Glasshouse Foundation

12/16/2022

12/16/2022

All information contained in this article is verifiable through court transcript, official CPS documentation, and court decisions. The names of the bio parents involved in the cases have been withheld.
This is a story of gangs, prostitution, drugs, a baby born with m**h in her system and significant medical issues, false residences, false claims of child custody, hiding official court documents, filing false records, retaliation from members of an uncontrollable CPS, and lies to our sitting judges In Bexar County, Texas. In all we have spent upwards of $50,000 to fight the corruption and open violations of the public trust on the part of 3 CPS workers and a Bexar County Assistant District Attorney. Our story is not unique. You can’t meet anyone who doesn’t have a horror story about interaction with the DFPS state agency that quite literally has no oversight. We have more than 1000 people in the community coming together in prayer for our situation. We are faithful that God is moving in our situation. We thank all the churches for carefully watching and becoming actively involved in our fight to protect our child.
With few exceptions, you can’t sue state agencies like CPS, their employees rarely get called out in a legal challenge for lying, and families suffer. We were lucky in that we had the resources to fight. But what of the families who can’t hire attorneys and take time from their work. The result is they lose precious members of their family to the system and vindictive case workers whose only goal is to be right and who are not working for the safety of a child. Our story is that story. For these reasons we are starting the Glasshouse Foundation. The Glasshouse Foundation will be a nonprofit that seeks to assist families retaliated against by corrupt state employees within CPS and in some cases the local legal system. There is no way that we could share all that happened to us and our child in this story. There will be follow-ups to this writing as well as media coverage coming soon. I hope our story invites you to join our cause and the national discussion to stop the uncontrolled authority of CPS and the weaponization of our beloved courts against the family. We are not done with our fight but are resolved to stay the course. With help from a growing community, we will protect our child and those families abused by corruption and deceit. Cheers.
A Broken System – Suffering the Legal Endangerment of Children
Our family has been involved as foster, adoptive, or kinship family within the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), in Bexar County, Texas for nearly 7 years. In short, we have been exposed to the best and worst the system has to offer. In 2020, we became involved with our 4th child taken out of the system. She was born with m**hamphetamines in her system and with congenital medical problems. The bio mother was active in the s*x trade and illicit drugs. The bio father was a documented gang member, convicted drug dealer, with a list of arrests and conviction to his record. In fact, he was arrested for a drug charge while out on bond for a drug charge.
The bio father admitted to smoking m**h with the bio mother when she was 9 months pregnant and was arrested for assault on a pregnant female only 10 days before the baby was born. Having adopted 3 children from the CPS system, 2 of which were the baby’s blood siblings, we were brought in as fictive kin to care for the newborn. What transpired over the next 18 months would be better set as a Lifetime Drama, not a family law case in San Antonio, Texas.
In the beginning CPS was supportive and even uplifting to our family as foster parents. All were in agreement that either bio parent would be quickly removed. Such was the case with the bio mother. She failed to take part in service plans and continued a lifestyle in the streets. Not much was different for the bio father. He was on house arrest awaiting adjudication for his charges. All was good. Then came the sudden switch. During a July 2021 status hearing the CPS case worker, who was the 3rd of 6 over 18 months, detailed the wrong child to the judge. My wife approached the CPS worker via text. The CPS worker acknowledged the mistake but refused to correct the improper presentation to the judge. She told us not to worry that the bio father was a career criminal and gang member who was going to be removed. We were able to discover that the CPS service plan given to the bio father was so close to his criminal court requirements that it was as if it was copied. To point the bio father even commented that he hoped doing the CPS service plan would keep him out of a second stint in prison in as many years. In addition, the bio father had already had 2 children removed in other CPS cases.
CPS personnel would not give us any indication that anything was being done to correct the issues of false information introduced into the case. We were a foster to adopt family who went through dual monthly home inspections and regular training to be qualified to have children in our home. Let me back up a bit. In all we have 9 children, both my wife and I have graduate degrees, my wife is a bilingual human resource professional, and I am a safety professional with a legal and medical background. But we were still scrutinized by DFPS to have children in our home, and rightly so. Unfortunately, that would not be the case for the bio father. As a last-ditch effort, I sent a certified letter to the judge asking for assistance, return receipt. I spoke to the clerk for the judge and did obtain the receipt of delivery back. To be open and clear I copied the letter via email to Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Laura Valdes. She replied in receipt of the email and commented that I had a beautiful family. She would later state in examining me during sworn testimony in front of Judge Monica Diaz and jury that every letter sent the court becomes part of the official record. She continued by stating she was basically unaware of the letter I sent and that no record of the letter existed in the court files. I think she swallowed her tongue when I reminded her that I sent her an email copy of the letter and she had responded to me that I had a beautiful family, and she would look into the matter. Below is a copy of the email as well as the FedEx documentation of a letter sent certified to her office as well as the judge on the case. In her presentation, one can assume 1 of 2 things. Either the judge and his staff are unable to control records within their cases or ADA Valdes played some part in making a letter from a state certified foster family [to the court] disappear.

