Very typical of the way fathers rights ideology as taken over. Mothers are labeled vindictive crazy liars no matter what.
UNNAMED DAD.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/judge-bc-sexual-abuse-errors-b-j-province-1.3401088
B.C. defends social workers after abusive father gets unsupervised access
Ministry of Children and Families appeals ruling that blamed officials for allowing child to be abused
By Natalie Clancy, CBC News
Posted: Jan 13, 2016 9:07 AM PT| Last Updated: Jan 13, 2016 3:02 PM PT
The family members can't be identified to protect the children, three of whom a B.C. Supreme Court justice determined were sexually abused by their father.
Natalie Clancy
Investigative Reporter | CBC News Vancouver
Natalie Clancy is an award-winning journalist with a 25 year track record for breaking stories. Her investigations have exposed how Canadian girls are recruited by ISIS, sexual harassment in the RCMP, and forced the B.C. government to improve safety for nurses.
B.C.'s Children's Ministry is defending its actions in a case that involved a father who a judge ruled in a civil case sexually abused a child while the toddler was in the care of the ministry.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled earlier in 2015 that the province's child protection service was negligent when it gave the father unsupervised access to his children after the three eldest made disclosures of sexual abuse.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development filed its reasons for appealing the decision this week.
The factum, submitted to the B.C. Court of Appeal, says that social workers relied on several experts including a pediatrician, psychologist and an expert on parenting when granting the unsupervised visits.
Allegations about the father were investigated by Vancouver police in this case, who concluded there was "no evidence to support J.P's allegations that B.G. molested their children." As a result no criminal charges were laid in this case.
The document says the judge who ruled in the case made errors in law and ignored key evidence when he condemned the ministry's actions.
Stop 'keeping secrets for Daddy'
The factum paints an ugly picture of the mother referred to only as J.P., citing an incident when she pepper-sprayed her ex-husband, brother and sister-in-law in the home where the children were staying.
As a result the children were moved to a foster home.
Social workers were also concerned about her repeated attempts to interview the children about their father's abuse.
The document says during a supervised visit she "forcibly held (her daughter) in her lap while telling her that (she) needed to tell the truth and cannot keep secrets. J.P. stated that (her daughter) was 'keeping secrets for daddy,' and that her actions were 'ruining our lives.'"
The government says J.P. refused to meet with social workers to talk about the "traumatizing effect that J.P.'s behaviour would have on a five-year-old child."
Mother's lawyer responds
J.P.'s lawyer Jack Hittrich says he will file a full response to the province's appeal in April.
In the meantime he highlighted his concerns to CBC News.
"What is astounding about this factum is that the central findings of fact are completely ignored," said Hittrich.
"They chose to align themselves fully with the (father)," says Hittrich, but the ministry denies that.
"In this case mom does everything she can to protect these children. The more she cries the more she's labelled as crazy!"
Concerns mother would harm children
The factum argues the judge was wrong to rule social workers acted in bad faith, suggesting the evidence shows they properly assessed the risks posed to the children, and made decisions based on the information available at the time.
They feared the children were endangered by their mother, and at one point concern was raised by a police investigator that the mother might even kill the children.
The ministry's appeal argues that at that time experts advised it was unlikely the children had been sexually abused, and that their mother needed mental health intervention before she could safely regain custody.
Social workers had no way of knowing a judge would later rule that the father had abused the children and the mother had no mental health issues.
The province says the actions of social workers were unfairly judged in hindsight.
By June of 2011 the director of child welfare was aware the three eldest children had made disclosures of sexual abuse, but their statements were inconsistent, and Vancouver police had found no physical evidence to support charges.
Ministry relied on expert findings
The judge ruled social workers did not properly assess the risk to the children, but the document says the ministry relied on several reports, including:
■Pediatrician found no physical evidence of sexual abuse.
■Child psychologist found low probability that sexual abuse occurred.
■Parental capacity expert concluded sexual abuse was unlikely.
■Child psychologist concluded sexual abuse was unlikely.
■Parental capacity expert recommended father get custody.
■Child psychologist recommended father get custody.
■Parental capacity expert said mother required mental health intervention.
■Child psychologist found mother required psychiatric assessment.
The document says the mother refused to go for a recommended psychiatric assessment while the father followed orders to work with a parenting coach, who wrote positive reviews.
The trial judge ruled the VPD investigation was flawed and the experts the ministry relied on were not reliable, and social workers ought to have known that.
The ruling found one ministry employee's pervasive distrust of J.P. influenced others, and his failure to include sexual abuse allegations in a key document amount to misfeasance.
But the province says the evidence does not support such a serious finding.
The document says the plaintiff's view that a "multi-institutional conspiracy" led social workers to make a decision that ultimately allowed a father to molest his toddler in the ministry's care is simply not supported by evidence.
Being wrong does not mean negligence
But the factum does not dispute that sexual abuse occurred after the father was granted unsupervised access.
"Whether the sexual abuse in fact occurred is a much different question from whether social workers reasonably and in good faith" says the document.
"The fact that the trial judge eventually concluded … that the director was 'wrong' in her assessment of risk does not render all actions of the director that preceded … negligent and malicious."
The province declined to comment on the appeal because it is still before the courts.
Showing posts with label cps investigations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cps investigations. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Government appeals lawsuit won by protective mother after social workers allowed dad to molest child (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Patriarchal systems defend fathers. That's what they do. Sickening, but true.
http://www.brandonsun.com/national/breaking-news/bc-appeals-decision-in-case-of-father-who-sexually-abused-kids-in-care-321060591.html?thx=y
The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Mom says B.C. government 'inhumane' to appeal scathing child sex abuse decision
By: Laura Kane, The Canadian Press Friday, Aug. 7, 2015 at 6:03 PM
VANCOUVER - A mother who won a lawsuit against the British Columbia government after social workers enabled her estranged husband to molest their toddler in foster care says the province's decision to appeal the ruling is cruel and sadistic.
The Justice Ministry said it filed documents Friday seeking clarity from the Court of Appeal of B.C. A judge found last month that social workers knowingly violated a court order and allowed unsupervised access to a father who had sexually abused his other kids.
"I think it's completely rude, and inhumane for them to go on against little children who have been hurt so terribly," the mother, known in court documents as J.P., said in a statement.
She said the Ministry of Children and Family Development has been hurting her family since 2009, when it falsely accused her of being mentally ill and seized her children.
"What they have done for six years and now are continuing to do is cruel and sadistic. Like the people running the MCFD. We are suffering because of them."
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker ruled last month the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them.
J.P. and her former husband, identified as B.G., have four children, born between 2002 and 2008.
Walker ruled in a custody trial in 2012 that B.G. had sexually abused his three eldest children. In his recent ruling, he found the man had also molested his youngest child while the girl was in foster care.
Children's Minister Stephanie Cadieux said government lawyers advised her the trial judge erred in a number of areas and that an appeal was warranted.
"I want to make clear that today's decision is not about the family involved, but about every family that the ministry may interact with in the future," she said in a statement.
Cadieux, who declined interviews, said the appeal will not impact former senior civil servant Bob Plecas's review of the case. She said any staff concerns that arise will be examined by a separate human resources investigation.
But Doug Donaldson, the Opposition NDP's critic for the Children's Ministry, said the appeal "completely guts" the review. Plecas already lacked the ability to compel testimony, and his powers will be further hindered by an ongoing court case, he said.
"What it seems to be is that the internal review was a sideshow and an attempt to deflect attention," Donaldson said.
Children and youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said the ministry didn't consult the mother before announcing the review and J.P. has filed a complaint with the privacy commissioner.
The mom learned of the appeal through media on Friday, Turpel-Lafond said.
"There could have been a more respectful way to do this," Turpel-Lafond said. "She feels quite harmed."
The notice of appeal filed Friday is sealed because it includes family members' full names. The province said its comprehensive arguments will be publicly available and filed within 90 days.
J.P.'s lawyer, Jack Hittrich, said it's disturbing that the ministry's role is to protect children but it refuses to take responsibility for repeatedly failing a mother and her four kids.
"This ministry has done everything to vilify J.P., place her children in danger, allow the youngest to be sexually abused in breach of a court order," he said in a statement.
"The one thing that can be said is that this ministry has been very consistent in its refusal to abide by the law or court rulings."
http://www.brandonsun.com/national/breaking-news/bc-appeals-decision-in-case-of-father-who-sexually-abused-kids-in-care-321060591.html?thx=y
The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Mom says B.C. government 'inhumane' to appeal scathing child sex abuse decision
By: Laura Kane, The Canadian Press Friday, Aug. 7, 2015 at 6:03 PM
VANCOUVER - A mother who won a lawsuit against the British Columbia government after social workers enabled her estranged husband to molest their toddler in foster care says the province's decision to appeal the ruling is cruel and sadistic.
The Justice Ministry said it filed documents Friday seeking clarity from the Court of Appeal of B.C. A judge found last month that social workers knowingly violated a court order and allowed unsupervised access to a father who had sexually abused his other kids.
"I think it's completely rude, and inhumane for them to go on against little children who have been hurt so terribly," the mother, known in court documents as J.P., said in a statement.
She said the Ministry of Children and Family Development has been hurting her family since 2009, when it falsely accused her of being mentally ill and seized her children.
"What they have done for six years and now are continuing to do is cruel and sadistic. Like the people running the MCFD. We are suffering because of them."
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker ruled last month the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them.
J.P. and her former husband, identified as B.G., have four children, born between 2002 and 2008.
Walker ruled in a custody trial in 2012 that B.G. had sexually abused his three eldest children. In his recent ruling, he found the man had also molested his youngest child while the girl was in foster care.
Children's Minister Stephanie Cadieux said government lawyers advised her the trial judge erred in a number of areas and that an appeal was warranted.
"I want to make clear that today's decision is not about the family involved, but about every family that the ministry may interact with in the future," she said in a statement.
Cadieux, who declined interviews, said the appeal will not impact former senior civil servant Bob Plecas's review of the case. She said any staff concerns that arise will be examined by a separate human resources investigation.
But Doug Donaldson, the Opposition NDP's critic for the Children's Ministry, said the appeal "completely guts" the review. Plecas already lacked the ability to compel testimony, and his powers will be further hindered by an ongoing court case, he said.
"What it seems to be is that the internal review was a sideshow and an attempt to deflect attention," Donaldson said.
Children and youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said the ministry didn't consult the mother before announcing the review and J.P. has filed a complaint with the privacy commissioner.
The mom learned of the appeal through media on Friday, Turpel-Lafond said.
"There could have been a more respectful way to do this," Turpel-Lafond said. "She feels quite harmed."
The notice of appeal filed Friday is sealed because it includes family members' full names. The province said its comprehensive arguments will be publicly available and filed within 90 days.
J.P.'s lawyer, Jack Hittrich, said it's disturbing that the ministry's role is to protect children but it refuses to take responsibility for repeatedly failing a mother and her four kids.
"This ministry has done everything to vilify J.P., place her children in danger, allow the youngest to be sexually abused in breach of a court order," he said in a statement.
"The one thing that can be said is that this ministry has been very consistent in its refusal to abide by the law or court rulings."
Monday, August 3, 2015
"Child Protection" once again gets free pass for allowing abusive custodial dad to kill child (Topeka, Kansas)
We've posted on custodial dad LEE DAVIS before. Once again we have a father with an extensive history of domestic violence--who got custody anyway.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article29821564.html
Order to release report on boy’s death on hold
TOPEKA — A Kansas agency doesn’t yet have to release results of its internal investigation into the death of a 4-year-old northeast Kansas boy.
A federal judge’s order for the Department for Children and Families to release an investigative report and other documents regarding the 2013 death is on hold. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale stayed his earlier order following objections by the agency.
Naomi Boone had sued the department after the death of her son, Mekhi Boone. The child died in 2013 at the hands of his father, Lee Davis, who’s serving nearly 20 years for second-degree murder. Boone contends the child shouldn’t have been placed with his father.
The agency says the order to require the documents’ release wasn’t supported by case law.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article29821564.html
Order to release report on boy’s death on hold
TOPEKA — A Kansas agency doesn’t yet have to release results of its internal investigation into the death of a 4-year-old northeast Kansas boy.
A federal judge’s order for the Department for Children and Families to release an investigative report and other documents regarding the 2013 death is on hold. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale stayed his earlier order following objections by the agency.
Naomi Boone had sued the department after the death of her son, Mekhi Boone. The child died in 2013 at the hands of his father, Lee Davis, who’s serving nearly 20 years for second-degree murder. Boone contends the child shouldn’t have been placed with his father.
The agency says the order to require the documents’ release wasn’t supported by case law.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Social workers violate court order, so dad molested kids during unsupervised visitation (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Very typical of so-called child protection agencies that are too often controlled by and/or heavily influenced by fathers rights and pro-pedophile types. This is right by the playbook. Label the protective mother as mentally ill and give Daddy a free pass to rape the kids with no interference.
http://www.timescolonist.com/watchdog-has-no-confidence-in-b-c-ministry-s-review-of-child-sex-abuse-case-1.2003010
Watchdog has 'no confidence' in B.C. ministry's review of child sex abuse case
The Canadian Press July 16, 2015 11:09 AM
VICTORIA - British Columbia's children's minister has promised a review after social workers violated a court order and allowed a father who had molested his kids unsupervised visits.
Stephanie Cadieux said Thursday her ministry will examine all the policy, practice and human resource concerns raised by a scathing B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
"This family, and the rest of British Columbia, deserve to know the child welfare system is responsive and accountable for the decisions it makes," Cadieux told the legislature as the Opposition New Democrats demanded she apologize.
The province's children and youth representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, said she has "no confidence" in the ministry's ability to investigate itself.
"This is a child welfare ministry that for some time has felt that it doesn't have to answer to independent oversight or to a court," she said in an interview. "They're not capable of holding each other to account. They do not have the structures to do that."
Turpel-Lafond, who heads the independent body that oversees the child welfare system, said she wants to participate in the review or see a third party hired to do it.
The ministry said it was working with the Public Service Agency to determine what kind of staff conduct review would work best, and details would be announced later.
Justice Paul Walker said in a written decision released Tuesday that the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it falsely accused a mother of being mentally ill and removed four children from her care in 2009.
Social workers failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them and knowingly violated a court order banning unsupervised visits, the ruling said.
Turpel-Lafond said the ministry needs to take immediate action against the workers named in the judgment and examine all other child welfare cases on which they worked.
She said the ministry's decision to eliminate the provincial director of child welfare between 2007 and 2011 created a system akin to the "Wild West" and that even now the director has no power over regional bosses.
Social workers employed by the government are not required to register in the B.C. College of Social Workers, meaning they are not regulated by a professional body, Turpel-Lafond said.
Children's Ministry spokesman Sheldon Johnson said all child protection workers must take specialized university courses and get on-the-job training including interviewing kids who may have been sexually abused. He said workers must have the skills required by the college although they don't need to register.
Johnson said the ministry cannot comment on the individuals named in the judgment due to privacy legislation.
The mother's lawyer, Jack Hittrich, has said that a team leader involved in her case, William Strickland, is still employed by the ministry.
In the legislature, NDP Leader John Horgan questioned how many other court orders the ministry had ignored.
"How many other children are being put at risk because the government believes it's above the law?" he said.
Walker concluded in 2012 that the father physically and sexually abused the couple's three eldest children and gave the mother sole guardianship.
In his decision released Tuesday, Walker determined that the father had also molested his youngest child while the couple's kids were in ministry care.
The ministry has not said yet whether it plans to appeal the ruling.
http://www.timescolonist.com/watchdog-has-no-confidence-in-b-c-ministry-s-review-of-child-sex-abuse-case-1.2003010
Watchdog has 'no confidence' in B.C. ministry's review of child sex abuse case
The Canadian Press July 16, 2015 11:09 AM
VICTORIA - British Columbia's children's minister has promised a review after social workers violated a court order and allowed a father who had molested his kids unsupervised visits.
Stephanie Cadieux said Thursday her ministry will examine all the policy, practice and human resource concerns raised by a scathing B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
"This family, and the rest of British Columbia, deserve to know the child welfare system is responsive and accountable for the decisions it makes," Cadieux told the legislature as the Opposition New Democrats demanded she apologize.
The province's children and youth representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, said she has "no confidence" in the ministry's ability to investigate itself.
"This is a child welfare ministry that for some time has felt that it doesn't have to answer to independent oversight or to a court," she said in an interview. "They're not capable of holding each other to account. They do not have the structures to do that."
Turpel-Lafond, who heads the independent body that oversees the child welfare system, said she wants to participate in the review or see a third party hired to do it.
The ministry said it was working with the Public Service Agency to determine what kind of staff conduct review would work best, and details would be announced later.
Justice Paul Walker said in a written decision released Tuesday that the ministry showed "reckless disregard" when it falsely accused a mother of being mentally ill and removed four children from her care in 2009.
