Former Kentucky Social Worker Indicted for Falsifying Records UPDATED
Sixty-year-old Margaret Murphy, former social worker for Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, was indicted on Tuesday August 2, 2011 on 9 counts of tampering with public records. Each is a Class D felony. Margaret resigned in December 2010, effective Janaury 3, 2011 and is currently living in Florida. Kentucky has had issues with transparency of CPS workers’ actions in their Foster Care Program .
“The alleged offenses occurred from December 2007 to October 2010, the indictment said.
A criminal summons has been issued for Murphy to appear in Anderson Circuit Court on Sept. 6. The summons lists a Florida address for Murphy, who could not be reached by the Herald-Leader for comment on Tuesday.
“My office began investigating this case after receiving a complaint from a citizen who had Murphy assigned to a court case involving her family,” Conway said in a statement Tuesday. “As we began to review Murphy’s cases, we believe she falsified information in multiple cases that were assigned by the cabinet to investigate.”
Conway said he has notified the cabinet that documents filed in court proceedings might have been falsified.
Tabitha Stratton of Anderson County told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that she contacted the attorney general’s office within the past several months after she read in “case files” that Murphy said “she had been to my home and interviewed me and my husband.”
Murphy “had never spoken to me, she had never been to my home, nor did she ever meet me,” said Stratton, who obtained the case files from the cabinet under the Kentucky Open Records Act.”
View the indictment in pdf here.
Former state social worker indicted for allegedly falsifying records
[Lexington Herald-Leader 8/3/11 by Valarie Honeycutt Spears]
Update: “A former Kentucky social worker charged with falsifying records of child abuse and neglect investigations never looked into some cases and repeatedly lied about her findings — including ones involving suspected sexual abuse — according to new details filed in court.
In at least two instances, Margaret “Geri” Murphy of Lawrenceburg was the subject of complaints about her handling of cases: once in 2006 by a co-worker and again in 2008 by police involved in an investigation, according to the records filed in Anderson Circuit Court.
Yet, there is no evidence that Murphy’s employer, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, took any action. Murphy’s personnel records, obtained by The Courier-Journal, reflect no misconduct allegations or disciplinary action involving matters alleged in the criminal charges.
Murphy, 60, who resigned in December 2010 and now lives in Florida, was indicted Aug. 2 by an Anderson County grand jury on nine felony counts of tampering with public records and has pleaded not guilty.”
Citizen Complained
“The criminal case is being handled by the office of Attorney General Jack Conway, who said in August that he became aware of the alleged wrongdoing after a citizen complained to him about how Murphy handled an investigation involving the family.
“We believe she falsified information in multiple cases that (she was) assigned by the cabinet to investigate,” Conway said.
Additional details of the allegations — which occurred between April 2006 and October 2010 — are contained in a bill of particulars Conway’s office filed Wednesday in Anderson Circuit Court.
In one case, Murphy later admitted to a criminal investigator with Conway’s office that her actions “bothered” her because she believed an 11-year-old girl had been sexually abused, but she closed the case as unfounded, the court records said. The records offer no motive.”
New Allegations
“The records filed in court this week detail allegations in nine cases of child abuse or neglect that Murphy handled — all of which she closed as unfounded. Five involve cases of alleged sexual abuse of young children:
In one case, Murphy lied about the evidence regarding a 2007 allegation of sexual abuse of an infant by the mother’s boyfriend, falsely claiming that a state trooper had told her the evidence didn’t indicate abuse, the records said.
In 2010, the case was reopened with new allegations of abuse by the mother’s boyfriend. A state police officer reported that he believed Murphy’s actions in the first investigation allowed the abuse to continue, the court records said. The records said police and another agency complained about Murphy’s actions.”
“In 2009, Murphy falsified records of her investigation of a report that two foster children had been sexually abused by other children in the home, the court documents said. Another professional who interviewed the children with Murphy said one of the children reported abuse, but Murphy’s report said the two foster children denied any abuse.
In another 2007 case, Murphy falsely reported that she had investigated allegations of sexual abuse of a 7-year-old child by a babysitter’s husband, the records said. According to the records, she falsely claimed that she and Lawrenceburg police had interviewed the alleged perpetrator, who passed a polygraph test.
In 2010, after she was assigned to investigate the alleged sexual abuse of a 3-year-old boy, Murphy falsely reported she and a state trooper interviewed the suspected abuser and provided details of a statement in which the suspect denied the abuse, the records said. The investigation found that no such interview occurred, the records said.”
“In 2006, a co-worker complained about Murphy’s handling of a case alleging neglect of children being unsupervised, the records said. Murphy admitted to the attorney general’s investigator that she falsely documented having interviewed the parents, the records said.
In a 2010 case of alleged child neglect involving drug use by parents and lack of food in the home, she reported she had visited the home and found no drugs or alcohol and a two-week supply of food, the record said. In fact, Murphy never visited the home or contacted the parents, the records said.
