Sacramento County CPS Altered Documents
This stench around Sacramento County CPS is getting fouler and fouler as the days go on. Now, the Sacramento Bee has obtained versions showing the original documents had been altered.
As I stated in a post yesterday, there needs to be an independent panel appointed and a full investigation conducted.
In the 16 days between the time 4-year-old Jahmaurae Allen was beaten to death and Sacramento Child Protective Services publicly released portions of its records this week, the case file was altered to change the original finding in the case, The Bee has learned.
One early version of the report from the social worker, who began handling an allegation of abuse involving the 4-year-old on June 19, described the allegation as “unfounded,” two sources who read the document told The Bee this week.
Another version obtained by The Bee described the allegation of abuse of the little boy as “inconclusive.”
But the portions released by CPS to The Bee this week under a new public records law do not reflect either of those findings. Instead, those files indicate the allegations of abuse were “substantiated,” a finding listed as being “effective 7/21/08″ – the day Jahmaurae was beaten to death, allegedly by his mother’s live-in boyfriend.
A top county official said today she was unaware of the varying case files until The Bee raised questions, and that an inquiry had begun.
“We’re pulling computer records right now to find out what’s happened,” said Lynn Frank, director of the county’s Health and Human Services department, which oversees CPS.
The existence of differing versions of the case file sparked outrage among children’s advocates who work closely with the agency. Some had been instrumental in getting the new California law passed, which forces county child welfare agencies to open the files of children who die on their watch.
“This is unbelievable,” said Robert Fellmeth, a law professor and director of the San Diego-based Children’s Advocacy Institute, which backed the new disclosure law.
“If you don’t take the kid (from the home), the only check you have is this – the record of what you did or did not do…,” he said. “If you start playing with that and altering that, you undermine the only check these kids have on failure to protect.”
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
[...] again the Sacramento CPS has allowed another child to die. As reported here and here at The National Republicrat, CPS has serious issues telling the truth and keeping accurate [...]
[...] again the Sacramento CPS has allowed another child to die. As reported here and here CPS has serious issues telling the truth and keeping accurate [...]