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A.J.'s Story
- Newspaper Articles
The following links take you to various articles in AJ's story as it
appeared in the South Florida media.
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In Loving Memory Of Andrew James "A.J." Schwarz April 24,1983 - May 2,1993 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..." |
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This
page contains articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel
from the year 1993. |
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If you are interested in reading the FULL DETAILS of this case aside from what is posted here, please purchase "No One Can Hurt Him Anymore" by Carol J.Rothgeb and Scott H. Cupp. Mr. Cupp thinks it's the book that nobody will read...please show your support and show him that you care about AJ, too by ordering his book by clicking on the cover image below.
Jury
Blasts HRS, Indicts Caseworker -- Warnings of Boy's Abuse Ignored (12/15/93)
Jury Lists Proposals For HRS -- Child Protection Role is
Criticized (12/16/93)
Charge Pinpoints HRS' Problems -- Heavy Caseload Linked
to Indictment (12/16/93)
'Oddball' Grand Jury Decision (12/16/93)
Keep History of Abuse Allegations to Help Avert Tragedies
in Future (12/19/93)
HRS Investigator's Job Pressure-Filled (12/19/93)
No Excuses -- An Editorial (12/19/93)
Grand Jury: HRS Urged Quantity Over Quality (12/20/93)
Woman Can't Visit Children During Holiday (12/24/93)
Schwarz Won't See Daughters (12/24/93)
JURY BLASTS HRS,
INDICTS CASEWORKER
WARNINGS OF BOY'S ABUSE IGNORED
The Palm Beach Post
December 15, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH
A grand jury Tuesday indicted a state health worker who investigated
the abuse of a 10-year-old boy later found dead, saying she threatened
to take a neighbor's children if the woman continued meddling in the
case.
The grand jury then turned its wrath on the state Department of Health
and Rehabilitative Services.
In a scathing report, the grand jury recounted a series of mistakes
on the case and depicted HRS as an agency whose workers are more worried
about closing cases than protecting children. ``It is the grand jury's
desire that this report not be ignored but be carefully considered to
determine necessary changes,'' the report reads.
Barbara Black, 43, an HRS investigator assigned to the Andrew ``A.J.''
Schwarz case, was arrested late Tuesday and charged with extortion by
threat, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Black, who could not be reached for comment, has worked for the agency
since 1990.
A.J., a wiry little boy whose struggles with HRS became legendary with
neighbors, was found dead in May. Before his death, HRS recorded one
warning sign after another. Among them are Black's abuse investigation
reports.
Black was called to investigate when a neighbor complained that A.J.'s
stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, beat him with her keys and smoked crack
cocaine. Schwarz has been charged with second-degree murder in A.J.'s
death.
The complaint was unfounded, Black wrote in her reports. When A.J.'s
half sister said Schwarz gave her a bloody nose, workers removed the
girl but Black never followed up with an investigation of A.J., reports
show.
Neighbor Eileen Callahan, who lives across the street from A.J.'s house,
called HRS in January after he appeared with a broken nose and black
eyes, sources said. But it apparently wasn't a call she made easily.
Frightened by the family, whose fights frequently attracted deputies,
Callahan worried about getting involved, Assistant State Attorney Scott
Cupp said. Callahan called one neighbor, then another, hoping to persuade
them to make reports, too.
When Black visited the house again, A.J. and his stepmother said he
fell off his bicycle. Black couldn't find evidence of abuse in the home.
Then she paid a visit to Callahan, Cupp said.
``She threatened Callahan, saying that she was going to charge her with
an abuse complaint if she continued to call in,'' Cupp said. ``She calls
her up and lays an HRS special on her.''
Black threatened to take Callahan's children. Callahan quickly called
her neighbors and told them to back off, Cupp said.
In the report issued with Black's indictment, the grand jury claims
that had HRS done its job properly and followed all the warning signs
that appear again and again in hundreds of documents, the agency might
have saved A.J.
The report, based on testimony from caseworkers and investigators, neighbors
and documents, shows a system riddled with basic inadequacies: disregard
of crucial recommendations, poor record-keeping that virtually served
as no record, and lack of communication between officials with various
agencies assigned to the case. Another major problem - a problem which
Black was praised for in job evaluations - was paying attention more
to quantity than quality. In an evaluation completed a month after Black
investigated A.J.'s black eyes, a supervisor wrote: ``Seldom has a backlog
and requires minimal supervision. . . . Seldom has a caseload totalling
10.''
After A.J.'s death, a supervisor congratulated Black for helping her
unit reach the applaudable goal of having the lowest backlog in the
state. In 1991, a supervisor wrote:
``Ms. Black is considered the backbone of unit 14 and has been the key
to backlog reduction. Not only has she mastered her caseload by efficiently
maintaining an active caseload of less than 10 cases, but she has closed
cases for fellow investigators and a vacated position.''
