Abuse of Lane County boy shows child welfare failures similar to death of Jeannette Maples
The 9-year-old boy's injuries included a severe burn and a host of broken bones. But the story he and his siblings told was even more disturbing:
Adopted from state foster care, the boy appears to have been abused in his new home. He talks of being tossed in a creek, fed baby formula and forced to sleep outside. If he was good, he got a blanket.
Shocked by details in an affidavit filed with the court, state officials and children's advocates are asking the same question: How could something like this happen again in Lane County, just months after 15-year-old Jeanette Maples died?
On Wednesday, the Department of Human Services released a preliminary, three-page report highlighting common themes between the boy and Jeanette, who died in December after child welfare workers failed to respond to repeated reports of her abuse.
In both cases, the state had information pointing to trouble in the children's homes, yet didn't step in. Officials said further investigation will determine whether the same workers were involved and look for other areas where the system failed.
As with Maples, child welfare officials had received reports of suspected abuse concerning the boy and his family. In the boy's case, officials said the reports were investigated but he remained in the home.
Rodger and Alona Hartwig, who took the boy in as a foster child and then adopted him, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges that included first-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment.
They did not respond to telephone calls this week from The Oregonian.
Court records include interviews with a doctor, other children in the home and with the boy. The Oregonian is not naming him because of his age.
Among the boy's other injuries, the doctor found a pelvic fracture consistent with being involved in a "40-mile-per-hour crash" or "falling from a three-story window."
The boy's brothers and sisters said he was force-fed infant formula and the cabinets were locked to prevent him from "stealing" food. The children said he was not allowed to participate in "family nights" when the rest of them had pop and popcorn.
He slept on the back porch with a blanket or in the bathtub with a towel, they said.
The boy told investigators "he did not want to talk about what happened at Alona and Rodger's house."
The Hartwigs were certified as state foster parents in 2003. They went on to adopt four children, which meant that caseworkers had been in their home regularly and determined them fit to adopt.
After the boy was hospitalized in late March, state child welfare officials sent a team to Lane County to look again at the work of the local caseworkers and their supervisors.
"We sent a rapid response team to the county right away to do some evaluation and review random case audits," said Erinn Kelley-Siel, director of the state's Children, Adults and Families Division.
Officials questioned whether the troubles in Lane County are local or point to larger issues with the child welfare system.
Other high-profile Lane County cases include Joshua Thomas Friar, a state-certified foster parent from Springfield who pleaded guilty earlier this month to sexually abusing a child in his care. Another case involved a Canadian boy who was kept in the United States and in a local foster home despite his family's objections.
The 9-year-old boy's story comes at a time when Oregon's child welfare system is beginning to see some improvement. State data show the number of kids who are abused again within six months of a first report has declined since 2003. The number of kids returning to foster care is down, too.
Yet Wednesday's report notes ongoing questions about how problems reported in foster homes are communicated and tracked within the state system.
It also identifies another common thread between the boy's case and that of Maples that worries Kelley-Siel.
"What this case and the Maples case have in common," she said, "are entire families engaged in deliberate deception and secrecy and targeted abuse of a specific child, and our protective service investigators haven't been able to ferret that out."
Megan Shultz, director of the Lane County CASA program, which finds volunteers to assist children in foster care, says there are plenty of people in her community who are angry at Oregon child welfare.
"There's no question that DHS dropped the ball," Shultz said recently.
But Shultz says blame isn't going to make children safer.
"The problem is us," she said. "We, as a community, need to look in the mirror. We keep pushing more kids into a system we know is broken and overburdened. We need to take responsibility for that."
After learning about the boy's case, Shultz organized meetings with civic leaders, other nonprofits and child advocates to talk about how to coordinate efforts, strengthen neighborhoods and keep kids from going into foster care in the first place.
Meanwhile John Radich, district child welfare manager in Lane County, says caseworkers are taking more time assessing abuse reports and managers "are sending workers back."
The community appears to be more vigilant, too. The number of calls reporting suspected child abuse and neglect in Lane County has increased since Maples died -- from 781 in December to 1,029 in May.
The 9-year-old boy was released from the hospital and, according to state officials, is living in a new foster home where he is "doing well."
-- Michelle Cole