Daniel Greenfield recently exposed a “transgender child kidnapping network” in the child protective services of Washington State. If readers think “kidnapping” is a stretch they might consider “PC Kidnappers,” from the January, 1993, issue of Heterodoxy, founded by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, and the forerunner of Frontpage Magazine.

On May 9, 1989, in San Diego, California, an intruder abducted and raped eight-year-old Alicia Wade. Parents Denise and Jim Wade, a Navy man, took the distressed child to the NAVCARE facility where she had trouble explaining what happened. The NAVCARE doctor immediately called Child Protective Services.

Alicia told a CPS physician that a man claiming to be her “uncle” came through the window, took her to a car and “hurt” her. The doctor wrote that the child showed “total denial,” adding that the Wades’ time at NAVCARE was a delay in reporting the crime and thus an additional sign of guilt.

Jim Wade was also overweight, which CPS considered a sign of neglect. His status as a white middle-age serviceman also worked against him. In their zeal to target the father, CPS ignored significant facts.

Four of Alicia’s friends near the Wade home had also recently been sexually attacked, and in each case, the attacker had entered through a bedroom window. Five days after the rape of Alicia, in another Navy housing project, five-year-old Nicole S. was abducted through a window and sexually attacked. Despite these episodes, CPS still considered James Wade the prime suspect in the rape of his daughter.

While Alicia was being prepared for surgery, guards forcibly removed Denise Wade from the hospital. Alicia was crying for her parents, but investigators from the Department of Social Services (DSS) forbade the parents to speak to her. Social workers placed Alicia in a foster home, what CPS called a “parentectomy.”

In effect, the Wades faced a hostage situation. To get their child back, they had to cooperate with bureaucratic zealots who assumed their guilt from the start.

James Wade submitted to polygraph tests which found no intent to deceive. Then there were some 700 questions to get through, part of a battery of tests that includes the Thorne Sex Inventory, the Multiphasic Sex Inventory, the Sexual Attitude Scale, the Sexual Opinion Survey and the Contact Comfort Scale. Here are some of the 300 “true and false” questions:

“I have occasionally had sex with an animal.”

“I get more excitement and thrill out of hurting a person than I do from the sex itself.”

“I have become sexually stimulated while feeling or smelling a woman’s underwear.”

“I have masturbated while making an obscene phone call.”

“Sometimes I have not been able to stop myself from fondling one or more of the children in my family.” And then, near the end, a light touch: “I have fantasized about killing someone during sex.”

CPS forced the Wades to accept all kinds of “services,” such as counseling, therapy, parenting classes and “abusers groups.” Though taxpayers shoulder much of the cost, the system billed many of the charges back to the family through a scheme called “Revenue and Recovery.” The out-of-pocket costs to the Wades, before being billed for foster care, were $260,000, not the kind of spare change a Navy man keeps around.

In the court system, the Wades also found themselves at a disadvantage. Unlike the prosecution, they had no money to pay for “expert” witnesses. Jim Wade later pegged his legal fees at $125,000, and his insurance did not cover these costs.

The system’s deep anti-family animus forced the Wades to accept a plea bargain by pleading no-contest to a charge of “neglect.” Based on the recommendations of a therapist, the county still recommended that Alicia should not be returned to her home.

From October 1989 until June 1990, Alicia had no contact with her parents. Court proceedings dragged on, devastating the Wades financially and emotionally. Social workers determined that Alicia was “adoptable” and that a parental rights termination hearing was appropriate.

As this played out, police finally examined Alicia’s semen-stained panties. DNA tests confirmed that James Wade could not have been the man who attacked Alicia. The DA’s office continued to prohibit contact between father and daughter.

Convicted sex offender Albert Raymond Carder was in the five percent of the population whose genetic profile matched the stains, and his shoe matched the footprint taken outside Alicia’s window. Despite this powerful evidence, CPS did everything in its power to prevent Alicia from returning to her family.

In November 1991, two and a half years after the ordeal began, the DA’s office dropped rape charges against James Wade. Judge Frederic Link issued a rare finding of innocence for the embattled Navy man. Carder, already serving a 25-year term, was charged with the attack on Alicia Wade. Even so, the Wade’s troubles were far from over.

The finding of innocence, the prosecution argued, didn’t matter because the original petition was neglect, which still provided sufficient grounds for Alicia’s adoption. The Wades appealed to the San Diego Grand Jury, which had issued reports critical of CPS. It was only through the jury’s intervention that Alicia escaped being adopted away forever.

The Wades brought a lawsuit against government agencies and individuals in CPS. A settlement of more than $2 million helped pay the bills but could not compensate for suffering the family had been forced to endure.

“Take heed, citizens of San Diego and all Americans,” Jim Wade wrote in a newspaper column. “There is a creature running amok in your midst which can steal your children, your financial future and, very possibly, your personal freedom, as it did mine.” In 2023, that warning still applies.

“Trans minors protected from parents under Washington law,” runs the headline on a May 9 Associated press story. “Once a child is listed as transgender,” Daniel Greenfield explains, “the parents are automatically treated as abusers.” Instead of contacting a child’s parents, “the system will contact Washington’s child services department essentially claiming automatic state custody of any children classified as transgender.”

Take heed all parents. The creature that can steal your children and ruin your future is now empowered by a denial of reality and the force of law.