Kentucky Child Services Receives Runner-Up for Black Hole Award UPDATED

As described in one of our first Facepalm Fridays  in January, Kentucky has routinely denied public access to information about child deaths in foster care.

When two major Kentucky newspapers ,The Lexington Herald-Leader and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal , won access to records of a toddler who died in care, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services filed an emergency rule to limit information about CPS workers’ actions in cases involving child deaths in care.

The Society of Professional Journalists has now cited the cabinet as a runner-up for its’ Black Hole Award for obstructing the public’s right to know.

Kentucky Agency Gets National Notice for Keeping Child Death Records Secret
[Lexington Herald-Leader 3/16/11 by Bill Estep]

Update: “A judge has rejected an attempt by Kentucky officials to shift to federal court a legal fight with the state’s two largest newspapers over access to public records about child abuse deaths and injuries.

U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, in an 11-page order, found that the dispute involves matters strictly related to Kentucky’s Open Records Act.

He ordered the lawsuit — filed by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader — sent back to Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd for further action.

“The Franklin Circuit Court aptly defined the contours of the Open Records Act as it relates to child protection cases,” Reeves said in his June 1 order.”

“Reeves’ ruling is the latest twist in a continuing legal battle in which Shepherd previously had ordered the cabinet to release records of abuse or neglect that result in the death or serious injury of a child.

Shepherd held last year that the newspapers were entitled to such records, ruling in a case involving the 2009 death of a Somerset toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner at an alleged methamphetamine lab in the home of his teenage parents.

Both the 20-month-old boy and his mother, then 14, had been under the supervision of cabinet social workers.

Cabinet officials released extensive documentation in that case. But they refused subsequent requests by the newspapers for information about other child deaths. And in January they enacted “emergency regulations” to sharply limit records the state must disclose in such cases.

The newspapers then filed suit, asking Shepherd to force the cabinet to release the information immediately and to strike down the new regulations.

Cabinet lawyers responded by seeking to transfer the case to federal court, claiming that issues of federal law were involved because the federal government helps fund and regulate state child protective services.”

“Fleischaker said the newspapers now will ask Shepherd to order cabinet officials to release the records. The newspapers also will seek state reimbursement for legal costs in the dispute.
Shepherd already has ordered the cabinet to pay the newspapers’ $20,700 legal costs in the original lawsuit over the death of the Somerset child.”

Judge rejects Kentucky’s effort to move open records case to federal court
[Louisville Courier-Journal 6/2/11 by Deborah Yetter]

Update 2: “A lawyer for Kentucky’s two largest newspapers told a Franklin Circuit Court judge Wednesday that the state was “thumbing its nose at the law” by withholding records relating to the deaths of abused and neglected children.

“They are acting illegally and they are doing it in a brazen fashion,” said Jon Fleisch aker, a lawyer representing the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Fleischaker’s comments came during a hearing about whether the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees child protection, must turn over records regarding children who died of abuse and neglect while under the state’s care. This is the second time in two years the newspapers have sued the cabinet to get such records.

Cabinet officials said Wednesday there were about 44 cases during the past two years that involved children who died or were nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect while under the cabinet’s supervision.

Meanwhile, a convicted murderer and four anonymous women tried to intervene in the case, saying release of the records would harm a legal appeal or violate privacy rights.”

Cabinet’s Defense

“Brent Irvin, a lawyer for the cabinet, said the cabinet was not trying to circumvent the law. The cabinet still maintains that federal law prohibits it from releasing some of the records.

If the cabinet releases information that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says is private, the state fears it could lose federal child protection funding, Irvin said.

Shepherd asked whether any state had ever lost federal funding because of the release of information about child deaths. Irvin said he was not sure.”

Newspapers accuse state of illegally withholding child-death records
[Lexington Herald-Leader 8/18/11 by Beth Musgrove]

Update 3: “Two key lawmakers say they hope to hold a hearing in December about the state’s handling of records regarding deaths and near deaths of kids in Kentucky’s child-welfare system.

State Rep. Tom Burch and Sen. Julie Denton on Wednesday said they want to hold hearings on whether the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees child welfare, is being transparent in the way it reports deaths and near deaths of children under its supervision.

Burch, D-Louisville, and Denton, R-Louisville, are co-chairs of the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare. Denton said she and Burch are still waiting for approval from legislative leaders to hold a meeting of the committee in December. “We want full transparency,” Burch said on Wednesday.

The issue came to the forefront after a recent Franklin Circuit Court decision regarding the death of a 9-year-old girl in Todd County.

Amythz Dye — who was adopted — was beaten to death by her adoptive brother in February. The cabinet had received several prior reports of abuse of the girl but never removed the child or offered any services because the abuse was caused by a sibling, not a custodial parent, according to records in the case.

