DCF sued as part of woman’s Collier County abuse case

Joins foster father on defendants list

JANINE ZEITLIN

March 13, 2009

A 20-year-old suing her former foster father, who is suspected of sexually abusing her in Collier County, is seeking to hold the Department of Children and Families responsible.

Jeff Woodring, 39, was arrested on sexual battery and molestation charges in Collier in May 2006. A trial date has not been set, said Shannon McFee, his lawyer in that case.

Details revealed by a public-records request by The News-Press raise questions about whether Woodring should have been allowed as a foster father.

The woman, who is not being named because of the nature of the alleged crimes, filed suit against Woodring and child welfare providers in November. DCF was added earlier this month.

She’s seeking damages in excess of $15,000 on counts of battery, liability for battery and negligence.

“I told them and kept on telling them and nobody believed me,” the victim said.

She said she took the allegations to child welfare officials repeatedly before they were investigated.

Sheriff’s reports show the girl said Woodring touched her inappropriately and had oral sex and smoked marijuana with her.

DCF records show he failed a background screening, had a criminal history and past struggles with alcohol.

“He should not have been licensed as a foster parent, period,” said Richard Filson, the Sarasota lawyer representing the young woman.

Woodring couldn’t be reached for comment and McFee declined to answer questions, writing in an e-mail it “will all come out in trial.”

DCF spokeswoman Erin Gillespie said the agency tries its best to prevent children in care after abuse, neglect or abandonment from being abused again. She said child welfare workers are trained to report abuse immediately.

“Our reabuse rate is very low and in foster care it’s one or two cases a year, but one case is too many,” Gillespie said.

In Woodring’s case, the agency twice rejected him when he applied with then-wife, Kathy.

After “favorable” information was found in a home study and assessments, DCF granted him a pass to take in three children including the now 20-year-old, records show.

His 2000 appeal to the denial says the department refused him for a host of reasons: a restraining order filed by an ex-girlfriend, a juvenile record, a DUI, and his statement about buying a 12-pack of beer a week.

He told a child welfare official he was “drinking more when he was having problems with (redacted) and has since slowed down,” records show.

Woodring’s attorney argued in the appeal he had matured and provided letters showing he was responsible, the restraining order had expired without incident, and that, while he bought a 12-pack a week, he didn’t drink it alone.

It said the couple had bonded with the children, who had lived with them for months, and couldn’t afford to support them without state dollars.

Woodring was licensed with his wife in 2000 and, three years later, as a single foster father, child welfare officials have said.

Judi Woods, executive director of Footsteps To The Future, which mentors young women in foster care, said officials erred in allowing Woodring to be a single foster father.

“If they had looked in the file they would never have allowed Jeff to be a foster father by himself,” Woods said. “They allowed her to be in a home that they themselves had denied access to foster children.”

When the couple separated, the then-16-year-old girl was placed alone with Woodring in a guest house in 2003, the lawsuit said.

Filson questioned why the bar seems to be lower for foster parents than natural parents.

Parents with substance abuse issues involved with DCF are typically ordered to treatment.

“A natural parent would have to attend A.A. meetings and get counseling to be reunified with their own child,” he said. “In this context, it seems to be all right.”

Foster parents typically are not drug tested unless an allegation surfaces.

Records show Woodring voluntarily relinquished his license on recommendation from child welfare officials.

His home was officially closed in May 2006 — four months after DCF had reported allegations to the Collier Sheriff’s office.