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With 25 Kids Dead, Florida Department of Children and Families Must Change its Failed Policies

November 11th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary

The Florida Department of Children and Families has argued for years in support of its policy of keeping troubled families together. In the wake of the deaths of 25 children known by DCF potentially to be at harm, some have called the policy flawed.

In this letter to the Tampa Bay Times, child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld argues that in light of situations of wrongful death, physical abuse and sexual abuse of at-risk children and foster children, there is no doubt that DCF needs desperately to revamp its child protection system, as there is no excuse for a single death of a child where there are red flags known to DCF investigators. However, the best practice is to always try to keep children in their homes if it can be done so safely.

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Florida Department of Children and Families, Agencies Sued by Parents of Tortured Port Charlotte Boy

November 3rd, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases

In a case of the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers not paying heed to warning signs of child abuse and neglect against those in its care, DCF and several agencies are being sued by the adoptive parents whose adopted boy was left in a Port Charlotte home for several months – even after DCF child welfare officials were told his stepmother was torturing him.

The suit charges DCF, Lutheran Services Florida and Charlotte Behavioral Health Care with negligence.

In 2012, the stepmother was sentenced to a prison term of four years for aggravated child abuse, including smearing feces and urine on the boy’s face and sliding peanut butter sandwiches under his door.

The boy was later adopted by his paternal aunt and uncle. Today, he is 13 and lives in Tennessee.

“He told everybody that would listen what was happening to him and nobody believed him and he ended up in the same place night after night after night,” the attorney told the News Press. “This is going to affect him for the rest of the life.”



Palm Beach Post Editorial: Wellington Family’s Horror Latest Reason to Reform System for Paying Victims of Government Negligence

October 30th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Damage Claims

In this Palm Beach Post editorial, staff editorial writer Rhoda Swan argues that it’s long-past time that Florida legislators change their stance and process regarding claims bills necessary to pay multi-million dollar damage awards against state agencies like the Florida Department of Children and Families. As advocates have long said, reform the system, and pay the damage awards.

As Swan wrote, “A Wellington family awarded $5 million for the sexual abuse perpetrated on their son by a foster child must get in line with at least 25 other victims of government negligence in Florida.

“The judgment against the Department of Children and Families will become another ‘claims bill,’ which the Legislature must approve before the family is paid. Legislators passed no claims bill last session, because Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, wants to reform the system first.

“…Attorney Howard Talenfeld will lobby legislators to pay [the family]. Sen. Gaetz dislikes the role lobbyists play, but the system is the problem. Legislators should remove the politics by increasing what governments can pay without legislative approval. Delayed reform means delayed justice.”

Read the entire column here.



Will $5 Million Verdict in Foster Child-On-Child Sexual Abuse Case Help Florida DCF, Community-Based Providers Learn Their Lesson?

October 28th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Damage Claims

When a six-member jury decided that the sexual assault of one child by a foster child who was known to be a juvenile sex offender by the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers could have been avoided and should have consequences, they were reiterating what child advocates have said all along. Their $5 million verdict against Florida DCF only drove home the point even more forcefully.

Was history repeating itself in the Palm Beach County courtroom, where testimony of the sexual abuse and humiliation suffered by the victim brought tears to the plaintiff’s attorney and jurors alike?

DCF and community-based care providers failed to warn the foster family of the 10-year-old foster child’s own history of violent sexual abuse. Then, after the abuse occurred, they tried to deflect blame and say the foster parents should have known. Child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld was co-counsel on the case. Read the newspaper account here.

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Emotional Tale of Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse Blames Florida Department of Children and Families, Community Based Care Provider

October 17th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Damage Claims

Attorneys for a man who as a child suffered sexual abuse by a foster child taken into his family home had a Palm Beach County courtroom in tears – and foster child advocates again wondering when the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers ever would learn the lessons of the past.

The family was not told by DCF of the sexual abuse the foster child had suffered from less than two years of age – abuse that transformed him into a sexual predator. Instead, he was placed with the family.

As jurors heard of childhood games gone horribly wrong, “… [a]ttorneys representing DCF and Camelot [community care] have countered that the couple knew enough about [the foster child’s] background to understand the potential risk he posed to [their son].”

The foster child was known to be a juvenile sex offender. Shame on DCF for not warning another family of the full and complete history of a foster child.  Several years ago, DCF paid $10 million in damages under very similar circumstances.

When will DCF learn the lessons of the past?



Children’s Rights Attorney: More Work Needed at Florida Department of Children and Families

October 15th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

As a child advocate and children’s rights lawyer and foster care abuse attorney specializing in children who have suffered physical abuse, sexual abuse and even wrongful death, Howard Talenfeld works with a number of other leading attorneys throughout Florida in representing these individuals harmed in these cases. One such children’s rights attorney is Gloria Fletcher, who recently was published in newspapers in Tallahassee, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale regarding proposed changes at the Florida Department of Children and Families. Changes are good, yet more are needed, notes Fletcher, who has sued on behalf of children physically abused and sexually abused while under the watch and care of DCF and its agencies. Her letter is below…

“I applaud interim DCF Secretary Esther Jacobo for her efforts to address the issues with our state’s child protection services. One method has been the use of outside experts to review the safety model, tools, and practice manual intended to improve the performance of child protective investigators and community based care agencies.

“The results of this initiative – the Casey Family Programs report – displays the true need for DCF to fix its child protective investigation “transformation” before real change can be made. In fact, the report itself says “The Safety Model’s Guidelines are incongruent with child protection practices designed for babies and toddlers, the age group at greatest risk for serious inflicted injuries and maltreatment fatalities.” Further evidence that more work is needed before DCF’s new model will achieve its intended purpose of protecting our kids.

