Comments on: Katrina "Angel" Cuffed For Kidnapping Kids

Houston Woman Who Took In Family Displaced By Hurricane Claims Mother Is "Abusive"

[tootall10142]

sHE JUST HAD TO THROW GOD IN ON THE PURPOSE WHAT A SACRELIGIUOS NUT! GOD DOESNT CONDONE THE COVERT THIEF! hOW DOES SHE KNOW IT WAS HIS WILL DID HE SPEAK TO HER AND TELL HER GO AND BREAK THE LAWS OF THE LAND ?I HARDLY THINK NOT!

[tootall10142]

There is child protection services for these type things the woman had no right to to do this and should be hung by the yardarm as example.NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW AND BUSH WILL GET HIS OR HE WILL DIE INDURING THE APPEALS PROCESS.A EX PRESIDENT WITH ONLY TWO FRIENDS AND THEY ONLY COME AROUND TO SPLIT THE TAKE ON HALLIBURTON CACHE.

[bdrlnt4rl]

the mother of these kids should be charged for child abandonment. come on. this woman cared for these children for years while the mother was out ''building a new live in new orleans''. ya right. test her for drugs. go see what she has been doing in new orleans before anyone charges this woman in houston for anything.

[xmanborg]

No more happy meals for miss hateful its jail buffet for her.

[casey0157]

Bless this woman who opened her heart and purse strings to help another in need. I''ve heard many stories good and bad regarding the Katrina disaster but I applaud this woman for caring enough, for being a good Christian and looking out for these 5 children. It makes you wonder if they would have ended up on the news when their biological mother took their lives or if they had mysteriously disappeared and not with this good woman. I admit it was not the best way to handle it but CPS traumatizes children and I''m not that keen with CPS these days. I know they are there to look out for our children but for strangers to remove children from families in horrible situations and place them with other strangers is simply too much for their young minds to comprehend. Many are scarred for life and others not so much. Think about it for a moment. I pray that no charges be filed against this angel of God. I support her 200%! I bet those children are happy and so loved! God Be With Them All!!

[peacedreamer-2009]

In custody cases, always get in writing what the deal is. If the mother is relinquishing her children temporarily to someone else but planning to come back for her kids when she gets everything settled and arranged, the agreement will spell out how transfer of the children is to take place. If she''s giving up her children, then that will be in the agreement. If the mother changes her mind, there will be a clause in the agreement that allows that. Without an agreement, it''s just she-said-she-said. This is going to be an ugly battle!

[ubrew12]

There''s been a trend, accelerated during the Bush Admin, to remove governments role in disaster and poverty relief and place it in the hands of religious organizations and private individuals. Yet the reason the gov''t is a better place for this kind of ''social spending'' is precisely to avoid this kind of exchange, wherein ''good intentions'' meet ''taking advantage''. I''m sorry for both women because it got personal. It didn''t have to, but the gov''ts abilities to perform ANY public service (other than the military) has been destroyed by the Bush administration, leaving the giving public at risk in a largely predatory environment.

[deepperppl]

Mom has a ticket for a free ride so she leaves her children behind. No different than the kids in my area being raised by their grandmothers while the mom and/or dad lives in NY, NJ, Chicago.. Most nights, they''re out partying, then sometimes they send $$ home to pay for the care of their kids by a grandma who''s on public assistance. I see it every day. So what''s different here? The mom actually wants her kids back. Good for her. Should she have abandoned them? Was it in the kids'' best interest? Who knows? All that matters is this is a mom ready to stand on her own two feet with her kids in the home. I think she deserves congratulations for wanting to be responsible for her own kids, instead of foisting them off on someone else until they are adults like so many others do.

[credibility2]

The biological mother clearly abandoned her kids to Tavey, once she saw the gravy train; this mother clearly took advantage of Tavey''s good intentions, kindness and generosity. Tavey''s big mistake was showing her compassion in the first place. It doesn''t pay. People like this mother never appreciate, they just keep expecting and taking. I hope the biological mother loses her kids to the system. I hope Tavey gets minimal, if any, punishment. Her kidnapping was wrong, but motivated by concern for the biological mother. Wht Tavey did was wrong, but what this biological mother did was even worse - she abandoned her children and took advantage of the extreme generosity, kindness and giving of another person.

[cricketbeers]

Why would the mother leave her children for two years? That''s just crazy to me! Tavey was taken advantage of. I have to wonder if the three youngest children would even have known their "mother" after all that time.

Maybe CPS needs to be involved now after all.