In another case of alleged neglect in 2010 — after police arrested two parents for smoking marijuana in a car with their infant and toddler present — Murphy reported that she interviewed the parents, who denied the allegations, the records said.
She reported there was no evidence the parents had been using marijuana and that both had passed drug screens.
In fact, the records said, both parents pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case, and the father had failed a drug test.”
Ex-Kentucky social worker accused of repeatedly lying about cases
[The Courier-Journal 10/20/11 by Deborah Yetter]
Update 2: “A former Kentucky state social worker indicted by an Anderson County grand jury in August has told investigators that she falsified records in abuse and neglect cases, according to a court document recently filed.”
“Murphy’s attorney William Patrick said Friday that he could not comment on the case. But Patrick said a pre-trial conference was set for November. Murphy was issued a criminal summons in August and has pleaded not guilty. ”
Three cases that she closed involved sex abuse
(1) “The court document says that in one case, which ran from December 2007 through April 2008, Murphy investigated an allegation of sexual abuse of an infant by the infant’s mother’s boyfriend. In deeming the allegation “unsubstantiated,” Murphy allegedly documented that a state police trooper told her that a hair found in the baby’s pubic area was tested and found to be dog hair rather than a human hair.
But the officer told an investigator that he never told Murphy that the hair was dog hair, and that it had not been tested.
Two agencies, including police, filed complaints about Murphy’s actions in the case, the court document said.
The mother later reunited with her boyfriend, and the case was reopened in October 2010 on the basis of new allegations of sexual abuse by the boyfriend, the document said.”
(2) In a case involving the alleged sexual abuse of an 11-year-old child by her father, Murphy admitted to falsifying the continuous quality assessment, the court document said. In that case, Murphy is accused of documenting that the suspect had been interviewed by state police. Murphy also is accused of documenting that the perpetrator denied the abuse and passed a polygraph.
However, police told an investigator that the suspect had never been interviewed or taken a polygraph.
Murphy “stated that this particular case ‘bothered her’ because she had falsified information. She admitted that she believed the child had been sexually abused, but still unsubstantiated and closed her case,” the court document said.
(3) In 2010, Murphy investigated a report of the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old child and deemed it “unsubstantiated.” She had said that the child made inconsistent statements and that she had interviewed the suspect with police, and that the suspect denied the allegations and passed a polygraph test, according to a court document.
But police said they never interviewed the suspect and the suspect never took a polygraph, according to the court document.
Social worker says she falsified records
[Herald-Leader 10/29/11 by
A former social worker with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services was sentenced to five years in prison today for falsifying child abuse and neglect reports. Anderson Circuit Judge Charles Hickman sentenced 61-year-old Margaret “Geri” Murphy to five years in prison following her guilty plea in May to nine felony counts of tampering with public records in connection with her role as a front-line worker investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect in Anderson County.
Prosecution of this case was handled by General Conway’s Office of Special Prosecutions at the request of Laura Donnell, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 53rd Judicial Circuit representing Anderson, Shelby and Spencer counties. The Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) began investigating the allegations against Murphy after receiving a complaint from a citizen who had Murphy assigned to a court case involving her family.
“Geri Murphy’s actions were unconscionable,” General Conway said. “Ms. Murphy had a responsibility to investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect and to take action to protect children from these heinous crimes. She failed to execute her duties and to protect Kentucky’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens. The sentence handed down today sends a critical message that damaging the integrity of the Cabinet’s system of support for child victims will not be tolerated.”
Murphy’s attorney requested that she receive probation. Because of the seriousness of the offenses and the fact that children’s lives were at risk, General Conway’s prosecutors opposed probation and recommended a sentence of five years on each count to run concurrently, for a total of five years in prison.
Reports of child abuse and neglect are assigned to a social worker to investigate and determine whether the abuse or neglect is substantiated or unsubstantiated. In all nine counts to which Murphy pled guilty, she documented that child abuse or neglect was unsubstantiated. Murphy admitted in her guilty plea that she falsified her reports concerning those investigations. In at least two of the cases where Murphy falsified reports finding that sexual abuse allegations were unsubstantiated, children were victimized again due to being left in abusive situations.
In one case involving a report of sexual abuse of an infant by the mother’s boyfriend, new allegations of sexual abuse against the boyfriend were made after Murphy provided false facts and unsubstantiated the original report of abuse. Police expressed the belief that Murphy’s inaction allowed the sexual abuse to continue.
In another case, Murphy documented that children had denied being abused in a foster home, when in fact they had given authorities details of the abuse. As a result of Murphy’s falsification of the facts, the children remained in an abusive home until another complaint was filed and investigated by another social worker, which eventually led to the children being removed from the foster home.”
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