Boy Sues ChildNet, Says Foster Parent Abused Him

A child who was allegedly sexually abused by a foster parent has filed a lawsuit against welfare providers Kids in Distress Inc. and ChildNet Inc. because the agencies did not conduct proper background checks on the parent before issuing a foster parenting license.

According to the lawsuit, the child — identified only as R.S. — claims 56-year-old John Michael McGuigan of Broward County sexually abused him while the child was under his care. But the lawsuit says there were multiple glaring red flags the agencies failed to see when McGuigan applied to become a Florida foster parent in 2008.
The child-care providers failed in their background check of McGuigan, who had failed to disclose that he had been investigated for showing a minor a pornographic photo and asking that minor to perform sex acts, according to the lawsuit. McGuigan also failed to disclose that he had been arrested for cocaine possession. Moreover, McGuigan was also involved in a ten-year relationship that ended with his partner committing suicide.
Even more disturbing is that one 7-year-old foster child under McGuigan's care, Gabriel Myers, committed suicide by hanging himself in 2009. Although Myers was found dead in another foster family's home, the lawsuit says the suicide happened only days after Myers was removed from McGuigan's care following the boy's erratic behavior, which hinted at "inappropriate parenting" by McGuigan, according to the lawsuit.

Myers' death did force some changes by the Florida Department of Children and Families, including how agencies monitor drugs taken by foster children. Myers had been on two powerful psychiatric drugs at the time of his death.
But the lawsuit against the agencies points out that R.S. was placed in McGuigan's home only a year after Myers' death. R.S., who had never been abused before, was removed from McGuigan's home after DCF received a report alleging abuse by McGuigan.
"On or about December 12, 2011, DCF received a report through the Florida Abuse Hotline alleging that R.S. disclosed that he had been sexually abused by McGuigan while under his care, and this report was closed with indicators of sexual abuse," the lawsuit says. "R.S. was groomed and sexually assaulted by McGuigan, which resulted in R.S. being emotionally harmed and becoming sexually reactive."
It was after this report that investigators learned McGuigan had falsified information on his foster parenting application. Investigators also discovered that McGuigan had himself been sexually abused as a child by his father.
McGuigan was forced to resign from his position as CEO of the Broward House HIV service center following sexual abuse allegations from alleged former victims.

In 2000, McGuigan was investigated by Delray Beach Police for lewd and lascivious acts after a teenager claimed he had shown him a pornographic picture and asked him to perform sex acts. The lawsuit also points out an incident where a man from Boston accused McGuigan of molesting him when he was a child. McGuigan was not charged in either case.
The lawsuit says that both Kids in Distress and ChildNet allowed "an alleged child molester and person of poor moral character" to care for R.S. by not thoroughly checking McGuigan's background and by not conducting a fingerprinting and local criminal records check.
R.S., who is represented Fort Lauderdale attorney Howard Talenfeld, is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $15,000.
Requests for comment from DCF by New Times were not immediately returned.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/boy-sues-childnet-says-foster-parent-abused-him-6970745

Foster Care Children, Now Grown, Tell Their Stories

The Calizaire sisters lived with countless families, and say they were abused by some of their foster care parents

Sophia and Princess Calizaire were introduced to foster care when they were seen wandering the streets looking for their mother, who had left them alone in a South Florida motel.

“We heard this big bang at the door,” said Sophia Calizaire. “We were trying to figure out who it was.”

It was the Florida Department of Children and Families coming to take them away, and they became foster care files that night, when they were just four and seven years old.

Sophia

The Calizaire sisters lived with countless families and were moved from one school to another. They say they were abused while staying with some of those foster care parents.

“She took a belt, she started beating me with the belt, picked up a hanger, she started beating me with the hanger, picked up a heel and started beating me with the heel,” said Sophia.

Her sister, Princess, was outside the room and could hear everything.  “I couldn’t do anything about it,” Princess said, with tears coming down her face.

The Calizaire sisters remember one foster care parent making them sleep in a dog house and eat dog food. They say some foster care parents wouldn’t feed them, would keep locks on the refrigerator and would sometimes starve them as a form of punishment.

