How Could You? Hall of Shame-Miami Foster Care Traffickers and CPS Worker Jean LaCroix 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.

Too many alleged perpetrators to put in the title on this one! The CPS worker has (horrendous)ties to the Nubia Barahona  case!!!!

From Miami, Florida, four men have been arrested for trafficking girls from foster care for prostitution.

“The men, police say, were part of an organized conspiracy to lure underage girls into prostitution. The four were charged with conspiracy, racketeering and unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Using a teenage foster child as a recruiter, police say, the four men plied underage girls with cash, affection and gifts. Ultimately, the girls became prostitutes who earned the ring about $100 for every man with whom they had sex. The girls, in turn, were paid $30 or $40 of that original $100.

Beginning in January of 2011, members of the ring would call girls on cell phones supplied by the men and arrange for them to have sex at a building in Homestead that the ring used as a kind of brothel, records say. “

“Charged Monday [June 25, 2012] were Eric George Earle, 29, called “E-Nasty,” Willie Calvin Bivens, 65, called “Tank,” Anturrell Nathaniel Dean, 30, and David Zarifi, 34. A fifth person — a 17-year-old foster child who is identified only by the initials S.S. — is listed in a 13-page sworn statement as a “recruiter” for the ring, though she is not charged with any crimes. As of late Monday, the four men remained in jail: Zarifi on $53,000 bail, Earle on $60,000 bail, Bivens on $35,505 bail, and Dean on $45,000.” [Ridiculously low bail!]

Of course, none of this could have happened without the ASSISTANCE OF A CPS WORKER. “The human trafficking investigation also involves a now-suspended child abuse investigator for the agency that oversees child welfare efforts in Florida. Jean LaCroix, a child protective investigator employed by the Department of Children & Families, was placed on paid administrative leave while police and prosecutors investigate allegations he repeatedly had sex with a teenaged foster child whose safety he was assigned to protect.

Sources have told The Miami Herald that LaCroix placed the girl at a group home for dependent children — and turn returned to the home repeatedly to pick the girl up for sexual favors. The girl, sources say, also was working for members of the ring who were arrested Monday.

LaCroix had spearheaded a 2006 child abuse investigation — prompted by a call from worried teachers and administrators — into the welfare of Nubia Barahona, a twin who was adopted from foster care and was killed in 2011, police say by her own adoptive parents, Carmen and Jorge Barahona. LaCroix was named in a lawsuit alleging DCF failed repeatedly to protect Nubia, and her brother, Victor, whom police say also endured years of torment.

LaCroix has not been charged with any crimes. [WHY NOT?!?!]

“M.D. told police that, soon after she went sent to live in a state-operated group home in September 2011, she was recruited by a housemate, S.S., who told her “she could make money by having sex with men,” a warrant states. At first, she was introduced to a man she then knew only as “E-Nasty.” But Earle introduced her to Zarifi, whom she told police was “nice to her.” M.D. liked Zarifi so much that she had sex with him for free after being paid four times.

Eventually, M.D. agreed to have sex with other men, the warrant says. Either Earle or Zarifi would call her on her cellphone, and arrange to pick her up either at school or at her group home. From there, M.D. would be driven to a home operated by Bivens, where she would be paid $40 to have sex with men, the warrant says.

M.D. also had sex with Zarifi in a room at Bivens’ house, the warrant says.

A review of text messages on M.D.’s phone by police recovered several messages from Earle involving johns, including a message that “somebody wanna pay u to [have sex].”

Another resident of the group home, which was operated by Children’s Home Society, told police that she, too, had been recruited into prostitution by S.S. and Earle. The girl, identified only as C.W., said that Earle gave her clothes – at first without asking for sex in return. Later, C.W. had sex with Earle, who then coaxed her into having sex with Bivens, as well, “as a kind of trial run,” the warrant states.

