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Gazette and Leader newspaper readers first read about Mildred Bartee this past September in Part 3 of our Families in Crisis with DYFS series. It was then they learned the circumstances surrounding Bartee’s loss of custody of her three children.
In October 2000, DYFS workers and police officers surrounded her house to take her younger children while others in the state agency and other police officers took the older children from their schools, placing the children in foster care.
What precipitated this removal was not abuse, neglect, alcoholism, drug addiction or abandonment, but a technicality of a recent well-meaning law - Megan’s Law.
Bartee’s son, Antonio, was found guilty of sexual assault on his 14-year-old girlfriend and had been sentenced to a lengthy prison term. He was 15 at the time of the assault.
He was released in the summer of 2000 and paid an overnight visit to his family in Wildwood.
Bartee told her DYFS worker Jean Palmer, about the visit. “She acted real supportive,” recalled Bartee.
Apparently this was only Bartee’s mistaken perception because after the August 2000 visit, Palmer began the bureaucratic machinations to have Bartee’s children taken from her.
“All because I let my son come home to visit. I’m his mother too,” Bartee said.
Because he was convicted of a sexual assault, Antonio fell under Megan’s Law, the state Legislature’s attempt to protect children from sexual predators. Palmer told Bartee, that Antonio was not allowed any contact with his siblings, even supervised, and that is why the children were removed in October 2000.
Bartee lost custody and was given a list of steps she had to complete if she wanted her children to return home.
“Judge (Valerie) Armstrong ordered me to have two days of psychological testing. I did it, It came out that I was normal intelligence but I had a problem with authority, which I have admitted to, behind the fact that I’ve had so many problems with them,” she explained.
After the testing, the mother of five was ordered to take parenting classes. The one-hour per-week classes were paid for by the taxpayers.
“They gave me this certificate,” said Bartee, holding up the wrinkled paper, “saying I was now a good parent, but I still can’t have my kids back.”
She was also ordered to undergo psychotherapy. She was sent to Dr. Joel Last, of Cape Counseling, with whom she did 14 weeks of psychiatric therapy for one hour a week, also paid for by the taxpayers.
“He wrote two letters to the court but he didn’t put what I told him accurately. I told him I understood that my son Antonio could not be with my (other) children at any time ever but he made it seem like I thought supervised visits were OK, but I never said that,” she said.
Barbara Wilson, of Cape Counseling, said she was prohibited from commenting because of the rules governing confidentiality. However, these rules did not stop Palmer from discussing details of Bartee’s case with Carolyn Roper, the paternal grandmother of Bartee’s 14-year-old son who now has custody of the boy, Roper said Palmer talked a lot about Bartee and her problems but she maintains that her main concern is the well being of the children. She was especially concerned with the stress being put on the children.
“I think children should be with their families and I think Mildred did the best she could,” said Roper of Bartee. Who is not related to her.
Bartee said she was not allowed to read the letter beforehand, nor was she allowed to have a copy.
“Everybody is allowed to know my business but me,” complained Bartee.
Because of a prior history of drug and alcohol abuse, Bartee was ordered to undergo four weeks of follow-up therapy, which she successfully completed.
“I have been clean and sober for over eight years now, and it is because I got my spirituality together and found God, not from all the programs,” she emphasized.
She also said that it is this faith in God and her lover for her children that keeps her going, “Otherwise I would just give up altogether and end it all,” she added.
According to Bartee, each time she completed a step DYFS demanded of her, the agency would come up with a new one. There were promises made by Palmer, Bartee said, that when she fulfilled a DYFS required back. But Deputy Attorney General Tara Catanese, Bartee said would deny Bartee her parental rights.
This newspaper spoke to the children alone, as well as a third-party relative, who confirmed Bartee’s allegation of the promises made by Palmer. The 9-year-old daughter further started that Palmer promised her that the family would definitely be together “at least by Christmas (2001),” something the child said she had looked forward to.
It was October court hearing that Bartee was given the final hurdle, or so she believed. In order for her 14-year-old son to come home she needed to find a year-round apartment or house.
Bartee has held a full-time job for two years now, had a family in the area and was able to save a deposit but still had difficultly in finding a suitable place.
“Everything was fine on the telephone but when I showed up then there was some excuse,” related Bartee.
But a couple days before her December court day she was successful and found a four-room apartment in Middle Township and signed a year long lease.
Armed with the lease she was confident of being reunited with her 14-year-old son. Her hopes were dashed when Catanese told the apartment was not suitable. Later Palmer told Bartee that her son “needs at least a two bedroom apartment”.
Bartee’s problems were not all from the opposition.
“When I got to court I saw my lawyer (Evan Goddard) for five minutes and he was more concerned with my allowing his father (Malcolm Goddard) to be the stand-in for the law guardian (Janet Fayter) for my son because he said of a conflict of interest than (he was) with my problems or questions concerning my case. What choice did I have at that point? He kept saying ‘Is that OK? Is that OK? So I felt forced to say ‘OK” to him and then we went to court,” said Bartee.
Malcolm Goddard told this newspaper that he was not the law guardian for Mildred’s son because the mother was being represented by his son Evan, “and that would be a conflict of interest,” he said.
The outcome was not what she hoped for- custody was denied, in fact terminated. If she wants custody she will have to start from scratch.
“My lawyer didn’t say anything that I told him to say. He was just quiet and told me to be quiet,” she said.
Asked what she would do now, Bartee said she was going to pray and trust in God and keep fighting to get her children.
“I’m going to start saving so I can hire a lawyer,” said Bartee. “As long as they have a rood over their heads, plenty of food to eat, doing good in school and being looked after and loved why can’t I have my children back?”
Calls to Palmer and Evan Goddard were not returned. DYFS spokesmen Joe Delmar would not comment on specific cases guarded by confidentiality.
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