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A 14-year-old girl from another town and county is pregnant. She has identified the perpetrator as a juvenile from our county. The chief of police from the other town has told the detective here that he thinks that the suspect identified here is not the perpetrator and that the girl's mother's boyfriend is a likely candidate. Apparently the girl's younger sister has been sexually abused by him in the past.

The girl's mother wants to get an abortion performed as soon as possible. The police want to get tissue samples, if an abortion is performed, so that they can be compared to the named suspect, and if he is excluded, to the mother's boyfriend.

I have a couple of questions:
(1) How do we get a search warrant when when we have no idea when or where an abortion might be performed (the closest legal place is apparently the Metroplex)? It will be hard to know if the warrant can be executed in three days. Can we just keep asking for a warrant until they go to the doctor? Can we get a warrant to force the mother to divulge that information when she gets it?

(2) If the mother runs off with the girl and obtains an abortion for her, knowing that the police are needing DNA testing in order to help to identify the perpetrator, would the mother's actions constitute tampering with evidence?
 
Posts: 366 | Location: Plainview, Hale County | Registered: January 11, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The doctor who performs the abortion may have a duty to report the possibilty of sexual abuse. TFC 33.008.

You might contact CPS. If you have reason to believe that the mother is protecting someone who is sexually abusing the child, isn't that "neglect" under TFC 261.001(4)(B)(iv)?
CPS might decide to do a removal.

Alternatively, it seems like some kind of TRO or injunction might be an option -- though that might be too many episodes of Law & Order talking.

You might also look at TX HEALTH & S 691.025. "Procedure After Death." It might be relevant to what they do with an aborted fetus.
 
Posts: 527 | Location: Fort Worth, Texas, | Registered: May 23, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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