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Testimony Calling for Independent Investigation of CFSA Before the DC Counsel CFSA Oversight Hearing of Mar. 11, 2010

-- Roy Morris, Esq.--

Chairman Wells, and Members of the Committee, my name is Roy Morris, and I

am here as a public interest advocate. Today I urge the City Council to initiate an

independent investigation by either Federal Authorities or an independent counsel,

like Mr. Bennett, to look into the depth and breadth of the corruption at Child and

Family Services Agency (CFSA).

It has been almost a year since I last came before you highlighting the case of

how CFSA failed a now six-year- old child living in Ward 3. It is my opinion that by any

reasonable standard, CFSA failed to properly investigate complaints filed by mandated

reporters in that case. In this case, CFSA went out of its way to avoid finding abuse and

neglect.

My experience supports many of the allegations found in the December 6, 2008

letter of the “Concerned Social Workers.” That insightful letter was sent to the

Washington Post, Chairman Wells, and Federal Judge Hogan. It spoke of unethical

CFSA practices in closing cases, including cases being closed by administrators and

lawyers at CFSA.

For the suffering little girl mentioned, her situation appears to me to have become

worse due to CFSA’s failures. Those failures have left her in unnecessary danger

with severe chronic neutropenia of undiagnosed cause -- a life-threatening very

rare blood disease, which evidence strongly suggests is induced by drugs commonly

used for covering up abuse. CFSA ignored these and other facts.

When I came before you a year ago, I sincerely believed that the irregularities we

had witnessed were simply caused by an agency that did not have the will or skill to do

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its’ job. As the irregularities have become greater and certain CFSA employee

actions more antithetical to the agency’s purpose..... including attempts to prevent

other institutions from finding abuse and providing help for this child –- an innocent

explanation no longer seems plausible to me.

Disturbing facts have come to light that give answers, I believe, as to why high

ranking CFSA employees have abdicated their responsibilities, interfered with the

CFSA investigations, and, also in my opinion, have acted beholden and protective of

abusers and their attorneys.

Today, we must take a stand to save this child, and others like her, by giving them

immediate relief and safety. Organizations from around the world and the US,

including members of Congress, have been made aware and are looking for this

situation to be corrected. Will Washington DC once again make the headlines and

have to explain why another child’s life was lost while this agency looked the other way?

The explanation for this corruption that I refer to is both disturbing and appalling.

One very egregious example involves one key high-ranking official of CFSA. Not a

widely known fact, it involves a high ranking CFA official who was arrested for a

sexual offense, and went into a sex offender diversion program that included: one year

supervised probation, and psychological evaluation.

Why would a person with such a background be allowed to work in CFSA, or any

other agency involved with the welfare of children?

How was the District made aware of this person’s background, and what did it do

about it?

What is the magnitude of the impact this little known fact can have on such a

person’s independence to advocate for abused children, rather than for suspected

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abusers -- who would be inclined to use this information to pressure such a

CFSA official to prematurely close and improperly dismiss abuse cases?

Only through an independent investigation can the depth and breadth of this

problem be uncovered, and the damage it has caused to the children of Washington DC

corrected. In the interim, we ask that the DC Counsel order the immediate reopening,

investigation, and corrective action in all cases, including the case of the six year

old neutropenic little girl, that were wrongfully interfered with by those corrupted

employees.

Background

Based on my understanding, the six year old child lives isolated in a small one-

bedroom apartment, in a windowless bedroom, sleeps in a queen sized bed that takes

up most of that windowless room. She has – on a number of occasions – told medical

and psychological personnel and forensic interviewers that her father sleeps in her bed,

the “poppo gets harder and harder,” and that her father does “bad touch” while pointing

to her inner thighs. Consistent with medical harm, she now has a very rare blood

disorder, that only appeared soon as she disclosed that her “papa gives me green

medicine to make me sick. But don’t tell him I told you.” Dr. Joy Silberg, a mandated

reporter who is an internationally recognized specialist in abused children, submitted a

written complaint to CFSA. However, even after CFSA social workers claim to have

visited this one bedroom apartment that is used as an a multibedroom living quarters,

and examined these documented facts, that was not enough for CFSA to investigate

further.