District Administrator Suzanne Turner agreed with some of the grand
jury's findings, but objected to others, especially one citing ``genuine
fear of (HRS') power to remove children from anyone involved (e.g. reporters
of an incident).''
``The `genuine fear' of the department concerns me and I have not heard
that before,'' Turner said. ``I don't think there was any intention
on anybody's part to leave a child in a risky situation and I don't
think anybody involved thought anybody would do anything to him.''
Meeting some of the recommendations, like reviewing cases more carefully,
has already started, she said. Other recommendations, like keeping a
record of unfounded cases, would require special legislation. In 1990,
three weeks after A.J. came under HRS protection, a jury convicted an
HRS caseworker of felony child abuse in the death of 2-year-old Bradley
McGee. An appeals court later overturned the conviction. Black, who
was released late Tuesday on her own recognizance without bond, is being
used as a scapegoat, her attorney, Nelson Bailey, said. ``The whole
country is on a paranoid binge of prosecuting adults having anything
to do with children,'' he said. ``It's a finger pointing and it comes
after every child's death.''
WARNING SIGNS
Andrew J. Schwarz's files had enough information in them to strongly
suggest removing him from the home. There appeared to be an overwhelming
drive by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to keep
Schwarz with his natural father even when the Child Protection Team,
staff meetings and other information showed this was not in his best
interest.
Back To Top
JURY LISTS PROPOSALS FOR HRS
CHILD PROTECTION ROLE IS CRITICIZED
Sun-Sentinel
December 16, 1993
By MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
A grand jury report that criticized the role state child protection
officials played in the life and death of Andrew "A.J."Schwarz
was a symbolic indictment of the system itself, officials say.
The report, issued Tuesday by the Palm Beach County grand jury that
investigated A.J.'s May 2 death, contained several recommendations for
improving the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services'
role in protecting children.
The recommendations, directed at HRS and the State Legislature, included
having HRS investigators leave criminal aspects of investigations to
police trained in handling child abuse cases. The grand jury also recommended
providing more money to be used to reduce HRS workers' caseloads.
"I think the report suggests, and quite frankly states, that the
system in its present state is failing children," said Palm Beach
County Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp, who heads the Crimes Against
Children prosecution unit.
Regarding the grand jury's recommendation that HRS should leave child
abuse investigations to police, HRS Secretary James Towey on Wednesday
said: "We should not be kiddie cops. HRS can do social work. We
are not police. ... I think we've been a dumping ground for jobs no
one else has wanted to do."
HRS districts are working with local police agencies to develop written
guidelines for when police should take over an investigation, Towey
said.
It is not always easy to tell the point where an HRS investigation ends
and a criminal investigation begins, said Linda Radigan, assistant HRS
secretary for Children and Families.
Many reports are complaints of inappropriate supervision, head lice
and other items that would not need police involvement, Radigan said.
Alison Hitchcock, who supervises a unit of protective investigators,
said HRS tries to involve everyone who needs to be. "We try to
use a team approach as much as we possibly can," she said.
Tuesday's grand jury report contained the following recommendations:
-- HRS supervisors should be more responsible in adhering to HRS policies,
and more emphasis should be placed on the quality of work, not speed
or the quantity of cases closed.
-- HRS needs to establish a central filing system on each child that
is investigated. The system would include reports of abuse, neglect,
foster care, counseling and medical documents, which would be made available
to HRS departments, the courts, police, guardians ad litem and prosecutors.
-- HRS should create a central file of reports of unfounded abuse complaints
to see if repeated unfounded complaints reveal possible patterns of
abuse.
-- HRS needs additional money to hire more trained personnel in the
areas of Child Protective Services, Child Protective Investigations
and Quality Assurance.
HRS spokeswoman Nancy Lambrecht said that inadequate financing causes
many of the problems cited by the grand jury. "We've been saying
that for years," she said.
Lambrecht said she hopes the grand jury report may educate the public
and the Legislature about the need for more revenue to hire additional
trained personnel to handle the agency's growing caseload.
Back To Top
CHARGE PINPOINTS HRS' PROBLEMS
HEAVY CASELOAD LINKED TO INDICTMENT
Sun-Sentinel
December 16, 1993
By LARRY BARSZEWSKI Staff Writer
Barbara Black has worked 14 years for the state, including almost four
years investigating child abuse and neglect complaints, and makes $23,600
a year.
She has received glowing evaluations from her supervisors, both for
the quality of her work and the quantity of the cases she has handled
and closed.
Now a Palm Beach County grand jury says she may have gone too far to
keep at least one abuse case closed. And to a larger extent, she typifies
what the grand jury concluded this week is a failure of the HRS system:
overworked and undertrained staff members earning negligible salaries.
Local HRS workers had empathy for Black on Wednesday, wondering if one
of their cases would blow up in their faces.
"Everybody knows that it could be them, either in this particular
situation or if there happens to be another situation," said Alison
Hitchcock, a supervisor of investigators in the district's Riviera Beach
office. "People work for HRS because they want to help families,
not because of the pay, not because of the long hours and not to have
the community point a finger at them in a situation like this."
