Woman charged with assault on pregnant caseworker
By Karen A. Kapsourakis
SALEM - A Lynn woman charged with beating and trying to strangle her pregnant 30-year-old case worker at the Department of Children and Family Services in Lynn in March remains held in custody on $3,000 cash bail.
Halua Msomi, 33, of 36 Surfside Road, #8, entered her plea of innocent to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon upon a pregnant person as well as assault and battery before Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Q. Feeley.
Assistant District Attorney Kristen R. Buxton urged the judge to have her held without bail, saying she posed a danger to the victim.
The charges arise out of an incident on March 2 when Msomi allegedly attacked her 30-year-old case worker at the Department of Children and Family Services, located at 20 Wheeler St. in Lynn.
The victim told authorities that Msomi was upset with her regarding an earlier court date in Lowell involving visitation rights with her 7-year-old daughter, who was in foster care.
Msomi became agitated with her social worker at the office, grabbed the eight-months pregnant victim by her neck scarf, causing her to fall to the ground. Msomi then allegedly began twisting the scarf around the case worker's neck. Fellow employees interceded, pulling her off the victim.
The case worker was grasping for breath. She was taken to the hospital where she was treated and released. He neck was swollen, according to reports.
Defense attorney Kirk W. Bransfield of Lynn argued with Feeley that there could be terms of release if he found her a danger while asking for her to be released on her own personal recognizance.
Feeley found Msomi was a danger and imposed a $3,000 cash bail with the conditions if she makes that amount she is to have no contact with that DCF office except the Cape Ann office in Salem. She is forbidden to abuse any staff member, must take all prescribed medications, refrain from all alcohol and drugs, stay away from the victim and not possess any firearms or dangerous weapons.
She is due back in court on July 21 for a pretrial hearing.
http://www.thedailyitemoflynn.com/articles/2010/06/17/news/news16.txt
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Psychotropic Drug Abuse in Foster Care Costs Government Billions
Psychotropic Drug Abuse in Foster Care Costs Government Billions
DAVID SESSIONS
Reporter
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Seven-year-old Gabriel Meyers didn't want soup for lunch one Thursday in April, 2009. When his 23-year-old foster brother sent Gabriel to his room for dumping his soup in the trash, Gabriel threatened to kill himself. He kicked his toys around his room, then locked himself in the bathroom.
Police reports say Gabriel was home sick that day from his elementary school in Margate, Fla., under the care of Miguel Gould, his foster father's son. Around 1:00 p.m., city police responded to Gould's frantic 911 call and found Gabriel had hanged himself.
A troubled child who had previously suffered from neglect, sexual assault, and abusive parenting, Gabriel spent the previous year shuttling among several foster parents while taking a constellation of antipsychotic medicines, including Lexapro and Vyvanse, to control his depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Like most children in Florida state foster care, Medicaid paid Gabriel's medical expenses.
Just one month before his suicide, Gabriel's doctor prescribed him Symbyax, an anti-depressant restricted for treatment of children. The medication's FDA-required label features a warning that use of the drug by children or teenagers can lead to suicide.
Symbyax does not meet criteria established by Congress for Medicaid reimbursement., so it is illegal for Medicaid to pay for a prescription of the drug to a child. Sohail Punjwani, the doctor who prescribed Gabriel's Symbyax, received a stern letter from the FDA about his history of over-prescribing mental health drugs.
According to a number of foster care experts who spoke with Politics Daily, children in foster care, who are typically concurrently enrolled in Medicaid, are three or four more times as likely to be on antipsychotic medications than other children on Medicaid. Alarmingly, many of these drugs are medically prohibited for minors and dangerous to the children taking them. Often young patients under state supervision are also prescribed three or four high-risk drugs at a time -- all paid for by Medicaid.
State foster care programs and child protective services have had mixed success addressing the pervasiveness of dosing their clients with prescription psychotropic drugs. Using federal Medicaid monies to purchase dangerous prohibited prescriptions for children, which cost the government up to $600 per dose, is technically a violation of the law.
Now, the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, chaired by Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, has asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the drugging of foster care children. The investigators will attempt to account for estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars of possible fraud arising from prescriptions for drugs explicitly barred from Medicaid coverage. The GAO is collecting data from Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas, to search for patterns of abuse. This effort marks the first time suspicion of Medicaid fraud related to psychotropic drugs has been examined at the federal level. According to Senate staffers working on the investigation, the committee will likely hold hearings on the matter later this year.
Psychotropic medications, also called "antipsychotics," act on the central nervous system and alter brain function, mood and consciousness. The GAO investigation is chiefly focused on anti-depressants, widely used in foster care in dangerous combinations, and for so-called "off-label" uses to treat symptoms for which they have not been medically approved. Antipsychotic medications have been a factor in a number of children's deaths.
Statistics on psychotropic drugs in foster care have until now come out in scattered reports, mostly from investigations of foster care failures by individual states. For example, in 2003 a Florida Statewide Advocacy Council study found that 55 percent of Florida's foster children were being administered psychotropic medications. Forty percent of them had no record of a psychiatric evaluation. Another Florida report also indicated anti-psychotic medication use increased an astounding 528 percent from 2000 to 2005.
A Texas state study in 2004 revealed that 34.7 percent of Texas foster children were prescribed at least one antipsychotic drug -- and 174 children in the care of the state aged 6-12 were taking five or more psychotropic medications at once.
Last April, an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposed several companies operating foster care homes in Georgia repeatedly used antipsychotic medications to "subdue" children in their care. Despite being cited repeatedly, none of the agencies were fined more than $500.
According to child care experts and assessments by both advocacy groups and state government agencies, many states lack efficient records management and adequate oversight of foster care, contributing to pervasive lack of medical continuity for the children. Social workers have oversized caseloads of foster children, who are often shunted between families and prescribed antipsychotics from doctors unfamiliar with their medical histories. Without a case history, experts and foster care alumni say, doctors are more likely to add medications than take them away, resulting in record numbers of children dispensed several antipsychotic medications at once. In many cases, the drugs are prescribed off-label to kids with behavior problems.
Julie Zito is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Maryland who conducted a 2008 study of the Texas foster care system that found 41 percent of the children prescribed psych drugs received three different medications. She told Politics Daily what little research has been done suggests children in foster families are rarely assessed properly, a failure leading to serious effects. There has been no research on multiple-drug regimens, professor Zito explained, and "blitzes" of medication have become a pervasive way of dealing with behavior problems in foster care. "We've expanded the medication practice in response to children not getting better," she said, and children who fail to improve, "are getting more medication."
