Los Angeles DCFS Defies Law

August 31, 2010   

The state of California passed a law  requiring full disclosure of  case  files following a death in custody of the Department of Children and  Family  Services  (DCFS). After  a  few successful  applications  on  behalf  of    newspapers, DCFS has  taken to stonewalling  requests for information  about    child deaths.

They have little alternative.  Truthful disclosure would show  that the foster care system is  a killing field for children, losing  public    support and provoking  a backlash against  incumbent management.  The  child    protection system, which has  long ignored the  rights of parents and  the welfare of children is now defying the law  to conceal its wrongdoing  from  the politicians and  the public.  

Best estimates  are that US  foster  care  kills  over a  thousand children   annually.  Since the first Gulf War, that is over 20 thousand deaths, a  lot more than the number of soldiers memorialized in the photo.   

DEPENDANCY - WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILDREN ARE REMOVED BY DCFS?

One of the most traumatizing things that can happen to parents and children is to have their children removed by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Unfortunately, DCFS conducts interviews of parents and children without a right to counsel first. Thus, they often discover information that they can use to justify taking the children, information they would not have gotten if in the parent(s) had the right to speak with an attorney first, or have an attorney present when they were interviewed.

So what can you do? You can refuse to be interviewed or you can ask to have an attorney present when you are interviewed, either of which may not prevent DCFS from detaining the children. However, it will give them less information to plead as to why your children should be detained from you. You may also assert your 5th Amendment right to not reveal information that may incriminate you. Understand, statements you make to social workers are discoverable by District Attorneys and should your case involve criminal charges, everything you tell a social worker can be used against you in a criminal proceeding.

What you should do is immediately contact an attorney qualified to practice in Dependency Court and seek counsel as to your rights and legal options.

ADVISEMENT: The preceding is for informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as legal advice.

CERTIORARI GRANTED In 9th CIRCUIT CASE CITING COLEMAN ARTICLE

Oct 26, 2010 | Duke Law News

In a recently published opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cites the work of Professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman in a case relating to the constitutional rights of children and parents in child sexual abuse investigations. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case in mid-October.

Principally at issue in Greene v. Camreta was whether the actions of a child protective services caseworker and deputy sheriff who sequestered and questioned a nine-year old child suspected of being the victim of sexual abuse at her school for two hours “without a warrant, probable cause, or parental consent” violated the child’s Fourth Amendment rights. The Ninth Circuit held that they did.

In doing so, it specifically considered the “competing considerations” at issue in such cases, including the state’s “compelling interest” in protecting children and other vulnerable members of society from abuse in their homes and parents’ “exceedingly strong interest in directing the upbringing of their children, as well as in protecting both themselves and their children from the embarrassment and social stigmatization attached to child abuse investigations.”

The court cited Coleman’s work in connection with its balancing of these competing interests:

“Of the 3.6 million investigations conducted by state and local agencies in 2006, only about a quarter concluded that the children were indeed victims of abuse. … This discrepancy creates the risk that ‘in the name of saving children from the harm that their parents and guardians are thought to pose, states ultimately cause more harm to many more children than they ever help.’ Doriane Lambelet Coleman, Storming the Castle to Save the Children: The Ironic Costs of a Child Welfare Exception to the Fourth Amendment, 47 WM. & MARY L. REV. 413, 417 (2005).”

LA DCFS SEXUAL PREDATOR ARRESTED FOR ASSAULTING A MOTHER

December 02, 2010 Los Angeles County DCFS
Social Worker Arrested for Sexual AssaultLos Angeles: A Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) social worker was arrested today on felony sexual battery charges stemming from allegations he had sexually assaulted a woman during a home visit in Woodland Hills on September 17, 2010.

The 30-year-old victim claimed the suspect, 53-year-old Yadullah "Eddie" Lorghaba, forced her to submit to unwanted sexual advances after threatening to remove her children from her home.

After the assault, the suspect told her he would not be removing her children that day; however, he would be returning the following week for another follow-up visit.

The victim immediately reported the assault to DCFS and law enforcement. DCFS supervisors immediately removed Lorghaba from the field and placed him on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The district attorney's office filed charges after forensic analysis of crime scene evidence, DNA, confirmed the victim's allegations

Lorghaba has been employed with DCFS for 13 years. LAPD Detectives are trying to determine whether this is an isolated incident and are requesting any other person who may have been victimized by Lorghaba to come forward.

Lorghaba was released on $75,000 bail. His next court date is January 5, 2010, at Van Nuys Court to set a date for the preliminary hearing.

Anyone with information regarding this matter is asked to call Topanga Area Detective Stewart at 818-756-3375. After-hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "CRIMES" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on "Web Tips." When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

DCFS + DEPENDANCY COURT = NIGHTMARE!

The more you know the worse it is, at least in dealing with DCFS. Each day he meets with his clients attorney Howell says, he listen to horror stories about how their family has been torn apart by the intervention of DCFS.