Social workers failed to investigate the kids' claims that their father had sexually abused them and knowingly violated a court order banning unsupervised visits, the ruling said.
Turpel-Lafond said the ministry needs to take immediate action against the workers named in the judgment and examine all other child welfare cases on which they worked.
She said the ministry's decision to eliminate the provincial director of child welfare between 2007 and 2011 created a system akin to the "Wild West" and that even now the director has no power over regional bosses.
Social workers employed by the government are not required to register in the B.C. College of Social Workers, meaning they are not regulated by a professional body, Turpel-Lafond said.
Children's Ministry spokesman Sheldon Johnson said all child protection workers must take specialized university courses and get on-the-job training including interviewing kids who may have been sexually abused. He said workers must have the skills required by the college although they don't need to register.
Johnson said the ministry cannot comment on the individuals named in the judgment due to privacy legislation.
The mother's lawyer, Jack Hittrich, has said that a team leader involved in her case, William Strickland, is still employed by the ministry.
In the legislature, NDP Leader John Horgan questioned how many other court orders the ministry had ignored.
"How many other children are being put at risk because the government believes it's above the law?" he said.
Walker concluded in 2012 that the father physically and sexually abused the couple's three eldest children and gave the mother sole guardianship.
In his decision released Tuesday, Walker determined that the father had also molested his youngest child while the couple's kids were in ministry care.
The ministry has not said yet whether it plans to appeal the ruling.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Custodial dad pleads guilty to felony murder in torture death of 10-year-old daughter (Gwinnett County, Georgia)
There is a long, classic backstory behind this case: CPS incompetence and father-friendly/anti-child neglect. A mother who had fought for years to regain custody of a child she had lost to the man who beat her. See our previous posts HERE.
Dad EMAN MOSS is on our Killer Dads and Custody list for Georgia.
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/failed-to-death/2015/06/08/emani-moss-father-accepts-plea-deal/28708823/
Emani Moss' father accepts plea deal
New details have emerged in a child abuse story that Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says is one of the worst cases he has seen in 30 years – the death of 10-year-old Emani Moss.
WXIA La'Tasha Givens, WXIA-TV, Atlanta 6:12 p.m. EDT June 8, 2015
GWINNETT COUNTY, GA (WXIA) – New details have emerged in a child abuse story that Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says is one of the worst cases he has seen in 30 years – the death of 10-year-old Emani Moss.
Emani's case shocked everyone in the community and led to significant change within the state child welfare system.
Emani was starved, burned and left inside a trash dumpster for dead. Her father and stepmother were both arrested and charged with her death. Now, her father's plea has been made public.
Porter says Eman Moss knew his daughter is was sick and losing weight, but he failed to seek medical attention for her. Investigators said that although he helped dispose of the girl's body, they do not believe he was the main culprit in her death. So a plea deal was offered that takes away the death penalty.
"His involvement was one of neglect, rather than intent, and that was confirmed through is proffer – and that's been a lot through the evidence we gathered during the course of the investigation," Porter said. "I think once the risk of the death penalty had been removed, he was willing to accept the sentence of life without parole."
Eman Moss pleaded guilty on two counts of felony murder, two counts of first degree child cruelty, and one felony count of concealing the death of another.
Now, all eyes are on his wife, the girl's stepmother, Tiffany. She has remained silent, never once giving police any statement on how the girl died.
11Alive News has investigated the death of Emani Moss, as well as the state's Department of Family and Children Services, the state agency charged with protecting our children.
Our investigation led to the removal of multiple DFCS employees. We will continue to hold the powerful accountable when it comes to our children and continue to follow Emani's case through to its final end.
Dad EMAN MOSS is on our Killer Dads and Custody list for Georgia.
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/failed-to-death/2015/06/08/emani-moss-father-accepts-plea-deal/28708823/
Emani Moss' father accepts plea deal
New details have emerged in a child abuse story that Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says is one of the worst cases he has seen in 30 years – the death of 10-year-old Emani Moss.
WXIA La'Tasha Givens, WXIA-TV, Atlanta 6:12 p.m. EDT June 8, 2015
GWINNETT COUNTY, GA (WXIA) – New details have emerged in a child abuse story that Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says is one of the worst cases he has seen in 30 years – the death of 10-year-old Emani Moss.
Emani's case shocked everyone in the community and led to significant change within the state child welfare system.
Emani was starved, burned and left inside a trash dumpster for dead. Her father and stepmother were both arrested and charged with her death. Now, her father's plea has been made public.
Porter says Eman Moss knew his daughter is was sick and losing weight, but he failed to seek medical attention for her. Investigators said that although he helped dispose of the girl's body, they do not believe he was the main culprit in her death. So a plea deal was offered that takes away the death penalty.
"His involvement was one of neglect, rather than intent, and that was confirmed through is proffer – and that's been a lot through the evidence we gathered during the course of the investigation," Porter said. "I think once the risk of the death penalty had been removed, he was willing to accept the sentence of life without parole."
Eman Moss pleaded guilty on two counts of felony murder, two counts of first degree child cruelty, and one felony count of concealing the death of another.
Now, all eyes are on his wife, the girl's stepmother, Tiffany. She has remained silent, never once giving police any statement on how the girl died.
11Alive News has investigated the death of Emani Moss, as well as the state's Department of Family and Children Services, the state agency charged with protecting our children.
Our investigation led to the removal of multiple DFCS employees. We will continue to hold the powerful accountable when it comes to our children and continue to follow Emani's case through to its final end.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Child protection taken to task: Why did they give father with history of domestic violence custody of little boy who was beaten to death? (Hiawatha, Kansas)
I can't even begin to summarize this case. It is too disgusting. Once again, we see how governmental authority works with abusive fathers to help them gain and retain custody. And once again, a murdered child is the result.
Dad is identified as LEE DAVIS.
http://m.cjonline.com/news/2015-02-17/court-documents-show-dcf-contractor-missed-signs-abuse-beating-death-boy#gsc.tab=0
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015
Documents: Hospital personnel describe abuse to 4-year-old Mekhi Boone as 'the worst ever seen'
By Jonathan Shorman
Mekhi Patrick Dean Boone, 4, of Hiawatha, died March 5, 2013 after suffering from child abuse.
Mekhi Patrick Dean Boone suffered the “worst case of child abuse they have seen.”
The 4-year-old Hiawatha boy lay on a Children’s Mercy Hospital bed in Kansas City, Mo., hooked up to a ventilator. A visiting social worker scrawled an observation on a case activity log, noting the child was brain dead.
“There is not a 2 inch part of his body that doesn’t have bruises. He was beat to death,” the log reads.
The entry was dated March 4, 2013. Mekhi was pronounced dead the next day — apparently without family by his side.
While the boy’s father and his father’s girlfriend were prosecuted for murder, the boy’s mother alleges the “outrageous conduct” of the state of Kansas and one of its contractors caused the death.
More than a hundred pages of court documents allege Kansas-based TFI Family Services, which at the time was one of the companies tasked with running the state’s foster care system, placed Mekhi with his father, Lee Davis, despite knowing he had a history of domestic violence and without telling the Department of Children and Families — the agency ultimately responsible for Mekhi’s well-being.
The court filings — part of a federal lawsuit against TFI and DCF brought by Mekhi’s mother — purport to document mistakes and missed clues prior to the boy’s death. Dozens of pages of emails and official reports paint a picture of an agency and a company where required visits weren’t made and action wasn’t taken, even after evidence of abuse began to mount.
Changes in custody
Mekhi was born Sept. 4, 2008, in Horton. Although he lived only four years, he was described as a smiling boy with energy.
“I had the opportunity to meet little Mekhi last year while he was in preschool. There was something special about this little guy that intrigued me; to sum it up, he touched my heart,” one person wrote on the funeral home’s condolence page.
Months before Mekhi’s death, an educator at the preschool reported he showed signs of abuse, but the boy’s situation didn’t change.
Mekhi had spent the first part of his life with his mother, Naomi Boone. According to a July 10, 2012, case activity log written by Michelle Petry, a DCF worker named in the lawsuit, the agency had concerns with Mekhi staying with his mother and ultimately sought to remove him.
The report recounts a conversation between Petry and TFI at the Brown County Courthouse ahead of a temporary custody hearing.
According to Petry’s report, Mekhi had been found on two occasions at a grocery store in Horton without supervision. The lawsuit also says Mekhi had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Davis, his father, would later cite the boy’s behavior issues in attempting to explain injuries.
“We discussed that (redacted)’s father has not had much to do with him since birth according to Naomi and that Naomi reported she has concerns that he is an alcoholic and also reported that (redacted) had returned home from a visit with his father a year or so ago with a bruise on his face and she was concerned that dad had caused the bruise,” Petry wrote.
The report concludes by noting that Boone had said she told Horton police about the bruise incident and that law enforcement had investigated. Petry then writes “that is why we are not looking at dad for placement option at this time.”
Petry’s warning to TFI would go unheeded, according to the lawsuit.
At the hearing, the court placed Mekhi into the state’s custody. TFI then placed the boy with his paternal grandmother, Carol Negretti, who was also a licensed foster parent.
More than a year earlier in March 2011, the Kansas Department for Health and Human Services had designated Mekhi’s father as having a “prohibited offense.” The label meant that Davis was prohibited from working at a licensed foster home or living in a foster home under Kansas law.
Davis, who was 27 at the time of Mekhi’s death, had been twice convicted of misdemeanor battery. In one September 2009 incident recorded in a police report, a woman told Horton police that Davis had grabbed her by the throat and had pushed her against a wall. Davis told police the woman had slapped him and that he had hit her back.
In an April 2013 email sent in response to questions raised by DCF following Mekhi’s death, Gaven Ludlow, TFI’s director of Resource Family Services, said TFI was informed in March 2011 that Lee had a prohibited offense.
Mekhi lived with Negretti for about four months. But despite Davis having a prohibited offense, on Nov. 3, 2012, TFI took Mekhi from Negretti, his paternal grandmother, and placed him with his father.
According to the lawsuit, Davis had never before had custody of Mekhi. The lawsuit alleges TFI didn’t notify DCF in advance that it had decided to move Mekhi. In a March 20, 2013, email, Melinda Handley, a DCF social work supervisor, wrote that DCF staff didn’t know Mekhi was being placed with Lee before TFI moved him.
Less than a week after Mekhi was taken from his mother and placed with Negretti, Davis began to visit Mekhi at Negretti’s home. A document written by TFI in response to DCF questions following Mekhi’s death outlines how Davis began having more and more contact with Mekhi.
Davis had three supervised visits with Mekhi during July that took place at Negretti’s home. Davis then began unsupervised visits in August, with day visits taking place on Saturdays. He started to pick up Mekhi from preschool and take him to daycare. Once-a-week visits started in September, and Davis looked after the child on some evenings as well.
TFI described what case managers observed on their home visits with Davis beginning in July 2012 through January 2013. Generally, the case managers noted a clean home.
But the regularity of visits didn’t meet standards, the lawsuit alleges. When Mekhi was transferred from Negretti’s custody to Davis’ custody, the transfer wasn’t facilitated by either DCF or TFI. Instead, according to the TFI document, Davis picked up Mekhi from Negretti’s home on the date he was placed with his father.
In addition, TFI said the first visit to see Mekhi following reintegration came on Nov. 28, more than two weeks after the transfer of custody. State regulations, however, require the supervising worker to visit the child biweekly during the first three months of placement and then monthly afterward.
On a Dec. 27 visit, a worker noticed Mekhi had two black eyes and a big bump on his head. Davis had contacted TFI before the visit, saying the child had fallen into the arm of a futon while playing at his grandmother’s home and that he had taken Mekhi to the doctor.
TFI said in the document that Negretti confirmed to them through informal conversation that Mekhi fell on the futon, but the conversation was never formally documented. During a Jan. 18 visit, the worker noted Mekhi’s bruises had disappeared, with no other bruising noted on his body.
But while the TFI employees saw an apparently benign injury, Mekhi’s preschool teacher had noticed signs of physical abuse — not accidental injury — a month earlier.
In a note dated Nov. 26, 2012, an educator at Brown County Special Education Interlocal 615 wrote that several bruises and red marks could be seen on Mekhi’s stomach. The educator asked Mekhi what had happened, but he didn’t say anything.
When the school nurse examined him, Mekhi said he had fallen at home in the grass in the backyard. When asked how he fell, he said he was on the roof and jumped off.
Later that day, though, Mekhi opened up — saying that he hated living with his father and that Davis had slapped him.
“He then showed them his stomach. When asked why he said it’s when he gets in trouble and has to stand by the wall and then he said he gets slapped all over,” the teacher wrote.
Documents from the school also note about two weeks prior to Mekhi’s comments, he had bruises on both of his temples.
Mekhi’s bruises and his comments were reported to the Kansas Intake/Investigation Protection System — a DCF hotline, documents show. According to the lawsuit, DCF employee Debra Adcock conducted an investigation into the hotline call.
The lawsuit alleges Adcock’s investigation didn’t find the same risks associated with Davis that Petry noted in July 2012. DCF concluded that there was a “low risk” of abuse or neglect and that the risk was “controlled.”
“The second risk assessment contained no explanation for the conclusion that the risk to M.B.’s safety was deemed ‘low’ for abuse after M.B. had been placed with Mr. Davis, who DCF had previously determined was not a placement option for M.B. because of Mr. Davis’ background of domestic violence against M.B. and others,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the lawsuit, Adcock’s investigation lasted from Nov. 26, 2012, to Jan. 10, 2013. During that time, Adcock visited Mekhi once face-to-face. The lawsuit alleged Adcock didn’t interview the individual who made the hotline call, nor did she interview anyone who was at Mekhi’s school that day.
The lawsuit says Adcock determined the allegations were unsubstantiated and closed the investigation.
Further, the lawsuit says Adcock told TFI about the hotline call on Nov. 26. TFI indicated it would pay special attention to Mekhi, but that it had no concern about Mekhi being in the Davis home.
The lawsuit also alleges DCF didn’t meet with Mekhi while he was living with Davis, despite an obligation to make contact with the family at least once every 30 calendar days to evaluate risk and safety factors, according to DCF regulations.
No one, either from TFI or DCF, visited Mekhi after Jan. 13, 2013, the lawsuit says.
The worst ever seen
After a little less than two months without any contact from the state or TFI, Mekhi’s situation changed suddenly.
Davis brought Mekhi to the Hiawatha hospital on March 3, 2013. Mekhi was unresponsive. Davis said the child had fallen down 30 stairs.
According to the lawsuit, Davis spoke of behavior problems with the boy. Hospital staff who removed Mekhi’s clothing saw bruising and abrasions all over his body in various stages of healing.
Mekhi had multiple injuries, including internal bleeding and bleeding on the brain. He was taken by helicopter to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
At Children’s Mercy, doctors diagnosed Mekhi with severe traumatic brain injury secondary to child abuse, a skull fracture, mid-line shift of the brain and multiple bruises. The diagnosis didn’t match the explanation Davis had provided.
“Children’s Mercy personnel including a medical doctor who had observed approximately 15,000 victims of child abuse, described (Mekhi’s) injuries as the worst ever seen for a child that age, and that there was not two inches of (Mekhi’s) body that did not have bruising on it,” the lawsuit reads.
On March 4, Petry — the DCF worker who had told TFI in July 2012 that Davis wasn’t a placement option — visited Mekhi in the hospital. She wrote in her case activity log that Mekhi had been “beat to death.” She noted Mekhi showed signs of sexual abuse as well.
“After midnight test brain activity and they will pronounce him dead if nothing has changed,” Petry wrote.
The test came and went. At 2:35 p.m. on March 5, Mekhi was pronounced dead.
Davis and his girlfriend, Janice Summerford, were charged with murder. Davis was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison in July 2013. In August 2014, Summerford entered an Alford Plea — acknowledging enough evidence exists to convict her but not admitting guilt, the Sabetha Herald reported at the time.
Though a DCF employee was present at the time of Mekhi's death, and multiple DCF employees visited Mekhi in the hospital, the lawsuit alleges no one from TFI visited Mekhi in the hospital.
Further, the lawsuit alleges Mekhi died without his family. “Naomi Boone was not allowed to visit her son, (Mekhi), before his death while he was hospitalized at Children’s Mercy Hospital. (Mekhi’s) family were not allowed to see or visit (Mekhi) while he was being treated at Children’s Mercy,” the lawsuit reads.
“(Mekhi) died without his mother or family present.”
Ongoing litigation
Naomi Boone filed her lawsuit against TFI and DCF on Oct. 27, 2014. The lawsuit, which totals more than 100 pages with attached emails and reports, appears to have drawn little outside attention since.
The lawsuit was listed, however, in a budget document given to lawmakers Monday. The document indicates DCF was served with the lawsuit in December and filed an answer in January. However, federal court records show DCF was served on Oct. 31 and that TFI was served on Nov. 6.
