Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Well, it only took eight years, numerous frivolous motions and a lot of tantrums, but the end came swiftly and brutally for the foster parents, Dave and Kim Hodgin.  Yesterday, the judge overhearing SM's dependency case handed their butts back to them and then some.  It was finally determined that Tennessee never should have held jurisdiction over SM's case and it was officially transferred to her home state, Nebraska.  Her father's original custody order sealed the deal.  In other words, because there was already a case with the state of Nebraska, no other state was allowed to take over jurisdiction, regardless of how long the child resided in the other state.  Federal law makes this clear.  As to how this was overlooked, one can only speculate.  The custody order is from when SM was a mere toddler.  Of course, given the level of connections and corruption within the community the foster parents lived in, one can speculate as to how this little tidbit was brushed under the rug.  This is all purely speculative on my part, but me thinks the original social workers who handled SM's dependency case may be the ones to blame for not looking into things further.  There are still numerous questions as to why SM was not transferred back to her home state once the state of TN was made aware of where she'd come from and why the state of TN didn't look further into the issue of how this child had come into TN with no parent.  And when the parent and family started to fight to get her returned, why was nothing looked into further.  

I have my theories, as do many others.  One of which is that someone in the Hodgin family knew they wanted a child and it is possible this whole mess was a scheme to obtain a child for them.  It seems odd that everyone worked so hard to keep SM in the state of Tennessee even with her father and family fighting to get her.  Even after discovering SM was a resident of NE, everyone seemed to be working to make sure she remained in TN with the Hodgins.  Paperwork was conveniently "lost", SM's original social worker lied in reports about interactions between SM and her family, and the kicker being that the Hodgins attempted to adopt SM a mere few months after she was placed in their care.  Something a bit off here, yeah?

I suppose it's all moot now, but one must wonder just how this mess managed to drag on for EIGHT YEARS.  We all know the Hodgins filed numerous motions to stall the reunification process and keep SM in their care.  As a general rule when it comes to custody cases, when motions are filed, the court has to take time to set a date and hear the motions.  During this time, the child remains in the care of whomever they're with.  In this case, SM remained in the care of the Hodgins.  They filed and appealed every chance they had in an effort to stall the case.  It's actually a well written formula in most adoption cases where the adoption is contested.  File, stall, appeal, stall, etc.  Nine times out of ten, courts rule in favor of the placement due to how long the child was in their care.  No doubt the Hodgins were confident they'd be able to stall things out and get to keep her simply because they'd managed to hold onto her for so many years. 

As for why it took eight years for DCS to finally pull the plug on the Hodgins plot to steal SM, I do not know.  It's rare that a case can drag on this long without a court siding with whomever had the child the longest.  But something happened and DCS finally acted.  SM and her father are still making up for eight years lost.  Her family is making up for the eight years lost.  A father and family the Hodgins never told her she had until just a few short years ago and barred her from ever knowing. 

In the seven months since SM was returned to her father, the Hodgins obtained help from the notorious Trio and Jessica Munday and just like the Veronica Brown case last year, unleashed a rabid smear campaign against the father and family.  In perfect PR fashion, the truth was twisted or outright obliterated in order to favor the failed foster parents.  If you read the story from their version of events, you'd think SM became a foster child due to something her father and family had done.  You'd think she languished in foster care due to her parents' actions.  You'd think she'd been adopted as an infant/toddler and the adoption was only overturned recently.  Trio wanted you to believe this.  They wanted you to believe that any and all adoptions were threatened by a case like this.  After all, this "birth" father with a troubled past managed to get an adoption overturned!  They wanted the public to be outraged, wanted adoptive couples to be scared, wanted you to be furious enough to donate to their cause.

Anyone who questioned the legitimacy of their claims were deleted from the Hodgin support page and blocked from posting again.  The story of how they got her and the story behind the DCS transfer were changed again and again.  Many of the supporters were also part of the Capobiancos' campaign to steal Veronica, Trio at the helm of that as well.  Many of the most rabid supporters are connected to Trio or the Capobiancos in some fashion.  They posted outright lies about the father, the mother, the grandmother and even a grandfather whom has not had any contact with the family is some years.  Nothing but lies.  And those lies sucked in supporters who were unable to find any other information on the case and took their lies as the truth.  Add a few national media appearances with their twisted version of the truth and hundreds of others joined their cause in support of stealing back SM from her "unfit" father.

