DCF worker charged in death of 7-month-old
Thu, 2008-07-17 21:36 - Niels
from: www.wtnh.com
By News Channel 8's Annie Rourke
Posted July 17, 2008
Updated 4:10 PM
Mansfield (WTNH) _ A Mansfield woman who has worked at the Department of Children and Families for 15 years has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a 7-month-old boy.
Suzanne Listro, 42, showed little emotion as she was arraigned in Tolland Superior Court. The single mother claims she had turned her back for a moment when the foster child, 7-month-old Michael Brown, fell off a queen-sized bed onto linoleum tile.
It happened in May at Listro's home on Stearns Road in Mansfield, where children's toys are still scattered across the lawn.
Listro passed inspection by an international adoption agency and also has a 3-year-old son Zachary.
"It's a very strict process," DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton said. "We have very high standards for who can serve as a foster parent."
But, something slipped through the cracks.
In court prosecutors said, her account is inconsistent and not believable. The bed is two feet, two inches above the floor. The Medical Examiner has ruled that a fall would not cause the fatal blunt force trauma to the head.
Questions were also raised about Listro's mental health, something that was not discovered by DCF. And, there were red flags.
"She had two prior investigations in 2006 and 2007 that were unsubstantiated," Hamilton said.
Two allegations that Listro had abused her adopted son, but that information was not passed on to those investigating Listro to be a foster parent.
The DCF Commissioner has now fired one worker and suspended a manager. They are also doing a full review of their procedures but she wants to reassure the public that children in state care will be properly cared for.
"In any way shape or form represent the quality of the foster parents that we have who really, you know, provide safe and loving care to kids," Hamilton said.
Listro's son is now in the care of her sister in Massachusetts. Listro will be back in court next Friday. The Office of the Child Advocate also had some strong words for DCF Thursday -- they are also investigating the matter.
Listro will be in court again July 25th.
Comments
To serve and protect
This is not an isolated incident, there are more cases in which trained child care professionals have abused children in their care.
In 2001 special education teacher and former state social worker Wanda Bennett was convicted for the abuse of a 4-year old boy she had adopted, who being starved, weighing only 35 pounds. He had broken bones in his hands, feet and shoulder. He also had a scab on his head, untreated ringworm, and scratches and scars all over his body. She was also accused of burning the boy with cigarettes, beating him with a Wiffle Ball bat and tying him up with socks.
In the 1998 foster care supervisor, George Alex Allen of the Administration for Children's Services of New York City, the same organization that just found out four of their employees have embezzeled large sums of money intended for adoption subsidies, was convicted of sexually abusing a boy he had adopted from foster care.
In a similar case, earlier this year Scott LeGrand a program manager of a Florida foster care facility was arrested on charges of having sexually abusing a boy he had adopted from the very facility he worked for.