But the grand jury said Black, 43, went over the line. It indicted her
on a charge of extortion by threat, a second-degree felony, saying she
threatened to take away the children of a woman in January who called
in an abuse complaint against a neighbor, Jessica Schwarz.
Jessica Schwarz's stepson, Andrew A.J. Schwarz, 10, drowned in his family's
backyard pool at its home west of Lantana in May. The grand jury indicted
the stepmother on a second-degree murder charge in October and came
back with the charge against Black on Tuesday.
The grand jury found a pattern, saying A.J.'s files had enough information
to warrant removing him from the home. His death may have been prevented
if procedures had been followed and evidence acted upon, the grand jury
report said.
"Right now, the country is on a paranoid binge of prosecuting adults
who have anything to do with children. They go overboard to lay blame,"
said Nelson Bailey, Black's attorney.
Assistant HRS Secretary Linda Radigan said threatening to take away
the children of an abuse reporter is not appropriate. However, she said
the public must realize that investigators are often inundated with
false complaints.
"We do try hard to discourage people who we think are harassing
another family from filing a report," Radigan said. "Investigating
a family is a very intrusive, painful process. It is important for us
to protect families from that process if we think someone is making
a call that is a harassment call."
The grand jury's criticisms of the HRS system make it clear the agency
needs more money to hire more trained personnel in child protection
areas.
"We can only help so much given the resources we have," said
Hitchcock, who was an abuse investigator for four years.
HRS Secretary James Towey did not find much out of line with the grand
jury's report and used it to sound a call to the state Legislature to
give more money to his agency - saying it has a $4.7 billion budget
and a $10 billion need.
"My heart is sick about the death of that boy in May," Towey
said. "We don't even know how much abuse is going on. This is what
happens when a state invests so poorly in its children."
The grand jury said the lack of money and staff leads the agency to
emphasize quality over quantity. In Black's case, she was lauded in
1991 for her ability to get through cases and was recognized for the
"lowest backlog in the state."
Her evaluations consistently complimented her ability to accurately
assess the need for emergency interventions and her workload rarely
exceeded 10 cases. However, she did not act to remove A.J. from his
home.
"We're not going to be hurrying up people to reach false conclusions,"
Towey said. "I don't want to see any more deaths. ... We've got
to do better."
Back To Top
'ODDBALL' GRAND JURY DECISION
The Palm Beach Post
December 16, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH
Anger over the state's cavalier reaction to dismissal of criminal charges
in the death of a 10-year-old boy may have caused a grand jury to reverse
its decision, sources said Wednesday.
An indictment charging a child-welfare worker with threatening a neighbor
who called in abuse allegations stunned state officials, the worker's
attorney and prosecutors, the sources said.
Because grand jury proceedings are secret, the reason for the jurors'
change of heart may never be known. But sources suspect that the Department
of Health and Rehabilitative Services' bravado last month after learning
no criminal charges would be filed shocked jurors struggling with the
death of Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz.
After the November decision, district administrator Suzanne Turner said
her workers did a ``respectable'' job and had followed policy.
The attorney representing the worker says that really gnawed at jurors.
``It was enough to make them want to indict,'' attorney Nelson Bailey
said. ``It's a very oddball decision by the grand jury which apparently
surprised the state prosecutor and everybody else.''
One thing is certain: Grand jurors found fault after fault with HRS.
And although HRS officials are reluctant to admit specific errors, Secretary
Jim Towey said his agency desperately needs help.
In the indictment, jurors charged HRS protective investigator Barbara
Black with extortion by threat, a second-degree felony carrying a maximum
15-year jail sentence. The jury, which indicted A.J.'s stepmother on
second-degree murder charges in October, also issued a report detailing
errors by the agency.
In the wake of the indictment, the agency has rallied around Black,
43.
On Wednesday, she was told to stay home because she ``needed a day of
rest,'' but she stopped by the office when news of her indictment turned
a staff meeting with the agency's assistant secretary, Linda Radigan,
into a confidence-building session, program administrator Sandy Owen
said.
``Yesterday (Radigan) was coming to say how good it was everything was
over but found out on the plane that things had changed drastically
and came to offer support,'' Owen said.
Black, who became a protective investigator in 1990, will be reassigned
pending the outcome of her trial.
While the indictment came as a surprise, prosecutors and police have
known from the day A.J. was found dead that Black allegedly threatened
a neighbor who called in abuse charges.
In a lengthy police report released to The Palm Beach Post Wednesday,
neighbors detailed their frustration with the state agency.
Early on May 2, after A.J.'s father found his naked body mottled with
bruises, detectives arrived to investigate. Within an hour, neighbors
had circled the house at 5881 Triphammer Road, grumbling about the strange
events that occurred there and their attempts to call HRS.
In all, 15 would testify before the grand jury, and about 25 would make
statements to prosecutors.
