CHARLESTON – A federal judge has dismissed a complaint filed by a grandmother seeking to either adopt or be granted visits with her grandson who is in foster care.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued her memorandum opinion and order April 10 granting motions to dismiss filed by a Kanawha County judge and a state agency chairman.
Ruth Royal filed her complaint in December in federal court against Kanawha Circuit Judge Tera Salango and Cynthia Persily, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services. Alex J. Mayer now is DoHS cabinet secretary.
Tera Salango
| courtswv.gov
Royal alleged violations of her Fourteenth Amendment rights by the defendants after a series of legal attempts to intervene in abuse and neglect proceedings and the subsequent adoption of her grandchild, identified as I.R.
Royal’s adult daughter gave birth to I.R. in September 2019. The DHS initiated abuse and neglect proceedings against her daughter, and DHS placed I.R. with a foster family.
When Royal learned of I.R.’s birth, she contacted DHS. Child Protective Services conducted a visit to Royal’s home and determined her home was not an appropriate placement for the infant. I.R. stayed with his foster family, and the parental rights of Royal’s daughter were ultimately terminated.
In February 2020, Royal intervened in the abuse and neglect proceedings being handled by Salango, maintaining that she was not properly considered for placement. During a hearing in the matter, Royal said she had not seen her daughter in three years and had not met I.R.
Salango ruled placing I.R. with Royal was not in the child’s best interests, and the judge also noted the untimeliness of Royal’s motion to intervene. The state Supreme Court later affirmed that ruling.
In March 2022, Royal filed a petition to adopt I.R. Salango denied the adoption, again saying the best interests of the child outweighed the grandparent preference provided by state law. She also cited a failure to comply with the statutory requirements. The state Supreme Court again affirmed Salango’s decision.
At the same time, Royal filed a request for grandparent visitation, which Salango denied, saying it could strain the relationship between I.R. and his foster parents and that Royal had a history of abuse.
In addition, Royal filed several motions to stay her grandson’s adoption and motions for rehearing, which were denied by Salango and the state Supreme Court. In September 2023, she filed a motion for relief from judgment, which Salango denied. And in February 2024, she filed a motion for rehearing, and she has a pending motion for supervised visitation.
In seeking help from the federal court, Royal says her due process rights have been her, making her unable to intervene in the abuse and neglect proceedings, adopt I.R. or form a relationship with him.
Royal wanted a declaratory judgment affirming her constitutional rights and access to the results of the CPS home inspection.
In her nine-page order, Berger said she can’t provide the remedy Royal seeks.
“Each of the state court judgments she takes issue with went through the appeals process and became final before she sought redress from this court,” Berger wrote. The relief she seeks in her petition … is an invitation to review and reject findings by the Kanawha County Circuit Court, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the Supreme Court of the United States.
“Essentially, Ms. Royal is asking this court to undo the decisions the state court has previously made and allow her access to her grandson. This court cannot provide such a remedy, as doing so would excess its jurisdiction.”
Royal was represented by Richie Robb of South Charleston. Salango was represented by Marc Williams, Robert Massie, Anna Williams and Shaina Massie of Nelson Mullins in Huntington, and Mayer (previously Persily) was represented by Steven R. Compton of the state Attorney General’s office.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:24-cv-732