“She told me to eat in front of my sister while she watched and my sister is hungry. I took out the chewed up piece of chicken from my mouth and gave it to her,” said Sophia, who said she was caught by her foster care mother. “She filled up the bathroom sink and she took my head and started drowning me. She kept drowning me until she felt she was ready to stop.”

Princess says the abuse not only came from the parents. “I stayed in a foster home down south where this boy used to try to rape me every night before I would go to sleep,” she said. “I used to be scared to go to sleep at night. I ran away from there.”

Mez Pierre, now 24, had a similar experience in foster care when he was a little boy. He says he was sexually abused by one of the teen foster kids staying in the same home.

“I was a little kid, they knew they could take advantage of me and I couldn’t fight back,” said Pierre. “But I did tell, I did tell someone and she didn’t do anything, she didn’t do anything.”

In 2005, DCF completed privatizing foster care. They contracted with 20 lead agencies throughout the state to oversee the care and needs of children in foster care.

Our Kids manages Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, while Child Net handles Broward County. The abuse endured by Pierre and the Calizaire sisters happened before the agencies took over, but they still say the system is far from perfect.

Some child advocate attorneys say the current privatized system does not work because lead agencies like Our Kids sub-contracted other organizations to monitor foster care children.

“So you have multiple corporations and agencies who supposedly are in charge and responsible for the lives of the children but tragically these children, real human beings, fall through the cracks in the system,” said attorney Howard Talenfeld.

DCF disagrees and says when it was a statewide agency it became quite unmanageable.

“Out of the one or two cases that you hear which are horrible cases and we need to learn from, there are thousands of children and families that DCF and Our Kids helps on a yearly and daily basis,” said DCF’s southern regional director, Esther Jacobo, who added that DCF is taking steps to improve the system.

Esther Jacobo

Jacobo said case managers have to see a child in care every 30 days and must have private conversations with that child so they feel comfortable opening up. She says there is an electronic monitoring system in place for case workers, which snaps a picture of the child with a time, date and location.

“It’s kind of like a GPS and statewide Tallahassee monitors that so you know what is happening in terms of the child visit,” Jacobo said.

Currently, there are just fewer than 20,000 children in foster care statewide, according to DCF. During a two-month span between August and October, there were 127 verified abuse cases across the state, 17 of them in the South Florida area.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Foster-Care-System-Through-The-Eyes-of-The-Ones-Who-Lived-It-140874593.html

Child Molester Hasn't Served Single Day Of 43-Year Prison Term

Aaron Mohanlal

For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet.
Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day.
To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told.

Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted Mohanlal of 13 counts, including child abuse, molestation and lewd battery, and a judge sentenced him to 43 years.
But a year later, Mohanlal has yet to spend a day in prison.
"I can't understand why he isn't behind bars," said the victim, now 18. The network is not disclosing his name because it doesn't identify sexual assault victims.
"I want to move on with my life. I'm trying to graduate high school and forget about this," he said. "I try not to think about it, but it's hard, because all I can think about is, what if he's out there around other kids?"
Weeks after the trial, Broward Circuit Judge Marc Gold, who presided over the trial and sentenced Mohanlal, granted the teacher a rare bond that allows him to remain free while his case is tried on appeal, a process that could take years.
During the two months CNN has investigated this story, Mohanlal has been working a construction job in Broward County and spending time at a house in Sunrise, Florida, 15 miles from where the boy and his family live, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

He resigned from his teaching job in 2005 after his arrest.
"The idea of that monster being that close to my family again is outrageous," said the boy's father, who is often so overwhelmed with rage and sadness that he drives to a park, leans against a tree and sobs.
"What did we go through a trial for?" he said.
A man who identified himself as Mohanlal hung up on a CNN reporter who called his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, his address on record with the state's sex offender registry.
Mohanlal's appellate attorney, Tom Odom, refused to comment on the case beyond saying, "Everyone has a right to a first appeal."

Gold gave Mohanlal the right to live, work, travel and attend church in South Florida, according to numerous interviews and documents CNN has obtained. The judge ordered Mohanlal to wear a GPS device, register as a sex offender and surrender his passport.

 http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-23/justice/sex.offender.teacher_1_aaron-mohanlal-bond-hearing-cnn-reporter?_s=PM%3ACRIME