SACRAMENTO - A minor recently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California that alleges children in Stanislaus County are mistreated when a sibling dies.
According to the Dec. 6 lawsuit, A.L. (23 months old at the time) and her brother O.L. resided with their mother, Leann Santor, until May 9th, 2018, when O.L. passed away. O.L. passed sometime in the late hours of May 8 or earliest hours of May 9, while with their mother visiting their father Douglas Lewis.
Upon O.L.'s passing, Defendants precipitously and without probable or reasonable cause or lawful justification, removed A.L. from her parents, the suit says. The county, through CPS practices removing children without a reasonable investigation, is violating constitutional rights, the suit says.
It is also alleged that false reports were provided to the court as to the reasoning for taking the child and the home circumstances.
The lawsuit alleges "a practice of taking all children whenever one child in the family passes away or whenever one child in a family is taken, all to which is added non-existent or inadequate training on the severe immediate psychological harm and enduring injury of changes to the neurological structures of children’s brains in their development and maturation."
Plaintiff seeks general, special and compensatory damages, punitive damages, statutory damages, attorney's fees and cost of suit. Plaintiff is represented by Robert R. Powell.
Eastern District of California case number 1:21-cv-01732-DAD-SKO