How Could You? Hall of Shame-CPS workers Laura Ard, Natalie Reynolds, Rebekah Ross-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Greenville, Texas, three CPS employees have been arrested “for their handling of sexual abuse allegations in slain teenager Alicia Moore’s file.”

“Investigators say three women were indicted by a Hunt County grand jury. The indictments have been sealed, but arrest warrants were issued on Tuesday.

CPS retiree, Laura Ard faces a single count of tampering with evidence, Natalie Reynolds, is charged with three counts of official oppression and one count of tampering with evidence, and Rebekah Ross is charged with three counts of official oppression and two counts of tampering with evidence.

The women were taken into custody. As of Tuesday night, Ard was the only person to post bail.

NBC 5 spoke to Ard after she bonded out of jail. She said she had been with CPS for 30 years and had never been in trouble.”

“Sources tell NBC 5 that only the charges of tampering with evidence apply to the Moore case and that tampering could include, altering, destroying or fabricating information in Moore’s investigative file.

CPS had an open file on Moore who was a victim of sexual abuse in the months before her dispearance on Nov. 2, 2012.

Moore was last seen about a block away from her home getting off a school bus. The teenager’s body was found days later stuffed into a furniture trunk, dumped along a rural road in Van Zandt County.

Moore’s great uncle, Michael Moore, has been charged with capital murder in her death.

During the Moore murder investigation, investigators with the State Inspector General’s office began looking into accusations that Moore’s CPS case was being mishandled. Officers with the IG’s office spent month’s looking into Moore’s CPS file and turned over findings in a report to the Hunt County District Attorney’s office last month. Hunt County examined the report and presented it to a grand jury, which returned the multi-count indictments.

It is not known at this time if anything in Moore’s investigative CPS file could have been used to possibly prevent her murder or aid in the murder investigation that dragged on until Michael Moore’s arrest in May 2013.”

3 CPS Employees Charged in Connection to Alicia Moore Case

[NBC DFW 9/24/13 by Randy Mdlwain]

“Alicia Moore’s family said they only dealt with CPS last summer after Alicia was sexually assaulted.

They said CPS was never involved in her disappearance or murder in November. However, Hunt County Sheriff’s Deputies still arrested the three women for tampering with evidence.

CPS confirms Ard was CPS’s Investigative Program Director in the Greenville office. She was hired in 1992 and retired this past March.

CPS records show Natalie Reynolds, 33, was hired in 2002 and worked as an Investigative Supervisor. She’s charged with oppression and tampering or fabricating evidence with a $40,000 bond.

Alicia Moore’s aunt tells FOX4 she dealt with Reynolds trying to get a copy of a report related to Alicia’s sexual assault case last summer. She believes these arrests are only related to that case, not the murder case.

“I don’t have no problem with them. They did what they could do. My main focus is trying to find see what’s going to happen with her murder. I mean, if my uncle, if they have more evidence that shows that he did it. I’m not even thinking about this.”

Moore’s uncle, Michael Vincent Moore, 57, was arrested and charged with capital murder in the case.”

Three CPS workers arrested in connection to Greenville teen’s murder investigation

[Fox DFW 9/24/13 by Calvert Collins]

“Hunt County prosecutors originally sought criminally negligent homicide indictments against three Child Protective Services employees who were ultimately charged with the lesser felony of tampering of evidence in the slaying of a 16-year-old girl.”

“Prosecutors had sought criminally negligent homicide indictments against the CPS workers, saying there was a chance the girl would still be alive if the CPS workers that were assigned to her case had done their jobs.

Prosecutors say Terry Ramsire sexually assaulted Alicia Moore in August 2012. Ramsire, who has since been convicted of the crime, was in jail at the time of her disappearance and slaying.

Ross or someone in the Greenville CPS office should have performed a risk assessment of Alicia Moore immediately upon being assigned the case in 2012. A risk assessment is a written report that determines if Ramsire remains a threat to Moore and if Moore’s needs are being met in her home environment.

Prosecutors allege that the risk assessment either was never done or was not completed and forwarded for proper review to determine what was Moore’s best interests.

The assessment could have triggered decisions such as being temporarily removed from her home and even neighborhood, meaning she would not have been there on the day of her disappearance.

But the grand jury refused to indict the CPS workers on on the criminally negligent homicide charges.

Alicia Moore’s great-uncle did not live in her home or even in Greenville at the time of her death.

However, according to the indictment, prosecutors believe Ross, Reynolds and Ard quickly fabricated a risk-assessment document on Nov. 6, the day Moore’s body was found, and closed the file on the sexual abuse case to protect their jobs.

A whistle-blower concerned that the case was being mishandled contacted the State’s Office of Inspector General, which oversees CPS. It launched an investigation that led to the evidence-tampering indictments. Ross and Reynolds were also indicted on multiple counts of official oppression in connection with alleged improper searches and seizures of some CPS clients.

Reynolds, the only one still employed by CPS, is on leave. All three have bonded out of jail.”

Prosecutors Sought Tougher Charges for CPS Workers in Moore Case

[NBC DFW 9/25/13 by Randy Mdlwain]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update/July 25,2014:”The trials for three people indicted in connection with an investigation of the local Child Protective Services (CPS) office are currently scheduled to be conducted in May and June.

Trial dates had been set for March 10 for Laura Ard, Natalie Ausbie Reynolds and Rebekah Thonginh Ross.

All three were indicted by the Hunt County grand jury in September.

During a Tuesday morning pretrial hearing in the 354th District Court, Judge Richard A. Beacom agreed with motions from defense attorneys for Reynolds and Ross, seeking a continuance in the case. Beacom reset the trials for June 2, with a pretrial hearing scheduled for May 19.

Beacom had earlier agreed to reset Ard’s trial to May 19, with a pretrial hearing scheduled for April 20.

All three individuals entered not guilty pleas in October.

Ard, of Rockwall, received one indictment for tampering with physical evidence. Reynolds, of Fate, received three indictments for official oppression and one indictment for tampering with/fabricating physical evidence. Ross, of Greenville, received four indictments for official oppression and one indictment for tampering with/fabricating physical evidence.

The charges allege all three acted together to use a false document in the investigation of the mother of slain Greenville teenager Alicia Moore and that Ross and Reynolds conducted unlawful searches and/or seizures in connection with CPS investigations.

The tampering with physical evidence indictments allege all three defendants acted together on our about Nov. 6, 2012 “to use a record and/or document to wit: the risk assessment involving Aretha Moore … with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation.”

In three of the official oppression indictments, Reynolds and Ross were alleged to have acted together as CPS investigators to have subjected three separate individuals who were under CPS investigations “to search and seizure that the defendant knew as unlawful” on or about Dec. 16, 20111, March 28, 2012 and June 14, 2012.

Ross was also alleged to have subjected a fourth individual under CPS investigation to an unlawful search and/or seizure on June 27, 2012.

The tampering with evidence indictments are third degree felonies, whereas the official oppression charges are Class A misdemeanors which fall under the jurisdiction of the district court system.”

Trials for CPS three rescheduled[The Herald Banner 2/19/14 by Brad Kellar]