Some Child Abuse Offenders Could Be Removed From Database - Conn.

By SHANNON YOUNG, Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Low-risk and rehabilitated suspects of child abuse and neglect might soon have the opportunity to have their names removed from the state’s database under legislation being considered by the General Assembly.

The proposed bill would allow offenders on the state’s child abuse and neglect database to appeal their listing after five years if they aren’t involved in any new abuse reports or investigations.

Appeals would be granted to applicants who have rehabilitated themselves or have demonstrated other legitimate reasons for removal. Applicants would be required to submit at least two letters in support of the appeal from competent adults.

If the bill is passed, individuals would be able to begin applying for an appeal as early as July 1.

Currently, anyone identified as a suspect in Department of Children and Families investigations of child abuse and neglect is listed in a registry for such offenses, even if the individual is not convicted of a civil or criminal offense. Those listed in the registry can initially appeal the listing and can appeal it in court, if necessary.

However, if they lose the appeal, they are permanently placed in the DCF child abuse database.

The database, unlike the sex offender registry, is private and not available to the public. Employers who work with children, however, can contact DCF with a release, signed by the potential employee, to verify that the individual doesn’t present a risk to kids.

Because of this, some argue that while the registry was created to ultimately protect children, it can permanently damage the reputation of suspected offenders and subject them to unemployment.

Michael Agranoff, an attorney specializing in DCF cases, said he has been pushing the state legislature to adapt this measure. He said that while he is successful in winning appeals for some clients, Connecticut has very few DCF attorneys for adults and not every person accused can afford representation.

Agranoff said he has seen hundreds of people successfully rehabilitate themselves. He said no one should be subject to a potential lifetime of unemployment without being allowed to defend him or herself.

Thomas DeMatteo, the assistant agency legal director for DCF, said the agency supports the proposed legislation and is willing to give listed individuals a second look. Thousands of names are on the child abuse and neglect registry, he said.

“DCF works on the basis that people can rehabilitate themselves,” DeMatteo said.

He said, now, around 30 percent of all alleged offenders who appeal their listing are successful.

Despite DCF’s support, some child advocate agencies and activists have raised concerns over the bill’s lack of details and potential effects on other registries.

Mickey Kramer, with the state’s Office of the Child Advocate, said that while the bill sounds like a fair concept, she believes the proposed appeals process needs to be carefully scrutinized and, if passed, applied consistently across the state.

“The devil is in the details, which this legislation doesn’t address,” she said.

Kramer said she agrees with the concept of the legislation but thinks it needs to be more specific before she could support it outright. She said she will likely testify at the hearing.

Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, ranking member of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, also raised concerns over the bill’s lack of details, specifically what qualifies a suspected offender as “rehabilitated.” He said he’d like to see a more specific definition of the term and learn more about how a person would be evaluated.

“God forbid someone gets off of the registry and harms another child,” Kissel said.

The Judiciary Committee will hear opinions on the bill at a Wednesday morning public hearing at the Legislative Office Building.

Wallingford Republican Sen. Len Suzio said the Select Committee on Children, on which he serves as ranking member, reviewed identical legislation on the issue before ultimately removing it from the bill.

He said that among other things, the committee questioned how the process of removing a person’s name from the child abuse and neglect registry would work when a suspected offender could potentially still be listed on the state’s sex offender registry.

Like Suzio, Karen Jarmoc, the executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, also expressed concerns on the relation between the child abuse and sex offender registries.

Jarmoc said allowing offenders to remove their names from the child abuse and neglect database may open the door for individuals to try and get their names off of other lists, like the sex offender registry.

She said the legislature needs to be careful that it doesn’t create a precedent for this type of name removal.

Last year, similar legislation that included a section concerning parental consent for children being interviewed by DCF failed to make it to the floor for a vote in the Senate. This year, the measures are separated into two bills.

Bill supporters are optimistic that the name removal legislation could be passed this session, as DCF is once again behind the measure.

Source http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/03/08/some-child-abuse-offenders-could-be-removed-from-database/

Changes at DCF cause concern on advisory panel - Conn.

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

The sweeping changes the Department of Children and Families has made in recent months are drawing the ire of the agency's advisory panel, whose members--as parents, community providers, child lawyers and foster parents--are seeing first-hand the ramifications.

"You need to hear the crap that's going on," Janice Andersen, the deputy director of a Bridgeport-based group that deals with juvenile justice and other child welfare issues, told a top DCF official Monday.

