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Welfare Cheats

September 6, 2012 permalink

The state of Georgia is figuring out what fixcas has been reporting for years: the real welfare cheats are not single mothers, but agencies drawing on appropriated funds for fake or unnecessary cases. Columbus Georgia DFCS workers Deborah Cobb and Phyllis Mitchell have been arrested and charged with falsifying child abuse reports.

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Georgia: Fraud Suspected at Family Services

The state is investigating whether child-protection officials falsified records to qualify for millions of dollars in federal money. Agents raided a Division of Family and Children Services office in Columbus on Wednesday and issued arrest warrants for two former officials. The former director, Deborah Cobb, and a protective services supervisor, Phyllis Mitchell, were charged with destroying, changing and falsifying child abuse reports. They are suspected of having falsified reports to make it seem as if they had met federal rules for investigating abuse in a timely way.

Source: New York Times

An analysis by Robert Franklin is enclosed along with two articles he refers to.

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GA: Child Welfare Managers Arrested, Charged with Falsifying Child Abuse Documents

State and federal law enforcement agents raided the Muscogee County, Georgia offices of the Department of Family and Children Services this past Wednesday. They hauled off boxes of records and arrested the former acting director of the office and its intake supervisor. Read about it here (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/5/12).

The former director, Deborah Cobb, and child protective services supervisor, Phyllis Mitchell, are charged with destroying, delaying, changing and falsifying child abuse reports, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

At least some of those charges are felonies.

Strangely, the commissioner of the state Department of Human Services either totally misunderstands the nature of the alleged wrongdoing, or was tossing out a red herring for the news media when the Columbus Ledger-Inquirer asked him to comment.

In a statement obtained by The Columbus Ledger-Inquirer, Commissioner Clyde L. Reese III of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees DFCS offices, referred to possible allegations that the Muscogee office may have reduced numbers of abused children entering the state system…

“No DHS employee has any reason or incentive to hide allegations or abuse or neglect in order to lower the number of children and families to be entered into the state system,” Reese said. “DHS will cooperate fully with all federal and state authorities in their investigation.”

That’s right, which might have led Reese to consider the possibility that reducing the number of children in the system isn’t what the two are alleged to have done. After all, how would that serve to increase funding for the agency? It wouldn’t; in fact, it would have the opposite effect. Why would an employee do that? No reason I can see.

So we have to turn to this article to find out what’s actually alleged to have occurred (WRBL, 9/7/12). In fact, the women are alleged to have falsified dates on DFCS documentation to make it appear that cases were handled timely that weren’t. By being handled timely, the agency was able to receive federal money that wouldn’t flow if cases were handled tardily.

To their credit, apparently it was DCFS employees who blew the whistle on their superiors. More arrests may follow as Cobb and Mitchell are now being termed “ringleaders” of others.

What’s unknown at this point is how, if at all, the allegedly falsified records affected children’s well-being or prosecutors’ ability to bring criminal actions against parents or others who harmed children. Of course, falsified records could easily do just that, but the investigation has just gotten under way.

I suppose I don’t need to say that of course this was about money. The two, if they did what they’re charged with doing, plainly wanted to keep those federal dollars flowing, and seem to have stooped to some illegal and possibly injurious methods to make sure they did. If the truth be known, they probably have some superiors of their own who made it clear just what the consequences would be if the flow of greenbacks slowed. We’ll see.

Source: Fathers and Families, Robert Franklin


DFCS office in Columbus raided

State and federal agents raided a state Division of Family and Children Services office in west Georgia on Wednesday as part of an investigation into whether officials falsified records to get millions of dollars in federal funding.

Arrest warrants were issued for a former acting director and an intake supervisor at the Muscogee County DFCS in Columbus. The former director, Deborah Cobb, and child protective services supervisor, Phyllis Mitchell, are charged with destroying, delaying, changing and falsifying child abuse reports, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

In a statement obtained by The Columbus Ledger-Inquirer, Commissioner Clyde L. Reese III of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees DFCS offices, referred to possible allegations that the Muscogee office may have reduced numbers of abused children entering the state system.

Reece said the state agency stresses to all DHS employees — “in particular the Division of Families and Children Services child welfare and social services’ staff” - that safety of all children is the fundamental guiding principle.

“No DHS employee has any reason or incentive to hide allegations or abuse or neglect in order to lower the number of children and families to be entered into the state system,” Reese said. “DHS will cooperate fully with all federal and state authorities in their investigation.”

Child protective services offices must follow certain guidelines in evaluating and responding to abuse allegations to receive federal funding. The GBI said some of the record-keeping deals with how timely child abuse investigations are launched.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services had withdrawn funding from the DFCS for failure to maintain proper records on child abuse. The west Georgia office, however, later submitted new documents and data showing it had met compliance requirements. Federal funding was then restored.

District Attorney Julia Slater of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit sought the GBI’s assistance in investigating the DFCS office on Aug. 15 after learning that Health and Human Services and the Office of Inspector General had launched an investigation.

The GBI did not say how much money was involved. Falsifying the records is a felony.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution


DFCS employees helped lead to supervisors' arrests

boxes of altered documents

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Department of Family and Children Services whistleblowers helped lead to Wednesday's arrests of two Muscogee County Child Protective Services supervisors.

Forty-eight year-old Deborah Cobb and 54-year-old Phyllis Mitchell are on paid administrative leave from the agency pending the outcome of the investigation.

DFCS employees alleged the two women were ringleaders in an effort to alter, delay and destroy reports to meet internal guidelines and receive grant money.

