KIDS NEED CARE, NOT PILLS, EX-FOSTER CHILDREN TELL PANEL

 

A state group looking at the suicide of a young foster child met Thursday to discuss ways to improve care and listened to adults who said they were overmedicated in the foster-care system.

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1104243-p2.html

BY AMY SHERMAN

asherman@MiamiHerald.com

As Florida child-welfare administrators study failures in the foster-care system believed to have led a 7-year-old boy to kill himself in April, they turned Thursday to experts they don’t often consult: young adults who came of age in state care.

Mez Pierre, 22, and Kimberly Foster, 25, both from Broward County, told the group that mental health drugs — already at the center of the investigation of Gabriel Myers’s tragic death — aren’t the answer for many foster youth. Children need caring adults who will look at the causes of their difficult behavior, they said — not simply write prescriptions in an attempt to control it.

Foster said doctors prescribed medication when she got upset about being removed from her home. She was ultimately placed in facilities with locked windows and restraints.

”They were trying to control the symptoms I had from being put into the system. . . . How I reacted was normal,” Foster said. “I was sad. I was taken away from my home. Because of that they felt medication was the right way to treat me.”

Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) administrators and child advocates who formed a work group to study Gabriel’s death held their third meeting Thursday in Fort Lauderdale. Gabriel hanged himself in the bathroom of his Margate foster home in April. He had been prescribed several psychiatric drugs during his nine months in foster care.

Workgroup members spent much of the day talking about issues such as how to improve communication between various professionals who care for foster kids. The leaders discussed various forms and documents collected for each child, and the potential roadblocks in gathering the data — sometimes as simple as a fax not going through.

Anne Wells, pharmacy director for the state Agency for Health Care Administration, questioned how some of these efforts will help children in foster care. .

”I don’t mean to criticize, but I have listened to improvements, and checked boxes, forms and paperwork. I’m sorry. I just don’t get it,” she said. “Where does all of this stuff head off the outcome that Gabriel had?”

Wells also questioned whether administrators were too quick to blame medication for Gabriel’s death, rather than talking about what led to his being medicated in the first place.

OVER-MEDICATED

But both Pierre and Foster told the group that they were over-medicated as foster children.

”To hear a story about a foster youth who lost his life, I take that very, very personally,” said Pierre, who choked back tears during his presentation. “I went through a lot of things that Gabriel went through and to see one loss is very painful.”

Gabriel ‘wasn’t being cared for. He was just told `you have problems,’ ” Pierre said.

Pierre added that he was first prescribed medications when he entered the foster-care system at age 5. He was given multiple pills and various diagnoses, including attention deficit/hyperactivity and bipolar disorders.

”When I was on medications, I always felt like a zombie,” he said. “I felt drowsy. I didn’t feel human. I felt like I was an animal on a farm being tested.”

Today, Pierre is doing what many told him he couldn’t do: living a successful life without medications. Pierre, who lives in Deerfield Beach, said he has a job, attends Broward College and hopes to become a lawyer.

”Consider the lives . . . even though it’s a difficult job,” he told the group. “That doesn’t mean to neglect your responsibility and to not work together.”

 

Foster said she took herself off the medications when she was 18 and pregnant. She now lives in Pompano Beach with her husband and son.

NEVER SUICIDAL

”I have never displayed any suicidal ideations, no mutilations, no disorientations,” Foster said. ‘We are lost if we send a message to youth, `if you cry you are depressed.’ We are so quick to put diagnoses on a child for a lot of times being a normal adolescent.”

Both Pierre and Foster are active in a group called Florida Youth Shine which, among other things, testifies in Tallahassee about foster-care issues.

A Miami Herald article that showed Gabriel had been on several drugs, including anti-depressants associated with a higher risk of suicide, prompted DCF to investigate the prescribing of mental health drugs to children.

DCF Secretary George Sheldon formed the work group as part of the wide-ranging investigation.

The group Thursday discussed a recent state review of more than 100 foster children age 5 or younger receiving psychiatric drugs. The study revealed that child welfare administrators are ignoring rules designed to protect the children.

In the majority of cases, for example, there was no documentation to show that case managers coordinated with the prescribing practitioner to obtain a psychiatric evaluation.

Broward County’s top child-welfare judge, Circuit Judge John A. Frusciante, read a statement that he recently wrote to ChildNet, Broward’s private foster care agency, in response to child advocates in recent hearings who had no knowledge about the existence of ”black box warnings” on medications. He called for more education of case workers.

”It is deeply disturbing that child advocates have no knowledge of the FDA’s highest warnings for possibly life-threatening adverse effects of medications,” he wrote.

