The Strange and Confusing Case of Foster Family Hodgin vs Bio Family

This is a story about a foster family, a little girl and the battle that continues against the little girl's biological family.

It started when this little girl - who I will refer to as S - went with a family friend to TN from NE.  Little girl S was just a wee babe when this took place.  The caretaker claimed she was going to help with an ailing family member.  The child's father - referred to as JM in this entry - had given the caretaker permission to take the child with her.  What JM didn't realize until he tried to retrieve his child was that little girl S was caught in a tug of war between the caretaker's family and another family who the caretaker apparently worked for.  There is some confusion here as to what exactly took place, but in the end, the family who was battling the caretaker - the Hodgins - managed to get CPS involved and had little girl S placed in their care, which unless I am mistaken is a huge conflict of interest.  The reporting party generally cannot be considered as a placement option unless they have actual biological ties to the child.

Back in NE, the father JM was trying to get his daughter back.  When he attempted to get law enforcement involved, an office (with alleged ties to the families trying to take S) told him he'd be arrested for abandonment.  JM sent friends in an attempt to retrieve his daughter and they were rebuffed at the door.

So the Hodgins became S's foster parents.  Again this is where things get a tad grey in regards to what happened.  JM's mother was approved as a placement option and this was overlooked.  Over the course of several years, the Hodgins would fight JM and even TN CPS itself in an effort to adopt S.

JM is not a saint.  He is a hard working man who made some mistakes in his youth.  Around the time the fight truly started, something happened and JM ended up in prison to serve a 15 yr sentence.  My understanding is this was based off the 3 strikes laws.  The crime did not really warrant the hefty sentence, but because he had two strikes against him as a young man, that was all that was needed.  So because of this sentence, the Hodgins used this as their "abandonment" claim and managed to have JM and the child's mother TPR'd and adopted S.  This was not a CPS approved adoption.  The Hodgins worked this at the private adoption angle.  

JM's sentence was reduced and he successfully had the adoption overturned.  At this point, S should have been returned to NE into the care of JM or his mother, but the Hodgins held on.  It would be another 4 or 5 yrs before the Hodgins were ordered to return S to JM's care.  TN CPS set up transition plans, which were ignored by the Hodgins.  They figured the longer they balked at returning S, the better their chances were some court would relent and allow them to keep her.  The same formula we see with numerous other adoption cases of adopters vs fathers.  "We're the only family she knows" has become their mantra.

TN CPS finally puts their foot down.  Tells the Hodgins they have only a short amount of time to get her ready and to have her at their office pronto.  There is no transition into her father's care but this is because the Hodgins ignored the transition plans and fought to keep her when they had no legal standing to do so.

Little girl S, who is now 9 yrs old, finally went back to the father she hadn't seen since she was just a baby.

It didn't stop there.

The Hodgins waged war.  As far as they were concerned, S was their daughter and JM had no right to take her back.  Never mind they were not the child's legal parents and at this point were nothing more than fosters.  Why CPS didn't step in and remove the little girl when the adoption was overturned is a mystery.  I suppose it's all moot at this point seeing that CPS finally stepped in and forced them to do what was right.  

The Hodgins didn't stop.  They set up Facebook pages, charity drives.  Raising money in an attempt to challenge CPS's and the court's decision to place S back with her family.  They paint JM as a "violent career criminal" who should have no rights to his daughter.  They tout how great their home and family are and how they're so much better because of what S had while in their care.

Getting a feeling of de ja vu yet?

Initially, most of the Hodgin supporters were friends and family to the failed foster/adopters.  But some new supporters started flooding in.  Familiar faces to those of us who battled for the basic human rights of Little Miss Veronica Brown.  Trio Solutions, Kendall Sykes, Bonnie Cleaveland, Jessica Munday and many others.  The big hitters who helped manipulate the courts and public opinion on the Veronica Brown case and had her successfully stolen from her father and placed into a forced adoption with her kidnappers, Matt and Melanie Capobianco.  

With their help, many were led to believe that JM was this violent ex con who had no business raising a child.  And to throw back into our faces, citing that it was detrimental to tear a child of that age from the only people she knew and remembered to make her live with strangers.  Yet they had no problem whatsoever supporting tearing Veronica from the only people she knew and remembered and placing her with strangers.

Of course, it should be no surprise that these people support another forced adoption.  They refer to the Hodgins as her "adoptive parents" (which is untrue since the adoption was overturned several years ago) and try to pull public sympathy.  I don't doubt that this whole mess was hard as hell for S.  No doubt the Hodgins filled her head with lies about her family abandoning her or that her father was some dangerous criminal.  They sure like to make it sound that way.  

One has to wonder why the SC heavy hitters of the VB case are supporting this?  What is the goal?  Does this mean there was more to Veronica's case than her Native heritage?  Was the focus on ICWA just a smoke screen?  It makes me think that this is bigger than one case of a Cherokee child.  Is there some darker motive of this group, a motive that makes parental rights more and more fragile.  This group managed to twist a law and make it so a father who "never had custody" of his child (who was placed at birth, mind you) had no legal standing to assert his rights.  They managed to twist the laws so the two years VB was in her father's care did not count.  

So what will be the twist in the law for JM and his daughter S?  You can't tell me there isn't more to this than just a case of failed foster parents against the biological family.  Not with all the people involved helping the Hodgins.  It seems peculiar that all those involved with tearing VB from her father's care are now involved with this.  First it was adopters against the Cherokee Nation.  Now it's a foster family against the biological family.  Something stinks.  Something stinks bad.  

Yesterday, a court granted the Hodgins standing in the case and they are attempting to have the original ruling vacated and S returned to their care.  Another hearing was scheduled in May, but the judge made it pretty clear that the original decision would stand unless something came up.  JM is still under CPS's watch and will be for another couple of months.  So far so good.  And TN CPS was at the most recent hearing AGAINST the Hodgins.  What does that tell you?  

Part of me is confident that this will be over in May and the Hodgins will be sent back to their precious farm with their tail between their legs, but another part of me worries.  We all had confidence that Dusten Brown would win against the Capobiancos and they managed to steal Veronica from him.  With Trio, Munday, Sykes and so many others batting for the Hodgins, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Something is in the works.  This group has a primary goal and Veronica Brown was just the beginning.