Massachusetts News
By Edward G. Oliver

January 13--To the joy of all, the little girl featured on the front page of Massachusetts News in December, who endured harsh treatment in DSS care, was placed back into the custody of her parents by Judge Louis D. Coffin of Falmouth Juvenile Court on January 12. 

When asked how it feels to be back home, a cheerful Tara, who is in the fourth grade and will be ten-years-old on February 11, told Massachusetts News, "A lot better!" She added that "It stinked" where she was before. Tara said she likes to,"Cook with my mom, Um…I like to play out on my swing and I want to go out in my blow-up pool but it's not the right temperature out to do that yet…And I like playing with my friends. I'm going hiking with my mom, too!" 

Tara said she would get her Dad to smile for a family photo by getting him to say prime rib, his favorite food, because he doesn't like cheese. 

Her parents, Heidi and Paul Gavigan, told Massachusetts News, "We are overwhelmed by the fact that we can now open our daughter's bedroom door at midnight and there she is, sleeping peacefully in her own bed. It is still difficult to believe. We can hug and kiss her any time we want to. We can take her to the movies or to the beach to look for shells. We can take her out to dinner and to the county fair." 

They say the doctor who put her on three drugs while she was at the DSS has taken Tara off all drugs now that she is home. 

Heidi said, "It will be a slow process to get things back to the way they were, but it’s getting there. Tara now knows that she is safe and that she will not be shipped from stranger to stranger, hospital to hospital. She is home with mom and dad and we are never further away than the next room. At first, it was hard to get her to even sleep in her own bed, as she did not want to be that far away from us. We would find her snuggled between us in the morning. I think that the fear that we will not be there is starting to slowly leave her. She knows that she is no longer a number, but a little girl who means the world to her mom and dad." 

In early October, a confrontational meeting between the parents and staff, where Tara was placed, held out little hope that Tara's travails would soon be over. The parents were told point blank that going home was "not an option" for Tara. 

But the meeting was tape recorded, and Heidi made it known to all that the story and tape were being given to Massachusetts News. Heidi said, "After that, everything clicked into place." A month later, Tara was surprisingly allowed to go home on the weekends. Then on November 22, Tara was sent home for an "extended visit." 

Tara's story then appeared in the December issue of Massachusetts News. The family's lawyers were soon stunned to learn the family might get Tara back at their next routine court hearing in January. In a letter to the paper, Heidi wrote, "I know we have you to thank for that. Paul, Tara and I will be eternally grateful to you." 

Heidi could not rave enough about her attorneys. "Please tell everyone that not only would we like to thank Massachusetts News, we would like to express our deep and profound gratitude to three people who were involved in our case from a legal standpoint. Usually, when parents' children are stolen from them by this system, they are appointed a public defender who could not care less about any aspect of any case they have. Keeping the judge happy and getting home to dinner on time seem to be their main concern. We were exceptionally lucky in that the lawyers who were appointed to represent Paul and me were awesome. 

"I was extremely fortunate to have attorney Patricia Campanini, from Dennis, appointed as my attorney. I was one in a million who could go home after a day in court and not feel completely helpless because my attorney did not really care. I was very fortunate to have an attorney who was not only passionate about the job she does, but also that she truly believed in my story. On the last day of our trial, Paul's attorney, Robert Brown of Falmouth, told me that he believes Patricia is the best care and protection attorney around, and you sure won’t get an argument from me. 

"This brings us to Attorney Bob Brown of Falmouth. Bob was truly disturbed by some of the things that he saw go on during this case, and he also did all he could to bring about a happy conclusion for us. He did a great job with Paul's case and with very little help from Paul, who could rarely make it to meetings or court appearances because of his work schedule and because it was all almost too overwhelming for Paul. 

"Finally, I would like to thank Attorney Debra Smith of Plymouth, the first attorney assigned to Paul's case. Deb worked side by side with Patricia, as Bob did later. She did much in the relatively short time that she was assigned to the case and believed in us. She had said that before she met us and after she had read a description of the case, she was expecting drug-addicted biker-types to show up at the courthouse. What she met were two relatively normal looking and acting people who did not come across as the idiots DSS made us out to be. I think she was truly surprised. Deb was another attorney who did her job well, cared about her clients and like Patricia and Bob, was frustrated and angry at times at the department’s antics and the fact that they could get away with them. 

"Sadly, Paul let Deb go. He was petrified at the time that it had been so long and Tara wasn't home yet. In a moment of panic, he let a damn good attorney go. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Deb Smith as well and tell her that what she did was not forgotten by us, nor will it be forgotten. Paul and I will be eternally grateful to all three of these exceptional attorneys, exceptional people. Thank you Patricia, Bob and Deb. I will never forget what you did for us. I will continue to recommend you to people who ask if I know a good lawyer, with the highest of praise. I was lucky enough to meet the best, the three of you."