AREA MAN GETS 20 YEARS IN FOSTER CHILD’S DEATH

 

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/18/area-man-gets-20-years-in-foster-childs-death/

 

By Jo Ann Eddleman Special to the Reporter-News

Thursday, June 18, 2009

COLEMAN — A Coleman man received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison Thursday for recklessly causing serious bodily injury that led to the death of a 14-month-old foster child in his care three years ago.

A six-man, six-woman jury handed down the punishment for Charles Yarbrough, 24, after 40 minutes of deliberation.

A two-count indictment was brought against Yarbrough after the death of Lacey Lynn Nichols in 2006 — a murder count and a capital murder count. An October trial resulted in a hung jury and consequent mistrial on the murder count.

The October jury found Yarbrough guilty of a lesser charge of reckless bodily injury that led to the death of the infant from blunt force trauma to the head and brain.

However, the jury was unable to reach a decision on the punishment.

This week’s mini-trial was required by Texas law to present evidence heard at the October trial to allow a new jury to deliberate on a punishment.

The incident occurred in Coleman on Jan. 9, 2006, when the lethargic and unresponsive child was brought by ambulance to the Coleman County Medical Center.

Yarbrough told emergency room staff and authorities that the infant had choked on a toy, which he had managed to dislodge by slapping her on the back. Nichols was pronounced dead on June 12 at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

The defense argued that the extensive bruising and head trauma could have been caused by CPR or the choking incident itself, and by common, everyday toddler falls.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Bobby McCool questioned whether Nichols’ death could not be attributed to the one-in-a-million rare case that forensic science is always willing to say might happen from simple falls.

“What if this is that one-in-a-million case?” McCool asked the jury.

In his comments after the verdict, Coleman County District Attorney Heath Hemphill said Yarbrough will not be eligible for parole until actual time is served, and that any good conduct time equals one fourth of the sentence.

Yarbrough has been out on bond since the murder charges were brought against him. He was taken into the custody of the Coleman County sheriff, who will deliver him to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for incarceration.

Hemphill was guarded in his response as to whether the first count of murder that ended in a mistrial will ever go to trial again.

McCool was not available for comment.

TEXAS CPS “BRINGING BACK THE DADS” PROGRAM AIMS TO RE-ENGAGE FATHERS IN THEIR CHILDREN’S LIVES

 

http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/1444095.html

By ALEX BRANCH abranch@star-telegram.

 

When police and Child Protective Services investigated whether a man’s daughter was abused by his ex-wife’s boyfriend, the father says no one called to fill him in.

In fact, he said, he struggled to find information even after he learned of the investigation.

“I couldn’t get anyone to call me back,” said Paul, whose last name is not being used to protect his children’s identity. “It felt like no one really paid attention to the fathers. It was about the mothers.”

At a time when more American children than ever live in homes without biological fathers, it is a tendency that should change, child welfare officials say.

A pilot program called “Bringing Back the Dads” strives to engage nonresident fathers with their children. The effort trains CPS workers to better reach out to fathers and offers classes to dads exploring how they can be more involved in their children’s lives.

The Fatherhood Coalition of Tarrant County and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services are collaborating on the project.

Tarrant County was one of four areas in the U.S. to get a three-year, $100,000 grant from the U.S. Children’s Bureau for the program. If successful, it could be instituted nationally..

“We have a very maternal system,” said Elna Vanderberg, executive director of NewDay Services for children and families in Tarrant County, a member of the coalition. “The idea is to make a better effort to reach out to these fathers and appeal to those fathers’ hearts to understand the value they can have in their children’s lives.”

’Brighter outcomes’

One of the program’s goals is to identify obstacles caseworkers face while engaging fathers. Among the most common is finding them, said Karen Bird, who coordinates the project.

“It can be double the work to track them down and try to make contact with them,” she said.

Making the task more challenging are heavy CPS caseloads as well as time restraints set by the Legislature on how quickly decisions must be made, Vanderberg said.

Paul said he was involved in his children’s lives but still wasn’t contacted. To add to his frustrations, he said, he tried calling the police detective investigating the case and was told that his ex-wife had to first give the investigator permission to speak to him.

“I saw my kids every weekend,” he said. “But no one told me anything anyway.”

A national study of almost 2,000 children removed from homes where the father did not live found that 88 percent of the fathers were identified by caseworkers. But just more than half of the fathers were contacted.

Only about a quarter of the fathers contacted expressed interest in the child living with them, according to the National Quality Improvement Center.

This year, NewDay Services has trained 400 CPS investigators and supervisors from 19 counties in Texas on how to engage fathers, Vanderberg said. The project was launched in January 2008, but much of the first year was spent developing curriculum. The grant lasts until 2010.

Studies show that children with absent biological fathers are, on average, two to three times more likely to be poor; to use drugs; experience emotional, educational and behavioral problems; and to engage in crime.

Marissa Gonzalez, spokeswoman for CPS in Tarrant County, said the agency is hopeful that the project will result in “better, brighter outcomes for children.”

