How To Avoid Self-Incrimination In Michigan When Speaking With CPS Or Police After Medical Child Abuse Allegations

In this article, you will discover:

• The meaning of self-incrimination in Michigan child abuse cases
• Whether it’s ever safe to speak to Child Protective Services or the police about medical child abuse without an attorney present
• How police and Child Protective Services investigators use leading or misleading questions during child abuse investigations

What Does Self-Incrimination Mean In Michigan Child Abuse Cases, And How Can It Happen During Investigations?

The Fifth and Sixth Amendments grant every citizen the right not to incriminate themselves and to have the assistance of an attorney in connection with any criminal investigation or case.

When you bring your child to the hospital and your child is in physical distress, the last thought on your mind is invoking your rights against self-incrimination or having an attorney present.

Typically, the first people who interview you are either a triage nurse or an emergency room doctor. They’ll ask you what happened. Of course, at this stage, parents are concerned about their child, so they try to be helpful and answer those questions.

If your answers do not satisfy the doctor or nurses, they will frequently call in a social worker, who will then interview you again, asking you what happened to your child. If child abuse is suspected, the hospital social worker typically has a legal obligation to file a referral to Child Protective Services (CPS).

A Child Protective Services caseworker will then likely show up and interview you for a third round. This interview has the purpose of investigating potential child abuse and neglect. While you technically have the right not to speak to CPS because it could incriminate you in a criminal case, the CPS caseworker will tell you that you do not have that right. Instead, they will typically warn you that Failing to cooperate in a Child Protective Services investigation, even by way of refusing to answer questions by a CPS worker, can and often will be seen in a negative light by CPS, and the juvenile court system if a termination of parental rights petition is ever filed in family court.

Importantly, if such a termination of parental rights petition is ever filed in family court, unlike in Criminal Court, you do not have the right to remain silent. The attorney representing CPS, who is frequently a prosecutor or an assistant attorney general, can and often will call you as a witness. If you refuse to take the witness stand at trial, an adverse inference can be drawn that your testimony would have been damaging had you agreed to answer questions. However, this idea that you have a right to remain silent in connection with a criminal investigation does apply.

Depending on the CPS caseworker’s investigation and findings, the police are often called, and they then conduct yet a fourth round of interviews. At this point, suddenly seeing detectives, badges, and guns, many parents may sometimes begin to you might wonder whether you should be talking about what happened to your child. This is typically the first stage parents will begin to ask whether or not you should invoke your right against self-incrimination and ask for an attorney’s assistance.

While you do have these rights with respect to law enforcement, for all practical purposes you don’t have the right to refuse to answer questions from medical doctors, nurses, hospital social workers, or CPS caseworkers. You need to answer their questions if you want to maintain:

• Your parental rights
• Your ability to parent the child
• Your ability to visit the child while they are in the hospital

While parents may theoretically understand why they must agree to speak to the doctors, nurses, social workers, and CPS caseworkers to ensure that they can still visit and parent their child, it still remains a difficult choice for parents to face.

Attorney Mark Satawa is a skilled lawyer based in Southfield, Michigan, who has helped numerous clients like you navigate the intricacies of child abuse law. With years of experience, he is prepared to assist you in dealing with CPS and the police during a medical child abuse investigation to protect your rights and prevent self-incrimination.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Satawa Law, PLLC, today to schedule an initial consultation.

Is It Ever Safe To Speak To CPS Or The Police About Medical Child Abuse Without A Defense Attorney Present?

You don’t have the right to refuse to speak with Child Protective Services if you want to maximize your ability to maintain your parental rights. That is distinct and separate from the decision about talking to the police about medical child abuse.

When a police officer or a detective interviews you about an allegation of medical child abuse, you should absolutely not speak to them. It is never safe to talk to a police officer or a detective about medical child abuse without a defense attorney present.

However, your radar may want to (and need to) sound an alarm even before the police show up. After you’ve spoken to the ER doctor, triage nurse, and hospital social worker, and now a CPS caseworker has appeared and wants to ask you even more questions, it is probably time to get on the phone with an attorney. You and your attorney may decide together that in order to preserve your parental rights, you should speak with the CPS caseworker. However, that decision should be made knowingly, intelligently, and only with the benefit of experienced and qualified legal counsel.

Should Parents Allow CPS Interviews Or Home Visits Without A Lawyer By Their Side?

Should Parents Allow CPS Interviews Or Home Visits Without A Lawyer By Their Side?