Within days of the letter to the judge, we had a CPS case worker, Rachel Kotowski, now number 5 case worker come to our home. To be fair, Ms. Kotowski was also the first case worker. She would testify in court that we lied about the number of case workers, that there was actually only 3. In front of ADA Valdes who prompted the lie in questioning, sat the official CPS record which contained the names of all 6 case workers. In cross by our attorney, Ms. Kotowski would attempt to explain away the names of the case workers as they were read to her. It was clear that she had openly lied in court to discredit us and hide the truths in the case. Her open lie in court was frustrating.

I have been involved with investigations and legal reports for 20 years. It doesn’t take much to identify the liars. It is more than obvious in our case that there was no fear of a court system for calling them out for intentionally lying to judges, juries, and on state documentation. The average person would still be sitting in a jail cell for only a fraction of the intentional obstruction of the legal system. For CPS personnel and an ADA promoting deceit within this case, they are yet to be held accountable. In fact, when the jury agreed with us and removed the bio father’s rights, the ADA joined the bio father in an appeal to the 4th Court of Appeals. By the way the appeal procedure costs you thousands of dollars. As the bio father was incarcerated when the initial CPS case started, he was considered indigent for subsequent legal wranglings. In short, taxpayers have paid thousands to help a dishonest ADA, openly deceitful CPS workers, and a convicted felon trying to gain access to a child to cover his criminal sentencing obligations. Or at least cover the lies he told Judge Meza in his sentencing hearing. More on that later, completely unbelievable. What is even more frustrating is that he was gainfully employed, living free at his mother’s apartment, using his mother’s car, and no one from the state tried to stop the hemorrhaging of money on this case. Even after he lost the state of Texas is paying for an attorney for and appeal at a transcript from the lower court which would have cost $6000 to $10,000 by itself.

In order to follow official channels in reporting the misconduct of CPS employees, I sent letters and filed official documents with their division of their internal affairs. Their investigation revealed that from Director Bledsoe all the way through Rachel Kotowski all the documentation was appropriate. In short, when you file a complaint against CPS, CPS gets to investigate themselves. I reached out to the Texas Rangers to assist as there were what I believed criminal actions against the safety of a child involved. The Texas Rangers sent the information request to CPS who once again investigated themselves and found no wrongdoing. I reached out to the FBI asking for assistance as we have been denied equal protection under the law for our rights in the case. We had CPS employees filing false documents, lying in court, and making sure that we were being retaliated against and harassed. The FBI stated that they would look into the situation but more likely than not referred back to the official channels of CPS. As it sits, if you have any problems with CPS, they get to investigate themselves and no other regulatory agency can step in to help you. It is for this reason that we started the Glasshouse Foundation. No one should go through what we went through. Even worse, those who can’t fight the abuse of a retaliatory department within the state simply lose their family members.

