FC- Grand Jury accuses CYS of providing suspect testimony.

[psu00]

Saw this headline from PennLive and thought I'd post it here given all the talk of CYS failures. CYS is finally coming under some scrutiny.


http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/in...tko_grand_jur_1.html#incart_river_mobileshort

 

[ChiTownLion]

 

[WeR0206]

"The CY-48 forms must be turned in to ChildLine within 60 days of a report being filed, according to state law, or ChildLine will consider the late forms "unfounded.""

The person who came up with this policy should be publicly called out and ridiculed. What an absurd way to do things. How could a rational adult ever even come up with that? Its sickening to think of how many kids were abused bc of this policy.

Same thing goes with the media/law enforcement not looking into CYS failures after the JS convictions. Hello 1998 failures!! We can thank corbett/ncaa/OG BOT/freeh/ pa oag for that...smh

 

[Ceasar]

"The CY-48 forms must be turned in to ChildLine within 60 days of a report being filed, according to state law, or ChildLine will consider the late forms "unfounded.""

The person who came up with this policy should be publicly called out and ridiculed. What an absurd way to do things. How could a rational adult ever even come up with that? Its sickening to think of how many kids were abused bc of this policy.

Same thing goes with the media/law enforcement not looking into CYS failures after the JS convictions. Hello 1998 failures!! We can thank corbett/ncaa/OG BOT/freeh/ pa oag for that...smh

I will respectfully disagree with you and here is why. Suppose a parent is wrongly accused of abusing their child. Perhaps the allegation is made by a disgruntled neighbor or even a spouse during a nasty divorce. These allegations can be made annonymously so you don't even need to leave your name. As a result of that allegation you will be removed from the home until an investigation has been completed. That is obviously patently unfair to the wrongly accused and of course to the child who is now without their parent. The 60 day rule is in place at least in part to ensure that the wrongly accused person's rights are not violated for an open ended tme.
Now, to your concern about this causing allegations to be unfounded. Keep in mind that CYS has no police powers. The police and prosecutors still have every right to pursue criminal charges against the accused if there is sufficient evidence that was gathered after day 60. So using the 1998 Sandusky case as an example, the local DA had years to bring charges against Sandusky (up to whatever point the statute of limitations expired). For all of the talk about DPW whitewahing the case, having the second therapist review the allegations, the fix being in, etc... this SHOULD have had absolutely no impact whatsoever on Gricar and his own investigation.
. If the prosecutors are letting soical workers determine whether criminal charges are brought then they system is even more broken than we think.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

Hmmmm...... Gricar. Didn't he die mysteriously?

 

[WeR0206]

I will respectfully disagree with you and here is why. Suppose a parent is wrongly accused of abusing their child. Perhaps the allegation is made by a disgruntled neighbor or even a spouse during a nasty divorce. These allegations can be made annonymously so you don't even need to leave your name. As a result of that allegation you will be removed from the home until an investigation has been completed. That is obviously patently unfair to the wrongly accused and of course to the child who is now without their parent. The 60 day rule is in place at least in part to ensure that the wrongly accused person's rights are not violated for an open ended tme.
Now, to your concern about this causing allegations to be unfounded. Keep in mind that CYS has no police powers. The police and prosecutors still have every right to pursue criminal charges against the accused if there is sufficient evidence that was gathered after day 60. So using the 1998 Sandusky case as an example, the local DA had years to bring charges against Sandusky (up to whatever point the statute of limitations expired). For all of the talk about DPW whitewahing the case, having the second therapist review the allegations, the fix being in, etc... this SHOULD have had absolutely no impact whatsoever on Gricar and his own investigation.
. If the prosecutors are letting soical workers determine whether criminal charges are brought then they system is even more broken than we think.

I see what you're saying but it just seems like a HUGE loophole that can be exploited. If a report has merit it should still be looked into even after 60 days. Maybe they should have a different policy if the accusation is a parent abusing their child (60 day limit is applied) vs. a non parent (accusation still looked into even after 60 days)? There has got to be a better way if doing this. I wonder what other states policies are, do you have any insight into that??

Also keep in mind the standard to indicate someone is much lower than the one for law enforcement to bring criminal charges. At least if LE doesnt have enough evidence/probable cause to bring charges they can still be indicated and have their access to kids revoked. 1998 is a perfect example of this if CYS/DPW didnt drop the ball.

 

[Ceasar]

I see what you're saying but it just seems like a HUGE loophole that can be exploited. If a report has merit it should still be looked into even after 60 days. Maybe they should have a different policy if the accusation is a parent abusing their child (60 day limit is applied) vs. a non parent (accusation still looked into even after 60 days)? There has got to be a better way if doing this. I wonder what other states policies are, do you have any insight into that??

Also keep in mind the standard to indicate someone is much lower than the one for law enforcement to bring criminal charges. At least if LE doesnt have enough evidence/probable cause to bring charges they can still be indicated and have their access to kids revoked. 1998 is a perfect example of this if CYS/DPW didnt drop the ball.

 

[Ceasar]

All good points WeR and I certainly agree with you that they could still be indicating reports where there is smoke. And I also believe CYS uses that 60 day rule as an excuse. To me, they need to get the investigation done and 60 days is sufficient.

 

[bvillebaron]

I will respectfully disagree with you and here is why. Suppose a parent is wrongly accused of abusing their child. Perhaps the allegation is made by a disgruntled neighbor or even a spouse during a nasty divorce. These allegations can be made annonymously so you don't even need to leave your name. As a result of that allegation you will be removed from the home until an investigation has been completed. That is obviously patently unfair to the wrongly accused and of course to the child who is now without their parent. The 60 day rule is in place at least in part to ensure that the wrongly accused person's rights are not violated for an open ended tme.
Now, to your concern about this causing allegations to be unfounded. Keep in mind that CYS has no police powers. The police and prosecutors still have every right to pursue criminal charges against the accused if there is sufficient evidence that was gathered after day 60. So using the 1998 Sandusky case as an example, the local DA had years to bring charges against Sandusky (up to whatever point the statute of limitations expired). For all of the talk about DPW whitewahing the case, having the second therapist review the allegations, the fix being in, etc... this SHOULD have had absolutely no impact whatsoever on Gricar and his own investigation.
. If the prosecutors are letting soical workers determine whether criminal charges are brought then they system is even more broken than we think.

But DPW conducted a separate investigation in 1998 and had authority under the statute to identify him as a potential molester independent of whether criminal charges were filed. Having a second evaluation done (over objection by the DA's office) which concluded Sandusky was "harmless" after initial one they had done concluded he fit the classic profile of a pedophile is, at a minimum, gross incompetence. How those with statutory obligations to protect minors and continue to fail miserably continue to get a virtual free pass in the Sandusky "blame game" is beyond my level of comprehension.