In a 2008 decision upholding summary judgment against Gates, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recited a number of disturbing claims from the Gates’ children.

During the interviews with the children, TDPRS learned that Gary’s punishments included sitting against the wall in the chair position, running, moving bricks and boards across the driveway, doing push-ups, and being spanked with a hand, belt, or board. Travis and Alexis had been given “throw-up” medicine (ipecac) for eating food they should not have eaten, and children were required to skip their next meal if they stole food. On occasion, Gary taped newspaper around a child’s hands to keep him or her from stealing food.

Timothy stated that Gary threw the older children against the wall and that “dad hurts Travis and the big kids.” Timothy also stated that he was afraid of his father because “he hurts them.” Cynthia stated that after Gary found out about Travis stealing food, he kicked out Travis’s chair while Travis was sitting on it, causing Travis to hit his head on the floor; ?Gary then hit Travis, kicked him in the stomach, and pushed him into a wall. Marcus corroborated this story. Cynthia also stated that Gary had hit Cassandra and Andrew the previous day and that she is scared to live at home because her dad gets so mad. Andy confirmed that he had been spanked the previous day and had a bruise on his leg as a result.

Further, according to a TDPRS employee, when Gary arrived home that day, he told his children, “These people want to talk to you, they think mom and dad are bad people.” Timothy then responded, “Well dad you are bad, you slammed them [sic] up against the wall and made his head bleed.” Alexis and Marcus agreed with Timothy.

The battleground race for a Texas House seat in the Houston suburbs is heating up as a national Democratic group launches TV ads highlighting past allegations that the Republican candidate mistreated his children.

Child Protective Services eventually dropped the case, but the matter has followed businessman Gary Gates through his multiple runs for public office.

It is now surfacing in the Jan. 28 special election runoff to replace former state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, a race that is drawing national attention as Democrats treat it as their first big battle ahead of trying to capture the House majority in November. They are effectively nine seats away from the majority.

In a sharp escalation, the super PAC Forward Majority is set to start airing a commercial Tuesday that raises the accusations from two decades ago that sparked Gates' high-profile crusade against CPS. The 30-second spot zeroes in on a few of the most severe claims that his children made to investigators — such as punishing them with vomit-inducing medicine — and then says Gates “spent a fortune to shield alleged abusers like himself.”....

Forward Majority's spot is based on accusations that CPS staffers made against Gates and his wife, Melissa, after the agency removed the couple's 13 children — 11 adopted — from their Houston-area home in 2000, saying the kids were in "immediate danger." A few days later, a judge sent the children back home — but he was disturbed by the claims, the Houston Press reported at the time, and emphasized he was only seeking to determine whether the "emergency removal was appropriate, not whether these children have been abused."....

The saga began in February 2000 when the Gates' adopted 10-year-old son showed up at school with a bag stapled to his shirt filled with Fig Newton wrappers and a note from his dad explaining that the child, who had an eating disorder, was being punished for hoarding the pastry bars. That caused a school employee to call a CPS hotline, setting off the series of events that led to the removal of the 13 kids from the Gates residence.

Based on investigators' interviews with the kids, CPS later accused the couple of disciplining their children by doing things like making them carry bricks, sit against the wall for long time periods and take "throw-up" medicine — ipecac — for eating food they should not have. Sometimes the disciplining included physical violence, CPS said, which the Gateses have denied.