The opinion ordered the state to release its documents regarding the girl to the weekly Todd County Standard newspaper, which had sued to get the records. The cabinet first failed to respond to the newspaper’s request, then denied it had any records, which wasn’t true, the opinion said.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phil Shepherd ruled that the cabinet violated the state’s Open Records Act by not turning over the records and misinterpreted the state’s statutes regarding the definition of child abuse.

The cabinet also failed to notify police of the abuse reports, as required, and did not do a required internal review of her death, Shepherd said.

The Todd County case is the latest in a string of legal rulings ordering the release of cabinet records about children who died or nearly died from abuse and neglect while under state supervision. The Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville also have sued the cabinet to get such records.

Shepherd has twice ruled in favor of the two newspapers over the past two years, including in a strongly-worded opinion issued earlier this month.

Burch said it’s likely that legislation will be introduced again when the General Assembly convenes in January to further clarify that child-death records should be released to the public. Similar legislation was introduced last year but died in the House.

Burch said there is a lot of trepidation about opening records, but the recent cases show that there are problems in the state’s child protection system. “How many more tragedies are we going to have?” Burch asked. “If we keep the door closed we are not going to know what the problems are.”

Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, who oversees the state’s Medicaid budget, said it’s likely that the House and Senate will have to examine the child abuse statutes to see if changes are needed to ensure that children are being protected and that the cabinet is following the legislature’s intent.

The cabinet said it did not do a fatality review on the death of Amythz Dye because it never had custody or supervision of her.

In his ruling, Shepherd said Kentucky law requires the cabinet to do a fatality review to determine what went wrong if the cabinet had any previous contact with the family. The cabinet had made inquiries about abuse reports before her death.

Denton said Wednesday that the secrecy surrounding child-death records is indicative of larger problems at the cabinet. “We need more transparency and more accountability,” Denton said of the agency, which oversees a range of programs, including services for the brain injured, disabled and children with special needs. It also administers Medicaid and food assistance programs.

One of the state’s leading advocates for children said the legislature needs to do more than just hold hearings. It’s time to overhaul the child protection system, said Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, a non-profit that advocates for children.”

Lawmakers hope to hold hearing about Kentucky child-death records
[Lexington Herald Leader 11/16/11 by Beth Musgrove]

Update 4: “Lawmakers and a leading advocate urged Gov. Steve Beshear Monday to move immediately to investigate and overhaul Kentucky’s child welfare system after damaging revelations about children killed by abuse.

“This is an issue he can’t dance around,” said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. “It’s shouting out for the governor’s attention. I hope he will respond to it.”

“On Monday, Beshear spokesman Terry Sebastian issued a brief statement saying only that “the safety of Kentucky’s children is one of the governor’s top priorities.”

“That’s why he is reviewing all options available to see if there are steps that should be taken to make them even safer,” Sebastian said.

Brooks said he believes Beshear should order a thorough review and a restructuring of the child-welfare system, based on details of Amy’s case.

“Anything less than a fundamental review of the abuse and neglect system in this state is too little and could be too late for kids,” he said.

Two key lawmakers — the chairmen of the House and Senate health and welfare committees — said they plan to devote the final 2011 joint committee meeting to demanding answers about the death of Amy and other children in abuse cases from officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.”

“Burch said he and the committee’s co-chairwoman, Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, are waiting on legislative leadership to approve a final committee meeting in December before the General Assembly convenes in January.

Denton said she’s tired of the cabinet claiming confidentiality when the public or lawmakers seek information.

“I think until we can get some transparency and get some answers from the cabinet, we’re never going to know what really happened,” she said. “There’s this whole culture of secrecy over there.”

The lawmakers said they also want to go over the cabinet’s annual report on child abuse deaths and injuries, which state law requires it to produce by Sept. 1 of each year. The cabinet still has not produced the 2011 report but a spokeswoman said it plans to release it by Dec. 1.

And both lawmakers said it’s time for Beshear to step in and order the cabinet to follow a judge’s order to release records of investigations of child deaths and serious injuries from abuse or neglect. The cabinet has been fighting for two years to keep confidential such records, despite three rulings from Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd that they must be disclosed under the state’s open records law.”

“State law — conforming to federal law — allows the cabinet to release records of child abuse deaths and serious injuries in cases in which the child welfare officials had previous involvement with the family. Shepherd’s order says, however, that they must be released under open-records law.

But the cabinet has refused to release the records sought by The Courier-Journal and Herald Leader, despite Shepherd’s Nov. 7 order that they do so. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 30 on the newpapers’ request that he force the cabinet to release the records.

“Something has to give,” Fleischaker said. “Why Beshear won’t do something, I haven’t the faintest idea.”

