| UNFAIR PARK | Mother of Invention BY JACOB VAUGHN E arly one morning in January 2021, Tonya Stafford awoke to the sound of someone banging on her front door. It was the police. “They rolled about 10, 12, maybe 15 deep,” she recalled of the number of officers. “I went to the door and was like, ‘What the hell?’” She declined to open the door. The Cedar Hill officers asked her through the closed door if she were armed. “Yeah, I’m always armed. I’m licensed,” Stafford remembers telling them. The police told her, “We got a call that you killed your husband and you killed everybody in the house, and you said if the police came to the door you were going to start shooting.’” She wouldn’t come out of the house. Eventually, with the police still outside her door, she was able to get in touch with someone at the department who explained to the officers that this was just one of many false reports made to Staf- ford’s address in recent months. “The police were at my house every fucking night. And, I did say ‘fucking.’ I sure did,” Stafford told the Observer. “They had got so used to coming to the house, they would just ask, ‘Are you OK?’” The police visits were the latest in what Stafford de- scribes as a lengthy period of harassment. Her experience is reminiscent of a story the Observer published in October 2020 headlined “UT-Arlington Student Brianna Baucum Fights a Web of Lies to Bring her Daughter Home.” Stafford was a source for that story, advocating for a woman named Brianna Baucum, a mother who claimed nu- merous false child abuse allegations were made against her, resulting in multiple visits to her home by Child Protective Services and police and eventually leading to her losing cus- tody of her adopted daughter Journi. Nearly two years after community members rallied around Baucum, Stafford and another former supporter, Stacey Monroe, no longer want their names affiliated with backing Baucum. The pair said they now believe that Baucum’s story – that false reports and harassment from law enforcement led her to losing custody of her daughter – is fictitious. They are only two of Baucum’s growing list of detractors. Baucum, on the other hand, is sticking by her story and going even further, claiming that the custody battle for her child, and the likes of Stafford and Monroe having a change of heart, is part of a grander conspiracy to discredit her and cover up abuse she claims she endured while in the Texas foster care system. A series of outlandish child abuse allegations against Bau- 44 cum began in 2019. Baucum claims her daughter was having behavioral problems at the time, acting like a baby and hav- ing frequent meltdowns. She said she took Journi, then age 3, to a pediatrician to see if they could help. During that ap- pointment, Baucum says, she got a call from the Texas De- partment of Family and Protective Services, who said they’d received a report that Journi had a black eye. Over the next few months, more reports would be made Two years ago, supporters rose up to defend Brianna Baucum in her fight to keep custody of her daughter. Now, some regret it. Nathan Hunsinger against Baucum. Some were unbelievable – like the report that Journi had been cooked in a 400-degree oven or another that Baucum had drowned her. Journi is still alive today. Between July 13, 2019, and Aug. 28, 2019 (the day CPS or- dered Baucum to give up custody), the child abuse claims piled up. It all ended with her losing custody of Journi. Bau- cum claimed all along that she never abused her daughter and that she was being harassed and targeted by CPS and law enforcement. False reports continued to flow in even after Journi was removed from Baucum’s custody. Some would result in po- lice visits to her home. She claimed at the time that many, if not all, of the false reports came from a fellow student at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she attended school. Throughout the ordeal, her story got around campus. Dozens of students marched for her. Local activist Stacey Monroe created a petition around this time in support of re- uniting Baucum and Journi. Thousands of people signed it. Baucum also started getting help from Tonya Stafford and her organization, It’s Going To Be OK Inc. Stafford’s or- Brianna Baucum holds a portrait of her and daughter Journi. ganization focuses on providing support to victims of sex- trafficking and exploitation. The campus student newspaper wrote about it. The Ob- server published a story not long after. Much has happened since then. For one thing, Baucum’s custody hearing came and went. She lost custodial rights and says she’s appealing the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. She’s also still fighting a criminal case against her re- garding the abuse allegations. In the months leading up to her hearing in July 2021, some of her supporters began receiving threatening phone calls and text messages. Whoever was sending the messages would sometimes go as far as claiming to be specific attorneys involved in the case. Also leading up to the hearing, new claims entered the mix, namely that Bri- anna Baucum was sex-trafficked as a child in the Texas foster care system and forced to give birth to multiple children. >> p6 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 AUGUST 25–31, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
