By Kylie Marsh
Kylie.marsh@triangletribune.com
DURHAM – The fifth floor of the Durham County Justice Center was packed on Friday morning. People flew in from California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Florida in support of Amanda Wallace, founder of Operation Stop CPS.
Wallace was served with a no-contact order pursuant to the North Carolina Workplace Violence Prevention Act filed on behalf of Maggie Clapp, director of the Durham County Department of Social Services.
Durham County District Court Judge James Hill approved the order against Wallace with specific conditions, including that Wallace not be allowed to use amplified sound when protesting and must remain at least 50 feet away from the Durham County Department of Social Services Building when protesting, and that no minors be present. Hill also ruled, however, that Wallace is allowed to send emails to Clapp, as well as attend DSS board meetings.
“I’m feeling like we already won,” Wallace said, expressing gratitude to the community that showed up in support of her case and the movement for the abolition of the family policing system. “What happened today was an attack on freedom of speech.
“The only witness that they had was the director of Social Services, and the only evidence they had were her feelings; ignoring the feelings of countless families that continue to voice that this is what’s happening to them. We’re not making up these words.”
Clapp testified that Wallace appeared at DSS events, board meetings and on the sidewalk outside of Clapp’s apartment, often in protest. Specifically, Clapp said Wallace “accused [Clapp] of being a kidnapper of Black children.” Clapp also testified there were frequently other people accompanying Wallace.
Clapp described emotional distress on separate occasions when seeing Wallace alleging that Wallace’s appearance on a public sidewalk adjacent to her apartment was an “escalation.” In cross-examination, Wallace’s attorneys asked Clapp to clarify that, although she has known Wallace for approximately two and a half years, there has not been any actual violence between the two.
Wallace’s attorneys presented Dr. Sarah Katz as an expert testimony in Wallace’s defense. Katz is a clinical professor of law at Temple University Beasley School of Law and a published scholar of family justice law.
Katz said the terms “kidnapping” and “genocide” are used to describe the personal experiences of families involved in the family policing system. She also clarified that the United Nations’ definition of the word genocide “includes the forcible removal of children from one group to another.”
Despite being adamant that he would protect freedom of speech and quoting the French philosopher Voltaire, Hill ruled against specific use of “kidnapping” and “genocide.”
“When you allege someone to be a kidnapper, that is accusing someone of a crime. Kidnapping is a felony,” he said.