A detective overheard neighbors' complaints and reported them to his
sergeant, who ordered statements taken. Eileen Callahan, who lived across
the street, was the first interviewed.
Callahan, who said she had seen A.J.'s stepmother violently curse him,
told the detective she called HRS after A.J. broke his nose in January.
Two days later, Detective Chris Calloway, who had investigated the January
complaint, returned to take a taped statement. Callahan, 27, said after
the HRS investigator and Calloway dismissed the charge, the HRS investigator
called her the next day and told her to leave the family alone. If she
continued to ``make up'' charges, Black told her, she would be prosecuted,
according to Calloway's report.
Callahan said she called A.J.'s caseworker, Joan Wyllner, to complain.
Wyllner told her to write a letter, Callahan said. When she asked for
the investigator's name, Wyllner said she could not find it, Callahan
said.
Owen, the program administrator, said Wyllner has never mentioned the
call to her. Nor does any record of the complaint appear in Black's
personnel file.
Such confusion among the ranks is one thing Towey hopes to clear up.
HRS has ``promoted fidelity to the system more than to child protection,''
Towey said. ``Here's what happens to workers when something blows up:
They're sad about the tragedy and (then wonder) is my head going to
roll.
``The system doesn't work. I know that,'' he said. ``On the A.J. Schwarz
case, we could have done a better job.''
GRAND JURY FINDINGS
In its review of Andrew 'A.J.' Schwarz's death, a grand jury found mistake
after mistake by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services
and insisted on a number of changes.
Here is a summary of what jurors found wrong:
ENOUGH evidence existed to remove A.J. from the home, yet HRS seemed
to ignore warnings from counselors and concentrate on keeping him staying
there.
HRS did not follow its own policies.
WORKERS failed to follow up reports or advise other districts, departments
within its own district, police or court-appointed guardians of events.
EXPERT recommendations from the Child Protection Team were not followed.
RECORDS were maintained so sloppily that jurors could not determine
if documents were falsified. Important files were incomplete and changes
were made without notation of who made the changes or when.
NOT enough workers were available.
NO clear chain of command or assignment of responsibilities exist.
WORKERS are pressured to wrap up cases.
The grand jury recommended that the agency:
PLACE more emphasis on the quality of work instead of the quantity,
and work should be closely watched to see it is being done properly.
MAKE sure its workers are sensitive in handling cases, because witnesses
may be wary of making reports.
CREATE a central filing system.
KEEP records of unfounded complaints.
LET police handle criminal investigations rather than workers trained
in social services.
DESIGN a plan for making sure reports are followed up.
HIRE more workers.
PAY more attention to trends and nuances in cases.
Back To Top
KEEP HISTORY OF ABUSE ALLEGATIONS TO HELP AVERT TRAGEDIES IN FUTURE
Sun-Sentinel
December 19, 1993
Andrew "A.J."Schwarz is another young casualty of a social
services system that failed to protect him.
A.J. was the 10-year-old abused boy who was found dead in May, lying
nude in an above-ground pool at the family home west of Lantana. An
autopsy concluded the boy died from drowning.
His stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, was indicted by a grand jury in October
on a charge of second-degree murder, four counts of aggravated child
abuse, witness tampering and one count of felony child abuse. Deputies
say the child was either held under water or hurt so badly that he couldn't
get out of the pool.
What makes this case even more horrible is that the state Department
of Health and Rehabilitative Services had loads of information in its
files to show that the boy was being abused, but ignored the evidence
and insisted on keeping him with his natural father and stepmother.
Last week, a Palm Beach County grand jury indicted the HRS worker who
not only did an abysmal job investigating and following up previous
abuse complaints involving A.J., but allegedly threatened that the agency
would take away a neighbor's children if the woman continued to meddle
in the case.
The HRS child protective investigator, Barbara Black, faces a charge
of extortion by threat, a second-degree felony.
The neighbor had called HRS to report suspected abuse against A.J. by
his stepmother in January. The same day, Black allegedly made the threat
against the woman.
The grand jury also ripped HRS for failing to act on evidence that A.J.
should be removed from the home. It found that the boy's death might
have been avoided if procedures had been followed.
There's no question the grand jury report hit a nerve. HRS officials
say they cannot argue with many of its findings.
Now, the agency must act to carry out the grand jury's recommendations,
which include requiring HRS supervisors to be more responsible in adhering
to policies and placing more emphasis on the quality of work, not the
quantity of cases closed.
But HRS can't bear all the blame. The Florida Legislature also shares
some of the responsibility.
In their stupidity, legislators in 1990 passed a law requiring HRS to
destroy unfounded abuse complaints in 30 days - exactly the opposite
of what they had approved only a few years earlier.
Now, the grand jury is properly recommending that a record of unfounded
abuse cases be kept, since it is the only way HRS workers can be aware
of a history of unconfirmed abuse allegations about a child. In addition
to reinstituting these requirements, the Legislature also must amend
the law to mandate that police, not HRS, be the primary investigators
of child abuse.
