DSS Snatched Child Prodigy

Searching for Another ‘Adoption Bonus’?

By Evelyn Reilly
February 2001

Not knowing the law and not having legal assistance almost cost Jean Ricker her son.

On November 25, 2000, without any evidence of child abuse or neglect, Mrs. Ricker says she was arrested and the Massachusetts Department of Social Services took her eight-year-old child prodigy for over six weeks, including Christmas.

Her Crime?
Ricker has always taught her son at home and had not filed a curriculum plan with the Haverhill public school department!

After Gabriel was taken, Mrs. Ricker found a Massachusetts News article about DSS taking children from parents without cause or due process – in order to fill their coffers with federal adoption bonuses. Friends pointed out that, “Gabriel is very adoptable.”

Horrified, she contacted Massachusetts News publisher, Attorney J. Edward Pawlick, who referred her to the well-known attorney Chester Darling.

Darling had won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court case in 1995 defending the Constitutional right of Free Speech and has been instrumental in a number of other landmark constitutional cases. He recently founded a non-profit organization called Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights, Inc.

After a 61/2-week nightmare, Gabriel was returned home, probably thanks to the presence of Attorney Darling in the courtroom on their behalf.

Fear Is Still There
Even though Gabriel is now at home and the case has been dismissed, the fear is still there.

In the words of little Gabriel, “They might try to come back in and say, ‘We’re taking you back again.’”

This reporter spent an afternoon with Gabriel and his mother, Jean, who have a very close relationship. Jean is separated from her husband.  Gabriel  is obviously flourishing and a happy, exceptionally gifted child who studies music at the New England Conservatory, plays classical music like a concert pianist, began reading at age 21/2 and is studying Italian in addition to a full range of subjects taught at home. At age three, he announced he intended to conduct the Boston Symphony and he appeared in newscasts with Seiji Ozawa.

He has been very carefully raised. From birth, Gabriel has been fed only natural foods. He has not had a doctor, because he’d never been sick – but when he was finally released by the DSS and returned to his mother, he was sick for the first time.

Gabriel does not appear to be spoiled, as one might suspect with all the attention he attracts, but is simply enjoying life enormously. He is an exceptionally well mannered, extroverted and loveable child who talks freely, comfortably and intelligently with adults, in addition to having many friends his own age. He has a very bright future.

But the shadow of DSS still hangs over him and his mother. In our interview Mrs. Ricker kept emotionally returning to the fact that his hair had been cut while he was in custody. That might have been upsetting for any child, but in Gabriel’s case his not-quite-shoulder-length wavy hair was part of his look as a classical musician and child actor. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, having appeared in the movie Good Will Hunting as the child in the park, and he has commercials and other acting credits. His resume, used by casters to find people of a certain description, describes his hair as “mahogany brown” and his eyes as “Jr. Mint brown.”

This writer sensed that Mrs. Ricker kept coming back to the haircut, not just because she was angered that his image had been altered – after all, hair grows back. His now short hair was a reminder of the anguish they had both experienced – forced separation, and the near-despair of a protective mother utterly helpless to protect her child or have any control over what happened to him.

Ordered to Court Without Warning
Their ordeal began in June when Mrs. Ricker received a summons to the Lawrence Juvenile Court for failure to cause a child to attend school, which is a criminal offense. She received no advance warning that she was in violation of the law. The school had sent notices to an incorrect address.

Mrs. Ricker had contacted the public schools once when Gabriel was about seven. She called the Haverhill school department when she was considering home schooling. She inquired about the possibility of Gabriel’s using public school textbooks at home. The response to her inquiry was a refusal and an angry, “If you’re home schooling, then you’re on your own!”

She assumed the school was not interested. She had been educating Gabriel all his life and he was obviously doing very well. She obtained books and curriculum from various bookstores and continued educating him at home for the next two years.

At the initial court appearance she was told she needed the school department’s approval for her to home school. Without an attorney, she objected on constitutional grounds that she had the right to educate her child without permission. At that point, the case was changed to a “care and protection” order, which is a civil matter and involves DSS.