Fortunately, 90% of homes are going to have what CPS workers are looking for when they conduct a home visit:

• Age-appropriate sleeping arrangement for the child, whether it be a bassinet, crib, or bed
• Age-appropriate food in the house, such as formula or baby food
• Diapers
• A clean and safe house

The bigger question is whether you need a lawyer by your side. Figuratively, at least, you should have a lawyer by your side, meaning you should have hired an attorney. You should be consulting with your attorney, and you should not be making any decisions in connection with the CPS investigation without the benefit of their counsel. But ultimately you probably do not need a lawyer physically present during the visit, because your lawyer should have told you not to say anything. Let the CPS caseworkers in, let them photograph and catalog, but don’t speak with them and don’t answer questions.

How Do Police And CPS Investigators Use Leading Or Misleading Questions During Child Abuse Investigations?

The use of leading or misleading questions by police is perhaps the most dangerous and problematic facet of a child abuse investigation. You’re in the emergency room, and your child is compromised. You’re obviously focused on the health and well-being of your child.

The natural parental instinct is to provide as much information to the police and the CPS as you can, because you’re trying to help the medical professionals treat your child. Police and CPS investigators know that, and they prey on it in a calculated and intentional way.

Suppose your child had a seizure. The medical professionals will feed the police and the CPS investigator information. The medical professionals might say your child has a fractured tibia, retinal hemorrhaging, edema or a subdural hematoma. Based on that information, the police and the CPS investigators will, in turn, ask you questions like these:

• “Before your child had a seizure, did they perhaps fall off the changing table?”
• “Did you try to revive your child when they had a seizure?”
• “When you tried to revive your child, did you shake them at all?”
• “When you shook your child, did you maybe do it more violently or aggressively than you should?”

They manipulate you by asking, leading (and in many cases, misleading) questions, that are specifically intended to elicit damaging admissions about how the child became injured.

Once the questioning by the hospital social worker starts to sound accusatory, the focus is suddenly on you rather than the child. At this juncture, it’s critical that you immediately consult with an attorney to help you navigate those intentionally targeted, leading, and misleading questions designed to have you admit you deliberately hurt your child.

Attorney Mark Satawa is a skilled lawyer based in Southfield, Michigan, who has helped numerous clients like you navigate the intricacies of child abuse law. With years of experience, he is prepared to assist you in dealing with CPS and the police during a medical child abuse investigation to protect your rights and prevent self-incrimination.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Satawa Law, PLLC, today to schedule an initial consultation.

Notes From The Field: What Is Your Approach To Reviewing And Preparing Parents For The Types Of Questions Or Tactics Investigators May Use?

My priority is to serve as a buffer between CPS, the police, and my clients. The next priority is to educate the parents on the basic medical, scientific, and physiological assumptions the hospital is feeding CPS and the police. Those assumptions are what’s behind their questions.

You can start by looking at the mother’s pregnancy history, labor, and delivery. Then you can examine the medical history of the infant or child up until the point of hospitalization to identify an alternative explanation for the child’s condition. You also want to ensure the parents aren’t ignoring or dismissing potentially significant medical or physical developments that could help explain the child’s condition.

As an example, in the first month of a child’s life, let’s say a child’s head circumference was slowly growing. When the child was born, it was at 25%, at one month old it was at 35%, at 2 months it was 50%, and at 3 months it was at 80 or 90%. The parents may tell state that they noticed that the child’s head was getting bigger, but they thought that kind of growth was natural for a baby. This could be evidence of fluid building up in the child’s head. A chronic fluid collection that has been slowly increasing in size could be causing pressure on the child’s brain, and possibly an explanation as to why the child became compromised.

You must help the parents organize the medical history and growth history of their child. Then, you help the parents understand that the police and CPS are going to use intentionally targeted, leading and misleading questions to establish that they did, in fact, do something that hurt their child. You also want to prevent the parents from engaging in that natural tendency of all parents to speculate when they don’t know what happened to their child. Ultimately, you want to ensure the parents understand that the process has officially become confrontational.

You need to be acutely aware that the confrontation is two-sided, and the police and CPS are not on your side. They’re not your friends. They’re trying to establish that you hurt your child. CPS is trying to terminate your parental rights, and the police are trying to build a case against you that could lead to criminal charges.

Still Have Questions? Ready To Get Started?

For more information on self-incrimination when speaking with CPS or the police in Michigan, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (248) 573-3693 today.