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Florida, New York Attorneys File Lawsuit For Failure to Protect Foster Children From Abusive Foster Mom

May 3rd, 2009   No Comments   Damage Claims, Foster Care
Attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Ted Babbitt discuss their federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services in the case of Judith Leekin's abuse of the foster care system and 10 children in her care.

As one of the children looks on, attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Ted Babbitt discuss their federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services in the case of Judith Leekin's abuse of the foster care system and 10 children in her care.

Calling her rapacious, her foster home a “house of horrors,” and the case “one of the worst child welfare disasters in the history of this country,” attorneys for 10 former foster care children of now-imprisoned foster mom Judith Leekin spelled out their case for damages this week before more than a dozen journalists.

Attorneys Howard Talenfeld, partner with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Ted Babbitt, partner with Babbitt, Johnson, Osborne & Le Clainche, P.A., in West Palm Beach, Florida, described the case, Leekin, and the New York City department whose job it is to oversee foster care kids and their caregivers.

The federal lawsuit claims New York City failed to properly screen Leekin, who – according to the Associated Press, “used fictitious identities to adopt 10 disabled children and later repeatedly abused, starved and imprisoned them in a ‘house of horrors.’” The  suit was filed Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court on behalf of the children whom Leekin, now 64 and imprisoned in Florida, adopted over an eight-year period ending in 1996.

Wrote one news outlet, “The suit charged that a rapacious Leekin was able to carry out the scam in which she fraudulently collected $1.68 million in adoption subsidies because the city’s Administration for Children’s Services didn’t do its job.” The suit claimed the ACS was “‘maze of dysfunctional bureaucracy’ and could have easily exposed the scheme with some simple legwork such as contacting Leekin’s neighbors and employers.”

Dating back to the 1980s, these special needs foster children were locked in cages, handcuffed or zip-tied together at night, abused physically, threatened with firearms, secreted from any public interaction, underfed and malnourished, and deprived of regular education, doctor or dental visits. One child’s teeth were in such pain that the child banged her face on the garage floor until knocking her teeth out. Now adults, all suffer medical and behavioral issues, and will require costly, long-term educational, medical, psychological and sociological care.

Leekin’s fraud included assuming four aliases – often using similar dates and documentation – to adopt a total of 22 children. At no point did New York Child Welfare officials verify the foster mother’s false documentation, investigate her fitness as a caregiver, or document the children’s care.

Ultimately, she collected $1.68 million in payments meant for their care.

When she sensed New York officials finally were closing in, Leekin relocated with the 10 plaintiffs to Florida. Today, Leekin is serving an 11-year prison sentence for fraud, and is awaiting sentencing in Broward County, Florida. The plaintiffs, all of whom currently reside in Florida, are seeking a jury trial.

“This is a horrific failure of the child welfare system,” Talenfeld said. “These children endured a terrible tragedy, but one that could easily have been avoided if New York had followed procedures. Instead, the state allowed these kids to have their childhoods stolen from them. Even today, the City of New York refuses to accept responsibility.”

“These children suffered unspeakable trauma and now possess no life skills and face a lifetime of physical and emotional therapy,” Babbitt said. “These amount to the most egregious injuries I’ve seen in 43 years of practicing law. The damages sought will not return the innocence of youth, but may help them avoid a nightmarish adulthood.”

TCPalm reported that Sharman Stein, ACS spokeswoman, said the city “intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit.” The agency, she added, had “done everything possible to aid in the criminal investigation” and ensure the children were properly cared for after Leekin’s arrest.


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