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TAMPA, FL - Riverview Man Arrested, Charged With Falsifying DCF Records
Riverview Man Arrested, Charged With Falsifying DCF Records
By HOWARD ALTMAN and MIKE WELLS http://brandonnews2.tbo.com/content/...g-dcf-records/ The Tampa Tribune Published: May 22, 2008 Updated: 05:49 pm TAMPA - Two former child welfare workers were arrested today on charges they lied in official state records about having face-to-face meetings with children and foster parents, officials said. Andrew Joseph, 36, of Riverview, was arrested today at his home on 33 counts of falsifying records – a third-degree felony, according to officials. Robert Matthew Vilardebo, 34, of Brandon, turned himself in at Orient Road Jail and was charged with two counts of falsifying records. Both men claimed to have conducted in-person interviews with children and foster parents at their homes, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Trina Reddick said. Joseph was to conduct the interviews for Youth and Family Alternatives, a subcontractor providing case management services, said Hillsborough Kids Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Rainey. Hillsborough Kids is a contractor for the state Department of Children & Families. Youth and Family Alternatives is a subcontractor for Hillsborough Kids. The investigation was sparked after Youth and Family Alternatives noticed some irregularities, Rainey said. "As soon as it was discovered, Youth and Family Alternatives immediately notified the DCF inspector general's office," Rainey said. Joseph, he said, had about 20 cases. Staff and supervisors from Youth and Family Alternatives, with help from Hillsborough Kids, immediately went to see the clients to ensure that safety was not compromised, Rainey said. "We can't tolerate putting children at risk," he said. "We took every measure to ensure that would not happen. There are tons of checks-and-balances in place. This was caught, though it did happen." Joseph worked as a case management coordinator for Youth and Family Alternatives for only two months – Sept. 5 through Nov. 8, 2006, said Judith Bromberg, the agency's senior vice president for human resources. He resigned to take another job. His duties as a case management coordinator included making monthly visits to the foster children on his caseload. The children ranged in age from infants to 5 years old, though a few older children who were siblings to the younger ones were included, as well, she said. When Joseph resigned, a case manager with another organization went to one of the homes on his caseload to do a wellness check, Bromberg said. The caregiver told the case manager that Joseph hadn't stopped by since August. A check of the Youth and Family Alternatives' computer records showed Joseph had falsely reported that he had recently visited that home, she said. Youth and Family Alternatives notified the other appropriate agencies and filed an incident report with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Bromberg said. The case has been under investigation ever since, she said. Though no children were found to be adversely affected, the organization is "very disappointed," Bromberg said. "Youth and Family Alternatives has been in existence since 1970," she said. "We have zero tolerance for any behavior that would put any children or the families we serve at risk." As a result of the investigation, the organization instituted a system of checks and balances to avoid a repeat occurrence, Bromberg said. Supervisors now make random phone calls to the homes to ask about recent visits and make random co-visits with the case coordinators. Joseph was arrested at his 13716 Gentle Woods Ave. home this morning, Geraghty said. He was being held at Orient Road Jail. Bail was set at $25,000, according to jail records. Vilardebo worked as a care manager at Children's Home Society, another subcontractor of Hillsborough Kids Inc. In October 2007, the Children's Home notified DCF's Office of the Inspector General of suspected potential criminal activity involving Vilardebo, according to a news release prepared by Reddick. The Office of the Inspector General then requested the FDLE conduct an investigation, which found that Vilardebo falsely recorded two face-to-face visits with children and caregivers, Reddick said. Vilardebo worked as a care manager from November 2004 through March 2006. He resigned on March 28, 2006. He was booked into Orient Road Jail and bail was set at $4,000. The Tampa Tribune reported in April 2007 about the longstanding problem of caseworkers lying about visiting children after the FDLE formally charged a Tampa woman, Robin Schofield, with two counts of falsifying child welfare records. An internal review found two other cases in which Schofield, with three months on the job, falsified reports. Schofield claimed to have visited a client on a day she didn't work. She did not file mileage forms - a red flag to managers that someone might be falsifying a report. It took a year for the charges to be filed against Schofield, who was fired from the Children's Home on March 9, 2006. Her firing soon was followed by another. An internal review uncovered that Margaret "Peggy" Haq, a onetime supervisor in Tampa who had four years on the job, made 12 false entries into a computer system designed to monitor children's care. One of the children, who hadn't been seen by a caseworker in three months, landed in juvenile detention for 21 days. A month later, he ran away from his sister's home. Tampa police charged Haq with one count of falsifying records. Haq told the Tribune she was fired because she spoke out against a supervisor. She also said she had 50 cases at a time and an impossible mandate to see every child at least once a month. Haq soon went to work for another child welfare agency in Pinellas County, where she was again accused of falsifying records and fired. In June 2007, the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office accepted Schofield in a pretrial intervention program that called for monthly reports to a probation officer and 50 hours of community service to be completed within 18 months. Haq, also of Tampa, received a similar pretrial deal in August. After the recent cases in Tampa came to light, Rainey asked the Inspector General's Office to help train workers on catching false records. Often, workers said they were overburdened with too many children to visit or trying to meet unrealistic expectations set by their employers. Lying about visiting children in state care became a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison in July 2002, following the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, a little girl in Miami whom DCF lost track of for more than 15 months. But convicting violators was rare due to a loophole in the law made prosecution difficult; consequently, charges often were downgraded to misdemeanors. A crime was committed if a worker altered, destroyed, overwrote or deleted an existing record. Nowhere, though, did the law mention that it was a crime to create the false record, which happens almost every time a worker lies about a visit. In October 2007, a new law went into effect that altered the language. If workers do not see a child or an elderly person in state care and say they did, it is a felony. Reporter Sherri Ackerman contributed to this report. Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or . Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or . An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and the Child Protection "INDUSTRY" Child Protective Services Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of CPS. every parent should read the free handbook from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN) Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS Perpetrators of Maltreatment Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13 Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12 Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5 Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers. THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central intelligence agency wiretaping programs… THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6 This is Child Protection? By Gregory A. Hession, J.D. http://www.jbs.org/node/4632 Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families By Nev Moore Massachusetts News http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca 30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. 27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated 33% were receiving public assistance 37% had not finished high school 2% receive a college degree 50% were unemployed Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment than the general population. *Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support 80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system. The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown up. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991 Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing. This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in the first place. Front-page story in USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close Read the studies online. Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care," http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports: www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than walking wreckage... CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON... BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... |
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