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WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Children and Youth Services have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Yatesville mother who claims the agency conspired to take away her children and violated her civil rights by keeping them in protective custody.
Brook Ciprich, of Willow Road, filed the complaint against the agency, as well as Luzerne County and several officials with both entities, in December. She claimed the agency overstepped its bounds when it took her two children, ages 4 and 2 at the time, following a pair of violent encounters.
The agency’s attorney says in a response filed Friday that Ciprich “has not, because she cannot, pleaded any facts sufficient to demonstrate that a civil conspiracy took place, or that any policy regarding training existed that inflicted constitutional violations, or indicated deliberate indifference to individuals’ constitutional rights.”
The response, filed by attorney Dawn C. Doherty of Philadelphia, also alleges the complaint was not properly served to the agency. Doherty asks a judge to throw out the complaint or grant summary judgment in the defendants’ favor.
Ciprich says in the complaint she was assaulted in her home on Nov. 18, 2013, by Eric Phillips, her children’s father.
Phillips, she said, had choked and beaten her and fired at least three rounds from a handgun at her while she was holding her child, who was one month old at the time, according to the affidavit.
Ciprich told police Phillips warned, “The first bullet is going in your head and the second is going in mine.”
During the argument, Phillips said he had several magazines for the handgun and would shoot any police who arrived at the residence, the affidavit says. Police later used a Taser to subdue Phillips after he ignored several warnings to drop the weapon.
Phillips’ older child was thrown to the floor during the scuffle, the affidavit says, and was transported to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for a depressed skull fracture. Phillips was arrested the same day and the incident was reported to Children and Youth.
Ciprich sought and obtained a PFA against Phillips on Nov. 20, 2013, and a hearing was scheduled for six days later, but Ciprich missed the hearing, according to the complaint. A temporary PFA was later granted Dec. 5, 2013, and a hearing on the matter was set for the following week.
Ciprich, meanwhile, was staying with Catherine Yankovich, when on Nov. 30, 2013, Yankovich lashed out in a “severe psychiatric episode” spurred by a bipolar disorder, the complaint says. Ciprich, with one of her children nearby, was forced to use pepper spray to keep Yankovich at bay.
Children and Youth on Dec. 10 held an internal meeting where it was decided that what occurred was a “near fatality situation,” even though there weren’t records to support the claims, according to the complaint. An emergency petition for shelter care of minor children was filed and granted.
During a visit to Ciprich’s home the same day, caseworkers took custody of the two children to place them into foster care, alleging Ciprich should have informed them Phillips had been released and, because of the pepper spray incident that occurred with Yankovich, the complaint says.
Custody of the children was returned to Ciprich following a hearing Jan. 20.