The six year old child suffers from a very rare blood disease called severe chronic

neutropenia that can be induced with drugs, – a condition similar to AIDS –that leaves

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the body with little defense to fatal infection. With this disease, one day the patient can

look fine, ....the next day catch an infection,.... and the next day die from the infection

that your and my body can easily tolerate, but hers cannot. However, when the father

failed to take the child to a hematologist/oncologist on his own for months – it hardly

raised an eyebrow at CFSA. This is despite the fact that at least two medical experts

had expressed concern that the suspected abuser failed to take such basic diagnostic

actions. One of the world’s leading pediatric severe chronic neutropenia expert

researcher and physician who is the Co-Director of the Severe Chronic Neutropenia

International Registry, has reviewed the same records as CFSA, and concluded that the

child’s severe neutropenia is likely due to toxins/drugs – including the type that a

neurologist, such as the father, would have access to. Again, this CFSA did little for the

child, and failed to follow its own protocol for independent evaluations.

Based on the records, a sexual abuse investigation at Children’s National Medical

Center (CNMC) appears to me to have been made purposely superficial and

misdirected by the unexplainable actions of CFSA. The CFSA social worker involved --

who had already preliminarily concluded that there was no abuse – allowed the

suspected father to accompany the little girl to CNMC. Once there, the CFSA social

worker appears to have instructed CNMC not to interview the child, misinformed them

by telling them that the mother was the source of the reports about abuse, and failed to

mention that the written complaints were submitted to CFSA by multiple mandated

reporters. As any person familiar with sexual abuse investigations knows, an interview

can only be successfully done without the abuser present and such an interview is

critically important to such an investigation. To make matters worse, CFSA used that

superficial sexual abuse investigation as a fraudulent basis for claiming in other venues

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that the medical neglect concerns involving the severe neutropenia were “unfounded.”

In addition, even without speaking to the child, the records show that CNMC diagnosed

her with “post traumatic stress disorder,” and recommended regular therapy for the child

but there is no record of any follow-up by the father or CFSA to assure that therapy was

provided. That alone should have been a basis for finding neglect.

After that very brief irregular investigation was quickly opened and closed as

“unfounded,” a high level executive of CFSA demanded medical records from

Georgetown University Hospital – where the CFSA request made the material

misrepresentation that the child was a “District of Columbia committed ward.” When

questioned, Dr. Roque Gerald wrote a reply claiming that the high level CFSA executive

was simply the using a generic form – but he did not explain why a generic form having

such a material misrepresentation was used. No explanation was given why additional

inquiry was being made by CFSA after it supposedly had closed the earlier investigation

as unfounded. Were those earlier cases really closed? Where they really found to be

unfounded? Was CFSA having second thoughts? Did CFSA know that the records it

received from Georgetown were incomplete because they did not include all test

results? How many other instances has CFSA used this generic form to obtain

information knowing that it contained misrepresentations of the status of the child.

When asked for a report on the investigations, one CFSA official told us in writing

that we would get a summary report. Later, when asked again, we were told that such

reports are not provided for “unfounded cases.” However, the suspected abuser father

received not just one, but three different reports – including one faxed to him at 6:30pm

in the evening from CFSA’s offices. Those reports were never forwarded to the

mother.

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in what appears to me to be a wholesale cover-up, CFSA refused to provide

copies of any documents in response to a FOIA request, including even documents it

had filed publicly, documents it had previously exchanged with the abusing Father and

his counsel, and as well as those it had exchanged with the mother and her counsel.

