The Department for Children and Families illegally conspired with private service providers to surveil a pregnant woman, attempt to coerce her into a cesarean, and wrongfully take custody of her child, the ACLU of Vermont alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The 30-page complaint, filed in Lamoille County Superior Court, was filed on behalf of a single plaintiff, named only “A.V.” in the suit. But the ACLU claims that her experience is not unique, and that DCF maintains a so-called “high-risk pregnancy calendar” to regularly monitor pregnant Vermonters deemed “unsuitable for parenthood,” using confidential information illegally obtained from medical providers and social service organizations.
Morrisville’s Copley Hospital and Lund, a nonprofit social service provider based out of South Burlington, are named as defendants in addition to DCF. The ACLU’s suit claims staff at Copley and Lund “routinely disclose confidential information about pregnant Vermonters to DCF based on concerns about the expectant parent’s choices, even where there are no allegations or suspicions of child neglect or abuse.”
The suit asks a judge to declare that DCF’s practice of monitoring pregnant Vermonters through its “high-risk pregnancy calendar” unlawful. It also seeks unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.
DCF Commissioner Chris Winters said the department was still reviewing the lawsuit.
“We take our mission of protecting children and supporting families seriously and work hard to balance the safety and well-being of children with the rights of parents. We will issue a statement once we have had an opportunity to review the suit and investigate the claims made within it,” he said in a statement.
“We learned of these allegations when they appeared in the news today,” Lund’s interim CEO, Ken Schatz, wrote in a statement. “We take these matters very seriously and we are actively working to gather more information to understand the situation fully.”
Wayne Stockbridge, chief administration and human resources officer for Copley, wrote in an email that the hospital had “no comment regarding this lawsuit.”
VTDigger first reported the lawsuit.
According to the suit, A.V. became pregnant with her first child in 2021, and, during her third trimester, lost her apartment in Elmore and temporarily came to live at Charter House, a homeless shelter in Middlebury. While the homeless shelter did not conduct a mental health evaluation, according to the ACLU’s suit, its executive director reached out to DCF to report that A.V. “appear[ed] to have untreated mental health issues of paranoia and dissociative behaviors, PTSD and ... a history of sexual trauma and physical abuse.”
The shelter’s report prompted DCF to open “an assessment for lack of parental capacity” and assign a caseworker. The caseworker then reached out to Lund, where A.V. had sought a confidential counseling session, and Copley, where A.V. planned to give birth. She also reached out to A.V.’s mother, according to the ACLU, who said that A.V. had no mental health diagnoses and had made preparations for the baby’s arrival.
In violation of DCF’s own policies, the caseworker did not even notify A.V. that this assessment was taking place, according to the ACLU. Both Lund and Copley provided to DCF the information the caseworker sought — without A.V.’s knowledge or consent.
A.V. later returned to her apartment from Charter House and went into labor on Feb. 11, 2022. Unbeknownst to A.V., workers at Copley notified DCF, and offered highly granular — and confidential — updates to the state about A.V.’s delivery.
“The hospital staff were texting with DCF about the dilation of her cervix,” senior ACLU staff attorney Harrison Stark said in an interview.
While A.V. was still in labor, DCF and Deputy State’s Attorney Aliena Gerhard went to court, seeking to transfer temporary custody of A.V.'s as-yet-unborn child to DCF.
In an affidavit, the caseworker alleged that temporary custody was necessary “given the significant concerns regarding A.V.’s mental state, and her ability to provide safe care for an infant.” The affidavit also falsely claimed, according to the ACLU, that A.V.’s child had already been born. The caseworker’s affidavit’s also included a section titled “historical concerns,” which described an incident from when A.V. was 16 involving DCF and allegations of parental abuse.
That section is “particularly troubling,” according to Stark, “because it implies that once you're in the child welfare system, even as a kid, that somehow justifies intervention later, when you're a fully autonomous adult.”
DCF’s request for temporary custody was granted, and A.V. continued to labor into the next day. At the same time, staff at Copley grew frustrated at her refusal to undergo a cesarean section, and contacted the Vermont Department of Mental Health in “an apparent attempt to have her treated involuntarily,” according to the suit.
DMH rejected the staff’s request. Copley staff contacted an assistant attorney general, who referred them to DCF attorney Ted Kenney. Kenney filed an emergency motion in civil court to prevent A.V. from leaving the hospital and to force her to undergo the medical interventions recommended by hospital staff.
The motion alleged that A.V. was “showing signs of delusions and paranoia,” according to the suit, despite the fact that no emergency mental health evaluation had been conducted and that DMH had advised that no evaluation was necessary. A judge asked to speak to A.V. directly, and learned in the course of the hearing she had already consented to the surgery. The motion was deemed moot.
A.V. delivered a healthy baby girl on Feb. 12, 2022. Immediately after, hospital staff took possession of the child, who was placed in foster care.
“A.V. was not allowed to hold — or even touch— her baby,” the suit states.
The woman at the center of the ACLU’s suit ultimately won custody of her baby daughter back from the state, when, seven months after her birth, a family court rejected DCF’s allegations and ordered mother and child be reunified.
“No court ever found that A.V. lacked parental capacity,” the lawsuit states, adding that evaluations conducted by mental health professionals “concluded that A.V. suffered none of the conditions alleged by DCF.”
The nonprofit Pregnancy Justice and the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, both of New York, as well as Middlebury attorney Sarah Star, are representing A.V. with the ACLU.
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