The Child Protection eNewsletter

Report blasts NYC child welfare agency…

New York City workers charged with investigating child abuse and neglect reports sometimes simply took parents at their word when they denied the allegations. Read More Sometimes they closed cases without even trying to interview people who probably had relevant information. At least one manager doctored records -- after a child died -- to make it look as though he had been on the case more diligently than he had.

Spotlighting those problems and more, a damning new report on the city child welfare agency called for significant changes after 10 children died as a result of bungled investigations. The city's Department of Investigation said it probed the deaths of 11 children and one who nearly drowned in an eight-month stretch beginning in October 2005. DOI said that in all the cases, the Administration for Children's Services either was investigating the parents or had completed its findings. "In all but one of these cases, DOI has found that the investigations conducted by ACS were substantially inadequate and incomplete," said the 141-page report.

The sharply critical report outlines a troubling pattern of lying, incompetence, carelessness and ill-trained caseworkers. It gives grim details about the children whose deaths likely could have been prevented.

"Facts were not ascertained, and children were left at risk," said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. ACS head John B. Mattingly said the agency embraced recommendations to improve. "As commissioner, it all rests on my shoulders," he said. "This is a very tough report."

The shocking cases include the brutal 2006 beating deaths of Nixzmary Brown, 7, and Quachaun Brown, 4, along with the death of 2-month-old Michael Segarra, who died in his crib of neglect and tested positive for cocaine at birth.
http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/newsletter/vol4_iss4.html http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/newsletter/vol4_iss3.html

After another toddler, 16-month-old Dahquay Gillians, drowned in a bathtub on Nov. 6, 2005, an ACS manager admitted to DOI investigators that he had falsified records to make it appear he had been actively supervising the investigation, the report said. Dahquay's mother has pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.

In other news… 

A woman accused of living lavishly while her 11 adopted children were neglected and abused cashed in a life insurance policy and was starting to put her home up for sale as Florida investigators closed in, court documents show. Read More Judith Leekin cashed in a $62,000 policy and called a real estate agent to sell her home, according to more than 200 pages of records from prosecutors. She also left four of her children at another son's house shortly before she was apprehended. Leekin is accused of using four aliases during two decades in New York City to adopt the 11 children in a scam that paid her $1.26 million. She lived in a five-bedroom house with posh furnishings and a pool but forced all the children to sleep together on the floor in a utility room, according to a Port St. Lucie Police investigator's report. The children were kept in a room with the knobs reversed, allowing someone to be locked inside, the report says. All have scars on their wrists and ankles, apparently from being tied and handcuffed. None appears to have more than a fourth-grade education, authorities say.

Unitarian Universalists have created an online course with the New England Adolescent Research Institute to help churches set guidelines for dealing with a member accused of a sex crime or a convicted sex offender who wants to join their congregation. Read More "Every place of worship needs a safe-congregation policy," Reverend Debra Haffner, director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing. Five years ago, the Unitarian Universalist Association asked Reverend Haffner to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for churches that is simple enough for any congregation to use. The result was a ground breaking policy called "Balancing Acts." http://archive.uua.org/ Recognizing that the material can be both overwhelming and difficult to face alone, the UUA began collaborating with the New England Adolescent Research Institute (NEARI) to create a new and free online course to walk the learner through the basic information that every congregation needs to know. The online course is now available at http://www.neari.com/trainingcenter and takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures to assist youth-serving organizations as they begin to adopt prevention strategies for child sexual abuse. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/ The guide identifies six key components of child sexual abuse prevention for organizations: Screening and selecting employees and volunteers, Guidelines on interactions between individuals, Monitoring behavior, Ensuring safe environments, Responding to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse and Training in child sexual abuse prevention. For additional information about CDC's child maltreatment prevention activities and educational materials please go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/CMP/default.htm

Sexual assault in Minnesota cost approximately $8 billion in 2005, according to the state's first-ever report on the estimated economic impact of rape and other forms of sexual assault released today by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). http://www.health.state.mn.us/ According to the report, 61,000 Minnesota children and adults were sexually assaulted in 2005, some of them more than once, for a total of 77,000 assaults. Of the 61,000, 80 percent were female and 29 percent were under age 18. One in 70 Minnesota children was sexually assaulted, with the highest rate among girls aged 13-17.

A couple featured as wanted child predators on The O'Reilly Factor Wednesday were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide shortly after the segment aired. http://www.foxnews.com/story/ Paul and Myrtis Gauthreaux were wanted by the FBI for engaging in sexual conduct with minors and appeared on a segment of the show that profiled alleged child pornographers. After seeing the O’Reilly Factor segment, a relative of the couple called them before notifying the FBI of their whereabouts. When federal investigators arrived at their home, the Gauthreauxs had fled to an undisclosed location. The FBI said Paul Gauthreaux shot his wife dead before turning the gun on himself.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has launched a 21st Century take on milk carton advertising: a downloadable computer screensaver that flips through photographs of missing kids. http://www.cnn.com/2007/ Developed in partnership with a private software company, Global Software Applications, the rotating screens display a missing child's picture and profile, tailored according to the region of the United States where the computer user is located. More than 4,000 children are missing, said the Center's executive director, Bob O'Brien. The screensaver is a great way "to get more and more people engaged" in finding kids.

A member of the North American Man-Boy Love Association was arrested in Central Florida after a canvas bag of nude boy photos was found inside his vehicle. http://www.local6.com/news/Investigators said Leland Stevenson was taken into custody at his Fort McCoy home Thursday after the photos were found his vehicle's trunk. The photos depicted nude boys in suggestive poses, police said.

A man who blogs about his attraction to young girls but says he doesn't touch them was arrested Monday near a university child care facility with a camera, police said. http://abcnews.go.com/ Jack McClellan, 45, who is unemployed and lives out of his car, was arrested at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus police said in a statement. He was arrested near the University's Infant Development Program, which provides onsite care for children 3 months to 3 years old and serves faculty, students and staff, according to the university's Web site. McClellan violated a restraining order requiring him not to loiter or congregate within 30 feet of minors, police alleged. He was released and scheduled to appear in court September 13. http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/newsletter/vol5_iss50.html http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/newsletter/vol5_iss48.html

A British pedophile caught with 150,000 child porn images has been jailed for 17 years after admitting almost two decades of abuse. http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/ Russell Andrew, 41, admitted downloading child porn and sex offenses against children after targeting victims of both sexes aged as young as four. Judge Michael Heath told Andrew that looking at his vile collection had made him physically sick. Andrew was caught after coming to the attention of German authorities when he joined an Internet group involved in distributing child porn. Andrew was also placed on the sex-offenders' register for life and banned from working with children or possessing any device with Internet access.

Mansfield, Louisiana has joined several other Louisiana towns and parishes in banning “saggy pants.” Read More Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail. The law makes it illegal to found in a “state of nudity, or partial nudity, or in any indecent exposure of his or her person or undergarments, or be guilty of any indecent or lewd behavior.”

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