It wasn't quite the reaction Fernando Muniz was expecting. He came to the meeting with a three-page update on the positive impact of keeping more children with their families, how reducing congregate care for the youngest children has played out and how the number of children living out of state has declined.

"As we have sat around this table all these years, these are all things you asked for," Muniz said in response to the harsh criticism. "Your points have been well taken."

But members of the State Advisory Council say many of the changes are causing widespread concern.

"Foster families are in absolute panic that you are sending children into unsafe homes. Just because someone shares the same genes does mean their criminal history shouldn't matter," said Laurie Landry, a therapist in Wethersfield. "What are you thinking?"

Connecticut previously had one of the lowest rates in the country of placing abused and neglected children with family members when it was determined they couldn't stay at home. Because of this, the department began waiving what Muniz describes as "the most restrictive guidelines in the country." That often includes waiving what the agency calls a non-relevant criminal record.

As a result of the changes, the number of children placed with family members increased from one in seven at the end of last year to one in five in September.

The group also said the agency's move to decrease the number of abused and neglected children with specialized needs being sent to live out-of-state--from 364 children in January to 258 in October--also is having some harmful affects.

"They may be coming home, but we aren't prepared for them," said Betsy Palmer-Ehrenfeld, who coordinates a network of foster homes for special-needs children across the state. She says the money is not available to ensure appropriate treatment for children with severe behavioral issues such as cutting themselves or exhibiting problem sexual behavior.

Muniz said many of those that were living out-of-state aged out of care, some went home and others were placed in facilities in the state. He said about half of the applications to place a child out-of-state have been rejected since the start of the year.

Anderson, who is the chairwoman of the advisory panel, also complained that parents continue to be treated poorly by DCF, despite the agency's ending surprise visits in response to allegations of abuse and neglect.

"There's a huge elephant in this room we have to talk about," she said. "You are not really trying to get parents and families involved." She cited advice the department is giving school districts in the Bridgeport region on how to handle a situation when they suspect a child is not getting the health care they require. "They are being told to report the parent for medical neglect. You should be helping them find the help."

Muniz responded that there would undoubtedly be hiccups in implementing such sweeping changes, but reminded the group that it is the agency's job to make sure children are safe.

"We are only here for abuse and neglect," he said. "DCF is not intended to be a poverty help program."

That upset Karen Hanson, a coordinator for child services at Yale's Child Study Center.

"You are going to send them to 2-1-1 and the Department of Social Services. Give me a break they can't even pick up the phone. That makes no sense," she said.

Source http://www.ctmirror.org/story/14453/changes-dcf-cause-consternation-their-advisory-panel

Anonymous message to the Family Court Corruption

You need to turn your volume up pretty high to understand what the messenger is saying because their voice is electronically disguised.



We have found the printed version of the message in the above video:

As we observe the dissent against tyranny unfold all around us, the veils of deception are fastly being removed from the people's eyes. As each layer of oppression is being torn apart, it is now time to hold Child Protective Services accountable to the people. For years you have ripped apart families, destroyed children's lives and committed unspeakable abuses to our most precious gift from God.

Your arrogance has surpassed your reason, by never realizing that so many the families you've destroyed are the very same tax payers who employ you. The internet has exposed the vastness of your corruption to these tax payers who have now learned what you do is the very opposite of what they were led to believe. The Unconstitutional codes that created you will be your undoing by the true law which is our constitution.

Because, You hide behind the color of law, believing your actions will not face the consequences of the real law, which is we the people. You Judges who are elected by us willingly and knowingly aid and abet these terrorists. Some of you are being paid off and we know this. That is the highest form of treason to the people and to God. You are public servants who have become corrupted and we know who you are. We hold you accountable from this moment on. Americans have always met tyranny with swift justice
on our own soil and afar. It may be time to evaluate your true intentions behind your positions. This is not a threat but a fair warning from anonymous. We do not forgive, we never forget we are many, we are anonymous.

More CPS Incompetence: Lakeland mom charged with negligence, manslaughter in 3-month-old daughter’s death

Blog authors note:
The gross negligence and incompetence by CPS is so horrible - children are injurred and killed daily - while under the watch of CPS. Why? If CPS is truly doing the job that they are trained to do, how does this happen so frequently? They are trained professionals in the field of child abuse, right?
---
By: Jeff Butera

LAKELAND, Fla. - A Lakeland mother is charged with negligent manslaughter in the death of her 3-month-old daughter, and is also accused of lying to police about what happened.

Kylee Copeland, 21, was arrested earlier this week after her daughter, Nataley Agee, was found dead at their house in Briarwood Estates near the county line.

