Child Protective Services employee to be charged with sexually assaulting boy he supervised

In a press release issued yesterday, October 7, the Riverside County, California, District Attorney’s Office stated it will be filing charges against a Riverside County Department of Child Protective Services employee for the false imprisonment and sexual assault of a teenage boy he supervised.

Sean Lamont Birdsong, 38 , of Riverside will be charged with one count each of false imprisonment, sexual assault with the intent to commit rape or sodomy, lewd acts with a child, and felony child endangerment. Birdsong -- who was arrested on Sept. 22, 2009, and posted bail the same day -- is scheduled to be arraigned no later than Oct. 20, 2009. Upon a conviction, Birdsong faces up to eight years in state prison.

An investigation by a Riverside Police Department detective began in the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2009, after police were notified about a possible child molestation happening at an apartment complex on Palm Avenue in Riverside.

The 15-year-old victim told a detective that Birdsong had placed him in a foster home in Rubidoux the day before, but then Birdsong called the boy to tell him that he had found a better placement home. Birdsong instructed the boy to sneak out of the foster home and meet him down the street, which he did. According to the press release, Birdsong was waiting in his Riverside County van and picked him up. Birdsong drove to a liquor store where he purchased a bottle of Bacardi 151, then headed to his Palm Avenue apartment.

At the apartment, Birdsong insisted the boy drink some Bacardi and Coke, but the victim refused. Birdsong then told the boy he had a gun and he had better drink with him. The victim, fearing for his life, began drinking the alcohol. The victim told police Birdsong touched him sexually and then backed him up against a wall and continued to sexually assault him. The teen said he was scared and told Birdsong he needed to go outside for a cigarette. Once outside, the victim told a woman in the apartment complex he needed help and police were called.

“This agency is entrusted to help and protect children and we have no room here for anyone who violates that trust,” said Susan Loew, director of the county Department of Public Social Services. “If the allegations are true this person should suffer the full penalty the law allows.” 

The announcement of the arrest of a Riverside, California Child Protective Services caseworker for suspicion of sexual assault comes on the heels of the arrest of a Department of Social Services foster care caseworker in South Carolina who allegedly pulled a gun on a group of college students and the arrest of a Department of Social Services employee in Fulton County, New York, for allegedly accessing confidential information concerning her son's rape victim.