The Shoars children kept by Arizona DCS. Photo provided by family.

by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff

Parents living in Nevada want their children back home. The children who were taken out of Nevada by Arizona social workers claim they have been abused in Arizona foster care, and want to go back to their parents. They even filed their own lawsuit, the first ever in Arizona, but an Arizona court has ruled against them.

An Arizona appeals court has denied the parental rights of Nevada residents Jeff and Tabitha Shoars. Almost 17 months ago, Child Protective Services from Arizona crossed state lines and seized 6 of their children from Las Vegas, Nevada.

All along, they have hoped and prayed for the justice which they felt would surely occur if only judges looked at the actual evidence instead of the hearsay and lies from social workers from Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS).

Instead, like so many other parents who have fought Arizona DCS, they were devastated to hear yet another court deny them their parental rights to the children they brought into the world.

Tabitha Shoars’ heart breaks for her children:

No kid deserves this! What Arizona and every other CPS is doing to families – they don’t deserve this!

My poor babies!

This is the latest chapter in the Shoars family’s heartbreaking saga.

On August 15, 2014, their 3 year old daughter Khloe died after the children were left in the care of a babysitter for the evening.

See original story:

Arizona CPS Takes 7 Children Away from Parents after Accident

Parents Blamed by Arizona DCS, but Not by Police

To date, no one really knows what happened to little Khloe that night.

Many in the family as well as friends in the medical field suspect a brain aneurysm.

The medical examiner said that the cause of death could not be determined.

Police did not call it murder. No one was arrested, and the Shoars were cleared by the police department of any wrongdoing in Khloe’s death.

Jeff and Tabitha with Khloe just before her tragic death. Photo provided by family.

Yet, Child Protective Services accuses the babysitter of murder, and they blame the parents for allowing him to babysit without doing a background check on him first. It is on that basis that they took the children and re-took them after their case was closed and they moved to Nevada.

See:

Arizona Kidnaps Shoars Children from Nevada, Children Scream in Terror As They are Dragged Away (audio)

Children’s Petition and Nevada’s Findings Ignored

The Shoars have exonerating evidence and evidence of lies by DCS, which they have presented to Arizona courts and to Nevada courts, as well as to Health Impact News.

All of that has been ignored by both the lower court and now by an appellate court in Arizona. Tabitha Shoars says:

We had all this evidence PROVING everything they did illegally. But they swept it under the rug.

My attorney flat-out said, “Why are you punishing the parents when the state doesn’t even know what happened?”

The Shoars children were the first ever in the state of Arizona to exercise their right to petition the judge to come home. This decision shuts down their petition.

The Shoars family at one of their last visits together. Photo provided by family.

Due to reports about the Shoars to Nevada Child Protective Services by Arizona CPS, Tabitha and Jeff Shoars were investigated by Nevada, but they found no reason to take the children.

Their youngest child Ny’Tallieya was born in Nevada shortly before Arizona social workers drove to Las Vegas and seized the older children. They tried to take Ny’Tallieya as well, but Nevada social workers told them that the baby was born in their state, thus Arizona had no jurisdiction.

The parents were forced to fight for their children in both states.

The Nevada system found that the parents were not the danger to their children, even the most vulnerable – an infant, that Arizona said they were. They found that the Shoars’ home was clean and that they are good parents. Their case was closed, and Ny’Tallieya stayed where she belongs – with her parents.

The decisions by Arizona have ignored the children’s pleas as well as the findings by Nevada CPS.

As we reported before, one of the social workers in Nevada:

pointed out that Nevada has enough tourist and gaming money in the state that they didn’t need federal money to balance their budget like Arizona does. Health Impact News has documented how Arizona, as well as other states, have used federal funds for foster care and adoption to help balance their state budgets. (See article.)

Lies in Family Court

Arizona did not have jurisdiction to go into Nevada and take the children. They had no court order or warrant. They just did it.

Tabitha told Health Impact News that Arizona DCS has denied crossing state lines to take the children. They have reportedly told legislators and others investigating the story that they did not go to Nevada to take the Shoars’ children into their custody.

The horrifying audio of the children screaming as they were being seized took place in Las Vegas and was witnessed by friends of the family as well as by Nevada social workers. It was recorded (AUDIO MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN!):

This is just one of the many lies allegedly told by DCS, and it is one that is easily proven false.

DCS has told the courts that the children were born and raised in Arizona. They were not. Their birth certificates show that they were born in Minnesota. They only moved to Arizona in March of 2014, a decision that Tabitha and Jeff forever regret.

The Shoars family – happy together before a tragedy ripped their family apart. Photo supplied by family.

If DCS has lied about such things so easily proven false, how much more have they lied about?

The families whose stories we have covered almost universally present us with evidence of the social workers’ reports being filled with lies, false and exaggerated statements, and hearsay. Yet, like the Shoars, too many families lose their children based on false information, while exonerating evidence is ignored by the courts.

So much for “innocent until proven guilty.” Such a highly cherished American value appears to be absent from many juvenile and family courts.

Tabitha says:

I’m so sick and tired of their bullshit lies, and I’m sorry for swearing, but it’s all lies.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in the “Right to Lie” case, Preslie Hardwick v. County of Orange, that social workers do NOT have the right to lie in order to take children from their parents, but that has not yet changed the everyday practice by social workers.

See:

Judges Reject Claim That Social Workers Didn’t Know Lying In Court to Remove Children Was Wrong

What Is Next for the Shoars?

The next step is the Arizona Supreme Court. Arizona is a state that requires that both parents have different attorneys, and the Shoars cannot afford that. They are trying to raise money for attorneys.

They are looking at the possibility of going pro se, and representing themselves, but Tabitha says that no one has ever won a case with the Arizona Supreme Court going pro se.

Even representing themselves costs money for printing, ink, paper, sending certified mail, filing costs, transportation to Arizona from Nevada, time off of work, babysitters, and so on. They have well over 30,000 pages of documents.

It is not an easy or affordable thing for parents to fight the state for their children. Many parents lose everything fighting for their children, and in Arizona, few ever get their children back once the state has made a decision to pursue termination of parental rights.

Jeff and Tabitha Shoars are facing a huge giant, but they have vowed never to stop fighting until their children are home where they belong.

Message for the Shoars Children from their Parents

Tabitha and Jeff want their children to know that they love them and they are not giving up. If the children are able to access this article, their parents want to send them a message:

We are not giving up on you, no matter what. We are always going to fight for you. We are going to fight as long as there is breath within us.

Mommy and Daddy love you so much, more than anything in the world. We will go to the moon and back, to the ends of the universe, to get you back.

Don’t ever give up on hope or faith. Keep believing.