Chad and Jessica Farley are the latest guests on the podcast.
Chad, a military veteran, was one of the stories featured when I wrote about how family courts mistreat the military.
Chad Farley and his wife Jessica live in Tennessee. In 2021, they had their children taken. Connie Reguli is their attorney and she told me that Chad’s disability, from his military service, was used against him both when authorities came to take his children and when he went to court.
Chad’s is disabled and has both difficulty seeing and hearing. Rather than providing accommodations, case workers and court actors ignored his disabilities.
Connie told me that his child was taken with no warrant or court order but because he had difficulty understanding authorities, his rights were violated.
“I wasnt allowed to have a caretaker or guardian see what they had me sign as I couldn't read it without proper glasses (legally blind). they threatened both me and my wife that I would not have my any of my ada's accommodated in jail (using my injuries from service and scaring my wife about me not being taken care of using my service against me and that I would lose my va pension if I was locked up. the judge asked me questions last hearing and when I answered them I was kicked out of the court room ( first time every in my life) because I was talking over her.” Chad explained further. “I am hearing impaired and have cochlear implants and the delay was terrible. They continue to use things like this against me knowing I can't keep up with all the people in the courtroom talking, during covid they wouldn't even take masks down ( with proper distancing ) for me to read their lips.”
Connie told me that CPS demanded his psych records from his military times, but that CPS is intrusive in this way with most people.
Today, we dug deep into their story. As we explored in the outset, Chad and Jessica are in a polyamorous relationship and in the BDSM lifestyle. They do not throw sex parties, they told me, but do have get togethers {their son is not on the premises when these occur}.
The authorities made no secret that they while they weren’t being charged with any crimes for these parties, they were being investigated because of it.
Their story starts in earnest in April of 2021. That’s when Jessica made allegations that Chad was physically abusive.
As both explained, Jessica made these allegations while in a psych ward and under the influence of family.
No matter, the local sheriff’s deputy, along with a DCS caseworker, showed up to Chad’s home on April 13, 2021. They interrogated Chad for about an hour and a half.
After this visit, their son was not removed, but the authorities were not done with them.
The next day, Jessica explained, police were back in the psych ward.
She mentioned that she was already interviewed on April 13. When this did not lead to the removal of their son, the cops were back the next day interviewing her again.
After this, Chad explained that he was visited by SWAT team and taken into custody, while his home was ransacked. A video he made suggests that the search was done without a warrant.
Chad was given a $250,000 bond and was ordered to have no contact with Jessica.
Chad acknowledged that he violated this order; by July 2021, Jessica was made to testify against Chad, and as he explained, the authorities coerced him into a plea deal.
How was he coerced?
He was told that if he did not accept the plea deal, he would be charged that day, sent to jail, and it would be a long time before he was released.
With a guilty plea, DCS had all it needed to wrap itself in their lives.
Chad and Jessica explained that they only got their son back after going through numerous hoops: anger management, regular drug tests, and other DCS related activities.
They finally did get their son back, but after almost a year.
Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast the Impromptu: Episode 57 an Interview with Chad and Jessica Farley