“CPS knows that outcomes for children are better when families work together for the well-being of the children,” she said. “Historically, however, much of the focus has been on mothers and not fathers.”

Fathers’ willingness

Success will greatly depend on the fathers’ willingness to participate.

Some are so removed from their children that officials say it’s like turning an aircraft carrier. Sometimes hostility between parents is so severe that the fathers feel forced aside.

“A roadblock is the mindset of some fathers in society, who seem to think they have become redundant in the lives of their children and that all that is required is to provide financial support,” Vanderberg said.

“We are telling them how important their relationships with their children are.”

The classes are voluntary and focus on nonresident fathers whose children were removed from their mother’s house by CPS. The fathers must not have criminal records.

Among other things, classes offer an overview of how the court system works, how to manage relationships with CPS and how to handle visitation, said Tommy Jordan, NewDay’s fatherhood program director.

“From the outside looking in, the system is a mystery,” Jordan said. “It can overwhelm and intimidate people. We have to overcome this and learn to capitalize on the father who is often standing right in front of us.”

 

Study The “What About the Dads?” national study included 1,958 children who were removed from homes where the father did not live. Telephone interviews with 1,222 caseworkers indicated that:

88 percent of nonresident fathers were identified.

55 percent of fathers were contacted by caseworkers.

30 percent of fathers visited their child.

28 percent expressed interest in their children living with them.

Source: The National Quality Improvement Center

ALEX BRANCH, 817-390-7689

REPORT ON OSWEGO COUNTY DSS SAYS WORKERS OVERWORKED, UNDERTRAINED

 

http://blog.syracuse.com/indepth/2009/06/report_on_oswego_county_dss_sa.html

Posted by John Doherty/The Post-Standard June 19, 2009 5:00AM

When 11-year-old Erin Maxwell died last August, Oswego County’s social services department was severely understaffed. Its caseworkers were under equipped, under trained and over worked.

Those are among the findings of an independent review by Cornell University that began weeks after the Palermo girl was asphyxiated in her squalid Palermo.

New York state is pitching in $500,000 so DSS can fix itself. The Cornell report (34-page pdf) gives the department a road map of how to do that.

OswegoCPS

 

Oswego County social services chief will ask legislators to add 27 caseworkers, supervisors

 

by John Doherty / The Post-Standard

Friday June 19, 2009, 11:41 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/oswego_county_social_services.html

Oswego County’s social services commissioner will ask county legislators next week to significantly increase the number of caseworkers dealing with children in the county.

The request, which calls for hiring 27 additional caseworkers and supervisors, comes on the heels of a report that found the department’s child protective unit severely overworked and understaffed. The current staffing is 40 people.

The plan will be presented to the county Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday. The plan also will be reviewed by the county’s finance and personnel committees.

It could go before the full Legislature on July 9 and the first of the new caseworkers could be hired by the end of August.

“I don’t like the idea of raising taxes to pay for this, but it’s something we may have to do,” said Legislature Chairman Barry Leemann, R-Amboy.

The state has given the county $500,000 to pay for additional staff through March 31.

“That’s just seed money to get things started,” Leemann said.

The report, prepared by Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, was one of three studies that looked at the social services department after the death of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell.

The girl died Aug. 30 after being asphyxiated in her squalid Palermo home, where more than 100 cats lived. Caseworkers had investigated the Maxwell home three times between 2002 and 2006.

Erin Maxwell’s stepbrother, Alan Jones, has been charged with her murder. Her father and stepmother, Lindsey and Lynn Maxwell, are facing child endangerment charges.

“One of the highest priorities we have is to protect our kids,” Leemann said. “We don’t want to have anymore tragedies, though I don’t believe we were responsible for what happened (to Erin Maxwell).”

The Cornell report found that when Erin Maxwell died, two years after the last social service investigation, caseworkers were handling an average of 139 cases a year — nearly double the national and state standard of 72 cases.

The department’s staffing crisis goes back to 2004 when, in the face of a budget crisis, more than 100 county employees lost their jobs, said Legislator John Proud, chairman of the Health and Human Service Committee.

“When we made our staffing cuts back a few years ago, social services was hit very hard,” said Proud, R-Mexico. “They reorganized and tried to do things differently to compensate for the loss of personnel. What the report shows is we got people who are too overloaded and that’s got to be addressed.”

The plan, prepared by Department of Social Services Commissioner Frances Lanigan, calls for increasing the numbers of caseworkers and supervisors in the department’s child protective and family services units.

The number of child protective caseworkers would grow from 20 to 36 and the number of supervisors would increase from four to seven.

Staffing in the family services unit, which provides on-going help to children and their families, would increase from 16 to 24 caseworkers.

Other positions called for under the plan include additional clerical workers and a supervisor to monitor the department’s quality and training.

