Harris was arrested and charged with criminal contempt and obstructing governmental administration, both misdemeanors.

“She just simply said to the police ‘No I’m not just going to turn my children over to you,’ ” said Radford, of the parent council. “That’s a healthy statement for a mother to make.”

When Harris showed up in city court on Jan. 18 to answer the charges, she said CPS attorneys requested that she be arrested again until she produced the children. The judge gave her two days to turn the children over.

Harris said she then went to her mother’s home in Buffalo to get the children and take them to the Millenium Hotel in Cheektowaga to explain to them she needed to turn them over to CPS.

“I wanted to go spend some time with them and do something fun,” she said. “We went to the hotel to go swimming and order pizza.”

While she was in the room with her children, there was a knock at the door. When her daughter answered it, about eight Cheektowaga police officers pushed open the door, Harris said, and searched her for weapons.

Harris was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a traffic stop in the Town of Tonawanda and she had not appeared in court.