HRS and the Legislature must act to help other children like A.J. whose
lives may otherwise be snuffed out because of bureaucratic incompetence.
Back To Top
HRS INVESTIGATOR'S JOB PRESSURE-FILLED
Sun-Sentinel
December 19, 1993
By LARRY BARSZEWSKI Staff Writer
If Victor Perez overreacts, he can destroy a family.
But if he does not act soon enough, it's a child that could be hurt
- or killed.
"We have to make a determination, is that child safe in the home?
We have to make that decision right away," said Perez, who investigates
child abuse and neglect complaints for the Florida Department of Health
and Rehabilitative Services in Palm Beach County.
"Can the children go back in the home? That's the hardest decision
any protective investigator has to make," Perez said.
Investigators for the local HRS district are second-guessing themselves
more these days in the wake of a grand jury indictment last week of
one of their co-workers.
The grand jury charged Barbara Black with extortion by threat, a second-degree
felony, saying she threatened to take away the children of a woman who
called in an abuse complaint. The woman complained in January about
Jessica Schwarz, whose stepson, A.J. Schwarz, drowned in May. Jessica
Schwarz is now charged with second-degree murder.
The investigators empathize with Black, because they face the same heavy
caseloads, the same pressures to finish cases quickly, and the same
long hours for little pay.
Perez, 53, has been working with neglected children since 1965, including
nine years with HRS. He makes about $23,000 a year. He drives a 1985
Dodge Charger with 164,000 miles on it.
"I'm sure I could find a better job than this, but I chose this,"
Perez said. On Friday, Perez had to decide if he should take into custody
a 5-year-old boy who had been slapped at school by his father in front
of his teacher. In starting his investigation, Perez found an unclassified
1992 report about the boy having a rope tied around his neck.
"The first words out of [Victor's) mouth were, `It sounds like
A.J. Schwarz,'" said Alison Hitchcock, Perez's supervisor in the
district's Riviera Beach office, which covers the county north of Forest
Hill Boulevard. The grand jury chastised HRS workers for not picking
up on previous abuse complaints about A.J. and said the boy might still
be alive if he had been removed from his father and stepmother's home.
Perez took the case, but he had plenty of others to keep him busy.
"I'm working on five cases right now, back to back," Perez
said. Actually, he had 13 cases open, but he had to concentrate his
attention where the risk of harm was the greatest:
-- A boy who was allegedly made to eat soap, stand in a corner in his
room for up to three hours and go without dinner, sometimes up to five
days in a row. Perez is seeking court-ordered supervision of the child
because a judge has allowed the father - who instigated the punishments
- to return to the house. There are prior complaints against the family,
including sexual abuse against the boy by the father's brother.
-- A 3-year-old with three burns on his body: a mark across the face
from an iron, a burn on his chest from a lightbulb and a larger scar
on his stomach from a cigarette lighter. Although it does not look as
if the child's parents inflicted the burns, Perez wants to remove the
child and two siblings because of gross neglect.
-- A 2-year-old girl who was beaten by her mother and her mother's boyfriend.
The adults were convicted and put on probation, and a court is likely
to give the mother custody of the girl again. Perez is fighting this
because the girl was severely abused for not being toilet-trained -
and she is still not toilet-trained.
-- A child with four distinctive burns on her back. The girl is living
with a relative and is under HRS supervision. Perez is doing an assessment
about the neglect, possibly to remove the child from the home.
Then there are the other cases, such as the 16-year-old delinquent,
the drug-dependent newborn, the three teen-agers in a home with a history
of being abused.
Officials put pressure on workers to close cases. They send a daily
printout to each office of its backlogged cases. The printout on Friday
showed Hitchcock's section was 26 cases over the desired level. Districtwide,
there were 636 open cases, about 200 more than desirable, Hitchcock
said.
HRS Secretary James Towey told local officials after Black's indictment
not to worry about the number of open cases, to focus on the quality
of the investigations and not the quantity of cases closed, Hitchcock
said.
"How long will it last? Who knows?" said Hitchcock, who feels
the pressure herself and passes it on to her subordinates. The open-case
printout still is sent out every day.
Perez dealt as he could with his other cases on Friday, but his focus
was the complaint that arrived late on Thursday about the school incident,
which had to be investigated in 24 hours.
"Every other case has to be put aside, because I have to determine
the safety of this child," Perez said.
He started the day getting background information, criminal histories
and prior complaints logged with HRS about the family. He interviewed
the boy and his 6-year-old sister at school before confronting the parents.
He had a sheriff's deputy accompany him to the home west of West Palm
Beach after school because he had no idea what might happen.
"Once the father knows that HRS is involved, we never know how
parents are going to react," Perez said. "This one's already
had prior contact with HRS."
The father reacted angrily, but Perez's homework paid off. He knew the
father had an outstanding warrant, so the deputy threatened the father
with arrest if he did not cooperate. The father agreed to go to the
HRS office to be interviewed, where Perez said it would be less confrontational.
