Friends of the Nau­gler fam­i­ly in Ken­tucky reached out to us and asked us to tell their sto­ry. Their 10 home­schooled chil­dren were alleged­ly tak­en away by Breck­in­ridge Coun­ty Sher­iff deputies and CPS this week, alleged­ly act­ing on an anony­mous tip. The offi­cers report­ed­ly had no war­rant to enter their prop­er­ty. Nicole Nau­gler is cur­rent­ly 5 months preg­nant, and report­ed­ly attempt­ed to dri­ve away from the prop­er­ty with a cou­ple of the chil­dren. Offi­cers alleged­ly detained her from leav­ing her own prop­er­ty, and when she object­ed to them tak­ing away her chil­dren, they alleged­ly “slammed (her) bel­ly first into the cop car and bruised and scraped on both arms.”

They also alleged­ly arrest­ed her for “dis­or­der­ly con­duct” when she object­ed to them tak­ing away her chil­dren, and spent the night in jail. All ten chil­dren are report­ed­ly now in State cus­tody. Much of the encounter with CPS and the Sher­iff deputies was record­ed, and the record­ings are avail­able on the Save Our Fam­i­ly blog.

Save Our Family Blog

Day 1: Arrest

Joe and Nicole Nau­gler live on a home­stead in rur­al Ken­tucky. They live a very sim­ple life. They gar­den and raise ani­mals. They are indus­tri­ous peo­ple try­ing to teach their chil­dren how to live right.

They have ten chil­dren who are home­schooled on the home­stead. They con­tribute to the suc­cess of the fam­i­ly crops and live­stock, all while learn­ing about the amaz­ing beau­ty of life.

On May 6th, 2015, Breck­in­ridge Co. Sheriff’s offi­cers came to their home, act­ing on an anony­mous tip, and entered their prop­er­ty and home with­out a war­rant and with­out prob­a­ble cause. Nicole was at home with the two old­est chil­dren, while Joe was away with the oth­ers. When the offi­cers left the home, they attempt­ed to block the access road to the fam­i­ly prop­er­ty. Nicole and the two boys got in their car to leave the fam­i­ly prop­er­ty. The got only a short way down the road before the offi­cers pulled Nicole over.

Dur­ing this stop, Sheriff’s deputies took their two old­est boys from Nicole’s cus­tody, pro­vid­ing her no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion or doc­u­men­ta­tion to sup­port their action. Nicole was able to con­tact Joe briefly by tele­phone, but only for a short peri­od of time, because she need­ed to use her phone to record the events.

At that point, Nicole had been tak­en into cus­tody for dis­or­der­ly con­duct (for not pas­sive­ly allow­ing the Sher­iff to take her boys) and resist­ing arrest. Even though she is 5 months preg­nant, she was slammed bel­ly first into the cop car and bruised and scraped on both arms.

Joe was able to arrange trans­porta­tion to meet his wife where the stop had tak­en place. Joe attempt­ed to get out of the car to speak with the offi­cers and his wife, and to recov­er the vehi­cle Nicole had been dri­ving. The Sher­iff, with his hand on his sidearm, ordered Joe back into the car. Joe com­plied with that request. The Sher­iff informed Joe that he had every inten­tion of mak­ing this as dif­fi­cult as pos­si­ble for them and that their car would be impound­ed, despite the fact that Joe was there on­site to recov­er it.

A friend, who had dri­ven Joe to the loca­tion, got out of the car to speak with the Sher­iff. She was able to con­vince the Sher­iff to let Joe recov­er the vehi­cle. Joe also recov­ered Nicole’s cell phone, which had been record­ing audio the entire time.

The Sher­iff ordered Joe to turn the remain­ing eight chil­dren over to Breck­in­ridge Coun­ty Sheriff’s deputies by 10:00 a.m., and threat­ened him with felony charges if he does not comply.

At this time (rough­ly 5:00 CDT), Nicole is being held in cus­tody in Hardins­burg, KY by the Breck­in­ridge Co. Sher­iff (see update below). The where­abouts of their two old­est sons is unknown to the fam­i­ly. Nicole faces a mag­is­trate at 8:00 a.m. to set bail and an arraign­ment will take place short­ly thereafter.

All of this has hap­pened because of an anony­mous com­plaint filed with CPS. In the state of KY, an anony­mous com­plaint can­not be con­sid­ered prob­a­ble cause to pur­sue this course of action. It can­not be con­firmed that this is the com­plainant, but ear­li­er this week an acquain­tance of the Nau­gler fam­i­ly threat­ened to file a CPS com­plaint against them, all because Joe “unfriend­ed” this acquain­tance on Facebook.

Nicole Released, Kids Still In Custody

“I am a free range human. Not meant to be caged. But I will stand up for my rights. Over­whelmed by the love and support.”

Nicole has been released from jail. But the State is still in cus­tody of her 10 chil­dren. The Naugler’s fight is only just beginning.

Save the Nau­gler Fam­i­ly Blog

How to Help

Steve Beshear is the Gov­er­nor of Ken­tucky and may be con­tact­ed here.

Dean Schamore is the State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dis­trict the Nau­gler fam­i­ly resides in, and can be con­tact­ed here.

Sher­iff Todd Pate of Breck­in­ridge Coun­ty, also an elect­ed offi­cial, can be con­tact­ed here.

One of the U.S. Sen­a­tors rep­re­sent­ing the State of Ken­tucky has recent­ly declared his can­di­da­cy for the office of the U.S. Pres­i­dent. Per­haps peo­ple should con­tact Sen­a­tor Rand Paul as well, and let him know he needs to clean up the mess of Child Pro­tec­tion Ser­vices and its cor­rupt prac­tices in his home state before aspir­ing to rep­re­sent the entire nation. Sen­a­tor Paul can be con­tact­ed here.

When you con­tact these elect­ed offi­cials, please refer them to the inves­ti­ga­tions done by local media in Ken­tucky on the cor­rupt prac­tices of Child Ser­vices as exposed by whistle­blow­ers in this story:

Whistle­blow­ers Reveal CPS Child Kid­nap­pings in Ken­tucky Adop­tion Business

Also let the local media in Ken­tucky know they need to keep on report­ing these abus­es of pow­er in kid­nap­ping Ken­tucky children.