Judge also finds Mayor Fenty in contempt
A federal judge Monday rejected the District’s bid to escape court-ordered supervision of its child welfare system, while holding Mayor Adrian Fenty in contempt for his “lackadaisical approach” to progress and disregard for a court monitor.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan found no reason to free the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency from court monitoring. CFSA’s performance has been erratic, Hogan said in his 46-page ruling, and “all that the defendants have shown here is that they are inconvenienced by their promises.”
“It is time for Mayor Fenty to stop trying to find a way out of court oversight and commit himself and the District unequivocally to fixing persistent problems and maintaining a child welfare system that truly protects the thousands of abused and neglected kids who depend on it,” Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children’s Rights, said in a statement.
Children’s Rights filed the LaShawn class-action lawsuit in 1989 on behalf of youth in D.C.’s foster care system. In July 2008, it filed a contempt motion after the District’s child welfare reform slowed.
Hogan rejected D.C.’s motion to set a timeline for an end to the monitoring, citing CFSA’s miserable performance in the aftermath of the Banita Jacks case. CFSA “largely fell to pieces,” the judge wrote, after Jacks’ four daughters were found dead in a Southeast row house.
In his motion to have the monitoring decree lifted, Attorney General Peter Nickles argued it is “inequitable” for a federal court to impose child welfare improvements through judicial order “when the systemic violations of law found in 1991 have been cured.”
“Very disappointed,” Nickles said in an e-mail. “We will promptly note an appeal.”
Hogan held Fenty in civil contempt of court — without fines or penalties — for failing to comply with a 2008 agreement between his administration and Children’s Rights that cataloged certain reforms CFSA would have to meet. The mayor, for example, ignored a requirement to consult with the court monitor before naming Roque Gerald as CFSA director in February 2009.
“Intransigence may be a nominal improvement from indifference,” Hogan wrote, “but it is still unacceptable in this context.”
The judge’s message to the District is to stop litigating and focus instead on improving the lives of the city’s children and families, said Judith Sandalow, executive director of the D.C.-based Children’s Law Center.
“They have a way out,” Sandalow said. “Do the right thing.”
