How can I help my friends fight false CPS charges?

My best friends have been falsely accused of horrible crimes against their children. The wife is a housewife and mother and the husband was laid off 11 months ago after finishing his Bachelors in Computer science. On their 7th wedding anniversary, they were handed a faxed copy of the front sheet of a ';Temporary Custody Order'; stating that their beloved children were now in the custody of their maternal grandparents, with no explanation, no investigation, and no reason. The Order of Temporary Custody is a three page document, that a hard copy is supposed to go to the accused and as far as I know, no one has ever seen the other two pages.


Three days later they were lured to the CPS office with the promise of being told what the charges were, giving their side of the story and starting the process of getting their children back. They were promptly arrested when they showed up, the charges being abuse. They languished for four days in ';constant watch'; cells in Pinal County lockup. As far as we know, no one on our friends side knew what the charges were until my friends were arraigned and the charges were posted on Pinal County's Offender website. I say this because while my friends were in jail, the ';gentleman'; ';investigating'; the case was clicking his tongue at the fact that my friends were NOT telling us what the charges were. This ';gentleman'; conned me into handing over property of my friends and conned a judge into thinking that I had this property because my friends, who had been living with me and my husband since their children were kidnapped, were hiding things from the police. I wasn't even aware that there was a warrant until the deputies were heading out the door. No one read the warrant until over 3 months later. After two weeks in county lock up, BOTH of my friend were released from jail with no explanation.


Mid-July my friends were told, by their lawyers, that everything they did made them look guilty. From helping out in their own defense, to fight for custody of their children, to not doing anything. They were told that if they cherished their freedom they should move far away while there were no criminal charges pending. They did just that. We didn't know where they moved, we didn't know if they had changed their names, we didn't know what we could do.


Early September we get a call, my friends had been arrested after being found in a park after hours. They were now in a Hillsbougur County, New Hampshire, jail fighting extradition back to Arizona to stand trial on criminal charges. The local paper printed a libelous and inflammatory story about the monsters my friends were, stating incorrect numbers of pending ';counts'; against them, and publishing my friends full names. The local populous, believing that a grand jury indictment is the same as a conviction, are ready to lynch my friends.


My friends have done nothing wrong, unless you count not being Christian and homeschooling abuse, unless you call loving and caring about your children unconditionally abuse.


Please help me and my friends.How can I help my friends fight false CPS charges?
Most everyone here has given you good answers. Let me add something...you said:





';Mid-July my friends were told, by their lawyers, that everything they did made them look guilty... They were told that if they cherished their freedom they should move far away while there were no criminal charges pending.';





I doubt any lawyer would tell them to move far away. What good would that do them? As you see they were easily extradited to Arizona. So if your friends tell you that's what the lawyers said, I think they are just plain lying. They fled because they didn't want to go back to jail. And they lied to you about why. And fleeing makes them look guilty, and you should consider that they probably were fleeing to avoid the penalty for their actions...How can I help my friends fight false CPS charges?
There's no two ways about it, they need a lawyer.
wow, not interested in reading all that.


the simple answer is... get a lawyer.
I won't even start to give an opinion until I know what the basis of the charges are against your friends, you are not telling the whole story here, that may be because your friends aren't telling the whole story either.





Either way, something is missing in this.
Arizona has really tight laws regarding the way CPS does business.


I know several folks that work for them and my wife also worked for CPS for a number of years.


Given what I know from ';the inside,'; as much as you love your friends and want to see their family together, there must have been some proof behind any allegations made. Even closest friends don't ';tell all'; in such circumstances.


The main goal of CPS in Arizona is to keep the family together. Your friends, as long as nothing criminal is proven or substantiated, will receive a case worker who will prescribe certain conditions that your friends will have to meet in order to have custody restored.


I apologize if I seem judgmental, but if your friends were truly innocent and there was no wrong doing, why would they have fled across the country? That fact alone is going to hurt their case, since leaving a child, even if in ';temporary custody'; can be argued by the state to be abandonment.
I think you need to accept that there may be more to the accusations than you're aware of. Other than that, if called to testify, you testify on their behalf and support your friend when an opportunity arises. There's too much of it otherwise that's out of your control.