Pharmaceutical companies manufacturing psychotropic drugs have played a major role in encouraging their increased use on foster care clients. Drug companies participate in aggressive marketing, conduct misleading research about efficacy and safety, and in some cases, "bribe" psychiatrists to prescribe their drugs, according to Zito and Jim Gottstein, an Alaska lawyer and founder of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, who has mounted several lawsuits against pharmaceutical corporations.
For example, last year the St. Petersburg Times reported that a psychiatrist in Jacksonville, Fla., was paid for speaking engagements to encourage her to prescribe Seroquel, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and a neurologist in Tampa received free trips to Spain and Scotland from AstraZeneca, the drug's British manufacturer, for her innumerable prescriptions of the drug for headaches. Seroquel is the top-selling antipsychotic drug in the U.S., with over $4 billion per year in worldwide sales. AstraZeneca recently paid $520 million to settle lawsuits -- some brought by doctors who had been offered swag in exchange for prescriptions -- over its illegal promotion of off-label uses for Seroquel.
According to Jim Gottstein, the increase of antipsychotic use in foster care amounts to "drug companies sacrificing children's lives on the altar of corporate profits." Gottstein recently filed a citizen's suit on behalf of the state of Alaska against several doctors, drug companies, and insurance companies, claiming that they knowingly promoted Medicaid fraud.
Reform Attempts
In response to the devastating study of the Texas system in 2004, that state's top health agency introduced a new set of guidelines stressing specific treatment goals for medication and "informed consent" of parents and guardians. That effort led to decreased use of psychotropic drugs relative to the number of children enrolled in foster care from 2002 to 2009, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
In May 2005, Florida expanded foster parents' rights to reject psychotropic treatment for the children in their care. Four years later, however, a review found that the new requirements were being flauted, and the panel that investigated Gabriel Meyers' suicide concluded that every level of the Florida system had missed "warning signs" that Gabriel's care was inadequate. Thirteen percent of Florida foster children were on one or more psychotropic drug, and 16 percent of those were not approved by parents or guardians.
In 2008, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), the only psychiatrist in Congress, introduced a bill titled Invest in KIDS Act, which included stronger oversight for prescription medications in foster care. McDermott held a hearing on psychotropic drugs' use in foster care, but the bill died in committee. Near the end of George W. Bush's second term, Congress passed a law co-sponsored by McDermott that included increased oversight for "mental health" in foster care, but did not specifically mention psychotropic drugs.
"Some children in foster care may need and benefit from psychotropic medication," McDermott told Politics Daily. "But these drugs should not be used as a shortcut to treat foster children when more effective treatments, including counseling, might provide long-term benefits."
Federal and state agencies have pursued drug companies that illegally market their drugs for off-label uses, a practice that experts say heavily contributes to the overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster care.
Last year, a Justice Department action against Pfizer led to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest in the department's history. Companies convicted of major health fraud are barred from participating in Medicaid and Medicare. But worrying that a conviction would cause Pfizer to fail and cost its employees their jobs, the government allowed Pfizer's shell company, which exists solely to plead guilty in lawsuits, to be charged instead, and the drug company paid a fine. Pfizer maintains that it did not break the law.
In 2006, the New York Times obtained a batch of internal documents that showed Eli Lilly, the maker of Zyprexa, a medication approved exclusively for treating the severe mental illnesses of schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, was suppressing information on the drug's harmful side effects and advertising it illegally. Lilly paid $62 million to settle lawsuits with 32 states and the District of Columbia, and agreed to ensure that its marketing complied with the law.
How to Fix It
The problems that lead to psychotropic drug abuse in foster care are complex and deeply entrenched, but activists and advocates have proposed a number of solutions for limiting the overuse of anti-psychotics. Foster care experts, including a current task force of the American Academy of Pediatrics, believe that getting foster children a "medical home" -- one physician who manages their care over the long term and has access to relevant records -- would reduce the over-prescription of antipsychotic medications.
"Having a drug to take the edge off the pain and fear and sadness saved my life a time or two, but it's not a lifestyle." said Misty Stenslie, a former foster child who is currently the deputy director of Foster Care Alumni of America. Children under the protection of government agencies deserve the assurance of safe and decent health care. Especially, as Stenslie points out, "We can't give kids what they really need, and that's a family and love."
Filed Under: Investigations, Health Care, PD Investigations, Medicine
Tagged: antipsychotic drugs, FDA warnings, florida, foster care, foster children, Government Accountability Office, Medicaid, Suicide, texas
More articles from David Sessions »
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/17/psychotropic-drug-abuse-in-foster-care-costs-government-billions/
DAVID SESSIONS
Reporter
Author Bio »
Contact Author »
Subscribe :
Seven-year-old Gabriel Meyers didn't want soup for lunch one Thursday in April, 2009. When his 23-year-old foster brother sent Gabriel to his room for dumping his soup in the trash, Gabriel threatened to kill himself. He kicked his toys around his room, then locked himself in the bathroom.
Police reports say Gabriel was home sick that day from his elementary school in Margate, Fla., under the care of Miguel Gould, his foster father's son. Around 1:00 p.m., city police responded to Gould's frantic 911 call and found Gabriel had hanged himself.
A troubled child who had previously suffered from neglect, sexual assault, and abusive parenting, Gabriel spent the previous year shuttling among several foster parents while taking a constellation of antipsychotic medicines, including Lexapro and Vyvanse, to control his depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Like most children in Florida state foster care, Medicaid paid Gabriel's medical expenses.
Just one month before his suicide, Gabriel's doctor prescribed him Symbyax, an anti-depressant restricted for treatment of children. The medication's FDA-required label features a warning that use of the drug by children or teenagers can lead to suicide.
Symbyax does not meet criteria established by Congress for Medicaid reimbursement., so it is illegal for Medicaid to pay for a prescription of the drug to a child. Sohail Punjwani, the doctor who prescribed Gabriel's Symbyax, received a stern letter from the FDA about his history of over-prescribing mental health drugs.
According to a number of foster care experts who spoke with Politics Daily, children in foster care, who are typically concurrently enrolled in Medicaid, are three or four more times as likely to be on antipsychotic medications than other children on Medicaid. Alarmingly, many of these drugs are medically prohibited for minors and dangerous to the children taking them. Often young patients under state supervision are also prescribed three or four high-risk drugs at a time -- all paid for by Medicaid.
