Lawsuit: California Contra Costa County CPS et al.

“A teenage boy who was removed from his home by Contra Costa County CPS told The Epoch Times that he witnessed child prostitution occurring in his group home.

The boy said social workers coerced him to lie about his mother’s conduct and said that he refused psychiatric pills in the group home and reported the sex crimes he witnessed, compelling the group home to release him to his mother.

The boy’s mother has filed a lawsuit against the county and individuals, including Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Lois Haight, a foster parent, and multiple social workers with Contra Costa County CPS, seeking $650 million in compensatory damages and $650 million in punitive damages, for alleged misconduct aside from the sexual abuse the boy said he witnessed.

The 16-year-old boy, identified only as SP due to his minor status, is again living with his mother, after he was released from a succession of foster and group homes that CPS was obligated to monitor.

“Basically, I was moved four or five times in total to households for reasons that were not completely disclosed to me. I refused to lie about my mom,” SP told The Epoch Times, noting that “my social worker would come over once a week” and “they would convince me to try to lie.”

When SP was moved to a group home about a year and a half ago at age 14, he witnessed horrors that still have him reeling.

“There was a lot of truancy, there were a lot of runaways as well,” SP said, noting the presence of cigarettes, rolling papers, two bongs in the household, and white powder that was being snorted.

SP said his roommate, an African American boy, experienced sexual abuse.

“I was inside the room when these two men went inside the room,” SP said, identifying the men as two African-American adults. “They had sex. They did oral on a chair. And I got out of the room. I reported it to one of the staff there.

“I talked to the one guy. I said, ‘Can you please not do this.’

“I left. I ran outside to meet [the female group home director] in the kitchen. I told her what was going on inside with the two people. She broke them up midway through it.

“Of course I thought it was disgusting,”

Asked by The Epoch Times if he thought money was being exchanged as part of this child sex session, SP was emphatic.

“Yes,” SP said.

“There was a girl there that was a prostitute as well. She arrived a couple of days before I left.”

“She ran away twice” during his time there, SP said.

SP said that the teenage girl would repeatedly leave the group home and return with “loads of $100 bills.”

“One of the guys told me she did this. She had regular johns,” SP said.

According to SP, the girl ran away from the group home at least twice, in apparent escape attempts from her lifestyle; she was still missing at the time SP left the group home.

SP said that he refused to take psychotropic drugs that were given out by the administrators of the group home.

An overdose death in 2015 of a teen boy on psychotropic medications sparked a wrongful death lawsuit against Contra Costa County’s foster care system, as well as further debate about over-medicating foster care kids.

SP became such a nuisance within the group home system that they expelled him, and his mother was able to regain custody. SP believes that his witnessing the sex act was what convinced the group home to release him.

SP’s mother’s legal adviser, P. Stephen Lamont, said that he believes CPS in Contra Costa County knew about the abuse allegation.

“They knew all about it, because SP was returned home. He wouldn’t take the drugs that would get him addicted,” Lamont said, noting that 16-year-old SP is the true hero of the story. “He fought CPS and he won, which is unheard of.”

A representative of Judge Haight, who is responsible for SP’s case, told The Epoch Times that Haight wasn’t available to comment due to illness, and that the court can’t comment on Department of Family and Child Services cases.”

A Betrayal of Trust: Child Molestation Alleged in Contra Costa CPS

[Epoch Times 8/28/19 by Patrick Howley]

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