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BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The state Division of Youth and Family Services was right to take three small children with Nazi-inspired names away from their parents.
A three-judge panel ruled DYFS "proved the need for protective services" for Adolf Hitler Campbell, 4, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 3, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, 2.
The judges overturned a Family Court ruling that there was insufficient evidence that the parents had abused or neglected the children. That ruling was stayed to allow the children's legal guardian and DYFS to appeal.
In reversing, the appellate judges said the Family Court decision relied on "an overly narrow view of domestic violence in the context of abuse or neglect of children."
DYFS removed the children in January 2009 from the custody of their unemployed parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell of Holland Township.
The family attracted attention a month earlier, when Heath Campbell complained that an area supermarket would not put his son's name on a birthday cake.
DYFS investigated after complaints that the children had been strapped into booster seats for prolonged periods in the home, a charge that Deborah Campbell denied.
But the judges noted the situation grew more serious when a neighbor contacted authorities, saying Deborah Campbell had passed along a letter saying her husband had threatened "to have me killed or kill me himself."
DYFS investigators noticed the bedroom windows were nailed shut, and reported Heath Campbell had the couple's car and only active cellphone. A caseworker tried to persuade Deborah Campbell to accompany the children to a safe haven.
But the judges noted that she "angrily asked whether she was being forced to choose between her children and her husband, and then said, 'Take them.""
Both parents suffer psychological and other disabilities and are poorly educated, with Heath Campbell illiterate, according to the decision by Judges Anthony Parrillo, Marie Lihotz and Victor Ashrafi. Both parents were abused as children, the judges said.
The ruling also found the Family Court should have considered accusations from one of heath Campbell's previous wives that he abused her and their two children. The judges noted he does not see or support his other children.
Although at times Deborah Campbell denied writing the note, a psychologist who interviewed the parents and observed them with the children reported a "significant level of actual risk," the judges wrote.
The psychologist, Dr. Alice Nadelman reported neither parent showed "the psychological capacity... to provide safe and appropriate parental care on their own."
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
In fact, the only conclusion one can draw from the opinion of the the appellate court is the Government lacked any violation of the law that justified the terminiation of the parents rights and had to invent one.
The appellate court found - by a preponderance of evidence (thats how weak the evidence seems to be) - there was no "Domestic Violence" within the meaning of the statute and thus reinvented the meaning of "domestic violence" using a suspect psychological theory; because I'm an expert and I say so (junk science) engrafted onto a completely seperate statute.