[kennedy7955]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[dbstevens]

This is not a racist issue, this is about the character of the people involved.

Tavey should have taken legal measures if she felt the kids were being abused. CPS would have helped her through that process.

I''m from New Orleans...I lost my home and I watched first-hand as the drama unfolded after Katrina. I saw the incredible generosity of people helping others. But I''d lived in New Orleans a long time and knew the character of some of the people involved, and I knew that we''d hear many stories of "angels" being taken advantage of, cheated and perhaps even hurt. "Angels" are easy marks for people who take advantage of others. I was touched at the kindness of people, but saddened at what was inevitable. I don''t condone Tavey''s actions...she made a huge mistake in how she handled this. But I would not be surprised to find out she was right about the abuse, and that the kids needed better.

[cow9boys1]

THE MOTHER SHOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT HER KIDS NO MATTER WHAT YOU GO THROUGH THE GOOD, BAD AND THE UGLY WITH WHAT YOU BOUGHT IN THIS WORLD.I DON''T AGREE WITH MRS. TAVEY TAKING THE KIDS.BUT SHE SHOULD HAVE CONTACTED THE AUTHORTIES, BUT THE MOTHER SHOULD''NT GET THE KIDS UNTIL SHE IS INVESTIGATED TO THE THIRD DEGREE. MAYBE THE CHILDREN WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITH MRS.TAVEY! THE MOTHER WALKED AWAY FROM HER BABIES AND LEFT THEM THERE. SO SHE KNEW THEY WERE IN THE BEST PLACE FOR 2OR3 YEARS. THINK ABOUT THIS FOLKS BEFORE YOU JUDGE ON THE RACE OF ALL INVOLVED.

[republic1776]

After reading some of the comments I can see that racism is still well and alive in America.
People look at the skin not the heats.
very sad

[reedtaz73]

Goodness, not another white man''s burden story...This Tavey woman knows better than to put the law in her own hands if abuse was the case. I think she''s a nut case as well...she might be trying to restart Jim Jones ministries with new black american blood.

[vaughndalyn]

What do a white woman(who have children of her own) deciding to help a black woman and her children after a disaster have to do with a white man's burden story?

Two years is a long time to care for someone else's children without any financial support besides your own.

She sounds like a very caring person. She volunteered to help during the Katrina disaster, in addition to her services, she took in an entire family for three years.

The biological mother left for an entire two years, and this lady never went to the authorities. She kept her kids safe and healthy the entire time.

I wonder if anyone ever interviewed the children to see what their input might be on this story. The children would know more about it than we the public would, and the mother's story isn't too much mentioned.

[republic1776]

How can any police officer in his or her right mind charge this woman with kidnapping?
The poor kids...

[huntley42]

It appears to me that the mother abandoned her children in Houston for two years with Tavey in order to set up her life. Tavey appears to have bonded with the children, the picture of her with her natural children and the five small children in her care shows a woman with a large family. Why was the smaller childrens mother not a part of the picture. She should have contacted the child protection agency and registered as a foster parent of those children. It could have been done legally. With her having care of the children for two years they would most likely been up for adoption by then and the natural mothers rights terminated already. To bad she didn''t go through the chanels. Tavey you need to give the children over to CPS and let them investigate what appears to be abandonment by their mother.

[carlylaine]

toldyouso12

Succinct.

[toldyouso12]

If the biological mother was or is abusive to the children, Tavey had an obligation to contact CPS--what she NEVER had the right to do, was to take someone else''s children away from them based on her statements alone.

Had she called CPS, they would have investigated and interviewed the children then made a determination. Because women often want other people''s kids and do desperate things from faking pregnancies and stealing babies from hospitals to murdering the real mom and cutting her child out of her; we cannot just believe what Tavey is saying.

If she truly was threatened with a knife, she should have called the police. What does not make sense is for her to simply leave and take someone else''s children then concoct this story (which seems like a defense and a lie) If it is not a lie, Tavey will have to explain why her choice was to take the children and flee instead of calling the police due to the threats and have them remove the mother.

I think this is a case of a woman deciding that she could do a better job being a mother to someone else''s kids--and devising a ruse, story and kidnapping them in order to try to steal them away. ''''The road to he11 is paved with good intentions."

[vaughndalyn]

I feel sad for the accuser and her family, because it seems like she really tried to help the family, not just with words but also finances. She took care of the kids for years until the mother was able to properly care for them. I completely see her version but I never really got the mothers version of what happened. However, it is still a horrible story.