The case of a Mountain Home teen left locked in a bathroom naked and unfed will be the focus of a joint meeting of the Arkansas House and Senate Committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs today.The meeting is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. in Little Rock.
Scott Flippo is chairman of the Senate committee and Jimmy Gazaway of Paragould is chairman of the counterpart committee in the House.
One of the major aspects of the local case is the self-admitted failure of the State Department of Human Services (DHS) to fully investigate almost 30 reports made to the Child Abuse Hotline. The reports are said to have included allegations of maltreatment, inadequate supervision, failure to provide food, failure to provide essential needs, extreme or repeated cruelty and failure to protect.
The reports were made anonymously and by mandated reporters which includes teachers, social workers, coaches and law enforcement officers.
14th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge, who is scheduled to testify before the joint committee meeting, began looking into why the large number of complaints did not trigger a more in dept investigation that might have resulted in the young man being removed from the household.
Ethredge met with then head of DHS Kristi Putman and the agency’s chief counsel in his Mountain Home office and was promised an investigation would be done to include looking closely at each of the Child Abuse Hotline reports to track the reason reports were not fully investigated.
The report was to be shared with Ethredge and made public.
Shortly after the meeting, Putman left her job and the moved out of state. She was replaced by Janet Mann.
After some time passed, KTLO, Classic Hits and the Boot News began contacting DHS about when the report might be released.
At one point, the agency did an about face and said the report could not be released and that it was a “mistake” to have made that commitment.
In addition, DHS officials said changes recommended by the report would also not be made available to the public and would be “handled internally.”
Senator Flippo took material provided by KTLO to a recent meeting with DHS officials to show the “initial intent” had been to share the investigation outcome and changes in procedure based on the investigation and that the agency did a 180-degree turn saying no report would be released because of the sensitive information it contained.
Ethredge was only informed of the change after KTLO made another inquiry and was told there would be no report.
When KTLO asked a DHS spokesman why a redacted report could not allow the release of the information, particularly why the 29 reports were mainly closed as unsubstantiated. There was no interest in that suggestion.
DHS eventually produced a mea culpa in the form of a letter to Ethredge in which Tiffany Wright, director of DHS’s Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), wrote that the agency “fell short of our mission and responsibilities” in the Baxter County teen’s case.
One of the major flaws in the system is that the individual reports were apparently considered separately and not viewed as forming a growing pattern of abuse that needed to be addressed.
Wright said in her letter, “it was a failure on our part that each report was not fully considered within the context of the growing number of complaints. The pattern of maltreatment reports should have triggered a more thorough response with increased scrutiny that ultimately would have resulted in a better outcome.”
She reported the full history of the Baxter County case has been studied by DCFS staff and it was decided that additional emphasis on the history in all cases is a necessary focus going forward.
In the letter to Ethredge, Wright reported that since the Baxter County case had exposed significant failures in the system that training sessions have been held in every region of the state “to ensure best practices are being followed.”
In a recent interview, Ethredge said he is hopeful legislative interest in the situation will speed up changes. He said he agreed with Senator Flippo that discussions should be in the open and not done behind closed doors.
In an interview with KTLO, Classics Hits and the Boot News, Senator Flippo pledged to hold legislative hearings and get to the bottom of just why the Baxter County teen was not removed from the household even after reports had been coming in since 2013.
Two people, 41-year-old Daniel Alan Wright and 42-year-old Jaclyn Barnett are both charged with 112 counts of first-degree imprisonment along with one count each of endangering the welfare of a minor and permitting child abuse.
A jury trial for the couple is now set for November 10. Wright and Barnett are each free on $50,000 bonds.
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