Why Did David Stallings Lose Custody of Baby DJ?

[Mike82]

I recently rewatched this segment and, while the focus is rightfully on Patricia Stallings and the horrible ordeal she endured, I don’t see much discussion about David Stallings. He was never accused of or charged with any crime, yet his interview remains one of the most heartbreaking moments on Unsolved Mysteries. Now that I’m a father to a young child, and someone who has also lost a child at birth and had to sign the “death warrant” I still can only imagine the suffering he went through.

I’m no lawyer or a child custody expert, but can anyone explain how his parental rights were taken away despite no formal accusations of wrongdoing? I always assumed that when one parent is incapacitated or incarcerated, the other parent would automatically retain full custody by default. Is there something I’m missing here? Adding further insult, why wasn't the baby given to a Grandparent or Aunt/Uncle at least temporarily? Again, I would assume that the authorities would want to keep a baby within the family at all costs.

[Killarney Rose]

Perhaps it’s because David was in the house living with Patricia during the time she was accused of poisoning DJ?

[Mike82]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

Perhaps it’s because David was in the house living with Patricia during the time she was accused of poisoning DJ?

That would seem the obvious answer, but if that were truly the case, why wasn’t he charged with the same offense as Patti, or at least as an accessory like both Cynthia and David Dowaliby were? The fact that he wasn’t, even with how corrupt the prosecutor was, is telling. As far as I know, there were no unrelated investigations into child abuse or neglect, which makes this feel like a massive miscarriage of justice. If an (adult) family member in my home commits a crime, I’m not held responsible as long as I don’t lie to the authorities. Once Patti was locked up, shouldn’t there have been no further danger to DJ? Obviously, if the authorities believed he had helped her or had prior knowledge of anything, there should have been charges, but there has never been any suggestion anywhere that David did anything wrong.

No wonder he passed out when the verdict was read! It was so blatantly obvious they were innocent and his family was being ripped apart over nothing that his brain must have gone haywire trying to make sense of what was happening. I think people tend to forget that even people who either escape prison time or get minor sentences can also suffer unimaginable, serious consequences due to injustice.

[tvscript124]

That was just such a horrendous miscarriage of justice.