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A woman who police said was horribly abused in her Orange Park fosterhome in 1979 while state child welfare workers looked the other way has settledher long-running lawsuit against the state
Settlement reached in abuse case
Nearly 30 years later, she'll get $100,000 http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-onlin...82859232.shtml By Paul Pinkham, The Times-Union A woman who police said was horribly abused in her Orange Park foster home in 1979 while state child welfare workers looked the other way has settled her long-running lawsuit against the state - 28 years after the abuse occurred. The 32-year-old woman, identified in court documents by the initials S.A.P., settled the case this week for $100,000, the Florida Attorney General's Office said. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in Jacksonville next week after the Florida Supreme Court allowed it to proceed despite a four-year statute of limitations on abuse claims. The court ruled 5-2 in 2002 that the statute of limitations shouldn't apply when the state is accused of negligently monitoring a child and concealing the abuse. "She is pleased with the settlement, and she is eager to put this horrible episode behind her and move on with her life," the woman's attorney, Jay Howell, said Friday. Under state law, he will receive 25 percent of the award. Of more importance than the settlement amount are the ramifications the case had for other victims of child abuse, said Howell, a Jacksonville lawyer who founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia. Children like his client are often too young to initiate legal proceedings within a proscribed time period or even know they have been abused, he said. For example, the case aided victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Florida in lawsuits where they could show the church concealed the priests' behavior, Howell said. "The Supreme Court, in this child's case, opened the door for abused children to have access to the courts with claims they may file after reaching adulthood," Howell said. "It was a recognition by the court of the vulnerability of children who suffer abuse." A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families said the agency wouldn't comment because the settlement hasn't been finalized. DCF was known as the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in 1979 when neighbors called Clay County deputies after hearing 4-year-old S.A.P. and her sister screaming. Deputies said they found the girls severely physically abused and malnourished and living in a different foster home than the one they'd been assigned. Howell said when he first started representing S.A.P. in the early '90s, she didn't even know she'd been abused. The victim, who still lives in Jacksonville, has only hazy memories of what happened. He filed the lawsuit in 1995 when she was 20, within three years of when the department released its internal investigative report documenting the abuse. The lawsuit accuses the department of obstructing the police investigation, falsifying reports and altering records to conceal the abuse. A Jacksonville judge dismissed the case after DCF argued the four-year statute of limitations had long expired. The 1st District Court of Appeal overturned the dismissal but forwarded the issue to the state Supreme Court, which also ordered that the case could go forward. "The law of this state does not bestow upon the department a special boon to betray the children in its charge, to flagrantly flout the law, to conceal its misdeeds and then to invoke [the law] ... as a shield for its actions," the order said. , (904) 359-4107 CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAM.... CPS Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of Child Protective Services. every parent should read this .pdf from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf 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 160, Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13 Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12 Fatalities CPS 6.4, 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. 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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