Shortly after that, police say, Earle asked C.W. to meet with his brother, Dean, who had recently been released from jail. Dean gave the girl cash without requiring that she have sex, the warrant says. But by March 2011, C.W. was prostituting herself for Dean. The arrangement lasted until the following August, the warrant says, and then briefly a month later. C.W. told police that Dean charged johns $100 to have sex with the girl. He paid her $30.

Another foster child who lived at the group home, identified as J.D., told police that Earle tried to recruit her, as well, to work for him as a prostitute. “She states that ‘E’ knew that they were minors at the time he recruited them,” the warrant says.

Though child welfare administrators typically try to place foster children in homes with foster parents, some children prove to be more challenging. Older children with developments disabilities, mental illness or behavioral problems end up in group homes, rather than with foster families, because it’s hard to find families willing to take them.

The ease with which ring members had access to the girls showed the “extreme lack of supervision of these girls, said Carole Schauffer, a children’s advocate who is working with DCF to recruit foster parents and improve the quality of foster parenting. “Nobody is looking at them as a parent would,” Schauffer said.”

4 charged with running foster child prostitution ring

[Miami Herald 6/25/12 by Carol Marbin Miller]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 It is mind-boggling that LaCroix has not been arrested. Sick! Sick! Sick! Incompetent, amoral…..

Update: CPS is now assisting in investigating Jean LaCroix.

“The warrant was issued in May. It indicates a 17-year-old girl in foster care admitted to Miami-Dade Police that she engaged in consensual sexual intercourse on numerous occasions with her DCF case worker, Jean Lacroix.

It further stated the alleged victim said she called and sent text messages to Lacroix and that he would arrange to pick her up from school, take her to his residence, where they allegedly had consensual sex.

“He was an excellent man, an excellent man,” said Lacroix’s Friend Jean Clayvil. “I don’t believe it.”

Clayvil says he tried calling Lacroix on his DCF cell phone a couple of weeks ago, but wasn’t able to speak with him until he saw him at their church.

“I said ‘I called you’, and he told me he doesn’t have this phone number no more. He told me the company doesn’t want him to use the phone anymore.” Clayvil said Lacroix didn’t offer an explanation as to why.

According to the search warrant, Lacroix’s case work involving the alleged victim began in September of 2011 and ended in October, but indicated the two stayed in touch on his personal cell phone after he was instructed not to by his supervisor.

Lacroix was placed on administrative leave in May. DCF Secretary David E. Wilkins has since released this statement:

This alleged behavior is absolutely appalling and betrays the trust and confidence that all Floridians have in our Department’s employees. Mr. Lacroix’s actions in no way reflect the expectations we and all Floridians have for our investigators or any of our employees.”

DCF Case Worker Investigated For Sexual Misconduct With Foster Child

[CBS Miami 6/27/12]

Update 2: “On the run for much of a week after he was linked to a high-profile investigation into the sexual trafficking of foster children, a state child-abuse investigator was arrested Saturday while he was trying to flee to the Dominican Republic.

Jean LaCroix, who has been on paid administrative leave since May from his job as a child-protective investigator with the Department of Children & Families, had been in New York City preparing to flee the United States, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle. LaCroix had reserved a flight to the Dominican Republic Friday night but never boarded the plane, which had been under surveillance by police and federal agents.

The original flight reservation “may have been a decoy,” Griffith said, or LaCroix may have been scared off before boarding.

Federal authorities then learned LaCroix was flying to the Caribbean nation Saturday morning, but were unable to stop the plane from taking off. Instead, federal authorities asked customs agents in the Dominican to refuse LaCroix entry. They did, and LaCroix was immediately returned to New York, where he was arrested.

Prosecutors believe LaCroix ultimately was headed for Haiti, where he grew up, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.”

“LaCroix, 46, was charged with five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, according to an arrest warrant signed by Detective Jeannette Azcuy, who headed up the case for the Miami-Dade Police Department.

“If he had gotten to Haiti, we would never have seen him again,” Griffith said.