Lawmakers urge Steve Beshear to investigate Kentucky’s child welfare lapses
[Louisville Courier-Journal 11/21/11 by Deborah Yetter]

Update 5: “Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear on Tuesday issued a directive opening the records of child abuse and neglect cases in which a child dies or nearly dies.

Governor Beshear orders child abuse, neglect records opened
[WDRB 11/29/11]

Update 6: “Patricia Wilson, Kentucky’s commissioner of social services, has resigned abruptly amid growing criticism of the state agency over its handling of child abuse investigations.

Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, confirmed Monday that Wilson, a career social services employee, has resigned her job as head of the Department of Community Based Services but had no further details.

The cabinet has been buffeted by recent reports over its role in child abuse cases, most recently that of Amy Dye, a nine-year-old Western Kentucky girl fatally beaten by her brother in the adoptive home where the cabinet placed her at age 5.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, in a recent opinion ordering records of Amy’s case be made public, castigated the cabinet for ignoring or failing to fully investigate repeated reports from Todd County school officials of Amy’s suspected abuse. Shepherd accused the cabinet of turning a “blind eye” to suspected abuse in the home where she was killed by her brother, Garrett Dye.

Garrett Dye, 18, was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison for bludgeoning the girl with a jack handle on Feb. 4 and hiding her body in bushes on the family’s property. Todd Circuit Judge Tyler Gill also had harsh word for the cabinet, calling its social services arm “dysfunctional” at a sentencing hearing Nov. 23.

Amy, who was removed from her mother in Washington state at age 3, was adopted by her great aunt, Kimberly Dye, of Todd County, after Kentucky social service officials investigated the home and approved the adoption. Shepherd, in ordering Amy’s social service records released, found the cabinet had ignored repeated, credible reports from Todd County school officials that began the same month the adoption became final.

Just last week — in a move that apparently ends a long legal battle to keep its records secret — the cabinet agreed to begin releasing records of children who die or are seriously injured from abuse or neglect. The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader have been fighting for more than two years in court for access to such records.

On Tuesday, Gov. Steve Beshear, citing in part “horrifying” details of the Amy Dye death, said he was ordering the cabinet to comply with the order of Shepherd to release records in such cases.

Key lawmakers also have expressed growing dissatisfaction over how the cabinet handles cases of child abuse deaths and serious injuries. The joint House-Senate Health and Welfare Committee has scheduled a meeting Dec. 19 to question cabinet officials about the matter.”

Kentucky social services commissioner resigns
[Louisville Courier-Journal 12/5/11]

Update 7: Amy Dye‘s case was not even included in the document release. “Yet Amy was not counted in the state’s annual report on child abuse deaths, which said that 18 other children died from abuse or neglect during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Lawmakers and a leading child advocate are outraged that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services didn’t count the death of the 9-year-old Todd County girl, who was fatally bludgeoned by her adoptive brother after a history of alleged abuse in the home.

“If they didn’t even include Amy Dye, what good is the report?” asked Sen. Julie Denton, a Louisville Republican who is chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. “This is a cabinet that decides what they want their rules to be, and they’ve gone rogue.”

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the omission makes him question the value of the annual report to lawmakers, which is required by law and is supposed to provide accurate statistics on child abuse deaths and injuries.

‘Arrogance’

“You have to wonder how many other cases in which kids died are not included,” he said. “What you’re seeing is an attitude of arrogance that the cabinet places itself above the law.”

Cabinet officials did not include Amy’s death in the Dec. 1 report because they do not believe they are required to under the state law that defines abuse and neglect, spokeswoman Gwenda Bond said.

“The statute defines the parameters for this report,” she said.

But Shepherd has previously rejected the same argument from cabinet lawyers who were hoping to keep records of Amy’s case secret. They contended that under state law her death should not be classified as one of abuse or neglect because a sibling, rather than a parent or guardian, caused it.

That was an argument the judge flatly rejected as a misinterpretation of state law. Shepherd ruled Amy’s death was the direct result of abuse or neglect and ordered the records disclosed under a state law that allows the release of such records in the case of a child abuse death or serious injury.”

Kentucky report on child abuse fatalities ignores Amy Dye
[Louisville Courier-Journal 12/7/11 by Deborah Yetter]

Update 8 : “A key lawmaker called for the resignation of Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Janie Miller on Monday, saying the agency has misled legislators regarding child abuse records and other key issues.Republican Sen. Julie Denton of Louisville, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said Miller’s cabinet has not provided lawmakers with accurate information about children who die or nearly die from neglect and abuse. “This cabinet treats everyone as an adversary,” Denton said during Monday’s meeting. “I’m tired of lies. I’m tired of deception. I’m tired of the tap-dance routine. I’m tired of the shroud of secrecy. We should be partners, not adversaries.”Miller did not attend the meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare.

