A couple is suing the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and Waltham police and city officials alleging civil rights violations after their children were removed from their Waltham home last year without a warrant amid suspicion of child abuse.
Sarah Perkins and Joshua Sabey, who now live in Idaho, claim that on July 16, 2022, Waltham police went to their home in Waltham “and demanded they surrender their children to the government,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court.
According to the lawsuit, their children were taken into state custody after Perkins had taken one of her children, a 3-month-old infant, who had a fever, to a local emergency room.
There, an x-ray of the infant revealed a healing rib fracture, which hospital staff later reported to the state Department of Children and Families, alleging physical abuse of the infant by his parents, the lawsuit states.
The couple was later cleared of any wrongdoing, the lawsuit states.
Their two young boys were in foster care for four months, after which they were returned to the couple.
The couple is suing four Waltham police officers, four employees of the state Department of Children and Families, and the city of Waltham, the lawsuit states.
“While the Sabeys were ultimately—and obviously—cleared of any wrongdoing, and the children were eventually reunited with their parents, nothing can undo the trauma of that early July morning and the prolonged abrogation of the Sabeys’ parental rights,” the lawsuit states. “For parents, the emotional and physical toll of having your crying children torn from your arms never goes away.”