NJ DYFS is the worst of the worst for families

[waiting]

Over 6 months ago, my friend went to a party with her family. She had some wine while she was there. After returning home, she and her 16 year old daughter argued over something. Like any typical 16 year old girl, the daughter went ballistic over her mom taking her cell phone and proceeded to scream in her mom's face and to push her physically while trying to grab her phone back. The mom slapped her daughter's face. Here is where it gets messy. My friend and her husband had been having some marital troubles recently that were not resolved at this point, they had been separated once before but were trying to work things out. Needless to say, that wasn't going well. My friend's husband actually called the police on her and claimed that she had threatened to use a knife on him.
The police came, and all was quiet for a while. You see, I live right behind them and heard and saw much of this going on. Then the police arrested her, because she was not cooperating with their requests to calm down and be quiet. At that point her husband got a restraining order against her and DYFS got involved. She has been made to go to anger management, psychological counseling, and alcohol and drug rehab meetings, all while still be investigated by DYFS for being a threat to her children's safety. I have known this family for a very long time and I know exactly who this woman is and how she is with her children. She is a loving and attentive mother, who bends over backward for her kids, and her community. Her husband has total domination over the finances and her life at this point, and DYFS has taken over her home and her freedom to be in it. She cannot even divorce her husband at this point because she is not allowed in her house full time and would probably lose her kids if she went against her husband's wishes. Her case worker has said that all of her evaluations have come back with her being fit to be with her kids and not a threat to them at all, as well as the fact that she is not an alcoholic or a drug addict. Yet the case worker won't close her case because he said that a divorce is not good for the family and that she and her husband have to go to marriage counseling before he closes it. He also said that she should be being intimate with her husband, which she hasn't been in a long time, understandably. He also told her husband that she was planning to divorce him and kick him out of the house after thDYFS case was resolved, which has put her physically in danger. When she told her case worker that she was going to be informing her Congressman about him and his actions in her case, he said, "Good, go ahead, he's a good friend of mine."
I cannot believe that a woman who has never been in trouble once in her 49 years, could be put through this kind of torture because of one family argument and a lie told by her husband. In New Jersey, if you are a home maker, and your husband accuses you of something illegal, you might as well be a woman living in the dark ages. I have no idea how to help her, as lawyers in N.J. are reluctant to fight DYFS because they are given such power and authority here. She has a lawyer who seems to me to be inept and possibly negligent. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas f how I can help this woman before she loses hat little sanity that she has left?