Palm Beach Defense Attorney: DCF Has a Reputation for Breaking Up Families

By Andrew Stine | Published April-05-2016

According to criminal defense lawyer Andrew Stine, DCF has earned a reputation for using underhanded tactics to remove children from their homes.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has a nefarious reputation throughout Florida for illegally removing children from their families, reports Andrew D. Stine, Palm Beach defense attorney. DCF will receive a report through the “hotline” regarding child abuse, child endangerment or child neglect and then use underhanded tactics in their investigation of the allegations. Several investigation tools used by DCF allow for the “child” to be interviewed, without the parents even knowing about the investigation let alone the interview.
Schools are a favorite place for DCF to use this underhanded tactic in their bag of investigative tools. DCF likes to show up at elementary schools, middle schools and high schools to meet with the child and interview them. Another underhanded tactic that DCF likes to employ is by using the child’s friend to corroborate the story being told by the child, and this usually occurs without any parental notification about the “friendly witness.” Lastly, DCF likes to also use the “complaining” witness to show the foundation for why the child should be removed from the family home. The “complaining” witness however, on many occasions has a pecuniary interest in the outcome. This is because the “complaining” witness, on many of the DCF matters, is likely a parent of the child that is involved in a custody battle, owes back child support or wants to get the child support payments reduced and uses DCF as a tool to “pressure” the other parent into submission. DCF, of course, does not have the ability to see the motive behind the complaining witness because DCF is hell bent on removal of the child. Removal of the child is what ensures that DCF will remain a needed governmental agency and thus continue their employment.

Many allegations made in DCF cases stem from domestic violence allegations between the parents, caretakers or family members living with the child. DCF will always employ a “team” member to a Florida home, where children reside, if there are allegations of domestic violence. DCF has a firm belief and has convinced many circuit court judges that if domestic violence is allegedly occurring in a Palm Beach County home that in fact the children should be removed because the “impending harm to the child” is inevitable. DCF believes “all” incidents of domestic violence, even false allegations, will eventually harm the mental process of the child and eventually the violence will resonate over to the child and the child will become a victim of the violence.
The defense, against allegations made by DCF of domestic violence affecting the children, is that the children did not see, hear or witness the allegations of domestic violence between the parents, caretakers or family members. The appellate courts have continually held that even if the parents, caretakers and families members were involved in a domestic violence situation, without evidence showing that the domestic violence had occurred when the children were home, or that they otherwise were aware of the violence, the Circuit Court’s finding of “impending harm” to the children is unsustainable.
Another ripe area of concern for DCF to investigate is when the “hotline” receives the allegation that the parent, caretaker or family member is using “illegal” drugs or alcohol. Upon DCF receiving the drug use or alcohol information, they will immediately assume the allegations of drugs and alcohol are true, and then further jump to the conclusion that the children in the home are at risk and ripe for removal. But Florida law has continually held that even if there is evidence that the parent, caretaker or family member was under the influence of substances or alcohol, if there is no evidence that the parent was under the influence in the presence of the child, or that any substance abuse or alcohol abuse adversely affected the child, then the allegations by DCF are unsustainable.

If you or a family member are facing a DCF investigation and/or a criminal investigation into child abuse, neglect or abandonment, then time is of the essence in getting legal advice; definitely before meeting with DCF or law enforcement officers is imperative. Knowing how the appellate courts have interrupted the DCF statutes in Florida is paramount in getting a successful outcome for you and your child, when it comes to all DCF and criminal investigations regarding your family.
If you or a loved one are asking questions like “should I meet with DCF or the police about the domestic violence allegations in the home” or “should I take the urine test” that DCF is requiring of me, then you need to call West Palm Beach lawyer Andrew D. Stine. Palm Beach County criminal defense lawyer, Andrew D. Stine, has been fighting for his clients in DCF courtrooms since 2003 and in criminal courtrooms since 2001. Call Stine or Do the Time. 561 832 1170.

http://www.andrewdstine.com/palm-beach-defense-attorney-dcf-has-a-reputation-for-breaking-up-families/

Sarasota Department Of Children And Families Is Picketed

Protesters say agency removes children from good families and ignores those in need of protection

 

 

 

 

 

Protesters hold signs Friday morning outside of the Florida Department of Children and Families building in Sarasota, saying the agency has failed too many children and needs serious reform.

