The Sacramento Bee reports that the Sacramento County Child Protective Services agency is being sued for allowing several children to live in the same house as a registered sex-offender.
According to the Bee, the father said he was afraid of what he might do and was admitted to a mental hospital after a CPS social worker informed him that his children had been sexually abused.
"I was going to burn down CPS, I was going to beat down the grandmother, and I was going to take down Gowan," he told the Bee.
The three children, two girls ages 3 and 6, and a 7-year-old boy, remain in foster care and are currently undergoing psychiatric care for the alleged sexual abuse.
In a report filed by a CPS social worker in Family Court, the children's mother notified CPS in June 2011 that she could no longer care for her children due to mental health issues. The mother signed temporary custody over to her maternal grandmother, with CPS approving the move.
The report went on to explain the grandmother’s boyfriend Larry Gowan, who is a registered sex offender, was living at the home. The report went on to note that Sacramento police confirmed Gowan's status as a registered sex offender.
It appears CPS became aware of the situation a month after the children had moved in with the grandmother, this after the agency received a complaint from a confidential source about the placement of the children. Another month passed by before CPS made any move to remove the children from the home.
When interviewed by a CPS social worker, the boy said Gowan touched his privates several times.
CPS spokeswoman Laura McCasland said the agency checks a number of databases to make sure foster children are not placed with sex offenders.
According to the Bee, an October 2011 report by the state auditor found the listed addresses of more than 1,000 sex offenders matched those of foster care facilities across California. Some of those addresses were in Sacramento County, but a check by CPS showed no sex offenders were living with foster children.
The embattled agency has had a number of ongoing issues over the past several years. In 2007 Daelynn Foreman, a 12-year-old, slowly dwindled to 23 pounds eventually starving to death. According to court records the agency had been warned several times that she was not being properly cared for.
In late 2011 Michelle Callejas was hired to head the agency, replacing Laura Coulthard, who left during the summer of that same year due to widespread criticism and budget cuts.
Most recently in December Blancho Brumfield, a CPS social worker, was fired because she allegedly abused children in her foster home, used a county car to commute to work each day and cheated the county out of pay by clocking her commute.
At the time Brumfield was hired as an emergency response investigator, she was being investigated by the California Department of Social Services for abuse reports at her Vallejo foster home.
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