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Archive for May, 2011
Coming on the heels of the unsuccessful efforts of 20 private agencies that tried to have the Florida Legislature limit their liability, a “plan” is afoot to better protect foster and other vulnerable children Community Based Care providers are paid to manage. Notes the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board, “…A better use of their time will be putting into practice the changes that resulted from the terrible discovery three months ago along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach.”
In a compelling editorial, the editorial board recounted “the horrific death of Nubia Barahona and equally horrific injuries sustained by her twin brother, Victor, allegedly at the hands of their adoptive parents.” The case “showed flaws in Florida’s child welfare system but did not indicate failure.
“Everybody started saying, ‘Well, the system is broken,’ ” said Carlos de la Cruz Jr., board chairman of Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, which handled the twins’ adoption. As he pointed out, that is not true.
Read the entire story here.
Is change in the wake of the horrific death of Nubia Barahona and the critical injuries sustained by her twin brother sufficient to prevent future abuse to foster and adopted children in Florida? Without such change, lawsuits, damages, claims of personal injury and wrongful death will only continue, notes Florida child advocacy attorney Howard M. Talenfeld, president of Florida’s Children First.
 Nubia Barahona The Palm Beach Post reports this week that “leaders of the private agency once charged with ensuring Nubia Barahona was safe with her adoptive family say the girl’s death has led to changes that could help caseworkers detect threats to foster children.”
“This case has caused a shift in [caseworkers’] thinking. — ‘Are these foster parents the good people? Do they want to adopt for good reasons?'” Our Kids CEO Frances Allegra, told the paper. Allegra recently co-wrote a 10-page plan to improve its case management in response to the death.
The paper notes that the final version of the plan has been reviewed and approved by Department of Children & Families Secretary David Wilkins. Read the Post’s story here.
Gabriel Myers, 7, died of suicide. Dennis Maltez, 12, died of serotonin syndrome. Both were on psychotropic medications later found to be excessive or inappropriate for their unique cases. Guardians, advocates and child welfare and foster care attorneys wonder: Could history be repeating itself?
For children in Florida’s juvenile jails, heavy doses of powerful antipsychotic medications seem to be the norm — especially when these “big guns” of psychiatry, which can cause suicidal thoughts and other dangerous side effects, are dispensed by doctors reportedly being speaking and other fees by pharmaceutical companies.
According to a Palm Beach Post investigative report, these drugs “routinely were doled out for reasons that never were approved by federal regulators.” In response to the report, the paper noted that the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice has “ordered a sweeping review of the department’s use of antipsychotic medications.”
“In some cases, the drugs are prescribed by contract doctors who have taken huge speaker fees and other gifts from makers of antipsychotic pills, companies that reap staggering profits selling medications,” the paper reported.
Regarding the level of use, Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office represents children in juvenile court, told the Post, “This is a very important issue. If kids are being given these drugs without proper diagnosis, and it is being used as a ‘chemical restraint,’ I would characterize it as a crime. A battery – a battery of the brain each and every time it is given.”
Read the entire story here.
Miami-Dade County has the lowest rate of calls to the state’s child abuse hotline among Florida’s large counties, the Associated Press reports. Some experts say the reason is that Miami’s largest ethnic groups worry a call to the hotline — or any government agency — will only make matters worse.
For child welfare advocates, attorneys and guardians ad litem, that reality among Hispanic – namely Cuban – and Haitian communities could be one reason why Florida’s most populous county has the lowest percentage of children placed into foster care, the AP surmised.
Child care advocates also worry warning signs are going unheeded – that Miami-Dade investigators aren’t removing children and instead are hoping to keep families together.
“Miami keeps you up at night worrying because you know there are calls that aren’t coming in and cases we aren’t hearing about,” Alan Abramowitz, a former family safety director for the Department of Children and Families, told the AP.
Read the entire story here.
The story of a young boy abuse by his mother, then Florida’s child-welfare system, is a disturbing one. The Orlando Sentinel’s Lauren Ritchie tells of torture that started before the Leesburg boy was 2 — with his mother severely beating him, his life spent living in filth and his being subjected to unspeakable horrors. “For the next several years, she ground the soaring spirit of that child into ashes,” the paper says.
