An Iowa social worker has been charged with perjury for giving false testimony during a court proceeding in which a judge removed four children from their parents. Criminal complaints released Tuesday allege that former Department of Human Services case manager Chelsie Gray lied repeatedly during a 2017 hearing in which she recommended a judge terminate the parental rights of a mother and father. A judge relied on Gray’s testimony in ordering the children be placed in foster care. An assistant Cerro Gordo County attorney later discovered discrepancies in Gray’s testimony and reported them. Judge Adam Sauer found in a ruling last June that Gray’s testimony was riddled with “lies and misrepresentations” and ordered the children not be placed in foster care. Gray resigned from DHS last September. But the state opened a criminal investigation only after The Associated Press reported on Sauer’s opinion in October. Gray, 30, was arrested Monday and released from jail after posting bond. She’s charged with three felony counts of perjury.
