DFCS accepts ‘shared responsibility’ after kids are
found buried, by Joshua Sharpe, 1/28/19.
Charges against 5 suspects expanded Monday to include felony murder.
Authorities
say two bodies found buried behind a family home in Effingham County on
December 20, 2018, are those of 14-year-old Mary Crocker (left) and her brother
Elwyn Crocker Jr., who would have been 16. Elwyn was last seen in November 2016.
DFCS accepts ‘shared
responsibility’ after kids are found buried
The
Georgia Division of Family and Children Services is changing how it responds to
some reports of abuse following the deaths of two children in South Georgiawho had extensive histories with the agency.
DFCS
said it is accepting “shared responsibility” with others and trying to improve
after declining to act on warning signs that Elwyn “JR” Crocker Jr. and his
younger sister Mary Crocker could be in danger. Five relatives face child abuse
charges, which were expanded to include felony murder on Monday.
The children were found buried behind their home in Effingham
County on Dec. 20. Documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
showed DFCS declined to investigate a 2017 report claiming that JR had been
brutally beaten a year earlier. Experts told the AJC the agency should have looked into the report.
In an interview with The AJC in
mid-January, DFCS interim director Tom Rawlings defended the agency saying he
believed the employee followed policy, which relies on workers’ judgment to
determine if “historical” information shows a child is in imminent danger.
On Wednesday, Rawlings sent
employees a memo directing leadership to start working to change the policy, he
said. Meantime, he told workers to take “dated” reports of abuse more
seriously, especially in cases where the children could be isolated and where DFCS
has a history with the family. When dismissing the 2017 report, DFCS knew JR
was being home-schooled, which Rawlings said could in some cases contribute to
isolation. Child welfare agencies rely largely on school employees to discover
and report abuse.
In a statement Friday, Rawlings said
DFCS shared “responsibility” with other agencies and neighbors who now regret
not acting on warning signs in the Crocker case.
“Those who knew the children have
expressed a sense of responsibility and regret for not coming forward with
their concerns sooner,” he said. “They are not — and should not be — the only
ones. We have a shared responsibility. ... Our response to a tragedy such
as this must be to first acknowledge our role in identifying and responding to
children who are in danger and then to take action to improve our system as a
whole.”
The Effingham County Sheriff’s
Office is still waiting for the children’s cause of death to be determined.
Detectives believe both children were 14 when they were last seen alive — JR in
November 2016, Mary in October 2018.
The children’s father, Elwyn Crocker
Sr., 50, has been charged with felony murder, child cruelty and concealing a
death. The same charges have also been filed against his wife, Candice Crocker,
33; her mother, Kim Wright, 50; and Wright’s boyfriend, Roy Anthony Prater, 55.
Candice Crocker’s brother, Tony Wright, 31, has been charged with cruelty to
children and felony murder. The murder charges relate to the death of Mary;
authorities said the cause of death was still pending for both children and the
investigation was continuing.
All suspects remain in jail.
Authorities say none of them have lawyers; a spokesperson from the Effingham
County public defender’s office told the AJC it’s unclear if the office will
take the case.
DFCS had been involved with the
family in 2012 and 2013, guiding Elwyn and Candice Crocker through counseling
and parenting classes after accusations that JR had been hit in the face by
Tony Wright, records show. DFCS closed the case in 2013 after the father and
stepmother convinced the agency they would protect the kids from abuse.
In 2017, a student who used to be a
neighbor of the family decided to speak to a school counselor about what she
said happened to JR a year earlier. She said she was in the next room while a
relative beat JR with a belt for an hour and a half. The alleged assailant then
made the boy drop his pants to show the red marks, which were supposed to be a
punishment for stealing.
The girl identified the alleged assailant
as “Kim,” JR’s “grandmother,” the documents say. Rawlings said he believes the
girl’s account makes clear that Kim Wright, who is actually a step-grandmother,
is the woman the girl was referring to.
Rawlings reiterated Friday that he
believes workers had followed policy. The rule was meant to help the agency
accomplish its broader goal of striking a balance between preventing
unwarranted intervention in families’ lives and protecting endangered children,
he said. The policy relied on the premise that a dated story of abuse wasn’t
enough to suggest a child was currently in danger. That premise, Rawlings said,
has shown itself to be flawed.
Comments
Effingham County GA is
an rural exurb of Savannah GA. This is the kind of case that can result in
policies that encourage more government abuse. DFCS is the TSA for your home.
It will harass the harmless and not catch the terrorists.
In this case, the
cause of death is pivotal, but may not be announced for months. In the
meantime, the Georgia Legislature is likely to tighten its grip on families and
target harmless Homeschool Groups, because they are making public schools look
incompetent.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
