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Dallas Personal Injury Attorney Shelly Greco Volunteers for Two Mormon Children

2008-05-20 19:59:08 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - News)

Dallas, Texas (CaymanMama.com) — Eberstein & Witherite personal injury attorney Shelly Greco is acting on a pro bono basis as an attorney ad litem for two of the 464 children taken into custody by Texas’s Child Protective Services (CPS) after a raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) polygamous ranch near Eldorado, Texas.

Under Texas law, every child must have an attorney representing his or her rights and interests in a custody hearing. The child’s attorney has to be a different individual from the parents’ attorney and the state’s lawyers.

When the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association put out the word that there was a great need for female attorney volunteers, Ms. Greco heeded their call, packed her bags, and drove more than four hours to San Angelo, Texas, to meet her young clients and attend the first emergency custody hearing on their behalf.

The 14-day emergency custody hearing was held on April 17th and 18th. The question at issue in front of the judge was whether the State of Texas has enough evidence to temporarily keep the FLDS children in the State’s custody. When Ms. Greco arrived in San Angelo the day before the hearing, the Court assigned her two girls, a 14-month-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old.

“My responsibility is to advocate for the child’s position,” says Ms. Greco, who has immersed herself in this legally and emotionally challenging case.

The first day in San Angelo, Ms. Greco stayed up late into the night meeting with other ad litem attorneys from across the state and interviewing her clients’ mothers. The attorneys discussed strategy and evidence, and developed questions to ask the following day at the 14-day emergency custody hearing. In an attempt to save time, the Court requested attorneys for the children be grouped by age and in some circumstance by sex of the children they represented, and appoint representatives of the group to ask questions. Accordingly, Ms. Greco was part of the group of attorneys representing girls under the age of five.

State District Judge Barbara Walther heard 21 hours of testimony over two days before ruling on April 18th that the children would be kept in custody while the state continues to investigate allegations of abuse stemming from the teachings of the FLDS. After issuing the ruling, the judge thanked the hundreds of volunteer lawyers who came from all over the state to represent the children and their parents in the hearing.

For her part in the custody hearing, Ms. Greco was interviewed and quoted by various media outlets across the country.

The next hearing – the 60-day status hearing – will be an individual hearing for each mother and must be held prior to June 5th.

Since the emergency 14-day hearing, Ms. Greco has been actively involved in advocating for the best interest of her young clients. For example, when the two-and-a-half-year-old girl became ill and ended up in the ICU of Texas Children’s Hospital, Ms. Greco worked tirelessly to get CPS to allow the child’s mother to visit the girl in the hospital. In addition, she has been working with CPS, the guardians ad litem, the case workers, the children’s mothers, and their lawyers to determine what is in her clients’ best interest.

“It has been a very interesting and rewarding experience,” says Ms. Greco. “I look forward to seeing our justice system play out as it should and really do what is in the best interest of each child.”

Ms. Greco’s volunteer work on this case is ongoing and will continue until the Court makes a final determination regarding custody.

For more information on Ms. Greco, visit http://www.dallastexaspersonalinjurylawyers.com/Shelly-greco-dallaslawyer.htm



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