{"id":157898,"date":"2026-04-05T16:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:43:09","slug":"federal-judge-clears-familys-federal-lawsuit-against-allegheny-county-cyf-to-move-forward-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157898\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge clears family\u2019s federal lawsuit against Allegheny County CYF to move forward \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">A family\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/lawsuit-alleges-allegheny-county-cyf-discriminated-against-parents-with-mild-disabilities\/TXKAPEVCPJCSBLXQP44GDWP6VI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/lawsuit-alleges-allegheny-county-cyf-discriminated-against-parents-with-mild-disabilities\/TXKAPEVCPJCSBLXQP44GDWP6VI\/\">federal lawsuit<\/a> against the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families is moving forward. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The lawsuit filed on behalf of Andrew and Lauren Hackney in 2024 names the county, three CYF caseworkers and three CYF supervisors as defendants. It alleges that CYF conspired to take away the Hackneys\u2019 parental rights because of their disabilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">According to the lawsuit, the Hackneys took their baby to the doctor because she wouldn\u2019t take her bottle. A medical professional then filed a report with CYF, and a foster family was later granted legal custody of the baby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Andrew is diagnosed with borderline intellectual functioning and post-stroke neurocognitive disorder. Lauren is diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability and anxiety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Margaret S. Coleman of O\u2019Brien Coleman &amp; Wright is representing the Hackneys. She claims the county has an unconstitutional policy of terminating the familial rights of intellectually disabled parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Coleman says the defendants asked the court to dismiss the case because they could not be sued for their actions. But on March 31, a federal judge disagreed, clearing the way for the lawsuit to move forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThe Hackneys, like all parents, have a fundamental constitutional right to care for their daughter,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cThe County and its caseworkers blatantly violated that right in a way that would shock the conscience of any reasonable person. The Hackneys intend to hold them fully accountable for the pain and destruction they have caused.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Channel 11 has reached out to the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and is waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">You can read the Hackneys\u2019 lawsuit below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family\u2019s federal lawsuit against the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families is moving forward. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71463,894,71462,56455,40177,71464,71461,7005,4613,71472,71465,15327,71470,71473,2112,71471,71467,71466,23794,73,75,74,71469,71468],"class_list":{"0":"post-157898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-allegehny-coutny-lawsuit","9":"tag-allegheny-county","10":"tag-allegheny-county-cyf","11":"tag-children-youth-and-families","12":"tag-cyf","13":"tag-cyf-lawsuit","14":"tag-cyf-office","15":"tag-department-of-human-services","16":"tag-dhs","17":"tag-disabiltiy","18":"tag-disabiltiy-lawsuit","19":"tag-disabled","20":"tag-disabled-parents","21":"tag-discriminate","22":"tag-discrimination","23":"tag-intellectual-disability","24":"tag-parent-lawsuit","25":"tag-parental-rights","26":"tag-parents","27":"tag-pittsburgh","28":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","29":"tag-pittsburgh-news","30":"tag-sue","31":"tag-suing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}