My CPS and WilCo story part 1

So we moved to Texas.  Wait, you knew that part.  And I got a great job.  Oh, you knew that part too?  Ok, well we settled in nicely actually.  We were loving the warm weather, the culture, the world at our fingertips.  In April we decided it was time to bring Austin to Texas to live with us.  (Austin is my oldest son, to refresh yalls memory).  Hey, I picked up a little bit of souther while I was there, so sue me.  


Anyway, the end of April I drove to Wisconsin to get Austin and bring him home.  It was wonderful, our family once again as complete as it could be without our sweet Alexander, the son we will never bring home.  


Austin is on probation and registered as a sex offender at 17 years old for having a sexual relationship with his 13 year old girlfriend when he was 16.  So when we got to Texas his supervision had to be transfered from the Wisconsin department of social services to the Williamson county Texas juvenile probation devision.  Insert probation officer Brooke Hall.  There were many hoops to jump through in Texas.  We  had to install a door alarm on his bedroom door and he had to be supervised 100% of the time.  I had to leave my job to supervise him (ever tried securing "day care" for a 17 year old registered sex offender?).  His probation officer was almost a daily addition to our lives either with visits or phone calls.  We looked forward to February when his "supervision" would end and he could once again be somewhat of a normal teenager.  For now he was under lock and key.  The kids couldn't have friends over,   If I was in the kitchen doing dishes, he was in the kitchen.  If I went to the bathroom, he was in his bedroom with the door alarm set.  He was always to be seen AND heard and we took this very seriously.  It was stressfull for all involved, but we ticked off the days on the calendar as they came and looked forward to a brighter future where we wouldn't be essentially prisoners in our home.  


Upon bringing Austin to Texas we notified the state of Wisconsin SO registry of his whereabouts, we registered him in Texas with his probation officer overseeing him fill out the forms.  We did what they asked, got him a picture ID, took his fingerprints, gave his DNA sample.  We did everything right.......


except we didn't.  


On June 14th the bottom dropped out of our lives.  We woke to a knock on the door and two armed plain clothes detectives greeted Austin and I on my front porch.  They identified themselves as Georgetown PD detectives Pascoe and Vasquez.  They told us that Austin was in violation of the Texas sex offender registry.


How??  We did that?!


No ma'am.  You didn't.  You registered him with the state and the county, not the city.  Please bring your son to the police department this afternoon.


And so I did.  We arrived at 2:30.  Austin was taken back to register and I was left in the lobby.  After 5 minutes the detective came out and asked me to come back.  "That boy doesn't get it".  He stated to me.  "When I ask him questions he just nods, barely speaks, and just says "I didn't realize".  


Now, I could tell you first hand that my 17 year old son with a cognitive ability of a 14 year old roughly did NOT actually get the true seriousness of any of this.  However, it's understandable his lack of words.  Every time in the past he has spoken to police his words have been twisted and used against him.  His attorney had advised him not to speak, as per his 5th amendment rights and he was executing them.  Open your mouth and incriminate yourself, he had learned that well.


So I go back with him and we complete the registration and they fingerprint him a second time.  The detective got very snappy when I informed him that we were planning a trip to Wisconsin on Monday (this was Friday) and demanded I call him monday morning before we left.  I found this slightly odd but didn't really realize what was going on at that point.  


The weekend was quiet, and then Monday brought a whole new surprise that really began the worst summer of our lives.....


continued tomorrow.