more lies and failures of social workers

Posted on Thu, Feb. 4, 2010

Kelly defense: Victimized by their own staff

By Nathan Gorenstein

Inquirer Staff Writer

Two top managers at the social-service agency that was caring for 14-year-old Danieal Kelly before her death were victimized by their own staff, who lied about how often they made required home visits, defense attorneys said yesterday.

In opening statements at the federal trial of the two managers and two staff caseworkers, defense attorneys also attempted to diffuse what lawyer William Brennan called "the elephant in the room" - Kelly's death by starvation in 2006 while the agency, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., was responsible for her well-being.

"This is a fraud case. This is not a murder case," said Brennan, who represents a worker charged with participating in the fraud.

The now-defunct agency was supposed to provide care for Kelly, who had cerebral palsy, and other at-risk children using federal funding funneled through the city's Department of Human Services.

But prosecutors charge that the defendants instead billed the city for services MultiEthnic never provided - including home visits that never happened.

William Cannon, the attorney for Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, who ran MultiEthnic when the city contracted it to monitor 500 homes, conceded that the agency was not always well-managed, but said Kamuvaka had been at the mercy of her employees. "She had to rely on their integrity," he said.

The defense attorneys said federal prosecutors had to prove the four intended to lie and defraud the government.

"Did he intend to lie? If he didn't intend to lie, he's innocent," said William R. Spade Jr., the attorney for MultiEthnic social worker Julius Juma Murray, 52, who was handling Kelly's case when she died.

Cannon said Kelly's mother had kept her covered with blankets up to her chin when workers from MultiEthnic visited. While she was underweight, Kelly also "was beset with medical problems," he said, and there was "no medical record to show she ever weighed more than" the 42 pounds recorded at her death.

Kelly and her family were considered at-risk, and DHS ordered twice-weekly home visits to ensure she was safe and getting services she needed. When she died, her body was covered with bedsores, some of which were maggot-infested and bone-deep.

From July 2000 through December 2006, the city paid MultiEthnic about $3.7 million for services.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri told the jury that the defendants had been "social workers" employed to provide assistance for the city's least fortunate, but that "they chose not to be that safety net."

Gauri said Kamuvaka had "spearheaded the fraud," assisted by a second agency manager, Solomon Manamela, who on one occasion reported he was doing agency work when, in fact, he was out of the country.

Clients were supposed to sign a form every time a social worker visited, but Gauri said Murray and fellow caseworker Mariam Coulibaly had clients sign a "stack" of forms in advance.

Each of the defense lawyers made a point of introducing his client and offering details of the defendant's life: Kamuvaka was born in the Central African Republic, earned a degree in social work and psychology in 1976, received a doctorate in social work from Cornell University, and was one of the founders of MultiEthnic.

Manamela, 52, is from South Africa and, during apartheid, fled to Tanzania. "He has spent his life helping troubled children," said his attorney, Paul J. Hetznecker.

At MultiEthnic, Manamela "put his trust in the . . . workers" he supervised, and "they violated Mr. Manamela's trust in them," said the lawyer.

But, like Cannon, Hetznecker conceded that "there was a lot of mismanagement there."

Spade said Murray was born in Sierra Leone, received an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, and chose to do social work.

"The mother of the girl was hiding what was going on," Spade said, referring to Kelly's mother, Andrea, who pleaded guilty last year in the Court of Common Pleas to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years.

Coulibaly, 40, was born in Mali and holds a nursing degree. Five other MultiEthnic employees also charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office have pleaded guilty.

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Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-2797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.

WomensLaw.org: Obama's 2011 Budget Makes Domestic Violence a Priority

Shortly after Obama took office, he appointed Lynn Rosenthal as the White House Adviser on Violence Against Women, a new position created to work with the president and vice president on domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Since June, Rosenthal has worked with numerous federal agencies in the White House to make sure the needs of domestic violence and sexual assault victims are being met through funding, advocacy, program implementation and general advancement of services across the country.

One week after his State of the Union address on January 27, 2010, President Obama released the FY 2011 budget.

