Who might sign your children away?

We were shocked last year to learn that a state child protective worker could take a child from her home without a judge's permission or custodial parent's consent.

Maybe you remember Jessica Wilbur's nightmarish story: While traveling, Wilbur, of Guernsey, left her 5-year-old daughter Isabella in her grandma's care. While Wilbur was gone, the girl spent a weekend with her biological father, who told DHS investigators he was worried the girl had been sexually abused.

And though the father had no parental rights, the Department of Human Services allowed him to voluntarily place the girl in foster care. Even after an investigation failed to turn up any evidence, DHS refused to let the girl go home to Wilbur.

Since the foster care placement was voluntary, Wilbur had no right to a hearing or an attorney to help get Isabella back. Since Wilbur didn't sign the voluntary agreement, she couldn't rescind it.

Isabella was gone for weeks before Wilbur was able to bring her home - only after her story appeared in The Gazette. Now Wilbur is suing DHS Director Charles Krogmeier and a DHS abuse investigator in Johnson County. That case is set for trial in May.

You'd think that would have been plenty enough to persuade the department to stop letting non-custodial parents sign away their exes' parental rights. Think again. I recently heard from Wilbur's attorney, Natalie Cronk of Iowa City, about another case unfolding in Jasper County. It happened this summer, she said, well after Wilbur's case made the news.

Here's what Cronk told me: Lance Brown has had sole legal custody of his two elementary school-aged children for years. But this summer, while the children were staying with an aunt, she sent them to stay at their biological mother's house.

The children's' mother called DHS to report suspected abuse and voluntarily placed one child in foster care, signing a safety plan barring the other child from having any contact with Brown.

Like Wilbur, Brown had no right to a hearing, no legal help and little information, Cronk said.

Even with a custody order in hand, Cronk said, police wouldn't help Brown retrieve his children because of the agreements his ex-wife had signed with DHS. At his wits' end, he found Wilbur's story online and contacted her. She put him in touch with Cronk.

Who asked me Tuesday: How many more of these cases are out there?

“I'm a mom,” she said. “I don't get this. ... Why do they keep doing it?”

To that, I'll add a question of my own: What will it take to make them stop?

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jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net