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Sometimes, even though we may not know all the facts, it is clear that some horrible tragedy has taken place. Probably one that has something to do with distorted perceptions of some kind. By some body.

Either that or pure evil. But then, I do not tend to believe in “pure evil” in such situations. I’ve seen too much.

But I digress (already).

In Fitchburg District Court, the allegations were presented in open court. The event was the arraignment of mother Shana Pedroso, 37, and the children’s father, Marvin Brito, 38. After the hearing, the two were ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing next Wednesday.

The case involves a 6-year-old girl and her 9-year-old brother. The 6-year-old girl is dead.

The brother told police that he and his sister went out for a walk on Monday with their parents and two other kids. He said that when the parents left them, “he and his sister were attacked by bullies,” according to a police report.

The brother, according to the police, suffered “serious injuries and bruising to his face.” He also told officers his mother “had glued a wound on his neck closed with super glue,” and that his parents had told him not to call 911.

The sister was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in the family’s home on Stoneybrook Road, where the children were home-schooled.

Police said they observed “extensive bruising of various ages over her entire body.” Her brother said she was unable to drink yesterday morning “and that his mother was mad.”

Police said that while booking Pedroso yesterday they found handwritten notes on her dated Monday saying “that the children were bad and beaten.”

According to the Boston Herald,  the mother is facing charges of assault and battery causing injury to her children and reckless endangerment of their lives. Dad was charged with permitting substantial injury to the children, in addition to reckless endangerment.

Prosecutors did not rule out further charges.

The Department of Children and Families has taken custody of the 9-year-old boy and said that the agency had no prior involvement with the family, adding in a statement, “The Department of Children and Families continues to assist law enforcement in the active investigation of this tragedy.”

Attorney Sam’s Take On The Case As It Is And Could Be

I suppose that the assumption here is that the mother’s note regarding the children being “bad and beaten” is a mere reflection of what happened. That the mother, perhaps unaware that any wrongdoing somehow was simply doing her job as a home schooling mother and keeping accurate notes of the day’s events.

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So you are standing there with the letter that came to you from the Department of Children and Families (“DCF”). The letter says that they have investigated reports of your being abusive and neglectful to your young children.

When you got the first letter, the 51A letter, you agreed to meet with the DCF investigator. You figured that you did not need a lawyer. After all, to your best knowledge, you are neither neglectful nor abusive. Nothing could be further from the truth!

You met with the investigator, who struck you as having just graduated from high school, and explained the absurdity of the allegations. She nodded politely and seemed very nice.

Yes, you had an argument with your spouse. Yes, the kids where home. Yes, sometimes you are forced to raise your voice a bit with your children when they get out of control. Who doesn’t?

No hitting. No violence. Certainly nothing like what you grew up with!

How could they find against you?

Attorney Sam’s take on 51A, 51B and what to do next.

As I mentioned in my last posting, the definitions of words like “abuse” and “neglect” have different meetings in the DCF world. Very often, for example, verbally chastising somebody is considered abuse. Yelling at someone when the children are around, witnessing it, is often found to be neglect.

“Sam… That’s ridiculous! That’s daily life!”

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It’s been a hard week and, admit it, you have not really been at your best. Or, perhaps your significant other has not been at his or her best. Either way, somebody may have done something stupid.

All you know for sure now is that you have received word that the Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) wants to meet with you. Someone said something about receiving a “51a” or something and now DCF is saying they need to see if you have been neglectful.

“Neglectful???!”, you say to yourself. “Are they kidding? Look at all the things my kids have. My every thought is about my kids! Believe me, my kids are anything but neglected!”

“I don’t need to get a lawyer for this, do I?”

Attorney Sam’s Take on DCF Investigations And Whether You Need A Lawyer

Unfortunately, the answer tends to be “it depends”. However, I can tell you that in the vast majority of cases, my advice is generally “Yes”.

“But I did not do anything?”

Actually, you don’t know that for sure. You see, DCF, like many government agencies, has its own definitions for all kinds of things…including what is called “neglect”.

“My kids have a roof over their heads. The place is clean.”

Great!

“They have plenty of food. They want for nothing!”

Fantastic!

“We do not believe in corporal punishment. I mean, sure we get angry sometimes, and sometimes may yell…”

Uh-oh.

Here is the problem. Someone has made a report to DCF that your kids may be being neglected or even abused. DCF has screened the report in and begun a “51a Investigation”. Now, they have a fairly short amount of time to size the entire situation up and decide whether they can ignore your home.

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Hello. This is “Attorney Sam”. You may remember me as I regularly wrote this blog.

Now that we are finally thawing out, welcome to 2018. Although it has admittedly been awhile, I am still around, handling criminal cases and, of course, representing parents and teachers against the Department of Children and Families (DCF).

Since we are starting off a new year, I thought that I would do something new. In all my blogs about DCF, I don’t think I have ever written one that is favorable to the department.

The previously stated views remain, unfortunately, but there is one aspect where DCF has surprised me in a positive way.

For those of you unacquainted, when DCF gets a report about abuse or neglect of a child, or what passes for such in some people’s minds, they do an investigation. At the end of that rather short investigation, they make a determination as to whether the allegations are “supported”.

There are various ways in which such a finding can, and will, negatively effect your life. Not just in the short term…years later as well.

There is only one way to challenge such a finding. It is an appeal procedure within DCF culminating in what is known as a “Fair Hearing”.

At a Fair Hearing, the investigator explains why the decision was made to support the allegations. The aggrieved parent (or teacher) has a chance to question the investigator and present his or her own witnesses. What passes for a judge in such hearings are men and women known as “Hearing Officers”. They have their own unit at the Boston headquarters of DCF.

“Who do the Hearing Officers work for, Sam?”

They work for DCF.

“Wait a minute. You’re telling me that it comes down to asking DCF to find that DCF had made a mistake in its finding?”

I know that, particularly if you know DCF, this seems like lunacy. Particularly if they continue to call it a “Fair” Hearing. Frankly, that is how it seemed when I started handling these matters years ago.

The good news is that, contrary to what one might expect, these Hearing Officers actually seem to take their job seriously. I have won many of these hearings and found many of the Officers quite fair.

 

“Is it just one Hearing Officer whom you have somehow won over or are dating?”

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Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker presented a reform of the Department of Children and Families on Monday. The reform highlighted a series of steps being taken in an effort to fix the immense issues that have been plaguing the department in recent years. Following the death and serious injury of several children under DCF care, there have been multiple calls for reform to the struggling department. Governor Baker had been facing immense scrutiny for his perceived lack of initiative in beginning the reform. But the new policy announcement that took place today has shown that Governor Baker has been anything but complacent.

Governor Baker has stated in the past that he believed that the Department of Children and Families had “fundamental issues” that needed to be fixed in an accelerated manner. Just recently he began this improvement by naming Linda Spears the new DCF commissioner. Once Spears was hired for the position in February of 2015, she immediately went to action issuing reforms for the various fragmented pieces of the department. One of the main reforms she began to instate was the call for additional CORI checks for potential and existing foster families. The new policies outlined by Spears also included photo documentation for children, as well as updated guidelines for social workers visiting families involved with the department.

The new reform taking place has provided specific steps that have one main objective in mind, in the words of Governor Baker himself: “…to keep kids safe.” Too many tragedies have befallen the young children under DCF care, and the reform presented on Monday will help combat these tragedies from occurring yet again. Governor Baker’s presentation included six clear initiatives that will help keep the focus on the children. Continue reading