Boone’s attorney, Michaela Shelton, of Overland Park, said she would potentially be willing to speak to The Topeka Capital-Journal, but as of Tuesday afternoon hadn’t agreed to an interview.
Approached for comment, DCF spokeswoman Theresa Freed sent a short statement that indicated one employee was fired.
“The loss of any child is a tragedy. We are deeply saddened that this little boy suffered an unthinkable death. It is always our top priority to ensure the safety of children. DCF has carefully reviewed this case and taken appropriate action, including the termination of an employee,” Freed said.
Questions directed at TFI spokeswoman Sara Hadaway were forwarded to the Kansas City, Mo., law firm Franke, Schultz & Mullen.
“Our firm is counsel of record for TFI. We would request that any further inquiries be directed to our office. It is TFI’s policy not to comment on pending litigation. Thank you for reaching out for comment before going to print,” attorney Derek Johannsen said in an email.
TFI has drawn scrutiny for past incidents. In the 2011 death of a Topeka baby, the child's grandmother said she had filed a report with TFI prior to the death raising concerns about injuries.
This past summer, TFI also attracted attention after a 10-month-old girl who had been placed into a foster home by TFI died in a hot car in Wichita. DCF temporarily suspended further foster placements by TFI but later lifted the restriction after a review of its foster homes found no serious safety concerns.
Although TFI lost its state contract in 2013, it still works as a subcontractor.
DCF and TFI both answered the lawsuit in Dec. 9 court filings, a month prior to what DCF indicated to lawmakers. In its answer, DCF seeks to distance itself from the incident and says it had no connection to Mekhi’s death.
“These answering Defendants would affirmatively assert there is no causal connection between these answering Defendants’ conduct and the death of (Mekhi), the constitutional deprivations claims by Plaintiffs, and the other injuries and damages claimed by Plaintiffs,” DCF’s legal answer reads.
Boone’s lawsuit argues her son’s due process rights were violated, a claim that also drew a response from DCF.
“These answering Defendants affirmatively assert that the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require these answering Defendants to protect its citizens from private violence,” the answer reads.
TFI in its answer denies the plaintiff sustained any damage. The company suggests that if any fault is found, it should be shared with DCF as well.
According to an online court docket, the next step in the lawsuit is a scheduling conference set for Monday.
Dad is identified as LEE DAVIS.
http://m.cjonline.com/news/2015-02-17/court-documents-show-dcf-contractor-missed-signs-abuse-beating-death-boy#gsc.tab=0
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015
Documents: Hospital personnel describe abuse to 4-year-old Mekhi Boone as 'the worst ever seen'
By Jonathan Shorman
Mekhi Patrick Dean Boone, 4, of Hiawatha, died March 5, 2013 after suffering from child abuse.
Mekhi Patrick Dean Boone suffered the “worst case of child abuse they have seen.”
The 4-year-old Hiawatha boy lay on a Children’s Mercy Hospital bed in Kansas City, Mo., hooked up to a ventilator. A visiting social worker scrawled an observation on a case activity log, noting the child was brain dead.
“There is not a 2 inch part of his body that doesn’t have bruises. He was beat to death,” the log reads.
The entry was dated March 4, 2013. Mekhi was pronounced dead the next day — apparently without family by his side.
While the boy’s father and his father’s girlfriend were prosecuted for murder, the boy’s mother alleges the “outrageous conduct” of the state of Kansas and one of its contractors caused the death.
More than a hundred pages of court documents allege Kansas-based TFI Family Services, which at the time was one of the companies tasked with running the state’s foster care system, placed Mekhi with his father, Lee Davis, despite knowing he had a history of domestic violence and without telling the Department of Children and Families — the agency ultimately responsible for Mekhi’s well-being.
The court filings — part of a federal lawsuit against TFI and DCF brought by Mekhi’s mother — purport to document mistakes and missed clues prior to the boy’s death. Dozens of pages of emails and official reports paint a picture of an agency and a company where required visits weren’t made and action wasn’t taken, even after evidence of abuse began to mount.
Changes in custody
Mekhi was born Sept. 4, 2008, in Horton. Although he lived only four years, he was described as a smiling boy with energy.
“I had the opportunity to meet little Mekhi last year while he was in preschool. There was something special about this little guy that intrigued me; to sum it up, he touched my heart,” one person wrote on the funeral home’s condolence page.
Months before Mekhi’s death, an educator at the preschool reported he showed signs of abuse, but the boy’s situation didn’t change.
Mekhi had spent the first part of his life with his mother, Naomi Boone. According to a July 10, 2012, case activity log written by Michelle Petry, a DCF worker named in the lawsuit, the agency had concerns with Mekhi staying with his mother and ultimately sought to remove him.
The report recounts a conversation between Petry and TFI at the Brown County Courthouse ahead of a temporary custody hearing.
According to Petry’s report, Mekhi had been found on two occasions at a grocery store in Horton without supervision. The lawsuit also says Mekhi had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Davis, his father, would later cite the boy’s behavior issues in attempting to explain injuries.
“We discussed that (redacted)’s father has not had much to do with him since birth according to Naomi and that Naomi reported she has concerns that he is an alcoholic and also reported that (redacted) had returned home from a visit with his father a year or so ago with a bruise on his face and she was concerned that dad had caused the bruise,” Petry wrote.
The report concludes by noting that Boone had said she told Horton police about the bruise incident and that law enforcement had investigated. Petry then writes “that is why we are not looking at dad for placement option at this time.”
Petry’s warning to TFI would go unheeded, according to the lawsuit.
At the hearing, the court placed Mekhi into the state’s custody. TFI then placed the boy with his paternal grandmother, Carol Negretti, who was also a licensed foster parent.
More than a year earlier in March 2011, the Kansas Department for Health and Human Services had designated Mekhi’s father as having a “prohibited offense.” The label meant that Davis was prohibited from working at a licensed foster home or living in a foster home under Kansas law.
Davis, who was 27 at the time of Mekhi’s death, had been twice convicted of misdemeanor battery. In one September 2009 incident recorded in a police report, a woman told Horton police that Davis had grabbed her by the throat and had pushed her against a wall. Davis told police the woman had slapped him and that he had hit her back.
In an April 2013 email sent in response to questions raised by DCF following Mekhi’s death, Gaven Ludlow, TFI’s director of Resource Family Services, said TFI was informed in March 2011 that Lee had a prohibited offense.
Mekhi lived with Negretti for about four months. But despite Davis having a prohibited offense, on Nov. 3, 2012, TFI took Mekhi from Negretti, his paternal grandmother, and placed him with his father.
According to the lawsuit, Davis had never before had custody of Mekhi. The lawsuit alleges TFI didn’t notify DCF in advance that it had decided to move Mekhi. In a March 20, 2013, email, Melinda Handley, a DCF social work supervisor, wrote that DCF staff didn’t know Mekhi was being placed with Lee before TFI moved him.
Less than a week after Mekhi was taken from his mother and placed with Negretti, Davis began to visit Mekhi at Negretti’s home. A document written by TFI in response to DCF questions following Mekhi’s death outlines how Davis began having more and more contact with Mekhi.
Davis had three supervised visits with Mekhi during July that took place at Negretti’s home. Davis then began unsupervised visits in August, with day visits taking place on Saturdays. He started to pick up Mekhi from preschool and take him to daycare. Once-a-week visits started in September, and Davis looked after the child on some evenings as well.
TFI described what case managers observed on their home visits with Davis beginning in July 2012 through January 2013. Generally, the case managers noted a clean home.
But the regularity of visits didn’t meet standards, the lawsuit alleges. When Mekhi was transferred from Negretti’s custody to Davis’ custody, the transfer wasn’t facilitated by either DCF or TFI. Instead, according to the TFI document, Davis picked up Mekhi from Negretti’s home on the date he was placed with his father.
In addition, TFI said the first visit to see Mekhi following reintegration came on Nov. 28, more than two weeks after the transfer of custody. State regulations, however, require the supervising worker to visit the child biweekly during the first three months of placement and then monthly afterward.
On a Dec. 27 visit, a worker noticed Mekhi had two black eyes and a big bump on his head. Davis had contacted TFI before the visit, saying the child had fallen into the arm of a futon while playing at his grandmother’s home and that he had taken Mekhi to the doctor.
TFI said in the document that Negretti confirmed to them through informal conversation that Mekhi fell on the futon, but the conversation was never formally documented. During a Jan. 18 visit, the worker noted Mekhi’s bruises had disappeared, with no other bruising noted on his body.
But while the TFI employees saw an apparently benign injury, Mekhi’s preschool teacher had noticed signs of physical abuse — not accidental injury — a month earlier.
In a note dated Nov. 26, 2012, an educator at Brown County Special Education Interlocal 615 wrote that several bruises and red marks could be seen on Mekhi’s stomach. The educator asked Mekhi what had happened, but he didn’t say anything.
When the school nurse examined him, Mekhi said he had fallen at home in the grass in the backyard. When asked how he fell, he said he was on the roof and jumped off.
Later that day, though, Mekhi opened up — saying that he hated living with his father and that Davis had slapped him.
“He then showed them his stomach. When asked why he said it’s when he gets in trouble and has to stand by the wall and then he said he gets slapped all over,” the teacher wrote.
Documents from the school also note about two weeks prior to Mekhi’s comments, he had bruises on both of his temples.
Mekhi’s bruises and his comments were reported to the Kansas Intake/Investigation Protection System — a DCF hotline, documents show. According to the lawsuit, DCF employee Debra Adcock conducted an investigation into the hotline call.
The lawsuit alleges Adcock’s investigation didn’t find the same risks associated with Davis that Petry noted in July 2012. DCF concluded that there was a “low risk” of abuse or neglect and that the risk was “controlled.”
“The second risk assessment contained no explanation for the conclusion that the risk to M.B.’s safety was deemed ‘low’ for abuse after M.B. had been placed with Mr. Davis, who DCF had previously determined was not a placement option for M.B. because of Mr. Davis’ background of domestic violence against M.B. and others,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the lawsuit, Adcock’s investigation lasted from Nov. 26, 2012, to Jan. 10, 2013. During that time, Adcock visited Mekhi once face-to-face. The lawsuit alleged Adcock didn’t interview the individual who made the hotline call, nor did she interview anyone who was at Mekhi’s school that day.
The lawsuit says Adcock determined the allegations were unsubstantiated and closed the investigation.
Further, the lawsuit says Adcock told TFI about the hotline call on Nov. 26. TFI indicated it would pay special attention to Mekhi, but that it had no concern about Mekhi being in the Davis home.
The lawsuit also alleges DCF didn’t meet with Mekhi while he was living with Davis, despite an obligation to make contact with the family at least once every 30 calendar days to evaluate risk and safety factors, according to DCF regulations.
No one, either from TFI or DCF, visited Mekhi after Jan. 13, 2013, the lawsuit says.
The worst ever seen
After a little less than two months without any contact from the state or TFI, Mekhi’s situation changed suddenly.
Davis brought Mekhi to the Hiawatha hospital on March 3, 2013. Mekhi was unresponsive. Davis said the child had fallen down 30 stairs.
According to the lawsuit, Davis spoke of behavior problems with the boy. Hospital staff who removed Mekhi’s clothing saw bruising and abrasions all over his body in various stages of healing.
Mekhi had multiple injuries, including internal bleeding and bleeding on the brain. He was taken by helicopter to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
At Children’s Mercy, doctors diagnosed Mekhi with severe traumatic brain injury secondary to child abuse, a skull fracture, mid-line shift of the brain and multiple bruises. The diagnosis didn’t match the explanation Davis had provided.
“Children’s Mercy personnel including a medical doctor who had observed approximately 15,000 victims of child abuse, described (Mekhi’s) injuries as the worst ever seen for a child that age, and that there was not two inches of (Mekhi’s) body that did not have bruising on it,” the lawsuit reads.
On March 4, Petry — the DCF worker who had told TFI in July 2012 that Davis wasn’t a placement option — visited Mekhi in the hospital. She wrote in her case activity log that Mekhi had been “beat to death.” She noted Mekhi showed signs of sexual abuse as well.
“After midnight test brain activity and they will pronounce him dead if nothing has changed,” Petry wrote.
The test came and went. At 2:35 p.m. on March 5, Mekhi was pronounced dead.
Davis and his girlfriend, Janice Summerford, were charged with murder. Davis was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison in July 2013. In August 2014, Summerford entered an Alford Plea — acknowledging enough evidence exists to convict her but not admitting guilt, the Sabetha Herald reported at the time.
Though a DCF employee was present at the time of Mekhi's death, and multiple DCF employees visited Mekhi in the hospital, the lawsuit alleges no one from TFI visited Mekhi in the hospital.
Further, the lawsuit alleges Mekhi died without his family. “Naomi Boone was not allowed to visit her son, (Mekhi), before his death while he was hospitalized at Children’s Mercy Hospital. (Mekhi’s) family were not allowed to see or visit (Mekhi) while he was being treated at Children’s Mercy,” the lawsuit reads.
“(Mekhi) died without his mother or family present.”
Ongoing litigation
Naomi Boone filed her lawsuit against TFI and DCF on Oct. 27, 2014. The lawsuit, which totals more than 100 pages with attached emails and reports, appears to have drawn little outside attention since.
The lawsuit was listed, however, in a budget document given to lawmakers Monday. The document indicates DCF was served with the lawsuit in December and filed an answer in January. However, federal court records show DCF was served on Oct. 31 and that TFI was served on Nov. 6.
Boone’s attorney, Michaela Shelton, of Overland Park, said she would potentially be willing to speak to The Topeka Capital-Journal, but as of Tuesday afternoon hadn’t agreed to an interview.
Approached for comment, DCF spokeswoman Theresa Freed sent a short statement that indicated one employee was fired.
“The loss of any child is a tragedy. We are deeply saddened that this little boy suffered an unthinkable death. It is always our top priority to ensure the safety of children. DCF has carefully reviewed this case and taken appropriate action, including the termination of an employee,” Freed said.
Questions directed at TFI spokeswoman Sara Hadaway were forwarded to the Kansas City, Mo., law firm Franke, Schultz & Mullen.
“Our firm is counsel of record for TFI. We would request that any further inquiries be directed to our office. It is TFI’s policy not to comment on pending litigation. Thank you for reaching out for comment before going to print,” attorney Derek Johannsen said in an email.
TFI has drawn scrutiny for past incidents. In the 2011 death of a Topeka baby, the child's grandmother said she had filed a report with TFI prior to the death raising concerns about injuries.
This past summer, TFI also attracted attention after a 10-month-old girl who had been placed into a foster home by TFI died in a hot car in Wichita. DCF temporarily suspended further foster placements by TFI but later lifted the restriction after a review of its foster homes found no serious safety concerns.
Although TFI lost its state contract in 2013, it still works as a subcontractor.
DCF and TFI both answered the lawsuit in Dec. 9 court filings, a month prior to what DCF indicated to lawmakers. In its answer, DCF seeks to distance itself from the incident and says it had no connection to Mekhi’s death.
“These answering Defendants would affirmatively assert there is no causal connection between these answering Defendants’ conduct and the death of (Mekhi), the constitutional deprivations claims by Plaintiffs, and the other injuries and damages claimed by Plaintiffs,” DCF’s legal answer reads.
Boone’s lawsuit argues her son’s due process rights were violated, a claim that also drew a response from DCF.
“These answering Defendants affirmatively assert that the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require these answering Defendants to protect its citizens from private violence,” the answer reads.
TFI in its answer denies the plaintiff sustained any damage. The company suggests that if any fault is found, it should be shared with DCF as well.
According to an online court docket, the next step in the lawsuit is a scheduling conference set for Monday.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Fathers, boyfriends figure prominently in child abuse deaths (Illinois)
Notice that none of these cases involve just mothers raising their children alone. They always center on an abusive father or boyfriend in the home. The first case discussed actually involves a CUSTODIAL FATHER, JEREMIAH THOMPSON. So much for the fathers rights demonization of single moms. The problem is not that they are single per se. It's that they involve awful men in the lives of their children.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/372802/29-kids-among-illinois-child-welfare-agencys-faces-failure
29 more kids among Illinois child-welfare agency’s faces of failure
Posted: 02/16/2015, 07:00pm | Becky Schlikerman, Tony Arnold and Chris Fusco
Jeremiah Thompson first beat his daughter, little Jakarriah Patterson, when she was just a year and a half old, state child-welfare records show.
A year later, Thompson — a former ward of the state on parole for a robbery conviction — ended up caring for Jakarriah again.
This time, he beat her to death, authorities say.
Thompson, 22, told police he repeatedly “popped” Jakarriah for not listening to him in the three weeks he’d been caring for her at his home in Lansing. The girl had a broken jaw, fractured ribs, lacerations to her liver and dozens of bruises over her 37-pound body when the police found her dead, rigor mortis already setting in, on March 19, 2014.