Along with the bio father’s attorney, the state quoted facts that were known lies to the higher court in the appellate brief and letter. Interestingly enough, the attorney that filed the appeal for the bio father was the same attorney that had been the ad litem attorney for 2 of our babies which were blood siblings to the child at the center of this case. The state was aware of this conflict of interest but did nothing as the appeal brief and the appellate court received a brief documenting an amazing bio father who had fully complied with a service plan. It failed to denote that every section of the service plan was accomplished deceitfully or not at all. Even with all the lies from CPS and the ADA, the 4th Court of Appeals agreed that the bio father was a danger to the physical and emotional safety of our child. In short, those from CPS and the district attorney’s office lied in briefs sent to the 4th Court of Appeals seeking to overturn a lawfully selected jury in Judge Monica Diaz court. This fight is ongoing.

In July of 2021, at our kitchen table, in front of an adoption agency case manager not affiliated with CPS, Ms. Kotowski threatened our family. Quite literally all our jaws dropped. Over the years we have made friends with many CPS personnel and have heard how vindictive the department can be. To point, I was warned not to send a letter to the judge asking for help, as such an outlandish move would be tantamount to kicking a hornet’s nest. Nevertheless, I sent the letter. Dads protect their babies whenever they can, and I have always been a dad that was willing to step in front of a bullet for mine. We were told that because we wrote a letter to the judge, we would never be allowed to keep our child. No matter how good we were or how bad the bio father was we would never be allowed to keep our child. You remember the bio father, he was the one on house arrest, awaiting adjudication from the arrest for beating the 9-month pregnant female [the bio mom] and significant repeat drug charges.
After the threat from Ms. Kotowski, who eluded ADA Valdes in conjunction with CPS supervisor Rita Garcia, initiated the plan to remove our child, we were completely devastated. Law abiding citizens assume the law to do what is expected within society. The open abuse of authority and deceit is foreign to those who live within the confines of the law. After the threat, I had 2 options, roll over and let what I know now to be a corrupt handful of state employees put my daughter’s life in jeopardy, or fight. I chose to fight. Immediately, I began documenting all the interactions with CPS, to include recording meetings and researching their claims. Within weeks of the meeting, a sister of the bio father was “located” who wanted to take our child. CPS scheduled an immediate hearing to remove our baby away from us and her siblings to an aunt she did not know, an aunt who had no understanding of the baby’s medical conditions, and who had never raised a child herself, living with a boyfriend. It was interesting that the aunt came up. In the beginning of our case neither the paternal aunt nor the paternal grandmother wanted anything to do with the child. Now, after the threat against our family, this aunt was ready to be a mom.
The aunt had contact ties with the bio father on house arrest and her address would become a source of lies in front of Judge Monica Diaz, Judge Susan Reed, and Judge Meza who presided over the bio father’s criminal sentencing. A case study of the aunt’s house was rushed. It was approved near immediately having not included all those who claim the home as residence being contacted, background checked, or interviewed. Not clearing all the occupants of a home study in Texas is grounds for a home study to fail and a child placement stopped. In the bio father’s sentencing hearing, he listed the sister’s address as his residence, a residence he never lived in during the house arrest or duration of this case, and a residence given to the Bexar County Adult Probation Gang Unit. Note, the bio father did not live at the sisters and would testify to than in the custody hearing but told gang probation the lie, just as he did to CPS, and documented on Judge Meza’s paperwork.
The placement hearing began. In front of Judge Susan Reed, ADA Valdes made her play to move the child to the paternal aunt. Testimony from Ms. Kotowski was the bullet in the weapon. Rachel Kotowski admitted that she never looked into the bio father’s gang ties. In the same testimony Kotowski stated the bio father was perfectly safe for placement of our child. In another testimony Kotowski testified that the bio father, a gang member, convicted drug dealer, with a history of running from police, aggravated burglary and family violence was more qualified than the foster father, a licensed paramedic who had specialty training in pediatric and neonatal critical care who had been involved in all the baby’s medical care. A felon with double digit arrest record was more qualified to manage a child with medical conditions than a licensed medic with thousands of critical care patients having been in his care. According to Kotowski and ADA Valdes the aunt was as much a success in placement as the hard work of the bio father to complete his services. In questioning by ADA Valdes, the bio father lied to Judge Reed during questioning by ADA Laura Valdes concerning his gang affiliation. He told the Judge that he had been in a gang for a few weeks as a teenager. As it turns out, Judge Susan Reed was instrumental in the fight against gangs in Bexar County. It would appear she did not believe him. Ultimately, he was denied access as he had seen before with the baby and our child was not moved. Within minutes of the zoom hearing, the bio mother began attacking us in texts. She was not on the call, yet her family were attacking us for not giving our baby to the bio father. This is interesting in that only the bio father was in the hearing, there was a no-contact order between the bio’s, the bio father maintained he had no contact with the bio mother, and they bragged that he had already started buying baby stuff because CPS told them before the hearing, they had it worked out and we were losing our child.
