A five-part series
Making the most of their victims’ misfortune
How a Redwood Valley family took a two-year-old from his mother in Florida, who helped them, and what every office in two states did when she asked. Every line is from a court record, a recording, or a letter from a public office. The documents are under each part.
Part 1
He said it on tape
March 15, 2025, thirty-nine minutes on camera: the paperwork, the money, the judges, the boy not leaving.
Part 2
The shadow grandma
The woman who pays for everything, and what she did on March 20.
Part 3
The taking
An order with the findings blank, a warrant marked “Proposed,” and a clinic visit the day before the paper allowed it.
Part 4
Every office
The deputy who took him, testified for him, and came back for her. Every office asked; every answer, dated.
Part 5
The order that rewrote the minutes
One date sworn on a Wednesday, a different one signed into an order on Thursday — and the courts above.
Every statement about a court proceeding on this site is drawn from a filed court record, cited by case number; where a recording is quoted, the quotation is verbatim and the time stamp is given. J.J. is referred to by his initials. No photograph of him appears on this site.