THE GARCIA-BENGOCHEA FAMILY VS. THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signs into law a $9.5 million claims bill for the adoptive family of three boys raped, caged and abused while in government foster care.

Photo by Associated Press

Jorge and Debbie adopted three brothers who entered foster care as a newborn, one and two year old.  During their years in government foster care they were beaten, starved, caged in the backyard at night,  ritualistically tortured and raped over and over again. One of the foster parents is now serving life without parole.  Experts say it is one of the worst abuse cases in Florida history. 

Records show that the children begged for help and were ignored.  On one occasion the youngest child, when being returned to his foster home after a visit with his social worker, grabbed her around the neck and wouldn’t let go.  He screamed and begged for help so loudly that the neighbors came outside because they thought a child had been hit by a car. She said she could hardly peel him off because he was so terrified of going back inside his foster home. He was returned to the home screaming and begging and that is where he and his brothers remained until their adoption.  His cries for help were ignored and so were the reports and phone calls this social worker made to the foster care supervisor.  

 Instead of helping the children get treatment for the years of trauma, a decision was made by the State of Florida's foster care system to hide the children’s records.   Boxes of records including police reports were hidden and a new history, without a trace of information about the years of torture in foster care, was created.  This false history was given to the new adoptive parents.  

In a March 2007 deposition, a former state worker said that she had been ordered by her supervisors to withhold the boys' records from the parents to protect the State of Florida's image.  Not only did the department keep Debbie and Jorge in the dark, it even instructed a treatment center not to release records to the parents.

The state’s own expert witness called what was done to these three brothers while in the care of the state “Catastrophically Destructive”.  Another nationally known psychiatrist called the abuse a ”steady pounding rain of trauma” and the worst case she had ever seen.

When the adoptive parents discovered some of the real records, the State of Florida responded by threatening and intimidating the parents, and ultimately destroying their careers.  They even tried to get a therapist hired by the parents to treat the couple's children to illegally pass over "any dirt" they could find on the couple to be used to keep them quiet (this all before there was any legal action by the adoptive parents). 

The threats and intimidation lasted for years.  Police were even sent to the home the same day a court settlement with the State of Florida was reached (a state employee called in a false abuse hotline report on the family even though the children were in treatment programs).

Instead of helping the children receive early treatment, almost a half million dollars was spent by the State of Florida on private attorneys to attack the family and this does not include the cost for the team of attorneys already employed by the State of Florida.

A former Attorney General said that if a book could be written about the worst things a government could do to a family, that book could be filled with what the State of Florida did to the Garcia family.  In 2009, Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said  "This case was horrific."

The State of Florida settled the case the night before it was to go to trial and under the new administration admitted years of government wrongdoing. They promised to finally help these children who will need a lifetime of support and therapy.  Just last month (2009) a public apology was made to the family at the Capital.

Their plight, brought to light by The Palm Beach Post, spurred a separate bill approved by lawmakers this year and signed into law by Gov. Crist.  That bill (SB 126) would give prospective foster and adoptive parents the right to view the records of children they are considering taking into their care.  It also allows foster children to have their own records when they turn 18 years old.

In Fort Lauderdale, Crist signs foster care legislation

“When you’re going through 11 years of what we’ve been through, you feel like, ‘What was the purpose of this?’ ” Debbie said Wednesday. “And now you feel like there is a purpose.

“It maybe won’t help our situation, but if it helps years and years of children down the road, then it’s worth it.”

 The State should have taken their own advice from years earlier:

In 1998 (before the adoption) the director of the Community Intervention and Research Center wrote to a DCF counselor , "This is a very delicate case that should be monitored closely by your most experienced caseworker because it has the potential to be a 'newspaper' article that would be detrimental to (the department) and others concerned."

On Aug. 11, 2000: "I think it would be helpful," adoption specialist Carol Hutcheson wrote to DCF, "to approach this family with a different attitude. We need to remember that they are attempting to parent children who were severely damaged while under our care. They have practically given up all aspects of a normal life to accommodate the needs of these kids. We need to communicate to the family that we own this problem with them. Telling the family that 'by law' there isn't much we can do to help is not a good approach."

DCF secretary asks House and Senate leaders to compensate family who adopted abused brothers

In a strongly worded letter to state House and Senate leaders, Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon asked that they pay the state's settlement with a family who adopted three brothers who were raped and starved in Palm Beach County foster care.

As small children, the boys were repeatedly molested by former foster parent Hector Rosa, who is serving life in prison for his crimes. In another foster home, they were locked up in a chicken coop when they misbehaved.  DCF hid that history from the couple to help speed the boys' adoption. Debbie  and her husband Jorge  face lawsuit threats because the state is behind on payments to help their adopted sons.

"We are the ones who caused further harm to this family," Sheldon wrote in his letter today to Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Gainesville. "We are the ones who must solve it.

"In 2007, their adoptive parents, Debbie and Jorge, agreed to forego a jury trial in Palm Beach County circuit court if the state would agree to pay for the boys' immediate treatment in nationally recognized programs.  

As of April 1, 2009 The state of Florida is $150,000 behind in promised payments to doctors and treatment programs for the boys.

