As Dana Smith was planning a funeral for her 11-year-old disabled son who drowned last month, she found out she might have her other three children, one of them a 6-month-old, taken away.
Smith told Channel 2 Action News that police threatened to have the Division of Family and Children Services take her other children away if she didn’t cooperate in the investigation against her husband.
Michael David Smith is charged with murder and child cruelty after police say he left his autistic, wheelchair bound stepson, Ty Lee, in a bathtub alone to tend to other children in the house. Smith was arrested and is being held in the Clayton County Jail without bond.
Dana Smith told Channel 2 that DFCS contacted her about getting the kids a week after her son died. The government organization has no history of visiting her home.
“To now (try and) rip her other children (from her) when (there’s) zero allegation that she’s ever been a negligent mother,” Smith’s lawyer, Kimberly Bandoh, told Channel 2.
A DFCS official told Channel 2 they couldn’t comment on the case because of confidentiality laws, but said children are typically removed from a home if there is evidence they weren’t properly supervised.
According to a removal order obtained by Channel 2, the state wants to remove the children because Smith doesn’t have any other caretakers available. Smith, however, said the children’s grandparents and a godparent are available.
Bandoh said that’s no reason to remove the children from the home.
“Are you upset because she’s standing with her husband and standing by her husband?” Bandoh said.
Smith said between the threats and allegations, she hasn’t had time to grieve.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a moment to sit here and think.”
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