It should be noted that the bio father was a gang member and that he was listed on the roles in Bexar County, as he had been when he was in prison. He openly lied to Judge Reed with ADA Valdes at the helm, knowing there would be no repercussions for his actions. At this point, I must point out the services Ms. Kotowski was referring to in testimony. You see the bio father had to maintain visitation with the baby in order to pass the services. Whenever he was allowed out of house arrest to go to the DFPS center for visitation he made a visit. If the visit was not possible due to Covid or other illness, the bio father was offered virtual visits in the same way we all attended the court sessions and meetings. If it was a virtual meeting the bio father refused to visit with the baby. In fact, after the baby’s cardiovascular surgery the bio father had no contact with the baby for nearly 8 weeks, all by choice. He did make his psych online visits, speaking to the psychologist about how close he and our baby were and that he was not allowed to visit our child. To be sure, when the psychologist heard in court that representation by the bio father was a lie, she was shocked. The look on her face was priceless and the bio father turned away from her in court. In all, the bio father only completed about half the visits to complete the service plan. Nevertheless, after the letter I sent to the court, less than half was enough. In the trial for termination, Rachel Kotowski would testify that the bio father completed his service plan without issue. When questioned about him refusing online visits, she stated that the department didn’t have a problem with that and didn’t count those as skipped visits.
The bio father completed the batterers class or BIP. BIP is a class for abusers who are involved in family violence. It should be noted that the BIP program has a 90% failure rate. It should also be noted that depending on whether you are reading the CPS psychologists notes or CPS case notes the bio father did and at the same time have no history of domestic violence. It doesn’t take much to tie together the fact he was arrested for the assault of the 9-month pregnant mother of our child that he has at least one history of domestic violence. It should also be noted, though we reported multiple times of the bio father using intimidation to coerce the bio mother to do what he said, CPS failed to document what would have immediately removed his rights as a parent. The bio father did his class online from house arrest as part of his service plan. He passed his psych service plan and somehow never revealed over 15 months of therapy to the psychologist he was and had been a documented gang member. The psychologist even noted that the bio father has never received treatment for his gang ties and conduct. He passed his probation service plan with “gang” probation with gang probation not knowing he was living at 1 address and using another for his probation address or that he was carrying 2 phones. The gang officer in court would agree that using 2 addresses and 2 phones would give the bio father opportunity to continue his gang and drug lifestyle. She also noted that in each of the 2 visits with the bio father, he was aware of both visits before the time and that she had never actually been inside of the residence to see if he had any drug or gang activities ongoing. To be fair, the address the gang probation knew of and visited was not the address the bio father lived. The officer acknowledged that living at another address would be a violation of his parole. In the face of the testimony from the bio father that he did not live at the approved residence, ADA Valdes did nothing. Instead, the bio father and ADA Valdes would spin a tale that the bio father was merely a good son who visited his mother and stayed overnight. He stayed overnight in a one-bedroom apartment with at least one other documented felon and slept the baby on the floor. This lie and tour of a fake address the bio father also did with the 6th CPS case worker and the CPI investigator who was looking into a complaint we had to file. In all, 3 state of Texas investigators were given tours of a fake address by the bio father. This information was made available to CPS, and he is still on the streets and in the running to have access to our child. The bio father’s mother and sister were complicit in deceiving the investigators in these events.
The bio father was required to refrain from contact with the bio mother, illicit drugs, and the street lifestyle. He was documented multiple times remaining in contact and the lifestyle but was cleared to have access to our child. To point, multiple times after meeting with CPS or the foster agency and even the attorney ad litem, the bio mother or her family would attack us immediately after the bio father left the meeting which only he had attended via Zoom. Issues of ongoing contact were reported multiple times. In fact, it was even reported that the bio father was routinely threatening the bio mother. When confronted, the bio mother would rarely acknowledge the threats from the gang member bio father. Although we reported it after giving the bio mother and her son a ride home from the DFPS center, she and the son were there because the bio father with an order of no contact abandoned them at the center after a visit. DFPS refused to acknowledge this contact or give us access to the security video for the trial. The bio father even testified in court that he had not seen the bio mother since before the baby was born. In the official CPS record, sitting with ADA Valdes at trial when the bio father lied in sworn testimony were notes of multiple contacts, to include taking pictures together at the CPS center. In the face of the open lies in front of Judge Monica Diaz and the jury, ADA Valdes did nothing. In fact, though the bio father had an attorney, several times during breaks ADA Valdes could be found off by herself with the bio father strategizing. In my career, having been involved in more than 100 legal actions, I have never seen a person’s lawyer sit off to the side as another attorney made privately whispered plans with their client. It was more than odd and caught the eye of many in the court room. The ad litem attorney would speak out loud to our attorney, asking if the state was representing the bio father or his own attorney.
