Father Wins Custody of Abused Child
Jim Ehlers showed up at the courthouse in hopes of ending a grisly chapter in the life of his daughter. Upon his departure from the courthouse, the story of his life as a father was beginning.
Ehlers now finds himself scheduling trips to go shopping for school clothes and parent-teacher meetings. Suddenly he’s making reservations at Chuck E. Cheese for his daughter’s sixth birthday party.
For over a month, Ehlers’ daughter and her two half-sisters were trapped in a legal limbo between grandparents who wished to care for them, and a stalling court system which was threatening to return the girls to the custody of their abusive mother.
On Monday, August 11th, Judge Greg Wilhelm of the Ellis County, Texas, approved the verdict of a jury giving Ehlers custody of his daughter and placing her 8- and 4-year-old siblings into the care of the state.
Through testimony in the trial that lasted a month, it was revealed that Susan Hyde, the mother, had been abusing the girls by treating them for illnesses they never had. She treated the girls for ailments such as cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, and seizures. In a four-year period, they visited the emergency room more than 150 times.
During the trial, doctors testified that Hyde’s behavior could be described as Munchausen syndrome and Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which are both psychological disorders in which people exaggerate or create false symptoms. Munchausen by proxy is characterized by a parent making a child appear to be sick, possibly even harming the child.
On June 30th , a 12-member jury reached the decision to terminate the rights of the mother and place the children in the care of the state. Some jurors said they didn’t believe the grandparents had done enough to protect the children from their mother. However, until Monday, Judge Wilhelm had yet to approve the verdict the jury had reached, which left the children with their grandparents. Had he not reached a ruling by September 1st, the children would have returned to the custody of their mother.
Brian and Patricia Anderson, the grandparents, say they plan to appeal.
Ehlers’s daughter will join him in Davenport, Iowa. The other two girls will enter foster care in Texas.
Original source: Dallas News