“She said, ‘Dada, I love you.’ Her body fidgeted one last time,” a Lansing police detective wrote in his report on Jakarriah’s death. “Mr. Thompson stated he knew she was dead because of him.”
In the police lockup, Thompson — who would soon be charged with first-degree murder — couldn’t get his daughter’s screams out of his head. He put socks around his head and stuffed toilet paper in his ears because “he said he kept hearing her . . . calling for him,” according to the police.
Jakarriah is one of 29 children killed from abuse or neglect in the last reporting year who died within a year after they or their caregivers had come under scrutiny by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, a Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ review of newly released records from the agency’s inspector general found. One more abuse death remains under investigation.
The 29 deaths in DCFS-involved cases between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, is nearly double the number in 2009-2010. Of those, 10 children died from abuse and 19 as a result of neglect — including 10 sleep-related neglect cases, half of which involved adults who were drunk or high sleeping alongside infants.
In his successful campaign to unseat incumbent Pat Quinn, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner aired an ad that criticized Quinn based on a series of Sun-Times/WBEZ reports analyzing DCFS deaths dating back to 2003. DCFS also has come under fire in the wake of a Chicago Tribune investigation that found widespread problems with the agency’s residential treatment facilities.
Rauner has enlisted the Casey Family Programs — a nationally known child-welfare organization — to assess the agency.
On Friday, he tapped George Sheldon, who ran Florida’s equivalent of DCFS between 2008 and 2011, as Illinois’ next child-welfare chief. Sheldon, a lawyer and former Florida state representative, won last year’s Florida Democratic primary for attorney general but lost in the general election.
In choosing Sheldon, Rauner is bringing in an outsider to run the system — something Quinn didn’t do after DCFS chief Richard Calica left the agency in late 2013 and died shortly thereafter. Since then, DCFS has had four different directors, all who had worked for the agency.
While child-welfare advocates have long been calling for an outsider to head the agency, it’s unclear whether Rauner’s DCFS reform plans also involve spending more money — which, given that the state is strapped for cash, appears unlikely. Rauner will make his first state budget address, outlining his spending priorities, on Wednesday.
“Gov. Rauner is committed to ensuring the most vulnerable children of Illinois are cared for and receive the help that they need,” spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “He looks forward to proposing a responsible budget to turn around the agency.”
The Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis of Inspector General Denise Kane’s latest report also found other cases, like Jakarriah’s, involving the death of a child in which child-welfare workers — many employed by private agencies under state contract — appeared to have ignored prior abuse and other red flags. Though Kane doesn’t identify the caregivers or the children in her report, reporters obtained their names by cross-referencing details the inspector general provided with police reports, court records and news stories.
In addition to those cases, Kane cited and gave summaries of cases in which child-welfare workers had sounded alarm bells, only to have other authorities block efforts to take children into protective custody.
One of those involved 4-month-old Anterio Schlieper, who died in June 2014. Days after the Moline boy’s birth in January, DCFS met with the Rock Island County state’s attorney’s office because one of Anterio’s three sisters told a school counselor she was “afraid to leave home because her mother is always drunk with the baby,” according to a police report.
That wasn’t DCFS’s first encounter with the family, according to Kane. The agency had launched other investigations of the mother, Terri L. Wells, dating back to 2012.
Despite this, “the state’s attorney’s office did not feel there was enough evidence to file a petition” to remove the children from Wells’ care, according to Kane.
The night before Anterio was found unresponsive, Wells and the infant’s father, Anthony Schlieper, drank and smoked marijuana and then went to sleep beside him, according to Kane. Both were charged with felony “endangering a child causing death” but pleaded guilty to lesser charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Rock Island County State’s Attorney John L. McGehee said a forensic pathologist couldn’t determine whether Anterio’s parents directly caused his death, which records show was classified under a catch-all heading: sudden unexpected death in infancy.
“There was no evidence that we could prove that there is suffocation due to rolling over or doing something negligent,” McGehee said in explaining prosecutors’ decision to let Anterio’s parents plead guilty to lesser charges.
The state’s attorney also acknowledged his office had talked to DCFS before Anterio died but said his staff didn’t see enough evidence to ask a judge to take the drastic step of removing the children from the home.
“It is a difficult, tragic situation,” McGehee said. “This is a case that involves mostly abuse of alcohol. . . . It’s a very high burden that we have to show that the abuse is of such severe nature that it is something where the court steps in.”
Other DCFS-involved deaths cited in Kane’s report include:
• Torian Whitaker, of downstate Glen Carbon, who died on his fifth birthday after being hit in the chest so hard that his heart stopped. His mother’s boyfriend, Tavon Ludy, had been caring for Torian while she was out buying his birthday gift. Ludy has since been charged with murder in Torian’s Sept. 29, 2013, death.
DCFS had been aware of potential abuse in the household for months, according to records that show Torian’s older brother told teachers in February 2013 that Ludy had abused him. In March 2013, the school principal called DCFS to report a bump on the boy’s head. DCFS ruled out abuse after his mother and grandmother “characterized the child as a liar,” according to Kane.
Torian’s mother, Toria Coleman, was charged with felony child endangerment “because she was aware of her boyfriend’s treatment of her children,” according to Kane. The cases against Ludy, 26, and Coleman, 28, are pending.
• Amierah Roberson, a Chicago toddler whose burned body was found next to an abandoned factory in Riverdale in March 2014 after she’d been missing for two days. She’d been hit in the head before being set on fire, her autopsy found. Partially melted pink barrettes were found in her braided hair.
James Harris, now charged with murdering the 19-month-old girl, had been caring for Amierah while his girlfriend, the girl’s mother, went to work.
A month before Amierah died, a day care worker had reported to DCFS that the girl had bruises and scratches on her face. A DCFS investigation was pending when she went missing; Kane’s office is reviewing the findings.
In the case of Jakarriah Patterson, multiple sets of eyes had been trained on the family. Thompson, her father, had been a ward in DCFS’s care when she was born.
Thompson’s child-welfare caseworker had been “advised” that he abused Jakarriah in March 2013, according to Kane. Five months later, Thompson told the caseworker he’d resumed caring for his daughter, who was staying with him in Lansing.
The worker, though, didn’t see the child — or notify DCFS to check on her well-being despite Thompson’s criminal record and history of abuse.
In August 2013, Thompson turned 21 and “aged out” of the child-welfare system.
By March 2014, Jakarriah was dead.
Karla Patterson, Jakarriah’s mother, said she had no idea DCFS had concluded Thompson abused the girl back in March 2013. Otherwise, she said she wouldn’t have allowed the girl to live with him.
Patterson said she was forced to send Jakarriah and her other child to live with their fathers after her family lost its home in Green Bay, Wis.
“My mom was getting put out,” Patterson said. “We had nowhere to go. I sent my kids back with their fathers. I didn’t want to have my kids in the streets.”
Patterson said DCFS told her the first abuse allegation against Thompson was groundless.
“If they would have told me then, like, ‘We have something,’ she wouldn’t have been back,” Patterson said in tears.
A DCFS spokesman said Patterson had been told on June 26, 2013, that the abuse allegation against Thompson was credible.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/372802/29-kids-among-illinois-child-welfare-agencys-faces-failure
29 more kids among Illinois child-welfare agency’s faces of failure
Posted: 02/16/2015, 07:00pm | Becky Schlikerman, Tony Arnold and Chris Fusco
Jeremiah Thompson first beat his daughter, little Jakarriah Patterson, when she was just a year and a half old, state child-welfare records show.
A year later, Thompson — a former ward of the state on parole for a robbery conviction — ended up caring for Jakarriah again.
This time, he beat her to death, authorities say.
Thompson, 22, told police he repeatedly “popped” Jakarriah for not listening to him in the three weeks he’d been caring for her at his home in Lansing. The girl had a broken jaw, fractured ribs, lacerations to her liver and dozens of bruises over her 37-pound body when the police found her dead, rigor mortis already setting in, on March 19, 2014.
“She said, ‘Dada, I love you.’ Her body fidgeted one last time,” a Lansing police detective wrote in his report on Jakarriah’s death. “Mr. Thompson stated he knew she was dead because of him.”
In the police lockup, Thompson — who would soon be charged with first-degree murder — couldn’t get his daughter’s screams out of his head. He put socks around his head and stuffed toilet paper in his ears because “he said he kept hearing her . . . calling for him,” according to the police.
Jakarriah is one of 29 children killed from abuse or neglect in the last reporting year who died within a year after they or their caregivers had come under scrutiny by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, a Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ review of newly released records from the agency’s inspector general found. One more abuse death remains under investigation.
The 29 deaths in DCFS-involved cases between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, is nearly double the number in 2009-2010. Of those, 10 children died from abuse and 19 as a result of neglect — including 10 sleep-related neglect cases, half of which involved adults who were drunk or high sleeping alongside infants.
In his successful campaign to unseat incumbent Pat Quinn, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner aired an ad that criticized Quinn based on a series of Sun-Times/WBEZ reports analyzing DCFS deaths dating back to 2003. DCFS also has come under fire in the wake of a Chicago Tribune investigation that found widespread problems with the agency’s residential treatment facilities.
Rauner has enlisted the Casey Family Programs — a nationally known child-welfare organization — to assess the agency.
On Friday, he tapped George Sheldon, who ran Florida’s equivalent of DCFS between 2008 and 2011, as Illinois’ next child-welfare chief. Sheldon, a lawyer and former Florida state representative, won last year’s Florida Democratic primary for attorney general but lost in the general election.
In choosing Sheldon, Rauner is bringing in an outsider to run the system — something Quinn didn’t do after DCFS chief Richard Calica left the agency in late 2013 and died shortly thereafter. Since then, DCFS has had four different directors, all who had worked for the agency.
While child-welfare advocates have long been calling for an outsider to head the agency, it’s unclear whether Rauner’s DCFS reform plans also involve spending more money — which, given that the state is strapped for cash, appears unlikely. Rauner will make his first state budget address, outlining his spending priorities, on Wednesday.
“Gov. Rauner is committed to ensuring the most vulnerable children of Illinois are cared for and receive the help that they need,” spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “He looks forward to proposing a responsible budget to turn around the agency.”
The Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis of Inspector General Denise Kane’s latest report also found other cases, like Jakarriah’s, involving the death of a child in which child-welfare workers — many employed by private agencies under state contract — appeared to have ignored prior abuse and other red flags. Though Kane doesn’t identify the caregivers or the children in her report, reporters obtained their names by cross-referencing details the inspector general provided with police reports, court records and news stories.
In addition to those cases, Kane cited and gave summaries of cases in which child-welfare workers had sounded alarm bells, only to have other authorities block efforts to take children into protective custody.
One of those involved 4-month-old Anterio Schlieper, who died in June 2014. Days after the Moline boy’s birth in January, DCFS met with the Rock Island County state’s attorney’s office because one of Anterio’s three sisters told a school counselor she was “afraid to leave home because her mother is always drunk with the baby,” according to a police report.
That wasn’t DCFS’s first encounter with the family, according to Kane. The agency had launched other investigations of the mother, Terri L. Wells, dating back to 2012.
Despite this, “the state’s attorney’s office did not feel there was enough evidence to file a petition” to remove the children from Wells’ care, according to Kane.
The night before Anterio was found unresponsive, Wells and the infant’s father, Anthony Schlieper, drank and smoked marijuana and then went to sleep beside him, according to Kane. Both were charged with felony “endangering a child causing death” but pleaded guilty to lesser charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Rock Island County State’s Attorney John L. McGehee said a forensic pathologist couldn’t determine whether Anterio’s parents directly caused his death, which records show was classified under a catch-all heading: sudden unexpected death in infancy.
“There was no evidence that we could prove that there is suffocation due to rolling over or doing something negligent,” McGehee said in explaining prosecutors’ decision to let Anterio’s parents plead guilty to lesser charges.
The state’s attorney also acknowledged his office had talked to DCFS before Anterio died but said his staff didn’t see enough evidence to ask a judge to take the drastic step of removing the children from the home.
“It is a difficult, tragic situation,” McGehee said. “This is a case that involves mostly abuse of alcohol. . . . It’s a very high burden that we have to show that the abuse is of such severe nature that it is something where the court steps in.”
Other DCFS-involved deaths cited in Kane’s report include:
• Torian Whitaker, of downstate Glen Carbon, who died on his fifth birthday after being hit in the chest so hard that his heart stopped. His mother’s boyfriend, Tavon Ludy, had been caring for Torian while she was out buying his birthday gift. Ludy has since been charged with murder in Torian’s Sept. 29, 2013, death.
DCFS had been aware of potential abuse in the household for months, according to records that show Torian’s older brother told teachers in February 2013 that Ludy had abused him. In March 2013, the school principal called DCFS to report a bump on the boy’s head. DCFS ruled out abuse after his mother and grandmother “characterized the child as a liar,” according to Kane.
Torian’s mother, Toria Coleman, was charged with felony child endangerment “because she was aware of her boyfriend’s treatment of her children,” according to Kane. The cases against Ludy, 26, and Coleman, 28, are pending.
• Amierah Roberson, a Chicago toddler whose burned body was found next to an abandoned factory in Riverdale in March 2014 after she’d been missing for two days. She’d been hit in the head before being set on fire, her autopsy found. Partially melted pink barrettes were found in her braided hair.
James Harris, now charged with murdering the 19-month-old girl, had been caring for Amierah while his girlfriend, the girl’s mother, went to work.
A month before Amierah died, a day care worker had reported to DCFS that the girl had bruises and scratches on her face. A DCFS investigation was pending when she went missing; Kane’s office is reviewing the findings.
In the case of Jakarriah Patterson, multiple sets of eyes had been trained on the family. Thompson, her father, had been a ward in DCFS’s care when she was born.
Thompson’s child-welfare caseworker had been “advised” that he abused Jakarriah in March 2013, according to Kane. Five months later, Thompson told the caseworker he’d resumed caring for his daughter, who was staying with him in Lansing.
The worker, though, didn’t see the child — or notify DCFS to check on her well-being despite Thompson’s criminal record and history of abuse.
In August 2013, Thompson turned 21 and “aged out” of the child-welfare system.
By March 2014, Jakarriah was dead.
Karla Patterson, Jakarriah’s mother, said she had no idea DCFS had concluded Thompson abused the girl back in March 2013. Otherwise, she said she wouldn’t have allowed the girl to live with him.
Patterson said she was forced to send Jakarriah and her other child to live with their fathers after her family lost its home in Green Bay, Wis.
“My mom was getting put out,” Patterson said. “We had nowhere to go. I sent my kids back with their fathers. I didn’t want to have my kids in the streets.”
Patterson said DCFS told her the first abuse allegation against Thompson was groundless.
“If they would have told me then, like, ‘We have something,’ she wouldn’t have been back,” Patterson said in tears.
A DCFS spokesman said Patterson had been told on June 26, 2013, that the abuse allegation against Thompson was credible.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Child Protection Agency made "multiple errors" in murder of 5-year-old girl by custodial father (Tallahassee, Florida)
Does anybody really believe that all these actions are random "errors" anymore? I don't.
The killer custodial dad is identified as JOHN JONCHUCK.
http://tbo.com/news/breaking-news/dcf-chief-agency-made-multiple-errors-before-phoebes-death-20150204/?page=1
DCF chief: Agency made multiple errors before Phoebe’s death
From staff and wire reports Published: February 4, 2015 | Updated: February 4, 2015 at 09:36 PM
TALLAHASSEE — The secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families told lawmakers Wednesday that the state abuse hotline screened out not one but two calls about potential danger to 5-year-old Phoebe Jonchuck --- with the first call a week before her death in the waters of Tampa Bay.
Details of one call about the actions of John Jonchuck, Phoebe’s father, had already been known. But Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll said an upcoming report will also show that the hotline did not act on the earlier call. John Jonchuck was charged with dropping his daughter off a bridge in Pinellas County last month.
“In hindsight, looking at those calls, we probably should have accepted them both, and we should have initiated an investigation on (John Jonchuck),” Carroll told the House Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee. “The report will find that.”
The fiancé of Phoebe Jonchuck’s mother said he isn’t surprised the Florida Department of Children and Families made mistakes in the case.
“I can tell you from past experience they are freakin lousy,” said Guy Kisser, the fiance of Phoebe’s mother, Michelle Kerr.
After Phoebe’s death, Carroll sent what is known as a Critical Incident Rapid Response Team to Tampa. The teams were created last year when, following a wave of child deaths, the Legislature passed a sweeping reform law aimed at strengthening accountability measures at the Department of Children and Families. Carroll told the committee the report of the team investigating Phoebe’s death would be ready by Monday at the latest.
He also acknowledged the report would reflect poorly on his agency, which had compiled an extensive file on the Jonchuck family before the tragedy.
“It does appear that we had issues with our assessment of that case, and (the) dad was allowed custody of that child, and there were really no services put in place for that child,” Carroll said.
