[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
we say to America is be true to what you
said on paper
[Applause]
some of the freedom dwight mitchell the
founder and CEO of family preservation
foundation stopped child protection
services from legally kidnapping
children lives and practices with dr.
Martin Luther King jr. so eloquently
stated that the greatness of America is
the right to protest for right because
Dwight Mitchell believes and knows as
dr. King also stated that the ultimate
measure of any man is not where he
stands in moments of comfort and
convenience but where he stands in
moments of challenge and controversy
Dwight Mitchell is one of America's true
heroes who has stood tall in moments of
great personal challenges and turned a
legal battle for his children against
the Minnesota child protection services
into a non-profit 501c3 organization
call
the family Preservation Foundation
representing over 5,000 parents whose
mission is to defend and preserve the
individual rights and liberties
guaranteed to children and parents in
this country by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States as it relates
to child protection services in foster
care
Dwight Mitchell is also the president
and founder of Mitchell & Associates a
leading international management
consulting firm and here is Dwight
Mitchell now to share some of his story
of the family preservation foundation's
history mission and accomplishments as
well as how his personal story motivated
him to help others with the same
challenges On February 16 2014 well
after dinner with my wife CPS came into
my house took away my childrenht and put
them in the foster care
it was completely unaware of why they
would do such a thing
I was devastated who wouldn't be
devastated if they took away your three
children with no explanation you didn't
know where they were you didn't know
what was going on
it was a kenton any parent's worst
nightmare the the only phrase that comes
to term is kidnapping that's the only
thing that will give any justification
or what help me explain to someone what
transpired your kids are gone and you
don't know where they are and they will
tell you where they are in this well one
of the things that is the most
heart-wrenching aspect of this entire
process was that I had no idea where my
children were for 22 months I had no
contact with my middle son whatsoever no
phone calls no letters no no
communication no no contact whatsoever
the government said that they weren't
going to tell me where the children were
I had no visitation whatsoever and so
from a parent's perspective it's you
know it's like they were ripping out a
part of your soul and just torturing you
for no valid reason whatsoever there was
no justifiable reason for what the
government did to me I realized that the
only way I was going to get my children
back was to learn enough about the law
to fight for them and get them back I
was going to get my children back no
matter what the cost I learned enough
about the law that I could follow my own
motions and represent myself in court
what was what was very interesting about
my whole process a that I was
represented by legal counsel for the
first 17 months I then let go of my
counsel represented myself file through
motions before the court to release my
child and at the very next turn which
was 30 days later I had my son back you
my custody
when I saw how the process actually
worked I wanted to help other parents
and this is what led me to form my
organization Family Preservation
Foundation so that no other parent would
go through what I went through I was
determined to be an advocate for the
less fortunate people who didn't have
you know my education or background and
to educate them on the law and what they
shouldn't should not do as it relates to
child protection services in this
insider exclusive justice in America
Network TV special our news team visits
with Dwight Mitchell and his attorney in
Minneapolis Minnesota to go behind the
headlines to see the challenges their
organization faces and the progress they
are making to improve Minnesota's child
protection laws this is the insider
exclusive live from Minneapolis
Minnesota
[Music]
it is my great pleasure to introduce
Dwight Mitchell and Eric Carter thank
you
we're here in Minneapolis today talking
about a very important issue that deals
with child protection services you have
been through the wringer with your own
personal case and you represent many
people who are in this same situation
tell our audience a little bit about
your backgrounds before we talk about
the case
Dwight you're a computer consultant
right yes I'm a management consultant in
the IT industry I travel down the world
installing large ERP systems for
multinational companies like she'll
Merck Mobile one of my clients right
never in the world did you think you'd
be in the legal profession to write I
did not especially after 52 years or 33
years actually in the computer industry
right but it came about from a personal
experience which we will talk about in a
minute and Eric you told me before the
show that you primarily sue the
government yeah sort of there's never
been a lawyer in the state of
Minnesota's made a career out of suing
the government and I've been doing that
for 25 years over 150 published
appellate cases I've sued every level of
government state agencies counties
school districts townships cities and
it's been very rewarding because we win
a lot because the government is
violating all the time you think the law
enforcing officers would follow the law
but they violate the law in Minnesota
their law of violating officers I'm just
kind of curious when you've got 150
appellate opinions some trial judges
don't know the law themselves do they
and they rule against your case that's
why it's on appeal maybe sometimes
that's right and often you know you have
a local judge reviewing the local
government officials conduct and you
lose in district court but an appeal it
gets straightened out because the
appellate courts understand that they
need to have a uniform standard
statewide and that simple rule is that
officials and local officials who follow
the law right in a nutshell
Dwight again you were never involved
with legal issues before until what
happened well I was 52 years old
and and my son had been misbehaving in
school he wasn't doing his homework he
wasn't doing his chores
he was just for lack of a better word
going through the dum-dums I'd like to
call them gave him what I considered the
ordinary corporal punishment my spanking
I and how old was he he was 10 years old
okay and you were and you were divorced
at the time kirai was divorced the
background leading after that the
divorce might have been contentious
regarding custody that was an
understatement my my former wife had for
inexplicable reasons stopped taking care
of the children I was living in London
at the time working with Johnson &
Johnson I was called back to the United
States because there were family issues
at home I was given custody of the
children my former wife did not want
adhere to the court rules
she kept breaking the restraining orders
that were placed against her the
