Attempts to reform New Hampshire’s troubled child protection agency have not gone well for one Republican lawmaker.
Rep. Leah Cushman (R-Weare) was recently removed as chairman of the special committee to investigate the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).
She had invoked a state statute allowing—but not requiring—legislators to ask witnesses to consider taking an oath before giving testimony about the agency.
The committee was formed to investigate the practices of the agency after it fell under intense blame in the recent, high-profile homicide case of five-year-old Harmony Montgomery. Her father Adam Montgomery was convicted in February of murdering his daughter back in 2019.
The DCYF was charged with monitoring Harmony’s living situation with Mr. Montgomery.
She went missing for two years before anyone noticed. During Mr. Montgomery’s trial, his uncle testified that the agency did not respond when he reported that Mr. Montgomery had punched Harmony so hard that it disfigured her face.
As chairman of the investigative committee, Ms. Cushman wanted to find a way to reign in conflicting claims about the agency’s practices that emerged during his trial, she told The Epoch Times.
She said that multiple New Hampshire families have alleged that agency officials tell lies in custody cases. She thought an equitable approach would be for all witnesses before the committee to be sworn in.
Ms. Cushman started by swearing in families that claimed to have been wronged by the agency. She said that none objected.
“Actually, they said they wanted to take an oath because they had nothing to hide and wanted us to get to the truth,” she said.
House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) objected to the oath request.
According to Ms. Cushman, Mr. Packard told her while meeting privately with him, “We don’t do that here” because it would “scare away” DCYF and other government officials.
Mr. Packard did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times about his reasons for removing Ms. Cushman.
Ms. Cushman, who resigned as Assistant Majority Whip over her removal, has won support from fellow Republicans.
As previously reported by The Epoch Times, Mr. Hoell found himself embroiled in a controversy with the DCYF in 2022 when a state social worker showed up to take custody of his teenage son and teenage daughter after Mr. Hoell had listed human grade Ivermectin on a routine medical form as a medication he had given his family to treat COVID-19.
“The stories are so sad, I’ve always struggled with the idea that people don’t want to believe them. I’ll do anything to show I’m honest and sincere when discussing them,” she said.
“The point of this committee is to discover issues with DCYF and not prepare the ground for some kind of future prosecution,” she said.
Ms. Cushman has raised questions about Mr. Packard’s intentions.
“How is that helpful to the people who have been aggrieved by DCYF and begged for us to do something about it?” she wrote. “They don’t want a dog and pony show that does nothing. They want accountability.”
Ms. Cushman said that she worries that some of her peers are caving to pressure from court officials to preserve the status quo.
Last year, a Republican House member who chairs another special committee that studies how family courts handle private custody matters, held parents to a five-minute speaking cap during public hearings but allowed judges to talk for up to an hour.
The House member openly acknowledged that he also met privately with family court judges.
A family court lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Epoch Times that a major problem with the state’s family division is that it is allowed to use hearsay as evidence.
The agency also operates under two unusual court rules that exempt family courts from having to follow the rules of evidence.
“If a stranger assaults a child, there’s no hearsay, but there are rules of evidence. If a relative assaults a child—there’s no evidence, but instead all hearsay—so the state is using biology as an excuse to evade constitutional law and normal due process,” the attorney said.
Another problem may be the sheer number of financial incentives baked into the system.
Out of the 3,495 licensed attorneys in New Hampshire, hundreds practice family law. Income opportunities arise from court-ordered appointments. These include therapy, legal guardians, supervised visits, mediation, parent evaluations, home evaluations, psychological evaluations, and attorneys for parents accused of child abuse or neglect by the state.
Last year, New Hampshire resident Helena Humes testified before the family division study committee that a judge ordered her to pay $15,000 for a family assessment in her divorce and then refused to allow it into evidence after her son’s court-appointed guardian ad litem, who she was required to pay, objected.
The DCYF did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times.
