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
