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Archive for the ‘Abuse’ Category

Calls to Palm Beach County (Florida) DCF Child Abuse Hotline Spike

May 2nd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

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.

Florida Assisted Living Facilities: Tarnishing the ‘Pride of Florida’

May 1st, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Elderly / Senior Issues

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.

State Reviews, Revises Findings in Gabriel Myers Foster Care Suicide

April 25th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care, Investigations, Psychotropic

The investigations, questions, hearings and discussions lasted more than a year following the apparent suicide in a Florida foster home of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old boy on the care of Florida Department of Children and Families — and under the influence of a cocktail of psychotropic medications.

Gabriel Myers (image from Florida DCF)But it wasn’t to be that easy. Florida child welfare administrators, who closed their case in 2010 after finding that none of Gabriel’s caregivers had abused or neglected him.

The agency soon reopened the case, backtracked, and according to reports in the Miami Herald, “verified allegations that Gabriel’s foster parents and their then-19-year-old son, who was baby-sitting that day, were responsible for Gabriel’s death — one of the most controversial in agency history.”

Discussions leading to the new outcome centered on a series of difficult questions that confronted the child welfare agency as it was seeking to redefine itself and promote a greater sense of family among foster children. Read the entire story here.

Child Advocate Howard Talenfeld part of $2.9 million settlement for child abuse victim Jace Manning

April 21st, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Guardian ad Litem & Representation, Sexual Abuse

As reported by the Daily Business Review, Childrens advocate attorneys Howard Talenfeld of Colodny Fass Talenfeld Kalinsky & Abate and Gary M. Cohen secured a $2.9 million settlement for Jace Manning, who in the first seven months of his life was seen numerous times by physicians for symptoms indicating abuse and neglect.

According to the article: “The responsible agencies didn’t communicate. It was a complete system failure,” Talenfeld said. “What you have is many different agencies involved with child protection, and it’s very easy for the Jaces of the world to fall through the cracks.”

Read the entire story here

Florida Lawsuit Claims Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse in Foster Care

April 16th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

The Florida Department of Children and Families, area care providers and others have been accused in a lawsuit of allowing the abuse to happen, and then failing to seek mental health care for the then-10-year-old boy after he twice tried to commit suicide.

The mother of the former foster child describes in the lawsuit how the boy was moved to 11 different homes in 18 months. Now 13, he has been reunited with his mother since 2008, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

The paper reports that defendants include the Sarasota YMCA, the local contractor for foster care services. Its chief executive declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. Read the entire story here.

Florida Community Based Care Execs Reap Big Money; Foster Children Left to Languish

April 4th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse

What a waste of Florida taxpayer money, abuse of the public trust and departure from the Legislature’s original intent for the Florida Department of Children and Families when a CEO and other executives from Our Kids, South Florida’s community-based care provider serving foster and at-risk children, can earn six-figure salaries and take bonuses — while cutting the payments to foster children who are finishing high school and going to college.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “Florida’s privatization of child welfare services was supposed to be good for kids and taxpayers. But in the decade since the state began making private agencies responsible for the care of abused and neglected children, one cost has soared — the salaries of top employees.”

The paper continued: “Child welfare executives throughout Florida are now making six-figure salaries, with some topping $200,000 — double what state employees used to be paid to do the same work.”

“They should not under any circumstances be paid these sorts of outrageous salaries,” paper quoted state Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico and chairwoman of the Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs. “If you get your money from taxpayer funds, you should not be paid more than the governor.”

Read the entire story here.

Medicaid Reform Would Limit Families of Child Abuse, Injury, Death Right to Sue

March 30th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Damage Claims, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Legislative & Regulatory Issues, Medicaid

A Medicaid-reform effort has lawmakers seeking to limit the rights of poor people to sue doctors, hospitals and child-welfare companies. “In the midst of expanding HMO-style management in Medicaid, the Legislature is passing a raft of proposals that limit the liability of Medicaid doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and private community-based care companies,” writes the Miami Herald.

Backers of the legislation include doctors and hospitals, the paper writes. Because they’re working for the state (which itself is shielded from lawsuits and some damage awards), the Medicaid providers and child-welfare companies should receive the same protections.

Opponents of the proposed legislation, including Democrats, child advocates and trial attorneys, claim such legislation will hold no one accountable in such cases like Nubia and Victor Barahona. The two Miami children allegedly were abused by their adoptive parents. Such legislation also would help the insurance industry, the paper wrote. Read the entire story here.