State foster care programs and child protective services have had mixed success addressing the pervasiveness of dosing their clients with prescription psychotropic drugs. Using federal Medicaid monies to purchase dangerous prohibited prescriptions for children, which cost the government up to $600 per dose, is technically a violation of the law.
Now, the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, chaired by Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, has asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the drugging of foster care children. The investigators will attempt to account for estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars of possible fraud arising from prescriptions for drugs explicitly barred from Medicaid coverage. The GAO is collecting data from Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas, to search for patterns of abuse. This effort marks the first time suspicion of Medicaid fraud related to psychotropic drugs has been examined at the federal level. According to Senate staffers working on the investigation, the committee will likely hold hearings on the matter later this year.
Psychotropic medications, also called "antipsychotics," act on the central nervous system and alter brain function, mood and consciousness. The GAO investigation is chiefly focused on anti-depressants, widely used in foster care in dangerous combinations, and for so-called "off-label" uses to treat symptoms for which they have not been medically approved. Antipsychotic medications have been a factor in a number of children's deaths.
Statistics on psychotropic drugs in foster care have until now come out in scattered reports, mostly from investigations of foster care failures by individual states. For example, in 2003 a Florida Statewide Advocacy Council study found that 55 percent of Florida's foster children were being administered psychotropic medications. Forty percent of them had no record of a psychiatric evaluation. Another Florida report also indicated anti-psychotic medication use increased an astounding 528 percent from 2000 to 2005.
A Texas state study in 2004 revealed that 34.7 percent of Texas foster children were prescribed at least one antipsychotic drug -- and 174 children in the care of the state aged 6-12 were taking five or more psychotropic medications at once.
Last April, an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposed several companies operating foster care homes in Georgia repeatedly used antipsychotic medications to "subdue" children in their care. Despite being cited repeatedly, none of the agencies were fined more than $500.
According to child care experts and assessments by both advocacy groups and state government agencies, many states lack efficient records management and adequate oversight of foster care, contributing to pervasive lack of medical continuity for the children. Social workers have oversized caseloads of foster children, who are often shunted between families and prescribed antipsychotics from doctors unfamiliar with their medical histories. Without a case history, experts and foster care alumni say, doctors are more likely to add medications than take them away, resulting in record numbers of children dispensed several antipsychotic medications at once. In many cases, the drugs are prescribed off-label to kids with behavior problems.
Julie Zito is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Maryland who conducted a 2008 study of the Texas foster care system that found 41 percent of the children prescribed psych drugs received three different medications. She told Politics Daily what little research has been done suggests children in foster families are rarely assessed properly, a failure leading to serious effects. There has been no research on multiple-drug regimens, professor Zito explained, and "blitzes" of medication have become a pervasive way of dealing with behavior problems in foster care. "We've expanded the medication practice in response to children not getting better," she said, and children who fail to improve, "are getting more medication."
Pharmaceutical companies manufacturing psychotropic drugs have played a major role in encouraging their increased use on foster care clients. Drug companies participate in aggressive marketing, conduct misleading research about efficacy and safety, and in some cases, "bribe" psychiatrists to prescribe their drugs, according to Zito and Jim Gottstein, an Alaska lawyer and founder of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, who has mounted several lawsuits against pharmaceutical corporations.
For example, last year the St. Petersburg Times reported that a psychiatrist in Jacksonville, Fla., was paid for speaking engagements to encourage her to prescribe Seroquel, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and a neurologist in Tampa received free trips to Spain and Scotland from AstraZeneca, the drug's British manufacturer, for her innumerable prescriptions of the drug for headaches. Seroquel is the top-selling antipsychotic drug in the U.S., with over $4 billion per year in worldwide sales. AstraZeneca recently paid $520 million to settle lawsuits -- some brought by doctors who had been offered swag in exchange for prescriptions -- over its illegal promotion of off-label uses for Seroquel.
According to Jim Gottstein, the increase of antipsychotic use in foster care amounts to "drug companies sacrificing children's lives on the altar of corporate profits." Gottstein recently filed a citizen's suit on behalf of the state of Alaska against several doctors, drug companies, and insurance companies, claiming that they knowingly promoted Medicaid fraud.
Reform Attempts
In response to the devastating study of the Texas system in 2004, that state's top health agency introduced a new set of guidelines stressing specific treatment goals for medication and "informed consent" of parents and guardians. That effort led to decreased use of psychotropic drugs relative to the number of children enrolled in foster care from 2002 to 2009, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
In May 2005, Florida expanded foster parents' rights to reject psychotropic treatment for the children in their care. Four years later, however, a review found that the new requirements were being flauted, and the panel that investigated Gabriel Meyers' suicide concluded that every level of the Florida system had missed "warning signs" that Gabriel's care was inadequate. Thirteen percent of Florida foster children were on one or more psychotropic drug, and 16 percent of those were not approved by parents or guardians.
In 2008, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), the only psychiatrist in Congress, introduced a bill titled Invest in KIDS Act, which included stronger oversight for prescription medications in foster care. McDermott held a hearing on psychotropic drugs' use in foster care, but the bill died in committee. Near the end of George W. Bush's second term, Congress passed a law co-sponsored by McDermott that included increased oversight for "mental health" in foster care, but did not specifically mention psychotropic drugs.
"Some children in foster care may need and benefit from psychotropic medication," McDermott told Politics Daily. "But these drugs should not be used as a shortcut to treat foster children when more effective treatments, including counseling, might provide long-term benefits."
Federal and state agencies have pursued drug companies that illegally market their drugs for off-label uses, a practice that experts say heavily contributes to the overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster care.
Last year, a Justice Department action against Pfizer led to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest in the department's history. Companies convicted of major health fraud are barred from participating in Medicaid and Medicare. But worrying that a conviction would cause Pfizer to fail and cost its employees their jobs, the government allowed Pfizer's shell company, which exists solely to plead guilty in lawsuits, to be charged instead, and the drug company paid a fine. Pfizer maintains that it did not break the law.
In 2006, the New York Times obtained a batch of internal documents that showed Eli Lilly, the maker of Zyprexa, a medication approved exclusively for treating the severe mental illnesses of schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, was suppressing information on the drug's harmful side effects and advertising it illegally. Lilly paid $62 million to settle lawsuits with 32 states and the District of Columbia, and agreed to ensure that its marketing complied with the law.
