Child abuse probes handled by the book, CYS head says

April 09--MERCER -- It was just by chance that a good samaritan saw the little boy.

The caller had seen the neighborhood children playing outside before deciding to contact Mercer County Children and Youth Services on June 6, 2014.

They appeared to be normal, happy children.

But this time, they had a new playmate, a boy, a child whom the caller had not seen before.

The caller thought he might be about 5 -- and described the boy as a "walking skeleton," according to a report from the state Department of Human Services.

The boy was two days away from turning 8.

The caller said police had been called the previous day. Greenville-West Salem Township police confirmed the call and said a patrolman had gone to the home, but it appeared no one was there, the DHS report said.

Two CYS caseworkers returned to the Greenville address and knocked on the door. They could hear running footsteps inside, but no one came to the door. The caseworkers continued knocking, moving also to a side door. Still, no one answered.

When a caseworker announced police would be called, someone answered the door.

The caseworkers asked to see the children who lived in the home. Four came forward. Three appeared to be healthy, but one was "emaciated and sickly," according to the report.

After talking with family members and doctors, a caseworker drove the child and his mother to a hospital, where the the boy weighed in at 25 pounds. He was transferred to a children's hospital, where he was diagnosed as "profusely undernourished."

Dr. Jennifer Wolford of UPMC Children's Hospital Child Advocacy Center told police at the time, "The child was starved. (He) is the worst case of medical neglect that I have ever seen in my seven years as a pediatrician."

Other doctors also expressed their shock at the child's condition, Dr. Wolford said.

"He was being starved in his own home around others of normal weight," she said.

And his plight almost went undiscovered.

Had the caseworkers been unable to see the child -- or if that caller had looked the other way -- the case might have ended very differently, county officials said.

"The worker's persistence saved the child's life," the DHS report concluded.

The boy started gaining weight immediately upon admission to the hospital.

"The most important medicine used to treat him at the hospital was food," Dr. Wolford said. "He was within a month of having a major cardiac event that he probably would not have recovered from."

According to the police report, the child was only given a shower as punishment and the water was ice cold. He was not permitted out of the house except onto the back porch, where he would find bugs and sometimes eat them.

"The only thing this child needed was to eat," former District Attorney Robert G. Kochems said in March 2015.

The boy's mother, Mary Rader, then 28, initially faced multiple charges including criminal attempt of murder of the first degree, criminal attempt of murder of the third degree, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint of a minor where the offender is the victim's parent, false imprisonment of a minor where the offender is the victim's parent, endangering the welfare of children and criminal conspiracy.

His grandmother, Deana Beighley, then 48, and his step-grandfather, Dennis Beighley, then 59, who also lived in the home, were arrested and charged with nearly identical charges. Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Christopher St. John later dropped some of the charges against Dennis Beighley, and altered charges against Rader and Deana Beighley.

Kochems plea bargained the case. All three admitted to starving the child. Rader pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, a felony of the first degree, which normally carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and was sentenced to 5.5 to 15 years in prison.

Deana Beighley pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as well, and was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

Dennis Beighley pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a felony of the third degree, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years, and was sentenced to 22 months to 5 years.

The boy was put in foster care, and as of December 2014, he was no longer being treated and was put on customary one-year checkups with a doctor.

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This is just one of the investigations that local children's services workers do on a daily basis in Mercer County.

Sometimes the calls pan out, and sometimes they don't, but those who make it their business to protect children from abuse and neglect take each case seriously, and each report as a potential chance to save a life.

But they cannot make decisions about guilt or innocence, or even whether a child should be removed from a home, on their own.

Investigations by county children's agencies are controlled by state laws including the Child Protective Services Act and the Juvenile Act, said Kathryn Gabriel, administrator of Mercer County Children and Youth Services.

"If it meets the criteria by law, it is registered with the state, and there are provisions in the law that tell us what to do," Gabriel said.

The process changes only if a law or regulation changes, she said. That was the case with an update in the Child Protective Service Act following the Jerry Sandusky case. Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2012.

The update added to the list of professionals and others who are mandated to report suspected child abuse; expanded the definitions of child abuse and who is a perpetrator; clarified the background checks required for people who work with children; increased the responsibilities of schools in looking out for a child's welfare; changed the recordkeeping that gives the state and county agencies improved access to information; and gave county agencies the authority over student abuse cases, which had been the responsibility of schools.

"It was so needed," Gabriel said of the updates, which went into effect in 2014 and 2015.

While Gabriel said her agency is not allowed to confirm or deny that an investigation has taken place in a case, information sometimes becomes available through a secondary source, such as a criminal prosecution or a civil custody case. She said the state also makes public on its website reports concerning the deaths of children, and instances in which a child comes close to death, that were investigated by county children's services agencies.

These reports, which are redacted to remove most names and other identifying information, outline the case and the local agency's response; name strengths and weaknesses of the agency's actions; and list recommendations for things the agency could do better, or things the agency did that could be considered a best practice and be emulated by other agencies.

In some instances, the agency finds that no abuse or neglect occurred, such as in cases where a child died of a natural cause. In others, the reports detail changes the agency made when a shortcoming was exposed.

In the Mercer County case of a 2-month-old boy who died of malnutrition and dehydration in 2009, state officials said there were "serious communication problems" between CYS and the local police department. CYS did not conduct proper investigations of earlier calls about this family and failed to follow through on the probe of the boy's death, the report said.

CYS was required to submit a corrective action plan, and it developed a protocol to improve communication and increased training sessions with medical professionals on their responsibilities as reporters of child abuse.

A 2015 case led to CYS increasing its investigations and case history reviews in instances where caregivers seek to return custody of children to parents.

The biggest challenges CYS faces are building transparency where case confidentiality is demanded, and relationships with law enforcement, prosecutors, schools, service providers and other agencies that can impact the life of a child, Gabriel said.

She said one of her main goals as director is education. She said she wants people to know how CYS works, and why it acts as it does.

"The only way we can keep kids safe is to bring awareness to child abuse and protection and request people to make a report if they suspect child abuse and neglect," she said. "When people lose confidence in the system, it's the kids who suffer."

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