newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The horrific discovery of little Faheem Williams' mummified remains in the Newark basement of a relative's home prompted a $1 Billion overhaul of New Jersey's Department of Youth and Family Services in 2003, but eight years later, the state is paying for mistakes of its past.

Susan K. Livio of the Statehouse Bureau reported that New Jersey spent approximately $51.7 million in 317 lawsuits brought on behalf of foster children who were abused while in state foster homes from as far back as 1996.

Attorney Joel Garber of Voorhees said while he hoped the system changed, he was not very optimistic since it's too hard to police what really goes on in foster homes. Garber represented a teenaged boy who endured abuse at the hands of his foster mother for a number of years before welfare investigators could actually prove she was abusive. The boy, who said the abuse began when he was 8, was awarded $1.2 million last year from the state, wrote Livio in a separate report. He is now 17 and living in Colorado with his adoptive family.

Fred Wulczyn, a research fellow at the University of Chicago, says the overall rate of substantiated abuse and neglect in New Jersey is 0.14 percent, nearly three times lower than the national average at 0.5 percent.

When the agency introduced a more defined plan for the major overhaul in 2004 with the help of case studies done by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, City officials, facing a Children's Rights lawsuit stemming from a number of high-profile foster children deaths, were hopeful. The new plancalled for improved training, instituting treatment plans meant to preserve families and additional services meant to help families create safe, stable homes for children.

The case studies used by ACNJ were taken from two more successful reform efforts in New York City and Alabama. The process, lauded by advocates, appeared promising for the more than 7,000 children living in licensed foster and group homes supervised by DYFS.

Morristown attorney Jeffrey Advokat, who also represented one of the 317 victims who sued the state last year said while he feels DYFS has improved some, it's clear more work has to be done. Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of ACNJ, said she hoped DYFS used the lawsuit cases to identify issues that would prevent future cases from happening, NJ.com reported.

Below are a few of the lawsuits the State settled last year:

The family of 21-month old Xavier Joneswon an $800,000 settlement after Jones died in a Linden foster home when he ingested a bottle of methadone. Jones' mother, Vanessa Gentleman, said she documented injuries to her son such as a black eye, and a cut to his forehead with photographs. She begging the caseworker to look in on Xavier. When the caseworker finally did, it was too late, BlogNetwork reported.

In another lawsuit, while the state admitted no wrongdoing, DYFS paid $4.5 million to a 17-year-old boy sexually abused by a foster parent when he was six years old, reported Jim Lockwood of the Star-Ledger. The abuse began in 1996 and lasted through 1998 after the victim was placed with a Hudson County foster family in 1995, the Star-Ledger reported. Court documents show the foster parents were charged and convicted of sexual assault and child endangerment in 1999. The foster parent who filed the 2008 lawsuit on the victim’s behalf in Passaic County later adopted he child.

A 2009 lawsuit in Morristown brought by a 17-year-old girl, who was sexually abused for two years by her foster father beginning at the age of seven, was settled for $600,000. According to the Star-Ledger, the victim said foster mother, Jackie Olson "failed to recognize, stop and report" the sexual abuse, and that DYFS did not "adequately investigate" the Olsons as foster parents. The State reached the settlement agreement without admitting any culpability, NJ.com reported. The victim, now lives in Morristown with her mother, and has received therapy for the abuse, her lawyer said.

In October 2005, the state agreed to pay $12.5 million to four brothers, starved and beaten by their foster mother, Vanessa Jackson for 12 years as they languished in her Collingswood home. Chris Megerian of the Statehouse Bureau reported that the DYFS workers, who admitted to failing to help the boys, never looked into why the boys were so malnourished when they visited another foster child in the same home. A neighbor spotted the older child rummaging through the garbage and called police. All four of the boys, ranging in age from 9 to 19 years old, all weighed less than 45 pounds. Jackson pleaded guilty to one charge of child endangerment and received a seven-year prison sentence, MSNBC reported. Jackson served four years after being denied parole twice.

In one of the latest incidents where a child died while in a New Jersey foster home, Ocean County DYFS officials faced questions by a New Hampshire couple last year after their 17-month old son died of positional asphyxia while in a Brick Township foster home. Carmen Cotting, 24, and Timothy Wheeler, 34, both of Claremont, N.H., learned of their son's death while attending a Superior Court hearing to regain custody of Calel Wheeler and their five-year-old son, according to an Associated Press report.

The state placed the children in foster care after Cotting was arrested on a bad check charge and the father was incarcerated in a New Hampshire jail. An autopsy determined the death was accidental. The parents have filed no lawsuit at this time.