The trouble started in DeKalb County in August 2018. Wendy Hancock’s 16-year old son, Chantz, ran away from home when Hancock wouldn’t let his girlfriend stay overnight.
Mom filed a missing persons report with the Smithville Police Department on August 8, 2018. Chantz was with his estranged father, Kevin Bowling, a drug-addict.
It is unclear how the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) knew that but two days later, DCS caseworker Deandra Miller visited Bowling who tested positive for meth-amphetamine. Instead of returning Chantz to his mother, who was the custodial parent, DCS took him into custody and a week later took his 12-year old sister, Briella.
As we have reported, punitive and perverse outcomes are common in DCS cases all over Tennessee. DCS prosecutes poor parents who rarely can afford an attorney to defend them. It is also common for DCS to use drug use as a pretext to wrongfully remove kids from their families. (See Child Dies)
Juvenile Court judges routinely grant a removal order to DCS after they file a dependent and neglect petition. Using that legal document, DCS removes thousands of kids every year from their families and put them in foster care, a booming industry.
The estranged Father was a drug-user, not Mom, and that should be relevant. DCS often uses failed drug tests to show the children are abused or neglected even when they’ve tested the wrong party.
What DCS should have done is get family services to counsel the family and work out Chantz’s problem with his mother. But this story is not about what could or should have happened but about what did. In this case, DCS ran with Chantz’s allegation that his Mom, who wouldn’t let him have sex with his girlfriend in her house, was a drug dealer.
Donkey Justice
DCS caseworker Deandra Miller visited Hancock on Wednesday August 8th, the same day she filed a missing persons report. Miller wanted Hancock to take a drug test. Hancock told her to talk with her attorney, Connie Reguli. “I don’t have to talk to your attorney. I will just go and get a court order,” Miller said. And she did. But it wasn’t about taking a drug test. That was just a pretext and Hancock later passed the test. Miller had something more sinister in mind.
Before it was over, at least 15 people were drawn into the conspiracy to prosecute Hancock and railroad Reguli. There were police from Smithville and Brentwood, foster parents in Jackson, a DCS foster home contractor, DCS attorneys and caseworkers, clerks, judges, and district attorneys in two counties.
Miller went to Juvenile Court Judge Michael Collins in Smith County to get a removal order but he had no jurisdiction in DeKalb County so the order was invalid. But that didn’t stop the judge from issuing the order or DCS from taking the children.
Reguli went to Collins to argue he had no jurisdiction in the case and no authority to issue the removal order. He recused himself. But the damage was done, the game was afoot, and things were about to take a nasty turn. During that fateful week in August 2018, Reguli said that she called DCS six or seven times.
“Thursday I call DCS. Friday I call DCS; Friday I call the detective. Monday I call DCS; Monday I call the detective. I made four calls to the clerk’s office Monday all trying to find out what’s going on and they won’t tell me. They tell me they are going to fax a petition. They don’t do it.
Tuesday comes. I call DCS again. Nobody calls me back. I call regional. I call the central office. I call the local office. I call the Smithville office. I call Deandra Miller. I call her supervisor. All of them I leave a message: ‘We will meet with you. We will cooperate. You can do a welfare check’. Nobody calls me back and that’s the critical thing because by policy DCS is supposed to have a safety meeting with the parent and they were pissed because Wendy had an attorney and it happened to be me. And so, it was a set up. We were bamboozled,” Reguli said.
“My client was denied due process every which way to Friday, right? They had my phone number, they got a removal order; they didn’t call me and tell me they had a removal order. They didn’t call me and tell me there was a hearing. We would have been at that hearing had we known. They didn’t try and serve her. A phone call would have resolved the whole thing because I told them we would come to the office and meet with them,” she said.
DCS didn’t want it resolved. They wanted custody of both Hancock’s children.
In DCS’s dependency and neglect petition, caseworker Deandra Miller wrote that “mother refused to cooperate with DCS and law enforcement”.
“That was a flat lie,” Reguli said.
Meanwhile, the mom, Wendy Hancock, was sitting at home with her daughter. She was frantic for fear that DCS would show up at her door and take away Briella, age 12. She checked into a hotel for the night, called Reguli, who told her to come stay with her while she figured out what was going on.
“They all knew she had an attorney and instead of returning a phone call they went behind our backs to remove the child who is perfectly innocent and perfectly safe. They pinged my phone and surrounded my house with police instead of calling me back, “ Reguli said.