The context for the secretary’s remarks was a discussion of transparency in reviewing child deaths --- following months of controversy over the state’s procedure for conducting reviews under the new law.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, has predicted further legislation regarding the death reviews in the upcoming session. And she vowed Wednesday to shine a “beam of transparency” on the death-review process.
“The fact that Florida has such a high number of child deaths is absolutely appalling to me and to every member of this committee and to the Florida Legislature,” Harrell said.
The state abuse hotline screened out a call from John Jonchuck’s lawyer the day before Jonchuck allegedly dropped his daughter from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. On Jan. 7, the lawyer called to warn that Jonchuck was “driving all over town in his pajamas with Phoebe” and “seems depressed and delusional.” For whatever reason, the message was not deemed urgent.
In the shock that followed the girl’s death, Carroll changed a hotline protocol to require an immediate response when a case involves a potential mental health crisis. That response would include a report to law enforcement and a face-to-face contact within four hours. #But the existence of an earlier call, made with days to spare before Jonchuck’s drive to the bridge, promises to roil the case anew.
Kisser said the only call to the Department of Children and Families that he is aware of in that time period was one made by John Jonchuck on New Year’s Eve. He said Jonchuck called DCF to file a complaint against him and Kerr, who live together in Ruskin.
A DCF representative came to their Ruskin home on that day and interviewed his two children, who live with family in Pasco County but were at the Ruskin home that day, Kisser said.
Kerr had to submit to a drug test, which she passed, Kisser said. A DCF representative also went to Ocala to interview Kerr’s former boyfriend, he said.
“Instead of focusing on Jonchuck like they were supposed to, they focused on us,” Kisser said. “They went about it the wrong way.”
Jonchuck said he called DCF around Jan. 2 to ask them to interview him but said they never did. He also told them to look into Jonchuck, he said.
“I even told them to focus on Jonchuck, and look at the result,” Kisser said. “Everybody should be investigated, even the person that is calling.”
The report of the Critical Incident Rapid Response Team is expected to examine the case in every respect. The team is comprised of experts in a variety of fields, including law enforcement, substance abuse, mental health and domestic violence --- all of which appear to be relevant to Phoebe’s death.
John Jonchuck had a lengthy arrest record, including multiple arrests for domestic violence, stalking and battery on Kerr, and one for battery on his own mother, Michele Johnchuck. He was also arrested for driving under the influence in 2013. Additionally, DCF records show that in 2012, child-protective investigators examined charges that Jonchuck had choked Kerr, struck Phoebe and used the drug crystal meth.
“(Jonchuck) has a criminal history that includes charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, larceny and multiple domestic-violence charges,” noted the investigator’s report. “The mother indicated on the last report that there had been domestic violence between her and the father.”
But the investigation concluded that “the updated risk assessment for signs of present danger is low.”
Carroll told the House panel that the factors troubling Phoebe’s family were endemic to the child-protection system.
“These issues go back generationally,” he said. “What we need to do is move our battle upstream. We need to do a better job at dealing with young folks who have substance-abuse and mental-health issues --- even before they become parents. Because a young man who has a substance-abuse issue, I’ll guarantee you, is going to become a parent. And then he’s going to have a young baby in his care. And that baby is at the highest risk.”
The News Service of Florida and Tribune staff writer Jose Patino Girona contributed to this report.
The killer custodial dad is identified as JOHN JONCHUCK.
http://tbo.com/news/breaking-news/dcf-chief-agency-made-multiple-errors-before-phoebes-death-20150204/?page=1
DCF chief: Agency made multiple errors before Phoebe’s death
From staff and wire reports Published: February 4, 2015 | Updated: February 4, 2015 at 09:36 PM
TALLAHASSEE — The secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families told lawmakers Wednesday that the state abuse hotline screened out not one but two calls about potential danger to 5-year-old Phoebe Jonchuck --- with the first call a week before her death in the waters of Tampa Bay.
Details of one call about the actions of John Jonchuck, Phoebe’s father, had already been known. But Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll said an upcoming report will also show that the hotline did not act on the earlier call. John Jonchuck was charged with dropping his daughter off a bridge in Pinellas County last month.
“In hindsight, looking at those calls, we probably should have accepted them both, and we should have initiated an investigation on (John Jonchuck),” Carroll told the House Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee. “The report will find that.”
The fiancé of Phoebe Jonchuck’s mother said he isn’t surprised the Florida Department of Children and Families made mistakes in the case.
“I can tell you from past experience they are freakin lousy,” said Guy Kisser, the fiance of Phoebe’s mother, Michelle Kerr.
After Phoebe’s death, Carroll sent what is known as a Critical Incident Rapid Response Team to Tampa. The teams were created last year when, following a wave of child deaths, the Legislature passed a sweeping reform law aimed at strengthening accountability measures at the Department of Children and Families. Carroll told the committee the report of the team investigating Phoebe’s death would be ready by Monday at the latest.
He also acknowledged the report would reflect poorly on his agency, which had compiled an extensive file on the Jonchuck family before the tragedy.
“It does appear that we had issues with our assessment of that case, and (the) dad was allowed custody of that child, and there were really no services put in place for that child,” Carroll said.
The context for the secretary’s remarks was a discussion of transparency in reviewing child deaths --- following months of controversy over the state’s procedure for conducting reviews under the new law.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, has predicted further legislation regarding the death reviews in the upcoming session. And she vowed Wednesday to shine a “beam of transparency” on the death-review process.
“The fact that Florida has such a high number of child deaths is absolutely appalling to me and to every member of this committee and to the Florida Legislature,” Harrell said.
The state abuse hotline screened out a call from John Jonchuck’s lawyer the day before Jonchuck allegedly dropped his daughter from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. On Jan. 7, the lawyer called to warn that Jonchuck was “driving all over town in his pajamas with Phoebe” and “seems depressed and delusional.” For whatever reason, the message was not deemed urgent.
In the shock that followed the girl’s death, Carroll changed a hotline protocol to require an immediate response when a case involves a potential mental health crisis. That response would include a report to law enforcement and a face-to-face contact within four hours. #But the existence of an earlier call, made with days to spare before Jonchuck’s drive to the bridge, promises to roil the case anew.
Kisser said the only call to the Department of Children and Families that he is aware of in that time period was one made by John Jonchuck on New Year’s Eve. He said Jonchuck called DCF to file a complaint against him and Kerr, who live together in Ruskin.
A DCF representative came to their Ruskin home on that day and interviewed his two children, who live with family in Pasco County but were at the Ruskin home that day, Kisser said.
Kerr had to submit to a drug test, which she passed, Kisser said. A DCF representative also went to Ocala to interview Kerr’s former boyfriend, he said.
“Instead of focusing on Jonchuck like they were supposed to, they focused on us,” Kisser said. “They went about it the wrong way.”
Jonchuck said he called DCF around Jan. 2 to ask them to interview him but said they never did. He also told them to look into Jonchuck, he said.
“I even told them to focus on Jonchuck, and look at the result,” Kisser said. “Everybody should be investigated, even the person that is calling.”
The report of the Critical Incident Rapid Response Team is expected to examine the case in every respect. The team is comprised of experts in a variety of fields, including law enforcement, substance abuse, mental health and domestic violence --- all of which appear to be relevant to Phoebe’s death.
John Jonchuck had a lengthy arrest record, including multiple arrests for domestic violence, stalking and battery on Kerr, and one for battery on his own mother, Michele Johnchuck. He was also arrested for driving under the influence in 2013. Additionally, DCF records show that in 2012, child-protective investigators examined charges that Jonchuck had choked Kerr, struck Phoebe and used the drug crystal meth.
“(Jonchuck) has a criminal history that includes charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, larceny and multiple domestic-violence charges,” noted the investigator’s report. “The mother indicated on the last report that there had been domestic violence between her and the father.”
But the investigation concluded that “the updated risk assessment for signs of present danger is low.”
Carroll told the House panel that the factors troubling Phoebe’s family were endemic to the child-protection system.
“These issues go back generationally,” he said. “What we need to do is move our battle upstream. We need to do a better job at dealing with young folks who have substance-abuse and mental-health issues --- even before they become parents. Because a young man who has a substance-abuse issue, I’ll guarantee you, is going to become a parent. And then he’s going to have a young baby in his care. And that baby is at the highest risk.”
The News Service of Florida and Tribune staff writer Jose Patino Girona contributed to this report.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Report: Gaps in DSS system found in Zahra Baker case (Caldwell County, North Carolina)
Mothers are routinely held responsible for the violence inflicted on their children by fathers, stepdads, or boyfriends. They are held responsible--and do jail time--even when they have been threatened or abused themselves. And even when they have defensive wounds.
But not custodial dad ADAM BAKER, who took advantage of the mother's post-partum depression to strip her of custody. He then cut off all contact--something mothers are demonized for doing with the father--and moved out of Australia to the US so he could be with his Internet girlfriend.
We're supposed to believe that Daddy was so "busy" and "clueless" that he didn't stop the step's ultimately fatal abuse. Total bullsh**. Especially given the father's criminal record.
Is it any surprise that Daddy has now refused to turn over the girl's cremated remains to the mother, or even tell her what he did with them? An abuser through and through. But like so many of these men, never held responsible for anything.
See some of our past posts.
http://www.lakewyliepilot.com/2015/01/14/2762559/report-gaps-in-dss-system-found.html
Report: Gaps in DSS system found in Zahra Baker case
WBTVJanuary 14, 2015 Updated 20 hours ago
JEFF WILLHELM
The State Child Fatality Review report on the Zahra Baker case from the North Carolina Division of Social Services blames a series of gaps in the system that allowed possible abuse to continue until the 10-year-old’s death.
Zahra was reported missing in October 2010 and parts of her dismembered body were found in several places in Caldwell County the following month. A medical examiner’s report listed the cause of death as “unspecified homicidal violence.”
The state fatality review began in 2012 after the girl’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Zahra’s killing and was sentenced to almost 18 years in prison. She later pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and was handed a 10-year sentence for that as well.
Zahra’s father, Adam Baker, was not charged in either case, and is back in his native Australia. He denied any involvement in the death and dismemberment of his daughter.
“I could never do anything like that,” he said in 2010. “I would never hurt Zahra.”
The criminal investigation revealed that at least four instances of possible child abuse were reported to Caldwell County DSS months before Zahra died. Local DSS officials conducted investigations, but no action was taken.
As DSS investigated the situation, school personnel also reported concerns about Zahra’s care. The state report on those investigations says there was limited sharing of information between school personnel, medical providers, law enforcement and DSS investigators.
When Zahra and her family moved to Catawba County, her situation was not tracked or reported to DSS officials there.
The report does not blame DSS investigators, but instead suggests the system needs improvement. It recommends that more training be made available for DSS officials and field workers, and that additional training be made available for school personnel so they have a better idea what and how to report incidents to DSS.
It also suggests that school districts implement a system to track students who have been enrolled in school but do not show up for classes. When the Bakers moved to Catawba County, they said they were home-schooling Zahra, but there were no records of her studies.
The report also calls for a statewide system where information on prior case histories and investigations can be shared between agencies. Right now, there is no system allowing one county to have access to such reports from another county.
Caldwell County DSS officials would not comment on the report.
In a written statement, the county said the local DSS has already implemented some changes to some areas of practice that needed improvement. The statement did not identify which areas.
But not custodial dad ADAM BAKER, who took advantage of the mother's post-partum depression to strip her of custody. He then cut off all contact--something mothers are demonized for doing with the father--and moved out of Australia to the US so he could be with his Internet girlfriend.
We're supposed to believe that Daddy was so "busy" and "clueless" that he didn't stop the step's ultimately fatal abuse. Total bullsh**. Especially given the father's criminal record.
Is it any surprise that Daddy has now refused to turn over the girl's cremated remains to the mother, or even tell her what he did with them? An abuser through and through. But like so many of these men, never held responsible for anything.
See some of our past posts.
http://www.lakewyliepilot.com/2015/01/14/2762559/report-gaps-in-dss-system-found.html
Report: Gaps in DSS system found in Zahra Baker case
WBTVJanuary 14, 2015 Updated 20 hours ago
JEFF WILLHELM
The State Child Fatality Review report on the Zahra Baker case from the North Carolina Division of Social Services blames a series of gaps in the system that allowed possible abuse to continue until the 10-year-old’s death.
Zahra was reported missing in October 2010 and parts of her dismembered body were found in several places in Caldwell County the following month. A medical examiner’s report listed the cause of death as “unspecified homicidal violence.”
The state fatality review began in 2012 after the girl’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Zahra’s killing and was sentenced to almost 18 years in prison. She later pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and was handed a 10-year sentence for that as well.
Zahra’s father, Adam Baker, was not charged in either case, and is back in his native Australia. He denied any involvement in the death and dismemberment of his daughter.
“I could never do anything like that,” he said in 2010. “I would never hurt Zahra.”
The criminal investigation revealed that at least four instances of possible child abuse were reported to Caldwell County DSS months before Zahra died. Local DSS officials conducted investigations, but no action was taken.
As DSS investigated the situation, school personnel also reported concerns about Zahra’s care. The state report on those investigations says there was limited sharing of information between school personnel, medical providers, law enforcement and DSS investigators.
When Zahra and her family moved to Catawba County, her situation was not tracked or reported to DSS officials there.
The report does not blame DSS investigators, but instead suggests the system needs improvement. It recommends that more training be made available for DSS officials and field workers, and that additional training be made available for school personnel so they have a better idea what and how to report incidents to DSS.
It also suggests that school districts implement a system to track students who have been enrolled in school but do not show up for classes. When the Bakers moved to Catawba County, they said they were home-schooling Zahra, but there were no records of her studies.
The report also calls for a statewide system where information on prior case histories and investigations can be shared between agencies. Right now, there is no system allowing one county to have access to such reports from another county.
Caldwell County DSS officials would not comment on the report.
In a written statement, the county said the local DSS has already implemented some changes to some areas of practice that needed improvement. The statement did not identify which areas.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Suit: DCFS contractor negligent before dad set two kids on fire (Cook County, Illinois)
Another case where the dad's rights trumped the rights of everybody else.
Dad is identified as NATHANIEL BELER.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/245088/suit-dcfs-contractor-negligent-father-set-two-children-fire
Suit: DCFS contractor negligent before father set two children on fire
Posted: 12/29/2014, 08:07pm | Sam Charles
The county-appointed public guardian of a boy and girl who were set on fire by their father in late 2012 is suing a DCFS-contracted welfare agency, alleging its negligence led to the death of one child and the severe, ongoing injuries of the other.
Robert F. Harris, the appointed estate administrator of Nariyah Beler and the public guardian of her brother Naciere, filed the lawsuit Monday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Humboldt Park-based welfare agency Association House.
On Dec. 28, 2012, Nathaniel Beler set his two children, their mother and himself on fire at his mother’s West Side home, the suit stated. His daughter, 4-year-old Nariyah, and her mother, Taniya Johnson, died. His son Naciere, then 9, suffered burns to more than 40 percent of his body.
Beler’s death was ruled a suicide by self-immolation, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
In the months that led up to the fatal arson, Harris alleges, Association House and several of its employees breached duties that could have prevented Nariyah’s death and Naciere’s injuries.
DCFS recommended that Beler – a diagnosed schizophrenic and PCP addict with a history of going off his medication – should see his two children only in the company of a caseworker and in a “neutral” public place, the suit stated.
Under pressure from Beler, the assigned Association House caseworker allowed him to see his children at his mother’s house, the eventual scene of the fatal fire, the suit stated.
“Association House ignored or downplayed the severe danger that Mr. Beler posed,” the suit claims.
During an argument with Johnson in September 2012, Beler threatened to kill himself and his two children by pouring gasoline on them and lighting a match, the suit stated. Beler showed her two cans of gasoline, but she persuaded him to let her leave the home and go to work.
Once Johnson – who left her two children alone with Beler – got to work, her co-workers told her to call the police, leading to a standoff that eventually resulted in the safe release of both children and Beler’s involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, the suit stated. There was enough gasoline in the home’s bathtub “to level the building.”
Association House knew Beler had a history of violent, erractic behavior when he was off his medication and no one from the agency ever tried to determine if he still was taking his prescriptions, the suit claims.
The agency also took Beler at his word when he said he was no longer using PCP and did not ever screen his urine to confirm he wasn’t using drugs, the suit alleges.
A representative from Association House could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
The six-count wrongful death and negligence suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
Dad is identified as NATHANIEL BELER.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/245088/suit-dcfs-contractor-negligent-father-set-two-children-fire
Suit: DCFS contractor negligent before father set two children on fire
Posted: 12/29/2014, 08:07pm | Sam Charles
The county-appointed public guardian of a boy and girl who were set on fire by their father in late 2012 is suing a DCFS-contracted welfare agency, alleging its negligence led to the death of one child and the severe, ongoing injuries of the other.
Robert F. Harris, the appointed estate administrator of Nariyah Beler and the public guardian of her brother Naciere, filed the lawsuit Monday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Humboldt Park-based welfare agency Association House.
