Bring Brianna Home: Support Michelle's Appeal

Help Us Appeal Unlawful Custody Removal – 10 Days to Act

My daughter and I need due process NOW, which requires a significant amount of money simply to access statutory protections under the law. I am fighting a devastating and unlawful custody decision—and I have just 10 days to file an appeal.

10 days to file an appeal and fight back:

My name is Michelle Timberlake, and I am the mother of a bright, beautiful little girl who was taken from my care without proper legal procedures. This prolonged litigation and custody battle has cost me an estimated $75,000 during the last 2 years in excessive fees, legal costs, unnecessary supervision fees and expert witnesses to testify on my behalf me. I am permanently disabled from a car accident in 2009 and on Disablity. My life savings have gone into trying to prove my innocence and now all that money is gone.

Insurmountable legal and financial obstacles are being used to financially and emotionally drain me in order to bully me into giving up or into not being able to financially afford to keep fighting and then proving the pattern of false accusations from 2014 to 2024 as a part of a broader scheme of post separation family violence and I need sole custody to prevent any further escalation or misuse of the courts.

The Judge simply refuses her non-discretionary duty to uphold statutes and due process. Her rulings are based on hearsay allegations and hypotheticals, not facts.

This isn’t just unfair—it’s unlawful. This case is rooted in disability discrimination, procedural misconduct, and a total disregard for due process. This fight isn’t just for me. It’s for every parent who has been steamrolled by the system because Judges think they are above the law.

I need your help to challenge this injustice and bring my daughter home.

Now, I am raising funds to cover:

• Appellate Attorney Fees

• Court Filing & Appeal Costs

• Supervised Visitation and Expert Witness Fees (which I am forced to pay just to combat the lies of abuse when I see my daughter, estimated at $3,000 monthly)

• Ongoing Legal Support to fight back and hold state officials accountable

In this campaign for basic civil, I have affidavits from multiple individuals who are barred from testifying(because the judge refuses to have a hearing), shows their support and their willingness to speak the truth. I can also upload updates and legal filings so you can follow this fight for justice.

Brianna deserves peaceful enjoyment and to come home. We deserve a fair hearing and due process as required by law!  

No parent should lose their child because of assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination about a parent’s disability.

Under Louisiana Children’s Code Article 632, if a Child in Need of Care (CINC) petition is not filed within 30 days, the law requires that the child be returned to the parent. This statutory safeguard exists to prevent indefinite removal of a child without legal justification. 

In my case, this 30-day deadline came and went on November 26, 2022, over a year later, the Juvenile Judge asked DCFS to reopen the case with no petition filed timely; DCFS reopened the case for over a year and still closed it again in August 2024 still without filing a petition or any actual harm or evidence of abuse. The judge has no legal authority to act.

Furthermore, in August 2024, DCFS was formally dismissed from the case after over two years of inactive status of refusal by the judge to let them out of the case. The Judge finally dismissed DCFS, and the DCFS attorney told me the judge had improperly and illegally terminated my rights; this was Orleans Parish’s modus operandi. The DCFS attorney repeatedly stated was no case, but the judge refuses to dismiss the case. The attorney for DCFS was of the opinion the judge is never going to return my child or allow a legitimate hearing; she has already made up her mind that she is above the law.

Please support us—whether by donating, sharing, or spreading the word.

Every contribution matters. Every voice helps.

We must file our appeal in 10 days. Time is short, donate.

Help us bring Brianna home.

With love and gratitude,

Michelle & Brianna Timberlake