How to Fix It
The problems that lead to psychotropic drug abuse in foster care are complex and deeply entrenched, but activists and advocates have proposed a number of solutions for limiting the overuse of anti-psychotics. Foster care experts, including a current task force of the American Academy of Pediatrics, believe that getting foster children a "medical home" -- one physician who manages their care over the long term and has access to relevant records -- would reduce the over-prescription of antipsychotic medications.
"Having a drug to take the edge off the pain and fear and sadness saved my life a time or two, but it's not a lifestyle." said Misty Stenslie, a former foster child who is currently the deputy director of Foster Care Alumni of America. Children under the protection of government agencies deserve the assurance of safe and decent health care. Especially, as Stenslie points out, "We can't give kids what they really need, and that's a family and love."
Filed Under: Investigations, Health Care, PD Investigations, Medicine
Tagged: antipsychotic drugs, FDA warnings, florida, foster care, foster children, Government Accountability Office, Medicaid, Suicide, texas
More articles from David Sessions »
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/17/psychotropic-drug-abuse-in-foster-care-costs-government-billions/
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Jan Smith of Wa State on hunger strike in front of cps building-Another Grandmother's Rights Violated by CPS
Jan Smith of Wa State on hunger strike in front of cps building
Jane Boyer
show details 6:31 PM
From: Jan Smith [mailto:sunflowerinthemist2006@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:28 AM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Newstip and legal
Jan Smith of Washington State Extended Families is going on a hunger strike in front of the Olympia Department of Social and Health Services starting Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 9 a.m. She reports that the department regularly brings false and misleading information into the courts and judges are supporting a corrupt, dangerous system that is needlessly destroying families all over the state. "There is no due process of law for extended families," states Smith who has found herself vulnerable to verbal slander within court process when she is not a party to the case. "The public is duped thinking that the department cares about families and children when the reality is that it is about federal funding and win/lose."
While the department likes to create the illusion that it saves children, statistics show that a small percentage of children benefit by their cookie cutter programs and false advertising. "This is the only way to make a point on this. Going through the court is a waste of time and the department is too self serving to be of community benefit," she reports. "One child a month dies at the hands of CPS."
Smith states that a homestudy was filled with misinformation and there are no avenues for relief. "Extended families are finding that CPS is not a friend of the family, but have a strong determination to adopt out to strangers. They are nitpicking family to death while ignoring glaring deficits in foster adopt families." She says that they are going to adopt out her grandchildren to complete strangers when she is able and willing to take care of them. "This is the side to the system the public never sees. Most don't even believe it till it happens to them."
Jane Boyer
show details 6:31 PM
From: Jan Smith [mailto:sunflowerinthemist2006@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:28 AM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Newstip and legal
Jan Smith of Washington State Extended Families is going on a hunger strike in front of the Olympia Department of Social and Health Services starting Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 9 a.m. She reports that the department regularly brings false and misleading information into the courts and judges are supporting a corrupt, dangerous system that is needlessly destroying families all over the state. "There is no due process of law for extended families," states Smith who has found herself vulnerable to verbal slander within court process when she is not a party to the case. "The public is duped thinking that the department cares about families and children when the reality is that it is about federal funding and win/lose."
While the department likes to create the illusion that it saves children, statistics show that a small percentage of children benefit by their cookie cutter programs and false advertising. "This is the only way to make a point on this. Going through the court is a waste of time and the department is too self serving to be of community benefit," she reports. "One child a month dies at the hands of CPS."
Smith states that a homestudy was filled with misinformation and there are no avenues for relief. "Extended families are finding that CPS is not a friend of the family, but have a strong determination to adopt out to strangers. They are nitpicking family to death while ignoring glaring deficits in foster adopt families." She says that they are going to adopt out her grandchildren to complete strangers when she is able and willing to take care of them. "This is the side to the system the public never sees. Most don't even believe it till it happens to them."
Justices affirm $5 million verdict for Seal Beach mom
Published: June 15, 2010
Updated: 2:11 p.m.
Justices affirm $5 million verdict for Seal Beach mom
By LARRY WELBORN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Story Highlights
Woman contended her children were wrongfully taken away after O.C. social workers fabricated evidence against her.
ARTICLE
SANTA ANA – A Santa Ana appellate court has affirmed a nearly $5 million legal judgment delivered in 2007 against Orange County's Department of Social Services for wrongfully depriving a Seal Beach woman of her children.
In a 35-page opinion released on Monday, justices of the Fourth District Court of Appeal said a jury verdict in favor of Deana Fogarty-Hardwick was based upon on evidence of improper conduct by social workers.ADVERTISEMENT
More from Los Alamitos-Rossmoor-Seal Beach-Sunset Beach-Surfside
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Lawyers for Fogarty-Hardwick contended that two social workers fabricated negative evidence against her and suppressed positive evidence to support their decision to recommend that her daughters, who were then 6 and 9, be taken from her care and control.
The lawsuit contended that an Orange County commissioner in 2000 removed the girls from Fogarty-Hardwick's custody because of the fraudulent statements by the social workers, and they were placed first in Orangewood Children's Home and then in foster care.
A civil jury in Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer's courtroom voted 10-2 that Fogarty-Hardwick's right to raise her children free of governmental interference had been violated, said Shawn A. McMillan, one of her attorneys.
McMillan said the more than $4.9 million verdict included approximately $4.5 million in general damages against the county for providing inadequate training and/or supervision to the social workers and for showing deliberate indifference.
The verdict was one of the largest of its kind in the state and perhaps the nation.
But in May 2007, the county board of supervisors decided to appeal after Dr. Michael Riley, the director of Children and Family Services, contended that the verdict had been unfair.
The decision handed down Monday is the result of that appeal. It also affirmed $1.6 million in attorneys' fees.
In the opinion, Justice William Bedsworth wrote, "the evidence adduced at trial obviously caused both the jury and the judge to conclude not only that something seriously wrong was done to Fogarty-Hardwick in this case, but also that the wrongful conduct was not an isolated incident.
"This conclusion is something the County should be taking very seriously,'' Bedsworth added.
Justices Kathleen O'Leary and Eileen Moore concurred in the decision.
The opinion did strike two injunctions imposed against the Department of Social Services by Judge Bauer after the Fogarty-Hardwick trial.
Bauer ordered that the county be barred from including allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment against parents in dependency cases without some evidence, and he also banned the agency from requiring a parent to sign a "voluntary agreement" waiving parental rights unless the agency had reasonable evidence that the child was in danger.
