Over the past six years, children CYFD confirmed as abused or neglected have been increasingly left with their biological families, CYFD data show. That dropped to 29 percent in 1995. Generally, CYFD social workers don't remove children if counseling and other services will lower the risk to the child and the parents agree to participate. If parents refuse or the danger to the child is too great, the state generally seeks custody. But even when children are removed and placed in foster care, most ultimately return home.
Children get court-appointed lawyers to look after their interests only if the state seeks custody.
The rest are behind a secret curtain where only the department knows. Typically, the state files about a dozen custody cases a month in Bernalillo County. During the 1987 incident, his wife was grazed on the head when a gun they were struggling over discharged, court records show. When police tried to arrest him, he placed two of his children against the window in front of him and put a choke hold on one, an Eddy County criminal complaint states. His wife left the family, and the children went to foster care.