DFCS acknowledges wrongdoing in child's death

By Craig Schneider

State child protection officials acknowledged Tuesday that they failed to properly watch over a 4-year-old Fulton County boy who died Feb. 6 of head injuries in a case that has been ruled a homicide.

The state Division of Family and Children Services had an open case on the family of Nasir Patrick, but there was confusion about which worker was to visit the home, said Acting DFCS Deputy Director Kathy Herren. Consequently no workers made a documented visit there in nearly two months before Nasir was injured on Jan. 25.

“We were remiss in visiting the child,” Herren told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.

DFCS fired three employees after the boy died. The Fulton County Medical Examiner declared the death a homicide Tuesday, finding that Nasir died of delayed complications from blunt force head trauma. The Atlanta Police Department is investigating, but no arrests have been made.

Nasir’s mother, Yakerra Patrick, declined to comment when contacted by phone by an AJC reporter.

Nasir’s aunt, Mary Sewell of Coweta County, blasted DFCS for failing in its responsibility.

“He did not have to die,” Sewell said. “I blame them for not following up.”

Nasir’s death came to light through a joint investigation by the AJC and Channel 2 Action News. It was among 35 deaths in the past ten weeks of children whose families have a DFCS history.

The Patrick family came to the attention of DFCS in 2008, with allegations of neglect and inadequate supervision in 2008 and 2009. The agency could not substantiate those complaints, and the inquiries were quickly closed, according to DFCS records obtained by the AJC through the state Open Records Law.

Then, in August, Nasir and his younger sister were removed from the home after the little girl suffered a broken leg. The mother's boyfriend told investigators the injury occurred when the girl got her leg stuck between the bars of her crib.

But the doctor who examined the girl said that story did not wash, and DFCS classified the case as an instance of abuse. The girl was placed in DFCS custody and Nasir went to live with a relative.

DFCS officials say they asked the Atlanta police several times to look deeper into this girl's injury, but the department declined.

Atlanta Police spokesman Carlos Campos told the AJC Tuesday that police thoroughly investigated the girl's injuries at the time and found no evidence to support criminal charges.

In December, DFCS returned Nasir's sister to the home after a judge issued a protective order stipulating that some adult -- the name is redacted from the case file provided to the AJC -- would have no contact with her. At that point, Herren said, the case was supposed to be transferred from one caseworker to another, but each thought the other was monitoring the family.

At some point, the relative with whom Nasir was living returned him to his mother's home, without alerting DFCS. It is not clear whether DFCS workers ever discovered that he was living there.

The agency made no visits that documented the children's well-being between Dec. 9 and Jan. 25, when Nasir was injured. Caseworkers are supposed to visit families at least once a month. The DFCS record notes that a worker made a visit on Dec. 21 to deliver Christmas presents, but did not document that the children were seen.

Nasir was admitted to Scottish Rite children’s hospital Jan. 25 and diagnosed with a skull fracture. According to the police report, his mother told hospital staff that she had left Nasir with her boyfriend while she went to work. She said the boyfriend called her at work to say Nasir had suffered a seizure and fallen to the ground, striking his head on a toy truck.

Again, doctors said the injuries were not consistent with that explanation, and the case was turned over to the Atlanta police.

Herren said DFCS has been reviewing problems with internal communication for the past year, ever since its parent agency, the Department of Human Services, was put under the direction of a new commissioner, Clyde Reese. She said the handling of the Patrick case is being scrutinized and that the lessons learned will be communicated across the agency.

That’s small comfort to advocates who have monitored the agency for years.

“It’s a tragedy whenever people responsible for keeping children safe don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” said Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children.

Sewell said her nephew's death should sound alarm bells throughout DFCS.

"This should be a wake up call for all DFCS workers," she said.

http://www.ajc.com/news/dfcs-acknowledges-wrongdoing-in-1357736.html

Several DHS workers have been prosecuted - Oklahoma

Some of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services workers caught in wrongdoing at work ended up being prosecuted, too.

BY NOLAN CLAY, RANDY ELLIS AND ROBBY TRAMMELL

Some of the DHS workers caught in wrongdoing at work ended up being prosecuted, too.

The DHS worker who stole Christmas gift cards was charged with a misdemeanor, petit larceny.

Deborah Jean “Kasey” Parrish, 55, of Cherokee, was fired in August 2009 after pleading guilty.

A bank had donated nine Visa gift cards to be Christmas presents for foster children. They had been placed in gift bags to be handed out along with other presents, records show. A worker discovered four were missing three days before Christmas in 2008.

Parrish claimed she found four $50 cards on Dec. 17, 2008, in the DHS employee parking lot in Alva. She admitted using the cards to make personal purchases at J.C. Penney, Hobby Lobby, Cato and Walmart.

Parrish pleaded guilty in June 2009 to four counts of petit larceny and was put on probation for 30 months. She had to pay $1,649 in fines, fees and court costs and $200 in restitution. She was a social services specialist who had worked at DHS for 14 years.

In a discharge notice, she was told: “Your actions in using the Visa gift cards that belonged to someone else demonstrate you cannot be trusted to complete your job duties in the ethical and honorable manner required.”

Stole from elderly

A DHS worker who stole from elderly DHS clients was fired on Nov. 25, 2008. She eventually pleaded guilty to three felony charges of exploiting a vulnerable adult.

Debra Maxine Roberts, 53, of Chelsea, is on three years' probation. She also was required to serve a 30-day term in the Rogers County jail last year and to make restitution.

“I regret any harm which I have caused these individuals,” she wrote in a statement for a presentence report.

Prosecutors allege she stole $4,497 from an 84-year-old man, $5,905 from a 74-year-old mentally disabled man and $900 from an incapacitated 73-year-old man.

Roberts, an adult protective services specialist, had been appointed a temporary guardian for the men. She had access to their financial accounts so she could pay expenses such as nursing home bills.

Fictitious accounts

Two former DHS social services specialists are serving 10 years on probation for creating fictitious food stamp accounts.

Tsa E. King, 41, of Midwest City, and Douglas Ray Howard, 59, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty this year to two counts of conspiracy and two counts of computer fraud. They were fired last year.

Howard acknowledged they obtained more than $20,000 worth of food stamps through their fraud. Each was required to pay $10,346 in restitution.

In one instance, they used the identity of a California man who has never been to Oklahoma, a DHS investigator reported. The man was described on a DHS computer as needing food stamps because he was homeless and later because he had two newborn twin girls. He actually did not have any infant daughters. Howard had once known the man.

In the second instance, they used the identity of Howard's cousin, who had died at age 15 in California in 1967. They created fictitious children for the cousin, too.

Medicaid fraud

A fired child-welfare specialist, Eileen Filer-Whitson, is serving five years on probation for Medicaid fraud.

While at DHS, she held a second job as a private social worker. Prosecutors allege that at her second job she submitted false claims for Medicaid payments. Prosecutors said she lied in the claims about counseling children who actually received no services.

Filer-Whitson, 47, of Luther, pleaded guilty to the felony charge and was ordered to make $35,000 restitution.

A DHS investigation also found she had claimed to be working simultaneously at DHS and her second job 165 days. She was fired in March 2008.

CONTRIBUTING:

Sheila Stogsdill

Source http://newsok.com/article/3634918