Melissa Diegel with her two daughters before they were medically kidnapped by the State of Arizona.

Health Impact News

Melissa Diegel is an Arizona mother who had her two daughters medically kidnapped back in 2014 for disagreeing with their doctors.

Her story was covered by Health Impact News and inspired the beginning of our MedicalKidnap.com website.

The original story from 2014:

10 and 12 Year Old Sisters Seized from Family by Hospital in Phoenix

The Daily Caller is reporting that Diegel is being charged in an eight count indictment, and has been extradited from Florida, where she has lived since 2017, and is now incarcerated in an Arizona jail.

Diegel lost her long battle with the State of Arizona and never had her two daughters returned. But apparently Arizona was not content to let Diegel move on with her life, and is now charging her with “child abuse” for seeking medical treatment for her daughters from 2011 through 2014, and prosecuting her as a “fugitive from justice.”

According to The Daily Caller, Diegel faced a Marion County judge on May 21, 2019, but Arizona failed to produce a warrant and the judge dismissed the charges allowing Diegel to go free.

“I went to my extradition hearing this morning and Governor Ducey did not sign the governor’s warrant to bring me back to Arizona so as of right now I am free,” Diegel reported on Facebook.

But later that same day a sheriff’s officer reportedly arrived at her home with a new warrant and took her back into custody.

Diegel stated that she suspects Arizona may be worried about a lawsuit, since her oldest daughter is about to turn 18.

According to The Daily Caller:

Diegel said she is not sure why these charges are being brought now but believes Arizona may be worried about a lawsuit.

“The only thing I can think is that [her oldest daughter] will turn eighteen in December and then she can sue,” Diegel said.

“When the staff at Phoenix Children’s Hospital make mistakes, they have a convenient way of escaping the ire of parents and legal culpability,” says Malinda Sherwyn, who is part of the watchdog group Arizona DCS Oversight Group (ADOG). “They call in the Department of Child Safety and shift blame for their own wrongdoing to parents it’s called Medical Kidnapping and too often non offending parents never see their children again. AZ DCS picked on the wrong mother in Melissa Diegel.”

“They could not silence her regarding the harm done to her children in foster care. Six years later, as her oldest child ages out of this horrible system, a grand jury was convened based on the ridiculous fabricated evidence provided by the Department of Child Safety,” Sherwyn added.

Arizona may well have reason to worry about a lawsuit. An affidavit shared with The Daily Caller suggests that her two daughters were abused in foster care after being removed from her care.

Read the full story at The Daily Caller.

MedicalKidnap.com Articles on Arizona