A Times Editorial

Panhandle child neglect coverup?

Department of Children and Families secretary Kathleen Kearney, who abruptly resigned last week, was criticized, and rightly so, for resisting outside review and cultivating an atmosphere intimidating to potential whistleblowers. But would DCF really go so far as to mislabel the cause of a child's death in order to avoid having to answer for failures in its investigation? Floridians deserve an answer in a disturbing case from the Panhandle -- and some assurance that what looks and smells like a coverup isn't.

When Okaloosa County police recently charged Michelle Wesson with child neglect in the death of her 14-year-old son James, they opened a door that DCF officials apparently wanted to keep closed. DCF investigators had been called to Wesson's squalid, maggot-infested home repeatedly over the past decade to check out more than 20 reports that James, mentally impaired with a genetically weak immune system, was being beaten, burned and left unsupervised in filth. But when James died last November from blood-poisoning likely brought on by those unsanitary conditions, DCF ruled that his death was not from neglect. That finding conveniently kept the case out of the purview of the Statewide Child Abuse Death Review Team, created by the Legislature to evaluate abuse-related deaths of children known to the system.

"Charles Dickens couldn't come up with anything like this, it's so horrible," said USF professor and child expert Charles Mahan, who has witnessed many child-welfare scandals over the years.

The case raises some novel legal issues, and Michelle Wesson deserves her day in court. But it is not too early to assess what DCF did or didn't do to protect James and other children in similar situations. If anything, such questions are coming months too late, thanks to DCF's own characterization of how and why James died.

Did DCF rule out death by neglect in James' case to avoid public embarrassment by the review team? Has it skirted review in other cases as well? The work of that team is key to uncovering the truth, learning hard lessons and keeping Florida's children safe. State leaders should tolerate no attempt, deliberate or otherwise, to preempt its involvement.

"We are very frustrated and perplexed about what role we play -- and we are doing it with our hands tied behind our backs," team member and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Terry Thomas recently told the Miami Herald.

This would not be the first conflict between Kearney and the review team. Kearney previously demanded the right to preview the team's report and dragged her feet on turning over records. Late last year, team members told the Legislature of their "recurring concerns" over DCF's lack of thoroughness in investigations and its pattern of missing red flags.

Wesson, like other parents, is the one who bears ultimate responsibility for the safety of her children. But it is both fair and essential to assess whether DCF's state-mandated protection of James was another alarming story of too little, too late. After 10 years of involvement with this family, DCF should not expect to shut the file without so much as a peep, with so many questions left unresolved.

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