CPS Nightmare continued

Today I took the day off of work with the intention of finding a lawyer to represent us and get this thing over with. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Some firms only do court appointed cases, while many of the contacts given to me by friends and family don't practice the kind of law that we need. Here is a quote from a lawyer we know and respect (I've been recording all of my conversations) as to why he won't represent us:

This has a lot of complexity to it, because of what they are trying to do which is they are broadening the search. If they weren't broadening the search then it's clearly within my bailiwick. The aspect having to do with [Evan]...I'm not a criminal lawyer and I would hate to do anything with you that would make things more difficult for you down the road. I'm not for a second suggesting, and you need to understand this really clearly, that I think there was any foul play on...Evan's death. But that doesn't mean that the thing couldn't go sideways and ya get charged with a crime. And I realize that's not currently on the radar....[but] that aspect is outside of my skill set...Because of all of the issues you mentioned I don't think I'm the best person for you. If I was I would jump at the chance to help you.

We want to avoid a court appointed attorney because, as the same lawyer above says,

I think it is true that as a general rule, if you are a court appointed attorney, you're getting paid a pittance to represent a huge number of clients and you would go broke and you wouldn't have enough hours in the day to give them the kind of personalized attention that a paying customer would demand and expect.

I'm grateful that we have access to the resources we do. We still have a couple good leads for lawyers that we hope to follow in the coming days.

Today we also picked up Evan's case file from the police. There was nothing written in it that made it seem like there was any lingering doubt as to what happened. The lady we got the report from said that CPS hasn't requested it yet, but the police in our jurisdiction have (Evan died in a different jurisdiction than where we live now). My feeling is that this road won't go much further. The investigation from CPS has been opened though...they want to meet with us next week about it.

We also talked to the boys' principal from school. He sat in with J.Brady during their interviews yesterday. He said he couldn't tell us everything, but when we pushed a bit he gave us a couple of examples of questions that were asked. She asked how they liked school, if they liked their teacher, and if they get along with others. Unfortunately he didn't document anything so she makes notes that nobody gets to see and then is able to use them however she pleases.

And finally we talked to Children's Hospital to see if we could have an MRI done while Kira is in her natural sleep cycle instead of being put under with anesthesia. We weren't able to talk to the doctor that we have been dealing with, but the message has hopefully been relayed and now we wait to hear back.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I'm feeling much more positive about our situation today than I was yesterday, so something must be working.

Runaway Child

Every night after we put the kids in their room for bed they play with each other for an hour or two before falling asleep. Usually, during that time, I am in the room next to them on the computer. Last night, at about 9:15 p.m., Elliott knocks on the office door and when I answer it he says, "Graeden went outside."



So I get my shoes on and go outside to find him. I walk around the entire house and he's not there so I assume Elliott just thought he went out but he was really hiding or something. So I go back in the house and do a thorough search for him with no success. Now I start to worry a bit. I get my jacket on and go to the front of the house to look down the street both ways. Not there.

I walk a block down the street and look down the crossing street. There he is about three blocks away! He has crossed one of the busiest streets in the town of Snohomish and is about two blocks from getting to his good friends house (his destination). So I ran to him and picked him up and started carrying him back to the house. I wasn't really sure how to react but I'm glad I wasn't screaming like a crazy man because, as I got close to home, a cop showed up and said that somebody saw him walking across the street by himself and called the police.



After he asked a few questions; relationship to child, name, address, etc. he let us go. So Graeden is grounded today. He didn't get to go out while we pressure washed the house. And he doesn't get to go out with Elliott, Jett, and me later tonight. If this was the first time he'd ever run away I would think that was sufficient punishment, but it's the third time and the second time a police officer was called. Any tips for helping him understand the danger of running away and crossing busy streets on his own would be appreciated. By the way...he's only four.