Officials said employees allegedly saw reports with original dates scratched out and replaced with earlier ones, to make it look like the department was responding faster than they actually were.

Dozens of boxes allegedly containing numerous falsified child abuse reports were wheeled out of the Muscogee County DFCS office and are now in the hands of federal agents.

Muscogee County Sheriff John Darr said he was concerned after learning of the allegations. "For me, what was one of the most bothersome thing is the type of cases that we're talking about. You know when you're talking about child abuse cases that's one of the most serious things."

Darr said when there are gaps in reporting that can affect the prosecutor’s case if it goes to trial. “You know when you have something like that going on... I don't want to say the system breaks down, but you got some serious issues going on... with the quality of people working in your organization."

Cobb served as Muscogee DFCS Acting Director for 18 months before becoming Director of Social Services.

Mitchell has worked with the Department of Human Services for nearly 13 years. In 2010 she became an intake supervisor.

Sheriff Darr said right now, it's difficult to know if their alleged actions put young kids in jeopardy of being victimized again, but if officers don't get information they can't do their job.

"When we have these kind of reports of these kind of allegations it's just going to force us, in my opinion to just make sure we're looking at them a little bit deeper and a little bit harder,” Darr said.

Investigators will be pouring over the documents to see if they match the electronic records. They will also be looking at whether some abuse allegations were actually addressed at all even though the system may indicate that they were.

More arrests could be made in the future, but that depends on what officials discover moving forward.

Source: WRBL News 3

Addendum: Cobb and Mitchell have been reinstated to their jobs, where prosecutors fear they may erase the evidence of their own wrongdoing.

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Prosecutors fear for evidence after DFCS pair reinstated in Georgia

Phyllis Mitchell and Deborah Cobb
Former Department of Child Services employees Phyllis Mitchell and Deborah Cobb sit through a hearing Monday afternoon with Cobb's Attorney Stacey Jackson seated behind. Not pictured is Mitchell's attorney Clark Adams.
JOE PAULL/jpaull@ledger-enquirer.com

The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services has reinstated two workers arrested last year for falsifying documents at its Muscogee County office, prompting prosecutors to seek a court order Monday denying the pair access to any records related to their case.

The case stems from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's raiding the local office on Sept. 5, 2012, to seize records related to child abuse. They arrested Deborah Cobb, who for 18 months had been the office's acting director, and Phyllis Mitchell, an intake supervisor. Each was charged with felony false swearing and falsifying documents, authorities said.

Investigators suspect the two of concealing evidence of child abuse to cut the number of new reports. The division commonly referred to as DFCS operates under the state's Department of Human Services, or DHS.

"No DHS employee has any reason or incentive to hide allegations of abuse or neglect in order to lower the number of children and families to be entered into the state system," department commissioner Clyde Reese III said at the time.

Initially the two were suspended, but prosecutors learned Nov. 19 that they had been reinstated, though not in Muscogee County. Cobb, 47, now works at the agency's Harris County office, and Mitchell, 55, is in Chattahoochee County, their attorneys said.

Both went back to work about a month ago, with neither now in child protective services, lawyers said.

Assistant District Attorneys Letitia Sikes and William Hocutt IV filed motions Nov. 21 asking Superior Court Judge Gil McBride to ensure the suspects have no access to a database the state uses to track child abuse reports. The computer network is known as "SHINES," and the two are accused of using it to falsify reports.

Sikes told McBride the workers are accused not only of falsifying records themselves, but of directing others to do so.

Hocutt said authorities seized about six months' worth of records when they raided the Muscogee DFCS office last year, but more records likely will be needed and those could be at risk if not preserved.

In the motion, Sikes wrote: "Defendants will have access to records and personnel and will be able to destroy, modify or falsify evidence in the pending criminal cases." She asked that McBride "ensure defendants have no contact with evidence that is the subject of this investigation or which may become the subject of investigation and no contact with material witnesses."

Columbus attorney Clark Adams represents Mitchell, and attorney Stacey Jackson represents Cobb. Each said his client no longer has access to the SHINES database. They work in training and use only training programs, the attorneys said.

Hocutt said prosecutors have been getting little cooperation in their inquiries about the workers' current assignments. "Our issue is we have no idea what they're doing," he said.

Representing DFCS was Special Assistant Attorney General Sherry Goodrum. "These are internal matters," she said of the women's current positions. The agency considers them innocent until proved guilty, she said. Neither worker yet has been indicted, though Hocutt said he expects to take the case to a grand jury in the next two weeks.

McBride granted most of the prosecutors' requests. He ordered the workers to gain no access to SHINES or any other DFCS database, to stay out of the Muscogee DFCS office, to have no contact with workers in the Muscogee office and no access to that office's records. He also ordered DFCS to preserve any evidence related to the case.

He was ordering the defendants to have no contact with anyone who previously worked in the Muscogee DFCS office when Jackson objected that Cobb's current church pastor used to work in there, so that would mean she couldn't go to church.

Adams said a former Muscogee DFCS worker is now assigned to the Chattahoochee County office, so Mitchell could not go to work were she ordered to stay away from that employee.

McBride amended the order to say each defendant was not to discuss the case with any coworker and to have no contact with witnesses in the case.

Adams said no list of witnesses yet exists. Hocutt said one will be provided.

"It's a long list, I can tell you that," he added.

Another hearing in the case has been set for Dec. 19.

Source: Columbus Ledger Enquirer

fraudulent billing

sequential