Other lawmakers and Gov. Steve Beshear voiced support for Miller, who has led the cabinet for four years and oversaw the state’s switch to Medicaid managed care earlier this year.Beshear said Miller has his “full confidence.””She continues to work to improve the child protection system while meeting the legal standards provided by federal and state government,” Beshear said.Miller said in a written statement that she was disappointed that Denton “resorted to a personal attack rather than deal with these very difficult issues.”

“Last week, the cabinet released 86 internal reviews of the cabinet’s handling of cases involving the near-death or death of a child in 2009 and 2010. However, the documents were heavily redacted. In some cases, even the names of children who were killed had been removed from the file. Shepherd is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday to determine what information the cabinet can remove from the documents.Wilson told legislators on Wednesday that the cabinet believes in transparency but has concerns that releasing some information, such as the names of those who report suspected abuse, could hamper child-abuse investigations. Wilson said social workers frequently tell reporting sources that the information will be kept confidential.”I think what you will see is that it will have a chilling effect on the number of reports,” Wilson said. If that happens, it’s possible the number of children killed from abuse and neglect could increase, she said.

Democratic Rep. Tom Burch of Louisville, chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, said he will hold additional hearings about the state’s child protection system when the legislature convenes in January.Also Monday, the cabinet named Teresa James acting commissioner for the Department of Community Based Services. James has been deputy commissioner since 2008. ”

Senator calls for cabinet chief to resign over child-abuse records,other issues

Update 9: “In a sharply critical decision, a judge has ordered a state agency to pay $16,550 in fines and $56,663 in legal costs to three newspapers for illegally withholding public records involving child-abuse deaths and serious injuries.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd also rejected efforts by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to heavily redact, or remove, information from such documents. He said the cabinet was continuing its “efforts to blanket the operation of the child welfare system under a veil of secrecy.”

“Past experience has demonstrated that the cabinet will apply any privacy exception in the broadest possible manner, giving rise to an inevitable protracted court battle for anyone who seeks to discover the facts surrounding a child fatality or near fatality,” Shepherd said in a ruling issued Thursday.

Shepherd’s opinion and order Thursday involved a two-year legal fight by The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader over access to records of child-abuse deaths under the state open records law.

He issued a separate ruling Wednesday involving the Todd County Standard’s effort to obtain records in the case of of Amy Dye, a 9-year-old Western Kentucky girl who was fatally bludgeoned by her adoptive brother — a case that has outraged lawmakers and advocates because of the cabinet’s failure to follow up on reports of her abuse and neglect.

Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer for The Courier-Journal, said Shepherd has ruled three times in the past two years that the cabinet must disclose information in cases in which a child dies or is seriously injured from abuse and social service officials had prior involvement with the family.

Fleischaker, who also represents the Todd County newspaper, said he hopes the cabinet is willing to drop the costly legal battle and follow the court order.

“Then we can get on to do what we need to do to try to make the system better,” he said.

Cabinet Secretary Janie Miller said in a statement that the agency is “weighing its options on the judge’s award of attorney’s fees and penalties.” But she claimed the ruling vindicated the cabinet’s battle to limit what it must release.”

“How the fine and fees break down

Shepherd’s orders direct the cabinet to pay $44,002 in legal costs to The Courier-Journal and $3,438 to the Herald-Leader. Shepherd already has ordered the cabinet to pay about $20,000 to the two newspapers for costs of the first round of litigation.

And he ordered the cabinet to pay $9,925 in fines — calculated at a cost of $25 a day — for the period in which officials refused to provide records to the two newspapers.

Shepherd also ordered the cabinet to pay the Todd County Standard’s legal costs of $9,223, as well as $6,625 in fines.”

Judge fines state over child-abuse records, orders legal fees paid to newspapers
[Louisville Courier-Journal 1/19/12 by Deborah Yetter]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

State agencies continue to block real data on abuse in foster care. Let’s hope this is the beginning of real reform in Kentucky.

Update 10: “Hours before state officials were supposed to release hundreds of pages of records on child abuse deaths and serious injuries in Kentucky on Thursday, they appealed a judge’s order directing them to make the documents public without significant deletions.

The move comes less than two months after Gov. Steve Beshear called a news conference to announce that the state would drop its lengthy legal battle with Kentucky’s two largest newspapers to keep the records confidential and would comply with Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s orders to release them.

“Transparency will be the new rule,” Beshear said at the Nov. 30 news conference.

But on Thursday he appeared to reverse course, submitting an op-ed piece to Kentucky newspapers, announcing that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has decided to take the dispute to the state Court of Appeals.

“We don’t think the judge’s order was protective enough,” Beshear wrote, adding that the cabinet wants to withhold more information than the judge had allowed. “But this is not about shielding the system from scrutiny. We understand the need to be more transparent than in years past.”

Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer who has represented The Courier-Journal in a long-running fight to get access to such records, said the state’s decision to appeal the case contradicts Beshear.

“This claim of transparency is just false,” Fleischaker said.

Despite the appeal, the cabinet plans today to release the first batch of records Shepherd had ordered — but with the redactions, or deletions, it deems necessary “to protect the best interests of the state’s child welfare system,” according to the “emergency motion” it filed with the appeals court.

In its motion, the cabinet asked the court to block Shepherd’s Jan. 19 order to release records, starting today, with limited redactions.

Beshear argues in his op-ed piece that the state wants to withhold more information, such as the names of people who report suspected abuse. Shepherd ruled that the names of some individuals who report abuse may be withheld but not the names of relatives, teachers, law enforcement or medical officials.”

You teach in a small community and suspect a student is being abused,” Beshear said in his op-ed piece. “Can you come forward without the newspaper naming you as the accuser?”

Fleischaker called such comments “fear-mongering,” noting that Shepherd’s order to release records applies only in cases in which children were killed or nearly killed from abuse or neglect.

“It is unnecessary and inappropriate fear-mongering,” he said.

Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson said the governor had no further comment beyond the op-ed piece. [Op-ed piece can be found at Consequences of a new judicial ruling [Williamson Daily 1/28/12 by Steven Beshear]

The appeal is the latest development in a long-running legal battle between the cabinet and The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader. The newspapers had filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court seeking access to records in cases of deaths or serious injuries from abuse and neglect.

Shepherd has ruled that such records must be released. In a separate case brought by the Todd County Standard, he ordered the release of records related to the February 2011 death of Amy Dye, a Western Kentucky girl fatally beaten in her adoptive home.

On Jan. 19 Shepherd issued his order rejecting the cabinet’s efforts to delete significant details from the records and directed officials to begin releasing at least 1,000 pages of documents per week with only limited deletions, starting today.

He also ordered the cabinet to pay $16,550 in fines to the three newspapers for illegally withholding records and their legal costs of $56,663.

In a sharply critical decision, Shepherd said the cabinet, by seeking to heavily delete details, was continuing efforts “to blanket the operation of the child welfare system under a veil of secrecy.”

“Past experience has demonstrated that the cabinet will apply any privacy exception in the broadest possible manner, giving rise to an inevitable protracted court battle for anyone who seeks to discover the facts surrounding a child fatality or near fatality,” Shepherd said in the order.

The cabinet had released one batch of records — about 90 internal reviews of child deaths and serious injuries. But it heavily redacted information, and the release of further records had stalled amid legal wrangling over what officials wanted to withhold.

The newspapers had sought the reviews, as well as all records of child deaths and serious injuries from abuse or neglect for 2009 and 2010.

Shepherd, in the Jan. 19 order, released the 90 internal reviews with far fewer deletions.

Meanwhile, Beshear said his administration will support a bill in the current legislative session defining what information it must release.

“The General Assembly should set the policy on this issue, not the courts,” he said in the op-ed piece.

Under Kentucky law, conforming to federal law, records of child abuse deaths and serious injuries may be disclosed if the family had prior involvement with child welfare officials. The law doesn’t limit what may be disclosed.

Shepherd has ruled that, under state open records law, all such records must be disclosed.

Rep. Tom Burch, a Louisville Democrat who is chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, has been holding hearings on the topic and said he expects such a bill to be filed in the next few weeks.

He said he supports more access to records but believes lawmakers may want to impose some limits on what must be disclosed.

“It has to be clarified,” Burch said.”
State appeals decision to release child abuse records
[Louisville Courier-Journal 1/26/12 by Deborah Yetter]

The Cabinet released “five violent child deaths in 2009 detailed in records released Friday by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services — the first of about 180 cases involving child abuse deaths or serious injuries that the cabinet has agreed to release in coming weeks to satisfy records requests by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader.”

“The files released Friday — while not heavily redacted — do omit information beyond what Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said was permissible in ordering them to be made public.

He directed the cabinet to limit redactions to names of children seriously injured by abuse, private citizens who report suspected abuse, siblings mentioned only because of their relationship to a victim and minors who perpetrate abuse.

For example, files released Friday omit the name of the 17-year-old mother of one child victim because she was a minor. The records also omit other names, including adult relatives of victims, a babysitter of one victim and a mother’s boyfriend who was not involved in the abuse.

Cabinet officials, arguing they should be able to redact far more information, on Thursday took the legal dispute to the state Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court has assigned the matter to a three judge panel, which will hear the matter Feb. 7.”

“Domestic violence was a factor in four of the five cases released Friday and continues to be a danger sign for troubled families, said Sherry Currens, executive director of the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association.

But it’s not the only factor, she said.

