Kentucky child-welfare officials draw sharp criticism from lawmakers

Written by Deborah Yetter

FRANKFORT, KY. — At a packed committee hearing, Kentucky legislators berated the state’s top child-welfare officials Monday for failing to accurately report child-abuse fatalities.

And one lawmaker called for the resignation of the cabinet secretary who oversees Kentucky’s child-welfare programs, saying the state was withholding information.

“It concerns me the cabinet appears to have the attitude that it does not have to comply with the law, and it does not have to comply with court orders,” said Sen. Julie Denton, a Louisville Republican who is co-chairman of the interim joint Health and Welfare Committee, adding that the cabinet is “is broken, has gone rogue and is shrouded in secrecy.”

During a contentious committee hearing, several lawmakers said changes may be needed in state law to ensure that officials more accurately report cases of children that result in serious injuries or death.

State officials issued a report earlier this month that said 18 Kentucky children died of abuse or neglect in the fiscal year that ended June 30 — though The Courier-Journal reported Sunday that at least eight others were omitted.

Among those left out was the case of 9-year-old Amy Dye, a Todd County girl who was beaten to death by her adoptive brother.

Three Todd County school officials told the committee Monday that the case constitutes proof that Kentucky’s most vulnerable children must be better protected.

“One thing we want to make sure of, Amy Dye’s life did count for something,” said Todd County School Supt. Michael Kenner, testifying before the committee.

Lawmakers on the committee posed a number of questions, including why Amy’s death and others like it weren’t included in the cabinet’s annual report of child deaths and serious injuries.

Kenner said school officials had repeatedly tried to alert cabinet officials to suspected abuse of Amy after the agency approved her placement in the adoptive home — but to no avail.

“We’re not reporting cases just to be reporting them,” said Kenner, who appeared with an assistant superintendent and the principal from South Todd Elementary, Amy’s school. “It hurts when we feel like the things we report are not being taken seriously.”

The school officials said that they heard nothing back from the cabinet, despite repeated calls to a phone line designated for such matters, and that they never knew the outcome of any investigations.

“Out information goes into some big dark hole,” Kenner said. “We never know what is happening.”

The purpose of Monday’s hearing was for cabinet officials to explain its annual report on child abuse and neglect fatalities, which it released Dec. 1 — three months past the deadline under state law.

But discussion of Amy’s death dominated the discussion, even though the cabinet did not include her in that report, arguing that it didn’t have to because she was killed Feb. 4 by her 17-year-old brother, not a parent.

A judge has rejected that argument as a misinterpretation of state law, as did several lawmakers Monday.

“I do think the General Assembly meant to have these kinds of cases included in this report,” Denton said.

Denton, accusing the cabinet of obstructing lawmakers and withholding information, demanded the resignation of secretary Janie Miller.

Denton noted that the cabinet missed the deadline for filing its annual child-abuse report and has continued a legal fight over disclosure of records in cases involving child abuse deaths and serious injuries long after Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd first ordered their release under open records law.

“I’m calling for the resignation of the secretary,” she said. “The buck stops with the secretary.”

Miller did not attend the hearing and through a spokeswoman declined to respond directly to Denton’s demand.

“I am very disappointed that Sen. Denton has resorted to a personal attack rather than deal with these very difficult issues,” she said in a statement.

Speaking for the cabinet on her last day of the job was Patricia Wilson, commissioner of social services, who has resigned.

Wilson described in general how the cabinet conducts child abuse investigations and reports fatalities from abuse and neglect. Amy’s death, she said, was not counted as an abuse death because the law requires the cabinet to report only those deaths caused by a parent, guardian or other person exercising custodial control.

And she stopped short of saying the cabinet failed Amy when she was asked by Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, whether “the system” failed her.

“No I don’t believe we violated any of our policies or practices,” she said.

Some lawmakers objected to that statement.

“If Amy Dye is cold in the ground, the system failed her,” said Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, a Lexington Republican.

