MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. (WRGB) — Newly filed court records show Child Protective Services documented years of concern before four Mechanicville children were killed by their mother and grandmother, raising a central question: Why weren’t the children removed from the home?
The records detail findings of educational neglect and inadequate guardianship, extensive school absences, and concerns about the mental health of the children’s mother, Sarah Myers. They also show services were offered to Myers but refused.
“The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is in the process of investigating how Saratoga County’s Child Protective Services handled this case and will hold the county accountable for any wrongdoing,” said a spokesperson with OCFS.
CBS6 took the records to Michael Belsky, a family law attorney with Tully Rinckey who is not involved in the case, to better understand what authority CPS had and what would have been required to remove the children.
Belsky said CPS cannot simply force a parent to participate in services or automatically remove children from a home. If CPS believes children face sufficient danger, he said, the agency can file an Article 10 abuse or neglect proceeding in Family Court and ask a judge to intervene.
“CPS, Child Protective Services, can file what’s called an Article 10 proceeding in Family Court,” Belsky said. “You could ask the court to immediately remove children from parents if they believe that there are some type of imminent danger staying with that parent.”
According to the records, CPS did not file an Article 10 proceeding.
CPS assessments identified Myers’ mental health as a “safety factor,” but determined the concern did not rise to the level of immediate or impending danger of serious harm.
Belsky said that distinction is important.
“So, what they’re saying there is that they believe there is a safety factor, but it didn’t rise to the level where they believe that should be able to file an article 10 and then remove the children,” said Belsky.
At the same time, CPS investigations documented findings determining that the “children’s physical, mental and emotional condition has been impaired or placed at imminent danger of impairment because Sarah failed to exercise a minimum degree of care in supplying adequate education.”
Belsky said that, after reviewing the records as a whole, he believes the circumstances warranted court intervention.
“In my position as an attorney, does it rise to that level? Most definitely,” Belsky said.
He pointed to the children’s extensive school absences, Myers’ repeated refusal of services and concerns about whether her mental health was affecting her ability to care for the children.
“When you put that all together,” Belsky said, “it does rise to that level, but they did nothing about it.”
His assessment is a legal opinion made after the fact and based on the records available to him.
While CPS was investigating the family in New York, the children’s father, Brady Harmon, was fighting for custody through the court system in Utah.
Belsky said the CPS findings could have been significant in a custody proceeding.
“I believe that in any state, things of this nature would definitely have brought the judge’s attention, would have definitely swayed the judge immediately to do something,” he said.
Harmon’s attorneys say Harmon never saw the records, so he did not know the full extent of what CPS caseworkers were finding in New York, adding that ultimately, the records did not make it into the custody proceeding.