North Florida Couple Sues Community Based Care Foster Agency After Child Abuse to Adopted Kids

March 30th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

All the couple wanted was a “forever family” when in 2009 they adopted foster children as their son and daughter via Family Support Services of North Florida. The couple soon discovered the boy and girl, now 6 and 8 respectively, had been in four foster homes and a failed adoption and suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse — none of which was ever disclosed (as required by law) by the community based agency.

The signs soon were clear. The boy punches his nanny. The girl threatens to kill her adoptive mother. Their savings have been depleted seeking care for the children.

The couple were in Jacksonville, Florida, Tuesday, filing a lawsuit that seeks money to care for the children, plus damages for pain and suffering. It says the agency failed to keep track of JD and WD, as they are named in the lawsuit, or advise the new parents of abuse in the foster homes, at least one of which later was closed, said the parents’ attorney.

“My clients were told the reasons why that home was closed were unknown,” the attorney said. “Records reflect that home was closed due to physical abuse on our clients’ children and/or other foster children.”

Read the news story here.

Brutal Child Deaths, Task Force Investigations Nothing New to Florida Deparment of Children and Families

March 28th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Nubia Barahona, Kayla McKean, Bradley McGee, Corey Greer, Rilya Wilson, Lucas Ciambrone, Beaunca Jones, Nia Scott, Alexandria Champagne, Saydee Alvarado, Walkiria Batista and Jonathan Flam. For the Florida Department of Children and Families — and its predecessor organizations — these names represent children who were reported being injured, abused, tortured or in harm’s way, and who later ended up dead at their caregivers’, families or foster families’ hands. Such cases continue to raise red flags and alarms regarding claims of personal injury and wrongful death.

Most also were the subject of extensive “blue panel” reports that recommended extensive changes to the way the state and its private community based care providers rendered care. Yet, the deaths still came.

The reports number about two dozen compiled over the past 20 years “blasting Florida’s troubled child welfare system,” the Miami Herald reported. “Each resulted from a scandalous child death. Each found similar faults with the system and were soon followed by promises from leaders with the state’s Department of Children & Families to make Florida’s children safer. Fast forward to Nubia’s death this year, and the cycle continues.”

Read the entire story here.

Nubia Barahona’s Death Places Spotlight on Florida’s Largest Private Child Welfare Agency

March 25th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

The worries and worst fears of Florida’s guardians, advocates and attorneys concerned with the welfare of foster children and vulnerable citizens statewide under the care of private child welfare service providers are coming clear with the death of Miami adopted child, Nubia Barahona.

As the Miami Herald wrote today, “After the most scandalous child death in a decade, chinks are beginning to show in the armor of the state’s largest private provider of child welfare services, Our Kids.

“Miami-Dade’s 5-year-old privately run child welfare agency is paid $100 million each year to protect thousands of abused and neglected children. But in recent months, it has been forced to defend itself.”

“When the state of Florida said we were not doing well with our child abuse and child welfare efforts, there were people in the community who raised their hands and said, ‘We can do a better job’ — and by that they meant there will be fewer dead bodies, better outcomes for children,’’ Florida Sen. Rhonda Storms, chair of the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, told the Herald.

Read the entire story here.

Palm Beach County (Florida) Judge Agrees Barahona Move to Miami

March 23rd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Jorge Barahona, the Miami, Florida, adoptive father who was found with 10-year-old Victor Barahona in critical condition and twin Nubia Barahona dead in Jorge’s pick-up truck — both victims of alleged abuse — will be moved to Miami, a Palm Beach County judge has ruled.

The news follows a panel’s findings that Florida Department of Children and Families case workers’ efforts in the Barahona case were shoddy and was the result of “fatal ineptitude.”

Judge Karen Miller earlier this week approved moving Jorge Barahona to Miami-Dade County, where he will face multiple criminal charges. Read the entire story here.

Editorial: Investment in Florida Child Welfare System Crucial

March 20th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

The Miami Herald today posted a compelling editorial regarding continued funding of the Florida Department of Children and Families — the state’s lead organization in the protection of vulnerable foster and adopted children. Said the Herald, DCF must get the funding and resources it needs.

“The new head of the Department of Children & Families is right: His agency and its partners were complicit in the tragic death of 10-year-Nubia Barahona. Secretary David Wilkins has pinned the blame not just on mistakes made by select employees, but on a systematic failure of Florida’s child welfare system.

“The question is, with $190 million in budget cuts looming, will Mr. Wilkins’ mea culpa make any difference to the abused, missing and vulnerable children who need help across the state?” Read the entire editorial here.

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