A Brentwood policeman saw Briella through Reguli’s rear window and they sat outside for a couple of hours before DCS showed up to take Briella to Jackson, 200 miles away from her home in Smithville.
Chantz and Briella were in six foster homes and four schools in ten months. After eight court hearings that Reguli described as “aggressive and unnecessary litigation”, DCS dismissed its neglect and dependency petition and returned the kids to their Mom in June 2019. The case was over or so it seemed.
The Case of Murderous Mary
Justice was swift and uncompromising in the case of “Murderous Mary”. Mary was a five-ton Asian elephant and the star of Sparks World Famous Shows. The circus was in Kingsport, Tennessee on September 12, 1916.
A newly hired and incompetent elephant keeper, Red Eldridge, led the elephant parade, riding atop Mary. He prodded her with a hook poking a badly infected tooth after she reached down to nibble on a watermelon rind. Mary went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against a drink stand and stepped on his head, killing him instantly. The crowd yelled “Kill the Elephant! Kill the Elephant!”
The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, decided that the only way to quickly resolve the situation was to lynch the elephant in public. He did so the next day.
Mary was transported by rail to Unicoi County, Tennessee, where a crowd of over 2,500 people assembled in the Clinchfield Railroad yard. Mary was hanged from a railcar-mounted industrial derrick. She was 22 years old.
Connie Reguli stands five feet five inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds dripping wet. You wouldn’t think the petite Family Law attorney would inspire the kind of blood lust that killed Mary. But she does.
“DCS wanted to get me when I fought them in Juvenile Court. The DCS attorney went to Brentwood PD to get Brentwood police to open a case so they could later arrest us,” Reguli said. That DCS attorney was Tracy Hetzel. The DCS caseworker in Smithville who started the ball rolling was Deandra Miller.
Hetzel’s malice towards Reguli was quite visceral. Reguli was winning the match between the two in Juvenile Court while Reguli fought with DCS to return Hancock’s children. During a break one day, Reguli left the courtroom but left her audio recorder and it captured Hetzel who was unaware she was being recorded.
“I wouldn’t take pointers from you. You’re seconds away from being disbarred, bitch.” Hetzel said. The nasty comment telegraphed the felony charges, arrests, and trials Reguli and Hancock would soon face. It is clear evidence that Hetzel was part of the conspiracy to prosecute them. Indeed, she was its prime instigator. Hetzel attended Reguli’s three-day trial, as did several of the other plotters, all of them like the people who came to see Murderous Mary hang from a railroad derrick.
A corrupt DA, a crooked judge, and politics
Williamson County District Attorney Kim Helper prepared the indictment for the grand jury. She misstated the law pertaining to custodial interference in which a visitation order is the fundamental cause for prosecution. There wasn’t one.
The grand jury returned an indictment of custodial interference for detaining a child in violation of a court order, a class E felony. Helper charged the mom, Wendy Hancock. She charged Reguli with facilitation of a felony and with accessory after the fact of a class E felony.
Custodial interference occurs when a parent refuses to return the children to the other parent as per the parenting plan. A court orders a visitation schedule both parents must follow. Mind you, the indictments were issued after the case was closed by DCS. There was no visitation order to violate. Mom had full custody and Dad was out of the picture. That didn’t stop the conspirators from pursuing the case on trumped up charges.
Both Hancock and Reguli filed motions to dismiss the case because there was no visitation order. The only two precedents prosecuted under this law were about visitation orders.
During the criminal trial Judge Joseph Woodruff changed the language of the statute regarding custodial interference and wrote his own jury instructions, deleting any reference to visitation orders.
The order the DA said Hancock violated was not a visitation order but a removal order from a judge who had no jurisdiction. The pair were not indicted until one year after the alleged crime and after DCS had returned both children to their mom.
“The judge changed the law to fit the facts so they could proceed to trial. That’s how they manufactured a crime. It’s a fake felony,” Reguli said.
In addition, the judge erred by not instructing the jury that as a matter of law, accessory after the fact does not apply when attorneys are representing their clients.
Judge Woodruff has a god complex. It’s an occupational hazard. He thinks the law is what he says it is. But the General Assembly writes the laws and judges can’t change them just to fit the facts of a case. That’s what he did.
Hancock was convicted in July 2021. Reguli’s trial was inexplicably delayed—deliberately, according to Reguli–and she wasn’t convicted until early voting began for Juvenile Judge in Williamson County in April 2022. Immediately after the verdict, the Tennessee Supreme Court suspended Reguli’s law license.
