Can they have a trial behind your back

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Assuming we're talking about law in the USA, there ARE certain instances in which they can have a trial behind your back. I found this out when my family had a little trouble last year.

Certain acquaintances my family was regularly involved with took it upon themselves to make calls to Child Protective Services. We're not sure if this was out of sincere concern for my family, malevolent feelings towards us, or just as a prank. Regardless, we had a total of three visits from social workers, and it was horribly demoralizing for us.

At the heart of the matter was our son's recurring ear infections and our daughter born premature, me just starting a private piano teaching studio, and my wife recently out of a job. The bottom had just dropped out of the housing market, our house was newly up for sale, and we'd JUST started exploring our options for getting out from under a mortgage (with no jobs and two kids). Things were really ugly. But we managed.

We cooperated with CPS, they could CLEARLY see we posed no danger to our children and were doing really well under the circumstances. We started talking to lawyers--you know, "just in case," and didn't exactly try to hide what we were doing. We had "talks" with certain other acquaintance who had "talks" with other people and the harassment we endured (not JUST through CPS) quietly ended.

Now, I'm saying all this to make the point that we were very lucky in the grand scheme of things. I started doing research on various cases that CPS has mishandled. Many people who have to deal with CPS prank calls are not so lucky, and depending on WHERE you are and how the situation is handled, you can end up in a situation where it seems that taking your children is the first resort instead of the last resort, not to mention certain Catch 22s that have to do when and where remedial actions can take place. It appears that the process is purposely made difficult.

The truly horrible thing that happens is that cases are referred to the court system with no attempt at contacting the parents. Court actions are a matter of public record, but somehow CPS cases fly well enough below radar that many parents never find out when there's a case on the docket. When the parents fail to arrive at a court hearing without counsel (because they don't even know there's a case pending), the judge signs the order by default and the social workers come and take the kids. It gets worse. The ideal is that kids get placed with relatives, but often the kids end up in foster care. If there was EVER any abuse in the home they were taken from, it's only compounded by the abuse they fall victim to in foster care. Some parents have managed to mount an expensive legal battle to keep their children, but it can often end in financial ruin.

We've been VERY fortunate to never have been involved in something that hideous. But one has to wonder if ONE court system is capable of something that egregious, what other injustices might there be in other systems?

There is, of course, another avenue that does seem to bypass the legal system entirely, but can be just as bad or worse than jail time. Long before my wife and I got married, while she was still in college, she changed her major to psychology. In addition to her classes, she made the decision to regularly attend counseling sessions in part to deal with some unresolved issues from a previous abusive relationship that had ended (quite badly) a few years before. As one might expect, she'd been dealing with the usual stresses and strains of college life in the midst of all this, and her therapist thought it would be "a good idea" to go through an "evaluation" at a local hospital. She agreed, of course, because she trusted her counselor. She answered questions honestly upon which she was admitted to the psychiatric ward and was allowed no contact with the outside world for a few days, not even a phone call. She basically just told group therapy doctors and medical "professionals" what they wanted to hear so she could get out as early as possible. She WAS a psychology student, after all.

So... We've endured some tough times, before we got married and afterwards, but we aren't any more dangerous to ourselves, our kids, or anyone else than the stereotypical NT couple (who are likely to just fight all the time and get divorced eventually, anyway). So my final word on this is that you should always think very carefully about what and how much you reveal to your friends because you really have no idea sometimes who your real friends are or how much they really care or have your best interests at heart. But also, do NOT kid around with the justice system (or the mental health system). I don't think there are that many legal actions that people can take behind your back in the way of court proceedings. But there is no doubt that at least one government agency, the Department of Human Services/CPS, has been able get away with some really horrible things that are unheard of in other areas of justice.

I wasnt stressed whene this all started. it all started out of the blue. I dont know why it could happen by stress. it all seems like it happened all of the sudden.

HelloMed, from your description, it appears to me that the onset of your problems and your stress all correlate with the letter from the courts. That would explain both the stress and the predominate theme running through the distressing thoughts/beliefs (specifically involving the police and courts).

I forgot about it and things started to happen whene I started to download dojinshi and hentai anime. I didnt remember at the time it started so how could it be connected. I was really mad at first thinking that people where watching me and I hadent done anything illigal to get there attention. then I saw on a post on dailytech somone talk about dirty japanese cartoons saying that they where illigal in the US. I searched using that as a term and came up with an article that was almost Identical to a article I read before for the U.K. and I thought that the people watching me and commenting on what I was looking at had doctored it. I got really mad and typed somthing really hostile like bite your nose off hostile. but I then read on wikipedia that somone was put on trial for importing hentai manga dojins and then I got scared. I had downloaded boatloads of dojins and hentai.