“Yes, there’s domestic violence,” Currens said. “There’s also substance abuse, unemployment, mental health issues — there may be all kinds of issues in a family.”

She said the state has too few resources to help women escape violence and find a safe place for themselves and their children.

“All the shelters are full,” she said of the state’s 15 regional centers. “We do the best we can, but it’s hard, especially in this economy.”

Teresa James, Kentucky’s acting commissioner of social services, recently made an impassioned plea at a Kentucky Press Association meeting for people to be more aware of domestic violence and its destructive effect on families.

While the files released Friday represent just a few of the cases the cabinet investigates involving child deaths and serious injuries, James said domestic violence is a growing problem for families involved in the state social service system.”

None of the five cases were from abuse in foster care or adoption.
Kentucky releases records in five child death cases
[Louisville Courier-Journal 1/27/12 by Deborah Yetter]

Update 11: “State officials on Friday released more records on child deaths and serious injuries from abuse or neglect, acting under the order of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

Three 2009 cases released Friday involve the deaths of two infants from suffocation; in both cases the parents were impaired by drugs or alcohol. In a third case, a 2-year-old Lawrence County girl was injured after she apparently was kicked in the head by a horse while outside without supervision.

But the agency continues to withhold, or redact, far more information than Shepherd allowed in a Jan. 19 order permitting only limited redactions.”

Kentucky releases more child abuse records

[Louisville Courier-Journal 2/4/12 by Deborah Yetter]
None were adopted or in foster care.

“Robert Houlihan, a lawyer for the Herald-Leader, said the cabinet was trying to appeal the order in a bid to get the matter out of Shepherd’s court. The two sides should first argue over what should be released on a case-by-case basis, he said. If either party is not satisfied, it can appeal, he said.

The newspapers have asked for all case files of children who were killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect in 2009 and 2010.

Franklin judge considers whether he’ll keep child-death records case
[Lexington Herald-Leader 2/6/12 by Beth Musgrave]

Update 12: “Janie Miller, secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, resigned Tuesday after a controversial tenure directing the agency that oversees the state’s Medicaid, child welfare, social services, public health, programs for the elderly and other human services.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced Tuesday [February 7, 2012] that Miller, a veteran state employee, is leaving the $125,332-a-year post she has held for four years effective Feb. 29.”

Head of Kentucky family services agency quits
[Louisville Courier-Journal 2/7/12 by Deborah Yetter]

“Without the records, the public can’t know whether the state properly protects children in abuse and neglect cases, Circuit Judge Tyler Gill wrote in a commentary provided to several newspapers.

State laws on confidentiality in child-abuse and other cases are used more to hide “state incompetence or misconduct” than to protect citizens, Gill wrote. “While we can always find some downside to open government, the consequences of government secrecy are far worse.”

Gill, who is circuit judge for Todd and Logan counties, handled the case of Amy Dye, 9, who was beaten to death last year by her 17-year-old adoptive brother.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services, whose duties include investigating reports of child abuse and neglect, did not properly look into concerns that Amy was being abused at home, another judge said in a court ruling.

“The publicity surrounding recent tragic deaths of children in Kentucky, and the now public shenanigans of the cabinet, caught lying about what it knew and when it knew it, have triggered a rare public anger,” Gill wrote.

Gill’s commentary was in response to one last week by Beshear about a court fight over child abuse records between the cabinet and Kentucky’s two largest newspapers. And it comes as lawmakers debate ordering greater openness in cabinet records and consider whether to set up an independent panel to review child deaths from abuse and neglect.”

Judge criticizes Beshear for fighting release of child abuse death records
[Lexington Herald-Leader 2/7/12 by Bill Estep]

Update 13: Child Death Records are being suppressed AGAIN.

“Despite promises of transparency by Gov. Steve Beshear, state officials are refusing to release child-protection records about a man who was convicted of beating his 3-month-old son prior to the mysterious deaths of his two infant daughters.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services won’t release records about Jesse Allison, who is charged in Caldwell County, in Western Kentucky, with murder in the 2009 asphyxiation death of his 7-monthold daughter Ariel.

The Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville have fought the cabinet for access to such documents in Franklin Circuit Court for more than a year. A judge ordered state officials on Nov. 3 to turn over its files on dozens of children who died or nearly died from child abuse and neglect, including Ariel.

After Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the documents released, Beshear said Nov. 29 that his administration would comply with the order and that “transparency will be the new rule” in the cabinet.

Five months later, most details of how child-protection workers interacted with Ariel and her family before her death remain secret. The only document that has been released is a two-page internal review of Ariel’s death, which Shepherd released in January after forcing the cabinet to turn it over to his office.

