LAKE COUNTY – The Lake County Grand Jury's new report offers a tough assessment of the county's Social Services Department and Child Protective Services division, and reveals that state and federal officials investigated those county agencies in the wake of a 2005 child abuse case.
The 158-page 2006-07 Grand Jury report was released Friday. It includes a seven-page section focusing on its Public Health and Social Services Committee's investigation of Lake County Child Protective (CPS) Services, which is housed within the county's Department of Social Services.
“While this report originated with investigations of specific child abuse and neglect and the performance of CPS, it has grown into a question of oversight and of one of the largest and most important departments in Lake County,” the report states.
Saying the report on CPS is a “work in progress,” the grand jury report explained that the investigation is continuing, because it has been unsuccessful in its efforts to gain access to confidential case files.
The report said the Department of Social Services argued in court against granting access to documents the grand jury said was necessary to its investigation, that Director Carol Huchingson downplayed the severity of state and federal investigations into CPS, and that she was slow to respond to other grand jury requests for information.
Lack of oversight, staffing shortages and extreme pay gaps between administration and social workers, were among a lengthy list of issues plaguing CPS, the report found.
Carol Huchingson, director of Lake County's Department of Social Services, was out of the office on Friday. Lake County News called her deputy director, Janice Hubbell, who deferred all questions on the report to Huchingson.
Supervisor Rob Brown, who is himself a foster parent, said he's worked closely with Huchingson and her staff, and that he's confident in their ethics and service to the county's children.
Brown also said he was concerned that the grand jury may have overreached its authority in trying to gain access to some of the abuse case's records.
The heart of the study
The Grand Jury examination of CPS resulted from a complaint against CPS alleging neglect during the jury's 2005-06 session.
The complaint, the report explained, followed a much-publicized story of two young Lake County children who were seriously abused.
That case involved two boys, ages 4 and 2, of Nice who were abused by their mother's boyfriend, 23-year-old Tony Wayne Hernandez of Upper Lake.
Hernandez was arrested after the 4-year-old was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in November 2005 with numerous serious injuries, including 11 broken ribs and an injured liver, a bruised torso, an infected cornea and some fingernails missing from both hands. His injuries were serious enough that medical personnel had him airlifted to Oakland Children's Hospital.
Hernandez, while high on methamphetamine, had reportedly kicked and beaten the child. At the time of the abuse the boy's mother also was reportedly strung out on meth.
The extent of the abuse, along with revelations that the two children had previously been removed from their mother's custody as many as three times, resulted in an outpouring of rage from the community and drew attention to the performance of CPS.
Sheriff Rod Mitchell, Social Services Director Carol Huchingson, then-District Attorney Gary Luck, and CPS officials went before the Board of Supervisors to explain how those agencies react to child abuse cases.
Day care workers and foster parents came forward at the time to say they had repeatedly warned CPS about the boys' abuse, in some cases begging social workers not to send the children back to their mother's custody.
Hernandez eventually pleaded guilty to felony child abuse with a special allegation of causing physical pain on a child under age 5.
In March 2006, Hernandez received a nine-year prison sentence for the abuse.
Grand Jury report takes on case
The Hernandez case resulted in a complaint to the Grand Jury. But the jury's report said they weren't the only ones looking at the case.
California's Department of Social Services began investigating CPS in late 2005. The grand jury contacted the state Department of Social Services in September 2006, and three months later received correspondence that had passed between local, state and federal agencies over the abuse case.
The paperwork revealed that the case's severity, as well as a statement from the local CPS deputy director about protocol, prompted a federal investigation into whether CPS acted in accordance with state policies and procedures in reacting to the case.
California's Department of Social Services conducted an on-site and online review of the county's Child Welfare Services program in January 2006. That agency, along with Lake County CPS, jointly developed a “Corrective Action Plan” to address deficiencies the state's investigation uncovered, with focus placed on training and clarifying the local CPS's authority to remove children from homes.
Another result was that CPS recorded a memorandum of understanding with all Lake County law enforcement, the report noted.
The grand jury report noted that in a letter written, after the state's on-site visit, Huchingson “dismissed the gravity of the visit and refers to it as an ordinary 'technical assistance review' that other counties would also receive rather than the urgent request from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services.”
Next, the grand jury outlines its findings and Supervisor Rob Brown defends the county's Department of Health Services.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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