N.J. couple’s baby was taken after N.C. traffic stop. They’ve been trying for weeks to get him back.

The baby boy was taken away after a 3 a.m. traffic stop.

That’s about the only thing a New Jersey couple and the North Carolina authorities who arrested them agree happened on the night of Dec. 3.

Raymond Cheley Sykes, 34, and Kaila Boulware, 27, of Manchester Township, haven’t had custody of their nine-month-old son since the night they say sheriff’s deputies from Montgomery County, N.C., drew their guns, violently beat Sykes with a baton in the baby’s presence and searched their vehicle for two hours.

The couple told NJ Advance Media they nervously complied with officers’ orders prior to the traffic stop escalating.

“Yahweh, please protect me,” Sykes said he shouted, hands in a prayer formation in the air as he walked toward the hood of the deputy’s car. “Don’t let these people hurt me.”

Raymond Cheley Sykes said a Montgomery sheriff's officer swung a baton at his face, but he blocked it with his arm. Pictured are the bruises Sykes says he got as a result.courtesy of Kaila Boulware

But the official law enforcement account tells a different story: The car was stopped for “suspicious” driving. The smell of marijuana permeated the vehicle. The couple resisted officer’s orders, and Sykes struck an officer with his fist, officers reported.

The two now face misdemeanor possession of marijuana and paraphernalia charges. Boulware also faces minor traffic violations stemming from the stop, and Sykes faces charges of resisting a public officer and assault of a government official, both misdemeanors in North Carolina.

“Neither Sykes nor Boulware were injured during their arrest and they did not request medical attention,” Montgomery Sheriff Chris Watkins said in a statement defending how his officers acted that night.

There is no body cam video. No dashboard footage. Only the couple’s word against the word of the police. Such cases have often been considered open and shut with the official police narrative serving as final authority. But Sykes and Boulware, both Black, say they’re desperately trying to prove their account is correct while simultaneously fighting to win back custody of their son, named Truth.

A hearing Monday could determine how quickly Truth is allowed to return home.

“Every day that we’re not with him is a tragedy,” Boulware said as she began to cry. “I still have hope and faith in our heart….so we wake up and we can go pick up our son and go home.”

Sykes and Boulware said they were traveling to Florida to visit a relative on Dec. 3.

Sykes worked security at a mall and lost his job during the pandemic. Boulware said she quit her job in communications in August.

The two are college-educated, work in photography and on food distribution programs in New Brunswick. They also founded a training program that rehomes dogs in New Jersey, the couple said.

A deputy told them they were pulled over on a road in Troy, N.C. because they had a white tail light, Boulware said.

When a deputy told them officers were going to search the van, Sykes asked them why and raised concerns that it was unlawful to do so.

That’s when the traffic stop took a turn, the couple said.

The couple said they were forcefully removed from the car. Sykes said he raised his arms in the air as soon as the officer opened his door. An officer swung his baton at his face, Sykes said, but he blocked it with his arm, resulting in bruises. Boulware said both officers drew their guns on her husband as his back was turned.

Both were handcuffed and put in separate vehicles, they said, and officers kept referring to their 9-month-old as an “it,” the couple said.

“He says ‘you’re never going to see it again,’” Skyes told NJ Advance Media, referring to what an officer told him while he sat in the police vehicle.

The Montgomery Sheriff’s Department said the couple’s van was pulled over around 3 a.m. on Wright Way in Troy, N.C. A deputy allegedly saw the car “being driven in a manner, place and time that was suspicious.” The vehicle’s registration plate was also not registered, the sheriff’s department said.

“An odor of marijuana was detected coming from the vehicle and the occupants were asked to exit the van so a search could be performed, which they refused,” the sheriff’s department statement read. “When deputies were attempting to remove Sykes from the vehicle, he assaulted a deputy by hitting him with his fist, which caused his arrest. A search of the vehicle was conducted, which revealed marijuana and drug paraphernalia.”

The statement made no mention of the tail light or guns being drawn on Sykes.

Court records in Montgomery County obtained by NJ Advance Media allege the arresting officers found smoking pipes and a grinder in the vehicle. The arresting officers’ are only addressed by their last names — Watkins and Sweeney — in court documents, although the couple says it was not the head of the sheriff’s department who arrested them.

The couple’s attorney, Jason Keith, said the sheriff’s deputies found CBD tea. The tea could smell and look like marijuana, but Watkins said deputies had no way of verifying that during the traffic stop since there was no lab on site.

In North Carolina, CBD is generally legal depending on how it is produced. New Jersey, however, just voted to legalize marijuana.

Boulware said she was released from jail on an unsecured bond around 5 a.m. on the day of her arrest. She took her shoes off while driving that night and was released barefoot, she said.

Sykes was later released on Dec. 3 in the afternoon after the couple posted bail.

Now, the couple is living in a hotel in North Carolina while they try to get their son back from the Montgomery County Department of Social Services and fight the charges against them, they said.

A friend of Boulware’s set up a Gofundme to raise funds for hotel bills, meals and attorneys fees.

One of the officers on the scene that night was dark-skinned, and Boulware believed the institution of policing was more to blame than race.

“These institutions are given a certain amount of power and authority, but they don’t go about using it the right way,” Boulware said. “We just feel we’ve been slandered without any basis for doing so. We’re spending money we don’t have.”

The Montgomery County Department of Social Services (DSS) did not respond to a request for comment about the couple’s situation or its general policies.

The agency filed a petition in court that claimed the two appeared to have mental health issues and were homeless. The couple said they passed mental health and drug screenings, and the police report listed their address in New Jersey.

Boulware gave birth to Truth at home, so the parents didn’t yet have a birth certificate to provide to social services, they said. They had to pay $750 for an overnight DNA test to prove they were his parents, Boulware said.

Charlie Kratovil, editor of the hyperlocal media outlet New Brunswick Today, said Boulware wrote articles, took photos and edited videos for his publication while she was a student at Rutgers around 2015. He last saw the couple together in 2018 at an art event and described them as a “normal, loving, friendly couple.”

Boulware has been breastfeeding her baby and initially wasn’t allowed to do so while DSS had Truth since they accused her of using drugs, she said. The couple said they have been able to see Truth six times since Dec. 3 through visitation and she was finally able to breastfeed him on Dec. 17.

A hearing is scheduled on Monday, where Boulware said she expects the screenings they underwent to be reviewed. She’s hopeful she’ll be able to be reunited with Truth then.

“We are worried every single day that we do not have our son and it’s so hard to sleep at night,” Boulware said. “The first few days we couldn’t eat. Our family is extremely worried.”

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at [email protected].