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WILKES-BARRE — A judge Friday recommended the dismissal of a Yatesville mother’s federal lawsuit against Luzerne County Children and Youth Services that alleged the agency conspired to take away her children and violated her civil rights by holding them in protective custody.
Brooke Ciprich claimed Children and Youth overstepped its bounds when it took her two children, ages 4 and 2 at the time, following a pair of violent encounters the kids were caught in the middle of in 2013.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson, calling Ciprich’s allegations “sparse,” recommended Children and Youth’s motion to dismiss be granted in a 34-page report filed in federal court.
Ciprich’s attorney, Eric E. Winter, said Carlson’s recommendations will be taken under advisement by a higher judge who will decide whether to accept them and dismiss the suit outright.
Winter plans to oppose Carlson’s recommendations once he’s fully reviewed them.
Carlson wrote in the report that “the well-pleaded facts in this complaint simply state that the defendants fulfilled their legal duty in this state dependency case which addressed the needs of children who had been exposed to shocking episodes of violence. While the agency’s actions in performing this role may have been disappointing, or even wrong from Ciprich’s perspective, those judgments in the course of litigation cannot be seen as so far beyond the bounds of decency that they were utterly intolerable in a civilized society.”
The judge continued: “In a civilized society, we want parties to turn to the rule of law to address disputes and ensure the safety of children. Since that is precisely what happened here, Ciprich’s intentional infliction of emotional distress claim, as pleaded, fails on its merits with respect to these defendants and should be dismissed.”
The complaint, filed in December 2015, named the agency, Luzerne County, and caseworkers, supervisors and attorneys from both entities. A judge dismissed the county from the lawsuit in August.
Children and Youth filed a motion seeking to have the lawsuit tossed in late September, arguing Ciprich failed to back up her allegations with facts.
In the complaint, Ciprich says she was assaulted in her home on Nov. 18, 2013, by Eric Phillips.
Phillips, the father of her children, had choked and beaten her and fired at least three rounds from a handgun at her while she was holding one of the children, who was 1 month old at the time, according to the affidavit.
Phillips allegedly 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, 2013, 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, because Ciprich allegedly 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, 2016.
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