Berg Plummer Johnson & Raval, LLP: Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Accused of Religious Discrimination, 'Retaliatory' Investigation

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services ("DFPS") is accused in a new federal-court lawsuit of upholding disproven abuse allegations against a licensed foster parent because of her religion, the Berg Plummer Johnson & Raval, LLP law firm said today.

Filed in federal court in Austin, the lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to prohibit the agency and its commissioner, Jamie Masters, from continuing their "retaliatory scheme" against Jenna Gautreaux, of Beaumont, Texas, and to force the agency to remove Gautreaux from the state's central registry of child abusers.

According to the lawsuit, no one else that attended the state-mandated foster parent certification training with Gautreaux and her husband in 2020 faced questions about their religious practices.

Gautreaux was cleared of all allegations in a series of hearings held by an Orange County, Texas court and was cleared for continued placement of foster children in her family home contingent upon DFPS's own approval. However, she has remained a target of the state agency because of her family's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The lawsuit also seeks to have the federal court find that the department's child abuse registry scheme violates the Texas Constitution's separation of powers mandate.

Hundreds of pages of state agency investigative records show that DFPS had decided – before their fact-finding had begun – to report that there was "reason to believe" abuse had occurred, according to the lawsuit. Two concerns cited in the agency records, the lawsuit asserts, were that Gautreaux "comes from a huge family" and is "with Church of Latter-Day Saints, Mormon." The agency's action violated Gautreaux's First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment constitutional rights and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Gautreaux is represented by Mike Schneider, Geoffrey Berg, and Kathryn E. Nelson of Berg Plummer Johnson & Raval, LLP in Houston.

Attorney Mike Schneider said, "State agency personnel were determined to damage the reputations of Jenna Gautreaux and her husband. When the couple questioned the findings and the process, the agency engaged in defamatory and other malicious acts to punish them for questioning its authority and for their religious affiliation."

Schneider, as a state district judge, financially sanctioned DFPS for record amounts for their unlawful behavior. Now retired, Mr. Schneider litigates many child protective service matters. He adds, "This incident should alarm foster parents of all religious faiths in Texas. This state agency knowingly damaged Jenna Gautreaux – in the community, in the workplace and within her family's church – without any credible evidence and in spite of a judge's repeated findings to the contrary. A legitimate DFPS investigation would have gathered the facts first and exonerated Jenna sooner. It's wrong for the agency to keep her on the state's central child abuse registry and it's wrong that the state can use false allegations to ruin the reputations of innocent people."

Jenna Gautreaux said, "We are good foster parents, and my husband and I are people of strong faith. That should not be a conflict in the eyes of the state of Texas. We simply want to set the record straight with this lawsuit and return to fostering and adopting the children we love and teaching the children in our congregation."

The case is, "Jenna Gautreaux v. Jamie Masters and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services," Case No. 1:21-cv-01166 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.

CONTACT: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for Berg Plummer Johnson & Raval, LLP, 281.703.6000, [email protected].

SOURCE Berg Plummer Johnson & Raval, LLP