Parties in a civil lawsuit regarding the use of custody and visitation agreements have reached a settlement.
Heaven Cordell has agreed to settle all claims against Cherokee County and Department of Social Services personnel she sued last year. The parties reportedly settled the case for nearly half a million dollars, which will be paid by the county’s insurer.
Following the death of her mother, Cordell lived in Cherokee County with her grandmother; and in 2016, local DSS personnel opened an investigation to determine whether she and her sister were being abused or neglected. Documents say DSS employees used a custody and visitation agreement executed by the Cordell sisters’ biological father to remove them from their grandmother’s home.
Custody and visitation agreements, known informally as CVAs, allow parents or guardians to relinquish custody of minors without court involvement. Cordell’s attorneys argue that CVAs, as used by DSS staff, are illegal.
The attorneys further argue that local DSS staff deprived Heaven Cordell of her rights because, among other things, she was forced to leave her home state of North Carolina to live in Alabama, where she was unable to enroll in school and “lost access to a free public education.”
Heaven Cordell’s case was scheduled to be heard by a jury in January 2022. It would have been the second civil lawsuit regarding the use of CVAs by local DSS staff to go to trial. Earlier this year, a federal jury issued a combined $4.6 million award to a father and daughter who were separated through the use of CVAs.
Three additional civil suits regarding the use of CVAs have yet to go to trial, including a case filed by Heaven’s sister, Molly Cordell. Additionally, former DSS attorney Scott Lindsay, former DSS director Cindy Palmer and former DSS supervisor David Alan Hughes were criminally charged in the use of CVAs.
Hughes pled guilty to two misdemeanors earlier this year as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, who dismissed 10 counts of felony obstruction of justice in exchange for truthful testimony “in any proceeding.” Meanwhile, Palmer and Lindsay have accused prosecutors of engaging in “selective prosecution,” arguing that CVAs had been used for years and that others involved in the practice have not been charged with a crime.
Lindsay and his lawyer, Jerry Townson, further argue that CVAs are not illegal because state law allows parents to agree to a contract between themselves regarding custody of their minor children. Court documents say CVAs had been available in Cherokee County since at least 2000 for those who wanted to use them.
Palmer and Lindsay are each scheduled to appear in Cherokee County court for status hearings regarding the criminal charges Monday, Oct. 25.