As a foster parent in Las Vegas, you WILL be falsely accused of sexual and physical child abuse. It’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Once a complaint is filed against you, it’s all downhill. You get to deal with Teresa Cragon (the DFS foster home abuse investigator who thinks she’s a black woman). You are permanently entered into the Nevada child abuse registry. DFS will assume you are guilty.

Most child abuse complaints are false and are made against foster parents by biological parents (who want their children back) or even other foster parents who want children transferred to their homes so they can cash in on the welfare checks.

Ask any attorney about suing for false CPS complaints and the answer you will usually get is “you can’t, CPS complaints are privileged”. That’s not the case.

The Nevada 8th District Court has ruled that CPS complaints are not absolute privileged as they are not part of a judicial or quasi-judicial process. At most, CPS complaints are conditionally privileged as they must be made in “good faith”. “Good faith” is defined as “true or without knowledge of the truth”. In addition, the laws governing CPS complaints have a statutory scheme/protocol in place for civil actions dealing with false complaints. In 2018 the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in Fitzgerald v. Mobile Billboards, LLC that caselaw must be abrogated and the statutory scheme be used – hence eliminating any ‘privilege’ defense. 

Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP statute also does not apply to CPS complaints if the complaint was not made in ‘good faith’.

As far as obtaining a copy of the false complaint and the name of the person who filed it, see NRS 432B.290(6) for that process. DFS will fight this big time, so be prepared.

The law is far more complicated than what is on this web site, but a good attorney will be able to do their own research using this as a starting point.