The significance of the change from a criminal to a civil matter is that in a criminal case all the protections of due process and the burden of proof apply. When it becomes a civil matter and DSS is brought in, all the constitutional safeguards fly out the window. The burden of proof shifts from “clear and convincing evidence” necessary to convict, to a “preponderance of the evidence.” Some judges rely on DSS input to such a degree that they almost become rubber stamps. Procedures are ignored and there is no accountability. So, ironically, parents are safer in criminal court than civil court, strange as that may sound.

After that first court appearance, DSS visited the Ricker home, and a court investigator visited and filed a report.

Mrs. Ricker learned that not only did DSS have no evidence of abuse or neglect but the court investigator’s report was exceptionally positive about Gabriel’s home environment. He said the boy was obviously thriving. The report recommended that the Care and Protection Order be dismissed and that the matter be resolved between Mrs. Ricker and the school.

Despite that, at the next hearing in the courtroom of Judge Jose Sanchez, Mrs. Ricker said things were going so badly (they wouldn’t listen to anything she said) that she concluded she could not receive justice in that court. She filed an affidavit declaring that she would seek a “higher venue.”

After she filed the affidavit, another hearing occurred without her knowledge at which Judge Sanchez set yet another date in October for a trial to decide custody of Gabriel. She was not notified that a trial date had been set in her absence.

When she did not appear at the trial because she didn’t know anything about it, Judge Sanchez awarded custody of Gabriel to DSS, saying she was in default!

Again, Mrs. Ricker did not receive any notice of the court’s decision to give custody of her son to DSS, which she would have had 30 days to appeal - if she had known about it!

The judge later said to her, when she protested that she had not been notified of the trial date or that custody had been given to DSS, that in his court they only give oral notices. She wasn’t there so she didn’t hear.

Arrest and Seizure of Boy
On the 31st day, November 27 – one day after time to appeal the custody decision had run out – Mrs. Ricker was followed after leaving her driveway and stopped by police. She was put under arrest, they said, for having a suspended driver’s license. Mrs. Ricker protested that her license was not suspended, but it was Saturday when the Registry and courts were closed, so her claim could not be verified.

She and Gabriel were taken to jail. She asked to have a friend come and get Gabriel but this was refused. She was put into a cell and held until DSS could come and take Gabriel hours later. He was kept in an office. She begged to kiss him goodbye but was denied. After he was taken away, she was allowed to post bail and leave.

On Monday she easily obtained proof from the Registry that her license had not been suspended, but Gabriel was gone.

After three days without sleep or food and of imploring DSS, she was allowed to meet Gabriel, supervised, at the DSS office. He was obviously distraught, as was she. She succeeded in convincing them to move him to a foster home run by friends where Gabriel could feel more comfortable. After a couple of weeks, she was able to visit him as often as she wanted, but still only if supervised. A request to have him home for Christmas was denied.

Almost Forced into Public School
While he was in their custody, Mrs. Ricker says DSS was planning to force him to attend public school. But they learned he had not been vaccinated, which meant he could not be admitted to public school. To force him to be vaccinated would have opened them up to a possible civil rights lawsuit.

Mrs. Ricker had done extensive research on vaccination and did not believe it would be safe or good for Gabriel. She has a friend whose perfectly healthy six-month-old daughter went into convulsions after a vaccination. As a consequence, she is blind, deaf and must be fed through tubes. Mrs. Ricker says she learned it is especially dangerous to vaccinate children when they are no longer babies.

DSS Tries to Hang On But Case Dismissed
On January 11, 2001, 61/2 weeks after Gabriel was taken, another hearing was held before Judge Sanchez.

This time Attorney Darling appeared in court on behalf of Mrs. Ricker with her other recently acquired counsel. Mrs. Ricker had her approved curriculum. DSS had failed to come up with any evidence of abuse or neglect – in fact the evidence was the opposite – he was thriving in his home situation and would not be likely to achieve his unique potential in a public school setting.

Although DSS did not contest Gabriel’s being allowed to go home, incredibly, they still attempted to retain legal custody! The judge questioned DSS’ unusual request, denied it and dismissed the case.

Gabriel is home now and back into his routine of classes, lessons, practice, recitals, etc. But the Rickers are still recovering from their ordeal and are not sure whether their collision with DSS is truly over, or whether life will ever be the same.