My oldest son Derek Brantley is currently housed in a Juvenile Lock-Down
Facility somewhere in Missouri. I am charged with Abuse.
I took charge of my two oldest children in 1997 from my ex-wife because of issues
concerning Derek's behavior. When I received custody and care of Derek he was dealing with severe
social, psychological, and physical issues that became prevalent while
living in the custody and
care of his mother.
When I received my son Derek he was six years old but had the speech
and vocabulary of a three year old. If he was thirsty he would open
the refrigerator and point to what he wanted with the accompanying words
"me thirsty". He suffered from severe developmental
language delay.
When I received my son Derek he also suffered from Encopresis.
He would soil his britches 5-6 times a day and not only refuse to acknowledge
that he was wearing a mess but refuse to clean it up. While he was in my care and custody we had worked really hard on this issue and had almost
eliminated these nasty events from our lives entirely. After he was removed from
my care and custody he regressed and started experiencing daily difficulties
with this issue again.
When I received my son Derek and enrolled him in Missouri Public Schools the
administrators initially tried to remove him from the system because of his
unmanageable behavior. Through persuasion and the acquisition of funding we were
able to hire a personal aid for him to function within the system instead of
being pushed outside of the system. During the first school year his personal
aid stuck by his side all day. The second year found his aid in the classroom
but with a decrease in intensive personal assistance. The third, and all
subsequent years in my care, Derek Brantley was able to regulate his own school behavior without the assistance of a personal aid. Since Derek has been removed
from my care and custody he has been entirely unsuccessful in Public Schools and
currently attends classes at the Residential Lock Down Facility they have him
placed at.
When I received my son Derek he could not ride on the school bus without
getting kicked off or causing problems for other students. During the last
semester the children were in my care neither boy ever missed the bus or was
removed from the public transportation due to behavior problems. In fact, they successfully
put themselves on the bus twice a week for an entire semester on days my classes
started before their school.
When I received my son Derek it was impossible to take him into public places
as his behavior was unacceptable and uncontrollable. Eventually we were able to take family
outings to any event and both boys would self-regulate their public behavior
with very little direct supervision by myself. Since Derek has been removed from
my care and custody his ability to function in public places has deteriorated
significantly. Now
they are not even able to take him to a simple basketball game.
If one wants to talk about child abuse they need look no farther then the Division
of Family Services, the Juvenile Division, Juvenile Courts, and the myriad of
Attorneys and others who have twisted the spirit
of our laws to serve their clients and self interest.
After forcefully being taken from my care and custody both
children have suffered greatly.
I have fought for and with my children for as long as I have had the
opportunity to raise them and if one were to look closely at the larger picture
they would discover that both boys had improved physically, emotionally, and
psychologically while in my care and have suffered abuse only at the hands of others.
Two Children Two Stories
Following an anonymous hotline in 2001 my two oldest children were wrongly
removed from my care and custody.
Initially, the children were handed over to the hotline caller for placement
but within a period of days Derek's behavior had escalated beyond their
control.
Derek was outsourced to group homes and further separated
from his brother Jebidiah.
Jebidiah was lost to legal
maneuver and the deliberate manipulation of the justice system.
The Criminal Charge
This
charge of Child Abuse is unsubstantiated, unsupported, and will prove to be an embarrassment
to the Prosecuting Attorney if it is pursued to a Jury Trial.
I am not guilty of child abuse.
Derek's Story
When they forcefully removed Derek from my home, based on false allegations
of abuse, I let the authorities know that Derek would be manageable for the
first 48-72 hours while he sized up his environment; but they should stand by for
when he was comfortable with his surroundings. These words of earned wisdom proved
to be an accurate forecast of his behavior.
Shortly after being placed with the anonymous hotliner, Derek's behavior escalated
out of control and he was removed from the home and locked down at a Springfield
Psychiatric Facility.
From there, Derek bounced between multiple Foster Homes, Juvenile Facilities,
and Emergency placement stops. The entire time he has been in the system not
one foster family has been able to successfully deal with his behavior and he
always ends up in lock-down facilities. The only place he has ever encountered any
success in a home environment has been when he was living with me and his
brother Jebidiah.
