From the record
Louisville Family Court Judge Angela Johnson NEVER conducted an evidentiary hearing.
Despite objections from state child welfare officials, a family court judge ordered her reunification with her mother, who was in ICE custody, and later deported to Guatemala in September.
A 15-month-old American citizen from Louisville, Kentucky, has been hospitalized in Guatemala since October 30 after local child-protection authorities took her into custody. The toddler had previously spent 13 months in Kentucky foster care following her birth after being removed from her mother. The mother initally charged with attempted murder later pled to a lesser charge of wanton endangerment.
Despite objections from state child welfare officials, a family court judge ordered her reunification with her mother, who was in ICE custody, and later deported to Guatemala in September. According to pleadings later filed with the Kentucky Supreme Court, Judge Angela Johnson never conducted an evidentiary hearing on the matter.
The mother later signed documents asking the former foster father to retrieve the child, Guatemalan authorities intervened. The family is now urging the U.S. Embassy to provide active consular advocacy to help bring the American child home.
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