Berks County Judge Awards Custody to Abuser

E’s problems all began the day 2 of his children went to school and told their teacher that their mommy was hurting them at home. Then, authorities in Berks County found E’s son D wandering blocks from their home while E’s ex wife was supposedly watching the children. She was found asleep.

Shortly after, a caseworker from BCCYS showed up at E’s door with the police to check on the children. They returned with paperwork addressed to E’s brother in law. The authorities claimed that this false order allowed them to take custody of E’s children. E's wife was told she needed to leave the home until the investigation was complete. 

The children were split up and sent to foster care; the judge said “there are too many children here for one man to take care of”. One child, who had special needs was sent to a foster care home which was unable to deal with her special medical needs. Her siblings made efforts to give her the medicine she needed. E and his wife separated due to the stress and strain. Eventually, they would divorce.

E’s  ex-wife plead guilty to child endangerment charges. She refused to appear at court and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. She fled to another county in Pennsylvania where she was again brought up on child neglect charges. Eventually, the authorities caught up with her and she was arrested and jailed. She bailed out of jail and moved to another county with a boyfriend.

E was forced to undergo domestic violence classes as well as anger management classes even though he had done nothing wrong. A safety plan was created for his family and his children were placed in foster care with his mother in another county. After one of his children ran away from the home because she wanted to be with her dad, things went from bad to worse.

Judge Keller placed the child in an orphanage located in the county. The child was allegedly beaten by other children in the home and the staff covered over the bruises with makeup to hide them from the parents during visits.

 E was forced to pay child support for the children and CYS sued him for child support because the children were in foster care. Eventually, his child was released from the orphanage and sent home to live with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

Some time later, the child was allegedly beaten by her mother’s boyfriend and ran away to her father for help. Although the child sustained bruises and marks, no charges were pressed against her mother’s boyfriend.  Instead, the teenager was sent away, this time to a juvenile detention facility. During all of this, E was able to see his children for one hour a week, supervised.

E fought to get his daughter released from the facility in court proceedings. Originally, Judge Keller said that he had no problem returning the child to her father. However, he reversed himself and said that the child needed to go home to her mother and her mother’s boyfriend even though the District Attorney's office is still investigating the child abuse allegations. When questioned about the reversal, the judge said that he could not be held accountable for the statements he uttered in court previously. The judge released E's other children from foster care and also sent them home to the mother.

According to Judge Keller, this is now a custody matter and the father must sue for custody of his children. Some of the children are living with the mother who has been formally charged, arrested and found guilty of child endangerment; the other child still remains in a juvenile detention facility for her “crime” of asking for help when abused. Right now, E gets several hours of “unsupervised” visitation with his children at his mother’s house in another county.

The reality is that a judge in Berks County willfully and knowingly placed children with an individual who has been found guilty of child endangerment charges. In addition, he placed another child in a juvenile detention facility for speaking out when she was abused and he allowed her abuser to walk free.