Fluff

October 18, 2012 permalink

In Abiline Texas 22-month-old Tamryn Klapheke died in the care of her mother after a botched investigation by child protective services. As part of the press coverage, former social worker Joann Thomas reveals that CPS records are routinely falsified. Their term for the fakery is fluff. CPS has a way of handling its critics. They are now investigating Joann for her care of her own daughter.

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KLAPHEKE DEATH: Ex-CPS worker alleges document tampering wasn't uncommon at Abilene office

By Mari Cockerell, mcockerell@ktxs.com, POSTED: Oct 18 2012 04:57:54 AM CDT UPDATED: 7:40 AM Oct 18 2012

ABILENE, Texas -

We're getting a better idea of what may be happening inside Abilene's CPS office from someone who used to work there.

A former caseworker says she tried to alert the state to practices within the Abilene office. And now that caseworker is in the middle of a cps investigation involving her own daughter.

"They've always done it, they just now got caught," said Joann Thomas. That's the explanation she gives after learning Abilene's Department of Family Protective Services is under criminal investigation.

Thomas left her job as a CPS investigator a little over a year ago. At the time, Thomas says she wrote an email to her supervisor and state officials unveiling what she believed were bad practices within the Abilene office; including the false documentation of cases.

"So I can go in and put in documentation...if I save the first screen, that's going to time stamp it. But, I can go into the actual document and save that as many times as I want to and save it...so I can put something in the computer and make it look like I documented it on this date, but in actuality I didn't," said Thomas.

Tuesday, Abilene Police Chief Stan Standridge announced his department is investigating three women; Bit Whitaker, Gretchen Denny, and Barbara McDaniel for allegedly tampering with or fabricating evidence in the case of Tamryn Klapheke, the 22 month old girl found dead from neglect inside a Dyess home. Her mother, Tiffany Klapheke, now sits in the Taylor County Jail.

Fabricating or tampering with evidence is something Thomas says was not uncommon within the Abilene CPS office. "I remember one particular supervisor - she wanted me to go out and do a removal, and I was like, I'm not removing these kids, there's no grounds for removal of these kids...and she said, yeah you are, and I'll help you if you need me to fluff the affidavit. That's another phrase that you use that everyone in the agency knows what you're talking about," said Thomas.

We want to reiterate that during just the past month, Thomas has become the focus of a CPS investigation herself, a year after sending that email about CPS.

Source: KTXS Abilene

Addendum: Child protectors never miss a chance to plead for more money and power. In this article the Texas CASA is using the Klapheke case to beg for more funding. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) gets into a case after it goes to court. The Klapheke case never got to court, so more funding would not have changed the outcome.

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Nonprofit Says Worker Shortage Hurts Their Ability to Protect Kids 10/20/12

Shannon Murray, CBS 7 Reporter, smurray@cbs7.com, October 20, 2012

Midland, TX -It’s a story gaining national attention: a child abuse case in Abilene that turns tragic.

2 months ago 22-year-old Tiffany Klapheke left her 22-month-old daughter Tamryn to die in her own soiled bed sheets, while her husband was deployed overseas.

Just 6 days before the toddlers death a CPS employee closed an eleven-month investigation into the family. That employee has since resigned.

Klapheke remains in the Taylor County Jail on injury to a child charges.

The Abilene Police Department is investigating the Abilene CPS office.

Now a Midland children’s advocacy group is speaking out, hoping to stop tragedies like this one from happening again. The problem is, they say a shortage of workers and volunteers is hurting their ability to protect kids.

CASA of West Texas is a nonprofit group that serves as a voice and advocate for children in foster care. They work closely with CPS and CASA says it's more important than ever that they work together, since both organizations are overloaded with cases.

"It’s just tragic what happened to that child in Abilene,” says CASA of West Texas Executive Director Patty Pisklak. “This is a prime example of why there needs to be another set of eyes and ears on a case."

Volunteers with CASA work closely with children in foster care and in some cases they work just as close with Child Protective Services.

"We have had instances where we've had to call CPS and say this is going on where the child’s placed and that's not ok, they're not safe, they're at risk for abuse when they're in foster care as well," Pisklak explains.