Parts of the $730 million total allotted funds for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault include:

Emergency shelter, transitional housing, and other local services: $100 million increase from the Crime Victims Fund, a fund comprised of penalties, bail money and other criminal fines.

Shelters and other services: $140 million

National Domestic Violence Hotline and Teen Dating Violence Helpline: $4.5 million

Sexual Assault Service Program, providing services to victims of sexual assault: $30 million

Legal assistance for victims, including services which help victims obtain protective orders and other protections: $50 million

STOP grants, aimed at working towards preventative programs: $188 million

Read more about Lynn Rosenthal and the work she is doing here: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/lynn-rosenthal-on-how-the-white-house-combats-violence-against-women.

HHS Budget Makes Smart Investments, Protects the Health and Safety of America’s Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today highlighted critical investments in President Obama’s 2011 HHS budget that will protect the health and safety of America’s families.

“Under this budget, we will provide the health and human services that Americans depend on more effectively, slashing waste and focusing programs on results.  And we’ll make many of the necessary investments our country has been putting off for years, including investments in fighting health care fraud, strengthening our public health infrastructure, and getting serious about health and wellness,” said Sebelius. “This budget is a big step toward a healthier, stronger America.” 

The President’s budget helps build the foundation for health insurance reform. The budget strengthens the health care system and improves access to care by investing $995 million to address the shortage of health care providers in underserved areas, increasing funding to expand services at Health Centers by $290 million and allocating nearly $80 million for work to spread the adoption and use of health information technology.

The budget also makes landmark investments to fight health care fraud and requests $1.7 billion for fraud fighting at HHS, including $561 million in Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) discretionary funding, an increase of $250 million over the FY 2010 enacted level.  Estimates indicate that these investments will generate $9.9 billion in savings from increased recoveries and prevention efforts.  In addition, the Budget proposes legislative and administrative changes that will save $14.7 billion in Medicare and Medicaid over ten years.

To support families with young children, the budget invests a total of $6.6 billion in the Child Care and Development Fund, an increase of $1.6 billion, and invests in reforms to make Head Start and Early Head Start stronger. And because many families are caring for young children and elderly relatives, the budget provides an additional $102.5 million for a new Caregiver initiative that will increase services including training for caregivers and assistance for elderly individuals and their families so seniors can remain in their homes longer.

The budget also helps protect families from disease and illness and improves public health, by investing $1.4 billion to transform the food safety system and help prevent food borne illness. Other important investments to stop diseases before they start include $954 million to help prevent smoking and tobacco use and $20 million for a new initiative in CDC to help prevent chronic disease.

Additionally, the budget builds on the President’s commitment to invest in science and research by increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health by $1 billion to support innovative projects from basic to clinical research.

“There is no question that the hard-working people of this country have been tested over the last few years,” added Sebelius.  “In his State of the Union Address, President Obama urged Americans to rise to the challenges posed by our current difficulties, and pledged that as a country we would face these challenges together. I believe this budget lives up to that commitment.”

Overall, President Obama’s budget includes a total of $911 billion for HHS in Fiscal Year 2011. For more information on the budget, visit www.hhs.gov/budget. Highlights from the budget are included below:

REDUCING HEALTH FRAUD

Enhancing Medicare and Medicaid Program Integrity:  Reducing fraud, waste, and abuse in government spending is a top priority for the President.  The Budget includes $561 million in discretionary resources, an increase of $250 million, to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid program integrity activities, with a particular emphasis on fighting health care fraud in the field, increasing Medicaid audits, and strengthening program oversight while reducing costs. 

This investment, as part of a multi-year effort, will augment existing resources for combating health care fraud and abuse and save $9.9 billion over ten years.  The additional funding will better equip the Federal government to minimize inappropriate payments, pinpoint potential weaknesses in program integrity oversight, target emerging fraud schemes by provider and type of service, and establish safeguards to correct programmatic vulnerabilities.