John Doherty can be reached at jdoherty@syracuse.com and 592-7140 or 470-3235.

GOVERNOR VETOS CHILD-ABUSE BILL

Governor vetoes child-abuse bill

 

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/06/19/governor_vetoes_childabuse_bil.html

By Corrie MacLaggan | Friday, June 19, 2009, 06:49 PM

Gov. Rick Perry today vetoed a child-abuse bill that critics said would have violated families’ rights.

The action followed a veto campaign by a coalition of conservative, libertarian and family-rights organizations that prompted thousands of Texans to call and write the governor.

Supporters of Senate Bill 1440 said it would have helped abuse investigations by clarifying the criteria state officials must meet to get a court order to enter a family’s house, transport a child or review children’s medical records.

But opponents said it would have given Child Protective Services too much power, allowing state investigators to enter people’s homes without evidence of abuse.

Perry had received 17,373 calls and letters against the measure and 455 supporting it as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for the governor.

This week, state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, the House sponsor of the bill, wrote a letter to Perry asking him to reject the bill, saying that the measure turned out to be more controversial than he expected and needs further study.

“My concern is that the bill is overreaching,” Madden said in an interview.

Perry had similar concerns. He wrote in his veto statement that a recent court decision created uncertainty that “must be addressed. Senate Bill No. 1440, however, overreaches and may not give due consideration to the Fourth Amendment rights of a parent or guardian.” Perry directed state officials to study the issue.

Senate Bill 1440 is by Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin. The language in question was originally part of another Watson bill, Senate Bill 1064, that was added on as an amendment.

“Unfortunately,” Watson said, “Governor Perry listened to bad advice, ignored sound, just policy and chose to veto a bill that would have helped protect the children of Texas from abuse and neglect.”

Johana Scot, executive director of the Parent Guidance Center, which helps parents involved in CPS cases, actively opposed the bill.

“It’s a very dangerous piece of legislation,” she said. “It basically strips children and parents of all their rights.”

Scot said that the bill would have cleared the way for CPS to investigate families based on false reports by people who “want retaliation … or just because they don’t like their neighbor.”

However, Jane Burstain, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low- and middle-income Texans, said that “there is a misunderstanding on the part of the opposition groups about what the bill does.”

She said that under the legislation, state investigators seeking a court order would have had to submit an affidavit showing “sufficient facts.”

And as for the motives of people reporting abuse, “there’s nothing (the Department of Family and Protective Services) can do to prevent improper motives,” Burstain said. “This law doesn’t change that.”

One of the opponents’ concerns is that under the bill, they say, the parent would not have gotten a hearing before CPS interviews their child.

But Burstain said that family courts aren’t currently required to give parents such hearings for the same reason that criminal courts don’t give suspected drug dealers a hearing before their house is searched.

“You don’t want to be tipping off abusers,” Burstain said. “If you tell the abuser, ‘Hey, we’re coming to your house,’ the abuser has the opportunity to coach the child, to coerce the child into lying.”

LOOKING FOR CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND FAMILY COURT STORIES

Looking for Child Protective Services & Family Court stories

 

http://upstreamzine.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/looking-for-child-protective-services-family-court-stories/

Do you or someone you know have a story about Child Protective Services or Family Court in New York State that might be of interest to others, or do you know of a national story that might have implications for New York State? I have signed up with www.examiner.com to be their Albany CPS & Family Court examiner. Contact me via the contact page above or by leaving a comment on this page if you have a story to share with me that you are willing to let me write up and share with the public.

I found the above during one of my  searches, if you have a New York Story to tell or one that could affect New York…please write to this reporter and try to get the stories out about this CPS corruption.  Make sure you go to their page to leave your information…

SOCIAL WORKER FIRED AFTER VIRGINIA GIRL’S DEATH

Social Worker Fired in Slaying

 

2 Others Suspended Over the Pr. William Child Abuse Case

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061703501.html

 

A Prince William County social services employee has been fired and two others disciplined for mishandling the case of a 13-year-old girl whose adoptive mother is accused of abusing and killing her, county officials said yesterday.

After Alexis “Lexie” Agyepong-Glover was found slain in a frigid creek Jan. 9, many people, including school bus drivers, said they had reported seeing signs that she was being abused by her mother, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, but she was not removed from the home.

Several investigations were launched at the local and state levels, and an internal review by the county’s Department of Social Services found that several employees did not follow proper procedures in response to the abuse and neglect reports, officials said.

“I would say that we made some errors, no doubt about it,” said John P. Ledden Jr., director of social services, adding that the investigation’s findings have led to procedural changes. “I want to ensure we learn something from this case.”

Ledden declined to discuss the specific procedures his employees failed to follow. He said that in some cases the required actions were taken, but not within the proper time frames.

