On Behalf Of Abused Children In Kentucky, I Am Please To Read That Courier Journal Has Asked Franklin Circuit Court Phillip Shephard To Find Child Welfare Cabinet In Contempt Of Court, And I Pray He Does.
Courier-Journal to ask judge to hold child welfare officials in contempt for redacting records
Violation of order on records alleged
Written by Deborah Yetter
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will be asked to hold state child-welfare officials in contempt of court for failing to comply with his order to release complete records involving child-abuse deaths and serious injuries in Kentucky.
A motion to be filed today by The Courier-Journal says officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services “blatantly violated” Shepherd’s order to release the records by heavily redacting them — eliminating names of many child victims and scores of other details in a haphazard fashion from record to record.
For example, names were redacted with no explanation for 12 of the 39 children who died from abuse and neglect over those two years — yet the cabinet disclosed the names of the other 27 children who died.
The Courier-Journal’s motion comes after Shepherd has twice ordered such material disclosed under the state-open records law and after Gov. Steve Beshear intervened Nov. 29, ordering cabinet officials to drop the legal fight and cooperate by disclosing records sought by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” said Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer for The Courier-Journal. “They seem to have a hard time getting the message.”
The newspaper has asked Shepherd to hear its motion for contempt of court Dec. 21.
State offices were closed Tuesday for Beshear’s inauguration, and a cabinet spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
At issue is the first batch of records that cabinet lawyers, acting at Beshear’s direction and under order by the court, had pledged to release Monday.
The records consist of 84 summaries of internal reviews that state law requires social-service officials to perform in cases in which a child died or was seriously injured from abuse or neglect and the cabinet had prior involvement with the family.
Cabinet officials also have agreed to provide entire case files related to child fatalities and injuries as they review and copy them. But in a motion filed Monday, they proposed withholding far more information than their lawyers previously agreed to at a Nov. 30 hearing.
At that hearing, Shepherd — who has ruled that such records must be released under state open-records law — directed cabinet officials to provide all records with limited redactions.
Yet the reports released Monday, involving child deaths in 2009 and 2010, were heavily redacted.
Cabinet officials withheld names of all 45 children who nearly died from abuse or neglect injuries, saying in a court filing that it wanted to spare such victims further trauma.
The cabinet also withheld the names of adults charged with abuse or neglect — including those facing criminal charges such as murder. For example, the cabinet withheld the name of Matthew Pyles, a Kenton County man charged with fatally shaking his infant son, Gaige Pyles — even though Pyles was convicted in the boy’s death.
In another case, it withheld the name of a Corbin woman accused of killing her newborn girl, Angel Grace Cox, after giving birth in a restroom on March 7, 2010, while visiting her boyfriend in prison in Oldham County. The mother, Ashley Nicole Cox, was indicted on a murder charge by an Oldham County grand jury.
Cabinet officials removed names of parents or other family members from virtually all the reports. They also removed other identifying information in most of the cases, including counties where the deaths or injuries occurred.
In some cases they also removed named of hospitals where children were treated, names of police departments that investigated the cases and, in one instance, the name of a church that had assisted a family.
Reports varied depending on which of the state’s nine social-service regions produced them.
Some reports involving child deaths consisted of a single page with scant information — for example, not including the child’s age or the cause or date of death. Others were more detailed, with pages listing the cabinet’s previous involvement with the family, interviews with medical officials and police, and other information.
In a few reports it was difficult to tell whether the child had died or was seriously injured; one report from 2009 involved infant twins and a “possible drowning” in a bathtub after both twins were found floating in the water. Handwritten notes on the report refer to “two fatalities” but the report provides no final details of the outcome filed under the heading “near fatality review.”
Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the inconsistent standard for producing such reports points to a troubling question about the cabinet’s overall competency in child-abuse investigations.
“Every new revelation makes you think the cabinet is inventing protocol as it comes along,” he said. “It’s indicative of a culture where they do business in whatever way they want to do it.”
The legislature’s interim joint Health and Welfare Committee has asked cabinet officials to appear Monday for questioning about how they handle child-abuse death and neglect cases.
Meanwhile, the legal costs of the court fight are mounting, and the state could wind up paying the bill over what has become two rounds of litigation by The Courier-Journal and the Herald-Leader over access to the records.
Shepherd has ordered the state to pay the newspapers $20,700 in legal costs for the first lawsuit after he ruled last year that they were entitled to the records. The cabinet has appealed his order that it pay the fees.