The boy was slapped and punched by the woman and her boyfriend, who frequently were on alcohol and drugs. His sister, then 9, was forced to perform sex acts with other men while he watched. The boy recalls his mother forcing him into sex acts with some of the men, the paper writes.
Eventually, state child-protection workers investigated complaints and finally took him and his sister away and put them in foster homes. Then, “for the next seven years — the boy is 12 now — he was shuffled through 20 foster homes, sometimes staying for only a day or two at each. In the homes, he was ‘repeatedly revictimized and retraumatized,'” the paper reports of his mental-health evaluations.
The paper’s reporting reflects a very detailed, sensitive story illustrating what Florida’s child welfare system does to so many children, wrote child advocacy attorney Howard Talenfeld in a letter to the reporter. “In many cases, like the one where I represent 10 siblings, they spend their entire childhoods in care and some end up in our prisons. Others are severely disabled, have their parental rights terminated, are reabused, never are adopted, and end up in group homes. The number of children who lose their natural parents and are never adopted is appalling.”
Read the Orlando Sentinel’s original story here.
Low operational costs has been the promise of privatization of governmental services. Yet in child welfare — one of Florida’s longest-running and largest efforts into privatization — costs have risen, a Sun Sentinel analysis found. Meanwhile, advocates and child welfare attorneys wonder about the effects on vulnerable and foster children in programs overseen by the Department of Children and Families.
“Florida spends more than $1 billion a year on abused and neglected children, up from $717 million in 2000, when the state began farming out foster care and adoptions to private agencies, according to the state Department of Children & Families,” the paper reports. “Adjusted for inflation, spending is up $105 million over 2000.”
“It’s not cheaper,” state Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, told the paper. “That’s what everyone says when they talk about privatization — it’s cheaper. That has not been proven.”
The paper’s takeaway: “Florida spends more today on child welfare despite caring for far fewer foster children. That’s because of a shift in favor of preventing abuse and keeping families together.” Read the entire story here.
Marchella Pierce didn’t have a chance. Born prematurely with underdeveloped lungs, she spent much of her four years in hospitals, being raised amid the chaos of a combative family struggling with drugs, and the Brooklyn, New York, child died at a mere 18 pounds — half what she reasonably should have weighed. Like cases involving the Florida Department of Children and Families, Pierce should have been overseen by New York’s child welfare agency — and a private organization hired to ensure her well being. She wasn’t.
Most sadly, as child attorneys and advocates have witnessed with our own sad examples here in Florida, the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, prosecutors say, essentially ignored the family, the New York Times wrote.
“She died in September by the ugliest means,” the paper continued. “She withered in poverty in a home in Brooklyn where the authorities said she had been drugged and often bound to a toddler bed by her mother, having realized a bare thimble’s worth of living.
“An examination of Marchella’s bleak, fleeting life, drawn from interviews with relatives, neighbors and law enforcement authorities, as well as from legal documents, shows that almost nothing went right for her,” the paper continued. Read the entire story here.
Cases opened by the Florida Department of Children & Families child protection investigators in Palm Beach County resulting from calls to its child abuse hotline was the highest in March over the previous 10 years. The number of children removed from their homes also climbed in kind.
According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, “the local figures reflected statistics statewide and are almost certainly connected to at least one widely publicized case that unfolded in part in Palm Beach County: the death of Nubia Barahona, 10, who was found dead on Feb. 14 in the bed of a truck parked just off Interstate 95 near Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.”
Read the entire story here.
For more than a quarter century, Florida’s assisted living facilities (ALF) were the result of landmark legislation to provide protections, shelter and care for the elderly, infirm and mentally ill – some of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens. Today, thousands reside in these facilities. Many are restrained with straps or psychotropic medications, and abused by their caregivers. While covered by what should be stringent oversight, many facilities operate in the shadows, abusing residents, thwarting efforts to reel the facilities in, and tarnishing what some believe once were the “the pride of Florida.”