CPS caseworkers across the state are backlogged with cases because of an employee shortage. CASA of West Texas says it's more urgent than ever that their organizations work together.

"We desperately need people to stand up for these kids and make sure they don't get abused again."

But there's no CASA in the Abilene area and even our local office is struggling to find volunteers.

"We’ve got 30 kids right now in this community, or in our 7 County service area that don't have a volunteer," Pisklak claims.

In fact, CASA of West Texas currently serves 300 children, but they only have 91 volunteers.

"They need somebody, they need somebody. They move from foster home to foster home and generally their CASA is the most consistent person in their life"

All CASA volunteers will have a background check and will be required to take 30 hours of training. For more information on how to help call CASA of West Texas at 432-683-1114.

Officials with CPS tell us the worker shortage has been a problem since April and they are currently working on their recruitment and retention efforts. CASA says the reason there is no branch of their nonprofit in Abilene is because of hesitation from the legal community there.

Source: KOSA

Addendum: The scandal is spreading. Enclosed is an article on the suspension of Geneva Schroeder, the program administrator for the Child Protective Services office in Wichita Falls. Following that is an opinion piece by Robert Franklin and two articles he refers to.

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Local CPS administrator put on leave

Move linked to Abilene investigation

By John Ingle, Posted October 24, 2012 at 4:56 a.m.

Police detectives come out of the Child Protective Services Office in Abilene, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, after executing a search warrant Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012. Police have launched a rare investigation of the Texas child protection agency after a 22-month-old girl died and her mother claimed her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three children.

AP Photo/The Abilene Reporter-News, Nellie Doneva

The program administrator for the Child Protective Services office in Wichita Falls has been placed on emergency leave in connection with an investigation into CPS in Abilene that involves possible tampering or withholding evidence from an investigation.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for CPS, confirmed that Geneva Schroeder was put on paid emergency leave Monday. Meisner said she can't discuss the reason because of the ongoing investigation.

"It's pending the outcome of the criminal investigation by the Abilene Police Department," she said.

In a memo given to Schroeder on Monday, acting Region 2 and 9 Director Camille Gilliam informed the Wichita Falls director of the decision to put her on emergency leave. The memo indicates that Schroeder must be available by phone during regular business hours. She is subject to be recalled for regular or other duties as assigned.

Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesman in Austin, said Schroeder is the highest ranking executive in the investigations program in the region and reports directly to the Region 2 and 9 director.

According to a news release by the APD, local authorities there opened an investigation into the Abilene CPS office Oct. 16 for its role in tampering with or fabricating physical evidence gathered during the CPS investigation of the Aug. 28 death of 22-month-old Tamryn Klapheke at Dyess Air Force Base. The child's mother, Tiffany Klapheke, remains in Taylor County Jail on $500,000 bond.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services placed Regions 2 and 9 Director Bit Whitaker, Schroeder's boss, on emergency leave Friday. Also placed on emergency leave was Barbara McDaniel, investigation supervisor, and Gretchen Denny, the former CPS program director in Abilene. Denny was reassigned Oct. 1 as a resolution specialist. Meisner said Denny reported to Schroeder, who also served as the regional director for investigations.

Police Chief Stan Standridge said in the news release that his detectives had concerns about the level of cooperation by CPS in the case, an investigation that by state Family Code dictates the two entities work together.

"In the ensuing days following the death of the child, the department became aware of instances in which CPS employees were told by supervisors not to cooperate with law enforcement," the chief said in the Oct. 16 message. "Additionally, records were requested by detectives as part of the investigation. However, those records were not immediately rendered."

The agency eventually provided documents to the detectives after the Taylor County District Attorney's office requested the same information. But the chief said there were concerns about the validity of the records.

Authorities executed a search warrant Friday at the Abilene CPS office as well as a supervisor's home and car.

Texas DFPS is conducting an internal investigation at the Abilene office, Meisner said. She added that the Wichita Falls office is not under investigation. She said she wasn't sure who will take Schroeder's place while she is on administrative leave.

Following John Ingle on Twitter @inglejohn1973.

