Is This Witness Intimidation?? Help

Location: Minnesota USA

Context: TW child sexual abuse.

Me (18 f) and my sister (16 f) attended a church summer camp last summer, during which a friend of ours (who I’ll call Rose) (16 f) disclosed she was being sexually abused by her step dad and her mom (who I’ll call Susan) was complicit and sided with him.

The church leadership reported this to the police and Rose was unable to return home where stepdad lived. My family has always had an open door policy (and being a survivor of abuse herself) my mom welcomed Rose into our family. So my family kinship fostered Rose for about 6 weeks with Susan’s consent. Susan still had guardianship, we just were taking care of her temporally from a legal perspective. Rose never officially entered foster care but had a case worker and a social worker (important to note she never had a personal advocate for herself, because she was never officially in foster care)

Susan was very unhappy with Rose and said the abuse was family information and private. She also said sexual abuse is “just part of our culture.” Susan was furious that Rose was getting support against her abuser and that her family’s “dirty laundry” was getting aired out.

One night in July, at around 9pm we got a phone call. Susan had requested a change in custody and was moving Rose across the country to live with distant relatives at 7 am the next morning. CPS then removed Rose from our home and sent her on a plane 1000 miles away from her support network. Susan also took Rose’s phone and laptop from her and forbade her from getting in contact with my family (because we’re “bad influences”).

We had no idea what happened to Rose for over a month until friend reached out via social media. The relative she’s living with reports everything back to Susan and takes all direction from Susan. Rose is not allowed to leave the house, have friends, attend church events etc..

CPS also closed her case because she’s no longer in their jurisdiction, meaning legally there’s really no way to get her back to MN (even if she wasn’t in my family custody). Rose wants to come back to MN more than anything else but has no say in the matter. Relative and Susan have no idea my family is in regular communication with Rose.

Meanwhile, in MN step dad was arrested and pre trial began. My family and church leaders have talked with lawyers, sat through every legal meeting and we finally have a criminal trial date for August. We’ve done our best to advocate for Rose since she can’t be there, and telling her any information she may want to know. Susan has also been there in support of step dad with their three young sons (all under age 6).

My younger sister and Rose will both testify in August. Rose reported to my family that Susan told her to recant and say she lied “or else” and that she would disown her and she’d never see her siblings again if she testified. The issue is if we share this information with the prosecution, the lawyer is required to tell the DA and she’ll tell step dad and Susan. Susan would then know we’ve secretly been in contact and I worry about Rose’s safety.

So my question is this witness intimidation and is there anyway we could tell the prosecution without endangering my friend? Also would this be substantial enough to terminate mom’s parental rights and move her back to MN?? Or is that a crazy hope. I’m desperate and I miss her more than anything. Thank you for reading all of this.