Alabama Black Grandma Accuses Birmingham Judge and DHR Social Workers of Abuse and Neglect

Nationwide — Lucretia J. Scott, a loyal African American grandmother from Birmingham, Alabama, is elevating severe allegations of abuse, neglect, and judicial misconduct towards Choose William Alan Summers and social staff affiliated with the Division of Human Sources (DHR). Scott, who has been the first caretaker of her grandchildren, accuses Choose Summers of constructing false, dangerous statements about her, failing to think about documented abuse by the kids’s organic mother and father, and permitting baseless character assaults by attorneys to go unchecked in court docket. She insists that her grandchildren had been affected by extreme bodily and emotional abuse previous to her acquiring custody, circumstances she labored tirelessly to reverse. Regardless of documented threats, missed faculty days, and bodily accidents, she says Choose Summers and DHR have repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the scenario.

Scott describes a sample of neglect by DHR case staff and unethical conduct by attorneys, particularly Cynthia Johnson’s court-appointed legal professional, Jenifer Brooke Schniper-Thornton. In keeping with Scott, Schniper fabricated tales, slandered her title, and tried to control counseling data to favor reunification with the kids’s organic mom, Cynthia Johnson, who nonetheless examined constructive for medicine and made a number of threats towards Scott’s life. Scott gives case numbers and the names of DHR supervisors and case staff concerned, noting that a lot of them did not uphold court docket orders, ignored stories of abuse, and even took objects from her house below false pretenses.

Regardless of having substantial proof—together with photographs, movies, and testimony—Scott says her voice has been constantly silenced in court docket. She alleges that Choose Summers ignored police stories, counselor documentation from Dr. Jakobbee White, and stories of drug abuse by the organic mother and father. Even when threats had been made towards her in open court docket or when her grandchildren expressed worry of returning to their mother and father, Scott says these statements had been disregarded. In a single occasion, her granddaughter, Mylani, cried and clung to her throughout a custody change, saying she didn’t wish to go away. Nonetheless, Choose Summers ordered the kid returned to her mom.

Scott additionally paperwork her efforts to adjust to court docket orders, detailing how she adopted visitation tips and took the kids to scheduled meet-ups—just for the organic mother and father to fail to point out or cancel last-minute. She refutes claims made by Legal professional Schniper that she interfered with court-ordered visitation or employment. Scott gives telephone data and surveillance footage that contradict these accusations, and she or he alleges that a lot of the authorized technique towards her was rooted in private animosity, not information.

The grandmother outlines repeated misconduct by a number of DHR case staff, together with Lakeisha Mitchell, Vyonne Lakease Mosely, and Fannie Waites. She claims that staff ignored stories of kid abuse, took provides from her with out returning fee, and made private telephone calls throughout house visits as an alternative of specializing in the kids’s welfare. When she tried to report these points, Choose Summers allegedly responded with threats of jail time slightly than reviewing her proof. In keeping with Scott, court-appointed little one advocate Courtney Reed has privately acknowledged most of the inconsistencies in Choose Summers’ and DHR’s selections.

In closing, Lucretia J. Scott says she is making ready to escalate her complaints to larger courts and the media. She has submitted a flash drive containing movies, audio recordings, emails, and textual content messages to substantiate her claims. Quoting judicial ethics codes, she emphasizes that no decide is above accountability, particularly when kids’s lives are at stake. She denounces the favoritism and theatrical bias she says she has witnessed in court docket and requires rapid reform to guard susceptible kids from being returned to harmful environments.