Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Four DCF investigators out due to false reports

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 4, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH - Two investigators from the Department of Children and Families have been fired and two others have resigned in recent months after falsifying information about visiting abused and neglected children in Palm Beach County.

Three of the cases were being investigated by the State Attorney's Office for possible prosecution.

DCF and private foster care officials say that despite the four cases discovered since September, they are confident the vast majority of investigations are sound. Periodic reviews help ensure that workers are honest, DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman said.

In the three cases being considered for prosecution, DCF files show:

- An investigator said she visited a home to see two children, but was fired after admitting she never went because she was afraid of the family's dog. Her supervisor told investigators the children would have likely been removed from the home if she had made her visit.

- A Children's Home Society worker failed to discover for five months that three children were probably living with their mother in violation of a court order. Officials say he admitted recording the children's signatures for two months even though he did not see them together at the home of the aunt who had custody. He resigned.

- An investigator resigned after she recorded a visit to children whose parents say they were at a softball game that day. She said her report was honest.

In the fourth case, a Children's Home Society worker was fired after he moved up the time of a trip he made to look for a runaway child by five hours. He says he felt pressured to show he made diligent efforts to find the child. He had actually put up only 20 fliers.

The DCF has been under heavy scrutiny since 2002, when it was discovered that a Miami investigator had lied about visiting the foster parents of 4-year-old Rilya Wilson. The girl had actually been missing for a year and has never been found. Her primary caregiver is awaiting trial on a murder charge.

[Last modified February 4, 2007, 01:19:36]