On Dec. 28, 2012, Nathaniel Beler set his two children, their mother and himself on fire at his mother’s West Side home, the suit stated. His daughter, 4-year-old Nariyah, and her mother, Taniya Johnson, died. His son Naciere, then 9, suffered burns to more than 40 percent of his body.
Beler’s death was ruled a suicide by self-immolation, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
In the months that led up to the fatal arson, Harris alleges, Association House and several of its employees breached duties that could have prevented Nariyah’s death and Naciere’s injuries.
DCFS recommended that Beler – a diagnosed schizophrenic and PCP addict with a history of going off his medication – should see his two children only in the company of a caseworker and in a “neutral” public place, the suit stated.
Under pressure from Beler, the assigned Association House caseworker allowed him to see his children at his mother’s house, the eventual scene of the fatal fire, the suit stated.
“Association House ignored or downplayed the severe danger that Mr. Beler posed,” the suit claims.
During an argument with Johnson in September 2012, Beler threatened to kill himself and his two children by pouring gasoline on them and lighting a match, the suit stated. Beler showed her two cans of gasoline, but she persuaded him to let her leave the home and go to work.
Once Johnson – who left her two children alone with Beler – got to work, her co-workers told her to call the police, leading to a standoff that eventually resulted in the safe release of both children and Beler’s involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, the suit stated. There was enough gasoline in the home’s bathtub “to level the building.”
Association House knew Beler had a history of violent, erractic behavior when he was off his medication and no one from the agency ever tried to determine if he still was taking his prescriptions, the suit claims.
The agency also took Beler at his word when he said he was no longer using PCP and did not ever screen his urine to confirm he wasn’t using drugs, the suit alleges.
A representative from Association House could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
The six-count wrongful death and negligence suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Non-custodial mom angry that CPS managers found not at fault in neglect death of 8-year-old daughter in home of abusive custodial dad, step (San Antonio, Texas)
Disgusting. CPS demonstrates it usual incompetence by not doing its job at all, not contacting anybody who made abuse complaints. They failed to visit the home. They failed to do anything basically.
Most interesting is that this filthy abusive father had CUSTODY while the PROTECTIVE MOM was on SUPERVISED VISITATION. And the mom was NEVER INFORMED there were even allegations by other parties regarding abuse and neglect. Even the folks at the supervised visitation center (who tend to be very biased against moms) thought Daddy was neglecting these kids and sexually abusing them, but CPS didn't interview them either.
And after all that, CPS exempts any of its higher ups for responsibility.
Dad is identified as DAVID BRASSE, who was eventually let off the hook on all charges.
And that's how things go down in a big fathers rights state like Texas.
http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/CPS-caseworkers-at-fault-in-child-s-death-but-5843277.php#/0
CPS caseworkers at fault in child's death — but not managers
By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje October 23, 2014 | Updated: October 23, 2014 10:17pm
SAN ANTONIO — The state Office of the Inspector General found that four Child Protective Services workers failed to follow state policy in the case of Sarah Brasse, an 8-year-old girl who, while under the watch of CPS, died of untreated appendicitis in 2009.
In a report released Thursday, the OIG doesn't recommend any disciplinary action, though it found a family-services specialist, a kinship specialist and two investigators neglected to perform even basic requirements of their jobs, such as making timely visits to ensure Sarah and her brothers were all right, or following up on reports that they possibly were being abused or neglected.
Sarah's father and stepmother were investigated by CPS multiple times for abuse and neglect in the two years prior to her death.
The OIG said there was no evidence to show two high-up program directors didn't comply with policy in their handling of the family referral and documentation process.
Allegations that these managers might have illegally altered state documents were not substantiated, the report states.
“There was no evidence to indicate that any policy violations were to blame for the appendicitis, which is listed as the cause of death,” the report notes.
Jo-Anne Guerrero, Sarah's biological mother who did not have primary custody, said she read the report “with a heavy heart.”
“Why are (managers) being let off the hook?” she asked. “Yes, they are holding some staff accountable, but as usual, it's just the front-line workers. It was managers who held the power to make the truly important decisions in my daughter's case, and they didn't do the right thing. This just seems like CPS sugar-coating things.”
A spokesman for CPS' parent agency stated Thursday that no disciplinary action is expected and the case is closed.
An investigation in 2013 by the San Antonio Express-News found that in the 48 hours before Sarah died, a school counselor, a school nurse and a Schertz police officer alerted CPS about their fears that she was being neglected.
CPS manager Diane Jones declined to open a new investigation or even send a caseworker to check on the ailing Sarah, despite the fact the agency's staffers repeatedly had recorded her father's failure to seek adequate medical care for her.
The OIG report states that Jones followed policy.
CPS failures
In finding that several caseworkers disregarded policies, the OIG report states:
The family-services worker admitted in interviews that she didn't provide a timely service plan in her casework involving Sarah. She didn't alert Sarah's biological mother about an investigation involving alleged medical neglect of her daughter and her two sons.
She also failed to see if the family was accessing required services and didn't conduct visual contact with the children in the months prior to Sarah's death. And she didn't conduct a home assessment that would have “made her aware of provisions for the children and the condition in which they lived.”
The report notes the above failures were “corroborated” by a review of CPS' computerized record system, or IMPACT.
To Penny Williams, a former family-based services caseworker who worked with Sarah's family the year before she died, that statement reveals supervisors and upper management “knew what was going on.”
“Supervisors can see all documentation in IMPACT,” she said. “They had to know nothing was getting done in this case, that the children weren't being seen, and they are ultimately responsible. And it goes higher up: Once a month, supervisors have monthly meetings with program directors and program administrators, and they have to share all this information.”
Other lapses in policy, according to the OIG report:
A CPS investigator failed to contact staff at KidShare Family Services, where the Brasse children had supervised visits with their mother. Staff at KidShare made reports to CPS that the children were being neglected and possibly sexually abused, but the investigator never called back.
* A second CPS investigator also didn't notify JoAnne that her ex-husband David Brasse and his then-fiance Samantha Britain were being investigated by CPS regarding their care of the children.
* A kinship worker didn't contact a physician at Laurel Ridge Hospital, who had reported to CPS that one of Sarah's brothers appeared malnourished. He also failed to respond to an outcry the children made that “they were always hungry and not fed.”
* Staff at Watts Elementary School, where Sarah was in second grade, told OIG investigators they were not informed of an open CPS case involving the Brasse children and were not contacted by any caseworkers over their reported concerns that the children were not being care for adequately.
When EMS arrived at the Brasse home the night of Feb. 5, 2009, Sarah's body already was stiff with rigor mortis, her jaw clenched shut. The house was filthy. Police noted vomit throughout the place — on the stairs, a bathroom sink, on Sarah's bedding and her body.
David Brasse and Britain originally were found guilty of manslaughter and injury to a child, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal, with judges citing insufficient evidence. The state continued to pursue Britain, who was at home most of the day Sarah died, but she ultimately was exonerated.
The OIG report has been referred to Cynthia O'Keefe, general counsel of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the document says.
'Matter closed'
When asked if any actions were planned in response to the report, Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, replied in an email: “The report was very thorough and we appreciate the input of OIG. This case has been extensively reviewed, and DFPS considers the matter closed.”
Crimmins confirmed that three of the four employees whose policy failures were cited in the report still are employed by the department, but that no disciplinary actions were planned.
Guerrero said the report's noting that CPS' actions didn't cause her daughter's appendicitis is “ridiculous.”
“Of course, they didn't give her appendicitis, but their inaction led to her death,” she said. “If they had acted on stuff that was brought to their attention, they would have recognized she needed help. I kept telling CPS all those years there were problems in that home. I kept saying to them, 'What are you waiting for?'”
Like DFPS and CPS, the Inspector General's office is under the umbrella of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
After being given a copy of the report, a former CPS caseworker who's familiar with the case but asked to remain anonymous because she still fears retribution, responded: “I had serious concerns about an HHSC agency investigating another HHSC agency. It seems my concerns were justified.”
The Sunset Advisory Commission, which regularly evaluates state agencies, recently issue a critical report of the OIG, stating the division uses “inefficient and ineffective processes” and is hobbled by communication, a lack of transparency and limited staff training.
Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, who asked the OIG to investigate CPS' handling of Sarah's case after the Express-News reported seven months ago about the missing KidShare referrals, said at two pages long, the report is “not as in depth as I would have hoped for given the complexity of the case. ...”
“Sarah's death is neither excusable, nor will it be forgotten. ... .”
Most interesting is that this filthy abusive father had CUSTODY while the PROTECTIVE MOM was on SUPERVISED VISITATION. And the mom was NEVER INFORMED there were even allegations by other parties regarding abuse and neglect. Even the folks at the supervised visitation center (who tend to be very biased against moms) thought Daddy was neglecting these kids and sexually abusing them, but CPS didn't interview them either.
And after all that, CPS exempts any of its higher ups for responsibility.
Dad is identified as DAVID BRASSE, who was eventually let off the hook on all charges.
And that's how things go down in a big fathers rights state like Texas.
http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/CPS-caseworkers-at-fault-in-child-s-death-but-5843277.php#/0
CPS caseworkers at fault in child's death — but not managers
By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje October 23, 2014 | Updated: October 23, 2014 10:17pm
SAN ANTONIO — The state Office of the Inspector General found that four Child Protective Services workers failed to follow state policy in the case of Sarah Brasse, an 8-year-old girl who, while under the watch of CPS, died of untreated appendicitis in 2009.
In a report released Thursday, the OIG doesn't recommend any disciplinary action, though it found a family-services specialist, a kinship specialist and two investigators neglected to perform even basic requirements of their jobs, such as making timely visits to ensure Sarah and her brothers were all right, or following up on reports that they possibly were being abused or neglected.
Sarah's father and stepmother were investigated by CPS multiple times for abuse and neglect in the two years prior to her death.
The OIG said there was no evidence to show two high-up program directors didn't comply with policy in their handling of the family referral and documentation process.
Allegations that these managers might have illegally altered state documents were not substantiated, the report states.
“There was no evidence to indicate that any policy violations were to blame for the appendicitis, which is listed as the cause of death,” the report notes.
Jo-Anne Guerrero, Sarah's biological mother who did not have primary custody, said she read the report “with a heavy heart.”
“Why are (managers) being let off the hook?” she asked. “Yes, they are holding some staff accountable, but as usual, it's just the front-line workers. It was managers who held the power to make the truly important decisions in my daughter's case, and they didn't do the right thing. This just seems like CPS sugar-coating things.”
A spokesman for CPS' parent agency stated Thursday that no disciplinary action is expected and the case is closed.
An investigation in 2013 by the San Antonio Express-News found that in the 48 hours before Sarah died, a school counselor, a school nurse and a Schertz police officer alerted CPS about their fears that she was being neglected.
CPS manager Diane Jones declined to open a new investigation or even send a caseworker to check on the ailing Sarah, despite the fact the agency's staffers repeatedly had recorded her father's failure to seek adequate medical care for her.
The OIG report states that Jones followed policy.
CPS failures
In finding that several caseworkers disregarded policies, the OIG report states:
The family-services worker admitted in interviews that she didn't provide a timely service plan in her casework involving Sarah. She didn't alert Sarah's biological mother about an investigation involving alleged medical neglect of her daughter and her two sons.
She also failed to see if the family was accessing required services and didn't conduct visual contact with the children in the months prior to Sarah's death. And she didn't conduct a home assessment that would have “made her aware of provisions for the children and the condition in which they lived.”
The report notes the above failures were “corroborated” by a review of CPS' computerized record system, or IMPACT.
To Penny Williams, a former family-based services caseworker who worked with Sarah's family the year before she died, that statement reveals supervisors and upper management “knew what was going on.”
“Supervisors can see all documentation in IMPACT,” she said. “They had to know nothing was getting done in this case, that the children weren't being seen, and they are ultimately responsible. And it goes higher up: Once a month, supervisors have monthly meetings with program directors and program administrators, and they have to share all this information.”
Other lapses in policy, according to the OIG report:
A CPS investigator failed to contact staff at KidShare Family Services, where the Brasse children had supervised visits with their mother. Staff at KidShare made reports to CPS that the children were being neglected and possibly sexually abused, but the investigator never called back.
* A second CPS investigator also didn't notify JoAnne that her ex-husband David Brasse and his then-fiance Samantha Britain were being investigated by CPS regarding their care of the children.
* A kinship worker didn't contact a physician at Laurel Ridge Hospital, who had reported to CPS that one of Sarah's brothers appeared malnourished. He also failed to respond to an outcry the children made that “they were always hungry and not fed.”
* Staff at Watts Elementary School, where Sarah was in second grade, told OIG investigators they were not informed of an open CPS case involving the Brasse children and were not contacted by any caseworkers over their reported concerns that the children were not being care for adequately.
When EMS arrived at the Brasse home the night of Feb. 5, 2009, Sarah's body already was stiff with rigor mortis, her jaw clenched shut. The house was filthy. Police noted vomit throughout the place — on the stairs, a bathroom sink, on Sarah's bedding and her body.
David Brasse and Britain originally were found guilty of manslaughter and injury to a child, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal, with judges citing insufficient evidence. The state continued to pursue Britain, who was at home most of the day Sarah died, but she ultimately was exonerated.
The OIG report has been referred to Cynthia O'Keefe, general counsel of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the document says.
'Matter closed'
When asked if any actions were planned in response to the report, Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, replied in an email: “The report was very thorough and we appreciate the input of OIG. This case has been extensively reviewed, and DFPS considers the matter closed.”
Crimmins confirmed that three of the four employees whose policy failures were cited in the report still are employed by the department, but that no disciplinary actions were planned.
Guerrero said the report's noting that CPS' actions didn't cause her daughter's appendicitis is “ridiculous.”
“Of course, they didn't give her appendicitis, but their inaction led to her death,” she said. “If they had acted on stuff that was brought to their attention, they would have recognized she needed help. I kept telling CPS all those years there were problems in that home. I kept saying to them, 'What are you waiting for?'”
Like DFPS and CPS, the Inspector General's office is under the umbrella of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
After being given a copy of the report, a former CPS caseworker who's familiar with the case but asked to remain anonymous because she still fears retribution, responded: “I had serious concerns about an HHSC agency investigating another HHSC agency. It seems my concerns were justified.”
The Sunset Advisory Commission, which regularly evaluates state agencies, recently issue a critical report of the OIG, stating the division uses “inefficient and ineffective processes” and is hobbled by communication, a lack of transparency and limited staff training.
Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, who asked the OIG to investigate CPS' handling of Sarah's case after the Express-News reported seven months ago about the missing KidShare referrals, said at two pages long, the report is “not as in depth as I would have hoped for given the complexity of the case. ...”
“Sarah's death is neither excusable, nor will it be forgotten. ... .”
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
CPS neglects child abuse; check out coverup for killer custodial dad (Arizona)
In particular, check out the case of custodial dad GASOA BALAS, who had CUSTODY of his young daughter despite repeated episodes of domestic violence and child abuse. He finally killed her. He was habitually excused and coddled, and the agency continues to bury their enabling protection of this sh**head. Why? Who is responsible? And how did Daddy get custody to begin with? What happened to the mother?
http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2014/apr/29/neglect-child-abuse/
Neglect Of Child Abuse Lawmakers sidestep CPS reforms .
By Pete Aleshire As of Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A new flurry of revelations is now swirling around the scandal-ridden Child Protective Services, including the Legislature’s balk on reforms, a spate of high-level firings, a critical investigation and an inexorable rise in the backlog of uninvestigated cases.
The parade of disturbing developments started with the adjournment of the state Legislature last week without any substantial action on Gov. Jan Brewer’s top legislative priority, the reform of CPS.
Last year she reacted to news that the agency had classified 6,500 case of abuse and neglect as “not investigated” in a desperate effort to reduce a backlog of reports that had grown to 10,000.
It’s unknown whether any of the cases involved Rim Country children, since the CPS system remains shrouded in secrecy. The system protects the confidentiality of children, families and people who report suspected abuse and neglect — which means even after cases go to court few details are available to the public — or even other people involved in the cases.
For instance, one Rim Country child was the subject of repeated reports of abuse and neglect from the day of her birth to her death in a car crash on Highway 87 as her father fled from police with his daughter in the back seat without a seat belt.
Gasoa Balas had custody of his daughter, Calandra, despite repeated reports of neglect and abuse at the time of her death. A year before her death, police charged him with domestic violence after he brutally beat his girlfriend after she objected to the way he was disciplining Calandra. Gasoa pinned the woman down, cut off her hair with scissors and stuffed the hair into her mouth. Despite the assault, the little girl remained in his custody. She had been removed from his custody several times in the past and placed with her grandmother or foster parents, but caseworkers always recommended the return of the girl to her father.