In the Fogarty-Hardwick case, she contended that she was coerced to sign such an agreement.
In a 2007 interview, Fogarty-Hardwick said that after her children were taken away by the county in February 2000, she was allowed only monitored visits for two years when they were at Orangewood Children's Home and with foster parents.
Her ex-husband was given custody of the children in 2002, and she was given visitation two weekends a month, Fogarty-Hardwick said. She later shared custody of her daughters with her ex-husband when they became teenagers.
Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-3784
http://www.ocregister.com/news/fogarty-253495-hardwick-children.html
Updated: 2:11 p.m.
Justices affirm $5 million verdict for Seal Beach mom
By LARRY WELBORN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Story Highlights
Woman contended her children were wrongfully taken away after O.C. social workers fabricated evidence against her.
ARTICLE
SANTA ANA – A Santa Ana appellate court has affirmed a nearly $5 million legal judgment delivered in 2007 against Orange County's Department of Social Services for wrongfully depriving a Seal Beach woman of her children.
In a 35-page opinion released on Monday, justices of the Fourth District Court of Appeal said a jury verdict in favor of Deana Fogarty-Hardwick was based upon on evidence of improper conduct by social workers.ADVERTISEMENT
More from Los Alamitos-Rossmoor-Seal Beach-Sunset Beach-Surfside
What's on sale? Grocery deals this week
2 seconds ago
Laker Girls go 'Boom Boom' to Seal Beach band
Beach town homebuying up 40% in May
Justices affirm $5 million verdict for Seal Beach mom
'Watermelon patch' mayor may run again
Lawyers for Fogarty-Hardwick contended that two social workers fabricated negative evidence against her and suppressed positive evidence to support their decision to recommend that her daughters, who were then 6 and 9, be taken from her care and control.
The lawsuit contended that an Orange County commissioner in 2000 removed the girls from Fogarty-Hardwick's custody because of the fraudulent statements by the social workers, and they were placed first in Orangewood Children's Home and then in foster care.
A civil jury in Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer's courtroom voted 10-2 that Fogarty-Hardwick's right to raise her children free of governmental interference had been violated, said Shawn A. McMillan, one of her attorneys.
McMillan said the more than $4.9 million verdict included approximately $4.5 million in general damages against the county for providing inadequate training and/or supervision to the social workers and for showing deliberate indifference.
The verdict was one of the largest of its kind in the state and perhaps the nation.
But in May 2007, the county board of supervisors decided to appeal after Dr. Michael Riley, the director of Children and Family Services, contended that the verdict had been unfair.
The decision handed down Monday is the result of that appeal. It also affirmed $1.6 million in attorneys' fees.
In the opinion, Justice William Bedsworth wrote, "the evidence adduced at trial obviously caused both the jury and the judge to conclude not only that something seriously wrong was done to Fogarty-Hardwick in this case, but also that the wrongful conduct was not an isolated incident.
"This conclusion is something the County should be taking very seriously,'' Bedsworth added.
Justices Kathleen O'Leary and Eileen Moore concurred in the decision.
The opinion did strike two injunctions imposed against the Department of Social Services by Judge Bauer after the Fogarty-Hardwick trial.
Bauer ordered that the county be barred from including allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment against parents in dependency cases without some evidence, and he also banned the agency from requiring a parent to sign a "voluntary agreement" waiving parental rights unless the agency had reasonable evidence that the child was in danger.
In the Fogarty-Hardwick case, she contended that she was coerced to sign such an agreement.
In a 2007 interview, Fogarty-Hardwick said that after her children were taken away by the county in February 2000, she was allowed only monitored visits for two years when they were at Orangewood Children's Home and with foster parents.
Her ex-husband was given custody of the children in 2002, and she was given visitation two weekends a month, Fogarty-Hardwick said. She later shared custody of her daughters with her ex-husband when they became teenagers.
Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-3784
http://www.ocregister.com/news/fogarty-253495-hardwick-children.html
Bridge Project aims to help abused kids NH
http://www.reformer.com/newenglandnews/ci_15305878
Bridge Project aims to help abused kids
Note: My comment is at the bottom of the article. Please go to the article annd comment!
By HOLLY RAMER / Associated Press
Wednesday June 16, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. -- Some abused children recover quickly once they’re in a safe environment. Others may shut down and prove harder to reach. Recognizing and responding to those differences are among the goals of a new project aimed at synchronizing the state agencies that serve the youngest victims of abuse, neglect and other trauma.
"We need to make sure we have providers and I have staff who are able to understand and recognize that trauma can play out in different ways with different children, including children in the same family," said Maggie Bishop, director of the state Division of Children, Youth and Families. "That trauma begins to play itself out in how they are becoming either healthy or unhealthy adolescents, and we want to make sure the sooner we can intervene on that, the better."
The Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Center at Dartmouth Medical School has been awarded a three-year federal grant to oversee the New Hampshire Bridge Project. The project will train managers and workers in Bishop’s agency, the juvenile justice system and the family court system to more effectively serve children with emotional and behavioral problems resulting from trauma.
Dr. Stanley Rosenberg, the center’s director, said the project builds upon the center’s previous work, which focused on bringing the best practices in treating childhood trauma to community mental health centers. But the highest-risk children
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don’t always have access to that treatment and are more likely to show up in the child welfare or juvenile justice system, he said.
"A child gets involved with the juvenile justice system because of delinquency or anti-social behavior, but we know that the great majority of kids in that system are themselves survivors of trauma and abuse scenarios, often undiagnosed and rarely treated appropriately," he said.
More than 200 representatives from state agencies and other service providers are expected to attend the project’s first meeting Thursday in Hanover, where they will hear from Charles Wilson, director of the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego. Both his center and the Dartmouth center are part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
Wilson, who will serve as a consultant to the Bridge Project, said the goal is to train the agencies to perform their jobs in a way that takes into account a child’s trauma history.
"We realized that focusing on mental health treatment for traumatized treatment is necessary but not sufficient to help them recover, because these children live in families, live in communities and many are in systems like child welfare and juvenile justice," he said.
"And if those systems are not aware of trauma issues and helping support traumatized children and their families, no amount of mental health work by itself is going to work."
He described his own experience investigating child abuse complaints in the 1970s and said that back then, the focus was almost exclusively on a child’s physical safety in deciding whether to remove a child from a home. Today, physical safety is still the priority, but the emotional impact also is taken into account. That could mean something as simple as making sure the child has his favorite teddy bear when he’s moved.
