Police in Abilene, Texas are investigating the death of a child and the CPS officials who closed an investigation without visiting the home for a final visit and without approval of a supervisor. The caseworker has resigned according to the Houston Chronicle article.
However, the developing scandal is based on reports that “top CPS officials” instructed CPS employees to withhold information from police and medical officials who were investigating the child’s death. The paper says, “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.”
This is very reminiscent of the case in federal court in Houston in which THSC’s special counsel for CPS issues Chris Branson is suing the agency and individual caseworkers and supervisors for doing essentially the same thing in the illegal taking of the grandchildren from Ms. Theresa Allen. In that case, CPS officials lied to the court for almost a year in an effort to defame this grandmother and keep her grandchildren in foster care in an effort to hide the fact that they failed to investigate a report of abuse of a child under the age of six.
The article closes with this comment, “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’s paperwork sent to prosecutors omitted details about previous investigations of the family.”
This indicates that the practice by CPS of withholding information from court documents may be widespread, and it is unfortunate that it takes a child’s death to further bring this problem to light.
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