On Feb. 17, 2000, plaintiff Preslie Hardwick, 6, was ordered to be removed from her mother’s custody by a juvenile court judge during the course of dependency proceedings, which interrupted years of acrimony in divorce litigation that raged in Family Law Court. Preslie’s 9-year-old sister was also removed. Preslie’s mother claimed that she was threatened that if she did not “submit” to the will of social worker Marcia Vreeken’s will, she would never see her children again. Preslie’s mother also claimed that, in 2000, social workers tried to coerce her to sign a document saying that she was a bad parent by threatening to take her daughters away. She claimed that when she refused, a county commissioner ordered Preslie and her sister taken from her and put in Orangewood Children’s Home, in Orange. Preslie and her sister were later put in foster care. In 2002, Preslie’s mother sued social workers Marcia Vreeken and Helen Dwojak; the social worker assistant who monitored the visits between the kids and their father during the course of the dependency proceedings, Elaine Wilkins; and the social workers’ employer, the county of Orange. Preslie’s mother alleged that the social workers violated her constitutional rights by removing her children without making a finding of imminent danger or serious physical injury; by interviewing her daughters without a parent present; by holding her children without cause; and by fabricating evidence. She also alleged that the county failed to properly train its employees about parents’ constitutional rights. Around the same time, Preslie’s mother gave her ex-husband full custody. She claimed she gave her husband custody in the hope of protecting her daughters. As a result, she was allowed two supervised visits a month for two years. Preslie’s mother eventually won 50-50 custody in 2006, and, later, in 2007, won a jury verdict on her civil case against the social workers and the county. Preslie later brought her own suit against Vreeken; Wilkins; the estate of Dwojak; the county of Orange; and her court-appointed attorney in dependency court and, later, in Family Law Court, Sharon Grier. Preslie alleged that the removal order was unconstitutional, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for alleged violations of her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Specifically, she claimed that the removal order was caused by the misconduct of social workers Vreeken, Wilkins, and Dwojak. Preslie also brought Monell-related claims against the county. Grier was ultimately dismissed from the case. In addition, Preslie’s Monell-related claims were dismissed on summary judgment by the court on April 10, 2015. Defense counsel contended that the social workers did not lie or mislead the juvenile court and that they never threatened the children with foster care. Instead, counsel argued that it was Preslie’s mother’s wrongdoing — including allegedly coaching her older daughter to make false allegations of sexual abuse against her father and discussing legal issues, such as custody and foster care, with the children — that resulted in the juvenile court’s sua sponte order that the children be removed “forthwith.” Defense counsel contended that Preslie’s mother allegedly told her children after a visit with their father, and in the presence of Wilkins, “Your dad is trying to take you away and put you in foster care.” In response, plaintiff’s counsel argued that the defense’s claim about what Preslie’s mother allegedly told her children was a lie and that the only person using the terms “judge” or “foster care” that evening was Vreeken., Preslie, who was 23 years old and a recent college graduate at the time of trial, claimed that she suffered from emotional distress as a result of the incident and subsequently underwent counseling for several years after her removal from her mother’s care. Thus, Preslie sought recovery of $1 million in emotional-distress damages for the time she was separated from her mother between Feb. 17, 2000 and March 31, 2000.