Dad under indictment for severe abuse of infant son given custody of 3-year-old daughter (Clinton, Tennessee)

In all this verbiage, it is NEVER EXPLAINED what happened to this girl's mother or why the girl was originally put in foster care. All we know is that dad MATTHEW ARMSTRONG and his "former girlfriend" have been indicted for severely abusing the girl's half brother, who was badly burned. AND YET DADDY GOT CUSTODY of this 3-year-old girl anyway. With no CPS investigation of his fitness to assume custody. 

Once again, we see that not only are daddies not discriminated against in family court proceedings, they're positively coddled in every way. Now this jackass has a little girl to torture... 

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

Man charged with child abuse given custody of 3-year-old

By Bob Fowler
Posted January 12, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.

CLINTON — A todder who lived in a foster home for three years was given in October to her birth father, who is charged with aggravated child abuse of the girl's half-brother.

Foster mom Susan Hager has for weeks waged a campaign to bring the case to light.

In letters and emails, Hager lambastes the state Department of Children's Services for slack oversight, communication breakdowns and outright errors.

The rebukes come as DCS is under intense scrutiny for numerous deaths last year of children that had been involved with DCS.

DCS officials say the decision to place the young girl with her father was made within the Anderson County court system and that DCS followed proper procedures in foster care and child custody.

A judge in an Anderson County Circuit Court ruling has opined there was no evidence the father abused the boy, upholding a decision reportedly also reached in juvenile court, where rulings are confidential. 

Brennan Lenihan, an attorney involved in the case, which has included an extended legal tug-of-war over the girl's custody, says Hager's version of the events "is not remotely close to the full picture." 

Hager is declining to speak about the case, saying to do so could jeopardize her future standing as a foster parent.

State Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, a long-standing DCS critic, contacted the News Sentinel and provided copies of a three-page letter Hager wrote DCS Commissioner Kathryn O'Day, as well as other correspondence.

The letter to O'Day was also copied to numerous officials, from Gov. Bill Haslam to federal and state lawmakers.

State Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, has sent a "letter of inquiry" about the situation to a DCS official.

Jones recently expressed outrage over the Anderson County case.

"We're not supposed to give children back to people who abuse and neglect children," she said. "DCS and the courts should never, never make that sort of placement."

ABUSE CASE 

In her letter to O'Day, Hager worries that the 3-year-old girl may be in danger in dad Matthew Armstrong's custody. Armstrong, 28, and his former girlfriend, Melissa Lopez, 35, both of Oak Ridge, are under indictment for aggravated child abuse and neglect of the girl's half-brother. 

Both defendants are out on $100,000 bonds. No trial dates have been set.

When he was 11 months old in November 2008, the baby boy reportedly sustained severe burns to much of his body, including injuries that left him blind in his left eye, according to Hager's letter to DCS.

A doctor, Mary Palmer Campbell, testified in court hearings that the boy suffered "one of the worst cases of abuse … that she had seen in her medical career," Hager wrote to O'Day.

"Without compromising confidentiality, I felt the alleged acts of the accused against the unidentified victim were the most severe among the hundreds of cases I investigated as a guardian ad litem," Knoxville attorney Amy Brown said in an emailed statement.

No public Criminal Court records provide details of the alleged abuse or how it occurred.

Susan Hager and her husband Sam were first serving as foster parents for the infant boy before they adopted him in May 2011.

The boy's parents — Lopez and Timothy McKinney — had earlier surrendered their parental rights.

The Hagers became the baby girl's foster parents when she was 16 days old in September 2009.

They then filed an Anderson County Chancery Court petition to adopt her.

That petition was filed the day Armstrong and Lopez were to have a juvenile court hearing on the merits of the case and which party was entitled to custody, said Lenihan, who served as Lopez's court-appointed attorney in the legal battles.

In an appeal of one juvenile court ruling, court records show, Anderson County Chancellor Bill Lantrip in June 2010 ruled in a Circuit Court order there was no evidence that Armstrong abused the boy.

The chancellor also found that Lopez failed to promptly seek medical care for the boy, and sent the case back to juvenile court for more proceedings.

CUSTODY DISPUTE

The Hagers' petition to adopt the girl put a halt to the juvenile court action awarding custody to Armstrong because Chancery Court takes precedence.

The Chancery Court hearing on the Hagers' petition to adopt was scheduled for Oct. 24, but their attorney dismissed the petition late the day before.

With the adoption petition gone, the case went back to juvenile court, where a ruling already had been made that Armstrong should have custody.

Lawyers involved in the matter quickly signed off on an order to that effect, and DCS came to the Hagers' home that afternoon and removed the girl, according to Hager's letter.

Susan Hager in her letter to O'Day criticized the abrupt move: "While we were aware that there was an appeals hearing regarding Matthew Bret Armstrong's right to future custody ... we had no notice that DCS and/or any party to this case was seeking the immediate removal of (the girl) from our home without any notice, transition or preparation …"

DCS agreed to the girl's immediate removal "without any investigation of his home, his means of support, and/or his ability to care for another three-year-old child in his home," according to Hager's letter.

A "slow transition to her father's custody" would have been more appropriate, Hager wrote.

Since the girl was removed from the Hagers' home, Susan Hager told O'Day that Armstrong has refused to allow any contact with her.

"This three-year-old child has now been removed from the only parents and family she has known, and returned to a father that is currently under indictment for the severe child abuse of her half-brother, and prohibited from any contact or visitation with anyone she has ever known in her life," Hager wrote.

Armstrong's attorney, David Vander Sluis, didn't return calls seeking comment.