The Budget also includes a set of new program integrity proposals that will give HHS the necessary tools to fight fraud by enhancing provider enrollment scrutiny, increasing claims oversight, improving Medicare’s data analysis capabilities, and reducing over-utilization of Medicaid prescription drugs.  These proposals will save approximately $14.7 billion over 10 years.

IMPROVING QUALITY OF AND ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

Health Insurance Reform:  Congress is focused on health insurance reform to provide security and stability for Americans with health insurance and expand coverage to those Americans who do not have insurance.  These reforms will improve the quality of care, lower costs for families and businesses, and help reduce the Nation’s deficit. 

Strengthening the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS):  The Budget includes $3.6 billion, an increase of $186 million. The request is necessary to meet current administrative workload demands from recent legislative requirements and continuous beneficiary growth. The request provides targeted investments to revamp information technology (IT) systems and optimize staffing levels so that CMS can meet the future challenges of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and can be an active purchaser of high quality and efficient care.

Specifically, $110 million of CMS’ increase is for a new, comprehensive Health Care Data Improvement Initiative to transform CMS’s data environment from one focused primarily on claims processing to one also focused on state-of-the art data analysis and information sharing.  These changes are vital to modernizing the Medicare and Medicaid programs by making CMS a leader in value based purchasing, improving systems security, and increasing analytic capabilities and data sharing with key stakeholders.

TBI, state auditors investigating County Clerk employee for embezzlement

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, the district attorney’s office and the state Comptroller’s office are investigating the disappearance of thousands of dollars from the Dickson County Clerk’s office.

County Clerk Phil Simons told the county commission at a called budget committee meeting last night that between $14,000-$15,000 had been taken from the Dickson satellite office through an elaborate scheme in which the books appeared to balance at the end of each day.

The situation came to light in mid-September when the deputy clerk who allegedly took the money was off work and another deputy worked at that desk where paperwork was found, leading to the discovery of the alleged theft, Simons said.

He said the employee allegedly manipulated reports through failure to record or voiding cash transactions, then using other peoples’ checks to pay the fees that had been paid in cash.

Simons said as soon as he discovered the alleged theft he went to county attorneys and they notified the district attorney's office.

The DA contacted the TBI and an auditor from the state Comptroller's Office.
He said the stolen cash came from automobile registration renewals, business licenses, registrations and other fees that the employee allegedly pocketed.

The investigation is still ongoing and Simons did not identify the employee. However, he said the employee was terminated by mail on the grounds of employee misconduct after walking out of the office following an interview by the TBI and the Comptroller’s Office of Audit.

“There was no admission of guilt and no confession,” Simons said.

When asked why the employee was fired without admitting to the theft and the investigation is incomplete, he said that’s why she was fired for employee misconduct.

“It’s very broad,” he said.

Simons said the county would have to cover the missing money until the case is prosecuted but that either the county's insurance or a blanket bond, which covers all employees who handle money, will reimburse the county.

Simons said there are normally 10 employees working the Dickson office and he doesn’t plan to fill the position vacated by the former employee.

“I have some other ideas in mind,” he said. “But we have nine other people that we don’t have a problem with. I trust everybody until it’s proven otherwise.”


http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091202/DICKSON01/91202049/TBI-state-auditors-investigating-County-Clerk-employee-for-embezzlement

WAY TO GO K.T. Now Just Keep Working That :)

Sheriff Taylor's sticking to his Taser - policy

Department policy says 'use of the Taser on young children is discouraged,

except in extreme situations.'
By NICK BONHAM
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
December 04, 2009 01:24 am


Days after a deputy stunned an "out of control" 10-year-old, Sheriff Kirk Taylor said his office has no plans of altering its Taser policy in regard to the device's use on children.

"It's not black and white. Every scenario is different. The threat is different. (Using a Taser), that discretion needs to be left to the officer and then it needs to be scrutinized, and trust me, it's been scrutinized," Taylor said at a press conference Thursday.

The Pueblo County Sheriff Department's policy says "use of the Taser on elderly persons and young children is discouraged, except in the most extreme situations."

