Newborn Snatched By DSS From Parents Who Were In Hiding

Mother and Father Shackled in Lowell For Not Handing Over Infant

By Ed Oliver
February 13, 2001

The parents of a two-month-old girl were arrested for contempt yesterday at Lowell District Court after they refused to disclose the location of their baby to DSS which was seeking to take the infant from them.

Neil and Heidi Howard sat shackled in a holding cell for several hours yesterday. They were released after their baby girl was located by DSS at the home of their pastor. Social workers took the baby away and DSS now has custody of all three of their children.

Neil Howard told Massachusetts News, “The contempt charge would have been thirty days, we were willing, of course, to spend at least that long to protect her.” Heidi added, “We were willing to spend 18 years in jail to protect our daughter.”

The couple hid with their baby for two weeks at a friend’s apartment leading up to yesterday’s developments. The mother told MassNews through her tears that her baby needs her and she won’t be there for her.

The Howards haven’t had their day in court yet, according to their attorney Greg Hession, even though it’s been over a year since DSS took the Howard’s other two children. They have two sons, Christopher, who is now 10-years-old, and Ethan who is five.

Attorney Greg Hession, who handles DSS cases on a regular basis and is aghast at what happens to good families at the hands of the agency, told Mass News, “These people at DSS don’t have any idea how to respect the due process rights of parents. Consequently they go past the limits they’re allowed under the law. That’s what they did in this case, they’ve been doing this for over a year now in this case.”

DSS Noticed She Was No Longer Pregnant
Neil Howard explained to MassNews what happened in this most recent episode with DSS. Shortly after a supervised visit with their sons, which he explained occurs for one hour a month under strict rules such as no hugging or sitting on laps, DSS noticed that Heidi was no longer pregnant. She must have had her baby.

DSS began calling the couple demanding they bring the infant to the DSS office “to be viewed.” If they did not comply, DSS would have to take what they called appropriate measures. They said it was very serious and they had concerns. The Howards said they were extremely wary after the terrible treatment their family had suffered so far at the hands of the social service agency.

“We had already taken Jessica to a pediatrician, she already had been viewed by a court-appointed GAL and a court-appointed doctor. She was thriving. The doctor was thrilled. She was gaining weight and doing terrific. It was evident from the DSS answering machine messages that they were going to take the baby, so we decided to leave our home and stay with friends.

“We basically hid out with them for a couple of weeks. We heard through our attorney that DSS was filing for custody based on nothing. They basically said because of past ‘abuse,’ which they still haven't proven to this day. They said they needed to take this newborn child. We hope someday to prove there is absolutely no neglect or abuse in this family.

“Today we came to court. They ordered us to produce the child. We refused. We had already arranged with our pastor to take the child and place her temporarily with people they trusted. We were then arrested and incarcerated until they could somehow find the baby. They later told us they did manage to take our baby from us, so now they have all of our children.”

Taken from Pastor’s Home
Attorney Gregory Hession gave the office phone number of the pastor to the court in hopes the Howards would not be jailed.

Pastor Montel B. Wilder of Grace Baptist Church in Pepperell told MassNews that instead of DSS calling him at his office as he expected, the social workers went straight to his home with the police. The baby was still at home with the pastor’s wife.

DSS told the wife they had a court order and were taking the child immediately. She managed to stall them long enough to call her husband who rushed home.

The pastor refused at first to hand over the child, telling DSS that the parents entrusted the baby to him. The police, however, explained they had a court order and they would have to take the baby. The pastor said he realized there wasn’t much he could do.

Pastor Wilder said if DSS had called him at his office, he would not have violated his parishioner’s confidentiality and would not have told them where the baby was.

“It was just a beautiful baby,” he said. “The little girl was in excellent health. It looked fine. There was no way that baby was abused in any way.” He said the Howards seemed to be fine parents. He recounted how the mother showed great concern that morning when she wrote out instructions for the baby and made sure it had food, diapers, and that the Wilders knew what to do when it burped and slept. “She wrote out everything for us.”

Attorney Hession commented, “DSS said they had a court order. But they proceeded to ask for this child from these parents without ever verifying the truth about the past allegations against the family first. If the parents had the opportunity to actually have a hearing with cross-examination and testimony under oath, which has never been afforded to these parents yet in a year-and-a-half, they are confident they can disprove these allegations. Therefore this child would not have had to have been ripped away from its parents. So the problem is due process. All these cases, the problem is due process.

“They refuse to respect our constitutional system which gives a presumption that something isn’t true unless there is actual proof and an opportunity to be heard and an opportunity to cross examine witnesses.”

The Howards and their attorney met with MassNews months ago with DSS records and other documentation to tell the details of their story, which will be covered in a separate article. They appear to be a loving couple who are distraught over the loss of their children