No attempt was made to even provide a Vaughn index, nor redacted versions of the

documents – even though required by law for documents even when they contain FOIA

exempt information. Furthermore, given that CFSA’s FOIA statistics from the City’s

Secretaries office indicate that a complete denial of a FOIA request by CFSA is rare

[none out of 19 FOIA requests in FY2009 were denied in whole]1 – it only adds to

further evidence that CFSA is attempting to cover up the corruption in its ranks.

1 Annual Freedom of Information Act Report for Fiscal Year 2009 , October 1, 2008through September 30, 2009, from DC Secretary Website.

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Pediatric Hematological-Oncological Outpatient Dept. Day Unit Roof Terrace Ward 64a Ward 62 Tel. +49-511-532-3214 Tel. +49-511-532-9188 Tel. +49-511-532-3288 Tel. +49-511-9411

T R A N S L A T I O N

Am Neuen Garten 4 14469 Potsdam Germany

Medical School Hanover, Germany

Lower Saxony Professorship – 65 plus Research Prof. Karl H. Welte, Dr. med., Director, Department of Molecular Hemopoiesis Center for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine OE 6790 Phone +49-(0)511-532-6710 Fax +49-(0)511-532-6998 welte.karl.h@mh-hannover.de Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1 30625 Hanover, Germany www.mh-hannover.de

31 August 2009

Medical Opinion

Dear This report deals with the abovementioned patient whose mother accompanied by

with medical records consulted us on 31 August 2009. Unfortunately the child is at present in the USA so that we were unable to examine her in person. On the basis of the medical documents produced we have arrived at the following evaluation: Diagnoses:

• Severe chronic neutropenia of unknown origin, no exclusion of a mutation in the genes ELA2/HAX1/SBDS

• To date no indication of an antibody-induced immune neutropenia

• To date no therapy with hematapoietic growth factors

Case history (Anamnesis): For the detailed anamnesis you are referred to the numerous records. According to information provided by the mother, the child developed normally relative to its age until May 2008. There was no unusual increase of infections. In a hemogram during a routine check-up, the primary care physician discovered the neutropenia which was subsequently confirmed. At the time the child was without infection, and there was no indication of an underlying primary disease. The absolute neutrophil count in the majority of findings was under 500/µl. Further diagnostic investigations to clarify the cause of the severe neutropenia with continuous absolute neutrophil counts under 500/µl were only undertaken in July 2009 at the Georgetown

Pediatric Hematological-Oncological Outpatient Dept. Day Unit Roof Terrace Ward 64a Ward 62 Tel. +49-511-532-3214 Tel. +49-511-532-9188 Tel. +49-511-532-3288 Tel. +49-511-9411

University Hospital, Washington, by Dr Myers. There was no sign of maturation arrest of granulopoesis as an indication of a congenital neutropenia. At the same time there was no evidence of a malignant systemic disease. Taking the bone marrow findings and the persisting severe neutropenia together, the most likely assumption is a bone marrow disease caused by an infection or induced by toxic agents. Recommendations:

s suffering from a severe chronic neutropenia of hitherto unknown origin. In view of the fact that a chronic neutropenia with absolute neutrophil counts of under 500/µl involves the risk of a life-threatening infection, treatment with the hematapoietic growth factor G-CSF, e.g. Filgrastim, should be initiated urgently. In view of the unknown origin of the neutropenia we recommend that the diagnostic investigation be continued in order to exclude an autoimmune disease, an infectious disease and a malignant systemic disease. Independent of this we recommend that a bone marrow screening with histology and cytogenetics be repeated in approx. one year. A conclusive assessment is only possible after personal consultation with the child. Yours etc. [signature] Prof. Karl Welte, Dr. med. Co-Director SCNIR (Severe Chronic Neutropenia International Registry)

KING APP - 50 (FOIA DC Superior Court)

U nauthorized H and W ritten R eport P rovided to S uspect Father a t F irst E ncounter of Investigation in April 2009

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