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Posts Tagged ‘Foster Care’

Florida Foster Care Round-Up: Leekin Damage Suit for Fraud — & Kids Failed by the System

May 5th, 2009   No Comments   Damage Claims, Foster Care

A 7-year-old foster child, a career criminal and the Florida Department of Children and Families led the headlines regarding the foster care and child welfare arena across Florida and the nation over the past few weeks. Here are summaries of some of those and other stories…

In one of the biggest stories, The New York Times reported on April 30 in Suit Contends City Failed to Prevent Adoption Fraud, how lawyers contended in a lawsuit that New York City violated the rights of 10 disabled children who were adopted more than a decade ago by Judith Leekin, a former Queens woman now in a Florida jail and who abused them and used government subsidies meant for their care to support a lavish lifestyle.

The Miami Herald on April 30 wrote State probes apparent suicide of foster child, 7, an opening reporting salvo by journalists and columnists in what we expect to be a very chilling and alarming case – that of Gabriel Myers, the boy who took his own life at a Broward County foster home after a stormy nine-month odyssey through the state foster-care system and the questionable use of psychotropic drugs used to quell problem children.

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Stop Warehousing Florida’s Foster Children

May 4th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care

By Brian J. Cabrey, Esq.

The April 16 suicide death of 7 year old Gabriel Myers, a foster child in the custody and care of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), shocks the conscience.

Little Gabriel apparently hung himself with the shower hose in the bathroom of his foster home in Margate, Florida. The victim of sexual abuse, as well as other abuse and neglect that resulted in him being removed from his family and placed in foster care, Gabriel had been prescribed a variety of mind altering psychotropic medications while in foster care to deal with the myriad behavioral problems he was experiencing, no doubt largely the result of the abuse he had suffered. Reports are that he was on 3 or 4 different drugs, or combinations thereof, at the time of his death, all at the tender age of 7.

What is almost as shocking to the conscience as a 7 year old wanting to, knowing how to, and actually committing suicide, is that a 7-year-old would be on not just one, but multiple psychotropic medications. (more…)

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. (more…)

Florida DCF Workgroup to Research Death of Foster Child, Gabriel Myers

May 1st, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

Department of Children and Families Secretary Convenes Workgroup to Evaluate Circumstances Surrounding Death of 7-year-old in Foster Care

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary George H. Sheldon today announced that the Department is establishing a  workgroup to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers.

Gabriel died on April 16 when police indicated he apparently hanged himself in the shower of his foster parents’ Margate home.

Following Gabriel’s death, the Department of Children and Families petitioned the court to release case files and notes relating to the child while in state care. Normally, case files are only made public following a death that is verified as a result of abuse or neglect, per Florida Statutes. However, DCF believed it was in the public interest to open the records to public scrutiny. A judge agreed and the petition was granted on April 22, 2009. (more…)

NY Times: Suit Contends New York City Failed to Prevent Adoption Fraud

April 30th, 2009   No Comments   Damage Claims, Foster Care

From the New York Times: New York City violated the rights of 10 disabled children who were adopted more than a decade ago by a former Queens woman who abused them and used government subsidies meant for their care to support a lavish lifestyle, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, claims that the woman, Judith Leekin, 64, who is now in prison, was able to carry out her scheme for so long because the city’s child welfare authorities did not adequately investigate her fitness as a mother or monitor the children’s care in her home.

Two Florida lawyers involved in the suit, Theodore Babbitt of West Palm Beach and Howard Talenfeld of Fort Lauderdale, said New York officials have refused to provide the children with what they described as any meaningful assistance in Florida since Ms. Leekin’s arrest in 2007.

“They learned no skills that would allow them to survive in this world, and yet the City of New York just turned their back a second time,” Mr. Talenfeld said. Click to read the entire New York Times article.

DCF Secretary George Sheldon Announces New Leadership Academy for Florida’s Foster Youth

April 21st, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, News & Events

The Myron L. Rolle Foundation, Department of Children and Families and Department of Military Affairs Partner in Week-Long Camp

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – One hundred Florida foster children between the ages of 12 and 14 will have an opportunity to spend a week this summer at the new Myron L. Rolle Wellness and Leadership Academy at Camp Blanding, in Starke, Fla.

Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon announced today at a press conference that the Myron L. Rolle Foundation (Foundation) will host 50 boys and 50 girls from Florida’s Foster Care System at the academy from June 15-19.

The teens will participate in wellness and leadership activities led by Florida State University graduate, Seminole football star and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle, as well as nationally recognized athletes and volunteer mentors. (more…)

Child Homelessness: A Critical Issue to Florida Families

March 10th, 2009   No Comments   News & Events

Department of Children and Families Working to Reduce Number of Homeless Children in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. – A report released today by the National Center on Family Homelessness places Florida in the bottom third of all 50 states among those with the highest rates of homeless children.

The National Center launched a “Campaign to End Child Homelessness” and evaluated all 50 states on four areas specific to homeless children: the extent of child homelessness; child well-being; structural risk factors; and policy planning and efforts.

It is estimated that there are 8,600 homeless children across Florida, with the highest numbers in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties (1,700 and 860 respectively). The Department is working to reduce the numbers of homeless children in Florida through various efforts.

The Family Safety Program works with Community Based Care partners to strengthen families so that children can remain with their parents whenever possible and appropriate. Addressing the root causes of family instability also increases the likelihood of families staying together. Mental illness, substance abuse and domestic violence are all factors that contribute to family instability, which can lead to job loss, extended hospitalizations, loss of the family home, and ultimately child homelessness.

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Florida Foster Children Must Fight – and Be Protected From – Identity Theft

March 3rd, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care

By Howard Talenfeld

identity theft by d70focus from flickrWhen Todd Davis announces with confidence on national TV how LifeLock will protect subscribers from identity theft, it’s likely he’s not marketing to foster children.

Yet they’re just as vulnerable to identity theft as anyone else. Even more so, by some accounts. As a Florida attorney focused on protecting the rights of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, including those in foster care, I have seen the potential for abuse and identity theft these children face. We need to help them learn how to protect themselves today.

In a recent Newsweek article, “Sabotaged by the System,” writer Jesse Ellison told the story of Tyrome Sams, a 20-year-old former foster child. When he applied for credit cards, Sams was repeatedly refused. He later learned that eight years earlier someone had swiped his identity and accrued hundreds of dollars in utility bills.

“Sams’s case isn’t just an unfortunate fluke,” Ellison wrote in the magazine (https://www.newsweek.com/id/183711). “Identity theft among foster kids is common, and for good reason: they’re easy targets. They move often among various homes and schools, so their personal data pass through dozens of hands.” (more…)

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