Couple sues CPS claiming their 7 kids were illegally removed from their home

By law, Child Protective Services can take children into protective custody without a warrant but only if the children are in immediate danger.

The family court judge overseeing this case said CPS had enough time to request a warrant, and if they had, she said she would have said no because there was no good reason to remove the children.

“The way they took our children away from us. It was uncalled for,” said Gary Cruz.

CPS entered these parents lives back in September 2015.

The reason according to their lawsuit, one of their seven children told a school counselor his dad body-slammed his mom onto the kitchen table.

“All it was was my 6-year-old at the time and his vivid imagination,” Cruz said.

The lawsuit states a CPS investigator returned to the family’s home in February of last year.

“They ordered Gary to leave the house on an unfounded allegation which put additional financial pressure on my clients,” said attorney Edward Rose.

“They kicked me out of my own home which I worked my butt off to hold on to for the family, and my daughter was only 2 weeks old,” said Cruz.

On March 2 of last year, the lawsuit says four of the couple’s seven children were illegally seized from school.

“They never got a warrant,” Rose said.

CPS took the other three children from their home.

“I broke down. My mom and dad were there,” said Christina Romero, the children’s mother. “I begged them I pleaded with them.”

The children were placed in different foster homes.

CPS kept none of the siblings together.

A court hearing was held the next day, and CPS got a tongue lashing.

“The judge specifically said they could have applied for a warrant,” Rose said. “There was plenty of time but they chose not to.”

The judge ordered CPS to immediately return all seven children to their parents.

“My kids are still traumatized from this,” Romero said.

Child Protective Services declined to respond since the lawsuit is pending, but CPS has filed a motion to dismiss the suit claiming qualified immunity.