In March, the Herald-Leader renewed its request under the Open Records Act for other documents about Ariel and sought documents about her half-sister Erin, who was found dead in her bed of undetermined causes in 2008 when she was 22 months old.

The cabinet denied the newspaper’s request March 7. In its denial, the cabinet said records about Ariel were exempt from disclosure under the law because child-protection workers have never determined that her death was caused by abuse or neglect.

“Until the criminal charge is litigated there is no finding of abuse or neglect that would qualify it as a case which the cabinet may release,” general counsel Christina Heavrin wrote.

That claim doesn’t match the limited information available in the cabinet’s two-page internal review of Ariel’s death. The internal review says the cabinet decided to file in court a “physical-abuse petition on the father regarding this child.” That means Allison would have to answer in court to the cabinet’s allegations that he abused Ariel.

“The cabinet is splitting a hair that is not authorized by the law,” said Kif Skidmore, an attorney representing the Herald-Leader. “The decision to file a physical-abuse petition is sufficient to make the records public — there is simply no requirement of a criminal conviction.”

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear, defended the cabinet’s decision to withhold additional documents about Ariel.

“The cabinet continues to comply with the directive from the governor, and they continue to release records weekly. However, in this case, a criminal case is pending in the courts, which exempts those records from release under the Open Records Act,’’ Richardson said.

Skidmore said the exemption that allows a law enforcement agency to withhold criminal investigation files does not authorize the cabinet to withhold its records in the Allison case.

“This is just another example of the cabinet choosing to adhere to a culture of secrecy rather than adopt an approach of maximum transparency,” Skidmore said.

Allison maintains Ariel’s death was an accident, that his daughter got trapped between her mattress and the crib rail. His September murder trial ended in a hung jury. He is scheduled to be retried starting May 29.

Allison’s court-appointed attorney, Jack Faust, said a judge has ruled that incidents involving other children in Allison’s family — including his 2000 neglect conviction in Virginia for beating his infant son — are inadmissible for the trial that begins in May.

Faust said Ariel’s death “was a tragic accident. We certainly put on proof at the first trial that it was an accident.”

“Bounced ‘like a basketball’

Nearly a decade before Ariel’s death, Allison was telling police in Virginia how he fractured the skull and broke the ribs of his 3-month-old son.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect in 2000 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he served probation instead, according to court records in Norfolk.
In that case, a court document said Virginia social workers began visiting Allison’s home twice a week in February 2000 after physicians saw bruises on his son Matthew.

Allison denied abusing Matthew, but on Feb. 23, 2000, Allison’s now ex-wife Laura Allison found a large bump on the back of the baby’s head after she left him in Jesse Allison’s care to return a video.
In a detailed statement to Norfolk police, Allison told police he hit and punched Matthew and bounced him on the couch “like a basketball.”

“When he was in his colicky mood, I use to pick him up and squeeze his chest, turn him around and hit the back of his head, bounce him on the couch, face down, pinch his toes and his fingers,” Allison told police, according to a transcript of his statement.

A year later, there was another report of possible child abuse involving Allison.

The cabinet’s review of Ariel’s death mentioned that in 2001, Allison “was part of a physical-abuse referral where a child received a skull fracture and a possible fracture of the right femur.”

The review of Ariel’s death does not say where the alleged abuse occurred in 2001, although Faust said it was not in Kentucky. He said he did not know the identity of the child involved.

The review says the 2001 report of abuse was unsubstantiated, but a “general family case” was opened by some entity. The document provides no further details about the incident.

Cabinet officials denied the Herald-Leader access to additional records on the 2001 report of suspected child abuse, saying they were not subject to the Open Records Act.

Erin Allison
Erin Allison was Jesse Allison’s daughter with a woman who died while having a Caesarean section when Erin was born, according to The Paducah Sun.

Erin died in January 2008 at 22 months. An autopsy listed the cause of death as undetermined, according to the cabinet’s review of Ariel Allison’s death.

Jesse Allison found his daughter dead in her toddler bed, according to The Paducah Sun.

The newspaper reported that Erin’s maternal grandmother said that Erin suffered seizures related to fevers and that she had a fever the night of her death.

After Erin’s death, the cabinet initiated a risk-of-harm investigation, but it found that the family was not in need of services, according to the fatality review in Ariel’s case.

Ariel Allison
Jesse Allison found Ariel unresponsive in her crib, according to the cabinet’s review of Ariel’s death. She died Sept. 5, 2009.

“She was found hanging between the mattress and the crib rails with the back of her head against the rail with face pressed against the mattress,” the review said.

Jesse Allison fathered Ariel with his wife at the time, Marae Allison. Marae Allison was in the process of divorcing Jesse Allison when she testified against him at his September trial.

Marae Allison testified that she supported her husband in the days after Ariel’s death. She testified that he had convinced her the baby had a habit of getting stuck in her crib, Paducah TV station WPSD reported.

