The Case of the Foster Parent Victory

Gary Polland represented a couple who had been given a foster child by CPS on the date of the child’s birth because the child had drugs in her system. After a year and a half, the biological father filed for custody. The case was fast tracked for Trial.

The biological mother has a lengthy criminal history. I personally interviewed her at the Plane State Jail where she was incarcerated. The biological mother admitted that all three of her children have been taken by CPS. The biological mother was going to have her rights terminated with the baby but still wanted the biological father to have the baby even though it was a case he filed on her that landed her in prison.

We performed a very thorough background investigation on the biological father, who seemed to have dubious employment. There were rumors that he was a dope dealer. The biological father did have criminal cases, one of which was a possession of a small amount of marijuana in 2007. When Trial started, we decided to get a copy of the Offense Report related to the 2007 arrest. The Offense Report detailed that the biological father had been arrested at 1:30 a.m. in the morning on a traffic stop. There was a juvenile with him in the car. The Officer smelled marijuana coming from the car. The marijuana was found in the console of the car along with a paper bag containing $5,000 in small bills.

Prior to the Trial, the biological father had failed two drug tests identifying both marijuana and cocaine in his system but denied under oath that he used drugs even when the Offense Report we found indicated otherwise. When “Dad” was asked by Gary if the $5,000 would lead one to believe that he was a dope dealer, he never answered the question. The jury ruled in favor of Gary’s clients which will enable them to adopt the child who has lived with them for one and half years from the date of her birth. Gary felt that background information that we had obtained was very helpful during the Trial but the Offense Report he believes was the clincher for the jury.