"Often what we’re talking about are not radically different things, it’s being more aware and sensitive to the trauma needs of children. it doesn’t require people to work a lot harder, it just requires them to work differently and be aware of the impact of trauma," he said.
Bishop said the project will build upon progress the agencies have made in collaborating with each other. While the state hasn’t seen an increase in children experiencing trauma, the severity of their problems has increased, she said. Early intervention in those cases is especially crucial, she said.
"What’s key to treating trauma is breaking the cycle, that’s the major piece," she said.
Dot Knightly
Join the community
Manchester, NH
1 min ago
Maggie Bishop fails to mention that most of NH's traumatized children, are traumatized due to being yanked out of their homes Illegally by DCYF. Many of the parents are falsely accused. Their children are removed immediately, as DCYF claims every child is in imminent danger. Services to these families is never an option, even though they are mandated by our Federal government.
Maggie Bishop also fail's to mention these children traumatized by the loss of their families, who try to commit suicide and have new found violent behavior, are then fed psycho-tropic drugs by DCYF making them worth more money, especially once their parent's rights are terminated and they are auctioned off for adoption, which is common practice in NH, seeing as children are NEVER returned, all parent's rights are terminated and the NH Supreme Court never reverses a TPR.(Words of a Nashua DCYF caseworker). Today physical safety is NOT a priority, considering all the physically abused children in NH still suffering abuse because DCYF is too busy railroading innocent parents. They will snag a white child first, before a bi-racial child and alway's a baby first and foremost as they have a list of waiting foster to adopt stranger's who have put in their order's for a baby. The younger the better.
A child doesn't even have to be abused or neglected to be stolen by DCYF and in DCYF cases there is NO burden of proof. Hearsay will do the trick along with DCYF's psychic ability of stealing a child for "Neglect in the Future."
There wouldn't be so many children in NH with emotional and behavioral problems if DCYF were held accountable for their many deceitful practices. DCYF is turning our children into psycho's. Most of them don't even have children of their own and they have NO CLUE how to raise a child. They are too lazy and ignorant when it comes to dealing with a traumatized child, so they drug them. Ask her how she really feels about children. She sure told me when she said I should have left my daughter in jail to die and then asked why she isn't dead.Ask Maggie Bishop about all this. Oh, don't bother, all she'll tell you is lies. I believe it's time for Maggie Bishop to find a new line of work. Maybe she'd do well as a bank teller, seeing as all she see's is dollar sign's. How about hiring someone who REALLY believes in family preservation, not family destruction!
Bridge Project aims to help abused kids
Note: My comment is at the bottom of the article. Please go to the article annd comment!
By HOLLY RAMER / Associated Press
Wednesday June 16, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. -- Some abused children recover quickly once they’re in a safe environment. Others may shut down and prove harder to reach. Recognizing and responding to those differences are among the goals of a new project aimed at synchronizing the state agencies that serve the youngest victims of abuse, neglect and other trauma.
"We need to make sure we have providers and I have staff who are able to understand and recognize that trauma can play out in different ways with different children, including children in the same family," said Maggie Bishop, director of the state Division of Children, Youth and Families. "That trauma begins to play itself out in how they are becoming either healthy or unhealthy adolescents, and we want to make sure the sooner we can intervene on that, the better."
The Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Center at Dartmouth Medical School has been awarded a three-year federal grant to oversee the New Hampshire Bridge Project. The project will train managers and workers in Bishop’s agency, the juvenile justice system and the family court system to more effectively serve children with emotional and behavioral problems resulting from trauma.
Dr. Stanley Rosenberg, the center’s director, said the project builds upon the center’s previous work, which focused on bringing the best practices in treating childhood trauma to community mental health centers. But the highest-risk children
Advertisement
don’t always have access to that treatment and are more likely to show up in the child welfare or juvenile justice system, he said.
"A child gets involved with the juvenile justice system because of delinquency or anti-social behavior, but we know that the great majority of kids in that system are themselves survivors of trauma and abuse scenarios, often undiagnosed and rarely treated appropriately," he said.
More than 200 representatives from state agencies and other service providers are expected to attend the project’s first meeting Thursday in Hanover, where they will hear from Charles Wilson, director of the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego. Both his center and the Dartmouth center are part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
Wilson, who will serve as a consultant to the Bridge Project, said the goal is to train the agencies to perform their jobs in a way that takes into account a child’s trauma history.
"We realized that focusing on mental health treatment for traumatized treatment is necessary but not sufficient to help them recover, because these children live in families, live in communities and many are in systems like child welfare and juvenile justice," he said.
"And if those systems are not aware of trauma issues and helping support traumatized children and their families, no amount of mental health work by itself is going to work."
He described his own experience investigating child abuse complaints in the 1970s and said that back then, the focus was almost exclusively on a child’s physical safety in deciding whether to remove a child from a home. Today, physical safety is still the priority, but the emotional impact also is taken into account. That could mean something as simple as making sure the child has his favorite teddy bear when he’s moved.
"Often what we’re talking about are not radically different things, it’s being more aware and sensitive to the trauma needs of children. it doesn’t require people to work a lot harder, it just requires them to work differently and be aware of the impact of trauma," he said.
Bishop said the project will build upon progress the agencies have made in collaborating with each other. While the state hasn’t seen an increase in children experiencing trauma, the severity of their problems has increased, she said. Early intervention in those cases is especially crucial, she said.
"What’s key to treating trauma is breaking the cycle, that’s the major piece," she said.
Dot Knightly
Join the community
Manchester, NH
1 min ago
Maggie Bishop fails to mention that most of NH's traumatized children, are traumatized due to being yanked out of their homes Illegally by DCYF. Many of the parents are falsely accused. Their children are removed immediately, as DCYF claims every child is in imminent danger. Services to these families is never an option, even though they are mandated by our Federal government.
Maggie Bishop also fail's to mention these children traumatized by the loss of their families, who try to commit suicide and have new found violent behavior, are then fed psycho-tropic drugs by DCYF making them worth more money, especially once their parent's rights are terminated and they are auctioned off for adoption, which is common practice in NH, seeing as children are NEVER returned, all parent's rights are terminated and the NH Supreme Court never reverses a TPR.(Words of a Nashua DCYF caseworker). Today physical safety is NOT a priority, considering all the physically abused children in NH still suffering abuse because DCYF is too busy railroading innocent parents. They will snag a white child first, before a bi-racial child and alway's a baby first and foremost as they have a list of waiting foster to adopt stranger's who have put in their order's for a baby. The younger the better.
