Custody Battle

Location: Ohio

My brother and his wife were arrested in the death of my special needs nephew. Nephew was 31 years old and was 50lbs at death. He died of sepsis and malnutrition. He was covered in severe bed sores some down to the bone, some were "necrotic flesh" with exposed muscle. He suffered.

The autopsy ruled this death as a homicide. In addition, my brother is a registered sex offender who caught that charge for molesting his oldest daughter from age nine to the time she was eleven when it was discovered. My wife and I were awarded "full custody" of their three remaining children, two boys (6 and 8 at the time) and a baby girl (4 month old at the time).

Short story, they were allowed an Alford plea from Homicide down to two counts each of "Failure to provide for a special needs individual". The judge sentenced them to the max five years each for those charges, but botched the paperwork and failed to justify the max sentence. These parents won an appeal and were released free and clear with no post release control after only serving a year and a half for this basically murder. Their lawyers are now allegedly trying to claim their children were taken under false pretenses.

These children (specifically the two oldest boys) are SEVERELY traumatized. We have documentation that they have needed constant therapy due to the trauma of their upbringing. We have documentation that proves they lied about homeschooling these boys. The boys talked to their therapist about some inappropriate contact with their mother. We are the only "mommy" and "daddy" this baby girl has ever known. These boys now express fear of their parents kidnapping them and their sister from us documented.

In your opinion, do we have enough to prevent these children from their parents getting visits, or worse, regaining custody? I am a counselor, and my wife is a daycare worker. We are BOTH mandated reporters who understand the importance of documentation. I have a FULL two inch binder (and then some) of relevant documents when the time comes. The boys are 10 and 12 now, and baby girl is 4. The parents were released back June of 2025 and have not reached out to us or the children in any way yet. Our lawyer suggested we wait until they do so that the court proceedings are on their dime. We feel like we are living under the constant shadow of litigation, but we are doing our best to prepare for the unknown to continue to protect these children from these parents and continued trauma.