CFS social worker shirked duty to properly investigate allegations that 10-year-old Noah Reed was being abused at home
Blog note: this article references a grand jury report on problems at the Department of Children and Family Services
A San Bernardino County jury has awarded $113.4 million to a 10-year-old boy and his mother, primarily blaming Children and Family Services for a brutal beating that left the boy with severe brain damage and rendered him a quadriplegic.
The July 3 verdict followed a three-week trial in Superior Court that centered on the role of a social worker in not protecting Noah Reed from serious abuse in the Yucca Valley home where he lived with his father and his father’s girlfriend.
The girlfriend, Hannah Thompson, was convicted of assault on a child in connection with the May 18, 2014, beating and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“We are hearing that it is the largest pain and suffering (jury) award ever given to a single plaintiff in the state of California,” said Matthew Whibley, an attorney for Noah and his mother, Laurell Reed.
Jurors heard evidence that county social worker Karen Perry failed to properly investigate and follow up on allegations of child abuse reported by a sheriff’s deputy and Thompson’s own mother. Instead, Perry referred Thompson and Noah’s father, Christopher Reed, to various county services and closed the case, Whibley said.
“Instead of opening a case plan, (Perry) ended the investigation and then, six months later, Noah Reed was catastrophically injured by Hannah Thompson, which resulted in permanent brain damage,” Whibley said.
County spokesman David Wert said the county is considering its options, including an appeal of the verdict.
“It is understandable that a jury would be outraged when a child is harmed. The county is outraged, too. But in this case, the jury’s outrage was misplaced,” Wert said in an email.
Jury findings
The jury found that Perry failed to make reasonable efforts to perform her duties as required by the state Child Welfare Services Manual of Policies and Procedures.
Noah and his mother were awarded $100 million for past and future pain and suffering, $9.9 million for future medical expenses, $2.9 million for loss of future earnings, and $602,625.66 for past medical expenses, according to the jury’s verdict form.
Jurors found the Department of Children and Family Services 85% responsible for the harm done to Noah, Thompson 5% responsible, and Reed 10%, according to the verdict form.
Hospitalized with head trauma
Noah was 5 years old when he was admitted to Loma Linda University Medical Center with severe head trauma. Thompson, his primary caretaker at the time, called 911 that day to report Noah had fallen off a stool at home and injured his head.
The boy had bruising all over his body and was severely malnourished when admitted into the hospital, Whibley said. He also suffered permanent ocular nerve injury, which means he cannot see out of his right eye, the attorney said.
A criminal investigation subsequently determined Thompson had physically abused Noah for more than a year and the boy’s father failed to intervene, Whibley said.
Thompson, then 21, and Reed, who according to Whibley was an air traffic controller at the Twentynine Palms Marine base at the time, were arrested and charged with assault on a child becoming comatose and child abuse, respectively. Both were convicted.
Thompson, who began dating Reed in early 2013, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in February 2016. Reed entered a plea to misdemeanor child abuse and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, a one-year batterer intervention program and three years probation. He successfully completed the terms of his probation and filed a motion to dismiss the case, which a judge granted in June, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster said.
Abuse not investigated
Noah, who now lives in upstate New York with his mother and maternal grandparents, has been diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia, a condition that causes the muscles to be in a constant state of tension, causing chronic pain, Whibley said.
The boy’s abuse could have been prevented, Whibley said, had Perry initiated a proper investigation into the allegations against Thompson. “Social workers,” he said, “received multiple claims that Hannah Thompson was severely abusing Noah Reed.”
Lasting effects
“He is permanently in a wheelchair. He can speak very poorly. He has permanent cognitive disabilities. He’s also permanently incontinent and needs 24-7 care for the rest of his life,” Whibley said.
Noah still experiences human emotions such as love, anger and frustration, and is fully aware of his injuries, the lawyer said.
“He wants to play, he wants to be a child, but he cannot because he lacks the ability to speak, to think, and to walk like a regular boy, but he still has the desire to do so,” Whibley said.
What perplexes Whibley is that Perry herself determined Noah was at risk for abuse and that Thompson was mentally ill, but instead of requesting a criminal investigation and seeking possible removal of Noah from his home, she referred Thompson and Christopher Reed to various CFS resources, including family counseling and parenting classes, before closing the case, according to Whibley.
When Thompson was arrested, she told investigators she suffered a “psychotic break” during the time she was caring for Noah, validating Perry’s original assessment that Thompson was mentally ill, Whibley said.
“Under the mandatory duties that a social worker is ordered to comply with, (Perry) was supposed to open what is called a case plan, which is essentially following up with the family, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the family and what needs to be done,” Whibley said. “You follow up with regular visits and make sure that the services are being participated in.”
CFS issues
Noah’s case underscores a history of criticisms and challenges facing San Bernardino County’s Department of Children and Family Services. In 2016, a grand jury reported that high social worker turnover and bulging caseloads were among more than a dozen problems plaguing the agency.
The grand jury noted in its annual report that CFS was “rife with systemic failures,” including caseloads far exceeding the level recommended by the Child Welfare League of America and a need for more social worker training, particularly in the area of accurate case documentation. The grand jury also reported a lack of cooperation between social workers and police, especially in the area of providing unredacted files to detectives investigating child abuse.
In its response, the county maintained that it was facing a social worker shortage because other counties were offering higher pay, resulting in larger caseloads for its social workers. A hiring wave of senior social worker practitioners followed, with efforts to fully staff all vacant positions.
The county also updated its training curricula to state standards. CFS now requires newly hired social workers to not only complete 158 hours of classroom and webinar training, but also 203 hours of orientation and induction training with the county.
July 11, 2019
San Bernardino Sun
By Joe Nelson
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