The Roundup six months ago requested all the reports from CPS concerning Calandra. The initial response to the request listed about a dozen reports of abuse and neglect, but blacked out most of the details except in the final reports relating to her death in the car accident as her father fled the scene of an alleged sexual assault.
The furor over the lack of follow through and investigation suggests that the long, tragic series of reports concerning Calandra may have been typical of an overwhelmed, understaffed agency with caseloads far above the national standard. Although the agency had routinely reported in budget reports that it didn’t have the staff to investigate a rising tide of cases, the governor and lawmakers last year reacted with anger to the revelations.
Gov. Brewer split the agency charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect out of the Department of Economic Security. She also asked for an extra $36 million to hire enough caseworkers and investigators to bring the agency up to national standards.
After months of discussion and debate, the Legislature adjourned after including little of the new money the governor requested in the $9.3 billion state general fund budget.
In the meantime, the number of backlogged cases awaiting investigation has grown to 12,000 and the number of children in foster care or other out-of-home placements has soared. That has worsened an already serious shortage of foster parents, partly because of a relatively low state reimbursement rate.
The Legislature did adopt language that promised to address the CPS crisis eventually. Meanwhile, Gov. Brewer says she will call a special session of the Legislature in July to deal with the need for reform — including more investigators. Last week the Department of Public Safety completed an investigation of the decisions that led to setting aside the 6,500 reports of abuse and neglect. The report documented a process of handling cases that was poorly documented, poorly operated and lacking in checks and balances.
Director of Child Safety and Family Services Director Charles Flanagan promptly fired five senior CPS supervisors who had come up with the plan to reduce the backlog by putting so many cases in the “not investigated” category.
For years, the number of CPS caseworkers and investigators has lagged behind the steadily increasing number of cases. Low pay and stressful conditions has led to turnover rates among CPS workers approaching 40 percent annually — figures regularly reported to the Legislature and the governor.
Gov. Brewer responded to the release of the DPS report by saying, “from the moment I first learned of this unacceptable and unlawful practice, I have insisted that there be a full and thorough understanding of how and why it occurred, so we could ensure that it never happens again in Arizona. The DPS report is comprehensive. One thing is perfectly clear: it is vital that our state must continue the urgent effort to statutorily establish and new, standalone child protection agency whose core focus is safeguarding Arizona’s abused and neglected children. We must breakdown the levels of bureaucracy, change the culture that allowed this unconscionable practice to be implemented behind the scenes.”
Ironically, the agency now has more uninvestigated cases than when the now-fired supervisors initiated the new category.
They reportedly set aside cases that seemed hard to substantiate or involving lower priority allegations of abuse and neglect to make it possible for the few investigators to get to reports that sounded more serious. At the time, they hoped to whittle down a backlog of 10,000 cases, to focus on the most serious. The backlog has grown to 12,000 uninvestigated cases. They’re still not investigated, but they haven’t been labeled as such.
http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2014/apr/29/neglect-child-abuse/
Neglect Of Child Abuse Lawmakers sidestep CPS reforms .
By Pete Aleshire As of Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A new flurry of revelations is now swirling around the scandal-ridden Child Protective Services, including the Legislature’s balk on reforms, a spate of high-level firings, a critical investigation and an inexorable rise in the backlog of uninvestigated cases.
The parade of disturbing developments started with the adjournment of the state Legislature last week without any substantial action on Gov. Jan Brewer’s top legislative priority, the reform of CPS.
Last year she reacted to news that the agency had classified 6,500 case of abuse and neglect as “not investigated” in a desperate effort to reduce a backlog of reports that had grown to 10,000.
It’s unknown whether any of the cases involved Rim Country children, since the CPS system remains shrouded in secrecy. The system protects the confidentiality of children, families and people who report suspected abuse and neglect — which means even after cases go to court few details are available to the public — or even other people involved in the cases.
For instance, one Rim Country child was the subject of repeated reports of abuse and neglect from the day of her birth to her death in a car crash on Highway 87 as her father fled from police with his daughter in the back seat without a seat belt.
Gasoa Balas had custody of his daughter, Calandra, despite repeated reports of neglect and abuse at the time of her death. A year before her death, police charged him with domestic violence after he brutally beat his girlfriend after she objected to the way he was disciplining Calandra. Gasoa pinned the woman down, cut off her hair with scissors and stuffed the hair into her mouth. Despite the assault, the little girl remained in his custody. She had been removed from his custody several times in the past and placed with her grandmother or foster parents, but caseworkers always recommended the return of the girl to her father.
The Roundup six months ago requested all the reports from CPS concerning Calandra. The initial response to the request listed about a dozen reports of abuse and neglect, but blacked out most of the details except in the final reports relating to her death in the car accident as her father fled the scene of an alleged sexual assault.
The furor over the lack of follow through and investigation suggests that the long, tragic series of reports concerning Calandra may have been typical of an overwhelmed, understaffed agency with caseloads far above the national standard. Although the agency had routinely reported in budget reports that it didn’t have the staff to investigate a rising tide of cases, the governor and lawmakers last year reacted with anger to the revelations.
Gov. Brewer split the agency charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect out of the Department of Economic Security. She also asked for an extra $36 million to hire enough caseworkers and investigators to bring the agency up to national standards.
After months of discussion and debate, the Legislature adjourned after including little of the new money the governor requested in the $9.3 billion state general fund budget.
In the meantime, the number of backlogged cases awaiting investigation has grown to 12,000 and the number of children in foster care or other out-of-home placements has soared. That has worsened an already serious shortage of foster parents, partly because of a relatively low state reimbursement rate.
The Legislature did adopt language that promised to address the CPS crisis eventually. Meanwhile, Gov. Brewer says she will call a special session of the Legislature in July to deal with the need for reform — including more investigators. Last week the Department of Public Safety completed an investigation of the decisions that led to setting aside the 6,500 reports of abuse and neglect. The report documented a process of handling cases that was poorly documented, poorly operated and lacking in checks and balances.
Director of Child Safety and Family Services Director Charles Flanagan promptly fired five senior CPS supervisors who had come up with the plan to reduce the backlog by putting so many cases in the “not investigated” category.
For years, the number of CPS caseworkers and investigators has lagged behind the steadily increasing number of cases. Low pay and stressful conditions has led to turnover rates among CPS workers approaching 40 percent annually — figures regularly reported to the Legislature and the governor.
Gov. Brewer responded to the release of the DPS report by saying, “from the moment I first learned of this unacceptable and unlawful practice, I have insisted that there be a full and thorough understanding of how and why it occurred, so we could ensure that it never happens again in Arizona. The DPS report is comprehensive. One thing is perfectly clear: it is vital that our state must continue the urgent effort to statutorily establish and new, standalone child protection agency whose core focus is safeguarding Arizona’s abused and neglected children. We must breakdown the levels of bureaucracy, change the culture that allowed this unconscionable practice to be implemented behind the scenes.”
Ironically, the agency now has more uninvestigated cases than when the now-fired supervisors initiated the new category.
They reportedly set aside cases that seemed hard to substantiate or involving lower priority allegations of abuse and neglect to make it possible for the few investigators to get to reports that sounded more serious. At the time, they hoped to whittle down a backlog of 10,000 cases, to focus on the most serious. The backlog has grown to 12,000 uninvestigated cases. They’re still not investigated, but they haven’t been labeled as such.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Concerns raised three months before dad killed 7-month-old son (United Kingdom)
Notice that in all this rhetoric about the baby's father and "his home," there is absolutely no mention of the mother. She's not cited as a factor in this baby's death one way or another. It's as if she had never existed. What happened to Mum? Is NATHAN PICK a single father?
http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Death-Derby-baby-James-Lee-Riley-Pick-Concerns/story-21006094-detail/story.html
Death of Derby baby: Concerns raised three months before James Lee Riley-Pick died
By Martin_Naylor | Posted: April 24, 2014
A SERIOUS case review into the death of a seven-month-old baby killed by his father in Derby has revealed there were concerns about his safety raised three months before the death.
James Lee Riley-Pick died at his home in Waterford Drive, Chaddesden, on May 8, 2012.
He had suffered serious head injuries and his father, Nathan Pick, 38, pleaded guilty to his manslaughter and was jailed for seven years at Nottingham Crown Court last year.
The review, published by Derby Safeguarding Children Board this morning, says that, in February 2012, James-Lee suffered bruising to his genital area which was highlighted to children’s social care.
The report says: “In February 2012, concerns about his safety were considered by the Family Proceedings Court, following an application for an Emergency Protection Order (EPO).
“The EPO was not granted and the court determined that the injury being considered was accidental.
“The child returned home.
“Shortly after this, in May 2012, he died as a result of internal bleeding caused by a head injury.”
Christine Cassell, chair of the Derby Safeguarding Children Board said: “This is a tragic case of a baby who died as a result of a sudden act by his father which could not have been predicted.
“He was not an invisible child but one who was well known to local agencies during his short life and action was taken to try to protect him.
“The review does not identify major failings of agencies.
“In fact, the review concludes that the practice of professionals was at least competent and, in many cases, good.
“It does describe how agencies were disempowered by a court decision that is very unusual and to our knowledge has not occurred before.
“This had implications for the way professionals felt able to protect this little boy when he returned home.”
http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Death-Derby-baby-James-Lee-Riley-Pick-Concerns/story-21006094-detail/story.html
Death of Derby baby: Concerns raised three months before James Lee Riley-Pick died
By Martin_Naylor | Posted: April 24, 2014
A SERIOUS case review into the death of a seven-month-old baby killed by his father in Derby has revealed there were concerns about his safety raised three months before the death.
James Lee Riley-Pick died at his home in Waterford Drive, Chaddesden, on May 8, 2012.
He had suffered serious head injuries and his father, Nathan Pick, 38, pleaded guilty to his manslaughter and was jailed for seven years at Nottingham Crown Court last year.
The review, published by Derby Safeguarding Children Board this morning, says that, in February 2012, James-Lee suffered bruising to his genital area which was highlighted to children’s social care.
The report says: “In February 2012, concerns about his safety were considered by the Family Proceedings Court, following an application for an Emergency Protection Order (EPO).
“The EPO was not granted and the court determined that the injury being considered was accidental.
“The child returned home.
“Shortly after this, in May 2012, he died as a result of internal bleeding caused by a head injury.”
Christine Cassell, chair of the Derby Safeguarding Children Board said: “This is a tragic case of a baby who died as a result of a sudden act by his father which could not have been predicted.
“He was not an invisible child but one who was well known to local agencies during his short life and action was taken to try to protect him.
“The review does not identify major failings of agencies.
“In fact, the review concludes that the practice of professionals was at least competent and, in many cases, good.
“It does describe how agencies were disempowered by a court decision that is very unusual and to our knowledge has not occurred before.
“This had implications for the way professionals felt able to protect this little boy when he returned home.”
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
DHS employees fired after 15-year-old boy dies in home of custodial father (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
UNNAMED DAD was obviously custodial, and it is also apparent that the mother did not live in the home. No word on what happened to the mother at all, or why she was erased from this story.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Okla-agency-to-fire-2-over-15-year-old-s-death-5222013.php
Okla. agency to fire 2 over 15-year-old's death
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press
Updated 2:41 pm, Monday, February 10, 2014
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma's Department of Human Services said Monday two employees will be fired for mishandling a case involving a disabled 15-year-old boy who died of pneumonia last year after suffering alleged neglect and abuse at his father's home.
The state agency also said an internal investigation has prompted the agency to beef up how it improves child protection — particularly when DHS becomes involved in cases with children who have mental and developmental disabilities.
The embattled agency was restructured beginning in 2012 after several high-profile cases in which children died while in state custody.
Quinten Wood died Jan. 4 of acute pneumonia in 2013. His sister, Valerie Wood-Harber of Fayetteville, Ark., said she started calling DHS in mid-December 2012 after her other brother, Cameron Wood, then 14, told her he was in charge of bathing, clothing, cooking for and looking after Quinten at their father's home.
Wood-Harber said she made 22 calls to DHS that were never returned. She took her brother's cause to Gov. Mary Fallin last month, saying children with disabilities needed "stronger advocates in the Capitol."
"All of Quinten's siblings — Mary, Cameron, Joshua, and I — are so grateful to know that his life and the horrific circumstances that led to his death have inspired change in this broken system, and will hopefully prevent what happened to him from happening to another child — that's exactly what Quinten would want.," Wood-Harber said in a statement Monday.
A message seeking comment left at a phone number listed for the father in Oklahoma was not immediately returned. No charges have been brought in Quinten's death.
"Ms. Wood-Harber deserves full credit and our appreciation for pushing the system —our agency, law enforcement, the school and health care officials — to investigate the circumstances that led to Quinten's death," DHS Director Ed Lake said in a statement.
"Ms. Wood-Harber refused to let her brother's death be accepted as something unpreventable that occurred as a result of his disability," he said.
Despite the death, Lake said the agency has confidence in its child-welfare workforce.
"Child protection is anxious work. Our workers are making life and death decisions every day under tremendous pressure never to err. Given the nature of our work, the fragility of the families we serve, and daunting caseloads, we know that tragedies may occur despite our best efforts," he said.
Gov. Fallin said in a statement Monday that she was "absolutely heartbroken when a child's life is cut short," like Quinten's was.
"I am glad the Department of Human Services, under the leadership of Director Ed Lake, has treated this case as a priority. It is absolutely appropriate to dismiss any DHS personnel who were not following protocol," Fallin said in the statement.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Okla-agency-to-fire-2-over-15-year-old-s-death-5222013.php
Okla. agency to fire 2 over 15-year-old's death
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press
Updated 2:41 pm, Monday, February 10, 2014
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma's Department of Human Services said Monday two employees will be fired for mishandling a case involving a disabled 15-year-old boy who died of pneumonia last year after suffering alleged neglect and abuse at his father's home.
The state agency also said an internal investigation has prompted the agency to beef up how it improves child protection — particularly when DHS becomes involved in cases with children who have mental and developmental disabilities.
The embattled agency was restructured beginning in 2012 after several high-profile cases in which children died while in state custody.
Quinten Wood died Jan. 4 of acute pneumonia in 2013. His sister, Valerie Wood-Harber of Fayetteville, Ark., said she started calling DHS in mid-December 2012 after her other brother, Cameron Wood, then 14, told her he was in charge of bathing, clothing, cooking for and looking after Quinten at their father's home.
Wood-Harber said she made 22 calls to DHS that were never returned. She took her brother's cause to Gov. Mary Fallin last month, saying children with disabilities needed "stronger advocates in the Capitol."
"All of Quinten's siblings — Mary, Cameron, Joshua, and I — are so grateful to know that his life and the horrific circumstances that led to his death have inspired change in this broken system, and will hopefully prevent what happened to him from happening to another child — that's exactly what Quinten would want.," Wood-Harber said in a statement Monday.
A message seeking comment left at a phone number listed for the father in Oklahoma was not immediately returned. No charges have been brought in Quinten's death.
"Ms. Wood-Harber deserves full credit and our appreciation for pushing the system —our agency, law enforcement, the school and health care officials — to investigate the circumstances that led to Quinten's death," DHS Director Ed Lake said in a statement.
"Ms. Wood-Harber refused to let her brother's death be accepted as something unpreventable that occurred as a result of his disability," he said.
Despite the death, Lake said the agency has confidence in its child-welfare workforce.
"Child protection is anxious work. Our workers are making life and death decisions every day under tremendous pressure never to err. Given the nature of our work, the fragility of the families we serve, and daunting caseloads, we know that tragedies may occur despite our best efforts," he said.
Gov. Fallin said in a statement Monday that she was "absolutely heartbroken when a child's life is cut short," like Quinten's was.
"I am glad the Department of Human Services, under the leadership of Director Ed Lake, has treated this case as a priority. It is absolutely appropriate to dismiss any DHS personnel who were not following protocol," Fallin said in the statement.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Dad given unsupervised access to kids he molested; mom labeled "crazy" by authorities (Vancouver, Canada)
Contrary to fathers rights movement lies, this is how it usually works: Blatant father favoritism and mother bashing. Actual facts and evidence of abuse goes out the window, as the authorities in the police and child "protection" agencies support and coddle child molesters and pedophiles--especially when they are the fathers of the victims. To that end, mothers are labeled "crazy" or "mentally ill," so they can be marginalized and Daddy granted full access to the child victims.
UNNAMED DAD
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/father-given-unsupervised-access-to-children-he-molested-1.2442896
Father given unsupervised access to children he molested Woman discovered spouse was sexually abusing their kids, but he convinced authorities she was 'crazy'
CBC News Posted: Nov 28, 2013 5:30 PM PT| Last Updated: Nov 28, 2013 8:16 PM PT
A B.C. Supreme Court judge reviewing evidence from a custody dispute determined that the father of four children sexually and physically abused three of them, contrary to the findings of a flawed Vancouver Police Department investigation.
The mother of the children, who was awarded sole guardianship and custody in the 2012 court judgment, is now suing the province, saying it was negligent and acted in bad faith in allowing her former partner unsupervised access to the children during the dispute.