I digress, I apologize.  Those following my blog and who have been following the case know all of this.  You know those behind the Hodgins' campaign were riding high on their victory last year in the kidnapping of Veronica Brown.  They were too cocky, too confident.  Given the length of time the Hodgins managed to hold onto to SM, they most likely figured this case would be an easy win.  They got lucky with the kidnapping of Veronica due to the political aspects of the case and ICWA.  There are also very few safeguards for biological parents when it comes to private adoption cases.  This, along with the backing from the adoption industry and various politicians who want native sovereignty dismantled were what led to Veronica Brown being kidnapped by the Capobiancos. 

Well, SM wasn't a private adoption case, it was a dependency case.  This alone makes it a whole different ball park.  There are more safeguards for biological parents, more laws that protect their rights and the rights of the child.  No doubt Trio, Munday and the minions didn't consider this.  They most likely figured since the Hodgins had managed to maintain custody of SM for so many years, that alone would fuel their case.  It seems that this was one of the primary talking points on the support page - how long they had her.  How they should have superior rights since they "had her longer".  They also focused on the father's history, making him sound like some dangerous career criminal when in fact it was just two incidents nearly two decades ago.  As for a third more recent incident, it was based solely off a technicality in the law.
  
Regardless of his history, his rights as a parent superseded the Hodgins' claim of ownership.  If you went by the logic of Trio, the minions and the other supporters, anyone with a criminal past should not have any rights to their children.  That was and still is essentially what they are saying.  Doesn't matter if the crime took place ten, twenty years before you even had children, because of this, you should have your children taken and given to "better" families.

The lies Trio and the Hodgins spun came to a crashing halt finally.  The ultimate crash and burn.  The judge overseeing the dependency case ripped into the Hodgins and called them out on their lies.  He told them they KNEW that reunification had been the goal from square one.  They knew the grandmother had been approved as placement during the father's incarceration.  They knew they'd have to transfer SM back to her family's custody.  This was nowhere near as sudden as they claimed.  And any claim otherwise was a lie.  And because there is an original custody order from SM's state of origin, federal law obligated him to transfer the case to Nebraska.

Imagine that.....the judge called them out on their BS and it is now on record that the Hodgins and Trio had been lying through their teeth about the case.  Their claims that SM was just abruptly transferred back to her father without any notice?  A LIE.  Their claims that SM's paternal grandmother was not an approved placement due to neglect?  A LIE.  Their claims that they never knew reunification was the goal?  A LIE.

As I write this, I do not doubt that Trio is scrambling to figure out a way to spin this in a way to favor the Hodgins.  The last post on the support page had them crying foul and claiming corruption.  They tried claiming that TN should still hold jurisdiction due to the original emergency order that placed her in state care.  Funny that.  Federal laws regarding custody actually state that the state the original orders were issued from hold sole jurisdiction and they have to willingly release jurisdiction in order for another state to take over.  The judge made it clear: TENNESSEE SHOULD NEVER HAVE HELD ANY JURISDICTION AND CANNOT LEGALLY CONTINUE TO KEEP HER CASE THERE.

SM's case was officially transferred to her home state.  Victory for her and her family.  Thanks to the circus the Hodgins have unleashed for the last several months, she wants NOTHING to do with them anymore.  She found out that she'd been lied to her whole life by them.  She found out she was seen as nothing but a possession to them.  I do not doubt that she loves them seeing that they did care for her for so long, but considering the depths they've gone to demonize her family, the lies they told her and the embarrassment of having her face and name plastered across the nation, she's now dealing with a range of emotions that no child her age should have to deal with.  At this point in time, she wants absolutely nothing to do with them.  Most of her life had been a lie maintained by the Hodgins and those who supported their efforts to keep her in their care.  

To quote a fellow supporter, No lie can live forever.  Never before has such words held such truth.  Lies only lead to more lies.  To those who think they can just take any child they want, the truth comes out eventually.  They will eventually know what really happened.  You can't erase everything, can't silence everyone.  When you attempt to obtain a child through illegal and unethical means, you can only lie so much before you have to lie some more to cover up the original lies.  And that day of reckoning will be hard and merciless.  When your precious little trophies and purchases grow up enough to understand what took place, they will rise against you.  Claims of love and best interest will fall on deaf ears because they are nothing more than empty and meaningless mantras to make yourself feel better about your crimes.  

Enough of my ramblings for now.  Off to go school shopping with my Monster.