One change in place involves how multiple complaints about the same child are handled, even when they are determined to be invalid, Ledden said. Now, three abuse reports about the same child that are deemed invalid will prompt a further inquiry into the child’s case, he said.

In addition, Ledden said the Board of County Supervisors gave his agency funding in the most recent budget to hire two more social workers after July 1, and he is considering increasing the training and number of responders on call after hours.

Ledden has also been meeting with county Police Chief Charlie T. Deane to discuss how their departments can better coordinate and share information, and he might ask the county to petition the General Assembly for less-restrictive laws governing what information can be shared across agencies in child abuse cases.

One senior social worker was fired Tuesday, and two social work managers were suspended for five days without pay, officials said. A probationary employee involved in Lexie’s case has also been fired, although there were other problems with that social worker beyond the Glover case, officials said.

Officials did not release the names of the employees, citing confidentiality rules about personnel matters.

Several officials, including Ledden, said they hope improved procedures at the agency will be a silver lining to the tragedy.

“If something good is going to come out of this, it’s that the county has been able to learn from this,” said Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), an adoptive parent. “The DSS staff and the board of supervisors have really been focused on not trying to sweep this under the rug but, rather, finding out what happened.”

Ledden stopped short of assigning blame for Lexie’s death to any of the employees.

“The particular errors that we made — it’s not like it resulted in the child’s death,” Ledden said. ( I would say that is exactly what they resulted in) ”There’s only one person responsible for the child’s death . . . and that’s Mrs. Glover, if she’s found guilty. Even with the employees leaving, they’re not leaving out the door thinking they’re responsible for the girl’s murder.”

Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R) said that all the facts in Lexie’s case are not out and that it’s difficult to say whether her death was preventable.

“I don’t think that this is reflective of DSS as a whole or even child protective services,” Stewart said. “Clearly we had a few employees who made some mistakes, tragic mistakes . . . but I don’t think it’s an indictment of the system as a whole, or all the personnel in social services.”

To those who tried to sound the alarm that Lexie was being abused over the two years before she was killed, the firings and suspensions were a welcome surprise. But they vigorously dispute the notion that county officials didn’t share in the blame for her death.

“We understand that you didn’t murder her, but if you wouldhave done your job and removed her from the home, she would have been protected,” said Marlene Williams, a bus driver who, along with her attendant, reported to police that they saw Lexie’s adoptive mother drive off with the girl in the trunk of a car in 2007.

Williams’s feelings were echoed by others who had made reports. In December, Lexie’s neighbor, Wes Byers, reported finding her barely clothed in the freezing cold with a head wound outside his home. Lexie’s former bus driver, Nancy Frederick, said she told officials that Lexie displayed bruises and marks that looked like she’d been tied up and that she came to the bus in her underwear. Others in the neighborhood said they found Lexie to be hungry and terrified to return home on occasions when she ran away.

In addition to Ledden’s investigation, the Virginia Department of Social Services is conducting an inquiry into Lexie’s case, which is expected to be released to county officials within the next three weeks, a state DSS spokesman said. The state has also conducted a Quality Management Review of the county Department of Social Services’ general practices — which will not mention Lexie specifically — expected to be finalized within the next week.

Deane has also ordered an internal review of his department’s handling of its encounters with Lexie. Deane has said he hopes to be as transparent as possible about the findings, although some redactions might be necessary because of confidentiality concerns. He declined yesterday to discuss whether his internal review has resulted in any disciplinary action. Gregg-Glover’s trial is scheduled for July 6.

 

Social worker fired after Va. girl’s death

 

http://www.dailypress.com/news/virginia/dp-dc–deadgirl0618jun18,0,4492217.story

By the Associated Press

 June 18, 2009

MANASSAS, Va. – A social services employee has been fired and two others disciplined in Prince William County for mishandling the case of a 13-year-old girl who authorities say was abused and killed by her adoptive mother, officials said this week.

After Alexis “Lexie” Agyepong-Glover was found slain in a creek in January, many people said they had reported signs of abuse by her mother, Alfreedia Gregg-Glover, but the teen was not removed from the home. Gregg-Glover faces murder charges in the girl’s death.

An internal review found that several employees did not follow proper procedures in response to the abuse and neglect reports, county officials announced Wednesday.

“I would say that we made some errors, no doubt about it,” said John P. Ledden Jr., director of social services. “I want to ensure we learn something from this case.”

The department fired one senior social worker on Tuesday, and suspended two social work managers for five days without pay, according to officials. Ledden would not provide specifics on what the employees failed to do.

The review has prompted changes to county procedures. Now, even when abuse reports are determined to be invalid, if there are three or more invalid reports about the same child, the case will be investigated further, Ledden said.

The county has provided the social services department with money in the most recent budget to hire two more social workers after July 1. Ledden said he’s also considering additional training and responders on call after hours.

