Politics > Politics-USA > Caseworkers' acts often seem at odds with their CPS jobs: FormerChild Protective Services case manager Armando Acuna was investigated bypolice for an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of his teen-agecharges in 2003.
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19 May 2007 11:40:38 AM |
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Caseworkers' acts often seem at odds with their CPS jobs: FormerChild Protective Services case manager Armando Acuna was investigated bypolice for an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of his teen-agecharges in 2003. |
Caseworkers' acts often seem at odds with their CPS jobs
By Josh Brodesky
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.19.2007
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/183814
Former Child Protective Services case manager Armando Acuna was
investigated by police for an inappropriate romantic relationship with
one of his teen-age charges in 2003.
But Acuna, now 56, was never charged, and voluntarily resigned from CPS
without ever being disciplined.
His story is one of several cases coming to light in which CPS
caseworkers' personal actions appear to have been in conflict with their
professional responsibility.
CPS spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said CPS did its own investigation of
Acuna once it was notified about the relationship. She said Acuna's
case, and others in which case-manager behavior was questioned, do not
accurately reflect CPS.
"We have almost 1,000 or more CPS specialists who work for us," Barker
Alvarez said. "Some of them do things that are inappropriate and are
subsequently disciplined for it."
Although Acuna resigned, the other two caseworkers remain with the CPS
Tucson office. One has been promoted. There is no record either was
disciplined.
In 2004, a CPS investigator responding to an abuse report learned CPS
supervisor Amy Gile was dating the father of the abused child. The two
met when Gile was the father's case manager following an earlier abuse
complaint.
Gile not only may have helped the father keep his kids despite abuse
charges, records show, but she also was aware of a substantiated
incident of abuse that occurred during her relationship.
In 2002, CPS worker Gary Sundell was charged with assault after he
threw an unidentified object at a minor relative, court documents show.
The charges were dismissed after Sundell agreed to go to counseling and
attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
In the face of questions about the Gile case, Department of Economic
Security this week started reviewing its policies for CPS case managers'
relationships with former clients.
The current rules do not prohibit case managers from getting involved
with former clients, although such relationships are discouraged, the
department said in a news release.
"I couldn't say what the changes that may result will be," Barker
Alvarez said. "We want to make sure we will do a really thorough look at
what we currently have and what exists in other states that relate to
child-welfare professionals."
But to state Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican, the Acuna and
Gile cases underscore the need for greater transparency in an agency
largely shielded by confidentiality laws.
"When these types of instances come out in other institutions the whole
world knows about it, and no one knows for two or three years about
those incidents that happened at CPS," he said.
Phone calls, love notes
In Acuna's case, workers at the girl's Tucson group home were concerned
about the relationship for months before police got involved.
Acuna looked at her "like a girlfriend," they told police, according to
reports. He would drop her off at the home, then call five minutes later
to make sure she was OK. The two even swapped love notes and poems.
While many kids in the home rarely saw their case managers, Acuna met
with the girl almost daily.
Acuna took over the girl's case in November 2002, records show. She was
a student at Sunnyside High School and had been placed in a group home
because of alleged physical abuse.
The concerns came to a head in October 2003 after Acuna provided the
girl, by then 17, with a weekend pass to stay at a friend's house
instead of her group home, police reports say.
He told group-home employees she needed the pass for work. But when a
staff member called her job site, they learned she had quit, prompting
the staff to contact police and CPS.
Where the girl spent that weekend is unclear. Police reports say Acuna
refused to provide the group home with an address for the friend's house.
A worker, concerned about the lack of information, looked up an address
Acuna provided for a previous weekend pass and gave it to police. It
turned out to be a dirt lot.
Acuna told police he had taken out the pass so she could visit her
mother, from whose home she had been removed.
During a police interview, the officers asked where the girl was. Acuna
called her, and the officers overheard him tell her in Spanish not to
tell the police anything.
He also asked them if he was being investigated for kidnapping because
he took the girl and her sister to Nogales.
Employees at the restaurant where the girl worked said sometimes the
couple ate together and fed each other, and they often held hands. When
the girl quit, the restaurant staff told Acuna not to come back.
Their correspondence and notes from the girl's diary were intimate, and
Acuna told police he had e-mailed the girl poems.
"With one glance, I feel like I'm in heaven. With a laugh from you, I
make do. With a kiss from you, I go crazy and give you another kiss on
that delicious mouth that makes me dream," one of the letters says in
Spanish, although it's unclear which one wrote it.