Copeland claimed she had found Nataley dead at 9 a.m. on Monday. Investigators said that was a lie. They said evidence on Nataley’s body indicated she had been dead for at least eight hours before Copeland called 911.

They also said roaches, which “infested the residence,” had bitten Nataley after she died but well before Copeland called for help.

Multiple neighbors at Briarwood Estates confirmed that the house was infested with roaches, including in Nataley's crib.

The medical examiner also determined Nataley's cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with child abuse.

Copeland told detectives in a subsequent story that the child had fallen on the couch cushion and bounced to the floor, but investigators determined that to be false based on the trauma Nataley received to her brain.

Copeland faces a first-degree felony charge of negligent manslaughter.

“I don’t know how a mother could do that,” said Samantha O’Neill, a neighbor.

“I didn’t know that Kylee. I don’t want to know that Kylee. I just want justice for Nataley,” said Ashley Leath, Nataley’s godmother and neighbor.

According to law enforcement, Copeland disappeared for a few days in 2009 while raising her then 6-month old son. She did not come home from her job as a nightclub dancer, but turned up a few days later.

Copeland has two sons in addition to Nataley. They are now in foster care, according to Carrie Hoeppner, director of communications with the Department of Children and Families.

Hoeppner said DCF was currently investigating the family after an incident in August involving the childrens’ father. That investigation remains open. DCF also has four other reports about the family on file.

A social worker visited the family as recently as last week, Hoeppner said, but the social worker had not found any evidence of abuse and did not believe there was reason to suspect future violence.

Source http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_polk/lakeland/lakeland-mom-charged-with-negligence,-manslaughter-in-3-month-old-daughter%E2%80%99s-death

Lawmakers express continued frustration with DCF response in Barahona case

By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 6:16 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
Posted: 6:12 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011

TALLAHASSEE — Frustrated lawmakers grilled the head of Florida's Department of Children and Families Tuesday and expressed doubt about whether he's doing enough to make the state's children safer in the aftermath of the alleged Barahona child abuse case.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins' appearance Tuesday morning before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee was his first since the July 25 release of a Miami-Dade County grand jury report that found that child welfare workers failed to properly monitor Nubia Barahona's adoptive parents as highlighted by her alleged torture and slaying this winter.

Wilkins was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott shortly before 10-year-old Nubia's body was discovered in a plastic bag in the back of her adopted father Jorge Barahona's truck alongside Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach on Valentine's Day. Her twin brother, Victor, was found drenched in chemicals and convulsing in the front seat.

Jorge Barahona and his wife Carmen, the children's foster parents for five years before adopting them, have been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in Nubia's death.

Since then, the agency hired 100 child protection investigators, conducted additional training session for caseworkers and increased the number of foster children who are getting regular medical and dental care, Wilkins said. The department has also stopped measuring how long hot line operators spend on the phone with tipsters, he said. The abuse hot line received at least two calls in the days preceding Nubia's death.

"But we've still got a long way to go," Wilkins told the committee, acknowledging there was a "big breakdown" in the Barahona case.

The non-binding grand jury report recommended that child welfare workers have full access to databases containing reports of allegations about at-risk children, something that Wilkins said he was still trying to put into effect.

But he drew fire from Committee Chairwoman Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, when he blamed the tragedy on Andrea Fleary, the DCF child abuse investigator fired in March who allegedly repeatedly signed off on the children's welfare without making contact with them.

"Our assessment is that the number one symptom of the problem was the case manager was not owning the case," he said.

To which Storm said, "I don't know what the heck that means. What the blankety-blank does that mean? The little girl was practically peeling paint off the wall to eat and they were afraid of these people and everybody at the school was saying it and the most we can come up with was the case manager was not owning the case?

"I think you should be more direct to say this was a human failure for humanity for this person. That's a human failure. I don't know how else to say it."

Wilkins also said that all foster children are now being seen by caseworkers every 30 days but that he wanted an extra $25 million for additional visits "any time a major event" occurs in the child's life.

Caseworkers should already have been visiting the children monthly, Sen. Nan Rich said, because lawmakers initiated that requirement after the disappearance a decade ago of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old foster child who has never been found.

"We're going right back to the same kind of situation," Rich, D-Weston, said.

The disconnection of the Barahonas' telephone, the children's problems at school, hot line reports and an inability to make physical contact with the twins apparently went ignored, Rich said.

"Normally I would say we don't need legislation. But to me something is dramatically and drastically wrong if all of these red flags are not seen. This to me is just crying out for us to do something," she said.