Said Givens: “The death you are not counting is a death of neglect. We all need to prevent the next Amy Dye.”

Wilson said that because a sibling killed Amy her death was not included in the annual report, which lists 18 child deaths from abuse or neglect during the most recent fiscal year.

Shepherd already rejected that argument in a ruling last month, saying the death was abuse — or at a minimum — neglect by adults in the home who allowed the abuse.

“To be clear, a parent need not personally administer the fatal blow in order to be held responsible for abuse or neglect,” Shepherd said in his order that the cabinet must release its records related to Amy’s death.

State law, conforming to federal law, allows the disclosure of cabinet records in the event of a child death or serious injury from abuse or neglect.

Several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the cabinet’s refusal to count Amy’s death or other such deaths in its annual report of child abuse deaths.

Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, wondered how many other cases are not in the report.

“I want to know how many children are murdered or killed within the home by a parent or sibling,” Pendleton said.

The Courier-Journal reported Sunday that at least eight other child deaths were not included in the report — most in cases in which parents or caregivers were charged with abuse, neglect or murder. Midkiff took exception with that report, saying that child fatalities are reported “consistent with the statutes.”

Rep. Martha Jane King, D-Lewisburg, whose district includes Todd County, said after the hearing that lawmakers should act if the law needs to be clearer.

“It’s out responsibility to make sure that if there’s a loophole, we go ahead and address it,” she said.

Camille Dillingham, the principal at Amy’s school, said after the hearing that she hopes the girl’s death brings about some changes.

“She was a quiet girl, she was very loving,” Dillingham said. “She was a very good student.”

Source http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111219/NEWS01/312190090/child-abuse-state-legislature?odyssey=nav%7Chead

State blasted on Western Kentucky girl's slaying

Judge: Abuse ignored before brutal beating

Written by Deborah Yetter

A Franklin Circuit Court judge blasted state officials Monday for ignoring suspected prior abuse of a 9-year-old Western Kentucky girl beaten to death by her adoptive brother, saying they turned a “blind eye” to repeated reports of her horrific mistreatment.

In his second such order in four days, Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to release records of child abuse death investigations — this time in the case of the Feb. 4 murder of Amythz “Amy” Dye. State officials have repeatedly refused to release such records, citing confidentiality.

“This case presents a tragic example of the potentially deadly consequences of a child welfare system that has completely insulated itself from meaningful public scrutiny,” Shepherd said in his order. “The Open Records Act is the only method available by which the public and the legislature can obtain information regarding the systematic breakdown of our child protective services that contributed so directly to this child’s death.”

The order notes cabinet officials had approved Amy’s adoptive home in Todd County, with Kimberly Dye, after removing her from her birth parents because of “severe neglect and sexual abuse.”

“An innocent, nine-year-old girl was brutally beaten to death after enduring months of physical and emotional abuse in a home approved by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for her adoption,” Shepherd wrote.

Cabinet officials received the order Monday and are reviewing it, said spokeswoman Jill Midkiff.

Garrett Dye, 17, Amy’s adoptive brother, pleaded guilty Oct. 21 in Todd Circuit Court to murdering her on Feb. 4 by beating her in the head with a jack handle. At the time, she was outside on a cold, snowy evening shoveling gravel as punishment for stealing pudding and juice from a friend’s lunch box at school, Shepherd’s order said.

Garrett Dye, who was prosecuted as an adult, will be sentenced Nov. 23.

After Amy’s death, police found the girl’s clothes in a dresser in a trailer outside the house, Shepherd’s order said. It said Amy sometimes soiled her clothes because of poor bowel control, and when she did, her adoptive mother — as punishment — forced her to go outside for clean clothes.

Shepherd’s ruling comes after The Todd County Standard sought records from the cabinet about reports of suspected abuse or neglect involving Amy. The cabinet refused to provide the records to the newspaper, initially claiming it had none; but then, after acknowledging it did have records, it claimed they were exempt from open records law.