By Emily Le Coz

Published: Friday, March 25, 2016 at 3:22 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 25, 2016 at 3:54 p.m.

SARASOTA - Sharing tragic stories of their own experiences with the Department of Children and Families, a half dozen residents today protested the agency for what they call a broken system that harms the very children it’s supposed to protect.

Representing two groups – Op Expose CPS and Manasota Angels of Peace – the protesters stood outside the DCF building on 17th Street in Sarasota, holding signs and shouting slogans like, “End cash for kids.”

They claim the agency’s child welfare division removes too many children from good homes for little reason while ignoring the ones in real need of protection.

They also said the agency should not allow anonymous complaints, because it leads to too many false reports and places the burden of proof on potentially innocent families.

And they allege DCF is motivated by federal funds, specifically those from the Title IV-E Program. The program reimburses state agencies like DCF for expenses associated with removing children from their families and placing them in foster care.

Florida, however, has a waiver allowing it to spend IV-E dollars on efforts to decrease out-of-home placements and keep families together.

"DCF is unwavering in its mission to protect Florida’s most vulnerable," a spokeswoman wrote in an email. "Ensuring children are in safe environments is paramount. DCF investigates claims of child abuse or neglect via reports to the Florida Abuse Hotline that meet the threshold for acceptance. When it is determined by a team of professionals, including the court, that a child is not safe at home, then removal is necessary. Florida receives a capped allocation of Title IV-E funds from the federal government, and under a waiver program, can use these funds not only for out of home care, but also for front-end services in homes when children are safe to remain with their families. Funds are not allocated per child placement."

“We’ve heard story after story of kids being lost in the system, literally lost,” said Greg “Flip” Cruz, who also went through the foster care system. “There are serious problems, and we need serious change.”

Behind the protesters stood a poster with the faces of kids allegedly killed by their parents despite prior complaints filed with DCF. Among them were Chance Walsh and Janiya Thomas.

But the problem is not limited to Florida, protesters said. It is nationwide.

Maureen Hart’s three children were taken from her by the Massachusetts DCF after a neighbor alleged the kids begged people for food, she said. Hart denied the allegation and showed an investigator her fully stocked kitchen. But she admitted she spanked her kids when the investigator asked, and she lost custody of them the same day.

The state let two of her children stay with relatives but placed her 8-year-old son in foster care. The experience scarred him for life, she said.

“They drugged him and shocked him,” she said. “They told him I didn’t love him anymore. By the time I got him back, the damage was done.”

Her son committed suicide several years later.

Angela Willett was removed from her North Carolina family by DCF at age 12 and placed in a series of foster families, group homes and institutions. There, she said, she experienced repeated abuse and was told her mother did not want her and did not care about her.

It was a lie, she said. The incident devastated her mother, who had always done her best to raise her daughter and did not deserve what happened, Willett said. Now grown, Willett lives with her mother and calls her “my best friend.”

“There are some good people in the system,” Hart said. “But the system itself is broken.”

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20160325/NEWS/160329771

 

 

 

Former DCF Employee Accepts Plea Deal in Falsifying Records Case

A Department of Children and Families employee, charged in connection with the death of a baby left in a hot car, faced a judge Wednesday.

Shani Smith was a case worker making sure kids were kept safe. She accepted a plea deal in criminal court and pleaded guilty on six charges of official misconduct.

• UpdatedEx-DCF Investigator Falsified Records: FDLE

The judge gave Smith five years of probation for falsifying documents where a child suffocated to death in a hot car. Before her guilty plea, Smith insisted she was not at fault.

"What I regret is that this baby died, that's the regret that I have. But I did nothing wrong," Smith said.

• Mother Who Left Baby in Hot Car Pleads Guilty

As a DCF investigator, Smith supervised the case of 11-month-old Bryan Osceola and his mother Catalina Bruno. Before the child's death, Bruno was charged with a DUI when she passed out with her son in the car.

According to detectives, Smith didn't think Bruno posed a danger to her son and lied about referring her to a substance abuse program.

• Judge Weighs in on Controversial DCF Case

Six months later, the child died when his body temperature reached almost 110 degrees in his mother's car. Bruno later pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter.

