The mother was homeless and said she was hearing two voices – a good one and a bad one – and had to resist the urge to give her children to the devil, court documents say.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- A state appellate court has affirmed a decision to take away custody of two children from a Middlesex County couple after the mother allegedly requested a priest perform an exorcism on them when they were two years old and the father was in and out of jail and drug treatment.
On Thursday, the court upheld a decision from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency to terminate the parents' custody of the two children, a boy and a girl, now ages 7 and 6.
DCPP initially had contact with the family beginning in 2008 arising out of domestic disturbances, including the mother's alcohol use, father's conviction for aggravated assault and burglary, and the family's lack of housing, the decision says. The parents are not named in the court documents to protect the identity of the children.
The children were eventually removed from their parents in June 2011, after the mother took them to church and asked a priest to perform an exorcism on them, according to the decision.
The mother was homeless and said she was hearing two voices - a good one and a bad one - and had to resist the urge to give her children to the devil, court documents say. The children had also not eaten in three days, according to the documents.
The children were then put into foster care because the father was in prison and no other family member was available to care for them.
From 2011 to 2014, the mother had several psychiatric hospitalizations, reported hearing voices, experienced homicidal and suicidal thoughts, and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, according to court documents. She failed to take medication to treat her condition, was jailed twice for receiving stolen property, tested positive for marijuana and cocaine on several occasions, was expelled from parenting classes for poor attendance, and was evicted from housing because of physical altercations with others and substance abuse, the documents say.
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Although she had some positive visits with the children, over time her participation became sporadic, and she displayed inappropriate behavior, including sleeping during visits and hitting the children, and the children eventually resisted the visits, the documents say.
The mother also failed to appear for scheduled evaluations and told a psychologist she "still today believes it was the devil" who was talking to her and "pulling [her] hair while [she] was asleep."
The documents say the father did have supervised visits with the children after he was released from prison for several months, but was frequently in trouble with the law, tested positive for cocaine and refused treatment, and disappeared in February 2014. When he returned to New Jersey, a psychologist found although he read books, played with toys and sang songs with the children during an evaluation, he was a "somewhat familiar stranger" to them, the documents say.
The children had two prior placements before being placed with a foster parent willing to adopt them in December 2013, which prompted the biological parents' appeal of the custody decision.
On Thursday, the appellate court upheld the termination of custody, saying neither parent was able to provide the children a safe and stable home after they were removed from their care, and that the children "are entitled to the stability that adoption promises."
Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
