johnston went on to explain, "CPS has three requirements for removing a child: The child has to be in immediate threat of harm or continuation in the home would be contrary to the child’s welfare; consistent with the child’s welfare, there could not be time to wait for a full adversary hearing before a judge; and CPS has to make a reasonable effort to keep the family together including placing the child with a relative. If the agency misses on even one of those requirement the child should not be removed. The agency failed the test of Texas law and failed Katie."
"As of yesterday, Katie, while in CPS custody since June 4, had still not received any treatment. If there was enough of an immediate threat to Katie’s life that they could not even wait for an adversary hearing on her behalf before CPS tore her away from her family, why haven’t they treated her illness? What are they waiting on? What constitutes an immediate threat, two weeks, six weeks, two years? What guidelines are they going by that gives them the right to take Katie and her three brothers away from their parents? The brothers don’t have cancer. Why were they taken?"
"CPS has returned Katie’s brothers, ages 2, 5, and 14, to their parents, but Katie remains in the custody of CPS. Her parents are now concerned about the well being of their three sons, Johnston said.
"The two-year-old cannot stop crying, and the five-year-old is afraid to go to the bathroom without one of his parents there to protect him. Who are these people that are supposed to be watching over our children and protecting them from harm? Why is a five-year-old boy suddenly afraid to go to the bathroom without his mother or father there to protect him? It makes you wonder what trauma the removal has caused for Katie."
"Any time there is an intimate and delicate matter such as medical care of a child, the parents are in a much greater position to make a right choice than a government agency. CPS claims they had no choice in the matter, but in fact they had a lot of choices. This is not a question of neglect by the parents, but of choice: the choice of a family to seek the treatment they feel is best for their daughter."
"CPS informed the Werneckes that the radioactive remnants from a previous treatment Katie under went would disappear within 72 hours. But in fact when the Werneckes took Katie and her brothers on a few days vacation to Mexico over a week later, border guards detained the family as possible terrorists because Katie still had what they considered dangerous levels of radioactivity in her system. If Driscoll Children’s Hospital misled them on that issue they have every right to question other advice about their daughter’s treatment.
"According to Katie’s mother Michelle, she gave CPS names of several relative in Texas who could have cared for Katie. A CPS caseworker said she did not have any names. Was that just a convenient way to get around her responsibility to check relatives before placing Katie and her brothers in foster care with strangers?
"Katie is 13 years old. She needs her mother and father. At this time in her life she needs all her family members to help her get through this. The last thing she needs is a bunch of strangers telling her what to do and what to think. Stranger care always causes trauma."
In yesterday’s full adversary court hearing, Dr. Alter of Driscoll Children’s hospital was not willing to testify under oath that Katie was in immediate need of medical care. At least twice he avoided placing that degree of urgency upon the situation only stating that she needed care ‘as soon as possible. On June 1st CPS used the doctor’s recommendation to convince Judge Lewis of the urgency to order the removal of Katie. But by the hearing yesterday she still had not been treated."
CPS claims the Werneckes could not be trusted since Michelle tried to prevent the removal. Based on misrepresentations of the hospital and CPS the Werneckes has justifiable concerns.
If this were the first time that CPS erred it would be one thing but CPS has a track record of hostility toward parents that goes far beyond the Wernecke case.
Johnston concluded, "The state of Texas has no business taking these children away from their parents, and Katie needs her mother’s love now more than ever. Just because Texas is a big state does not give our public employees the right to run roughshod over innocent families.