In his ruling Monday, the judge ordered the cabinet to release the records to the paper, noting that the issues were “identical” to those raised in his ruling Thursday that the cabinet must release records of child abuse deaths and serious injuries to The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald Leader.

In that ruling, he excoriated the cabinet as being “so immersed in the culture of secrecy regarding these issues that it is institutionally incapable of recognizing and implementing the clear requirement of the law.”

The Louisville and Lexington newspapers are seeking the records under a law that permits the disclosure of child abuse and neglect records if a child dies or is seriously injured and if the cabinet had prior involvement with the child or family.

Ryan Craig, publisher and owner of the Todd County newspaper, said the details of Amy’s life and death — outlined in Shepherd’s order — are horrifying.

“Her death was horrible, but it seems like her life must have been just as bad,” Craig said.

He called on Gov. Steve Beshear to look into conduct of the cabinet.

“The governor needs to take a long, hard look at the cabinet,” Craig said. “I think there needs to be some housecleaning.”

At a campaign stop in Louisville Monday evening, Beshear said he hadn't read Shepherd's opinion but planned to take it up with cabinet officials.

“Certainly we are going to be reviewing that decision,” he said.

He declined to fault social service officials. “I know the cabinet works hard in the protection of children,” Beshear said.

In the five years before Amy’s death, reports of suspected abuse or neglect “flooded in,” starting the year after she was adopted by Kimberly Dye, Shepherd’s order said. Some of the reports came from school officials, including a school nurse, and some said she was being beaten by other children in the home. Yet state social workers performed cursory inquiries and took no action, his order said.

Kimberly Dye, who shared the home with her ex-husband, Christopher, could not be reached for comment. The family’s phone has been disconnected.

The reports cited by Shepherd included a May 2, 2007, letter from a school nurse detailing six separate reports she made of suspected abuse to Amy. The nurse reported injuries such as severe bruises, thumbprints on the girl’s face and scraped and peeling skin.

The nurse said Amy told her she had been hurt by another child in the home and her mother threatened to spank her if she told anyone. Amy then lived with two adoptive brothers, Garrett Dye, and an older brother not identified in Shepherd’s order.

The order said most of the abuse allegations involved the older brother, not Garrett Dye.

The cabinet dismissed the complaints as “child against child” altercations or accepted Kimberly Dye’s explanation that Amy fell or that the girl “bruises easily and plays rough with her brothers,” the order said.

“It is stunning to believe that the cabinet will refuse to protect a child from repeated acts of physical violence when the parent knows of and tolerates such abuse and does nothing to prevent it,” Shepherd’s order said. “Yet that is exactly what happened here.”

The case also appears to be the second in which the cabinet failed to conduct a fatality review required by law when a child dies or is seriously injured from abuse or neglect and the cabinet had prior involvement with the family.

The Courier-Journal and Herald-Leader filed suit in 2009, seeking the cabinet’s records of its investigation of the death of a Wayne County toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner at an alleged meth lab where he lived with his teenage parents. Both the child and his teen mother had been under the cabinet’s supervision.

The cabinet fought the newspapers’ request, citing confidentiality. After Shepherd ordered the cabinet to release the fatality report, cabinet officials acknowledged they never conducted the investigation required by state law.

In Amy’s case, cabinet officials concluded that they had no obligation to conduct such a review, Shepherd’s order said.

Attorney Jon Fleischaker, who represented the Todd County newspaper along with lawyer Jeremy Rogers, said Monday’s ruling is clear, yet the cabinet continues to litigate a battle it lost in 2010 when Shepherd first ordered it to release such records.

“They are using tax dollars to defend the indefensible,” said Fleischaker, who also represents The Courier-Journal.

Source http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111107/NEWS01/311070081/State-blasted-Western-Kentucky-girl-s-slaying?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome