State fails to heed warning
State fails to heed warning to DHS
By Randy Ellis
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Published: March 16, 2008
© Copyright 2008, The Oklahoman
POTEAU — DHS was warned.Related content
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‘What did DHS know?'
The cries of an anguished mother were not the only warnings Oklahoma Department of Human Services workers ignored when they placed Castillo's two children in the Vasquez home in 2006, records reveal.
They weren't even the strongest.
Because the Vasquez home was located across the eastern Oklahoma border in Arkansas, Oklahoma DHS workers had to ask their Arkansas counterparts to do a foster care home study.
Arkansas workers rejected the home.
Vasquez, 39, was an illegal immigrant, had been unemployed for more than a year and already had seven children in his home, Oklahoma child welfare workers were told.
Vasquez did not have a Social Security number, so a nationwide criminal background check could not be obtained, the report said.
The Arkansas officials also reported that Vasquez had been arrested on a domestic battery allegation in Arkansas two years earlier.
Oklahoma DHS workers already knew that. In 2004, an Arkansas police detective had called to inform them Vasquez had been arrested on a complaint of domestic violence against his then-girlfriend. The detective made the call because the girlfriend said Vasquez had "threatened to kill JaJuan's Oklahoma child welfare worker.”
Stepmom also a risk
Vasquez's 34-year-old wife also posed a risk.
Torres-Vasquez had a 1996 misdemeanor assault conviction out of Newport News, Va., records show.
It is unclear whether Oklahoma DHS workers knew about that conviction.
DHS workers knew something else, however.
Castillo's two children were taken away from her in 2002 because of injuries that JaJuan's half-sister, Jonesia Youngblood, allegedly suffered while in Torres-Vasquez's care, records show.
Jonesia came home with bruises on the side of her face and the back of one leg after Torres-Vasquez had been baby-sitting the two children, Castillo said.
Castillo said her sister, who lived in Oklahoma, then came to pick the children up for the weekend.
"I told her what happened, and she acted like it was no big deal,” Castillo said.
However, after her sister crossed the border back into Le Flore County, she took the children to an Oklahoma hospital and told doctors she thought the 21-month-old girl had been abused.
DHS was contacted and did an investigation.
Castillo and several other witnesses told DHS workers the bruises were sustained while Jonesia was in Torres-Vasquez's care, records reveal.
DHS then interviewed Torres-Vasquez, who "confirmed that three of the child's injuries had occurred while the children were in her home,” according to a child death review report prepared at The Oklahoman's request by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.
DHS made a "confirmed finding of physical abuse,” and stated the identity of the alleged perpetrator was "unknown.”
The children were taken away from their mother for "failure to protect” and "threat of harm.”
The children spent most of the next three years in the foster care of Castillo's Oklahoma sister, who wanted to adopt them.
Records show the sister spent those years on an emotional roller coaster as DHS vacillated between efforts to help her adopt the children and efforts to reunite the children with their biological parents.
In March 2006, the sister gave up, declaring, "(I) can't do this anymore,” records reveal. She turned the children back over to DHS.
DHS child welfare workers then focused their efforts on placing the children in the Vasquez home.
When Arkansas rejected the home as unsuitable, Oklahoma child welfare workers could have let the matter drop.
Instead, they worked out an arrangement.
Vasquez moved his family across the border from Arkansas to Arkoma, OK, and DHS placed JaJuan and Jonesia in his home.
Three months later, JaJuan was killed after the family had secretly moved back to Arkansas. He died from nonaccidental blunt force trauma to the head, the autopsy revealed.
Torres-Vasquez's second-degree murder trial is set for April 7 in Fort Smith, Ark.
‘Beyond negligence'
Castillo said she blames DHS "100 percent” for JaJuan's death.
Placing the children in the Vasquez home was a bizarre decision that "goes beyond negligence,” said Gary Buckles, Castillo's Poteau attorney.
DHS took Castillo's children away from her because she failed to protect them from her baby-sitter, then turned around and placed the children in the home of the baby sitter, he said.
Buckles said he tried to obtain a tape recording of the court hearing where the decision was approved, but the recording had "mysteriously disappeared.”
No DHS employees have been disciplined over the matter, he said.
In August, Buckles filed a wrongful death claim with DHS in which he asked the state for $20 million.
DHS rejected the claim by failing to respond.
Buckles said he expects to file a state lawsuit against the agency within the next few days and may file a federal lawsuit later.
Castillo, who is now married and lives with her husband and a 4-year-old son, said she is still pursuing efforts to get her daughter back.
In June, Arkansas child welfare workers did a home study on her Fort Smith home and rejected her, citing the earlier incident in which her children were taken away and her parental rights to JaJuan were terminated.
They said she was listed on "Arkansas criminal and central registries for several counts of failure to protect and neglect,” so placement of her daughter in her home would be inappropriate.
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Crime, Criminal Assault
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Nothing in state government changes unless the root problem is dealt with. The cancer of inept management has metastasized. Bad managers continue to promote other bad managers. The vicious cycle is due to an inherent need to not expose the ineptitude and the magnitude of the profoundly intellectually bankrupt management in state government. Until this is dealt with nothing, no amount of money can change the outcomes.
Forced Sterilization
None of these people deserve to have the precious gift of a child. There should be no second chances. Abuse a child, get sterilized. That works for me. It would take the load off of DHS and stop these ignorant people from perpetrating the cycle of abuse and violence. Birth control people!!!! Use it!
The system can be fixed, but only if the state starts to take juvenile court seriously. Make transcripts require and make it a felony for a caseworker to lie to the court. Then and only then can we BEGIN to solve our current problems, because as it stands now we have no way to know what is really going on.
Most of you do not want to admit that our child welfare workers have too many cases to do an adequate job, and even if we did have too many cases, there is no excuse for this child's death. But remember, our child welfare workers have 3 times the national average of cases per worker, and twice the regional average. If you really wanted to help and if you really care about the kids, come and apply for a child welfare worker position. We currently have over 100 openings and no one to take the positions. However, if you do apply for a job, you should prepare for financial hardship. The jobs pay about half of what most of you make.
I think what most of you want to do is gripe and cuss about Big Brother DHS. However, your gripeing and cussing isn't going to help the kids. If you want to help, encourage your state elected senator and representative to hire enough workers to adequately do the job and pay them enough so that they don't have to rely on state services to feed their own children. It's sad to say, but I think most of you don't really care about the kids, you just want to cuss DHS. Go ahead. We have heard it before.
Its about time we ALL started putting our money where our mouth is. Maybe if enough of us pitched in and lived by the "it takes a village" philosophy, we wouldn't have to raise funding for DHS, because maybe then the needs of the children of the community would be met.