“I was upset, and that was just all Jesse kept talking about, so I assumed that’s what had happened,” she said, according to the television station. “Once I had time to go back and think about what happened, she couldn’t have been down that far, hadn’t been down that far.”

Two doctors who testified during the trial reached differing conclusions about how Ariel died.

Dr. Deirdre Schluckebier, who performed Ariel’s autopsy, testified that because of the crib’s construction, Ariel should have had additional injuries on her body if she became wedged in it, according to The Paducah Sun. Schluckebier ultimately changed her ruling on the cause of death from undetermined to homicide by intentional asphyxiation.

Dr. George Nichols, the state’s chief medical examiner from 1977 to 1997, testified for the defense that he reviewed autopsy and police reports and multiple photographs, and came to the conclusion Ariel died from being wedged in her crib, the newspaper reported.

In an interview Friday, Nichols said he also examined the crib, which was the subject of a Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation and was recalled by its manufacturer.

“The crib is defective,” Nichols said. “It was dangerous sleeping that caused the child’s death. Not murder.”

Caldwell Circuit Judge C.A. Woodall did not allow any testimony about the Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation or the crib recall during the trial.
Problems with the crib that resulted in the recall were “not the cause of the asphyxiation by the child in this case,” he ruled.

Room for improvement
After Ariel died, the cabinet’s review of how it handled the case said there was room to improve how it researches the backgrounds of alleged abusers.

The review determined that “more resources are needed to be available to search history on families, especially when they have been in or come from another state.”

The review also said “workers need to be made aware of accessing more information, especially how family support records could be of assistance in cases.”

State law does not require cabinet officials investigating a report of child abuse or neglect to check a family’s history. However, a cabinet policy manual requires a check of a state information system that logs abuse and neglect information on children and adults.

Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said the Allison family’s history was researched and documented in the cabinet’s records in January 2008, when the cabinet had its first contact with the family.

Still, after a statewide review of child deaths in 2008 and 2009, Midkiff said the cabinet determined that increasing staff training on obtaining a family’s history would be beneficial.

Training was developed in 2009 and largely delivered in 2010. It emphasized the need to gather historical information from in-state and out-of-state sources about allegations of abuse and neglect and criminal history. ”

State continues to withhold child-abuse records
[Lexington Herald-Leader  4/29/12 by Valarie Honeycutt Spears]

Update 14: “The Kentucky Court of Appeals declined Monday to halt the release of thousands of pages of documents about children who were killed or seriously injured from abuse and neglect.

In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals denied the Cabinet for Health and Family’s Services motion for a stay, pending the outcome of an appeal of a lower court’s order to release the documents.

The ruling means the cabinet must follow the orders of Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd, who ruled in February that the cabinet had 90 days to provide the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville with 180 case files of children who died or nearly died as a result of abuse and neglect in 2009 and 2010.

Monday’s order “acknowledges the strength of our case,” said Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer for The Courier-Journal.

Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said Monday afternoon that the cabinet “received a copy of the ruling late this afternoon and is currently in the processing of reviewing it.”

The ruling is the latest action in a lengthy lawsuit filed by the state’s two largest newspapers under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

[Kentucky.com 7/9/12]

Update 15: “The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services is appealing a judge’s order that it release case files on children who were being monitored by the state when they died or nearly died from abuse or neglect.

The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader sued for access to the documents after they were denied as part of an Open Records Act request.

Last year, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd found that the cabinet willfully circumvented the act by failing to fully release files on child abuse fatalities and near deaths. He fined the cabinet $756,000 and ordered payment more than $300,000 in attorney fees to the two newspapers.

The Courier-Journal reports (http://cjky.it/QFnTgr) Monday’s appeal asks that the case be transferred directly to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Cabinet attorney Sheryl Snyder released a statement explaining the appeal, saying Shepherd’s ruling “has raised significant legal questions concerning the Open Records Act that need to be addressed by an appellate court.”

Snyder continued, “Public agencies are entitled to clear, final decisions by the courts.”

Courier-Journal Jon Fleischaker said on Tuesday that Shepherd’s decision is “solid,” and he expects it to be upheld.

“He spent a lot of time on it, and we think it was an appropriate decision,” Fleischaker said.

The state’s two largest newspapers have sought the records to examine whether child welfare officials were handling child abuse cases appropriately. Reports showed that roughly 30 Kentucky children die each year of abuse and neglect, ranking the state among the highest in the nation in its rate of deaths.

The legal battle has been dragging on for five years.

When Shepherd awarded attorney fees, he noted the dozens of children who died while under the cabinet’s supervision and said the court did not consider those deaths inevitable.”

Ky. appeals order to release child abuse records[Sf Gate 4/2/14 by Associated Press]