Reguli, a Republican, was a candidate running against incumbent Sharon Guffee for Juvenile Judge in Williamson County. Reguli got a lot of bad press and lost to Guffee 11,909 votes to 3,959 votes.
Judge Woodruff contributed money to Guffee’s campaign and sits on the board with her planning the new $120 million juvenile justice complex for Williamson County. We have become a society that locks up its troubled youth in Juvenile Justice centers, that no matter how fancy, are still jails.
Hancock got two years probation and had to testify against Reguli who will be sentenced at the end of June.
Reguli filed a motion for a new trial in the Circuit Court of Williamson County. She wants the court to reverse the guilty verdicts, or grant a new trial, or act as a thirteenth juror and enter an acquittal in the case.
What the Case was Really About
One level of the case was about Judge Woodruff taking out his friend’s challenger for Juvenile Court judge. Mission accomplished. On another level, it was about the corruption of law and corrosion of the court’s impartiality by a criminal enterprise. The judge willingly participated.
Reguli is a staunch defender of parents’ rights and an advocate for reform of the child welfare system. She is also a fierce and effective adversary of DCS. If the verdicts are allowed to stand Reguli is worried about the chilling effect it will have. “With the ability to shut me down in this way, it certainly will put other attorneys on notice not to go against DCS,” she said.
The conspiracy to get rid of Reguli cost lots of money—it was a 12-month investigation– that included search warrants and electronic retrieval. It also involved a lot of respectable people—law and order types—who hate Reguli for exposing the sloppy operations and vindictive corruption that permeates DCS at every level in every county of Tennessee.
When they don’t follow their own procedures or violate the law, Reguli is good at holding DCS to account and more often than not, wins cases for her clients.
DCS, its friends in law enforcement, and the courts like to operate with impunity. They don’t like their authority challenged and they’ve dealt Reguli a hard low blow. If she survives and ultimately triumphs, the conspirators who tried to crush her will have to wipe the smirks off their faces and own the guilt they so richly deserve.
45 Comments
Connie is doing the right thing. I have seen these actions unfold and it is a sad day in America when Attorneys who are doing the moral and right thing for families are targeted to conceal abuse of process. Prosecutorial misconduct is very clear here, this case needs to be removed to Federal Court and anyone involved in perjury and conspiracy against rights should be held accountable. The courts which are punishing Connie are not article III courts they are administrative they do not care about the constitution or fundamental liberty interests. They care about Money and Power. I stand with Connie#Justice4connie#Justice4all
Great Story!!! I work as a Child Welfare Advocate in DC. Most lawyers who buck the system get booted out. Connie is only guilty of standing up to a system…the judiciary side of foster care to help keep kids out of foster care.
The primary source of Americans sex trafficking; continues to be foster children. Someone has to do something to protect children!
Thank you for this article, Connie is such a hero to thousands of American parents!! When the institutions attack with this level of desperation, it’s clear they are threatened! Stand with Connie Reguli!
I’m so PROUD OF MS CONNIE REGULI for being brave to fight for what’s right I’m the Law and not be intimidated by the political corruption within Tennessees judicial system. I pray you sue the State of Tennessee at least it’ll help get the truth out. WE NEED MORE BRAVE ATTORNEYS LIKE CONNIE REGULI, UNTIL WE HAVE THAT AND REMOVE TGE CORRUPT OUR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ARE NOT SAFE IN ANY WAY. IF YOU THINK THIS ISN’T REALITY JUST WAIT BECAUSE YOU’LL BE NEXT. GO GET EM CONNIE AMERICA IS BEHIND YOU 100% WE LOVE & SUPPORT YOU! YOU AMERICAS FAMILY ATTORNEY! BE SAFE WE’RE WATCHING YOU GIRL.
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Love n Miss you more than life #KaynTay always here waiting with open arms
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Here’s the break down. Social worker takes child claiming child is abused.
What she/he did there was 1 not only garunteed his/her monthly flow of income ( because without kids in the system people who work for that system don’t get paid) , but 2 also received an “incentive or overtime” for aiding a child in need.
Now it goes to a court hearing. Which every single person at the juvenile Dependency court all get money from a kid being in the system . The judge, the clerks, the social workers , parents “lawyers” ever the balifes all are employee simply because kids are in the system. Parents lawyers are not going to help them the judges are not going to rule in favor of the parents, why would they? They would put themselfs out of a job.
Just so you can get a better understanding on how huge this is….
So for CPS, parents are ideally supposed to complete a case plan.