Source: Wichita Falls Times Record News

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Police, DA Launch Broad Investigation of Child Protective Services in Wake of Child’s Death

October 21st, 2012 by Robert Franklin, Esq.

Tiffany Nicole Klapheke of Abilene, Texas, was so upset about her husband’s overseas military deployment that she walked off and left her three children, ages three years, 22 months and 6 months, alone, apparently for several days. Such, at any rate is her claim. What’s certain is that her 22 month old daughter Tamryn died of dehydration and malnutrition and the other two children were near death when police discovered them.

Klapheke is in jail on $500,000 bond, the two remaining children are in foster care and her husband has filed for divorce.

But that’s only part of the story. The rest is that the police are investigating the local Child Protective Services for allegedly covering up its involvement in Tamryn’s death. Read about it here (Associated Press, 10/16/12) and here (Houston Chronicle, 10/16/12). Although no charges have yet been filed, expect that to happen in the near future. For the time being, several Child Protective Services employees have either been fired or quit in the wake of Tamryn’s death and the police investigation.

Put simply, it looks like CPS knew that Klapheke’s children were at risk, but a caseworker closed the agency’s file on the children a matter of days before Tamryn died.

Agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said a Child Protective Services caseworker assigned to investigate allegations of medical neglect against Klapheke closed the case soon after being promoted to supervisor and just six days before Tamryn died.

That employee resigned two weeks after the child died and her supervisor was disciplined. But the case turns out to be far broader than merely the malfeasance of a single caseworker and her supervisor. Police and the Taylor County District Attorney have executed warrants for agency documents and computers.

[Abilene Police Chief Stan] Standridge and Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson declined to say what charges police are considering. However, Standridge said officers executed a search warrant on the local CPS office and a supervisor’s home and car Tuesday morning after finding probable cause to suggest documents and other evidence existed to support allegations of evidence tampering.

Eidson said “there is more than one person” being investigated at the office.

According to the search warrant affidavit, a regional director, a program director and an investigative supervisor are suspected of tampering with evidence.

But that’s just the Klapheke case; apparently the problem extends beyond that case and beyond agency incompetence to intentional wrongdoing. As the Houston Chronicle reports, police are investigating whether agency officials have hidden evidence of abused or neglected children, tampered with evidence and lied to police, all in an effort to cover up the negligence of caseworkers, supervisors and others.

But it’s the behind-the-scenes action, in which police said CPS workers were told by super­visors not to cooperate with officers investigating the case, that now takes center stage and could affect hundreds of other cases in the Abilene region.

“The evidence suggests that the conduct being investigated predates the Klapheke investigation,” Chief Stan Standridge told the Houston Chronicle, which reported Monday that a CPS investigator quietly closed a previous case involving Tamryn and her sister six days before the girls were found…

“In the ensuing days following the death of the child, the department became aware of instances in which CPS employees were told by supervisors not to cooperate with law enforcement,” Standridge told reporters Tuesday…

The search warrant affidavit details suspicions that CPS regional administrator Bit Whitaker; program director Gretchen Denny, who has since relinquished that post and been reassigned; and CPS supervisor Barbara McDaniel, who was later reprimanded by CPS; tampered with evidence involving the Klapheke investigation.

Specifically, the affidavit states that another CPS worker, Rebecca Tapia, “was ordered not to release any information or photographs to medical staff or law enforcement” after Tamryn’s death and while investigators were at the hospital with the surviving sisters.

“Rebecca did not provide a photograph because she was directed by a supervisor not to provide a photograph,” Standridge told the Chronicle.

According to the affidavit, Abilene detectives interviewed 12 CPS employees in the weeks since Tamryn’s death and believe that several supervisors “have intentionally and knowingly concealed, altered or destroyed records and other documentation material to this investigation because of the damaging nature of the documents.”

McDaniel was interviewed Sept. 18 and according to the affidavit, she “lied” for several hours and ultimately admitted to giving the order not to share information.

Another person interviewed recounted several cases involving other police agencies in which “Gretchen Denny and Inv. Supervisor Barbara McDaniel had ordered investigators not to provide reports to law enforcement.”