In a sweeping story, The Miami Herald investigates several facilities, like Sunshine Acres Loving Care. The paper reports that “…For more than a decade, Bruce Hall ran his assisted-living facility in Florida’s Panhandle like a prison camp. He punished his disabled residents by refusing to give them food and drugs. He threatened them with a stick. He doped them with powerful tranquilizers, and when they broke his rules, he beat them — sending at least one to the hospital.
“’The conditions in the facility are not fit even for a dog,’ one caller told state agents.”
Read the entire story here.
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Miami, FL – March 16, 2023 – Local 10 WPLG- Man accused of using Instagram to find minors for prostitution in Miami-Dade A 25-year-old man stands accused of using Instagram to prey on minors for prostitution in Miami-Dade County, according to prosecutors with the human trafficking task force.
Miami, FL – March 3, 2023 – Local 10 WPLG- Hollywood man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for attempting to sexually entice minors A federal judge in Miami-Dade County sentenced a Hollywood man to 15 years in prison for attempting to sexually entice two minors, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
Tampa, FL – February 18, 2023 – The Tampa Bay Times- State plans to take over child protective duties in Tampa Bay counties The Florida Department of Children and Families will take over child protective investigative duties from seven local sheriff’s offices, including those in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties, according to a letter dated Friday.
Hialeah, FL – February 15, 2023 – WPLG Local 10- Pair arrested in Hialeah after girl, 15, rescued from sex trafficking, authorities say Investigators with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office arrested two men accused of trafficking a 15-year-old girl for sex after authorities rescued her in Hialeah Monday, according to an arrest report.
Putnam County, FL – February 11, 2023 – News4Jax- Putnam County deputies find children living in home in ‘deplorable condition’ with 2 dead dogs inside, officials say A woman is facing child and animal neglect charges after deputies found children living in a home they called “deplorable,” according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Jacksonville, FL – January 28, 2023 – News4Jax- JSO: Toddler drowns in family pool at home in Jacksonville Heights neighborhood A toddler was found unresponsive in a family pool in the Jacksonville Heights neighborhood Saturday afternoon, The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said at a news briefing.
Brooksville, FL – January 12, 2023 – Fox 13 Tampa Bay- Florida holds roundtable to discuss human trafficking as arrests climb across state roadways Florida law enforcement officers gathered on Thursday to brainstorm ways to detect and stop human trafficking following a slew of arrests along the state’s highways.
Broward County, FL – January 10, 2023 – WPLG Local 10- Man sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for sex trafficking girl in Broward County A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after he was convicted of sex trafficking a teenager in Broward County who had been reported missing, authorities announced Tuesday.
Broward County, FL – January 3, 2023 – WPLG Local 10- BSO: Woman arrested for sex trafficking 13-year-old after leaving Broward foster home Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested an 18-year-old woman Monday who they said forced a 13-year-old girl to have sex with men after the two left a Southwest Ranches foster home.
Marathon, FL – December 21, 2022 – WPLG Local 10- Sheriff: Couple arrested in Keys after toddler found covered in roaches Deputies in the Florida Keys arrested a Fort Myers couple on child abuse and drug charges after they found a 2-year-old boy in “squalid” conditions, authorities said Wednesday.
Pembroke Pines, FL – December 20, 2022 – WPLG Local 10- Teacher’s aide accused of abusing autistic students at Broward school Pembroke Pines police arrested an Exceptional Student Education aide at West Broward High School Tuesday after accusing him of “inappropriately touching” at least two students with mental disabilities.
Tallahassee, FL – December 18, 2022 – The Sun-Sentinel- State leaders vow reforms to crack down on sex trafficking in Florida after Sun Sentinel investigation State officials vowed to implement new measures to fight sex trafficking in hotels, protect victims who cooperate with law enforcement and increase penalties for traffickers after a South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation exposed a broken system that enables the illegal trade to flourish in Florida.
New York, NY – December 8, 2022 – Wall Street Journal- New York Law Offers Chance to Sue Over Decades-Old Sex-Abuse Claims Lawyers promise civil lawsuits after yearlong window opened Thursday.
