Woman alleges that social worker impersonated judge

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

A Laughlin woman has sued Clark County, the state and a child protective services agency in federal court, alleging that the county failed to oversee a caseworker who passed himself off as a judge.

Jerene Zemla, 33, accuses Brian Brody, a former caseworker for Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada, a private company under contract with the county, of representing himself as a judge and taking her children away from her without cause or due process.

Zemla claims in the suit that Brody violated her constitutional rights when he gave her mother, Donna Parman of Laughlin, custody of her three children in April 2002 without informing Zemla of her rights or establishing a custody hearing.

"Brian Brody told me when I sat in front of him the day that I lost my children that he was God when it came to my children, and that if I didn't do what he said, I would never have them back," Zemla said in a phone interview.

"I thought to myself, 'How am I going to deal with this man?' " Zemla said. "He was so big. He called the shots when it came to where my children were. And I felt really little."

By law Brody should have set up a custody hearing and assigned both Zemla and the children a lawyer, David Loreman, Zemla's Elko-based attorney, said. She later found out that Brody never even opened a case file for her.

"It's not a good thing when you get your children taken away in the first place," Loreman said. "But it's even worse when you're not given the opportunity to have something done according to the Nevada statutes."

Loreman said he is investigating whether Brody represented himself as a judge to other families.

The federal complaint alleges Brody also told her she could be charged with felony child abuse, which caused Zemla "to not be in her right mind." Zemla received counseling for one month at WestCare.

Brody, according to the complaint, banned Zemla from having any contact with her children whatsover. Later he said she could only visit her children under the terms and conditions set by Parman.

Numerous attempts to reach Brody were unsuccessful.

Zemla names Brody, Parman, Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada, Clark County and the Nevada Division of Child and Family Service as defendants in the federal lawsuit. She claims that Brody and Parman conspired to take her children away from her and that the other entities were negligent in their supervision of Brody. The lawsuit says there should have been safeguards in place to prevent Brody from "acting outside of his actual authority."

Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County Juvenile Justice Services, said the county terminated its contract with the privately run Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada after Brody's alleged actions came to light.

"We haven't contracted with that agency since September 2002," said Burgess, who was director of the county's Department of Family and Youth Services at the time.

During a March 2004 social services committee meeting in Laughlin, county officials acknowledged that Brody worked outside his contract, according to minutes of the meeting.

"He was performing duties that he should never have been performing, potentially incurring a lot of liability for the county," Burgess says in the meeting's minutes.

"... We can't have somebody holding themselves out as a judge or a police officer or anything of that nature if they work for us. He worked way far and beyond, he did things that nobody else would ever do. One, they wouldn't be required to do it, and legally they couldn't do it."

Burgess said he believed Brody had been fired, but that was up to the private agency.

"Certainly we would never condone any behavior like that."

Burgess said he could not discuss the details of the actual custody case.

"We believe that we did the right thing trying to work with this family and the case, but it's a confidential case," Burgess said.

Karen Marconi, the current executive director of Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada, said she could not comment on the case. She would not even say whether Brody still worked at the nonprofit organization, which works to treat and prevent abuse, neglect and violence. The organization is partially sponsored by United Way of Southern Nevada.

The federal complaint states that Brody was fired, but he is still listed on the organization's Web site as a Child Protective Services and Court Services worker in Laughlin. He's also on the Laughlin Town Advisory Board, town officials confirmed Wednesday.

Zemla is seeking damages in excess of $150,000 for the severe emotional and mental distress caused by the incident, and is still fighting her mother for custody of her two sons, Loreman said.

Zemla said Parman returned her now 8-year-old daughter in August 2002, claiming that she couldn't handle the child's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"My client was good enough to take care of her daughter, who has a disability, but apparently she should not be in custody of her two sons, which makes no sense," Loreman said.

A California court awarded Parman custody of Zemla's 14-year-old sons, who are twins, after their father, a California resident, was arrested on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and remains in jail, Loreman said. The father and Parman issued a restraining order against Zemla prior to his arrest, alleging that she is abusive and has problems with drugs and alcohol, Loreman and Zemla said.

Zemla said the allegations are not true, but she is doing everything asked of her by her California-appointed case worker to get her sons back, including going to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, parenting and anger management classes and submitting to random drug testing.

When reached at her home by phone, Parman would not comment on the lawsuit or answer any questions except to say that "This allegation is 100 percent false." She would not specify which allegation she was referring to.

For the past year Parman has restricted Zemla to one-hour-a-week, supervised visits with her sons at Parman's home, Zemla said. After hearing of the lawsuit Zemla said Parman told her she was no longer welcome at the home and could only see her sons by appointment.

The federal complaint says that Zemla originally gave Parman temporary guardianship to be able to enroll the children in school in Laughlin while Zemla was still in Hemet, Calif. Parman originally sought legal custody, the complaint says, to be able to enroll the children in her health insurance plan.

Zemla said she could only speculate as to why her mother took her sons away from her.

"I don't know why," Zemla said. "I've done nothing wrong."