City workers snatched a breastfeeding 11-month-old out of the arms of her \u201camazing\u201d mother without a court order \u2014 despite the agency\u2019s own staff finding \u201cno safety concerns\u201d in the home, a lawsuit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meredith Trainor filed the bombshell Queens federal court lawsuit on Tuesday, claiming the Administration for Children\u2019s Services \u201cforcibly seized\u201d her baby in early 2024 and held her for five days without stating a reason or obtaining a court order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving my baby taken from my arms without warning was the most terrifying moment of my life,\u201d said Trainor, a 33-year-old psychiatric social worker who was pregnant with her second child at the time.<\/p>\n
A new lawsuit claims that ACS workers \u201cforcibly seized\u201d a baby from a mother and held her for five days without stating a reason or obtaining a court order.\u00a0 William Farrington<\/p>\n
ACS said they are reviewing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The ordeal began on New Year\u2019s Eve 2023 when the baby girl experienced shortness of breath while at the park with her dad, Trainor\u2019s then-fianc\u00e9, the filing says. <\/p>\n
After rushing her to the hospital, doctors said the little girl tested positive for cocaine ingestion, according to the suit,\u00a0and notified child protective services.<\/p>\n
While ACS and the NYPD cuffed the dad \u2014 who had an alleged past of drug abuse \u2014 and barred him from their Queens apartment, Trainor was seemingly initially cleared by investigators, her suit contends.<\/p>\n
Two home inspections by ACS found the house to be \u201cclean, organized,\u201d noting that there were \u201cno safety concerns about the home,\u201d including no signs of drugs, the filing claims. Caseworkers noted the two as having a \u201cgood mother and child bond.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes what happened the next day so shocking, the suit contends. <\/p>\n
The suit claims that no signs of drug use were found in two searches of the home. 7G Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
ACS workers showed up on the evening of Jan. 4 and ripped the screaming infant from her arms \u201cwithout [Trainor\u2019s] consent or a court order authorizing a seizure,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n
Workers refused to tell Trainor why or where they were taking her little girl \u2014 and even threatened her \u201cwith the future removal of her unborn son if she did not comply with ACS\u2019s directives,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n
Trainor, who was \u201ccrying and begging,\u201d pleaded for a last breastfeed before being separated and asked that they at least take breastmilk to feed her before taking her away, but was allegedly declined, her suit said.<\/p>\n
Her baby screamed \u201cmama\u201d as she was taken \u2014 and could be still heard wailing a block away, the suit claims.<\/p>\n
In a neglect petition filed the next day in Queens Family Court, ACS\u2019 sole allegation cited was the father\u2019s positive drug test, the suit claims.<\/p>\n
For five days, Trainor\u2019s baby remained in ACS care until a judge ruled the removal was \u201cnot necessary to avoid imminent risk to the child\u2019s life or safety,\u201d and reunited the two, according to the suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The baby (not pictured) screamed \u201cmama\u201d as she was taken. Africa Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The neglect petition was dismissed months later, and a year after the incident, Trainor won full custody of her now two children, the suit says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSeparating a family is one of the most extreme powers the government has. It should only happen when a child is truly in danger \u2014 and that was plainly not the case here,\u201d said\u00a0Trainor\u2019s attorney Max Selver.<\/p>\n
Selver notes that out of the 1,400 emergency ACS removals each year, roughly 375 are determined \u201cnot justified\u201d by family courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmergency removals are only considered in circumstances where all other options are ruled out, and teams of highly trained child protective staff determine that a child is in imminent danger and that there is not enough time to get a court order,\u201d said ACS spokesperson Marisa Kaufman.<\/p>\n
Trainor says she still suffers from ongoing psychological trauma, including severe anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cHearing my baby cry for me as they drove away is something I will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City workers snatched a breastfeeding 11-month-old out of the arms of her \u201camazing\u201d mother without a court order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3775,11827,68820,7317,57,9,56,63,65,64,122,58],"class_list":["post-167714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-administration-for-childrens-services","tag-brooklyn-federal-court","tag-child-protective-service","tag-drugs","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-queens","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}