To provide a bit of background on the parents, Carlos and Kelly met in 2005 while studying at SUNY-University at Albany in Upstate New York and have been together since that time. During their 17-year adventure, Carlos and Kelly moved to Denver, ventured back to the east coast, and spent time in Fort Lauderdale, got married, relocated to Atlanta, and sealed it all by having their first child, Nicolas, in April 2018, some 13-years after their college encounter. Carlos continues to work at the CDC as a Public Health Analyst within the agency’s Center for Global Health and Kelly is self-employed as the owner of NXL Virtual Assistance, LLC. Their lives were thrown an even bigger surprise when their second attempt at conceiving turned out to be a set of fraternal twins, Benjamin “Benji”, and Mila, born 18-months after Nicolas in September 2019.
Unfortunately, Carlos and Kelly’s adventure came to an abrupt halt. Kelly brought the twins to their pediatrician on September 24, 2019, October 15, 2019, and November 19, 2019 for their initial wellness appointment, one and two month follow ups. The twins were both in good health. On November 6, 2019, Kelly brought Mila to the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) due to projectile vomiting and increased irritability. Labs and tests were performed by the medical staff which showed mild dehydration and anemia. Mila was discharged with instructions for Kelly to monitor and bring her back if the condition worsened. On November 19, 2019, Kelly brought the twins to their pediatrician for their 2 month follow up and both children were described as "healthy”, but this was only the calm before the storm as Kelly and Carlos were about to begin the fight for their family, freedom and even their lives.
On November 25, 2019, Kelly brought Benji to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta as over the days that preceded, he was battling chronic constipation. The visit to the pediatric ER was far from routine as medical providers shifted their attention from Benji’s stomach to his forehead, which appeared enlarged due to fluid build-up. After a couple of hours at the ER, a pediatric fellow examined Benji and stated to Kelly with certainty that he had suffered an injury to his head due to blunt force trauma and that her other two children must immediately be presented to the hospital for examination. If she refused, then law enforcement would go to her home and retrieve them. Kelly immediately called Carlos, who was at home resting with Nicolas and Mila, and broke the news to him. At that point, Carlos immediately woke his young children, dressed them, and brought them to the pediatric ER where upon review of the children, medical providers began to state that both twins had “similar fluid”. At no point did doctors, nurses, social workers and even the caseworker for the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), indicate that Carlos and Kelly were being suspected of child abuse. It wasn’t until doctor’s notified Carlos and Kelly that Benji would need surgery to implant a shunt into his head to drain fluid, did the hospital and DFCS change their tune. After spending all night at the hospital with their children, law enforcement arrived at the hospital in the early morning hours and interviewed an exhausted Carlos and Kelly. During their interviews, the responding Sargent indicated that the doctors were suspecting both parents of abusing their children and they asked that both not be allowed to stay at the hospital. It was at this point that they were escorted out of the hospital without any of their children, who were now in the care and custody of DFCS.
On November 27, 2019, a Dependency Removal Order was filed with Juvenile Court in DeKalb County based upon “unexplained injuries”. On December 2, 2019, the Court held a preliminary protective hearing. Carlos hadn’t even had time to retain an attorney and Kelly was represented but the Court found probable cause to keep the children in the custody and care of DFCS due to the medical opinions of CHOA. The Court set an adjudication hearing for February 19, 2020, where the Court would determine if it believed the parents had abused their children and keep the children in the care and custody of DFCS.
At the request of the Department and prior to a Court even conducting a full hearing on the merits of the allegations, the parents agreed to undergo psychological and parental fitness evaluations believing the results would help their case. On December 16, 2019, Kelly and Carlos underwent psychological and parental fitness evaluations with one of the Department’s contracted “experts” who makes his living on the referrals from DFCS. Despite both parents scoring in the low or mid-range on every test performed to indicate whether they were a risk to the children, the psychologist ordered the parents to take counseling classes, parenting classes, and be supervised. The psychologist was later deposed over two years later by the parent’s attorney who refused to update any of his recommendations, provide a clear basis on why he recommended what he did since the parents scored so low and admitted his recommendations were based upon the “allegations” that had yet to even be proven in court. In other words, it did not matter what the parents scored on the evaluations, they were going to be required to be supervised, take parenting classes, and go to counseling due to “unexplained injuries.”
