CPS returns boys to foster parents after abuse investigation concludes

HOUSTON – It's been a difficult fight but foster parents Angela Sugarek and Carol Jefferey have their boys back with them. Now they're wondering why the children were removed from their care in the first place.

"Our goal is to adopt these two boys, be their forever family," Sugarek said.

And it appears Sugarek and Jefferey are well on their way to making themselves official mothers, but it hasn't been easy.

"The point when you're speaking out for your children and then you're punished by having them removed for that, that's certainly wrongdoing" Sugarek said.

The two boys they've fostered for the past six months are brothers. The 3- and 4-year-old have a 15-year-old brother, also a foster child.

But when he'd visit, the couple alleged, he abused one of the little boys.

Child Protective Sevices eventually intervened but during the investigation the two little boys were removed from Sugarek and Jefferey's home and placed with another set of foster parents.

"As far as protocol, in any case where there are allegations of abuse against a child in a foster home, we do move the children to a respite home during the investigation. That is with any type of abuse," Tiffani Butler, a CPS spokesperson, said in a written statement to Channel 2.

"They've never, in their little lives, had any adult fight for them the way these two women have done," said Julie Ketterman, the couple's attorney.

The married couple are both teachers and they say their two boys developed an unbreakable bond with them. It's something the youngsters never had in any of the many other foster homes they've lived in, the couple said.

"Before they would just hide behind us and now they get this little grin and they squeal and they're so excited," said Jefferey.

Even more excited now, because CPS decided to let the boys come back home on Monday.

As for older brother, the couple said they'd like their boys to have a relationship with him as long as it's safe and properly supervised.

"He's a child. We have to remember that. He too is a child who has been through horrible, terrible things," Sugarek said, referring to the older brother. 

The reason CPS decided to allow the foster parents to have their foster children back is still unclear. But the couple said they are glad the boys are back home and they are taking steps to fully adopt them in the near future.

"We are extremely distressed that the foster parents continue to use the media as leverage to publicly bash CPS, regardless of the impact on these three boys. These children have a right to privacy, and state law protecting the confidentiality of foster children should not be ignored," said Patrick Crimmins, another spokesperson for CPS, in a written statement to Channel 2.