ESPINOZA FAMILY FIGHTS FOR THEIR FIVE YOUNG CHILDREN

Espinoza family with supporters outside Family Court July 27: (l to r) Luis III, 13, father Luis with Leonardo, 3, Cornell Squires, Gavino, 9, mother Cecilia, Pedro, 12, and Mabel Love

Grandmother seized daughter illegally, CPS upheld action weeks later, targeting a poor family in favor of the well-to-do grandmother 

By Diane Bukowski 

Aug. 2, 2011

DETROIT – In yet another extra-legal seizure of a child, the family of Luis and Cecilia Espinoza of southwest Detroit is fighting to have their only daughter Genoveva, 6, returned home, and to prevent her four young brothers from being taken by the state. 

Arnetta Grable, co-founder of the Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality, lost her son Lamar to a Detroit police officer's bullets; she came to court to support keep the Espinozas from losing their children

They protested outside the Lincoln Hall of Justice July 27 prior to a pre-trial hearing on their case, with their young sons and supporters from community organizations including Cornell Squires, Mabel Love, and Arnetta Grable. 

Cecilia Espinoza explained what happened. 

“It was Father’s Day, June 19, and me and my mom went to the cemetery to visit my father,” Ms. Espinoza said. “My husband was home with the children cooking dinner, and Genoveva was playing. When we got back, we found she had hit herself in the eye while hiding under her bed. My son had already pulled her out but she went back in. She does that a lot and gets stuck.” 

Ms. Espinoza said Genoveva claimed that she, her mother, gave her the black eye. 

“My mother said ‘no, we just got home,’” Espinoza recounted. “But she asked to take her home with her for a few days and we said OK. After that, she would come and visit us but wouldn’t bring Genoveva. She said Genoveva didn’t want to come home. She brought her one time and we only saw her for five minutes. Then we went to a picnic on Belle Isle July 7 with the family, and Genoveva said she wanted to come home with me and started to get in our car. But my mom grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let her come. Genoveva was wrapping her fingers in my hair and hanging on to me and crying.” 

Home of grandmother Consuelo Meade in Warren, who took Genoveva from parents

Consuelo Meade, the grandmother, is 83, well-to-do, and lives in an expensive condominium in Warren, according to Ms.Espinoza. She said her mother paid an overdue $5,000 tax bill for the Espinoza’s home, and seemed to think that entitled her to take the child. The Espinozas live in a poor section of Detroit. 

Ms. Espinoza makes $214 a week at a pizza restaurant, and her husband Luis works on cars to help support the family. 

“My mom showed me pictures of Genoveva’s black eye, and said I hit her, this is where I beat her. She told me, ‘Your daughter is not going home.’” 

Warren Police HQ; Warren police force is predominantly white

She said she and two friends went to the Warren police to lodge a complaint and obtain their assistance in regaining her daughter, but the police were hostile and threatened to arrest her instead. 

She said her mother then consulted with a friend who is a DHS worker, Monica Schmit, who told her to file a CPS complaint. 

She said a CPS worker, Shanitra Bowman, came to their home on short notice July 12, spoke with her and her son, and viewed the home. She said she also visited her children’s school, Bennett Elementary, talked with the principal, and took pictures of her sons without her consent. She said Bowman tried to get her to sign consent papers after the fact, but she refused to so. 

Ms. Espinoza said she and her husband went to a “Permanency Planning Conference” at CPS on July 18 with the worker and explained what happened, but CPS filed for an order to take temporary custody of Genoveva on July 21. 

If allegations about Genoveva are upheld, CPS plans to seize the remaining Espinoza children, according to testimony at a probable cause hearing in front of Family Court referee Mona Youssef  July 27, regarding the order. 

Starletta Banks with photos of her thre children in 2005; Richard Karoub terminated her parental rights in 2000, but she has battled since then to have them returned to her loving arms.

Randy Rodner, the court-appointed attorney for Luis Espinoza, said that the four other children had earlier been dismissed from the petition. But assistant state attorney general Richard Karoub said they were not dismissed, only that a hearing was not held regarding them. He said if the petition is authorized by the court and the case goes to trial, then the other children will be included. 

Karoub is the assistant attorney general who terminated the parental rights of Starletta Banks in 2000. The young mother of three was featured in a series of articles by this reporter in the Michigan Citizen. Click on Starletta Banks stories to read about her case.  However, he also threw out a CPS case against Sylvia Young, who lost her three toddlers to a fire after DTE turned off their heat in February, 2010.

CPS had no compassion in this tragedy, but tried to try to take Young’s other four children afterwards, despite DTE’s clear culpability in the incident. Listen to Sylvia Young’s talk on what CPS put her through, among other issues, in video below.

 An earlier hearing July 21 in the Espinoza case was adjourned until an interpreter became available for Luis Espinoza, who is not as fluent in English as his wife. CPS procedures require a hearing within 24 hours of their request for a protective order. 

Bowman testified that she spoke with the parents and the grandmother, and met with Genoveva, who she said had no injuries at the time. Asst. State Attorney General Richard Karoub showed photos of Genoveva’s black eye, but they were not entered into evidence because there was no testimony available regarding when they were taken and how they were processed. 

Bowman said the child told her that it was her mother who struck her. She said that Ms. Meade told her she did not observe the incident because she was in the kitchen. She said Ms. Espinoza denied striking Genoveva in the eye, and said first that the child went under the bed out of defiance, and then that she was playing hide-and-seek. Bowman said both Mr. and Mrs. Espinoza agreed that Genoveva had a black eye. 

She was asked what in-home services she recommended to prevent removal of Genoveva or the other children, but did not give any. 

CPS rules regarding “reasonable efforts” to keep the child in the home say that federal and state law both require “judicial oversight” when a child is removed from the home, and a judicial determination that “reasonable efforts” have been made to keep the child in the home. In the Espinoza case, despite the family’s compliance with Bowman’s request to attend a Permanency Planning Conference, the Department filed a petition to remove Genoveva only three weeks after its inital contact with the family. State law limits the filing of such a petition only to situations involving dire circumstances as listed at keft,

According to attorney Dynah White, who represented the Espinozas in a hearing July 29 before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Sapala, the petition to remove Genoveva has a signature purporting to be that of Presiding Family Court Judge Leslie Kim Smith, but has no case number or petition number, and is not time stamped. It was allegedly filed July 20.

White represented the parents July 29 before Sapala, on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging the child was being illegally held, and a complaint for compensatory damages against Meade, Schmit, Meade’s sister Amelia Gutierrez, Bowman, her supervisor Carla Parham and the Michigan Department of Human Services. The parents had filed the actions pro per, with the assistance of community supporters. 

Sapala ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over the habeas corpus motion since the case was in Family Court, but that the complaint for compensatory damages could be re-filed as an original complaint in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Meanwhile, the Family Court hearing against the Espinozas is scheduled to resume Wed. Aug. 3 at 1:45 P.M. in front of referee Mona Youssef, at the Lincoln Hall of Justice, 1025 E. Forest at the I-75 service drive.

These children from Bennett Elementary attended a City Council meeting last month; Ceciia Espinoza said her son Pedro was supposed to go, but was too upset about the loss of his sister to attend.