The boy was stunned and arrested Monday after Deputies Mark Myers and Randy Mondragon were sent to the boy's Pueblo West foster home.

The call was in regard to a "out of control" juvenile who was destroying property and threatening his foster father, Daniel Biby, with a pipe, a stick and throwing landscape timbers at him. The boy, who Taylor said has a violent history and record of running away, fled from officers holding a 2-foot-long pipe.

The boy ran to a neighbor's house where he cornered himself between a camper trailer and a pontoon boat that were backed against a fence.

Taylor said the area in which the child was in was no wider than 3 feet.

The boy ignored commands to drop the pipe and was stunned with a Taser by Myers. Mondragon then apprehended the child, who was later booked into Pueblo Youth Center on suspicion of menacing with a deadly weapon.

Neither the boy, deputies or Biby were injured in the incident.

Taylor maintained on Thursday that the deputy's Taser use and method of arrest was appropriate and justified.

"We get no joy in doing what had to be done. My officers feel pretty bad but they acted appropriately," Taylor said. "My reaction was no different than the public's outcry. I probably would've deployed my Taser as well. Would have I been happy about it? No. But I can tell you, after looking at the fact-scenario, they acted appropriately."

Taylor described the physique and size of the boy, who's name hasn't been released because he's a juvenile, as that of a "normal 10-year-old."

The sheriff described Myers as a "thick" man at 6 foot 2 inches tall. He also said he knew Myers to be a chaplain with the local order of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"Myers is like a gentle giant," Chief of Law Enforcement Charlene Graham said.

Taylor said this was the fourth time this year that deputies had used a Taser.

In October, the device's manufacturer, Taser International, issued a recommendation to include the chest in the non-preferred target area, which also includes the head, neck and testicle areas.

The boy was struck by two darts in the preferred target zone, one in the lower abdomen and the other in the left leg, Taylor said.

After the incident was reported in the morning edition of The Chieftain, Taylor said he received phone calls from media as far away as New York. He said he was interviewed for "Inside Edition."

Tasers are controversial in their use, but much of the national interest stems from the recent firing of an officer in Arkansas who stunned an unruly 10-year-old girl with a Taser.

The officer was not fired for stunning the girl but failing to follow department procedure for not activating a built-in camera on the Taser.

Taylor said Tasers his officers use do not have cameras and that this incident "is nothing like the one in Arkansas."

Many of the comments posted on The Chieftain's Web site were critical of the sheriff department's Taser use on the boy.

"Nobody wants to Tase a 10-year-old. My hope is that this young man gets the help he needs," Taylor said.

The 10th Judicial District's Critical Incident Team is not investigating the incident. The team consists of investigators from every law enforcement agency in the county that are charged with probing controversial incidents involving officers, such as in-custody deaths, shootings and serious accidents.

nickb@chieftain.com







http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/12/04/news/local/doc4b18c14be4be0333474716.prt

Legally Kidnapped: DHS Lawsuit

Legally Kidnapped: DHS Lawsuit

Child advocates plan rally, memorial service in Indianapolis

Child advocates plan rally, memorial service in Indianapolis

By Tim Evans
tim.evans@indystar.com

Advocates for children and families today planned a rally outside a local office of the Indiana Department of Child Services to demand greater accountability.

The rally was set for 4 p.m. at the Marion County office of the the state department, 4150 N. Keystone Ave.

The purpose of the Northside rally is to call for greater accountability by the state child protection agency, said Jennifer Cobb of … and Justice for All Inc., one of the event organizers.

Following the rally, the group will move to the Oasis of Hope Baptist Church, 1701 E. 25th St., for a memorial service honoring children who have died under the care of Department of Child Services over the past two years.

Speakers at the Near Northside memorial service will include Byron Alston, Dawn Robertson, Cobb, Pastor Joe Zelenka, The Rev. Richard Willoughby and Samuel Carson. Musical guests will include Gary Antelept.

For more information, contact Cobb at (317) 222-8476 or andjusticeforallinc@gmail.com.