Image courtesy of Fox17 Nashville.

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

We applaud and thank reporter Dennis Ferrier for exposing the injustice in Tennessee’s Juvenile Justice System, where he reports that “serial killers have more rights than parents in Tennessee.” Please click through to read his entire expose, and thank him for daring to cover this important topic.

For more on the unconstitutional practices of family courts nationwide that routinely remove children from parents against their will and against the principles of the U.S. Constitution, where a rapist, murderer, or terrorist has more rights in our judicial system than parents do in family courts, see:

Does the State Ever Have a “Right” to Remove Children from a Home?

FERRIER FILES: Do criminals have more rights than parents in Tennessee?

by Dennis Ferrier 
Fox17 Nashville

Excerpts:

It is pretty hard to believe that serial killers have more rights than parents in Tennessee, but once you enter the Juvenile Justice System, anything can happen.

And even if you do absolutely nothing wrong, your children can be taken from you. It may sound like a ridiculous question but not when you consider what happened to a Williamson County, Tennessee, mom.

It all started when Tori’s 3-year-old son told her something inappropriate happened to him when he was with their father. The couple is divorced.

Tori followed the law and reported it to DCS.

“I was interrogated for two to three hours with no videotape, no attorney present,” Harper said. “I was a little intimidated, but at that time I still didn’t think I had done anything wrong when I realized they were investigating me.”

Remember, there is no allegation against Tori Harper, yet DCS asked her to surrender her kids on the spot and relinquish custody during the investigation.

“There was no way I was going to give strangers custody of my children even for a day or two especially with that going on,” Harper said. “I wanted my children.”

The next day she said DCS secretly went to Williamson County Juvenile Judge Sharon Guffee and asked for an ex-parte order to get custody of the kids. The judge signed the order even though Tori wasn’t present to defend herself.

DCS claimed Tori Harper was mentally unstable…

“I’ve never had a speeding ticket,” Harper said. “I have no mental health history. I’m a good mom. I love my kids. I was a room mom that year for my oldest son.”

Her lawyer, family law specialist Connie Reguli, said this is standard practice, and it is nasty stuff.

“For people who don’t know what e x-parte means it is behind the back,” Reguli said. “They knew Tori. They certainly had an opportunity to get it before the court. Instead they get an ex-parte order to get her children in custody of DCS. DCS can do whatever they want to them. They obviously didn’t want Tori or her lawyer there.”

Family law attorney Connie Reguli said this story may sound shocking, but it is common.

Read the full story at Fox17.