Re: Portage, WI: FLorida DCF Link to case -- bad handling

The Garlin murder and the torture of an 11 year old (unnamed) boy in Wisconsin is one ugly story, reaching back to Florida -- where one of the murder suspects' children went missing for four months from the social services system with no attempt to locate her! Here's more:

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB8FY2J93F.html

More Facts About DCF Child Emerge

BY CATHERINE DOLINSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 23, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Fresh from serving time in a Colorado prison on fraud charges, Candice Clark returned to living with her daughter, Courtney, last August despite orders from a case manager that mother and child were not to be left alone.

That same month, a concerned relative warned Courtney's case manager that Clark planned to abscond out-of-state with the child, who is now 2 1/2 years old. But the case manager failed to take action, or to visit the child in September. By early October, Clark and the toddler had vanished.

Such are the findings in a report by the state contractor entrusted with the welfare of Courtney Clark, a Pinellas County foster child who turned up with her mother this month at the site of a gruesome crime scene in Wisconsin.

Bob Butterworth, secretary of the state's Department of Children & Families, said Friday that his agency continues to investigate the girl's disappearance, and why her case manager did not report for nearly four months to local law enforcement.

"I am terribly unhappy, to say it politely," said Butterworth, who fielded questions about the case at a news conference.

After a tip from the Lake County Sheriff's Office, police in Portage, Wis., found Courtney at a house June 14 with three other children, including a beaten, scalded 11-year-old boy, and the body of his dead mother. Candice Clark is one of several adults charged in the 37-year-old woman's murder.
Petition Filed To Open Records

Butterworth, who focused largely on the law enforcement "heroes" who located the four children, said he will release his agency's report on the investigation early next week. He would not, he said, discuss specific findings or actions related to the case before then.

The former attorney general and new appointee to the governor's Open Government Commission also is taking the unusual step of filing a petition jointly with the St. Petersburg Times in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court to open all records in the case, which would normally be sealed because a minor is involved. Meanwhile, the Safe Children Coalition's report offers glimpses into the repeat failures of case managers to follow up on a series of warning signs in Clark's case.

The state hired the Safe Children Coalition, the contracting name of the Sarasota Family YMCA, to oversee subcontracts with local service providers to care for children like Courtney. Among those providers is Directions for Mental Health, based in Clearwater and Tarpon Springs, which provided Clark's case managers.

Lee Johnson, vice president of the coalition, said his agency it is awaiting the state's findings in the case before deciding whether to take any action against Directions for Mental Health or terminate its contract. He thinks, he said, that one of the two case managers who supervised Courtney has left the agency; he thinks the other still works at Directions and may still be managing children's cases.

"The ball is in Directions' court for disciplinary action" against case managers, Johnson said. "They're not our employees."

Directions President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Riggs did not respond to requests for comment.
Child Entered System In 2006

Courtney first appeared in the state's child welfare system in February 2006, when the DCF's child-abuse hot line received a report that her mother was in jail and Courtney was living in "hazardous conditions." The state placed Courtney in a foster home during her mother's incarceration, under supervision of the Safe Children Coalition.

Clearwater police arrested Clark on Feb. 1, 2006; she was released five weeks later and eventually reunited with Courtney. At the time, Johnson said, the coalition did not know there were 23 outstanding warrants for Clark's arrest in Kentucky.

An assistant state attorney warned Courtney's case manager in June 2006 to "keep a watch on" Clark, who had talked of moving to Kentucky and failed to sign up for parenting classes, according to the coalition's report. But no case worker visited Courtney in July, nor did anyone file incident reports to follow up suspicions of child abuse that month.

Courtney's mother returned to prison in late July, this time in Colorado, on fraud charges. Florida entrusted Courtney's care to a family friend identified by Clark. The woman, Cynthia Martell of Sorrento in Lake County, took custody of Courtney in August, agreeing to prevent any unsupervised visitation from Courtney's mother upon her return.

Later in August, Courtney's mother was found to be living at Martell's home upon her return from Colorado, the coalition's report said. Johnson said he did not know how long Clark actually lived with Martell. No case manager visited the home in September, according to the report, even though state law requires that foster children receive visits from case managers every 30 days.

Martell would later turn out to be the mother of Michaela Clerc, one of the other adults found by Wisconsin police at the murder and torture scene.

On Aug. 15, a relative had called Courtney's case manager to tell her that Clark might leave the state with Courtney, the coalition's report said, but no one had responded with action.

"There should have been a safety plan at that point, and an alert that we needed to make sure we stepped up visits to the home," Johnson said.

No documentation for the case exists at all between Aug. 30 and Oct. 4, a period during which the case shifted between case managers. On Oct. 4, Martell told the child's case manager that she had given Courtney back to Clark, who had a pending court date in Colorado.

Rather than notify local law enforcement of Courtney's disappearance, her case manager notified authorities in Colorado, where Clark had a pending court date. Efforts to locate mother or child failed, but the case manager did not contact the Lake County sheriff to file a missing child report until Jan. 19, because of confusion over how to fill out the form.

On the plus side, the report noted that Courtney's case manager notified Colorado authorities quickly, once Martell reported the child missing. Despite failing to file a missing child report for months, the case manager worked diligently to try to locate the child, following up leads from law enforcement and working with legal staff on court orders.
Privatization Defended

On Friday, Butterworth defended the state's practice of privatizing elements of the child welfare system. However, he added that "the state of Florida can never contract away its responsibility for children."

Johnson said the coalition has a good track record of child outcomes and should keep its state contract. There are increasingly fewer kids in the system, he said, and lower repeat abuse rates. Directions also has been a relatively good contractor for case management, he said, though the agency's staff levels were too low in 2006. "We've invested more money in them for next year to have more staff."

Johnson, who stressed the "celebration" of Courtney's discovery, said his organization is accountable for its role in Courtney's case and has already begun taking steps to make sure the problems that occurred do not recur. But Johnson also noted that Courtney's mother presented an unusual challenge. In addition to her criminal record of fraud and related charges, Clark had lied about her father's death and had falsified information relating to her case, Johnson said.

"Never in all my years in child welfare, which are close to 35, have I seen a smarter cookie than this mother," he said.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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