children were put in my custody while we
were going through the divorce she hired
hitman a hitman hitman to kill you in
order to obtain the passport because I
had the passport she had what takes to
take the children to Spain and she was
caught trying to kidnap the children and
take them to Spain what happened in a
hitman situation the hitman believe it
or not called the police because he felt
that what she was doing was wrong the
police put out a sting they recorded
they captured her on video and audio
making plans with who she thought was
the hit man who was action undercover
police officer so they had everything on
so even after this you still had to go
through the child protection services
removing your children
that's correct it's amazing isn't it
Eric no it's outrageous the child
protection services I think in part
because as you see Dwight is an African
American man believed his spouse but
this was a convicted felon who had been
deported to Spain in a conspiracy to
kidnap the kids and and harmed white
as a child protection services agency
aligned with a felon like that when
Dwight obviously is upstanding a man who
didn't ordinary spanking and then he
lost his kids for 23 months yeah now
usually a person in your situation would
hire a lawyer to help them out you
mentioned you filed a motion close
initially I did have a lawyer and I was
not happy with the lawyer services and
so we don't have to name any names but
not happy in what way not being as
aggressive as he should be things were
getting worse instead of better instead
of me getting my my children back and
what I assumed it would be a reasonable
period they released my first two
children my three year old they returned
to me after five months and my future no
they returned to me it was the ten year
old they wouldn't release where were the
kids in the interim period of time they
were in foster care so my my middle son
was in foster care for 22 months so I
didn't see him I didn't speak to him
no I receive no letters no contact I
didn't know where he was for 22 months
now tell us the problems you face going
up against C Minnesota CPS child
protection services in trying to
demonstrate you were the better parent
they're really the only parent that your
kids could safely live with what were
the problem well the problems were they
were not listening to their own experts
so two of their own psychologists had
gave me parental evaluation so the first
one gave me an evaluation and said I was
perfect give him his children back
they're like no we don't want to do that
so it they hire I don't want to did it
the supervisors of these it was not only
it was not only the CPS workers it was
their supervisors I went only up to the
director of Dakota County social
services trying to get someone to listen
I said look at the evidence you've had
the evidence since the second day that
this started you called New Jersey you
received all the official documents from
New Jersey why isn't anyone listening
you know what we don't have to this is
Minnesota Quinn and does Eric into the
picture here Eric interest a picture
when after I got my son back finite to
22 months I'm a federal law it's kind of
funny because he called me and because
of the nature of my practice I don't
have time for
fact-intensive disputes and so I pushed
him away and then he worked pro se for a
while then he came back to me in the
federal lawsuit so it's kind of because
I'm looking for a particular type of
case where we can get a remedy against
in this case state agencies that's huge
and this case represents that you
eventually thankfully got your kids back
it was a long hard fight you have three
kids I have three children three boys
three boys and they've been with you now
for how long I've had them back I've had
them all back for five years and ER came
home in December of 2015
do they understand what their dad had to
go through to get get them all they do
and when they came home we all sat down
as a family and I actually took them
through everything Xander had no idea
what was going on Xander had asked to
come home multiple times and they
refused to allow him to come home they
actually told him that I didn't want him
to return I didn't want social services
social services it's in writing it's in
their documents and so everything that
that I'm saying is documented so they
have these case notes and I guess
they're so brazen and so arrogant that
they wrote everything down and so when I
received discovery I got 600 pages of
discovery all of their case notes and I
started going through I went through
every single page and I just started
pulling out all of these documents to
show what they were doing was was
illegal as you're talking I'm thinking
to myself you're running another
business I am you this is must involved
a tremendous amount of time I wasn't
sleeping I really wasn't I was I was I
was traveling for work now Eric you
filed a federal lawsuit after this after
he got his kids back on behalf of Dwight
as well as his new foundation the Family
Preservation Foundation correct that's
correct
tell our audience a little bit about
that lawsuit that you filed after we
lawsuit became known hundreds and
perhaps thousands of single parents
particularly single mothers were
contacting us and unlike Dwight they
were state court losers not state court
winner so these were people that that
lost their children permanently right
had their parent rental rights
terminated
and then we took a close look at the
statutes and in Minnesota the Child
Protection can seize the child for any
touching I mean it's just a horrific
incorporation of different statutes but
quite simply in Minnesota it's child
abuse if you meet the elements of
assault battery or malicious Prospero
child but they specifically excluded the
criminal defense which is apparent
reasonably touching the child to protect
them discipline them clean them and so
I'm going to soda even a touching that
everyone would agree would be proper it
can be the basis for seizing a child
like a spanking right even it like an
ordinary spanking or or an ordinary
cleaning if there's some allegation of
touching then the department can seize
the child for an indefinite period of
time and it's so unusual all the other
states don't have this in fact that the
deep blue states Kauai Oregon
Massachusetts have said we can't have
such a low standard for seizing children
anymore
because we have single parent families
if we seize children from single-parent
families then the government raises a
child
the government's terrific at it so
there's agreement now between red states
like Oklahoma deep blue states like
Hawaii or Oregon and Massachusetts that
we can't have such a little standard
because the government is horrible in
administering the foster care system as
a result of your lawsuit what's changed
the the lawsuit were seeking or an Acer
car now we're seeking a court injunction
so the Department of into the department
cannot use this unconscious to low
standard anymore so they'll have to go
back to the drawing board the Child
Protective Services policies will be
obliterated by the lawsuit so because
it's on appeal what happened at the
lower federal court level at the u.s.
