Court of Appeal Affirms Orange County Jury Finding
Cps Liable to Mother for $ 4.9 Million in Damages.
(PRWEB) June 17, 2010 -- Case No. 01CC02379 (Trial before Hon. Ronald L.
Bauer, Dept. CX103) California Court of Appeals, Fourth District, Division
Three, Case No. G039045
On March 23, 2007, the Orange County Social Services Agency and two of its
Social Workers, Marcie Vreeken and Helen Dwojak were found liable for
violating the parental rights of Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick, as guaranteed under
the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The
jury found in favor of Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick and awarded $4.9 million in
economic and non-economic damages, and approximately $6,000 in
punitive damages against the individual social workers.
At trial, Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick demonstrated that social workers Marcie Vreeken
and Helen Dwojak caused Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick's children to be removed from
her custody without cause, and continued to detain them without cause, violating
Ms. Fogarty-Harwick's Constitutional right to familial association. Ms. Fogarty-
Hardwick demonstrated that these defendants, while working as social workers
for Orange County Social Services, intentionally fabricated evidence to obtain a
court order to detain Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick's two young daughters on February
17, 2000. Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick also demonstrated that Orange County Social
Services, Marcie Vreeken and Helen Dwojak maliciously failed to provide the
court with exculpatory information, and filed false reports in furtherance of the
effort to keep Ms. Fogarty-Hardwick separated from her children.
The lawsuit also alleged that the policies, practices, or procedures employed by
Orange County Social Services and the County of Orange in the removal of
Plaintiff's children from her care also violated Ms. Fogarty-Harwick's
constitutional rights, under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the
United States Constitution. The unlawful policies, practices or procedures
pertained to the detention of children without a finding of imminent danger or
serious physical injury; interviewing children without a parent present;
continuing detention after learning there was no basis to do so; using trickery and
fabricated evidence; and failing to adequately train employees regarding the
Constitutional rights of parents.
In addition to the jury's verdict, the trial court also awarded attorneys fees of
$1,653,284.95.
The defendants Orange County, Marcie Vreeken and Helen Dwojak, all appealed
the jury verdict, the court's decision, and the attorney fee award. On June 14,
2010, after in depth review of extensive briefs and a complex record, Division
Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal for the State of California issued its
opinion affirming the Orange County jury's verdict awarding Deanna Fogarty-
Hardwick approximately $4.9 million against the County of Orange, and two of
its social workers, and affirming the trial court decision awarding attorney's fees.
In its opinion, the Court of Appeal voiced its concerns over what happened to Ms.
Fogarty-Hardwick: "Stated plainly, the outcome of this case cannot be dismissed
as merely the unfortunate product of a runaway jury. The evidence adduced at
trial obviously caused both the jury and the judge to conclude not only that
something seriously wrong was done to Fogarty-Hardwick in this case, but also
that the wrongful conduct was not an isolated incident. That conclusion is
something the County should be taking very seriously." {emphasis in original
opinion}
