Jackie and Juan Boatright, a young Hispanic couple from Fort Worth, are fighting to bring their infant daughter Evelyn home after she was wrongfully removed from their care by Cook Children’s Hospital and Child Protective Services (CPS).
Evelyn was born on December 24, 2023, through a traumatic 12-hour delivery that ended in an emergency C-section. She had bruising and swelling, but doctors assured Jackie and Juan that she would recover just fine. Evelyn was removed from her family and placed in foster care just six weeks later when Jackie and Juan sought medical care for her at Cook Children’s for unusual twitching and vomiting.
Despite Cook Children’s medical team initially noting in the medical records that they had no concern for abuse or neglect, Cook’s staff later reviewing an MRI noted a small brain bleed and immediately suspected child abuse. Expert medical testimony established that the traumatic circumstances of her birth could explain Evelyn’s injuries, but Cook Children’s conducted no investigation of these alternative medical explanations before accusing the family of child abuse. Instead, Cook Children’s escalated the situation by calling CPS.
Within hours, the family was forced to leave the hospital, and Evelyn was placed in foster care. The family’s nightmare deepened as the CPS caseworker assigned to their case was caught fabricating evidence of domestic violence, telling Jackie and Juan (falsely) that their family members were prohibited from speaking with each other about the case, and even going so far as lying to Juan that she has seen Jackie with another man. The caseworker was later fired.
At a hearing in August, a Child Abuse Pediatrician testifying in defense of Jackie and Juan said that Cook Children’s analysis appeared to have been extremely rushed–as if they had assumed child abuse from the beginning and failed to investigate other possible medical explanations.
The case has been marked by more than seven months of obstruction by Cook Children’s and the courts against Jackie and Juan’s attorneys, including extreme delays in the production of medical records, a refusal by two separate judges to keep an official court record of the case, and a refusal by the judge to provide a court appointed medical expert for Jackie and Juan, despite their extremely low income and inability to pay. Ultimately, Jackie and Juan’s family had to fundraise and sell used cars to scrape together the funds to retain the first medical expert for the August hearing.
Now, Jackie and Juan finally have a chance at a full and fair hearing. With the help of the Family Freedom Project, they have secured expert medical testimony for their upcoming hearing on November 11-13 and will be heard in front of a new judge, Judge Randy Catterton, after the previous judge recused herself from the case.
The Family Freedom Project is urging the community to support the Boatrights as they seek justice and the return of their daughter, and is urging Cook Children’s Hospital to end their campaign against this innocent family.
"By the time Jackie and Juan’s case is heard in court, Evelyn will have been separate from her parents for nine months. Your right to raise your child should not depend on how much money you have to defend yourself. Jackie, Juan, and Evelyn have been bulldozed by a medical system that was supposed to help them, and then they were ignored by a court system that should have protected them.", said Jeremy Newman, VP at the Family Freedom Project.
About Family Freedom Project
The Family Freedom Project is dedicated to defending the right of families to raise their children, including the defense of families unjustly separated by CPS.