If Smith violates her probation, she faces 30 years behind bars. If she successfully completes her probation, she won't be a convicted felon but her record will still exist.

• Fired DCF Child Protective Investigator Denies Wrongdoing

   

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Former-DCF-Employee-Accepts-Plea-Deal-in-Falsifying-Records-Case-366742741.html

Ex-DCF Investigator Accused Of Falsifying Records Released From Jail

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —

A former Department of Children and Families investigator accused of falsifying case records was released from the Brevard County Jail Tuesday afternoon.

John Porterfield, 53, turned himself in to the jail Monday on charges of falsifying records.
Porter resigned last year after working at the agency for five years.

His resignation came amid accusations that he made up family visits, forcing DCF to review all his case files.
A supervisor believed Porter might have copied and pasted portions of another investigator’s case notes into his own file, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation.

“Well, fortunately, the falsification that occurred in those two cases did not result in any kind of child safety issues,” said Kristin Gray, a DCF spokeswoman. “The children were not harmed. The falsification was not the cause or did not lead to any further abuse or neglect of those two children.”

Porter was responsible for investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect made through the Florida Abuse Hotline.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/ex-dcf-investigator-accused-falsifying-records-jai/nn2kH/

Sexually Trafficked Girl Recounts Litany Of Horrors Under DCF’s Watch

By Carol Marbin Miller
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia

Neglect and abandonment landed the girl in foster care. But it’s what happened next, she said, that nearly destroyed her.
In a hushed courtroom in Miami’s gleaming new downtown Children’s Courthouse, a teenage foster child inventoried the traumas she had endured at the hands of those who were assigned to protect her: She had been starved and beaten, molested and forced to fight during her two years in foster homes and group care. As a runaway, she was trafficked into prostitution.
And, just as her life appeared to be mending, the girl was raped by a driver in whose care she was entrusted by a privately run child welfare group, records say. Earlier this week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia allowed the girl to read a long letter in court, detailing her many grievances against the state.
The Department of Children & Families “has messed me up mentally and emotionally. I know I can never get my childhood back,” the girl said in court, reading from the letter she had written to Sampedro-Iglesia, who is overseeing her case. “But I refuse to let my past take my future.”
The girl arrived in court Monday afternoon dressed in a crisp patterned dress, clutching a teddy bear. She hugged Sampedro-Iglesia, calling the judge “the only one working for the state who has ever looked into my care, and who has ever tried to fix the errors others have made.” She then told the judge she wanted to fire her court-appointed lawyer, and chided the state for failing her still.

The teen, who is not being identified by the Herald to protect her privacy, came into state care in the winter of 2013. Records say her parents abandoned her, which left mental and emotional scars. In her remarks to the court on Monday, the girl did not talk in detail about what sent her to foster care. “By the age of 14, I had already been through the worst,” she said, adding: “so I thought.”
As to what followed, the girl had plenty to say. “Since my involvement in DCF, I have always been a throwaway case, and I knew it. I personally didn’t think I’d even make it.”
In one foster home, the girl said, parents “starved us, and turned off the electricity for punishment at night. No air, no light. We couldn’t open windows or doors; they were locked.”
“So, that’s usually how fights started.”
In another group home, the caregivers themselves “instigated” fights among the children. “It’s literally a war over who’s gonna make it out alive or not.”
So the girl ran.
As a runaway, she told the judge, the girl sold and abused drugs. She called her caseworker to report she’d been “trafficked” into prostitution — “having guns pointed to my head and having to put guns to [other] people’s heads.”
A DCF spokeswoman said on Friday that the agency was investigating both the teen’s accusation that she was raped in May, as well as other allegations of mistreatment while in state care.
“The horrors described by this young girl are absolutely intolerable,” said Michelle Glady, a spokeswoman for DCF, which contracts with a private foster care agency in Miami, called Our Kids, to oversee child welfare in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Our Kids, in turn, subcontracts with another agency, the Family Resource Center, in whose care the teenager had been placed.
“DCF opened an investigation immediately following the allegations of sexual abuse by an employee of Family Resource Center of Miami. All additional allegations of abuse or neglect will be investigated. DCF is reviewing her case history and will work with Our Kids … on providing her the care she needs to support her recovery.”