The agency’s inquiry has been welcomed by those who attempted to warn officials that the girl was being abused. But some still blame county officials for not responding earlier.

“We understand that you didn’t murder her, but if you would have done your job and removed her from the home, she would have been protected,” said Marlene Williams, a bus driver. Williams and her attendant told police that they saw Gregg-Glover drive with the girl in the trunk of a car in 2007.

A Virginia Department of Social Services spokesman said an inquiry into the case is expected to be released to county officials within the next three weeks. The county police department also has ordered an internal review into the handling of its encounters with the girl.

Gregg-Glover was indicted in March on several charges, including first-degree murder and felony child abuse. Police say she lied when she told them her daughter had run away in January. A massive search ensued. The girl’s body was found two days later in a Woodbridge area creek.

Gregg-Glover’s trial is set for July 6.

AUDIT: DCS WORKERS LOOTED FOSTER KIDS’ ACCOUNTS

 

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/18/audit-dcs-workers-looted-foster-kids-accounts/?partner=RSS

Janell Ross, THE TENNESSEAN

Originally published 06:55 a.m., June 18, 2009

Updated 06:55 a.m., June 18, 2009

NASHVILLE — State employees stole from foster children’s savings accounts, skipped calls and e-mails to teens transitioning out of foster care and submitted mileage reports for trips to and from work, an audit released this week found.

But those familiar with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services’ history say the audit shines a light on just how far a once-chaotic agency has come. Eight years ago, it was restructured in a settlement of the so-called “Brian A.” case, a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Tennessee’s abused and neglected children.

“In broad strokes, it was really a dangerously dysfunctional system,” said Ira Lustbader, the associate director of Children’s Rights, the New York-based child advocacy organization that helped to bring the suit in 2000 and to monitor the state’s performance since.

See full story on The Tennessean below:

 

Children’s Services workers looted foster kids’ accounts

 

 

Audit finds progress, but problems persist

 

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090618/NEWS0201/906180349/Children+s+Services+workers+looted+foster+kids++accounts

By Janell Ross • THE TENNESSEAN • June 18, 2009

State employees stole from foster children’s savings accounts, skipped calls and e-mails to teens transitioning out of foster care and submitted mileage reports for trips to and from work, an audit released this week found.

But those familiar with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services’ history say the audit shines a light on just how far a once-chaotic agency has come. Eight years ago, it was restructured in a settlement of the so-called “Brian A.” case, a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Tennessee’s abused and neglected children.

“In broad strokes, it was really a dangerously dysfunctional system,” said Ira Lustbader, the associate director of Children’s Rights, the New York-based child advocacy organization that helped to bring the suit in 2000 and to monitor the state’s performance since.

He said the audit shows a basically functioning agency with the need for more fiscal controls.

The department and its 5,000 employees are charged with managing a $690 million budget and caring for children in state custody or at risk of abuse.

“We take audits very seriously,” said Viola Miller, the Department of Children’s Services commissioner.

“Nobody loves them, but we are going to use these as opportunities to learn to identify areas that we need to make improvements.”

State comptroller’s office auditors reviewing the period between April 2006 and October 2008 found a number of problems inside the agency.

The audit indicated there were instances of employee theft from interest-earning accounts that belong to children in state custody who work. Joe Holzmer, executive director of finance and program support, said the department asked auditors for details, but they were unable to provide any.

While such incidents are rare, there have been a few internal investigations dealing with similar matters, Miller said.

(2 of 2)

The audit also found social workers assigned to older children transitioning from state custody to adulthood were not visiting them as frequently as department rules require — once every two months, plus contact by phone or e-mail once per month. When auditors sampled 25 such cases, they found 20 had not received required visits or contact.

The social workers are supposed to help with housing, job placement, utility hookups and other adult responsibilities.

That’s a vital job, said Linda O’Neal, director of the Tennessee Commission on Youth and Children, a state advocacy agency.

“Obviously, this is one of the areas where the department is not where we would want it to be and not where I think they want it to be,” she said.

“But much like the effort to reduce child abuse, it is the sort of thing that is going to require the whole state to get involved.”

Tax money misusedThe audit also pointed to three departmental matters affecting the state’s taxpayers.

Joel Player, a department employee, improperly requested and was paid for $14,127 in travel, hotel, parking and taxi fares, according to the audit. That included mileage to and from work and taxi fares accrued on business trips on days that he also requested reimbursement for his parked car.

After the audit and an internal investigation, a letter of reprimand was placed in the file of Player’s supervisor, Mark Anderson. Player must repay the $14,127. He didn’t return a call placed to his office Wednesday afternoon.

“These are good people who admitted what had happened, made no attempt to hide it, but really it seems just misunderstood the policy,” Miller said.

