NH TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING FINANCIALLY, MENTALLY, AND PHYSICALLY FOR FAMILY COURT'S CONTINUED SUPPORT OF CHILD ABUSE!
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On February 15, 2018, Governor Chris Sununu said in his state of the state address:
"Simply put, "Life in New Hampshire is better today than it was one year ago – and that's no accident."
"Today in New Hampshire, the rights of crime victims are stronger than ever before."
"As we look back on this past year and recognize our milestones and achievements, we cannot lose sight of New Hampshire's future."
___________________________________________________STATE PAYS ABUSED GIRLS, ADOPTIVE PARENTS 6.75 MILLION TO SETTLE SUIT INVOLVING DCYF
BY Mark Hayward
Union Leader
MANCHESTER — The state will pay $6.75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the grandparents of , Youth and Families, state Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said Thursday.two girls who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their parents while the family was under supervision of the Division of Children
The settlement ends a four-year legal saga in which the grandparents, who have since adopted the girls, fought to sue the state and two non-profit agencies — Easterseals New Hampshire and CASA of New Hampshire — in open court.
Their settlements with Easterseals and CASA have been sealed and parties on both sides would not discuss them.
“It was a very, very troubling set of facts, as extreme as I have seen in the context of childhood sexual abuse,” said MacDonald after the hearing.
MacDonald made a rare court appearance in Hillsborough Counth Superior Court-North to settle lingering issues over the settlement.
Once Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson approves it, the state will immediately release the money, MacDonald said.
The money will come out of the state general fund and does not need Executive Council approval, he said.
Abramson did not issue a ruling from the bench Thursday morning but promised to do so soon.
The court hearing featured teams of lawyers for the grandparents, the state and the two agencies. It also was the first time that the grandparents — identified as T.C. and D.C. — appeared at a hearing.
They are identified by their initials to guard the privacy of the victims.The girls, now 8 and 5 years old, are “really not doing well,” said the grandfather, T.C. They attend a public school, but both are in counseling and will need out-of-state treament once the settlement is approved, he said.
The younger was under 2 years old at the time of the abuse and is doing better than her sister.
“The oldest is the one that remembers everything. She’s the one who (disclosed the abuse). She’s a mess. She needs serious counseling and we can’t get it until this is settled,” he said.
Under terms of the settlement, each child will receive $3.125 million from the state and the adoptive parents will receive $500,000.
The attorney who brought the case, Rus Rilee, said that trusts have been established for the girls, and the adoptive parents expect they will be set for the rest of their life financially and have money to bequeath to children.
From the start of the ordeal, T.C. and D.C. wanted the case brought to highlight DCYF accountability, Rilee said. Because of court rulings in the case, others will be able to file court cases in public to challenge missteps by DCYF, and that will make case workers second guess their decisions, he said.
“I hope the system’s gotten better. I hope we made some changes,” he said.
Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said no one at DCYF lost their job because of what happened to the girls.“It was the parents that abused these children,” Edwards said. “They had rights under court orders to be able to proceed with unsupervised or partially supervised visits, and those rights were met by DCYF.”
When a supervisor was not on-site, the children were repeatedly assaulted, she said.
The issue during a court hearing was attorney fees. Rilee and his team want to exceed a 25 percent limit spelled out in state law and court rules for settlements involving children.
D.C. and T.C. both said they agreed to a higher portion — the percentage was not disclosed — and urged MacDonald to stop fighting it.
“I would love to have you guys come to my home and see how my 8-year-old acts. Just come,” T.C. said.
MacDonald said state law requires him to challenge the higher percentage.
mhayward@unionleader.com
__________________________________________________________________________________
By Allie Morris
Concord Monitor
April 2017
A New Hampshire Superior Court judge has sided with a family suing the state child protection agency in a ruling that could pave the way to making confidential abuse and neglect records open to the public.
“The court finds defendants’ interests in maintaining confidentiality in this case is motivated purely by their own self-interest in minimizing public exposure of their alleged errors,” Judge Gillian Abramson wrote in an order released on Thursday.
The decision could shine a rare light on the inner workings of an agency that has been under scrutiny since two toddlers under its watch were killed. The lawsuit accuses Easter Seals and the Division for Children, Youth, and Families of failing to protect two young girls from “horrific” sexual abuse by their biological parents, despite repeated warning signs.
The court order allows the girls’ grandparents, now their adoptive parents, to waive confidentiality of state records related to the girls. Their attorney, Rus Rilee, said the next step is to file that motion.
Under state child protection laws, records from abuse and neglect investigations and proceedings must be kept in “books and files separate from all other court records” and must be withheld from “public inspection.” They are only accessible to a child’s grandparents or guardians with approval. Rilee argued the laws shield the public from ever learning about problems within DCYF.
