Editorial: Did DHS do all that it could to help Natalie Finn?

The Register's Editorial  |  Des Moines Register

A 16-year-old West Des Moines girl has died of starvation.

That is the stark reality. And that one fact, by itself, should have the public and state policymakers up in arms.

But when you combine that one fact with the accompanying allegations that the girl, Natalie Finn, was tortured by her parents and deprived of food, clothing and health care over a prolonged period, you can see that outrage isn’t the only response that’s needed here. The public demands answers as to how something like this could possibly happen in Iowa — and for that we should be grateful. We’re not yet so numbed by tragedy, or so easily distracted by the minutia of our own lives, that the starvation of a young girl in our midst fails to trigger calls for a serious reappraisal of our child-protection system.

Officially, the cause of Natalie's death is emaciation due to the denial of critical care. Her mother, 42-year-old Nicole Marie Finn, faces charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death. In addition, both she and Nicole’s father, 45-year-old Joseph Michael Finn II, are charged with first-degree kidnapping, child endangerment causing serious injury and neglect of a dependent person.

They stand accused of secretly confining Natalie and two of her siblings, a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, inside their home and subjecting the children to "unreasonable force, torture or cruelty."

In the months before Natalie's death, one of the Finns' neighbors, Becca Gordon, reported signs of abuse and neglect to West Des Moines police. On May 31, Gordon told officers that Natalie said she and her sister had been locked up by their mother for two days without food. The responding police officer wrote in his report that he contacted a social worker with Iowa’s child welfare agency, the Department of Human Services:

“I contacted DHS and advised them of the incident. The worker I spoke with was Lauren Templeman. This report was not faxed to DHS since Templeman did not know the number.”

Why couldn’t a DHS worker who has at least 10 years of experience at the agency track down her employer’s fax number?

What did DHS do in response to that call from the West Des Moines police?

DHS isn’t talking. And this isn’t the first time the agency has opted for silence. Seventeen years ago, after Spirit Lake toddler Shelby Duis died of physical abuse, citizens came forward to say they'd reported evidence of abuse to DHS. At the time, DHS said very little, citing a state law that prohibited public disclosure of any child-abuse information.

In response, the Iowa Legislature passed a law that says the agency “shall disclose” information in child fatalities after consulting with county prosecutors. But that requirement for disclosure doesn’t apply in cases where DHS decides, on its own, that disclosure is likely to either jeopardize the criminal prosecution or the rights of the accused.

That is only one of eight exemptions to the disclosure requirement. Collectively, those exemptions enable the agency to remain silent as to its own conduct even in cases where there is no active criminal investigation.

DHS spokeswoman Amy McCoy says the department will answer questions about the Natalie Finn case “in a transparent manner and in the interest of child welfare when it's not at risk of impacting the criminal case.”

It’s understandable that DHS doesn’t want to jeopardize a criminal case, but it’s hard to see how a brief description of its own actions would compromise any aspect of the case. The Iowa Legislature and the public deserve to know whether DHS did all that it could to prevent this tragedy.

A year after Shelby Duis died, a state investigation revealed that DHS’ failings may have contributed to the girl’s death, despite earlier assurances that it had acted appropriately. Gov. Tom Vilsack subsequently fired DHS Director Jessie Rasmussen, who then said she wished she had "pushed the limits" of what she shared with the public about the Duis case.

"I should have expressed my outrage,” she said. “I should have let people know how intensely I scrutinized our own staff.”

That was a hard-earned lesson for Rasmussen and for DHS. Unfortunately, it’s also a lesson that appears to have been forgotten.