A Glimpse into the CPS Boardroom Crisis

More trickles out about the resignation of Charles Childress in this article;

"It is with great regret that I hereby tender my resignation as staff attorney for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, effective Nov. 1, 2008, or at whatever earlier date may be most convenient and least disruptive to the operations of the agency," Charles Childress wrote in a resignation letter obtained by the Deseret News.

The "Great Regret" part is diplomatic, but indicates dispute. This dispute is hinted at later by Mr. Childress. The part where he indicates that he will leave November 1st or whatever date is convenient? This says the disagreement was sudden and sharp. Unlike his immediate subordinate Gary Banks, who found work and resigned Mr. Childress has no soft landing.

Something happened that made Mr. Childress or the State of Texas change their minds about each other. In Charles case it would have most likely have been the result of being blindsided and his resignation is a polite way of saying "I was fired, on the spot." In this case he is being given the time to find another job. Whether or not his replacement shows up quickly, we can determine if this was sudden and surprising for Texas. If Childress stays well past November 1st, it was a surprise for Texas as well.

"I anticipate that we will have resolved all but a handful of pending cases through cooperative agreements with the parents, resulting in dismissal of the department's suits by early November," he wrote.

This hints broadly at the subject matter of the dispute. The writing is on the wall to reduce the number of FLDS child custody cases to perhaps less than five. The language indicates that the cases are going to be plural in nature, but the number will be very small.

"The remaining cases may end up going to trial next year. Three cases involving children either placed back in foster care or returned to their parents under family service plans will be up for dismissal in February 2009."

This aludes to the number of cases. It seems it will be three.

"The dismissal date for all other cases is April 13, 2009, although there is an argument that could be made against applying this deadline," Childress wrote.

Someone advocated that the cases be continued. Judging from the speed of the dismissals and the revelation of the "handful" estimate by Mr. Childress, it would seem Mr. Childress is likely to have fallen on the side of just letting those cases go.

I am speculating here but it is sound speculation for someone as far on the outside as I am. If this is truly the case, I again repeat that Charles Childress may turn out to be, in the final analysis, a great hero for the FLDS, having stood up to Texas who seems intent on prosecuting a much larger number of cases.

You can imagine a meeting that goes like this:

"You're dismissing nearly ALL the cases Charles, WHAT'S UP?!?!"

"You have maybe three cases."

"That's unacceptable!"

"You have maybe three cases, this is what you hired me to do."

"You find MORE!"

"I can't."

(Phone Rings, Governor Perry is calling on his cell phone)

"Pack your kit and git Chuck."

All should pay attention to this politicized prosecution. It is the very essense of what persecution is all about. The FLDS have become a political football. The fortunes of Texas depend on finding more than just a couple of Child Abuse cases than in the end may cost more than $20,000,000.00 apiece. For this reason it no longer matters what is right or what is wrong to the elected officials like Governor Perry. They need a lot of cape mounts on their den wall to justify what was done. Sorry FLDS, nothing personal. It's just politics. I hope you understand. Take one for the team willya?

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