Heidi and Neil Howard were overjoyed yesterday to have their baby, Jessica, at home once again.

Baby Returned to Mother Who Was Shackled in Lowell Court

Judge Orders the Return; Radical Feminists at DSS Continue Enormous Pressure

By Ed Oliver
August 2001 

The two-month-old baby who was seized from her mother in February by DSS was returned to the custody of her beaming parents last month by order of Judge Robert Belmonte at Framingham Juvenile Court.

The parents, Neil and Heidi Howard of Tyngsboro, are overjoyed at baby Jessica’s return. She is now seven-months-old.

The DSS has not given up however. They’re still putting the family through a nightmare of threats and harassment. They are obviously very angry that a judge has thwarted their plans. The newborn infant was snatched by the social workers after their threats were ignored by the mother. She refused to follow demands to leave her husband and file false complaints of abuse against him.

With the help of pro-family lawyers Chester Darling and Gregory Hession and publicity from Massachusetts News, the Howards are battling to get their other two children back. But at a tremendous emotional price.

Over $100 Million/Year at Stake for DSS

DSS receives over $100 million/year from the federal government in bonuses for children they seize from parents and adopt out to others. None of that money goes to the general state treasury. It all goes directly to DSS.

Jessica was born last December and seized by DSS in February this year. DSS had taken the nursing baby solely because it had already abducted the Howard’s two boys in November 1999 – even though a court hearing had never been held on the abduction. A ruling by any court on the two boys has still not been made.

Based upon the unlawful treatment of the family by DSS and the courts, the parents refused to relinquish Jessica when she was born. When the parents refused to tell DSS where the newborn baby was, they had the mother seized, shackled and forced to climb flights of stairs with shackles on her ankles and wrists in the Lowell Courthouse – even though what DSS had done to the family violated the laws and Constitution of the state.

Judge Belmonte Makes Progress

Some progress has been made with the help of Judge Belmonte since February. In May, with the help of glowing reports about the parents by the baby’s court appointed guardian as well as bizarre testimony by DSS social workers under cross-examination by Chester Darling, the judge suspended the trial and began an effort to reunite the parents with their baby.

DSS continued to strongly oppose letting the parents have their baby. It subjected the parents to many court hearings, in addition to hearings at the DSS plus counseling sessions, etc. But on orders of the judge, the Howards finally began seeing the baby on frequent visits, culminating in overnight stays at home for several days at a time.

Apparently seeing the handwriting on the wall, DSS decided not to fight and recommended that the agency’s temporary custody of baby Jessica be dismissed. The Howards had received word from a social worker that they could keep their baby, but the judge made it official.

DSS is keeping the case open however. They told the Howards that this was routine and it would be closed in a few months if all goes well at home. But the family has heard stories like that from the social workers before.

Good News About Boys

There is even some good news regarding the boys, Christopher 10, and Ethan 5, who have been living in separate foster homes since late 1999 even though their abductions have never been approved by a judge. Last month, Ethan moved to Vermont to join his brother who moved there in late June. They both are now living together with an aunt and uncle.

But the boys have gone through tremendous trauma, having been unlawfully separated from their parents and each other for almost two years.

The parents are still allowed only one hourly visit per month. They will have to drive four hours to see them at a Vermont visitation center and they have to pay a fee. The lawyers are trying to get increased visitation.

The lawyers are hoping that when the judge sees how well Jessica is doing and how well the visits go with the boys, that the boys will be reunited later this year with their parents like baby Jessica was.

But DSS remains intransigent that the two boys must be adopted. It appears to be willing to let the aunt and uncle adopt them. DSS will still receive its federal bonus in that event. It told the judge that its efforts to terminate parental rights to the boys should resume “as it appears to be the only way to resolve the issues as they relate to the boys.”

The judge will review the situation again on September 24.