These plans involve things like PARENTING, COUNSELING, RANDOM & ON DEMAND DRUG TESTING, ANGER MANAGEMENT, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLASS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE OUT PATIENT / REHAB. now all these places are CONTRACTED with the county CPS agency. Meaning they MUTUALLY BENEFIT off of all the parents and children involved or participating in these classes. So all places that are contracted with CPS ARE For
EXAMPLE
the certain medical offices parents must go to drug test at.
Lab that determines the drug test results. (Drug test analysis)
Non profit organization that offers domestic violence programs or counseling (every employee)
Parenting class (every employee)
Substance abuse out patient programs (all employees)
Rehabs (all employees)
Individual counseling.
Non profit NA classes or AA class
CPS is also contracted with the firm’s that represent parents
The law firms that represent the children
Group homes
Foster care
Relative care givers
All of these companies an their employees or individuals are garunteed monthly income as long as there kids in the system. Juvenile dependency court house where made JUST for this purpose. Every single thing /person involved in every step of the fucked up cps adventure are all same team. They all get their pay checks from the same place for the same reason. To keep kids in the system.
Now it goes much further than this. Mandated reporters … All doctors, nurses, school staff members, pre school, day care, hospitals, labor an delivery, ambulance drivers, police officers, flight attendant, piolets, hotels, just about any place that would ever come in contact with a child are all mandated reporters. Now the mandated reporter (if they or their place of employment is contracted with CPS in any way ) they or their place of employment will also receive an incentive from the federal government for reporting a child if the child is infact found to be considered “abused” an removed from parents. Places like hospitals NICU have a silent agreement with the local county CPS agency’s. One cuz it’s easy to convince a parent or to freak a parent out into allowing their child to be transferred to NICU due to ” health concerns” that way once in NICU (it’s basically baby prison) so much security, doors that lock once you go in or out or that you have to be buzzed into. A bracelet or tag of some kind with identical numbering that the parent an child both receive an without this NO ONE can get in, unless you are a social worker. That way this gives the social work an opertunity to gather info or just flat out make up lies on the parent an still have control of where the child is (hospital hold) an at any time a social worker can walk right in there an sign a child out as parent / guardian an move the child where ever they wish all without a court order to do so. I know it happen to me 2 times. The third time me an my daughter escaped NICU. this was not easy almost like breaking out of jail, but 4 days later tracked us down.
Anyhow- so if a kid gets adopted out, the team of social workers involved with that family’s case all receive a huge “incentive” thousands of dollars ($5000-$9000) MORE if the child is under 6 an almost triple that if the child is under 1.
Cps has control of all of these places an all mandated reports are everywhere.
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I’ve only had a little time to read, but I did pick up a couple of facts. Methamphetamine is historically known as a truth serum. I also realize, yes you have to speak to the lawyer when one is employed, and no answers to questions are submittable to court, when lawyers are ignored.
This just shows how far DCS and our judicial and law enforcement will go to cover up their corruption. I wish every parents lawyer would take their ethics seriously and stand up for their clients as Connie Regular against this Human trafficking ring called DCS. They violate parents rights by seizing our children without any proof or court orders. They use law enforcement to bully parents. This is Deprivation of rights under Color of Law. Then your appointed or even if you can afford to pay a lawyer you get innefective legal representation of any. As a result another violation of parents right to Due Process occurs. DCF and parents lawyers withhold dependency and TPR orders past the amount of time to appeal, again allowing no Due Process rights. If every parents attorney acted as ethically and morally as Connie Regular we could shut down the largest human trafficking ring in the United States. Call it what you may, when you take children from parents to promote dollars for fostercare funding or worse for adopting children you are Human Trafficking America’s most vulnerable, not helping them. Everyone involved in the processing of this case against Connie should be brought indicted on Federal RICO charges.
Seems to be a play book on the 1-75 line. Along with drugs it is children and women all targets . CPS has their own Mafiaoso.
CPS wields too much power. Attorney Reguli is an excellent attorney and wish I had her in my corner, an attorney who CARES. To do this to Attorney Reguli is DISGRACEFUL.
The Tennessee Legislators need to intervene and remove the judge and dismiss the case against Connie Reguli and not allow the judiciary to instill fear into the minds of other attorneys, who only want to insure zealous representation for their clients. This case is a mockery of justice and must be stopped
Connie Reguli is a true Warrior, a Patriot & a fighter who has suffered greatly to help her clients and defend children’s rights.
Judges are CRIMINALS who aid and abet in crimes and punish the protective parents. We live in a society run by people who abuse children, aid and abet child abusers, and punish the people who protect children, because abused children are more easily manipulated as adults.
