On Season 3, Episode 16 of The Life and Law Podcast by Pro Legal Solutions, we welcome special guest Josh Burns from Texas. Josh is a husband, father, longtime airline pilot and pilot instructor who has spent more than 26 years in aviation. He has been married to his wife, Brenda, for 20 years, and together they have a daughter, Naomi. Today, Josh lives near Dallas, Texas—but more than a decade ago, while his family was living in Michigan, their lives were completely turned upside down by allegations that Josh had abused his infant daughter. After a difficult labor that ended in an emergency C-section, Naomi experienced feeding problems and other medical issues during her first months of life. When she later developed projectile vomiting and eventually became critically ill, Josh and Brenda repeatedly sought medical care. Naomi was ultimately admitted to the pediatric ICU.What began as a medical emergency soon became a child-abuse investigation after retinal hemorrhages were discovered and a child abuse pediatrician concluded that Naomi had suffered “abusive head trauma,” historically referred to as shaken baby syndrome.Josh describes how CPS became involved, how he and his wife were subjected to separate forensic-style questioning, and how Naomi was eventually removed from their care and placed into foster care. The allegations quickly expanded beyond the hospital and into family court, where the couple faced the possibility of losing their parental rights. Josh was later arrested and charged with second-degree felony child abuse. Throughout the episode, he walks us through the extraordinary legal battle that followed—including draining retirement savings to pay attorneys, retaining independent medical experts, fighting CPS proceedings, facing both civil and criminal trials, and challenging medical conclusions that his experts argued were unsupported by Naomi’s records and could have had alternative explanations related to birth trauma, medical procedures, or other causes. Despite those challenges, Josh was convicted and faced up to 10 years in prison. He ultimately received a sentence of one year in county jail followed by probation. While incarcerated, his case gained national attention. More than 100 supporters protested outside the courthouse, investigative journalists covered his story, Josh and Brenda appeared on Dr. Phil, and attorneys from the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic eventually stepped in to represent him on appeal. Josh also fought to preserve his relationship with his daughter. His parental rights were ultimately restored, and his family was reunified. The legal battle over his conviction, however, continued for years. Josh explains how, after years of appeals and continued efforts to bring attention to the evidence in his case, a Conviction Integrity Unit became involved. In November 2024, after approximately seven years of fighting, Josh says he was formally declared factually innocent and exonerated. Today, he has turned what happened to his family into advocacy. Josh now works with parents facing allegations of child abuse and families navigating CPS and family-court proceedings. He advocates for greater transparency and informed consent when hospital child-abuse teams begin investigating parents, including warnings that families may be the subject of an investigation and may need legal representation. He also discusses his work advocating for people convicted under disputed shaken-baby or abusive-head-trauma theories, including his close involvement in the case of Texas death-row prisoner Robert Robertson. Learn more about Josh’s work and connect with him at UnshakenTruth.com.
