How Could You?Hall of Shame-Zah-Nee Rothgeb case-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 Warwick,Rhode Island, adoptive mother Michelle Rothgeb “was arrested Sunday on charges of cruelty to, or neglect of a child, according to the Warwick Police Department.”
She was “arrested after her 9-year-old adopted daughter with special needs [Zah-Nee Rothgeb] died and seven more of her adoptive children were found living in filthy conditions in the same home.
Police responded to Rothgeb’s house on Jan. 3 and found the 9-year-old girl, who used a wheelchair, unresponsive in the bathtub. The girl was brought to Kent Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Rothgeb told police that she had her adopted son, a 15-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome, look after the seven other children because she was sick, according to NBC affiliate WJAR.
The 15-year-old told police that he put the girl in the tub with a couple inches of water to clean her up and then went to care for the other children and prepare dinner. Police estimate the girl was in the tub for up to eight hours, court documents show, according to WJAR.
When police responded to the house, they found soiled bedding, garbage-covered floors and an overwhelming stench of urine, the court documents said.
Along with police, Rhode Island’s Office of the Child Advocate and the Department of Children, Youth and Families are investigating what led to the girl’s death.
“Why we landed in the place that we did is unclear to me right now,” said Trista Piccola, the director of the Department of Children, Youth and Families. “The conditions that these children were found living in are completely unacceptable.”
Piccola said Wednesday that the last time the department had contact with Rothgeb was in the summer of 2018 after her eighth adoption was finalized.
She said the department investigated the home in January 2018 for “lack of appropriate supervision.” During that visit, inspectors weren’t allowed up to the second floor of the home even though, before all adoptions are finalized, they should “have access to the entirety of the home,” Piccola said.
“A group of very well-intended, intelligent, caring people … seem to have made a series of unreasonable decisions, in my estimation,” Piccola said. She added that one department staffer is on leave and three others have been given restrictive responsibilities following the girl’s death.
The remaining seven children were removed from the home, and are “doing OK, all things considered,” Piccola said.”
Mother of 8 adopted children with special needs arrested after 9-year-old found dead in tub
[NBC News 1/16/19 by Elisha Fieldstat]
“A member of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families is on administrative leave after a 9-year-old girl with cerebral palsy was found dead in a deplorable home owned by a woman with eight adopted special needs children, officials said.
Officers responding to a Warwick home on Jan. 3 found Zah-Nee, who used a wheelchair, dead in the bathtub that she may have spent as long as eight hours in, police said.
Michele Rothgeb, the adoptive mother of Zah-Nee and seven other children with special needs, allegedly told police that she had the flu so she left the girl in the care of her 15-year-old son, who has Asperger’s syndrome.
DCYF director Trista Piccola told reporters during a Tuesday morning press conference that Zah-Nee’s adoptive siblings were taken from the home and placed with other families as authorities investigate what happened.
“The conditions that these children were found living in are completely unacceptable and we’re reviewing every aspect of this case in its entirety,” she said.
Piccola added that her department is working with the Office of the Child Advocate, who is conducting an external review, and with law enforcement officials.
“We want answers. We want to understand what happened,” she said. “We want to understand how she and her seven brothers and sisters came to be in this situation when they were receiving services from this department, and what happened in the last six months that we were not involved that led to these children living in these conditions that the police found them in when they responded to the home.”
Rothgeb appeared in court Monday and is being held on $25,000 bail on charges of cruelty or neglect of a child.”
RI DCYF worker placed on leave after girl with cerebral palsy dies in bathtub
[WHDH 1/16/19]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “For a decade Michele Rothgeb, a single parent, kept taking in more children under her Warwick roof — eight in total, all with special needs. Whatever concerns a state child-welfare worker might have had about that situation languished in a system of bad policies and poor staff judgments, Trista Piccola announced Friday.
Three months after Rothgeb’s 9-year-old adopted daughter with cerebral palsy was found dead in a bathtub, the head of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families said an investigation found that the agency’s “policies weren’t strong enough to be able to say you can’t keep putting kids in the same family without assessing the capacity of that caregiver to really take care of that number of kids.”
Wrong staff decisions — or inertia — also played a role, Piccola said.
“We are demanding across-the-board accountability. More than a dozen people in the department interacted with this case in some way, either by actions they took, policies they were responsible for, approvals they made or oversight they had.”
Piccola announced what she called comprehensive and sweeping policy changes and personnel actions as a result of the Jan. 3 death of Zah-Nae Rothgeb.
Police have said the girl may have been in the bathtub for eight hours. The state medical examiner ruled her cause of death “complications of cerebral palsy, including seizures” and listed “child neglect” as another significant condition.
Five DCYF workers who had interacted with Rothgeb were disciplined (and in two cases Piccola recommended suspensions). Another five workers were ordered to undergo special retraining and three others, the director said, had resigned.
But at least one of those resignations, the chief of operations, who The Journal has learned was Teddy Savas, actually resigned in November — two months before Zah-Nae’s death.
Governor Raimondo, in praising Piccola Friday for the steps she’s undertaken, said Savas — Raimondo referred to her by her former position as deputy director — had made decisions previously in the Rothgeb case.
Piccola “exercised very good judgment” in accepting Savas’ resignation, the governor said.
The policy changes DCYF announced include:
—Allowing no more than five children to be placed in a foster home without the director’s approval and a full assessment of the family. (The limit was seven — despite Rothgeb somehow having eight.)
—Prohibiting placement of unrelated children in foster homes without the approval of the director or her designee.