After meeting with the father, Perez made several determinations. The
main one is that the children can stay at home. Both parents need to
learn parenting skills, and counseling will be arranged, but the children
are in no immediate danger. The father agreed to voluntary supervision.
The emergency was over, but the case was far from done when Perez left
work on Friday. He must transcribe all his conversations for the day,
once in writing and once on a computer. There are up to three dozen
other forms he must fill out
Two-thirds of the cases that come to the office are unfounded and go
nowhere, but they all require the same amount of paperwork and make
the same demands on investigators' time, supervisor Hitchcock said.
"Sometimes doing the best we can doesn't satisfy anybody,"
Perez said. "In the meantime, the computer kicks out new cases."
Back To Top
NO EXCUSES -- AN EDITORIAL
The Palm Beach Post
December 19, 1993
For more than seven months, officials with the Florida Department of
Health and Rehabilitative Services have made excuses for their agency's
failure to prevent the death last May of a 10-year-old Lantana boy named
A.J. Schwarz.
Our social workers are overworked and underpaid, the officials have
said. The evidence of abuse was insufficient, the officials have said.
The testimony from neighbors and others was inadequate, the officials
have said.
But now we know there was no excuse for A.J.'s death. We know there
was no excuse for HRS to leave A.J. in the home of his stepmother, who
is charged with killing him. Despite his terrible home life, despite
his being tugged between dangerously dysfunctional families, last week's
grand jury report said it all in one grim understatement: ``Andrew J.
Schwarz's files had enough information in them to strongly suggest removing
him from the home.''
A.J. Schwarz was placed in what HRS calls protective supervision in
1990 after abuse charges against his stepfather, with whom he and his
mother were living. How well was he protected?
Here's what the therapists said: ``This is a target child . . . living
in exactly the wrong situation. Parenting is not meeting his needs .
. . should receive therapy for his past sexual abuse. Family is holding
secrets and avoiding confrontation with HRS and the Child Protection
Team . . . History definitely indicates severe and continuing emotional
abuse which certainly should be investigated. - Child Protection Team,
Feb. 23, 1993.
HERE'S WHAT THE GRAND JURY SAID: ``There was an overwhelming drive by
HRS to keep Andrew with his natural father even when the Child Protection
Team showed this was not in his best interest. . . . HRS' policies and
procedures were not followed. There was a lack of diligent follow-up
and communication between counties, groups within the department and
with police investigators. It's difficult to determine if records are
falsified when they are not adequately maintained. . . . White-out,
overwriting, cutting pages and taping pages were observed. - Grand Jury,
Dec. 14, 1993.
The picture that emerges is of bureaucratic mentality gone mad while
a little boy struggles to survive. ``We must not substitute process
for people,'' HRS Secretary Jim Towey says. But that's precisely what
happened.
And yet. The system almost worked - could have worked. Warning signs
blinked in hundreds of documents. In January, neighbor Eileen Callahan
swallowed her fear of the hostile Schwarz family and called HRS when
she saw A.J. with a broken nose and black eyes.
For her courage, she was terrorized. HRS investigator Barbara Black
allegedly threatened to take Ms. Callahan's children if she didn't stop
calling. Last week, Ms. Black was arrested and charged with extortion
by threat. The charge will be difficult to prove. But the grand jury
made its point.
A mind-set that obscures people by elevating time management and ``good''
numbers will lead to disaster when every number is someone's life. Yet
Barbara Black was known - and commended - for her ability to reduce
HRS' backlog by closing cases quickly.
A.J.'s case is not an isolated example. Grand juries in Orlando, Miami
and Jacksonville have also leveled scathing charges at HRS for its handling
of child abuse. Mr. Towey and Suzanne Turner, the HRS administrator
for Palm Beach County, have held their respective jobs since July and
August. They bear no direct responsibility for A.J.'s death. Yet where
are their expressions of moral outrage, their pledges to reverse the
dangerous HRS drift?
The courts will focus on Ms. Black and on Jessica Schwarz, charged with
murdering her stepson. The public will focus on how Gov. Chiles - and
Mr. Towey and Ms. Turner - see their responsibility. Eileen Callahan
saw her responsibility clearly. She worried about getting involved.
That was more than anyone at HRS did.
Gov. Chiles has yet to comment on the Schwarz case. As of last Thursday,
Mr. Towey hadn't even read the file. How many other children are in
danger because too many HRS workers are worrying about efficiency?
``It is my opinion that Andrew is at risk for physical, emotional and
verbal abuse. HRS is to closely monitor this family.
- Therapist, Center for Children in Crisis, Sept. 17, 1991.
``Professionals' recommendations were not implemented.
- Grand Jury, Dec. 14, 1993.
Andrew J. Schwarz died May 2, 1993.
Case closed.
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GRAND JURY: HRS URGED QUANTITY OVER QUALITY
The Palm Beach Post
December 20, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH
In the months after a 10-year-old boy struggling with an explosive family
came under the protective arm of the state, the state health office
buzzed with exuberance. Banners went up. Memos went out.