district court level we lost
jurisdictional and technical grounds and
so now we're up near Circuit twice this
is happened before to me and the case
has ended up in the US Supreme Court
we've won so we're not intimidated by
the US district court judge we just
continue tell us about your organization
the Family Preservation Foundation well
after the incident happened to me
initially but most parents you're in
shock you don't think your child can be
taken with something as simple as a
simple bottom spanking so I you know I
was going through this process of trying
to understand what went on so I I formed
the family Preservation Foundation it's
a 501c3 nonprofit and the goal is to
keep children out of the hands of CPS
whenever possible you know what really
got my attention is when I learned that
eighty four percent of the children in
child protection services are there for
non-physical reasons
so there's five hundred thousand
children that were put into foster care
last year twenty nine billion dollars
was spent on it and I'm looking at this
process and so because I'm an IT I'm
very data-driven so I went back and I
started looking at statistics and
figures and so everything is there and
based upon the Freedom of Information
Act I just started doing an analysis of
what I saw and you know at the end of
this analysis I said in a 10-year period
I'm like 2.6 million children I've been
put into foster care you have a Facebook
page I believe I do have a Facebook also
I have two websites the two websites are
Family Preservation Foundation is is our
foundation on 501 C 3 and to stop CPS
from legally kidnapping children that is
our our family parental rights group and
so that's the group that's doing that
the lawsuit is representing okay so let
me ask you this Eric when you say there
it was you lost at the initial court
level the district federal court
district level because of a
jurisdictional issue what was that
principally the court found that there
wasn't standing standing where the for
the Association and ferd why is that
because the case has been completed so
so the time we're working on behalf of
state court losers and a state court
winner dwight mitchell and we're saying
what we've experienced the system and
there have been unconstitutional harms
and so we want prospective relief from
the court
and but these cases are going on every
day in Minnesota state course these cps
cases and people are being affected by
these unconstitutional seizures
okay so let's since you've been to the
ringer and you know all about this case
let's educate the public a little bit
about what a parent can or cannot do so
I'll ask you some questions do parents
have the right to refuse entry to an
investigator from CPS persistent effort
like that will result in seizure of the
child persistent denial their persistent
Nanaia would lead the seizure of the
show I think the question is could this
lead the seizure of the child yeah yeah
yeah that would lead to a seizure of a
child do parents have the right to know
why they are being investigated
yes they do parents do have a right to
know why they're being advanced so
somebody comes knocks on your door
we're from CPS can we come in do you let
him in I would not let them in and why
wouldn't you let him in are you
violating any law by not violating any
law by not letting him time raising the
red flag for them you it's it's really
not raising a red flag it's it's why do
you want to come in what evidence do you
have okay so they're at the front door
you advised them not should you answer
any questions you don't have to answer
any questions it's entirely up to you
but anything you say can and will be
used against you a twisted something you
might think is benign they will they
will use it are they writing these down
or are they recording them they do both
they do are you allowed to record the
questions you are allowed to record you
are allowed to record the conversation
can you say them I want to record this
yes and I tell everyone to do that if
they say no they have no right to tell
you can parents refuse to have the
investigators interview the children
parents can refuse but in Minnesota
Minnesota can go around the parents back
go to the school and talk to the
children without the parents permission
what do you tell your show there what do
you tell children right now on camera
when an investigator comes and says
we're from CPS we want to ask you some
questions what should you tell the kid
to say I will only speak to you with my
parents present okay and they have the
right to do that I have a right to do it
will not be removed it will not be some
kids are removed from schools correct
what other advice do you have for
parents who are currently going through
a situation like this what are their
rights what we tell everyone who call
the foundation is that the number one
thing they need to do is to be quiet in
Minnesota
if quiet means speak very little speak
ver la mean you can be polite you can be
cordial you can they can say we're here
to investigate
you know allegations of child abuse yeah
we're by the way I'm just going to
curious in your case your ex-wife made
false allegations she's a convicted
felon it didn't matter to CPS whatsoever
where do most of these allegations come
from neighbors or how about contentious
divorcees that happens more than
probably not meaning most of the people
that I have come in contact with their
former spouses have made allegations of
child especially if they're going
through a contentious divorce the way to
change any law is not only in the court
house but also by state legislatures
your normal goal now is education and
trying to get legislation right right
and that's the goal of this show and I
want to thank both of you for being on
the show thank you thank you thanks for
joining us you can get more information
about our guests and the issues at
insider exclusive com
[Music]
you