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HJN local mobileAuthorities launch investigation into possible abuse of 1-year-old foster child
Saturday, May 31, 2008
TRENTON — Butler County Children Services is working with local law enforcement to investigate a report that a 1-year-old girl may have been abused in a Trenton foster home.
Suspicion arose when a caseworker noticed injuries to the infant's face and head during a May 20 visitation, according to Children Services Director Michael Fox. The child was treated at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and removed from the foster home.
Extras
Children Services and the Butler County Sheriff's Office began an investigation, "to determine if the child was injured as a result of an accident or whether the child was injured as a result of abuse," Fox said.
"The child's injuries were sufficient to attract attention," Fox said.
The girl and her 8-year-old brother were removed from their Hamilton home March 10 amid allegations of abuse at home. The child's mother — who is not being named to protect the girl's identity — said her children were taken away because she failed a drug test.
The mother blames the agency for putting her children at risk. She said the child's grandmother, who has the girl now, offered to take custody days after the kids were removed.
The mother said the incident reminded her of the tragic death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, the Middletown boy killed in August 2006 when foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr. left him bound in a closet while taking a weekend trip.
Since then, there have been 35 investigations of abuse or neglect by foster parents in Butler County foster homes, agency officials said. Three investigations are ongoing.
In five cases — including one involving another Middletown boy in the Carroll home — the agency found evidence of abuse or neglect. In three other cases, agency officials believe physical or sexual abuse occurred, but couldn't prove it.
While the children have been removed from all these homes, not all have led to criminal prosecution, Fox said.
The numbers of Butler County children abused in foster homes has gone down in recent years but may never reach zero, Fox said, despite recent efforts to increase screening and accountability of foster parents.
