Secret report rips DHS

•A State Department of Human Services worker failed to check out an explanation by Kelsey's mother and the mother's boyfriend that she suffered injuries in March 2005 when she fell while leaning on a screen door at a friend's house. The friend could have provided direct information about the explanation.

•DHS workers should have called police after Kelsey broke both shins in April 2005. DHS policy states "law enforcement is to be contacted as soon as possible when ‘the ... abuse or neglect caused serious injury to the child.'”

•At the June 2005 hearing, a DHS worker was wrong to tell the judge Kelsey's mother satisfactorily completed a treatment plan necessary for Kelsey's return. "Kelsey's parents had not demonstrated an ability to protect Kelsey, nor was Kelsey free from physical and/or emotional abuse,” the oversight agency said. "The treatment plan had not been completed.”

•Also at the June 2005 hearing, the judge found Kelsey's abuser was unknown because DHS reported "it was unknown who may have caused the broken bones.” Yet a review of the child's injuries in the months before that hearing "established a pattern of who was responsible for the care of the child when the child was injured,” the agency reported. Kelsey was mostly in her mother's care those times, according to the report.

•DHS workers did not contact their own attorneys to possibly appeal after the judge ordered Kelsey's immediate return to her mother. DHS had recommended Kelsey's return be phased in over weeks.

•DHS failed to fully investigate bruising, a rub burn around the eye and other problems with Kelsey after she went back to her mother. Workers blamed some injuries on an Aug. 19, 2005, pickup accident. "The accident was not investigated by the DHS,” the oversight agency said. "The family left the emergency room without examination by a physician.”

•DHS "had sufficient cause” to consider removing Kelsey again or some other alternative after Kelsey continued to be bruised and had seizures, night terrors and behavioral changes after returning to her mother.

•DHS workers either failed to adequately investigate whether the paternal grandmother, Kathie Briggs, could have abused Kelsey or the workers let Briggs' demeanor, persistence and irritation negatively influence them so much they didn't adequately check out her concerns about Kelsey's mother.

•DHS workers also may not have thought the danger to Kelsey to be significant enough to warrant a thorough investigation or they did not comprehensively review the case to consider evidence of a different perpetrator.

•DHS failed to give the judge a report about the child's continued injuries before the judge held a follow-up hearing Sept. 8, 2005.

•The judge, district attorney, a court-appointed special advocate and a private child-welfare worker also could have done things differently. The district attorney, for instance, could have asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations to look at the abuse allegations.