The mother's lawsuit against the province is currently on trial at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver and has already gone on for more than 80 days.
In addition, the mother is asking the Vancouver Police Department to reopen its investigation into allegations her former partner sexually abused their three children. The department closed its investigation in 2010.
"I want what is proper law. It's nothing vindictive, or anything like that," said the woman, whose identity cannot be revealed in order to protect her children.
"My ex is — he obviously is a very dangerous person. Like he didn't stop. I would like to see him properly prosecuted... That's all, because there's no sign that he's gonna stop unless something like that happens."
She says her world was flipped upside down two months after she and her husband separated in the fall of 2009 when, acting on only slight suspicion, she asked her three eldest children whether their father ever did anything to them.
She said she was expecting her children to respond with blank looks and confusion, but instead they began blurting out disturbing allegations that shocked her.
"The only thing I can think of now is Jekyll and Hyde, because… I just actually never could have fathomed what he was doing," she told CBC News in an exclusive interview.
A 'Kafkaesque' nightmare
She called the Ministry of Children and Family Development's helpline the next day, and called the Vancouver Police Department several times to seek assistance.
An order of the court was issued in October of that year, restraining the father from any contact with the mother or the children.
However, in December 2009, Justice Paul Walker — the same judge who ruled in the couple's later custody dispute — varied this order to allow the father supervised access to the children for specific hours.
Throughout this period, the father, along with his family and friends, made calls to Ministry workers and eventually the police, registering concerns about the mother's mental capacity.
In his custody dispute judgment three years later, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker deemed the behaviour "a baseless attempt to discredit her."
However, at the time, the authorities decided the frantic mother was unreliable, and also likely in need of a mental assessment.
The Ministry took the kids away from their apparently unstable mom, and placed them in foster care, with an aunt and uncle, in December 2009.
After a series of interviews with the parents and children that December and January 2010, the senior investigating VPD officer, along with officers from the RCMP Behavioural Sciences unit, determined that the allegations against the father were unfounded, and closed the investigation.
Later that year, a social worker began allowing the father unsupervised access, contrary to the original 2009 court order, which their mom says allowed the abuse to continue.
"It was, it was like, one professional described it: 'Kafkaesque' is the best term that comes to mind. It's as if the people involved were just twisting everything," the mother said.
Jack Hittrich, the mother's lawyer, says the Ministry of Children and Family Development was negligent, reckless, and acted in bad faith.
"When mom was frantically trying to convince the ministry that the sexual abuse allegations were real, they basically labelled her as crazy. And the more she protested, the more she was labelled as being crazy," he said. "It's a horrific nightmare."
Hittrich doesn't think the mother could have accomplished more by protesting more, and that institutional failures must be corrected.
"Until the child sex abuse lens is refined and there's more sensitive processes in place, children are at risk," he said. V
PD officer 'smitten' with father
A former RCMP superintendent who reviewed the police interrogation videos, testified in court that the VPD investigation was deeply flawed.
"I think the police formed the opinion that the mother had no credibility, therefore they didn't react and follow the investigation the way it should have been followed," said Glenn Woods, who worked for the RCMP for 35 years.
Woods, who spent 11 career years as a criminal profiler, said after watching the footage, he believes the senior officer involved in the case developed negative attitudes early on about the mother — and positive feelings about the dad.
"I used the word 'smitten.' I just got a sense that the interaction between the officer and the father was almost at times kind of a social interaction, as opposed to a police interview or interrogation."
Woods told the CBC that Vancouver Police should have fresh eyes look at the file, saying "I think an effort has to be made to take another look at this case."
In his judgment on the custody dispute last year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker agreed with Woods' critique of the police interrogation, writing "I was struck by how quickly and easily [the father] took control of the interview. It appeared to me that the officer was enamoured of (the father) in some way."
In his conclusion after reviewing footage of what he characterized as several flawed interviews, Walker wrote "I have determined that I can place no weight on the conclusions reached by the VPD… that there was no merit in the sexual abuse allegations."
Walker also determined, from the evidence presented, that the father sexually abused three of his children, exposed them to inappropriate sexualized knowledge, and physically assaulted them and their mother.
He gave full custody to the exonerated mother, and said a restraining order would be required against the father.
Father maintains innocence
CBC News spoke with the father, who maintains that his ex-wife fabricated the sex abuse claims in order to gain sole custody of their children.
"By itself, that allegation is nuclear. You light off that allegation and there's radioactivity forever. It never, ever goes away," he said.
The senior Vancouver Police officer who cleared the father refused comment, referring CBC News to the department.
Sgt. Randy Fincham, media relations officer for the department, wrote to the CBC in an email, "The judge is more than entitled to have an opinion about the quality of the police investigation" and "in the event that new evidence is brought forward in any investigation, the police retain the ability to reopen, continue or advance their investigation."
Beyond that, he stated the department "is not at liberty to discuss an ongoing court process, as it may impact the final outcome of the proceedings."
Mr. Justice Walker's decision was rendered last year. The Vancouver police are not party to the current negligence lawsuit against the province.
Sgt. Fincham did not answer questions about whether the case merits a review, or what should be done about the father in the community, given the judge's finding that he sexually abused his three children.
The Minister of Children and Family Services, Stephanie Cadieux, wrote in an email it would be inappropriate for her to comment on the case, as it is before the courts, stating "the safety and well-being of children is always the Ministry's first priority."
UNNAMED DAD
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/father-given-unsupervised-access-to-children-he-molested-1.2442896
Father given unsupervised access to children he molested Woman discovered spouse was sexually abusing their kids, but he convinced authorities she was 'crazy'
CBC News Posted: Nov 28, 2013 5:30 PM PT| Last Updated: Nov 28, 2013 8:16 PM PT
A B.C. Supreme Court judge reviewing evidence from a custody dispute determined that the father of four children sexually and physically abused three of them, contrary to the findings of a flawed Vancouver Police Department investigation.
The mother of the children, who was awarded sole guardianship and custody in the 2012 court judgment, is now suing the province, saying it was negligent and acted in bad faith in allowing her former partner unsupervised access to the children during the dispute.
The mother's lawsuit against the province is currently on trial at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver and has already gone on for more than 80 days.
In addition, the mother is asking the Vancouver Police Department to reopen its investigation into allegations her former partner sexually abused their three children. The department closed its investigation in 2010.
"I want what is proper law. It's nothing vindictive, or anything like that," said the woman, whose identity cannot be revealed in order to protect her children.
"My ex is — he obviously is a very dangerous person. Like he didn't stop. I would like to see him properly prosecuted... That's all, because there's no sign that he's gonna stop unless something like that happens."
She says her world was flipped upside down two months after she and her husband separated in the fall of 2009 when, acting on only slight suspicion, she asked her three eldest children whether their father ever did anything to them.
She said she was expecting her children to respond with blank looks and confusion, but instead they began blurting out disturbing allegations that shocked her.
"The only thing I can think of now is Jekyll and Hyde, because… I just actually never could have fathomed what he was doing," she told CBC News in an exclusive interview.
A 'Kafkaesque' nightmare
She called the Ministry of Children and Family Development's helpline the next day, and called the Vancouver Police Department several times to seek assistance.
An order of the court was issued in October of that year, restraining the father from any contact with the mother or the children.
However, in December 2009, Justice Paul Walker — the same judge who ruled in the couple's later custody dispute — varied this order to allow the father supervised access to the children for specific hours.
Throughout this period, the father, along with his family and friends, made calls to Ministry workers and eventually the police, registering concerns about the mother's mental capacity.
In his custody dispute judgment three years later, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker deemed the behaviour "a baseless attempt to discredit her."
However, at the time, the authorities decided the frantic mother was unreliable, and also likely in need of a mental assessment.
The Ministry took the kids away from their apparently unstable mom, and placed them in foster care, with an aunt and uncle, in December 2009.
After a series of interviews with the parents and children that December and January 2010, the senior investigating VPD officer, along with officers from the RCMP Behavioural Sciences unit, determined that the allegations against the father were unfounded, and closed the investigation.
Later that year, a social worker began allowing the father unsupervised access, contrary to the original 2009 court order, which their mom says allowed the abuse to continue.
"It was, it was like, one professional described it: 'Kafkaesque' is the best term that comes to mind. It's as if the people involved were just twisting everything," the mother said.
Jack Hittrich, the mother's lawyer, says the Ministry of Children and Family Development was negligent, reckless, and acted in bad faith.
"When mom was frantically trying to convince the ministry that the sexual abuse allegations were real, they basically labelled her as crazy. And the more she protested, the more she was labelled as being crazy," he said. "It's a horrific nightmare."
Hittrich doesn't think the mother could have accomplished more by protesting more, and that institutional failures must be corrected.
"Until the child sex abuse lens is refined and there's more sensitive processes in place, children are at risk," he said. V
PD officer 'smitten' with father
A former RCMP superintendent who reviewed the police interrogation videos, testified in court that the VPD investigation was deeply flawed.
"I think the police formed the opinion that the mother had no credibility, therefore they didn't react and follow the investigation the way it should have been followed," said Glenn Woods, who worked for the RCMP for 35 years.
Woods, who spent 11 career years as a criminal profiler, said after watching the footage, he believes the senior officer involved in the case developed negative attitudes early on about the mother — and positive feelings about the dad.
"I used the word 'smitten.' I just got a sense that the interaction between the officer and the father was almost at times kind of a social interaction, as opposed to a police interview or interrogation."
Woods told the CBC that Vancouver Police should have fresh eyes look at the file, saying "I think an effort has to be made to take another look at this case."
In his judgment on the custody dispute last year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker agreed with Woods' critique of the police interrogation, writing "I was struck by how quickly and easily [the father] took control of the interview. It appeared to me that the officer was enamoured of (the father) in some way."
In his conclusion after reviewing footage of what he characterized as several flawed interviews, Walker wrote "I have determined that I can place no weight on the conclusions reached by the VPD… that there was no merit in the sexual abuse allegations."
Walker also determined, from the evidence presented, that the father sexually abused three of his children, exposed them to inappropriate sexualized knowledge, and physically assaulted them and their mother.
He gave full custody to the exonerated mother, and said a restraining order would be required against the father.
Father maintains innocence
CBC News spoke with the father, who maintains that his ex-wife fabricated the sex abuse claims in order to gain sole custody of their children.
"By itself, that allegation is nuclear. You light off that allegation and there's radioactivity forever. It never, ever goes away," he said.
The senior Vancouver Police officer who cleared the father refused comment, referring CBC News to the department.
Sgt. Randy Fincham, media relations officer for the department, wrote to the CBC in an email, "The judge is more than entitled to have an opinion about the quality of the police investigation" and "in the event that new evidence is brought forward in any investigation, the police retain the ability to reopen, continue or advance their investigation."
Beyond that, he stated the department "is not at liberty to discuss an ongoing court process, as it may impact the final outcome of the proceedings."
Mr. Justice Walker's decision was rendered last year. The Vancouver police are not party to the current negligence lawsuit against the province.
Sgt. Fincham did not answer questions about whether the case merits a review, or what should be done about the father in the community, given the judge's finding that he sexually abused his three children.
The Minister of Children and Family Services, Stephanie Cadieux, wrote in an email it would be inappropriate for her to comment on the case, as it is before the courts, stating "the safety and well-being of children is always the Ministry's first priority."
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Appeals court: CPS workers have immunity in case of 9-year-old boy murdered by custodial father (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Outrageous. Clearly the CPS workers were corrupt, incompetent, or both. Yet they walk anyway. No consequences for sucking up to a homicidal custodial father. Got it.
The killer dad was OLIVER BRAMAN.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/09/child-protective_services_work.html
Child-protective services workers have immunity in 9-year-old boy's death, appeals court says
By John Agar on September 04, 2013 at 12:15 PM
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Child-protective services workers, criticized after 9-year-old Nicholas Braman died in a murder-suicide at his father’s home, have immunity against legal claims, a federal appeals panel said.
The boy’s mother, Rebecca Jasinski of Saginaw, filed a lawsuit against state workers alleging gross negligence for their failure to properly investigate complaints and remove the boy from his abusive father’s Montcalm County home.
She also said that the defendants violated her son’s constitutional rights, and that child-protective services and state Department of Human Services failed to properly supervise workers who ignored administrative policies.
The defendants earlier sought dismissal of the complaint, arguing that CPS workers had immunity. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker refused to dismiss the case, but said the allegations would be difficult to prove.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Jonker’s decision to allow the case to proceed.
Nicholas Braman, his father, Oliver Braman and stepmother, Elaine Kaczor-Braman, died Oct. 27, 2007, after the father attached the exhaust from a truck to the dryer vent in a sealed room. The boy had also been drugged.
The lawsuit said that over a nine-year period, CPS received numerous reports alleging abuse and neglect of Nicholas and his siblings, Oliver and Tyler Braman and Rachel Jasinski.
Among them: Oliver Braman used a cattle prod to punish his boys. CPS learned of the allegations, which were confirmed by the father, after his older brothers, Olive and Tyler, ran away.
A month before the deaths, Misty Davis, an assistant prosecutor, wrote to a CPS worker: “An investigation should definitely be commenced and either a change of custody should be started or a petition filed for removal. Oliver literally 'shocked' his older boys with a cattle prod repeatedly. ... In my opinion, there is no justification for the youngest boy to remain in the care of this man."
But a CPS worker said he wasn’t at risk, and left him with his father.
Attorneys for the boy’s mother argued that the state took steps that increased the risk of harm to Nicholas: CPS investigated the cattle prod allegations, and Montcalm County prosecutors filed charges.
“Jasinski contends that as a result of both actions, Nicholas was exposed to a greater risk of harm from an increasingly angry Oliver,” the appeals panel said.
The justices said that even if Nicholas was put at greater risk, the defendants had qualified immunity that protects government officials from liability as long as their conduct does not violate laws or constitutional rights.
The appeals panel also dismissed claims that CPS workers were the “proximate cause” of the boy’s death. The proximate cause was the father, the court ruled.
A Department of Human Services report criticized workers for failing to protect Nicholas.
"Montcalm DHS should have initiated a petition for removal of Nicholas from Mr. Braman's home while a more thorough assessment of the family was conducted," the report said.
The killer dad was OLIVER BRAMAN.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/09/child-protective_services_work.html
Child-protective services workers have immunity in 9-year-old boy's death, appeals court says
By John Agar on September 04, 2013 at 12:15 PM
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Child-protective services workers, criticized after 9-year-old Nicholas Braman died in a murder-suicide at his father’s home, have immunity against legal claims, a federal appeals panel said.
The boy’s mother, Rebecca Jasinski of Saginaw, filed a lawsuit against state workers alleging gross negligence for their failure to properly investigate complaints and remove the boy from his abusive father’s Montcalm County home.
She also said that the defendants violated her son’s constitutional rights, and that child-protective services and state Department of Human Services failed to properly supervise workers who ignored administrative policies.
The defendants earlier sought dismissal of the complaint, arguing that CPS workers had immunity. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker refused to dismiss the case, but said the allegations would be difficult to prove.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Jonker’s decision to allow the case to proceed.
Nicholas Braman, his father, Oliver Braman and stepmother, Elaine Kaczor-Braman, died Oct. 27, 2007, after the father attached the exhaust from a truck to the dryer vent in a sealed room. The boy had also been drugged.
The lawsuit said that over a nine-year period, CPS received numerous reports alleging abuse and neglect of Nicholas and his siblings, Oliver and Tyler Braman and Rachel Jasinski.
Among them: Oliver Braman used a cattle prod to punish his boys. CPS learned of the allegations, which were confirmed by the father, after his older brothers, Olive and Tyler, ran away.
A month before the deaths, Misty Davis, an assistant prosecutor, wrote to a CPS worker: “An investigation should definitely be commenced and either a change of custody should be started or a petition filed for removal. Oliver literally 'shocked' his older boys with a cattle prod repeatedly. ... In my opinion, there is no justification for the youngest boy to remain in the care of this man."
But a CPS worker said he wasn’t at risk, and left him with his father.
Attorneys for the boy’s mother argued that the state took steps that increased the risk of harm to Nicholas: CPS investigated the cattle prod allegations, and Montcalm County prosecutors filed charges.
“Jasinski contends that as a result of both actions, Nicholas was exposed to a greater risk of harm from an increasingly angry Oliver,” the appeals panel said.
The justices said that even if Nicholas was put at greater risk, the defendants had qualified immunity that protects government officials from liability as long as their conduct does not violate laws or constitutional rights.
The appeals panel also dismissed claims that CPS workers were the “proximate cause” of the boy’s death. The proximate cause was the father, the court ruled.
A Department of Human Services report criticized workers for failing to protect Nicholas.
"Montcalm DHS should have initiated a petition for removal of Nicholas from Mr. Braman's home while a more thorough assessment of the family was conducted," the report said.
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