Police, prosecutors and U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement agents “all went to extraordinary lengths to take this man into custody as he tried to flee the country,” said Rundle. “But for those who work child exploitation and human trafficking cases, extraordinary efforts are just part of the everyday routine.”

DCF is in the process of firing LaCroix, said agency spokesman Joe Follick. Months ago, when agency administrators learned of his alleged actions, they conducted a detailed review of his caseload to ensure he had not had sex with any other underage girls, Follick added.

“We are extremely grateful for the hard work of law enforcement and the state attorney’s office,” Follick added. “We will continue to work with them in this case and in the future to protect all children.”

72 PHONE CALLS

According to the warrant obtained by The Miami Herald late Saturday, Miami-Dade police learned May 7 from a DCF investigator that a girl under agency supervision disclosed she had repeatedly had sex with LaCroix, who had been the investigator assigned to her child-abuse case.

Beginning on Oct.11, and lasting until child-welfare administrators moved his alleged victim to a different part of the county the next January, LaCroix allegedly met with the girl numerous times, the warrant says.

The teen told police she would call LaCroix from her cell phone to his, and they would arrange to meet near her school. From there, LaCroix would take the girl back to his home to have sex, the warrant says.

LaCroix’s state-issued cell phone, the warrant says, showed “considerable” phone activity between LaCroix and the girl. From Dec. 24 through Jan. 23 alone, the two spoke on the phone 72 times, the warrant says.

A review of phone records showed that, on at least five occasions, LaCroix and the foster child spoke on the phone either early in the morning before school or during school hours, when the girl had been absent from school without an excuse, the warrant says.

On May 4, the warrant says, DCF administrators told LaCroix to stop speaking with the girl. Nevertheless, the girl told police she both saw and spoke with him two days later. On May 7, the agency placed LaCroix on administrative leave with pay, and seized his cell phone. But LaCroix continued to call the girl from another phone, “and instructed her to call him” from something other than her cell phone.”

[Miami Herald 6/30/12 by Carol Marbin Miller]

Update 3: “Joe Follick, spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families, which oversees children in state custody, said the group homes are subcontractors that don’t report directly to DCF.

“There is not a department employee specifically involved in these children’s lives,” Follick said. “We contract the care of foster children in the state to community groups who then often subcontract that work out too, whether it be group homes or case management organizations that work with these children.”

“Follick said as soon as DCF heard reports of trafficking in the group homes, the agency took action.

“Obviously we are ultimately responsible,” he said. “But one of the things that I think we have learned from this lesson is the importance of communication in training all the way down, not just at the department but through the people that we pay to take care of these children.”

“Follick says DCF is reviewing all aspects of its group homes and recruiting more foster parents to reduce the need for them.

“The arrest last week highlighted an awful problem, but what would make it worse is if we didn’t do anything. And we’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to examine this, we’re not going to shy away from it, and we’re going to do everything we can to help every child in group care.”

Fran Allegra, the CEO of Our Kids, Inc., which oversees foster care and adoption services in Miami-Dade – including one of the group homes in question – said in a statement that her agency’s intervention nearly a year ago led to the larger investigation and ultimate arrest.”[That would be this case as the other case  involved a Children’s Home Society of Florida group home.]

DCF examining group homes after sex trafficking

[News Press 7/5/12 by News Service of Florida]

Update 4: “An investigator with the Department of Children and Families accused of sexual misconduct with a foster child  made his first appearance in bond court Friday afternoon.

The judge denied bond for Jean LeCroix, 46, mainly because he has proven himself to be a flight risk.

Jean LaCroix, 46, was returned to Miami Thursday afternoon after being arrested in New York.

“Please stop, just get out of my way,” said LaCroix in the airport terminal when asked for comment by a CBS4 News crew.

LaCroix was reportedly in New York trying to flee to the Dominican Republic before he was turned around and returned to the U.S., according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.