A child doesn't even have to be abused or neglected to be stolen by DCYF and in DCYF cases there is NO burden of proof. Hearsay will do the trick along with DCYF's psychic ability of stealing a child for "Neglect in the Future."
There wouldn't be so many children in NH with emotional and behavioral problems if DCYF were held accountable for their many deceitful practices. DCYF is turning our children into psycho's. Most of them don't even have children of their own and they have NO CLUE how to raise a child. They are too lazy and ignorant when it comes to dealing with a traumatized child, so they drug them. Ask her how she really feels about children. She sure told me when she said I should have left my daughter in jail to die and then asked why she isn't dead.Ask Maggie Bishop about all this. Oh, don't bother, all she'll tell you is lies. I believe it's time for Maggie Bishop to find a new line of work. Maybe she'd do well as a bank teller, seeing as all she see's is dollar sign's. How about hiring someone who REALLY believes in family preservation, not family destruction!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Panel examines policies on placing children in state custody
Panel examines policies on placing children in state custody
Posted on 15 June 2010
By Lewis Delavan
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Legislators questioned human services officials today on whether grandparents and other relatives are being given preferential treatment in placement of children removed from their parents’ custody.
Cecile Blucker, director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the Department of Human Services, told members of a legislative subcommittee the agency’s goal is to boost its services to families to avoid placing children in the foster care system. If family reunification is not possible, permanent placement with relatives or other adults who have a close relationship to the child is the preferred option, she said.
Blucker also gave a progress report on the training and placement of new foster care caseworkers as the subcommittee undertakes a comprehensive study of DHS goals, policy initiatives, programs, procedures and rules affecting grandparents and other relatives of children removed from their parents and placed in state custody.
The study proposal is sponsored by Reps. Mike Burris, D-Malvern, and Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia.
Burris told DHS officials Tuesday that family members should receive preference for custody of children removed from their parents, but that his constituents have expressed concerns that the agency might remove children from parents without the knowledge of grandparents and other adult relatives.
He and Rep. Richard Carroll, D-North Little Rock, said they were concerned that family members would lose contact with children who are placed in permanent custody of a non-relative.
Act 1311 of 2009 requires DHS to notify all adult grandparents and other adult relatives within 30 days of a juvenile transferred to its custody. It also requires DHS to provide the circuit court with information and recommendations on child placement and visitation with a grandparent or other adult relative. Burris, who sponsored the act, said he wants to ensure the requirement is followed.
“What price do you put on connectivity and love?” Burris asked.
DHS attorney Lisa McGee said family members always receive preference for placement but other factors also are considered, such as the household’s financial ability to care for children or whether relatives were aware of abuse.
“A lot of times we find that family members knew abuse was occurring,” McGee said.
Blucker told the panel that new child welfare caseworkers are helping DHS improve its oversight of children in state custody. Filling 100 new caseworker slots last fall is just starting to show results, she said.
“We want to truly transform the (child welfare) system, rather than just meet standards,” Blucker told members of a House subcommittee on children and youth.
The Legislature last year authorized the new caseworkers as part of an upgrade of the state’s child welfare system in response to a string of cases involving the deaths and abuse of children in the state’s foster care program.
Blucker said DCFS is partnering with Casey Family Programs to improve its services. The Seattle-based private foundation is conducting staff training around the state, she said.
Improved compliance with its standards will help children, Blucker said.
“We want to hold people accountable and have the right person in each position,” she said.
Caseworkers are required to make monthly on-site visits to foster homes, but Blucker said currently about 64 percent of the visits are occurring. Likely more visits actually are being conducted but not properly documented, she said.
Staffing improvements should boost compliance, Blucker said.
Also, she said, staff turnover is down to about 20 percent to 22 percent, and adding caseworkers has helped improve morale.
She cited exit surveys that showed departing caseworkers felt they lacked their supervisor’s support. Placing the right person in supervisory slots and ensuring compliance with standards has boosted retention, she said.
http://arkansasnews.com/2010/06/15/panel-examines-polices-on-placing-children-in-state-custody/
Posted on 15 June 2010
By Lewis Delavan
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Legislators questioned human services officials today on whether grandparents and other relatives are being given preferential treatment in placement of children removed from their parents’ custody.
Cecile Blucker, director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the Department of Human Services, told members of a legislative subcommittee the agency’s goal is to boost its services to families to avoid placing children in the foster care system. If family reunification is not possible, permanent placement with relatives or other adults who have a close relationship to the child is the preferred option, she said.
Blucker also gave a progress report on the training and placement of new foster care caseworkers as the subcommittee undertakes a comprehensive study of DHS goals, policy initiatives, programs, procedures and rules affecting grandparents and other relatives of children removed from their parents and placed in state custody.
The study proposal is sponsored by Reps. Mike Burris, D-Malvern, and Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia.
Burris told DHS officials Tuesday that family members should receive preference for custody of children removed from their parents, but that his constituents have expressed concerns that the agency might remove children from parents without the knowledge of grandparents and other adult relatives.
He and Rep. Richard Carroll, D-North Little Rock, said they were concerned that family members would lose contact with children who are placed in permanent custody of a non-relative.
Act 1311 of 2009 requires DHS to notify all adult grandparents and other adult relatives within 30 days of a juvenile transferred to its custody. It also requires DHS to provide the circuit court with information and recommendations on child placement and visitation with a grandparent or other adult relative. Burris, who sponsored the act, said he wants to ensure the requirement is followed.
“What price do you put on connectivity and love?” Burris asked.
DHS attorney Lisa McGee said family members always receive preference for placement but other factors also are considered, such as the household’s financial ability to care for children or whether relatives were aware of abuse.
“A lot of times we find that family members knew abuse was occurring,” McGee said.
Blucker told the panel that new child welfare caseworkers are helping DHS improve its oversight of children in state custody. Filling 100 new caseworker slots last fall is just starting to show results, she said.
“We want to truly transform the (child welfare) system, rather than just meet standards,” Blucker told members of a House subcommittee on children and youth.
The Legislature last year authorized the new caseworkers as part of an upgrade of the state’s child welfare system in response to a string of cases involving the deaths and abuse of children in the state’s foster care program.
