Sacramento County paid up last week, sending a $600,000 settlement to Becky and Dave Giammona and ending a dispute over a drug-exposed foster baby they fought to keep.

The payment marked the close of a six-year legal saga, during which a juvenile court referee concluded that Sacramento County Child Protective Services had conducted "one long vendetta" against the Giammonas.

"They put our family through hell," Becky Giammona, 48, said, "and there was absolutely no reason."

The Giammonas, who live in the countryside north of Auburn, are among the thousands of parents and children each year who come under the watch of the local child protection agency. Many have positive outcomes: Parents kicking drugs and reuniting with their kids. Children rescued from dangerous homes.

Dave and Becky Giammona thought they were a CPS success story, too – a middle-class family with two biological children who went on to become foster parents, adopting seven children with special needs. Over the years, they have taken in 19 children with intensive medical problems.

Then CPS removed a foster infant from their home and they wound up in court. What followed, they alleged in their court filings, was a nightmarish tangle of accusations, unannounced home visits and personal attacks.

The county could have settled the lawsuit for $400,000 three years ago, court papers indicate. Instead, after more legal wrangling, the Giammonas received $600,000.

The county would not comment on the settlement or what led up to it. Jim Hunt, acting administrator for the Countywide Services Agency that oversees CPS, said he could not discuss the matter on advice of county counsel.

In court, the county maintained that the Giammonas were hoarding foster-care dollars and running a sort of foster-care factory in their rural home. Becky Giammona says that a county attorney accused her family of being a "puppy mill" for children.

Looking back, the Giammonas and their attorney say the case illustrates the raw power that CPS has over families.

"They were forced to endure a 5 1/2-month Juvenile Court trial that consumed more than 3,000 pages of transcripts," attorney Donnie Cox, of Oceanside, wrote in court documents. "They were wrongly accused of child abuse and being uncaring and 'non-nurturing' parents. … Their reputations were ruined and their family nearly torn apart."

Special-needs baby taken in

It all began with a telephone call in September 2003. A foster agency social worker wanted to know if Becky Giammona was interested in taking in a special-needs foster child, according to court documents.

The infant girl was 12 days old, born with cocaine and alcohol in her bloodstream and two holes in her heart.

"In the first twelve days of her life, (the girl) had no visitors or family to see her, and her only interaction had been with nurses," the court records say.

So Becky Giammona drove to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, talked to medical professionals about the girl's needs, and took her home.

The Giammonas were likely candidates to be foster parents for the baby. Court documents show they had been considered "highly qualified" for the rigors of parenthood in previous foster parent and adoption cases. They had biological children and both had had steady employment.

Dave Giammona, now 49, is a mechanical engineer, while Becky Giammona returned to work in 2005 as a physical therapist assistant.

At first, all went well for the family and the new baby, whom they later named Alexis – "Lexi," for short. They worked with cardiologists until Alexis regained her health, court documents state. On New Year's Eve 2003, a Sacramento CPS social worker came to the home to talk to them about adopting her.

After a 90-minute visit, the social worker told the couple she planned to have the CPS adoptions unit assess the family and their home, according to a declaration filed in Sacramento Superior Court by Cox, the Giammonas' attorney.

The specter of the adoptions unit worried the couple. They had ended up in court on a previous case when they had tried to adopt another little girl – the sister of one of their earlier adoptees. In that case, court documents state, Sacramento CPS had blocked them from adopting the girl after a five-month court fight.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.