Republishing this post from 2019. It predates the massive ongoing ICE raids, but has the same in-your-face lawless denial of due process. After a five-year court battle, I agreed to delete the Plaintiff’s name from this post and scrubbed the backstory of spousal abuse and child neglect. The Plaintiff was subsequently denied tenure and lost his college teaching post.
He has so far kept his word to our daughter: “You will never see your son again!”
“A child is not a dog. No matter whose child. It requires more to lawfully take a child than it does a dog. Even in Herkimer.”
Long before there were warrantless ICE raids, there was the Herkimer County Sheriff. Look no further than Herkimer, New York,, to see the illegal taking of a child from his family. On 4/24/19, Herkimer County sheriff’s deputies entered our home and took our two-year-old grandson Avram from his mother. They didn’t have a warrant. They didn’t have a valid court order. They said they had “verbal permission.”
A Herkimer Kidnapping – In The Tradition of Schindler’s List
It was kidnapping under the color of law. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. We’ve seen Herkimer Child Protection Workers violate state law as they go the extra mile to denounce parents and families they disapprove of. And Herkimer long shrugged off poison gas attacks on us, our pets and our home. So why not, also in the tradition of Schindler’s List, an armed, uniformed squad taking a child from his bed? What made it especially heinous was their acting for an out-of-state foreign national seemingly desperate to avoid paying child support.
Even In Herkimer A Child Is Not A Dog
It requires more to lawfully take a child than it does a dog. Even in Herkimer. No matter how inconvenient. No matter whose child. New York’s Domestic Relations Law governs the return of a child to a parent in another state. It incorporates the provisions of the federal Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). The law requires registration of an out-of-state custody order with the local family court, due notice and a hearing. Then the custody order can be legally enforced. It only takes a few days. Apparently too cumbersome for scofflaw Herkimer.
Herkimer Family Court Involvement?
The deputies said they had “verbal authorization” [Video, below: 1:56] from Judge John Brennan of the Herkimer Family Court to take our grandson. If so, Brennan played fast and loose with the law. New York’s family courts are notoriously packed and dysfunctional. Scooping up a kid without a warrant for an out-of-state return and whisking him to the waiting parent avoids further clogging the court calendar with the tedium of due process. Especially when the outcome appears predetermined. In an extrajudicial kidnapping like this–in legalese, “an illegal taking”– speed is of the essence: Not much a parent can do when the kid’s back in the other state. It seems a cynical practice encouraged by long success. Had our daughter been known to have an attorney, and lived at a better Herkimer address, the law might have been followed.
“2:41: Nameless sheriff’s officer waves to unidentified woman in unmarked car down the street to approach closer.”
HERKIMER KIDNAPPING – VIDEO
A Herkimer Kidnapping
Video Timeline 001-1:05 Herkimer County Sheriff’s deputies, accompanied by Herkimer police officer, arrive at our house. (Police here to protect deputies from us.)
1:06-1:14 I foolishly let them in without asking for a warrant or court order. I assumed they were acting lawfully. Never assume this in Herkimer County.
1:15-1:15 One deputy identifies himself as Sgt. George. The other merely says “Herkimer County Sheriff.” (He’s not the sheriff.)
1:20 – 1:55 Sgt. George reads the order to our daughter. It’s quickly apparent it’s a Michigan court order. George states it authorizes them to take our grandson for return to his father in Michigan. It doesn’t. I object, citing New York law and the procedure necessary to lawfully execute an out-of-state custody order in New York. Sgt. George says they have verbal permission from Herkimer County Family Court to enforce the Michigan court order. I continue to dispute their authority. 2:41 – 2:54 Deputy(?) Nameless tells me to “go argue the order” with Herkimer County Family Court Judge John Brennan if I don’t like it. I point out that I can’t; it’s a Michigan court order. Judge Brennan is a New York judge. He has not issued an order in this matter. Nameless Deputy repeats that they have verbal authority from Judge Brennan to take our grandchild. Seems hostile.
3:14 – 3:20 “Where is the child?” they demand.
3:21 – 3:45 Deputies take Little Avram from his bed and leave. Nameless sheriff’s officer waves to unidentified woman in unmarked car down the street to approach closer. She hesitatingly does so. May know we’d recently reported Herkimer CPS workers Sara Riente and Lisa Bates to NY authorities for malfeasance.
3:46 – 4:36 Avram passed to unidentified woman wearing unviewable badge driving unmarked car.
4:37 – 4:56 Grandma gives kindly Herkimer Police Officer Holt clothes and shoes for shoeless Avram, who takes them to the sheriff’s deputies.
End: Unknown woman in unmarked car makes good her escape with our grandson. Despite much effort and pleading, neither we nor his mother have been allowed to see him since.
A Herkimer Kidnapping – Aftermath
We didn’t get a lawyer. We did complain to the New York Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau, the ACLU and the New York Commission on Judicial Misconduct. The ACLU wasn’t interested, saying it was a family matter. 
No one else replied to us. But Judge Brennan did not run for reelection and has vanished from the internet.
“Get a Warrant!” The Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Those deputies couldn’t have gotten a warrant based upon an out-of-state court order. The Plaintiff would have had to plead his case before the Herkimer Family Court, with due notice to appear given our grandson’s mother. This was a successful end run around the law , saving the Plaintiff money and depriving our daughter and us of our basic rights. I suspect this is done all the time here.