The Court held an adjudication hearing on February 19, 2020, where the Court determines by a preponderance of the evidence if the allegations are substantiated or unsubstantiated. The parents even hired their own expert to refute the medical findings of CHOA. Despite the parents maintaining their innocence, favorable results of the psychological evaluation and expert testimony challenging CHOA’s conclusions, the Court adjudicated the children dependent and ORDERED the parents to complete a case plan where they must abide by certain conditions and adopted the Department’s psychologist’s recommendations. The most devastating part for the parents was as part of the case plan, Kelly and Carlos were only allowed supervised visits with their children for up to four hours a week.
Kelly and Carlos maintained their innocence but were desperate to get their children back. As a result, they completed all required tasks as soon as possible. They also retained Dr. Lawrence Hutchins who served as a permanent neuroradiologist on a child abuse team from 1990-2015 to review the medical records. In June of 2020, Dr. Hutchins completed his review and wrote a written report that he believed CHOA had misdiagnosed the children who all suffered from a medical condition since birth, called benign enlargement of the subarachnoid spaces or “BESS” which was the most common cause of macrocephaly or “enlarged head”. Dr. Hutchins concluded that BESS causes subdural hematomas and what CHOA providers labeled as “lacerations on the brain” were a cyst which can bleed onto the child’s brain. One of the twins had a head circumference in the 99th percentile for his age and the other twin had a head circumference in the 97th percentile. Unfortunately, the medical providers from CHOA never mentioned the medical condition “BESS” in any of their reports or considered BESS as a medical diagnosis for the twins. A child with BESS is the most common medical condition that leads to false allegations of child abuse due to a medical provider misinterpreting x-rays or failing to rule out BESS as the cause of the condition such as blood on the brain.
After receiving the favorable report which seemed to clearly solve the issue of what had been wrong with their babies and explain how CHOA could mistakenly misdiagnosis this medical condition as child abuse, Kelly and Carlos were optimistic as they went to court on August 17, 2020, seeking to have their children returned to them. Kelly and Carlos had also been supervised by a parent aid from December of 2019 to August of 2020, as recommended by the results of the Department’s expert psychologist referenced earlier. The Department’s own parent aide indicated the parents were great and they did not have any concerns. They also had completed parenting classes and counseling with a counselor chosen by the Department, where the Department’s own counselor indicated she believed the children should be immediately returned to the custody of the parents. However, after the parents retained an expert who indicated CHOA doctors failed to properly rule out “BESS” and this was likely a medical misdiagnosis case, which would mean the Department erroneously took these children away from their parents and presented this evidence to the Department prior to and at the hearing on August 17, 2020. Instead of reviewing the evidence which was consistent with the conclusions of the Department’s own counselor and parent aide, the Department’s attorneys dug in to protect and defend CHOA from any liability. As a result of the parents refusing to lie to the Court and say they abused their children when they hadn’t and accept responsibility for something that they never did along with spending thousands on medical experts to challenge CHOA and the Department, the Department, likely out of fear of liability, objected to having the case closed. The Department also now demanded the parents be supervised 24/7 by a co-parent before they could get custody of their children. The Department knew the parents did not have any local family to come live with them to satisfy this requirement making it impossible for the parents to regain custody unless one of our family members were willing to move to Georgia. The parents walked out of the hearing dejected trying to figure out what they could do. The family’s rallied together to discuss a plan of who could move to Georgia and be the co-parent so Kelly and Carlos could be reunited with their children. Shortly after the hearing, Kelly’s parents decided to step up and were willing to move to Georgia for their daughter and son-in-law. As the family strategized to come up with a plan, another sinister and unexpected turn was about to occur.
In the early morning hours of August 26, 2020, Kelly and Carlos were startled and woken up by a loud noise at their front door. “Bang, Bang, Bang, open up the door, this is the police”. Over 9 months after the original ordeal, the parents were now being arrested for cruelty to children in the second degree based upon the original allegations by CHOA that the parents had abused their children. Kelly and Carlos now had to hire criminal defense attorneys who were able to get them quickly bonded out of jail as neither parent had ever been arrested before in their life.