High Turnover of Staff at Child Protectice Services

Finally, the root of the problem is what we’ve come to expect – understaffing by Child Protective Services. As happened in Arizona, Texas pays its caseworkers too little and gives them oversized case loads in high-stress jobs. That’s an iron-clad guarantee of high turnover, which is precisely what’s going on in both states. High turnover means ever-larger case loads for those who stay on resulting in higher stress, etc. creating an increasing spiral of underserved kids.

There was a backlog of cases in the Abilene office at the time of the toddler’s death due to a shortage of caseworkers, [CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins] said. Instead of 16 caseworkers, there were six.

There’s a shortage of caseworkers statewide, he said, and chronic turnover is an issue. As of Oct. 12, the state had 1,495 case workers — more than 400 less than it should have, he said.

“We’re, frankly, caught in a pretty vicious cycle,” Crimmins said.

However much we pay child welfare workers, they’re not meant to be a substitute for families. There will always be a need for Child Protective Services, because there will always be some people who abuse and neglect children. But the decline of intact families and the rise of single-parent households has increased the likelihood of child abuse and neglect beyond anything it was in the 60s and early 70s. The simple fact is that a single parent, regardless of how dedicated, can’t care for children as well as two parents can. This society’s embrace of divorce and single-parent child rearing is one of the most destructive developments of the past 40 years; its consequences are many and essentially all of those are bad. We can reverse the tide of single-parent households, but it’ll take a political will that’s entirely lacking now. Until we find it, we’ll continue to throw money at Child Protective Services and wonder why so many children get hurt or killed.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2012 at 12:54 pm

Source: Fathers and Families.

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FILE - An undated file photo provided by the Taylor, Texas, County Sheriff's Office shows Tiffany Nicole Klapheke. West Texas police are investigating the state agency that protects children for its alleged mishandling of a case involving Klapheke who claims her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three young children, one of whom died.

AP Photo/Taylor County Sheriff's Office, File

Police probe Texas agency in case where child died

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press – Oct 16, 2012

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Police have launched a rare investigation of the Texas child protection agency after a 22-month-old girl died and her mother claimed her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three children.

Abilene police Chief Stan Standridge said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the department began investigating the local Child Protective Services office after "certain CPS supervisors" refused to cooperate with officers investigating the Aug. 28 death of Tamryn Klapheke.

The girl died at an Abilene hospital after being found unresponsive at her home at Dyess Air Force Base. She weighed only 17.5 pounds and her body had chemical burns, indicating she had been exposed to human waste, according to a preliminary autopsy report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth. It said Tamryn suffered dehydration and malnutrition from a lack of basic care over a period of time.

Her mother, Tiffany Nicole Klapheke, faces three felony charges of injury to child. After her arrest, she claimed she was too stressed by her husband's deployment to care for their three young children.

Agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said a Child Protective Services caseworker assigned to investigate allegations of medical neglect against Klapheke closed the case soon after being promoted to supervisor and just six days before Tamryn died.

In doing so, the employee violated agency guidelines that require a final face-to-face visit and someone else to sign off on the closure, he said.

"You want to see the family again because you don't know what might have changed since you saw them," Crimmins said.

The employee hadn't seen the family in about 10 months when she closed the case, he said. She resigned a couple of weeks after Tamryn died. Phone numbers listed in the former caseworker's name were either disconnected or had a continuous busy signal Tuesday.

Her former supervisor, who oversaw the investigation of the allegations, has been disciplined, he added.

"It was a bad case, admittedly," Crimmins said, referring to how it was handled. "There's no question about that."

He said a criminal investigation of the agency was "rare" and that "we are cooperating fully with Abilene police."

Standridge and Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson declined to say what charges police are considering. However, Standridge said officers executed a search warrant on the local CPS office and a supervisor's home and car Tuesday morning after finding probable cause to suggest documents and other evidence existed to support allegations of evidence tampering.

Eidson said "there is more than one person" being investigated at the office.

According to the search warrant affidavit, a regional director, a program director and an investigative supervisor are suspected of tampering with evidence. A phone number listed for one of them had been disconnected by Tuesday, and there were no public listings for the other two. Their names are being withheld because no charges have been filed.

