PHOENIX — Child Protective Services made a mistake when it closed its investigation into the mother of Ariana and Tyler Payne, the agency's Pima County head said Tuesday during a legislative hearing.
At the very least, keeping the case open would have allowed investigators to continue to check on the welfare of the two children while their parents' custody dispute played out in court, said Lillian Downing, adding the closure was a result of extreme staffing shortages.
"Based on the information, we should have kept the case open. We did not," she said.
Roughly seven months after the police investigation started into the deaths of Ariana and Tyler Payne, Downing and other CPS officials testified before the House Government Committee about how the Payne case was handled.
The hearing opened the door for changes allowing CPS to have better access to criminal histories, improve communication with police and file missing persons reports.
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The hearing did not address CPS's handling of the case of Brandon Williams, a 5-year-old boy who died in March despite contact with CPS. Williams' mother and a friend are charged with the murder.
The decision to close the case was one of the few mistakes Downing and other officials acknowledged in the face of questions about why CPS workers disregarded a court order, failed to check court records or did not intervene with a temporary custody notification. Nonetheless, Downing also said, the case's closure was appropriate.
"I cannot say it was an error that we closed the case because, regarding the allegations and our involvement with the mother, there was nothing further for us to do," she said.
Such inconsistent answers during the five-hour hearing left lawmakers frustrated.
"We simply couldn't get straight answers from the questions," said Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican who has taken the lead on the hearings.
"We asked if there were mistakes made. Somehow there weren't mistakes, but somehow there were. It was very confusing to me as far as what the real answer was," Paton said.
In February, 4-year-old Ariana's decomposing body was found in a trash bin after it had been kept in a storage locker. Five-year-old Tyler's remains have not been found, but he is presumed dead.
Documents have shown CPS workers and Tucson police did not follow a court order giving the children's mother, Jamie Hallam, sole custody without visitation rights because there were concerns she was using methamphetamine, an allegation that has never been proven.
Instead of following the order, CPS and the Tucson Police Department kept the children with their father, Christopher Matthew Payne, and his girlfriend Reina Gonzales, who are charged with murdering them.
CPS officials acknowledged investigator Cindy Graupmann never checked court records to verify the court order.
But the decision to disregard the order was a major focus of the hearing. CPS officials said there were no indications the children were in danger as Payne had never been the subject of any child abuse allegations.
Moreover, it was Hallam who violated the court order by placing the kids with Payne in January 2006, CPS officials said.
"We had no reason to say these children were in imminent risk with their father," Downing said.
Documents have shown that on March 9, 2006, Hallam attempted to get her kids back from Payne — one week after she was told her CPS case had been closed. She went to a gas station near Payne's apartment and called Tucson police asking for help.
When officers arrived, she showed them her court order. The officers went to Payne's home but decided to keep the kids there at the direction of CPS because of the concerns about methamphetamine use.
Deputy Chief Kermit Miller said if Hallam had protested that decision, the officer would have enforced the court order.
"If she had objected, he would have had to have gone back and at least threatened an arrest," he said.
It is the department's policy to follow CPS's direction on child placement, Miller said.
Another key point in the hearing was why CPS never intervened by using a temporary custody notice, which would have allowed the agency to take custody of the kids for 72 hours.
Much of the CPS rationale for keeping the kids with Payne was the suspicion Hallam was using methamphetamine.
Case notes have documented the investigator, Graupmann, believed Hallam was using methamphetamine because of sores on her body and her repeated refusal to take drug tests.
Rep. Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, who chairs the committee, asked why a temporary custody notice wasn't used if there were so many concerns about Hallam's supposed drug use.
"They could have gone to court. They could have had a hearing. The judge could have ruled whether it was appropriate to stay with the father," Adams said.
Downing said there wasn't enough evidence to take action; and if CPS lost in court the children would have had to go back to their mother.
No one has been disciplined in the handling of the Payne case, and officials said any problems that did arise in the course of the investigation were due to a staffing shortage.
"We had as many as 40 percent vacancies" in Pima County at that time, said Ken Debeirt, deputy director of the Department of Economic Security, who oversees CPS.
"When you get that kind of movement, change in relationships, it has an impact in how the practice is conducted," he said.
Said Downing, "We should have kept the case open. We did not. It was due to staffing issues, the workload. This particular case investigator had 30 open cases."
While there was much rehashing of the Payne case, the hearing also highlighted some potential changes to the agency to ensure child safety.
Some ideas were allowing CPS workers to file missing-persons reports and providing better access to Department of Public Safety criminal records.
"Access to criminal history information is particularly important both from a worker safety standpoint as well as assisting us" with investigations, Deibert said.
While endorsing the changes, Paton said, "I think there were serious mistakes that were made, and I want to make sure there certainly is a measure of accountability."
Read more crime-related news in the "Police Beat" blog at go.azstarnet.com/policebeat.
The story so far
House legislators held a hearing Tuesday examining Child Protective Services' handling of the Ariana and Tyler Payne case. One key question: Why CPS workers disregarded a court order giving sole custody to the children's mother, Jamie Hallam, and placed the kids with their father, Christopher Matthew Payne, who is accused of the murders. Hallam has filed a claim against the agency, and a lawsuit is likely. At the hearing, CPS officials mostly defended the case's handling, saying workers were hampered by severe staffing shortages.
Ariana Payne
Four-year-old Ariana's decomposing body was discovered Feb. 18 in a trash bin after it had been kept in a storage locker on Tucson's North Side.
Tyler Payne
Five-year-old Tyler's remains have yet to be found, but he is presumed dead. Also charged in the murders is Reina Gonzales, Christopher Matthew Payne's girlfriend at the time.