It is thus ironic that the intent of the legislature regarding Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300 is that..."[n]othing in that code section should be used to disrupt the family unnecessarily or intrude inappropriately into family life, prohibit the method of parental discipline, or prescribe a particular method of parenting."

The facts are, at least in Los Angeles County that DCFS most often acts in a way that violates the legislative intent. In my own practice I have had to defend many parents who were dealing with aberrant teen age behavior (usually the result of mental illness) or the normal tensions brought on by raising children in a poor economy (translate that as poverty).

Discipline is also a big issue, as the dependency courts continually find that spanking a child is jurisdictional and remove the child from the parent. Finally, the most egregious intervention into family life is when DCFS is not in agreement with a parent’s method of raising their children.

These allegations are the most insidious, because they usually add other allegations to hide their true intent. However, the most tragic and far reaching allegation used to destroy a family is an accusation that there is sexually inappropriate behavior, usually by the father. When this happens DCFS immediately begins to drive a wedge in the family, insisting the mother seek a restraining order, commences a divorce and never allow the father around the children again.

These families usually never recover from this intervention. What furthers the tragedy is that the father is still being labeled a sex offender, yet has none of the protections that would have been afforded him if he were charged criminally (in most my cases there is no criminal charge).

Adding to this tragedy is that the victim (especially if it is a teenage girl) often recants, admitting it was a false allegation used to gain power in a family where she did not like the rules being imposed on her. In several of my cases I have tried to have the matter reheard, without success.

Thus, I must participate in an event that results in the destruction of a nuclear family unit. Statistics indicate that the national average for returning children to their families is 80%, but the average in Los Angeles is closer to 30%.

Thus, if your children are placed into the custody of DCFS, it is twice likely in Los Angeles County than for the rest of the country that they will never return home.

Finally, attorney Howell said, he attended a conference for attorneys who represent parents in which one of the speakers, a well respected child psychologist with more than 20 years of dealing with DCFS, noted that in her experience, children removed from the home (even the home of the abuser) are more likely to suffer severe emotional trauma than if they had been left in the home with their abuser. Welcome to the real nightmare.

PLOEHN REMOVED AS HEAD OF L.A. COUNTY DCFS

Antonia Jimenez, who wrote a critical report of the troubled department, is expected to be named interim chief.
Antonia Jimenez, who wrote a critical report of the troubled department, is expected to be named interim chief.

December 14, 2010|By Garrett Therolf, Times Staff WriterTrish Ploehn, the embattled director of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services, was removed Monday and is expected to be replaced for now by a top county official who wrote a recent report which found the agency to be in "crisis."

Antonia Jimenez, a top aide to county Chief Executive William T Fujioka, called for focused attention on reducing a backlog of child abuse investigations in the report, which was released last month. She also found numerous management deficiencies in the department, saying that the agency needed to improve its system for employee discipline and simplify directions given to workers.

UPDATE: Trish Ploehn, the recently departed director of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services, has been appointed assistant county executive.

In her new position assisting county Chief Executive William T Fujioka, she will be responsible for education initiatives at the county and will retain her current $260,000 salary indefinitely....

CRIMINAL COURT vs. DEPENDENCY COURT TRIAL

You would have more rights in criminal court than you do in dependency. Some examples:

1.If you are charged in a criminal case and you request a lawyer you are immediately provided with one.
a) In dependency the Social Workers interview parents without any right to an attorney and if you request one, they will remove your children (if they haven’t done that already).

1.Once charges are filed in a criminal case you know what you are facing and if they can’t prove the charge as it is written, then you are acquitted.
a) In dependency, if they don’t prove the allegation as written, the judge can ‘…conform it to the proof’ offered at trial and rewrite the allegation.

1.At a criminal trial, hearsay is for the most part not going to be admitted as evidence.
a) In dependency there is an exception in Welfare and Institutions Code that allows for almost all hearsay to be admitted, at least that generated by DCFS.

1.In criminal court the prosecution must turn over all evidence in a timely fashion.
a) In dependency, you can be presented with evidence on the day of trial and you have to deal with it, even if you object.

1.In criminal court the prosecution must notify you of all witnesses being called, and do so well in advance of the trial.
a) In dependency, you can be presented with the County’s witness list on the day of trial and you have to deal with it, even if you object.

1.In a criminal trial you have the right to a trial by jury of your peers.
a) In dependency you only get the judge or commissioner or referee.

1.In criminal court there is the prosecution and the defense.
a) In dependency there is County Counsel (prosecution), minor’ counsel, and counsel for the other parent. You can find yourself in trial with ALL of them against you.

1.Finally, the burden of proof in a criminal matter is beyond a reasonable doubt.
a) In dependency the burden of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, or ‘more likely than not.’ Not really much of a burden for the County Counsel.

The lesson here is be prepared for the fact that the system is HEAVILY weighted against a parent in dependency court. Although you may be appointed an attorney by the court, consider whether or not that attorney will provide you with the best representation possible, because you’re going to need it!