Her Neglect Killed 1 Child; Now She Wants Custody of Other 2
He was divorced. She had custody. But she had problems with drinking and drugs. So he reported her repeatedly to Child Protective Services, which took no action. One day his ex got drunk and passed out, leaving their four-year-old daughter trapped inside a car in the hot Arizona summer. The little girl, Haley Gray, died. Read about it here (KPHO, 11/04/09).
The father, John Gray, sued Arizona CPS for their negligence in failing to heed his warnings about his ex-wife's irresponsible and dangerous behavior. He won a $400,000 judgment. He also campaigned to get Arizona law changed. "Haley's Law" now requires CPS agencies in the state to obtain child abuse records from other states when well-founded allegations of abuse are made about a child in Arizona.
But John Gray still has a problem. He's got two other children with his ex-wife Celene Gray, and the family court in Phoenix can't seem to decide which parent to give custody of the children to. Now, on one hand you have a woman who's already been found to have allowed a child to die because she was too drunk to care for her. On the other you have the children's father who seems to have never done anything seriously wrong, although he's spent time in jail. He cared enough about his children to persistently warn CPS about the danger they were in at the hands of their mother. He even got the legislature to change the laws relating to how abuse allegations are handled.
That's too tough a decision for the court to make, apparently, so it's placed the children in the temporary custody of Celene's boyfriend, which is to say, in her custody. Well, at least they're old enough to get out of a hot car if they need to.
As the custody fight goes on, John Gray admits to not being perfect, but one might ask why he needs to be. According to Gray, "he's had anger issues." Gee, I wonder why.
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