Child Protective Services has learned a lot since the high-profile deaths of Ariana and Tyler Payne and Brandon Williams.
Those tragic cases from 2007 sparked outrage and spurred changes in state law designed to make CPS more accountable to the public and more observant of children. Five years later, CPS has shown what it has learned is how to better cover things up and keep the public in the dark.
When a case goes deadly wrong, as it did with 21-month-old Za'Naya Flores, CPS has learned to drag its feet on records requests from reporters or outright deny them in spite of state law. It has learned how to better silence employees through confidentiality statements just to make sure nothing leaks.
We know Za'Naya died of malnutrition on Jan. 12 despite plenty of CPS involvement with the family. Za'Naya's 23-year-old mother, Kiyana Higgins, her 25-year-old aunt Keshawna Higgins and 52-year-old grandmother, Clara Huyghue, have been charged with second-degree murder and child abuse.
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But we still don't know what happened and how CPS handled this case.
Has anyone at CPS been disciplined? Has anyone been placed on administrative leave? Has an internal investigation of how the agency handled the case been done?
It's been more than a month since the Star requested case records seeking answers to those questions. Although the law requires CPS to immediately send the records to the Pima County Attorney for review and release as soon as a public records request is made, CPS just got around to handing them over to the county attorney last week.
"I currently have this stuff with the county attorney and have signaled to them our sense of urgency on this," Clarence Carter, director of the state's Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS, told me.
Sense of urgency.
An interesting choice of words. The Star's first public records request for the case file dates back to Jan. 17. Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall has said when a case file is requested her office should be notified, "Like ASAP."
But Carter said CPS didn't notify LaWall's office until last week - more than five weeks after the request.
Why the holdup?
"I am comforted that we moved as urgently as we were able to move," Carter said. "We did not put our response together for you on the back of an envelope."
Indeed, it takes work to obfuscate.
Child Protective Services refuses to acknowledge whether any staffers have been placed on administrative leave or whether it is pursuing an investigation into the botched case. After Za'Naya died, workers in one unit were required to sign a confidentiality statement.
A request for disciplinary records for several staffers, which state law says are public, was denied because, "Administrative leave is not a disciplinary action," says a letter from Todd Stone, who coordinates CPS public records requests.
The letter goes on to contend that even if administrative leave records are public, "The Department asserts that confidentiality, privacy, and the best interests of the state outweigh the public's interest in disclosure in this case. Specifically, if any of the above named employees is on administrative leave pending an investigation, the Department has a strong interest in protecting the integrity of its ongoing investigation."
So, CPS won't say if any workers tied to the case have been placed on administrative leave, but if they have been, they are the subjects of an investigation.
No wonder it's taking so long to make this case public.
"The inferences that you will draw from that (letter) are your own," Carter said.
Here are the inferences Dan Barr, a prominent Phoenix-based First Amendment attorney, drew from the denial letter:
"Four years ago, the Legislature made crystal clear that all disciplinary records of public employees 'shall be open to public inspection,' " he wrote in an email. "When one reads DES' disingenuous denial letter, one gets the feeling that even they do not believe that their withholding of the public records here is justified."
Another child is dead, and once again at the heart of tragedy, we are reminded that CPS works best when it is protecting itself.
Contact columnist Josh Brodesky at 573-4242 or jbrodesky@azstarnet.com
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