Judge who refused to keep 6 kids in foster care defends his decision after their slayings
A Texas judge is defending his 2013 decision to return six children to the Houston home where they were slain on Saturday along with their mother and her husband.
Judge Glenn Devlin said in a statement (PDF) that Child Protective Services never indicated the children were in immediate physical danger, report ABC13.com and the Associated Press. The father of the six children, David Conley, is charged with shooting and killing the children, their mother, Valerie Jackson, and her husband, Dwayne Jackson.
Conley told KPRC-TV that his son “didn’t give me any respect” and all the children “were growing up to be monsters, they were disrespectful, rude in school. I’m not saying they’re dead because of that. I’m not even saying I killed them.” Conley said he had an on-and-off relationship with Valerie Jackson but he recently agreed to move out of their home. Dwayne Jackson, Conley said, “tried to pimp out over me and take everything, rule over my house. How would you feel?”
In its petition to remove the children, CPS noted Conley had a history of domestic violence and said Valerie Jackson’s “lack of control and parenting skills places the children in immediate danger,” according to the AP account. On at least two occasions, Valerie Jackson’s 7-year-old child was found wandering in the neighborhood.
CPS had sought to remove the children based on inadequate supervision by their mother, but a court can’t remove the children unless there is an immediate risk of harm, Devlin said. “Most importantly, CPS based its original petition on a child sneaking out of the front door twice,” he said. A criminal record by a parent does not automatically mean the parent poses a physical risk to the children, he said.
Devlin says he temporarily placed the children in foster care in 2013, and learned at a later hearing that year that the mother had placed an alarm system on the home so no child could leave the home without an alarm going off. CPS agreed to work with the family to provide counseling and to monitor the family. Devlin says he was assured in December 2013 and in March 2014 that the children were doing well, and he dismissed the case at the later hearing.