He said children’s identities can be protected even if the state’s documents are made public. While state attorneys argued the laws are needed to protect sensitive information about children, parents and foster families, Abramson came down in favor of disclosure.
“The court finds the children in this case — as well as all children in this State who may experience the misfortune of being involved in abuse and neglect proceedings — have a strong and legitimate interest in ensuring the proper functioning and public accountability of the entities responsible for their care,” Abramson wrote.
The 16-page document also added Court Appointed Special Advocates, known as CASA, as a defendant in the suit and denied the state’s request to dismiss the case. Rilee, who represents a number of families who plan to sue DCYF, including those of Sadence Willott and Brielle Gage — the two toddlers who died while under state watch — praised the ruling.
Every case we bring forward, on behalf of Sadee, Brielle, those cases are going to be litigated openly and publicly and the records associated with those cases are going to be eventually open for public consumption,” he said.
A spokeswoman for CASA said in a statement the ruling doesn’t mean the organization is liable. “CASA of New Hampshire intends to vigorously contest the plaintiffs’ allegations based on both the facts of the case and the state’s child protection laws,” Carolyn Cote said in a statement.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Lisa English said the state is still reviewing the recent order. We “will make a decision as to what actions we may take in the next several days,” she said.
In the lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court, the grandparents are seeking monetary damages and demanding a jury trial on several grounds. The family accuses DCYF, Easter Seals and CASA of negligence, negligent training and supervision of its employees, and breach of fiduciary duty.
The lawsuit alleges the groups disregarded concerns from the family and police about possible sexual abuse, which turned out to be founded. The girls’ mother and father pleaded guilty in 2014 to felonious sexual assault charges and to manufacturing child pornography. Each was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
The girls were 4 and 18 months old, respectively, at the time of the abuse detailed in the suit. It alleges the parents sexually abused their daughters during supervised and unsupervised visits in 2013, and that the mother filmed 14 of the incidents. Some of the abuse occurred during “bath time” with the parents, while an Easter Seals caseworker was in another room, according to the lawsuit.
Police recovered flash drives from the parents’ home that included those videos. In one, a child’s cry is muffled because her mouth is covered with duct tape.
The suit alleges DCYF allowed the parents to have unsupervised visits with their daughters, even after the Claremont Police Department began investigating reports months earlier that the couple had molested a young boy and girl at a homeless shelter where they were staying. Police contacted DCYF several weeks later about the allegations, but officials took no steps to follow up, the lawsuit claims.
“The defendants later justified their decision to allow unsupervised time with the biological parents, with DCYF telling both (the plaintiffs) and the investigating police officer that they had to give these parents ‘the opportunity to fail,’ ” the lawsuit says.
Rilee also is representing the paternal father of Brielle Gage, a 3-year-old Nashua girl killed by her mother in 2014. The father, William Boucher, has said he plans to sue DCYF over its handling of his daughter’s case. He wants the case heard in open court to try and bring change to the system.
The settlement ends a four-year legal saga in which the grandparents, who have since adopted the girls, fought to sue the state and two non-profit agencies — Easterseals New Hampshire and CASA of New Hampshire — in open court.
Their settlements with Easterseals and CASA have been sealed and parties on both sides would not discuss them.
“It was a very, very troubling set of facts, as extreme as I have seen in the context of childhood sexual abuse,” said MacDonald after the hearing.
MacDonald made a rare court appearance in Hillsborough Counth Superior Court-North to settle lingering issues over the settlement.
Once Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson approves it, the state will immediately release the money, MacDonald said.
The money will come out of the state general fund and does not need Executive Council approval, he said.
Abramson did not issue a ruling from the bench Thursday morning but promised to do so soon.
The court hearing featured teams of lawyers for the grandparents, the state and the two agencies. It also was the first time that the grandparents — identified as T.C. and D.C. — appeared at a hearing.
They are identified by their initials to guard the privacy of the victims.The girls, now 8 and 5 years old, are “really not doing well,” said the grandfather, T.C. They attend a public school, but both are in counseling and will need out-of-state treament once the settlement is approved, he said.
The younger was under 2 years old at the time of the abuse and is doing better than her sister.
“The oldest is the one that remembers everything. She’s the one who (disclosed the abuse). She’s a mess. She needs serious counseling and we can’t get it until this is settled,” he said.
Under terms of the settlement, each child will receive $3.125 million from the state and the adoptive parents will receive $500,000.
The attorney who brought the case, Rus Rilee, said that trusts have been established for the girls, and the adoptive parents expect they will be set for the rest of their life financially and have money to bequeath to children.
From the start of the ordeal, T.C. and D.C. wanted the case brought to highlight DCYF accountability, Rilee said. Because of court rulings in the case, others will be able to file court cases in public to challenge missteps by DCYF, and that will make case workers second guess their decisions, he said.
“I hope the system’s gotten better. I hope we made some changes,” he said.
Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said no one at DCYF lost their job because of what happened to the girls.“It was the parents that abused these children,” Edwards said. “They had rights under court orders to be able to proceed with unsupervised or partially supervised visits, and those rights were met by DCYF.”
When a supervisor was not on-site, the children were repeatedly assaulted, she said.
The issue during a court hearing was attorney fees. Rilee and his team want to exceed a 25 percent limit spelled out in state law and court rules for settlements involving children.
D.C. and T.C. both said they agreed to a higher portion — the percentage was not disclosed — and urged MacDonald to stop fighting it.
“I would love to have you guys come to my home and see how my 8-year-old acts. Just come,” T.C. said.
MacDonald said state law requires him to challenge the higher percentage.
mhayward@unionleader.com
__________________________________________________________________________________
N.H. Judge Rules Against DCYF
By Allie Morris
Concord Monitor
April 2017
A New Hampshire Superior Court judge has sided with a family suing the state child protection agency in a ruling that could pave the way to making confidential abuse and neglect records open to the public.
“The court finds defendants’ interests in maintaining confidentiality in this case is motivated purely by their own self-interest in minimizing public exposure of their alleged errors,” Judge Gillian Abramson wrote in an order released on Thursday.
The decision could shine a rare light on the inner workings of an agency that has been under scrutiny since two toddlers under its watch were killed. The lawsuit accuses Easter Seals and the Division for Children, Youth, and Families of failing to protect two young girls from “horrific” sexual abuse by their biological parents, despite repeated warning signs.
The court order allows the girls’ grandparents, now their adoptive parents, to waive confidentiality of state records related to the girls. Their attorney, Rus Rilee, said the next step is to file that motion.
Under state child protection laws, records from abuse and neglect investigations and proceedings must be kept in “books and files separate from all other court records” and must be withheld from “public inspection.” They are only accessible to a child’s grandparents or guardians with approval. Rilee argued the laws shield the public from ever learning about problems within DCYF.
He said children’s identities can be protected even if the state’s documents are made public. While state attorneys argued the laws are needed to protect sensitive information about children, parents and foster families, Abramson came down in favor of disclosure.
“The court finds the children in this case — as well as all children in this State who may experience the misfortune of being involved in abuse and neglect proceedings — have a strong and legitimate interest in ensuring the proper functioning and public accountability of the entities responsible for their care,” Abramson wrote.
The 16-page document also added Court Appointed Special Advocates, known as CASA, as a defendant in the suit and denied the state’s request to dismiss the case. Rilee, who represents a number of families who plan to sue DCYF, including those of Sadence Willott and Brielle Gage — the two toddlers who died while under state watch — praised the ruling.
Every case we bring forward, on behalf of Sadee, Brielle, those cases are going to be litigated openly and publicly and the records associated with those cases are going to be eventually open for public consumption,” he said.
A spokeswoman for CASA said in a statement the ruling doesn’t mean the organization is liable. “CASA of New Hampshire intends to vigorously contest the plaintiffs’ allegations based on both the facts of the case and the state’s child protection laws,” Carolyn Cote said in a statement.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Lisa English said the state is still reviewing the recent order. We “will make a decision as to what actions we may take in the next several days,” she said.
In the lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court, the grandparents are seeking monetary damages and demanding a jury trial on several grounds. The family accuses DCYF, Easter Seals and CASA of negligence, negligent training and supervision of its employees, and breach of fiduciary duty.
The lawsuit alleges the groups disregarded concerns from the family and police about possible sexual abuse, which turned out to be founded. The girls’ mother and father pleaded guilty in 2014 to felonious sexual assault charges and to manufacturing child pornography. Each was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
The girls were 4 and 18 months old, respectively, at the time of the abuse detailed in the suit. It alleges the parents sexually abused their daughters during supervised and unsupervised visits in 2013, and that the mother filmed 14 of the incidents. Some of the abuse occurred during “bath time” with the parents, while an Easter Seals caseworker was in another room, according to the lawsuit.
Police recovered flash drives from the parents’ home that included those videos. In one, a child’s cry is muffled because her mouth is covered with duct tape.
The suit alleges DCYF allowed the parents to have unsupervised visits with their daughters, even after the Claremont Police Department began investigating reports months earlier that the couple had molested a young boy and girl at a homeless shelter where they were staying. Police contacted DCYF several weeks later about the allegations, but officials took no steps to follow up, the lawsuit claims.
“The defendants later justified their decision to allow unsupervised time with the biological parents, with DCYF telling both (the plaintiffs) and the investigating police officer that they had to give these parents ‘the opportunity to fail,’ ” the lawsuit says.
Rilee also is representing the paternal father of Brielle Gage, a 3-year-old Nashua girl killed by her mother in 2014. The father, William Boucher, has said he plans to sue DCYF over its handling of his daughter’s case. He wants the case heard in open court to try and bring change to the system.
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