Wake Up Everyone.
Join the fight against FASCISM.
Whenever one person is above the law, we live in Tyranny. End Judicial Immunity.
DCS is a corrupt and money focused system that needs MAJOR reform. All they care about is making money off children by making false allegations, committing perjury, and violating numerous laws and constitutional rights of families. Connie and Wendy both acted for the best interest of the children, like most parents do. I have seen a recurring theme, those who need help don’t get it but the innocent families just trying to do their best get the bad end and are taken advantage of. The innocent families are pitted against a kangaroo court full of lies and manipulation. A court where laws are changed, allegations changed, and where love is called being emotionally unstable. DCS doesn’t act alone, they manipulate the courts (and the people working for them), CASA/GAL, law enforcement, and many more including medical professionals to give false testimony in court. They even punish the parents more with the title IV-E funding (child support). Making parents pay child support so DCS can keep the children away even more of say (if the parents struggle to pay) the parents are financially stable. This is only the tip of the iceberg. That’s all it took to sink the “unsinkable” ship, the “Titantic”. They will fall and have to answer to all of what they have done!
Great article. Connie Reguli is a warrior for families, standing up for what is right. It is shameful (and illegal) how the DA and judge literally rewrote the law in order to convict her of a felony. This is retaliation, plain and simple. Retaliation for what? For standing in the gap, defending families fighting the abuse of power by Child Protective Services. I pray people wake up to see what is really happening.
The entire family law system is nothing more than a business! They take children away from loving parents because every child that is taken into state care is money that the courts and the alphabet soup of “Child Services” agencies get! And it comes out of our Social Security trust fund! It has to stop! The country is deteriorating from the foundation, the family!
Connie Reguli has always protected children and families. DCS has continually abused children, and they along with corrupt judges use their power to obstruct justice, fabricate evidence and deny due process. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen over and over, this abuse of power is common practice. I witnessed video footage of this incident. At no time did I see intent to defy a court order, or to obstruct justice. I did witness concerns this mother stated about the harm being done to her children. My question from the incident is, Why doesn’t attorney client priviledge apply, and why weren’t negotiations attempted to bring a cooperative result that had the children’s best interest in mind. The trauma DCS has instigated is unforgivable. This judge and DCS employees should have been brought to justice on child abuse charges. They are not above the law, yet they have been given supremacy by themselves, not the people they work for, which are the tax payers.
These people never stop. They have ripped more families apart. The only thing Connie is guilty of is saving families from the fake malicious laws these people come up with. They do not follow the law in place as they it don’t think it applies to them so they make up their own. I have dealt with these crooked courts, judges, and ad litem attorneys. It’s all about a money thing with them and they have no care in the world as to what happens to the family and if it wasn’t for honest attorneys like Connie this issue would be even worse. Connie is all about the families and strictly abides by the law.
The family court process is corrupt and a breeding ground for forced adoptions. One of many agencies in our government that needs to be cleaned out if not totally dissolved. We need more lawyers like Connie standing up for children and families not just going along to get along.
Thank God for attorneys like Connie Reguli! We need more like her that will fight the corruption of the system!
Correct as printed. I’m the dad who has even more about the terrible treatment.
Connie Reguli is completely a different breed of lawyer it’s the judges , lawyer’s who pas around the money county , state this woman has put her life on hold for many now the challenge of the crooks had come take this dedication ,truth for justice and pass it on a woman with this kind of heart is a once in a lifetime find I wish,pray that there will be more to follow but not likely most attorney’s take the easy way out to bad let’s help Connie Reguli finish this unjust fight share all everywhere
Connie Reguli is the bravest warrior for justice I know when it comes to protecting the rights of children! FIGHT ON CONNIE!
You know you are over the target when they attack you!
Reading this article was very scary and disturbing. Parents need to beware what is really happening in the courts system and child protective services Nationwide not just this one state but all, but because it’s not the protection of the child but only the title and the power they want to gain behind it. There is no over sight what so ever, no responsibility and most certainly no accountability in Child Protective Services. As I read the article I can plainly see case workers were very unprofessional and are in cahoots with judges especially in the election year of a new judge and police along with a court appointed attorneys which I call them pretenders. Child protective services is a billion dollar industry business of legal kidnapping and selling children. As I have read through this story and have followed the case, attorney Connie Reguli has fought so hard for her clients. The more she felt the more they went after attorney Reguli trying to destroy her career of saving children from the very vultures and evilness of the system. Attorney Reguli is a very caring attorney that’s trying to expose the real corruption that is hurting children and families , my heart goes out to her and her bravery for standing up to the ones that are really truly hurting our children and that’s child protective services, judges that are dishonest with NO oversight NO accountability and out for potential gain there’s always going to be broken homes and and children in foster care homes being molested and truly abused even killed. Our county needs good caring attorneys that’s not scared of the powerful corruption of judges and CPS to bring out the truth of what’s really happening Nationwide. fighting hard hard their clients children and there rights,
We need so many more fearless attorneys like attorney Connie Reguli.