Klapheke remained jailed Tuesday in lieu of $500,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for her.

Her two other daughters, ages 6 months and 3 years when Tamryn died, were treated for severe neglect at a children's hospital in Fort Worth, about 150 miles east of Abilene. They are now in foster care, Crimmins said.

There was a backlog of cases in the Abilene office at the time of the toddler's death due to a shortage of caseworkers, he said. Instead of 16 caseworkers, there were six.

There's a shortage of caseworkers statewide, he said, and chronic turnover is an issue. As of Oct. 12, the state had 1,495 case workers — more than 400 less than it should have, he said.

"We're, frankly, caught in a pretty vicious cycle," Crimmins said.

Klapheke's husband, Thomas, filed for divorce last week. His attorney's office said there would be no comment on the case.

Source: Associated Press, hosted by Google

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Police probe of CPS widens after baby's death

By Terri Langford | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 | Updated: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 11:58am

Police investigators seized computers, cell phones and files from Texas Child Protective Services offices in Abilene on Tuesday as part of a widening probe into accusations that top officials directed workers to withhold child abuse files and photographs from law enforcement after the death of a child.

The rare action against one of the state's largest agencies comes six weeks after Abilene police discovered 22-month-old Tamryn Klapheke dead of dehydration and her two sisters barely alive inside a Dyess Air Force Base home on Aug. 28.

The three are believed to have been essentially abandoned for at least a week by their mother, Tiffany Klapheke, now jailed on three counts of child abuse.

But it's the behind-the-scenes action, in which police said CPS workers were told by super­visors not to cooperate with officers investigating the case, that now takes center stage and could affect hundreds of other cases in the Abilene region.

"The evidence suggests that the conduct being investigated predates the Klapheke investigation," Chief Stan Standridge told the Houston Chronicle, which reported Monday that a CPS investigator quietly closed a previous case involving Tamryn and her sister six days before the girls were found.

Inexplicably, CPS caseworker Claudia Gonzalez closed the case without visiting the family a final time and did so without a supervisor's signature, which is a firing offense under CPS rules. She has since resigned.

"In the ensuing days following the death of the child, the department became aware of instances in which CPS employees were told by supervisors not to cooperate with law enforcement," Standridge told reporters Tuesday.

'We are cooperating'

CPS Spokesman Patrick Crimmins declined to discuss the search warrant or the accusations. "We are cooperating fully with the Abilene Police Department," he said.

The search warrant affidavit details suspicions that CPS regional administrator Bit Whitaker; program director Gretchen Denny, who has since relinquished that post and been reassigned; and CPS supervisor Barbara McDaniel, who was later reprimanded by CPS; tampered with evidence involving the Klapheke investigation.

Specifically, the affidavit states that another CPS worker, Rebecca Tapia, "was ordered not to release any information or photographs to medical staff or law enforcement" after Tamryn's death and while investigators were at the hospital with the surviving sisters.

"Rebecca did not provide a photograph because she was directed by a supervisor not to provide a photograph," Standridge told the Chronicle.

According to the affidavit, Abilene detectives interviewed 12 CPS employees in the weeks since Tamryn's death and believe that several supervisors "have intentionally and knowingly concealed, altered or destroyed records and other documentation material to this investigation because of the damaging nature of the documents."

No one charged

McDaniel was interviewed Sept. 18 and according to the affidavit, she "lied" for several hours and ultimately admitted to giving the order not to share information.

Another person interviewed recounted several cases involving other police agencies in which "Gretchen Denny and Inv. Supervisor Barbara McDaniel had ordered investigators not to provide reports to law enforcement."

None of the three officials named in the affidavit, whom the police chief called suspects, have been charged. The Chronicle's attempts to contact the three Tuesday were unsuccessful.

A source close to the probe told the Chronicle top CPS officials had been warned this summer by the Taylor County district attorney about omitting data on court documents involving abused children who had been removed from their homes. Yet, one day after Tamryn's death, CPS' paperwork sent to prosecutors omitted details about previous investigations of the family.

Source: Houston Chronicle