The audit also identified as many as 446 possibly unused but in-service telephone lines that may cost the department as much as $7,000 a month. The agency has since identified and disconnected 211 unused phone lines, said Rob Johnson, the agency spokesman.

Finally, money from two closed petty cash accounts could not be found or recovered. The two accounts should have contained a combined $650.

DAD ANGRY CPS DIDN’T ACT BEFORE ARREST

 

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/140643

Mike Sakal, Tribune

June 17, 2009 – 7:39PM

A father is speaking out against state Child Protective Services after police said his son and another boy were left home alone by their mother and living in filthy conditions.

William Schiminski, 24, of Queen Creek, the father of a 3-year-old boy, said Wednesday that he had filed two complaints with the agency against Samantha Miller-Abernathy, his former girlfriend, claiming neglect of the children on her part in 2007 and 2008.

Police: Children resorted to eating dog food

Miller-Abernathy, 20, who works at a Phoenix strip club, was arrested at her apartment at 265 N. Gilbert Road in Mesa about 11 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of two felony counts of endangerment and two misdemeanor counts of neglect, according to a police report.

She is accused of leaving her two sons, ages 2 and 3, home alone for more than five hours with the door unlocked after she left the apartment at 2 a.m. to visit an ex-boyfriend, according to the report.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, neighbors saw the boys wandering around the complex along a busy road under construction. Police inside the apartment discovered feces and urine stains on the children’s bedroom floor. There was alcohol and very little food in the refrigerator, the report stated.

Miller-Abernathy did not return to the apartment until 10:45 a.m., but the father of each boy arrived at 10 a.m., according to the report.

Schiminski, who said he and Miller-Abernathy shared custody of the 3-year-old, said CPS awarded him temporary emergency custody of both of the boys pending the outcome of the investigation.

“This has been going on for two and a half years,” Schiminski said of his battle to acquire full custody of his son. “I don’t want to say that I’m mad at the system, but I’m frustrated that it took something like this to happen to get full custody. How many times has this happened in the past? I’m very upset at the situation. Something like this shouldn’t have happened. I’m grateful for the person who found them, to the Mesa police and to CPS (for giving him temporary emergency custody).”

Despite the stern words about the agency, Schiminski said he is worried that he could lose custody of them for speaking out.

“This isn’t about me, or the father of the other boy, it’s about the safety of the boys,” Schiminski said. “They’re safe with me.”

Schiminski said he was never married to Miller-Abernathy, but she is married to the father of the 2-year-old and they are separated.

Schiminski said both claims of neglect and bad living conditions for the children he filed in 2007 and 2008 were determined by CPS to lack sufficient evidence and were unfounded.

The agency confirmed that it had one prior report on Miller-Abernathy, which after an investigation was found to be unsubstantiated, CPS spokesperson Kevan Kaighn wrote in an e-mail.

Miller-Abernathy remained incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail and is scheduled to appear in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday in connection to the offenses.

There are conflicting reports on whether one of the children ate dog food after police found them.

According to a court document, one of the children “went right to the pantry and started eating dog food.”

The document, known as a Form Four, is filled out by the officer who makes an arrest and it is used by the judge in setting bail.

Sgt. Ed Wessing, Mesa police spokesman, said the police report he read states that the child went to the pantry and it appeared he was going to eat the dog food, but the officer on scene stopped him from eating it, upsetting the child.

“He did not actually eat the dog food,” Wessing said.

Wessing said the officers bought the children food, and they devoured it.

Miller-Abernathy, who is in jail in lieu of $2,700 bail, declined an interview request, according to a spokesman with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Related

Police: Children resorted to eating dog food

 

TRACY TORTURE VICTIM’S DISAPPEARANCE LONG UNKNOWN TO POLICE

 

http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?article-Tracy%20torture%20victim-s%20disappearance%20long%20unknown%20to%20police%20=&page_label=home&id=2737490-Tracy+torture+victim-s+disappearance+long+unknown+to+police&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead_story&open=&

by Jennifer Wadsworth/TP staff

Jun 16, 2009

A 16-year-old boy allegedly held captive and brutally tortured for more than a year in Tracy wasn’t reported missing to the police until nearly a year after he ran away from a Sacramento group home.

The teen called Kyle Ramirez in court papers — but who has a different legal surname — met up with his “aunt,” Carén Ramirez, after she convinced him to leave the Children’s Receiving Home in Sacramento in early May 2007, according to his testimony in a 928-page grand jury transcript unsealed Friday.

It wasn’t until March 27, 2008 — 11 months after he ran away — that the Sacramento County Department of Social Services reported the child missing to the police. Until then, a couple of social workers made a few phone calls every month to Ramirez and her daughter, Cristina Sanchez. No one ever answered.