How can a judge omit parts of the law when giving jury instructions? Those jurors are relying on the judge to be impartial, fair, and accurate about the law. There was nothing fair or impartial when the judge clearly omitted part of the law and instructed the jury to them give a verdict. Every juror should be outraged that this judge clearly did not do his job. I am curious if the jurors had the accurate law how would they have voted? How was this a fair trail? If this is the precedent the judge is setting then families should be scared to enter his court room. When DCS shows up at your door then your whole world gets turned upside down and DCS can even show up and take your kids on accusations that are not even proven. DCS accepts anonymous reports which could be made up by the lady you pissed off at the grocery store or anyone and they can remain anonymous and not have to have an ounce of proof. When DCS showed up at my house they unsubstantiated every single claim but still took my child! Thankfully we found Connie to help with our legal battle. Connie proved to the courts that the claims were unfounded and she held DCS accountable to their own policies. Our son was return to us almost a year after he was removed and two foster homes later. Our child has suffered trauma at the hands of DCS. Our child should not have been removed. Throughout our court hearings Connie held not only DCS accountable but she also held the officer accountable by playing audio of DCS employees and this officer proving they lied and perjured themselves on the stands. My story is one of many families that Connie has helped. Unfortunately our battle still continues and we still have court involving our son which now we have no representation due to Connie being suspended. What should a client do when your attorney gets suspended in the middle of your case? I believe lawyers should have the ability to still represent the clients they have active cases with. There are several families now in the middle of fighting with DCS that are legally having to start over. Which also means coming up with another retainer for a new lawyer and spending excess money because now they have to learn the case as well. My family is personally devastated losing Connie as our lawyer because she knew our case and she knew the games DCS was playing. Connie deserves a new trail with an honest judge that will properly educate the jurors on the full extent of the law and hold those accountable that intentionally misled not only the jurors but the media during the trail coverage.
Except your child was removed due to you calling DCS. You can’t cry victim when you are the one making the annonymous call. The trauma your child has suffered was all caused by you. 1st step to recovery is admitting what YOU did!
Stupendous reporting Peter White! Truth in reporting is hard to find now. Thank You Connie for fighting for our families and our children. My condolences to Wendy and her children. They should have never been taken away from you Wendy. May the Lord bring down the unjust and restore you to a place of honor that you merit Connie Reguli!
Would this be a weaponized court act? #TomFitton #Ameriganproject.org #JimJordan . Connie carries strong family values and influence for the people. Reading this as an American court proceeding just seems so dismantled and unjust to the system in which the people are suppose to trust. If an attorney can not get a fair and just hearing in this courtroom with these actors how could any other American? reform and Revision of this courtroom and change of jurisdiction for Connie as a conflict of interest seemed to play out foul here!
Keep up the great work
Connie has helped many families that have been wrongfully torn apart from the state. She has a good heart, she is a good person and she has been treated unjustly. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. I hope and pray that Connie will be able to appeal this wrongful conviction.
If not for Connie Reguli, my children would still be being abused by their bio-dad. He stole them vis illegal ex parte order. Connie fought and never gave up, even being my shoulder and support throughout the trial. Connie was never in it for the money or to drag my case out. Connie intended to get resolution and bring my children to safety. I am shocked that she is being treated the way she is. Tim Irwin, who was appointed president over TN juvenile court judges was one of the judges whom Connie went before and called out for his bias and unethical actions. Connie is for the people and children, not for the good Ole boys such as Tim and the other judges trying to disbar her. Connie doesn’t play their games, that is why they are out to get her. We are praying for you Connie!
I have been with Connie Reguli in DC and I have seen her, dutifully in action. She is a law abiding citizen, a highly educated professional, a seasoned attorney, who highlights CPS misconduct while fearlessly fighting for the rights of her innocent clients with her resolute commitment. She is steadfast, sewing the seams of family integrity back together for the sake of all children. She is no criminal. CPS is targeting her livelihood to pull the carpet out from under her feet, in her gallop, and this is not acceptable!