The elation had nothing to do with Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz or the thousands
of other children in the state's care.
What excited Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services workers
was a simple number. For the first time, District 9 had the fewest backlogged
cases in the state, racing past all the other districts and climbing
to the top of a weekly ranking report issued from headquarters in Tallahassee.
In a letter to the investigator who would later handle A.J.'s care,
acting district director Jim Hart wrote:
``Congratulations on reaching what appeared for so long to be the unreachable
goal for District 9 CYF Protective Investigations: `lowest backlog in
the state.' ''
District officials insist they never meant workers to sacrifice quality
for quantity, but a grand jury decided last week that's exactly what
happened.
Not only did jurors issue a harsh report picking apart HRS problems
point by point, but they indicted Barbara Black, the 43-year-old investigator
Hart so vigorously praised, charging her with threatening a neighbor
who called in abuse complaints about A.J.
Jurors, who earlier indicted A.J.'s stepmother on second degree murder
charges and cleared the agency of criminal wrongdoing, reversed their
decision, possibly out of fear that HRS would ignore their findings.
This week, HRS Secretary Jim Towey acknowledged the crisis crippling
his agency, saying he was grateful for the report.
``HRS as a whole has been more committed to process than the people
in our care,'' he said. ``The complexity of the system is no excuse
for us not doing our jobs well.''
But some say it will take more than a mere nod of recognition.
``Will the system change? The system will change if people really care
enough about what happens to children,'' said Harriet Goldstein, a social
worker for 50 years and director of field placement at Barry University.
``Without strong advocacy, persistence and demands, these are forgotten
families and forgotten kids,'' said Goldstein, who has given expert
testimony to grand juries in other states. ``They're out of the community
sight and nobody pays attention until there's a death. Then there's
momentary alarm before everybody goes back to quiescence.''
In their report, what jurors found particularly troubling was the agency's
emphasis on closing cases and an urgency to keep things looking good
despite trouble brewing beneath the surface.
``There's no question there was pressure all over the state to decrease
the backlog,'' Towey said.
Workers first began feeling the pressure to keep cases down in late
1988 and early 1989 when the state centralized its abuse investigations
by setting up a single hot line in Tallahassee, Hart explained.
``Now you have a centralized number and the administration was very,
very process oriented. They used to track whether you had the lowest
caseload.''
The ranking reports began daily, then dropped to biweekly and finally
slowed to weekly, said John Perry, who works in the Tallahassee hotline
office.
``We've always emphasized quality of work over quantity,'' Hart said.
``But I'll tell you, under the previous administration, there was a
lot of emphasis on numbers and getting things down.''
Towey eliminated the weekly reports when he stepped in as secretary,
although he maintains a computer listing which workers can read.
When HRS put A.J. in protective supervision in November 1990, District
9 ranked eighth in the state. Caseworkers averaged 40 to 50 cases a
month and protective investigators struggled with a rolling average
of 15. At the same time, the death of a 2-year-old Lakeland boy had
prompted legislators to quickly provide money for more than 600 new
workers to try to ease the pressure of mounting caseloads.
But the injection of money and workers would not be enough.
District 9 climbed to No. 2 more than two years later, but the ranking
did little for A.J. On May 2, his body - mottled with yellowing bruises
- was found in his backyard pool. A report was issued several weeks
before his death calling for continued investigation of the case: In
addition to emotional abuse, a counselor believed he may have been covering
up for his stepmother when he said he broke his nose falling off a bicycle.
In the weeks following the report, a meeting was held, but A.J . stayed
with his stepmother.
Although state statute requires investigations to be closed in 45 days,
Hart says the district never enforced the rule.
``There are reasons why you can't close a case. For instance if it's
pending in the courts, you can't close it,'' he said.
While working on A.J.'s case, Black - who was charged with extortion
by threat, a second degree felony carrying a possible 15-year prison
sentence - was a model investigator.
In the early 1980s, HRS hired Black as a data file clerk. After earning
her bachelor's degree in social work from Florida Atlantic University
in 1986, she was promoted to a child support investigator.
The next year, she transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections
to become a probation officer. In 1990, HRS rehired her as a protective
investigator.
In the three years she investigated child abuse, Black received remarkably
good evaluations, exceeding her supervisor's expectations case after
case. Moving quickly on the career ladder, she kept her caseload to
a minimum, rarely going over 10. One supervisor noted she was more than
capable of doing what she wanted most: becoming a supervisor.
Black, born and raised in West Palm Beach, declined to be interviewed
through her attorney, Nelson Bailey.
Bailey suggested that Black may be a scapegoat for the faults of an
entire system and society has misplaced its blame.
``Their performance system was predicated on closing out cases,'' he
said. ``Part of the problem is the public is looking to place the blame
and the blame lies in the public's own lap. They've got the system and
it doesn't work.''
