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TAMPA, FL - Riverview Man Arrested, Charged With Falsifying DCF Records



 
 
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Old May 24th 08, 07:16 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default 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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