On February 3, 2021, Kelly and Carlos attended another hearing seeking to have their children returned to them after Kelly’s parents agreed to move to Georgia and live with the parents to satisfy the requirements of the Department. At the hearing, the Department now objected due to Kelly’s parents needing to pass a National Background Check since her parents were out of state. The Department did not provide an explanation on why they had not completed this process after the parents had provided the names of Kelly’s parents as co-parents over 6 months prior to the hearing. Once again, Kelly and Carlos walked out of court without their children and once again it seemed the Department would do anything to prevent the family from being reunited hoping Kelly and Carlos gave up their fight for their family.
Kelly and Carlos wanted to show the Court and now the District Attorney’s Office of DeKalb County they were completely innocent, and their expert was correct that the children were never abused, but the case was a medical misdiagnosis. As a result, in February of 2021 they voluntarily submitted to take lie detector tests with the same polygrapher who performed Richard Jewell’s, the falsely accused Atlanta Olympic Bomber, who was exonerated in large part due to him passing the lie detector test. Both parents passed their lie detector tests with flying colors. The results were submitted to the Department and the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office. This still was not enough and neither organization changed their position while declining an offer to speak directly to their expert who was adamant the parents had not abused their children. Based upon the test results, the Department could not change their position, as they had to protect CHOA and the Department. Acknowledging that these parents were innocent and had their children wrongfully taken from them would open several individuals and organizations to liability. The case was no longer about protecting children but protecting individuals, state and county entities.
Finally, on June 23, 2021, the children were at least returned to the custody of Kelly and Carlos but under 24/7 supervision of Kelly’s parents as the Department had run out of excuses to deny the family being reunited. Since regaining custody of their children Nico, Benji and Mila, Kelly and Carlos have been under constant scrutiny and emotional stress. For example, approximately two weeks after regaining custody, the Child Advocate Attorney, who is supposed to represent the best interest of the children, and who refused to speak to any expert for the parents or review any expert report that was not from CHOA, filed an Emergency Motion to remove the children from the parent’s custody again claiming the children were in “imminent danger.” The Child Advocate Attorney claimed the parents had violated the Court Order by not timely enrolling the minor children in daycare and also claimed that the Father had been left alone with one of the children without the presence of the co-parent. Kelly and Carlos’s attorney immediately filed a response, showing Google Nest camera footage exonerating Carlos from allegedly being left alone with the minor child, referenced a recording they had in their possession, where the Department’s caseworkers expressly told the parents they had a week to enroll the children in daycare after the hearing to give them time to complete the transfer paperwork from foster care back to the care of the parents. Ironically, the Department objected to the introduction of the recording at the hearing as they did not want the truth of what had been told to the parents revealed, nor did they ever file a response or even acknowledge what had been said on the recording. Without their Google Nest camera, and the recording, the parents may have very well lost custody of their children again based upon false allegations.
While in the care and custody of their parents, the children have thrived and the Pediatrician for the children even testified at a later hearing the remarkable difference in the children since being returned to their parents. Nicolas was also evaluated for Autism, over the recommendation by their pediatrician, once again based upon an erroneous diagnosis from the Department. As suspected by the parents and pediatrician, Nicolas did not have Autism. More importantly, the evaluator indicated the close bond between the parents and Nicolas. The report also indicated that Nicolas had endured emotional trauma by being placed in foster care for over 18 months with severely limited contact with his parents.
Kelly and Carlos have remained supervised by Kelly’s parents for approximately 10 months with no end in sight. They continue to be in an endless battle against DFCS, Juvenile Court, Child Advocacy Center, and the District Attorney’s Office. It seems Kelly and Carlos have been targeted because they have maintained their innocence and have fought back against the system, the allegations, CHOA diagnosis and the Department. To date, our family has spent over $275,000 in legal fees, experts, depositions, and tests and now they fear that upon the verge of having their juvenile case closed, the District Attorney’s Office will have them indicted for their pending criminal charges where they will have to continue to defend themselves to protect not only their family but their freedom.
Throughout this ordeal, Kelly, Carlos, Nicolas, Benji and Mila have shown an insurmountable amount of strength and resilience, even in the face of adversity. The bond they have with their children is unbreakable and our families are rallying together to ensure that the Lopez’s won’t be forcefully separated again. Our family is asking for donations to allow Kelly and Carlos to have the ability to a fair fight. Any amount is greatly appreciated.