Meanwhile, police say Ramirez and three other adults imprisoned the boy inside a two-story home in the heart of Tracy. They said a married couple, their houseguest Ramirez and a next-door neighbor allegedly starved, drugged and regularly tormented, beat and burned Kyle from about July 2007 until the boy’s Dec. 1 escape.

Linda Hirsch, a Sacramento social worker assigned to find the missing teen, said she learned months before Kyle’s escape in Tracy that Ramirez had been collecting a Social Security check in the child’s name. She called the Social Security office, but they refused to give her Ramirez’s mailing address.

At that point, police had taken the investigation off Hirsch’s hands, she told jurors. The first time Hirsch actually met Kyle was on Dec. 2, in the Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, the day after the boy jumped on a trampoline to vault a wall behind the Tennis Lane home and frantically ran into an adjacent health club to beg for help.

“He was very thin, fragile — he had burns, bruises on him,” Hirsch recalled.

In fact, Kyle’s untreated wounds were so severe that he was sent to a burn clinic in Davis, where he stayed 20 days — from Dec. 2 to 22 — to recover from skin grafts to repair scabbed-over third-degree burns and other head-to-toe injuries.

A doctor who testified before a San Joaquin County criminal grand jury in March said Kyle’s untreated burns and cuts were serious enough that if the burns were left to heal on their own, they would have restricted the boy’s mobility.

David Greenhalgh, a doctor who treated Kyle at University of California, Davis, Medical Center for most of December, said the boy had severe burns on his left arm that appeared to have been untreated for about three weeks.

During the month before Kyle’s escape from the Tracy home, the family he lived with couldn’t afford to pay the utility bill, so they lived for nearly a month without electricity, witnesses told the grand jury. During that time, the family warmed up by the fireplace to which Kyle was allegedly shackled. That’s when he said he got his worst burn.

Ramirez had allegedly abused Kyle in the past, but the beatings escalated to harrowing torture once he moved to the Tennis Lane home, the boy said. Kyle recounted getting beaten and cut with a mallet, a baseball bat, razors and belts. He said the four adults he stayed with doused him in lighter fluid and bleach, taped his mouth shut and tied his wrists behind his back. At times, the only nourishment he said he’d get was the hard liquor they allegedly forced him to drink.

To abet Kyle’s story are his many scars.

Kyle had scars and burns on his lower abdomen, on his back and all over his left arm, according to Greenhalgh. Kyle told jurors that he got the scar on his left arm from passing out after Lau allegedly choked him with a belt. He dropped to the fireplace hearth and his arm fell on the grate while the fire burned.

Kyle said that days or weeks before, his alleged captors restrained him and cut the same arm four or five times with a steak knife.

“And after they got done cutting you, what did they do?” San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Angela Hayes asked Kyle.

“So they put my arm over a bucket and then poured bleach on my cut, and then they put a bandage … I think it was a paper towel or something,” Kyle said, according to the grand jury report. “And then they taped it after — oh, my bad — they put butter and salt after they poured the bleach on.”

He said his captors doctored his wounds with bleach, butter and salt. The only time he got to rinse off the blood was when they took him outside and showered him with the hose or doused him with pots of hot water, he said.

Another doctor, Angela Rosas of Sutter Medical center in Sacramento, said the boy had so many injuries that she needed to refresh her memory by looking at a chart before she could talk about them to jurors.

Rosas, who treated Kyle on Dec. 3 for the first time, said he had scars all over the crown of his head that appeared to have been deep enough to require stitches, but many of them were old and untreated. They healed into thick, permanent scars, Rosas said.

Kyle said that the four suspects many times would beat him with a metal baseball bat. Rosas said that the scars appeared to be from something heavy hitting his head and splitting the skin.

When she first saw Kyle in early December, a couple of days after he escaped shackled and bloodied to a Tracy gym, she said his head was covered in what appeared to be glue residue.

Rosas recounted a long list of injuries: Marks on his neck from being choked with a belt, scratches and cuts all over his stomach and back, healing burns on his lower abdomen, burns from some caustic chemical that had dripped near his genitals, a deep cut and third-degree burns on his arm and permanent scars on each wrist from being bound with zip-ties.

Also, Kyle’s ankles were cut from the shackle that kept him chained to the fireplace, according to the transcript.

He was so malnourished from allegedly living off old Halloween candy, the occasional piece of bread and liquor that it could have been why he hadn’t gone through puberty yet, a doctor and prosecutors said. He weighed little more than 120 pounds and, at 5 feet, 4 inches, was short for his age at the time of his escape. He has since gained 50 pounds, according to transcripts.

“It was a horrible case of child abuse,” Rosas concluded.

Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, their neighbor, Anthony Waiters, and Ramirez are due in court Thursday. All but Schumacher, who has yet to enter a plea, have pleaded not guilty to the 17 felony charges of various types of abuse and kidnapping, aggravated assault and false imprisonment by violence.