Alabama DHR is under fire across the state. And as we close in on Houston County DHR, we uncover yet another layer of failure, where families are left shattered, silenced, and traumatized beyond repair.

There are photos that tell a story no caption can soften. Drinks on the table, laughter spilling between co-workers, the kind of ease that comes when people believe no one is watching.

Those same hands that rest beside half-empty glasses on Friday night sign removal papers by Monday morning.

Those same voices that toast to the weekend write reports that dismantle families before the week is through.

How is this protection? This is power without conscience. This is what happens when friendship becomes the shield for corruption.

Supervisor Leslie Sasnett’s name drifts through complaint after complaint like a warning bell no one wants to hear. Parents, grandparents, and caregivers all tell the same story. Unannounced visits. Intimidation. Lies written into files that become gospel inside a system that no longer cares about truth.

As a supervisor, she carries the weight of oversight, yet that oversight has become a weapon. When the one meant to guard the gate opens it to deceit, every family standing on the other side is in danger.

And the stories do not begin in Houston County.

Reports trace back to Geneva County, where families claim she helped manufacture removals, turned children over to the hands of harm, and bypassed kinship placements that could have kept those children safe. Instead of protection, families say they found paperwork built on manipulation and destruction, and the same names signed at the bottom.

One case tells the story for them all.

A three-year-old child whose arm was broken twice in a single day at Dothan Christian Development. The report read, “abuse occurred.” Yet no one was held accountable. No one was charged. No one even questioned why. That report was signed by Leslie Sasnett and Mandy Gomez, the same names seen in photos smiling, drinks on the table, surrounded by others from the same office. The same women families say have turned oversight into oppression.

If that same injury had happened inside a parent’s home, this department would have called it abuse and dismantled the family within hours. But because it happened inside a facility where ties and friendships could possibly run deep, silence followed.

Across Houston County, the pattern is identical. Same names. Same tactics. Same Monday morning removals after Friday night gatherings. Caseworkers shielding caseworkers. Supervisors ignoring misconduct. Directors pretending not to see.

They share drinks together. They share secrets together. They share the same silence that has cost children their safety and parents and loved ones their peace.

This is not the story of one office. It is the story of a culture built on betrayal, one that believes it can play God with other people’s lives and still go home to dinner.

When those entrusted to protect families abandon integrity, the foundation of justice begins to crumble. What we are seeing in Houston County is not just failure. It is favoritism, retaliation, and bias disguised as child protection.

Every unannounced visit without cause. Every removal built on partial truth. Every ignored kinship option. These are not mistakes. They are deliberate actions made by individuals who were supposed to uphold fairness and humanity.

Every backdoor conversation to push a false removal through just to help a “friend” is a betrayal of every child this system claims to protect.

Accountability cannot be selective. Oversight cannot be optional. Families deserve truth, transparency, and equal treatment, not judgment based on personal ties or hidden agendas.

To those who have used your badge to bring destruction instead of protection, history will remember your names. We are calling for resignations. We are calling for oversight. We are standing for every family who has been torn apart by the ones paid to protect them.

No justice can stand while those who drink together decide who suffers next. Until this culture is dismantled, Houston County will keep bleeding families, and we will not be silent while it happens.

Ethics should never depend on who you know.

If you have had your rights violated, the goal posts moved, or your children removed under fabricated circumstances we want to hear from you.

If your case involved any of the women pictured throughout this article, or others connected to Houston County DHR, your story matters. Every testimony, every document, and every truth shared brings us one step closer to accountability.

🖤 Submit safely and confidentially at FamiliesvsDHR.org

Your voice is your power and together, we are building the record they can no longer ignore.