Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect there was another reason why Governor Beshear ordered the release of the fatality records.
Can you say False Claims Act?
Gov. Steve Beshear orders child-abuse fatality records released
Gov. Steve Beshear speaks about the opening of records in child fatality cases during a news conference at the Capitol in Fankfort, Ky.
Lawmakers urge Steve Beshear to investigate Kentucky's child welfare lapses
The brutal death of Amy Dye: Kentucky social workers ignored months of abuse, records show
FRANKFORT, KY. — Gov. Steve Beshear announced Tuesday that he has ordered state officials to “immediately begin opening records” of child protection cases involving deaths or serious injuries from abuse, ostensibly ending his administration’s long-running legal battle to keep them secret.
“Transparency will be the new rule,” he said at a news conference.
But just after Beshear spoke, lawyers with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services filed a lengthy motion in Franklin Circuit Court arguing for further delay.
It also asks Judge Phillip Shepherd to sharply limit the information the cabinet must release and allow it to remove a significant amount of detail — restrictions that seem to contradict the governor’s pledge of openness.
Shepherd, who has ruled three times in the past 18 months that such records must be released under state law, has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on a request by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader to compel the cabinet to release the material.
“I am astonished at what the governor has done,” said Jon Fleischaker, a lawyer who represents The Courier-Journal. “It’s a sham, in my judgment.”
Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson released a brief statement late Tuesday saying that the cabinet’s motion seeks only to limit specific information that the governor also mentioned at his news conference — such as Social Security numbers and any other information protected by law.
“The cabinet will begin immediately to carry out the governor’s instructions for records release,” Richardson said.
Beshear said at the news conference that cabinet lawyers would detail plans for releasing the records at Wednesday’s court hearing. Meanwhile, he said, his administration will propose legislation in the 2012 General Assembly seeking to clarify what records must be released in cases of child deaths or serious injuries.
Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, one of several lawmakers critical of the cabinet and Beshear over the secrecy surrounding child abuse deaths, said Tuesday he hoped the governor is sincere about disclosing information.
“I hope what he’s proposing is real transparency and not just putting something out there to cool things down for a while,” said Burch, the chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee.
Beshear, in announcing his support for the release of the records, cited recent news reports about the death of Amy Dye, a 9-year-old Western Kentucky girl slain by her brother in the Todd County adoptive home where she was placed by the cabinet.
“Our children, especially our vulnerable children, deserve our protection,” Beshear said. “When our system fails to offer that protection, as it did in the case of Amy Dye’s tragic death, we must review our strategies to improve them.”
But the motion cabinet lawyers filed Tuesday would shield much of the information about Amy’s troubled life from public scrutiny. It asks that the cabinet be allowed to withhold information such as details of adoption, the names of siblings, foster care, the termination of parents’ rights and juvenile court records — all of which were elements of Amy’s case.
Records that Shepherd ordered released Nov. 7 in that case showed state social service officials ignored or dismissed as unfounded repeated reports by school officials of Amy’s suspected abuse. The cabinet had initially denied it had any records, then refused to disclose them, citing confidentiality, Shepherd’s order said.
As part of his order in the Dye case, he ordered her entire file placed in the court record, incuding her adoption records, reports of suspected abuse and the cabinet’s investigation after her Feb. 4 death.
The records show that after her mother’s rights were terminated in Washington state in 2004, Amy was placed with relatives and was in several foster homes before a great-aunt in Kentucky, Kimberly Dye, offered to adopt her. After the cabinet approved the adoption, Kimberly Dye took Amy into her home in 2006 as a foster child.
The adoption became final in 2007, qualifying Kimberly Dye for a $551-a-month adoption subsidy, the records show. Reports from school officials of Amy’s suspected abuse began within a month of her adoption, the records show.
The records also showed that Garrett Dye, 18, who admitted killing Amy by beating her with a jack handle, got in trouble as a juvenile for taking a gun to school and spent time in a state juvenile center for a drug violation.
And they showed that Kimberly Dye’s ex-husband, Christopher Dye, moved back into the home after the adoption and took a role in disciplining Amy, as well as Garrett and an older boy, even though the cabinet had found he abused Garrett in 2003 by beating him with a belt.
Beshear said Tuesday that he will order the cabinet to disclose most information — with some exceptions, such as Social Security numbers, victims’ names and the identities of people who report abuse. But the motion cabinet lawyers filed the same day appears far broader, arguing that the information should be limited to much less than what the newspapers are seeking.
“Such a wholesale release would run counter to long-established practice and would not further the court’s stated objective of protecting children and increasing scrutiny on the cabinet’s action,” the motion said.
It also said release of such records wouldn’t necessary show the public how well the cabinet carries out the job of protecting children from neglect and abuse.
“Without some knowledge of specific policies and practices of the child welfare system, other cabinet records regarding a child or a child’s family would not necessarily be instructive,” the motion said.
The newspapers first filed suit in 2009, seeking records in the case of a Wayne County toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner at an alleged methamphetamine lab in the home of his teenage parents. After Shepherd ruled in the newspapers’ favor, the cabinet released records of that case but has refused to release records of additional cases involving child deaths.
Shepherd ordered the records in the Dye case released this month after the Todd County Standard filed a separate lawsuit seeking them.
Beshear said he will propose legislation in 2012 to clarify what information the cabinet must release.
Under current law, child protection records are confidential with one exception. Kentucky law — in conformance with federal law — says the state may release such records in cases in which a child dies or is seriously injured from abuse and in which the cabinet had previous involvement with the family.
Fleischaker said that, under the state open records law, when agencies are allowed to release records they must do so, which was the basis for Shepherd’s three previous rulings.
Beshear said Kentucky law merely permits the release of records and that he would support legislation making it mandatory and spelling out which records must be released.
Fleischaker said that’s not necessary.
“Kentucky’s law in mandatory now,” he said.
Burch said he would support a new law only if it allowed “full disclosure” of the records. He said he expected any such bill likely would be assigned to his Health and Welfare Committee for a hearing.
Beshear also said Tuesday that he would support a law in 2012 creating an outside panel to review child deaths. Burch sponsored such a law in this year’s General Assembly, but it failed after several unfriendly amendments were attached.
Tuesday’s developments come amid growing criticism of the cabinet and the Beshear administration by outside officials, including lawmakers, advocates and, most recently, the Western Kentucky judge who sentenced Garrett Dye to 50 years in prison for Amy’s murder.
Todd Circuit Judge Tyler Gill castigated child welfare officials for failing to protect the girl despite repeated allegations of abuse in the home.
“It’s left us wondering how our own state government could have contributed to this by failing to protect Amy,’’ Gill said at the Nov. 23 hearing.
Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, called Beshear’s announcement an “important step” but said far more work is needed, including ways to better fund a social service system that has endured repeated rounds of budget cuts.
“No more children should die while Kentucky dances around this issue,” he said.
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