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 ORLANDO---Even though she and Central Florida's chief administrator with the Department of Families and Children (DCF) were under investigation for their handling of a matter involving the placement of a foster child in the home of an alleged child molester, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed DCF's general counsel Kelly McKibben to a judgeship in the Brevard County Circuit Court.
McKibben and DCF administrator Mike Watkins came under fire this fall when Florida TV station WKMG-Local 6 learned that Watkins and McKibben had overruled DCF employees and a former Merritt Island foster family was approved by the pair to adopt children in 2004 even though their foster home had been shut down previously and children had been removed when abuse allegations surfaced regarding the foster father, Robert Howard.
In October, less than a year after the adoptions had been finalized, Howard, 35, was arrested and charged with 70 counts of sexual battery of a child.
Police records indicate that thousands of digital photos and video clips containing child pornography were found in the Howard home.
The adoption application of the Howards had been unanimously denied by a DCF committee and other child welfare workers last year due to the prior allegations of abuse at the Howard home. But Watkins and McKibben overruled that denial and according to Local 6, have thus far refused to explain their actions.
According to information uncovered by the TV station, the day after Howard was arrested, a quality assurance review of the Howard case was ordered by Bill Spann, DCF chief of staff in Tallahassee. However, the review was reportedly scuttled by Watkins after he discussed the matter with Spann and McKibben.
McKibben's accession to the bench comes in the midst of a DCF ordered investigation by the Inspector General of a December 2004 incident in which a DCF worker placed two Brevard County children in the home of a man DCF had ruled was ineligible to care for the children because of allegations that he had previously abused the girls. After their placement, the girls alleged that the man had again molested them. Records show that the incident had been kept quiet by DCF, allegedly in violation of DCF operating procedures which require that the Inspector General be informed of such policy violations.
As the investigations into their practices at DCF continued, both Watkins and McKibben sought other positions. As of Dec. 22, Watkins is now president of Big Bend Community Based Care, a Tallahassee-based non-profit group that oversees child welfare in 14 counties. Watkins had overseen DCF operations in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Brevard Counties since March 2004.
Watkins claimed his resignation had nothing to do with the controversy involving himself and McKibben at DCF.
After Watkins had quashed Spann's attempted review of the Howard case, DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi ordered a quality assurance review of the case and an investigation to determine if it was "properly handled by the Orlando district office and (to) identify any areas for improvement".
With McKibben's appointment to the bench, both of the supervisory officials responsible for the Howard case will have left DCF.
If the ongoing investigation reveals that the proper notification wasn't made to the IG's office and DCF didn't comply with Florida statutes and department policy in investigating itself in the Howard case, it wouldn't be the first time that a DCF cover up has occurred.
There are mandatory reporting requirements to the office of Inspector General for employees to notify the IG's office of suspected violations of policy and suspected or confirmed allegations concerning an employee of the department---even its legal counsel or administrator. The operating procedure applies to all employees of the department with knowledge of suspected or confirmed allegations of wrongdoing by a DCF employee.
http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/publications/policies/180-4.pdf
McKibben, 37, represented Gov. Bush and DCF in attempting to intervene in the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo in February. There had been numerous complaints to the DCF regarding the alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation of the disabled woman who died at age 41 on March 31 after the removal of her feeding tube was ordered by Pinellas County probate court judge George Greer.
Frank Nagatani, while employed as assistant regional legal counsel for DCF, blocked virtually every attempt to investigate documented complaints of alleged abuse of the disabled woman.
But despite alleged wrongdoing and cover up in the Schiavo case by Nagatani and DCF officials, no investigation was undertaken by the IG's office despite the mandated requirements.
Although Florida state statutes mandated DCF, upon receipt of a report alleging abuse, neglect or exploitation of a vulnerable adult, to begin within 24 hours a protective investigation of the facts alleged, Nagatani publicly declared "DCF is not going to get involved in [the Terri Schiavo case] until this is out of the court".
Nagatani is no longer with DCF, having suddenly left DCF in June, 2003 to become chief legal counsel for the Pinellas County Health Department. His departure from DCF came just weeks prior to a review of the Schiavo case by investigators from Florida's Department of Law Enforcement. The FDLE investigators were ultimately told by their superiors to shut down any inquiry into the Schiavo case.
When McKibben made a surprise entry into Greer's courtroom in February during a hearing in the Schiavo case, Greer refused to grant her request to address the court to announce the agency's intervention into the case. It was never explained why DCF legal counsel from the Orlando office was involved in the Pinellas County case.
McKibben and the DCF advised Greer that DCF was conducting an investigation involving the Schiavo case. McKibben and other DCF officials told Greer that the agency wanted a 60-day delay in the case in order to complete their investigation of the abuse allegations which targeted Michael Schiavo but Greer refused, saying that DCF wasn't a party to the action.
McKibben then failed to take advantage of a three hour window during which DCF and Gov. Bush could have taken Terri into protective custody and likely saved her life.
There were indications of other alleged cover ups and wrongdoing in the Schiavo case.
During 2003, a complaint supported with documentation was filed with the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) but the complainant was met with a "runaround and cover-up". He then decided to contact DCF in April, 2004, and provide them with the AHCA complaint numbers.
The complainant says that the deputy inspector general of AHCA told him that there were intra-agency communications between AHCA and DCF involving the Schiavo case, giving further evidence of alleged conspiratorial actions in covering up the alleged abuse and neglect.
When the complainant tried to give DCF his complaint numbers for AHCA, the DCF representative refused to take any information. A DCF supervisor also refused to take the information. The complainant says he then contacted the office of Inspector General at DCF who advised him that DCF was obstructing him as a mandatory reporter and instructed him to file an on-line complaint against the intake person and supervisor. Although it was done, he was never contacted.
DCF staff didn't only obstruct the complainant, according to Dan McCall, an IG investigator. McCall says DCF staff stonewalled him in his investigation after he was assigned to determine if DCF was complying with the notification law. He determined there was massive non-compliance with the law.
Nagatani left soon after McCall began his inquiry. 12-27-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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