A CPS petition to remove three little girls from the custody of their parent’s home in Grand Haven was recently denied. A jury found their mother not guilty of improper supervision after a three day trial in Ottawa County Family Court.
Steve Wagasky, the biological father of the youngest child, was removed from the petition when the prosecutor had completed the presentation of their case. “That shows you how thin their case was against him.” said R.J. Winter, who served as the children’s attorney during the trial.
But that left Sara Huizenga, the children’s mother, fighting for the right to parent her children without supervision and restrictions. The petition against her was filed by CPS as a result of injuries that her infant daughter, Eliza, sustained during a slip and fall accident that hospital staff felt was suspicious.
According to Huizenga, she had bundled up her baby, Eliza, in order to chase after her dog, but slipped and fell on icy steps. The child was harmed as a result. However, hospital officials are required to follow protocol, which requires that they inform DHS in the event of any injury which may be possible abuse.
Due to concerns about when the skull fracture actually occurred, CPS workers filed a petition with the court to have the other remaining siblings removed from the home. The family was horrified, as they are still grieving the loss of their son, 2-year-old Ari Wagasky, who drowned last year. The loss of further children was inconceivable to them.
Prosecuting attorney Jay Tubergen attempted to establish a pattern of improper supervision in the home by Huizenga during his opening and closing statements at the trial. Witnesses for the prosecution included physicians assistant, Tracy McCullough, who testified to treating Ari Wagasky for possible ingestion of his mother’s medication less than a month before he drowned. However the child tested negative for the medication when his mother brought him into the hospital, directly after she discovered him with the pills.
CPS overstepped in calling this mother a child abuser, and couldn’t back up their claims.
Another witness for the prosecution was emergency room physician, Nancy Goran, who treated Eliza at North Ottawa Community Hospital after the fall. She said that she filed a referral to CPS because Eliza could not have, on her own, generated the force required to break her leg. She also testified that she found no evidence of bruising or abrasions on the child’s head, which would have been consistent with a fall on outside stairs.
However, the defense argued that the infant’s injuries were obviously caused by the fall. Michelle McLean, the defense attorney representing Huizenga, brought in experts for the defense who refuted the testimony provided by the prosecution, namely: bone expert Dr. Yousif Hamati and bio-mechanical expert Blake Ashby.
Winter said that he has no doubt that the explanation provided by Ashby, the bio-mechanical engineer, is the correct one. According to Ashby, Huizenga slipped and fell while Eliza was sitting on her right hip. As a result, she rolled slightly to the side, and onto the child, which caused both the leg and the skull fractures.
“Why can’t we accept that as what happened? Isn’t that the simplest explanation?” asked Winter during his closing statement to the jury. “I don’t think there is a pattern. I don’t think you can conclude there is improper supervision.”
According to McLean, the state went too far with regards to this case.”Their doctor went to great lengths to come up with some variant explanation,” she said. “Clearly, somebody had an agenda.”