The Shannon Family of television's "Honey Boo Boo" fame is accustomed to making headlines, but the latest ones involving Mama June go beyond shocking to just plain tragic. It appears that the reality-TV matriarch may be dating convicted child molester Mark McDaniel who was recently released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated child molestation. Even worse, McDaniel was convicted of molesting Mama June's eldest daughter, Anna "Chickadee" Shannon Caldwell, when she was 8 years old.
Anna, now 20, is currently married and living with her husband and her daughter Kaitlyn, 2, several hours from the family's tiny home along a railroad track in McIntyre, Ga. But if reports of Mama June's latest romantic entanglements are indeed true (She continues to deny them but even Anna told People magazine she's just not sure), she risks losing custody of her three other daughters, all minors: Jessica "Chubbs" Shannon, 17, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon, 14, and Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, 9. Mama June could also be barred from visiting her only granddaughter without proper supervision.
Such monumental decisions are the purview of Georgia's Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS), which is charged with investigating all cases of potential child endangerment and abuse. Once the agency obtains a report that a child may be in danger, they are legally obligated to investigate the case and inform police. Given the publicity surrounding Mama June and McDaniel (TMZ recently published pictures of the two holding hands), it's likely the high-profile case is already on the agency's radar.
As a matter of protocol, the DFCS visits homes where child endangerment and/or abuse is suspected. The DFCS will interview the children and meet with the family; in this case, it could also meet with others such as Alana's father, Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson, and even McDaniel. The point of the investigation is to determine what actions are in the children's best interests. The police are empowered to make a snap decision to remove the children only if it finds the children are in immediate danger. Short of such a threat, the DFCS must petition the juvenile court for the right to remove the child from Mama June's home. Alternatively, the DFCS can request that a judge grant the agency the ability to monitor the family, in which case its managers would make regularly visits to the family and attempt to link them with other helpful and advisory social welfare services.
In Georgia, a parent can lose custody of a child for failure to provide a child with basic necessities and/or for cruel treatment of a child [See O.C.G.A. 19-7-1]. The Court may award custody to a third party when doing so is in the child's best interest and when it will promote the child's welfare and happiness [Id]. Courts prefer to keep siblings together and with one or both of their parents, and there is a rebuttable presumption that this is in a child's best interest [Id].
All that said, there is a real possibility that Mama June could lose custody of Alana to Sugar Bear. He is her biological father. It may be in her best interest to be with him rather than in constant proximity to a convicted child molester. Sugar Bear, as her biological father, would have a better argument for custody of Alana than he does regarding Mama June's other children, who were all fathered by different men. That's likely to be the case despite how close he is to all the girls and despite the fact that they have all said he has been like a father to them.
Mama June separated from Sugar Bear in September after she learned that he was chatting with women on Internet chat rooms, according to multiple reports. While the two were never legally married, they had lived together for many years and had even exchanged vows as part of a well-publicized commitment ceremony that aired on TLC last year.
If Mama June hopes to keep her family together she may want to take her nickname a little more seriously. Otherwise, if she chooses to put her love life before her children - something she's vowed publicly she'd never dream of doing - she may learn there's more to lose if the state gets involved than just a television reality show.
Heather Hansen is a partner in the O'Brien and Ryan law firm who has been named one of the 50 top female lawyers in the state by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers. Heather is also a national television and radio legal analyst and journalist who has appeared extensively on CBS News, Fox News, Fox Business Channel, Fox.com, CNN, HLN and Sirius XM radio. Her writing has appeared in Law360 and she has co-authored two chapters in medical texts regarding medical malpractice litigation. Follow her on Twitter at @imheatherhansen.
