1/7/2005

Six years ago Angela was born in prison. Angela’s (not her real name) incarcerated mother, Ann, let’s call her, asked a friend to find someone to take care of Angela until she finished her sentence. That friend knew Shirley (also not her real name) was interested in being a foster mother, and Shirley agreed to take care of Angela. Ann got out of jail and for awhile, Angela would be with her or with Shirley. But by the time Angela was two, Ann, who has a history of substance abuse, disappeared. Shirley and Angela grew close. For years Shirley searched for Ann to formalize matters so as to enroll Angela in kindergarten and so on. But it wasn’t until last August that she located Ann in central California.

Shirley went to see Ann who’d agreed to sign guardianship papers. But Ann’s father, who’d never met Angela, threatened to sic the FBI on Shirley and charge her with kidnapping. Thereafter a guardianship struggle ensued in two district courts. The child was taken by sheriff’s deputies from Shirley pending a ruling. She sought help. A sympathetic Department of Children and Family Services’ (DCFS) supervisor referred her to LAFLA.

Staff attorney Laura Fry took Shirley’s case. Ms. Fry filed objections to the grandfather’s guardianship, and prepped her client to represent herself at the hearing. The judge in that court deferred the matter to the court Shirley had filed her guardianship in, and she returned to L.A. with the child.

Ms. Fry prepared a de facto parent application for Shirley that was filed in dependency court. Laura also got a staffer from the Alliance for Children’s Rights to testify at the hearing advocating for Shirley’s position. Neither Ann or her father came to that hearing. Shirley was granted temporary custody of Ann pending the next hearing. Afterward, a DCFS supervisor reported that Ann had called to say she wasn’t going to bar Shirley from being granted permanent guardianship.