In October of 2021 we were required to give the bio father a weekend visit after our baby had begun recovering from cardiovascular surgery. In the prep we voiced our concern. The bio father was not familiar with her medical conditions, nor had he availed himself to learn. He would lie in court along with Rachel Kotowski that he was kept away from the doctors by us. Fortunately, the doctors involved in the trial testified that the bio father or anyone from his family had never tried to contact his office. The baby was released to the bio father. Of course, it was a struggle to get her into the car as she did not know these people and was clearly afraid. As you can imagine, we sat on pins and needles the entire weekend awaiting her return, my wife actually texting to confirm the baby was ok and if they needed anything. Upon her return it was noted that the baby seemed dehydrated and hungry. As was our process for her ongoing medical care we weighed the baby. It was determined that she had lost upwards of 10% of her body weight during the weekend visit. As required, we made a report to CPS and scheduled meetings with the doctors. Within days the bio father was cleared, even before the CPI investigation started, and a case was filed against us by CPS for medical neglect of a child and framing the bio father. The bio father was allowed along with his sister to take the child to the doctor. In the medical notes, the narrative documents that the bio father stated he has received the baby from us sick for the last few months. Don’t forget, he had no contact with the baby for the previous 2 months and had never been to a medical appointment. In short, he lied to the doctor to frame us. We were fully investigated. Our older children were contacted, and our minor children were listed in the investigation. The CPI investigator would state in court that the daycare our daughter attended claimed we knew the baby was sick and that she had a foul-smelling diarrhea for over a week that could be noticed down the hall. She also stated that we only started weighing the baby after the contact with the bio father. Her testimony had a couple of problems.
Our baby was under the care of a gastroenterologist who we reported weights to regularly. Either in face-to-face meetings with the doctor or to one of his assistants over the phone, weights were documented. Secondly, the claim of diarrhea for an extended period of time at the childcare center was called out. As a rebuttal witness the worker that cared for our baby pointed out that under the state of Texas law if there is an episode of diarrhea the child must be sent home for 72 hours and have had no diarrhea to return. When confronted with the obvious lie by the CPI investigator, ADA Valdes threatened the caretaker of criminal action for perjury. In essence, ADA Valdes analyzed that in our situation exclusively, a state of Texas licensed daycare disregarded the rules, jeopardizing their license to keep a baby with active diarrhea on the premises not only for a day but over a week. Diarrhea that was foul smelling and apparent at a distance. The case against us was dropped but the CPI investigator and CPS refused to tell who filed the false complaint against my family. Rachel Kotowski would state that she did not know who filed the complaint. As part of the Glasshouse Foundation project, we are committed to discovering who filed the false complaint and seeking a legal remedy for the intentional false claim of a criminal act against a child.
In front of Judge Meza, the judge in his criminal sentencing hearing, the bio father lied about his services, custody of children, and his active participation in services. Although he had refused to do any visitation which didn’t allow him out of house arrest, he claimed to have completed visitation and was emotionally attached to the child. It was more than clear to all involved that the bio father was only using the CPS services to gain favor with the criminal prosecution and sentencing. In front of Judge Meza, the bio father stated while talking directly to her, not his attorney talking but him talking directly to the judge that he had custody of two of his biological children and was being awarded the custody of our child once he got probation. The bio father openly lied to Judge Meza in that he has custody of no children. In fact, he’s had two children removed by CPS cases, and is not allowed to be around the third. He even stated in the trial for custody of our child that he is not aware of whether or not he’s allowed to be alone with his oldest child. Also, that he has custody of no children to include our child. When CPS caseworker Rachel Kotowski was giving court testimony, she agreed that telling Judge Meza that he had custody of any children would have been a lie. Although the DA was sitting right there listening to the lies, she made no attempt to seek any prosecution for clear perjury. In opposition, when a witness for our case identified that investigations against us had been fraught with lies, she threatened to witness with prosecution for perjury. In that instance her witness made a statement that was against standing state law for childcare centers. It was obvious that the statements made by her witness were untrue and easily discoverable by any google search. Her witness was never admonished about lying on the stand or was she threatened with perjury. In front of Judge Monica Diaz and jury presentation of witnesses lies by state employees and witnesses were fluid. Those who knew the truth lied and those who had been lied to by the bio father, the psychologist and Bexar County Adult Probation Gang Unit were clearly dumb struck as information in the trial identified they had been deceived.

