Bittersweet Justice: Los Angeles

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.

This story lacks a lot of details about the extent of child history information that the foster parents were given.

“Los Angeles County supervisors approved the payment of $500,000 to settle a lawsuit with the family of a 9-year-old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 17-year-old county foster youth.
The vote Tuesday was 3 to 1, with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich voting no and Supervisor Gloria Molina absent.

The girl is the biological daughter of a certified foster parent, according to a county document. The alleged sexual assault occurred on May 30, 2009.

In a document commenting on the lawsuit, county officials wrote that “the certified foster parents allowed children to have unsupervised, unmonitored play behind closed doors resulting in the assault of a 9-year-old girl by a 17-year old boy.”

Through a spokesman, Principal Deputy County Counsel Lauren M. Black declined to say if the boy was criminally charged.

The document said all case-related work was in compliance with the policies of the Department of Children and Family Services, which oversees youths and children under county supervision, and there did not appear to be any countywide or other department implications because of the alleged sexual assault.

So far, the county has paid $223,072 in attorneys fees to defend against the suit.”
County to pay $500,000 in alleged sexual assault of 9-year-old
[Los Angeles Times 3/13/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

A continued concern with the foster care system in every state is the disclosure of all information in the child’s files. Were there red flags that could have been shared in this case?