LA Times Sues For Release of Child Death Records -the Viola VanClief and Deandre Green case UPDATED
“The Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking a judge to order county child welfare officials to release records related to the deaths of children who had been under their supervision.
Under a law that went into effect in 2008, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services is required to release records to the public when a child dies after passing through the protective services system.
“The county has received the lawsuit and is reviewing it, but we cannot comment on pending litigation,” said Nishith Bhatt, spokesman for the agency.
After passage of the 2008 law, the county initially released records for nearly all deaths. But after The Times began reporting on social worker errors, the release of documents slowed. Additionally, county staffers began to redact the records more heavily, leaving many unreadable.
In 2010, the county’s Office of Independent Review found that child welfare officials, working with law enforcement agencies, succeeded in getting records withheld, even though police investigators hadn’t first reviewed the files. The result has been blanket roadblocks to disclosure that resulted in “a virtual paralysis of the [law’s] intent,” according to a report by the county watchdog office’s lead attorney, Michael Gennaco.
County officials promised to follow Gennaco’s recommendations and improve the flow of information. But more than a year later, the changes have not been implemented.”
L.A. Times suit seeks release of L.A. County child death records
[Los Angeles Times 9/15/11 by
“Once you see a sign, it’s very important to go in and remove them and place them somewhere else, and the signs are out there, you’ll know,” she said.
But according to a confidential report made by the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services itself that was leaked to the L.A. Times, those signs were often missed and resulted in the deaths of 13 children that, according to the report, could have been prevented by social workers.
In one case, 2-year-old Viola Vanclief was beaten to death with a hammer, even though social workers visited the home four times, according to the report.
The report also says Deandre Green, also 2-years-old, was beaten to death even after two calls came into to DCFS within a month of his death. The social worker was going to the wrong address, despite having the right address on file.
That internal report was from last year, but since then, a new director has been brought in to clean up the department, make changes and make sure this never happens again.
“It’s very disturbing, and it should be disturbing to us all,” said Philip Browning, who stepped into the position about a year ago. He says he has fired and suspended some employees and is restructuring the organization.
“This is a cultural change that won’t happen overnight,” he said. “We have got to put safety as job one, everyone has to know that. That’s a change for us. We have to ensure that workers get support, but that they also are held accountable.”
He says he is focusing on better-training social workers and even bringing in homicide detectives to teach them how to investigate, while at the same time holding them responsible. [How about having the actual homicide detectives do the investigation!]
Madrigal says she hopes other children will get the love and support they need before it’s too late.
“I’ve been one of the lucky ones,” she said.”
Update 2:“A foster mother convicted of second-degree murder in the beating death of a 2-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to 25-years-to-life in state prison.
Kiana Barker, 34, who had been trying to adopt Viola Vanclief in 2010, severely beat the toddler and later called 911 to report that the girl had stopped breathing, prosecutors allege.
In October, a jury found Barker guilty of second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse.
The case was the latest in a years-long series of problems for United Care, a nonprofit foster agency that contracted with Los Angeles County at the time of Viola’s death, and had placed the girl with Barker.
After the child’s death, the county terminated its contract with United Care.
Witnesses said that Baker burst into Viola’s room after hours of heavy drinking and beat her. When Barker was pulled away, the little girl was on the floor, struggling to breathe, the witness said.
Though doctors at a hospital attempted to revive the girl, prosecutors said the child was “dead on arrival.”
The girl had suffered “extensive blunt-force trauma,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
A motion filed with the court at sentencing said the trauma was caused by “multiple repeated blows by an adult, exerting maximum force.”
Ultimately, it was determined that the child — who was placed in child care because her biological mother was a crack addict and prostitute — had died from massive bleeding in her chest cavity, prosecutors said.
Authorities said that Barker eventually told investigators that Viola had become jammed in a bed frame and that she might have accidentally hit the girl with a hammer as she tried to free her.
The child’s death focused attention on the Department of Children and Family Services, whose officials could not initially explain how the child came into the care of Barker, and her then-boyfriend, James Dewitt Julian.
Shortly after Viola’s death, The Times reported that Barker had been the subject of five previous child-abuse complaints, including one substantiated allegation that she had severely neglected her own biological child in 2002.
Julian had been convicted in 1992 of armed robbery — a fact that should have disqualified him from living in a home certified for foster care.
Los Angeles County supervisors later voted to develop an investigations unit and subsequently terminated their relationship with United Care.
In December, The Times also reported that at least four children in Los Angeles County had died as a result of abuse or neglect over the past five years in homes overseen by private agencies, such as United Care.
Responding to the report, Los Angeles County officials launched a review of the criminal clearance process for foster parents selected by private agencies.
Viola’s remains have been buried in an unmarked grave in Carson.”
Foster mother who fatally beat 2-year-old gets 25 to life[LA Times 2/21/14 by Matt Stevens and Garrett Therolf]
Update 2:”The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against a former South Los Angeles resident convicted of the beating death of the 2 1/2-year-old foster daughter she was in the process of adopting.
Kiana Barker was found guilty in October 2013 of second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse in the March 4, 2010, death of Viola Vanclief.
In a ruling in April, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal cited the “strength of the evidence against Barker” and concluded that “her trial was not fundamentally unfair.”
Barker, who testified in her own defense during her trial, maintained that she did not fatally beat the little girl.
“I did not administer those injuries … ,” Barker told jurors. “I don’t know how they were caused, but I know I didn’t cause them.”
She said she was “in love” with the toddler and had been working toward adopting her.
Barker testified that the girl’s mother — who she met through their church — had asked her twice to care for the toddler after she went into foster care, and said the mother had asked her to be Viola’s godmother.
Los Angeles firefighter Michael Pagliuso testified that the toddler didn’t show any signs of life at all after paramedics responded to a 911 call from Barker, and that Barker didn’t seem to be very worried.
He said parents are typically hysterical when something happens to a child and that he had seen “a lot different reactions than what I got out of the defendant.”
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Ronald Harmon said the child appeared to be “lifeless” on the living room floor of Barker’s home, and the defendant’s “original answer was that the baby must have choked on apple juice.”
When asked how long the child had been down, Barker’s boyfriend responded 20 minutes and Barker countered it had only been five minutes, the fire captain said.
Dr. David Duarte, a surgeon who treated the girl, testified that the hospital team spent a lot of effort trying to save the child, who had bruising on her lower back, buttocks and thighs.
He said the girl’s injuries could not have been caused by being stuck between bed railings — something Barker testified had occurred a day before the child’s death.
Barker’s boyfriend, James Julian, who later became her husband, was charged as an accessory after the fact in the girl’s death. He pleaded no contest in December 2011 and was sentenced to three years in jail. He did not testify during Barker’s trial.
In sentencing Barker in February 2014 to 25 years to life in prison, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta called the facts of the case “tragic” and said Barker’s actions “call for the maximum term.””
No new day in court for foster-child killer[My New LA 7/15/15 by Hillary Jackson]
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