Boys abused in foster care sue state
TRIAL BEGINS: They witnessed another child being beaten to death.
By LISA DEMER
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Published: January 11th, 2008 12:11 AM
Last Modified: January 11th, 2008 05:21 AM
The two boys were born into families messed up by drinking and drug
abuse, by violence and neglect.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/261415.html
Then the state agency that is supposed to protect children put the boys
with a foster mother who routinely hit and tormented them and things
only got worse. Before it was over, the foster mother beat another boy
to death in front of them.
Now the state of Alaska is on trial, defending itself against charges it
repeatedly failed A.J. and D.D., children in state custody whose lives
intersected during the horrific months they spent in the Anchorage
foster home of Melissa and Douglas Falgoust.
Advocates for the boys, now 17 and 18 and still in state custody, are
asking jurors to award them $10 million each to repair their broken
lives. Their lawyers say they are so damaged by years of mistreatment
that they can't live on their own or even hold a job in a pizza joint.
The disturbing story started unfolding Thursday in Anchorage Superior
Court. Lawyers gave opening statements and the first witnesses were
called: A.J.'s second-grade teacher, and one of the two boys, D.D., who
was brought to Anchorage from his group home in Fairbanks to testify.
Because the boys have been abused, and because their lawyers say seeing
their names in the newspaper would excessively traumatize them, the
Daily News is using initials instead of names for this story.
"We're suing the state of Alaska because it failed to protect these
children. It failed to follow its own regulations and policies when it
was required to do so," Christine Schleuss, an attorney for the boys,
told the jury. Many of the jurors, picked over three days from a pool of
dozens, are parents.
THE STATE'S DEFENSE
The state's defense boils down to this: It didn't know the whole story
and wasn't alone in making decisions. It relied on many others,
including therapists, case managers with a nonprofit agency, and
advocates known as guardians ad litem, Gail Voigtlander, an assistant
attorney general, told jurors.
"The evidence will show that OCS's decisions were reasonable and
appropriate given the information that they had at the time and their
objective, as well, of finding permanent placements," Voigtlander said.
The state had no idea how conniving the Falgousts were, or that Melissa
assaulted her husband with a baseball bat not long before she killed her
foster son, Steven Murray, in July 1999, Voigtlander said.
"Even when they did terrible things, they knew how to work the system
and cover their tracks so they didn't get caught," she said.
Melissa Falgoust, now 42, was convicted in 2001 of manslaughter. She
served more than 6 1/2 years and is out of prison on probation.
This is an unusual public trial that may open a window into what was so
wrong with the Division of Family and Youth Services, apparently for so
long.
DFYS now is called the Office of Children's Services, or OCS, but its
duties are still the same, and so are the complaints that it either does
too little to protect kids or is too zealous and rips families apart.
Schleuss went through the boys' sad history with jurors. A.J. was only 6
months old when his father stabbed his mother multiple times and went to
prison. His grandmother, who had a drinking problem, was supposed to
take care of him. But she liked him to stay outside while she partied,
no matter the weather, Schleuss said.
At age 6, A.J. was suicidal and hospitalized, where he revealed one of
his grandmother's friends had molested him. DFYS never investigated
that, Schleuss said. The state only took custody when the grandmother
said she didn't want him anymore, a month after his seventh birthday.
As a second-grader at Lake Otis Elementary, he had behavior problems but
flourished at school, his teacher, Kristina Peterson, told jurors. Once,
he was scared to go home because his shirt tail got a little wet when he
went to the bathroom. He told her that Melissa Falgoust would make him
eat baby food and crawl on his knees like a baby until they bled. The
teacher made a report to DFYS. The state left him in Falgoust's home.
D.D. was born cocaine positive and taken from his mother. Over the years
he bounced back and forth between his mother and foster care.
D.D. is a young man now. His dark hair is cut close and he has a
mustache. His voice was almost a monotone.
His mother drank and did drugs and hit him, he testified. If he and his
little brother asked for food, she would ignore them or tell them to
play video games. Then she sold the game system for drugs and alcohol,
he said.
He was maybe 7 when the state put him in the Falgoust foster home.
'THINGS GOT A LITTLE CRAZY'
At first, the woman he called Melissa was nice, he said.
"Then things got a little crazy." She hit him a lot, he said. She made
the boys exercise "more than you would imagine," 2,000 jumping jacks,
and if they quit, she would grab their arms or hit them, he said.
She put alarms on the boys' rooms and if they tried to get out to go to
the bathroom, she would make them "do lines," writing pages and pages
for punishment.
One time, he didn't want to do lines so when he wet the bed he hid his
soaked underwear. But she numbered their underwear so she knew it was
missing.
"She got really mad and ended up choking me, putting me against the
wall," D.D. said.
As for Douglas Falgoust, he sometimes just sat there when the boys were
being hurt and sometimes got hit himself, D.D. said.
Steven Murray, the boy Melissa Falgoust killed, was treated the worst,
D.D. told jurors, because she figured he'd never go back to his "real
family."
Once Steven ran away and told police Melissa beat him. Schleuss showed
jurors pictures that police took of his bottom with belt marks on it.
But DFYS and others believed Melissa when she said Steven hurt himself.
The day Steven was killed, Melissa told D.D. to put on boxing gloves and
hit him, the boy said. Steven wasn't doing exercises like she wanted.
But D.D. couldn't hit him hard enough, he said, so Melissa took over,
hitting and slamming him against the wall until he went into seizures.
D.D. still has nightmares. He thought it was his fault Steven got killed.
Another defendant in the trial is Alternatives Community Mental Health
Center Inc., which provided a case manager as well as workers called
activity therapists to socialize the boys. The state is suing Alternatives.
Alternatives lawyer Bill Ingaldson said the agency, now called Denali
Family Services, did nothing wrong. The boys already were disturbed and
suffered from an attachment disorder before Alternatives got involved,
Ingaldson told the jury.
The boys have settled their claims with the Falgousts, he told jurors.
Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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