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CA9: Child abuse investigation violated family's privacy rights

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Child welfare sexual abuse investigation interrogation of child violated family’s due process rights. Greene v. Camreta, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 26891 (9th Cir. December 10, 2009): We are asked to decide whether the actions of a child protective services caseworker and deputy sheriff, understandably concerned for the well-being of two young girls, exceeded the bounds of the constitution. Specifically, the girls' mother, Sarah Greene, alleges, on behalf of S.G., one of her children, that the caseworker, Bob Camreta, and deputy sheriff, James Alford, violated the Fourth Amendment when they seized and interrogated S.G. in a private office at her school for two hours without a warrant, probable cause, or parental consent. Sarah also argues that Camreta's subsequent actions, both in securing a court order removing the girls from her custody and in subjecting the girls to intrusive sexual abuse examinations outside her presence, violated the Greenes' familial rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).