Gainesville, FL – November 1, 2022 – WGFL News 4- Gainesville parents accused of keeping kids in feces covered home After an investigation from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Gainesville Police accuse 67-year-old Jana Ronan and 60-year-old John Ronan of child neglect.
Marion County, FL – October 29, 2022 – WESH 2 News- Missing Marion County 2-year-old found safe, deputies say The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said a 2-year-old reported missing has been found safe.
Chicago, IL – October 15, 2022 – ABC News- Prominent Chicago priest accused of sexual abuse of minor A Catholic priest who gained national fame as an activist has been asked to step away from his ministry while allegations that he sexually abused a minor decades ago are investigated.
Fort Lauderdale, FL – September 26, 2022 – Local 10- Police locate parent of boy with special needs who was found alone in Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale police have located the parent of a 9-year-old boy with special needs who was found alone Monday morning, authorities said.
National – September 14, 2022 – K12 Dive- More at-risk children and families need voluntary home visits Voluntary home visiting programs for young children and their families yield benefits like school readiness, crime prevention and economic independence for families, but only 9% of the highest-priority families receive services when federal, state and local resources are combined, according to a report released Tuesday.
Broward County, FL – September 2, 2022 – NBC Miami- Long-Time DCF Employee Accused of Giving Away Money, Benefits A 20-year veteran employee of Florida’s Department of Children and Families is accused of giving money, food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance to people who did not qualify for it, court records show.
Chicago, IL – September 1, 2022 – CBS Chicago- ‘Numbers don’t lie’: After a 10th child on the DCFS radar dies in the last 9 months, lawmakers demand changes CBS 2 has learned another child on the radar of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has died.
Palmetto, FL – August 29, 2022 – ABC Action News- New report finds DCF’s human trafficking screening tool may not identify all victims A screening tool the state uses to help identify child victims of human trafficking is not very reliable, a new report shows, and “may not successfully identify” all kids.
Chicago, IL – August 10, 2022 – CBS News- Family on DCFS radar for 19 years under investigation again after 3-year-old I’Kera Hill died of malnourishment Three-year-old I’Kera Hill’s family was investigated 10 times for close to 20 years. Ten siblings were removed from the home.
Tallahassee, FL – July 21, 2022 – WPLG Local 10- Did you receive a $450 check in the mail from Gov. Ron DeSantis? Don’t throw it away, cash it Floridians have begun receiving $450 checks in the mail from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but a lot of people are wondering if it’s a scam.
Miami, FL – July 18, 2022 – The Miami Herald- Florida insisted mom wasn’t a danger to her children — until the kids were hogtied, strangled For years, state child welfare administrators responded with metronomic regularity to reports of violence and instability in the home of Odette Joassaint.
Homestead, FL – July 18, 2022 – WPLG Local 10- Family seeks answers in death of 10-month-old at Homestead daycare An investigation is ongoing after a 10-month-old baby died on Monday.
Tallahassee, FL – June 23, 2022 – Fox 35 Orlando- Florida Department of Children and Families looks to recruit veterans, former law officers Veterans, military spouses, and former law-enforcement officers are being encouraged to apply for jobs as state child-protective investigators in an initiative backed by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Fort Lauderdale, FL – June 22, 2022 – CBS News- Former Cerebral employees say company’s practices put patients at risk: “It’s chaotic. It’s confusing. It could be extremely dangerous” Dr. David Mou believes that Cerebral “saves lives.”
Pensacola, FL – June 17, 2022 – WPLG Local 10- DeSantis wants panel to probe trafficking, sanctuary cities Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has asked that a statewide grand jury be set up to examine networks that illegally smuggle people into the state.
Oakland Park, FL – June 15, 2022 – NBC 6 Miami – Parents Arrested After Girl, 3, Overdoses on Fentanyl: BSO An unconscious 3-year-old girl had no pulse and was not breathing when Oakland Park Fire Rescue resuscitated her with Narcan, a treatment for an opioid overdose, authorities said.
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