A spokeswoman for Our Kids said the agency “is working diligently with all parties to carefully address the matters raised in court on Monday. In doing so, Our Kids wants to ensure the child receives the best available care and services, while also making sure the child is, and feels, safe in her surroundings. The safety and well-being of every child in our care is the only acceptable outcome for us — as is the case here.”
Sampedro-Iglesia scheduled Monday’s hearing after child welfare administrators reported in May that the girl had been raped by a 25-year-old “transporter” hired by the Family Resource Center to drive her from West Palm Beach to the Keys. The judge was outraged: “The Court finds that the actions of the agency are not only negligent, but border on reckless,” she wrote in a tartly worded order.
The transporter, who recently moved here from New York and had been hired by FRC three days before he was assigned to drive the teen, quit days later. He now is under investigation by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI. The girl told authorities that he stopped at a Walmart during the eight-hour odyssey to buy Smirnoff Ice, a citrus-flavored malt drink, and then began to kiss her.
Records obtained by the Miami Herald show he had been recommended for the job by a relative of his who then worked for the foster care agency, and the relative’s spouse. Both references appear to have been written by the same person. The driver has not been charged with any offense.
Tensions between the teen and DCF persisted throughout Monday’s hearing. The girl told Sampedro-Iglesia she was willing to see a female psychologist to address mental health issues, but was opposed to speaking with a male therapist. Her current caregiver said she had found a counselor the girl liked. DCF, however, was reluctant to retain the therapist, because the state’s insurance carrier couldn’t pay her.
And the teen began to weep when DCF’s lawyer suggested she might have to move from her current home because it wasn’t appropriately licensed.
“I’m not moving,” the girl shot back. “You try to move me and I’m running.”
The girl’s current caregiver urged the state to let her remain where she is finally happy. “She is a victim here,” the caregiver said. “If everyone can just remember she’s a victim. She feels stable now, and we ask everyone to remember that.”
Sampedro-Iglesia reassured the girl: “I think I’ve proven to you,” she said, “that I’ve kept what you want in mind. They are not going to move you without court approval.”
What’s left, the girl said, is to somehow craft a happy ending. She likes where she is living. She is making plans to go to college, and maybe law school, with scholarship money the state will give her. “I am a reborn [person],” she said, “and I have rewritten my story. I gave my life to the Lord and I have goals and dreams to accomplish.”
“I don’t look for sympathy. Nor do I want a pity party,” the girl said. “Actually, all I’m worried about is the other children’s safety who have been labeled ‘a lost case.’”

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article26423824.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article26423824.html#storylink=cpy

Sexually Trafficked Girl Endures New Torment — In Foster Care

By Carol Marbin Miller
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

It was the kind of encounter that gives child welfare judges nightmares: A 25-year-old male “transporter” with all of three days on the job, and no real background check. And a 17-year-old girl who wound up in foster care partly because she had fallen victim to forced prostitution.
When the eight-hour drive was over, the foster child had been victimized yet again, and the driver was under investigation for rape.

It was also the kind of encounter that prompts child welfare judges to write scathing orders, which is what Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia did late last month, when she called the actions of a private social service agency borderline “reckless.”
“The Court feels impotent as to what actions or sanctions it can legally take,” Sampedro-Iglesia wrote in an order dated May 29. “Nothing that this Court can do or order the agency to do can fix all the wrongs this child has suffered. The agency is one more entity that has failed this child.”
Our Kids, the organization that oversees foster care and adoption services in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties under contract with the Department of Children & Families, declined to discuss the 17-year-old, whose case was being managed by the Family Resource Center, an Our Kids subcontractor. The Family Resource Center’s director, Oren Wunderman, at first agreed to discuss the girl, but, later, inquiries were referred to a Miami law firm, which also declined to comment.
“The alleged abuse this child suffered, at the hands of the employee of the Family Resource Center of Miami, is outrageous,” a spokeswoman for DCF said.
“Upon learning this information, the department immediately contacted law enforcement. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure they have what they need during their active investigation, in order to bring a just resolution to the issue.”
The girl, who is not being named by the Miami Herald to protect her privacy, first came to the attention of the Department of Children & Families in the winter of 2013. Court records say she was abandoned by her parents, struggled with mental health, and had been forced into prostitution by human traffickers — the term child welfare and other authorities use for pimps who prey upon children or vulnerable adults.
For about a year, the girl lived on the streets as a runaway. Currently there are about 226 such children in Florida — 62 of them from Miami-Dade or Monroe — who have fled their foster or group homes. Last March, records say, the girl returned to court from the streets and “begged” Sampedro-Iglesia to allow her to live with her mother, whose legal rights to the child had earlier been terminated.
“While with her biological mother, the child stopped running, was doing well and finally began to engage in services,” the judge wrote in her order.

