Update (August 15, 2021): A viral cellphone video is providing a closer look at the disturbing incident involving former American Idol contestant Syesha Mercado. Footage shows Mercado sobbing while authorities seize her 10-day-old daughter at a traffic stop in Florida on Wednesday, the New York Post reported. The video also shows deputies surrounding the SUV which was occupied by Mercado, her newborn baby and her partner, Tyron Deener.
While conducting the roadside welfare check, police resurfaced previous accusations against Mercado, who had another baby taken away five months ago because the child was allegedly malnutritioned.
“THEY TOOK OUR BABY AGAIN!” Mercado wrote on Instagram while posting the video recorded by the couple.
The singer had her first child taken away after the boy was examined by Sally Smith, a doctor who has a reputation of being “too quick to diagnose child abuse.” Defense attorneys, parents and child welfare employees have criticized the doctor for many years, complaining about her aggressive interrogation of parents among other concerns, the Herald-Tribune reported.
Mercado said authorities have now “forcefully and legally kidnapped” a child from her for the second time. The video in the latest incident shows two male deputies serving the couple with a court order to turn over their baby.
“Do you not feel anything? You guys, I’m human. This is my baby. My baby is days old — and you’re taking my baby away from me,” Mercado can be heard saying around the 50-minute mark.
The couple continues to explain that they are “compliant and following every law.” They also told authorities that their daughter had already been seen by physicians just a day earlier. Still, caseworkers took the baby from the mother’s arms and placed her alone in the back seat of a city vehicle.
“You are traumatizing my baby. How could you guys do this?” the devastated mother said. “You have no heart. This is so wrong.”
"Y'all done took our son, now y'all taking our daughter," Deener is heard saying.
According to TMZ, The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said the child was picked up by order of a family court judge.
"We understand that from the outside looking in The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Child Protection Investigation Division’s actions may seem uncaring, but let me assure you we have the best interest of children and families in mind at all times,” the sheriff’s office said. “We are governed by numerous policies and laws to ensure we do not lose focus when dealing with vulnerable families. The last thing anyone in this business wants to do is shelter children from their parents, but sometimes it is the only direction we are forced to take.”
As her child was being taken on Wednesday, Mercado pumped breast milk into a bottle to send off with her daughter. When Mercado begged for an explanation, police said the child was being taken because she didn't tell authorities that she had given birth. The legal battle for custody of her son is ongoing.
Original (August 14, 2021): Florida authorities have taken another child from American Idol finalist Syesha Mercado.
On Aug. 11, the singer, her companion Tyron Deener and their 10-day-old daughter were sitting in the car when Manatee County deputies surrounded the vehicle and provided them with a court order requiring them to hand over the newborn for a checkup at the hospital, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.
Despite the pair informing law enforcement that the child had been viewed by doctors the day prior, authorities took the newborn into protective services where she has remained as officials say the couple neglected to inform them of the newborn’s birth.
The incident comes as they fight to regain custody of their 15-month-old son Amen’Ra who was taken from them while he was being treated at the hospital for malnutrition, Fox 13 reported.
On Feb. 26, the pair took their son to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, and a couple of weeks later law enforcement said the couple was trespassing while on the hospital’s premises and had them removed immediately. Mercado says she and her partner were not notified when Amen’Ra was released from the medical institution and later found out he had been placed in the foster care system.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said hospital staff offered to give the toddler a B-12 intramuscular shot, however, Mercado rejected it. The couple, however, said that's not true.
The singer said it was challenging transitioning her son from breastfeeding to eating solid foods, causing him to struggle to gain weight.
"Instead of educating myself and my family and providing us with resources, I was met with a lot of judgment and accusations that literally started to spiral out of control," she said.
The singer took to Instagram to speak out against what she calls injustice.
"They stole our baby from us. Call it Medical Kidnapping, Legalized Kidnapping,” Mercado said.
“This major injustice is not just against MY family, but families all over. Some are suffering in silence. But we will NOT be silenced by this act of terror and injustice. We are stronger, wiser, and more resilient because of it,” she continued.
Donisha Prendergast, the founder of We Have the Right to be Right, an organization that tackles a number of social justice matters told Yahoo that she believes authorities stripped the singer of her children because she is being targeted.
“This family has chosen to stand up for their right. They are being targeted as an example,” she said.
An investigation into Florida’s child welfare system revealed that physician Sally Smith, who also serves as the head of the Pinellas County child protection team and oversees most of the cases at the hospital where Mercado’s son was treated, has wrongfully accused parents of neglecting their children in the past, USA Today reported.
Investigators found that in several cases, charges had been dropped and parents were found not guilty after having their children taken from them due to problems that Smith presented.
