Child Protection?

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is being touted as one of the Republican Party’s top U.S. Senate prospects in 2010, but chronic problems with a government agency that’s supposed to protect “children and families” could prove to be his undoing.

In fact, the botched handling of a child welfare case with South Carolina ties has put Crist’s “Department of Children and Families” squarely on our radar screen … and not in a good way.

The case we’re investigating revolves around four-year-old Ashleigh and two-year-old Aiden Rodriguez, two siblings who in December of 2008 were inexplicably placed back in the custody of their mother, Tiffany Cassara Rodriguez – a mentally-disturbed exotic dancer and “escort” with a history of alcoholism, drug abuse, violent behavior and a criminal rap sheet a mile long.

According to Florida law enforcement records, prior to Ashleigh and Aiden being placed back in her custody, Tiffany Rodriguez had been arrested a total of 30 times for a variety of different offenses, including several drug and alcohol-related incidents as well as offenses involving physical violence toward law enforcement.

Larceny, fraud, prostitution, cocaine possession, assault and battery, DUI … you name it, chances are Rodriguez has been arrested for it.

In fact, she’s been arrested two more times since being awarded custody of her children again – including an April 2009 arrest in Pennsylvania, where she illegally fled with the children, forcing the FBI to extradite her back to Florida.

Also, last month Rodriguez was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

In spite of all this – and against the recommendation of a Guardian ad litem and the private entity that handles child placement in Florida – a Circuit Court Judge last week refused to permanently remove Asheigh and Aiden from their mother’s custody.

In fact, Judge Ramiro Manalich is still holding out the possibility of “reunification” as a “concurrent goal” with respect to the fate of these two children, who are now back in foster care … again.

Obviously, a goal of “reunification” seems preposterous under any circumstances, but in the case of Ashleigh and Aiden, it’s even more ridiculous considering the fact that had Florida law been followed, these children would have been placed with their South Carolina relatives years ago.

But thanks to a botched “relative search,” Florida bureaucrats failed to locate the couple that should be caring for these children.

Jason and Christina Wilson of Beaufort, S.C. – Aiden and Ashleigh’s first cousins once-removed – have already adopted two of Tiffany Rodriguez’s children, seven-year-old Emily and six-year-old Kady. Their home is a licensed foster home, complete with a seal of approval from the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC).

Just this year, in fact, they passed another home inspection with flying colors – part of their ongoing efforts to adopt Aiden and Ashleigh.

And ironically, it was a similar relative search conducted on behalf of the state of Florida several years ago that successfully placed Emily and Kady with the Wilsons, which has led every child welfare expert who has testified in Aiden and Ashleigh’s case says that they should be placed there as well, to be raised with their siblings.

So what’s the problem?

Why didn’t the initial relative search for Aiden and Ashleigh locate the Wilsons – particularly after a similar search just a few counties away successfully located them in the first case?

“We don’t know what happened,” says Aimee McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the company that performed the relative search on behalf of the state of Florida. “A diligent search was performed.”

In a wide-ranging interview with FITS, McLaughlin says that the Children’s Network of Southwest Florida – the agency responsible for making a recommendation to the court – says that the children should be placed in South Carolina.

“We’re trying to do the right thing,” she says.

Indeed, the Children’s Network proved true to its word, making the recommendation to Judge Manalich last week that Aiden and Ashleigh be placed with their siblings in South Carolina.

Manalich refused, however, throwing the children back into foster care – while at the same time holding out hope for “reunification” with their mother.

A Crist appointment, efforts to contact Manalich were unsuccessful.

“His professional and personal integrity, along with a deep commitment to his community, will lead him to continue to pursue the principles of equal justice under law,” Gov. Crist said in appointing Manalich to the Circuit Court in 2008.

Really?

Because Manalich certainly does not appear to be acting in the best interests of these children.

Forget “three strikes, you’re out.” Rodriguez is on strike thirty-three.

“I wish I could say (this case) was an anomaly,” says a Florida-based reporter who spoke with FITS on condition of anonymity. “But we write about breakdowns in the state’s Department of Children and Families on a weekly basis.”

In fact, just last year the spokesman for the Deparment of Children and Families was arrested on child pornography charges.

Repeated calls to Gov. Crist’s office seeking comment were not returned, which is not surprising given how his office has handled this issue up to this point.

“Governor Crist’s office told (the S.C. family) that if they were unhappy they should write a press release about it,” says a Palmetto children’s advocate familiar with the case. “They were basically told to go to the media for help.”

Wait, write a press release about it?

Calls to the Wilsons were referred to a family attorney, but the children’s advocate we spoke with says that the recommendation from Crist’s office is what prompted the call to FITS.

Granted anonymity to speak freely, the advocate unloaded on Gov. Crist’s office for its “indecisiveness, arrogance and incompetence” in relation to this case.

“This family is being given the run-around,” the advocate says. “No one in the Crist administration cares about the best interest of Ashleigh and Aiden, they are more concerned with (providing) political cover to their judicial appointments.”

Prior to the “write a press release” comment, the advocate says that a representative from the Department of Children and Families “had the audacity” to tell the Wilsons that “God will take care of these children.”

We certainly hope so, because it seems the State of Florida isn’t up for the job.

Stay tuned for more on this story in the days to come …

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