DUDE! What is wrong with you? we have been trying to get Darrell to calm down and be reasonable for 20+ pages of this thread and you come in here with your issues and threaten to undo all the work several people have done with him!

Start your own thread if you want to talk about your experience with CPS. This is Darrell's thread and you are NOT helping him. You are just fueling his paranoia with your story. Jeez I am so pissed right now.

Sorry Darrell- please do not relate this person's experience to your own. It is NOT the same and does not mean that what you are afraid has happened is even possible OK?

dont worry I didnt relate but I felt sorry for the person who had trouble. I wish I had a family to have trouble with but I cant even find a girlfriend. sad both of us.

Hey, take it easy, I was just trying to answer the OP question.

And if it's any consolation, technically what I'm talking about is family court proceedings and have nothing to do with criminal trials.

In a trial, yes, you DO have to show up in court. In cases brought by DHS, the issue is not whether parents should be put in jail but whether the child might be in danger in the future. A DHS lawyer, assuming it follows typical legal procedure, will submit a petition to take the child along with an order to take the child which the judge will sign.

In criminal proceedings, the procedure is something like this: Reasonable cause must first be established. Law enforcement has to prove this in order to get a search warrant from a judge, and the warrant has to be very specific. If there is enough evidence to convict you of a crime, you will be arrested until you stand trial. At that point, prosecution has to present PROOF that you committed a crime and you are convicted by a JURY (not a judge). If you have good enough legal counsel, you can call the evidence into question and cast doubts in the minds of the jury.

Certain crimes have a statute of limitations. That means you cannot be called to trial for a crime after a certain length of time has elapsed. Murder is one of the few crimes for which there is no statute of limitations.

The fact that you have not yet been arrested ought to, for the time being, give you some degree of comfort. I don't know exactly what it is you've done or what it is people are threatening you with, but if you are in possession of something you aren't supposed to have (illegal porn, drugs) the best thing you can do is get rid of it. You can't be convicted of something for which there is no evidence. If people are just talking and they have no idea what they're talking about, then you might have a civil case for defamation (if you have proof, of course). If someone's manipulating you for money, you might have a case for extortion. If you can show psychological harm has come to you because of what people around you are saying, then you have a case for harassment.

If people are giving you a hard time and threatening to take you to court and they have absolutely no proof against you, show them you mean business and their behavior will no longer be tolerated. Evil people sober up pretty fast when you start talking about money and lawyers.

I'm not an attorney, btw. My wife works for one, though, as did I at one point in my life. If you're still walking free and all people are doing is just talking, chances are you'll be ok.

My apologies if I upset anyone. I was only trying to show what CAN happen in certain situations.

apparently you just upset me, so I am sorry for overreacting. I think you do have enough there for your own thread though.

Edit- please go back and read the thread some more, and you will understnad that Darrell hears thing that are not real. We are trying to get him to realize that these things cant be happening. I think he sounds better but I really hope he gets to a real doctor soon.

You know Darrell- I saw an RN last week and she could not prescribe most of the medicine I used to take, just a mild antidepressant. Is your RN a Psychiatric nurse?

I dont know and no I am not hearing things what somone would read in the thread is that you all think that I am hearing things.

Because there is nothing to corroborate what you are hearing. There is a letter that you never read, no contact from a law enforcement agency, no faces attached to the voices you are hearing, and the entire scenario appears to be an extrapolation of a fear you felt when talking to someone in the past. Thus, there is a greater likelihood that you are hearing things than what you are suggesting.


M.

it is so hard to explain things without people thinking that I am crazy.

We don't think you're crazy at all. What you have described just does not fit with how the police or courts are required to do by law.

I feel that people think I am crazy because no matter how I try to explain in words things never come out right and people say that nothing I say can be true. some things I no longer beleve like already having a trial behind my back. but I still beleve that someone is out to get me the police. some time there going to come and I am scared.

But there is no reasonable basis for that belief; while I would not call you crazy, I would say your thought patterns are irrational to me.


M.

I don't think you are crazy and I am not calling you crazy at all. It would be like the pot and kettle.

For the record, I do not think you are crazy.