Wilkins suggested that the agency keep tabs on adopted children for up to one year, especially in the case of special needs children.

But Storms, a lawyer, said she believed that would be unconstitutional.

After Wilkins' hour-long testimony, lawmakers appeared uncertain what, if anything, they could do.

"It's a source of enormous frustration. It can be very discouraging to continue to hear some of the same things," Storms said after Wilkins testified. "All I can do is keep trying and keep hoping that we get a different result. But we can make all the laws that we want to make and pass all the statutes and if people will not do what they're supposed to do then I don't know how you fix that."

Source http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/lawmakers-express-continued-frustration-with-dcf-response-in-1869405.html

Mom jailed for false child abuse story against ex

The Associated Press

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Three southwest Florida residents have been charged with falsely reporting child abuse to the state hotline.

Lisa Ann Schinnow was arrested Tuesday after officials say the 48-year-old woman called in three separate reports alleging her ex-husband was abusing their son. DCF found no evidence of abuse and believe Schinnow made the allegations because of the custody arrangement.

Taiwandra Burks and Stacey Hendry were also arrested last week for making false child abuse reports after DCF investigated claims that a child was being sexually abused. The agency found no evidence of abuse.

Falsely reporting child abuse is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Each report is a separate violation.

DCF stressed false reports waste time and resources for investigators busy with thousands of legitimate cases.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/17/2363282/mom-jailed-for-false-child-abuse.html

State report finds Casey Anthony 'responsible' for daughter's death

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 12, 2011 5:45 a.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Casey Anthony is responsible for the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, a report released Thursday by Florida's Department of Children and Families concludes.

A month after a jury acquitted Anthony on murder and child neglect charges, the state agency found that Anthony "is the caregiver responsible for the verified maltreatments of death, threatened harm and failure to protect" in her daughter's death.

Carrie Hoeppner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, said the report was issued this week as a "professional courtesy" after the sheriff's office and prosecutors finished their work on the case.

She added that the state agency is mandated to conduct reviews when there are allegations that a child dies as a result of abuse, abandonment or neglect. The agency had no contact with the Anthonys prior to the girl's disappearance in the summer of 2008, Hoeppner added.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office will not take any further action as a result of the report, Capt. Angelo Nieves said Thursday.

"This closes out the DCF case, and it does not create additional follow-up on our part," he said.

The report said: "The Department of Children and Families concludes that the actions or the lack of actions by the alleged perpetrator ultimately resulted or contributed in the death of the child." The report was signed by officials in the department Wednesday.

Anthony is now free. While she was cleared on murder and aggravated child abuse charges, the 25-year-old Orlando woman was convicted on four counts related to misleading law enforcement authorities. She was sentenced to four years in jail on those convictions, but was given credit for the time she had already served between her arrest and the end of the seven-week trial and was released from jail in mid-July. Prosecutors cannot appeal the acquittals.

The report does not address, or substitute for, judgments regarding the guilt or innocence of the caregiver -- in this case, Casey Anthony -- DCF spokeswoman Hoeppner said.

The state report found that Anthony's "failure to act" in the 31 days between the time the girl was last seen and when police were alerted about the case "delayed and interfered with a law enforcement investigation and best efforts to safely recover the child."

The agency report noted there were "no indicators" that Caylee's death was caused by physical injury, and it was "not substantiated" that she died of asphyxiation -- both points of great contention during the trial.

An autopsy performed in December 2008 by the local medical examiner determined "that the exact cause of death cannot be determined with certainty." Prosecutors tried, unsuccessfully, to convince jurors that Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious and then duct-taped her mouth and nose to suffocate her.

In its recommendations section, the report said that "the maternal grandfather" -- in this case, George Anthony -- "should have been interviewed for the missing person report." Casey Anthony's defense lawyer had claimed, in the opening argument of the murder trial, that George Anthony knew Caylee had died accidentally and helped cover up her death.

Casey Anthony had been investigated by the agency, when state child welfare investigators determined on September 14, 2008, that there were "verified findings" indicating that Anthony was responsible for "inadequate supervision and threatened harm" of her child, although it found "no indicators of physical injury."

Exactly a month later, a grand jury indicted Anthony on murder and other charges, and the case was eventually reopened by the Department of Children and Families. No further detail was immediately offered as to why or exactly when the department chose to review the case, or why it came out this week.

The report released Thursday officially closes the department's investigation in the case.

Source Article http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/11/florida.casey.anthony/index.html?iref=allsearch