Blucker said DCFS is partnering with Casey Family Programs to improve its services. The Seattle-based private foundation is conducting staff training around the state, she said.
Improved compliance with its standards will help children, Blucker said.
“We want to hold people accountable and have the right person in each position,” she said.
Caseworkers are required to make monthly on-site visits to foster homes, but Blucker said currently about 64 percent of the visits are occurring. Likely more visits actually are being conducted but not properly documented, she said.
Staffing improvements should boost compliance, Blucker said.
Also, she said, staff turnover is down to about 20 percent to 22 percent, and adding caseworkers has helped improve morale.
She cited exit surveys that showed departing caseworkers felt they lacked their supervisor’s support. Placing the right person in supervisory slots and ensuring compliance with standards has boosted retention, she said.
http://arkansasnews.com/2010/06/15/panel-examines-polices-on-placing-children-in-state-custody/
Child abuse list: ‘Guilty until found innocent' (In NH, your Guilty even when proven innocent)
Child abuse list: ‘Guilty until found innocent'
By TERI SFORZA
tsforza@ocregister.com
Note-In NH your guilty even when proven innocent and your children are still NEVER returned!
Nearly 800 Orange County residents landed on the state’s list of child abusers last year — based on investigations that failed to determine whether any abuse actually occurred.
The names of these 792 maybe/maybe-not abusers can remain on the California Child Abuse Central Index for 10 years, and the list can be seen by employers, schools, local police departments, adoption agencies, etc.
“In a laudable attempt to protect children, the CACI process jeopardizes the reputation and employment status of thousands of Orange County residents, the Orange County Grand Jury says in “CACI: Child Abuse Central Index: Guilty Until Found Innocent.”
“The process and guidelines for placing someone on the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) based on an Inconclusive finding are confusing, highly subjective and provide little protection for those individuals falsely accused of abuse.”
Problem is, California law requiresthat inconclusive investigations be reported to the child abuse index. “This represents a conflict with the American legal principle of innocent until proven guilty,” the grand jury declares.
How to fix? ” Orange County should join other counties in supporting a revision of the California Penal Code that would eliminate or modify the Inconclusive finding,” it says.
Which is sweet music to the ears of folks like George and Bette McFetridge, an Irvine couple who wound up on the child abuse list after an adoption-gone-awry.
The McFetridges fought back, and were ultimately removed from the list, but they’re suing the Orange County Social Services Agency in an attempt to change a system that they say shoots first and asks questions later.
“I’m thrilled that they took the time to investigate this, and they did a real good analysis of the law,” said George McFetridge (who, incidentally, is a deputy district attorney for Orange County). “The ‘inconclusive’ category has been eliminated in most states. Theoretically, there are 792 other lawsuits out there, and that’s just this year. This could get very expensive.
“It’s a great idea, you want to protect children, but a list that’s not accurate does more harm than good.”
Changing state law to eliminate the “inconclusive” finding “is something that’s been long overdue,” said Bette McFetridge.
The grand jury report comes at a time when other courts in the nation are declaring child-abuse registries like California’s to be unconstitutional, because alleged abusers had no chance to defend themselves before being listed.
The grand jury found that social workers are as frustrated with the system as the McFetridges. It also recommends that:
Orange County’s department of children and family services should be the central reporting agency for all county child abuse index reports, and should conduct all grievance hearings.
Case files should reflect oral and written notification of the suspects and any unsuccessful contact should be noted.
Registered mail should be considered for written notifications.
The county has 90 days to respond.
Read the full report here or here: child-abuse-report. Our reports on the McFetridges’ case are here:
Adoption gone awry lands couple on child abuse list
System branding people as child abusers under attack
Judge narrows suit regarding innocents on child abuse index
http://www.ocregister.com/news/strong-253493-state-innocent.html
By TERI SFORZA
tsforza@ocregister.com
Note-In NH your guilty even when proven innocent and your children are still NEVER returned!
Nearly 800 Orange County residents landed on the state’s list of child abusers last year — based on investigations that failed to determine whether any abuse actually occurred.
The names of these 792 maybe/maybe-not abusers can remain on the California Child Abuse Central Index for 10 years, and the list can be seen by employers, schools, local police departments, adoption agencies, etc.
“In a laudable attempt to protect children, the CACI process jeopardizes the reputation and employment status of thousands of Orange County residents, the Orange County Grand Jury says in “CACI: Child Abuse Central Index: Guilty Until Found Innocent.”
“The process and guidelines for placing someone on the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) based on an Inconclusive finding are confusing, highly subjective and provide little protection for those individuals falsely accused of abuse.”
Problem is, California law requiresthat inconclusive investigations be reported to the child abuse index. “This represents a conflict with the American legal principle of innocent until proven guilty,” the grand jury declares.
How to fix? ” Orange County should join other counties in supporting a revision of the California Penal Code that would eliminate or modify the Inconclusive finding,” it says.
Which is sweet music to the ears of folks like George and Bette McFetridge, an Irvine couple who wound up on the child abuse list after an adoption-gone-awry.
The McFetridges fought back, and were ultimately removed from the list, but they’re suing the Orange County Social Services Agency in an attempt to change a system that they say shoots first and asks questions later.
“I’m thrilled that they took the time to investigate this, and they did a real good analysis of the law,” said George McFetridge (who, incidentally, is a deputy district attorney for Orange County). “The ‘inconclusive’ category has been eliminated in most states. Theoretically, there are 792 other lawsuits out there, and that’s just this year. This could get very expensive.
“It’s a great idea, you want to protect children, but a list that’s not accurate does more harm than good.”
Changing state law to eliminate the “inconclusive” finding “is something that’s been long overdue,” said Bette McFetridge.
The grand jury report comes at a time when other courts in the nation are declaring child-abuse registries like California’s to be unconstitutional, because alleged abusers had no chance to defend themselves before being listed.
The grand jury found that social workers are as frustrated with the system as the McFetridges. It also recommends that:
Orange County’s department of children and family services should be the central reporting agency for all county child abuse index reports, and should conduct all grievance hearings.
Case files should reflect oral and written notification of the suspects and any unsuccessful contact should be noted.
Registered mail should be considered for written notifications.
The county has 90 days to respond.
Read the full report here or here: child-abuse-report. Our reports on the McFetridges’ case are here:
Adoption gone awry lands couple on child abuse list
System branding people as child abusers under attack
Judge narrows suit regarding innocents on child abuse index
http://www.ocregister.com/news/strong-253493-state-innocent.html
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