In her diary, she indicates she has her own questions about the
relationship.
"Maybe I'm confused and maybe I don't love him, and it was only an idea
and I don't want to offer him something until I'm sure," she wrote in
Spanish. "But what I know is that it hurts that he is gone. I hope he
comes back soon."
In the end, police closed their investigation because neither the girl
nor Acuna would cooperate. He'd been on sick leave when the
investigation started and told police he planned to quit CPS soon. He
did in October 2003, shortly after the case closed.
State lawmaker Paton, who is taking part in legislative hearings on CPS,
questioned whether the police report is included in CPS case reports
involving the girl.
"Surely her interaction with him affected her emotional health," he
said. "She's a ward of the state, and if it's not reflected in the case
file that we paid to be prepared, did the state really serve her?"
Barker Alvarez said she did not know if the police report was filed with
the girl's case summary, but that it should have been. "There was an
investigation that was going on and I think that's important to note,"
she said.
Dates with a former client
CPS officials first learned in December 2004 that Amy Gile was involved
with an abusive father of three who had been her clients from December
2000 through October 2002.
Investigators were called to a day-care center after teachers reported
the father's then-4-year-old boy was covered in bright red welts,
records show. The boy told investigators his father beat him when he wet
his bed and made him wash his underwear in the toilet.
When the investigator checked the child's emergency card, Gile was
listed as the contact, the police report states.
Gile told police she began dating the father in early 2004, but the
father's then-10-year-old daughter said Gile started dating her dad
after the earlier case closed in 2002.
"My dad met her at a park and brought her flowers and they've been
dating ever since," she said.
CPS opened an abuse file on the father in 1995. The agency took custody
of the kids in 2000, after their mother said she couldn't care for them.
The mother was later arrested and convicted of burglary and armed robbery.
CPS was trying to reunify the family and return the children to their
father when he was arrested in 2001 on a disorderly-conduct charge. He
asked the court for leniency because he did not want to lose his children.
With the support of his case manager — Gile — he was sentenced to a
12-month work furlough and two years' probation. But he violated his
work furlough and ended up serving two months in jail.
After he was released, CPS retained custody but allowed the kids to live
with their father. Then, in August 2002 CPS substantiated another report
of abuse after his daughter went to school with bruises and swelling on
her face.
A prosecutor declined to charge him, citing the need to keep the family
together. Six weeks later, custody was returned to the father.
Gile told investigators she knew about the 2002 abuse complaint, but she
thought the daughter had lied about the incident. She said he yelled
profanity at the kids often.
But she also said she had never seen the father discipline the children
or any serious injuries to the children. If she had seen any injuries,
she said, she would have reported them.
Gile did not return Star telephone calls.
"The thing that interested me most about the Gile case more than
anything is the fact that there was a substantiated case of abuse while
they were in CPS' legal custody," Rep. Paton said. "When kids are taken
away from the parent, and in the process of trying to get those kids
back they (the parents) abuse them all over again, and it was
substantiated, why do they get them back?"
Domestic-violence charge
Gary Sundell has been with CPS since 1979 and now works as a court liaison.
In November 2002, he was charged with domestic violence after throwing
something at a young relative during an argument with his wife, police
reports and court records show.
The charges were dismissed after he completed a treatment plan that
included counseling and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Sundell
declined to comment.
CPS officials said they had not known Sundell was arrested. They said
that at that time the department did background checks every three years.
"Child-welfare workers can't have problems in their lives?" said Ken
Deibert, deputy DES director. "It seems like if somebody has a rough
spot in their life, they get help, they get services, they get their
lives together. What's wrong with that?"
CPS officials said the agency tries to monitor employees to the degree
it can.
Janice Mickens, an administrator with CPS, said supervisors oversee six
case managers who often are handling about 20 cases each, but if an
allegation of abuse or inappropriate behavior is made, the agency takes
action.
"CPS workers are out in the field a lot," she said. "There isn't anybody
following them around in the day to see where they are supposed to be."
In 2004, the department switched to a clearance-card system that is
linked to fingerprints. If an employee is arrested, CPS is notified. A
conviction, and he or she loses the job.
Contact reporter Josh Brodesky at 807-7789 or jbrodesky@azstarnet.com.
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 PROGRAM....
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.
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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