When Derek was finally transferred to Boys and Girls Town of Springfield
Missouri, to participate in systematic reunification efforts, his
behavior started improving to the level it was before the State
wrongly removed him from my home.
We worked the program long and hard and were successful in bringing Derek
back home in January of 2004. (Although the child I am accused of abusing
returned home, his brother Jebidiah was never even allowed unsupervised home visits and I was
not allowed to tell him that Derek had moved home. The one time I did ask
Jebidiah if he was aware of the fact his brother had moved home the Social
Worker immediately suspended the visit.)
After spending several months back home, Derek decided to urinate all over the
walls of our bathroom as an act of rebellion. When he initially refused to
acknowledge the mess or make any attempts to help clean it up I gave him the
option of cleaning up the mess or returning to Boys and Girls town for an undisclosed
period of time.
When he still refused to acknowledge and address the issue I called Boys and
Girls Town and requested 96 hours of respite. The theory behind taking him back
to the facility was to give him the opportunity to decide if he would rather
face temporary incarceration or take personal responsibility for his actions and clean up
the bathroom.
After dropping him off at Boys and Girls town, with the explicit agreement
that he would be returned in 96 hours, two anonymous hotlines were called into
the Division of Family Services.
The first hotline was another false accusation that I had physically abused Derek while taking him back to Boys and Girls Town for respite.
The second hotline accused me of abuse through the termination of psychotic
drugs that had been forced on my son while in the physical custody of the
State.
Both hotlines came from Team Members who were not satisfied with the positive
progress of reunification efforts. This was a response to their failed efforts to
derail the reunification process. Both hotlines revolved around confidential
information that only team members were privy to. Both hotlines were later
proven as being unsubstantiated.
Both hotlines are a
clear violation of Missouri Abuse Reporting Hotline Law and are not immune from civil or criminal liability because
they filed a false report, acted in bad faith, and acted with ill intent.
Both
Hotlines are also a Violation of Confidentiality and Subject
to Penalty as well.
Immediately following the false hotlines, The Division of Family Services
submitted a package to the Prosecuting Attorney for the pursuit of criminal
charges and the Prosecutor, without looking into the case, quickly pressed
charges. After charges were leveled it was discovered that the hotlines were
false and unsubstantiated.
The charges were filed days before the statute of limitations was to
expire.
Derek is currently being detained in an unnamed Juvenile Facility somewhere
in Missouri while we
muddle through the Criminal Courts. He has absolutely zero contact with
anybody who actually cares about him. His behavior has continued to degrade and
he is now 14 years old. In four years it is expected that he will transfer from
the Juvenile Division to Criminal Incarceration if immediate intervention is not
exercised.
Jebidiah's Story
At no time has it ever been alleged, charged, implied, or insinuated that I
abused, mistreated, or otherwise did any wrong to my son Jebidiah Brantley.
Yet, he was successfully removed from my home and placed out of state with
the original anonymous hotline caller. The anonymous hotline caller later
retained an attorney and negatively intervened in the positive reunification
efforts of the Family Support Team.
The interveners offered every unsubstantiated argument in the book on why Jebidiah should not return home,
systematically
disrupted family reunification efforts, and was discredited
as a viable placement option.
I argued
these merits to no
avail before Judge Mountjoy but his decision to side with the interveners
was the lynchpin of another Lawsuit levied by the intervening party in Probate
Court after Juvenile wrongly closed Jebidiah's case.
In Probate Court, the interveners argued that since the Juvenile Court had
awarded Jebidiah to their physical care and had closed the case they were due
full custody. Although the Probate Court did not award them full custody it did approve joint custody and physical placement of my son Jebidiah with the
intervening party.
With these legalities out of the way, the interveners summarily terminated all
contact between Jebidiah and Derek and withdrew their Attorney from Derek's
Juvenile Case. The intervening party has subsequently retreated from any and all
involvement with Derek Brantley leaving him to fend for himself within the
Juvenile Justice System.
Supporting Documentation
Contrast
of Children's Behavior Over Time
Deterioration
of Family Contact and the Negative Effects on Family Reunification
Viability
of Interveners as Placement Option
Written
Arguments presented by Robert M. Brantley concerning placement of his son
Jebidiah Brantley
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Robert's Background
Brantley in the
News
