It's a travesty that a report from a jaded ex or obnoxious neighbor can result in one having CPS, the state tax authorities, etc, crawling all over somebody for however long an investigation takes. And from the point of the person being investigated and more importantly, the broader community it is anonymous. The person using the investigative process as harassment stands to lose nothing by doing so.
The FBI suits interviewed myself and all my colleagues independently. It felt like an interrogation, like I was the accused. They even made me sign a form, basically giving them the right to investigate me. Oh, and they also told us not to talk to anyone about, well, anything. So yeah, these guys knew what they were doing, and it felt like they were aware this whole thing might be some sort of setup.
But yeah, I definitely get your point. I actually have a friend that works for CPS, and she said bitter ex's call in bogus claims all the time. There's a protocol she's required to follow, and that protocol doesn't involve investigating if the claim is false, even if it's totally obvious that it is. And the worst part is, even if the claim is obviously fake (like, the accused moved to Florida 6 months ago with his new girlfriend; he hasn't seen his kid in months, how could he leave recent bruises on her?), there's no consequences to the accuser. Nothing. She's not allowed to do anything, just close the investigation and move on. That's it.
Continuing on the topic of CPS, she once told me that they work very closely with the local cops. Also, CPS doesn't need warrants or court approval to enter a home. If they get an accusation of child abuse, they have the right to enter and investigate, and they use the local cops to assist them. Well, the local cops know this, and they use it to get around warrants and such. She said when the cops want to get access to someone's house, but they don't have enough for a warrant or the whole case is shady (like, they just wanna harass someone), they have an anonymous idiot on the street call in a bogus child abuse claim to an address, then they call their contact at CPS and work out a date/time to enter, based on the abuse claim they initiated (through their anonymous idiot). Once the cops are inside, they can pretty much do whatever they want. She's been on "investigations" where she was told to wait in her car, meaning she had to be there as a formality, but that's it. She said CPS knows what's going on, but they can't/won't do anything about it, because they need the support of local cops for their own, legitimate investigations.
I don't know if you were referring to this, but it certainly was front-on-mind for me. (There's a GoFundMe for their legal troubles if you want to donate. Please consider it.)
