Certainly, though, CPS would have stepped in had it gotten wind of what was happening in the self-destructive lives of Raven Laws' parents shortly before her birth in 2002.
But Raven would slip under the radar of CPS and its foster-care system when Shelly Walters went the private route for her new daughter, after happening onto Jack and Aneta Bessinger.
Greg Riebesehl questions his client, Jack Bessinger, during the custody battle.
The Bessingers tried almost everything to keep Raven from her mother, including a claim that the little girl was of Native American heritage.
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Shelly Walters and Marty Laws were in dire straits when Raven was born on November 28, 2002.
Laws was an unemployed 42-year-old tweaker with serious physical problems. He apparently didn't even know he was Raven's father until after the little girl's birth.
Walters told a probation officer in 2002 that she'd started tweaking at the age of 21, which would have been in 1987, before meth became an evil drug of choice for many. She said she tweaked daily starting in the mid-1990s.
A county grand jury indicted Walters in early 2002 on forgery and identity theft charges. Later that year, police re-arrested her on additional charges of possessing meth.
By then, she was pregnant with Raven.
A question arose of who would take care of the newborn if Walters was sentenced to prison, which appeared likely after she pleaded guilty in October 2002 to two counts of forgery.
For various reasons, her family members were unavailable.
Another female inmate at the county jail offered Walters a possible solution. The woman mentioned that her mother ran an unofficial group home for at-risk children in the desert north of Phoenix.
Called Embrace, the 4,500-square-foot residence isn't part of the state Department of Economic Security's foster-care system. As such, it hasn't been subject to CPS oversight, which is supposed to include training, background checks and monitoring.
Embrace receives no government funding and relies on donations from churches and private individuals. The owner of a small Phoenix business, Jack Bessinger has poured thousands of dollars into the home, which his wife operates.
The home finds its children (two or three live there at a time, according to court testimony) by word of mouth. Some kids stay there short-term, while others call Embrace home for years.
By all accounts, the Bessingers have created a nurturing and safe place.
Shelly Walters and Aneta Bessinger first spoke by phone shortly before Raven's birth. They struck an unwritten agreement that the Bessingers would assume parental and financial responsibilities for the baby while Walters was incarcerated.
Raven's birth was without complications, but the intense mother-daughter relationship lasted only until authorities soon returned Shelly Walters to jail.
The Bessingers took Raven into Embrace, where she would live for about the first year and a half of her life.
Shortly before Walters was sentenced on January 22, 2003, she wrote to county Judge John Gaylord that "sending me to the DOC will only keep a family separated longer and deny a newborn baby that chance to bond to her mother. She's in a foster home now only because her father has cancer and can hardly take care of himself much less a newborn baby. But I will get her back when I'm released to go home."
The judge didn't bite and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, with credit for time already served.
Walters was released on probation in January 2004. Aneta Bessinger later testified that she learned of Walters' release only after prison officials returned unopened letters the Bessingers had mailed to her.
That March, Aneta informed CPS that Walters had "abandoned" Raven, a possible first step toward termination of the mother's parental rights.
But a subsequent CPS investigation sided with Walters.
Caseworkers apparently believed Walters when she claimed she hadn't immediately visited Raven because she first wanted to get her feet on the ground — drug rehab, a place to live, community-service hours and employment.
Embrace was the only home that Raven had ever known. She had bonded with everyone there, including her surrogate parents and siblings (the other at-risk kids), and with a horse named Miracle.
She was healthy and safe.
But in late June 2004, the Bessingers — with no legal hold on the child — unhappily turned over Raven to Shelly Walters.
Within a month, however, the couple filed a dependency petition against Walters in county court, saying she was incapable of adequately parenting Raven, then nearing her second birthday.
The Bessingers alleged in part that Walters wrongly had reported Raven as kidnapped when she was trying to get her child back, and that 10 sheriff's deputies had come to Embrace after authorities issued an Amber Alert.
Aneta Bessinger also claimed she had seen Shelly Walters pull Raven's hair and fling the little girl against the furniture at Embrace.
CPS again investigated and learned that Walters had called the sheriff's office but that no patrol cars had been dispatched to Embrace and no Amber Alert issued.
CPS recommended dismissal of the Bessingers' petition, and a judge agreed.
Shelly Walters was allowed to keep her daughter.
But she couldn't hold herself together.
In January 2005, Walters and her teenage son were charged with shoplifting at a Mesa store and later pleaded guilty. That April, court officials sought to revoke Walters' probation, alleging that she had used meth at least six times since the previous September, among other misdeeds.