Deception by state social service workers put Debbie and Jorge through a long nightmare —

Gov. Charlie Crist quietly signed a law Wednesday providing $9.5 million in compensation and relief to the couple, formerly of Boynton Beach, and their sons. The money will help pay for the boys’ education, along with treatment they have been receiving in nationally recognized programs.

Crist signed the claims bill  as Debbie and Jorge and other relatives looked on, along with George Sheldon, secretary of the state Department of Children and Families.

“It’s inexcusable that the state fought this thing for so long when so much could have been done to prevent deterioration,” Sheldon said Wednesday.

The boys — now ages 17, 16 and 14 — had been raped, caged and starved in foster care before Debbie and Jorge adopted them in 1998.

The money will go to pay for the boys' education and treatment, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported the parents, identified only as Debbie and Jorge, as saying.

The brothers were found to have been raped, caged and starved in foster care and the Palm Beach County couple who adopted them were unaware of their horrific abuse, even after telling state Department of Children and Families officials they did not want to adopt children with sexual problems, the newspaper said.

The family's story separately led to legal changes that let prospective foster and adoptive parents see the case files of children they consider for care.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The cost of a nightmare

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Sunday, February 22, 2009

In 2007, the state agreed to pay a former Boynton Beach couple $10 million for failing to tell them of the horrific abuse their three adopted children had suffered in state care.

Because the system that compensates victims of state negligence is itself negligent, the adoptive parents are still waiting for the money that will pay for their sons' mental-health treatment. The brothers were raped, beaten and caged in a chicken coop while in foster care.

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has pulled the claims bill he sponsored that would authorize the state to pay the couple. Rep. Domino said he was advised that because of the state's budget problems no such bills obligating the state through general revenue would get heard. House members get to file only six bills a year, and he said that he doesn't want to file one that might be doomed from the start. Still, he has until March 2, the day before the new session begins, to refile the bill.

State Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, has sponsored companion legislation. An aide said Friday that Sen. Pruitt does not plan to withdraw the bill. Senators can file unlimited bills, and should the Senate approve payment to the couple - and find a source of money - the House, Rep. Domino said, could find a way to approve it also.

Given what this man and woman went through and are going through, however, Rep. Domino should refile the claims bill or find another legislator who will do so. Payment of the money could be arranged so that next year's budget doesn't take a big hit. "I hope it's heard," Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said of the bill. "This case was horrific."

Mr. Sheldon said the state has gotten the boys into therapeutic care, and he believes that the couple might accept structured payments over 10 years. "I'm optimistic that the Legislature will step up to the plate."

Most of the 120 House members and 40 senators are parents. No one can understand what the state put these adoptive parents through, but the legislators can imagine how they would have reacted. Then they can ask themselves how long they would be content to wait for the Legislature to act.

 And as Mr. Sheldon suggests, the Legislature should raise the $100,000 per person/$200,000 per incident limit that can be paid without a claims bill, necessary because of the state's sovereign immunity. The number has not changed in more than 25 years. "The whole concept of sovereign immunity," Mr. Sheldon said, "is a throwback to old English law that the king can do no wrong, and obviously we know by a number of these cases that the king can err."

And when the king - meaning the state - promises to compensate victims for those errors, the king should keep his promise.

Art by Jordin Isip from an story about our children in the Village Voice, LA Weekly,  Houston Press, Phoenix New Times and others...

"I come before you as Secretary of the Department of Children  to speak to you on behalf of the claims bill for the Garcia- Bengocheas.  The new policy under my administration is a policy of openness and one where we admit mistakes and compensate those damaged as a result of our mistakes.  This is a case where the Department could have and should have done a better job and because we didn't these children and parents have been seriously damaged...."

"The parents too have experienced pain and suffering that foster parents or adoptive parents should never experience... "

"Finally, the Department apologizes for the pain, suffering and damages caused to the family and wishes the family the very best."

  --Bob Butterworth, Florida Attorney General / Secretary of Department of Children and Families   

Hearing before the Special Masters of the Senate and House  2008

Now, make full amends

Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

Saturday, October 27, 2007

...The Legislature could be glad that the case settled, since the trial that had been set to start next month would have been embarrassing and probably would have resulted in a much higher verdict...

In this case, the state's own consultant recommended a settlement because the state was "catastrophically destructive" to three little boys. Then there are the parents. Failing to help them would be just as "catastrophically destructive."

...But that was during the administration of Gov. Jeb Bush, who resisted any attempt to settle such cases, even though the state clearly was at fault. Under a new governor and a new secretary of the Department of Children and Families, the state finally admitted blame, and this week agreed to pay the parents $10 million.

To Lose Sleep

I have to commend Deirdra Funcheon for writing one of the most scary, surreal, saddening, and fascinating stories I've read in a long time ("To Hug a Porcupine," June 26, 2008)...   I mean, to say your story and sterling reporting skills are gripping is a huge understatement. I read it yesterday and probably slept two hours. I wonder if you had as much trouble sleeping while researching it as I did reading it.