Lying to judge Meza in order to secure probation parole over prison was not the bio father’s first open session with lying to a judge. In front of Judge Susan Reed, the bio father along with Rachel Kotowski testified that he was living with his sister in an approved home. To further document their lies, he had put his sister’s address on his parole paperwork for probation as well as with Judge Meza in sentencing. Additionally, his sister took a picture of a handwritten letter with a copy of the bio father’s driver’s license in front of it stating that her brother lived at her house. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth. The bio father lived with his mother in a one-bedroom apartment along with another felon which he had hidden from the court system as well as probation. In front of Judge Monica Diaz and jury the Bexar County adult probation gang unit officer testified that she was unaware of the bio father living with his mother or even staying there. In fact, she had never heard of the address in all the meetings with the bio father or documents he had signed with gang probation. ADA Valdez would attempt to downplay the situation of having more than one address with a convicted gang member by stating he was just visiting his mother a few days here and there. In actuality, private investigators had documented that the bio father actually had always lived with his mother and was only using the sister’s address. Prior to their testimony in court, the bio father had never stayed more than one night at his sister’s home from November 2021 through the court case in March 2022. ADA Valdez actually found out about the multiple address and multiple phones being carried by the bio father just about a week before trial. It was the expectation that ADA Valdez would stop the upcoming trial in that, the bio father had been caught lying about his residence, sleeping the baby on the floor during visitation with an undocumented felon and other individuals who had never been background check in a one-bedroom apartment. Even more frustrating was that the approved home study was less than six minutes away from his mother’s apartment. The bio father chose to expose the baby to felons as well as sleep her on the floor when the crib was less than 2 miles away. ADA Valdez was aware of this and not only continued to counsel him and approve of his exposure to the child but attempted to downplay what she knew to be violations extensive enough to remove him as a parent.

