Bittersweet Justice: Washington

Occasionally there is justice for those negatively affected by the child welfare and adoption systems. Unfortunately, it is usually bittersweet and much too late. This will serve as REFORM Talk’s justice files.

“The Washington state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay $7.3 million to three former foster children who were abused for years by their foster parent.

The three girls originally sought $45 million, alleging years of beatings, neglect and sexually victimization by Enrique Fabregas of the Seattle suburb of Redmond. The settlement was announced Friday by their lawyer David Moody.

DSHS spokesman Thomas Shapley tells KING-TV the state regrets “the harm these young women suffered at the hands of the man who was supposed to care for and protect them.” Shapley says the agency will continue to work on improving the safety of children in their homes and in out-of-home placement.

Fabregas was sentenced in 2007 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. The victim was one of his foster daughters. KING says he was later deported to Spain.”

Lawyer: agency to pay $7.3M in foster abuse case
[The Seattle Times 6/3/11 by Associated Press]

“The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay $7.325 Million dollars to three former foster children who were sexually abused for years after they were placed with a foster parent who had a criminal record.

Their civil claim was filed in 2007 for $45 Million.

In it the three victims said a foster parent, Enrique Fabregas, was improperly granted a state foster care license in 1997 after lying about his criminal convictions and drug use.

DSHS ended up placing the three girls in Fabregas’ care from 1997 to 2006.

And that after receiving more than two dozen complaints of abuse, neglect, exploitation of children or licensing violations.

For years Fabregas sexually assaulted the girls with impunity He eventually pleaded guilty in May 2007 to sexual exploitation of a minor and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

He was sentenced to just four years in prison.

A report released in 2006 by the state detailed what investigators concluded was Fabregas’ long history of abuse and years of complaints that he was abusing an adopted daughter and two foster daughters.”

YET ANOTHER SEXUAL ABUSE PAYOFF CASE FOR WASHINGTON’S DSHS

[Sky Valley Chronicle 6/4/11]

The background on Enrique Fabregas can be found at Alleged victim of sex abuse says threats bought silence
[Seattle Times 6/13/06 by Maureen O’Hagan]

“Enrique Fabregas bought the silence of his eldest foster daughter with drugs and fancy clothes, according to court papers, on occasion resorting to threats that his gangster friends would kill her if she told.

He isolated his adopted daughter, now 12, from social contact, police say, keeping her home from school regularly and having her sleep in his bed.

And he kept handy a stack of letters of praise, which he would present to the child-welfare workers and police officers who repeatedly came to his door to investigate allegations of sex abuse.

This, according to court papers, is how Fabregas managed to abuse the girls for years despite eight prior sexual-abuse investigations.

Fabregas, 52, an unemployed restaurant worker and a member of the choir at Overlake Christian Church, was charged Monday with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child pornography. If convicted, he faces seven to 10 years in prison. He is being held in the King County Jail on $1 million bail.

Despite prior drug offenses, Fabregas was licensed to be a foster parent in 1998 and in the next year adopted the daughter of an ex-girlfriend. His license later lapsed, but he was licensed again a few years later to take custody in 2002 of the two daughters of another ex-girlfriend, who went to prison.

Between 1996 and 2004, Fabregas was the subject of 23 complaints to state child-welfare workers, including the eight related to sexual abuse. Investigators closed the sex-abuse cases as inconclusive or unfounded, leaving the two foster daughters and his adoptive daughter in his care for several years.

Kathy Spears, a spokeswoman for the state Children’s Administration, said the alleged victims recanted their allegations so there was never enough evidence to remove the children from the home.

The repeated allegations, however, did prompt the state to ask Fabregas to take a sexual-deviancy exam. When he refused, in 2004, he lost his foster-care license. The two foster daughters were removed shortly before this, one on her own request, the other during a sex-abuse investigation. The adopted girl was placed with a foster family in February, after Redmond police Detective Jennifer Baldwin got involved.

According to a search warrant obtained in February, Baldwin initially leaned toward believing Fabregas’ story: that the girls’ mothers had orchestrated false charges against him. But after speaking with Estera Tamas, the eldest foster daughter who is now 19, Baldwin had a change of heart. Tamas told her how Fabregas gave her drugs and sexually abused her for years, and that she had photos to prove it. Even though Tamas was no longer living in the house, she came forward to protect the younger adoptive girl, who she suspected was also being abused.”

“With the photos as evidence, Baldwin obtained a warrant to search Fabregas’ house. Police found numerous photos, videos and computer files depicting child pornography and the exploitation of Tamas, according to a spokeswoman.

The Times does not usually name victims of sex crimes, but Tamas consented to her name being used.

Estera Tamas’ sister, 18-year-old Ruth, said it’s about time Fabregas was charged with a crime, though she said she herself was not sexually abused.

Two years ago, she said, she found a videotape showing Fabregas sexually abusing Estera.

“I didn’t want to believe it, but I saw it with my own eyes,” Ruth Tamas said.

But even after she told authorities about the videotape, her complaint was deemed inconclusive.

“He knows how to work the system,” she said. “That’s why nobody believed us.”