Top DCF official quits amid fraud rulings over her companyHigh-ranking Department of Children & Families administrator Nancy Dreicer resigned under pressure on Monday, after The Palm Beach Post reported that a judge ruled she fraudulently tried to stiff creditors.
Until Monday, Dreicer oversaw the 20-county Northeast Florida region for the agency. She was a key player in the agency's retooling after the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona, an adopted child whose body was found in February in the back of her father's pickup truck, on the shoulder of Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach.
In June, St. Johns County Circuit Judge J. Michael Traynor ruled in a civil lawsuit that Dreicer committed fraud when she transferred a liquor license for Aromas Cigar & Wine Bar in Ponte Vedra Beach from a corporation she headed into her own name. The license, which was the corporation's most valuable asset, had been transferred days after the judge ordered the corporation to pay a creditor $90,000, according to court records obtained by The Post.
DCF leaders were unaware of the judge's ruling until contacted by The Post last week, agency spokesman Joe Follick said Monday.
"The department reviewed the situation and Nancy Dreicer announced her resignation Monday morning," Follick said.
DCF Secretary David Wilkins announced her resignation in an internal memo released Monday.
"Nancy Dreicer has resigned her position as the Northeast Regional Managing Director effective [Monday]. We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors," Wilkins wrote.
"We have begun seeking a qualified leader for our clients, providers, partners and excellent employees in this Region," he continued." He said Pattie Mallon, currently the Family and Community Services Director for the Region, has assumed the role of interim regional managing director.
Dreicer, one of DCF's highest-paid officials with an annual salary of $132,000, oversaw 1,400 employees and an $81 million budget.
She also headed the team looking into changes to the agency's abuse hotline in the aftermath of the Barahona case. The agency's abuse registry received two tips on the hotline in the days leading up to Barahona's death.
In June and again in August, the judge found the transfer of the liquor license fraudulent, ordered the state to return the license to the corporation and withheld judgment on whether he would hold Dreicer's corporation in contempt of court for transferring the license. Dreicer has not been charged with any crime.
On Aug. 25, Traynor also ruled that Aromas investor George Wilson could proceed to collect the money he was owed, through a judicial sale of the license from the corporation to a qualified bidder.
"The Court finds that the transfer was made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud the plaintiff and any other creditors of Aromas," Traynor wrote in the Aug. 25 order.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/pb-dcf-barahona-latest-20110912,0,1722395.story
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