That poor, poor family. Man, the things we take for granted... Please, for the sake of those of us who still enjoy a good story, keep up the excellent work.

Rory Levy

New Times- Letter To The Editor

Palm Beach Post  July 17, 2002

“As far as the steady pounding rain of trauma, these kids were more traumatized over a longer length of time than most of the kids I’ve seen”. 

Dr. Lenore Terr, a clinical professor of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Terr, a national recognized child trauma expert…has seen society’s most damaged children, including kidnap victims and gang-rape victims.  The Garcia-Bengochea boys stand out because of the agonizing duration of their trauma, she said.

Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

Saturday, June 23, 2007

There are two state Departments of Children and Families. One is the bureaucracy that former Gov. Bush "overhauled," funneling state responsibility for abused, neglected and disabled children and adults to private agencies and hiding details of wrongdoing. Then there's the new DCF, the one - lawsuit by lawsuit, apology by apology, new policy by new policy - climbing out from under Jeb's legacy...

Some cases take time to settle because they are not cheap and they are politically embarrassing....

 Mr. Butterworth concedes that the former Boynton Beach parents "were not treated properly" is scheduled for next month. ...

But until the Legislature and the state-contracted private foster-care agencies meet Mr. Butterworth's commitment to expose and prevent such jaw-dropping tragedies, DCF's transformation will not be complete. ..Not while the three adopted brothers remain untreated.

Legislators must finish job, approve DCF's settlement in abuse case

South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board

October 25, 2007

Nothing can make up for the horror one former Boynton Beach couple experienced...

Credit DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth, who has vowed to open up the secretive agency and "acknowledge wrongdoing when it occurs and then do what we can to make it right."

It's important to recognize the $10 million didn't grow on trees. It's $10 million less the state will now have to fund other critical needs. But rather than turn a blind eye, it's necessary for state officials to learn this painful lesson, at taxpayers' expense, and do right next time with the people it asks to care for the neediest of children.

Now it's up to the state Legislature to finish the job....Legislators will have to approve a claims bill next year for the other $9.5 million, and they should make swift work of it. BOTTOM LINE: Legislators must OK it quickly.

Bill to pay DCF Settlement  Fails

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, April 25, 2008

....But it will be at least another year before they get their promised
compensation from the state.

The Department of Children and Families settled with the parents for $10
million in October and is now paying for the boys' treatment outside of Florida. But any
payment of more than $100,000 requires approval from lawmakers. And a
claims bill for the full amount (SB 66) died in the legislature this
session.

Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, sponsored the family's claims
bill and is in line to take over as Senate president next year if he is
reelected.

Atwater said Friday that he will work to win relief for the three brothers.

"We will get it done," Atwater said. "I can tell you that, regrettably,
it will not be this year. But the day will come."

The couple said they had looked forward to a jury trial in their suit
against DCF, but they agreed to settle because the state promised
immediate treatment for the boys.

At this time (AUG 2008)  the State of Florida is 6 months and $250,000 behind in payment to the hospitals that are treating the children as part of the settlement agreement. 

If this situation does not reflect the nature of today's agency then why is this family still in such critical need?

I took the time to re-read the June 3rd article and it is shameful what this family has been through at the hands of our state agency.

If the agency truly has changed they will do whatever it takes to help this family and prevent further tragedy...

Jun 17, 2007

For so many years the State has been allowed to continue to operate w/virtually no accountability other than the Post's continued efforts to expose the egregious "mafia" like behavior that has persisted for years.  ...Perhaps we need our own "Wall of Shame" to constantly remind of us the unnecessary horrors these children have faced.  This is not Bagdad. It is America. How many more will die or be tortured?

The case was set to go to trial last November — "It would have been a monster verdict," Block says — but the night before it was to begin, DCF settled with the family for $10 million, almost all of it to be put in a trust fund for the boys' future treatment. "That's unprecedented," says Block, who has handled the case pro bono for eight years. It may have also been a bargain: An economist who is an expert on institutional care estimated that the boys' lifetime care would cost $75 million if fully funded.

For now, however, the award stands only on paper. Because of "sovereign immunity," state payouts are limited to $200,000, no matter what attorneys hash out. Sovereign immunity can be waived, and bigger settlements disbursed, only if a state representative sponsors and the Legislature then passes a claims bill.

Debbie and Jorge and their attorney say that the state became markedly more responsive after Jeb Bush left office and Secretary Bob Butterworth took over the Department of Children and Families in January 2007. They felt at least minor validation when Butterworth spoke during a hearing on their behalf. "The new policy under my administration is a policy of openness," he remarked, "and one where we admit mistakes and compensate those damaged as a result. The department could and should have done a better job."

Despite the bigwig weighing in, however, legislators from around the state, each consumed with their own constituents' concerns, declined to pass the claims bill before the legislative session ended in May. Tight budget this year, so sorry.

Deirdra Funcheon - Village Voice Media

Shattering story. ..All they can do is keep tinkering, trying new things, hoping for the best even though all signs point toward the inevitability of the worst. Miserable situation, and best wishes to the parents. Congrats to the author too for rendering the story so elegantly.

Thom Debord

Wilton Manors