KAYLA

Rita and Steve live in Plano, outside of Dallas. They are currently working with the Denton County, Texas court system and the Washington County, Fayetteville, Arkansas court and police department in an effort to rescue Kayla from what they believe is a very dangerous situation.

Rita and Steve had Kayla for most of her life until she was two years old, with approval of Kayla’s mother, their daughter, Tonya. When Kayla was two, Tonya advised her parents that she was taking Kayla away from them and moving to Arkansas live with her boyfriend, Darrell.

Prior to Tonya and Kayla’s move to Arkansas, Steve and Rita were appointed Kayla’s managing conservators and all parties agreed on visitation of two weekends a month and four weeks in the summer. Everything went well until Kayla, at age three and a half, made an outcry of sexual abuse against Darrell, her mother’s boyfriend.

Rita and Steve took Kayla to Texas Child Protective Services and her doctors. Who agreed that the child had been abused, physically and sexually. The Texas courts, through a protective order, gave them temporary custody of Kayla and allowed Tonya to see Kayla in Texas whenever she visited. A restraining order was issued preventing any contact between Darrell and Kayla.

Steve and Rita had Kayla for 2-1/2 years until June of 2003, when Tonya told the court that Darrell, the boyfriend, was not around anymore and that she had previously had a "lapse of judgment." Kayla was ordered by the court to be returned to Fayetteville, Arkansas with her mother and Rita and Steve’s visitation was reduced to one weekend a month and two weeks each summer. Rita and Steve do not believe the court took adequate judicial notice of the fact that both Tonya and Darrell had previously admitted that there had been some form of abuse against Kayla.

During her second visit under the new order, Kayla told her grandparents that Darrell was staying at mom’s apartment lots of times and he was hurting her and once threw her against the wall. During another one of Kayla’s visits she asked if Rita and Steve would get her a cell phone so she could call them or dial 911 in an emergency. They got a cell phone and showed Kayla how to dial her Texas family. Kayla’s mom said Kayla could have a phone as long as Steve and Rita paid the bill.

While in Fayetteville, Rita and Steve stopped by the police department to find out if Kayla called 911 would the police know where to find her because the phone number is from the Dallas area. After explaining why a 6-year-old would need a cell phone, they were sent to the juvenile division to talk to a sergeant. They explained to the sergeant why they were concerned and told him about the earlier criminal charges and investigation of Darrell. The sergeant looked up the two-year-old abuse charge and concluded that it had been fully investigated! Apparently, the Arkansas officer assigned to investigate the crime never completed the criminal report and later gave a deposition stating that he could not find enough evidence to substantiate that a crime had been committed.

The Arkansas investigating officer had further stated that he had not requested any CPS reports, medical records, forensic reports or the therapist’s reports from Texas. In effect, he stated that those reports did not mean anything since they came from Texas and not from Arkansas. He did not interview Kayla since he believed Kayla’s testimony to be tainted, although he had not spoken to her.

The juvenile division officer who looked up the report appeared to be shocked that this had happened and called in other investigators to review the record. Subsequently, they reopened the criminal case against Darrell. The Fayetteville police then told Rita and Steve to file for a FINS (Family In Need of Services) hearing in a juvenile court in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They were advised by the police that FINS could get Kayla her own attorney and get her some help, like counseling and social workers looking out for her.

When the Arkansas FINS intake officer called the Denton County, Texas district clerk’s office to request documents about the Texas custody proceeding, the court clerk called Tonya’s attorney to report that someone in Arkansas was requesting information. The clerk did not notify Rita and Steve’s attorney.

The court clerk took it upon herself to contact lawyers and other parties about what was going on, and then told Rita to "Wait until I tell the judge what you are doing."

<DIR> <DIR>

Currently, six things are happening here:

1. Tonya's Texas lawyer is trying to stop the Arkansas FINS hearing on a jurisdictional technicality and Rita and Steve’s Arkansas lawyer is fighting to get them heard on Kayla's behalf.

2. Tonya's Texas lawyer obtained a restraining order against Rita and Steve in a hearing on September 16, 2003. He also asked that their visitation with Kayla be reduced to one weekend a year. He was unsuccessful in the visitation issue, and they received scheduled visitation with set dates, along with telephone access ordered by the court.

3. A CPS worker in Arkansas has been trying to find recent evidence of abuse (which Kayla will not give them as she will no longer talk to caseworkers). Kayla has, however, been talking to the police.

During Kayla’s September visit, Rita and Steve videotaped Kayla talking about Darrell showing her his genitals and watching the "bad movies" (porno films) while she is in the house where she can also see them. The Texas protective order prohibiting any contact between Darrell and Kayla has expired.

4. The Denton County District Judge who heard the case for the restraining order and visitation has been told in what they believe to be improper ex parte communications, that Rita and Steve are crazy and other untrue allegations. They are attempting to change jurisdiction.

5. They have a December 11th court date to change jurisdiction to Collin County, where they now live.

6. At Kayla's November visitation Kayla showed up with puss and blood coming from her nose, blisters in her throat, rash on her legs and bottom and sores on her legs.Steve Rita took her to a care center and she was diagnosed with Strap throat and Streptococcus group B infection on her legs. Her finger nails were very long and dirty, and her toe nails were so long that they had grown into her toes and had to be cut out. She was over all dirty from head to toe not just playground dirt.

Kayla repeatly asks  to speak to the  Judge  and  explain what she wants. (this is her idea since we had to tell her it is the judges decision as to where and who she lives with.)

Rita and Steve wonder why the Arkansas police have not made an arrest when Kayla has recently verified the abuse, according to three different officials who have talked to the child. They wonder why the police have stopped communicating with them. Are the police disagreeing among themselves on what to do next? Are they maneuvering to cover the trail of the officer who originally mishandled the investigation?

Tonya recently moved with Darrell to a very secluded house in the woods. Tonya denied Steve and Rita their September 5^th visit and they had no contact with Kayla for over a month. They went to court and were granted a visit to replace the one Tonya denied them.

They know this is really complicated situation and they living in this nightmare every day. They also know proving Tonya to be an unfit mother would be very hard unless they can prevail on the issue of her having put Kayla back into the hands of the man that abused her two years ago.

These grandparents will not - cannot - give up on Kayla's safety. A Texas CPS worker recently told Rita that a real Grandmother doesn't give up. THEY ARE NOT GIVING UP, but right now they are out numbered, and out on a limb. And desperate for help.

And they have the dreaded title in the courts of being "The Grandparents"!

Rita and Steve Jones

ritan1k@ticnet.com

Permission has been given to reproduce this story for informational purposes.