Towey, who has not read A.J.'s files documenting the blunders workers
made, has been careful about commenting on the case partly because A.J.'s
mother is preparing a lawsuit against the agency.
``The breeding ground for child abuse is much more complex than HRS
can handle. I'm sick of hearing about the system. We've all got to be
held accountable,'' Towey said.
Towey and District Administrator Suzanne Turner have come up with some
solutions, although they have not completed a review of the May death.
Among the changes are: asking police to take the lead in abuse investigations
rather than relying on investigators trained in social work; opening
some reports for public scrutiny so taxpayers can see what HRS is doing;
breaking the district into areas and assigning supervisors based on
geographical boundaries rather than a straight chain of command.
Even with the changes, Towey says HRS alone cannot solve the problems
children face.
``I'm not going to lie to you and say if HRS would just do its job,
then all our problems would go away,'' he said. ``I want this to be
a moment where the community comes forward and says, `How do we stop
child abuse?' ''
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WOMAN CAN'T VISIT CHILDREN DURING HOLIDAY
Sun-Sentinel
December 24, 1993
A woman accused in the May death of her stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz,
10, may not visit with her children over the Christmas holiday, a judge
ruled on Thursday.
Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Walter N. Colbath Jr. denied Jessica
Schwarz's request to see her two daughters.
However, Colbath, deferred ruling on whether Schwarz will be able to
visit with her daughters after the holiday. The judge said he would
make that ruling after the daughters have given depositions in connection
with A.J.'s death.
Jessica Schwarz, 38, was indicted on Oct. 8 for second-degree murder,
four counts of aggravated child abuse, witness tampering and one count
of felony child abuse. She remains free on bail pending trial.
A.J. was found by his father, David Schwarz, about 6 a.m. on May 2 lying
nude in an above-ground pool at the family home west of Lantana. Deputies
have said Jessica Schwarz either held A.J. under the water or hurt him
so badly that he could not get out of the pool.
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SCHWARZ WON'T SEE DAUGHTERS
The Palm Beach Post
December 24, 1993
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH
Estimated printed pages: 2
A woman accused of killing her 10-year-old stepson after months of abuse
won't spend Christmas with her two young daughters after a psychologist
said she enlisted the girls in a ``conspiracy of abuse.''
In a hearing Thursday, Dr. George Rahaim said he saw Jessica Schwarz
wave to the girls and, minutes later, make a crude gesture to a state
prosecutor. Rahaim said he's not sure the girls saw the gesture but
he said it was an example of the silent manipulation she practices.
``It's very subtle,'' Rahaim said. ``These are girls riding to school
in the rain while their brother had to walk. . . . I liken it to a trusty
in a concentration camp, where you have to live with unspeakable things
happening to other people.''
Except for passing glimpses in court appearances, Schwarz, 39, has not
seen the girls, 5 and 11, since a grand jury indicted her in the death
of Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz in October.
Saying the girls had become depressed living with their grandparents
in Palm Bay, Schwarz's attorney, Rendell Brown, tried to persuade Judge
Walter Colbath to allow weekend visits. In a two-page letter to Colbath,
the older girl wrote:
``My little sister only knows how to wright (sic) her name so I am writing
for both of us. Please, Please let us have a Merry Xmas.''
Colbath, who was ``very concerned about the subtle abuse,'' agreed to
let Schwarz send letters and give presents to the girls, but not see
them.
Afterward, Brown said Schwarz probably would not write.
Colbath initially prohibited contact between Schwarz and the girls when
he released her from jail on $150,000 bond and confined her to her home.
He based his decision in part on a videotape recorded by investigators
hours after A.J.'s body was found May 2, in which prosecutors said Schwarz
bullied the girls.
``You got a big mouth,'' Schwarz told her younger daughter. ``You don't
talk to nobody no more. You just say, `I don't know.' ''
The girl had told detectives Schwarz hit A.J. and dumped green dye in
his hair the day before his death, reports show. Schwarz's treatment
of her stepson alarmed neighbors as early as May 1992, when a complaint
was filed with an abuse hot line. The Department of Health and Rehabilitative
Services, which had been monitoring the case since 1990, conducted investigations,
but said no evidence was found.
Then, two months before his death, Rahaim and therapists warned that
Schwarz was, at the least, emotionally abusing A.J.
Earlier this month, the grand jury charged HRS investigator Barbara
Black with extortion, saying she threatened to take a neighbor's children
who had complained about the former truck driver.
In the video, Rahaim said the youngest girl ``was extremely anxious
and frightened for her mother and felt a sense of responsibility. .
. . The kid was trying to get her story straight.''
Walking into court Thursday, Schwarz waved at the girls. Minutes later,
before the hearing began, she made the crude gesture to Assistant State
Attorney Joe Marx, Rahaim said. Outside the courtroom, her girls momentarily
forgot the adults sparring inside when a Santa Claus passed by. Even
with the door closed, their squeals of delight could be heard as he
shouted, ``Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.''
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