Baby returned from daycare with bloody diaper, parents blamed.

[Streak]

Welcome to BG Law. This episode’s lesson is in false allegations of child abuse.

-I’m separated more than a year, ex wife and son live at other end of town. I see my son regularly. Not surprisingly ex wife hates my guts. We have no communication outside of occasional e-mail regarding our son.

-A few months into separation, got lonely and depressed (duh) started hanging out on online dating sites. Wasn’t looking seriously, mostly just for the ego boost and connecting with some female people my own age.

-Eventually begin dating someone from there, I’ll call her Julie. Julie is in the same situation as me. Recently separated, has two kids that live with her. Also has an angry ex husband in the picture.

-Me and Julie really hit it off. Been together for nearly a year, our kids get along and things are great. Life is good, divorces are proceeding, everyone has good jobs, good places to live, kids are doing well, kids starting school and adjusted to the post-marriage life.

-Fast forward to this summer. Julie puts her baby in a home daycare when she returns to work after maternity leave. Things seem OK for the first couple of months, but daycare provider becomes pregnant and books herself to look after FOUR babies at the same time under 18 months, plus a six year old and eleven year old.

-Baby (14 months old) arrives home, seems a bit fussy but otherwise OK. At bath time, Julie discovers baby’s penis is red, bleeding, swollen and bruised. We’re talking major trauma here. Julie rushes baby to the emergency room.

-Police and Child Protective Services are called. Despite firm finger pointing at the daycare provider, Julie has her kids taken away and given to her ex husband by CPS. CPS suspends my access to my son too.

-Police want polygraphs. After being deprived of her kids for a month, Julie caves and agrees to take one. She passes. Her kids are returned to her. I do not want to take a polygraph as the police have clearly indicated to everyone in the investigation that I am the primary suspect. However, I agree to go in and do an interview with them. The interview goes fairly well, CPS decides to return my son to me. But the police remain displeased because they don’t know who to charge. They decide not to clear me, but they also decide not to charge me.

-That leaves CPS in a bit of a bind. I’m not cleared by the police yet baby was obviously hurt. They decide to play it safe and try to force Julie to prevent me from seeing her kids for at least 6 more months. Julie doesn’t know what to do. If she refuses, she is worries CPS will just go to court and have her kids removed again.

-In an obvious case of “guilty until proven innocent” I hire a criminal attorney to collect evidence and force the police to clear me and CPS to leave us alone.

-In addition to the cost of the criminal lawyer, I have now paid for and done a polygraph privately. I will also be seeing a psychologist for an assessment.

-This is not surprisingly costing me thousands of dollars. Some would say it’s a lot of money to pay just to see someone else’s kids.

-Meanwhile, the daycare was cleared and reopened after like a week. They are not being charged or held responsible in any way. I am sitting here looking at a diaper from their daycare splattered with Julie’s baby’s blood. This diaper is from the daycare, and Julie does not use the same brand of diapers at home. No one wanted this as evidence.

-Yesterday we learned that the daycare is closing and they are quietly moving to another city to escape from the guilt of ruining so many people’s lives.

So, BG Law, what do you think the odds are of suing the daycare provider for all legal expenses and punitive damages over this?

[archibaldcrane]

That's a terrible story. How is the baby doing?

[Streak]

It happened a few months ago, he was only 14 months old and starting to walk. He's changed so much I hear. I don't really know, I haven't seen him since July because of CPS. His penis is OK, it was bruised badly (his whole pubic area and upper legs had bruises too) but healed up over the period of a couple of weeks. He was hospitalized for more than a week, and they continue to go for follow up tests and check ups.

Julie's kids still ask about me all the time even though I still can't see them. My son misses his friends too. I'm still with Julie and see her whenever her children are visiting their dad.

[Dimmauk]

I would definitely sue the daycare! Keep all evidence, and prepare for a long and dragged out fight. Need to clear this up before the ex finds out.

[archibaldcrane]

You've already hired a criminal attorney - they'll be able to give you a much better idea of what kind of "case" you have than anyone on here yo.

[Salodin]

Wow, incredible story. Whatever happens please do keep us informed.

[Headspace]

You've already hired a criminal attorney - they'll be able to give you a much better idea of what kind of "case" you have than anyone on here yo.

^ this

but gonna need follow up because shit was fucked up.

[solanis]

sue, and sue hard. sue CPS if you can and the daycare too. talk to your lawyer, they'll know what to do/who to point you to for advice if they don't. is the baby okay?

[miokomioko]

Is there any way to bring it to the attention of the police or CPS how convenient it is that this daycare is closing and skipping town now that they were cleared without hassle and without looking at the evidence?

However, CPS's reaction makes me think you (or Julie) have some sort of record that brought their suspicions up a little... although it's pretty much their job to be as suspicious as possible towards any and all parents.

[Melena]

CPS freaks out any time a nurse, teacher, etc calls them. I remember my parents getting a call cause a teacher saw a bruise on leg and instead of asking me what happened (got beaned by a pitch in a little league game the night before) just immediately called cps.

[Restrat]

One time I told my elementary school teacher my dad eats my food. What I meant was he always ate everyone's leftovers. She called CPS and told them she was worried my parents weren't feeding me, and they came over to our house

[AidenCarby]

Meh, I lost faith in CPS months ago. Hope everything works out though, that's pretty fucking weak :/

[Cream Soda]

Obligatory "did you do it" post

[aurik]

Won't you think of the children?

[Kerberoz]

Polygraphs (like a good deal of forensic "science") are bullshit pseudoscience that have never been proven more accurate than chance, and aren't admissible in court in most states. Have your lawyer look into that aspect.

[archibaldcrane]

Polygraphs (like a good deal of forensic "science") are bullshit pseudoscience that have never been proven more accurate than chance, and aren't admissible in court in most states. Have your lawyer look into that aspect.

Discrediting polygraphs would only hurt them, since the OP and Julie both passed theirs, and as far as he's said the daycare people never had to take them.

[Silenka]

Isn't bloody diaper pretty normal? At least according to other people who have raised babies it is, although it's hard to tell from what OP said if it's different from this, since he said the child was only fussy and not obviously screaming or anything, the bruising might be really rough cleaning? I was surprised to learn that babies could often have this happen to them, their flesh is pretty soft though so it's not that shocking.

Either way, someone taking on too many kids to watch is really stupid, since babies need constant attention

[Melena]

Did you like not read the entire thing, the diaper was bloody due to trauma to the babies genitals. That is not normal.

[Eurell]

Isn't bloody diaper pretty normal? At least according to other people who have raised babies it is, although it's hard to tell from what OP said if it's different from this, since he said the child was only fussy and not obviously screaming or anything, the bruising might be really rough cleaning? I was surprised to learn that babies could often have this happen to them, their flesh is pretty soft though so it's not that shocking.

Either way, someone taking on too many kids to watch is really stupid, since babies need constant attention

Never heard of that before from anyone I know with kids, and have never experienced it with my 7 month old son. My wife has been going crazy looking up everything that can ever go wrong with babies for the past year and a half, and she never brought up anything like this. Closest thing we had was some cracked skin when he was less than a month old, and it cleared up in a day or two with some diaper cream.

[Mikus]

I would freak out if I ever saw a bloody diaper. That's a terrible story. gl op.