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With Advocates’ Guidance, Florida Department of Children and Families Embraces Needed Reforms

October 4th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary

As it promises change and improvement in the interest of the safety of foster children and at-risk kids statewide, the Florida Department of Children and Families has asked organizations to lend guidance of its child safety model. The work of at least one policy group – Casey Family Programs – has gained the attention of DCF Interim Secretary Esther Jacobo and other child advocates and attorneys.

Casey’s report found DCF’s safety measure lacking. This comes in the wake of the deaths of 20 children whose situations were known to DCF and its community-based care providers. Casey found that DCF must broaden its focus from children in danger to include children at-risk of becoming so.

Noted Casey’s Alan Puckett and Dee Wilson: “The safety model…does not clearly convey the cumulative emotional and developmental harm which children may suffer from chronic neglect or from the combination of chronic neglect with physical abuse or sexual abuse. In many chronically referring families, children may be neither in present or impending danger nor truly safe given the cumulative developmental and emotional impact, and occasional significant harm, which may result from low level chronic maltreatment.”

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‘High-Risk’ Placement Leaves Child Sexually Abused, Florida DCF On Trial

October 2nd, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Damage Claims

The Florida Department of Children and Families and a community-based care provider are at the center of a civil lawsuit seeking damages filed in Palm Beach County by a foster family whose foster child was a known sexual abuser who abused their natural son.

The foster child suffered a past that left him “so horribly damaged” – a past the two social service agencies should have warned them of, according to their complaint and news reports.

The family is seeking unspecified damages against Florida DCF and Camelot Community Care, a nonprofit child welfare group hired by DCF to oversee the foster child’s case. Instead, the agencies cast blame upon the foster family.

To attorneys, though, the case is clear. DCF made a high-risk placement without informing the plaintiffs that the foster child was sexually aggressive. DCF permitted the foster child to share a bedroom with an 8-year old boy and violated its own procedures designed to protect against sexual abuse,” Howard Talenfeld, co-counsel for the family, said later. “Camelot Community Care, DCF’s expert hired to treat this child, assess risk and provide therapy, violated the same procedures and failed to take the necessary actions that would have protected both children.”

The trial is expected to last four weeks.



Medically Needy Child Dies Under DCF Care and Amid Provider Bickering

September 30th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

On Florida Child Advocate, we’ve advocated for attorneys and attorneys ad litem for developmentally disabled and medically fragile children and foster and at-risk children – and to put an end to their needless and senseless wrongful death, personal injury and physical abuse. We’ve admonished the Florida Department of Children and Families and their contracted community-based providers for not seeing that these citizens receive the critical and appropriate medical care they need, and we’ve lauded the legislature for funding that care.

So it’s saddening and frustrating to read that a young child under the watch of DCF and under the care of two such providers died as those providers debated who should handle and pay for her care. In brief, this young child should have had assigned to her a skilled child advocacy attorney to argue for her needs. Simply put, she died because no one skilled to do so was there on her side advocating for her very specific and necessary medical needs.

Read just part of her story to get a sense of her suffering, and now plain it would seem to an outsider that she needed someone to advocate on her behalf…

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Media Reports on DCF Lawsuit by Boy Sexually Abused, Knifed by Father

September 25th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases

South Florida and regional media have been keenly interested in news of a then 7-year-old boy who had been sexually abused and later was knifed by his father suing the Florida Department of Children and Families and four contracted agencies Monday for negligence.

The man also killed his then-9-year-old autistic son and a stranger, before committing suicide. Children’s rights attorneys note that the episode is indicative of larger issues within Florida’s child protection system. DCF has long sought to preserve and reunify troubled families, instead of protecting children facing sexual abuse or physical harm at home, reported the Miami Herald.

There was a mountain of evidence against that father, whose two other children had been removed from his care years ago in New York for the same type of sex abuse allegations, and Florida’s agency was aware of that,” WIOD News Radio cites attorney Joel Fass as saying.

“All the warning signs — including past allegations of abuse — were there regarding De Jesus; no one seems to have read them,” wrote the Broward New Times.



Child Advocate Attorneys Sue Florida DCF on Behalf of Boy Knifed by Pedophile Father, Suit Claims Agency Knew Potential for Harm

September 24th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases

In a violent, murderous rampage that one local newspaper called a “bloodbath,” a child was left with a knife embedded in his skull, his autistic brother and a stranger killed – and his pedophile father and perpetrator of the violence dead of suicide. The Florida Department of Children and Families could have predicted the 2012 outburst, given the man’s history of physical abuse and sexual abuse against his children.

The boy’s child advocate attorneys, Howard Talenfeld and Joel Fass, both shareholders with Fort Lauderdale law firm Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb, filed suit in Broward County Circuit Court Monday, the Miami Herald reported today.

The lawsuit claims the 2012 event at the Deerfield Beach trailer park resulted from the state returning the boy to his parents. The agency already had removed the boys from the care of the parents, who had been accused by several sources of repeatedly molesting the boy, despite growing evidence and reports the boy was terrified of his parents. A half-brother reportedly even warned agency officials of the man’s sexual assaults on him when the man lived in New York.

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Florida’s Children First to Host Gainesville Fundraiser and Annual Advocacy Awards

September 22nd, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, News & Events

Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier advocacy organization for foster children, and neglected, physically abused and sexually abused at-risk and vulnerable youth statewide, will host its annual fundraiser and awards event this week.

The Florida’s Children First 2013 Gainesville Reception will be held Thursday, September 26 from 5:30PM to 7:30PM. The event will be hosted by Cotton and Gloria Fletcher. Ms. Fletcher is a leading North Florida children’s rights attorney.

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