—Requiring that all child-safety investigations include a comprehensive assessment of a family’s ability to care for a child, including a review of services provided the family, and the family’s financial status.
—And requiring that all home study reports in adoption-planning cases be approved by a DCYF administrator before they are submitted to Family Court judge for final adoption approval.
Among the numerous deficiencies found in the Rothgeb case was an incomplete home study report for Rothgeb’s last adoption, last July. It never explained the special needs of the seven other children in the house.
In January 2018, two DCYF workers red-flagged Rothgeb after she refused their request to inspect the second floor of her white colonial on Oakland Beach Avenue.
The social workers “indicated” Rothgeb for neglect, meaning they entered their findings into the DCYF’s database; they also forwarded the information to two agency divisions: the Division of Licensing, which oversees foster homes, and the Family Services Unit, responsible for child protection.
But an investigation was never done. The reason, Piccola said Friday, was because of “procedural lapses” in the division that licenses foster homes: “It wasn’t clear what should happen next,” she said.
Last year Piccola implemented a new policy that requires a team be assembled whenever a similar situation calls for investigation.
“I want people in a room talking — talking about that investigation, talking about the outcome and talking about the plan moving forward.”
“As a direct result of this tragedy, the department has taken immediate action to eliminate deficiencies in three critical areas of our work: licensing, placement [of foster children] and investigations. These are sweeping policy reforms.”
Since her arrival at DCYF two years ago, Piccola said, half of her senior team of about 15 has turned over, “and that is in many ways by design. It’s important that we have people at the table who are aligned with the operational direction of the department, specifically around prevention services.”
Piccola said since she asked for the resignation of her chief of operations in November, she has posted the position twice but has been dissatisfied with the respondents.
“It has to be someone who is dedicated to making sure the operations of child welfare work well,” she said.
In the meantime Piccola’s new chief of staff, Aimee Mitchell, previously an administrator at Children’s Friend, a nonprofit child-welfare group, will help fill that role, Piccola said.”
RI DCYF makes changes in policy, personnel after death of girl, 9
[Newport RI.com 4/13/19 by Tom Mooney]
Update 2:“A report into the death of a 9-year-old Rhode Island girl in foster care says ineptitude and inaction by the state’s child welfare system was partially to blame.
The 57-page report released Tuesday by the state Office of the Child Advocate says “the actions or inactions of (Department of Children, Youth and Families) staff contributed to the death” of Zha Nae Rothgeb in a Warwick home in January. She was found dead in a bathtub.
The girl, who had cerebral palsy, was under the care of a single mother with seven other special needs foster children.
The report also suggests more than 20 changes at the state child welfare agency.
Department Director Trista Piccola in statement said she shares the child advocate’s concerns and will cooperate in making changes.”
https://whdh.com/news/report-dcyf-inaction-contributes-to-death-of-foster-child/
[Whdh 6/12/19 by AP]
strong>Update 3:“The adoptive mother of a disabled 9-year-old girl found dead in their Warwick home was arraigned Friday on new charges.
Michele Rothgeb, 55, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and cruelty or neglect to a child Friday morning in Kent County Superior Court.
Rothgeb was arrested in January after 9-year-old Zah-Nae Wilkerson was found dead in a bathtub in the family’s Warwick home.
Rothgeb was initially charged with cruelty or neglect of a child after investigators found her house covered in feces and garbage and revealed that eight other children with special needs were living in squalid conditions in her care.
A grand jury returned an indictment on June 5, upgrading Rothgeb’s charges to manslaughter.
Just days after that indictment, an explosive 57-page report was released by the Office of the Child Advocate, detailing the years leading up to Zah-Nae’s death, finding that her death was in part due to inaction by the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
DCYF has promised to make significant changes to their operations.
The judge ruled Friday that Rothgeb’s previous $25,000 be carried over to the new charges. Her bail was posted on those charges back in January.
In addition, Rothgeb was ordered to have no contact with children under the age of 16, and must get permission from the court to leave the state.
She is due back in court on August 13 for a pre-trial conference.”
Warwick Woman Arraigned on new charges in death of 9 year old adopted daughter
[ABC 6 6/28/19 by Samuel Vaccaro]
“A Rhode Island woman already charged with manslaughter in the death of one of eight special needs children who was in her care is now facing additional charges of cruelty to or neglect of a child.
The new felony charges filed last month against Michele Rothgeb, 56, allege she improperly cared for the seven other children at her Warwick home, which first responders found in squalor when Zha-Nae, 9, died in January, The Providence Journal reports.
Police found bugs on the ceiling, “garbage all over the house,” and a pile of soiled diapers in Zah-Nae’s bedroom, according to The Journal.
One of two beds in the bedroom “had been soiled with feces and urine and appeared not to have been changed in many months,” authorities said.
Rothgeb had told police she was sick with the flu and that she delegated duties caring for the other children to her 15-year-old grandson, who has Asperger’s syndrome, The Journal reports.
A report released by a panel of child-care experts and the state child advocate in June cited instances in the home when children were left for hours in high chairs, malnourished, and confined in sleeping bags or tents, according to The Journal.
Rothgeb, who housed two dogs, was also charged with “unnecessary cruelty to animals” in November, the newspaper says.
She pleaded not guilty on Nov. 22 to the new charges and was released on $10,000 surety bail, The Journal reports. Her lawyers did not return requests for comment from the newspaper.
Rothgeb is slated to be back in court on Jan. 6 for a pretrial conference.”
[Boston.com 12/11/19 by Christopher Gavin]
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