State agency loses track of foster-care teen sent to live out of state

State agency loses track of foster-care teen sent to live out of state

By Megan O'Matz
Staff Writer
Posted August 2 2004

Authorities charged Lauderhill resident Annette Flagg with aggravated
child abuse in December 1992 for tying up her 5-year-old daughter,
blindfolding her, stuffing a cloth in her mouth and forcing her to
stand against a wall for punishment, according to an arrest report.

The child and her sister were taken into foster care and sent to live
with their paternal grandparents in Southampton, Mass.

Now the abused child's younger sister is missing. Some officials think
she is living with Flagg in Toledo, Ohio, though Flagg denies it.

The girls' grandmother claims that child welfare officials in Broward
County are doing little to find the missing child, even though she's
still technically under the county's supervision, 12 years later.

In 2002, Florida's Department of Children & Families promised to work
more closely with other states to locate missing youths in the wake of
the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson from Miami and
revelations that Florida had 500 lost foster children who had run away
or been abducted by parents or relatives.

At that time, Florida was bedeviled by a lack of communication with
child welfare authorities outside the state, confusion over the
jurisdictional reach of law enforcement, and reluctance on the part of
some authorities to get involved.

DCF vowed to do a better job, but the Massachusetts case shows the
system continues to experience difficulties when children cross state
lines.

The sister, now 15, secretly left her grandparent's house on June 6,
according to the Southampton Police Department. The older child is in
a residential treatment center in Massachusetts.

Their grandmother, Susan Buczala, suspects that someone from Ohio
picked her up. "We live in a rural area," she said. "She's not really
city wise. She's not the kind of kid that would take off out of here
and hitchhike to Ohio."

Buczala said she called the girl's caseworker repeatedly. "And he
says: `Well, gee we just don't know what to do because we don't know
where she is.' I think that is absolutely ridiculous," she said. "Find
out where she is! There is a trail that points to Ohio. There's enough
leads."

Both Toledo and Massachusetts police initially said they could do
little without proof that the child was under the custody of Florida
and that the mother's legal rights to the girl had been severed.

Child welfare officials in Ohio say Florida has not given them any
official notice of where the girl is supposed to live in the future.

The girl's grandparents, after multiple attempts at therapy, say they
can no longer handle the teen. Flagg's legal rights to the child were
terminated long ago.

"We're waiting on some kind of direction from Florida as to what they
would like us to do if we're able to find her," said Rod Brandt,
spokesman for Lucas County Children Services in Toledo.

Peter Balitsaris, CEO of ChildNet, the child welfare agency in Broward
County that has taken over foster care for the state, said he will
send a worker to pick up the girl when she's located and bring her
into foster care in Broward County.

"The issue now is determining her whereabouts," he said. "We're not a
police organization."

The girl's mother has denied harboring the child, Balitsaris said.

Phone records show the teen called Flagg and Flagg's husband, Charles
F. Bee Sr., shortly before she disappeared, Buczala said.

Ohio social workers recorded a call from a girl claiming to be the
missing Massachusetts teen shortly after her disappearance. The girl
asked how she could arrange to remain in Ohio, Buczala said.

Flagg, who now uses the last name Bee, declined to comment, referring
questions to her attorney. She hung up on a South Florida Sun-Sentinel
reporter before providing the full name or phone number of the lawyer.

Sgt. Ian Illingsworth of the Southampton Police Department said Toledo
police went to Flagg's home but were told the girl was not there.

Flagg, 43, pleaded no contest after her 1992 arrest. A judge sentenced
her to 54 months probation and prohibited her from having contact with
any children under 18, Broward County Sheriff's Office records show.

In a recent hearing, Broward Circuit Judge John Bowman ordered the
caseworker to notify the FBI of the girl's disappearance.

Balitsaris said the FBI told the caseworker to contact the Justice
Department in Washington. "We've gotten, basically, no response," he
said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines
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