CPS cases are always about the children and never about the parents. In our case, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Once we called CPS out for a lie and requested help from the legal system the entire case became about the bio father. So much so that they intervened in his probation as well as his sentencing hearing. The morning of the sentencing hearing, Rachel Kotowski texted me trying to get me to provide her with documentation to help the bio father get probation and not prison. It is unfortunate that the safety and well-being of our baby was never forefront once CPS was called out.

The entire case of rights in the hearing in front of Judge Monica Diaz and jury balanced around all the great things that the bio father had become in a few months and how bright a future this multi convicted felon with serial arrests over 20 years and violent crimes committed against the community had become. Even in the face of a child having had 88 medical appointments and heart surgery in less than 18 months, with a bio father only attending one medical appointment CPS called him the best option. Additionally, when the baby had cardiovascular surgery, the bio father chose to leave and have us as the foster parents stay while the baby was hospitalized. To point, my wife never left her side, from the ICU through discharge. In the face of the bio father’s refusal to take part in medical needs and treatment of the child ADA Valdes and CPS still stated that it was in the best interest of the child for him to have access and control of her in a custody situation. The lie that we made medical appointments at times when the bio father could not come couldn’t be further from the truth. We got appointments as they were available. Anyone that lived through the pandemic understands that medical appointments were at a premium. Additionally, the bio father got permission for a multitude of other things to leave his house arrest. He could have made the same time for the child but chose not to participate in her healthcare and challenges.

During the custody trial ADA Valdez brought back Rachel Kotowski for a second round of sworn testimony. In her sworn testimony Kotowski stated that she had sent the bio father to have contact with the bio mother because she couldn’t find her phone number. Her own handwritten notes in the official CPS documentation, Kotowski identifies that she had conversations with the bio father explicitly telling him not to have contact with the bio mother. In one instance her notes detailed a text message to bio father sent to her by accident. In the text messages sent by the bio father he calls the bio mother babe and lets her know that CPS is in the field. When reminded the text was in her notes, Kotowski said that she was unaware of why the word “babe” was in her notes. Additionally, she was unaware that the bio father had previously lied to the jury the day before about having no contact with the bio mother before the baby was born. She agreed the bio father had lied but refused to acknowledge her own lies concerning the text messages. She would also attempt to say that as the CPS worker who had been on the case she was unaware that the father was not merely in probation but “gang probation”. ADA Valdes was fully aware that Kotowski lied in sworn testimony to Judge Monica Diaz and jury. To point, the text message came up earlier in the trial. Kotowski was brought back by ADA Valdes to try and explain away the damage the text message did to their case. They had the bio father lying in the witness stand and had to try and explain away the problems. These conflicts and completely amazing lies in sworn testimony was as shocking as it was torn apart in cross.

Kotowski ultimately quit her job at CPS before going to court. However, she was subpoenaed to court for the custody case. In the custody case she actually told the jury in front of Judge Monica Diaz and jury that she quit her job because I threatened her, and her infant son as did our attorney. Her sworn testimony could not have been further from the truth. In fact, had I threatened a state of Texas employee in the department of family protective services not only would I have lost our daughter at that time, more likely than not, we would have lost all of our children and have been prosecuted. Clearly no one believed her and our attorney cross by asking how she was threatened. She’s a good upfront liar but not a great counter puncher. Her answer to the attorney‘s question was that an email was it to her bosses saying that she was not looking out for the best interest of the child. According to Kotowski those were the threats against her. Though she put it out to the jury, when challenged about how I threatened her infant son, she had no real answer. The answer she came up with was a paraphrased version of what she had been actively doing to my family. My belief is that she was a stooge who was getting scared as the growing case was headed to court and she knew she had to lie to a judge. At no time did ADA Valdez step in and call her out for lying. To point, she was brought twice as a witness in the same trial to refute actual evidence of the bio father’s lies, and deceptive practices, as well as his ongoing contact with the bio mother and her street lifestyle.

In addition to our experience being threatened and lied about, our forthcoming website will tell the story of another local family who had similar experiences. Our media coverage and social media will provide information for those who would like to sign our petition going to the state attorney general and legislators. As a community we demand and deserve honest state employees committed to the protection of children in crisis situations. Violation of the public trust is never acceptable which is why we commit standing with those attacked and defamed by a vindictive and corrupt system.