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The Five Los Angeles Pro Se: A Modern Echo of Georgia Tann

Updated: Sep 7

History is repeating itself. Nearly a century ago, Georgia Tann, the infamous director of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, built an empire of child trafficking. From the 1920s to the 1950s, she stole more than 5,000 children from poor, disabled, or minority families and sold them to wealthy adoptive parents. She lied to judges, fabricated records, and manipulated social workers. Courts sealed the truth.


Her crimes only came to light decades later — far too late for thousands of families who never saw their children again.


And now, here in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, the same pattern has returned under a different name: Child Protective Services.


The Blueprint Lives On

What Georgia Tann pioneered has become the unspoken blueprint of today’s child welfare system:

  • Lies told under oath to justify removals.

  • Sealed records to hide corruption.

  • Targeting vulnerable families — the poor, the disabled, the minorities.

  • Breaking families apart in the name of “the best interest of the child.”


The Five Los Angeles Pro Se

Out of this broken system, five families — each denied legal representation because no attorney dared to take on CPS — were forced to fight back pro se in federal court.


Together, we became The Five Los Angeles Pro Se.

  1. Marissa Hernandez v. County of Los Angeles, et al. Case No. 2:21-cv-07858-PA (JC) Marissa’s son was stolen through lies and fabricated reports. Her fight exposes how CPS ignored her rights and denied family placement.

  2. Samuel Nicholas v. City of West Covina, et al. Case No. 2:22-cv-02425-PA (JC) Samuel’s case reveals collusion between law enforcement and CPS — false arrests and false reports used to justify child removal.

  3. Susan Schofield v. County of Los Angeles, et al. Case No. 2:22-cv-04332-JGB (AS) Susan’s case highlights systemic corruption and psychiatric abuse — a chilling reminder of how vulnerable families are targeted when they challenge authority.

  4. January Schofield v. County of Los Angeles, et al. Case No. 2:22-cv-05590-JGB (AS) January’s case shows how even children are exploited, with CPS weaponizing disability and mental health to control families.

  5. Morris Patrick v. County of Los Angeles, et al. Case No. 2:22-cv-02846-MWC-BFM My case exposes how Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties falsified police reports, committed perjury, ignored the Americans with Disabilities Act, and stole my children while denying me interpreters and due process because I am deaf and gay.


Then and Now: The Same Crime

What happened under Georgia Tann is happening again:

  • Then: children stolen and sold under the guise of adoption.

  • Now: children stolen under the guise of “protection,” with counties profiting through federal funding for foster care and adoption bonuses.


Both then and now, families were silenced, courts sealed the truth, and the public was deceived.


Why This Matters

Georgia Tann was eventually exposed, but only after thousands of lives were shattered beyond repair. Today, The Five Los Angeles Pro Se stand as living proof that her legacy still thrives inside Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties.


We are not lawyers. We are parents. And yet, in federal court, we are writing the new blueprint for accountability — case by case, motion by motion, exhibit by exhibit.


A Call for Justice

The counties want to bury our cases. They want to seal the record, silence our voices, and erase the evidence. But we will not let history repeat itself in silence.


We are The Five Los Angeles Pro Se.


We are breaking the seal. We are exposing the lies. We are demanding justice.


Because children are not property. Families are not disposable. And justice delayed is justice denied. References: https://www.stolenchildrenbycps.com/post/georgia-tann-the-blueprint-for-america-s-child-stealing-empire


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