But there was a small glitch, which led to a big mistake with colossal consequences: When the teen registered for school, she was told she had to first resolve an outstanding warrant with state juvenile justice authorities. And that required a trip to Palm Beach County.
The Department of Juvenile Justice took care of the first leg of the trip, records say. For the teen’s return to Key West, the privately run Family Resource Center sent a “transporter” to drive her.
What occurred during the eight-hour drive now is the subject of a criminal investigation by both the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI. The federal agency, a DCF report said, “would be filing charges” against the man.
The girl’s mother became concerned that something terrible had happened when she found “inappropriate sexually [explicit] text messages on her daughter’s phone [sent] by the ‘transporter,’” the judge wrote. In an interview with the State Attorney’s Office, the girl disclosed details of her encounter with the man.
The driver, the girl said, stopped at a Walmart along the way and bought Smirnoff Ice, a citrus-flavored malt drink, and cigarettes, which he shared with her. He “asked the victim how she would feel if he kissed her.”
After the two had sex, the driver dropped the teen off at home at 3 a.m.

“The Court finds that the actions of the agency are not only negligent, but border on reckless,” Sampedro-Iglesia wrote. “The agency is entrusted with caring for and protecting those most vulnerable to our society: the voiceless children. Clearly, the agency has failed to do this.”
For Sampedro-Iglesia, the incident itself was only part of the problem.
Though the four-county drive took place on May 1, administrators of the Family Resource Center, or FRC, did not disclose it to the judge until almost two weeks later — at a routine hearing. The judge has ordered child welfare authorities to report adverse incidents involving children under her jurisdiction “immediately.”
Sampedro-Iglesia said she suspected something was amiss when a number of “higher ups” from FRC and Our Kids, South Florida’s lead foster care agency, showed up for the hearing unexpectedly.
In her order, Sampedro-Iglesia called the event “criminal in nature.” Then, she blasted child welfare administrators, both for leaving a human trafficking victim alone with an unvetted young man and for failing to quickly disclose the results.
FRC did not help itself, the judge wrote, by suggesting that what an incident report called “sexual abuse” or “sexual battery” could have been prevented by better training. “It shocks the conscience of this Court that the incident report indicates ‘the issue in this case was not of negligence, but of one where additional training would have helped and guided process development,’” Sampedro-Iglesia wrote.
“It is insulting to this Court that the agency feels that any type of training would have educated a transporter that perhaps having sex with a child [who] was entrusted to him is inappropriate and criminal in nature,” Sampedro-Iglesia wrote.
“It is equally repugnant to this Court that the agency testified that, had it known ‘that the child was a victim of human trafficking, perhaps a male transporter would not have been the most appropriate person’’ for the several-hour drive. “The agency’s remarks make it sound as if the incident that occurred was actually the child’s fault and not the adult that the agency entrusted her to.”
Details of the 25-year-old driver’s background are unclear. The Herald was given his name by a source with knowledge of the investigation, but the name cannot be matched to a person in any available database. His name is not in court records reviewed by the newspaper. And FRC administrators did not quickly release the man’s employment records.

Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia

In her order, Sampedro-Iglesia said the agency’s “background check” on the man was confined to Miami — though he “had lived most of his life [in] Tampa” — and relied instead “on the fact that the ‘transporter’ was recommended [by] and related to one of FRC’s ‘good employees.’”
What is known about the man: He got his job driving kids partly upon the recommendation of another FRC employee, a case worker, to whom he is related, records say. The driver had been working for the foster care and adoption agency three days when he was assigned to transport the teen.
Said the DCF incident report, written by an employee of a Key West shelter that is working with the family: “Mother and myself do not understand how a 17-year-old girl with her background [redacted] was released to a single male transporter and why a female transporter was not accompanying her.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article25021960.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article25021960.html#storylink=cpy

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