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Posted on 04/07/2010 10:37:35 AM PDT by Lorianne
Texans, beware: If you teach your kids that the “government is out to harm them,” police in Williamson County might just deem you an “unsuitable” parent.
That startling claim, leveled by officers in Child Protective Services documents detailing an investigation into an Austin-area activist couple, should be enough to give reason for pause to any staunch conservative in the state.
The allegation was made against drug reform activist filmmakers Barry and Candi Cooper, whose home was recently raided and searched after the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department claimed Barry’s voice was heard in the background audio of an allegedly false police report.
Once in the couple’s home, officers discovered a small amount of marijuana and charged the Coopers with Class B misdemeanors, resulting in both their arrests. Each immediately bonded out of jail and paid a small fine. Days later, while Candi’s youngest son was visiting his father in east Texas, Child Protective Services contacted the Coopers, revealing that the incident could cost them not only custody of the boy, but also their freedom on felony child endangerment charges.
After CPS interviewed the couple, Travis County Deputy District Attorney Dayna Blazey pronounced both Coopers to be fit parents, whose children are healthy, happy and “well cared for.”
“[There] is nothing to indicate that the kids are at risk,” she wrote.
A message requesting the deputy DA’s comment on this story went unanswered at time of publication.
Her conclusion, which falls at the end of documents published below, is almost odd following the numerous pages of text entered by police, who seemingly describe an alternate reality.
Among their claims — that Barry and Candi regularly give illicit drugs to their children, that they allow and encourage other kids to use drugs in their home, that they’ve mentally abused their children by telling them that marijuana is good and anti-drug efforts are riddled with lies — the most extreme is that the Coopers are “unsuitable” parents because they create an environment in which the children learn their “government is out to harm them.”
The allegation is found atop page five of the CPS report.
In another completely dumbfounding, ironic entry, Sgt. Gary Haston of the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department — the officer whose testimony appears on the original search warrant affidavit — actually claims he observed the children “crying for no reason” as armed officers invaded their home. [Emphasis added.]
He also claims that Barry “hates” his father and does not believe in church, as though this information would somehow be relevant to the CPS agents.
Haston, who Cooper described as Williamson County’s “head of narcotics,” has an extensive history with drug interdiction as a police officer. He was even the 2008-2009 vice president for the Texas Narcotic Officers Association Central Region, according to a memo circulated by the association. It was his testimony that gave officers access to the Coopers’ residence and files for the alleged misdemeanor offense of filing a false police report.
A request for comment left with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department went unanswered at time of publication.
“In my 19 years of experience with criminal defense matters, a search warrant for a misdemeanor charge is certainly unusual,” wrote Minnesota attorney Maury D. Beaulier, who had no prior knowledge of the Coopers’ case. “It indicates to me that this is a targeted investigation. It may be targeted because it is believed to be a part of a greater crime or conspiracy, or, perhaps, because there are political motivations at work.”
While searching through the Coopers’ private data, police discovered a photograph of a minor in the shower, nude from the bust up. The image was a risque self-portrait shot by one of the adolescent children, who later took sole responsibility for the photo. Both parents claimed they knew nothing about it before the issue was raised to them by authorities. Ultimately, the photo held no bearing on their case and the minor was warned to be cautious with digital imaging equipment. Because of the individual’s age, all identifying information has been removed from the documents published below.
In a court hearing Tuesday, the Coopers were unsuccessful in re-obtaining custody of Zachary, Candi’s seven-year-old who is currently under the care of his father in Upshur County, Texas. The court did not issue a ruling, as matters of geographic limitations have yet to be addressed. Barry and Candi are seeking to have the custody battle in Travis County, but it’s still a matter of dispute. Lawyers for the Coopers and Zachary Johnston’s father brokered limited visitation rights for Candi, but Barry is required to stay away from the boy for the time being.
Because of the nature of Texas’ drug laws and their status as nationally-known political activists, the Coopers are facing the very real possibility of losing Zach entirely, with future contact only allowed in the context of supervised visitation.
“I just don’t know what I’ll do if we lose Zach,” Barry said. “That would be the most horrible thing to ever happen to me in my entire life.”
Boo hoo.
That’s always the question, are the kids better off in a foster care system, taken from their parents?
The abuse has to be very bad before I say “yes.”
It is sometimes a tough call.
Compassion is not your biggest character trait, is it?
The website of the couple. This article is slanted and very misleading.
http://nevergetbusted.com/2010/
How close is this family to Waco?
I call BS.
I’ve never been much for “Back in the good ‘ol days..” types of arguments, but threads like this make me long for the days before pathetic, servile fawning at anything waving a tin badge become a “value” to some conservatives.
If druggies really wanted to be left alone by the police, rule number one would be not to call in false police reports (especially from their home telephone).
Daughter raised in a broken family has a drug problem.
Father blames others.
What is wrong with this picture?
:)...
I’m saying “oh, hell no, you don’t try that crap with me”.
I’d go “Michael Farris” (HSLDA) on them first. But Bowman would be the followup option.
Pigs got to eat, just like worms.
I know, mixing and matching quotes.
I bought him a transistor radio last week and do you think it was pop music he wanted to listen to? Nope, He tuned it to conservative talk radio and would not change it even when I asked if I could fine a music station for him. At bed he found a station playing old time radio shows and he was listening to Edger Bergen / Charlie McCarty. I could hear him laughing at all the punch lines. I could of told him to turn it off and go to bed, but then thought, what the heck. He is now hooked on my cassette tapes of those same shows, playing them over and over again.
And yesterday guess what I see him building with Legos. The Hooters Bowling Alley down the road from our house, complete with a hooters logo sign he cut out of a coupon in our coupon drawer. As a Dad I Gotta love it. That's my Boy.
“What is wrong with this picture?”
Nothing, it was paint by-number! /sarc
My step-dad divorced my mother because she gained lots of weight, she loves Sonic! She stood 6’ and weighed 180# on their weeding day. In 16 years she was tipping the scales at 268#! So, he divorced her! First, this is a TRUE story!
But, more importantly, the worst part is I can’t stand those evil Sonic restaurants and I don’t want to talk to you idiots who like fast food restaurants here on FR! /sarc
I think I have seen more damage done by alcohol (drunken fights and abusive behavior) than I have by people who smoke weed. I don’t smoke it and it’s been 40 years since I was drunk.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence would then have had all of their kids taken from them.
This guy is a total piece of crap. He should be thrown off the force and bared from ever again doing police work of any kind.
Cops like this give all cops a bad name. The good cops in his department should be busting their butts to get him off the force.
Not so many years ago I would have been shocked...
Today I am not even mildly surprised.
“Wow, that was so painfully stupid it’s unreal. But you go ahead and pretend that drugs are harmless, you useless druggie.”
Really? And his wasn’t just as painfully stupid?
More importantly, I have you know I have not touched drugs, other than alcohol, since before I joined the Marine Corps! And if you think drugs are the only thing harming Americans then I truly feel sorry for your pathetic excuse for reality!
Never did I say that drugs were not harmful, and if you got that from my post, you are the most over-reaching clairvoyant person on the planet!
I have lost more friends to alcohol related deaths than any drugs, so do you advocate that we get rid of beer as well? Too bad you weren’t around in 1919, you could save all us “useless” people from alcohol! Oh wait, we tried that (it didn’t work out to well, in case you didn’t hear)!
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