On Dec. 7, the newspapers asked Shepherd to order the cabinet to pay an additional $45,000 in legal fees and other costs after it refused to provide records, prompting a second round of litigation.
Violation of order on records alleged
Written by Deborah Yetter
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will be asked to hold state child-welfare officials in contempt of court for failing to comply with his order to release complete records involving child-abuse deaths and serious injuries in Kentucky.
A motion to be filed today by The Courier-Journal says officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services “blatantly violated” Shepherd’s order to release the records by heavily redacting them — eliminating names of many child victims and scores of other details in a haphazard fashion from record to record.
For example, names were redacted with no explanation for 12 of the 39 children who died from abuse and neglect over those two years — yet the cabinet disclosed the names of the other 27 children who died.
The Courier-Journal’s motion comes after Shepherd has twice ordered such material disclosed under the state-open records law and after Gov. Steve Beshear intervened Nov. 29, ordering cabinet officials to drop the legal fight and cooperate by disclosing records sought by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” said Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer for The Courier-Journal. “They seem to have a hard time getting the message.”
The newspaper has asked Shepherd to hear its motion for contempt of court Dec. 21.
State offices were closed Tuesday for Beshear’s inauguration, and a cabinet spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
At issue is the first batch of records that cabinet lawyers, acting at Beshear’s direction and under order by the court, had pledged to release Monday.
The records consist of 84 summaries of internal reviews that state law requires social-service officials to perform in cases in which a child died or was seriously injured from abuse or neglect and the cabinet had prior involvement with the family.
Cabinet officials also have agreed to provide entire case files related to child fatalities and injuries as they review and copy them. But in a motion filed Monday, they proposed withholding far more information than their lawyers previously agreed to at a Nov. 30 hearing.
At that hearing, Shepherd — who has ruled that such records must be released under state open-records law — directed cabinet officials to provide all records with limited redactions.
Yet the reports released Monday, involving child deaths in 2009 and 2010, were heavily redacted.
Cabinet officials withheld names of all 45 children who nearly died from abuse or neglect injuries, saying in a court filing that it wanted to spare such victims further trauma.
The cabinet also withheld the names of adults charged with abuse or neglect — including those facing criminal charges such as murder. For example, the cabinet withheld the name of Matthew Pyles, a Kenton County man charged with fatally shaking his infant son, Gaige Pyles — even though Pyles was convicted in the boy’s death.
In another case, it withheld the name of a Corbin woman accused of killing her newborn girl, Angel Grace Cox, after giving birth in a restroom on March 7, 2010, while visiting her boyfriend in prison in Oldham County. The mother, Ashley Nicole Cox, was indicted on a murder charge by an Oldham County grand jury.
Cabinet officials removed names of parents or other family members from virtually all the reports. They also removed other identifying information in most of the cases, including counties where the deaths or injuries occurred.
In some cases they also removed named of hospitals where children were treated, names of police departments that investigated the cases and, in one instance, the name of a church that had assisted a family.
Reports varied depending on which of the state’s nine social-service regions produced them.
Some reports involving child deaths consisted of a single page with scant information — for example, not including the child’s age or the cause or date of death. Others were more detailed, with pages listing the cabinet’s previous involvement with the family, interviews with medical officials and police, and other information.
In a few reports it was difficult to tell whether the child had died or was seriously injured; one report from 2009 involved infant twins and a “possible drowning” in a bathtub after both twins were found floating in the water. Handwritten notes on the report refer to “two fatalities” but the report provides no final details of the outcome filed under the heading “near fatality review.”
Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the inconsistent standard for producing such reports points to a troubling question about the cabinet’s overall competency in child-abuse investigations.
“Every new revelation makes you think the cabinet is inventing protocol as it comes along,” he said. “It’s indicative of a culture where they do business in whatever way they want to do it.”
The legislature’s interim joint Health and Welfare Committee has asked cabinet officials to appear Monday for questioning about how they handle child-abuse death and neglect cases.
Meanwhile, the legal costs of the court fight are mounting, and the state could wind up paying the bill over what has become two rounds of litigation by The Courier-Journal and the Herald-Leader over access to the records.
Shepherd has ordered the state to pay the newspapers $20,700 in legal costs for the first lawsuit after he ruled last year that they were entitled to the records. The cabinet has appealed his order that it pay the fees.
On Dec. 7, the newspapers asked Shepherd to order the cabinet to pay an additional $45,000 in legal fees and other costs after it refused to provide records, prompting a second round of litigation.
Labels: Keeping them honest
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 6:46 AM
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