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Hearing SOCIAL WORKER PROBABLY DECIDED THIS WASN'T A
CASE THAT COULD END IN ADOPTION-SO SHE DROPPED IT
This is a DCS scenario that is common.. DCS social worker did not think a report of possible molestation/rape warranted further investigation. I am one who believes there are too many false reports called into CPS, but I also believe that there certainly should be guidelines as to which ones are definite priorites and I would think this one should be at the very top! What goes through a social worker's mind(most are not college educated in the social worker field and some are not even licensed)when she decides a possible sexual abuse case does not warrant further investigation? Probably that "DCS has no right to place the child into foster care, if the incident did not happen in the home, and if they can't place the child into foster care, then DCS won't benefit at all with this case. Let the parents call the police and let them handle it." That's probably what she thought. What about "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, VIOLA MILLER?" Of course, DCS will categorically deny such a claim and they ALWAYS do what is in the best interest of the child, right? ABSOLUTELY NOT! This time, like so many others, they got caught with their pants down.
When is someone, capable of bringing about change for the better in CPS/DCS, reform, going to come forward and cry "FOUL"?
June 12, 2007
Convicted child rapist Jeremy Duffer’s list of abuse victims could be longer
than the young boy he was found guilty in a trial last week of molesting.
Documents contained in Duffer’s criminal court file and obtained by The City
Paper show the convicted child rapist admitted in an interrogation with
Metro Police to molesting at least two more victims.
According to court records, Duffer told police the alleged molestations
happened in 2004 — the year after the Tennessee Department of Children Services
was first alerted to Duffer’s behavior concerning the boy he was eventually
convicted of having a two-year-long sexual relationship with.
The confession by Duffer — documented by narratives in police reports in the
case — were never used in open court during Duffer’s trial.
DCS officials have admitted to receiving a phoned-in tip in June 2003 about
Duffer’s suspicious behavior with the boy he was eventually convicted of
molesting — then a 13-year-old. The 2003 complaint, made by Christopher Hand, a
patron of the game store where Duffer worked — sat untouched for over a year
until the fall of 2004, after Duffer’s rape victim finally told authorities
about his former relationship with Duffer.
Reports written by detectives who solicited Duffer’s statement in the case
where he was convicted last week show that when Duffer confessed to police to
having a sexual relationship with the boy who eventually came forward, he
also told detectives that he had had sexual contact with two additional boys.
“During the suspect interview, Mr. Duffer mentioned two other boys that he
had sexually assaulted,” according to a Sept. 20, 2004, report filed by the
lead detective on the case, David Zoccola.
Duffer provided Zoccola with the names and the telephone numbers — which he
stored in his cell phone — of those two boys.
The report says that Duffer admitted to sexually fondling a young boy living
in the Hermitage area sometime in the spring of 2004, just a few months
before his arrest.
Metro police never learned that Duffer was suspected of being a danger to
children until the victim from Duffer’s trial came forward.
Following Duffer’s September 2004 arrest, police made a routine inquiry to
DCS to see if the state agency had any records pertaining to him. It was only
after that request did Metro Police receive a copy of the June 2003 DCS
report on Duffer, officially recorded but marked “screened out” of the
investigative process by a DCS supervisor.
DCS, through its spokesperson, has repeatedly defended its decision to
screen out the tip as having not relayed enough specific information to have the
agency believe that any child was in “imminent harm.”
“As we have said in the past, we believe this was handled completely
appropriately,” said Rob Johnson, DCS spokesman, who added that he could not comment
on any specific aspect of the complaint.
A copy of the page-long DCS report contained in Duffer’s court record shows
that the complaint against Duffer was “screened-out due to no allegation of
harm or imminent harm” on June 18, the same day it was recorded.
But in addition to the detailed complaint against Duffer — which noted that “
Jeremy and [the victim have been observed in the store’s office with the
door closed,” and that “referent overheard Jeremy Duffer make the comment, ‘
[The victim] was too tired to take his own clothes off so I took them off for
him’” — the complaint documents that the “referent has noticed during these
interactions Jeremy’s preference to the younger [males] at the store.”
Last week, Duffer was convicted of seven counts of rape of a child, four
counts of statutory rape and two counts of especially aggravated sexual
exploitation of a child, all as a result of his relationship with the victim named
in the June 2003 tip to DCS.
In an e-mail to The City Paper sent last week, the mother of that victim
castigated DCS for its lack of action on the tip provided by Hand — a tip she
believes could have prevented the continued abuse of her son.
“I still cannot make any sense of why DCS did not follow through on the
report Mr. Hand provided to the agency,” wrote the boy’s mother. “I was stunned
at their lack of action.”
She also wrote that “no one, and I mean no one, would call me back” after
she made repeated attempts at getting a satisfactory explanation from
officials at DCS.
But the victim’s mother was not the only one who felt outraged that the tip
was “screened-out” by DCS.
Hand himself, who testified during Duffer’s trial about the conversation he
overheard, but who was prevented from testifying about telling DCS about that
conversation, said he was so put off by the DCS response that he came to
believe that nobody, including the police, would be able to do anything more.
As it turns out, Metro police were able to do quite a bit, including
immediately arrest Duffer, but only after they were informed about the victim’s
allegations, which were first delivered to the Smyrna Police Department roughly
a year after Hand’s call to DCS.
After Zoccola was assigned the case, he immediately contacted DCS to find
out if Duffer’s name had ever come to their attention. In response, DCS
provided Zoccola with Duffer’s “screened-out” intake form the agency had received
the year before.
Zoccola contacted Hand, whose name and telephone number were listed on the
intake form.
“Mr. Hand states that he would be glad to talk with anyone concerned about
his actions and the information he gave or tried to give DCS,” Zoccola wrote
ina report he filed the day after he arrested Duffer. “He is upset at the
way this was handled by DCS and the lack of investigation.”
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I am preparing to write several articles about CPS, and found your blog while doing research. I found your "death list" of children who died while in foster care, and would like to use some of the information (mostly demographics) on your page. Before I can, I need to verify the accuracy of your information. If you would email me and let me know how you found all that information, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks,
ohsacademy@yahoo.com
6/23/07 3:53 PM
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