“He was an excellent man, I don’t believe it!” said LaCroix’s former roommate to CBS4′s Summer Knowles.

Investigators learned LaCroix caught a flight out to the Dominican Republic on June 30. They then contact customs agents in the Dominican Republic to refuse LaCroix entry. They did, and LaCroix was immediately returned to New York, where he was taken into custody.

Prosecutors believe LaCroix ultimately was headed for Haiti, where he grew up, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

“ASAs (Assistant State Attorneys) Brenda Mezick & Court Keeley, MDPD Det. Jeanette Azcuy & ICE ASAC Tonya Marshall went to extraordinary lengths to bring this man into custody as he tried to flee the country,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement released earlier this month.  “But for those who work child exploitation & human trafficking cases, extraordinary efforts are just part of the everyday routine.”

Four men accused of running the ring were arrested in June. CBS4 obtained a copy of a search warrant issued for Lacroix’s work-issued cell phone. The warrant allows police officers to access Lacroix’s call history, text messages and any other communication he may have had with the alleged victim using that phone.

It further stated the alleged victim said she called and sent text messages to Lacroix and that he would arrange to pick her up from school, take her to his residence, where they allegedly had consensual sex.

“He was an excellent man, an excellent man,” said Lacroix’s friend Jean Clayvil. “I don’t believe it.”

Clayvil says he tried calling Lacroix on his DCF cell phone a couple of weeks ago, but wasn’t able to speak with him until he saw him at their church.

“I said ‘I called you’, and he told me he doesn’t have this phone number no more. He told me the company doesn’t want him to use the phone anymore.” Clayvil said Lacroix didn’t offer an explanation as to why.

According to the search warrant, Lacroix’s case work involving the alleged victim began in September of 2011 and ended in October, but indicated the two stayed in touch on his personal cell phone after he was instructed not to by his supervisor.

Lacroix was placed on administrative leave in May. DCF Secretary David E. Wilkins has since released this statement:

This alleged behavior is absolutely appalling and betrays the trust and confidence that all Floridians have in our Department’s employees. Mr. Lacroix’s actions in no way reflect the expectations we and all Floridians have for our investigators or any of our employees.

LaCroix has been charged with five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.”

DCF Worker Accused Of Having Sex With Foster Child Denied Bond

[CBS Miami 7/13/12]

Update 5: “An audio taped police interview with the 17 year old foster girl at the center of sex scandal involving a fired DCF investigator reveals he offered to pay her $1000 dollars to keep her mouth shut about their affair.

CBS4 News obtained a copy of the tape prosecutors plan to use as evidence in the upcoming trial of Jean LaCroix, 46, fired after his arrest this summer on sexual misconduct charges.

LaCroix was caught trying to leave the country in July for the Caribbean and is currently being held in the Miami-Dade County Jail awaiting trial.

In the taped interview, the 17 year old made it sound like her sexual relationship with her DCF social worker was her idea.

“I was telling him that I liked him and after the I asked him to have sex with me,” she told police

Prosecutors say LaCroix pulled her out of The Bridge foster home in Miami and moved her to another group home where he picked her up for sexual liaisons at his home.

“He would come pick me up from school every day,” said the girl. Police asked her, “and you would have sex with him every day?”

“Yeah,” said the girl, who went on to say he would take her back to school when it was over.

Police say the foster girl was working as a prostitute for a ring they broke up earlier this summer.

That probe led them to uncover the alleged relationship with LaCroix.

Mary Andrews who runs The Bridge foster home where the girl once lived said the system did not fail her, LaCroix did.

“He knew what the consequences were. He know this young lady was vulnerable and he did it anyway,” Andrews said. “We need to look at putting up better guards to prevent this from happening again.”

The tape of the interview with the 17 year old may be used at LaCroix’s trial which is set to get underway early next year.”

Exclusive: 17-Year-Old Foster Care Girl Speaks About Affair With DCF Worker

[CBS Miami 11/8/12]