We need more honest, law abiding attorneys in these trenches with families. Connie assisted me for a day in court. She presented law and facts and the judge UpChurch still went the unlawful direction. It’s going to get worse if we’ve the people don’t take a stand. I know one woman can not make a change alone. She needs an army behind her. It’s a wonder more hasn’t been done while being provoked by the people. Connie needs us. Call up your family, call up your friends, call up your community. The problem is, it’s hard to find people who will get involved. Unless it has happened to them it someone close to them, they stay silent abs watch for the action. Connie, please let me know if I can help in any way.
Connie Reguli is for families! She loves children and fights for true justice! They need to stop persecuting her for that! The system stinks!
This is a smear campaign against one of the best women I know. Connie Reguli is an inspiration and has fought for her clients beyond what she is required to do. The corruption running rampant in her town and state wanted to silence her from ending the corrupt trade of child trafficking especially ASFA aka Adoption and Safe Families Act title funding which incentivized DCF to remove a certain amount of children each year and adopt them through the system to STRANGERS (kin does not count) this is a multi billion dollar industry and i stand by Connie no matter what. She needs to be a lawyer – she protected her client and was punished for it. I attended the rally and it was amazing to see everyone fighting for family rights! I run Families Against Legal Kidnapping 501(c)3 out of MA. I am in school to be an attorney because of Connie’s inspiration as a person and an attorney. Stop the smear campaign. Honor the true patriots. Give us our families the right to be families once again!!! This woman is AMAZING!
Thank you, Connie, for all you do to preserve and protect our children and families! You’re one of the few that are courageous enough to stand up for us against a corrupt family judicial system! You have quit literally lost everything for doing what’s RIGHT! #WeStandWithConnieReguli ♥️
DCS has an institutionalized practice of taking children by having the parents arrested. They shouldn’t be allowed to do such a thing. I don’t like attorneys however I like Connie and I hope she wins on appeal.
Thank you for the truth in this article. Most media outlets spin the CPS warped stance that they protect children from awful parents weekend in reality they choose poor families or lies about good parents because their ultimate job of collecting federal funding is made easier that way. Child welfare is a billion dollar industry with many payouts and without any regard to the welfare and safety of the children where statistics prove are only in danger once entered into the foster care system. FINALLY the word is getting out because of advocates like Connie and I thank her for her devotion to this cause even when the judicial corruption tries to destroy her for doing what is right and just.
My name is Reverend Jimmy Curtis I live in Newnan Georgia for the last seven months we have been trying to adopt my nephew we’ve been to court and we’ve had an attorney I’m not sure what her take is at this point but we live in Georgia and they are continually not sending the right information to Georgia so I’m beginning to think there is something wrong somewhere and I’m also the former president of the NCAA P here in GeorgiaI would like for someone to give me a call at 678-378-8269 to give me more information about what’s going on in Memphis or in the state of Tennessee thank you
Connie Reguli is a strong advocate for families. We hired her as an attorney several years back to get my great niece back with her family and out of Foster care. The first attorney we hired was friends with DCS and every time we found new lies and shared with him he told DCS. We wasted money on his firm because they were in collaboration with DCS. No confidentiality with that firm. We were appealing the decision as DCS refused to place with relatives. We hired Connie Reguli. I have never seen so many attorneys go up against one lawyer. She fought hard and we kept appealing. We had been approved for placement near the beginning of the case through the ICPC process. TN DCS intentionally held up the process to prolong a relationship with my niece. We traveled for 4 years every month sometimes more than once to see Hailey and attend court hearings. At times her dad and our family traveled there and they would deny a visitation. Main reason we didn’t get her back… CONNECTIONS Dana Davis (Givens) mom was connected to the state workers, visitations were being held at Dana’s moms nonprofit organization without us knowing it was, Dana had free access to the DCS office and went back anytime she chose, Dana was allowed to have her phone in the court room and we were denied, Hetzel who has been causing issues in this case was a part of ours against Connie Reguli and said it would be “Barbaric” to send a child home with their family. They had NO policy in place for parents with ADA (they do now thanks to Connie and our case) so my nephew was deprived of any assistance and when I offered to be with him they would tell me no. I even watched my nieces mom be cornered in a court room and threatened if she didn’t do what they said when the judge wasn’t in the court room yet. I would have recorded it had I been allowed my cell phone like the foster parent was. DCS needs to be overhauled. They have way to much power there or anywhere as a matter of fact.
The work Connie Reguli and other zealous advocates like her do, all across the country, is vital to supporting parents and reforming child-serving systems. Pushing limits is a necessary part system disruption and policy reform. Connie Reguli knows this to be true. Aside from her representation of clients and the specific structure of the attorney-client relationship, the value of system disreption is important to understand when reading this article.
Connie is all for family rights. I have seen a corrupt court when fighting for my niece. Judge that recused herself from the bench for medical reasons but was still signing orders. Sounds like we have another corrupt court. We need more Attorneys that stand up and fight for families like Connie does.
Wendy Hancock’s daughter, who was 12 at the time, got pregnant at 13, the next year. So maybe CPS was on to something…
Also, there’s no conspiracy. Connie Reguli broke.the.law. She knew what she was doing. And now she is a convicted felon. License suspended. But she’ll be fine. After all, she made a shiiiit ton of money off the backs of desperate parents. She charged a lot. For years, and years, raking it in. She wasn’t out there taking cases pro bono. She is very well off now and doesn’t need your pity party. In fact, I would go so far as to say she has taken advantage of many desperate parents who’ve all fallen for her online “activist” front that draws in clients whose money she takes by the hour.
U must have been paid by DCS, work with them, or be legitimately unaware of the real crimes that happen in the American family court system thanks to power and greed. Kids have sex before marriage every day in this country and that does not make the parents bad or worthy of loosing thier children. How do we know she wasn’t raped while in foster care and thus sent on a horrible spiral? Can u imagine the trauma this child went through just being taken in the first place? I would hope most people with any sense of compassion could put themselves in another person’s shoes.. Sexual abuse happends so often in this system it’s not even possible to know about all of it. But some day all of the lies and darkness will be revealed. Whatever Mensrea stands for or means, because it doesn’t sound like a real name but even if it is, it must include “up to nefarious gossip” Ding ding ding–Bingo
“Mens Rea refers to criminal intent. The literal translation from Latin is “guilty mind.” The plural of mens rea is mentes reae. A mens rea refers to the state of mind statutorily required in order to convict a particular defendant of a particular crime. See, e.g. Staples v. United States, 511 US 600 (1994).” All of those targeting, stealing and profiting off of children have Mensrea minds!!!
Never mind my comment that you may be legitimately unaware of whats going on or what you are perpetuating Mr. Or Mrs. Mens rea mind.
I need this attorney I’m going through the exact same thing and worse in the same county and I need someone who’s not afraid to face DCs and my case is very beatable I just need someone who will listen and I can prove my innocence and my daughters cause see she has babies and was abused and almost killed and I saved her and now over a year ltr they put them in foster care over false allegations that I can prove to be false but was nvr givin the chance plz someone text me if ur willing or know who I should contact to get my babies home. There’s Alot of things that make absolutely no sense to anyone in this matter even dcs supervisors are confused as to why my kids were even taken in the first place 6155800587
Connie Ruguli is a HERO, a champion of our kids fighting the corruption in the system of cps for the bonus money (. 42usc Clinton law 1997):They cps only wants to adopt out kids for the bonus money there is no money to reunify families.Think about that . Cps can take anyones children with the allegations of abuse only they are the gage keepers of your kids being adopted ..
Cps takes 5 disabled kids from a caller that’s a drunk . No warrant puts kids straight into foster care adoptive homes no less, for 6 months in Manitowoc wis. Caseworker stated day one you will never see these kids again ,. That was 3 yrs ago . Not one visit allowed from family on the fathers side .lots of exparte without notifications to the parties involved against .Judge recused after trying for 18 months . Same judge is then her criminal case giving her 6 total probation years for 3 misdemeanor s not causing harm and one disorderly , This judge wanted to put her in jail for 30 yrs . And was so angry with the DA when she brought that deal to him. So with Connie she is the Harding working woman at her age to help family’s and the children messed up by the corruption of foster care and cps . Defunding of title 4 funding would give parents a fighting change to get their kids back. Now the attorney s given to the families in the county or town by the judge that is in the same county are all working against the parents. Now this is from my personal research my opinion and I’m not an attorney 8-17-2022 reneezapart52@gmail.com
PlZ PLZ I live in sevier county I am Living a case similar to this. My son is behind bars now they are trying to rush and adopt my 9 month old grandson I have been trying to get guardianship since almost birth I don’t have a lot financial willing to make payments on suggestions advice help me what to do. My Heart is broke some of details in this case is not even believable policies being broke laws
Dawn Wilson I am begging before to late only because almost yr of no return calls